The tooth, the hole tooth, and nothing but the tooth

On Friday, Evan celebrated Gami's birthday, and having a sick day at home, by losing his third tooth!

Last night, the tooth fairy traded Evan's tooth for a shiny gold dollar coin. Ironically, we had watched the movie "Tooth" on HBO Thursday night. Although Evan seemed to enjoy the Willy Wonka-ish story of a young, feisty tooth fairy, two children, and some jaded holiday characters (Easter Bunny, Mrs. Claus), Mom and Dad agree withthe IMDB rating:

3.4 out of 10 stars. Nuff said.

Bon mots

Some amusements from the mouth of Evan:

--------------------------
Evan: "Mom, do you wanna help me build a robot?"

Mom: "Well, I think you have to be a scientist to build a robot."

Evan: "We can look in that book about Albert Einstein that Grandpa Rog gave me, and find out how to do it!"
-------------------------
From a future advertising writer:

Evan: "I sure like Arby's, because you feel like you're at home when you eat there."

(Mom's disclaimer -- I haven't spotted any talking oven mitts at our house, haven't made roast beef in a year, and I swear that our decor doesn't include a single orange plastic booth.)

-------------------------

Congratulations, Jeanine and Kelly

This week, we received the most excellent news that Evan's Aunt Neenee is engaged to (soon to be Uncle) Kelly!

Hurray! We are so happy for the two of you and are looking forward to the wedding. Evan wants to know, do you need a ring bearer?

Happy birthday, Gami!

It's Gami's 70th birthday! We're always sorry to be so far away on these occasions, but we let Gami know we're thinking of her by singing "Happy Birthday" over the speaker phone.

Evan's lucky to have such a cool grandmother. She can hold her own in a game of "Donkey Kong." And she makes awesome waffles.

Have a happy birthday and enjoy your birthday trip to San Francisco next weekend! We love you, Gami!

Groucho Marx

Evan's dad makes a mean smoothie.

Honey, I (nearly) killed the dog

Speaking of barfing . . .

Last weekend, Evan's mom nearly murdered our dog, Karma. While Evan and his mom were at the children's zoo, Evan's dad called. He had just returned from a long bike ride and found that Karma had consumed a large bowl of Hershey's Kisses that had been left on the coffee table. Didn't leave a single one. Mom had been dusting earlier that morning and forgot to return the bowl to the high shelf where it had been located.

Well, chocolate can be toxic to dogs. And not only did the bowl contain the standard milk chocolate variety, but the Easter bunny had also brought the more deadly dark chocolate type. Dad called the vet and was told to expect vomiting and diarrhea, but watch for real signs of distress. I'm happy to report that Karma survived. She was sicker than a dog (ahem), but seemed to be her usual self by that evening.

That evening, we celebrated Karma's survival with a lovely barbeque on the patio, accompanied by occasional dashes to the garden hose to wash away colorful Easter foil and partially digested Kisses.

Interested to learn how many Hershey Kisses you'd have to injest to commit candy/coffee/caffeine suicide? Check out Energy Fiend's handy calculator.

Weee'rrreee back!

Evan on Earth has been on hiatus for a couple of weeks as the site administrator (a.k.a. Mom) has been busy wrapping up the current semester of grad school. But now we're back and there's plenty to report since the last post.

Today's breaking news: Evan has a bug, but not the entomological kind. After an evening of barf, we're watching cartoons while it's rainy outside, and starting with jello and popsicles as sustanance.

tale of the Triops

Evan's ever-thoughful aunt, recently gave him a gift of Triops eggs (too early for Easter eggs). If you haven't heard of Triops, they're something like cousins to Sea Monkeys. Since their form hasn't changed since the Triassic period, they are marketed as living dinosaurs and may well be the oldest living animal species on earth.

They grow very quickly, are colorful and entertaining to watch. They look something like a cross between a tiny horseshoe crab and an aquatic silverfish. Luckily, only two of our eggs hatched and they have fairly short life spans. They are also known to be cannibals, so we may be down to one Triops before long.

Thanks, Aunt C.!

Boy reporter

Here's Evan working on the computer, into the wee hours of the night (as you can tell by the pj wardrobe). It's so hard to turn him away when I'm trying to do homework in the evening and he asks if he can work on "Evan's Story," a Word document we've saved for him.

Evan loves to use all caps, which is true when he writes by hand. I haven't yet shared with him that that sort of writing isn't appreciated by readers, that it's TOO MUCH LIKE SHOUTING. It's fun to watch him giggle with outright glee after he types each letter. He's pretty adept at using the backspace, return, and delete keys. Usually, his writing is something like this:

MOM DAD EVAN
EVAN 1234567890!!!!!!!!!!!!

Standard stuff. I don't think he's quite ready to take over the writing on this blog. One time, we printed out a page created by Evan that simply read

BOYS
MMMNNNNMMMMNNN

I don't even want to think about what that means.

More things that slither

On Sunday afternoon, Evan and his dad (or "pappy" as Evan has taken to calling him), headed out to Platte River State Park for their weekly nature exploration. While I was studying hard at the Meadowlark Coffee House, the cell phone rang. Evan excitedly told me that he had caught his first snake! A small ringneck -- they had spotted one of this last year, but weren't quick enough to catch it. This time they found two, and managed to catch both of them.

I asked Evan if he was going to bring them home. No, after being doused in snake pee (actually a foul-smelling musk), they decided to let them go. Thank goodness they practice catch-and-release. Evan was convinced that the larger of the two was the same snake they spotted last spring, now grown bigger. He named them Blackjack and Brownjack.

Besides the ringneck snakes, they also spotted a dead mouse, a turkey, and a turkey vulture. Wow, I'm sorry I missed out . . . ahem.

April showers bring . . .

WORMS!

April 1st played a big joke on us by sending all of the neighborhood earthworms and nightcrawlers above ground. After our spring snow and some good rain showers this week, the ground must be saturated. Evan's dad noticed a lot of the critters on the road during his morning run, so he and Evan went out worm hunting. Sure, this species is known to be sorta stealthy, but the boys came home with a bucket o' invertebrates. I suspect there are some really angry robins who missed a feast.

Worm Hunter

We now return to your regular progamming

Enough about Evan's mom and dad: back to the true subject of this blog.

While mom and dad were livin' it up in Kansas City, Evan had a grand time at his aunt's house. With at least a foot of snow on the ground, this team built a snow fort, a snow man, and made snow angels. According to Evan, they feasted on a delectable meal of Kraft Mac 'n Cheese and topped off the night with a viewing of the animated movie "The Iron Giant." The following morning they had a leisurely breakfast before Evan went into to daycare. He was more than a little disappointed at having to go to school after a nearly 5 day weekend.

This week, we watched Evan and his classmates at their Tae Kwon Do class demonstration. His aunt came to watch, too. Pardon me for being immodest, but I think Evan was the star. He really has those moves down.

We also received Evan's third quarter report card and he's doing very well. A big milestone to report: he can now tie his shoes!

Rock on

Lest you think that Evan and his family have been snowed in and that's the reason for the lack of new postings, let me set you straight.

I'm glad to report that Evan's parents DID attend the Wilco concert last Tuesday in Kansas City. The snow let up that morning, Evan's aunt agreed to watch him earlier than originally planned, and the gravel road to the dog kennel was plowed (to Karma's dismay). We dropped off child and dog by 2:00 and headed for KC. Once we got out of the neighborhood side streets, the roads were perfectly clear and we arrived in KC at 5:00. That gave us time to check in to the motel, head to Westport for dinner at a McCoy’s Public House & Brewpub (where we spotted friends from Lincoln who were also in town for the show), and visit Streetside Records before the show.

Our motel was just five blocks from the Uptown Theater so we decided to park there and walk to the Uptown. Got there just after the doors opened at 7:00 and settled in to the balcony. We're too old to spend four hours standing in front of the stage and I'm too short to see over the taller folks. The only low point of the evening was the prices for a pint of Boulevard: 10 bucks! The Mess Hall, a two-piece band from Australia, opened the show with a loud, but decent set. Wilco played for a couple of hours -- a terrific show that I'm glad we didn't miss. Jeff Tweedy and Nels Cline were stellar. Evan's dad said it was one of the best shows he's seen in years, and that's high praise. If you're interested in reviews or set list from the show, check the Via Chicago site.

Strolled back to the motel at 11:30, grateful that we didn't have to drive home. The next morning we had a wonderful breakfast at The Classic Cup Cafe located in Kansas City's Country Club Plaza. Then, back home while listening to Wilco's live cd Kicking Television and reliving the concert.

I must mention that Evan's dad and I first got together almost exactly 25 years ago, at the U2 concert on April 1, 1981 at the Uptown Theatre. I don't recall how much a beer cost then, but it surely wasn't $10. I do recall that tickets for the show were $1.02. The local radio station 102 was sponsoring the show. Inflation.

Wilco or Won't Go?

Evan's Mom & Dad have tickets for tonight's Wilco performance at the Uptown Theater in Kansas City. The snow seems to be letting up this morning, but we're still on the fence as to whether we'll be able to make the trip or not.

Weather reports seem to indicate that the storm didn't affect the areas south of our city as much, but the roads are still snowy and icy around our area. Plus, there are the additional challenges of arrangements for Evan and Karma-dog. Evan had been looking forward to a sleepover at his aunt's house tonight and Karma was (probably not) looking forward to staying at Trude's Dog Motel on the northeast side of town. We'll have to see if all parties are still agreeable to watching these family members that don't have tickets to see the KC show and then navigate city streets and gravel roads to the kennel.

Still a lot up in the air (including more snowflakes). We'll watch the weather and road condition updates and make a decision midday.

Snow day!

Well, the spring monster storm that had been predicted has arrived in Lincoln. It teased us on Saturday and Sunday with snow but the streets stayed wet overall. However, the full brunt of it hit on Monday, ironically the first day of spring. Public schools are already closed for spring break this week, but the university, which was supposed to start up again today following last week's spring break, closed down for the day. Evan was delighted that his school shut down after lunch.


When you live in an agricultural state, you're well aware of drought issues, so we're all rejoicing the arrival the moisture after a dry, mild winter. And when you haven't been able to do much sledding or build a snowman, you're also filled with glee. On the other hand, Dad, who insists we don't need a snowblower, is probably not as thrilled with shoveling 14" of wet, heavy snow. Mom kept the fireplace going, worked on homework and income taxes, and supervised from inside the house.

Evan is wiped out after shoveling, building a snow fort, sculpting a snowman, and sledding on his own personal sled hill, created in his backyard! Don't worry, he was revivied by hot chocolate with marshmallows and cartoons.




I guess we'll need to cancel our plans for that barbeque on the patio.

Weird Nebraska

Evan wants me tell everyone, "Evan is a cool dude." Confidence issues? Nah.

Saturday morning, we woke to snow on the ground. Evan and his dad got an early start and headed out to Pioneers Park. Unfortunately, the snow was so wet and ground temperatures so warm that the sled hill wasn't an option. But they did have a nice nature hike with our dog, Karma.

During the afternoon we went to the Museum of Nebraska History. They have a really cool exhibit running until the end of 2006, titled "Weird Nebraska: Strange Stories and Amazing Facts." Not that we ever thought of Nebraska as normal. But there's a lot of cools stuff and stories on display: everything from a petrified man to the world's tallest man, to UFOs, crop circles, and sea monsters, fascinating outsider art, a basket made from armadillo skin, and much, much more! I really enjoyed the "Made in Nebraska" exhibit, featuring products such as Kool-Aid, Eskimo Pie and the Vise-Grip wrench. Evan gives the museum gift shop two thumbs up.

And to carry on with the weird Nebraska theme, as well as bygone days, we dined last night at Lee's Chicken, a Lincoln legacy for at least 60 years. The decor probably hasn't changed in the entire period, but it has a homey, cheesy charm. They still have piano player most evenings (although the blind organist is long gone) to complement the booths and wood paneling. Last night, there was a youngish hipster playing and we convince Evan to go up and ask him to play "Linus and Lucy." Brave, confident soul that he is, Evan persuaded the fellow, who was duly rewarded with a tip in the fishbowl.

At dinner, this was part of our conversation:

Evan: "Mom, what if boys acted like girls and girls acted like boys?"
Mom: "What do you mean by that?"
Evan: "Well, what if boys did the laundry and girls played Xbox?"

I had to break the news to him that boys DO laundry and girls DO play Xbox. Good lord, these stereotypes begin early.

Forts

Yesterday, as Evan and I were getting out of the car after work and school, he remarked, "Mom, your voice kinda sounds like a boy." When I asked him how so, he said "You have an accent like a boy."

Maybe, but I haven't yet learned to burp on command as have the males in my household.

Mom was very happy yesterday for two reasons: I learned I was accepted into the graduate school program to which I'd applied AND we had a new dishwasher installed. Who woulda thought that I could get so charged up about attending school (and paying tuition) and spending $$ on a new appliance. Your priorities sure change when you become an adult!

But for a five-year old, it's the simple things that bring joy. For example, Dad turning the dishwasher carton into a fort. Evan spent most of the evening making his fort homey: adding stuffed animals, light sabers, and a flashlight.

I wonder how long the fort will reside in our living room.

Friday show-and-tell

Every Friday in kindergarten, the students are asked to bring a show-and-tell item that begins with the letter they've studied that week. Today, it's the letter "K". Tougher than we thought. Oh, there's "kite" and "kitten" and "kazoo", but none of those were available to pack along to school this morning. Until I find out the secret word for today, here's a photo from Evan's first day of kindergarten.

"K" is for kindergarten!

Nada

I regret to report that Evan did absolutely nothing worth sharing yesterday. In the meantime, enjoy this picture.

Punk rock.

Let the good times roll

MAJOR NEWSFLASH!

Evan began riding his bike sans training wheels about a month ago. Recently, he completed his first long distance trek on the MoPac Trail from 84th Street to Walton and back, about 4 miles total.

As you can imagine, Dad is very pleased!