Karl trying out his favorite rhyme

More walking

Walking with the Cart

Crawling for Kitties

Bouncing Baby Boy!

Graham Cracker!

Tummy Time

Karl Laughs!

New Camera!

Dad got us a new camera last night, and we've been busy taking pictures of the kitties (what else would we be doing?)



Aren't they cute?

I Wish I Weren't Able To Do Basic Math

I'm just about through with media again. There's really only so much I can take before I have to go cold turkey to preserve what little faith in humans I still have. Sometime you just gotta block it all out.

Back and forth on this stimulus bill is what's got me really annoyed at the moment. And since I can't read yet another short essay proving just how little economics people know, I decided to actually dust off those critical thinking and research skills I supposedly use professionally each day.

Yep, I actually read the text of the housing tax credit amendment. Then I did some math. And then I sent my thoughts to Nick, who did yet more math (see how this math thing spreads like a disease, reproducing itself as it travels via social networks? Dastardly stuff!).

The interesting thing you might notice, if you look closely, is that this is a stimulus designed to deliver to biggest bang to the upper middle class. Everyone is shouting $15,000, but no one wants to mention the 10%. This is really easy math here: a 10% credit that tops out at $15,000 means that the benefit not only stops at the first $150,000 in the home price, but it also delivers less than 15 grand for houses that cost less than $150,000.

And then there's the tax credit part. This baby isn't a refund. And you can only stretch it out over 2 years. So if you don't pay at least $7500 in federal income taxes each year, it doesn't matter how expensive a home you bought.

I don't think I know a single apartment dweller (aka potential homebuyer) who pays more than $7500 in income taxes to the fed in a year. They must all live in Manhattan.

So, for a single person earning $40,000 gross, you'll have to subtract the standard deduction, medicare/social security payments, 401k contributions and student loan interest (and any other deductions they may have). That leaves a taxable income level that pushes your home purchase tax rebate to less than $4,500 each year. Nick calculated that a married couple would have to earn more than $55,000 in TAXABLE income to receive the full benefit. That implies either a pretty sizable paycheck, or a couple who are so behind on their retirement contributions that they should put any tax rebate money they get into cat food futures.

When they roll out things like this for the "middle class," I start to wonder how many people I know who are actually IN the middle class. Oh well, at least this provision isn't alone. It can sit right next to the mortgage interest deduction as one of those things that middle class people can't live without even though they don't have enough money to actually use them.

Rain in Cali

So, I've finally gotten around to posting another blog post. Nick and I are here in Cali, at the 'rents, watching the drizzle mist the windows. Not the most spectacular weather, but a heck of a lot better than what we leaft behind in MN.

The worst part of a rainy Christmas day is that you're pretty much stuck inside the house. Perhaps I'll make some tea, read the cozy mom's checked out from the library, and stuff my face with more Yule Log (I make a mean Yule Log!).

Only two more days of vacation before work in LA.

Coming Home!

Yesterday's dinner plans kept going awry. The French restaurant we wanted to go to was fully booked by an event, so we had to look for an alternative. That's when we decided to go to a Jamaican place. So we all board Marta to get there, only to find that the place is shut down. So back on Marta to the next stop in Buckhead, where we wandered basically from one stop to the next in search of food.

Thankfully we finally settled on an Italian place (we'd started this process at 6:30, and didn't get to a table until 8:00). I don't know what it is, but add some academics and some bottles of wine, and suddenly you've got a three hour meal. I didn't get back to my room until 11 pm.

Thankfully, this colloquium is now over as well. I've packed up the library, and I'm getting myself ready to head to the Marta station. Even with a gas shortage in the city of Atlanta, at least the Marta goes to the airport!

Hotlanta!

Here I am in Atlanta, enjoying the beautiful weather in the snazzy Marriott Renaissance. It's actually a pretty nice hotel. No refrigerated towels in the workout room, but there are balconies in every room, so I can get real fresh air! Plus, we're within walking distance of tons of restaurants, which is always very nice.

I'm starting to think that Atlanta is my favorite place to go for Colloquium. You can't beat a town with lots of good food, nice hotels, and decent weather. I also rode MARTA from the airport, which was fantastically easy and fast.

Last night Sommer and I went to Shout for dinner. Thanks to Google Maps (which seriously mis-labeled Shout on the map), we ended up walking about 3 miles before we actually got to dinner. Still, despite being 30 minutes late for our reservation, it was a great meal.

Sommer had sushi (and sake), while I went for a more traditional salmon dinner. We split a dessert medly, with the most amazing molten chocolate cake. Even if the service was pretty slow, that cake was worth waiting for.

As you can see, it's a bit trendy, and we were a little horrified by the number of bachelorette parties (we counted 5 during our stay). It wasn't as good as the YO Ranch Steakhouse in Dallas, but still pretty good.

With two more nights out before we head back, I think we're going to go to the French American Brasserie for some more posh fare.

But we couldn't leave without going to the Varsity! I can see it from my hotel room, and the only reason we haven't gone already is the Saturday Georgia Tech game. Nothing like hordes of football fans to make a quick trip for hotdogs impossible.

I'm already practicing my order, so I'll be able to respond right away when they call "what'll ya have?" My only dilemma right now is cheese or no cheese on the chili dog.

5 Nights, 6 Days, 17 Portages

Dad finally dropped off the pictures from the BWCA, and I've uploaded them to shutterfly. We look remarkably clean and rested in the photos.

I like the portage view from under the canoe. Dad took this picture after I had portaged a short distance - there was no way I was going to stand there with a canoe on my head after carrying it half a mile. And I did both 180 rod portages on this trip.

Here's how happy I am to be portaging a measly 30-rodder:

And, despite seeing two bears . . .

We had no unfortunate encounters. Perhaps it's our excellent bear bag hanging skills!

I have to say we're such old hands that we made pretty good time. While boyscouts kept passing us on portages, we managed to pass them on the open water. And we also, somewhat miraculously, never flipped the canoe.

Maybe next time . . .

Back in Civilization

I made it back from my BWCA trip, and will shortly have pictures to prove it. I'm reliant on Dad sending me photos from his camera, the only one we had on the trip.

It was a pretty good trip all around, even though I managed to get some major bruises in the course of one of the portages.

Meanwhile, back in civilization, I received photos from my trip to Dallas. Here is my favorite picture of one of the librarians (not me) being carried back to the hotel by a writing faculty member. She couldn't walk the mile back in her shoes. You'd think we were students by the look of this!

This is why most librarians choose sensible shoes - to avoid embarrassing photos on the web!

Goodbye, Dallas!

I'm sitting in the Continental President's Club at the Dallas airport, enjoying the refreshments and the wireless internet. It's good to be leaving Dallas, finally, but it is a bit unfortunate that we're heading out just as the temperature has dropped enough to make walking around town bearable.

Despite the heat, a bunch of us went to the Y.O. Ranch Steakhouse in the West End on Monday night. It was by far the best meal I've ever had at a colloquium, and probably the best restaurant meal I've had so far in 2008.

I started with the house salad, which was an astonishingly delicious combination of greens, candied pecans, goat cheese, and apple. Sommer and I split the mixed grill, with a buffalo filet mignon, elk chops, and quail. I also ordered the Gouda mac and cheese and a piece of chocolate cake with raspberry coulis.

Luckily everyone was willing to share, so I got to try a taste of the pheasant ravioli and what was very likely the best pork chop on the planet. This was the first expensive meal I've had all year that was actually worth the price.

It was so good, in fact, that I might actually want to come back to Dallas, just to eat there a second time. It certainly is preferable to Orlando, which was a dining wasteland. Ditto with Lansdowne and Anaheim. At least the next trip to Atlanta will be near The Varsity. Not fine dining, but hopefully good.

I shall not succumb to blog fade

After talking to the much more consistent blogger of Wordlustitude this morning, I'm making a concerted effort not to let my blog just fade away.

It still feels like I do so much blogging on my work blog, that blogging here is redundant, but in reality, the two blogs are completely different. At least I haven't bored anyone here with my opinions on Wikipedia and Cuil - I just bore people with fat dogs and African violets.

I'm in Dallas right now, which really doesn't have much to recommend it. Welcome to Dallas, where we shot a President! Or, Dallas, where the sun can set your clothes on fire.

Seriously, it's been over 100 every day that we've been here, and it'll probably stay that way until we leave. I'd never go outside, but the hotel is so freaking over air-conditioned that I have to stand outside between sessions just to get full circulation in my toes.

We're staying at the Hyatt, which is connected to the most architecturally interesting building in Dallas: a giant, concrete dandelion. You can eat dinner in it. Yep, that's what Dallas has to offer.

At least I'm able to crawl out of bed early enough to get a spot in the hotel gym (and Hyatt does have those refrigerated towels). Plus, I can watch hulu in my room, and thereby avoid all of the cable news channels, which seem to make up all the television channels available in hotels.

I can't wait for my vacation next week!

We're overrun by pets!

The fat dogs are back - and will be here on and off for much of the summer. At least the 'rents have their house on the market. There is an end in sight.


Today we got our newest member of the household - the fish. He seems happy enough, despite the cats.



And so far we're all surviving the heat. Although I was a bit worried about Tasha puffing away in Monday night. I guess 85 degrees inside is a bit much for a fat dog.

I think I've been blogging for work too much; I just can't get into blogging here. That, and there really isn't that much going on these days. I dragged Nick to a Swing class on Thursday - I think he's nearly got the basic Lindy down. The rest was a good refresher. Now I just have to goad him into Contra on Saturday. I mentioned English Country dancing and he looked a bit sick. I guess I'll leave that one for now.

Other than that, I'm devouring The Ghost Map, which is fabulous. And tomorrow is my first book club meeting at work. So far I only have three people (myself included) who have actually read the book. We'll see if there are any surprises tomorrow. I guess three's better than nothing . . .

It's Finally Summer!

I can tell it's summer again, because it's 83 degrees inside my house. It never seems to be the perfect temperature - always too hot or too cold. I probably need to move to a more temperate locale.

Fat dog is here again, since she's been banished from the new carpet house due to he own poor behavior. She's been good so far, and the kitties have tolerated her. Except for one incident at 3 am on Monday.

I recently enjoyed "Is Google Making us Stupid?" in the Atlantic Monthly. Nicholas Carr apparently forgot that we've always been stupid. It's just more interactive now. Of course, that led me to the more interesting article American Murder Mystery, which makes the shocking point that inner city crime is not actually caused by density. It reminds me of all the epidemiologists who talk about crime as if it were an infectious disease . . .

And then there was this: "Fuel Prices Shift Math for Life in Far Suburbs" in the New York Times. It's full of comments about how suburban schools are always better than urban ones - another myth that I'm sure will be disproved soon. C'mon, it's all about the parents, anyway.

That said, I'm hoping that those exurbanites don't move into my neighborhood. Exurbanites live in the exurbs for a reason, and the last thing I want is for them to turn my urban neighborhood (which is the only place you can live an urban lifestyle) into a recreation of the suburbs. They could tear up the sidewalks to increase the size of front lawns, push out buses because the stops encourage loitering and take away on-street parking space, or zone out corner businesses because they interfere with the "residential feel" and lack parking lots.

Hopefully the houses are too small around here to be appealing. Plus, I'm walking down the street a lot, and perhaps I look hoodlum enough to scare them off. At any rate, for the moment I hear mostly birds chirping outside my open windows. I don't want it to become the noise of leafblowers and SUV engines filling my house.