Random Access

Tuesday – 23 August 2014
Not only is today Team DiVa Tuesday,  it is the first day of Autumn, as well.

Last night, we stopped by Sara’s parents’ place for a visit. While there, the girls decided that they wanted to wear some of their Papi and Gumbi’s hats. I managed to capture this picture:

Team DiVa in Hats!

Over the years, I’ve heard people mention how adept kids are at picking up habits and phrases from their parents. Our girls are no exception to this, it would seem.

Apparently, when I encounter a facepalm-worthy situation around the girls, I often say: “Oh, God…”

I can’t remember what situation prompted it on Sunday, but Diana said it on the way back from breakfast. I think that Sara and I laughed for a good mile-and-a-half before either of us was composed enough to talk about it. Even then, we still cracked up while discussing it.

Sara related this to me when I got home from work last night:

She picked the ladies up from preschool. Typically, we’ll give them a small pre-dinner snack, because they’re “so hungry…” Yesterday’s snack was a bowl of cashews and peanuts. Through some unknown-to-me process, Vanessa managed to spill all of her nuts on the floor, prompting a transformation from Team DiVa Cutie into… Baby Meltdown!!!

Diana, hearing the commotion, ran into the kitchen to see what was going on. When she got there, she looked at the floor, saw the mess, and said, “Oh, God…“

Yep. My kid.  (I wish I had been there to witness it.)

Monday – 22 September 2014
This past weekend was rather good.

I went into Friday thinking “Friday!” I came out of Friday “Blah.” We had a situation at work that lasted all day, meaning that I wasn’t really able to take care of any of the things that I had planned to tackle. By the time I got home, all I wanted to do was call it a day. Sara, the girls and I went out for dinner. By the time we got home and got the girls ready for bed, I was ready to decompress… but didn’t know what I wanted to do. Sara! to the rescue: She brought me a glass of Maker’s Mark, a bag of Doritos and suggested that I vent some frustration in Titanfall.

Best. Wife. Ever.

Knowing that I had a fairly atrocious night’s sleep, Sara let me sleep in on Saturday morning. When I got up, Team DiVa and I went downstairs to watch a couple episodes of My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic and the second half of The LEGO Movie. After lunch, the girls went down for naps. I probably should have, as well. But, I didn’t. I did mow the lawn, though, so I’ll count that as a “win.” Saturday afternoon, we had a few friends over for a “Fall Cookie Extravaganza,” as Sara called it. It was nice to be able to hang out and just enjoy the company of friends… and cookies. The girls turned into quite the little hostesses, as well: They would ask everyone who showed up what drinks they want and would pour a small – VERY small – drink for them. (I really think that it was more a matter of them liking to use the lemonade and water dispensers.) We had dinner and then we watched a couple of episodes of Doctor Who – one with Twelve, one with Ten.

Sunday morning, we got up and got ready to go out for breakfast. Instead of heading to Millcreek Cafe, as is our usual Sunday morning routine, we drove up to Layton to meet our favorite Treasure Valley Rollergirl, Mia Wallups (a.k.a. Jen)! We surprised her by inviting Dave, Angy and Gala, as well. At Sara’s suggestion, we ate at Sill’s Cafe. And it was worth the drive.

Angy and Jen (Picture courtesy of http://everydave.com)

I tried a scone (which was, literally, as big as my head!) and biscuits and gravy, which were fantastic. I’m not sure exactly what everyone else had, but the consensus was that everyone’s meals were good. It was also nice to catch up with Jen; life’s been busy for both of us and we’d kind of lost track of each other in the process.

We came back home, got the girls a light lunch, and then put them down for naps. Once they were safely asleep, I headed downstairs to catch what was left of the second half of the Ravens-Browns game. I’d been tracking the game’s progress and it had been a back-and-forth battle. But, in the end…

Justin Tucker nailed an at-the-buzzer field goal to put the Ravens at 2-1 on the season.

After the game, I went to the Big Shiny Robot & Bohemian Brewery’s Nerd Swap Meet. I came home with a couple of finds:

• A copy of Marvel Comic’s Graphic Novel #4: The New Mutants in good condition and
• a copy of Mat Johnson’s Right State.

When I got home, the girls wanted me to go for a ride in their “rocket ship.” I love their imaginations. I’m going to have to find them either astronaut costumes or, at least, a couple of astronaut helmets. Sara reminded me that we’d promised them a trip to “the Slurpee store,” so we returned to Earth and headed to the local 7-Eleven. Then, back home for dinner, kids’ showers, a show (and a few Schoolhouse Rock! videos) before putting the ladies down for the night.

We wound up the night with glasses of wine and The Strain.

All-in-all, a good weekend.

Stray Toasters

• Sunday would have been my friend, Jess’, 40th birthday.
• While watching the score of the Ravens’ game, I thought about how much I would have enjoyed watching the game with Brad and our late friend Dave, a Browns fan.
• I picked up Destiny last week. I have yet to play it, as I discovered that I need to get a new hard drive for my Xbox.
• I’m still forming an opinion about the new Doctor. But, at this point, I’m liking him.

That’s good for now.

Namaste.

Sunday – 14 September 2014
For the past week, I’ve been on vacation. It’s been pretty amazing.

Last weekend, Salt Lake Comic Con was in town. I went (of course), as did Sara and Team DiVa. I think that the girls’ highlight moment can be summed up here:

They were pretty ecstatic to see Wonder Woman. I thought that Diana was going to try and knock people over to get to her. Unfortunately, by the time I finally got this picture, they were starting to run out of people juice. Click here to see more pictures of the outing.

Sunday afternoon, we packed up and headed to Redfish Lake for a long-anticipated family vacation. As Sunday and Monday were the girls’ birthdays, we had a small to-do for that:

We spent three-and-a-half days at the lake; it was a nice change of pace and it was a lot of fun to see the girls interacting with a new environment. There was a bit of a love/hate relationship with the lake: Temps were mostly in the 60s and 70s, so the lake was… brisk, to say the least. But, the girls had fun wading in the water and trying to catch minnows:

Sara! also introduced them to fishing. With hooks and bait and the whole nine yards. The fish weren’t biting, but they still liked it. I even managed to sneak in a bike ride while we were there. Click here for more pictures of our time in Central Idaho.

We came back to Salt Lake City to prepare for the last hurrah of the weekend: Team DiVa’s third birthday party (yes, that’s a picture link):

Yes, the girls are in their Comic Con costumes – it was a superhero-themed party. We invited some of the girls’ friends from daycare and a few other kids they know. The birthday party was a big hit. My mother, sister, niece and uncle flew in for the weekend to help celebrate. After the party – and a couple of much-needed naps for the girls – we had a family dinner in the back yard. (I think we’ve used the yard more in the past two months than we have in the past two years. Go figure.)

This morning, we saw Mom, Kris and Kennadi off at the airport.

My uncle had a early flight, so we said our goodbyes to him last night. It was nice having them here for a few days, as we haven’t seen them since last summer.

After that, we headed to breakfast at Millcreek Cafe. From there, we stopped to pick up a copy of Cinderella for a family movie morning. The movie went over with a mixed reaction, but the girls watched the whole thing. And from there, it was lunch and nap time.

Tomorrow, the working world awaits. But that’s tomorrow. For today, I still have a few hours to spend with Sara! and the girls. And there are Slurpees in our future.

And that’s just fine with me.

Namaste.

Monday – 08 September 2014
Before I forget to post this… again…

This past weekend, Salt Lake Comic Con happened in… um… Salt Lake City, appropriately enough. I went as part of the Dr. Volt’s Comic Connection cavalcade.

Team DiVa (as Wonder Woman and Batgirl) at Salt Lake Comic Con

I even managed to take a few pictures (click here).

Namaste.

Sunday – 08 September 2014
Three years ago, this little lady was born.

The Birthday Girl and her Aunt Missa!

Happy birthday, Vanessa!

Sunday – 07 September 2014
Three years ago, this little lady was born.

The Birthday Girl

Happy birthday, Diana!

Monday – 04 August 2014
Over the past week and a half, Sara! and I undertook steps to transform our yard from “Wow, you actually call that a yard” to something that would be functional as the setting for the wedding of a couple of our friends.We had to make at least half of our yard – nearly 800 square feet of space – which we had effectively let go into something that was both not an eyesore, but was also usable.

How would we make this happen?

• By getting truckloads of dirt from the construction site around the corner from our house to fill in the depression that was left under the spot where the gazebo we tore down in 2012 formerly stood.
• By getting a LOT – nearly four (4) cubic yards – of mulch.
• By putting in a lot of hard work.

In a move that may have been inspired by my affinity for DIY Network, I started referring to this as #CrashingMyYard. I even tagged my favorite Yard Crasher, Ahmed Hassan, in a couple of Tweets. (He even responded to a couple of them!) Unlike the Yard Crashers show, we had neither a TV host/professional landscaping contractor nor a motley crew of people helping on this; it was just Sara! and me – with occasional help from Team DiVa – doing the work.

We borrowed a friend’s pick-up truck, so that we could haul dirt and mulch. We felt that would be much easier – and potentially less back-breaking – than trying to do it all in wheelbarrows and/or Sara’s car. And, far less messy, too. Friday (25 July 2014) after work, I headed to the construction site around the corner from our house to get fill dirt; Sara had secured permission from the site foreman earlier in the week. After spending what felt like an eternity filling the bed of the truck, I drove it around the corner and backed into the yard to unload it and start filling the pit left from The Great Gazebo Demolition of 2012.

Saturday morning, I woke up, had a bite to eat and headed to the site for more dirt. I unloaded about half of it before I needed to leave for a prior engagement; Sara unloaded the rest. Saturday night, more of the same. By the time it was all said and done, we’d filled, compacted and leveled the hole.

Sunday saw the first of far too many trips to Home Depot for mulch. I brought home twenty-one (21) bags that night. By the way, one bag of mulch, not so heavy. Twenty-one? Heavy. And, to make things even better: After I’d loaded the last bag into the truck, about ten bags on the display decided that they didn’t want to be part of the display anymore. *sigh* So, I had to pick them up and put them back in some semblance of order.

By Monday night, following another Home Depot run, the first third of the yard was mulched. Tuesday, about two-fifths. Wednesday, we changed things up a bit, installing a new fence post, with the kind assistance of my father-in-law. (We had a double-door gate that never seemed “just right,” so we took it down to one door and a gate-turned-fence section.) Thursday, after another trip to the ‘Depot, we enlisted the “help” of the girls to put down more landscaping fabric and mulch. Friday, I made the last trip for mulch and by nightfall, there was just one small section left to mulch on Saturday.

Saturday brought lawn mowing, some general clean-up, spreading the last bits of mulch and securing the fence section to the new post.

Sunday, we were ready for a wedding. And it was good.

The Yard.

Click here to see pictures of the overall process, from start to finish.

Last night, after the festivities were done and the girls were down for the night, Sara! and I sat outside in our newly landscaped yard and enjoyed the evening air. With cocktails, of course.

This was a lot of work, but was very much worth it. And gave us a massive boost in the direction that we want to take the yard, which includes, but isn’t necessarily limited to:

• Grinding down three stumps (there was just no time for it with this go-round),
• Creating a flagstone patio in one third,
• Sodding the middle third of the mulched area, and
• Creating a playspace for the girls in the last (not-quite) third.

Some of that might have to wait until next Spring, but, we are very happy with where the yard is at this point.

Namaste.

Saturday – 28 June 2014
Just testing out a new cross-posting plugin.

Sara!, the girls, and I have a 5k in the morning… in a few hours. I really should be in bed. More to the point, I should have been in bed at least half-an-hour ago. And, it’s not like this isn’t going to be a long day:

• Young Living Farms’ Run Through The Lavender 5k at 7:00 AM. This will be our fifth year (!) doing this event. It will also be our slowest time, as the girls will be walking with us, rather than being pushed in a stroller or carried.
• War Of Light (Month 1) HeroClix Tournament at noon. I get to play in this one, rather than judging it.
• A friend’s daughter’s birthday party.
• Another friend’s cook-out.

I’d be amazed if I’m even nominally coherent by the time the girls go to bed. I wouldn’t be surprised if my field of vision was reduced to this:

Not surprised at all. *shrug* I might just go to bed at the same time they do.

Okay, bed.

Namaste.

Wednesday – 25 June 2014
Totally missed “Team DiVa Tuesday” (again) yesterday. Hopefully, this will make up for it:

Hanging out at Wheeler Historic Farm

On the tiger statue at Hogle Zoo

On the elephant statue at Hogle Zoo

Oh, and John V. might want to stop reading now…

Is he gone?  Okay.

The girls have taken a pretty strong liking to My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic, since being introduced to it about a month ago. Last night was Vanessa’s night to choose what they watched before bedtime and she chose…. dun dun DUNNNNN…. MLP. No problem.

I found the first season on Netflix and fired up the first episode. (Why not start at the beginning, after all?) This episode introduces the main ponies and how they met. That’s pretty good for a first episode.

During the scene where Twilight Sparkle meets Applejack – yes, I actually have gotten to know the ponies’ names. I’ll just chalk this up to what my mother calls being a “Commendable Daddy.” –  Applejack takes Twilight’s hoof and starts shaking it, vigorously. Diana, at this point, looked up and rather nonchalantly noted: “Ponies don’t have hands,” and then continued to watch the rest of the episode.

Sara and I just kind of stared at each other, with a “Did she really just say that…?!” expression on our faces.

Proud parents. 🙂

Namaste.

Tuesday – 15 April 2014
I’ve been properly horrible about keeping up with blogging of late. Life and whatnot. Okay, well, now that that’s out of the way…

It’s Team DiVa Tuesday.

Drawing with chalk

Vanessa, enjoying bacon dipped in powdered sugar…

Diana, enjoying bacon dipped in powdered sugar…

Helping Mom carry groceries…

BEEP! BEEP!

Also, I think that my daughter is Houdini.

More accurately: I think that Diana may possess the reincarnated spirit of Harry Houdini.

Last night, Sara! and I were watching TV when we heard a wail over the girls’ monitor. We waited a couple of moments to see if it was an actual call for help or just a passing, “Hey, I’m just turning over” kind of thing. Then came another. So, upstairs I went.

I opened the door to the girls’ room – we close it when we put them to bed to contain the mayhem in the hopes that they will actually go to sleep – and waited to see if I could tell which of the girls was in distress. I didn’t turn on a light, so as not to wake the other girl needlessly. I took a moment to listen. Vanessa was snoring. Not her. So, I went over to Diana’s bed.

She wasn’t in it…

Okay.
Let’s not panic.
There has to be a logical explanation.
Check the foot of her bed; she sometimes scrunches down to the foot of the bed.

No go, Flight.

I was at a loss. Literally. Closed room. Only one kid. She didn’t run out past me. So where in the Nine Hells did she go?!

I did the only thing that I could think of: I called Sara upstairs to help me figure out where Diana went. I gave her the quick rundown. And then I turned the girls floor lamp on low.

That’s when we found her: She had climbed up on the changing table… and fallen asleep.

No, that’s not completely accurate: She climbed up on the changing table, pulled off her diaper¹, and fallen asleep.

After we stopped laughing, Sara changed Diana, while I disposed of the apparently offensive diaper. We got the lass back into bed – into which she settled down quickly – and left.

Mischief managed.

Namaste.

¹ – The girls are potty-training (and doing very well at it), but we still put them in night diapers.

Thursday – 20 March 2014
It’s the first day of Spring. Seems like the perfect time to clear the cobwebs off the ol’ blog.

Last night, Sara! and I attended Utah Opera‘s production of Turandot. And “production” is the perfect word for it because it was more than just a “performance.” The staging, the set design, the costuming, the performers. All of it. It was quite literally amazing. If my count is correct, this was the 26th opera that I’ve seen… and it easily makes it onto my “Top 5 Operas” list. The three-act story had elements of drama, comedy and intrigue deftly woven throughout and never felt like it was dragging.

During the first intermission, we were advised by Christopher MacBeth (Utah Opera’s Artistic Director) to wait for Turandot – performed by Maida Hundeling – to first sing. He wasn’t making idle boasts; she was fantastic, truly a pleasure to hear sing and to watch perform. To that point, all of the performers were great. I’d also give a special note to Kelly Kaduce, as Liu, who turned in a stirring aria in the third act.

If you have a chance to see Turandot during it’s run, by all means: Do so.

Team DiVa has been doing well…

Digging for fossils at the Museum of Natural History

At the “Chocolate” exhibition at the Museum of Natural History

On the terrace at the Museum of Natural History

Sporting new hairstyles!

And, this was taken this past weekend:

The little ladies have entered the realm of potty training. It’s been going well. Sure, there are still a few mishaps and accidents, but that is to be expected. Fortuately, both girls seem to be excited by the idea of using the toilet and wearing “big girl” underwear.

I usually play music when I wake the girls in the morning. Usually, it’s Rhapsody in Blue, or The Ride of the Valkyries (this video is actually their favorite version) or Cristofori’s Dream. The girls will often ask for them by name (“Rhapsody,” “Hoyotoho,” and “The Dream Song”), if I haven’t started the music before waking them.

We’ve also introduced them to other genres of music. They’re fond of Bob Marley and Miles Davis, by way of Sara!, while I’ve most often let them listen to more pop/upbeat fare. And, let me tell you that listening to a couple of two-and-a-half-year-olds trying to sing the chorus of Squeeze’s Hourglass – which is one of their current favorite songs –  is hilarious.

All in all, life is good.

Namaste.

Friday – 14 February 2014
It’s Valentine’s Day. (Or the so-called “Single Awareness Day.”)

Team DiVa – Valentine’s Day 2014
Picture (c) Erra Bella Photography

However you refer to the day, I hope that it finds you well.

Things have been pretty good around the homestead. The girls are, as my mother would say “…getting into everything but a beef stew.”

Fun with dry ice…

But, they are also quite fun to be around. Listening to them as they are holding imaginary conversations on “telephones” is hilarious. And seeing the things they come up with – rockets, trains, towers, cars with propellers – when playing with their Duplo? Just as entertaining. They even have sets of Valkyrie and Amazon HeroClix that they keep at the dinner table…

The Dinner Guardians

…although, they are occasionally are “put to bed” under napkins, which is equally amusing.

Chew on This – Food for Thought: Black History Month

I’m farther behind with this than I had hoped to be. But, I’m not going to let that daunt me. So, let’s just jump right in:

• Blackface – A form of theatrical makeup used by white performers to represent a black person.

  Blackface makeup was either a layer of burnt cork on a layer of coca butter or black grease paint. In the early years exaggerated red lips were painted around their mouths, like those of today’s circus clowns. In later years the lips were usually painted white or unpainted. Costumes were usually gaudy combinations of formal wear; swallowtail coats, striped trousers, and top hats.

  Minstrel show entertainment included imitating black music and dance and speaking in a “plantation” dialect. The shows featured a variety of jokes, songs, dances and skits that were based on the ugliest stereotypes of African American slaves. From 1840 to 1890, minstrel shows were the most popular form of entertainment in America. (Black-face.com)

• The Children’s Crusade – The name bestowed upon a march by hundreds of school students in Birmingham, Alabama, on May 2, May 3, May 4, and May 5, 1963, during the American Civil Rights Movement’s Birmingham Campaign. Initiated and organized by Rev. James Bevel, the purpose of the march was to walk downtown to talk to the mayor about segregation in their city. Many children left their schools in order to be arrested, set free, and then to get arrested again the next day. The marches were stopped due to the head of police “Bull Connor” who brought fire hoses to ward off the children and set police dogs after the children. (video from Biography.com)
• Deed of Manumission – Manumission was a popular term used during the eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries in reference to the voluntary act on the part of indi­vidual slave-owners of freeing or liberating their own slaves. As a general rule, slaves so freed were issued a formal document (“manumission deed”) by the slave-owner. This document, of course, became an invaluable possession of the ex-slave and usually the only means of “proving” that he or she was in­deed free.
• Robert Brown Elliott – An African-American member of the United States House of Representatives from South Carolina, serving from 1871-1874.
  Robert Brown Elliott’s early life is a mystery. He claimed to have been born in Liverpool, England toWest Indian immigrants. But, biographers have been unable to corroborate these facts.
  Elliott arrived in South Carolina in 1867 at the age of 25, where he established a law practice. Elliott helped organize the local Republican Party and served in the state constitutional convention.In 1868 he was elected to the South Carolina House of Representatives. The next year he was appointed assistant adjutant-general; he was the first African-American commanding general of the South Carolina National Guard. As part of his job, he helped form a state militia to fight the Ku Klux Klan.

  Elliott was elected as a Republican to the Forty-second and Forty-third United States Congress. He “delivered a celebrated speech” in favor of the Civil Rights Act of 1875. He resigned on November 1, 1874, to fight political corruption in South Carolina. He served again in the South Carolina House of Representatives, where he was elected as Speaker of the House.

  He ran successfully for South Carolina Attorney General in 1876. In the state elections that year, white Democrats regained dominance of the state legislature. The following year, 1877, when the last of the federal troops were withdrawn from South Carolina, he was forced out of office.

• Freedmans’ Bureau – Established by Congress on March 3, 1865, the Freedmen’s Bureau was designed to protect the in­terests of former slaves (“freedmen”) and displaced southern whites (“loyal refugees”) following the American Civil War. Intended primarily to act as a safeguard for the freedmen against possible attempts at reenslavement, the Bureau was also empowered to provide freedmen with food, medical and hospital care, educational facilities and homestead land. In addition, the Bureau assisted the freedmen in obtaining employment, settling legal disputes and finding suitable housing facilities. Function­ing under the aegis of the War Department, the Freedmen’s Bureau was headed by General O. O. Howard. Although the official “life” of the Bureau extended until 1872, most of its major objectives had been accomplished by 1869.
• Charles Sidney Gilpin – One of the most highly regarded actors of the 1920s.

  In 1896 at age 18, Gilpin joined a minstrel show, leaving Richmond and beginning a life on the road that lasted for many years. When between performances on stage, like many performers he worked odd jobs to earn money: as a printer, barber, boxing trainer, and railroad porter. In 1903, Gilpin joined Hamilton, Ontario’s Canadian Jubilee Singers.

  In 1905 he started performing with traveling musical troupes of the Red Cross and the Candy Shop of America. He also played his first dramatic roles and honed his character acting in Chicago.
  In 1916, Gilpin made a memorable appearance in whiteface as Jacob McCloskey, a slave owner and villain of Dion Boucicault’s The Octoroon. Though he left Bush’s Company over a salary dispute, his reputation there allowed him to get the role of Rev. William Curtis in the 1919 premier of John Drinkwater’s Abraham Lincoln.

  Gilpin’s Broadway debut gained him casting in the premier of Eugene O’Neill’s The Emperor Jones. He played the lead role of Brutus Jones to great critical acclaim, including an O’Neill-lauded review by writer Hubert Harrison in Negro World. Gilpin’s achievement resulted in the Drama League of New York‘s naming him as one of the ten people in 1920 who had done the most for American theater. He was the first Black American so honored. Following the Drama League’s refusal to rescind the invitation, Gilpin refused to decline it. When the League invited Gilpin to their presentation dinner, some people found it controversial. At the dinner, he was given a standing ovation of unusual length when he accepted his award.

I was going to throw in a few Stray Toasters, but I think I’ll save those for another post.

Namaste.

Monday – 20 January 2014
Today is Martin Luther King, Jr. Day.

For the first time in three or four years, I’m not getting out and doing volunteer work. But, I am doing something that I consider just as – if not more – important: I’m spending the day with Team DiVa.

I hope that everyone has a great day and takes a little time to reflect on the what today stands for.

Namaste.

Tuesday – 14 January 2014
Life with kids can be interesting. It would probably be best to say that life with kids is often interesting. That’s not to say that it’s not fun. And exciting. And, all too often, very amusing.

Over the past couple of months, we’ve introduced the concept of “time out” to Team DiVa. It’s been met with mixed results. Most often, when one of the girls does something to antagonize her sister and I tell them they’re going to time out, they either:

• Start saying “I not going to time out! I not going to time out!,”
• Make a bee-line for Sara!,
• Start crying,
• Some combination of all of the above.

But, time out usually happens. (They do not like it.) And they stay there until they tell me why it is that they are in time out. Once they tell me that, I ask them what they need to do to get out of time out, which is usually finding their sister, saying they are sorry and giving their sister a hug.

So, you can imagine my surprise – and amusement – when I came home from work today to find that the girls had introduced something new to their toys. They have a handful of Fisher-Price Little People figures, including three Wonder Woman figures and a Batgirl figure. They would have the figures playing, hit them together, then tell one figure that it was going to time out.

Puddle Jumpers!

Team DiVa and grandparents

Also, this:

Stray Toasters

• Dear ‘Daddy’ in Seat 16C
• 10 Superhero Webcomics You Should Be Reading
• Banncars Poster Series
• Sara! and I have been watching the current/modern Doctor Who, starting with The Ninth Doctor and have just gotten back to The Eleventh Doctor. Until this, I’d not seen the Ninth or Tenth Doctor (outside of “Blink”). I really enjoyed Mr. Tennant’s Doctor, he may be my favorite after Tom Baker, of course… which made me enjoy this all the more.
• Denial is a helluva drug.
  
• Flying Mouse 365, the art of Chow Hon Lam
• 2013 was the 75th Anniversary of Superman. To celebrate that fact, Comic Book Resources compiled a list of “The 75 Greatest Superman Stories of All Time.”
• Debbie Harry, as a Valkyrie (or a knight)? I’m all for it.
• I wish that this Indiegogo campaign had gotten more of a signal boost when it would have helped the cause; I would have enjoyed seeing something like this produced.
• Josh Ln’s “Hero-Glyphics” Take Pop Culture Back to Ancient Egypt with The Avengers, The X-Men, and More

Namaste.

Saturday – 02 November 2013
A few weeks ago, Sara bought the girls stickers – two types of Justice League stickers, to be precise. Why? Because kids love stickers. Duh. We haven’t been giving them as incentives or accolades. We (mostly Sara, to be honest) have been giving them to the girls because, again, kids love stickers.

Earlier this week, Sara gave the girls an Aquaman sticker (Diana) and a Green Lantern sticker (Vanessa). They have been pretty good about keeping up with their respective stickers, though the stickers look like they’ve been down about 20 miles of bad road at this point.

After dinner tonight, Vanessa was playing with her sticker and kept saying something that I wasn’t sure that I was hearing properly. So, focused on her, I asked her to say what she said again. And she did. Loudly.

Green Lantern’s light!

I must have had “The World’s Most Confused Father” look on my face, because she said it again. Equally loudly, if not louder.

Green Lantern’s light!

I was stunned, mostly because I hadn’t taught her the Green Lantern Corps oath. Yet, there she was, shouting it – or at least part of it – in the dining room for all to hear. So, I did the only thing I could do: I looked into the kitchen at Sara and asked, “Did you teach her the oath?”

After she stopped laughing, Sara said,”Yes… but I didn’t figure she’d get the whole thing, so I just went with ‘Green Lantern’s light!'”

Best. Wife. Ever.

Namaste.