Tuesday Night grounds

Since I'm so behind on my Celeste updates, I'm falling back on MC's gerunds meme ...

Narrating ... Celeste loves reading be it flipping through books at high speed or sitting while one of us reads to her, but lately she's started narrating some of the books herself. At the end of Tom and Pippo Read a Story (when Tom starts reading to Pippo), Celeste points to the cat curled up on the couch behind Tom and signs CAT and makes her purr raspberry. On the next page, when Tom is in bed, Celeste puts her head on her shoulder, which is her SLEEP/NAP sign.

Talking ... Both with her hands and her mouth, Celeste is expanding her vocabulary. She is saying bébé (or something close to that) while signing BABY much of the time. Also, the cadence of sounds she is making while playing or trying to tell us something is getting more English. I also thought I heard a few new phonemes this afternoon.

Signing ... Similarly, new signs keep popping up. Monday, as I was gathering some snacks to take to work, Celeste put her wrist to her chin with her hand curved below her face. She made that gesture twice, pointing at my hand in between repetitions ... APPLE. She's also using BEAR, BUTTERFLY, PUMPKIN, and TELEPHONE. While feeding her lunch, Celeste started signing TRAIN, and I wasn't sure why, but then I heard a distant train whistle ... her ears are pretty good.

Walking ... Celeste is pushing limits. This afternoon, she just kept walking and walking and walking. She'd go all around the first floor of the house, sometimes looking like she was going to grab on to a chair or something to start cruising, but instead she would turn and walk in the other direction. She still has a bit of the "Frankenbaby" stutter step, but she is getting better and better.

Balancing ... Her balance is also getting a lot better. While at the park this afternoon, Celeste bent down to pick up double fistfuls of mulch and then righted herself again. Later, after Evelin got home, she did a similar trick, bending over to pick up two rolls of ribbon several times in a row.

Anticipating ... Also connected with the walking is a little game we've been playing. Celeste likes walking back and forth between Evelin to me, but sometimes, as she starts away from me, I will snatch her back. The first few times, this just yielded giggles, but soon, Celeste started pausing at arm's length, waiting to see if she would get grabbed back or not ...

Eating ... Celeste continues to be a good eater, occasionally picky, but generally game to try new foods and often enjoying them. She's also working at learning how to use a spoon and a fork. She's been good at getting the spoon to her mouth for a while, but getting food on to the spoon is more of a challenge, but she's doing much better now. She's getting quite good with sticky things like oatmeal and yoghurt, although sometimes she still seems to do less scooping than dipping the spoon into the bowl as if she were eating Lik-m-Aid (which has apparently been rebranded as "Fun Dip").

Teething ... It looks like the fourth molar is in, making 12 teeth in Celeste's mouth. There is time here for a pause in the teething, but she was really hesitant about letting me brush the upper left side of her jaw during her bath tonight, so maybe an eyetooth or something is coming in over there ...

Biting ... And thinking of the teeth, this afternoon, I was laying on the ground, pretending to be asleep. Celeste scooted over and leaned in to give me a kiss — or so I thought. Instead, she bit my nose ... and those little teeth are sharp.

Flickring ... Probably from seeing pictures of herself on screen (either on one of our backgrounds or when we're uploading pics to Snapfish or something) or of Evelin's friends' babies on the SheKnows message boards, Celeste knows that the computer has pictures of babies on it. Sometimes, if I try to sneak a look at my e-mail or something while Celeste is playing quietly or reading, she will notice that I'm at the computer and will come over and sign BABY. Evelin sometimes just shows her the desktop background, but we've also shown her Flickr slideshows of pics tagged Baby (or, if Celeste wants, Dog). Sometimes she gets bored, but other times she is really interested, signing SLEEP/NAP if the baby is sleeping, signing BABY over and over again, signing CAT or DOG if an animal is in the picture too, etc.

Technoarti tags: Baby Sign teething language Flickr

Watching Internet Animals

A while ago, Daddy Types blogged about Pete's Pond, a National Geographic "WildCam" trained on a waterhole in Botswana. It's the sort of thing I think is really cool, and mean to check out and then promptly forget about. The few times I've remembered to check out the site, it's been late at night in Botswana and not too much is visible via the RealPlayer stream.

This morning, however, I remembered it and needed a break from a particularly tortuous article so I tried to check in with Pete's Pond ... and the site was down.

In a similar vein, I received a fundraising appeal from Polar Bears International yesterday, which jogged my memory about their polar bear cam. For a moment, I was bummed out, thinking I'd once again missed my opportunity (the cam is live only for about a month each year), but I was in luck!

While the cam wasn't particularly active in the middle of the night, this afternoon, they've had a lot of shots of one bear sleeping in a snow bank and of another one walking around. The free still cam is on a 35-second refresh rate, but you can donate for access to a live video feed. It's not quite like being in Churchill, but it is warmer ...

(Of course none of these animals-in-the-wild cams should take away from the National Zoo's Panda Cam, especially since little Tai Shan is walking now ...)

Technoarti tags: webcam polar bear panda bear

And Now We Wait (Again)

Much like back in April 2004 after the amniocentesis during the pregnancy that yielded Celeste, we're in the waiting stage now. All in all, the amino went well this morning; Evelin ended up holding her breath during most of the procedure, which left her a bit faint afterwards, but otherwise there were no complications.

(M---, and was able to watch Celeste all day, so we didn't have to worry about keeping her occupied during things, which was nice.)

Evelin's at 17 weeks, so we could see a surprising amount of detail. I don't know if it is because things are further along of if these doctors had a better ultrasound machine, but as the tech moved the wand around, I was able to pick out lots of features, including the heart (four chambers, heartbeat of 147), the brain (two hemispheres), feet, hands, etc. We go back at 20 weeks for the gross anatomy scan, but things looked pretty good today. (And probably the week before that scan, we'll get the amnio results; hopefully those too will be good news.)

Today, Evelin took it easy and needs to do the same tomorrow. The worst is that Celeste is over the weight limit for what she can lift until Sunday. But I can pick Celeste up, and M---, my mother-in-law, who flew down last night to watch Celeste while we were at the doctor's, can do the same, so it's not like she's missing out on hugs, just some things are different. I think that confuses Celeste a bit ...

Technoarti tags: amniocentesis

Jury Duty

Well, it ended up better this time than last. Maybe 10 years ago, I sat on a civil jury in Montgomery County and it was a less than fulfilling experience. A simple slip-and-fall case that the court expected us to have resolved within a few hours ... It ended up running over for another day because (in my recollection, and it could be jaded or faulty) one juror kept holding out for the plaintiff because, in her opinion, "that's why people [referring to the defendant in this case] have insurance."

This time, I arrived at 7:30 a.m. as instructed at the Prince George's County Court House, which is really not in a very convenient place. I guess Upper Marlboro is centrally located in terms of the county as a whole, but it's not very convenient to public transportation or anything. Even though the summons said 7:30 a.m., things didn't really get started until about 8:30 a.m. with the circa 1982 feel good about jury duty video presentation. We were then told there were two civil cases and six criminal on the docket for the day.

[ASIDE: I realize most people aren't too psyched about getting called for jury duty, and the court personnel realize this, but the constant little asides to knowing how we'd all rather be somewhere else seemed to be engendering less sympathy among the crowd than just reaffirming that jury duty is a terrible burden. I know I had my list of reasons why I couldn't end up impaneled on any trial that would last beyond the one day, but it still seemed to be that the asides did more to devalue jury duty than to reaffirm the responsibility involved and the importance of it.]

I ended up getting assigned to the pool for the first civil case. We got as far as the courtroom door where the bailiff had the 18 of us wait for a few minutes before coming out of the courtroom. Instead of being led inside, we were all sent back to the jurors' lounge to wait some more.

A little later, I ended up among a pool of 50 for a criminal trial, an armed robbery. This time, we went through voir dire. When the judge said it was going to be a two-day trial, which, because juries were rarely called back on Fridays, would mean coming back on Monday, I did make myself known saying that while Monday would be workable, there was no way I couldn't serve on Friday. (I didn't go into details, but the amniocentesis is scheduled for tomorrow morning.) The judge reiterated that Friday the jury probably wouldn't be called back, but noted my concern. A little later they asked if anyone knew the scene of the crime, a 7-Eleven in College Park that I go to on occasion. I don't know if it was because of that or because of how I look or something, but I ended up being struck by the defense attorney.

One interesting question during voir dire: "Do any of you think the state needs to present scientific evidence — ballistics, fingerprints, DNA — to prove its case?" The so-called the "CSI Effect". I'm not sure if that's a standard question now or one that the state's attorney asked to have asked, but the defense attorney did turn and give the state's attorney a little chuckle/nod after it was asked. Maybe it's a point he's planning to bring up in the trial.

Since I was struck from the panel, I went back to the jurors' lounge and waited around a bit longer and ended up getting dismissed a bit after noon. When they announced that those of us left in the room (two other groups had been told they could go to lunch) were free to go for the next three years, a bit of a cheer went up, which is kind of a sad statement in and of itself, but I'll admit I did get out as quickly as I could, just in case anything changed ...

Technoarti tags: jury duty

Big Fan of Peas

Lately, Celeste has been very quick to say YES PLEASE when we ask if she wants peas. This morning, she was picking out the peas from her risotto one by one to eat with extra glee. This evening, I made her peas ... she bend down to kiss them on the plate and then, for about three peas in a row, she would pick one up, kiss it, then eat it.

Technoarti tags: peas baby food

Farb Linguist

Languagehat has a post up about a pretty bad article about language use and abuse on the Internet. While he lets Language Log tear into the article's worst excesses, Languagehat looks at the mention of several new words the article's author worries are poised to move from slang/jargon usage into dictionaries (quoting the same part of the article Languagehat does):

That's where [Oxford lexicographer Erin] McKean has found words like farb (not authentic, badly done), nomenklatura (non-literally; by analogy), drabble (a short story of 100 words or fewer), haxie (a hack for the Macintosh operating system) and swancho (a combination poncho/sweater).

The bit that caught Languagehat's eye was nomenklatura (номенклатура), but farb is the one that jumps out at me.

I first encountered farb in the late 1990s in Confederates in the Attic (excerpt):

"Farb" was the worst insult in the hardcore vocabulary. It referred to reenactors who approached the past with a lack of verisimilitude. The word's etymology was obscure; Young guessed that "farb" was short for "far-be-it-from-authentic," or possibly a respelling of "barf." Violations serious enough to earn the slur included wearing a wristwatch, smoking cigarettes, smearing oneself with sunblock or insect repellent—or, worst of all, fake blood. Farb was also a fungible word; it could become an adjective (farby), a verb (as in, "don't farb out on me"), an adverb (farbily) and a heretical school of thought (Farbism or Farbiness).

I remember at the time picking the word up and using it here and there, but I didn't realize it had caught on among a broader audience than Civil War reënactors. Well, googling the word (and filtering out the German-language pages), it doesn't seem to have spread very far. However, there are a few pages that go a bit into the word's origin beyond the guesses in Confederates.

World Wide Words notes that while the term seems to remain limited to military reënactors, it is spreading beyond the Civil War (and other U.S. reënactor) crews. He also points to an article that outlines the origin of the word, which is attested to 1961 and its etymology is suspected to have come from the German Farbe (color) in reference to uniforms that weren't the proper shade of blue or grey.

As to whether or not the term is gaining currency beyond reënactors or not, Erin McKean, the Oxford lexicographer from the bad article, said in a Q&A with A.Word.A.Day that farb is a "good example of a word on the brink."

I don't know if farb will spread from re-enactors! But I'm willing to be it will. It means "not authentic, badly done" or someone who is inauthentic in their re-enacting. Fun word, huh?

Technoarti tags: farb etymology language

Truth in Blogging ...

... Okay, so it's been a few days since I've been able/willing to blog mostly because of a lack of sleep and work madness, so I'm back filling in a few things I either started as drafts but dinna finish until now or that I'm finally writing up. For those keeping track at home, the following entries, scattered over the past few days, are new:

• Signs of Sleep
• Hallowe'en
• Bargain Bob's Stroller City Redux
• Asian Backstreet Boys

Signs of Sleep

I traded e-mails with my old neighbor from Louisiana, C---, this morning, and relayed to her one of those stories I missed blogging over the past week. She was curious about how we're teaching Celeste some rudimentary signs, and I noted that while she isn't learning a full language (in this case ASL), just scattered signs. However, those modified ASL signs correlate to English words that she can hear and understand but can't say herself yet, and thus being able to point at the table and say BABY or WATER or BOOK helps her get what she wants without much confusion or frustration.

For example, this afternoon when I got home, Evelin said that Celeste would probably be ready for a nap within the half-hour. Sure enough, after a little while, Celeste was looking a bit glassy-eyed and her play activities were slowing down, so I asked her if she wanted to go upstairs to take a nap. Remember this is a girl who generally doesn't like to sleep, but she knows when she's knackered.

She smiled and made her little full-body thump that correlates with yes. (Simply nodding is a bit subtle for her.) On the way up the stairs, I asked if she wanted her blankie, and she started tapping her chest — YES PLEASE. As of right now (and she'll probably make me regret typing it), she's been asleep for 20+ minutes.

She's also learning to use her signs as conversation starter. For example on Friday night, when she awoke at about 3:00 a.m., I went in to try to soothe her back to sleep. She wasn't having it, however. But instead of just crying, she started pulling out tricks. She asked for a book, and then rolled herself into a sitting position.

[ASIDE: Mind you, she's only just figured out how to get herself from laying down to sitting up; yes, she figured out how to walk before she figured out how to pull herself to a standing position, and she figured out how to pull herself to standing before she figured out how to get herself into a seated position. We expect her to figure out crawling around 2008, probably just after she starts bicycling.]

Anyway, once she was seated, Celeste started pointing to the pictures of cats and dogs on her bedsheet, making the sign for each animal and saying their noise. Point to dog; slap leg; bark. Point to cat; put hands to mouth; make purr/raspberry.

She knew exactly what she was doing. There was no way I couldn't pause to praise and encourage her for both the sitting and the talking about doggies and kitties. After a few minutes however (and it was dark, so I couldn't be 100% sure she was pointing at cats when she said CAT or dogs when she said DOG), I did lay her back down, give her a new pacifier and lay her blankie over her and encouraged her to go back to sleep.

I think it worked for about half an hour.

Actually, the end of last week up to last night (and here's another thing I'm going to jinx by blogging it), she was sleeping terribly. Last night, despite the occasionally noisy trick-or-treater, she slept through to about 6:30 a.m. For the five or so days prior, however, it was sleep until midnight or 2:00 a.m. or 3:00 a.m. then up for an hour or two — either for the entire period or waking in 20-minute intervals. A leap is possible (my standard excuse), but she's also pushing through the last two one-year molars. Right now she has 111⁄2 or so teeth (I'm not sure how far along that last lower molar is), but she's also flinching a little around the eyeteeth during brushing so there may be one or two more on their way ...

Technoarti tags: Baby Sign teething sleep

Hallowe'en

As cute as she is in it, Celeste didn't end up wearing her cow costume for Hallowe'en, and she missed out on trick-or-treating. This morning, she ended up having her only nap of the day at about 8:15 a.m. and it lasted only an hour. By the time the city's official trick-or-treat timeslot (6:00 p.m. to 9:00 p.m.) arrived, she was well on her way to bed.

That's not to say Celeste went without. On Tuesday last, her playgroup had a Hallowe'en party and she got to wear her suit then. And on Sunday evening, she wore her costume over to her two-year-old friend K---'s house to help K--- practice trick-or-treating: Celeste and K--- stayed on the porch with Evelin, G--- (K---'s mother), and me waited; K--- knocked on the door; D---, her father, opened the door with a bowl of goodies; and K--- said "Hi Daddy!"

Since Celeste was in bed before 7:00 p.m., and with more than two hours of trick-or-treating to go, Evelin and I tried to stay alert to the pitter-patter of little (and sometimes not-so-little) feet on the porch to head off any too loud door knocking or (even worse) doorbell ringing. We only had one doorbell incident, which Celeste thankfully slept through, but I did put a big piece of duct tape over the doorbell after that. Evelin headed off another (post-duct tape) by jumping off the couch and not quite shouting "don't ring the bell!" (We had the door open, so we could see people, but still some folk like to ring that doorbell.) When she got to the door with the candy the thwarted bell ringer said "I know what you were doing; you were trying to scare us!" Evelin assured him she just wanted to keep her sleeping baby asleep. I don't think he bought her story.

We had a lot of trick-or-treaters this year and, judging by the number of cars that were going the wrong way down our one-way street, I don't all that many of them were from the neighborhood. This lead to the annual "you're giving out too much candy" discussion. Evelin is a firm believer in kids having to say "Trick or Treat!" and "Thank you." She also wants them to be in costume, and not too much jostling in front of the candy bowl. And for all of this, she wants to give out only one piece of candy per kid. I'm much more in the two to three pieces of candy camp. And while I expect Celeste to say "Thank you" in such situations, I don't get too bent out of shape when I don't get one from a bunch of goblins or Power Rangers who are all hopped up on Pixie Stix.

About two-thirds of the way through the candy bowl (and about the same way through the night), Evelin and I decided to call my mother to get her retired fourth-grade teacher's perspective on the proper amount of candy to pass out. She said three to four pieces per kid at first, progressing to handfuls to try to get rid of it as the night goes on. I passed the phone to Evelin, feeling justified for my at least two pieces stance, but then my mother backtracked saying that she didn't give out very good candy. Given that we had miniature boxes of Junior Mints, she felt one of those alone was a good enough treat (and thus validating Evelin's perspective). Thankfully, we don't have to worry about this again for another 364 days.

Technoarti tags: Hallowe'en Candy

Bargain Bob's Stroller City Redux

Our basement is starting to look a bit like the stroller and stroller accessories equivalent of a used car lot. Way back when we were expecting Celeste, we made the traditional pre-registry trip to Babies ‘Я’ Us to test drive the various strollers. While we thought about somesort of big travel system stroller setup, we ended up going with the very sensible Baby Trend Snap 'n Go, which worked with our Graco SnugRide infant seat, and a Combi Soho sturdier-than-an-umbrella-stroller-but-still-compact stroller.

The tipping point was that Evelin would be able to lift both the Soho and the Snap 'n Go into the back of the T.R.U.C.K. by herself. The giant travel system things were too heavy for her to do that without some wrestling.

Fast forward a few months, and the Soho is proving fine to keep in the T.R.U.C.K. for use when going somewhere, but the mean sidewalks of our city really need something with more forgiving wheels. Enter the Baby Jogger II she found on craigslist. Ever since I brought it home back in July, the Baby Jogger has been Evelin and Celeste's standard ride.

Now, with number two on the way, Evelin is realizing we need a double jogger. Back to craigslist and Freecycle she goes and Sunday morning Celeste and I find ourselves on a little expedition to Burke, Virginia, to test drive a B.O.B. Duallie "sport utility stroller." Less than two hours later, we're home with another stroller (and rain guard), and Evelin is looking at some of the accessories available for the B.O.B. units ...

Technoarti tags: stroller pram

Asian Backstreet Boys

This cracks me up.

(Via What Tian Has Learned and Andrew Sullivan)

Common Census

I'm not sure what this project is likely to uncover, but since I like maps, I find it intrinsically interesting — The CommonCensus Map Project. The stated goal is:

... to show how the country is organized culturally, as opposed to traditional political boundaries. It shows how the country is divided into 'spheres of influence' between different cities at the national, regional, and local levels.

There also is a second project to map loyalty to different sports teams. The current MLB map shows, for instance, that Red Sox Nation is alive and strong throughout New England, as would be expected, as well as throughout Utah and bits of Wyoming, Idaho, and Montana, which is a little surprising as we don't even have a farm team out that way ...

Anyway, they're looking for more data to improve all the maps, so if you haven't already done so, go and give the project a look-see; they especially need more data from more rural/exurban areas.

Technoarti tags: demographics map Red Sox

Not Sir Elton John

Tropical Storm Alpha

It's not official yet, but 2005 seems likely to become the first hurricane season where we have to start using Greek letters to name Atlantic Basin storms.

This morning Tropical Depression #25 came into being, and the prediction is that it will reach tropical storm status — and thus earn a name instead of a number — by this afternoon. Since Wilma, currently the hurricane flitting over the Yucatán, is the last name on the official list for the Atlantic for this year, the naming convention switches over to the Greek alphabet for TD#25 and/or any subsequent storms that become tropical storms.

[ASIDE: The World Meteorological Organization has a really interesting fact sheet [PDF] on tropical cyclone names around the world.]

As it stands, with 21 named storms as of Wilma, 2005 is tied with 1933 as the busiest Atlantic hurricane season ever, and, with 12 hurricanes tied with 1969 for the most hurricanes on record. Half of those were graded as "intense hurricanes," including the most, fourth and sixth most intense ever in terms of lowest barometric pressure (Wilma, Rita and Katrina, respectively).

And that doesn't even include Hurricane Vince, which struck Portugal and Spain of all places.

The kicker is that we still have a few more weeks (until 30 November) for the end of hurricane season. Given how things have gone thus far, we could be looking at Hurricane Delta (or maybe Phi) churning through the Atlantic by Thanksgiving ...

UPDATE: (22 Oct. 2005, 18:19) It's official : TS Alpha is the 22nd named storm of the season ...

Technoarti tags: hurricanes

Uisge Bheatha

After a bad-weather, bad-traffic commute home (although I made it for the end of bathtime), I'm settling in for a nice tipple and enjoying the last of a Signatory 1998 Single Orkney Malt.

Signatory Vintage Scotch Whisky Co. Ltd. is interesting in that they are a bottler, not a distiller^*. They go round and buy up casks of spirit from distillers and then bottle it in their own way, often making for a different product than what the distiller yields.

This one next to me is bottle number 197 from casks numbers 164 and 165, distilled on 25 January 1988 at Scapa Distillery in Orkney and bottled at 86 proof after being "aged in oak wood not less that 9 years." It's fairly light, especially considering it's from the Islands and while there is a bit of the traditional Scapa peat to the taste, it's really mild. The one review of the Signatory bottling I found wasn't too complimentary; the Gordon & MacPhail bottling for the same year sounds a bit more expressive. My own impression of it lies somewhere between Serge's and Doug McIvor's (although McIvor wasn't tasting the Signatory). It's very drinkable and enjoyable, but it's not a top-rated whisky either ...

And thus ends tonight's delving into whisky criticism ... plus Evelin want's to go comment on Tiffanni's Golden Coiffure Awards.

^* Actually, that's not quite right anymore. In 2002, just a few months before we visited, although I wouldn't claim a connection, Signatory acquired Erdadour, the wee-est (legal) distillery in Scotland.

Technoarti tags: whisky

One of Those Mornings ...

... when, as you hit the snooze button for the third time, you can't figure out where that noise keeps coming from ...

499 Minutes

Earlier this summer when we changed over our house from no cable television/traditional phone line/dial up Internet access to subbasic cable/VoIP/cable modem, one question was would the basic 500-minute Vonage plan be enough talk time for us. Since when it comes to our cell plans, Evelin and I are Paygoists and never really need to worry about capped plan minutes, we didn't have a good feel for how much time we actually spend on the phone.

Last month was the first where we were fully transitioned off the landline and using only VoIP, but, because of Hurricane Katrina, we (mostly me) naturally went over that 500 minute cap. Today, I got our latest bill and we used <drumroll>...</drumroll> 499 minutes. That just makes me smile.

Technoarti tags: VoIP

Idiosyncrasy Meme Redux

Revisiting that idiosyncrasy meme MC tagged me with, Evelin said she thought the ones I picked where kind of boring, so I'll stand by numbers 1, 3 and 4, but would replace 2 and 5 with:

1. I can dish it out, but I can't take it
2. I like seeing new things and going places, but I hate traveling (or at least the packing and getting out the door; once I'm where we're going I'm fine).

Technoarti tags: meme

Bird in the Office

Well, that was interesting. Our MIS, R---, and were walking down the hall, when I saw something out of the corner of my eye in the server room — a bird flying from over by the tape backups into R---'s office.

At first I thought it was my imagination, so R--- and I walked into the room and sure enough there was a song sparrow (Melospiza melodia) trying to find a way out. Apparently, he'd found a hole next to the window air-conditioning unit ...

K--- was walking past and stopped to see the commotion; it didn't register that we were yelling for him to shut the door until the bird buzzed him on his way out to the hall and into K--- and A---'s office, where he was trapped when they shut the door on their way out.

I got an old T-shirt and R--- got a box and, after a fairly comic 10 minutes of climbing over/under desks and cubes and (the bird) smacking into windows, we finally got the shirt over him, his wings pined, and then shuttled him down the stairwell and outside.

Sure a song sparrow is no red-tailed hawk, but a sparrow inside is considered a bad omen, so I'm trying not to let that freak me out ...

(And thinking about birds, last week Evelin and Celeste were walking down by Northwest Branch when Evelin noticed an eagle or hawk of some sort flying toward them. Evelin is certain she saw the bird's talons in an outstretched position — and headed for Celeste — so she quickly flipped up the sun cover on the jogging stroller and the bird changed direction and flew away.)

Technoarti tags: sparrow birds

Free Tree

A few years ago, I came home from work to find a new maple in front of our house in the strip of land between the curb and the sidewalk As part of the environmental tradeoffs with the Woodrow Wilson Bridge Project, several hundred trees had to be planted around the D.C. area in the Potomac Watershed; our town took a few hundred or so and planted them throughout the city, including in front of my house.

Flash forward to a few weeks ago: I saw a notice on the city listserv that the city had several trees free for the asking on a first-come, first-served basis. On the first day you could reserve a tree, Evelin called and today Celeste and I drove over to the public works yard and picked out a fairly rough looking crape myrtle (Lagerstroemia indica) that is supposed to flower purple. (It's no flower fairy, but it is a free crape myrtle.)

Back around Labor Day Weekend, I'd cut down and pulled out the roots of a tall, thin evergreen that was listing significantly. For a while I'd thought it was my imagination, but looking back at pictures, it really was leaning a lot. It turns out the roots were all twisted instead of spreading out; maybe whoever planted it didn't remove the burlap or anything from the root ball.

That space, at the front corner of the house has some big azaleas in it (as well as our strawberry patch, but it needed a taller vertical element to replace the lost evergreen — enter the crape myrtle. Hopefully being in the ground and getting a lot of water will help the tree settle in and, in a year or few, we'll have some nice blooms.

Technoarti tags: crape myrtle landscaping yard