Speak to me

I mentioned Kevin Trevino to my mom the other day and realized I hadn't yet told her we had a new dog. Next, of course, was the shock that she didn't faithfully follow my blog :). Anyhoo, she mentioned she'd really like to have something to read the news to her. So I started doing a bit of searching.

First, I tried talkr.com and put those handy-dandy read-this-post tools at the top of each post. Works pretty nice, though machine reading really brings out the dull-ness of my prose.

Next, I downloaded a trial of NewsPiper Pro, but it won't show me old posts I guess. So, I'm writing this one to try and get it to work for me. I'll update this later w/ more info.

Update: Gave up on NewsPiper Pro. Couldn't get it to say anything. Just tried NewsAloud which recently added RSS support. Apparently that doesn't include ATOM support. As much as I love hearing a computer voice saying zero zero seven hyphen comma semicolon four two zero ..., that's not going to work for me.

Well, maybe I'll look at some other stuff later.

Kevin Trevino

Well, I was a bit premature in announcing Poppy the puppy's joining of our family. she only lasted a few days before Eliza realized that puppy teeth are terrifying. We found her a nice new home to be friends with a wiener dog. But the desire to have a new dog wasn't dashed by the experience.

Sara found a 3 year old beagle named Buddy on craiglist, and we went to meet him. Who could say no to such a cute little guy??? He's got pretty good manners, loves to chase cats, knows a few tricks, and has a wiggle-bum like his "cousin" Hercules. The name Buddy didn't work for us because we call Abe our Buddy often. So, after much discussion, we came up with a name we all could agree on - Kevin. Eliza calls him Keveeeeen, like the big guy on 3-2-1 Penguins. Abe likes to call him Kevin 11 as in Ben 10. Emma hangs onto his old name with Kevin Buddy, but Sara's nickname has become most prevalent - Kevin Trevino. She's not sure where it came from, but it just sounds right.

He's a good dog, but this is one of the rare pictures of him. For reasons unbeknownst to us, he is petrified of cameras. Run-and-hide-under-a-bed scared. He and Dexter get along fine, enjoying cat patrol together.

English language rules

Of course, all my kids are the smartest and the best, and Eliza is no exception. Her major skills are being exceedingly verbal and a flair for the dramatic. Like all children, she has some quirks to her speech that are always endearingly cute. My favorite by a mile is her mis-application of reduction from plural to singular, a la cats -> cat.

Misapplications:
Apple Juice -> Apple Joo
Bruise -> Broo
Ear Wax -> Ear Whack

My do I love my kids.

Baby Birds

 

We have tried every summer to spot the babies in the nest at the back of our house, and Sara finally did it. I'm pretty impressed with the quality of the picture, just because I've never had much luck with the digital zoom on my camera.