April 26, 2008

The Story of Mr. Floppy Ears
Posted by Zoë in Zoë

Ever since I moved out of my bassinette and into my crib, a bunny has been keeping a watchful eye over me. He used to sit at the far end of my crib but as of late, he snuggles with me at nap time, keeps me company when I am sitting in the living room and has even been so ambitious as to go on car rides with me.

Recently, Mr. Floppy Ears let me in on a “little secret”. His real name is Theodore Evan Bear or Ted E. Bear for short. I told him that it was a silly name for a bunny rabbit. Then he did the most amazing thing! He took off his hood to reveal that he was a bear disguised as a rabbit. I was flabbergasted!

At first, I wanted to know why he felt he needed to disguise himself. He began by telling me that recent studies showed that bunnies were 75% more likely to be adopted as stuffed animal friends over bears. It seems that children who have teddy bears for friends get mauled by bears 30% more then those who do not while children who have bunnies as friends have a 0.4% chance of getting mauled by a bunny. The most recent case of a bunny attack was not really that recent at all but recorded in 1974 by a Mr. Monty Python.

He went on to tell me that his cousin, Smokey T. was recently fined $5000 when a 4 year old ran to a grizzly bear in Vermont to ask for assistance in putting out a camp fire.

I couldn’t believe what I was hearing!

As Ted went on, I was all ears. He told me he is a member of a private organization funded by a certain bear building workshop that shall remain nameless. This workshop has been striving to renew children’s trust in teddy bears by allowing them to make their own bears. Thanks to their contributions and radical approach to this crisis, teddy bears are once again beating the stuffing out of the competition.

On hearing this, I gave him the biggest smile, grabbed him, stuck out my tongue and drooled on him. He is my best friend and also very absorbent. Without him, I don’t know what I would do. Thank you Mr. Floppy Ears for infiltrating the stuffed bunny uprising and informing the world of the atrocities “recent studies” can cause.

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April 20, 2008

In Honor of My Father
Posted by Jess in Day to Day

On Friday, April 11th 2008, my father, Joseph Spinosa, passed away after a battle with an extremely aggressive esophageal cancer. His battle lasted just under two months.

As parents now, Matt and I often dream about the future with Zoë, and how we can't wait to find out about the first time she gets in trouble, the first time she talks back, or, more importantly, the first time she breaks something. Because as anyone knows, that's what dads are really for.

In our childhood days, my dad was the toy fixer-upper, but not your normal toy fixer-upper. Picture a toy fixer-upper in a cool, engineering, "dadgyver" sort of way. I'm still surprised he never walked around with a "no job too small" sign on him (for all we thought we saw it there anyway!).

Here's a man who would do anything for his little girl. When I was probably about a pre-teen, my tape deck ate my mix tape. It would not play at all after that, and I could see the mangled bit of tape ribbon along the edge. Now for any of you that have tweens or teenagers, I'm sure you know, this is the END OF THE WORLD AS WE KNOW IT, and cause for total histrionics, ranting and raving about how those songs were IRREPLACEABLE, etc. Any normal dad would have said, "well, say goodbye" and would then have probably chucked it into the trash followed by a life's lesson about how sometimes things just happen. Well, my dad the engineer sat down at the kitchen table with his glasses, a bright light, magnifying glass, small screwdriver, crazy glue, and exact-o knife. He then proceeded to open my tape and unwind the bad part. He carefully sliced out the mangled ribbon, and then used a pinprick amount of superglue to glue the two good pieces of ribbon back together again. He screwed the tape back together, and handed it to me. Total time lost of my IRREPLACEABLE music? About five seconds worth. I never forgot that. This would be only a small sampling of the histrionic-worthy broken toy duty my dad partook in on a day-to-day basis.

My dad was the reason I've known I wanted to be a computer programmer since I was about six or seven years old. Here's a picture from one of our first computers: The Commodore PET. The really cool thing is, in the early decades long before the microchip, my father was helping create, build, shape and mold the computer industry that we know today. In fact, his true understanding went as deep as the old transistors, all the way up to the circuits, to the point where even this week, when I was at his computer with my mother, there was not a single file found that he created on that machine that was over eight characters or had spaces, it was so ingrained for him as a way of life as to why that would be important. That floored me, in that kind of special way that only true geeks and hacks will ever fully understand.

My dad is also the reason music is such an important part of me and my brother's life. In fact, I have written about it a few times before. You can read a great story about how my father was the first classical guitarist in the prestigious US Army Band, ‘Pershing's Own', playing alongside Steve Lawrence. When you're done with that, here's another great story about me surprising my dad by finding a recording he was on playing with Les Elgart on tour and dancing with him at my wedding.

So Matt, as a dad, even though you are well on your way, you've got some very big shoes to fill. As for me, I look forward to teaching Zoë the life's lessons that my dad taught me. For example, he taught me how to drive, and I will instill in Zoë the same valuable nuggets of information he passed on to me that I have also never forgotten (and have always done):

1. Always buy good quality tires. Never, EVER buy cheap tires.
2. When cracks on the side of the road appear, be sure to move the wheels to avoid them, even if it means driving a little closer to the edge of the street. Even the slightest road cracks will chew up tires quickly and will make the ride uncomfortable for your passengers.
3. For best gas mileage and brake longevity, try to keep the gas pedal as constant and steady as possible on the highway.

When Zoë was born, my dad decided she'd love a train set. And not just any old train set. Back in the day, my dad was a train hobbyist, and what better reason to pick it back up again than to enjoy it with his granddaughter? I'm so fortunate to live only about a ten minutes drive from my parents, and feel so happy that Zoë was able to be a major part of dad's life. Right now, the set currently sits on a huge table, complete with hand-weathered trains, three separate independent tracks, a masterfully rigged wiring system (engineer, remember?), and stereo train sounds. Now my dad, the technical writer, made sure to document his complex set-up by showing Matt complete instructions he had been keeping over time. He got to see Zoë enjoy them, I'm sure we'll get to see her enjoy them even more in the years to come, and hopefully add to the landscape.

Goodbye, dad. We'll miss you. We love you. I am the person I am now today because of you. You and my mother retired to one of the nicest seaside areas Rhode Island has to offer. You saw both your children grow up, settle, and you got to meet your beautiful granddaughter. Your son and daughter are carrying on your love of all things music (and the importance of a good stereo headset). Your son and daughter and also carrying on your love of all things technology (both futuristic gadgetry and old school systems). You are safe knowing your wife has an amazing support system on the street you both lived on together, and we are all overwhelmed at the outpouring of support we have all had. The world has lost an amazing man.

When will it be the most tough? Aside from now, It will be tough when I watch a great Netflix movie and can't drive it over to him because I know he'll love it. It will be tough when I get a cool gadget or technology and can't share it with him. It will be tough when Zoë has more first moments that I won't be able to share with him.

But I can always go back and read this to feel close again.

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