The problem with Sunday night concerts...

...is that Monday morning follows shortly behind them...

Still, MLW and I (and some friends from the ADSW, and some friends of theirs, who we'd never met before) had a neat-o keen time at the Birchmere (a peculiar little local venue) last night, where we saw The Puppini Sisters (who I always want to call the "fabulous Puppini Sisters," because I think it sounds better, and hey, they're three beautiful, musically talented, funny, glamorous girls who dress vintage and have accents (when they're talking, not when they're singing) -- I mean, what's not to like? Fabulous!) I commend them to you, if I haven't done so already. The group that opened for them was Mad Tea Party. I hadn't heard of them and don't know as that I would have sought them out otherwise, but they weren't half bad... kinda an R&B, meets early soul, meets early rock & roll, meets surf sound sorta thing. I'm sure WPE would correct me for leaving out five or six influences... But hey, you don't see too many people playing the electric ukulele these days... (as opposed to back in the day, when EVERYONE played it...)

Anyway, I'm blaming the fact that we got back late and, of course, needed to attend to the Pantheon (trust me, that's a whole other post), on why I didn't get to post one of the other posts last night.

I will say (completely unrelated) The Incredible Hulk may not have been, but it was certainly satisfactory (and as stockholders, it's important to support the Marvel brand...)

Oh, and SQ sent me this little bit on Iron Man Legos.

More to come.

Brain buffer = Holding at 7.

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...

Awesome!

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

2007: A Year in Review

The following was intended to be 2007's Xmas letter, but I got put in charge, and you know how those things tend to turn out... Thus, we sent NO cards this year (see? Told ya... so no need to be offended, we didn't send to anyone...) Anyway, for those of you that are actually curious as to what's happening in our little, localized section of reality, well, feel free to read on...

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Well, 2007 was another busy year for us (isn't it always, though?). We started new projects, added to our family and traveled quite a bit.

We started a monthly movie night, with a full, old-fashioned schedule of cartoons, serials, and two features (sometimes classic, sometimes contemporary). The nights seem popular, and we certainly have enjoyed watching old favorites and experiencing new entertainment.

We welcomed JAM’s 1st Cousin-once-removed, Zach, to the world, and have been amazed at how quickly he’s grown (and grown and grown). By the holidays he was walking – sort of – and clearly has a mind of his own. Allyson and Ricardo will have their hands full with him!

We had the great excitement (Woo. Hoo.) of redoing our master bathroom, and having our pipes replaced. We now love our bathroom. The re-pipe was… challenging, and we got into a legal dispute with the company. But, thanks to a wonderful lawyer friend, we’re now done with them. (If you plan to have any plumbing done, please ask for the name of a company to avoid...)

We saw Phantom of the Opera, and Avenue Q. Both were wonderful, although in very different ways. Phantom was exciting and the special effects were wonderful (and we hadn't seen it in like 15 years...), Avenue Q was dirty and wrong and hysterical.

We went to not one but two comic conventions this year. New York ComicCon (we LOVE NY!) was huge and exciting, although bitter cold outside made traveling a little unpleasant (OMG it was cold! And so windy!). We stayed in Weehawken, and took the ferry across the river, met lots of interesting people, bought way too much stuff and in general had a great time. Philadelphia Wizard World (in June) was a lot of fun. The Reading Terminal Market provided wonderful lunches, and we got to see both the cheerleader from Heroes and Number Six from BattleStar Galactica. We continued our new "con hobby" of collecting art and again came away with large quantities of stuff.

We traveled to Philadelphia a second time to see the King Tut exhibit with Debbie and Jim. The exhibit was wonderful and our time with Debbie and Jim was, as always, enjoyable.

We also traveled to North Carolina to visit Jenny and Andy before they had their son (back in March). Andy took a group of us on a walking tour and we got to learn much about Durham’s history. We went to see the Lemurs, and ate gelato (Mmmm... gelato...), and had lunch with Brian and Katie.

For our anniversary we went to Niagara Falls. We stayed in a wonderful hotel with a view of the falls. It rained the first day there, so we did all the wet tourist stuff – the boat to the bottom of the falls, walking under the falls. We also went to the local zoo and saw a magic show (where we got our picture taken with a tiger!).

For the holidays we hosted Jennifer’s parents here. Allyson and Ricardo wanted Zach to spend his first Christmas at home, so we all stayed here. Allyson hosted Christmas Eve dinner and Jennifer hosted Christmas Day dinner, and good food was had all around. (After Xmas we went to NJ to see JAM's relatives.)

In October Jennifer left her job of six years and took a position at the Association for Healthcare Philanthropy. She’s the Manager of Information Services, essentially the entire IT department, so is learning a lot about everything related to computers. An office with a window certainly is a step up and having budget control is fun.

Jonathan is still the President of the Art Deco Society of Washington, although he did not stand for re-election so is stepping down in January. Jennifer is still the secretary of the home owners association, and still enjoying the interpersonal drama. We both are volunteering at the Alexandria animal shelter, working as cat companions. Spending two hours a week petting cats is much more relaxing than either of our jobs (or other volunteering work...) As an outgrowth of that work in November we fostered four kittens. None of them had been socialized, so we spent several weeks convincing them that people are actually pretty cool. In the end we gave three back, and kept a little girl (totally didn't see THAT coming...) So Loki now has a little sister named Morrigan. He’s taking the changing fairly well, although is clearly upset that she’s touching all his stuff and doesn’t let him nap as much as he’s used to. She believes 3am is the best time to run around and play, and he believes that 6am is the best time to beat her up. So far there has been no blood or broken bones, although several tufts of grey fur have floated past.

Stay in touch in 2008!

[Please note: for those interested in such things, I highly recommend looking at the entire set of photos on the fliker account -- we linked to as many as we could, but there's many, many more...]

My cousin...

...sent me this disturbing news about the local PetSmart. I'm going to have to look for somewhere else to shop...

UPDATE:

This just in through my contacts at the Animal Welfare League of Alexandria:

Allan and myself went out to the Petsmart and reviewed the tapes with the Manager and District Manager.The employee never hit the dogs and has a great record with them. The employee is 18 years old and was basically being a kid. He was play-grabbing at one dog in particular, nothing that would be cruelty to animals, but the dog he was playing with is a very submissive dog; including with its owners. We spoke with the teenager and advised him that if the dog is submissive then he should not be playing with the dog in that manner, also we advised the Managers that they need to do more training with their employees and explain to them how to read dog's behavior, etc. Also the employee states that no one told him what was acceptable forms of play in the playgroup. In any case the dog was not hit and the employee was talked to about the situation and will get better training. The dog was not physically hurt. The actions of the employee could be interpreted wrong by someone looking in, but if you review the tape, frame by frame as we did, you will see exactly what occurred and he did not hit any of the dogs. According to the Managers the complainant was a disgruntled client.

Chaun Gorden--Director of Animal Control
4101 Eisenhower Avenue
Alexandria, Va.22304

Serious stuff

...(though not apparently serious enough to make me get this posted on time... I can be such a loser...)

So occasionally (and I use that term loosely), I get the "So what's new?" question. And since I don't believe I've shared this here yet, I thought I would let you know. I've been volunteering (for four+ months now) at the Animal Welfare League of Alexandria. The AWLA is a great organization that takes care of animals here in (you guessed it) Alexandria. So one night a week (or more if my schedule permits) I stop by the Voila Lawson Animal Shelter and pet cats. Yep, that's right. I pet cats. Who even knew that was a job? But it's not only a job, apparently, it's an important one. Live in the shelter can be stressful on the animals, and no one who comes into adopt says, "Hey, can I have that stressed out looking kitty in the corner?" By us (and by "us" I mean myself and the other volunteers, amongst whose ranks I'm managed to convince MLW to join) spending time with the animals and continue to keep them "social" we reduce their stress level, which in turn makes them more marketable, which in turn gets them adopted quicker into a good home. The folks at the League tell us we're saving lives, and on my less humble days, I choose to believe them. But I'll let you in on a secret, I really feel as if I should be paying them. No matter how bad my day or how bad my week is, I know that on Tuesdays, I get to play with cats (and kittens, but I personally feel they don't do much before 5 months or so). This lows my stress level. It's a win-win (as I think we've covered in earlier posts...)

So, if you're looking to support a local animal charity with either your time or your dollars, please allow me to suggest the AWLA for their fine work. And expect to see me occasionally referring to different cats I may interact with. Some of them can be quite memorable (like Bobbit). And please don't think AWLA only deals with cats... there are an equal number of people working with dogs, rabbits, birds, and various little critters (hamsters, gerbils, guinea pigs, etc.)

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Okay, so that's what I've been up to, but it's not even remotely everything I want to share. A lot of environmental stuff has been across my inbox of late, much of it worth sharing...

Do you know anyone that actually likes junk mail? Yeah, me neither. But did you ever stop to think about how much of a waste it is? For everyone. Time, money, trees, gasoline, more time, and more money. Why not opt out instead?

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And speaking of wasteful... OMG! Was I disturbed when I read this... Did y'all have any idea how bad an idea bottled water is? Now, I'll be the first to say I can't see it disappearing, but maybe working together we could do something to reduce the amounts. I mean, DAMN. Out of control. This will straighten your hair...

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Okay, enough ranting for the time being. Next time we'll have some lighter topics like the Bionic Woman, the Lone Ranger, and Halloween costumes...