63 thoughts on “October 17, 2013: Applejack, Baseball Shirt, La La Loopsy”

  1. I think the mini La La Loopsy dolls are cute and fun, but I don't really get the big ones. If they were cloth, it'd be different, but they're like hard plastic.

      1. on a tangentially related topic, i noticed the other day that Pete doesn't have a strong connection to any object really (like blankets, teddy bears, etc.). so far, i guess i'm fine with that.

        1. Kernel has a rotating cast of connections with one consistent star: her leopard-print blanket. Thankfully, she's okay with leaving it at day care M-F so she has it for naptime.

          1. Miss SBG has had a whole stable of stuffed animals that she has loved. The one she loved the longest, though, was this zebra:

            I love that zebra.

            1. The Boy had a special relationship with a Simba plush puppet. That thing went everywhere with him until, one day in Palo Alto, he got dropped from the stroller and lost (thanks, Poppa!). An emergency trip to a Disney Store ensued for a replacement which, thankfully, was accepted.

              1. One day, Miss SBG just quit loving zebra. He was cast aside in favor of another stuffed animal. We still have him, but he's just in a bin with the other discarded stuffed animals. She moved on.

                1. Trey's favorite is a tiger. He eventually got a red panda at the zoo for a birthday present, which became his favorite. His tiger was left in the closet. Then one day, I noticed the tiger is the one he's sleeping with now and the red panda is in the closet, so sometimes these things are cyclical.

              2. Elder daughter had a stuffed Simba she got when she was two. That thing went with her everywhere - every sleepover, family trip, Girl Scout camp, she even took it to Europe with her the summer after she graduated high school. She still has it on her bed here at home. It's seen better days, but I don't think she'll ever completely part with it.

        2. G is the same way. Sometimes giving him a book will calm him down (when he started going to daycare for the first time in a while, this was a good trick), but there really isn't anything that he carries with him or needs at nap/bed time.

          I am similarly OK with that.

          1. The trinket doesn't carry anything around, but she needs a blanket (we give her one of the thin swaddle blankets) to stuff in her mouth at night to sleep. I don't understand it, and I don't know if that sort of thing leads to a lot of money spent on dentistry or not, but we gotta do what we gotta do to get some sleep, dammit.

            1. The jalapeno is a lot like the trinket--he has a burp cloth that he uses similarly for sleeping. We got to a point where it was either that or, well, a certain part of my anatomy to help him fall asleep. The burp cloth won.

              Before I was a parent, I don't think I realized just how much kids vary in their habits/preferences/personality even from a very young age. It's fascinating.

        3. HPR has a plus webkinz fox that he imagines is his Hobbes.
          But he's 8.

          For all four, they've had the same type of blankets, but each has had several that we interchanged.
          We also used "cuddle cloths" flannel diaper/burpcloths that are also good for sleeping with on shoulders and until they graduate to a big-kid bed.

        4. Skim has a puppy (named "Puppy") that she has absolutely adored since birth. I love Puppy like I'd love an actual puppy, I kid you not.

          Sour Cream doesn't have anything quite like that. She has a stable too. Both are pretty interesting to watch.

    1. yesterday, spur of the moment, i decided i wanted to take a solo trip to europe around new years. somehow, the bill cleared committee with no objections or filibusters! now, to figure out the logistics...

          1. I'll be happy to show you around town. Bring a spare stomach. As will told me before I moved here, "lose 15 pounds before you get there so that when you gain 15 pounds it wont be so bad".

      2. I'm working on the financial and logistical necessities for moving back to Prague in a year's time, so if that happens you'll have to swing through for a beer.

        Speaking of, did SBG go abroad yet? Do you still want food suggestions, or are you gonna let your Prague-side business contacts handle everything?

        2. i made all the tentative plans, went to book my flight last night, brought my wallet to the computer, and found out the flight i'd checked again 8 hours before was gone. err, plan b?

          1. The air travel portion of any European excursion is always the suckiest part. Keep at it. Last time I had that happen to me, I acutally ended up with a better flight itinerary for the same price.

    3. I don't know if I'd want to live in Hawai'i permanently. It's very, very remote. Having been there, though, I could be persuaded to live there for, say, two or three months a year, every year.

      Just have to win the lottery, I guess.

    4. My wife and I have been to HI twice...I had a nice visit the first time and found myself buying Powerball tickets after the second.

  4. NBARanking going on at the 4ltr.

    #25. Kobe Bryant
    #24. Chris Bosh

    Just let that sink in a while.

    #23. Joakim Noah

    I wanted the Wolves to draft Noah so badly (they took Corey Brewer with Noah on the board). He's one of my favorite players in the league. Oh, and he's higher than Kobe despite being unable to shoot from more than about three feet. To be fair, Kobe is downgraded because of his injury, but still.

  5. We've recently come into possession of two baseball gloves that have been in Mr. NaCl's family for some indeterminate amount of time. They're pretty stiff and musty. Can they be revived for potential future use? Should they? Or is it just wasted effort?

    2. moisten the inside pocket a bit, and place a ball in the palm and a ball in the pocket, folding it carefully so that the thumb and little finger align more-or-less; wrap with a thick rubberband and leave somewhere for a few weeks. take out periodically and smack your fist in the palm a few times (this isn't necessary, but it's a treat) and then repeat.

      if the leather is lightly worn, shoe polish can be used to repair

      1. To piggyback, I've always used actual baseball glove oil to 'moisten' new gloves and I expect that it would work for your revival. See here for more tips.

        1. I always used saddle soap, but I suspect that any of the alternatives listed in that link will be helpful.

    1. I find it somewhat incongruous that there are 1000 weight classes in HS wrestling, but no weight considerations in HS football. Not that the wrestling weight classes are unjustified, or that there should be no risk of injury in sports, just that the idea of having to go up against players who weigh twice as much as you seems like it crosses a boundary of a reasonable level of risk associated with the sport.

      That kid listed at 6-6' 320 pounds looks pretty lean, frankly. I wouldn't be surprised if he's the best of the group.

      1. yea, he's a junior, getting recruited at the D-I level, and has a brother who plays at Washington St. Has thrown the discus 169 feet from a stand!!!

  8. My friend died today. Motherfucker. Her husband made it to France in enough time to see her, but I don't think she ever woke up again.

    2. My sister sent a note with flowers for my MiL's funeral which included this from Willa Cather:

      "I shall not die of a cold. I shall die of having lived."

      Looking for the correct quote, I stumbled across this one:

      "What was any art but a mould in which to imprison for a moment the shining elusive element which is life itself - life hurrying past us and running away, too strong to stop, too sweet to lose."

    4. again, Dido. There really aren't any words. My takeaway is to continue telling my wife every night before we go to sleep "I love you."

      1. Yeah. My takeaway is that life is unfair, and uncertain. I'm going to hug my friends and family a little more.

        1. An old friend of mine who just turned 30 died unexpectedly while I was on vacation. We'd only seen each other a handful of times in the last few years, but I regret not trying to make time the week before I left to see him in the hospital (I was busy at work and he was apparently on the road to a fast recovery so I figured I'd do it when I got home). I came to the same takeaway after his funeral, and over three months on I'm still feeling that way. It sucks.

          1. Life is definitely both of those things. It's the things we do in spite of the uncertainty and unfair aspects that make us truly human & humane.

  10. The finish of the MLS season is going to be pretty ridiculous it seems. 10 teams get in to the playoffs and right now there's 8 points separating 1st and 14th with two games to play. Only one team has clinched a playoff spot and 8 teams still have a shot at the best overall record.

    1. It's way crazy. Seattle could either finish with the best record or finish out of the playoffs and there are two games left. If Seattle and LA both win this weekend (definitely not a given considering how Seattle's looked the last 5 games), with some plausible help, their season-ending match could determine the SS winner. If both teams lose this weekend, the loser of that game could be out of the playoffs. (There are more intermediate scenarios, obviously.) It's the sort of year where it doesn't really seem like the playoff field is too big even though 10 of 19 teams make the playoffs.

      It could be fun to think up a hypothetical league--probably one with no scheduling problems--where the playoff system each year was determined based on the regular season finish. You could go from extremes of no playoffs if someone dominates the regular season to a full-on Cup-style tournament with the whole league if all the teams finish close enough to each other.

      1. I thought a modified version of that was the best solution for the BCS championships.
        Panel decides how big the playoff is by how many teams were legitimate contenders.
        Could even set up some formulas to determine that.
        Undefeated? In

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