Random Access

01 November 2013
It’s All Saints Day.
Not to be confused with All Saints Day.

Yesterday was Hallowe’en. We dressed the girls up as Weeping Angels. (Hey, Sara! agreed to it. That’s all I’m sayin’.) They were very cute. But rather than me prattle on about it, I’ll let you read what Sara had to say on her blog:

Happy Halloween!

Rob had the great idea a couple of months ago that the ladies should be Weeping Angels for Halloween. He’s even been teaching them to play Peekaboo by saying “Rawr!” instead of “peekaboo!”, which they are tremendously fond of.

So I’ve been spending the last two weeks trying to figure out how to make a decent Weeping Angel costume for toddlers. It had to be comfortable and warm so that they could wear it without complaining. And I had a feeling they wouldn’t go for elaborate face paint and wigs, so it had to be limited to just a costume. This is what I came up with:

The costume is basically a grey shirt and leggings (so they wouldn’t get cold) and then an over-dress, and a pair of wings that I painted to look like stone.

There’s Vanessa doing her best Weeping Angel impression.

I didn’t count on how much Diana would love playing with her wings. She was pulling on those all evening, and they needed so emergency repair at one point.  Fortunately, her grandpa had a stapler handy.

And here’s Diana showing that even Weeping Angels like to get cuddles from daddy.

Here’s an Instagram shot of the progress on the wings. Basically for both the dress and the wings I started with a white costume and turned them to stone by dying them grey, then spattering them with black, white, and grey paint.

For the wings, since I couldn’t just throw them in the washing machine with some Rit, I used fabric paint that comes in a spray can.

We hope you had a Happy Halloween!

Yep.  And here are EVEN MORE PICTURES of the girls in their costumes.

Namaste.

Wednesday – 30 October 2013
It’s been a while, but I do have a few things to talk about. Granted, most of them revolve around the past week and my birthday, go figure.

And, as I mentioned on Facebook: Thank you to everyone who took time out of their day to wish me a “Happy Birthday.” I truly appreciated it.

Last week wound up being very long, thanks – or “no thanks,” as the case may be – to Project: Cthulhu. I actually had a vendor rep on the phone for the better part of… six hours over two work days, trying to suss out what was wrong. And their documentation wasn’t much of a help; it was outdated and didn’t cover the correct procedure for what the vendor wanted us to do on the server. Yay. Late Friday afternoon, I had the brilliant epiphany to compare a working server to the one that was being “slightly difficult.” I found a discrepancy and started down a path to rectify it. Lo and behold, it worked. Work week: Saved.

I went home Friday evening tired and a little annoyed that finding the problem, even with the help of the vendor engineer, took so long. Those feelings melted away when I was greeted at the door by Team DiVa, bearing a box of RubySnap cookies and singing “Happy Birthday.” Sure, it was a day early, but it was very sweet. We had dinner and hung out that evening. Sara and I decided to watch A Nightmare on Elm Street after the girls were in bed; I started nodding off during the movie. I decided to go take a hot soak and call it an early night. I did and I did. In that order.

Saturday, I woke up not really feeling any older, but definitely glad to have completed another circuit of the sun without any dire encounters with the Dark Lady. Sara made her famous (at least around our house it is) coffee cake for breakfast. We hung out at home all morning until it was time for me to go play dolls HeroClix. Birthday Bonus: It was an Event Week, so I wasn’t judging, but actually playing. It was a sealed event – buy a couple of boosters and build a team from the figures in the boxes. I put together an okay team, but got completely wrecked in the tournament. Didn’t matter because I had a fun time gaming and talking trash with the other players.

I came home and helped get the girls ready for dinner. Shortly after that, Sara’s parents came over – they were kind enough to watch the girls while Sara and I went out for birthday dinner at Rodizio Grill. Added Birthday Bonus: October is Rodizio’s “Wild Game Fest,” so you can sample a few exotic meats. We tried the frog legs and one of my favorites: rattlesnake sausage. We checked out with our Seven Deadly Sins card punched for “Gluttony.” (So. Very. Worth it.) Next: A stop at the Cheesecake Factory for some celebratory dessert. Then it was back home for a movie. Since it was my choice and I wanted something light – and hopefully funny – I picked Iron Sky, which I’ve wanted to see for some time. It was not a great movie, in fact it was pretty ridiculous, but I had a blast watching it. Seriously, how could you not appreciate – if not love – a movie about Nazis on the moon where the heroic lead is a Black guy?!

Sunday was, again, pretty low-key. We didn’t do a whole lot during the day. There were a couple of shopping excursions prior to Sara’s parents, Galadriel, Angy and Dave coming over for dinner. Sara baked a pretty wicked Devil’s Food cake for after-dinner birthday fun. After the guests were gone and the girls were abed, we settled in for cocktails and The Walking Dead. We were not disappointed.

Monday, the work week reared its ugly head once more. I headed in to work for a 9:00AM meeting… only to find that I was a week early for it.

*grblsnrkx*

Had I bothered to confirm the time/date, I would have either come in late or just worked from home. Feh. Fortunately, the day passed fairly quickly. I confirmed that Friday’s server configuration was indeed viable and handed it off to the vendor’s engineers shortly before lunch. I picked up Team DiVa from daycare and ushered them home for snacktime (RubySnap Virginia cookie!) and dinner. Then, it was off to Guys’ Night Out with the usual suspects.

Tuesday, was a quiet day. This was a good thing. Especially as, Tuesday Night, I was going to enjoy Sara’s final birthday present: Living Colour in concert. That’s right. Living Colour. (Yes, Cult of Personality Living Colour.)

Living Colour at The Depot

I met up with Jeremiah and Zac at The Depot. They’d already scoped out a prime location about 5 or 6 feet from the stage. We were right in front of Vernon Reid (guitarist) the entire show. I also got to hang out with Robert V., Monica and Alessandro. Pictures (and some video) of the evening can be seen here.

It was an amazing concert, from start to finish. And they had the bass turned WAAAY up. Floor-shaking bass. They opened with Robert Johnson’s Preachin’ Blues (I think), and then went into Vivid. After Cult of Personality, Corey Glover joked, “And now, the rest of the fucking album…” You could tell that they were having a great time, both with the way they played and sang and the way that they interacted with each other and the audience. And if anyone was worried that these guys have lost a step or two…? Rest assured: They sounded fantastic. They started Open Letter (to a Landlord) by opening with a great rendition of Amazing Grace. Or, as I live-tweeted:

Corey Glover’s taking us to church tonight! He opened #OpenLetterToALandlord with a fantastic Amazing Grace! @LivingColour

— Robert Neal (@shadorunr) October 30, 2013

They finished out the set with Glamour Boys, What’s Your Favorite Color?, and Which Way to America. I was pleasantly surprised to discover just how much of the album I remembered.

After a spectacular drum solo by Will Calhoun, they closed the show with a great crowd-backed rendition of Lou Reed’s Walk on the Wild Side, Love Rears Its Ugly Head (which I was secretly hoping they’d do), Time’s Up, James Brown’s Sex Machine.

It was the perfect way to wrap up an extended birthday celebration.

And that’s pretty much that.

Namaste.

Tuesday – 21 October 2013
It’s that time again…

Go!

Dinosaurs love teddy bears. Who knew?!

Team DiVa attacking Daddy with their Tickle Monster gloves.

And…. video, too!

Namaste.

Tuesday – 15 October 2013
It’s Tuesday. Again. As I don’t want to receive another “What happened to this week’s TDVT post?!” email, here’s this week’s bit of Adventure Toddlers cuteness:

The girls are fond of music. Very fond. They know how to open Spotify and select songs in their playlist on the laptop we keep in the living room. They also seem to be figuring out their way around iTunes on the Mac in their room. I’ve been trying to keep track of how they refer to certain songs:

• Sara! introduced them to Miles Davis’ “Kind of Blue” a few months back. Diana’s favorite song is Freddie Freeloader… which, when they don’t call it by name, they refer to as “BA-dum,” which mimics the song’s refrain.
• Kool and the Gang’s Jungle Boogie is “Get Down Get Down”
• There’s a song called Music Monkey Jungle Theme Song – which, oddly, sounds very much like a slightly slowed-down, acoustic guitar variation of Stray Cat Strut – that they refer to as “Ball Song,” because of the album art work.
  • Stray Cat Strut, incidentally, is “Cat Style”
• Gorillaz’ 19-2000 (Soulchild Remix) is “Baby Crying,” again, due to their interpretation of the cover artwork.
• The William Tell Overture is…. “Willam Tell”. Occasionally, “Overture” is added to the mix.
• The Tra La La Song (Theme from ‘The Banana Splits’) is “Tra La La.”
• Vanessa’s favorite song, Got To Give It Up (Part 1), by Marvin Gaye, is “Star Song,” thanks to the Boogie Nights soundtrack cover art.

I’m sure that there are a few others, but these are the ones that come immediately to mind.

The girls are enjoying their daycare. Thankfully. According to Sara!, aside from the days when they were sick, there hasn’t been a lot of wailing or moaning or gnashing of teeth when they are dropped off. Hallelujah!

And now, pictures:

Vanessa, waiting for Diana to see the pediatrician…

Diana, waiting for the pediatrician…

Vanessa, bundled up and taking a rainy Sunday stroll…

Diana on a rainy Sunday stroll…

Playing the piano at Canadian Thanksgiving dinner

Relaxing after picking pumpkins and wandering through the corn maze…

Diana finds a pumpkin she likes…

Vanessa found a pumpkin…

Playing dolls with some of Daddy’s old HeroClix and game boards

Ride the tigers!!!

And that’s a wrap.

Namaste.

Tuesday – 01 October 2013
It’s the first of October, which means it’s time for the site to go Pink for October.

It’s also Tuesday, which means that it’s time to see some pictures of a couple of cute kids:

Taking five… seconds, not minutes.

Must… sit… on… tiger!

Vanessa

Diana

Water sphere!

Namaste.

Tuesday – 24 September 2013

I’m elbow-up in work right now, but here are a couple of pictures of Team DiVa from this past week…

Reading time with Mom…

Playing guitar with Dad…

And that’s all for now.

Namaste.

Tuesday – 17 September 2013
This past week has seen a new development in Team DiVa’s daily schedule: They’re in daycare. Or preschool. Or whatever you’d care to call it. It’s also been “a bit” of an experience for Sara! and me, in seeing how the ladies are adjusting to the change.

They like the theory of going to daycare. But, it seems that their appreciation for the practical application of going is a little less enthusiastic. There’s a fair bit of moaning and crying and gnashing of teeth in the mornings when we’re getting them ready to go. This, as you might imagine, tends to slow things down for the “getting out the door” portion of the day. But, it seems that once they have been at daycare for a bit, they enjoy it. Go figure. Hopefully, the “I don’t want to get up/I don’t want to go” morning drama will diminish over the next few weeks.

And, as an added bonus: Diana brought home a lovely cold last week. She was kind enough to share it with all of us. Let it not be said that she’s a selfish child.

And now, a couple of pics of the ladies at the zoo this past weekend:

At the Seal and Sea Lion Tank

Waving to the elephants

Namaste.

Tuesday – 03 September 2013
It’s time for another look at the past week in Team DiVa-dom…

Successful trip to IKEA

Vanessa, doing a little light reading…

Helping Daddy sweep the floor. No, really… we ARE helping! Really! (For the most part.)

Building a tower…

Climbing on Mom at the end of the day…

Namaste.

Tuesday – 27 August 2013
It’s a rainy Team DiVa Tuesday, but it’s a Tuesday nonetheless.

Diana and the Train

Just a couple of dinosaurs and their bears…

Diana-saur

Vanessa-raptor at rest

Dinosaurs with bears… “playing on monkey bars.” (Their words, not mine.)

Namaste.

Thursday – 22 August 2013
Another No Bad News Thursday is upon us. Amen.

Life’s been good. The family is doing well. Team DiVa continue to surprise us with things that they have picked up. And they are coming up – quickly – on their second birthday. Time does fly.

The family at Silver Lake

Vanessa (l) and Diana playing with Rokenbok Monorail

More monorail time!

And, speaking of Rokenbok, the girls were featured on the Rokenbok Facebook page, in a picture that Sara! took over the weekend:

Intense concentration…

Reeling by on Celluloid
Since Sara’s back has gotten better over the past few weeks, we’ve gotten back in the habit of Movie Date Night. Last week, Sara picked Gallowwalkers:

Wow. This was NOT a good movie. (Although, I still think I “win” the “Choose the Most Awful Movie” award with The Spirit.) Let me just say that there is no need for you to check out this movie — we took that hit for you. You’re welcome.

That’s right… I resurrected the lawn darts to show just how bad this movie was. (And for those who are keeping score at home, I just effectively gave this movie a -8 rating. Yep, “negative eight.”)

Tonight was my pick. I rolled the dice and came up with Trance, a film by Danny Boyle, starring James McAvoy, Rosario Dawson, and Vincent Cassel:

This… this was a good movie. It had suspense. It had some (not a lot, but “some”) action. There was an interesting twist – one that I thought I’d figured out about 1/3 of the way through the movie, but didn’t.

Seriously, though, if you are looking for an interesting movie that will keep you guessing, I give this a definite thumbs-up with an okay.

Stray Toasters

• For months now, Sara and I have been humming John Williams’ Imperial March (from Star Wars) to the girls whenever we change their diapers. It often winds up getting vocalized as “Bum Bum Bum… Check your bum… Check your bum…” Hey, don’t knock it – it’s kept them entertained.A week or so ago, I played this version of the song, from YouTube, while changing one of the girls. This may have been a mistake. Why? Because whenever it’s diaper-changing time now, they ask for “Bum bum check a bum…”
• 
• Bee and Puppycat
• I quite like this artwork , by Simon Stålenhag, and the way they mix science fiction pieces so casually in the environments.
• 
• Behind the Scenes on a Home Renovation Reality Show
• There’s still time to get in on this Humble Bundle.

Now that I’ve done this entry, I should do the same for Pinstripes and Polos and Four-Color Coverage…

Namaste.

Tuesday – 11 August 2013
It’s been a while.
Sure, that’s an understatement, but it’s my blog and there you go.

Over the past couple of weeks, there’s been a lot going on. The highlights include:

The Train Room is (mostly) finished; the only thing remaining is to choose and install some baseboard. The carpet went in at the end of July. It was a bit more of an adventure than expected. And by “adventure,” I mean that the carpet was installed; the same day, we started noticing a couple of problems:

• It started separating from the step in the room, 
• There were patches were it appeared to have not been stretched and was coming up from the tack strips, and
• There were spots where the tacks on said tack strips weren’t bent over… so you could feel them when you walked on those parts of the carpet.

Needless to say, there was a callback to have the job redone. When they asked if I wanted the same installers, I asked to have someone else come out, “to have another pair of eyes look at the job,” as I told the CSR. A few days later, the second installer came out and looked at the job. His comments included:

• “I can’t believe they left it like this,”
• “I’m taking pictures of this to send to my boss,” and
• “This is the second time that I’ve had to go behind them and finish a job.”

When I came home after the fix, things were done properly… including adding a tack strip to the step to hold down the carpet. You know, the way it should have been done the first time.

But, the room is otherwise ready to go… as seen here:

Next up, was the Rush Clockworks Angels concert; my sixth Rush concert and fifth one I’ve attended in Utah. I went with Jeff (Galadriel’s stepdad) for his birthday. We were out on the lawn, just off-center to stage right, which afforded a great view of the venue and the crowd. The band played a show just shy of two-and-a-half hours, excluding a twenty minute intermission. The setlist included songs that I haven’t heard live in many years and some that I hadn’t heard live at all. It was a blast. I even ran into my friend, Jason and his son. Win-Win.

Usana Amphitheatre, waiting for the concert to begin

Ladies and gentlemen… Rush

Clockwork Angels tourbook and ticket

And, while not quite as grand in scale as a home improvement project or a concert – but easily as grand on the “cool factor” scale, I got to hang out with Melissa (Sib-4) last week. It was nice; it had been far too long since we’d done so.

Also, last week, I set up my monorail for the girls to play with. I’d expected them to “like” it; I didn’t expect this:

[KGVID]http://blog.echopulse.net/wp-content/uploads/2013/08/monorail3.mov[/KGVID]

Totally worth it. In fact, it’s become their go-to spot between and after their nightly episodes of Team Umizoomi.

Saturday, we got up early and took the Team DiVa down to Stone Mountain Park for the Sandy City Hot Air Balloon Fest. The girls have been somewhat fascinated with hot air balloons and Sara! learned that the event was coming up, so it seemed like a perfect match.

Up, up and away…

We weren’t disappointed: The girls had a great time watching the balloons. They even got to see one landig, as we were driving away. On the way home, they kept asking for “More hot air balloons… More hot air balloons!”

Saturday night, Chris came over to play ‘Clix. We played a couple of games and he whupped my teams rather handily — I don’t think that I even managed to damage any of his characters in the first game. Yeah, it was that bad. But it was fun to play and well worth the drubbing I took.

Sunday was a good day. We started out with a trip to the Wasatch Front Farmer’s Market at Wheeler Historic Farm.

Quiet repose on a bench – Vanessa (l) and Diana

Here there be cows…

Hey! There are rocks here, too!

 We ran into our friend, Diane, whom I don’t think we have seen in… a year or two. We also took the girls to see some of the animals.

Stray Toasters – Team DiVa Music Edition

• Among the ladies’ top music requests these days are such diverse elements as:
  • Marvin Gaye’s Got to Give It Up – which they call “The Star Song,” because of the cover art that shows up with it on Spotify
  • Gorillaz’ 19-2000 (Soulchild Remix) – which they call “Baby Crying,” again because of the cover art. (Not sure exactly how they arrived at this one, but that’s what they call it.
  • The Monkey Song, from Animaniacs – their current favorite pre-bedtime song/video.
    • Sara! surprised me with the information that this wasn’t an original song, but was adapted from a song called Monkey, by Harry Belafonte.
  • Elmo’s Song, from Sesame Street (Hey, they’re kids. Go figure.)

• Sunday evening, as we were leaving the house to go to Sara’s parents’ house, Diana started singing “I want to ride my bicycle, I want to ride my bike…” Neither Sara nor I taught her Bicycle Race, so we were stymied by her belting it out. It turns out that Sara’s mother taught it to the girls, singing it to/with them whenever they see a bicycle go by. Diana, seeing my bicycle in the garage on our way out, just did what her grandmother had taught her. “Clever girl.”
• On the way home from dinner, the girls started singing “The Tra La La Song (Theme from The Banana Splits Show).” That one I take full credit/blame for.

And with that, I’m calling this entry “done.”

Namaste.

Tuesday – 30 July 2013
Here we go again…

This week is light on the pictures, but there is a video. So, things kind of balance out.

Vanessa at rest… mostly.

Diana, at rest…

Pretty maids, all in a row.

And, since all of these pictures have the little ladies being (relatively) still, here’s a little something with them in motion. A lot of motion.

Namaste.

Tuesday – 23 July 2013
Here we go again…

Last night, Sara! told me that Diana took some of her Mega Blox, put them together, hoisted them into the air and said, “Kite!” (Of course she knows what a kite is, she’s my daughter after all.) Following this, she took four blocks, stacked them and did he same thing, but this time, she said, “Rocket ship!” That’s my kid.

Vanessa (l), Diana

This happened the other night, during dinner. Completely unsolicited. Completely adorable.

The girls, being “somewhat” inquisitive lasses, like to push buttons and to turn lights off and on. Last week, I decided to test a theory. I built the circuit below – the first circuit that I’ve built in many years:

Three LEDs, connected to three buttons. Press a button and the corresponding light glows. I figured that I’d see how they liked it. Apparently, they like it quite a bit. They play with it whenever they’re downstairs watching Team Umizoomi.

Over the past couple of weeks, the girls’ preferred bedtime song has been “The Monkey Song,” from Animaniacs.

It’s become the new nightly ritual; they will ask for it before heading to their cribs for “Quiet Crib Time.”

And that’s all for now.

Namaste.

Wednesday – 17 July 2013
Day late, but worth the wait.

No post would be complete without a selfie…

I came home to this last Wednesday or Thursday…

Sara! and Diana at the “Run Through the Lavender 5k”

Vanessa and Rob at the “Run Through the Lavender 5k”

Sharing Cheerios… with the floor.

Namaste.

Sunday – 14 July 2013 Monday – 15 July 2013
This past weekend was eventful and mostly good.

Saturday, we got up at ridiculous o’clock to head down to the Young Living Lavender Farm for the Run Through the Lavender 5k – our fourth consecutive year doing the event. This year, like last year, we decided to strap Team DiVa into carriers and walk – yeah, there would be no running – the course with them on our backs. (Last year, we wore them on our chests.)

Sara! and Diana

Rob and Vanessa

We were just around the corner from the starting line when the gun went off, which is much better than last year when we didn’t even know where the starting line was. I knew that I wasn’t going to beat or match last year’s time, so I set a simple goal: Not to be the last person across the finish line.

We turned the corner and were on our way. The course was roughly the same as last year – uphill from the start, mostly flat while parallel to I-15, then winding back and forth on the way downhill to the finish line. And along the way, this was the view:

An hour later:

Vanessa and I finished in 1:00:51, Diana and Sara! finished in 1:00:53. Not bad for carrying “running buddies” along the course. It probably goes without saying that we we tired by time the race was done.

And, I met my goal.

We made it back home and spent the rest of the day in. I spent the better part of the morning trying (somewhat unsuccessfully) to stave off a nap. When the girls went down for their nap, I decided to give in…

…only to be awakened by the postman, just as I had started to nod off. I got the mail and went back inside for Nap: Round 2. I had a fitful nap, but I got some rest. The afternoon was mercifully uneventful.

In the evening, the in-laws came over to watch the girls so that Sara! and I could head up to the Deer Valley Music Festival and see Arturo Sandoval preform with the Utah Symphony:

Our enjoyment of the show was made even better by the fact that we sat in the reserved section. Eleventh row. Dead center stage.

Our enjoyment was somewhat diminished by the fact that it started raining. A little.

Then more steadily.

Then a lot. A whole lot. Enough that maybe 1/3 to 1/2 of the audience bailed before intermission.

At the intermission, we went into the lodge to get some coffee and warm up a little. Both of these were good things. By the time that intermission was over, the rain had passed. The second half of the concert was great, as well. And much drier.

Sunday was a relatively quiet day around the house. I took care of Team DiVa, as Sara!’s back was bothering her. It wound up bothering her enough for her to visit the InstaCare. She came back home and rested; the girls and I just hung out and played. Sara!’s back got bad enough later in the day that we wound up going to the ER. Five hours – and two prescriptions – later, we were back at home. (With HUGE thanks to the in-laws for coming over to watch the little ladies and get them to bed.) After a quick bite to eat and doing the dishes, it was time to collapse into bed.

Namaste.