Friday, November 16, 2007
Don’t worry, the weekly football post will come. This late Saturday Big 12 game, though, is making it even harder to rationally think about the next seven days. Dominos falling… In an amazing coincidence, C. said both her name and her sister’s name for the first time today. She said “C.” to me several times this morning, although she would point at me and laugh when she said it. She picked it up again in the evening, so we asked her if she could say M.
Sunday, November 11, 2007
Another full weekend of football. First, as I may have mentioned and the pic above will show, we trekked up north to attend the Notre Dame - Air Force game. A good friend from KC has a friend rather high up in the administration at the Academy, and came to town for the weekend with access to some pretty good tickets. When I say pretty good I mean really freaking good.
Sunday, November 11, 2007
For the first time in her life, M. threw up today.* Appropriately, C. was laughing the entire time her big sister was puking up her dinner. I say appropriately, because the last time C. was sick, M. laughed. The fact it took M. over three years to throw up something other than formula bodes well for her college years, at least vis-a-vis her old man’s experience. For my non-parenting friends, I make a distinction between puking up your food and babies spitting up.
Monday, November 5, 2007
We took advantage of M. being at preschool and C. not commanding the language well enough to share secrets to take our youngest one along with us today to Toys R Us to scout out the hottest toys for the holiday season. Place was packed. I’m not sure if it was people using their two hour window for voting to actually get a jump on Christmas shopping or maybe Tuesdays are always a busy day, but it was strange to find the place hopping at noon.
Thursday, November 1, 2007
The calendar has flipped to November, baseball has ended (only 14 weeks until pitchers and catchers report!), the furnace is on, and there is frost on the grass. All sure signs that football will rule my TV for the next couple months. Three games will hold most of my attention this weekend. Some thoughts below. Game One: Manchester United at Arsenal, 8:45 AM EDT Saturday. When I say football, I mean all kinds of football.
Wednesday, October 31, 2007
M. was very excited for Halloween. We got the girls' costumes about a month ago, and anytime we mentioned Halloween, M. would shout, “I’m going to be a GOOD witch!” Clarifying the good part was very important. She was literally shaking with anticipation last night, when we finally put the costume on and prepared to hit the streets. When other kids would come to the door, she would try to help give them candy, but would get a little too wound up and would just shout, “Happy Halloween!
Sunday, October 21, 2007
I didn’t get this going until late in the game, but some baseball thoughts, wrapped around the last three innings of the Indians - Red Sox battle. Games sevens rock. And this has been a fine one, full of momentum swings, close calls, blunders, and clutch plays. In the first third, it looked like the Red Sox would run away and hide. In the middle third, it seemed like the Sox couldn’t touch Jake Westbrook and it was only a matter of time before the Indians took the lead.
Wednesday, October 17, 2007
It’s been awhile since I gave you a full update on the girls. C. is full of new tricks. She learned, last week, how to remove her own shirt. I was sitting here in the office one day when she came walking in, sans shirt, with a big smile on her face, smacking her bare belly with her hands. I got the process on video the next day, but can’t get the video across from the camera for some reason.
Monday, October 15, 2007
The Colorado Rockies are in the World Series? Seriously? I must admit, I never thought I’d see that happen. To be honest, I didn’t actually <em>see</em> much of it, thanks to those 10 PM eastern starts. I caught a few innings here-and-there either at the beginning of games, or on the nights when my cough kept me awake and I went downstairs for awhile. It’s a shame most of the country has missed their run, because it is one of the most remarkable runs in sports, ever.
Thursday, October 11, 2007
As if you needed proof I’m a bit off, one of my favorite things is to check out </span><span style=“font-family:Helvetica Neue;"><em>The Billboard Book of Top 40 Hits</em></span><span style=“font-family:Helvetica Neue;"> from the library and then just flip through the pages, soaking up the trivia. I recently checked it out again and figured I would put it to some kind of use. Thus, I scribbled some notes about one hit wonders as well as bands/artists you might think were one hit wonders but in fact were not.
Sunday, October 7, 2007
Of course, I must gush about my 5-0 Jayhawks. I hold no grudge against those who withheld judgement until KU “played somebody.” That was certainly fair. In fact, I was doing it myself, although I remained cautiously optimistic going into Saturday’s game at K-State. I just had no idea how we would match-up with a team that just waxed Texas in Austin after four weeks of cream-filled pastries. So the game was on here, which was fun.
Saturday, October 6, 2007
I must admit, this is a terrifically difficult album for me to write about. First, a ton has already been written about it, and I always fear that I’m simply regurgitating things I’ve read elsewhere. Second, I find myself attempting to “solve” the album each time I listen to it. It’s a bit like The Wall, in that sense. As I’ve had it on heavy rotation over the past two weeks, I have to catch myself from over-analyzing what a drum roll here, a sigh there, or an oddly placed noise is symbolic of.
Thursday, October 4, 2007
I’m not sure what happened to this week. Seriously, it seems like it was just Sunday night and I had grand plans for a bunch of blog posts, a bunch of projects around the house, and so on, and here I am on Friday having accomplished little if any of that. That’s what a cold going through the house will do, I guess. So, hopefully lots to come next week. Favorite album #2 will be posted for sure.
Monday, September 24, 2007
“You’re quite hostile.” “I got a right to be hostile, man, my people been persecuted.” I said in my initial list that this is the most influential album in my life. Before we get to that, first a quick review of how this album fit into the history of rap. When it was released in 1988, rap had already entered the mainstream and was beginning to become a cultural force. That said, most rap was tame, slightly silly, and reminiscent of early rock & roll: fun to listen to but not terribly thought provoking (To be fair, there were many important early songs in rap that had a social context).
Sunday, September 23, 2007
So how’d it go? Not bad. I’m fighting heartburn and indigestion today because I found out, after publication of course, that I made a minor but glaring error in my story. The kind of error that I glanced right over but a reader caught right away. Ugh. But it was kind of cool to go down to the RCA Dome and cover a game as a working member of the media.
Wednesday, September 19, 2007
M. always gets her way. At least when it comes to music in the car. Perhaps it is because she knows how to shout the phrase “I WANT M. MUSIC” continuously until we play Laurie Berkner. Anyway, I thought it was telling when I made an immediate transition after dropping M. off at pre-school today. On the way to school, it was Laurie Berkner and friends. On the two-minute drive home, C.
Sunday, September 16, 2007
I think I’ve vaguely touched upon the fact I was lining up a writing gig. It’s been confirmed for about two weeks, but I was waiting until all the paperwork was complete and I had my first assignment before I shared it with the world. This Saturday I will return to my earliest journalism roots and start covering high school sports for a local paper. I’ll be starting with a bang, too, as the first game I’ve been assigned will be played at the RCA Dome downtown.
Saturday, September 15, 2007
(This was supposed to be posted Friday. I made the list mentally Thursday, then when I sat down to put it together, had a total brain cramp on one entry in the list. Naturally I remembered it over the weekend, so here’s my delayed list.) Thursday I saw my first movie at a theater in over two years. I saw the Wedding Crashers while my brother-in-law was in town in August of ‘05.
Tuesday, September 11, 2007
I was dumb for even thinking it. For some reason, since M. only used the word “why” occasionally, I thought we might miss out on the endless repetition of that word. Sadly, however, she’s come down with a bad case of the Whys. All of a sudden, she’s saying it roughly every 7.5 seconds. I blame those little monsters she shares her preschool classroom with. Who knows what other horrid habits she’s going to pick up from them.
Monday, September 10, 2007
Rick Ankiel. Apparently I’m supposed to be shocked, appalled, devastated, and disappointed by the revelations that Cardinal outfielder Ankiel received shipments of HGH three years ago. Over the weekend the sports pages, airwaves, and blogosphere were full of people expressing strong sentiments about the news. I kept wondering why. First, I didn’t understand why Ankiel wasn’t subjected to the same assumptions that any other baseball player who suddenly performs at an exceptional level is subjected to.
Saturday, September 8, 2007
No list of best albums is complete without a Beatles disk. I say that as someone who really didn’t like the Beatles for most of my life, finally learning about and appreciating their genius over the last five years or so. (My dislike for the Beatles was perhaps the first manifestation of my contrarian side. When I was little, my parents and their friends listened to the Beatles all the time, so I got sick of them and decided I didn’t like them.
Monday, September 3, 2007
Big day today in la casa de B. It was M.’s first day of preschool and C.’s first day of class at Gymboree. As I have shared before, we’ve been working hard the last two weeks to get M. to understand that we would be dropping her off at preschool and leaving - no mommies or daddies allowed inside. She seemed to grasp the concept, but we were both a little worried about how her reaction would be when the time came to leave her behind.
Sunday, September 2, 2007
All great bands must have an album that changes all the rules, destroys all expectations, and challenges their fans to open their minds to something new and unexpected. Achtung Baby was exactly that for U2, marking a dramatic shift from the sound they perfected on 1987’s The Joshua Tree. While U2 could have kept cranking out the same sound, and selling tens of millions of albums in the process, they looked to the changes in Europe and to the changes in their own lives and decided to take a dramatically different path for the next full studio album (Worth noting the 1988’s Rattle & Hum had some studio tracks on it, some of which were quite good.
Thursday, August 30, 2007
Remember a while back when I mentioned a new gimmick of lists of five things I would be dropping on you? Haven’t seen list #2 yet, have you? Well, there is an explanation. This list is a biggie, and I’ve been struggling with how to properly roll it out to you. I’ve finally figured out how I want to do it, so hopefully we’ll get back on track. This one is a multi-edition list.
Sunday, August 26, 2007
It’s fun to watch the girls as they develop their verbal skills and vocabularies. M. is making a leap in logical ability and saying things she’s not heard before because she understands that the words can fit what she’s trying to say. C., on the other hand, has reached the point where 15-20 words and sounds just isn’t enough, and each day means something new and recognizable comes out of her mouth.
Sunday, August 19, 2007
Sunday was a big day for M.: she got to go and meet her preschool teacher, some of her classmates, and see her classroom. To say she was excited was an understatement. It had already been a big weekend, with three of the out-of-town aunts coming home for a wedding shower, and one of her out-of-town uncles coming back as well. Plus, we had been talking up going to see her class for a couple weeks, so by Sunday afternoon, she was ready to go.
Monday, August 13, 2007
As I’ve related, things on the professional side of your humble blogger’s life have been looking ever-so-slightly up lately. In addition to my regular editing work, there is the much-agonized over book I’ve been editing (working on my final skim now), another small project a friend tossed my way, and then there’s something that will involve regular writing that I’ll be interviewing for later this week. Just the way I want to plan my professional life for the next few years: a number of small projects that A) keep me busy, B) keep enough cash coming in to justify my many purchases at the Apple Store, and C) put me in a position to easily transition in to a more vigorous writing/editing lifestyle when all our kids are in school.
Monday, July 30, 2007
Today M. went in for her three year check up. For some reason, they wanted me to fill out a new information form (there are two new receptionists, so my theory was the old one took all their records, or had a horrible system they’re revamping). I got to the line for my Social Security Number and totally blanked. I can name my last four digits no problem, since it seems like every credit card and utility uses that as a security feature.
Wednesday, July 25, 2007
S. and I realized something earlier this week: this is the last holiday we can ever half-ass. From here on out, M. is going to demand big productions of one kind or another. After four months of preschool, she’ll be fully prepared to work us over at Christmas. So we enjoyed one, last laid-back holiday as we celebrated her birthday Wednesday. M. said some funny things Wednesday. For example, she told us all about how before she was born she was teeny-tiny and in her momma’s belly, and Dr.
Sunday, July 22, 2007
With M.’s birthday just two days away and S. working tomorrow night, I selected Monday night to assemble the birthday gift that needed assembling. No hints (I’ve caught M. trying to break my password to wake up the Mac several times), but I envisioned Christmases Future as I struggled to put this thing together. What was most maddening was the instruction sheet. Not a word of description anywhere on it, all pictographs.