Okay, here’s the deal, friends:

If you don’t currently have a Mac that can support Jaguar (OS X 10.2), go out and get one. They’re cheap. Buy two.

While you’re at the Apple Store (why would you buy your Mac anywhere else), pick up an iSight camera. If the last iSight is in the delicate grasp of a defenseless, weeping child, rip it out of their hands. Just do it. You can thank me later for the encouragement.

Go home, put computer on table, attach iSight camera to computer.

Probably iChat AV is not on the computer. Download it from the Apple website. Install.

Fire up iChat AV, log in, and say, “Hi Diane!” And you can see me wave back.

iChat AV is way better than sliced bread. (For one thing, no carbs.) Darin has been chatting with friends down in LA, face-to-face. Is the conversation quality as good as a telephone? No, or as I like to say: not yet. But you get to see the people you’re talking to—remember the cool videophone in 2001? Here it is, folks.

The grandparents can see the grandkids any time they want. And they did, last night. Currently Sophia is more interested in seeing herself on the screen than seeing Grandma, but she and Simon also live in a world where stuff like “chatting with Grandma and Grandpa and seeing their faces despite a distance of a couple thousand miles” is perfectly normal.

I want everyone I know to rush out and get this setup so that we can talk, face-to-face. I’ll wait right here.

Okay, I have been extremely baffled by the continuous popularity of this entry’s comment thread.

What the hell is Blue Moon ice cream? I had never heard of it before this thread.

Who makes said ice cream, and where—for the love of pete—do you get it?

My new schedule is this: on days when there is no preschool, try to get up at around 6 and go for a short run. On days with preschool, drop Sophia off at 8, come back home, strap Simon into the jogging stroller, go for a longer run.

This seems to be working out pretty well.

Of course, I’ve only done it one day.

Yesterday morning Sophia said, “It’s time for school! It’s time for school!” and since it was only 7am, Darin and I were more underwhelmed by her enthusiasm than we might otherwise have been. I got her to school and had to ask her for a hug and a kiss before she raced off to try out all the cool toys in the classroom.

C’mon, would a little separation anxiety kill you?

I realized that I would have lots of morning time, and since Simon is still too little to say, “No, not the jogging stroller!” I decided I could use some of the morning to run. Which we did today and I think this plan is going to work out fine. It will work better if I get into shape (puff, puff), but one thing at a time.

Something funny I’ve noticed about Simon when we’re in the kitchen is that he likes to run laps around the kitchen island. Thud thud thud thud thud thud THUD THUD thud thud… I suspect he runs there because I’m standing at the island using my computer. (Soon my office will be cleaned out and usable. Soon. If I believe hard enough, it will be so.) But he just goes ’round and ’round. It’s hilarious.

Maybe one day we’ll go running together.

Okay, possibly this is the stupidest question ever posed, but…

Imagine the land between San Francisco is completely flat. No hills, no Grapevine, nothing. Both SF and LA are at sea level. Now imagine you’re going to ride your bike from SF to LA and back again.

Here’s my question:

1. The ride from SF to LA is harder.
2. The ride from LA to SF is harder.
3. The two legs of the ride are equally difficult.

My mental model is that the ride from LA to SF is harder. Darin says I’m wrong, that maps of the world are purely by convention.

As I drove yesterday I thought about why I imagine going from LA to SF is harder. Was I somehow applying the law of gravity to a north-south axis? Then I realized I had a mental model that rivers like the Mississippi go north to south (though that’s probably because they get such a good headstart coming off the Canadian mountains). Except, of course, the Nile, which goes south to north…and in my mental model of the world, the Nile is below the Equator. (I know this is wrong. I knew the second I vocalized it. But I had never thought about it explicitly before.)

More data: it takes about a tank of gas to go from our house to LA. I filled up right before leaving both times and the gas light came on toward the end of both trips. But I had to stop to refuel on the way home yesterday because the indicator dipped below the E mark—but on the way to LA it didn’t get that low. Did I use more gas coming home because I was coming north or because I drove, um, speedier?

Can anyone help me out here?

This entry #100 of the new NKA. I don’t have much to say in it though—not in the mood. There’s stuff going on around here I’ll be talking about soon and that’s where my head is right now. Darin’s come back from a whirlwind business trip—yay.

We’re getting ready for Sophia’s birthday party—an undertaking scary and overwhelming enough to send Darin on another business trip. Sophia likes to punctuate a lot of conversations these days with, “It’s time for my birthday party!” I keep trying to explain to her that she has to wait for her party. Sophia thinks I’m trippin’ and can we get the party on already?

I’m just glad that rain is no longer scheduled for party day. Would have really harshed the buzz on the petting zoo, let me tell you.

The silver lining to all this Michael Jackson nonsense (none of which I’ve actually seen, mind you, though it seems like everywhere I turn I hear about it):

What seems to be lost in the concern for Mr. Jackson’s children and underage friends or disgust over television’s excesses is that the more we see of Mr. Jackson right now, the healthier we are as a nation: at least it indicates we are not at war.