Friday, April 28, 2006

A Food Product Idea from Charlie (Age 5)

"You know what would make meat interesting? If you shaped it in the shape of the animal that it came from. So you'd have hamburgers in the shape of a cow and hot dogs shaped like a pig. Chicken shaped like a chicken. I think that would make meat cool."

Friday, April 21, 2006

If I May Talk Sports For a Moment...

Isaiah Thomas is a highly recruited high school point guard from Tacoma (and of course shares a name with The Worst GM Ever). He announced yesterday that he'll go to Washington and so there was an article in today's paper.

But hidden in the article is this:
"He was named Isaiah because his father, James, a Boeing jet final assembly inspector who stands just 5-7, lost a bet during a Lakers-Pistons NBA finals, and the player's mother, Bettina Baltrip, wanted something biblical."

Lost a bet! Dude's life is defined by James's gambling ineptitude! Will this news encourage more nomenclature-based wagering? Nine months from now will we see kids named Zydrunas Ilgauskas Johnson? Or Andres Nocioni McGee?
A Song Idly Sung by Kate (Age 3) When She Thought No One Was Listening That Reflects the Musical Influence and Frequent Lyrical Themes of Her Brother (Age 5)

Twinkle twinkle little poop
How I wonder why you poop
Up above the world so poop
Like a diamond in the poop
How I wonder where you poop
How I wonder why you poop

Thursday, April 20, 2006

Matthew Baldwin will make you weep

With this poignant post about the old Farrell's ice cream/embarrassment parlors. But the good news is the founder of Farrell's is now a motivational speaker and purveyor of the most awesomest website ever in the history of ever.

Monday, April 17, 2006

A Conversation with Charlie (Age 5) About Superheroes

HIM: Superman, Batman, Spiderman, Power Rangers, Jesus, Underdog, Ninja Turtles, Ninjas. How many superheroes are there?
ME: There are lots.
HIM: Where do they come from?
ME: Mostly, people just make them up.
HIM: Can we make them up?
ME: Of course we can. What superhero should we make up?
HIM: Uh...how about...Super Building!
ME: And what would he do?
HIM: He'd have a flag on top. And he would get the bad guys to go inside him and then TRAP them inside.
ME: Super Building. And would he walk and talk.
HIM: Yeah. One time at school, me and the boys were superheroes. We were called Action Boys and we fought the girls.
ME: Action Boys. Who thought that up?
HIM: Oh, me.
ME: Could Super Building and Action Boys team up to be superheroes together?
HIM: Hmm. Maybe. I'm not sure.

Tuesday, April 11, 2006

Two Stories by Charlie (Age 5)

Despite a documented denouncement of imagination, my boy has been branching into fiction.

1.
Once there was a giant duck with sharp teeth and he was as big as the whole world. And he ate all the trees and the houses and he kept eating and he ate the world. Then he ate all the other planets and he ate the sun. Then he ate all the stars and they made new planets and he ate all those too. Then he traveled back in time and ate all the dinosaurs and everything. Then he spit it back out again and everything was okay.

2.
Once there was a giant ferocious squid. And he was as big, bigger than the tallest tree. And he ate a whale and ate all the plankton and ate everything. And he ate a piece of whale poop that was bigger than the whole world! And then he ate the world and the sun and all the planets. He ate everything. And then he died! Aaaaaaand then he turned into a robot.
(ME: Whoa! I did not see that ending with the robot coming!)
Yeah. I know. It makes it more exciting.

Saturday, April 08, 2006

A Conundrum

My routine for writing this whole damn book has often involved the West Seattle Uptown Espresso, The Postal Service's album on the iTunes, and writing a book. I wear headphones because the barista usually only plays old Stevie Wonder or Beastie Boys. But today, as I edit at same coffeeshop, the barist is playing The Postal Service. So what do I do? I'm telling myself that I'll just listen w/o headphones since it's the same music. But I know within minutes I'll have those headphones on again. Book's going okay. The cover and subtitle were locked in place a few weeks ago and now they're both in flux once again.