Yeah, but she's a Black Belt in Cute

I promise not to turn this into a Tae Kwon Do blog. But you'll like this. Rowan tested for her Yellow Belt this week.

"Wait, she's 3, right?" Good question, glad you asked. Our TKD Studio has a little intro program for pre-kindergartners, called, curiously, Little Ninjas. So, no, this isn't the full-fledged program. They don't do Poomse or memorize facts about the American Flag, for instance.

"Wait, Ninjas? Isn't that Japanese? I thought Tae Kwon Do was a Korean Martial Art." Another good question, but you are really taking me off the subject here. Quiet now.

Anyway, Ro passed. Photographic evidence follows.



But the best part is the board break. They say a picture is worth a 1,000 words. Well, then a movie must be worth a 1,000 pictures, so enjoy.




My favorite part? The jumping up and down at the end. I bet all those real Ninjas do that, too.

- Aw2pp, who just can't get over the idea of "Kung Fu Master" Jackie Chan starring The Karate Kid remake. Doesn't anyone think about these things first?

45-10

I did not win my football pool this week. I'd like to blame my loss on the Bears, as I optimistically predicted they'd beat Cincinnati, even assigning a 9 point weight to the pick. Truth is, most of the pool participants are myopic Bear fans*, and they too put heavy points on a Bear win. So when the Bengals dominated the Bears 45-10 Sunday, the result had an insignificant effect on our confidence pool.

* - My choice was less a vote of confidence in the Bears, and more of an aspersion cast against the Bengals. I doubted they could continue to post miraculous last-second wins. As it turns out, I was right about this, but not in the way I expected. As for the Bears, I have no delusions that an NFL team trotting out 4 Vanderbilt graduates in their opening day starting lineup could possibly be any good.

We've not once talked football here, and we're not going to anytime soon in the near future. So why now? Well, as an excuse to post cute pictures of Rowan, naturally. (You didn't see that coming, did you? Keeping you on your toes, I try.) The Bears have not had cheerleaders since retiring the Honeybears after the 1985 Super Bowl. Ironically, they won that game by virtually the same score as Sunday's loss, 46-10... and haven't won a Super Bowl since. Is there a Honeybear curse?

I think the Bears should revive the "Dancing Girls", as Old Man Halas called them. Inspired by this level of cuteness, Super Bowl wins should follow soon thereafter. Even if 20% of the starting lineup comes from Vanderbilt.







- Aw2pp,who agrees that the senseless waste of pitting these two mighty forces of nature against each other, like matter vs. anti-matter, will be a tragedy, not only for the teams involved, but for our planet. All nations must band together, to ensure that such a conflagration never takes place.

Happy 3rd birthday, Ro

Sue doesn't have many pictures from her baby years. The few that we have of her toddler years suggest that we don't need baby pictures for Sue... I am convinced that we have basically a carbon copy in Rowan, our third child, who turns 3 today. Cute and funny and feisty and spontaneous and unpredictable and smart and loving, just like her mother.

Since we're sending her to pre-school in about a month, I guess she is no longer a "toddler", but rather, a pre-schooler. Rowan, that is. Sue passed that milestone a long time ago.






- Aw2pp, who should be immune to the cuteness, given that he gets a daily dose of it. You would think. But no.

Since our last episode...

... we've hit the following developmental milestones:

- Jillian sight-read her first piece without having written in the note names first.
- Jason scored his first (and, this past Saturday, second) goal in a real soccer game.
- Rowan busted out a Caddyshack line on us.
- Joey spoke his first word: "Uh-oh."
- I got my first job offer since this mess started in January. Sort of.
- I have played very, very little piano.

If I were a full time blogger (heh, I may as well be, I've got some time on my hands), each of these would warrant their own lengthy posts. But let's just pick one: Rowan.

It started about, losh sakes, 3 weeks ago now. I was preparing for an interview with an IT Consulting Services Company. You may recall I had some reservations about this position, mainly because I have never sold consulting services. The recruiter who brokered this opportunity gave me a last second "Go get 'em!" call as I was headed out the door. He hung up after dropping these three words: "Be the ball!"

I said to Sue, "I can't believe he just told me to be the ball." She laughed, and said, "Well, be the ball then!" I must have been somewhat ball-like, because the company decided they liked me, just not enough to hire me in their present circumstances. You knew that already.

So about a week ago, over lunch, I was complaining about how annoying it was to be without a job, and have so many things on the cusp of closure, just to have them disintegrate in the 11th hour. Sue was doing her optimistic best to focus on the possibilities, and what we could do to make them happen. Ro was still at her lunch, not seeming to pay attention to what should have been, for a two year old, a very boring adult conversation. So I wasn't sure I heard her right when, from out of the blue, she said "Be the ball."

Long pause. "Rowan, did you just say 'Be the ball?'"

"Yep. Be the ball."

Sue and I look at each other, thunderstruck. She didn't believe what she was hearing, either. We look at Rowan, who is not looking at us... she's back to eating. After gaining some composure (no mean feat), Sue asks, "Why do you want daddy to be the ball?"

Now Ro looks up. "Well, because when daddy go to work, you say to him, 'Be the ball.' So I say, 'Be the ball!'" Yes, our two-year-old is quoting Caddyshack. Appropriately, no less. It has been sort of a mantra for us ever since. I'd embed it here, but the only clips I can find of this Caddyshack scene contain some Pg-13 type unrelated dialog, and that won't do, this is a family show here.

Latest on the job front is that a company is nearing decision time (today? tomorrow?) on a position for which I did a couple of interviews. There are three finalists for the position, and my recruiter (of course) tells me I am the best fit. If it falls through, I do have an offer from a small* IT company that wants me to be a salesperson. The catch is they cannot pay me a salary.

* - By "small" I mean 2 people. An elder at my church who runs this business, literally, out of his garage. And his wife, the company VP, who does the books. And oh, by the way, she is also our piano teacher.

- Aw2pp, who is the ball.

Tough day at the office, Ro?

A week or two ago, Rowan decided not to take a nap. Instead, she went downstairs to watch Jason play computer games. A few minutes later, it occurred to me that it was unusually quiet down there. I went downstairs, and this is what I saw.







What a lightweight. She can't hang. Looks like she fell victim to a Garfield-sized nap attack.

(Tip o' the cap to Susie, Official Twin Sister of Aw2pp, for the caption suggestion. Susie is visitng from Houston this week, and thinks it's really cold here.)

- Aw2pp, who jumped out of an airplane once. Once.

Piano teacher update

We haven't yet committed to the Suzuki teacher we met last week. Our only pause is the distance. So in the meantime, we're still evaluating some closer options. The question is this: do the compelling aspects of the method outweigh the cost of driving 30 minutes, or potentially more, given that her available time (Thursdays at 5:30) means driving through rush hour traffic?

The answer is, of course, that it depends. If there are closer teachers, who also teach on a very nice piano, who are also very nice, we may eschew the drive. So there is one woman in our church who we're trying to get in touch with, who may or may not be taking on new students. And another woman in town, recommended by friends of friends.

In the meantime, Rowan took the opportunity the other day to remind us that we need to talk to prospective teachers about a package deal.






- Aw2pp, who made his first snowman in 35 years (give or take) this morning