Language

I've had language on the brain quite a bit lately. Logan is now almost five months old and when any of us are around him we make quite a spectacle of ourselves encouraging him to vocalize. And he's getting very good at it. That kid is loud!

Jump to another piece of my life: school. Here I'm taking the opposite tack; trying to get kids to vocalize less. It's not so much I mind the conversations my students have. Topics can be quite interesting; loaded with more information that I often want to hear and details I don't really need. What I do have issues with is their lack of creativity in choosing their vocabulary. It's as if name-calling, putdowns, slurs and curses have become normally accepted in society and therefore, public school.

I find it really disheartening that my students can't understand my feelings about their verbal communications. They don't seem to comprehend that you get one first impression. The most attractive person in the world quickly becomes very unattractive when all they spew from their lips is offensive garbage. And I'm more than a little disturbed that language seems to be deteriorating at an incredibly fast rate. Vocabulary, context and syntax don't seem to be important to many people any more; even among some rather well-educated individuals.

Oktoberfest Weekend

As usual, for O-Fest, the weather this weekend left much to be desired. I wasn't sure I'd even make it. Luckily things worked out for the best.

Saturday was dreary and rainy. It was a great excuse to hang out with the family at Mom & Dad's. We dressed for game day and cheered the Beavers in their victory over the Louisville Cardinals. We pigged out on one of Mom's awesome home cooked meals and marionberry crisp.

Sunday the weather dried up, so we headed out to the Oktoberfest at Mt. Angel. We spent a few hours wandering the festival and eating, which is the best reason to go. I love the food at fairs and festivals. Today's menu of choice was sausage with sauerkraut, deep fried mushrooms and onion rings followed by an elephant ear. We opted to not buy our way into the gartens, so no beer or wine, but it was yummy all the same. And I finally saw the Glockenspiel through a complete cycle.

Canadian Cousins

Well, not my cousins...exactly. Esther is my cousins' cousin. She and her husband live in Ottawa, Ontario, Canada and made the trip out here to see my aunt, uncle and cousins for four days before spending time with friends in British Columbia.

It was wonderful to see Esther and meet her (semi-new) husband Dino. The only (partly) bad thing about out of town visitors is that we seem to spend a great deal of time eating.

Oddly enough, I didn't take any pictures during this visit. The picture above is from 2003, the last time I saw Esther and her sister Caroline.

4 months!

The sweet boy turned four months this week. He's growing so fast, and is so easy to entertain. He loves funny faces, weird noises, being outdoors and people.

State Fair

It's been a few years since I visited the Oregon State Fair. When I was a kid and teenager, my family went frequently. We would make an entire day of it, visiting all the livestock, vendors, and displays. It also wasn't unusual to run into familiar faces.

A couple weeks ago Jen asked if I was going to the fair this year. I'd been thinking about it, waffling back and forth. The clincher was her comment that she hadn't been to the state fair since we went together in high school!. So this afternoon after work we met a prearranged place and went to the fair. It was a very good evening. We talked and walked, checking out the sights. We decided the cute award goes to miniature cows and baby pigs. The "Duh" award goes to the sign "Please keep hands away from the alligator. He's already eaten." And the yummy award...oh, fair food.

Food is one of the greatest things about the fair. I don't know why, exactly. We did our grazing backwards tonight. We started with ice cream. An hour later we went for the super nachos. The plate was huge, so we shared. And then just before leaving the fair we spilt an onion blossom. It's just not the fair if you skip the fried food.