07.07.2009
07.06.2010
I’ve really been trying to pay more attention and not miss moments with this last kid, but it seems to have gone by even faster than I thought it would. It’s inevitable that your perception of time changes as you grow older. I just didn’t think I’d experience it so soon.
Decided I’d title this whatever song was playing on the iPhone when I started writing. Seems appropriate, I guess.
The last post was a little less than a month before M. was born. He’s nearly nine months old now. Needless to say, I think my blogging urge is being fulfilled by Twitter, Facebook, Flickr, Delicious, YouTube and whatever little posting I still do over at Metroblogging Austin.
Is a new baby a good enough excuse? Do I need an excuse? Should I keep updating WordPress versions to keep ahead of the script kiddies (probably)? Should I change the theme (probably)?
It’s also been nine months since I quit the main band. I’ve had a couple gigs with Victims of Leisure since then, but we haven’t played or practiced since before Thanksgiving. We’ve got one coming up this Saturday for the gig at the Parlor next week (April 3). I’m not sure I even know how to hold the drumsticks still (or remember the songs). It could be ugly. Better be sure I have plenty of beer so I’ll play better.
We finally tried out a Skype video call with my parents using the webcam that I got for Xmas this week. Ours has been working since the beginning of the year, but it took this long to get my parents going. Now my mother-in-law is running out to get a webcam as well. Yes, we’re just now joining 2004 and doing video calls with far flung relatives. If you’ve got a webcam and are on Skype, come find us. It’s the same damn username that I use for everything.
It’s just under 3 weeks until the arrival of the newest member of the family. We still haven’t completely settled on a name yet, but there are a few candidates. I’m kind of wanting to wait and see him before we make a final determination. If I understand correctly, you have until 5 days after the birth to file a birth certificate.
We’ve shifted into high gear with the preparations. We’ve got one more birth class tomorrow night. I put the crib together last night during that horrendous NBA Finals game between the Lakers and the Magic. I dislike both teams and it was a weak end to a lame series. The impending birth is lighting a fire under us to get rid of a lot of stuff and do some much needed deep cleaning around the house. Since we’re having him at home, we have to do some work sterilizing sheets, towels and clothing. We already have the birth kit. We’re using the same midwife this time that we used for our second child.
The City of Austin is back to do tree trimming for the power lines in our neighborhood. It’s been 7 years since their last visit when we stupidly fought them on removing several of our hackberry trees. Now, of course, we want them to take them all and they’re refusing to take one of them.
It looks like they totally screwed up the US DVD release of Let The Right One In (Icons of Fright via io9). The subtitles are simplified and lose a lot of the nuance of the film, something you already have to fight against when adapting a book to the big screen.
This is a big mistake. I was considering buying a copy, but now I’ll wait until a better version can be found. If I have to, I’ll buy a non-region 1 dvd to get the right subtitles. This is just dumb, dumb, dumb.
I suppose I’m a bit late for the end of year/start of year post, but since I’ve neglecting blogging here so much over the past year, this doesn’t seem all that bad.
2008 was a real bitch in a lot of ways. I know I’m not the only one hoping that 2009 is better. Only 12 more days before we’re rid of G.W. Bush. Amazing. He’s been the president for nearly all of my childrens’ lives. The Boy was born under Clinton, but Bush was sworn in before his first birthday. It’s no secret that I’ll be glad to see him go. I’m clearly not alone in that sentiment.
We’ve got some new things to look forward to this year, the most monumental being the arrival of our third child in July. We’ve got six months to prepare and we’ve already got a long list of things that need to be done to the house and the crap that we’ve accumulated in 10 years here. We’re also going to get the kids to help out around the house a lot more to ease things on us once the baby arrives.
I’ve been terrible about budgets in the past, but it’s time to get serious about one this year. I’ve been checking out Mint for the past couple of weeks. It’s not perfect, but I like it better than Quicken.
I’m not sure about my drumming hobby in the context of a third kid. I’ll have to wrestle with that one over the next six months. We didn’t apply for SXSW this year. I think we’ll go for the alternate showcases this year and see how that goes.
We tried out a gym membership at Lifetime for most of last year and failed miserably. I need to come up with an achieveable workout plan. We got a Wii Fit at Christmas and I’ve been dabbling with that, but that’s only a part of the fitness picture.
Kind of a rambling post, but I wanted to get something going to get back into the groove. Let’s see if I can do at least two posts a month here and on the Austin Metblog.
I saw Bettye Lavette at an ACL taping earlier this year and was blown away by her performance. According to the Anti blog (her record label), she did a cover of The Who’s “Love Reign O’er Me” for the Kennedy Center Honors this year and blew away people there as well, including Dave Grohl and Pete Townshend himself . I’m not surprised. The performance airs on December 30th on CBS. I need to set the DVR for that one.
We’ve gotten into the school groove. Soccer season is back. I stole the blog post from a word used in The Boy’s Back to School/Curriculum/Open House this week. We’re once again very happy with both teachers. It’s really great to have both kids at the same school.
I took last week off for a staycation. We took the kids to Six Flags Fiesta Texas over Labor Day weekend. You can check out photos on my Flickr page. We bought some “grown up” chairs for the dining room from the Restoration Hardware outlet in San Marcos. We nearly scored a new table as well, but I just couldn’t bring myself to spend that much money on the spot and someone bought it out from under us before we could get back. We saw Tropic Thunder, which I highly recommend.
Ike completely missed Austin after everyone made a huge deal about it, closing schools early and canceling today’s soccer games. We didn’t get a single drop of rain.
The first official post from the phone. We’ll see how this goes. Expect typos. The kids start summer camp tomorrow. I’ve got a gig tomorrow night at Hole in the Wall. I’m loving having a decent sized iPod to use in the car. (My first, how sad is that? Checked out We Jam Econo, the Minutemen documentary, last night. Good stuff.
I suppose having a template that only shows recent posts on the home page is one way of making sure you blog on a semi-regular basis. I’ve found that Twitter, Flickr and Delicious are commanding more of my attention these days than the blog. Well, and work and family…
The summer rolls on. It’s been a hot one so far without much relief from 90 and 100 degree heat. The electric bill is reflecting that. We hosted a last minute July 4th party at our place. Parties are always a good way to force you to clean up the joint.
We checked out WALL-E and Iron Man in the theater so far this summer. We rented/cabled/on-demanded Batman Begins, Apocalypto, Enchanted, Hellboy and Mr. & Mrs. Smith. We went to the IMAX theater at Bob Bullock on Saturday. Austin Books & Comics and the museum were having bat-related activites, including the “bat lady” who had several live bats to show the kids. The lines for the movie were long.
I scored an iPhone a week ago. I had to wait 3 hours in line to get it. I’m liking it so far. The Bat Lady shot that I linked is actually my first uploaded iPhone shot. I’ve made a few iPhone related tweaks to this blog including setting the default viewport and adding a home screen image based on the favicon. I downloaded and installed the WordPress app for iPhone, but haven’t tried it out yet.
