but daddy, which one?

Chloe: Daddy?

Me: (desperately trying to maintain unconsciousness) What?

C: The cats are fighting!

Me: (consciousness is coming…noooo!) Well, pop one of them on the head and don’t worry about it!

C: But Daddy, which one? They’re both too cute!

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because i’m a geek at heart

The new 5M15 rocket engine. It runs on liquid methane, which has a whole lot of geeky advantages associated with it.

I just think it looks cool.

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this should teach you a lesson!

Hyrum: Daddy, can I have a time out?Me: (incredulous) A what?!

H: A time out!

Me: Why?

H: Because I was being good.

Me: Uh, okay…(sternly) Hyrum, you’ve been a really good boy! Go sit on the couch until you can be bad!

H: (gleeful) Okay, Daddy! Thanks! (runs off and sits on the couch)

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hi, my name is rik

Hi, Rik.

And I can’t put down certain teenage vampire romance novels.

Somebody, please help me.

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a very handy dandy reference for you to bookmark and remember forever

Because you’ve always wanted to know what 200 calories of your favorite foods looks like.

That’s right, folks, I’ve got quite the place for you to go for whole minutes of fun and enjoyment. The folks over at wisegeek.com have put together a fine assortment of photographed foods, all measured out in 200 calorie quantities. Some foods, as you might imagine, require quite a lot of itself to meet the 200 calorie quota, and some you can barely sniff without having to record them on your nutrition log. It is quite amusing to see just how much celery you have to consume in order to reach 200 calories (3.14 pounds).

And so, because you’ve always wanted to know: What does 200 calories look like?

And yes, you’re right: maybe they don’t have all of your favorite foods–there’s no Applebee’s Bourbon Street Steak on there, for example–but they do pretty good.

(via)

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kids say the darndest things…and they’re even darndester when they say them in icelandic

So, as you are probably aware by now, I really enjoy putting up here some of the unexpected things my kids sometimes say. It’s loads of fun for me and, I believe, will be fun for them when they are old enough to appreciate their own development and past.

Recently, I came back across a video that I had watched some time ago. One of probably most famous photographers on Flickr, _rebekka, put this little claymation video together as part of her university studies. The animation is done to the audio recording of an actual conversation that her two sons, ages 4 and 6, had at one point.

The animation is marvelous and fun, and the conversation is classic little boy.

Oh, and it’s in Icelandic, with subtitles, which makes it, for this linguist, really rock.

Enjoy, “The Dinosaur Game.”

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yeah, it’s almost exactly like that

Anonymous Daycare Child*: Hey, guess what I’m going to be for Halloween.

Me: I don’t know…what?

ADC: No, you have to guess.

Me: A frog?

ADC: Nope.

Michelle: A pumpkin?

ADC: Nope.

Chloe: A princess?

ADC: Nope.

Us: A pirate? A ballerina? A cat?

ADC: Nope. Nope. Nope.

Us: A bank teller? A superhero? A garbage collector?

ADC: Nope. Nope. Nope.

Me: (going for something as random as possible) An illegal immigrant?

ADC: Close.

(Michelle and I exchange looks and giggles)

Me: Okay, Anonymous Daycare Child, we give up…what are you going to be?

ADC: A witch!

And just for the record–I don’t think illegal immigrants and witches are in any way similar. Really. The kid’s four. It’s just funny. Really.

*Names have been changed to protect the young and naive.

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something i’m semi-excited about

It’s about my photography. And it’s posted over here.

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you know you are cool when

…you compile a list of 24 useful things to do with index cards. My favorite is number 3.

Man…I am so uncool. I need to make one of these lists-of-things things.

What can I make a list of? Any ideas?

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adding insult

…to more bodily waste than most people should have to deal with in a day, I didn’t do the dishes this week.

It’s a good thing that Michelle goes to Tae Kwon Do tonight to release some stress because I would be real sore in the morning if she didn’t.

And yes, the kitchen will be clean by the time she gets back.

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