Thank You, Madagascar

We all sat together the weekend before last and watched Madagascar. We had a really nice time.

But now, her favorite word is "butt." We don't snicker when she says it, we don't get alarmed. We calmly tell her we like to use the word "bottom" or "bum."

However, I think she likes the sound of the word itself. Because she keeps using it.

Sacrifice

I tried to take Rachel out for the morning on Saturday. Both to spend time with her and to give Lori some time alone on her own. Unfortunately, it turned into far too much time just driving around. First we went to the post office to check the P.O. Box. Then we took some photos of graffiti for my other blog. And then we drove. I didn't want to consult the GPS, having a fair idea of where I was going. Turned out I was close, but then traffic got really bad and I had to ask it for help so I could get out of the traffic.

We spent an hour walking around the South Hill Mall in Puyallup that is far less impressive than I remember it from one visit 10 years ago. It's built on a slope, so there's lots of transitions from one height to the next with ramps and stairs. I swear it used to have planters, but now it's just very utilitarian railings on the transitions. I also didn't know until I unplugged the iPod and turned on the radio that there was a Spring Fair going on in Puyallup. (Chris Egan used to like to point out that this is the longest city name in the United States that begins and ends with P. My grandpa Hal used to call it "Pui-yallup" though he knew the correct pronunciation was "Puew-all-up," kind of like how Steve Martin was "Pa-sahd-na" instead of "Pasadena" in L.A. Story.) But I digress. All this to say that it took way too long to get there because of the fair. And then to find out that it didn't have a Starbucks.

So with no particular direction in mind, I told the GPS to direct me to a Starbucks away from town, away from the fair. I finally rolled up only to see a Starbucks logo on the side of a Fred Meyer. That was disappointing because we could have done that back in town. So I decided to try again and left the parking lot while messing with the GPS. Only to see out of the corner of my eye another Starbucks logo. So back into the parking lot and then for the life of me, I couldn't figure out where I'd see it. I realized that there were more buildings behind other buildings and finally found a small building with a giant Papa Murphy's sign and the Starbucks mermaid next to it. Apparently not even enough room to put up the words "Starbucks Coffee" next to it.

Finally! So we sat for who knows how long. She ate her peaches and drank water while I drank coffee and slowly picked at the coffee cake. She ate the peaches really quickly, knowing she'd get coffee cake afterwards.

And then there was a lot of driving just to get back home and what usually puts her to sleep (the opening act from Phantom) wasn't working and she was getting restless from all of the driving.

I thought of that tonight as I was putting her to bed. I spent the evening with her while Lori was at Bible study. Only I spent much of the evening trying to get fricking iTunes to work. I knew that we couldn't install the newest version because it doesn't like my computer's settings. But then tonight the version we had just stopped working. I finally got it to work but lost all the play lists, all the play and skip counts and a lot of the other organization. And now the iPod is painstakingly slowly loading 4,600 songs and movies and TV shows back onto the iPod. I hate to leave it plugged in all night, but I'm going to have to. Man, I'm rambling.

Anyhow, when I put Rachel to bed, I told her I hadn't played with her enough tonight and I apologized. She apologized back and said she hadn't played enough with me.

I felt really guilty. Then I read day 4 in the 40 Days of Community thing we're going through with our church. The rest of the church is on day 9. But day 4 talked about priority and how we need to love people now because we don't know what the future will hold. That just piled on the guilt even more.

And then I turned on "March of the Penguins" -- I've been watching that in 5-10 minute spurts as time allows and it mentioned tonight that by the time the penguin dad eats again (after having marched day and night for two months, then perched on top of an egg for two months during the harshest of winter weather seen on the planet) that the bird won't have had a meal in over 120 days. That's just insane. Guess I'm glad I'm not a penguin.

Though truth be told, I'm really bitter at Apple, Google, and the entire internet community. What, no one else has gotten the error "'documents' is not a valid short name." when attempting to install iTunes? Stupid generic error 1325. Microsoft was no help nor was Apple or Yahoo! Answers or Google. I finally searched for something else and realized that I had to create a brand new account on the Windows XP machine and try installing it there, which worked, except for all the painful problems. I guess I also need to resynch my phone but my list of the best songs is gone. Blech.

I have got to do a better job of spending time with Rachel tomorrow night.

Too Much PBS?

Overheard in the car yesterday while Rachel was playing with a stuffed duck:

"Duck, brought to you by 'Duck's New Beak.'"

Amusing Clothing Line

This website popped up as a related advertisement next to an e-mail between my daughter and her grandmother in Gmail. Cute/clever clothing website, http://www.2chix.com/.

Sweden to Mom: You May Not Rock, Rock On

MSNBC.COM -- Sweden's tax authority gets to approve of all names. (Perhaps not a bad idea? Kid in Rachel's daycare named Ahmunique... get it? I'm unique. A great beat-me-up name.) Anyhow, they've declined some woman's attempts to name her child "Metallica." Oh, I should mention her child is a girl. And even though she's been denied, she's appealing. (Or appalling?) Anyhow, they've had to cancel a trip already because with the name in limbo, they've been unable to get a passport for their daughter. Ha. More...

Sweet Little Girl

Twice recently Rachel has just surprised me with her kindness. One night we were sitting in the "cave" I'm building under the deck -- eventually it'll be a place where we can sit out of the rain and relax outside. (Right now the rain still drips through the slats, but I'll fix that eventually by adding a little "roof".)

But we were sitting there, Rachel and I. Her mom was at choir practice, so it was just the two of us. The edge of the excavation left a ledge for me to put my feet up on, but it wasn't quite high enough. It was nice but I remarked that now all I needed was something to put my feet up on. She looked around and announced "I'll go get a ball for you." Odd, I thought, but whatever. She hops off of her chair, runs across the yard to where a not-completely-full soccer ball lay. She carried it back over, I lifted my legs and she sat it down and wouldn't you know, it was just right to elevate my legs.

Then on Saturday I was reading a book in the living room. I was wearing shorts as I always do in the house and had my feet up on the ottoman. She declared that my legs were cold and went to her room and came back with a blanket which she spread over my legs.

Kid never ceases to amaze me.