Silicon Valley Baby

In with the new, out with the old

We finally finished shopping for SiliBaby's bedroom furniture today (I think). We finalized our decision on a crib, a chest of drawers, bedding, and a changing table.

Here they are!

I actually preferred a very nice, alphabet-themed set of bedding. Very educational! SiliMommy, however, clearly wants our child to grow up illiterate, and decided on the bedding you see above.

Hopefully, we'll have much of the crap out of the bedroom by tomorrow. I asked the furniture shop to hold off on delivering the goods until we're ready, which they said was fine with them--we just need to give them a couple of days' notice.

Meanwhile, as SiliMommy wants to repurpose her small bookcase for baby/childcare-related books, I went through my two giant bookcases tonight, in an effort to make space for her books there. I tend to hate getting rid of books, but I've finally arrived at three tests that they have to pass in order to stay with me. The answer to at least one of the following questions must be "yes":

1) If I get rid of the book, will it be hard to replace? (Atlas Shrugged failed this test. A survey of Chinese intellectual streams over the past two millenia passed it.)

2) Do I seriously see myself reading this book, or wanting to, within the next year or two? (A large, hardcover book on adult ADHD failed this test. Shitheaps of history books--Volumes 2 and 3 of Solzhenitsyn's Gulag Archipelago and several books on Israeli/Jewish history/theology--passed.)

3) Does the book have great sentimental value to me? (The World According to Garp passed the test, as did all of my Doonesbury books. Dilbert didn't. Doonesbury played a big role in forming my intellectual, humor, and moral perspectives when I was in junior high school and high school; Garp was one of the first serious-fiction adult books I read, when I was twelve.)

For the first time, I actually even decided to get rid of a few of my Japanese-language books, including a very large comic-book history of four of the world's major religions. Bottom line: I've had the damn thing since college, and I've never gotten around to reading it. So it's time.)

We also made time, today, to attend the first birthday party of the son of our friend who co-hosted SiliMommy's baby shower. She and he seemed to like his present, so that was nice.

posted by SiliDaddy @ 11:32 PM