Johnny Cash & Narrative Theories

Lucy really likes Johnny Cash.  Which is awesome, because so do we.  I got her The Johnny Cash Children's Album for Christmas, and it's been a big hit.  Here's a conversation we had about it yesterday:

Lucy: My favorite is "Old Shep"
Me: Why do you like that one?
Lucy: Because it's sad at the end.  The man has to shoot his own dog.

Note: I did NOT know this.  I hadn't really been paying too much attention to every song on the album.  Here are the sad lyrics in question, which involve a plot point that happens once Shep is an old dog, about whom the doctor has said "I can't do no more for him": 

        With a hand that was trembling, I picked up my gun 
        And I aimed it at Shep's faithful head 
        But I just couldn't do it I wanted to run 
        I wished they would shoot me instead

Now that I've read that, I'm pretty horrified.  But in the moment, I decided to pursue the question of why Lucy found this song to be so great.  To continue:

Me: Why do you like the sad song?
Lucy: It's happy at the beginning but sad at the end.  It's not like other stories.
Me: What do you mean?
Lucy: Most other stories are happy, then sad, then happy at the end.  They're usually always happy at the end.  But "Old Shep" is sad at the end.  I like that.

Ta da!

So clearly we're going to be listening to lots more Johnny Cash.  And possibly more country music more generally.

Oh, and one more quickie before I put this post to bed:  Yesterday afternoon I picked up a movie at the local rental place, and mentioned it to Jake.  Lucy perked up and the following ensued:

Lucy: Movie? [in upwardly-inflected, pleasantly curious tone, hoping it was one she could watch]
Me: Oh, no, it's a grown-up movie.
Lucy: Aw.  Is it scary or is it boring?

So those are pretty much the options for grown-up movies.  Exactly.

By the way, a special shout-out thanks to Eric for creating our new Conversations with Lucy (TM) graphic.  It's all about the branding.

Kitchen Improvement!

The new year has been off to a slow start as various viruses and germs have plagued us.  But we made a big step forward yesterday by finally upgrading a troubling situation in the kitchen: we now have a normal-sized table.  Why do I say normal-sized?  Well, we previously had a little kid table (where Lucy often eats while we cook), but we've been wanting a more serious table to add to the workspace, allow some eating in the kitchen, and to generally improve the lack of counter/workspace.

I'm particularly happy about the table, because it has leaves that slip underneath, so it is quite the space-saver.  Here's the way we have it now:

And here it is with one leaf extended:

(there's another leaf on the side that's against the wall.)

As you can see, we also got a new chair.  Lucy is just delighted with it all, and we're wishing we'd bought two of the chairs.  They're nice in that they are higher than regular dining chairs so they let her sit up higher without using a booster (which she dislikes).  Lucy also likes that this is over the radiator, which means that when she sits there, she's nice and toasty, which is not usually the case in our kitchen.  I'm hoping that the table-above-radiator doesn't cause a problem.  It's not actually touching the radiator, and I guess I hope that maybe it will perhaps help keep the heat down lower in the room, rather than letting it rise up where it doesn't really help us. We'll see if my tenuous grasp of the laws of thermodynamics hold up to this real life test.

Both of the above are from IKEA, of course.  We're very happy.  So yes, that means I had to assemble that table myself, thankyouverymuch.  The chair came in one piece, thankfully.  Thank you, you Swedish geniuses of design.

Oh, that lamp?  It used to be in the front room, on top of the old old desk.  [Before that, way way way before that, it was in my bedroom when I was a kid.]  We barely used it in the front room, so we were glad to find a good spot for it. This brightens up that corner until we can get something else.  And actually, we rather like it there.

Yes, I guess there are a lot of clashing greens there.

We need to paint.  We also need:
--to remove the hideous border (implied in the painting process)
--a cabinet for the nook beside the stove
--somewhere to put our oven mitts (they were once in a basket under that shelf that's now above the table)
--a new radio/music solution for the kitchen (I'm working on that)
--and surely other stuff, but that's what I have in mind for now.  Stay tuned.  In theory, these are the goals for the Kitchen, 2013.  Wish me luck.

First Post of 2013 for This Charming Old House

You made it!  Hooray!

I'm still working on fixing some of the gadgets here, so bear with me.  But for now, this is the new home of our blog.  The old site will stay live for a bit, but you might want to change your bookmarks now.  Any new material will appear here, not at the old site.

Ideally, leave us a comment so we know you made it.  We're not sure how many lurker-type readers we have, and I want to make sure everyone makes it here before we shut down the old site.

What, you need something upon which to comment?  OK, well, here's a recent Question from Lucy (TM) [a new feature!]

"Daddy, do dolphins faht?"

Asked, naturally, totally out of the blue. 

So there you go.  Feel free to answer Lucy's question, pose related or unrelated questions, or simply provide your own rendition of a dolphin faht.

Oh, and also, we're trying to help Lucy's school get a donation from a local group.  If you have a minute and don't mind doing a sign up thing, head over to

http://www.weshareacommonthread.org/

and click on the box for "Give a Click" or you can go right there by clicking on this:

http://www.weshareacommonthread.org/Give-a-Click

You have to set up a username and password and give them your e-mail address (it's totally understandable if you don't want to do that, so no worries if you don't want to go through with this!).  Once you've done that, you can vote for Lowell Day Nursery to help us get them a $1500 donation, which would go a long way towards making some awesome playground upgrades.

BTW, We Share a Common Thread is a foundation operated by our credit union -- Jeanne D'Arc Credit Union -- and they do lots of good work in the city.