Peaceful, law-abiding citizen or hardened criminal?

I had a run-in with the law this morning on my way to work. This was interesting to me because I value the rule of law in America, and I consider myself generally non-disruptive when it comes to living a life in harmony with other members of society. I don't even speed (5-7 mph over limit doesn't count).

But as I turned right onto Geary Rd. at approximately 8:45 this morning, a Pleasant Hill police officer followed my squeaky, $500 Honda with lights flashing. I rolled down my window and discovered that my violation was the lack of a shoulder seat belt. Here's where the story can go one of two ways - what I imagined, and what actually happened.

What I imagined: I erupted into a satirical tirade, cleverly pointing out to this bureaucrat-in-a-fiberglass-box that the only possible logic that could justify my being pulled over for a seatbelt infraction is that the government knows better than I do how to take care of myself. "How strange," I mused, "that with all the good law enforcement could be doing in this world, I am being confronted because the State of California thinks I am jeopardizing my personal safety." Driving without a seatbelt might be a mistake, but I do not pay (ridiculous amounts of) state taxes to correct other mistakes, like failure to balance a checkbook, building a diet around Ben & Jerry's ice cream, or attempting to jump from building to building like Spiderman. [Realism: I can think of a few possible arguments for a seatbelt law on the grounds of its affect on social welfare, but they are a stretch and also it's a slippery slope.]

What actually happened: I nervously and submissively explained how we just got the car and haven't registered it yet (it was actually a month ago and we just hate the DMV and keep procrastinating), how the electronic system just recently failed and disabled the automatic shoulder belt feature (need to get that fixed, but the officer pointed out that I can do it manually), and eventually, how Bennett has a habit of rifling through my wallet and now I can't find my (Massachusetts) driver's license. So it turns out, I actually was breaking several laws (mostly the bureaucratic ones that I don't feel as bad about), but the officer was friendly, merciful, and overall just doing his job of enforcing the will of the people. I was glad I was nice, because I think this approach went over much better than the alternative.

Ethics of Parenting

You're lying on the floor playing with your 11-month-old. The familiar sensation of warm liquid on your arm brings you out of your daydream and into the reality of a stream of white spit-up literally connecting you with your offspring. It forms a pool on your arm and drips onto the carpet of the house you have lived in for approximately seven days, followed by an agile baby maneuver that results in a knee covered in spit-up.

The liquid grosses you out, bothers your baby and begins to seep into the carpet. You reach for the wipes and find one left in the green plastic cannister. Here's the dilemma: what do you clean first? Your arm, your carpet, or your child?

The Arizona-California Connection

We had a chance to take some time off work this month and, as you might have guessed, we used it to go to Mesa and visit our beloved family. The weather was, as you might have guessed, hot. For entertainment, as you might have guessed, the kids swam in Grandma's pool and played in the water. If you're wondering if there were any elements to our trip that you might not have guessed, see previous post.

Here are our growing, aquatically-inclined boys in sunny AZ.




Waiting for us when we returned to California was our new home. If you have talked to us or any other renter in the Bay Area, you have probably heard about the prohibitive cost of real estate around here. So we knew we couldn't buy anything, but Kim's relentless searching of Craiglist finally paid off in the form of a little three-bedroom house that suits us perfectly. Here are a couple pictures of the outside.





The boys love having a backyard and play out there all the time. Asher eats sticks and Bennett races his tricycle.
We were fortunate to have Kim's parents come for a few days and declare war on the piles of boxes left over from the move. They were amazingly energetic and ultra-productive, and even found time to play a little bit.

Our Hips Don't Lie

In case anyone is trying to figure out where Kim got her "outside-the-box" mentality and relentless creativity, this video might be helpful. Combine a bunch of adult siblings and in-laws (Schroeder family vacation) with three nights in the wilderness (in a cabin, but still...) and some potentially hallucinogenic cheeses, along with a brilliant, up-and-coming cinematographer, and what do you get? Probably something like this:

Back to Blogging

Hi everyone. Sorry we haven't put anything new on this blog for a long time. The good news is that we are alive and well in lovely California. And in case anyone was wondering, we still think our kids are cute and funny. Here are a few pictures from recent days:

Let the games begin. Asher and Bennett are now officially "playing" together. From the parental perspective, the arrangement has its ups and downs. For instance, they occasionally sit together and occupy themselves, affording us some well-deserved respite. Sometimes Bennett will decide that Asher should not be playing with a certain truck. He pulls it away. Asher pulls back, and emphasizes his resistance with a low roar. Bennett roars back, and the taunting escalates along with the pitch until we can concentrate on nothing but the load squeals coming from the corner of the room.

But it's still fun to see them standing together at the train table.


These are the penetrating eyes that will someday convince a slighted girlfriend or neglected wife of genuine sincerity.


Bennett refers to the laundry baskets as "nets," in a reference to Dr. Suess: I bet with my net I can get those pets yet.


There are few things in life as wonderful as a day game on a beautiful afternoon. We went with friends via BART to the old Oakland Coliseum, where admission was $2 and hot dogs were $1. The A's beat up on the Orioles, and everyone had a great time.


In case anyone is tracking the dimensions of Asher's thighs...


Our little half-naked bookworm.

Even scientists don't know very much

I read an interesting article in Scientific American today, and I thought I'd share the gist of it. Here's the short version:

• In the 30's or so, astronomers figured out that the universe is expanding, meaning that all the galaxies are moving apart from each other. The other options were staying still or moving closer together.
• In 1998, they figured out that the expansion of the universe is speeding up. This surprised everyone because regular laws of nature like gravity should mean that all the galaxies pull on each other. So that would mean that the expansion would slow down.
• These findings were from experiments; the people who make the models to explain what we see have since tried to figure out what is going on.
• One thing these models now say in order to get all the math to work out is that most of the universe is "dark," meaning it doesn't emit light or radiation that we can see.
  
• Since no one can see it, this stuff is hard to study, but everyone thinks it is there because something has to be acting on all these galaxies to keep pushing them apart.
• I made this little chart to show the estimates of what is out there, by the type of matter:
  

• Notice that only 5% is the normal stuff, like protons, electrons, you, me, hydrogen, carbon, planets, stars, etc.
• Another 23% reacts to gravity and can be tested by complicated experiments I don't really understand.
• The remaining 72% of what "scientists" think is out there is a mystery - we can't see it, it doesn't seem to obey natural laws, and yet we know it has energy because it is acting on things we can see.
• Moral of the story: We should only trust our eyes for about 5% of our perception of reality and truth, our brains/logic for another 23%, and the rest is up to us. It makes it hard for me to understand why people think science rules out God.

I'll stop now with the nerd-talk, but here's the article if you're interested:
http://www.sciam.com/article.cfm?id=dark-forces-at-work

Asher loves baths these days. And I love his ducky towel that our sweet friend Joy made for Bennett in Boston.
On our last flight, Asher rolled off the seat and this is what I had to look at for the next week. Poor Asher.
My sweet sister and her kids made Bennett and Asher these cute tie-dyed shirts.
Asher is officially crawling now. Woo hoo! I'm happy for him to get himself around a little bit. He's too heavy to carry all the time.