November peanuts

• Me: "Da-da!" Corinna: "Mama!" [Grins.] I think she's harassing me on purpose.
• Good news: I found my 2002-era usb wifi adapter. Bad news: it does not have drivers for Windows 8.
• Corinna learning how to turn the TV and PS3 off is funny. Learning to push the power button on my desktop is not.
• Cold outside this morning, for Texas (in the fifties). Isaac went outside and brought his plant in, the one he picked out at the nursery with Rachel a few days ago. "Plant cold! I want plant warm."
• Rachel: "But you just took those shoes off, Corinna! You want them back on already? You're such a girl!" Me: "Hey. How come when *I* say that it's sexist?"
• Arrived in Madrid, 3:30 AM Central Time. Taxi driver was able to establish in Spanish that (1) it was my first time here, (2) I was staying for two days, and (3) that traffic in Madrid is bad. Further attempts at communication were futile.
• Signs you've been traveling too much: your hotel key card doesn't work. "What the hell," you think, "I'm sure this is the right room." Then you take a second look and the card you pulled out of your pocket belongs to the previous trip's hotel.
• Corinna can climb out of her crib now. Which puts her maybe a little behind Melissa, but not much.
• Seen on Twitter: "Parenting is *exactly* like rocket science; The job is to contain an explosion & hope it's pointed in a useful direction."
• My bank account balance looks a lot more impressive in Yen.
• Even in Texas I am terrible at guessing kids' ages. I think it may be worse here. In the elevator there was a woman with two little girls, the taller of whom was Isaac's size. "Four?" I asked her. She looked at me like I was the world's dumbest American. "No," she said. "Six." (The kid didn't mind, though. Probably she didn't understand. When we got to her floor she looked back and waved. "Bye bye!" she said with a huge grin. A real live gaijin said she was kawai. Disneyland is awesome.)