Mr. Potato Ears Part II

Here's just another look -- pretty funny!

Thinking Inside the Box

One thing I like about having kids is that they often have a different viewpoint and think differently than we do. One Sunday, after clearing the bookshelf of books, Daniel realized he could climb into their space:



I hadn't realized he might do that, and was happy to see him trying new things. Another example is this picture of Daniel doing something with the ears from his Mr. Potatohead that I never thought of doing:



It's so simple. Why didn't I think of that?

Kids come up with enough unpleasant surprises (From last night: "Hey! Put that razor back! No -- that's dangerous!") that you're happy when they turn their creativity in a more cute, less stressful direction.

Oh -- and just so you don't think all Daniel does with books is throw them on the floor:

Poor little guys

I can no longer bear to let this blog lie fallow. Nothing blog-worthy has happened, but the boys have been very sick and I have been busy tending to their needs. They have had it one at a time; first Joshua, now Daniel. I think I prefer this to them both having it at once, but I'm not sure, so it's probably a good thing I don't get to choose. Joshua was about the sickest I have seen him -- he literally spent about a week either in his bed or on the couch, and it was just so sad. He was very achy and feverish, vomiting and all. Daniel doesn't seem to have it quite as bad; he still at least tries to play, but then breaks down into a sobbing heap rather quickly. Poor little guys. Here is a picture of Joshua once he was feeling well enough to get out of bed, but as you can tell, still not very well. I was very heartened by this smile, through the sickness and all.

So, this is what's been going on around here. Otherwise, things are good.

Comments welcome by all!

We here at Times and Sorensens no longer discriminate between those who have Blogger accounts and those who don't. Actually, it was Blogger who did the discriminating because they set things up so that you had to start a blog account before you could leave comments. We actually found a way to change that, but Jake was concerned that we would recieve spam comments linking to porn websites and things of that nature on our blog, so we just left things the way they were. It seems however, that there is an option that can filter out the spam and thus allow for anyone to leave comments, even if they have no Blogger account.

Just a heads up: it will require those wanting to leave comments to complete a very quick word verification to ensure that you are an actual human being leaving a comment and not a computer. All you have to do is type in the wavy word as you see it, and then your comment will be posted. Please rest assured that we would never link to a porn website (or really any commercial website in the comments section) and will immediately delete anything of the sort if something like that should somehow get through.

The Future Trash

We recently purchased a kitchen trash can from Costco that I just love! I know it sounds funny to say that I love a trash can, but I assure you it is no ordinary can. It has an infrared sensor that opens the lid when anything comes within about 6 inches of it, and gently closes the lid on a time delay once you are finished.

A little background: for some time, I had been wanting to find a kitchen trash can with a foot pedal that would allow me to dispose of my trash without having to touch the lid with my germy raw-chicken-juice covered hands (or whatever the case may be). There were two problems, however: 1)trash cans with foot pedals are way over-priced, for what you are getting, and 2) foot-pedal trash cans give you a big windy whiff-in-the-face of your garbage once you let your foot off of the pedal and the lid falls closed, unless you are really talented and can sprint to the other end of your kitchen before that happens. Anyhow, the Costco trash can solves both problems; it was less than a third of the price of the foot pedal trash cans I had found, and since the lid closes on a time delay once there is nothing in the sensor range, one has ample time to move elsewhere before it closes. But this isn't even a problem anyway, since the lid closes slowly and gently, and there is no breeze involved.

Joshua loves this trash can, and in fact gave it its name. He started calling it the Future Trash while we were still at Costco even, which is interesting because I had no idea that he had a concept of the "future" or that this trash can is "futuristic" (which it really kind of is). Anyway, it is really cute to see him use it because he will set his hand in sensor range and then raise his arm with the lid, as if raising his arm is the force that causes the lid to open. He darts his hand in and out very quickly (and nervously), lest the lid close on his wrist and sever his hand completely. Daniel still fears the Future Trash altogether. He gets definite points for bravery though. He will approach the can with his intended waste, inch it slowly into sensor range, and then drop the trash on the floor and run once the lid actually opens.

We Voted

The "we" actually refers to Joshua and me, although Leslie voted as well. Joshua wanted to come with me when I voted yesterday, and since our precinct has the touch-screen computers to vote, it's easy to hold him up and have him push the buttons on the screen. He really enjoys it, although I make (most of) the decisions about which buttons to push. After we got home from voting, Joshua pretended to vote using different pieces of electrical equipment around our home. I'm not sure he knows what voting is really for, but he's excited about it so I feel like it's a good thing. And it sure helps to have someone who is willing to make the choice for you when you're not sure which way to vote.

And now for a real blog post

I've been told that you do three things in blogs:

1. Link to other sites that are involved in your post (here's the one that told me what you do in blogs). I do this, sort of.
   
2. Post stories and pictures about your regular life. I do this!
   
3. Post links to sites you think are interesting. Apparently every blogger does this but me. This must be why I don't have my own blog.
   

The third one seems to me like what you do if you want random people reading your blog who don't care about you personally. I think we're a "family" establishment, and our blog is mainly for family and friends. However, I liked this site, mostly because it said I have no accent:

What American accent do you have? Your Result: The Midland "You have a Midland accent" is just another way of saying "you don't have an accent." You probably are from the Midland (Pennsylvania, southern Ohio, southern Indiana, southern Illinois, and Missouri) but then for all we know you could be from Florida or Charleston or one of those big southern cities like Atlanta or Dallas. You have a good voice for TV and radio.
The West
Boston
North Central
The Inland North
Philadelphia
The South
The Northeast
What American accent do you have? Take More Quizzes

The list below the text is a ranking of how closely I scored to other accents. Apparently I have much more of a Western (read: non-) accent than a northeastern accent. Incidentally, I've never been to any of the places they say my accent is from except Dallas, and that only for two weeks.