Friday, April 22, 2005

Memories

The song playing on the radio this morning when I got back into the car after dropping E off at daycare was Luther Vandross' song "Dance With My Father." I love that song. It makes me cry everytime I hear it. It makes me think of my father (deceased) and remember.

My dad was a 'tinkerer.' He fixed everything, plumbing, electrical, cars, anything. We never had a repairman in our house. If my dad couldn't fix it, we just got a new one (like TVs...he couldn't fix TVs).

He was also a joker. I remember how he used to tease my mother. Like the year we went to the Grand Canyon. My dad would walk way up to the edge of the canyon causing my mother to scream, "Virgil! Get away from the edge!"

Or we would be driving on a deserted mountain road and he would cut the corners. "Virgil!' my mother would yell. "I'm just saving on gas," he would tell her, chuckling.

My mother was the worrier. My dad was the joker.

He was born on a farm in Minnesota though he hated the winters and left as soon as he could. I know he spent some time in Texas and California. He always said how he crossed the Golden Gate Bridge the first day it opened. I don't know when he moved to Seattle, but he was working at the Bremerton Ship Yards during WWII. He married my mother after the war and me and my brothers were born a while later.

I am sad that he never got to see my wedding or meet my son. I wish he could have met E. He so loved his other grandchildren, I know he would adore my child.

There are other songs that make me remember him, Dan Fogleberg's "Leader of the Band," for instance. The last verse puts me in tears everytime:



I thank you for the music
And your stories of the road
I thank you for the freedom
When it came my time to go --
I thank you for the kindness
And the times when you got tough
And, papa, I don’t think I
Said ’I love you’ near enough
I'm crying now. I love you Dad.

Do you have songs that make you cry?


Daily Laugh: Funny women

"A friend of mine confused her valium with her birth control pills. She had 14 kids, but she doesn't really care.
The trouble with some women is that they get all excited about nothing and then they marry him!
I read this article that said the typical symptoms of stress are: eating too much, impulse buying, and driving too fast. Are they kidding? That is my idea of a perfect day.
I know what Victoria's Secret is. The secret is that nobody older than 30 can fit into their stuff. "

Wednesday, April 20, 2005

bad movie place

Okay...so the movie URL seems not to work very well (damn that crappy geocities...). I'm gonna hafta find a new place to put that little movie.

Monday, April 18, 2005

Movies

Hey...dig it! A movie*.

Evan loves blowing bubbles. He would do it all day if you let him.

Daily Laugh: "The real reason that we can't have the Ten Commandments in a courthouse is that you can't post "Thou Shalt Not Steal," "Thou Shalt Not Commit Adultery" and "Thou Shall Not Lie" in a building full of lawyers and judges."

* This movie is in QuickTime format. Download the QuickTime plugin.

Thursday, April 14, 2005

Sold!

Our Oregon home has been sold. Well, okay, we had an offer on it a month or so ago, but it is just getting more real as we get closer and closer to our closing date (May 1st).

I am having some mixed feelings on finally selling. In a way I will be glad to finally have an end to things, but I also really loved that house.

This Saturday I am meeting with a realtor to look at a bunch of pre-owned homes. We went out on Monday and looked at one. I was a bit unimpressed. It was okay, I guess, but just not as nice as I am used to . It was obviously not a new home (we have always owned new homes...bought directly from a builder). It was 13 years old. Okay, not that old as homes go, but definitely older than we have owned in the past. It had a wonderful yard with a hot tub with a view of the mountains and the city lights and a nice grassy area where we could put one of those play things for E.

I am not in a big hurry to buy and I really like looking at houses so I am kind of looking forward to our outing on Saturday.

Update on Idol: I am really sorry that Nadia got bumped yesterday. She was one of my favorites. I think she has a wonderful voice and is just gorgeous, even if she did on occasion do wacky things with her hair. I hope she continues to sing and maybe she can still 'make it' as a singer.

Daily Laugh:



Wednesday, April 13, 2005

Idol

You know, I really hate those stupid 'reality' TV shows; Survivor, The Bachelor (and all of its incarnations), Big Brother, et al. I just don't get it. I have channel-surfed to Survivor and kind of like to watch the competitions, but when they start talking and whining about the other contestants and when they get to that insipid voting crap - zoop! - channel flip.

That being said, this year, for the first time ever, I have been watching American Idol. I don't know why I decided to watch it this year, but I did. I am not a fanatic about it or anything. For example, last night I didn't turn it on until it was half over (it comes on at 7PM here and I was outside playing with my son at that time). The problem is by now, it is harder to choose who I want to get bumped off. It seems that those who are left are all really talented and I can't help but want them all to win. I have always liked Nadia and Anwar and Jessica. I have come to really like Constantine (gotta love that great Greek name!) and Bo. And everytime I see Vonzell I think she is getting better. And as for Scott...there is something about having to root for the big guy.

But...I am afraid that I think that Scott was the weakest (of those that I saw) last night. He might be gone after tonight.

What I think is different about American Idol than (some of) the other 'reality' TV is that these folks have talent and the competition is about their ability and it doesn't involve endless bitching and whining and backstabbing. At least that is what I tell myself.

I have heard that The Amazing Race is good too. I might hafta start watching that too.

Aside - Tertia has asked her readers to introduce themselves. I don't know if I have any readers (I know I get hits, but since no one seems to leave a comment, I don't know if these are accidental hits or what), but if you read this, please feel free to leave a comment. I would love to read it.

Daily Laugh: "Skinny people irritate me! Especially when they say things like, "You know, sometimes I just forget to eat." Now I've forgotten my address, my mother's maiden name, and my keys. But I've never forgotten to eat. You have to be a special kind of stupid to forget to eat."

Thursday, April 07, 2005

He talks!

I am so proud and happy about my little boy! I can't believe how far he has come, language-wise, in just a month or so. He seems to learn new words with each passing second. It is, honest-to-god, just like a little light bulb went off in his head and now he realizes that, 'hey! this language stuff is really cool!

It was only a month ago that he did not form many sentences at all. Now he is saying 'please', 'thank you', making 3 & 4 word sentences and saying words that I never thought he knew. I guess I shouldn't be surprised. He was late walking too. He didn't really walk on his own until he was 16 or 17 months old. He had been 'cruising' since 9 months or so (the picture at right is E at 9 months old), but just wasn't ready to let go of a handhold. Then, really, one weekend he would not take more than a step or two without holding onto something and then the next weekend he was running across the room.

Just watching him grow and change is so amazing.

Daily laugh: "If life were fair, Elvis would be alive and all the imposters would be dead." -- Johnny Carson

Wednesday, April 06, 2005

New format

Bear with me while I am tweaking my look here. For some reason the jpgs aren't all showing up after I publish the blog. It looks right when I preview it though.

Curious.

Later...

Well...figured it out...missing a semi-colon...the bane of programmers everywhere...

Flies dance operas to your wisdom

Hehehe...this is just too funny. A couple of the 'compliments' I received were

  • Your Hands do the work of 10,000 highly trained lesbian jumping beans.
  • Wheals and boils come forth as testament to your fine sense of haut couture.
I'm just trying to picture a lesbian jumping bean...

(Thanks, Cecily, for this link...)

Tuesday, April 05, 2005

Mornings

Other blogs have been posting about children's sleep problems (Greener Pastures, Chookooloonks) so I thought I would put my own problems out there.

I have gotten so that E will go down to bed very well. We have a bath, put on jammies, play a little bit, then to bed with a story and a kiss on the forehead.

So what is the problem? Well he usually gets up at about 5:15 AM. That's FIVE FIFTEEN IN THE MORNING. Now I have never been a morning person. I remember when I was a teenager that I was rarely up before 11 on the weekends. My motto has been 'I would like mornings better if they started later.' Even now, if I had a choice, you would rarely see my baby blues open before 8 AM.

So what's the deal with 5AM? If I put him down later (say 9PM instead of 8), he is still up at 5AM ('milk, mommy!'). Sometimes he gets up about 1AM and gets into bed with me. Now I know that this would be easy to cure if I wasn't so lazy tired. I would just put him back in his bed and he would go to sleep again.

Until FIVE AM!

God, I hate mornings.

Monday, April 04, 2005

Easter pictures

E had a pretty good Easter. He doesn't really understand what it is about but when I showed him the Easter basket that the Easter bunny had hidden behind the chair in the living room, he had great fun opening all the eggs and eating some Easter candy.


E's Easter basket


E finds a car in his basket


E's Easter smile