Spectre’s Sayings

Zenit interviews Meg Meeker: ZENIT - How Dads Can Help Raise Strong Daughters.

Philangelus has posted 25 signs you may be a geek parent. I thought they were good enough to quote.

Signs That You Are A Geek Parent

How many of the following have actually happened in your household?

No, really — be honest. Go through the list and don’t fudge.

1) Your one-year-old makes the Mac startup sound when waking from a nap.
2) You switched to cloth diapers “to see what that washing machine can really do!”
3) Your three-year-old sees a pack of playing cards and exclaims, “What a pretty iPod!”
4) Your seven-year-old is stunned that you can play solitaire with that pack of cards.
5) The baby coos happily for the Nazgul but stares in confusion at Barney or Elmo.
6) Not knowing an answer, your seven-year-old says “No report.”
7) Your three-year-old asks you to “pause the book.”
8 ) When the baby poops, your husband tells you she’s “completed a download.”
9) Your child pushes a knot in the woodgrain and is surprised the kitchen table doesn’t play music.
10) There are so many light-up toys that your house is visible from space.
11) Your nine-year-old is familiar with Minesweeper, Snood and the Macigame, but has never played checkers.
12) Your oldest gets frightened when he makes a mistake because “Mom might put that on her weblog!”
13) You accidentally refer to one of your children by his internet handle when talking to a real-life friend.
14) Half the people your family prays for are online friends. It is perfectly normal to pray for “SingingCrystal99? or “that woman on EtiquetteHell.”
15) Your oldest thinks all research starts at Wikipedia.
16) Your youngest knows in detail how to clean a CD or a DVD but has no idea that dirty plastic cups go in the sink.
17) The youngest child can’t zipper his jacket and tells you, “It crashed!”
18) Your children all speak LOLcat as a second language.
19) So many of your purchases come from online stores that the kids think the mailman is Santa Claus.
20) Your children recognize and can sing several anime theme songs.
21) You child was able to recite the opening monologue to ST:TNG before she was 14 months old.
22) Her godmother’s child, at the same age, was in love with Mr. Spock.
23) Your son can recite pi to the 34th digit but isn’t sure how many kids are in his class.
24) Your children can hold a reasonable discussion about five reasons we need a manned mission to Mars, but don’t remember which city has the Red Sox.
25) You don’t call it graduation: you call it an upgrade!

Today, my nephew has a kindergarten screening. Good luck, buddy! (Actually, I have no doubt he’ll do well. He’s probably ready for first grade, but is still a little young yet.)

My little nephew (who really is good as gold) can be a little stinker (literally) when it suits him. The other evening, he climbed up on my lap. After a while, he passed some gas … and blamed it on his grandfather. Now, where did he learn to do that??!?

Yesterday we observed my brother’s birthday (which is actually tomorrow), so we had a little get-together at my parents’ house. Homemade pizza for the midday meal, along with Mexican Lasagna (a new recipe my mother tried in honor of the Super Bowl), and in lieu of a traditional birthday cake, a type of coffee cake known in my family as “buttercake,” because my brother likes it so much he requests it as his birthday cake.

Readers, do you have any birthday traditions you’d like to share in the comments?

Jennifer F. has a very remarkable piece entitled How I became pro-life. It’s a great confession and analysis. Go read it.

After seeing a trailer for it, my 5-year-old nephew has decided that he wants to see the new Alvin and The Chipmunks movie.

Happy Thanksgiving to all my readers! (Yes, to both of you.) I include you when I count my blessings for which I’m grateful. God bless.

Mildred Nierhoff passed away today. Mimi was my grandfather’s brother’s wife. She had no blood relatives left - the only family she had left were relatives by marriage. She had spent the last eleven years in a nursing home suffering from alzheimer’s, and faded quickly during the past couple of days. My mother and my grandmother spent hours and hours there with her these past couple of days. May the angels lead her to paradise, and may she rest in peace.

Yesterday, while the family was talking, my grandmother mentioned how Millie’s husband had been wounded in Italy during World War II. That led my brother to ask questions about what my grandfather had done. I told him that grandpa had been in the 95th Infantry Division, and he had been wounded in Metz, France, and that there was a lot of information about that unit available on the internet.

It seems to me that we need to do a better job in keeping family stories alive, because all too quickly they become forgotten.

Today happens to be my parents’ 39th wedding anniversary. So what did their first-born son give them? A bottle of wine, a gift card to a restaurant, and a humorous card. My mother said the card was “hysterical.”

With some of these new-fangled tools that are available (like WordPress), it’s pretty easy these days to get a web site up and running. As an example, take a look at this one that I’ve thrown together for the women’s prayer group that my mother belongs to. They’re putting together a conference, so they wanted a web site to advertise it. I think it looks pretty cool.

Can you guess which one is my nephew?

Hint: he’s a yellow belt.

Before I went to the concert with my brother and cousin, we visited nearby St. Charles, Missouri, and located the Trailhead Brewing Company. We dined there, and sampled their beers.

I ate a bit too much, but avoided overstuffing myself. The food was very respectable. I had a petite prime rib, fries, Caesar Salad, and French Onion Soup.

While my cousin contented himself with a mere pint of Blonde Ale, my brother and I each ordered a beer sampler. We both agreed that while all the beers were good, we preferred the Blonde Ale and the Missouri Brown Dark Ale. I ventured the opinion that the lightness of the Blonde Ale would make it a wonderful beer on a hot summer day, while the Dark Ale would be a great wintertime brew. This beer tasted for all the world like a porter to me, which is probably why I loved it so.

If you’re ever in the area, I recommend a visit. I picked up a pint glass and a tasting glass with the Trailhead logo on them as souvenirs (and to stock my home bar with, whenever I get around to getting one).

Forty-eight hours from now, I will be in my car making my way to St. Charles, Missouri to see Rush in concert. I’m taking my brother and my cousin, and we’re going to visit the Trailhead Brewing Company for dinner and beer. I expect a good time to be had by all.

I’m a big Rush fan. This particular album - Snakes and Arrows - doesn’t strike me as their best work ever, but the single “Far Cry” absolutely rocked. I especially like the drum riffs used as a transition.