Hey, Dad, I Can't See Too Good Is That Bill Shakespeare Over There?

No blogging for a while, I know. I've been either frantically busy or sitting with my thumb in my butt waiting for phone calls, so no one-eye-on-the-sorter-one-eye-on-the-computer much lately. I'll lead off with this, though. It's a comment left for the video of Connor throwing a huge temper tantrum. You know, the one I have on YouTube that shows a freakin' three year old throwing a fit.

"This little boy has anger issues, sorry but when he is older he will need therapy. This is not normal behavior."

What the hell is wrong with people on the internets? Or maybe it's western civilization as a whole. This person's handle is "JannDoug," go spam them. They've got videos of their eleven month old snow flake, who I'm sure won't be throwing temper tantrums when (s)he's three. That just doesn't happen in a soccer mom's perfect little world, where puppy dogs poop gumdrops and no one cries over the spilled breast milk. I didn't bother responding to their comment in turn, maybe I shouldn't have here. Don't criticize my kids for acting like kids, even if I have the poor taste to video record them when they're acting the most rotten!

The video in question (Dude, it's a temper tantrum. The only thing unusual about it is that after a couple of minutes of the screaming I thought to myself "fine, I guess I'll record this for posterity if you won't calm down." Which of course prompted Ethan to run into the room and get the toddler smack-down for his trouble!):



Pictures:


Dr. Mindbender began plotting his nefarious plans at a very young age.

I got up to pee the other night and found this thing crawling around in the bathtub. So we ate it.

Sometimes when you're little, and you play too hard, it doesn't matter where you sleep.

I was getting ready for work the other morning when I was informed that it was, in fact, time to go camping.

Some of us are more "with it" when we wake up than others.

View from the bedroom window (that we just moved out of - hooray hooray, the remodel end is near!).

A slightly different view, for perspective.

I'm not sure what kind of machine he thought that he'd built, but I'm pretty glad that I caught him in mid explodo-spaz so that he looks like he has wonky eye.

This was a couple of weeks ago, and I thought things would have changed by now, but instead I think it's gotten colder and it's definitely snowed more!

A few weeks back, Cindy took Ethan on an outdoor adventure snow shoeing at the VIC, only it turned out to be a harrowing tale for the ages:


It was a beautiful day, spirits were high.

The first warning should have been the sniper towers.

The second warning should have been the signs warning everyone not to stop and poop, just do it while skiing.

And then...Canibal Lean-To - they had to beat a hasty retreat!

After which, apparently, Cindy passed out.

And judging by his expression, Ethan was very concerned. Then I heard that something happened with a snow bank, and I think there was hand-to-hand combat with a yeti. But they both came home safe.


A final thought:
I try to avoid discussing current events, politics, or anything meaningful at all here as:

1. The internet's got way too much of that crap already, who cares what I think
2. Opinions are like buttholes - everyone's got one, and they all stink

But due to the media saturation of the "Eliot Spitzer Likes To Have Nasty Sex With Dirty Call Girls" story, perhaps amplified by my residing in New York state, I have this to say. I hope that this stupid girl who's made terrible decisions but has big dreams of making it big as a singer (who doesn't these days) is able to parlay her notoriety into the kind of legitimately deserved fame that we haven't seen in a long time. I'm talking grammy winner, oscar winner, tony winner, still respected when she's 80. Why? I think that it would reflect perfectly where we are as a society right now.

There's my $0.02.

Till next time.

Why Do Chinese Food Joints Always Have Fish Tanks?

Every thing's so new and exciting when you're three years old...



Back with a meatier post later?

Inter-Way Arnival-Cay 008-2ay

I don't want my pictures with smart-ass comments to come up if anyone Googles "winter carnival 2008" hence the lame title. Here we go.


While I was extremely disappointed that the Shriners weren't cruising around in silly little cars, it was a nice trade off to have an anthropomorphized fez instead.

I'm not really sure what's up with having a giant, creepy, insect-like Dorothy for the Wizard Of Oz walkers (float? display? dumbasses?). Did that happen during the poppy field scene? Picture yourself in a boat on a river, tangerine trees and marmalade skies.

Here we have permanently surprised, passive agressive Buzz Lightyear. I'm pretty sure that there was some form of dwarf bottled up inside of this costume, and that I and the people responsible for this monstrosity will probably be sued by Disney for posting surprised, passive aggressive Buzz Lightyear's picture here.

I'd like to believe that this man is dressed up like Eric Cartman. Really I would. But individuals with this type of appearance and eating habits are such a common sight in the Adirondacks that I'm reasonably certain that this fellow just staggered out of one of the nearby swill vendors and joined the parade.

Anorexic ninja turtles? That's not as bad as somebody dressing up like Towely. that's right Towely. As in "Anybody wanna get high?" Towely. At a family event. That's how we spell class in the tri-lakes, folks.

The theme was "Hooray For Hollywood." I think that this person was dressed up as the kind of guy that would sneak onto a lot and hang around a starlets trailer trying to score with a celebrity back in the 60's. I took this picture, though, because so many of these people in costumes would come over and hug any kid that would let them, and as you can see with the little boy in this picture, the kids were obliging but clearly not enthused to be groped by strangers.

My buddy Frank as Charlie Chaplin. Say, is that woman in the fur coat in the background scoring some crack?

This was an ambitious costume. Not only did they make a Stay-Puft Marshmallow Man costume, but they chose to make it of the exact moment in Ghostbusters when the proton packs had him pretty well melted just prior to exploding.

I think this is Slimer. Although I once had a nightmare that took place in a BDSM dungeon (don't ask) and there were people that looked like this running around.

This year's ice palace. It was the biggest they had constructed in the four year's we've been here, but sadly, no frozen pike this year.

I've been telling myself for the last two weeks that this is really a picture I took of the fortress of solitude, and not just a worm's-eye-view of the pyramid out front.

Yeah, Connor wouldn't look at the camera.

Winter Carnival also means time for the annual Snow Rugby game. Which is fun. Ish.


That's how you do that. That is how you do that. (Notice the Carnival Queen - or three wise men - or whatever the hell that is, at the top pf the picture?)

Tackling and getting tackled, or otherwise winding up in the cold, cold snow really sucked.

Cindy thinks that it looks like I'm checking out this ladies boobs. I think that the reality is that I'm getting ready to blow a snot-rocket, but it's awesome that I'm married to a lovely lady that's cool enough to make a joke like that!

I'd like to end by ranting about how shitty and far behind the times Blogger and especially Flickr have become. If I drag and drop photos, it makes any kind of formatting, order, or coherence impossible. And at Flickr, I have to click on a pic, see different sizes, maybe pick a different size (lately, always pick a different size - maybe I need to adjust that), then copy and paste. Why can't they just give "embed" as an option with the picture in my photostream, kind of like YouTube does with a video as soon as you click it? Rant rant.

IO

Edit: Link fixed?

I have been championing the merits of this commercial to Cindy for months.

I can't decide if it's the earnestness that all of the actors exhibit, the fact that it must have near MTV level production costs, or what (being catchy doesn't hurt, either), but I think it's probably about the best commercial I've ever seen. And now that it's been YouTubed, I can share it with the rest of you (or maybe it plays in Seattle now, too, I wouldn't know - I think I've only seen it on our "local" NYC channel back here).

Also, check this out.

More to follow...

Just Look At The Pictures, And Shut Yer Frikkin' Pie Hole!

But first, Bryan and James, read this and then literally laugh out loud once you get to the guys name. Don't forget to read the comments, either.


Don't waste your time with it if it's only Regular Lucky Elephant strength. Spend the extra $0.07 and upgrade to the SUPER Lucky Elephant strength rice.


I've got some video of the little whippersnapper at bath-time too, but I'm hesitant to YouTube it as it's probably got little kid's bidness on it and I don't need to have the cops knocking on my door for some stuff like that...


Connor, too, is a big fan of personal hygiene. I think that this is his favorite past-time right now. He's always telling me he needs to clip his nails. Gee-Whiz.


He's also growing up too damn fast. I think that this was probably about the last time he'll wear footed pajamas. It's really a weird thing for me to talk to him sometimes when it seems like just yesterday the doctors were pulling him out of my wife.


This picture should make my dad proud. I really nee to figure out my camera settings - I think that a few of these pictures are grainy because I had the film speed cranked way up so that pictures of Connor and Ethan didn't come out as multi-colored blurs.


I didn't realize how blurry this thing was until I viewed it full size just now. Anyhow, after a trip to Sam's club, we came into the kitchen and saw that a house had been built there. I have no idea why a bottle of brown liquor got incorporated into the architecture.


How does he get off looking so innocent like that. Some nerve!


We've had some fun weather this winter. We had a huge thaw in January. A week or so ago we had an ice storm that left everything encased in ice and also made my drive to and from work a whole lot of fun.


We've also got lots of snow, but it's all good. As you can see, Connor keeps the driveway shoveled for me.

I'm getting bored with digging out of order pictures off of Flickr. But hey, gang, next time I'm on the internets, I'll throw out my own SARANAC LAKE WINTER CARNIVAL™© experiences, with pictures.

In the meantime, anybody who isn't offended by profanity, and does get a big kick out of angry people with Boston accents, should watch this:




Way to go, there, blogger, way to screw up the formatting in the last paragraph there so that I look like a moron.

Moonwalker

Ethan doing what any kid does when there's a nice stretch of ice around. I'd really love to be able to edit this so that instead of the car you hear "Beat It" playing while he's dancing. Also and unfortunately, titling this video the way that I did brings it up along with figure skating videos. Great.

Something Short

I've got many pictures, and a few videos, but I'm feeling lazy so I won't Flickr or YouTube until tomorrow...Or maybe Thursday when I actually have an appointment on the books and will therefore be at a computer for most of the day.


Three weeks or so ago, Cindy and I actually got to get out of the house and away from the kids for a few hours, to go to the Full Moon Cross Country Ski Party. We rendezvoused with my buddy Frank first, shown here in his best sleaze-peddler pose. I left this baby blown up full size so anyone who chances upon it can bask in the awesomeness.

There's an unwritten rule (just kidding, but not really) that anyone who stops by Frank's place is supposed to be photographed wearing the chicken mask. Here's me. Buck buck buck buck. It think that it kind of looks like I'm at some creepy costume disco.

The full moon party. How I managed to date/marry above my numerical rank is still a mystery to me.

Yeah. he just looks like he's sorry that he keeps us up half the night screaming and squawking.

It's nice that, even in the middle of a Northern New York winter Cindy still has a nice olive complexion. Because it's not like it makes the boys and all look even paler in comparison or anything.

Bears!

Higher res-pictures fill up the Flickr account quicker, don't they precious.

I'll come back soon when I figure out how to blog from the Shutterfly account, or I get around to uploading something to YouTube (one of the videos I have is Desmond being funny in the bath, and even though I tried my hardest to shoot only from the waist up, I want to preview and make sure that there's no little kid wiener featured before I upload it).

Anyhow, check this out.

Reee-owr-KaPush-Buurrrnggg!

Connor shows us that extreme close-up makes anyone look 32X handsome.

Blue Steel!

Yeah, you...play with that...pink tent and pony...yay. (It was actually a nice break from rocket ships, hand cannons, and the constant brshhh-keaoooooo-raaaahhhh noises heard around the house).

How in the hell did a naked mole rat like myself aid in creating such handsome boys?

Chocolate donut? Check. Going to the grocery store is only possible with a bribe.

These are all at the Paul Smiths VIC - it was a nice day for an outing. Some of these pictures are a bit grainy and washed out because the battery was about taxed, and the sun was really glare-y bouncing off the snow like that. If you want to see some fat squirells, though. Man. Get yourself to the VIC.

The young master spends a few minutes reflecting on a life well lived.


My surrealist masterpiece "Kid Under A Blanket." Watch it with the sound off, or better yet some avant garde jazz playing for the full affect.