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Kindergarten

Posted June 3, 2007

From an article in the NYTimes Magazine – "When Should a Kid Start Kindergarten"

In 49 out of 50 states, the average annual cost of day care for a 4-year-old in an urban area is more than the average annual public college tuition.

Yikes!

Our first big snowstorm of the year finally arrived yesterday. Apparently, February is our least snowiest month?Â I’m pretty sure that’s what Paul Douglas said yesterday, but they don’t keep archives of his sage wisdom over at the Star Tribune.

I love getting out to shovel the snow after a big storm. I take an almost guilty pleasure in suffering and sweating through the shoveling. I think perhaps it has something to do with the driveway at my childhood house. It was enormous! Well, enormous for a 7 year old trying to shovel. In the winter of 1983-84 here in Minneapolis, we received 100" of snow. I was 6 that year. Now we’re lucky to get 20".

February also means baseball. The Star Tribune has stepped into the present with blogs from some of their Twins reporters.

Baseball is the perfect sport for blogging, and having our local paper do it is even better. Obviously these guys have access and resources that mere mortals could never get, and as Aaron Gleeman said, their blogs will hopefully get filled with the little anecdotes that typically would’ve been tossed out of a story in the paper.

We’re a week in, and so far the writing has been fun and informal. I think the readers already know more about the personalities of the writers and the players than we have in the past. Keep it up!

There are quite a few fan blogs out there, I keep up with a couple of them, I mentioned Aaron Gleeman above. I really enjoy his statistical analysis. There is also Bat Girl, which is funny if you find butt shots and elaborate puppet and lego game reenactments funny. (I do.)

Well, it won’t be long before this snow is a memory and spring is upon us. But for now, I’m going to go out and enjoy it.

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Stuck in Orlando

Posted January 28, 2007

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I’ve been stuck at the Orlando airport for the past 10 hours.

On the plus side, they have free wifi. This has led to a number of funny incidents of chatting random people on Bonjour.

I’ve also been able to explain to a few people how to log out of Bonjour so they don’t get freaked out with random people trying to chat them.

All airports should offer free wifi. It would make the delays more palatable.

Call first?

Posted January 3, 2007

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I always think it’s weird to call a store, and then show up later asking about the same thing. Especially if you know that there is just one employee there. Does their impression of the man on the phone match your description. Did my guess live up? How many people call asking the same question?
How much do you pay for The X-Files Soundtrack in good condition? What is the soup of the day? Do you have those shoes in a 44? Do you still have the Pumpkin Spice Latte? I’m looking for something to block the air coming under our front door, do you have those? Do you sell compost bins?

It’s especially funny to make the call when you have absolutely know idea how to purchase the item you are after. We’re going to buy new windows at some point. My phone calls surrounding the subject have been very odd.
Enough procrastinating, I have a few calls to make.