Sorry
for the many work-induced delays, but here at last is the post where I
get to rave about my perfect niece. A couple of weeks ago Mer and I got
go out to southern California to see our niece get baptized. It was
quite a wonderful weekend.

I *know* that she is related to me and so I am biased, but I think
Sammy is great. She is the least fussy baby I have ever seen. I think
in a little over 3 days I saw her fussing about a total of 10 minutes.
Of course, being ADORABLE, she had me wrapped around her very tiny
finger. If she fussed and we were alone, she immediately got picked up
and walked around the apartment while I introduced her to alternate
scales by humming random tunes.

Mom
and Dad are rightfully proud. Sammy was born about 10 weeks premature,
and so she has had some rough times. She has come through them well,
and she seems fine. I guess it takes some time for premature babies to
“catch up” to their real age, but with that taken into account, Sammy
is doing fine. She is VERY curious about what is going on, as you can
see from the picture with Mom and Dad.

I was very honored to be asked to be a godparent (along with Auntie
Jolene). My understanding is that, along with praying for Sammy and
being there for her, I am required by spiritual duty to buy her lots of
gifts as often as possible. It is quite a responsibility.

We did some other things in L.A. other than adore Sammy, but I’ll let
this entry be all about her (as is appropriate for my only niece). I’ll
leave you with a picture of my (obvious genius) niece mulling over the
various merits of her playmat toys. She clearly needs more…

Ugh. As the e-mail server conversion enters its 15th hour, the morale of the men is beginning to lag. We are beginning to consider eating the penguins. The commander is slightly ill, but he won’t show it – those Mainers are stoics indeed (except when blogging). We press on, hoping to make it to the home directories by morning. Prospects for sleep are not looking too good.

So, Mer and I are out here in LA with family to see my ADORABLE neice, Sammy. I’ll post details and pictures when I get back (in a day or two).

We got out here with no difficulties. We got to our gate in less than 30 minutes – the Cleveland security lines were very quick (there were not many people in line). The flight was almost 5 hours, and the in-flight movie was Dr. Dolittle THREE. I was not even aware they had made a third one. Needless to say, I read and finished up listening to my audio copy of Huck Finn.

Our introduction to the world of LA driving was intense. We got one of the shared-ride vans from the airport to get to where my sister and her husband live (Hollywood). Our driver was NUTS. He was a very nice man, but I have never seen a more aggressive driver in my life. His style of driving was stomp on the accelerator, then stomp on the brake. And this was when the car in front of us moved about 10 feet. I was sure we were going to hit a car at least 10 times. It took us about an hour-and-a-half to get to my sister’s place, and I was pretty glad to get out of the van.

And yes, traffic on the “expressway” was stop-and-go at 8:30 on a Friday night. Ugh.

Anyway, Sammy is cute, and getting to see her and my family is good.

Eight years! Who woulda thunk it?

(And no, the picture is not from our wedding – those were all analog shots – this was a picture from this last year.)

Not to seem too preachy here, but I really believe this. Life-long
learning is important, and better than vegging in front of the TV
(except during football season).

Here is the scoop on one of the few lessons (ha!) I have learned on my
own in 35 years. After I got out of college, I spent two years putzing
around trying to find jobs, apartments, etc. It occurred to me one day
that I had largely turned off my brain after college, and I did not
really like that. Granted, I read more then (I lived for a year with no
TV), and I went to a few plays, but I had not tried anything really new. I
decided to change that. (To be totally honest, I was spurred on by the
fact that Meredith was going to Romania for a year and my social life
was going to dry up). So that was when I signed up for ceili (Irish
social) dancing, which I still do from time to time today. Ceili
dancing was one of the first things I did when I moved to Chicago – I
moved on a Wednesday, and by Friday I was dancing at the Irish-American Heritage Center. I had happily proclaimed that I would find a place to dance before I found a job, and I am still pleased by that.

Since the initial dancing stuff, I have taken a year of voice lessons
in Ohio, taken guitar lessons, improv lessons, Irish song lessons,
Irish dance lessons (soft shoe), and (briefly) mandolin lessons at the Old Town School of Folk Music (oh, how I miss that place!).

Once we moved back to Ohio, I tried my hand at folk harp lessons for
awhile (until Meredith lost her job in 2002). I took more Irish dancing
lessons for a year (hard shoe still proves to be too hard for me).

A few years ago, I started buying the literature lectures on CD from the Teaching Company
(which I highly recommend), to the point where Mer and I own lectures
on Shakespeare, C.S. Lewis, and ALL of American literature.

Most recently, I bought the Rosetta Stone
version of Italian, which I hope to learn over the next few years (Mer
already speaks Italian, so it should be fun. As a language guru, she is
also fascinated by the method that Rosetta Stone uses to teach language).

My goal here is to encourage those poor college-aged folk who read this
blog to remember this in a few years after you get out. Find new things
that interest you and learn about them. It also helps to get around
people who like to keep learning (Shannon reads about lots of different
things, Rev. Transit is on a Scotch-Irish kick, Spooooon/Orange
Templar/Orange JoJo is HUGE into all things Templar, and Mer loves all
thing language and excelled in her Masters studies which she completed
last year). Lastly, if you can, get a job in education (at a college or
high school). One of the great blessings in my life is that I have spent
the last 10 years in one school or another. It helps to be around lots
of people who are learning.