Catch-up Blogging: Aidan's birthday

Aidan turned FIVE in late February and, for the first time ever, I was in town for the par-tay. As far as party goes, it was a good one: pizza (New York pizza, thank you very much), cake, and lots of time for me to play with the kids.

Once again, I didn't get a ton of pictures, especially of the adults. I am working on a theory--my family doesn't like to be photographed. It's frustrating. Anyway, here's what I got...


Erin and Kelsie. (See, Erin lets you take her picture...she's a good one...)


Jeff and my dad. It's a bit blurry and there's a weird white blob by my dad's mouth, but it's just about the only other picture of the adults that I have. (Jeff and my dad are also usually willing to get photographed.)


Aidan and Erin.


My family has gone dog crazy. In October, there were no dogs in our family. None. Now all four of my siblings have puppies. Crazy. Here's Savannah, the new puppy in Christian, Jennifer, Kelsie, and Aidan's house. She's pretty darn cute.


Some video of the dog. Also, how loud is my family?


Aidan with his cake.


Closer view of the super-cool NASCAR cake. He looks like he's about to karate-chop it, but don't worry, he didn't.


One more piece of video, featuring the family singing "Happy Birthday." Move over Von Trapp Family singers. Seriously, bet you didn't know I have one of the best voices in my family.

Catch-up Blogging: Rocky Point Snow

Warning: skip this post if you images of winter-weather trigger your post-snowpocalypse traumatic stress disorder.

The last weekend in February found me in NY, at my parents' home in Rocky Point. I hitched a ride up with Erin and Eric on that Friday, since the latest batch of nasty winter weather was whipping up the coast and I didn't like the idea of driving through a blizzard on my own. We were all heading up there for Erin's bridal shower (scheduled for the next afternoon and Aidan's 5th birthday party, scheduled for the next evening). Fortunately, we ran into zero problems on our drive up, a combination of good luck, excellent road crews, and the fabulous driving skills of my future brother-in-law.

Once we got to Rocky Point, I was a bit restless from being cooped up in the car. Plus, for the first time this whole long winter, I found myself appreciating how pretty the snow can be. It had been snowing all day in Rocky Point and would continue to do so, but the roads were nice and clean. Given how ill-prepared my area of West Virginia was for all the snow we got, I was almost stunned by the difference. (No, this is not a criticism of WV--the amount of snow we had this winter was historic.)

Anyway, I decided to take a long walk around the neighborhood. My companion?


My dog nephew, who rode up with us for the weekend.

At certain points, he was mostly interested in eating the snow...


But he and I also had fun just playing in it, especially in my parents' back yard.

Anyway, it was a nice walk and I took some pretty pictures...

First, my parents' house.



Then just some neighborhood shots...













So yes, snow can be very pretty. But we're done with it for now, thank you.

Newswatch...

From the Onion...


Breaking News: Some Bullshit Happening Somewhere

Andrew Sullivan also linked to the Onion clip--and the one below, too, that I didn't see the first time he posted it. It's pretty spot on, too.



This is, of course, why it is so depressing to watch the news these days.

For Shannon...

Update: it's working now. I had to re-up-load it, and delete the old one, but it "processed" right away.

A "thank-you note" of sorts for Aunt Shannon, from Bing and Wesley. Also worth noting: how quickly play turns into fighting for these two--play fighting, yes, but still...



They really like the new toy, Shannon. On Sunday morning, one of them had dragged it all the way upstairs and left it at the foot of the bed.

New house: photo shoot and a backyard visitor

It's been very busy here around here lately, with family visiting from out of town and prep work for Monday (first day of classes). But I do have some photos to share. My brother Christian, my niece Kelsie, and my nephew Aidan got here last Saturday. Then Erin and Eric came for a visit and cookout on Sunday. One of Erin's birthday gifts to me was a really pretty wooden frame that she said I should put a picture of me and the house in. That, of course, required a photo shoot. So here you go...


The classic "It's All Mine!" pose.

Thumbs up, baby!

Okay...I was just getting silly here.

I really like this one.

So those are some views of the front yard. This evening, though, I had reason to get some film of the backyard (or at least the wooded area behind my backyard). On Sunday, we saw two deer in the trees, but I wasn't able to get my camera. Today, though, I was luckier.

Saying good-bye to the neighbors...

One of the most interesting (and often depressing) things about living in this apartment complex is that there are lots of stray cats (at least a dozen adults) that live in the area. All of them are pretty much feral--no way they would let a person touch them. Several of them, though, are infatuated by Bing and Wesley and frequently come up to the patio doors to "visit." Wesley loves it. He gets so excited and whines and whines for me to let them in--something I would never do of course, since they could have all kinds of diseases. And some of them probably would come in too, so long as I didn't get too close. Again, they love the boys, not me. Bing loves the visitors, too, but doesn't want to admit it. He's like that.

Anyway, the other night, I had some leftover chicken that I didn't want to save and that the boys didn't want to eat (they aren't that big on people-food), so I broke one of my own rules and put it out for the strays. The way I figured it, it would be a bit of a good-bye feast from us to them. Plus, Bing and Wes would get some enjoyment out of the visit.


In the time it took me to load the dishwasher, two of our more frequent guests had arrived and were happily chowing down: one of the tortie-colored females who go ga-ga over Wesley (I call them his girlfriends) and an orange tabby that I call, for lack of a better name, "Less Attractive Bing." And yes, I've gotten a lot of grief for this nickname. Over the winter, he was the one cat I fed kind of consistently, since he huddled up against the front wall of the apartment and looked kind of sad, sickly, and cold. But despite all my care, he never let me get that close to him. Vogel once suggested that it was because I called him "Less Attractive Bing." I protested that I never called him that to his face. She said, "It doesn't matter. He knows." Oh well.


So here's some video of the Good-Bye Feast.







It was actually pretty cute--both the tortie and "L.A.B." would take little eating breaks to come up the window to visit with the boys. (I should add that them getting that close does make me just a bit nervous, but my cats are up to date on their shots and their flea preventatives...but still...)


After they left, the boys kept waiting for them to come back...



That was both sweet and sad. Poor strays...they really do break my heart sometimes.

NY Visit: My crazy nephews...

Ever since Kelsie showed me how easy it was to take video using my camera, I have used the "hey, you want to make a movie?" trick to calm down many a niece or nephew on the verge of a fit or tantrum. My nephews spent most of the time at the restaurant taking turns being impossible, so I used this trick more than once. Here are some results. (Sorry for the sound quality, but good luck getting a gathering of my family to quiet down.)


Aidan, still SpongeBob obsessed, singing "Best Day Ever," which was in the Spongebob movie, I think.


Further proof of the obsession. Can you tell how on the verge of losing it this kid was at this point? There was some energy waiting to explode.


Finally, Colin, dressed like a young executive, reciting the Pledge of Allegiance. This is a pretty big deal for him since he has some speech problems. He's making great progress, though, which is wonderful to see.

Greensboro visit: Grasshoppers' Game

Memorial Day Weekend found me visiting friends in Greensboro. Lots of fun stuff: a Grasshoppers' Game, stops at some of my favorite restaurants, and a great graduation party for Aaron.

Some pictures...first from the baseball game.


Vogel and Lauren.


Sunset over the field.


Another nice evening shot.

Like any minor league game, a Grasshoppers' Game is about more than just baseball--it's also about the wacky stuff that's also going during the game. You know--dizzy bat racing and sumo wrestling between innings. That kind of stuff. But what we really love about the Hoppers are Yogi Berra and Babe Ruth, the two dogs who retrieve bats and do other stunts during inning breaks. You can read about their more...interesting stunts here and here. Vogel, who loves dogs more than she loves people (it's not even close) goes crazy for these dogs, so I took a couple of videos for her (and you all, of course.)





Something I wasn't able to get decent video of, though, was the Waffle House strikeout. I am not sure if other teams do this, but it's one of my favorite things about going to a Hopppers' game. They pick some poor guy from the other team and designate him the Waffle House Strikeout Victim. If he strikes out at any point in the game, everyone in attendance gets a coupon for a free waffle. So every time he comes up, they play the Waffle song (more about that in a bit) and people yell "Waaaa-fuulll! Waaa-fuulll!" It's totally silly, a little bit mean (but harmless), and a ton of fun. And in the 8th inning it happened--he struck out. Free waffles for everyone! Yay! I tried to get video of the jumbo-tron and the song, but it didn't come out. Here's a clip of it from youtube, though. I just love it and it totally gets stuck in my head. Even now, I think I'll probably be singing it all day.




Here's Vogel with her free waffle coupon. Doesn't she look happy? Who wouldn't be? And now I have incentive to come back to Greensboro before October 31 (the coupon's expiration date) to put that sucker to good use!

Kelsie's Christmas Comedy Show

Hope you all had a wonderful Christmas. The craziness, which reached its peak on Christmas Eve, has ended here. The kids, of course, had a blast and it wasn't too bad for the grown-ups either.

A couple of days before Christmas, Kelsie (my ten-year-old niece) and I worked on a little comedy show (a follow-up to our Thanksgiving effort). So here it is for your viewing pleasure (especially for Jane, who loved the first show so much). In the beginning, you'll find Olivia, Kelsie, and Erin ready to go. Initially, Aidan and Colin were supposed to participate, too, but they wouldn't sit still and decided to run all over the house screaming instead. At one point, they do try to join in, but are given the boot. And before anyone accuses us of plagiarism, I'll fess up that we found just about every joke online, except for my personal favorite about Santa flying backward, which Kelsie told me last year.

As a final note, I am a tiny bit hesistant to post this video because of the grown-ups' interference in the beginning and pretty much throughout the whole thing. Nothing says "Merry Christmas," after all, like a grandmother yelling for the kids to shut up. But it is what it is...

Kelsie and Erin's Comedy Routine

Here's a first for this blog: a video taken by yours truly. When I was home for Thanksgiving, she showed me how to take videos with my camera (yes, a ten-year-old showed me how to do it in less than a minute) and then put together a little comedy show for you (with the help of my sister).

Here's what you need to know before you watch: Kelsie loves corny, silly jokes. A couple of years ago, Erin got her this joke book that has a whole series of "doofus" jokes, including our personal favorite--one that Kelsie didn't get when she first heard it (and that only made it funnier). It's the old "how do you keep a doofus in suspense" joke, where you just stare at the person who says, "I don't know, how?" We think she finally gets it now, as evidenced by her ad-lib at the end.