Pickles

I hate pickles, but not like this. My first reaction was "Yeah, right, that's totally fake." But who could make up something so stoopid? Money quote:

"Do you have nightmares about pickles?"

I think it goes without saying, but Maury Povich = Class Act.

Thirteen things that don't make sense

Sometimes I wish I had majored in physics.

Summertime, when the livin' is easy

Sleeping babies

Ginger and I went on a date last night. First to dinner at a dairy farm (a real Indiana experience), then to see a movie. It was a lot of fun. When we came home we watched the babysitter walk to her house across the street, then we went to check on the kiddos. First we went to the boys' room, and here is what we saw in Ethan's bed:

What?!? No Ethan! Where is he? So we checked Andrew's bed:

What's this?!? A decoy? We were not fooled, so we checked Emma's room, and here is what we found:

Very cute. We let them stay where they were for the night. When we asked Ethan this morning why he chose to sleep in Emma's old crib, he said it's "comfy."

Take a one minute vacation

This site has put together sixty-second, unedited recordings of various vacation spots throughout the world.

We watched the documentary "Touch the Sound" the other night, and I realized there are a lot of sounds I don't pay attention to. Immediately after watching the movie, I went outside to turn off the sprinklers and it was like I was hearing everything in technicolor: bugs, cars, birds, water.

Anyway, these one-minute vacations are fun to try. Check out the waves in Maine and the organ playing at St. Paul's.

Modern art

So an artist sent his sculpture of a laughing head off to the Royal Academy in London for display. Somehow the sculpture got separated from its base, and the curators thought they had received two separate pieces. They rejected the actual sculpture, but decided to display the piece's plain rectangular pedestal, thinking it was worthy of display in their fine institution.

There's an urban legend about a visitor to the Tate Museum in London who lost his wallet on opening weekend. Realizing his error, he went back to the museum to find a crowd gathered around his wallet on the ground, admiring it as if it were some artist's creation. When he tried to pick it up, a guard chastised him for touching the exhibit. I don't know if it's true or not, but it's a good story.

If anything can be art, art doesn't mean anything.

Having kids

Some good reading on the value society places on having children:

The first essay is from a woman who writes an advice column at Slate. A 30-something newlywed wrote a letter asking how to explain to her relatives that she didn't want to have any children. The advice columnist suggested she reconsider, since having kids is a lot of fun. Hilarity ensued when the advice giver was deluged with hate mail:

Why childless people hate me. By Emily Yoffe

The second is by Glenn Reynolds, about how society's view of child rearing has changed over time. A couple of generations ago, you weren't considered a full member of the adult world until you had kids, and raising children was a valued endeavor:

The Parent Trap. By Glenn Reynolds

The Lyrebird

Another fun link, via Neatorama and digg. This video shows the lyrebird from Australia, which mimics the sounds of other birds as part of its mating ritual. In recent years the birds have also learned to imitate other sounds they hear, like car alarms, cameras, and chainsaws. You have to see it to believe it.

Photos from North Korea

Neatorama linked to these unauthorized photos from North Korea, taken by a Russian web developer on a recent trip. Why he went on a trip to DPRK, I don't know... but the pictures are amazing. There are several pages, which you will miss if you're not careful. Check 'em out.

We are very lucky to live in the United States. Hopefully the people in North Korea will be free one day too.

Don't try this at home

Dad + saddle = The Daddle. Wow. $50? $32 for kneepads? I guess it's a gift for dads who take their horsing around VERY seriously. By the time you got suited up, though, wouldn't the kids lose interest?

Zonked.

Rick Monday

If you don't know who he is, you need to watch this.

Laughing quadruplets

Funny.

Back to the future

I love reading old predictions about what people thought life in the future would be like. Here are several predictions made in 1982 about life in the year 2000. Some are funny, but many are very accurate.

Check out this Japanese magician

He's especially good at the end, when he sneezes and his head comes off.

What Earth looks like from Mars

Not much different than the way Mars looks from Earth (just a star), but it's cool nonetheless.

Hey Jooj

You take much better pictures than I do. I wish, looking back, that I had exercised a tiny bit of wisdom when taking photos of places I will probably never visit again. You and I must have stood in almost the exact same spot, just a few years apart.

I'm the idiot on the left, by the way. Nice pants. Dang it.

Water paint

I used to love doing this when I was little. Ginger remembered it today and suggested the kids give it a try. What a hit! It's fun, it's mess-free, and it takes a LOT of work to make the deck look just right.

Genghis Khan

Some scientists searched people's DNA to find descendants of Genghis Khan. The search uncovered an accounting professor in Miami with very close ties to the 13th century marauder. The money quote:

'I think I do have a certain number of administrative skills,'' Robinson said, noting he was once president of a local financial analyst society. ``I haven't done any conquering, per se.''

We found a moth today

(See Andrew's blog.) The moth was bright white, which was cool, but even better was the fact that the moth looked like the fallen flower petals it was resting by. In the photo above, one of the flower petals is on the left. Like a nature show right on our front porch!

An update on the Sea Princess

Yikes. Glad it wasn't like that when we were on it.

Crazy ping pong action

Crazy.

Working from home

This is one of the benefits. My old office had a view of a pond with ducks, but this view is much better.

If the door's open, she'll run into my office and stand at my desk, waiting until I look up and tell her to come give me a hug.

He's on his way to nationals

Andrew won his school's first grade spelling bee today. First he won his class competition, then moved on to the finals, where he competed against 28 finalists from the seven first grade classes. To win, he correctly spelled the word "difference."

The finals were held in front of the entire first grade. We wish we could have been there to see it! He said everyone cheered when he won and received his prize--candy. This afternoon his piano teacher told him congratulations, and he said that's what everyone kept telling him at recess today.

Only half a school day left tomorrow, then it's summer!