didionville

Ever since — and definitely during — Didion’s birth, I have been totally amazed by Leslie. She has always known just what to do and just what Didion needs, kind of like the Oracle at Delphi. I am sure I am not the first husband and father to notice this, but the mothering instinct is real and special. Every cry, every new feeding or sleeping pattern, Leslie has quickly figured out. Didion loves hanging out with her — he totally lights up when she comes back into a room, and watches wistfully as she leaves. I love seeing the two of them together — reading, singing, dancing; Leslie is always coming up with a new way to entertain him. I know how much work it is just to keep him fed and clothed and clean, adding in unique entertainment is truly a feat.

So Happy Mother’s Day to Leslie! And to our moms and sisters and grandmas, too. It is only now with Didion that I can really see what it takes to be a mom. All I can say is, “Wow!”, and thank you. I should probably apologize for all of the pooping and crying, etc.

Leslie is amazing. You have already read about many of her great culinary accomplishments. But to me, one of her most impressive skills is her ability to make a meal out of “nothing.” Often, when the refrigerator appears empty to me, she will whip something up, and we will have an excellent meal. Today was another example.

There were a couple of chicken breasts in the fridge, and to my eye, not a whole lot else. Some scraps of challah and homemade pesto emerged from the freezer. Add miscellaneous condiments, the grill, and about 20 minutes and we ended up with fantastic sandwiches. Not a combination I could have come up with, but they were so good we ate them standing up at the kitchen counter.

Last weekend, I bought some new seed for the bird feeder. (It was a long winter’s drought for the poor birds.) Since spring arrived, though, we have seen quite an array of birds around the neighborhood: robins, cardinals, mourning doves, various finches, starlings. Ergo, it was time to fill the feeders. All weekend, I watched. And waited. And watched some more … And nothing. Zip. Nary a bird in sight. Then tonight, Didion and I saw a cardinal couple eating and scaring off the other birds. (Cardinals are not as friendly as gold finches.) We managed to get this picture from inside the house:

We decided we needed some better shots, so we sat on the porch, but, sadly, the birds deserted us. I did manage to get this excellent shot of Didion:

And now for some photos worth looking at….

An ingenious astronaut figured out how to build a camera that could take sharp nighttime photos from the International Space Station — a mean feat considering the long exposure times required, the speed the space station travels, and the fact that he supposedly did this from “spare parts” he found lying around the station. The story, some great photos, and a neat video are here. Seriously, read the article; watch the video. The guy controls the camera’s movement with a cordless drill (!!!).

Something telling: The Las Vegas Strip is the brightest spot on earth. Says a lot about what is important.

Someone needs to figure out how to automate this so we can see it in real time for all politicians.

During NBA season, we enjoy watching the TNT studio team, and we also really like Reggie and Cheryl Miller’s color commentary. But we love watching Charles Barkley before, during and after the basketball games. He tells it like it is, which is so refreshing. (And his Fave 5 commercials with Dwayne Wade are high-larious.) But recently, TNT added Chris Webber to the team. Barkley said to Webber “I don’t believe in role models, but you’re mine,” but watching the broadcasts, it seems like it is the other way around. Webber is as blunt as Barkley. Last night he pointed out that what the coaches say at halftime matters very little — “It doesn’t matter what Flip says” — that the key players set the tone. (You never hear that from network analysts; they are too busy praising the coaches — they largely being out-of-work coaches, themselves — and trying to out-pontificate each other.) And he played along with a jab about his most infamous moment, laughing at a question about how many timeouts are allowed in college basketball. It looks like Webber — with his expertise and magnanimity — is giving us another reason to tune in even when the games are uninteresting.

(Last night’s game was certainly not uninteresting. It was great to see Atlanta, with the enthusiastic support of their fans, beat the super Celtics. Overall, we have been enjoying the playoffs: lots of good games so far.)

Spring has deserted us. It rained all today. It was so cold at IBM, I stayed bundled in my emergency office coat all day. Didion is back in footie pajamas, and Leslie and I are huddled under a blanket. More of the same is forecast for the rest of the week, just when we were getting into enjoying the warm and sun.

Enough about the weather. Here’s something to contemplate on this cold spring night … Leslie mentioned the other day that baseball is a very lonely sport — you are by yourself on the field and have no teammates around when on base. I countered that it is probably the sport in which you must rely on your teammates the most: Once you are on first base, you need someone else to drive you home, so you aren’t really alone. Maybe there is no conflict in our points of view. Thoughts?

The Yankees, Mets, and — most devastating — UCLA all lost today. The first two we are dealing with o.k.; there are 150+ baseball games left.

But UCLA’s season is O-V-E-R.

Leslie is not happy.

Adding insult to injury, UCLA did not even put on a good showing. They did not play like a championship team at all, and the results showed it. Porous defense, soft rebounding, and, most inexplicable of all, uncoordinated offense. It was reminiscent of a regular season game Didion and I watched. UCLA is supposed to be very well coached, but that did not show in this game: no ball movement and few passes into the post to take advantage of UCLA’s big advantage — Kevin Love, who, we suspect is going to announce his entry into the NBA draft, effectively giving UCLA the finger and seriously handicapping next season’s squad. Suffice it to say, the (game) loss has cast a pall; Love jumping ship is only going to thicken it.

I am off to hang some black bunting.

Leslie is not a Bobby Abreu fan. He is a bit of a prima donna: Any ball hit close to the wall will drop because he doesn’t want to risk getting hurt; Leslie also complains that he smirks a lot. Well tonight, he made a great catch at the wall, falling into the crowd. Then in the bottom of the inning he had a bloop hit that generated the go ahead (and, eventually, game-winning) run. Further evidence of the Yankee resurgence under Joe Girardi.

Jason Giambi showed up to spring training looking slim and fit. (No steroids and some time in the gym will do a body good.) And his play on opening day tonight further substantiates hard work pays off. Leaping to catch line drives, holding runners at third, performing some smart base running to stay out of a double play. He was 0 for 3 (with one walk), but we are not concerned about his offense at this time. As discussed before, if Giambi can stay in the lineup at first, the Yankees have a lot of very dangerous options and will score a lot of runs.

And speaking of looking good … Leslie is looking HOT with her new haircut. No performance enhancing drugs needed.

We are watching tonight’s basketball game (WVU vs. Xavier — now in OT), and we just saw a new Mercedes commercial: “300 horsepower is fast; 400 horsepower will take your breath away ….” My immediate thought in response — 100 horsepower will get you where you need to go with decent gas mileage and help keep Antarctica from melting into nothingness. (More here. And here.)

Ummmm, surprise, people: Inflation does NOT affect your engine-power needs.

My 1976 BMW 2002 had 100 horsepower and was considered a fast, sporty car 30+ years ago. Now we have more crowded roads, higher gas prices, and conclusive evidence of human-caused global warming, and still we need 451 hp?

Think about this: If all of the manpower, intelligence, ingenuity, and desire that has gone into designing higher powered engines had actually gone into designing AND MARKETING higher fuel efficiency, think about what a better place we would be in not just environmentally, but also geopolitically … Osama bin Laden, anyone? 9/11, anyone? Dick Cheney, anyone? Iraq, anyone?