me: "I have pizza, yes I do. I like pizza, how about you?"
abigail_m: "I do!"
me: "that rhymes!"
poeticdream: "woohoo!"
me: "that does too!"

Today poeticdream and abigail_m surprised me with two lovely father's day presents: a box of 20oz Bawls cans and a little 1GB USB memory stick shaped like a lego brick. w00t!

me: "abby, stop dilly-dallying! you know, the longer you just lay on the ground instead of putting on your jacket, the longer it'll be before we can go outside and play in the snow..."

abigail_m: "eat the booger!" *sticks out her finger with a booger she picked*

... "eat it!"

after i got home from work i spent an hour or so playing with abigail_m on the deck making snowballs ("noballs", as she calls them). we played with snow, then ice, then we made snowballs and snowmen and, wouldn't you know it, she almost didn't come in to eat the delicious dinner that poeticdream cooked up. Fortunately, she did, so after dinner we could go back out and play with more snow. Apparently when she's laying down in the snow she's a "grasshopper", and every now and then she'd go "i'm a bird! caw! caw!" then she decided she was her normal self lately, a squid (or as she says it "gid").

i have a day off of work today.

i'm spending it by going to ashwood with abby (sadly, for only the second time so far), bonding with my family, getting laundry ready, and working on my nanowrimo novel in full screen mode so as not to be distracted!

... you need a power strip to plug in all your wall warts for the stuff that needs recharging.

1. my old phone
   
2. my new phone
   
3. my watch
   
4. robin's treo
   
5. robin's new phone
   
6. robin's bluetooth headset

so, fall is coming Real Soon Now. this is how things are gonna go:

• abigail_m will be enrolled in the Ashwood Waldorf School on Fridays for the parent-child program.
  
• Abby will also be going to PeoplePlace (a coop preschool) on Tuesdays and Thursdays.
  
• Abby will also be taking swim lessons at the YMCA on monday mornings.
  
• I will be teaching "Wireless Networking Without Tears" monday evenings starting september 11th.
  
• poeticdream will be taking 4 classes at UMA as well as still working part time at Second Read.
  
• I'll also, of course, be working full time.

busy, busy, mommy, daddy and abby, indeed. does this qualify Robin for soccer-mom-ship and me for soccer-dad?

i miss my robin.

i hope abby wakes up soon so we can go check out the block party and pay mommy a visit at work.

fyi, poeticdream and i are now engaged to be married. yes, i know this post is short, but i should hurry home into her arms.

today was the first easter that abigail_m got to enjoy.

watching abby crawl from pile to pile of eggs excitedly made my day. seeing her shake the eggs and smile made it better. hearing her squeal with delight when she smashed the egg on the floor and m&ms came out made it that much better.

much thanks to poeticdream, for deciding to do easter.

hmm, let's see how many posts i can make today.

after abigail_m and i picked poeticdream up from work i tasted a divine concoction she prepared for me: 2x sipping chocolate + 1 shot of espresso + half and half. omfg good! (and it would have been $$$ if i had had to pay for it; ahhh the perks of having a beautiful barista babe for a wife)

we went to mall*wart and bought cat food, random stuff we didn't need, and wipes for abby. we then sojourned over to tj maxx and found some mixing bowls we liked, a pink argyle towel for abby, and a bowl with a kitty inside it. the clerk at the register scanned the towel and the kitty bowl. that's it. she bagged it all. i, incredulously, paid and failed to hide my excitement as we left. eight mixing bowls for free! yay!

after this bit of serendipitous good luck, we went to goodwill and i bought way too many pants (frank can have some of my extras) and OMG robin bought me an awesome retro IBM MUG, shaped like a computer and monitor! seriously! (pictures forthcoming).

then, dinner time rolled around, finding us at suzuki's sushi (the best li'l sushi shop in town). the damage ($53.57) included:

• miso soup for the abby
  
• tea (duh)
  
• pork dumplings
  
• flying fish roe maki (when abby was eating it i couldn't help thinking that my baby was eating fish babies. meta-cannibalism!)
  
• futomaki!
  
• unagi nigiri
  
• breakwater maki (tuna and avocado)
  
• salmon sashimi
  
• shittake nigiri (yes, shittake mushrooms on top of rice—heavenly)
  

the people there were extremely friendly and exuded quality service. the food was wonderful and the atmosphere was excellent. if you find yourself in rockland, eat at suzuki's!

tomorrow is "family night" at club vertex, from 7 to 10! (yes, you read that right) poeticdream and abigail_m and I will be there; join us!

I predict lots of aging goths that have hooked up and had kids. should be quite a departure from the usual night at vertex! what I want to know is what's going to be served at open bar, PB&J and OJ?

abby just left a large hickey on robin's wrist. so, if any of you see random hickies on robin, don't go blaming me!

[after poeticdream sings a song about 5 little monkeys to abigail_m]
robin: "i need to think of more number and counting songs to sing to abigail..."
me: "that's easy! '99 bottles of beer on the wall. take one down, pass it around...'"
robin: *glares*
me: *grins*

about a half hour till poeticdream and I are home. just now getting back from a couple days in maine visiting with the 'rents and planning for our end-of-the-month move. had a good, if short, time and didn't get to see all the people I planned to. but no matter, we'll be back up there soon (once we figure out how the hell we're getting our things--and robin's family--up there with no help, money, or extra vehicles so far)

day 1 (friday, july 8th 2005):

we got moving around 7am, choosing 104 over 90, because a) it's more scenic, b) there's no toll, and c) you can actually drive faster than on the thruway. we arrived at the border anticipating a difficult crossing because of the bombings in london but were pleasantly surprised when the lady asked us 3 or 4 questions and then waved us through. she must have been having a nice day.

( drama on the QEW )

arriving in toronto a little later than we'd planned (about 1pm), we navigated our way to the hotel and entered the catacombs that is the underground parking garage (45 degree inclines with low ceilings seem like a good idea for a subterranean car videogame, but are really scary in real life). at check-in we find out that there is a data jack but that we forgot to bring an ethernet cable. suck. i predict that somewhere in downtown toronto i will find wireless to post this entry though.

we left the hotel and checked out a small bubble tea shop down the street. fruity, metro, and very japanese, they had kawaii asian girls standing outside thanking the patrons and very caffeinated young asian guys loudly proclaiming "$1.99 bubble tea!" with their voices and with signs around their necks. the bubble tea was alright, but the hot thing in toronto boba seems to be these cups that, after being filled, get hermetically sealed with a plastic film. this makes them a) spillproof, and b) fun to puncture with fat straws. pictures forthcoming (including a picture of poeticdream feeding abigail_m and drinking bubble tea whilst seated on a throne.

after getting tea and checking out a record store (and me getting the DVDs Ghost World and 12 Angry Men), we continued walking down yonge street to the eaton center. we checked out a bunch of stores there and bought a few things, angela a yellow bra, and robin a nursing bra and a bath fragrance ball. there was a computer store there, compusmart; think compusa, but with apple pride instead of just apple acceptance. their apple stuff was right in the front of the store. cool!

getting tired by then, we headed back to the hotel for a swim and then dinner. we took abby to the kids' section to see if she would hate swimming as much as last time. to our combined surprise, she didn't! she seemed to enjoy it quite a bit and didn't complain at all at being held and bounced up and down and floated in the water for a good 20 minutes or so (pictures of course, forthcoming). the adult pool was shallower than the kiddy pool (??) but the jacuzzi was warmer than the one for the kids and nice to relax in.

returning to the room, we decided that we were a) beat, and b) hungry, so we ordered pizza and wings and ribs to be delivered. after a 5 minute phone call to order the pizza (not a language problem, more like a lack of brain cells), robin took a bath with her new handmade chelsea flower bath ball (how appropriate, considering we're staying at the delta chelsea). the food came, we ate, i showered, we slept.

actually, i stayed up for a little bit listening to the music festival going on in downtown toronto. apparently it was part of a street festival on yonge street (the longest street in the world) that will be going on while we are here. i couldn't hear much of the music clearly, but there were choice snippets that wafted in clearly over the cacophony and din of the city. it reminded me of daft punk's earlier music, nor for the content, but for the way it sounded from the 9th floor hotel room. it evoked the "sitting in a house listening to the muffled and distorted party next door" feel of daft punk's Homework. i would have killed for a good stereo mic and a recorder to sample it. i might use it as the inspiration for some ambient, live-but-not-live, sampled fare; daft punk meets underworld meets the klf's chill out...

this weekend will be abby's first trip to canada, eh? so we have her birth certificate ready to present (to prove she's a real, live baby). hopefully the border crossing won't be too arduous, what with the shit that went down in london, eh?

we're staying at the delta chelsea downtown in toronto. we hope to get in some swimming, cheap clothes buying, eating at nice restaurants, going to insomnia (mmm insomnia), buying absinthe, visiting the discount yarn store of doom, going to chinatown for el cheapo electronics and go gear, and of course make a pilgrimage to the apple store. i think that's about it, eh?

cells should be operational, so, as usual, text/aim/call +15852785872 for me or +15852785873 for robin. we'll either be on the rogers or microcell networks up there, eh?

eh?

edit, 5:53am: way too bloodyfuckingearly. can i put the car on autopilot? eh?

abby has discovered her tongue!

she spends 50% of her time now (when's she's not asleep) sticking her tongue out and wagging it around for whoever will watch!

she has also discovered that it is an effective drool delivery system.

mommy and baby are sleeping behind me as i type this