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Tuesday 19 April 2005
	Granted, I'm not Roman Catholic, nor even Christian, but I find today's election of Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger of Germany as Pope Benedictus XVI rather under-reaching and downright depressing. Euphemistically described as "the strict defender of Catholic orthodoxy for the past 23 years," this doctrinaire martinet hardly can tie the laces of his predecessor. I understand the cardinals were said to be looking for a transitional pope (read: please be dead in a few years) but it's keenly disappointed that a younger, more dynamic, less traditional, candidate couldn't have been selected, not to mention one from outside the European old white guy club. There were lots of interesting (and not too young) candidates in Latin America and Africa. Meh. Or so I humbly opine. (Reuters photo; used without permission.) It is true that PB16 (a shorter, Internet-friendly nickname for His Holiness which I just made up) was a Hitler Youth, as he himself mentions in his autobiography, Milestones: Memoirs: 1927 - 1977. Membership in the Hitlerjugend was compulsary at the time, it is also true. But what is the most interesting thing about all this is that while I see many disclaimers and favorable explanations by writers of books about PB16 - like John Allen Jr., who writes for the National Catholic Reporter and who wrote The Vatican's Enforcer of the Faith - there's nothing that I've been able to find written by PB16 himself. He's not as zealous to put distance between himself and his past as I would have liked. It's also really, really weird that PB16 chose the moniker predicted by St. Malachy (1094-1148) in his apocalyptic collection of epigrammatic verse describing his vision of all the popes who would reign. Does it mean the Vatican is clueless, is showing they don't care about the list, or that they do? Á propos nothing at all, here's a joke I have had sitting in my in-box for a while now. Saddam Hussein called President Bush and said, "George, I had a wonderful dream last night. I could see America, the whole country, and on each house I saw a banner." "What did it say on the banners?" asked Dubya. Saddam replied, "Long Live Saddam Hussein!" Dubya responded, "You know, Saddam, I am really happy you called. Last night I had a similar dream. I could see all of Baghdad, and it was more beautiful than ever. It had been completely rebuilt, and on each house flew an enormous banner." "What did the banners say?" Saddam asked. "I don't know," replied Mr. Bush. "I can't read Hebrew." Here's my sweet Lila in the bathtub this evening, making a puppet show with two of her four terrycloth handpuppets. During the bedtime reading ritual - how we end our day - my darling Isaac mugs for the camera. And here's my precious Rose reading to the kids, a flashlight on her chest illuminating the book. (We finish up reading in a dark room; my camera's flash makes it look as though the lights are on.
Monday 18 April 2005
	It's mind-boggling (to me, at least) that somehow I missed changing the stand-alone search page from HotBot (from oh, so many years ago) to the current Google search (which appears on each of my pages). Wow. I tried the HotBot search and the results are horrible! More than a whole screens worth of content is advertisment. And the search results no longer seem to be site-specific. Sad. Anyway, that's all gone now. I was feeling rather poorly today: I missed my family while I was sitting here, writing. So I called Rose and all went to a playground in Golden Gate Park. We played some Frisbee, kicked some soccer ball, played in the sand, swung the swings, made some new friends, and then celebrated in a new sushi-boat place on Clement Street. It was a good day. I can make up the time tonight.
Sunday 17 April 2005
	A day without specific plans - other than to get the toys out of the front walkway - wound up with a multitude of goings-on. Isaac woke me at 0730, and so the boys were eating at The Pork Store Café a few minutes later. Isaac just loved the hustle and bustle of the short-order cooks and the servers, the variety of customers, and the food. He was having so much fun! He's such a city boy. When I was a boy, living in New Jersey, our family would visit my god-parents in Brooklyn, right by the Promenade. Those visits, and the occasional sleep-over, were just wonderful. I remember falling asleep to the ceaseless sounds of the cars, the late-night wail of the ambulances and fire engines, and the excitement of visiting restaurants that were so urban, so unlike the suburban - practical - places in and near our town. Uncle Simon and Aunt Sally, thank you very much for being such great role models. I always wanted to live in a city, and now I am, and my kids love the torrent of culture. Back to this day. The weather is nice and sunny, and so I asked the grandparents to come over for a barbeque. I like having the excuse to cook. But they asked us to cook over there, so I tossed the tiny BBQ and a bag of charcoal into my trunk, and drove the family over. Friends of ours - with a new baby - will be in the area, so we're going to meet for a few moments at the West Portal playground before I cook. [Later] The barbeque goes well; the hamburgers, hot dogs, and turkey burgers (with schmaltz, as a reading of the label shows) turn out very well. I'd forgotten to buy marshmellows for the kids; next time.
Saturday 16 April 2005
	Today was the first day of the Sakura (Cherry Blossom) Festival at Japantown. We went to our usual breakfast at May's Coffee Shop, but from then on it was a different experience. (Actually, it was all One of the recurring vexations in using Userland Frontier and Radio is the timestamp added to the event logs, especially htmlMacroErrors Removing it is easy..
Friday 15 April 2005
	I'm very, very sorry for getting behind in posting notes and photos. It's been crazy starting up a new contract; it's been crazy dealing with the aftermath of having it crash. I've just updated the last two months with all the photos of our family activities. I've slightly changed the way images are made for the site. You'll now see clearer images (unsharp mask effect) and an email address on each picture. I've taken the CSS style demo out of February's page; both MSIE and Safari are so non-compliant that it makes a hash of that page. All better now. I've just done the big upload; when you read this please go back two months to see all the new pix. And now, as you can see, I have to go clean up my home office mess. Dziadziu and Zofia are coming over for Shabbos dinner. I'm making turkey breast wrapped in proscuitto di parma, sautéed in garlic and butter, with pasta negro and steamed brocolli. Mmmmm.
Thursday 14 April 2005
	What a busy day! Taxes are done; e-filed. Library books returned. Acquaintance's iMac started to be diagnosed. (I guess this is an appropriate place to mention that I'm now jumping into hardward and software support; see AppleHelpers.com to see what my public face looks like. Just don't visit there with a CSS noncompliant browser; I'll "fix" it for dumber browsers quickly.)
Wednesday 13 April 2005
	A family breakfast. One of the most important things in my upbringing was the constancy of family meals. Until I went to university our family always had breakfasts together, and all but a handful or two of dinners together. Our eating nook is a comfortable place, and I love having our family sharing meals. Rose is making wedges from a waffle. Also on the table are "fakin' bacon" and our daily design of tomatoes, mozzarella di vaca, and avocados. (I'll try to take some pictures of the figures Rose makes on the kids' plates.) That's a bottle of tangerine juice by the Ak-Mak crackers, and Turkish coffee closest to you. Long-time readers of our travelogues will remember frequent mention made of the London Transport Museum. They've got a webcam mounted in the café window, as shown here: (This photo explained during our 2004 Covent Gardens trip.) Well, this is the view from that webcam (as seen on my computer's desktop). This is a mid-day view, probably mid-week, seeing the small number of people within view. Here's an early-morning view, the sunlight slanting onto the Covent Gardens Marketplace. You can see all the delivery vans in the background. Here's a tourist-filled picture, and it looks as though we're doing some sort of special event. Today they moved the camera into the front window of the museum, so you can now see the Jubilee Hall & Market.
Monday 11 April 2005
	From time to time I share some user interface offenses: today please allow me to mention such a fundemental flaw that I can't believe it's passed Steve Jobs and the rest of the Apple quality assurance crowd for more than 15 minutes. Whenever you install software - by double-clicking the Installer - this annoying dialog box appears. YES OF COURSE WE WANT YOU TO CONTINUE!!! We just started the installer program running to install something. So don't ask us whether we want to run a sub-program to do this or that, it's part and parcel of the installation process. Just do it and don't annoy us EVERY TIME WE TRY TO INSTALL SOMETHING! Thank you. I feel better. Today I went with Lila to her pre-school. Here she is with Serafina and Belle, her best friends. The girls holding court on the steps leading to the sandbox playground. It's a birthday celebration, and one of the kids is "jumping from the land of two to the land of three" before giving gifts away to all his classmates. Both Isaac and Lila have really enjoyed the good aspects of a co-op pre-school. In the afternoon, after we picked Isaac up from kindergarten, we headed out to the Collingwood fields to check out a softball league in which a friend of ours is playing. Isaac got a chance to be coached a bit, and even hit a ball or two. (He was disappointed that this was a foul ball.) But everything can be made better with a headstand. I didn't even know that Isaac could do one of these, and he can hold this position for a long time! Lila and I were screaming with joy. Then Lila had to ride her big brother around the outfield. When he's choosing to be nice he's really, really nice.
Saturday 9 April 2005
	Damn! The three-month contract on which I was working was cancelled as most of the US employees of this Israeli company are laid off. I can't believe I'm back to looking for work. How depressing. From: "DANIEL SATTLER" DanielSattler@Mercury.CelebrityAtSea.com WE ARE NOW ON THE LAST DAY OF OUR VOYAGE AND WILL DOCK AT THE SAME PIER IN WHICH WE LEFT TOMORROW MORNING AT 8:30AM (SUNDAY). WOULD APPRECIATE VERY MUCH IF YOU COULD PICK US UP. MAYBE YOU COULD COME IN BOTH CARS, YOURS AND MINE SO WE HAVE ENOUGH SPACE FOR US AND LUGGAGE. PLS FORWARD THIS MSG TO FELICIA AND ASK HER TO ALSO COME TO THE PIER WITH HER FAMILY. THE DISCHARGE WILL PROCEED ACCORDING TO THE COLOR OF THE LUGGAGE TAGS AND SINCE OURS ARE BLUE WE ARE SCHEDULED TO DEPART AROUND 11AM. ACTUALLY YOU CAN WAIT FOR MY PHONE CALL SINCE MY CELL PHONE WILL BE WORKING IN THE PORT AND START AFTER YOU HEAR FROM ME. ON SUNDAY IT SHOULD NOT TAKE YOU MORE THAN 1/2 HOUR. THANK YOU VERY MUCH. DAD DEAR MICHAEL, THE CAPTAIN JUST ANNOUNCED THAT THE SEAS ARE VERY ROUGH (WE ALL FEEL IT) AND THAT HE HAS 45 KNOTS WIND AGAINST THE SHIP SO WE WILL DOCK ONLY AT 12 NOON. I'LL CALL YOU ASAP AFTER DOCKING. PLEASE ADVISE FELICIA ACCORDINGLY. LOVE YOU ALL AND EXPECT TO SEE YOU AT THE SHIP. DAD PS OUR CLEANING CREW IS SEASICK! I AM OK AND SO IS ZOFIA, SO FAR...
Wednesday 6 April 2005
	An actor playing the part of the Bishop of St. Andrews arrives at Arboarth Abbey to re-enact the signing of The Declaration of Arbroath a year ago today in Arbroath, Scotland. The Declaration, originally signed on this day in 1320, was a letter intended to urge Pope John XXII to recognize Scottish perspective against England's claim on Scotland. This document later became one of the models for the United States' Declaration of Independence. (Photo by Chris Furlong/Getty Images; used without permission.)
Monday 4 April 2005
	DEAR MICHAEL, I AM NOW IN MAZATLAN. IT IS BEAUTIFUL, THE WEATHER PERFECT AND I FEEL FINE. JUST BACK FROM A 4 HOUR TOUR BY BUS THRU THIS CITY. NOW, I AM SOON GOING TO THE SHIP, EAT, TAKE MY INHALER AND WE PROCEED TO NEXT TOWN AT 5PM. NOW IS 2PM. SENT CARDS TO LILA AND ISAAC. PLEASE CALL OR EMAIL FELICIA AND TELL HER THAT |I AM WELL AND HAPPY. LOVE YA DAD Our boy found a Halloween prop, a plastic sword and scabbard, and has been playing with it non-stop for the last few days. Lila too, of course.
Sunday 3 April 2005
	This has been a very rainy springtime. A literal deluge swept over the house this afternoon; thank goodness we live on a hill. The kids, returning home from school, decided that they needed to spend some time in the front yard, dancing in the rain. So they had be grab some bath towels as protection. As we were getting sleeping clothes on, Isaac fed his "baby" sister from a toy bottle. She loves being babied (sometimes) and he loves doing the babying (sometimes). Isaac is reading to us!!! He reads quite a selection of books; lately we've been treated to some fun tomes. He reads until he gets too tired to parse the words, then he hands the book off to me. (He used to get frustrated, but now he realizes what's going on and just tells me he's too tired to continue.) Notice that Lila is still holding on the bottle. It's been in her hand, in her bag, or at her side for days now.