Cora turns five

Here's to a girl who loves: shredded cheese; growling; playing in the mud while wearing a dress; maple syrup; climbing trees; dancing and singing.

My wife spent three nights making 30 of these butterfly cupcakes.  The first night was spent dipping pretzels in white chocolate and delicately adding red sugar stuff.  The next night was spent making the cupcakes and getting the icing right.  And the third night was spent icing and assembling.

She still hasn't told me where she is hiding the rest of the m&m's.

We celebrated Cora's birthday appropriately with tacos and a chocolate cake.

Cora loves dough in all forms:  biscuit, bread, cookie, pizza.  But deep down, she has a sweet tooth.   So does Cole, but the main difference is that Cole will ask for something while Cora will wait until your back is turned and sneak a handful of sugar, chocolate chips or whatever else is within her grasp.  She is a falcon with a keen eye and all the sweet delights around are her prey.

French Toast!

If you are not familiar with the works of Heywood Banks, click here.

Poem for today (by e.e. cummings)

You are tired,
(I think)
Of the always puzzle of living and doing;
And so am I.

Come with me, then,
And we'll leave it far and far away—
(Only you and I, understand!)

You have played,
(I think)
And broke the toys you were fondest of,
And are a little tired now;
Tired of things that break, and—
Just tired.
So am I.

But I come with a dream in my eyes tonight,
And knock with a rose at the hopeless gate of your heart—
Open to me!
For I will show you the places Nobody knows,
And, if you like,
The perfect places of Sleep.

Ah, come with me!
I'll blow you that wonderful bubble, the moon,
That floats forever and a day;
I'll sing you the jacinth song
Of the probable stars;
I will attempt the unstartled steppes of dream,
Until I find the Only Flower,
Which shall keep (I think) your little heart
While the moon comes out of the sea.

e.e. cummings

Ice skating

Cole:  Have you been here before?
me: No.
Cole: Then why are you so good?
me: Because I have been skating since I was your age.
Cole:  Cool.  Some day, I will be able to tell that to my kids.

It gets cold here during the winter.  Not cold enough that you could see your breath, and not cold enough that our plants will ever know about frost, but our house has no heating and waking up in the morning and climbing out of a warm bed to an ambient air temperature of 45 degrees is not my idea of pleasant.

I took Cole and Cora ice skating.  because it seemed like a good thing to do.  It was the first time for both of them and they did well.  Cora spent most of the time with her hand on the railing around the edge of the rink.  I can only imagine how many thousands of hands have worn this railing smooth.

100100

I turned 36 this past Saturday.

Thirty six is both a square number and a triangular number.  The next number to have that distinction is 1225 (which is really cool because it is also a hexagonal number.)  I haven't been thinking of the number as a quantity this year.  I think the spirit of the number might be as close as I can get to describing it.

There is a great quote in one of my favourite books by Neal Stephenson (Snow Crash):

"Until a man is twenty-five, he still thinks, every so often, that under the right circumstances he could be the baddest motherfucker in the world. If I moved to a martial-arts monastery in China and studied real hard for ten years. If my family was wiped out by Colombian drug dealers and I swore myself to revenge. If I got a fatal disease, had one year to live, and devoted it to wiping out street crime. If I just dropped out and devoted my life to being bad."


I have given up a possible career switch to being a full-time ninja.  What I like about that quote is that, early in life, I didn't have myself figured out.  There were thousands of possible paths to take.  And in reality, with the wonders of brain plasticity, I could have been many different versions of myself.

Now, I feel like I have set.  (not settled, or congealed or curdled.  You would be surprised at the number of unfavourable synonyms for the word solidify).  That isn't to say that my life is static or that I don't plan on evolving or changing.  What I am interested in, is finding how I can do new things and take on new challenges as myself.

Which path do you intend to take, Nell?" said the Constable, sounding very interested. "Conformity or rebellion?"
"Neither one. Both ways are simple-minded– they are only for people who cannot cope with contradiction and ambiguity."
-Neal Stephenson (The Diamond Age: Or, A Young Lady's Illustrated Primer)

This is a big year.  I have big goals on the horizon.  There are big lessons to be learned and big celebrations.  And on that note, I will leave you with yet another Neal Stephenson Quote (also from Snow Crash):

"See, the world is full of things more powerful than us. But if you know how to catch a ride, you can go places,"