I’m writing this post from a secret location in Eastern Washington where we are visiting Lisa’s parents for the first time in many months.
We drove out last night after dinner, and kids did really well. They fell asleep about 20 minutes before we got here, but really didn’t fuss at all on the trip out. That gives us great hope for a planned trip to Canada in September. We’ll not count our chickens yet, though.
The kids are really fun right now. They aren’t talking a lot (besides Mama, Dada and Uh-oh), but they are learning sign language quite quickly. About a new word every couple of days or so (if we remember to try it). Fortunately, our nanny is more diligent than we are, and she’s taught them things like ‘More’, ‘All done’, ‘Airplane’, ‘Please’, ‘Thank you’, ‘Milk’, and ‘Water’. They do, however, understand pretty much anything you tell them to do. I asked Reece yesterday to help Lorelai get off the little step we have by the window, and he ran right over to her, grabbed her arm, and pulled her off the step. Apparently, I need to be more precise.
They’re really getting out and exploring the world around them, and we’re trying to let them experience more of it, by taking them places and not being such home bodies. But, let’s face it, they’re still fascinated by rocks, dirt and the neighborhood cats, so I don’t think they would truly appreciate the wonders of Mount Ranier just yet.
I’ve been doing a lot of work in the back yard the last couple of weeks, putting in some new vegetable garden areas, converting one of our lawn sprinkler zones over to drip lines, and planting the garden. I’ve got all of our potted plants now hooked up to drip irrigation on a timer so I don’t have to go out and water them ever night. If only I had some automated way of pulling weeds.
Work is going well, but very busy. We’ve added a lot of new people to my company in the last few weeks, including one of my former co-workers from my old job. We’re nearing the end of a really big project, and since it will be a public facing web site, when we are done in a few weeks, I’ll post the link here so you can view what it is I do for a living.
I’ve slowed down on my technical reading the last few weeks to avoid burnout, and have been reading novels instead. Here’s a few I have finished:
Pierre – A collection of letters and stories gathered from friends and acquaintances of Pierre Trudeau. My sister gave me this book at least a year ago, and it sat on my shelf until a couple of weeks ago. It was a pretty good read. I was to young to remember much about Trudeau and all the history that was made during his time in office, but I did gain a certain amount of respect for him by reading it. I found myself wondering if I could ever run for office. Oddly, I would never do it in the US (even if I was a US citizen), but I would consider it in Canada. I guess I am more patriotic than I thought. Of course, that would involve moving back to Canada, and don’t get your hopes up on that. We’re pretty happy where we are.
Florence of Arabia – Another book my sister gave me at least a year ago. A pretty good read, not what I thought it was going to be at all. I would recommend it to anyone who sits a little to the left of center. I don’t know that those way over to the right will get it.
Forty Signs of Rain – Kim Stanley Robinson wrote one of my favorite trilogies of all time with the Mars series. This is the first book in a trilogy of stories around global warming. I just finished it an hour ago, and while the OCD in me will have to read the other two, I found it to be a little, ordinary. Not bad, just not extraordinary. It’s hard when your early works sets the bar so high.
The Eyre Affair – Lisa recommended this one to me, and I started it three or four times and couldn’t get into it. But after the first hundred pages, it got really good, and left me wanting more. Good thing there are more.
One the movie side of things, we’ve been watching BattleStar Galactica Season 3 on DVD. This is probably the best science fiction show of all time. I’m stealing a quote from Brad Paisley here, when I say, that you get into watching an episode, and you’re saying to yourself that the episode you just watched was the greatest you’ve ever seen, and then you realize you haven’t hit the opening credits yet. It blows my mind on every episode. It’s dark, it’s innovative, it’s amazing.
Another movie I really liked was Hott Fuzz by the same group of folks who did Shaun of the Dead, which I haven’t seen yet. Really well done, laugh out loud funny at times, snicker at others.
Of course, May means the return of ‘Deadliest Catch’ on the discovery channel. Best show on TV right now other than BSG (though I can’t say there is much in the way of competition.)
We’ll have some videos of the weekend posted in the next couple of days, I think. We’ve got a bust next couple of weeks, but we’ll do our best to get things organized.
Here are some videos from recent times (more coming soon, I promise)
Guest blogger: Lisa
Ok, this one is evidence of a bad parenting moment. I paused to take a picture instead of rescuing my son from the drawer that he got himself stuck in.
Here I’m distracting Reece from climbing on the coffee table by looking through it.
Lorelai with basket hat:
Here are two with Daddy’s smiling mug included in the fray:
And, last but not least, Lorelai about to go for the camera, of course.
My reviews of a few books I’ve read and movies I’ve watched lately. * = stars
The Good:
Movie: Ice Station Zebra. *****
Very good movie made in 1968 starring Rock Hudson. This movie has been on my list since someone recommended it to me back in high school. Thanks to NetFlix for helping me to locate it. Think Cold War, nuclear submarines and a race to the north pole.
Movie: A Fish Called Wanda *****
Just a really good British comedy. There is one scene that really just cracked my up, and I still smile when thinking about it a week later. A good, relaxing movie to watch on a Friday night
Movie: In the Valley of Elah *****
Well acted, kind of sad, moving story of a man trying to find out why his son was murdered after return back to the US from of tour of duty in Iraq. Not too much gore or trying to make you squirm. The characters and the story drive this one. I was pleasantly surprised.
Movie: Michael Clayton ***
Pretty good flick. Definitely not your typical movie. About what I’d expect from George Clooney. You don’t like anyone in this movie at the end, but the story is good and the writing is great.
Movie: Keeping Mum ****
Dark British Comedy with a lot of twists and some funny running gags.
Movie: Gone Baby Gone ****
This one is dark and brutal, and hard to watch at points. Its hard to call movies like this entertainment, because I don’t want to be entertained by stories of violence and evil. But if you judge a movie by the acting, the dialogue, the camera work, the plot, then this is a very good movie. Just don’t watch it if you want to feel good at the end of it. You won’t.
Movie: Blood Diamond *****
Amazing good, but very harsh. Just a horrible story, but one that needed to be told. This is where Hollywood does a service to the world. Tell the stories the news won’t tell. Bring in the big names so that people go and watch, and come out looking at the diamonds on their fingers, and wonder how many people died to get them that little rock. Movies like this should make you mad at the end. Mad enough to change the world. This one does, and does it very well.
Book: Lords of the North, Bernard Cornwell *****
I’m a huge fan of Cornwell, and his series about the Danish invasion of England in 800 AD is a real page turner. This is the third book in the series, and the fourth is out in hardcover. I nearly went out and bought it, and I normally only buy paperbacks
The Bad:
Book: The Terror, Dan Simmons. **
I’ve read a lot of Dan Simmon’s stuff. His Hyperion Series is probably my favorite Sci-Fi series of all time. The Terror is a fictionalized recount of the story of the real HMS Terror, ice bound in the Canadian Arctic in the 1840s. The book is vivid in its description, but the rest is just a little off. I didn’t like any of the characters that survived the first half of the book, and the as soon as you did start to like one, poof.
Movie: Blazing Saddles **
This is one of those that I’ve heard a lot about over the years. Some say it is the funniest movie ever made. I can understand that it might be poignant, but it is not the funniest movie ever made. I stopped watching halfway through though, so maybe I missed the funny part.
Movie: The Ultimate Gift **
I would have given it 3 stars, but the beginning of thee movie was pretty corny, and it is quite preachy, but cute. Perfect for my mother, but not my sister.
The Ugly:
Book: Empire by Orson Scott Card. (notice the absence of stars)
This is, without a doubt, the worst book I have ever read to completion. And I only finished it because I’m pretty sure my OCD wouldn’t let me stop. The only book worse than this that I have ever started to read (and stopped, back when I was younger and stronger), was called The Red Defector. That one I put down after 30 or 40 pages. Empire is the story of what might cause the next American Civil war. The plot is idiotic, the characters completely hokey, and relies on coincidence so much that I can’t even believe that a publisher paid money for this. Until you read the Afterword and realize that Card was contracted to write this as a plot for a new VIDEO GAME. Arrrgh.
Movie: Beowulf *
We started to watch this last night and turned it off after 30 minutes. I don’t know what I was expecting, but a computer generated movie of real actors was not it. It took a while to get past the animation, then you realized that the actors and dialog were bad.
Reece is either going to be a politician or a salesman. He loves to talk from his truck.
Reece hasn’t learned yet not to fall for my traps.
We had a great time at the zoo, watching the Otters.
This is just a cute video of Lorelai waving
I can’t believe I got this on video. Pretty funny stuff.
Hello Everyone! It’s Lisa here. I am filling in for Joe a bit. I think he has gone on strike with posting to the blog. It probably has something to do with the fact that I keep saying I’ll help him get pictures up for everyone to enjoy. Well, I guess I should put my money where my mouth is…
The big Easter festivity we planned was to go to the Easter Egg hunt put on the fire fighters at the local football stadium. Who knew that it wouldn’t be so much an Easter EGG hunt but more of an Easter Have-a-bunch-of-candy-in-the-center-of-a-big-circle-in the-middle-of-the-field-surrounded-by-a-hundred-or-so-kids-and-their-parents-who-are-standing-around-waiting-for-a-buzzer-to-sound-so-they-can-make-a-mad-dash-to-the-center-to-get-the-big-stuffed-animal-in-the-center Hunt? Of course, Joe and I seemed to be the only ones who were overwhelmed. It didn’t seem to phase Reece or Lorelai one bit. They each had their own method of enjoying the event. Reece got in to the swing of things when he realized one of the candy boxes made a nice rattle noise when you shake it. From there he proceeded to select those for additions to his bucket. Lorelai’s technique was a bit different. She found a spot, plopped down on her butt, picked up one piece of candy and placed it in her bucket. Then she took it out and put it back on the ground. Then she picked it up again…rinse and repeat.
All in all it was a fun day. I bought some plastic eggs to hide (i.e. toss on the lawn) for the kids. On Sunday it rained like the dickens, so we did our egg “hunt” on Monday instead. They had a good time. Reece would put the eggs in his bucket and Lorelai would follow him around and take the eggs out of his bucket. It worked out well, because there was a constant supply of eggs to either pick up or take out depending on their choice of activity.
Here are some pics of the Easter egg event:
Lorelai is showing of her piece of candy.
Reece is getting into the action.
Here they are checking out their loot.
Reece liked the candy ok, but the CONES were really something to write home about.
And this is what the kids really liked to do with their buckets.
Here’s a video from the twins first birthday. The balloons were a huge hit!
Here are several random videos of daily life:
Flying Baby
Moo Cow
Lorelai’s favorite hat
More Hats
Finally, Reece LOVES to clean the floors. (Unfortunately he likes to make them dirty too, but we’ll leave off video of that for now.)
Vacuuming
Sweeping
–This blog posting was a joint production by Joe and LISA 🙂
If you haven’t seen the movie Amazing Grace with Ioan Gruffud (Horatio from the A&E Series Horatio Hornblower), you really should see it. Gruffud plays William Wilberforce, a young British Lord in the 1700’s who rises to power and makes it his life’s mission to fulfill his uncle’s dream of ridding the world of slavery. His uncle, a former slave ship captain, is the same man who wrote the song, Amazing Grace, and later became a minister to try to atone for his sins.
It’s a very powerful movie, well acted and inspiring. Definitely worth watching.
Lorelai was awake and standing up in her crib this morning before I left. I just watched her from the doorway. So cute. She was trying to sleep standing up I think, and kept rubbing her nose with her blanket. She sounded really stuffy. A couple of times she made little sounds that Reece responded to, even though I think he was asleep. He really doesn’t sleep very deeply. I was a little late getting out of the house because I stood there so long.
Watched a movie last night – The Kingdom with Jamie Foxx, Jason Bateman, Chris Cooper and Jennifer Garner. Pretty violent, but a great plot, well scripted, acted and directed. Didn’t feel great at the end of the movie, but it did keep me watching.
Okay, okay, I know I’ve been gone a while. I wouldn’t doubt if many readers have stopped visiting. I don’t blame you. Life has just been changing a little bit.
Like I said in one of my last posts, I started a new job, and have been focused on getting up to speed on technology so I can be effective in my new role as a lead systems architect. Well, I don’t know how effective I am, but I have been keeping to my word about studying my ass off. I’ve finished three technical books (one over 1500 pages), read god knows how many web sites, and spent my work days cramming as much into my brain as possible. I’ve been working on ASP.NET 3.5, CSS, LINQ, SQL Server 2005 and SQL Server Reporting Services. Yay for me.
To relax, I’ve spent time reading (probably 7-8 novels/books since Christmas), and playing with the kids. (I’ll get to them in a minute, hold yer horses). I just finished a reread of one of my favorite books from my childhood, Lost in the Barrens by Farley Mowat, which wasn’t as great as I remembered, but was still a good story. I also finished the last of the Sharpe’s Rifles series by Bernard Cornwell (22 books plus short stories in that series that I’ve read over the past 2 or 3 years), and six books from SM Stirling, which I started last fall. I also read a book called Life In a Medieval Village, which was quite dry, but interesting at times. Basically, I’ve been a reading machine since I started riding the train. It helps that the writers strike has made TV pretty much irrelevant so I have time at night as well. I don’t really miss TV.
I’ve got a lot more technical reading to do over the next couple of months, but I will try to intersperse it more with something fun. I read for at least 2 hours a day, sometimes longer if I need to, and I think it is paying off. My confidence in my skills is growing, and I really feel that I made the right decision to leave my old job.
The kids are doing great. Both are walking/running around the house. Both have ‘Mama’ and ‘Dada’ down pat, and both know that a cow says ‘Moo’, though Lorelai says it more with a “Mllllll’ sound. Her tongue gets in the way a bit.
We went out last Saturday after to a Rhododendron garden nearby to buy some plants for our yard, and they just loved running around by themselves. Reece is high speed all the time, and I spent the time there chasing after him. He just loves being outside. Fortunately, the weather has been great here for the past week, and they’ve been outside a lot.
Our nanny took them to play time last week at the local elementary school gymnasium, and they both seemed to like it. They were a little in shock, with 30 kids running around, from the sounds of it. Boys kept coming up and hugging Lorelai, which I guess was okay until one of them knocked her down. Reece wasn’t used to kids taking toys away from him, since he is usually the taker, but he survived as well. I really wish I could have been there to see it.
We’re getting more photos done tomorrow, which is great, except both kids have bruises on their faces from recent falls. Hopefully they can touch that up.
Lorelai is our reader and constantly walks around with a book in her hand, looking for someone to read to her. She’s also practicing all the sweet facial expressions and actions to bend us to her will. She loves to lay her head down on whatever is nearby and flash those huge eyes and big eyelashes. I don’t know where she learned that from.
Reece is just go go go all the time. He’s sweet too, and loves to cuddle, for a minute, then he’s off again running circles around the living room. He likes to be thrown high up into the air, and loves to wrestle. He is all boy.
Lisa is doing well, just enjoying her time with the kids. She started talking about doing some blog posting here as well, so she may drop in from time to time to post pictures of the kids. I’ll believe it when I see it.
The other thing I have started to do again is write. I have a story in my head, and it’s just begging to come out, so I’ve been spending some time getting it down. I know it’s not very good yet, but writing is something you need to practice, and that’s what I’m doing. I would really like to get to the point where I could write for a living, but I need to get some success under my belt first. Maybe if I wrote a seven book series about a boy wizard….
Anyway, I’m hoping I may have more time to be blogging in the near future. Things are just settling down, and I’m into a routine where writing is becoming more important in my life again. Of course, the good weather and longer days are just around the corner, then who knows what will happen. We’ll see.
Joe Beernink 