No more Evel in the World

Evel Knievel is dead. For late baby bloomers and whatever the hell my generation is called, Evel was a legend of mythical status. Perhaps it's because we saw ABC shows with him jumping cars, or rocketing across the Snake River Canyon. Heck, the ultimate 70s idol (Fonzie, as if you had to ask) did stunts that were based off of Evel. All the other stuff (hitting the jukebox for a song, the girls, "ay ...") was all within Evel's powers, I'm certain.

What I remember most was a toy that I - and all other boys I knew - had when growing up. Basically it was Evel on a motorcycle with a handcrank, which allowed you to power him up to jump whatever you wanted. Hours of fun for a little kid, and there was no computer screen to look at.



Now one of my childhood idols is dead. Weren't John Denver and Mr. Rogers enough? Next thing you know they'll be telling me Dan Fogelberg is dead. Or all of the people from "The Electric Company".

Why couldn't it be Joanie and Chachi instead?



It'll be interesting to see how much media attention Evel's death gets. I suspect it will be more than you'd think.

The Power of a Smile

He's not yet 3 months old, but Anderson has now become the King of Manipulation. All because of a smile ...

So I'm now back to updating the blog. I reread Natalie's entry and it was just so ... cheerful. Not always my style, you know. That's why we balance each other so well. My lack of cheer comes not from a disdain for the Christmas season, which started on July 17th this year, if I recall. Rather I'm still smarting over being smacked in the head with a bag of quarters with my nephrology board exam.

To get over this, I've signed up for my second "Ironman" race, Ironman Arizona. This will occur on November 23rd next year, if anyone wants to come watch. 2.4 miles of swimming, followed by 112 miles of biking and 26.2 miles of running through what hopefully isn't a torturously hot Arizona day.

But back to Anderson, or "Don Juan". He has his daycare workers wrapped around his finger. First, Anderson isn't a mutant like some of the other kids in the class. Well .. he does still have the reddish discoloration on his forehead that makes him look like a Star Trek character, but he behaves well, which is key. Except that he farts all of the time. That's not why he's Don Juan, or at least I don't think it is. It's his smile. Much like Jessica Simpson, he's learned that smiling gets him attention. And the daycare workers ("Miss" Maci, "Miss" Laci ... I kid you not. You gotta love daycare workers with porn star names ...) eat it up. Every time that I come to visit one of them has him in their arms, playing with him. And they claim it's not because he's been crying. He does this at home now, too. And we fall for it because we're suckers for his smile.

That's all for now. I'll get back to my normal sarcastic self soon ...

Laziness ...

Okay. I'm feeling lazy and uninspired. Thankfully Natalie has not, and this is why I'm flat out stealing her last blog, which she just posted today. On a personal note, I took my nephrology board exam on Tuesday and still am wondering if it was written in english. Ugh.

Here's my (Natalie's) latest post ...

So the funny thing the other day was that Munchie fell asleep in his mini-Papasan (really a Poop-a-san after an unfortunate day care incident...)....with his arms straight out in front of him. I thought for sure the arms would slowly fall to the sides as he fell into a deeper sleep. Nope, he kept this pose for 45 minutes (until he woke up again).




We received some adorable/cute clothes from my godmother in Alabama...(did you guys know I was officially born there??)

Last weekend, Carol, Sharon, Munchie and I went the Christmas Affair - a mega-bazaar at which to buy Christmas gifts which was put on by the Junior League. Unfortunately Munch had a meltdown soon after we got there...this improved a few hours later :)

As I officially had to work Thursday (Thanksgiving) morning, we kept it easy/simple that day. Jason(!) made dinner - turkey, stuffing, fresh cranberry sauce...I supplied the mashed potatoes and gravy...and we gave thanks for all the amazing things that have happened in the last 5 months (baby, move, 2 new jobs, new car, sale of old house, etc.)

Our trusty scavenger Newton was nearby to catch any scraps :)

As we ate, Munchie slept...

We've been having some unseasonably cold weather for Austin (30s/40s w/ rain). Reminds us of our old stomping ground (Vermont). We actually had to turn on the heat!!

(There's precious little more fun than cuddling with a baby in a fuzzy warm blanket...)

We got a wonderful set of gifts from our friends (Matt/June & Mike/Sharon). Munchie was diggin the Rainforest Jumper.

Even though his feet didn't quite touch the ground...

Jason tried to help him out by using my Pilates mat...but Munch didn't appreciate it...

So we let him continue to play and dangle in midair :)

Just some more pictures for Grandparents Fought & Burger - enjoy :)

My Strong Points? Mainly Spitting Up.

Hello again. Sorry I haven't posted for a while, but this is a reasonably busy week at work and I'm trying to study (albeit unsuccessfully) for my nephrology board examination in 4 days. Not much time, especially since I've spent the last hour changing Anderson 3 different times. Not the typical atomic bomb from below, which happens about every 3 days (daycare got the last one, thank God.) No ... today is "spit up on your new outfit" day.

I blame this mostly on my feeding him. I should stop.

No ... it's not that I don't believe in feeding babies. Any benefit in reduced bowel movements and spit up is counterbalanced by relentless, ear-piercing crying. At least for the first 2 days until they get too dehydrated to cry. (I'm kidding!) Our apartment neighbors are already plotting our deaths. I'm sure they love the 3 AM crying episodes. We don't need to hurry the process along.

I blame my feeding because I let him chow down as much as possible and forget to burp him. Well, I don't really forget. He seems so happy when he feeds from the bottle that I have problems pulling him away. Why take away his joy? Why have him cry like Tammy Faye Baker when there's a strike at Mary Kay? So he eats too much and then urps all over his (and my) clothes. I've got to get better about this.

Here's some new pictures. He smiles without passing gas now! (Mainly because he likes to watch me change his clothes.)

I want late night Cinemax!

Some people don't let their kids watch television, thinking that it stunts their academic growth. Anderson, on the other hand, is not going to be lost for words at the water cooler. Rather than growing up on "Elmo" or "Sponge Bob", Anderson knows his Sportscenter anchors already and is a fan of late night television. I figure that there are studies that show "Baby Einstein" leads to dumber kids, but there are no studies about late night Cinemax. So it can't hurt, right? Anyway, this is good bonding time for Dad and Anderson. Just don't tell Natalie.

This weekend we took a road trip to Houston. More precisely, we went to Pearland, Texas, which is home to Matt, June and Rivers Kolesar. Rivers is named such because Matt is deep down a hippie, even though he assists in slowly killing off the earth by working for Exxon. He insists that there is a big misconception that Exxon is evil, and that it's really an ethical company. Right ...

Never heard of Pearland, Texas? Here's a little more about Pearland from Wikipedia ...

The area that is now Pearland had its humble beginnings near a siding switch on the Gulf, Colorado and Santa Fe Railway in 1882. When a post office was established in 1893, the community was originally named Mark Belt. The name was changed to Pearland in November of that year because of the abundance of pear trees in the community. Pearland was promoted by some developers as an "agricultural Eden." The Galveston hurricane of 1900 destroyed most of the fruit trees and slowed growth for a considerable period of time, as well as desertificated the area. In 1914, with agriculture rebounding and the end of desertification, Pearland had a population of 400, but a devastating freeze in 1918 was another setback to the local farming enterprises. Oil was discovered nearby in 1934, though this did not spur a large amount of growth, as the population fluctuated from 150 and 350. From the 1960's the town has grown steadily to today's population. Today even though officially a suburb, the town is culturally rural.

Hmm ... one paragraph and "destroyed" and "devastated" both come up. And it's rural culturally, which explains why visiting The Kolesars is like going to see Jed and Granny Clampett. Anyway, here's their home in lovely Pearland/"Mark Belt" ...



It was a great visit. A wonderful example of what it was like in America 200 years ago, or what a visit to West Virginia is like today. June cooked a great dinner and the next day we went out for Mexican food for lunch. And Matt actually ran a few miles with me. Of course, Anderson was a terror all night and neither Natalie or I really slept, but that's okay ...

Here's a few pictures ...

Anderson smiling, even though we've rotated him and the rest of the world 90 degrees ...


Rivers and The Evil Corporate PigDog

Halloween: 2 generations of The Flash

Words don't add much. I'm especially fond of how much Anderson likes his mask in the last picture ...