For What It's Worth.

For some reason, this stuck with me after I'd seen it as a kid. Hearing the Buffalo Springfield original on the ride in to work this morning reminded me that with the technological marvel that is the internets, it was probably available for my viewing pleasure somewhere.

Rebate In '08

Be sure that you pronounce that "aught-ate."

Anyhow, isn't it time that we, as a country, started addressing the really, really important questions?

Here's Some Music

A Mexican Folk duo that are primarily influenced by thrash metal? Yes please. Bear in mind (I know this video sucks even though the music is great) that there isn't a drummer in this band - just a guy and a girl and a couple of nylon string guitars.

Rodrigo y Gabriela - "Orion" (Yes, that "Orion")

"Suffer No Guilt, Ye Who Wield This In The Name Of Crom."

Can anyone tell me specifically where that's from?

RIP.

Laugh.

Fin.

Something

Vader!

Also, this.

The "Real" Post

Every once in a while, they do actually sit together nicely. Although they usually aren't in the least bit quiet even then, at least there not yelling at each other.

This made me kind of sad. I know that there's many people who think that these monkeys are just "aping" humans and don't really understand ASL. I think that's probably true for the most part (there were a few documented instances of Washoe communicating that are pretty damn compelling, though. Look up the baby story on the Friends of Washoe website). But I got to tell you, I went and saw these monkeys three or four times while I was at CWU (I know, chimps aren't monkeys, but I like the word monkey better), and usually when you would go into the viewing room, they would all be laying around, flipping through magazines, trying on clothes, putting make-up on each other - all in a very human way, and aside from the fact that Washoe taught the other monkeys some ASL, they always seemed to be communicating amongst themselves in other ways. And. My first year at CWU I had an apartment north of campus and I'd have to walk by the chimp house to get to class, and more than once one of the monkeys would have climbed up to the apex of the fence-roof in their yard and would just hang out and watch people walk by in a very human way. It kind of creeped me out (so did seeing the monkeys looking at magazines), not least of all because the ape that would watch people looked like one of the trolls from "Willow" at that distance (~30ft?).

Unlike the last few years, I have had some limited success with hunting this year. So I made some Wellington of Duck Breast with a Cherry and Orange Brandy Sauce, and some Cream of Potato with Leek soup one night. While it was good - and I'll share the recipe for Wellington with anyone interested as it's a nice "presentation" dish that's really not all that hard to make - I think that next time I would use puff pastry dough rather than phyllo, and I would use domestic duck rather than wild so that the center could be left medium rare. The shit quality of the resolution on these pictures doesn't do the dish any justice.

WTF is that thing!

Cindy and I went for a hike a while back (this was probably late August/early September) and when I heard her yell from behind me "Oh my god!" or some-such thing, I knew that I was going to get to see something cool, because she's not the type that freaks out over most things. I thought maybe there was a bear hanging around the trail, or a moose, or an arboreal antelope. But it was a snake, trying to eat a huge frog. We watched for a while - frog squeaking and struggling, snake trying his/her hardest (there was no way this frog was fitting down that snakes gullet). Real "Wild Kingdom" type of stuff.

But the frog ended up getting away, so here we have a dejected snake. Apologies again for shit picture quality - I think that it is time that we upgraded the camera! I'm not familiar with the herpetological species back here, or I'd tell you what kind of a snake (and frog) it is. Also, this happened again when we were working in the yard a week or so later - albeit with a smaller snake and frog. I think in the yard wife rescued the frog.

There's a ton more pictures on my Flickr page if anyone is interested, maybe I'll post again tomorrow. That's all for now.

A Response

Bryan. I started to write you a reply in the comments to your last post, but it got to be a bit long winded. So I'll share my unoriginal musical tasted with everyone else.

Everyone else - you should check all of these bands out, too, and I'll make a real post later after my days session of watching cells fall into tubes has begun.

I don't know exactly how your musical tastes run right now, or how many of these you may have already heard, but here's a few bands that are in near constant rotation in my lab (I couldn't make it through the day without some tunes):

-Supergrass: I think that this is about the most perfect, well rounded Brit rock band that's around. Nothing like Oasis.
-The Dandy Warhols: Solid rock music that's also sort of hypnotic and nice to have on in the background
-Sigur Ros: Weird (beautiful) Icelandic rock(?). I'd listen to this if the stress level is way up, or in bed with a lucky lady, but not while driving - it might cause some nodding off.
-Rufus Wainwright: Good stuff. Can't really elaborate, but check it out.
-Mika: Spunky brit pop. The good kind. But definitely not for everyone.
-Scissor Sisters: This is another one that people seem to love or hate but I recommend a listen.
-Dwight Yoakam: I am, for the most part, not a country fan. But Dwight's right. Plus he used to open for punk bands at the Whiskey A-Go Go in the 80's, so he's got some hipster cred if you care about that sort of thing.
-Muse: Like Radiohead without all the computer shit and pretentious. Solid musicians - I like the cool, angular guitar solos (nobody else on the radio plays around with intervals quite like that!) and groovy, driving bass lines. Has gotten a bit played out, though.
-Tunng: Catchy, spacy, folk rock. Very listenable, but sort of borders on pretentious sometimes. Another good band to listen to at work, when the stress level is high.
-The Arcade Fire: But only their first disc. Kind of hard to explain, but I've heard more than one person (and I whole heartedly agree with all of them) describe the music on this CD as reminding you of what it's like to be a kid again.

Then there's all the old standbys and Desert Island Discs:
Alice In Chain's Unplugged album, classic metal, Vivaldi's Four Seasons, Miles Davis "Kind Of Blue" (I actually don't think that's as revolutionary as everyone else seems to, but it's damn good music to have on when nothing much else is happening), classic metal (Metallica, Judas Priest, Ozzy), you have to throw in some 80's metal and power ballads once in a while to remember the roots, the 'Stones, Dylan, Led Zep, classic metal. Did I hit all the bases?

As Promised

Here are pictures and the details of my life. Which are quite inconsequential...

Every fall, Banker's Orchard, near (or possibly in) Plattsburgh has a petting zoo and hay rides and pumpkin patch and a terrible Michigan stand. Or maybe I'm just not a fan of Michigan's as I think that's the only one I've ever had. Anyhow, here's Connor with a Llama. I think this was the one that kept "talking" in a really creepy "I'm a human who's fallen down and broken my hip" sort of way.


Here's Ethan feeding the Llamas. This really is a cool petting zoo, but in this same pen, with the Llamas (actually, maybe these are Alpacas. I wouldn't know) were two deformed looking pigs. I don't think they were the normal, run of the mill farm pigs that give us delicious bacon. I think they were mutated Harkonnen pigs.


There was also a pen full of goats that were either kids, pygmies, or both (there was also a bird/rabbit pen, and some donkeys, and a big goat with Llama life partner pen). There was a ton of the little goats, but these two little bastards kept fighting with each other. I wanted to get a better picture or some video, but someone's unhousebroken rugrats kept pushing me aside. They nearly let the goats out with there shenanigans. What happened to the days when you could give someone else's kids a good yelling at without fear of someone getting all ACLU on you?


I think I caught this Jake in a wistful or plaintive mood. Either way, I bet that in another month, he's going to be delicious!


This goose kept attacking me. Try as might, though, I couldn't get a picture off just as he gave the camera a wack. I'll be he's going to be tasty come Christmas!

Mmmm. Delicious animals.


Cindy cut her hair - it looks adorable. It was a necessity, as Desmond attempted babycide via hair noose one morning, but I think it's a nice look. I took this picture because Desmond and wife looked cute, and then everyone else gathered around, so here's the fam' in all of there a glory. You're welcome.

Skeery!

Oh, and now that I've finished watching the Rugby World Cup (South Africa deserve to be world champions...but I still think they're a bunch of blond haired rich kids), I'll post some pictures and some "witty banter" when I get to my sort this afternoon.

Yer Damn Right That's A Glass And A Half Full Of Fun!

Oh Really?

If you are a fan of "The Office," then this will completely blow your mind. And there's even videos of "The Grassroots" on YouTube to back it all up.

Is it a character or a real damn guy?

The Whole Thing Is Back!

That animation short that I tried to share a couple of months back, but it had been pulled down after I posted, so I was only able to show the preview? The whole thing is back online, and it is every bit as great as I remember it.



Also, here's a video of some Japanese dude getting shot through the air.

Hot Damn!

If this isn't the most weirdly and hilariously violent thing ever, then I don't know what is:


If that isn't it, maybe this is?

The Lately Happening Things That Are Going On!

Olives have been a big hit lately. The spaghetti featured in this picture was eaten mainly by hand. And boy, isn't my man a ham for the camera.

Different day, different olives - I kind of hoped that all the pictures I took at this particular meal would get themselves Flickred because they kind of made a flip book of olive-related humor.

See-food!

The little rock and roller. If you page back through the last few months, you can kind of tell how big he's getting by comparing his size in relation to the giraffe on the quilt.

One gray squirrel and one fox squirrel have recently appeared in the back yard - Cooper nearly caught this little bastard just this morning! This was last weekend - the rodent would grab an apple from underneath the tree and then scamper around with it in his (her?) mouth, like a dog. I tried to get close enough to take a good, clear picture. Instead, I had to chase him up a tree branch (at first he was sitting on a stump and it was a quaint little scene), and then use the shitty extreme zoom on our camera.

The day before Deener shipped out, Cindy took her and the boys out to Saranac Lake to ride the train, and as you can see, learned a valuable lesson concerning train safety.

Will I have more later?

A Couple Of Headlines, Maybe a Video?

I can't tell you how much I love this story. The sheer absurdity (and awesomeness) of it all really warms my heart. God bless you, Chuck Norris. Disclaimer: This was my first exposure to worldnetdaily. I'm not, by any stretch of the term, a very liberal person. Or a very conservative one. Holy shit, are there really people out there that believe the kind of crap they have in their headlines?

You mean this isn't legal any more?

That's just creepy.

I've been putting the Rugby World Cup replays up on the computer for a little background noise while I'm reading some papers (the schedule's been pretty light so I've been making myself busy with some other projects) and one of my favorite new things is that now, whenever some of the ruggers start to get into a dust-up on the field, the commentators will say something like "looks like there's some handbags going on down there." The reason it's funny? This.

Finally, can anyone tell me what the name of the Greek song played at the very beginning of this video is? (Or the name of that generic instrumental Hawaiian song I hear on commercials and in movies all the time that goes "ooh ooh wee ooh"?)

Basball? More Like Basebrawl!

I'll have to ask one of my friends here at work if this is really how Koreans fight...

Apocalypto: My Thoughts

Okay, I'll take a few minutes away from reading some scientific papers and tap this out. Almost two weeks ago, Cindy left me alone for a night (she was returning her mother) and I took that opportunity to watch one of the worst movies of our - or any - time. Mel Gibson's "Apocalypto." Within moments of pressing "play" on the DVD player, I knew that I was beholden to something so momentous that I had no choice but to take copious notes, so I could self indulgently share them on my blog. Because I know how much you all care. So here goes (bonus points if you've seen the movie, or better yet, print these out to read while you watch and can tell me which scene or event was occurring on-screen when I made a certain chicken scratch). BTW - Spoilers...Maybe.

• Alrighty then. This thing seems to be shot in that weird, Hi-Def "National Geographic" handi-cam style. Only as filmed by a retarded person.
• Oh no! Don't kill the tapir! (Most of you should know of my deep love of tapirs)
• Oh no! Don't eat the tapir's gonads! Especially not raw!
• That dude has armor made out of HUMAN JAW BONES! He wins!
• Now that they're all in the city...What in the hell is going on? Most confusing bit - the guy that's just standing there, slightly bent over, arms outstretched. What's that supposed to mean? BTW - were the guys covered in white powder mining soda lime (not lime soda!) or mountains of blow?
• I really have no idea what's going on in this city - but - I just saw a midget being carted around in a pack basket, so I'm cool.
• Oh! Mel Gibson is a sick fuck!
• Repeat! Mel Gibson is a sick fuck! Sorry for the strong language, but oh my goodness! Watch this movie and you'll know why I made the same comment twice in such short order.
• That fat ten-year-old needs to get his ass booted right off the top of that pyramid.
• This guy is THE LUCKIEST SOB EVAR!!!
• Of course that spearhead would come through his teeth. Thanks again, Mel.
• And...We have just hit critical mass for the amount of flabby man-ass that can be displayed in a movie not featuring Ron Jeremy.
• What's the deal with the necklaces?
• Dude. That is the most wrong thing yet. Ew.
• This guy is THE LUCKIEST SOB EVAR!!!
• Don't hurt the jag-yar, assholes!
• I've just paused the movie - as I've had to do about half the time I've written down a comment. Anywho...I hope (predict) that this guys head turns purple. You guess what just happened, and I'll answer the question in the next comment.
• Again with the necklaces! No purple head, open veins instead (hey...Catchy!). But...It is a bad omen! Really!
• Oh...No...He...Di'int!
• I'm going to take a moment aside from things here. Anyone remember the Bob Newhart drinking game? Well, I think that if someone watching this movie were to take a shot whenever gore, a lucky break for the main man, or flabby man-ass appears on screen, then...They would undoubtedly dump an entirely toxic amount of alcohol into their system before the movie is half over. Okay, unpause.
• I think that we just had our "Braveheart" moment! And then...more gore! But lets see how this here thing pans out...
• Ouch. Oooh. Ow. Rocks suck.
• What is the main man swimming through?
• Now that he's all covered in wet mud, will the Predator show up and fail to see him?
• Okay. That was neat.
• Are you kidding me? Spurting like that? You had me stoked until that happened.
• How is it that this cave thing is filling up with water so quickly exactly?
• Actually, I totally want the jaw bone armor guy to win right now. For real.
• I have been in the room when two infants have come into this world. And that was no damn newborn that just fell out of her. But kudos for having the squirt born before the climax (I'm guessing?). I kind of figured she'd be in labor just as the "final fight" starts to happen.
• Pause again - conjecture. The kids are bound to come back/show up, right? I would guess maybe they'll show up in time to come correct on a bad guy or two?
• Luckiest SOB ever. Here's some Spanish.

And...that's it. I'm a fan of horror movies - but all of the gore in this thing seemed so out of place, and was just disturbing as all get out.

I've got two or three funny videos I've been meaning to share, and maybe someday I'll post a few more pictures again. 'Till then, B...Out!

I Can Chop You In Half!

If you do not think that this movie looks like one of the greatest things to come along in our, or any, lifetime, then I will fight you. And that is no lie!

8+ Minutes Of Cool For A Friday Afternoon

He Is Human After All!

There's a bit of language, but this is worth a watch. Keep an eye out for the beer swilling...

Vacation?

Sorry to everyone who e-mailed, called, or left comments over the last several days who got no response or were only able to talk to me for a few minutes (or if I seemed surly at all) I actually got to take a few days off from work and "relax." I also had to ponder all the while whether or not I should attempt to move the family in the next year or so - I have a few potential job offers, none of which are closer to "home", some of which are for significantly more than I'm making now, all of which would be a change of scenery and would probably give the wife more of a shot at putting that college degree of hers to use. None of which I can afford to wait more than another couple of more days to act upon. And of course there's all the trappings that go along with that sort of thing - if you've been in the job market in the last few years, you know exactly what I'm talking about. What's a boy to do?

But that's not why I brought you here.



The vacation - I actually did some vacation stuff. The canoe was out on the water - more than once! Beer was drank. Fish were caught. Food was grilled. Cigars were smoked. No yard-work was done! Okay, that's a lie, I did mow the lawn on Tuesday. And of course I paid the price for taking time off when I returned to work yesterday.

Cindy and I have been doing some hiking as well - Ampersand Mountain is a great, short, tough, scenic, beautiful hike. Peter's previously blogged about it - Cindy and I weren't on the ball enough to remember to pack the camera. The hiking around here brings to mind something I'd been told but didn't really get the gist of before moving out here. The East Coast has its own unique brand of idiot. I won't go into to many details as I don't want to bore anyone, but out West I would invariably run into crowds around hiking areas - yuppie Seattleites, a few active soccer moms with noisy brood in tow, morons with no business being in the woods, etc. We've got some of that around here, especially right now, in the peak of the summer tourist season (seriously, does no one know what "trail etiquette" means anymore?), but the ones that trouble me the most are...The idiots that bring ski poles on a short, easy hike. Are you #$%&ing kidding me? They're also usually the ones wearing the most expensive, single purpose "outdoor" clothing, which only adds to my feelings of superiority over them. A walking stick if you're old or lame? Sure, but ski poles? Can someone explain? I wish I had some pictures of this phenomenon so we could all laugh...

Gogol Bordello!

I don't know how much of this band is real (the accent? really? has Borat made Eastern Europeans fashionable or funny or what?) but I do know that I want to hear more!

Pictures, Finally.

Say what you will about my intelligence, attitude, class, manners, or the fact that I was born a hermaphrodite, but Cindy and I are sure capable of producing some good looking offspring regardless.


A nice smile - this was just today. God bless the internets and the speed with which we can share pictures of our kids, or pictures of unsavory and unspeakable things, with each other!

The boy got to play some rugby last weekend - nice pass, ut I don't know what the grimace is all about...

It's very surreal for me to aknowledge that I'm the biological parent of a three year old. Ethan was already well into walking (running) and talking (back) when I showed up in the picture, so it hasn't been as weird for me to think about. But I used to be able to pick this toe-head up with one hand!

And finally, the best birthday present Connor got was, in my opinion, the pinata - because for once, the trauma was directed at an inanimate object instead of my nether regions.

Will there be more pics to come?

Where Have I Been?

I've been busy. I'll try to get some pictures uploaded in the next day or so, but here's some links to pictures and stuff from the end of the rugby season (I can't download them this year - I'll have to buy prints so I can remember when I'm old why I have so many aches and pains) - this last weekend was the CanAm tournament which is our home tournament (also the largest in North America) and our last gasp for the season - it was a great time, we played well, and I've got some serious muscular/skeletal issues now.

I am a bad, bad, man.

Third place is still better than we've done in 20 years or something.

I can take on like 12 guys. For real.

My buddy Alex on the attack.

Look for the "Dirty Uncle" in the front row - hilarious that someone actually did that!

Why do they always call me "Brendan?"

Action shot!

Watch the high tackles, son...

Again, the "Dirty Uncle" and also a nice "White Wall" haircut. That's Alex again, attemptin a hockey style jersey pull.

Scrum time.

B...Out!

I Demand Satisfaction!

I saw this the other day and wanted to pass it on - beautiful animation, funny, robots, boobies...enjoy!

A gentlemen's duel
Uploaded by nettouch

Edit - Thunder & tarnation! It seems the full video's been pulled from the sight where I saw it - here's the preview from YouTube.

Radical!

Tell me that this isn't the best six minutes of celluloid ever. Go on, tell me. We have:

• 80's fashions
• Obvious stunt doubles
• Actors riding bikes attached to trolleys for the close-ups
• Weird 80's dialogue (listen for the "respect" comment at the beginning)
• Music by The Scorpions
• A premise that in and of itself is nothing short of breathtaking
  

Mastodon As Foodstuffs? (You'll Only Get That If You Love The Metal)

I wouldn't recommend watching this without headphones if you're somewhere that others might here...

I do wish that more people would take this message to heart!

Whippet Good!

That dog can eat whatever she damn well pleases...

I Can Turn Invisible If I Just Try Real Hard!

Noooooooooo!

Don't click this link. I warned you...

More to come!

Films

The boy got straight A's this last trimester/quarter in school - actually, in the parlance of our modern world, it should be "the boy got straight one's this last trimester/quarter in school." So Cindy and I took him to see a movie last night (it was free popcorn night as well, and everytime we hit that, I eat enough popcorn to feel ill for at least the next 12 hours). What did we see?

FF4 - ROTSS

I wasn't a big fan of the Fantastic Four as a kid - but I like these movies. They're pretty goofy, and light on story, but that's sort of what I expect from a movie based on a comic book. A good 90 minutes of entertainment is great - I can't help but think of all the utter crap that has been released as adaptations of comics and video games whenever I read a negative review of an entertaining flick like this.

Anyhow. Spoiler - The Fantastic Four do not allow Galactus to consume the planet. And Jessica Alba looks weird in this one - I don't know if it was funky tinted contacts, the odd wig, or the makeup they had on her, possible drug use, or what, but, it was weird to the point of distracting. Like "That person has devil eyes" distracting. Also, they manage to pull out that stupid hover car that I do remember from the comics. And while it's definitely more StarWars-ey than it was in the comics, that has still got to be one of the worst superhero methods of perambulation ever devised. What a hokey, hokey vehicle!

Bryan, go see the movie. I think you'll like it - thumbs up from me.

Second. I wasn't too excited when I first heard that the Transformers was being brought to the big screen - until I saw that preview about a month ago, now I'm way excited. In related, updating-our-childhood news, I just heard Spike Jonze - who usually makes watchable stuff, is adapting "Where The Wild Things Are," and there's already a still from the movie released..And...Tell me this doesn't look way, way awesome:

Blogging Again?

With the warmer weather, and a few interesting things occuring on the internets, my blog-mind™ has been a virtual hive of activity. Here's a few more pictures, we'll see if I bother captioning them, you stupids.

And we line up for a line out. For those not in the know - a line out occurs when a ball goes out of play during a match. The team who didn't kick (or did kick if it's following a penalty) gets to throw the ball in. It has to go down the tunnel, but the throwing team gets a tactical advantage in deciding how far it gets thrown. Lanky guys like me get to jump - and be lifted, sometimes by our testes - into the air and snag that bad boy. This particular match, our line outs were shit. But this last weekend, against some pretty good teams, I ruled - I think I caught all of ours and stole 4-5 of the other teams' throws. Pat on the back.

Here's Lake Tanganyiki...Or what seemed like it. There aren't really any good East-West Interstates in New England. So you look at the map and try to find the shortest distance. Then, 2/3 of the way through your trip, you realize that the road map in the car has no indication of elevation, so what looks like 50 miles is really about 100 because you're climbing all of these crazy ass hills and mountain passes. At least the mountains back here aren't as tall as those out West, or there's a good chance there'd be some Donner Party-like occurences. This, by the way, is in either New Hampshire or Eastern Vermont.

When you road trip with kids, there inevitably comes a moment when one of the little ones either spills a drink all over themself or manages to urinate twice as much volume as they've ingested all week. I think in this case the kid slamed an entire bottle of Gatorade™ and then proceeded to urinate approximately three times as much liquid out of his body as was in the bottle to begin with. Cute picture though...

The littlest one, enjoying some tummy time. Man, has he been a squawker the last few nights. And I sleep more soundly than Cindy does, so if I'm tired and irritable, it's amazing that she can even function.

Hopefully, Cindy's going to throw a few more pictures of the chillin's up on her blog - probably not today, as she's in Plattsburgh, but go check it out in the next day or so.

Oily? Eeewwwwww!

Tell me that this isn't the funniest, evilest, most disgusting proof that A) Truth is always stranger than fiction and B) We are all, collectively, headed towards hell in a handbasket, with smiles on our faces.

Normally, I don't like linking to strange blogs because I feel that it just adds to the inherent scariness, anonymity, and lack of fact-checking that comprises the vast majority of the internets. But the things I've read about this particular drug (oddly, the name is pronounced "ally") is summed up pretty well here. What I find the most funny is these aren't the side effects - it's how the drug works! That's right - we're so desperate to shed the spare tire that we'd take to shitting ourselves rather than eat right and get off of our fat asses. And the FDA is fine with this. USA! USA! USA!

Wha? Who Come's Up With This Stuff?

Here's something to ponder. Over at this site, you can have your blog "rated" movie style (nod to Pete). Here's mine:

NC-17. Really? Is that from all the titty pictures I constantly post? Or all of the gory pictures of Mafia hits I constantly paste into the front page? No. Here's why:

• shit (7x)
• hell (5x)
• ass (4x)
• shitty (2x)
• crappy (1x)

That's 19 "swears." I've got 214 posts (before this one). That's less that one "swear" (sorry, "crappy?" "ass?" I hear worse than that on daytime TV) for every ten times that I slap some of my meandering aimlessness up here. 0.088785047 "swears" per post. Good job, internet quiz guy.

Funny, funny, prudes of the world...

Just Two Things

This - because it represents everything that could be good in the world:



And this, but you've got to read the criteria to really appreciate (esp. #5 and #8).

I've Been So Bad About Posting, So Here's A Bunch Of Dreck For The Scrapbook.

3/5 of the happy family. I'm actually quite surprised that Connor isn't attempting to smother, bite, kick, or otherwise harm the little one. Really, he's not that bad - he'll even give Desmond a kiss on the forehead if he's crying.

Want to know what's amazing? When Desmond - as I'm sure most babies are - was born, he was pretty red. After a few merconiums (I think "merconium" is a great word. Too bad it means "baby's first excrement") - one in particular, which, pardon for being graphic, looked like black licorice flavored ice cream, due to the bile - he suddenly became pink. Said poo happened all over the little plastic bassonet they had him in in the hospital, and boy did it excite the nurse. Really. She was stoked to see bile poo and told us that he would color up after that. She was right! Licorice flavored ice cream!

The pops and the monkey. At least our baby looks like a little hairless ape, and not like J. Edgar Hoover.

Out for a spring drive a while back, I found this place. Bog River Falls. Everyone else in town knew where it was, but it took a cranky kid (Connor) and a warm spring day for me to find it. My dad and I tried to take Ethan fishing here, but were promptly attacked by swarms of three pound mosquitos and had to call it off early.
The day I took Connor for a drive, we saw some foxes (which I had never seen outside of a zoo before) and some grouse that were out on the side of the road strutting and fanning. Very cool. And! Last night, on the way home from work, a young (or maybe just small - is it a different subspecies out here than what they have out west?) cow moose crossed the road in front of me! Yay!

Ethan prepares for opening night of his role in "Newsies?" I really don't know what's going on in this picture - my mom went with him on a field trip to the Natural History Museum(?) in Blue Mountain Lake.

Gowned up ready for surgery, or, fearing the worst in a scary, disease infested world?
I totally could have grabbed some random guy in the hall and had him go and hold my wife's hand in the surgical suite if blood made me squeamish at all. No one would have known. I was pretty well disguised.
The C-section experience was, this time around, much less nerve wracking. I sort of wanted to stand up at several points and see what it was the doctors were doing down beneath the shrowd, but didn't think it would be a good idea since it was my wife they were slicing open!

Memorial day. Ethan held a banner for a full hour, and I didn't see him fidget much at all. Good job, boy.

Our next president, or what happens if you feed the Mogwai after midnight?

No! Don't smell the...ahh, shit, too late, nevermind.

Fun for the whole family (except for the dog, who may eat your face while you sleep, after a demeaning day in the park...)!

What's In A Name?

We named the monkey. Last Thursday. Or was it Friday. Wait for it...

DESMOND ARCHER SELLS

And the next person who asks me if I named him after the Scottish guy from "Lost" will be the proud winner of...Lets just say I may scowl and think evil things at you... Yes, Cindy and I are Lost-ies. No, to the ~8 of you who have asked so far, I would not name one of my children after an intriguing character from a television program.

Everyone's home now, recuperating. I'd say "resting up," but any of you who have small children know that "resting" (well, that, and "nookie" - I will swear on my own grave that Desmond was concieved late one Saturday night when I shot an inviting look at Cindy across the dinner table, and not in the usual way) is the last thing that occurs in a home that has them.

I need a damn nap.

...He Was Born A Pauper To a Pawn...

Yesterday started out pretty normal - I got up and went to work, drank some coffee, watched some cells fall into tubes. I'd sent Cindy to the doctor to check up on the fetus (we're having trouble parambulating right now, just to add some fun to the mix. My car shat the bed on the way out to Burlington Saturday night, so my mom's renting one while she's in town), so I got to leave work early and again witness, via some rather barbaric seeming moments in a surgical suite, the miracle of the birth of a third Baby Boy Sells. Here's the macular descriptors:

I really don't know where that dark fuzz came from. F&$%*!@g mailman.


Ethan's excited (seen here doing his best "Jim" from "The Office" impersonation)...But I don't think Connor's really on board with things. He seems like his boat's just been rocked.

Most importantly...What in the hell do I name this kid? It took us four days to name Connor, and we'd actually discussed that. Since I've been on a mid/late 80's - mid 90's action movie/TV show kick lately, I thought some of these names might be great:

• Matrix (As in "John Matrix" from Commando)
• Reno
• Dutch
• Gunnar
• Blue
• Dar
• DeVo
• Mack
• Billy
• Hunter
• Walker
• Harry
• Turbo
• Nitro
• Rocket
• Magnum
• Sledge Hammer
• Sixkiller
• Charlie
• Imhotep
• Ivan
• Caine
• Kane
• Cane
  
• Kain
• Robot (suggested by Connor)
• I'd be remiss if I didn't mention names like Rugger, Flanker, or Lock (Or simply "Number 8") in a stupid list like this...

Leave your votes and suggestions in the comments section, and we'll make the internet responsible for the name of my child.