smacky and bucky

Not much planned for this weekend. Weather is supposed to be dry(ish) and fall-like. The season finale of Doctor Who is on BBC America at 9 p.m. Saturday night, and the first televised Washington Capitals hockey game is Sunday at 5 p. m. And we'll probably get out and do something fun with kiddo. And... that's about it.

Hopefully some good sleep in there too.

I have been unmotivated to post anything. Why? Well, work has kept me busy during the day, life has kept me busy at night (teething kid who run/walks now and grabs everything), and it's been raining every damn day since, what? August? Seems like it. The inside of my windshield is wet in the morning! What's up with that? How do you fight humidity in your car? How long before mold starts? Sigh.

I'm sure it was an accident, and I'm sure the guy is fine, so it's okay to watch this and laugh and laugh and laugh. I did!

Today was the first day of training camp for the Washington Capitals. The hockey season starts in early October! I took the boy to see the action. We had such a good time! He loved watching them zip up and down the ice. Plus they had helium BALLOONS everywhere, and balloons are just about his favorite thing on the planet!

One year ago today (around 10:30 p.m.) you arrived, tiny, screaming, and pink. They cleaned you up and you fell asleep in my arms (after making sustained eye contact and freaking me out, like you were sending a mental warning: "Don't fuck this up, Dad!").

One year later, look at you now:



Taking those first steps on your own, exploring your world, (terrorizing the pets!), and I can hardly remember life before you.

Good thing I have a blog archive going back to 2004, huh?

You're amazing and Daddy loves you. Happy birthday.

What a fantastic weekend! The boy's first birthday party was so much fun. We had three sets of grandparents, a great grandmother, two aunts, one uncle, and two cousins attend. The kid got a zillion gifts, of course, and had a ball looking at everything. We had a small helium tank and had balloons all over the ceiling. The kid was totally overstimulated, but he lasted through the gifts before needing a nap. We postponed the cake until after dinner (I grilled burgers).


Laura made this cake from scratch:






Yep, it has six layers, corresponding in color to the characters on the show:
(1) Green for Brobie
(2) Orange for DJ Lance
(3) Yellow for Plex
(4) Blue for Toodie
(5) Red for Muno
(6) Pink for Foofa

It puzzles me how many people still believe ‘friendship’ or at least bonhomie conducted in cyberspace isn’t a valuable form of social contact, but, say, being thrown together at an NCT group, or in halls of residence, or because your desks at work face on to each other, is. Or that anodyne small talk with a neighbour is ‘genuine social stimulation,’ whereas chatting over Twitter with someone 6,000 miles away who loves Top Gun and Jefferson Airplane as much as you do is just lonely, dysfunctional nerds clashing in cyberspace. This, to my mind, is idiotic. It’s time for us all to come out of the closet about our secret internet chums.

"Tomorrow" is such a vague word when you're a parent (and lazy about posting!), so here are some pics to end this week...

Henry has ALWAYS been a fan of feeding himself. He's got a really independent streak when it comes to that. We discovered squeeze smoothies that can include yogurt, veggies, grains, etc. They went on sale for $1 each (regularly $1.69 each) so we stocked up! Between these and the freeze dried yogurt drops he loves, I told Laura our son is ready to be an astronaut!

This is the gate I installed between the living room and the kitchen. Please note that it's at an angle, due to the fact that the two sides are about four inches out of line. I'm pretty darn proud I found this gate (and it's swivel-hinge system) and installed it correctly! It swings open with the hinges on the right (counter) side and latches into place. Now the dogs can eat their meals in peace and Henry is somewhat more limited in his wanderings.

We're still loving Yo Gabba Gabba! Henry and I get up in the morning and watch an episode together. He has his formula and I have a cup of coffee. Good daddy & baby times!

Henry started walking a bit (did I mention that yet?) so we went to the mall to look at shoes. We didn't find shoes, but he got his first balloon. It held his attention all evening.

He wanted to play with it at dinner. I spent the whole meal silently chanting please don't pop, please don't pop, please don't pop, please don't pop, please don't pop... I could just imagine the shock, anger, and screams that would have brought. Luckily it survived his attempts to bite it and died a natural death later at home, where it slowly sank to the floor overnight.

Border's continues to lower prices on their remaining stock. All books were at least 60% off when I went there yesterday. That may have been my final trip, as their stock is dwindling FAST. I picked up the three above titles and a Johnny Cash CD of children's songs (Holy crap, how awesome is that?!? I didn't know that existed!) for under $20. I already took the opportunity provided by a sleeping baby to read the first few chapters of the Aliens book. It's a fascinating concept:

Someone on Earth knew about the aliens. Someone battled them, and survived. Before Ripley, there was a first encounter. Aliens and humans have fought before! When a human spaceship discovers a vast egg-shaped vessel in Saturn's orbit, the crew powers in to investigate. Thinking the ship might contain usable metal for Earth, they force their way aboard. Three teams split up to explore the ship. Already the aliens have awoken. The first of all the battles unfolds.

Basically, the author is postulating (as he explains in the very interesting Author's Note) that The Company knew about the aliens when they sent Ripley's team to investigate in the first movie. And they knew because there was an encounter before that one. The book was published in 2007 and sounds like how the studio originally envisioned the prequel they're doing. (The movie has since changed focus a bit, but still involves humans and the aliens, and is still set about 30 years before the first movie, so in that aspect they're they same). Check out the movie details for Prometheus here. With Ridley Scott directing, I have medium-high hopes for it!

Now, Labor Day weekend! I seriously doubt I'll post. But I'll probably take a pic or two to post later!