the story

Aria made up a story today. I think that's the first time she's done this.

This is the story. I know it pretty well because I think she told it to me about 25 times at least. And she made me tell it back to her a few times too.

"It's a warm summer's night, and Stellaluna is there. And then there's the wind, and it blowed off in the distance, and then it blowed into the plug, and then it blowed into the cup, and then it goed down the drain."

Stellaluna, of course, is the fruit bat in the excellent, excellent book of the same name that Lisa gave her. The other items are all various things located near the bathroom sink where she brushes her teeth: the "plug" is the electrical outlet, and the cup is a cup that just happened to be sitting near the sink.

When she tells this story, she always moves her arms along with the wind, in the same way. She also sometimes varies it a little. There were a couple times where instead of a warm summer's night, it was a warm, sultry forest (like the opening to the Stellaluna book), but the part about the winding blowing in the distance, then into the plug, then into the cup, and then down the drain is always the same.

One time, after telling the story, she looked at me and said "Did you know Stellaluna goed down the drain?"

4000 bike miles

My bicycle's odometer went over 4,000 on my way home from work today.

The last 1,000 has been almost entirely commute miles.

RIP cubs fan

Just saw this on my way in to work and thought it was pretty funny:


For historical context (and for non-baseball fans): the Dodgers just swept the Cubs out of the first round of the postseason. We were watching the first game of that series, and the instant the Cubs fell behind, the stadium full of Cubs fans went deathly quiet. This is during the FIRST GAME! By the end of it you would have thought they were all going to go out and hang themselves. "Oh well, wait til next year" my ass... you guys are never winning another world series again. :P

(By the way, the other gravestone reads "Marcus the Carcus (sic) lies here.")