Author: Andy Smallman

Yeah, I pretty much make Ella’s breakfast every morning. It’s a tradition that goes back to my dad, who proudly made me breakfast every day when I was in school. Truth be told, he was a pretty fine short order cook!

This morning, as has been the case all week, Ella had a waffle with almond butter, a strip of turkey bacon, some yogurt, and a glass of orange juice. Let me just say that’s a yummy breakfast. She seemed to think so, too.

But I have to keep on my toes. She gets tired of the same thing each day so the trick is trying to vary it before she announces she wants something different. Any suggestions for the next variation?

On a side note, I unveiled the first not-so-secret secret mission in the kindness class I’m facilitating for the Compassion Games. Wanna play?

You know, it really is good advice to be wary of who you meet online. Certainly, some untoward things exist in the world and the Internet is a place to be careful. That being said, the Internet is also a place to meet some wonderful people, interesting folks from far-reaching places that in a bygone era you’d never have a chance to connect with.

Take my Internet buddy, Fish Astronaut.

I don’t really know him. All I know is that I stumbled across his website one night while I was in France and I liked his art. I asked if might be willing to create some illustrations for one of my kindness classes. Now he illustrates all of them, and the Kind Living website.

Today’s image is the illustration he created for the first mission in the kindness mission compassion game I’m facilitating that begins tomorrow. Consider this your lucky sneak peek.

Melinda is doing a lot of walking these days, trying as she is to get in 10,000 steps each day. That’s hard to do, especially when we stay at PSCS until almost 7pm, like today. But it’s easier on the weekends. For instance, this picture comes from last Saturday when Melinda & I walked to her sister’s house. You may recall hearing about Perrin, our niece. She lives there, too.

Arriving, we saw the sidewalk chalk statement, “I (heart) Perrin.” There next to it was a piece of chalk. Melinda picked it up and added her comment, to which tonight’s blog post title is my addition.

All this lovie-dovie stuff has got me thinking about the Compassion Games which start in Seattle on Friday. As I mentioned a couple of nights ago, I’m leading a kindness activity as part of the games and it’s getting some serious publicity. The website I’ve set up for it has gotten over 400 hits in three days.

Nice!

Two times each year, right? We all should have our teeth cleaned twice a year. I don’t know about you, but I really don’t look forward to those two days. I mean, it’s only 2 out of 365 days, which, by horse racing standards, is a longshot to come in. But I’ve got this little spot behind my lower front teeth, right by a salivary gland, where the tartar builds up and has to be scraped away. I don’t find that fun. And I floss every day!

Wait a second. This post is about Ella going to the dentist. That’s not nearly as bad! In fact, Melinda & I dropped her off and dashed out for a little bite to eat while Ella had her teeth cleaned. That was downright pleasant!!

We got back in time to chat with the dentist, who brought us back to see Ella and hear her compliment Ella on her brushing and flossing. And she got to wear these cool sunglasses…

This is one of my favorite pictures ever. It’s from a few years back and it was taken using the PhotoBooth feature on our home computer back then, a Mac. There are many things I like about it, from the loving affection being shown in me planting a smooch on Melinda’s cheek, to Melinda’s smile, to the prominent place of her wedding ring, to Ella’s presence, and her somewhat silly face. The only thing this photo is missing is Chloe.

I went looking for it earlier as I wanted to use it to illustrate a short bio page I’ve created of me to go along with a kindness activity I’m in the process of creating. Something called the Compassion Games is starting in Seattle on Friday and I’ve been asked to get involved with a kindness-related activity. I thought it might be fun to have a series of kindness missions, one each week for the month-long duration of the games. Phrasing a kindness action as a mission gives it a game-like feel, right?

Shhh, you can get a sneak peek at that bio page here.

My brother Steve and his wife , Deb, just left our house, having come for a fairly spontaneous dinner tonight. They live in Nevada so we don’t get to see them much. Steve is in town on business and Deb came along for the trip, hoping to stop in and catch up with family & friends. I’m kicking myself because I didn’t get a picture of them tonight for my blog post, despite thinking of it several times while they were here.

Instead, I went into my photo archive to find one of Steve and Deb, and located this one from the late 1980’s. Yup, that’s Steve and Deb with their kids, Jessica and Nick. You may recall that Jessica got married the first weekend in August. At her wedding she looked older than in this photo. Nick, too, has aged quite a bit from when this shot was taken. And Steve’s hair is gray now, so you might say he’s gotten older, too.

Only Deb looks the same, I guess. 🙂

I, um, took this photo just outside of Whole Foods early this evening, but it might be better said that the photo took me. I was in the midst of a text exchange with Ella and had come outside of the store because I wasn’t getting decent coverage inside. In between text messages, while waiting for her responses, I started messing with the camera settings on my cell phone, and then, bing, bang, boom, I took this picture.

Or, like I said, it took me.

You can tell from my expression that I’m trying to figure out something, right? I mean, I look pretty serious so I must be thinking hard (something like, “I wonder why I can’t get this camera to work.”) And as my family members have told me, shooting from below chin level up at a face leads to an unflattering double chin.

So just why am I posting something like this? It gave me a good excuse to call an entry “Accidents Will Happen,” a classic Elvis Costello song.

Yup, that’s Bob squeezing Melinda and me together in today’s photo. But you’d think I might show the back of Bob’s head, not his face, considering this post is called “Bob’s Back.”

I’ve always thought that joke was kinda funny but it never gets the laugh I think it should. Like the time the students all stared at me like I was crazy when, upon a staff member’s return to school after being gone for a couple of days, I said, “Edd’s back! And, look, there’s his front, too!”

No laugh.

Same deal with Bob tonight. I told him about my idea for a band name. It would be for a group of people who, like most of us, are all obsessed with things being a certain way. You know, a little obsessive compulsive? The band would be the Obsessive Compulsive Disorder Committee. For short, they’d be OCDC. Say it out loud. It’s funny, right?

Bob just said it was clever. Not funny.

I thought about calling this post “bad timing” but then I remembered a fable once told to me about a man who was driving, probably over the speed limit, to the airport to catch a plane. On his way, he got a flat tire. He got out to fix it, angry and frustrated, cursing the tire and his misfortune. He missed his plane.

Continuing on with his day, he heard on the news that a plane crashed and everyone on board died. Turns out it was the plane he was supposed to be on. He returned to the flat tire and kissed it, feeling blessed by his fortune.

Good timing, bad timing. Maybe it’s all a matter of perspective.

So, yeah, on a handful of occasions lately I’ve been stopped for the raising of the Montlake Bridge, a drawbridge not far from our house. The most recent time, as evidenced in this picture, I was first in line, meaning I was “that close” to crossing the bridge before being stopped.

I’ve decided there is a lesson in this. Slow down. Relax. Enjoy the bonus time I’m getting in the car. In this recent one, the first in line time, I was with Melinda. What could be better than that, unplanned minutes for Melinda and me to enjoy each others’ company?

Timing!

I’ve long had this funny way of considering my clothes. To understand this, you have to know that I’ve grown up as a sports fan. I understand the concept of “first string,” “second string,” “third string,” etc down, and have for a long time. If you don’t know, “first string” is the top, the best, and one moves on down the “strings” from best to, um, least best.

Anyway, as you’ve probably guessed, that’s how I see my clothes. My favorites are the first string. Get it?

Well, in 2008, the summer we went to Montana and spent a week at a dude ranch, I bought an authentic cowboy shirt. In Montana, it was easily a first stringer. But back in Seattle, it ended up on the bench. In 2010, as we were packing for France, I didn’t even consider taking it. You could say it wasn’t going to make the road trip. It got relegated to the practice squad or the Arizona Instructional League, extended spring training, or something.

Then, at the last minute, a change came over me. The shirt got hot, as it were. It made the cut and traveled to France. In France, it continued on its torrid streak, moving on up the strings, leading me to draft (buy on eBay) others like it. Now I’ve got scouts out all over the country looking for others like it.

That’s it in today’s photo. I wore it to school today.

Clearly, first string.