smacky and bucky

From the Lost finale: Jack faces Locke (2010)




Lost, part 2: Jack Attack!

Friday evening the baby store (Imagine Home Depot, but everything in the store is for a child instead of the home... Baby Depot?) called and said the glider and ottoman we had ordered (with a specific fabric) had arrived at the store. We could come get it (about 15 minutes away) or they would deliver it for $50. We said we'd come get it (duh). Saturday morning we headed to the store and they rolled it out in one huge box. We opened the box to confirm the contents and saw that the two pieces had been shrink-wrapped. An employee helped me remove them from the box and get them in the car:

With the chair safely locked in the car, we weren't obligated to go straight home, so we decided to get some lunch and catch the "Babies" movie.

It's by a French director (I assume, since it's a Canal + production) and there's no narrator, which was a brilliant idea, because then you just spend 1.5 hours watching these four children (from Mongolia, Nambia, Japan, and USA (San Francisco). There were only a few moments that felt like the director had an agenda (as in: "Gee, American kids are fucking spoiled and pandered to, huh?) but that had more to do with the choice of couple to document.

The American couple had a rather hippie, new age outlook that made us roll our eyes a few times. The American mother is in a hot tub outside with her kid, and the kid starts crying when the jets start. They get out, and the mom and kid are naked. Yeah, it's all natural, but it played like she had read it in a book or something ("Spend naked time with your child so they know it's natural" or some crap). Then at one point the kid turns around and slaps the mom in the face and the mom's face and voice tone don't change at all. Instead, she pulls a book off the shelf and shows the cover to the kid. The book is called "No Hitting." WTF? I'm not a parent yet and that just played out dumb. The kid can't walk yet, she's going to retain all your book lessons? Just tell her!

Then the dad took the kid to some new age drum circle thing where the parents were holding the kids and doing some fake Native American song chant that went something like, "Omanomu, the Earth will take care of you. Omanomu, the Earth will take care of you." The kid, in a moment of startling clarity, I felt, got up and tried to open the door to leave.

Saturday night we watched the latest episode of Doctor Who, which was okay. The Doctor brought Amy's fiance along as a sexual buffer, I guess, shades of Rose and Mickey, I felt.


Sunday afternoon I watched Russia lose to Czech Republic in the final of World Championship Hockey (and took a nap in the middle of it).

Sunday night was Lostaplooza.

I printed beer labels for the event (though it was only Laura and I, and she didn't drink the nonalcoholic beer I got for her, so it was more for photographic purposes. We'll have Dharma beers in the fridge for some time to come.

Last night Laura and I both had a craving for the same thing: southern fried chicken. Our quest took us into downtown DC, a few blocks from the White House, to Georgia Brown's. Fried chicken, grilled asparagus, mashed redskin potatoes, mac & cheese, and pecan pie. OMG. And between the two of us we had enough left over for me to bring for lunch today!



Laura wants to see this movie this weekend:


This visually stunning new movie simultaneously follows four babies around the world - from first breath to first steps. From Mongolia to Namibia to San Francisco to Tokyo, 'Babies' joyfully captures on film the earliest stages of the journey of humanity that are at once unique and universal to us all.

I guess it's fitting that the first movie we go see since Laura got pregnant is this one!

I have an extra bulletin board in my office. It's not mounted on the wall, but just leaning against it beside a bookcase. With no preplanning, this bulletin board has become the "What's going on in my life outside the office" board (names removed to protect the innocent).

1. The certificate from the 2-day Advanced Copyediting class I took in February.
2. The 20-week sonogram of my little boy.
3. The recently purchased Washington Capitals photo.

Gotta say, 2010 has been a monumental year. In a little more than three months I'll be a dad (holy crap!). And I generally hate watching sports, but something about hockey has touched a nerve.

A-ha's first two releases are getting 2-disc deluxe editions in June!

'Scoundrel Days' deluxe edition samples:

http://bit.ly/9Lip8x 'Hunting High and Low' deluxe edition samples: http://bit.ly/avSoGR It's gratifying to see these guys getting some respect in the States! (I already placed my preorder and got an extra $5 discount) These won't be sold in stores (or even Amazon), so I wanted to make sure I got them.

Stumbled on this the other day and decided that yes, I DID need to own it on vinyl as well as CD. $3.00.

I bought this matted photo at a craft fair Laura and I wandered through on Sunday as we were walking with the dogs downtown. I happened to be wearing the away jersey of Mike Green (#52), so when I saw him in this pic, I took it as fate!

* I'm currently listening to May 6th's NY a-ha show (I was at the May 7th show, which I suspect will be posted soon. I'm willing to bet the same person who recorded the Thursday show attended and recorded the Friday and Saturday shows as well).

* Here's a final pic of NYC I found on my phone:

Another good thing about the country is that it's sometimes surprisingly easy to find things that are sold out in the "big city" where demand is greater. Case in point:

Found the Throwback Mountain Dew and Heritage Dr. Pepper at the Walgreens, of all places.

People still claiming in the face of ALL evidence to the contrary that Obama was not born in America, Tea Party people yelling about how spending is out of control (despite saying nothing during eight years of fighting dual wars in Iraq and Afghanistan and bailing out Wall Street at President Bush's insistence), and people buying the Snuggie like it's a brilliant invention...

Sometimes I can laugh at the absurdity of it all, and sometimes I feel like the old Mark Twain, bankrupt after a bad investment in a printing press, bitter about having to work his ass off in his twilight years, and publishing things with titles like this:

I live in the shadow of DC, but it doesn't feel like a big city the way NYC feels like a big city (except when you're stuck in rush hour traffic and feel like you're dying).

This weekend is what L is calling our "babymoon." You can figure out what that means (It's like the honeymoon, but there's a stowaway!). It also happens to coincide with the A-Ha concert I'll be at tomorrow night. I'm so excited about seeing them!


Saturday plans include NY pizza for lunch, after which L is heading off with her sis to shop and I'm going to Jim Hanley's Universe (the huge comic shop across from the Empire State Building)! Have I mentioned that he's my wife's mother's cousin? It's the store's 25th anniversary and EVERYTHING in the store is 25% off! Woooo!



Saturday night we're meeting one of L's friends for dinner at a barbecue place, of all things.

In the past six years, I've found a lot of Blue Willow china pieces washed up on the shore of the Great Wicomico River. So many, in fact, that eventually I figured I had to have enough to make some complete pieces. So I laid everything out and played archeologist. Then I got the Super Glue and got to work.


Some pieces I only have the majority of, like this large bowl and the sugar bowl.


You can see by the two pics below, the final product was made from multiple pieces, and the pieces were found months (or years) apart!



And yes, that is a sterling silver spoon and yes, I also found that in the river!

The property is near the mouth of the Great Wicomico River, where it opens into the Chesapeake Bay. I like to speculate that maybe a ship from England, heading north to Baltimore, either sank or some of its goods were tossed or fell overboard for some reason. That would explain the pieces washing up. New pieces wash up every time there's a storm.