Kid and Caboodle

Tai Shan, the first panda born at the National Zoo to survive more than a few days, will finally be heading for China, NBC says.  I knew this day would come — the contract with China specifies that any cubs born to pandas China lends to other countries must be sent back to China — and in fact we’ve had Tai Shan for several years longer than originally planned.  But it still makes me a little sad to see him go.  As I have written before, I’ve always been fascinated by the little cub, probably because the trouble the National Zoo’s pandas have experienced conceiving and raising healthy cubs reminds me of my own history of infertility and pregnancy loss. But now, just as my own child is a healthy boy, so is Tai Shan. And, just as some day I will have to let my son leave my home and go his own way, so we must now say farewell to Tai Shan.

More about Tai Shan and the other pandas at the National Zoo

Rather than work on the computer while waiting for A.J. to get out of Chinese class yesterday, I decided instead to take a walk along a nearby trail. I found it very relaxing; maybe I’ll do it again next week if the weather is good.

More photos from my walk

Here is Randy Pausch’s last lecture, as posted by Carnegie Mellon University on YouTube:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ji5_MqicxSo

Just finished reading Randy Pausch’s The Last Lecture. Wow.

More information: http://www.thelastlecture.com

Got up this morning at 4:45 to get in some exercise before work.  Decided also to try checking my e-mail and other things I usually do in the morning.  I managed to set up my laptop on the treadmill (no mouse), but had a lot of trouble trying to type and walk at the same time.  I did ok reading online newspapers, though, and even managed to e-mail a piece to someone.  Not sure if I’ll continue this experiment, but it was interesting.

Took advantage of the fantastic weather we had today and spent all afternoon with friends at a local park.  Grilled tons of food — steak, beef burgers, Boca burgers (vegetarian patties), kielbasa and hot dogs — and snacked on everything from dumplings, chips, potato salad, multigrain bread and zucchini bread to watermelon, three types of fresh berries and grapes.  After stuffing ourselves, we packed up and enjoyed the rest of the facilities.  The park has a lot of large fields where one can play frisbee or tag, as well as volleyball courts, miniature golf, a carousel, a train ride, a large lake where one can rent rowboats or feed waterfowl, hiking trails, an ice cream parlor and of course tons of playground equipment.  All the kids seemed to be having a grand time, and I daresay the adults did, too!

Last night I dreamt I was trying to draw a picture of a phoenix being reborn.  Someone was watching me and said, “Show more of the bird — don’t put in so much of the flames.  We don’t want people to be afraid of the fire or worry that other things will catch on fire.”

What – I’m being censored in my dreams now?

Had a nice night out with Chris — and without A.J. We took A.J. to my parents in the early afternoon yesterday then had dinner at the Melting Pot in Arlington. It was great being able to eat dinner and talk without constant interruptions. It was also lovely to be able to sleep in this morning and to get a few things done around the house without A.J. underfoot.

My parents brought A.J. back at lunchtime today, and we all celebrated Father’s Day and my mother’s birthday with a fine lunch of assorted sushi, vegetable lo mein, chicken with snow peas, bean curd with mixed vegetables and mango sorbet. My parents said they enjoyed taking care of A.J. and would be willing to do so about once a month. I think Chris and I may take them up on their offer! We love A.J., of course, but it is nice to have a break from parenting duties once in a while.

I’ve been spending way too much time playing on Facebook this weekend!  One game I’ve been playing a lot today is H2Opia, in which players take care of other people’s tanks of virtual fish and exchange virtual parts to build underwater homes (as well as more virtual fish).  Certain actions apparently will lead to the game company to donate water resources for real to needy populations.  It’s fun and does good in real life — how can you lose?

Downloaded and tested various pieces of software onto the new laptop.  I was able to load a driver to access our home printer through the wireless network and loaded two pieces of software I need to update the AAJA-D.C. Web page.  I also successfully tested my access to several work-related Web sites.  So far I’m pleased with the performance of my new machine.  The only thing that bugs me is that the “Delete” key on this machine is in a different place than on the laptop I had to return, so I keep hitting the wrong button.  Oh well.