80's hair and shorts guy

On the way to my in-laws house, there's a sort of older looking house next to the canal. EVERY time we go past this house, its owner is outside, and he just makes us smile. He's got the frizzy, curly 80's type hair, and he's ALWAYS wearing a pair of 80's shorts. I mean the menshouldn'twearshortsthisshort, bright colored 80's shorts. Today I was driving past, and he was sitting on a metal fold up chair in his backyard next to the fence in the sun. In his shorts, and a sweatshirt. Now granted it was a nice day today, but 45 degrees doesn't count as shorts weather to me. Regardless of his fashion choices though, this guy always makes me smile. And yes, on my way home from the in-laws, he was outside, in his shorts, walking around with a shovel. More than that, I'm not going to ask.

Six Random Things

1 - I always have to plan ahead. When I'm on the freeway I move to the right lane about three exits early. On surface streets if I know I'm going to turn a certain direction, I get in the appropriate lane as soon as possible, even if I'm not turning for another 5 minutes. It bothers me to not know what we're doing on a specific day of vacation.

2 - When I get in the shower I have to get in on the opposite side from where the shower head is, otherwise my hair gets wet. I don't want it wet until I'm ready for it to be wet. And I have to dry my feet before I get out of the shower. (Thank you Fred) I get annoyed if other people don't dry their feet and get my bath mat wet. It's not there to dry your feet with, and I don't want to step in your wet footprint.

3 - My dream car is my last car, but fully functional. 1987 Dark Blue Cherokee Laredo. Oh, and it needs to be able to go faster than 85 mph.

4 - I thoroughly enjoy typing. I think it's therapeutic. Doing transcription work honestly sounds enjoyable to me. Thinking about that makes me miss my ergo keyboard at work. That thing was GREAT.

5 - I don't always empty the lint trap in the dryer before I dry each load. If there's only a little bit on the screen then I leave it on there. It's easier to clean off when it's more full!

6 - I have an unhealthy love for corn-dogs. Thankfully I know how horribly unhealthy they are and can usually keep myself from buying the giant cost-co sized box. They're just so good!!! warm and crunchy, and dipped in mustard and ketchup...mmmm. Life is good with a corndog in my hand.

Politics, Music, and other thoughts

I've been watching the events of the Inauguration of President Obama for the last hour or so, and I had a few thoughts that I thought I'd share.
1 - I feel really bad for President Bush during this whole thing. From his perspective it could very easily been seen as a giant slap in the face. Everyone is always saying things like "it's time to start anew", and phrases like that. One of the commentators mentioned that President Bush firmly believes that history will redeem him, and I hope that's true. I don't think that he did a bad job during his 8 years in office, I think that there were too many things that spiraled too far out of control, and he did the best he could, and got blamed for the rest.
2 - I'm tired of everyone talking about how Obama is the first African American President. Yes, it is a momentous occasion, but seriously, we know already! During the election people were saying that they didn't want to vote for him because he was black, but because of who he is. If race isn't the issue here then please stop making it the issue.
3 - I absolutely love that they had Yo Yo Ma, and Itzak Perlman playing something composed by John Williams. If ever someone were going to give a tribute to me, heck, I'd take that. They both just look so at ease with their instruments, and like they are having fun with it. It was a treat to watch them.
4 - For those who are trying to get "In God we Trust" taken off of the coins and whatnot...There were two prayers given during the Inauguration. EAT IT! This country was founded largely on a religious basis, it's always thrived on it, so deal with it. The religious implications are staying.
5 - I admit, I watched very anxiously, almost expecting someone to make some horrible attack on the platform that held pretty much every leader in this nation. I'm glad that nothing happened, but I was still very worried about it. That's something that our nation would have a hard time recovering from.

Overall I really enjoyed watching the inauguration. I'm glad that we can have such an incredibly peaceful transfer of power, especially when there are so many dictators that would gladly destroy half of their own country in order to achieve control of it. I enjoy watching the amount of ceremony and respect that is associated with these procedings. What I'm saying next has nothing to do with the actual inauguration, but with the whole election circus that we went through a few months ago. And yes, I intentionally said circus. It seems to me that we no longer have a politician in office, it has somehow turned to having a celebrity in office. The President has become purely a figurehead. It reminds me of the description of the President of the Imperial Galactic Goverernment. "The President in particular is very much a figurehead - he weields no real power whatsoever. He is apparently chosen by the government, but the qualities he is required to display are not those of leadership but those of finely judged outrage. For this reason the President is always a controversial choise, always an infuriating but fascinating character. His job is not to wield power but to draw attention away from it."
Now I'm not saying that this is entirely the case with the President of the United States, but sometimes it seems that way. I have great hopes that Barack will do great things. I didn't vote for him (ok, I didn't vote), but I have always hoped that maybe his inexperience will be a good thing. Maybe we need someone who thinks outside of the proverbial box, and can get things done in a different way. Not necessarily because they're different, but because he hasn't been trained in the "bad habits" of how things are currently being done.

Eva

Eva is one my nieces. She's Zander's sister's daughter. You follow? So last night we were at the Indo grandparent's house for a dual birthday party for Melinda and Jennifer. Eva was way excited to see the baby (Noah) and kept coming up to give him kisses. Oh, by the way, she's about 18 months. So right as we were leaving Noah was in his car seat for a bit while we were saying bye to everyone and putting on coats and whatnot. Eva was sticking her head in the car seat to give Noah kisses, and she whispered "bye bye baby". SO FREAKING CUTE!!! That was her first sentence, and we all just about died from how cute it was.

Self Feeding

We've been slowly introducing the concept of finger foods, and actual solid foods to Noah. Every once in a while he gets bits of banana, or saltine crackers if we're at a restaurant. Last night I was giving him some of his little banana flavored rice puff things (which I think taste AWFUL), and he decided that he wanted to "feed himself". We thought it was pretty cute and funny, so we took a video to share with you guys!

Christmas Pictures

Yeah they're late, but here's some pics of the festivities of the day.

Noah had a whole lot of fun eating the paper on his Christmas presents. He didn't care what was in the paper, just liked that it made cool noises and was something else he could shove into his mouth. Eva was the most content child EVER. She had a rockin outfit, a new chair, and a tupperware of grapes. What more could a girl want?





Noah also got this really cute coat and hat combination from his Indo Grandparents. Way cute outfit.

Me, Zander and Alisha enjoying the overall mayhem of the day. Lish is wearing her her hat and a shirt that says "looking good, getting presents.". Zander's eating a left over empenada from the night before. It's one of the best breakfasts EVER.

Mindo's Birthday

Happy Birthday Mindo!!! Not that you really even know this blog exists.....oh well.

I took her out to breakfast this morning, but since I was running late it turned into more of a brunch. We went to this cool little place up in Sugar House called Eggs in the City. Very healthy, holistic type place that serves breakfast and lunch. It was pretty darn tasty! Although now that i think about it I would have enjoyed mine more if I had added a little salt. Anyway, I had a yummy egg whites breakfast burrito that had spinach, avocado and green pepper in it, with sour cream and salsa to top it off with, and a side of yummy fruit. I was way impressed with their fruit bowl honestly. Usually fruit bowls consist of a bunch of melon (GAG), a few grapes, and if you're lucky, a piece of pineapple or two. This had pineapple, strawberry, banana, blueberry and black berry. Mindo had their huevos rancheros, which looked really really good. I didnt' pay much attention to what was in them, but I know it had a side of black beans, which I'm really into right now.

Anyway, it was great to get to spend some time with her. We used to spend OODLES of time together, on account that we were roommates, but then I moved out and married her brother, and we haven't seen each other much on a non-family time basis. So I was really glad to go and see her house and her kitties, and spend some time with her again. Love yer face Min!!!

Update

Not much has been happening lately. Zander had his first day of class this morning, but I haven't talked to him to see how it went yet. I'm somewhat under house arrest for the next 2 weeks. We're watching Dex while my parents are gone, and I always feel really bad sticking him in his crate so that I can go somewhere. And Noah just woke up, so I have to go shower SUPER fast.

Happy New Years!!!

I always think about New Years resolutions during this time of year, obviously. Fred's family always made kind of a joke about them, and I think it's pretty true. Most resolutions are dead within just a few weeks, some survive maybe a month or two. That's why I make the same resolution this year as last year. I resolve to read at least one book per month for the next year. Now granted last year I didn't completely fulfill it. For the first 6 months I was reading a lot, but once Noah was born it was harder to just sit down and read. But I like having this as a yearly resolution. It keeps me reading, which gives me personal time to think and ponder, it's a very achievable goal, and it's enlightening for my mind. Not being in school sometimes I feel like my brain is turning to mush and I'm just getting more stupid by the day. But when I'm reading, I'm educating myself, and giving myself something to think about, and create theories. I've toyed with the idea of writing up an analysis of each book that I read, but I don't know if I want to go that far with it. We'll see.