Friday, February 29, 2008

So Cousin Zach...

...might have a future in opera...

We babysat for the second time in his life and well, I think it was... um... well, actually jury's still out on whether it was "better" or "worse." The first time, Zach screamed for half an hour and then MLW picked him up, he fell asleep, and stayed that way until his parents came to claim him (fun side note: the power went out about an hour later, so we had no choice but to literally watch him sleep after that...)

This time, he started crying three minutes after he realized his parents weren't in the room (they were at the Bon Jovi concert). By comparison, it was more crying than screaming (maybe his voice changed and he can't hit the high notes any more?) He continued for about and hour and a half, and then MLW picked him up and, you guessed it; he fell asleep.

I just wind up feeling like we're lousy babysitters... nothing we do seems to help. Toys, TV, reading to him, food... hell, I even enlisted Loki to help at one point (and he tried). Ah, well, maybe it's the separation anxiety phase he's in.

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In other news, an awesome new Iron Man Trailer brought to my attention by MLW.

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And a way overdue addition to the links over on the side. OriginalWeb's blog, which is updated far more frequently, and is much more amusing than mine. Also, more talk of squirrels on average...

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And finally, some ret-con posts that have been sitting around waiting for me to finish them. So if you want to step back in time a couple of weeks, you can hear me yappin' about something and whining about something else. Also, stayed tuned, as we'll shortly be having more info on the whole "stuff stolen from luggage" story...

Wednesday, February 27, 2008

Viva Las...

...Veg... ah, who am I kidding? I think the old joke goes something like, "I just flew in from Vegas and, boy, are my arms tired..."

Except actually, we actually flew in Monday night and really, I then slept for about 16 (or was it 18?) hours... and then it was time to get up and go to the AWLA and pet the kitties...

I'd say the Vegas trip was everything I wanted it to be, but I'd be lying. We started out on a bad footing -- the flight was canceled -- the [unnamed for legal reason] airline then tried to re-book us for Sunday... that would be great, except we were leaving to fly home on Monday, so that didn't work out so well for us... So, instead we got put on another flight, spent a large quantity of time in the Atlanta airport, and bing, bang, boom, instead of checking into the hotel in Vegas at dinnertime Friday evening, we instead arrived closer to 2 a.m. Saturday morning.

And that more or less set the tone for the rest of the trip...

I'll share the rotten cherry on top with you. On Sunday, we spent a nice afternoon having lunch at the Stratosphere's Top of the World (a revolving restaurant that gives one a view of the city). Point of interest: getting to the Top of the World requires going through a metal detector (the only one I've thus encountered in Vegas... clearly the belief is that the terrorists would only want to blow up the tallest structure in Sin City... or something... don't get me started on security...), which, in turn, resulted in my having to "check" my swiss army knife.

So, nice lunch, excellent view, many pictures, and then suddenly we had to dash out because we had tickets to see a show back at Planet Hollywood Hotel & Casino (not to be confused with the Planet Hollywood Restaurant, which, quite counter-intuitively is located in Caesar's). The show was quite good -- but seriously how could it not be -- the man trained housecats! I say again, trained housecats...

Anyway, the Oscars telecast (on three hours earlier in Vegas), a short nap, and then dinner later -- actually, just sitting down to dinner, and MLW suddenly remembers, "*gasp* We forgot to pick up your knife!" And literally runs away from the table. Then the food arrives. So MDFA and I make small talk with the waiter (why is it never the same waiter as your primary waiter that brings your food?) and MLW arrives back with a tale of concierge confabbing. The upshot -- all we have to do is go all the way back across to the other side of the Strip and talk to Security and we can pick up the knife. I briefly considered abandoning it... it's as not as if it's a particularly expensive knife... but, I've had it for ~25 years, and my parents gave it to me, so it was only briefly.

So MLW and I wound up doing just that (MDFA opted out... go figure...) And a few short arguments later, $7.34 lost in penny slots, visits to two different security desks, and a short stop at the MGM Gift Shop later (on the way through the lobby), and our plans for the night before we left finished off.

At this point, you may be wondering why I told you all that. (That is, presuming you're even still reading... all four of you). Well, knowing I had to get on the plane in the morning I simply packed the knife in my luggage (the bag that gets checked, not the carry-on obviously...) Packed in that same pocket, four pairs of cuff links in two tiny bags, a mini-screwdriver (with removable heads, stored separately in an old Dramamine container), and an adapter for MLW's cellphone.

So, after we were back from the AWLA (anyone remember where this story began? Anyone?) and I finally had the chance to speak to my lovely wife in 20 or so hours, and I finally get to ask if she had unpacked anything on her own or moved stuff, because, five things were missing from my checked bag: my mini-screwdriver, four pairs of cufflinks in two tiny bags, and... wait for it... my swiss army knife. And when I say "missing," I mean "stolen."

Thank you! Good Night! Elvis has left the building!

Friday, February 15, 2008

Awesome!

So many things to deal with... movie nights, parental visits, etc. But hey, in the meantime, check this out...

Thursday, February 14, 2008

So, for Valentine's Day...

...MLW and I decided to give our love to the kitties at the AWLA shelter. (We're kinda not into the whole "You must buy a gift because Hallmark-says-so sorta" holidays... And yes, before anyone corrects me, yes, I know that Hallmark didn't invent the holiday.)

Interestingly enough, there's apparently a theme taking place on a grander scale...

Wednesday, February 13, 2008

Happy Potomac...

...primary or something...

Except totally not... it took two hours to get home last night and in so doing I got to the polling place at 7:07 pm -- know what that meant? Yep, you guessed it? Didn't get to vote. So then I went the remainder of the way home and arrived about five minutes before our dinner reservations were supposed to be for... Not that big a deal, since we'd already decided that we weren't going out... and, in fact, when MLW called to cancel the reservations no one even answered the phone...

I can't imagine why the Commonwealth did not extend the voting hours... hell, even Maryland thought to do that.

So, all-in-all, exactly what 37 should feel like, I reckon...

Sunday, February 03, 2008

Watching the Super-Bowl (Ads)...

...(and the Super-Bowl, too) because, really what else is there to do on Super-Bowl Sunday...?

Publish something back in time?

We spent sometime yesterday at Cousin Zach's 1st birthday party (his actual birthday isn't until over a week from now, but he didn't seem to mind getting the presents early... another thing we have in common...) Pictures forthcoming, I presume...

Let's see, I think there's a bunch of stuff I've had lying around...

I could have told them this one...

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Apparently, Iron Man fans have lots of time on their hands... 'Course, I understand the movie is making people pretty excited.

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Think about the future, why don'tcha?

And while you're wondering how quickly technology insinuates itself into our lives, you might want to check out this year's Beloit College Mindset list. For those of you unfamiliar with that, here's the explanation page. (It's also very good if you need to feel old...)

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Then there's this:

More to come, I imagine...