blog – Page 12 – THOMnottom

Sure… why not?

Call it delusions of grandeur… call it gluttony for punishment… call it whatever you like, I’m going to try my hand at NaBloPoMo again. That’s National Blog Posting Month for those of you with lives.

Since I first failed miserably at this a couple years ago, they’ve changed it to a monthly thing that encourages people to fill the Internet with mindless drivel about what they had for lunch on a daily basis (torilla-encrusted fish-based product for those wondering), but November remains the “official” month.

The real trick will be pushing myself to post earlier in the day. These late night “brainstorming” sessions go no where very slowly. The other trick will be to come up with things to actually write about. But we all know content is purely optional when it comes to the self-indulgence of personal blogging.

This time I even remembered to submit this site for their blogroll – it should now be listed under “general” because “meandering” wasn’t an option. Perhaps the potential threat of random strangers being directed here will be enough to keep me posting. Or perhaps it will simply be enough to make me finally get rid of the CSS that puts those silly blue borders around my photos…

So much to say

There’s just so much to talk about these days and I find myself unable to concentrate on a single topic and actually post. So rather than make you all wait around waiting for any little sign that an update is coming, I’ll leave you with this little teaser: Kayleigh, dressed as a monkey, playing peekaboo with herself in the mirror.

Kayleigh dressed as a monkey, playing peekaboo

Hope that satiates you for another evening…

Your moment of (baby) zen #7

Close encounter of the Facebook kind

While Facebook is typically a place to answer stupid quizzes and play time-consuming games, it turns out that it can also be a good place to reconnect with old friends. I’ve had a couple conversations with people whom I lost contact with years ago and have been happy to find out how theirs lives have progressed. Up until tonight any real life meetups have passed me by. But today circumstances lined up just right to let me catch up with an old buddy from elementary school.

Several months ago my old classmate Harry and I “friended” each other as modern social networking dictates. I was happy to see that he had made good on his early talents and is currently working as an artist. For the past year he’s been doing a project called 365 Monsters in which he draws a new, bizarre creature every day. I’ve really been enjoying it and feel a little guilty for not having shared it earlier (since there’s less than a month left). Still, peruse the archives and enjoy the twisted fun.

Last week Harry announced that he would be showing some of the original artwork (many of which are on sale at Etsy) during First Friday in Doylestown. And what do you know? My family just happened to have plans there on First Friday to see a Jim Henson exhibit. What timing!

After a fun filled day of watching Kayleigh’s head nearly explode thanks to the plethora of Elmo dolls the Bert and Ernie puppets, and my own attempt at puppetry, a whole group of us had a chance to swing by the gallery. Although I was happy to see some of the artwork up close (and determine that I must buy one or two), the real kicker for the evening was reconnecting with someone I haven’t seen in the better part of 2 decades.

So maybe Facebook can actually serve a purpose beyond Bejewelled Blitz afterall…

Waffle Day!

Kayleigh is getting smarter everyday. Not too surprisingly, she’s already figuring ways to out smart her old man. This morning after walking her to the tub so she could throw all of her toys in and then ask for them back one by one… suddenly that sounds like she’s already outsmarted me… Anyway she looks up at me and says, “Waffles.” Not sure why I ask, “Waffles?” to which she replies, “OK” and happily starts guiding me to the kitchen to make her breakfast.

Yes, it became a “Waffle Day” as Kayleigh proclaims any day that involves said dish. Honestly I’m not sure if she loves waffles that much or if it just happens to be the most fun breakfast word next to banana (depending on the number of a’s and n’s she decides to use). Although she did insist on kissing the frozen waffle, the box it came from, and a couple bananas – something never requested when a big bowl of oatmeal is served.

Someday I hope she’ll kiss me as readily as she does most inanimate objects in the house.

Well excuse me sexless man/woman

Another day, another forum post reminds me of a classic MST3K episode. Someone requested guidance now that his son was gearing up to learn an instrument. Aside from my limited experiences with the saxophone, the best I had to offer was to go straight to the source – Mr. B Natural:

Although a long sought after clip (especially in college when Internet video was not exactly as free-flowing as today) it’s not my favorite. That title belongs to the horribly dated “Are You Ready For Marriage?”:

Hopefully those 2 clips have given you a smile (along with a few guffaws) and taken you 30 minutes closer to the commute home.

Two Weeks

Do you know Grizzly Bear? If not, you should. So let’s get that part out of the way immediately. This is the incredible song “Two Weeks” – this is also the incredible FAN-MADE video for “Two Week”. Enjoy.

(thanks to Dooce for pointing this out)

I wanted to share it with The Woman this morning, so just before heading out to breakfast I fire it up. She likes it… and so does Kayleigh. My baby girl starts doing her little sway back and forth dance while watching the computer screen. Knowing full well that she gets real cranky when anyone takes her from Mama, I scoop her up in my arms and start dancing until the crying fades quickly into smiles at the birds and trees and stars that fly by. The music and the video both capture her attention.

And there’s this real connection. We’re all enjoying this song together and Kayleigh is happy and comfortable in my arms despite Mama being only a few feet away. She even starts saying “Do do do” to mimic the piano. I hugged her even more tightly and spun around the room. By the end of the song her face was beginning to burrow into my shoulder, so we fired it up again and Mama danced her off to sleep.

It’s time to create a new and improved “Daddy’s Little Girl” playlist and put “Two Weeks” at the top, because these are the moments I live for.

Your moment of (baby) zen #6

Things I learned while working on my backyard

This summer was supposed to be all about Project Reclaim The Backyard. Unfortunately the scheduling of this project conflicted with Jersey’s monsoon season (yes, I already used this joke on Twitter/Facebook). It started strongly enough, as I cut down hundreds of feet of vines in a couple weekends, but their actual disposal has dragged on for a couple months. Still, we got a patio installed so that The Woman and Kayleigh can hang out and watch me drop rocks on my foot and branches on my head for the rest of the summer/fall. It’s a family thing.

For the past week the crux of the work has been removing the remainder of the shoddy walkway that used to lead to the basement door. There is still no definite plan for replacement, but walking on dirt is a better alternative to navigating the concrete minefield that was left behind by an unnamed backhoe operator. And at the very least, I finally got to use the sledgehammer that was left behind in our basement. That’s a lot of fun – at least when the concrete is less than 2 inches thick. My next lesson will hopefully involve how to dispose of broken slabs of concrete.

After wiping out the walkway, I learned just how heavy Belgian Block is – VERY. I also learned that wheel barrows are not very good at transporting 6 or more blocks o’ Belgian at a time – especially when rolling them over the muddy holes they were dug out of. So the migration of blocks to another corner of the yard became a week long process because carrying one at a time significantly reduces the chance of breaking a foot but has the unfortunate side effect of taking way too long and tiring me out way too quickly. Maybe that stone fort I had planned is not such a good idea…

But by next spring, gosh darn it, we will have a usable backyard. Either that, or I’m going to start subletting it to a small farmer.

Walkies

We’ve delayed it as long as possible, but sooner or later Kayleigh was bound to develop an interest in moving on her own. Crawling has not been a big concern, and even now she only does a 3-legged butt-shuffle when the mood strikes. Instead it is the full-on 2-legged mode of transport that has tickled her fancy.

This has been going on for less than a week, but her progress is disconcerting for us and our lack of baby-proofing. She still lacks complete confidence in her wobbly balance, which means much of the day is spent partially hunched over providing two fingers to grip tightly for support. As much as this prospect terrifies me, Kayleigh can be even more adorable than usual when she excitedly stamps her feet in circles around the house. And it sure does make her smile.

Now an outdoor component has been added, which means shoes have become a necessity – which also lets her flaunt some of her new vocabulary. There’s some video of all of this that needs to be uploaded, in the meantime I came across this ad for It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia which rather accurately depicts her first steps with footwear.

Alright, not exactly accurate as we got rid of the coffee table, but you get the idea.