January 24, 2004
Photo Album
Album - I had a little time this afternoon and decided to clear out the camera with this album. Strangely this month there are no pictures of Claire. It seems to happen that way. I look over a set and realize that someone (besides myself) is underrepresented. In this set there are a bunch of pictures that include Abigail as she warms up to the camera. There are also pictures from the boys' birthday last Thursday. Enjoy!
TV repair - You may recall that last July I mentioned that we bought a Toshiba TV/VCR/DVD combo unit from Best Buy. About a month ago when I wanted to use it to let Claire watch a DVD in our room, the DVD tray started to go ballistic. Careful examination showed nothing obvious jamming the mechanism. So tonight after dinner Claire and I headed up to Manchester to bring it in for repair. When we bought the unit half a year ago, I was highly suspect of bundling that many things with motorized parts into a consumer product so we bought the extended warrantee. I almost never buy warrantees for electronics but there are a few things I don't trust: among them are magnetic and optical drives of any sort. I've had my iMac in for repair (under another extended warrantee) because it's CD-R drive broke, the DVD player in our family room skips if there's the slightest dirt on the DVD, and now this issue.
Claire and Abby are complete opposites regarding going out. Abby is a homebody. About the only time she is excited to go out is for gymnastics or fast food. Claire on the other hand is always eager to go out. "Where can we go?" She really misses going to restaurants and malls as often as we did before the twins arrived. So Claire jumped on the chance to go with me to return the TV at the Manchester "Mall of New Hampshire" (as if there were only one). It's about a half hour away. On the drive out we listened to a radio program that plays just kids' songs on weekend evenings ("The Playground" on WERS Boston). You haven't had a truly silly bonding moment with your kids until you've both belted out "The Hairbrush Song" in your car, although the Hamster Dance comes close. After dropping the TV off, we shared an Orange Julius from the food court and stopped by a video game store to look over the GameCube titles. On the drive back we listened to WXLO playing "awesome 80's" songs. While I thought it was a rather lackluster trip to the mall, evidently she must miss those visits.
One of the things I got a kick out of while sitting in the food court was doing a little people watching. Young adults are many times the most amusing because some of them are trendy to the point of absurdity. A year ago my favorite amusement was guys with ridiculously low baggy pants proudly showing their underwear. Hey, I'll hire a plumber if I want to see that! Tonight, though, I was amused at the number of young women wearing hip huggers and blouses that didn't quite reach them. That "show a bit of midriff" look is amazingly impractical when it is only between 0°F and 5°F outside with bitterly negative wind chills. Save that outfit for a few months from now and put on something warm, will ya? Even when Claire and I bundled up, we were freezing as we ran back out to the van in the parking lot. I wonder if hospitals are getting cases of belly button frostbite?
Presents - Thanks to all who sent the twins presents and cards by mail for their birthday. Besides the cards, thanks especially to Alyssa for the Blues Clues & Bob the Builder kids' place settings and Bev for the pre-school edutainment software.
Well, that's about all. I can't stay up too late because I have to read at 8 a.m. Mass tomorrow and the whole family is going. Tomorrow looks to be another bitterly cold one. Here's to hoping for another sane day while cooped up indoors.