I’ll be up in Milwaukee (or some place north of it) for the next several days for work. Dunno what my internet access will be, but hopefully I’ll get to log on every now and then…
Luckily, I’ve got a DVR now so I’m not going to miss any of my shows!
The other day we went to Texas de Brazil for dinner. I was a little worried about how Ben would behave - usually after 15-30 minutes at a restaurant he’s bored and really fussy. I brought an arsenal of toys and snacks with me to keep him busy so we could eat.
But it turns out, I didn’t really have to worry. As soon as he saw the bread basket, he handed us our bread, took out the napkin, said “Hat!” and put it on top of his head. After that, he thought of all sorts of things to do with that basket.
What a nutty kid I have!
I just wanted to talk about yesterday’s American Idol.
There were some really awesome performances yesterday - unfortunately, Ramielle wasn’t one of them. The judges were right in that her performance was safe, and even worse, kinda boring. She’s got a beautiful voice but she’s got to entertain more! My favorites of the night were:
Carly: I rarely mention her, but she really did a good job yesterday. She sang the song perfectly. She also knew how to work the audience and use the stage to her advantage.
Amanda: You know, in the past, I wasn’t the biggest fan, but in the last two weeks, she has changed my mind. Yesterday was what really did it for me. She finally looked like she was having fun, started connecting with the audience, and SMILED. Man, that smile makes her look 10 years younger, which is a good thing. It’s really great to see her having a good time and really loving the experience.
Chickezie: Man, I thought last week that his number was up (instead, my little star Danny was booted) but after his performance yesterday, I’m glad he wasn’t. His performance was by far my favorite. He really surprised me with how easily he worked the audience and how comfortable he was on stage. He totally rocked out and I was thoroughly entertained. I loved seeing the expression on his face, how much he appreciated where he was and the opportunity he had. He was living in a dream! Like a kid given a shopping spree at Toys’r'Us.
Some people didn’t have the best performances. My picks for the bottom 3? David Hernandez, Syesha Mercado and Kristy Lee Cook. Who should be out? Kristy Lee. Her rendition of “Eight Days a Week” was awful, there was nothing special to it. She would be the only right choice, but it’s a popularity contest, and Kristy Lee has two things going for her - she’s pretty, and she’s country. So who’ll be out? Probably David Hernandez, even though he was awesome the first week. Strippers never win, unless you’re an ex-stripper that penned a movie about a pregnant teenagers. 
Remember long long ago, when I went away on vacation for 2 weeks and said I’d post up my pictures “real soon”? Well, that day is today - 4 months later. Though this is only some of the pictures - I think I have about 200 more to post in the next couple weeks.
During our stay in Los Angeles, we were going to meet up with Dave’s uncle. While we were waiting for him to finish up with work, we decided to head out to Santa Monica beach. I’d been there a couple times when we lived out there, but usually we were at the 3rd St. Promenade. We took Ben out to the promenade for some shopping (and dancing - he loved the street musicians), then later to the Santa Monica pier. He had a ball at the pier, first at the arcade that had a bunch of kid-rides. He had so much fun we didn’t even have to stick a quarter in to turn them on. A little bit down the pier we went to the Pacific Park. Since it was the middle of October, there weren’t too many people there, so Ben pretty much ran around the whole place on his own. We took a ride on the Ferris Wheel, and although I was nervous that Ben would freak, he actually loved it.
Since we had some time left over, we decided to let Ben hit the beach for the first time. At first, he was a little freaked by the feel of sand on his feet, but as you can see from the pictures, after a couple minutes the kid was having a ball! He was running around the beach as far as he could run, picking up sand and throwing it around, trying to bury his papa in it, and even tried eating it - which he soon found out was NOT a good idea.
That hour or so we spent at Santa Monica beach as a family was one of the highlights of my trip. When I think of Benjamin as a baby, I will always remember that day, my little boy running barefoot on the beach, not having a care in the world.
Here’s some of my pictures - more can be seen here.
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For some reason, the photogallery has made my formatting all whack - i’m working on it!
I’ve been getting a lot more sleep than usual lately. Been working extra hard during the days on multiple projects and I usually fall asleep the same time that I put Ben to sleep. I’m getting old and my body can’t take my late night internet wanderings anymore! Anyway, whenever I get a lot of sleep, I start having crazy, vivid dreams. Most of them I can’t remember, but usually there’s one that will stick in my mind - especially if it’s the last dream I’ve had before waking.
Here’s two of them that I had last weekend:
I am at the Olsen twins New York apartment. Yes, Mary Kate and Ashley. They’ve got a pretty swanky place…their whole kitchen is full of hi-tech gadgets, all set up by Google, one of their sponsors. I’m there with my family to attend a confirmation - it’s a Catholic ceremony that is your last step in becoming a full fledged member of the church. However, I have no idea who the people are that are getting confirmed - it’s the two children of this Chinese family. Why is it at MK&A’s place, I don’t know.
I’ve got my good camera on me and I’m taking pictures of everything and everyone. The ceremony is taking place on their balcony/patio and there’s a beautiful view of New York City. Of course, my mom wants me to take pictures of her with the skyline in the back. The father of the children getting confirmed doesn’t have his camera, so he asks if he can borrow mine. I give him my camera and he’s snapping away during the ceremony, right up against the bishop who is performing the confirmation. I’m surprised at how comfortable everyone is with the father totally in their faces with the cameras.
After the ceremonies, I’m taking group pictures of everyone - the family, MK&A, my family and other random people. Then, in the middle of it all, I realize that this has got to be a dream, because my mother isn’t alive anymore. I review the pictures in my camera, and the pictures that I had taken of my mother don’t show her on the balcony - they look like pictures of her taken in a photobooth - one picture, but divided into 4 panels, each with my mother in a different pose. I look around for my mother, and she’s gone. I find my sisters, and tell them what’s going on - that I saw my mother. They don’t believe me, so I pull out my camera. I can’t find those photobooth pictures. Even worse, when I look at the group pictures that she was in, she’s not in them anymore.
That’s about all I remember.
Another dream has me living in this building with a whole bunch of other people. It must be a museum or something. The people who live in this building are kinda like my tribe - we’re not necessarily related to each other, but we all share something in common.
One day, I’m walking around the building and I see my ex-coworker. I’m surprised to see him, but it’s a great reunion. He has come to live in our building, and he’s brought his wife and kids. We’re all happy to have them all join us and we treat them as though they’ve always been there. His son and daughter are having a great time with all the children and they’re learning a lot. They all quickly become part of our tribe.
After some time, I feel compelled to meet my ex-coworker in the main hall. There’s no one else but the two of us. We’re talking and something just doesn’t feel right. I find out that all this time we’ve been lied to. He actually isn’t my ex-coworker, but a robot, sent to destroy my tribe. His while family is comprised of deadly robots, and they’ve been sending out subliminal signals to my people to gather them in rooms so they could die. That’s also the reason I felt like coming to the main hall - so he could tell me about the plot right before killing me. He bursts into flames and the whole room explodes.
Next thing I know it, our building is destroyed - except for one room. One of the elders in my tribe comes up to me and tells me that evil-robot-ex-coworker’s robot-kids overrode the subliminal signals and gathered my tribe into the records room, saving not only my tribe, but all of our history. The time that the robot-children spent with us taught them about family and they wanted to protect us.
Crazy stuff, right? My brain is working overtime at night!
(title based on HoneyDippinDan’s)
This toy on Amazon has got to have the funniest reviews I’ve read on that site. Click on the picture to go to the site - it’s good for a laugh on a Monday morning!
Another interesting thing - check out the “Customers Who Bought Items Like This Also Bought” area - is there a link between Playmobil and Scientology I don’t know about?
When I was taking pictures of the lunar eclipse, I was constantly going in and out of the house with my camera, with my tripod in tow. During one instance, I dropped my camera. I gasped but it looked like I dropped it on the side of the camera, not on the lens. The next time I went out to take pictures, I was unable to take off my lens cap. I thought it was because I kept on bringing my camera in from the cold, but then I realized that my lens cap was stuck IN my camera. Luckily, I had a UV filter on my zoom lens, so I was able to unscrew my UV filter and my zoom lens was unaffected. My UV filter, however, was not so fortunate.
I guess they were right when they said that always having a filter on your camera is a great way to protect the lens!
Not too impressed with the guys this week. Here’s my four favorites:
- Jason Castro did a beautiful rendition of “Hallelujah”. Almost acoustic, wonderfully controlled, and brimming with emotion. Loved it!
- Danny Noriega’s “Tainted Love” was fun, and although he made love to the camera a bit too many times, I enjoyed the performance
- I loved David Cook’s arrangement of “Hello”. Never thought of it as a rock song, but he did it well
- Chikezie really did a great job singing “All the Woman that I Need”, but I don’t think he has the popularity to make it
Luke definitely needs to go, he’s been crappy for the last several weeks. I’m not sure who the second guy to get booted is - I like all the rest of them. David Hernandez might get some backlash for his stripper past (save the stripper! save the world!) but he did OK this week. But my picks will be Luke and Chikezie.
Something I found on perezhilton, and found pretty funny:
Any of you know Flash well? If you do, let me know. I’ve got a friend that needs some Flash work done - and is willing to pay!
Ben has really been loving TV lately. His favorites are the Little Einsteins, Mickey Mouse Club, Caillou, Doodlebops and the Teletubbies, though I’ve got a Tubbie ban in my house. Sometimes, I want to watch TV, too, or I need to work in my office. So I’ve learned that kids’ shows are also online - so Ben knows if we go up in the office he can watch his shows up there or if I’m watching LOST he can watch on my laptop. He’s slowly learning how to use a mouse, since a couple of these are interactive, which I find hilarious. It’s so cute to watch him watching the computer - he sits so still and is totally into it. Don’t worry, he’s not watching TV all the time. He also loves building towers with his blocks or racing Lightning McQueen and The King around the floor!
