Tuesday – 09 October 2012
Today, the little ladies of Team DiVa decided to dress up in a Mini-Justice League theme:
Diana went with her namesake:
…based on the “Odyssey” version of the costume…
…while Vanessa opted to dress up as The Flash:
And that, as they say, is that.
Namaste.
Friday – 27 July 2012
It’s almost the weekend once more!
That’s right: High-five to everyone for the weekend! You made it through the week; you’ve earned one.
Stray Toasters
Have a great weekend!
Namaste.
Thursday – 26 July 2012
It’s another NBN Thursday in the valley.
Were she alive, my maternal great-grandmother would have been 112 today.
Last night, Sara! and I watched In Time for Movie Date Night:
To be honest, it wasn’t bad. It reminded me quite a bit of Logan’s Run, but had enough of a twist to make – and keep – it interesting. I was also quite surprised to see [REDACTED], [REDACTED], and [REDACTED] in the movie, too.
Chew on This: Food for Thought – Adventures in Parenting
As a parent, I’m always happy when Diana and Vanessa hit developmental milestones. One such achievement happened a few months back when the girls figured out how to roll from their backs to their stomachs. Sara! and I were delighted at this… um… “turn of events.” However, as the girls started making other advancements, we seemed to forget about the rolling over. Until recently. The girls have taken it upon themselves to remind us just how big a deal that barrel rolls are…
…when we are changing their diapers.
Vanessa is especially adept at this. Just as you get the loaded diaper open and bear witness the havok within, she decides that it’s time to roll to her left. This usually results in a lot of under-the-breath expletives. And the thought processes – and physical gymnastics – of “How do I keep this from getting on everything?!”
So far, nothing has gotten to the point where we’ve had to call in Damage Control or Utah Disaster Kleen-up, but there have been a couple of instances where it’s taken both of us to get from dirty diaper to a clean one.
But, they’re still cute kids and I wouldn’t trade the experience/adventure for anything.
Reading time is still reading time… even if your book is upside-down.
Stray Toasters
Namaste.
Wednesday – 18 July 2012
It’s midweek, which means that it must be “New Comics Day,” as well as “Movie Date Night.” Win-Win.
It’s apparently also been a week since I posted here. (Although, I did do a quick post on Four-Color Coverage last Friday…)
This post is really just a quick hit of a couple of highlights from the past week. So…
Sara and Diana (pre-race)
Vanessa and me (pre-race)
Post-race
And, yes, we did make mini-race bibs for the girls this time. (It may become a new tradition.) Considering that Sara! did the race last year when she was seven-months pregnant, our overall paces were faster than our 2011 times. We still walked the course, but beat my time by almost 15 minutes… even with a co-runner -walker strapped to my chest.)
Diana, mugging for the camera…
I’m Ivory Soap-sure that there was at least one other thing that I wanted to mention, but it eludes me. So… I’ll wrap up here.
Namaste.
Wednesday – 11 July 2012
It’s 7/11…
…which means that it’s Slurpee Day at your local 7-Eleven.
…which means free mini-Slurpees at your local 7-Eleven.
…which means… Oh, Hell. If I have to spell it out for you, then what’s the point!?
It’s also new comics – and new ‘Clix – day.
And, as if all of that wasn’t enough, it’s Movie Date Night, too.
Triple score!
Stray Toasters
Namaste.
Tuesday – 26 June 2012
I want to go on the record as saying that having twins who are crawling and cruising is:
Often, they both head in the same vector. However, those times when they don’t…? Let’s just say that I’m getting an inkling of what it’s like to be an NHL goaltender.
Over the weekend, we made a day trip to Cedar City to see my brother-in-law, John, who spent a week in Las Vegas. Being so relatively close, we decided to meet for lunch before he headed back to Baltimore and give him a chance to meet his nieces:
Diana, hanging out with Uncle John
Vanessa and Uncle John
Diana and John hit it off almost immediately; Vanessa decided to scope him out a bit before deciding that he was alright.
Stray Toasters
Namaste.
Wednesday – 20 June 2012
The summer solstice has arrived.
And it’s new comics Wednesday.
And it’s Pasta and Movie Date Night.
Quite frankly, I think that sounds like “Win” all the way around.
Yesterday was a good day. With the able assistance of Dave and Steve, I was able to pick up some drywall – twelve sheets of it – get it home, bring it in (through a basement window that Steve removed) and put it in place for hanging. All told, it took a little over an hour-and-a-half, including the time it took to attach and detach Dave’s trailer to his Jeep. I offer up a huge “Thank you” to Steve and Dave for their time and effort. And, I’m counting drywall-schlepping as yesterday’s workout, to boot!
Chew on This: Food for Thought
This is a series of blog posts from a local woman (with Retinitis Pigmentosa, which is important to the story), who encountered less-than-stellar – and more importantly, less-than-decent – treatment when she attempted to go shopping with her guide dog this past week:
Stray Toasters
Tuesday – 19 June 2012
This morning, Sector 2814 (at least the portion of it that contains our living room) is being protected by two members of the Justice League:
Vanessa, as a rookie Green Lantern
Diana, as Batgirl-in-Training (complete with her own… um… Bat-saucer)
Shortly after these pictures were taken, the mini-Leaguers decided to do some combat training (also known as: “Using Daddy as a climbing toy”). Since they are both cruising – and not always wanting to go in the same direction – this taxed my abilities to keep both of them in arm’s reach. Fortunately, Bonne was here to help keep up with them.
Stray Toasters
Namaste.
Thursday – 14 June 2012
Not only is it another NBN Thursday in the valley, but today is also Flag Day.
In Team DiVa news: The girls apparently want to skip crawling and go straight to walking:
Vanessa (l) and Diana
They are “cruising,” where they’ll hold onto something and attempt to use it to toddle around. But, anything that makes a sound sometimes distracts them, which leads to a problem with that pesky “balance” thing that they haven’t managed to overcome yet… and most often winds up with a gravity-induced sitting down.
Diana will… pseudo-crawl… but that’s usually only under duress and/or to get closer to someone who will hopefully pick her up. Go figure.
Last night, Sara! (a.k.a. “She Who Still Rules”) and I watched John Carter (not to be confused with Coach Carter) for Movie Date Night.
I haven’t read Burroughs’ A Princess of Mars yet, so I don’t know how faithful or far afield the movie’s plot was from the source material. But, it was an enjoyable film. Yes, we did wind up MST3K-ing parts, but… *shrug*… what’re ya gonna do?
Stray Toasters
Tuesday – 12 June 2012
According to a trusted source, today is apparently National Peanut Butter Cookie Day.
I’m feeling a little remiss as a Rush fan: Clockwork Angels was released today… and I completely forgot about it until I saw something on Facebook.
On the “plus” side of today’s tally sheet:
Stray Toasters
And… done.
Namaste.
Thursday – 07 June 2012
Not only is today NBN Thursday, it is also my mother’s birthday:
And, it is also the day that Diana turns 9-months-old:
To celebrate the day, the girls get to go for another visit to the pediatrician… which means: Shots! (Which also means “Cranky children this afternoon.”) Yay.
::: INTERLUDE :::
Well, as it turns out, the girls did not have to get shots today. But, they will be getting four at their one-year check-up. (Joy of joys.) On the plus side, we found out that their pediatrician’s office will be moving… to our neighborhood right before that visit. So, I guess that means the offices will still have that new car office smell.
Stray Toasters
Yeah, that’s good for now.
Namaste.
Monday – 04 June 2012
A new week is here.
The weekend was good – and fairly busy – weekend. We started with a pancake breakfast/car show, supporting the local Boy Scout troop. Next, SaraRules! went to quilt club while I stayed home with Team DiVa. After she got back, I headed out to judge a ‘Clix tourney. And, if that wasn’t enough: We also attended a friend’s birthday party.
Saturday night has now unofficially become “Action Movie Saturday Date Night.” We didn’t know what we wanted to watch, so we left it up to the Fickle Finger of Fate method of “Hey, what does Netflix have to offer?” We wound up watching Trollhunter:
It was surprisingly fun. And funny. We went into it with no real expectations or assumptions, but were quite well entertained by the time the credits rolled. I also found that I liked what they did with some of the mythology of the creatures.
Sunday was a little more relaxed… although it did start early: We hit the Wasatch Front Farmers Market. The rest of the day was spent mostly hanging out with SaraRules! and Team DiVa. I wrapped up the evening upgrading my game box from Windows XP to Windows 7. Finally. And by “upgrading,” I mean “I did a clean install on a bigger hard drive.” Now, I just need to reinstall the games. And remember to copy my bookmarks over.
And, speaking of Team DiVa:
Diana (in her custom Batgirl onesie)
Vanessa (in her custom Flash onesie)
Stray Toasters
Namaste.
Friday – 01 June 2012
A new month is upon us. Among other things, this means that I need to get to the Hallmark store and pick up a couple of important birthday cards.
We haven’t done anything new/else with the decking of the gazebo. Yet. But, maybe I’ll be able to get to it sometime in the next few days.
Team DiVa, on the other hand, continue to be adorable and entertaining.
Diana (l) and Vanessa
I’m hoping to get a new video of them doing what they do posted soon.
SaraRules! and I watched Blade Runner: The Final Cut the other night. After catching the tail end of the movie on cable a couple of weeks ago, we both realized that neither of us had seen the full movie in years. So… watched it. And it was good.
Stray Toasters
The name struck a familiar chord in my memory, but I was just unsure enough to have to verify what I was thinking. After a few rounds on Google I confirmed what I had suspected: Dr. Shara was my Astronomy professor at Johns Hopkins about 20 years ago.
And with that, I’m off to save the world.
Or destroy it.
Or something in between…
Namaste.
Wednesday – 23 May 2012
Midweek is upon us again. That means new comics and Movie Date Night.
It rained this morning. I’m sure that my lawn appreciates that, especially since I’m having… issues… with the two zones in my back yard. Nothing insurmountable (I hope), but a little annoying nevertheless.
Last night, for the first time in five months (according to Foursquare), I went to the gym. Yeah, I know: Five months. This morning I was a little sore. But it was good and it was worth it:
Not surprisingly, my muscles were “a little” tired by the time I was done. But, I was glad that I went. And glad for a couple of ibuprofen this morning, too.
Stray Toasters
Namaste.
Thursday – 17 May 2012
It’s another NBN Thursday in the valley. This one even came equipped with sun (with a slight chance of rain). So far, it’s been a good day… and there’s still a lot of day to go.
Last night, SaraRules! and I watched Where the Wild Things Are for Movie Date Night.
I thought that it was pretty good. I was a bit surprised in that I was expecting something… a little closer to the book, at least in some respects, but the differences didn’t diminish my enjoyment of the movie. It was also helpful to watch one of the special feature short pieces which highlighted the collaboration of author Maurice Sendak and director Spike Jonze.
The movie is rated “PG,” but there are a few scenes that might be scary for younger children. Nevertheless, I recommend it.
Stray Toasters
That’s good for now.
Namaste.