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e-rabbi's blog
24 May 2006
wild west indeed so the chief is no longer referring to that la team as hadji's dodgers. now that they are second in their division, i guess it is respectable to be a fan. tonight, the warrior child's cousins brought him back his dodger hat (he accidentally left it over at their house). i showed him the l for landon and the a for auburn and on the back d for dalton (then the fish names: owen, dingo, gunsch - then i told him we need names for the e r and s). the chief blogged about baseball and the wild west, but tonight the wild west refers to the suns and mavericks. hard to believe the mavs had 100 points with 10 minutes left in the game. . .and then lost at the end. i still maintain that the mavs will win the series, but tonight should strike fear into the hearts of the eastern teams. i don't see how shaq can keep up with such a frenetic pace. . .and the pistons will have to rely on their bench (if they make it past the heat. . .which i don't think they will). tomorrow night we descend upon fish's batchelor pad to watch eastern conference finals game 2. though i see the heat winning the series, i think detroit will take game 2 here at home. speaking of detroit, how about those tiggies? strange things are happening in baseball when detroit leads the league. i'm trying to imagine a dodger/tiger series. that would almost be as great as the spurs beating the pistons last year. . .almost. tonight, ddoran jr. referred to the 23,000/24,000 that died because of idolatry (1 corinthians 10) and said it would be like half of the stadium at comerica park. then he added that any other season that's all that would be at the park anyway. how true. ordered new ubuntu release cds today. funny that i tried running the mac live cd on the office emac. . .crashed it. for those who have never seen a mac crash, come by the cave for a demo. perhaps i should video it and post it here. nice to see that we have touched every continent. check out the map to the right for specifics of where we have been since april. if you click the map, it will take you to a site with a larger rendition of the map and the ability to see smaller clusters (midwest is heavily saturated. . .we need more out west and abroad).
growth pics of the kids:  letters to measure height, numbers to reveal that he is almost 4 in this pic.  though she isn't quite 2 in this pic (and won't be until friday), she certainly was acting it for this pic.  dalton is fully zero in this pic (less than a month old). wish we would've thought to do this earlier with the big kids. more later. . .
peace and java
e-rabbi @ 23:52 | comments(18) | link
23 May 2006
nice to be right for a change. with the exception of the first round win by the clippers, i have successfully predicted the nba playoffs thus far. my students think they are rubbing it in when they tell me that the spurs lost. i tell them, "thank you for reminding me that i was right." then i tell them that miami will beat detroit and they call me crazy. . .i guess i was right again (so far). since i am rarely accurate with these types of predictions, i wanted to post this for myself as a milestone since i'm sure it will never happen again (a prediction that i hope i am wrong about). i have been predicting a dallas/miami finals and i think dallas will probably pull it off this year. mark cuban can donate to my paypal account any time he wants. i guess as long as i am tooting my own horn, the warrior child wanted to talk about superman the other night (while laying in his superman sheets). i finally got up the nerve to ask him who would win between me and superman. his instant answer was that i would win. later he modified it so that we would both win, but i assured him that i could beat superman. i did concede the flying competition. . .for now. should mark cuban decide to give me a jet, i'll submit a formal challenge.
i've been unhappy with thunderbird recently. updates are coming a day to 2 days late. . .and in some cases not at all. for example: i haven't seen a charisian blog update since last year, but when i go to her blog, it has been updated since then. so i went in search of a better solution. google reader seemed like a good option, since it travels with you to any internet connection. . .however, after importing my feeds (export from thunderbird, import into google reader), i couldn't get it to sort my categories correctly. and nothing would show up in my reading list until i had already read it. i even tried manually subscribing to a feed, but it didn't do any better.
i am currently trying out a firefox extension called sage. so far i am happy with it. it imported my subscription file quickly and kept it organized in the folder structure i had created in thunderbird. upon clicking on a subscription, it organizes the feed into easy-to-follow bubbles. you can click on an individual post or read them all on the main page. very slick. if i have any complaints, i'll let you know. . .otherwise, go sage!
more later. . . peace and java
e-rabbi @ 23:54 | comments(23) | link
19 May 2006
death has struck here at the smith home. . .in the form of a new
goldfish. the wife called him "brownie" since he was the only brown
fish among 4 other true "gold"fish. to some who are hyper sensitive and
walk about with a heavy chip on their shoulder this may seem like
fish-racism, but to those able to use common sense, there is no other
way to describe the difference between a brown goldfish and a gold
goldfish other than to use color designations. ok, so now it has become
apparent that i have a chip on my shoulder about people who have
tattoed the race card to their foreheads (so that they don't have to
keep pulling it out). so let the conspiracy theorists have their fun
with this. the brown one died and the four gold ones still live. did
they gang up on him and check him vigorously into "the glass"? did they
hold him against the filter until he gave up? or did someone at the pet
store set him up? the truth may never be known. . .but what is known is
that the warrior child has now witnessed death and didn't like what he
saw. his plan was to keep the dead fish in the tank so that maybe it
would make him feel better. seeing my sons tears of anguish, i knew it
was up to me to pull the plug. .er, lever and release the carcass to
fish sheol. before i flushed, my son asked me "what if he starts
feeling better?" i promised him that if the fish starts feeling better,
he can come back to our house. i just hope this doesn't cause any
regression in his potty training.
i saw an advert on tv tonight for the academy of country music awards.
who thought this up? i must confess that my taste is music has colored
my opinion of country singers and that my comments from this point on
will probably be construed as prejudiced (why not through that label
on?), but it won't stop me (mainly because of self-induced sleep
depravation). the very title "academy of country music" is perhaps the
biggest oxymoron i have heard in months. perhaps it is the only academy
they could get into. . .or maybe they just haven't graduated.
please, before you flame my inbox, i realize that a lot of these people
are probably very intelligent and just pretend to be un-educated to
appeal to the masses. kind of like "professional wrestling".
ok, i need sleep. since i'm sure i will regret posting this later, let me apologize in advance.
more later. . .
peace and java
e-rabbi @ 00:03 | comments(25) | link
11 May 2006
check out the front page for more pics of the little guy. it is good to have him back home from the hospital. unfortunately, he is on house arrest for the next 5 weeks, but if it keeps him out of the hospital, we will comply.
thanks again to all that prayed for his quick recovery.
i recorded the school plays today. funny how one of them (i won't say which since the general public has yet to attend.) repeats a lot from last year's production. not sure if that was by design, but i smell conspiracy. d.blackburn and k.neal always crack me up one way or another. from now on, every time i see blackburn, i will be tempted to yell hello in his face.
i need to start studying for my hebrew final, but i wanted to get the good news out asap.
more later. . .
peace and java
e-rabbi @ 21:54 | comments(10) | link
9 May 2006
dalton is back in the hospital, but should be released on thursday. he has had several tests and procedures (including a spinal tap) performed on his 5-day-old body and has been a trooper. after at least 6 attempts to get an iv in last night/this morning, they gave up for a few hours. as can be seen in the pics on our home page, they did get one in today and he seems to be recovering from his fever and jaundice. thank you all for your continued prayers. more later. . . peace and java
e-rabbi @ 22:34 | comments(6) | link
8 May 2006
everyone is home now and the older kids are fighting over who gets to hold the new kid. as you can probably tell from the new batch of pics, the middle child is entirely too possessive of her little brother. . .and the warrior child gets a little too much pleasure from provoking his sister to anger. i've received some flak for posting pics of my son wearing an ohio state hat. my words to michigan fans: get over it. don't allow your jealousy of a superior team to enbitter you against my new kid. most of the family has had a chance to see the little gus. his cousins are still itching for a first peek, but the grandparents, uncles, and aunt have all had their turn holding/pinching/smelling him. i still need to get copies of everyone else's pictures to complete our set. jr. high sunday school presentations from this week and last can be found here ( angelic beings, fallen angels). if you aren't in my jr. high sunday school, please disregard this paragraph. i actually got to see the last minute of the spurs maverics game today. not sure what the rest of the game was like, but the last minute seemed a bit exhausting. whichever team ends up winning the series will likely be a bit worn out. should the pistons continue to have dominating performances like today, they should be well rested. phoenix ousted kobe and the lakers (not really a shock) and will go on to face the clippers(?). never would have thought i'd see the clippers in the playoffs, let alone defeating a superior team 4-1 in the first round. i think phoenix will hold out and take the series. nj faces miami, which doesn't seem like much of series, but definitely better than miami vs. indiana. final four pics: spurs, suns, pistons, heat. from there, i would like to see a spurs heat final, but can't say i'm thoroughly convinced that the heat will beat the pistons. i just scared a raccoon away from our house. kinda weird to see him here in the city. even more weird to see him climbing down from my awning. funny how he looked at me when i told him to get out of here. . .almost like he was my friend and couldn't believe i would send him away. not that i believe that he was thinking anything like that (i'm not one of those weird cat-friendly people that think animals are trying to communicate with us on a higher level). . .he just gave me a look that was like what a person would look like if he were my friend and couldn't believe that i was sending him away. i reassured him that his presence wasn't wanted and he went to the neighbor's yard. i guess i can stop blaming the squirrels for getting into my trash. more later. . . peace and java
e-rabbi @ 04:19 | comments(19) | link
4 May 2006
in case you skipped right past the home page or are reading this in an rss reader, the new little smitty is here. dalton barrett smith was born at 4:27 pm on may 3, 2006. The "healthiest" of the little smittys, he weighed in at 8lbs, 12oz. (which is actually a conservative weight since he relieved himself both ways upon arrival -- before being weighed) and measured at 20 inches with 8 and 9 apgar scores and an impressive set of mits. his curly hair cracks me up. i love playing with it, which seems to calm him down.
nicole did a fantastic job as always and bounced back quickly (for now) after an emotional ride. i'm sure her blog will feature a more detailed account when she gets back to the world of wifi. pics can be seen in the usual photo section of our site, or you could just go back to the home page and click the link there.
i haven't seen my other children all day today and look forward to seeing them tomorrow at the hospital with their new little brother. i told the warrior child that he is getting a gift from his little brother and he said he hopes it is a stack of toy bricks. not sure where that came from. of course, last week he did think dalton had a workbench in nicole's belly that he would bring out with him. i didn't see anything like that today. . .but i did get a pic of the placenta if anyone cares to see it. video will come as soon as i get the time to do so.
speaking of video, i do have a video of landon and his friend dylan (titled boyz n trux part 1) from last week. our neighbor has given us many toys that her grandson has outgrown. among them are a battery-powered truck and a pedal-powered fire engine (complete with helmet) so the boys got together at the park for some good 'ol fun. hope you enjoy the video. if you have a slow connection, check out the smaller clip (800k). for those with high speed (or dialup and a lot of time), check out the medium version (5.5mb). those in the neighborhood, stop by for a viewing of the full-quality version. . .and then check out my new kid while you are at it.
more later. . .
peace and java
e-rabbi @ 00:27 | comments(14) | link
2 May 2006
it is nice to finally have a red dot on the map from outside the united states. i'm no good with geography or directions, but the wife says it is in india. sounds good to me.
video of the warrior child attempting to drive his yellow truck is coming soon.
more later. . .
peace and java
e-rabbi @ 22:39 | comments(12) | link
2 May 2006
tis the night before the baby comes and the other kids are too sick to be around mommy or baby. . .so, off they go to grandma and papa's house. the middle child wasn't too sure about us leaving her there, but the warrior child is hip to the idea and started pulling out all the toys as soon as we got there (20 minutes before his bedtime).
we are supposed to arrive at the hospital for induction at 8:00 am, so Lord-willing we will see the new kid before lunch. pics will be posted as soon as i can get back to an internet connection. . .video will follow whenever possible. if the kids aren't able to come to the hospital (which looks like the case), video will probably be postponed until they are able to welcome him home. thanks for all your prayers.
more later. . .
peace and java
e-rabbi @ 22:33 | comments(23) | link
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