Turning Two

David turned 2 yesterday.  We had a little celebration at home with just the family, with pizza and presents and cake and ice cream.  David loved all his gifts, brightening his face anew with wonder and glee upon seeing what came out of the gift bags and gift wrap. 

He couldn't quite grasp the idea of blowing out the big #2 candle though.  He just stared at us for a while, stared at the camera, not sure what to do (but always with that adorable grin).  Finally, he leaned over the cake and stuck his face over the candle and singed his hair before we could pull him back to safety.  He never flinched, just laughed again.

Afterwards, we went swimming at the community pool, which David loves to do.  He has no fear of the water, sometimes alarmingly so, as he doesn't yet grasp that he will sink if i let go of him in the big-boy pool. 

A New Favorite Book

I'm now reading The Brothers K by David James Duncan.

had this on my to-read list for a couple of years now, and i'm angry at myself for not reading this book sooner. It's a great, great read, one of the most enjoyable reads ever for me. Pretty much every page is infused with religion or baseball or both, so how could it go wrong. 

I'll try to write more about it when i'm finished.  Only in about the 3rd inning right now, but i could easily see this book vaulting into my all-time Top 5.

The other baseball book i read recently, as noted in a previous post, was Summerland by Michael Chabon.  Here are 3 good quotes from that book...

"Errors … well, they are a part of life, Ethan. Fouls and penalties, generally speaking, are not. That’s why baseball is more like life than other games. Sometimes I feel like that’s all I do in life, keep track of errors.”

“A baseball game is nothing but a great slow contraption for getting you to pay attention to the cadence of a summer day.”

“Life was like baseball, filled with loss and error, with bad hops and wild pitches, a game which even champions lost almost as often as they won, and even the best hitters we’re put out 70 percent of the time.”

100!

The official temperature here in the Triad hit triple-digits the past few days.  Yesterday's 101 was an all-time high for that date.  I don't remember hitting 100 on any date since we moved here in 1999.

Today, i had to drive to Chapel Hill (and back) for a recruiting event for incoming MBA students.  When i left the office just before 11am, the car's temperature gauge read 97 degrees.  By the time i got to the b-school (it's very nice, by the way) at UNC, it said 106.  I parked in a covered garage, but when i left the school a couple of hours later, the car was still reading 106. 

It hit a whopping 112 - i kid you not - as i drove through Chapel Hill on the way back to I-40.  Now, surely that's measuring road temperature or something similar, surely not ambient temperature, but still.  112?  Not pleasant in a convertible (yes, the top was up).

Those readings remind me of the famous summer of 1980 in Texas, where temps reached into the 110s for a few days, and were over 100 for several days in a row.  That was the summer i spent a week at academic camp at East Texas State University (i see the place has been conquered by the Aggies).  We stayed in a high-rise dorm on the very edge of campus and had to trudge back and forth across campus in the sweltering heat.  It was miserable.  I spent a lot of free time in the game room playing pool and ping pong. 

Caroline Returns Home

Caroline comes home today.  Julie has left for Charlotte to pick her up at the airport there (and catch a little shopping with Leah in the meantime).  Caroline has been visiting her Florida relatives.  Not sure what all they've done, other than a short excursion down the Keys to snorkle.

It seems like a long time since we've all been together at home.  Between this trip, church camp (twice for Caroline), and the Texas trip, it's been a month or so since we had a full house for a full week.  (That is, if you count the house full when Caroline is most frequently off doing teenager things, doing them anywhere but home.)

Anyway, i look forward to her return.