Doh!

I never thought I’d be one of those people so grossed out by something so common, but experience has led me to see the light and realize that this seemingly innocent item is actually a blight on our nation, if not our whole world. Ladies and gentlemen, here is the simple fact: Playdough is disgusting.

It’s not the mess, the crumbles of dough scattered across the table and the floor, pressed into seat cushions, rugs and buried deep in the heart of the tile grout. It’s not the inescapable blending, the miscegenation of colors into spectacular, chaotic rainbows before then turn, irreversibly, inevitably into balls of uniform gray.

No. It’s the hair.

I’ll let you get through your gag reflex before I continue.

There’s nothing enjoyable about pulling out a yellow-green-pink-blue lump of play-dough, streaked with red and orange, only to find that it is inextricably linked to the lump below it, and the lump below that, by a tiny strand of protein. You can try to get it out, but as I just explained this to you in the last sentence – it’s inextricable. Try to pay attention.

Even if you get one hair out, there are others, hundreds of others, tangled together, forming a matrix, binding the playdough in an evil network of disgustingness.

I’m not sure which is worse, the human hair or the pet fur. We have two cats and a dog. The slender threads that worm their way through our playdough invade from any number of sources and they cannot be defeated.

Once you have children, Playdough cannot be avoided, so I offer this not as a warning, but as a bitter prophecy.

Posted in Abigailia | Tagged , | 1 Comment

Soccer

With Abigail, the most important part of soccer is making wishes. And then making good on those wishes. She wished for a new plant and then scored. And then pulled a branch off a nearby bush, declared it the promised fulfillment of her wish and promptly declared it in need of planting. And watering. And thus ended the soccer match.

Update: Still getting the hang of my phone blogging app. This was supposed to be a quick note to myself, which would lead to a longer piece. Instead, it got posted directly.

Abigail asked me to play soccer, which I was keen to do. It turned out that her version was to place the ball in front of the goal and then make a wish. Since my enchilada was being vigorously microwaved in the kitchen at the time, I wished for a hot dinner. She wished for a plant. We then kick the ball into the net and cheer. She got her wish. I didn’t get mine. We have a really crappy microwave.

 

Posted in Abigailia | Tagged | Leave a comment

Good Intentions

The road to this blog is paved with good intentions. Over the last few months I’ve thought a lot about putting up some posts, but I never seem to find the time or energy. And then over the last month, well, I haven’t had much motivation.

I want to thank everyone for their support over the last few weeks. It’s meant a lot to all of us.

Going forward, I’m going to commit to posting items here at least twice a week. I’m starting off today with some of the huge backlog of quotables I’ve built up. Keep an eye out for something else later on this week.

Posted in Uncategorized | Leave a comment

The Quotable Abigail, Part XVII

On what needs to put in her backpack: “A ball and a liquid and a solid and …”

On the sanitariness of sandbox baking: “Don’t worry, dad. Snail poop will come out in the oven.”

On favors: “Dad, can you do me a favorite?”

On the ultimate lesson of Kiki’s Delivery Service: “It’s more better to have big balloons out on a warm and sunny day.”

On help: “Dad, can I borrow some help?”

On what babies say: “First, Hoc-O-Hoc.”

On her first words in the morning, when I find her hidden under her blanket: “Dad! I’m a snail!”

On overriding my objections: “I just want to gently rub your eyes. Don’t worry. It won’t hurt.”

On why she wants Momma get into the imaginary balloon that’s imaginarily deflating: “It’s okay. You can fall.”

Posted in Abigailia | Tagged | 1 Comment

Viki

Viki Ozanich, Jessica’s mother, Abigail’s grandmother, died last week. She leaves a huge gap in our lives that we’re not ever going to be able to fill. She loved everyone around her intensely, especially Abigail. Her granddaughter had been her world for the last three years. The two of them found so much joy in each other. Abigail would jump up and down when she saw her and Viki’s face would light up in a smile. There was a purity to Viki’s time with Abigail, a child-like glee that makes my heart ache when I think about it.

Viki was a young grandmother. She was one of the healthiest, fittest people I knew. We were supposed to have her for decades more. She was supposed to be there to watch our kids grow up, start dating, graduate, get married. I’m still shocked by how wrong this is.

The memories we have of her are precious. Abigail got to know her so well, got to have her grandmother be a huge part of her first few years. There will be a part of Viki in Abigail forever.

I wanted to share some images of her, mostly doing what she took so much joy from these last few years – spending time with her granddaughter.

There will be a service for her at Allen Brother’s Mortuary in Vista on Tuesday July 19 at 11 am. There’s room for everyone that wants to come, but parking is limited, so carpool if you can.

Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged , | 4 Comments

The Quotable Abigail, Part XVI

On who is in the basket: “It was baby no name, now it’s baby yes name.”

On semantics: “You don’t have to take a rest, Saffron, you just have to take a nap.”

On whether she would like to read another chapter from her “Judy Moody” book: “Well, Dad, I have to sleep. It’s serious.”

On why she needs a big-girl fork to eat her cereal: “For forking.”

On what Dad should make her for dinner: “Grilled cheese! I already ordered!”

On why Maggie is bad: “I said “bad dog” because she’s old.”

On why she’s moving all the containers in the cupboard: “I’m just fixing everything.”

On how to play Dragon: “You sit there and I’ll try to eat you.”

On what we should do now that we’re both pretend dragons: “You have some lemur and I’ll have some lemur.”

 

Posted in Abigailia | Tagged | Leave a comment

The Quotable Abigail, Part XIV

On why she has to watch her lunchbox: “So it doesn’t all come roaring out.”

On what “roaring” means, in this context: “Roaring means zip, zip, zip.”

On Daddy’s odor, her opinion of:  “Daddy, you smell like garbage.”

On being told that it isn’t nice to tell people that they smell like garbage: “You smell like butterflies.”

On the product of cat litter scooping: “Daddy, that poop looks awesome.”

On things not in the travel guide: “How do you say ‘whoa, whoa’ in Spanish?”

On multiple Jessicas: “Isn’t it funny to have two Jessica’s?”

On multiple Alexs: “And isn’t it funny to have two silly Alex’s?”

On fish and their locations: “And isn’t it funny to have fish in your house?”

On that guy walking the other day who she just said hello to: “He gave me a credit card.”

On why she burst into tears after being told not put her hands on anything after touching a public toilet seat: “But I want to put them on my face!”

Posted in Abigailia | Tagged | Leave a comment

The Cruise, Part I: Ashlynn

I took a lot of video on our cruise and it’s tough to know where to start.

Actually, it’s not. I’m starting with Ashlynn, who, along with her family, was seated at the table next to us for dinner each night. She and Abigail very much enjoyed each other’s company and and had a great time getting in the way of the servers going to and from the kitchen, the door to which was right next to our table.

I told Ashlynn’s parents about my blog on the last day of the cruise and told them I’d put up a video soon. That was on June 5th, a mere three weeks ago. I warned them that it might take me a little time. She was gracious enough to tell me that they’d wait until Monday. That still makes this video 20 days late.

Next on the cruise video docket: More dancing!

Posted in Abigailia | Leave a comment

Cruisin’ Preview

Many of you know we went on a cruise last week. Some of you may have come here looking specifically for pictures or videos related to that cruise.

As it turns out, we’re also heading out of town this weekend. Between work, planning, laundry and all the other things on my plate, I haven’t had a chance to review, edit and upload a darn thing. So you’ll have to wait until next week.

For now, here’s a preview picture featuring Abigail, her grandma and her new friend Ashlynn, sitting in the window on the ship.

Posted in Abigailia | Tagged , | Leave a comment

Alien Trailer 2: The Absurdening

While I think we can all agree that this trailer is more exciting that the other one, it is also a good deal more absurd. That said, it’s more fun to watch. It only took me a couple hours to put together last night, partly because I already had the clips broken up and partly because I didn’t use any dialogue. Some of the musical changes are terrible and I’d cut one clip if I went back at did it again, but after reviewing it I decided that this was suitably awesome.

I give you the second and final Alien Trailer:

Posted in Science Fiction, What I Wrote | Tagged , | Leave a comment