Friday night we had our nanny come over for the evening. Lisa picked me up from work in downtown Seattle, and we had dinner at a wonderful little restaurant called The Palace Kitchen. Quite possibly the best ckicken I’ve ever had, and I’ve had a lot of chicken in my life. Then we saw “The Dark Knight” (Aka Batman, again). A pretty good movie. Heath Ledger was great. I would have given the movie 5 stars, but I’ve found I don’t like Maggie Gyllenhal. She just annoys me.
Saturday, a morning Starbucks run, then assembled a new toy for the kids (photos in a bit). They absolutely loved it. Next, a sandbox is on order from Amazon. Lot of outdoor time. I also bought a big shade for the patio / sandbox so the kids can be out there without SPF 1000 every day.
Today was more backyard fun. There’s a lot of teething going on in the house right now, and Lorelai hasn’t been her cheery self quite as often as she used to be. Molars are painful, I guess.
The rest of my time I’ve spent looking for a new laptop computer. I’m currently leaning toward a Toshiba U405-S2833, with the thought that I could carry it to work each day without breaking my back, but I’m not sure I can justify the expense. What if I never use it? Anyway, I’ll stop writing now so I can try to post some pictures.
I don’t know who gets the credit for this one, but this is just great.
“Science shouldn’t lie just to make you more comfortable. That’s religion’s job.”
Okay, brief summary of the weekend
Friday: Worked from home, took the kids to their 18 month checkup at the doctor, took them to city hall to apply for their passports, worked from home some more
Friday Night: Haircut for kids, watched ‘The Spiderwick Chronicles’. Not bad. Probably a good kids movie. Sometimes they translate well to adults. This one requires that you have maintained a bit of the child within.
Saturday: Starbucks, work a bit on a work project, off to a company picnic so my wife can meet all my coworkers. Kids do an excellent job of being their normal cute, but high-energy-selves. Return home, talk to my sister on the phone for an hour. Solved all her problems, I think. That’s what brothers do.
Saturday night: Watched ‘Death at a Funeral’. Dark British Comedy. I’ll give it 3.5 / 5 stars. Not bad. Laugh out loud moments, good acting, but not for everyone
Sunday: Starbucks, finally went out and bought a new office chair for at home. My old one was killing my back. This one is so much better, but I think I still need to tune it in some more. A lot of play time with the kids in the afternoon. Weeded the garden, cut the grass, talked to my folks on the phone. Tried to find a sandbox for the kids (everything around here is sold out for the year apparently).
Sunday night: Watched the video of the Last Lecture posted on my sisters blog ‘Eclecta’. Interesting and pretty amazing for a guy with so little time left to still be so happy. Inspiring really.
Finished one book this week for fun, and I wish it was. I got lured in by a display for a novel called ‘Endwar’ that made it seem that Tom Clancy had a new book out. What it really was (if you read the fine print), was this David Michaels guy writing an absolute stinker of a novel about a VIDEO GAME Tom Clancy’s company is producing. So horrible. Good thing it was a quick read, because the plot was paper thin, the characters lacked character, and the dialog atrocious. The only good thing about it was that it raised my belief that anyone (including me) can get published.
Anyway, the kids are doing great. A couple of scrapes and bruises from falls on concrete, but nothing they won’t recover from. I’ve been trying to get some better pictures, but nothing has turned out very well lately, so we’ll see what we can do this week.
By the way, does anyone have a recommendation for a service for web cam sharing for the grandparents to see the kids (and vice versa). Let me know.
What I wanted to say to the woman next to me on the train last night, who was on her cell phone the whole time
“Lady, this isn’t your office. Now hang up your cell phone, and STFU!”
What I actually said.
Nothing.
But I gave her a couple of really dirty looks.
Maybe I need to get some TShirts made up with this slogan on it. I should copyright it. I’m sure it will catch on.
So, a few years back, I started a blog that lasted two entries (which I believe have been deleted), about what a better place the world would be if everyone just listened to me. I still have thoughts on the subject, but not enough to justify a devoted blog. Besides, I’ve lured in a bit of a crowd here with cute baby pictures, and why would I give up this opportunity? So, every once in a while (interspersed with pictures of cute toddlers so you keep on coming back, I’m going to drop in a few messages to the world.
1. To solve the US Medicare funding problem: Since insurance companies won’t insure anyone with a smoking / drug use / obesity background, why should the government? I say set a deadline that is reasonable (i.e next Friday), and let people know that if you are still smoking, doing drugs or eating that triple Big Mac with extra large fries and the 36oz Big Gulp from 7-11 beyond that date, you are no longer eligible for Medicare or Medicaid. Test for nicotine before every check gets sent out, test for drugs, test for body mass index. Make all the anti smoking treatmenrs, anti drug programs and weight loss programs cheap / free. Legalize the drugs (tax them) so we don’t have to spend billons on hunting down traffickers and pushers, add a fat tax on fast food, and presto, the deficit is cut in half. If people want to live fast and die young in their younger days, make them realize they won’t be around in their older days to change their minds.
2. The problem with Public Transportation is the ‘public’ part of it. Why is it that some people just can’t wait 30 minutes to get home and talk to their spouses instead of sitting next to me on the train, gibber-jabbing away about their day? And do you really want to talk to a potential customer about how you can undercut all your competitors while sitting on the train with God knows who listening? Really? And if your IPod is loud enough for me to hear it three rows away, don’t look pissy at the people who give you dirty looks when they need to change seats because they want to protect their hearing. Oh, for a good stun gun on my morning commute.
3. I’m starting to drift towards the camp that thinks the Baby-Boomer generation should really be called the ‘Free Loader Generation’. All these entitlement programs, funded on the backs of their kids and their grandkids? Selfish much? Granted, selfishness is the American way. Whether it be Social Security, the housing bubble, roads and transportation… no one is willing to pay their own way anymore. No one is accountable for their own mistakes. If I took out a loan I couldn’t pay back, that’s my own damn fault. Stop blaming everyone else. Stop expecting the government to bail you out. Stop bitching that the fat cats are making billions while the middle class gets screwed. You had your chance to vote these bastards out of office many times, and you just keep electing the same group of crooks becuase they offered you a quick buck (how many people sent back their Econmic stimulus check because they thought it was wrong? I’m betting the number rhymes with HERO. How else do guys like Ted Stevens in Alaska, and George Bush (x3) get elected over and over again? It’s not the system’s fault, it’s the public’s fault. People are just too stupid and lazy. Democracy is hard, and it takes up a lot of evenings (Oscar Wilde gets the credit for that one).
Okay, I’m done ranting for now. We now return you to your regular internet surfing programming.
Great Movie: The Lookout with Joseph Gordon Levitt and Jeff Daniels. After a lot of ho-hum movies this year, this is one of my new favorites. In fact, I watched it last night while Lisa was dancing, and then watched it again this afternoon with her. Really, really good. And is iot just me, or is there just a stunning resemblance between Levitt and Heath Ledger?
Bad Book: Fifty Degrees Below Zero by Kim Stanley Robinson. Second book in a trilogy that got good in the last 10 pages. My OCD will probably force me to read book three… but I so don’t really want to.
Good Book: On Writing By Stephen King. Got me back in the mood to write again. Now if only I could get rid of my procrastination issues. I want to write, but stuff keeps taking priority. I just need to set realistic goals. Today, I’m updating my blog, and reading one of my old, unfinished stories.
Okay Book: Lean Mean Fourteen by Janet Evanovich. Quick read, pretty much formula JE.
Bad Movie: No Country for Old Men. SPOILER ALERT: If you kill off the main character 75% of the way through the movie, you had better either bring him back to life, or make the ending so incredible, that you forget it happened. Niether happens in this one. Boo, hisss…
Here are some recent pictures
Okay, it’s been a while I guess, but it’s been for good reason. I’ve spent all of my spare time the last 5 weeks or so, working on putting together DVDs of the kids first 17 months for posterity, and let me tell you, that’s a lot more work that you think it is when you get started. We weren’t very organized in the first few months, and the pictures and videos just kinda stacked up, so I had to locate them all, organize them, add them to the video software I bought, which then crashed every time I tried to burn to DVD, until I got a patch from the manufacturer to fix it. Then it was a matter of finding the right music to go with the videos, made harder by the fact that you can’t add music you bought from ITunes to a video, because of the Digital Music Encoded copyright embedded in the download. One of the many reasons why I am now using Amazon.com for music downloads.
Anyway, I’m just about finished with that project. I just have to find the music for the final hour of video, burn a few more discs, and we’re all good, as long as we don’t fall so far behind next time. If there are any budding video editors who want some experience editing together clips of really cute kids interspersed with liberal shots of the carpet, the ceiling and people’s feet, have I got an opportunity for you!
Other than that, I completed my first major ebusiness web site rollout for a client last week, which meant putting in a few more hours than normal, but not nearly as many extra hours as I use to work when I had to worry about planes falling out of the sky, so it wasn’t a big deal.
The kids are just wonderful these days. This morning, when Lisa was feeding them, Reece blurted out ‘baby’ for the first time when he saw a picture of a baby on a box of Baby MumMums. They’re learning to drink from cups with straws, which they love to do because there is even more water to spill down their fronts. With as hot as it has been here (mid 90’s yesterday), we didn’t think they were getting enough water, so we had to try something new. They’ve got enough now.
Lorelai is being absolutely adorable all the time. If she burps, she covers her mouth. If Reece burps, she covers his mouth. She loves to talk (baby talk mostly) and sing, and we’re pretty sure we’re picking up patterns in the words that sometimes sound like real words. She definitely has a word for Reece, but I don’t think humans are supposed to make that sound.
We had my folks over for a week two weeks ago, and Lisa’s mom spent the weekend here, and the kids just love having grandparents around. They get a little bit spoiled for attention, but it’s not as bad as it used to be.
I’ve still been doing a fair amount of reading, since I’m still riding the train ever day. Here are my latest book and movie reviews
Shake Hands with the Devil – Story of Genocide in Rwanda, as told by the Commander of the UN Forces in Rwanda. This book was shocking in it’s detail and it’s coverage. I highly recommend this book, but not for the faint of heart. I had dreams about, and needed some downtime after reading it. I almost broke into tears on the train to work one morning.
From a Buick 8 – Steven King – A quick read about Pennsylvania State Patrol Unit, and an old car kept in the garage behind their barracks. Good story, likable characters, good read.
The Summer Tree – Guy Gavriel Kay – My sister loved this book, and I liked it a lot too. It takes about a hundred pages to really get into it, then it becomes very good. I’ve got the next two books on order from Amazon.
The Gunslinger – Steven King – The first book of the Gunslinger 7. Interesting read, not the best book I ever read by King (i.e. The Stand), but right along the lines of what you might expect. I hear it gets better in the next 6 books.
Janet Evanovich – Motor Mouth – fast, fun read. There aren’t too many chick books I will read in public, but JE writes good books for just throwing the world away for a little while and relaxing.
Jasper Fforde – The Thursday Next Series – I’m into book four of this series now, and though it’s a more difficult read, all I can say is that this guy is a genius. I’ve never read such original, funny, thought provoking material before. Start with The Eyre Affair, and keep reading. It’s science fiction, and it’s a little work, but damn good stuff.
As for movies, it’s been some slim pickings, but here’s the good and the ugly
IronMan = Good fun, would watch again. Wish this movie had come out when I was a kid. Makes me wonder what I missed by not reading comic books
Into The Wild = Thought provoking, depressing and overly long.
The Darjeeling Limited = didn’t really get it, but at least it held my attention
Juno = Awesome movie. This biggest issue I had was that the damn song stays in your head for days
Shawn of the Dead = Good movie. Simon Peg is a genius
I am Legend = horrible. Turned it off half way through
There Will be Blood = Really didn’t like it. I admire the artistry, but ehhh, wasn’t my cup of tea.
Charlie Wilson’s War = so-so
Anyway, that’s what I have been up to. I’ll try to post some pictures soon.
Joe Beernink 