Curtain mania

Joe's mom made us four sets of curtains while she was visiting this past weekend.

We now have curtains for the bathroom, the kitchen, the great room*** and the baby's room.
What a task!!!

I am not crafty at all so I mostly did the shopping portion of the project.
I picked out the fabric and then Joe's mom sewed and sewed and sewed.

*** Valances only, in the great room but still no small task, as each window is 106" in length.

Thanks so much Patsy!

Here are some photos:

Nana & Home improvement central

My mom visited last week and had a great time hanging out with Sylvia. We went to Brookside Gardens and also did some retail therapy. Sylvia got some cool music toys from nana and also her very own boombox. Sylvia's been listening to jazz, classical and pop tunes.

My mom got us a runner for our hallway -- which was much needed as our 50 year old wood floors creak SO loudly and the new rug helps to muffle the sound. I really appreciate having the rug as the snapping and creaking of the floors was making me nuts!
Mom was also going to help me make curtains but we decided to wait as we'd have to mail the cloth back and forth.

Joe's parents are here right now and Patsy's been a curtain making machine...more on that later.

The kid's got good taste!

She thinks that the guys on the back of the record cover are the funniest thing around, and she screamed bloody murder (in the rue morgue) when we took the CD away from her.... Sylvie. All metal. All the time.

Jenny's mom coming to town

Jennifer's mother is coming to visit later tonight, so Sylvie will get some grandma time in for the next few days. Dad will get some much-needed time in the ampworks to try to fix one of his old builds that keeps squealing like a stuck pig.

We're also in the middle of trying to figure out what the hell to do with our lawn/garden. I think Jenny and her mom are gonna hit the greenhouse circuit this weekend, as we're in the market for flowers and a dogwood tree to plant for Sylvie in the front yard.

And then there's the matter that our entire backyard has turned to moss. Do the chores ever end? Uh...no.

Don't ban the bonfires!

I read with dismay a story posted on the SFGate.com site this morning about an impending ban on Ocean Beach bonfires.

The bonfire tradition is special to Jenny and I because that's where we met: at a bonfire on Ocean Beach. It would be a real shame if other folks couldn't have the same opportunity to gather, meet, and fall in love that we did.

The ocean is so cold in S.F., that really, bonfires are one of the only good ways to enjoy the Pacific. And while I understand the problems faced by the SFPD, the Park Service, and the local residents, I don't think banning the fires is the way to go. I hope that volunteer clean-up crews will step up to the plate to save this wonderful San Francisco tradition. [photo taken from sfgate.com/Kim Komenich]

Randy Freaking Rhoades

My mom must have heard me trying to master this riff about 18 million times. Sorry mom! When I was in middle/high school, I wanted to be this guy SO bad...

Randy Rhoades was from outer space, people. He redefined the instrument, IMHO.

Blindness freaking sucks

Sweet mother of crimeny.

I went to the opthamologist yesterday for a check up and to get my new prescription. I need new glasses because my little daughter has this game she calls "grab the specs." Last week she expanded the game to "...and break them in half." :-( Alas, my spec-tacular Scandanavian glasses are no more.

Soooo....I headed up to the opthamologist to get my examination. During the exam, he puts these crazy pupil-dilation drops in my eyes. I have never had this done before and I was not thrilled when I discovered that it renders you unable to focus on anything less than 10 feet away. Oh, and it also makes any sunlight burn your eyeballs right out of your skull.

Not able to drive home after the appointment, I stumbled into the Army surplus store next door and bought the cheapest sunglasses they had ($12). Couldn't read the tag, so I hope the guy didn't rip me off TOO bad.

Then I squinted my way to Bethesda's famous Rock Bottom Brewery to kill time until I could see well enough to drive again. Couldn't read the menu, and had to ask some girl sitting next to me to find Jason's number on my cell phone. Jason thought this would be a good pick up line; he may try it. If it works, look for him to be sporting shades and a white cane in the near future.

It took a full seven hours for the dilation to wear off, and I felt weird and queasy for the whole time. Not fun.

Spring is here!

Spring is definitely here in DC and every day it gets prettier as more trees and flowers begin to bloom. But along with the blooming are also our raging allergies...

We had a great weekend and Joe did a bunch of house stuff. He scrubbed the algae/green stuff off the house and the shed, he began to paint the kitchen cabinets (we're going to look for a different color, so it's on hold), he put on some screens so we can open the sunroom windows (YAH!), he weeded my peonies so they would not get choked, he repotted my new plant by the front door, he painted/removed rust from our front porch railing, he raked up old leaves and weeded this very overgrown spot in the backyard, he took out the patio furniture, last weekend he went to the dump to get rid of all this junk/wood that the previous owners of our house left here, he also babysat for me so I could get some time away both on Saturday and Sunday! PHEW. I am tired just from writing this.
Thanks Joe!

Do we know what really happened on 9-11?

First, let me say that I shudder to think that any government entity had any foreshadowing of the horrible events of 9-11, much less had an active part in planning and executing it. But, I will also say that there are many unresolved mysteries surrounding the event that make me think that, at the least, we are not getting the full story.

Some of the many questions that bug me:

1. Why did both towers fall down after burning only less than 2 hrs? A skyscraper in Venezuela burned for 17 hrs and still stood. One in Madrid burned for 24 hours and still stood. And, in fact, there are only three documented cases of buildings collapsing because of fire. They are WTC 1, WTC 2, and WTC 7 (which wasn't even hit by an airplane, btw).

2. Steel melts at approx. 2000 degrees F. Jet fuel burns at approx. 1300 degrees F. You do the math.

3. How were all four black boxes on the WTC planes completely incinerated, yet the intact passport of a terrorist, made of paper was found intact?

4. Why has the government not released the surveillance tapes of the plane hitting the Pentagon?

5. Why did the wings of the Pentagon plane "disintegrate" without breaking out the window frames on either side of the impact area? Where was the tail section wreckage? The engine wreckage?

There are many more, but I won't go on here. And lest you think I've turned into some crackpot nutcase, I'm in pretty elite company:

Here's San Francisco Chronicle columnist Mark Morford's column on the subject.

And here is New York magazine's take on it.

Finally, here is an excellent video documentary called 9/11 Loose Change that brings up a host of troubling questions surrounding the events of 9/11 and how the facts don't seem to jibe with the official storyline. Please watch this before thinking that it's all bullcrap.

The point here? We deserve a more thorough examination of the events surrounding the most heinous terrorist act in the nation's history. The victims deserve it, and so do we, the Vox Populi.

Fabu

Check me out...I SO have to recreate this outfit for Sylvia. I love it!
Also, I think Sylvia has my body, what do you all think? :O)
That's me at the beach w. my uncle feeding me some food.
Thanks Mom for getting me copies of these photos; they're the BEST!

Holy overtones, Batman!

So pretty much everyone reads comics as a kid, right? Well, the folks over at Superdickery.com decided that it would be fun to go back as adults and take a second look. What they found was interesting:

1. Superman is a total dick. The guy is constantly killing Batman, Jimmy Olsen, Wonder Woman, and even his beloved (or is she?) Lois Lane...again and again.

2. The guys drawing these comics back in the day were either really naïve or really naughty. After viewing some of the "unintended sexual meanings" cartoons, you MUST come to the conclusion that they were the latter. If you need examples, you can look here. But, FOR THE LOVE OF ALL THAT IS SACRED, DO NOT LOOK AT THIS ONE. (I'm serious, don't look.)

3. Batman and Robin were gay. Look, this disturbs me as much as it does the next red-blooded American male, but the proof is in the pudding, folks. Read these comics! The truth will horribly reveal itself!

4. The guys that drew Wonder Woman just wanted an excuse to draw sexy girls in bondage. I mean, week after week, issue after issue, Wonder Woman is bound with chains, with ropes, with her own frickin' golden lasso. It's amazing, really, that she ever got out of the house.

Great weekend!

My Mom and Dad came up this weekend to babysit so Jenny and I could have a couple "nights on the town."

On Friday, we went to a fabu St. Patrick's Day party hosted by our friend Ed in D.C. The party was PACKED (at least 100 people in his two bedroom condo), and we lots of really nice folks.

During the party folks were giving out stickers for the benefit of single folks, gold stars for gay singles, and American flags for straight singles. Married folks like us were out of luck, alas. Of course, as usual, I was instantly asked if I wanted a star, since I looked so obviously gay. It's got to be the glasses.

On Saturday we went back into D.C. to Dukem, our newest favorite Ethiopian restaurant with two more new friends that Jenny knows from the neighborhood. The food and conversation were both excellent. Man I love Wats.

It was, of course, great to spend more time with my Mom and Dad, and the baby was LOVING her extended granmagrampa time.

To round things off, we planted some shrubs, bulbs, and seeds, and I hauled a crapload of junk from behind my shed to the bed of my truck. Looks like a trip to the dump is in order. The Spring cleaning frenzy starts now, people.

Comment problems fixed!

Hi everyone!

I was just alerted that when people have been trying to comment on our blog, it wasn't working properly....

I've fixed the problem now, I think, so please comment away!!!

J,J, & S

Future pianist?

We went down to Joe's parents' house this past weekend and Sylvia indicated that she'd like to play the organ. So, here she is, playing her debut piece, "Minuet in Geeh:"

Generation Make

It seems that DIY is quite the rage these days. The hipster culture has embraced everything from quilting to cooking to wine making to guitar amp building, and personally I think that's pretty freaking cool.

I learned my DIY skills from my dad and mom. My dad always taught me to break down problems into component parts and solve the bits to make the whole work. My mom was DIY when DIY wasn't cool, teaching herself to speak Spanish, quilt, paint, refinish furniture, etc.

I've refinished an old guitar, built a handful of amps of my own design (or based loosely on previous designs), made my own soccer goals, and done a few other neat projects.

If you haven't made anything with your own two hands, you should give it a try. It's a very rewarding feeling to use something that you have personally crafted.

Try these links on for size to get started building, cooking, knitting, whatever....

AX84: Build your own guitar amps!
Make Magazine
Indestructables: Millions of cool projects here
ReadyMade Magazine

BRRR

Well, I am happy to announce that it is currently 17 degrees here in DC.
I really want to go to sleep but am hiding out in our guest room b/c Ms. Sylvia is having sleeping issues due to teething and if I walk out in the hall she can "sense" me and pops up and wants to play. Oy. Hopefully Joe will get her back to sleep soon -- so I can go to bed also.
The weather has been so weird this past week. We had the major snow dump last weekend, then we had 3 days of ~60 degree weather, then on Friday we had major winds (so fierce that it ripped one of our storm windows off of the house), then today the temperature dropped to the bone chilling 17 degrees that I mentioned above.
We have a fire in the fireplace and plan on camping out at home tomorrow...

Happy Valentine's Day!

Happy Valentine's Day, everyone!
Love,
Sylvia

Knife fight in D.C.!!! I got on the news!!!

Holy. Crap.

So I'm walking out of my office to go to the dentist yesterday. I'm passing the little mobile hot dog stand outside my office's front door (the corner of 17th and L, NW--this is the HEART of downtown people!) when I hear shouting from my left. I turn to see a homeless guy and a Hispanic guy arguing loudly. Many "f%$ks and "hijo de p#$as" were heard. Like any red-blooded American male, I hark back to sixth grade and hang out to see the inevitable punch-up. That's when I see the knife.

The homeless guy is holding a big ol' hunting knife with a blade that looks to be about four or five inches long! Woah. I grab my phone and scream at them, "I'm calling 911 right now!" in the hopes that it would make the homeless guy run off. They both ignore me. The hispanic guy goes over to his three friends, one of whom hands him a handled box cutter to defend himself with. This is getting uglier by the minute.

As I'm on the phone with 911, out of nowhere a paramilitary looking D.C. cop comes striding down the street, gun drawn, shouting at the dudes to get on the ground. They do. Then up runs a TV cameraman and reporter, who happened to be driving by at the right time. As the cop is starting to arrest the hispanic guy, I went to the cop and told him that he was only defending himself. (We found out on the news later that he was not charged, thankfully.) Other cops quickly arrive on the scene, one of which takes my detailed statement, and the TV crew interviews me. Crazy stuff.

And then, at 11 o'clock, comes my brief moment of stardom. Sweet! Already, I've heard from two of my printer contacts that saw my interview on the news...it's only a matter of time before Hollywood comes calling. I won't forget you all at the Oscars.

Blog tagged!

Thanks Sarah! I'll do this one (Xose)

Four jobs I’ve had:
Printing salesman
Archaeological Assistant
Deputy Editor in Chief
Sales dork at Heck's Dept. Store

Four Movies I can watch over and over:
Star Wars
This Is Spinal Tap
The Jerk
The Blues Brothers

Four Places I’ve Lived:
Montgomery, WV
Oviedo, Spain
Oakland
Durham, NC

Four TV shows I love:
Buffy
The Shield
The Wire
Angel

Four places I’ve vacationed
Chile
Morrocco
England
Finland

Four of my favorite dishes:
Asturian Fabada
Spanish chorizo
Jenny's pork chops, kraut, and apple sauce
Pote Asturianu

Four sites I visit daily:
AX84
Questionable Content
Diesel Sweeties
Asturian-American Migration Forum

Four places I would rather be right now:
At home with Jenny and Sylvie B.
On the river in WV
Honalulu
London

Four bloggers I’m tagging:
No tags....

photos from the weekend

Cool weekend trip

This past weekend we went to the Virginia mountains with some friends of ours, Allison, Etienne, and their baby, Beck.

They rent a small house in the middle of a field right at the foot of a mountain range that is simply beautiful. The place is really in the middle of nowhere (actually, Syria, VA), which is fantastic when you're trying to get away from it all. The place doesn't have a TV, which was great for conversation and ghost stories. At one point in the '60s, some farm worker murdered his wife in the house's living room (or so the story goes), so we were freaking on that for a while! :-)

We also discovered that Allison and Etienne are huge Buffy freaks, just like us, so we compared favorite episodes while listening to the soundtrack from "Once More, With Feeling." (Allison had it on her iPod!)

Sylvie and Beck had fun playing together, as usual, with the only bummer being that they both had colds (as did Allison and I) and so couldn't really romp that much.

All in all a great trip and we hope to go back if they'll have us! Jenny will post pix soon, I'm sure.....

Happy Friday

It's Friday. Yah! Here are some shots of tulips that were given to me by my cousin Jane.

Need more $$$ from the Internet

I've decided that the Internet needs to be generating more money for us. How to get it to generate that money, I'm not sure. I have a Web site that sells custom-made amplifier plates (Amplates), but it's not bringing in the killer flow, so I need something else. A money machine like this one, if you will.

But how? Adsense? Click-throughs? WTF? Self-help e-books? I'm at a loss here, people.

Nite out!

We went on our first nite out since being back here in DC. We ate dinner (at this neat place in Silver Spring called, Jackie's and had a drink (at the Quarry House) with our neighbors and friends, Bill and Kim. They are cool as they put up w. our constant Sylvia talk! Though we really tried to keep it in check tonight.
My mom's in town and babysat for us...
Here's a photo our petite fashionista wearing a handknitted hat and sweater, made by my mom.
Sorry this is a random blog but I am tired.

Blog slacking

Just wanted to apologize for the slack blogging lately. Things have been pretty crazy at the homestead and office, and honestly, we haven't had time.

Jenny's mom is in town this week to get some Sylvie time, which is nice.

Can I just say that I don't know how I lived without DVR capabilities for so long? When we got the DISH Network installed (including butt-ugly satellite dish on our roof...bah!), our package included DVR for two rooms. Now I have it set to record EVERY televised English Premier League and Spanish La Liga soccer game! OH MY GOD I'M IN SOCCER HEAVEN NOW!!!! :-)

Wee Ones

In our neighborhood we have all these playgroups for the kids (and for the moms) so you can get out of the house and meet other people.
I went to Wee Ones yesterday but decided that I will wait before I go again...the kids were way older than Sylvia and it was quite chaotic. Sylvia, though, was a star and just sat on my lap and smiled at everyone. I found it a bit brain jarring with all the kids yelling and playing and trying to not let them paw at Sylvia...Everyone there was really nice and hopefully I can get to know them better later.
Luckily there is a 'mini' wee ones group that formed for those of us with the infants...I may try that one next week. I also joined a neighborhood walking group of all moms. We're going to try to meet up at least 2x per week.
That's the report from my end.
Here's some cute snaps of my favorite human being:

Happy New Year/Christmas wrap up

Well, we got back from our Christmas/Channukah trip to St. Augustine, FL on Tuesday. What a wonderful trip! If you've never been to the oldest continuously occupied city in North America, you're missing out! From the old Spanish quarter, where you can see how the Spanish colonists lived, to the old Fort, which is replete with real, live cannon fire, the whole town brings history to life.

Sylvie was showered with grandparent affection the whole time, naturally, and it was fun to get together with my cousins for Christmas.

Jenny got a new Canon digital SLR for Christmas, so be on the lookout for Sylvie shots that are more glorious than ever!

Happy Christmakkahwanzaa!

We would like to take this time to tell everyone how much we value your friendship, especially at this reflective time of year. We feel very blessed to have so many loved ones all over the world, and we sincerely hope that all of you have a wonderful holiday season!

Love, Joe, Jenny, and Sylvie

Holy crap! A CEO deferred a pay raise!

I just read an amazing story over at Wal*Mart Watch, a site dedicated to opening people's eyes to the corporate shitpile that is the world's leading retailer.

It seems that a CEO for a small firm called the RiskMetrics Group actually turned down a raise and recommended that the board give his bonus to his underlings. Amazing!

According to the article, the CEO in question, Ethan Berman,"...took the highly unusual step of sending his board of directors a memo that recommended that he receive no increase in salary and a reduced annual bonus from 2004."

In Berman's own words:

“The banker J. P. Morgan once said that he would never lend money to a company where the highest-paid employee was paid more than 20 times the lowest-paid, as it was in his view unstable...the firm’s stronger than expected performance was driven by a large number of employees in other roles, and therefore I would like to see the bulk of my direct reports, and in fact many of their direct reports, paid greater bonuses than I receive."

Ethan Berman, you fricking rock. My hat's off to you, sir.

Rough night, Santa?

Looks like Ol' St. Nick had a little too much holiday cheer the night before this scary ass photo was taken. The kid is probably crying to keep from passing out from the Vodka fumes....

More at the Scared of Santa Gallery. Thanks, Sarah, for the link.

Diesel Sweeties

Warning: Addictive Web Comic alert.

I found Diesel Sweeties from a link at the super-cool Questionable Content web comic's site.

If you could get into the smart-ass exploits of indie rock poseurs, heavy metal vegetarians and former porn stars (and their robot lovers), then Diesel Sweeties might just be for you. Three words: Crush. All. Hu-mans.

Holiday fun

Tonight we attended Woodmoor's Annual Tree Lighting Ceremony. It was a crack up. The whole neighborhood gathers (with SO many kids, it freaked me out), and at 7p they flick the lights on this huge tree in the center of our neighborhood. The lights were a bit sad... but it's the thought that counts, it's a sweet idea and the kids love it. Santa comes too. There's also supposedly a Hanukkah menorah that they light up, but I did not see it.
We put up our tree and we re-arranged the furniture so it could be in the center of our picture window. I decorated our front lawn/azaleas/rose of sharon bush/banisters w. white pin lights. We also have a reindeer on the lawn who is made of twig and pin lights (he's super cute). I heart him.
I think it's going to snow tonight which will make it all seem quite official.
What else, Sylvia now has the beginnings of TWO teeth. They began to emerge in the last few days and she has been quite a trooper. She's still eating a ton but just has moments of pain. Carrots are her new favorite. She told me.

And we have success

The turkey was so juicy, Joe thought something was wrong with it.
Here's the listing of final food mania list:
- 11 pound free range organic turkey -- check
- homemade gravy
- canned cranberries (sorry couldn't make anything else at this point)
- mashed yukon gold potatoes
- Stove Top stuffing
- baguette
- salad
- sweet pototoes
- homemade apple crisp
- pea cassarole
- Fetzer wine
I feel like I forgot something.

A Snowy Thanksgiving

It's snowing here in DC (well, Silver Spring, Maryland) and I am about to prep some of the dishes for our first official mini-family Thanksgiving. It's weirding me out not being in La Jolla. I associate warmish weather with Thanksgiving, not snow!
I will also miss my mom's totally yummy cooking. In honor of my mom (who LOVES Thanksgiving), I am about to make an apple crisp. She's the pie master-ette but I don't have the energy to make a pie, so I will make the crisp instead. Our friends Bill and Kim are coming over to join us and that will be fun.
Will report back tomorrow with the food news....

New Song on MySpace

Just wanted to let y'all know that I've added a new song up on my MySpace site. It's a jazzy type thing called "Standards Firmly in Place," about a lady on a rather unfortunate trip south of the border....

Check it out here

Long time no post....

Sorry to all for the delay in posting. I was away in NYC for a business trip, the folks were staying with Jenny, and things got hectic. What can I say? :-)

New York was cool, as it always is, and the weather cooperated well, with temps in the 60s the whole time I was there...nice. I had some yummy expense-account food, with a highlight being a fusion restaurant called the Mesa Grill. It was the best food I've had out in quite some time. I had the venison, which was Bambi-tastic.

This weekend I worked on storm windows, both making and reparing them. I am manly man. Grrrrr, as Jenny says.

Autumn is rad

It's so pretty here in DC right now. Our neighborhood is looking beautiful due to the trees all turning amazing colors. Sylvia and I took our walk yesterday and I told her about the trees and why they turns colors. She also got to wear her coordinating velour sweatsuit for the first time (thanks Grandma Joan)!

Deregulation sure is great, huh?

When the Civil Aeronautics Board (CAB) decided in 1978 that airline regulation was a bad thing and stripped pretty much all goverment regulations on fares and service, it was touted as the be-all, end-all to "save" the aviation industry.

The theory, not unlike most deregulation arguements, is that the increased competition would drive down fares and economic pressures would force airlines to provide better service to compete in the open market. And like most degregulation policies, that ideal has proven to be unattainable, due to the seemingly unquenchable corporate greed so cultivated in the American business culture.

So far as I can tell, fares have dropped, no doubt. So that part worked. But what else has fallen by the wayside in the name of corporate profits? Pay for pilots, mechanics, and flight attendants has fallen, service has certainly declined (when was the last time you got a free meal on a domestic flight?), and, most troubling, smaller markets have seen the number of service providers plummet.

With yesterday's announcement of Independence Air's Chapter 11 filing, many small cities, like Charleston, WV, where I fly often, will be left with few options and higher prices. Large cities will avoid this problem, but New York, L.A., and Chicago aren't the only places people want to fly in this country.

Poor Flyi, we barely knew ye.

I accept my nomination...

...to be the president of all babies for nations near and far. If you don't vote for me, I will squeeze your "you know whats" with my oh-so-powerful vice grip.

Republicans: the Family Values Party? Right.

It's no surprise to anyone that the country is going into ever more massive debt. We need to cut corners to turn this thing around, nobody is arguing that point. Where we differ, however, is which corners should be cut. Those natsy ol' liberals like me want to make up some of the difference by making the richest people in our society actually pay taxes again.

Those family values loving Republicans like our buddy, Speaker of the House Dennis Hastert in the photo above? They want to take food out of schoolkids' mouths to save some cash. According to the article in today's Washington Post,

"The food stamp cuts in the House measure would knock nearly 300,000 people off nutritional assistance programs, including 70,000 legal immigrants, according to the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office. Those immigrants would lose their benefits because the House measure would require legal immigrants to live in the United States for seven years before becoming eligible to receive food stamps, rather than the current five years.

"About 40,000 children would lose eligibility for free or reduced-price school lunches, the CBO estimated."

Meanwhile, according to the article,

"Republicans move in the coming weeks to cut taxes for the fifth time in as many years. Those tax cuts, totaling $70 billion over five years, would more than offset the deficit reduction that would result from the budget cuts."

I wonder who will receive those tax cuts?

The amount of dickitude exhibited by the Republican party staggers the imagination.

By the way, we have spent $216,884,337,742 (that number has jumped by several hundred thousand dollars as you were reading this sentence) on the war in Iraq. Maybe that's why we can't seem to find any money to feed 40,000 children.

Boo again...

Boo!

HAPPY HALLOWEEN!!!!

Harmless but freaky

I cannot deal with these bugs. They're freaking me out. They are total spazzes and they jump AT you not away from you.

WHOA! Where did that Autumn come from?

This morning it was rainy and windy. Leaves were falling out of all the trees. Pumpkins and paper ghouls and goblins were on everyone's porches. It's undeniable: Fall has fallen!

But my how quickly it got here! It seems like just yesterday I was scraping snow off of my front steps and waiting patiently for an alien peanut to arrive. It blows my mind that time can move this fast. Oh well, to my good friend Fall, I say "Welcome"!

BTW, don't miss the first staple of the holiday season tonight on ABC: The Great Pumkin Charlie Brown is on at 8pm EST. He will come this year, I just KNOW IT! :0)

Don't need words for this post....

Will the word "mutilation" scar my daughter's psyche?

Sylvie loves it when I play my electric guitar and sing to her. She lays in her crib staring at my moving fingers, smiling and laughing when I do a particularly crazy high note or hammer-on. It warms the heart, no doubt.

Her current favorite songs? Voodoo Chile (Slight Return) by Hendrix and Wave of Mutilation (UK Surf) by the Pixies.

I love playing the Pixies for her, but it's a drag sometimes because I can only sing about half of the words without exposing her delicate ears to stories about someone boning their sister who is their daughter who is their favorite lover. Plus, they have no lips, they have no tongue. That could be scary for a three-month old.

So you see, it's a challenge.

What does green smell like to you?

Today we went to Brookside Gardens in Wheaton, Maryland. It's a totally beautiful park with manicured lawns, many trees and tons of plants and flowers. It also has an arboretum. The arboretum smelled like Hawaii to me...insert big sigh here. See Sylvie's massive excitement about being out in nature... then as soon as we got home she woke up...

In search of....

...the perfect black and white cookie. When I was a kid I used to go to Tarzana, CA every Thanksgiving and I always seemed to have a black and white cookie while I was there.
They were perfect: cakey and dense, not hard, vanilla-flavored cake, not lemon! The icing was soft in the middle with a slight crisp to the outside of it... very hard to describe. The cookies were from a grocery store there called Gelson's. Wonder if they still make the cookies?
When my mom was here last week we were on a mission to find one here. No luck. They were all too hard. Blech. The upside is that we found a great Jewish deli with yummy pastrami sandwiches (they even have a lower fat version of the pastrami which was super yum) and a great matzoh ball soup. We also found a real bagel place, less than 10 min. from my house.