There’s a big hubbub lately in Spain because the Sociedad General de Autores y Editores (SGAE), the Spanish equivalent of the RIAA, are beginning to enforce a silly law that has existed for a while: that it’s illegal to play the radio in a hair salon without paying royalties for the songs. Not CDs, THE RADIO!! This is quite possibly the most ridiculous Intellectual Property argument I’ve heard, and there are some doozies!
(more…)
Nora turned eight months old today. It’s hard to believe that this time last year we were still trying to figure out what to call her. She got a very special gift this birthday: a high chair! We evaluated several models at the two local baby paraphernalia stores, eventually settling on one made by Chicco with the humorous product name: Happy Snack Cube, which sounds like a better name for the Buster Cube that my parents’ dog plays with. She loves it, and more importantly, it makes feeding a much more pleasant experience.
(more…)
The word “regular” is spelled, means, and is more or less pronounced the same in Spanish and English. In Spain – in my Spanish family, at least – it is the worst possible response that can be given when someone asks you how you’re doing, guaranteed to get a, “Aw, what’s wrong?” in return. Of course it’s funny to me because if you got that response from an English speaker, they’d be referring to their regular bowel schedule.
After one night of pure hell last week we have had a resounding success in our nocturnal parental negotiations. The key, it seems, is keeping a regular schedule and sticking to it no matter what.
(more…)
Not counting my office, our house has two bedrooms, one large, and the other freakin’ enormous. Ever since moving in, we’ve been sleeping in the smaller of the two for several reasons, the main ones being the gorgeous view and the fact that it’s exterior, with no neighbors’ balconies nearby. When it became clear that we’d be having a third resident in our house, our irrational greed took over and we both agreed that, “There’s no way we’re giving the baby the biggest room in the house! Over our dead bodies!” Actually the whole house would be hers since she’s the sole heir. So we moved into the bigger bedroom, set up the crib in there with the intention of banishing her to the smaller bedroom when the time came, and we lived like this for eight months. Until…
(more…)
Nora’s academic career is off to a pretty dismal start. She got her first report card from daycare. Imagine the disappointment on her parents’ faces to see that she’s getting an F in Sitting. Her daycare attendant informed us that, for her age, she severely lacks the muscle tone needed to maintain herself in a seated position. She said that she placed Nora in a walker, and Nora pretty much just slumped over. The attendant gave us a book about exercises that we need to be doing with Nora and told us how to practice with her. Needless to say, we were pretty shocked and devastated. But, like good parents, we set her up a strict regimen of regular beatings homework time to practice.
(more…)
The brainchild of my blogrollmate, Lance, he and I and three other people he knows are participating in a photoblogging project that we call Obiter picta. From the About page (as a lawyer, he couldn’t resist the Latin play on words):
Obiter dicta are incidental words, things said in passing. Obiter picta is a collaborative photo blog updated Tuesday through Friday. The participants’ contributions are not coordinated in advance. Any consonance or dissonance perceived in the themes, content or composition presented here is coincidental.
I don’t know many details about the experience on the movie set, but a few months ago I heard that my Aunt Lynne had a part as an extra in Public Enemies, in a scene with none other than a gentleman by the name of Johnny Depp, playing the part of John Dillinger.
Excited to spot her, I “found” the first copy I could, which was a handheld camera recording from a cinema, and I couldn’t make out any of the faces in the courtroom. Later I “discovered” a DVD-ripped version, and I still couldn’t see her! Finally I “got a hold of” an HD version of the movie, and there she was, just as clear as could be sitting there in the back of the courtroom, with Johnny in the foreground.
(more…)
Well, it’s not like we can stop now! Yesterday we had a party for Nora’s seven month birthday. Her aunt, Spanish grandmother, and great-grandfather were in attendance. Hamburgers were on the menu again, and we had a wonderful feast. I’m always too hungry to take a photo of the actual hamburgers, though.
Nora had a great time.
(more…)
Two weeks ago, I was contacted by someone claiming to be a contributing editor to a book that is about to be published, asking if I would accept money in exchange for permission to republish a blog post of mine in their book that may or may not sell millions of copies in over thirty languages. Here’s the email I received (hyperlinking mine):
(more…)
My mother asked me some questions about Nora via email, and I suspect that many of you may be wondering the same, so I’ll answer them here.
(more…)
