Author Archives: jeb

Early Poison Ivy

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Spent Saturday morning at work until noon. Then went over to work with Patty Hollis for 4+ hours on her Mac. She paid $25/hr.

Went over to Ted and Nancy’s last night for shrimp and burgers (for me.) Rented a movie by the same director as Henry & June. The Unbearable Likeness of Being. Sensual at times. Long the rest of the time. We couldn’t believe Elizabeth had recommended it.

Watching it together was fun.

Nancy spent much of the movie scratching the poison ivy she has all over her 6 month pregnant stomach. Says she got it from Ted’s clothes.

Sunday afternoon, we went to Lilburn park with Katherine from next door. Kathy and I enjoyed laying in the sun on a blanket in the unusual winter warmth.

Black Holes and Valentine’s Fudge

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Tonight Kathy had to work. I picked up her and the kids about 4 pm to get the Toyota that had left Kathy stranded in the Big B parking lot the day before.

With Kathy safely off to work, I took the kids with me to get a haircut in time for my presentation to Tom Hidell. Trying to get a new job (or get the one I’m doing officialized.)

Danny was poking through dinner as usual, when his interest was peeked by Nicole and my discussion about dessert. Nicole asked if we still had some of the Valentine’s fudge in the refrigerator. No ice cream to put it on, I replied.

That’s when Danny suggested we eat fudge and bananas like he had done in school. (Kathy’s fudge had never solidified, so it was good for pouring on things.)

We decided to have a fondue with the bananas.

“The bananas have black holes in them,” Danny said with concern.

I looked and saw black spots, thinking he must be worried about them being too ripe. Funny he would call spots holes. “Looks like they’ll be just perfect,” I said.

So Danny hurried with his dinner, as Nicole and I got up to prepare the banana-fudge fondu. I peeled the banana and saw that it looked good, but noticed that there were a few black spots on the inside of the peel. Strange. On closer inspection, I found narrow holes in the banana that corresponded with the black spots. In fact, the holes were black! The banana was fine otherwise. Bugs? Bacteria?

Danny was eating faster and faster. I thought of the famous sliced-banana-in-a-peel trick that is done with a needle and thread.

“Danny, did you poke a toothpick in the banana?”

“Yes,” he confessed quietly, chewing as fast as possible.

Nicole found it difficult to contain her laughter. So did I.

Thinking that he would have no reason for this, I thought maybe he and Kathy had been doing some kind of educational experiment.

“Does Mom know you poked holes in the banana?”

“No,” he said, running out of food to hide behind.

Nicole lost it, and had to be sent from the room.

I thanked Danny for telling the truth. Then I asked him if he had a reason for poking holes in the banana, but he had none that he could recall. So I asked him not to poke holes in our food.

I sliced up the banana, heated up a small bowl of the Valentine’s fudge, broke out the toothpicks, and we had a terrific fondue. So good, in fact, that I sliced up a second banana, which had no black holes in it.

Cat Food

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Tuesday night I was reading a short picture story to Danny from his Sesame Street Magazine. Bert brought home a kitty to spend the evening with him and

Ernie. In one photo Ernie is feeding a bowl of milk to the kitten. I read the caption that said how much the kitty liked the milk. In the background was a box of “CAT FOOD”.

I asked Danny if he could read the first word. He named the letters then sounded them out. “CAT!” I was impressed. I then asked him if he could read the second word. He named the letters again and tried sounding it out. “Fuhd,” he tried. Then “FOOD!”

1992-02-cat-food.gifWhat does the box say? I asked him.

“CAT FOOD!” he announced.

Danny reads his first sentence. We were both very proud.

Steak and Ketchup

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We did not go to Mom’s for Valentine’s dinner. Pregnancy and mother-in-laws do not always mix well, I’m afraid.

The four of us had a very nice formal dinner in our own home that hasn’t sold yet.

Saturday night we all went over to Mom and Dad’s for steak. Nicole wanted to bring ketchup, much to Kathy’s chagrin.

Naked Doll Rule

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Yesterday Danny and I went to Lilburn Park to meet Carol, Bob, and Eric. Kathy was working on the performance evaluation review project for Harland, and Nicole was busy playing with Kathryn, so it was just us boys.

We got there a little early. A northwest wind hit Georgia Friday. Cold enough to have the two Holly bushes Kathy bought to plant out front move inside for the evening. Danny and I bundled up. He soon worked up a sweat running around the playground.

Danny spotted the overhead bars, and wanted to give them a try (since he had done so well a week earlier.) These were even higher, though. I offered to stand under him and catch him. He said he didn’t need anyone to catch him. Instead, he practiced jumping to the ground to test how far the fall would be. After three or four jumps, he decided to give the overhand bars a try.

He did a good job going four or five bars the first try. The second try he fell. He had time to twist around like a cat, only instead of landing on all fours, he also landed on his stomach.

That ended up in a big cry. So we sat down a bench for a few minutes to recuperate. Carol and Bob had not arrived, so I suggested we walk up to the general store on Main Street and get some candy medicine. That got his attention.

An old couple runs the general store which is full of wooden trinkets, tick tocks, and candy jars. Danny picked out some cocolate twists. Five for 35ยข.

When Bob, Carol, and Eric arrived, they didn’t last long. Carol announced after 5 minutes that Eric was too cold. He didn’t look cold. In fact, he looked as plump and happy as a walrus. I think Carol may have been the cold one. We finished our twists and left.

* * *

Kathy and I invited Carol and Bob over to watch a movie that night. Later Ted and Nancy invited us up to the farm. We said we couldn’t go. Then Carol called to announce that they were going up to the farm with Ted and Nancy. Then Ted called to apologize for stealing Carol and Bob.

I was having a hard time getting the hollies planted with all the phone calling.

Frank, Stephanie, and Lauren ended up coming over with the movie “What About Bob?” and Frank’s famous cheese dip. Within 10 minutes, Lauren was coming down the steps with a naked Ken doll.

I explained that I have a rule about naked dolls. I hate having naked dolls in the house. Nicole and Danny said to Lauren, “See!” I guess Lauren was testing her limits, because everyone was good for the rest of the night.

My Mother the Mac

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[Published in the Atlanta Macintosh User Group newsletter.]

MY MOTHER

THE MAC

Of family, friends

and their Macs

by Jeb Cashin

My mother has been a calligraphist for many years. She is so devoted to the profession that her license plate reads “CALLIG.” I often worry that it calls to mind Caligula more quickly than Calligraphy.

In 1987, Mom bought a Macintosh. This was an extraordinary event in the world of computing. (But typical in the world of Macintosh.) Mom had never touched a computer in her life. Within a few months she was publishing the newsletter for the local calligraphy group, Friends of the Alphabet. Guy Kawasaki could have been no more proud than I.

Of course, it was very controversial. Postscript fonts are the unworthy enemy to the artisans of hand-lettering… in a war fought with mouse pitted against pen, with ink pitted against toner. The Friends of the Alphabet scoffed at the mathematical precision of scalable fonts.

Such precision leaves no room for subtle fluctuations in style or mood.

So the postscript wizards returned fire with kerning, bending, and even random bits of built-in imperfection. Fonts! Fonts! Hundreds of fonts! The hoarders of type rejoiced.

Mom ignored the war, and cranked out one of the finest calligraphic newsletters in the country. You don’t hand-letter a thousand word newsletter with a two-day deadline.

The simple Times or Helvetica text was graced with grand hand-lettered headlines. Articles were often introduced with an elaborate first letter, reminiscent of those that would begin some monk of old’s calligraphied passage of scripture.

In her own way, Mom brought together the powers of wizards and artists.

Epilogue: Within a year of Mom’s Mac purchase, she was elected president of The Friends of the Alphabet.

Epilogue II: In his 2005 commencement speech to Stanford, Steve Jobs, a college drop out, credited a calligraphy class to his inspiration to have beautiful fonts in the Macintosh.

The Rules and Regulations of Visionaries

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Frank and I stayed over night at the Nicholas House. We each got to write up an incident report based on guests complaining about each other.

Frank refused to sleep on the pull-out couch when we saw roaches crawling on it. He slept in the truck outside.

Dinner was good. A spicey meatloaf with potatoes. Served by team leader Charlene and her family.

We spent much of the evening discussing some of Frank’s latest inventions. The biggest one is the coke can protector. It’s a plastic cover that comes on the can. You peel it off to insure you have a clean surface to drink from. And we both gave a thorough read of Funk & Wagnal’s Encyclopedia, Letter A, while the other slept.

Made for a good review in the morning of AIDs, Alaska, and Aerosol.

***

The whole family (sans Grant in Orlando playing ultimate) gathered at Carol and Bob’s this morning for Eric’s 1st birthday party brunch. Pat and Bob Ettensohn flew down to spend the weekend. I was very tired.

As Eric is getting older, Danny is enjoying playing with him more. Danny does not understand why he will not be able to play with his new baby sibling right away. He was disappointed when Kathy explained that the baby would mostly sleep.

***

dc-overhand-1992-02.pngWe had a showing of the house yesterday afternoon. The four of us went to Lucky Shoals park for a picnic lunch. Nicole taught Danny how to navigate under the over-hand bars. Danny was so excited that he came running to tell Kathy and me what he had done. We watched, and had to contain our laughter everytime his grip would loosen, he would look groundward, and fall with a bounce. He tried more than 20 times to go across, until his hands were red and bottom sore. I finally told him that he had done real well making it almost half way and that he should give his hands a rest. He was very proud, and so was his teacher. [See: Naked Doll Rule and Victory.]

Mom had a vision that we would sell the house in 2 months. Kathy had “the dream” last Thursday night. This is the dream that determines (predicts?) the sex of the baby. Baby boy.

I’m not knocking intuition. Sounds like it will get Danny a baby brother and get us out of these shrinking quarters.

Although, a baby girl would be just fine. But it worries me that a baby girl may cancel out Mom’s vision. Don’t really know the rules and regulations of visionaries.

Does Everyone Know Yet?

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Last night we had an impromptu get together with Ted & Nancy, Elizabeth & Harrison, and Carol. Bob and Eric were home under the weather.

* * *

Today was our first Sunday weekend together as a family. Actually last week was, but there was snow all over the ground.

Kathy quit the Marriott, too hard on her pregnant feet and pregnant sleeping schedule, in favor of working a couple of nights a week at Sports Life’s child care. When I picked up the kids on the way home from work, I saw what looked like a tougher job. But I haven’t said so.

This morning, then, Kathy woke me with a pleasant “It’s time to get up.” I’m not sure that’s happened in our 5 year marriage.

All four of us got up and dressed for 9am mass. It was a designated “children’s mass.” The children’s choir sang with Mom’s choir. Father Ed called all the children up to the front for the sermon.

When he asked the children to tell him something wonderful that was happening in there lives, Nicole told him that her mother was pregnant.

“Does everyone know yet?” Father asked, and then laughed that everyone knew now. He agreed that it was wonderful. The congregation had a good laugh. Kathy and I could not see the kids, so I asked Nicole when she came back if she had made everyone laugh.

“No,” she said. “Father made everyone laugh.”

We then met Mom and Dad for doughnuts as we waited for Sunday school to start. Mom thoroughly enjoyed having us all there to see her sing and being able to brag to her friends about Danny and Nicole being so cute up on the altar.

After leaving for class, Danny and Nicole came back promptly. Danny was visibly upset. Nicole reported that he had cried, upset about there being no Sunday schcool.