Brenden wants everyone to know he is much better, as you can see by this photo here. He has farty pants real bad but other than that he's doing just fine.
A Word From the Boss
7 years ago
Wednesday, November 30, 2005
Monday, November 28, 2005
Sleeping on the Quilt
Brenden Week 25:
Well this was the Worst Thanksgiving Ever. Brenden caught a stomach virus, probably the same one I had. He has vomited and had diarhea since Thursday night. He's better today; both of us are 'out sick' while I try to get him to eat normally.
Turkey day was a turkey because of his sickness, but I'm also real annoyed at a skydiver. I won't go into details - let's just say for the first time ever I had to ban someone from my home. [Extremely Crude Expletive Deleted] deserved it, however.
I hope everyone's Turkey Day was better than ours. The fried turkey came out real good, however.
Oh! One bit of good news about the stomach virus. I'm down to 158 pounds. Still, not my ideal way to lose weight.
Well this was the Worst Thanksgiving Ever. Brenden caught a stomach virus, probably the same one I had. He has vomited and had diarhea since Thursday night. He's better today; both of us are 'out sick' while I try to get him to eat normally.
Turkey day was a turkey because of his sickness, but I'm also real annoyed at a skydiver. I won't go into details - let's just say for the first time ever I had to ban someone from my home. [Extremely Crude Expletive Deleted] deserved it, however.
I hope everyone's Turkey Day was better than ours. The fried turkey came out real good, however.
Oh! One bit of good news about the stomach virus. I'm down to 158 pounds. Still, not my ideal way to lose weight.
Wednesday, November 23, 2005
More Battlestar Blatherings
I have avidly watched the show since I saw the miniseries. But I finally knew I was hooked in a gut-level way with the last episode aired:
The last episode brought the Galactica fleet in contact with another Battlestar, the Pegasus. Instead of protecting a large number of civilian survivors and trying to find a safe haven away from the Cylons, the Pegasus is on its own and hunting the Cylon fleet. Or so her commander, Admiral Cain, says.
At first the Galactica group is delighted to find more survivors, even if the commander of the Pegasus outranks Commander Adama and takes over. But we learn that Cain is off her rocker and has been sending the crew on suicide missions and shooting those who refuse her orders. The brutalized crew in itself has become extremely brutal. They discovered a human-looking Cylon aboard their ship (the same model as Baltar's Six) and systematically raped and tortured her - what the hell, she's only a toaster.
And this gave me pause - Cylons can suffer! They can love, apparently, and they can suffer as well! This poor woman -er, robot, experienced an enormous amount of pain, humiliation, and fear. Look, you can rape a toaster all day long (helpful handy tip: unplug it first) and it just won'tcare so there's more to the Cylons than just another malevolent Artificial Intelligence. We are way beyond Skynet and Colossus here. Of course, they could just be faking....
Anyway when Cain gets word of Galactica's pet Cylon (Boomer 2.0, or rather Sharon 2.0 - no one is calling her Boomer) she sends her interrogator to question the pregnant toaster - and consequently to subject her to the same brutality the Cylon aboard the Pegasus is experiencing.
This is what I find cool - early on in the series we hear some Cylons theorizing why they haven't been able to reproduce as their God has commanded them to do. Yeah, they have religion. They think it has something to do with love. At first that sounded silly, but with this episode it started to make sense to me.
Remember Tyrol and Helo, who are both highly confused because they fell in love with the same model but different individual Cylons. Neither of them can bear to look too closely at what they really feel, I mean they didn't *know* she was a Cylon and they spend time whupping up on each other out of both jealousy AND revulsion.
Then they hear what the Pegasus' interrogator is going to do with the pregant Sharon. Tyrol and Helo in the space of a half a second set aside their differences and confusion and go rescue her. I thought one of the best-acted scenes ever filmed for television was Tyrol trying to keep a very upset Helo as calm as possible as
subtly as possible as they both listened in horror to a goon from the Pegasus relate how he and every other man aboard her violated their Model Six.
Of course they are both now set to be executed by the commander of the Pegasus (her 'interrogator' and would-be rapist was killed in the ensuing scuffle - yay!). For Commander Adama this order is the last straw and he has declared mutiny against Cain. Gee, Adama - after all this do you think you're going to reexamine your son's mutiny against you? At least you forgave him.
Anyway, am I getting at something? The Cylons are the children of humanity - they consider humans to be brutality incarnate, with the ability to kill one another as the ultimate expression of what it means to be human. The Cylons have decided to eradicate humans ostensibly for this reason (just a little ironic there), yet they have deliberately manipulated the survivors so that they can learn how to spontaneously reproduce.
In other words they are developing Cylon models that can mate with humans and produce viable offspring. In the meantime I'm wondering if they are trying to inject some more positive human traits into their existence - things like love. They kinda got the brutality thing down.
January 6th - Season 2, Part 2! Apollo still has a stick up his ass, I bet.
The last episode brought the Galactica fleet in contact with another Battlestar, the Pegasus. Instead of protecting a large number of civilian survivors and trying to find a safe haven away from the Cylons, the Pegasus is on its own and hunting the Cylon fleet. Or so her commander, Admiral Cain, says.
At first the Galactica group is delighted to find more survivors, even if the commander of the Pegasus outranks Commander Adama and takes over. But we learn that Cain is off her rocker and has been sending the crew on suicide missions and shooting those who refuse her orders. The brutalized crew in itself has become extremely brutal. They discovered a human-looking Cylon aboard their ship (the same model as Baltar's Six) and systematically raped and tortured her - what the hell, she's only a toaster.
And this gave me pause - Cylons can suffer! They can love, apparently, and they can suffer as well! This poor woman -er, robot, experienced an enormous amount of pain, humiliation, and fear. Look, you can rape a toaster all day long (helpful handy tip: unplug it first) and it just won'tcare so there's more to the Cylons than just another malevolent Artificial Intelligence. We are way beyond Skynet and Colossus here. Of course, they could just be faking....
Anyway when Cain gets word of Galactica's pet Cylon (Boomer 2.0, or rather Sharon 2.0 - no one is calling her Boomer) she sends her interrogator to question the pregnant toaster - and consequently to subject her to the same brutality the Cylon aboard the Pegasus is experiencing.
This is what I find cool - early on in the series we hear some Cylons theorizing why they haven't been able to reproduce as their God has commanded them to do. Yeah, they have religion. They think it has something to do with love. At first that sounded silly, but with this episode it started to make sense to me.
Remember Tyrol and Helo, who are both highly confused because they fell in love with the same model but different individual Cylons. Neither of them can bear to look too closely at what they really feel, I mean they didn't *know* she was a Cylon and they spend time whupping up on each other out of both jealousy AND revulsion.
Then they hear what the Pegasus' interrogator is going to do with the pregant Sharon. Tyrol and Helo in the space of a half a second set aside their differences and confusion and go rescue her. I thought one of the best-acted scenes ever filmed for television was Tyrol trying to keep a very upset Helo as calm as possible as
subtly as possible as they both listened in horror to a goon from the Pegasus relate how he and every other man aboard her violated their Model Six.
Of course they are both now set to be executed by the commander of the Pegasus (her 'interrogator' and would-be rapist was killed in the ensuing scuffle - yay!). For Commander Adama this order is the last straw and he has declared mutiny against Cain. Gee, Adama - after all this do you think you're going to reexamine your son's mutiny against you? At least you forgave him.
Anyway, am I getting at something? The Cylons are the children of humanity - they consider humans to be brutality incarnate, with the ability to kill one another as the ultimate expression of what it means to be human. The Cylons have decided to eradicate humans ostensibly for this reason (just a little ironic there), yet they have deliberately manipulated the survivors so that they can learn how to spontaneously reproduce.
In other words they are developing Cylon models that can mate with humans and produce viable offspring. In the meantime I'm wondering if they are trying to inject some more positive human traits into their existence - things like love. They kinda got the brutality thing down.
January 6th - Season 2, Part 2! Apollo still has a stick up his ass, I bet.
Brenden's Cousin Aiden
Aiden was born in Atlanta at about 12:30pm yesterday to Jon's brother and his wife, Joey and Erin Maynard.
10 pounds, 7 ounces. Erin got a C-section, thank the gods!
Joey has another child by a previous marriage but he never gets to see her, unfortunately.
But this is so cool - our generation is finally eking out families. I was afraid Brenden would have no one to whup up on at family gatherings!
Of course at that size Aiden might do the whuppin.
10 pounds, 7 ounces. Erin got a C-section, thank the gods!
Joey has another child by a previous marriage but he never gets to see her, unfortunately.
But this is so cool - our generation is finally eking out families. I was afraid Brenden would have no one to whup up on at family gatherings!
Of course at that size Aiden might do the whuppin.
Tuesday, November 22, 2005
B wants BSG season 1 for XMAS!
Really, he told me he wants it! It's not for me, really!
Season 2 isn't as easy to bullet. Season 1 ended with the Galactica finding the 12 Colonies' home planet of Kobol. Laura AND Lee were in the hoosegow because of mutiny; Adama was mighty peeved about the whole thing and Starbuck was out gallavanting around in her hotwired Cylon Raider. She got back to Caprica, found the frammis to the hydrospan that Laura wanted, and got the living snot kicked out of her by a Model Six Cylon. She also found Helo and Boomer 2.0. Helo was trying to deal with Boomer's toaster ancestry and Starbuck wasn't dealing at all.
Boomer 1.0 had shot Adama in the belly right at the very end of season 1. So: season 2 bullets -
+ Colonel Tigh is in command. It goes as badly as you might think. Props to Tigh for knowing he's a shitty commander and desperately wanting Adama to get better.
+ Laura and Lee escape and head down to Kobol to look for some clues to Earth's location. Hilarity ensues.
+ Adama gets better but Boomer 1.0 is Jack Ruby-ed by a pissed-off shipmate so he can't ask her why.
+ Starbuck eventually has to deal because Boomer 2.0 rescues her and Helo and all 3 go back to the Galactica.
+ Hilarity *really* ensues when everyone gets a gander at Boomer 2.0. She is not blown out of an airlock (Laura's favorite method of Cylon removal) because both Starbuck and Helo vouch for her actions plus you know, she's knocked up.
+ Adama hates the way the fleet has been fractured by the "follow Laura" and "follow Adama" factions so he heads to Kobol to kiss and make up with Laura. They really do make a cute couple. Starbuck gives Laura the Frammis that open's Athena's tomb, where they find a huge honkin' map of Earth's location. So with Laura being vindicated everybody loves each other again. Hey, Apollo even mentions to Starbuck his love for her though it's kind of a fraternal admission. That didn't stop the Shipper fans from going nuts.
+ Except for Chief Tyrol and Helo, who are way totally confused about this Boomer business. They even get in a jealous fist fight even though technically they didn't date the same woman. Neither of them can look at what they feel too closely.
+ Lee is still a tight-ass, although his willingness to go against his commander (who is also his dad) to do what he thinks is right is an interesting wrinkle. Now if he could only get laid. And parade around in more towels.
+ Baltar is still a nutbag.
+ A few new human-looking Cylon models show up, including one who suspiciously looks like a blond Xena, Warrior Princess.
So most of season 2 was spent wrapping up season 1. More to follow.
Season 2 isn't as easy to bullet. Season 1 ended with the Galactica finding the 12 Colonies' home planet of Kobol. Laura AND Lee were in the hoosegow because of mutiny; Adama was mighty peeved about the whole thing and Starbuck was out gallavanting around in her hotwired Cylon Raider. She got back to Caprica, found the frammis to the hydrospan that Laura wanted, and got the living snot kicked out of her by a Model Six Cylon. She also found Helo and Boomer 2.0. Helo was trying to deal with Boomer's toaster ancestry and Starbuck wasn't dealing at all.
Boomer 1.0 had shot Adama in the belly right at the very end of season 1. So: season 2 bullets -
+ Colonel Tigh is in command. It goes as badly as you might think. Props to Tigh for knowing he's a shitty commander and desperately wanting Adama to get better.
+ Laura and Lee escape and head down to Kobol to look for some clues to Earth's location. Hilarity ensues.
+ Adama gets better but Boomer 1.0 is Jack Ruby-ed by a pissed-off shipmate so he can't ask her why.
+ Starbuck eventually has to deal because Boomer 2.0 rescues her and Helo and all 3 go back to the Galactica.
+ Hilarity *really* ensues when everyone gets a gander at Boomer 2.0. She is not blown out of an airlock (Laura's favorite method of Cylon removal) because both Starbuck and Helo vouch for her actions plus you know, she's knocked up.
+ Adama hates the way the fleet has been fractured by the "follow Laura" and "follow Adama" factions so he heads to Kobol to kiss and make up with Laura. They really do make a cute couple. Starbuck gives Laura the Frammis that open's Athena's tomb, where they find a huge honkin' map of Earth's location. So with Laura being vindicated everybody loves each other again. Hey, Apollo even mentions to Starbuck his love for her though it's kind of a fraternal admission. That didn't stop the Shipper fans from going nuts.
+ Except for Chief Tyrol and Helo, who are way totally confused about this Boomer business. They even get in a jealous fist fight even though technically they didn't date the same woman. Neither of them can look at what they feel too closely.
+ Lee is still a tight-ass, although his willingness to go against his commander (who is also his dad) to do what he thinks is right is an interesting wrinkle. Now if he could only get laid. And parade around in more towels.
+ Baltar is still a nutbag.
+ A few new human-looking Cylon models show up, including one who suspiciously looks like a blond Xena, Warrior Princess.
So most of season 2 was spent wrapping up season 1. More to follow.
Monday, November 21, 2005
Season 1 Recap (Spoilers Ahoy!)
Here's a better cast photo. Left to right:
Adama, Roslin, Lee, Tigh, Starbuck, Tyrol, Boomer, Baltar, Model Six.
The first season is tough to sum up.
No it isn't!
+ Baltar is slowly going nuts, hounded by visions of the sexy Cylon (known as 'Six') whom he left back on Caprica (or ARE they visions?!!? dum-dum-DUM!!!!). He has been tasked with developing a method of discovering Cylons among the survivors. He also gets elected vice president and has sex with himself a lot. It's a long way from the 70's, isn't it?
+ Starbuck displays her ability to be a loser as well as survive as she manages to hotwire a Cylon fighter to escape from a planet she is forced to crash-land on. She then uses said fighter later on to jump back to Caprica to find something for President Roslin. Isn't that desertion, there, Kara?
+ Lee has a stick up his ass.
+ Commander Adama displays why he was put in command of an out-of-date starship by risking everyone while looking for Starbuck who crash-landed on a hostile planet.
+ Colonel Tigh drinks too much, finds his ex-wife among the survivors, then drinks too much. He snaps at Starbuck occasionally as well.
+ President Roslin, who has breast cancer, is slowly dying, and she thinks she has visions of Earth and is the Chosen One from some old prophecies. She gets in deep doo-doo with Adama after the Galactica fleet finds their home planet, Kobol.
+ Poor Boomer the Cylon keeps doing bad things but doesn't remember them. At least not until she a) blows up a Cylon base then b) shoots Commander Adama in the stomach. She's so confused!
+ So is Helo who is stuck on an irridated Caprica after he let Baltar have his place in a cargo ship (piloted by the Boomer Cylon). He hooks up with his very own copy of the Boomer Cylon. He doesn't *know* she's a Cylon and eventually they do the Naked Pretzel and his Cylon gets pregnant.
+ The Boomer Cylon aboard the Galactica, who is confused, is dating the flight deck chief (Tyrol - no callsign for him because he's just a tool-pushin' knuckle dragger) but they break up over the confusion (and orders from meany-head Colonel Tigh). Are you confused yet? Gods, _they_ are!
I think that hit all the major points of series 1. Did I mention Apollo (Lee Adama) has a stick up his ass? He got really steamed when Starbuck had sex with Baltar. Did I mention it's a long way from the 70's?
Adama, Roslin, Lee, Tigh, Starbuck, Tyrol, Boomer, Baltar, Model Six.
The first season is tough to sum up.
No it isn't!
+ Baltar is slowly going nuts, hounded by visions of the sexy Cylon (known as 'Six') whom he left back on Caprica (or ARE they visions?!!? dum-dum-DUM!!!!). He has been tasked with developing a method of discovering Cylons among the survivors. He also gets elected vice president and has sex with himself a lot. It's a long way from the 70's, isn't it?
+ Starbuck displays her ability to be a loser as well as survive as she manages to hotwire a Cylon fighter to escape from a planet she is forced to crash-land on. She then uses said fighter later on to jump back to Caprica to find something for President Roslin. Isn't that desertion, there, Kara?
+ Lee has a stick up his ass.
+ Commander Adama displays why he was put in command of an out-of-date starship by risking everyone while looking for Starbuck who crash-landed on a hostile planet.
+ Colonel Tigh drinks too much, finds his ex-wife among the survivors, then drinks too much. He snaps at Starbuck occasionally as well.
+ President Roslin, who has breast cancer, is slowly dying, and she thinks she has visions of Earth and is the Chosen One from some old prophecies. She gets in deep doo-doo with Adama after the Galactica fleet finds their home planet, Kobol.
+ Poor Boomer the Cylon keeps doing bad things but doesn't remember them. At least not until she a) blows up a Cylon base then b) shoots Commander Adama in the stomach. She's so confused!
+ So is Helo who is stuck on an irridated Caprica after he let Baltar have his place in a cargo ship (piloted by the Boomer Cylon). He hooks up with his very own copy of the Boomer Cylon. He doesn't *know* she's a Cylon and eventually they do the Naked Pretzel and his Cylon gets pregnant.
+ The Boomer Cylon aboard the Galactica, who is confused, is dating the flight deck chief (Tyrol - no callsign for him because he's just a tool-pushin' knuckle dragger) but they break up over the confusion (and orders from meany-head Colonel Tigh). Are you confused yet? Gods, _they_ are!
I think that hit all the major points of series 1. Did I mention Apollo (Lee Adama) has a stick up his ass? He got really steamed when Starbuck had sex with Baltar. Did I mention it's a long way from the 70's?
Let it roll, baby, roll!
I love his smile!
Brenden is in a bouncy seat here. I set it up when I'm cooking in the kitchen or weight training in the dining room.
He has figured out rolling now and has rolled out of the living room into the kitchen on one memorable occasion. I spent the weekend getting a kick out of watching him laboriously roll into an obstacle, chew on the obstacle for a few minutes, then contort himself to try go get around it so he can continue rolling.
I set up his quilt with his favorite toys randomly scattered about. He has great fun, although I still haven't convinced him the cats aren't chew toys. The cats are actually too well-behaved to disabuse him of that notion, although I suspect that brand-new tooth of B's will eventually persuade them to defend themselves.
I weighed 161.4 this morning! w00t!
Brenden is in a bouncy seat here. I set it up when I'm cooking in the kitchen or weight training in the dining room.
He has figured out rolling now and has rolled out of the living room into the kitchen on one memorable occasion. I spent the weekend getting a kick out of watching him laboriously roll into an obstacle, chew on the obstacle for a few minutes, then contort himself to try go get around it so he can continue rolling.
I set up his quilt with his favorite toys randomly scattered about. He has great fun, although I still haven't convinced him the cats aren't chew toys. The cats are actually too well-behaved to disabuse him of that notion, although I suspect that brand-new tooth of B's will eventually persuade them to defend themselves.
I weighed 161.4 this morning! w00t!
Dad and B getting warm
Here they are at the DZ getting toasty by the fire on a blustery Saturday afternoon. B of course was fascinated by the pretty flames. Oh, dear.
Friday, November 18, 2005
Galactica Cast
I just found this from this kewl Galactica fan site.
From left to right: Bill Adama, Apollo, Starbuck, and Boomer. And yeah, Apollo is as tight-assed as this picture would suggest.
From left to right: Bill Adama, Apollo, Starbuck, and Boomer. And yeah, Apollo is as tight-assed as this picture would suggest.
By Your Command
Okay here's something else to talk about:
I mentioned earlier that I have become addicted to Battlestar Galactica but didn't go into much detail other than I think the female Starbuck is the bee's knees. I should mention - Starbuck is her callsign. She is a Viper pilot and her real name is Kara Thrace. Apollo's real name is Lee Adama, son of Bill Adama the commander of the Galactica. I have no idea where Kara got her callsign. It's obvious with Lee - one of the season two eps involved Lee walking around in a towel. Let's just say that while I'm not that attracted to Jamie Bamber, he is more than welcome to parade around in a towel for the rest of the series' existence.
The miniseries was the setup: we see a little of the 12 Colonies, particularly Caprica. Mainly the action takes place aboard the Battlestar Galactica, an outdated space ship that once was used in the war against the Cylons, artificial intelligence that went to war against its creators but was driven off. Wait, it gets better. Really!
Now this ship is about to be decomissioned and turned into a museum. Aboard her is her commander, William Adama (Edward James Olmos - yay! He broods just as well here as he did on Miami Vice), and the XO (executive officer for you non-military pukes) Colonel Saul Tigh. His good points: he's fiercely loyal to Adama. His bad - he has no people skills plus he's an alcoholic.
Tigh's biggest thorn in his side is the aforementioned Starbuck, who is a hell of a pilot but not much on authority. The only thing that kept her from being a permanent fixture in the brig is her relationship (not *that* kind of relationship!) with Commander Adama.
Anyways, with the unwitting help of brilliant scientist Gaius Baltar, the Cylons launch an attack on all 12 colonies at once with nuclear weapons. Baltar, while being a genius and all that, tends to think with his man-tackle and he let gorgeous Cylon model 6 gain access to and cripple the defense mainframes. Baltar escapes from Caprica in an transport ship, piloted by Sharon Valerii (callsign Boomer) and Karl Agathon (callsign Helo). Helo stays behind on Caprica to allow Baltar to escape. The transport ship is part of the Galactica.
The rest of the fleet, by the way, is disabled by the infiltration of the mainframes by the Cylons. The one ship they can't disable is the Galactica which is based on older technology. The Galactica fights back and what remains of the 12 Colonies rallies around the old Battlestar. The only apparent survivor of the government is the Secretary of Education, Laura Roslin (the way-cool Mary McDonnell). She had been aboard the Galactica for the decomissioning ceremonies and was accompanied by Lee Adama (Apollo). She is sworn in as president of the colonies (take that, Geena Davis!) and convinces William Adama the best course of action is to scram, and find a place where the survivors can start making babies.
Adama uses the old myth of Earth, a 13th colony, to rally everyone's morale. He admits to the president he doesn't think Earth exists, but he has to give them something to hope for. They ostensibly start out to search for Earth.
Oh, yeah. After an encounter with a Cylon that looks human (only not as pretty as model 6), Adama is given a mysterious note explaining that there are 8 (or was that 12? I disremember) different human-looking Cylon models. What he doesn't know is who the other ones are. What's really bad is some of those models don't know they are Cylons, either. Like poor Boomer.
End of miniseries. Thank you sci-fi channel for picking up the series because it got better from here! So say we all.
I mentioned earlier that I have become addicted to Battlestar Galactica but didn't go into much detail other than I think the female Starbuck is the bee's knees. I should mention - Starbuck is her callsign. She is a Viper pilot and her real name is Kara Thrace. Apollo's real name is Lee Adama, son of Bill Adama the commander of the Galactica. I have no idea where Kara got her callsign. It's obvious with Lee - one of the season two eps involved Lee walking around in a towel. Let's just say that while I'm not that attracted to Jamie Bamber, he is more than welcome to parade around in a towel for the rest of the series' existence.
The miniseries was the setup: we see a little of the 12 Colonies, particularly Caprica. Mainly the action takes place aboard the Battlestar Galactica, an outdated space ship that once was used in the war against the Cylons, artificial intelligence that went to war against its creators but was driven off. Wait, it gets better. Really!
Now this ship is about to be decomissioned and turned into a museum. Aboard her is her commander, William Adama (Edward James Olmos - yay! He broods just as well here as he did on Miami Vice), and the XO (executive officer for you non-military pukes) Colonel Saul Tigh. His good points: he's fiercely loyal to Adama. His bad - he has no people skills plus he's an alcoholic.
Tigh's biggest thorn in his side is the aforementioned Starbuck, who is a hell of a pilot but not much on authority. The only thing that kept her from being a permanent fixture in the brig is her relationship (not *that* kind of relationship!) with Commander Adama.
Anyways, with the unwitting help of brilliant scientist Gaius Baltar, the Cylons launch an attack on all 12 colonies at once with nuclear weapons. Baltar, while being a genius and all that, tends to think with his man-tackle and he let gorgeous Cylon model 6 gain access to and cripple the defense mainframes. Baltar escapes from Caprica in an transport ship, piloted by Sharon Valerii (callsign Boomer) and Karl Agathon (callsign Helo). Helo stays behind on Caprica to allow Baltar to escape. The transport ship is part of the Galactica.
The rest of the fleet, by the way, is disabled by the infiltration of the mainframes by the Cylons. The one ship they can't disable is the Galactica which is based on older technology. The Galactica fights back and what remains of the 12 Colonies rallies around the old Battlestar. The only apparent survivor of the government is the Secretary of Education, Laura Roslin (the way-cool Mary McDonnell). She had been aboard the Galactica for the decomissioning ceremonies and was accompanied by Lee Adama (Apollo). She is sworn in as president of the colonies (take that, Geena Davis!) and convinces William Adama the best course of action is to scram, and find a place where the survivors can start making babies.
Adama uses the old myth of Earth, a 13th colony, to rally everyone's morale. He admits to the president he doesn't think Earth exists, but he has to give them something to hope for. They ostensibly start out to search for Earth.
Oh, yeah. After an encounter with a Cylon that looks human (only not as pretty as model 6), Adama is given a mysterious note explaining that there are 8 (or was that 12? I disremember) different human-looking Cylon models. What he doesn't know is who the other ones are. What's really bad is some of those models don't know they are Cylons, either. Like poor Boomer.
End of miniseries. Thank you sci-fi channel for picking up the series because it got better from here! So say we all.
Monday, November 14, 2005
Brenden at 23 Weeks
El jefe is giving me the occasional fit. I'm pretty sure it's because during the day he's around a bunch of noisy, rambunctious little boys and when he's at home with me, it's too damn quiet. Guess I'll have to spend more time at the DZ.
Weight loss is going fine: I weighed in at 163.4 this morning. I have been weight training every other day and I have walked every day. So far, so good.
Weight loss is going fine: I weighed in at 163.4 this morning. I have been weight training every other day and I have walked every day. So far, so good.
Thursday, November 10, 2005
Monday, November 07, 2005
Brenden at 22 weeks
I love this picture - click on it to see the larger one.
I forgot to mention that yesterday was the 2nd anniversary of this blog. It started out with my desperate obsession to lose weight. Here I am 35 pounds fatter (and in all fairness one pregancy later) and 2 years older.
I quit exercising but I have started up again. I have adjusted to not being able to do my old routines. I don't have that kind of time any more. Instead I am doing weights 3 times a week. The routines I'm using I can do around taking care of Brenden and take no longer than 30 minutes. If B needs me, I can always get back to it later.
The biggest problem was the cardio routine. I walk twice around a pond at work, which is roughly a two mile walk.
I have decided to try and lose weight at a rate of 5 pounds a month and by doing nothing fancier than not eating so doggone much. And since I am 41 and I've had a kid, I am going to accept the fact that I will never weigh 115 pounds again.
I'm shooting for just below 130, and I hope to just maintain after that. Just for reference: today I weighed 166. Ick.
So if I manage to stick to it, I should reach my goal sometime in June. We'll see. Excuse me, I gotta go walk around a bit.
I forgot to mention that yesterday was the 2nd anniversary of this blog. It started out with my desperate obsession to lose weight. Here I am 35 pounds fatter (and in all fairness one pregancy later) and 2 years older.
I quit exercising but I have started up again. I have adjusted to not being able to do my old routines. I don't have that kind of time any more. Instead I am doing weights 3 times a week. The routines I'm using I can do around taking care of Brenden and take no longer than 30 minutes. If B needs me, I can always get back to it later.
The biggest problem was the cardio routine. I walk twice around a pond at work, which is roughly a two mile walk.
I have decided to try and lose weight at a rate of 5 pounds a month and by doing nothing fancier than not eating so doggone much. And since I am 41 and I've had a kid, I am going to accept the fact that I will never weigh 115 pounds again.
I'm shooting for just below 130, and I hope to just maintain after that. Just for reference: today I weighed 166. Ick.
So if I manage to stick to it, I should reach my goal sometime in June. We'll see. Excuse me, I gotta go walk around a bit.
Sunday, November 06, 2005
Full Circle
Letter to Brenden: Month 5
Holy crapoly. You're all ready 5 months old! You are maturing so fast it's scary. You can hold your bottle, you laugh and make all kinds of babbling noises, you are trying real hard to learn how to crawl, and you try to take the spoon from me when I'm feeding you. Some times you find your mouth but for now your attempts to put applesauce in your pie hole is a never ending delightful source of humor for me.
I hope you don't mind to discover that I laugh at you: right behind patience the most important virtue any parent absolutely needs to have is a good sense of humor. And even though I'm laughing that you managed to shove oatmeal up your nose, the sound of my laughing makes you laugh and smile, too. We have a lot of fun at meal times.
Your crawling is also a joy to behold, too. Soon you will be able to coordinate your four limbs and actually go faster than 5 inches an hour but for now that's fast enough.
You have hit all the 'milestones' that those stupid books talk about and then some. You are pretty advanced for your age. Hell, you weigh 18 1/2 pounds and are are about 27 inches long - I have seen many children twelve months of age who aren't that big yet.
This begs the question: why the Hell aren't you sleeping through the night yet? It's not a matter of food because you go from Midnight to 8 am without eating anything just fine. Sleep, dammit! Sleep from 8 pm to 4 am and have pity on your poor dad and I!
We love you honey.
Holy crapoly. You're all ready 5 months old! You are maturing so fast it's scary. You can hold your bottle, you laugh and make all kinds of babbling noises, you are trying real hard to learn how to crawl, and you try to take the spoon from me when I'm feeding you. Some times you find your mouth but for now your attempts to put applesauce in your pie hole is a never ending delightful source of humor for me.
I hope you don't mind to discover that I laugh at you: right behind patience the most important virtue any parent absolutely needs to have is a good sense of humor. And even though I'm laughing that you managed to shove oatmeal up your nose, the sound of my laughing makes you laugh and smile, too. We have a lot of fun at meal times.
Your crawling is also a joy to behold, too. Soon you will be able to coordinate your four limbs and actually go faster than 5 inches an hour but for now that's fast enough.
You have hit all the 'milestones' that those stupid books talk about and then some. You are pretty advanced for your age. Hell, you weigh 18 1/2 pounds and are are about 27 inches long - I have seen many children twelve months of age who aren't that big yet.
This begs the question: why the Hell aren't you sleeping through the night yet? It's not a matter of food because you go from Midnight to 8 am without eating anything just fine. Sleep, dammit! Sleep from 8 pm to 4 am and have pity on your poor dad and I!
We love you honey.
Friday, November 04, 2005
King Air
What is this photo about?
Well it's like this: Jon's business bought a King Air 90 3 years ago. It's a nice little plane: carries up to 13 jumpers to 14,000 feet in about 15 minutes.
Well my husband Jon is posing on the top of another King Air 90 which the business aquired for a song. Trouble is it is at airport A while our business is at airport B which is 30 miles away.
No problem! Fly it over, right? Well he bought it for a song because one of the engines in it is kerplunkt. Here he is getting ready to load it onto a flatbed which will be driven to the business airport which is occuring as I type.
I do believe the ultimate goal is to move an engine from the old airplane and get this new airplane up and running. Despite its dead engine it's in far better shape than the one we're using now.
Why do we jump out of a perfectly good airplane? Because there's no such thing as a perfectly good airplane!
Well it's like this: Jon's business bought a King Air 90 3 years ago. It's a nice little plane: carries up to 13 jumpers to 14,000 feet in about 15 minutes.
Well my husband Jon is posing on the top of another King Air 90 which the business aquired for a song. Trouble is it is at airport A while our business is at airport B which is 30 miles away.
No problem! Fly it over, right? Well he bought it for a song because one of the engines in it is kerplunkt. Here he is getting ready to load it onto a flatbed which will be driven to the business airport which is occuring as I type.
I do believe the ultimate goal is to move an engine from the old airplane and get this new airplane up and running. Despite its dead engine it's in far better shape than the one we're using now.
Why do we jump out of a perfectly good airplane? Because there's no such thing as a perfectly good airplane!
B and Beer
Helpful tip to all new moms: don't get cute and try to feed your kid solids if he's hungry and still getting most of his nourishment from formula/breastmilk.
I tried this and he started crying so hard he stopped breathing and turned a horrible shade of purple!
I got him out of his feeding chair and was thumping him on the back. He finally started wailing. Wailing is good in this case.
I made him a big bottle of formula which he greedily sucked down and I scrapped the rest of his meal.
I then tasted what I had been trying to feed him. The green beans may have tasted like ass, but the squash tastes like 3-week dead monkey ass!
The starchy veggies like carrots and sweet potatoes are fine, but from now on I'm going to cook the green veggies and mash them myself. Do you know what makes green beans palatable? Bacon, that's what! And I'll put a little butter in the broccoli and squash! And once he can handle spinach, we'll see about a dash of rice vinegar.
Oh, and see the pacifier in that photo? Brenden no longer uses one. We didn't make him stop - he just totally lost interest. He would rather chew on just about anything but a pacifier. Fine by me; that's one less habit I have to worry about breaking.
Of course, his classmates might look at him funny if he whips out his monkey and starts chewing away during recess but I'll deal with that when the time comes.
I tried this and he started crying so hard he stopped breathing and turned a horrible shade of purple!
I got him out of his feeding chair and was thumping him on the back. He finally started wailing. Wailing is good in this case.
I made him a big bottle of formula which he greedily sucked down and I scrapped the rest of his meal.
I then tasted what I had been trying to feed him. The green beans may have tasted like ass, but the squash tastes like 3-week dead monkey ass!
The starchy veggies like carrots and sweet potatoes are fine, but from now on I'm going to cook the green veggies and mash them myself. Do you know what makes green beans palatable? Bacon, that's what! And I'll put a little butter in the broccoli and squash! And once he can handle spinach, we'll see about a dash of rice vinegar.
Oh, and see the pacifier in that photo? Brenden no longer uses one. We didn't make him stop - he just totally lost interest. He would rather chew on just about anything but a pacifier. Fine by me; that's one less habit I have to worry about breaking.
Of course, his classmates might look at him funny if he whips out his monkey and starts chewing away during recess but I'll deal with that when the time comes.
Thursday, November 03, 2005
Got the red out
Much better!
For the record, Brenden likes:
Turkey
Chicken
Beef
Veal
Lamb
Oatmeal
Sweet Potatoes
Sweet Peas
Carrots
Brenden Doesn't like:
Green Beans
But then again the strained green beans taste like strained grass clippings.
For the record, Brenden likes:
Turkey
Chicken
Beef
Veal
Lamb
Oatmeal
Sweet Potatoes
Sweet Peas
Carrots
Brenden Doesn't like:
Green Beans
But then again the strained green beans taste like strained grass clippings.
Wednesday, November 02, 2005
Needs Visine
I like this photo but I really need to get the red out of his eyes.
Brenden is crawling! He crawls like a gutshot soldier trying to make it up a sand dune, but he is moving. I'm going to begin the babyproofing this weekend.
Brenden is crawling! He crawls like a gutshot soldier trying to make it up a sand dune, but he is moving. I'm going to begin the babyproofing this weekend.
Volcano Day
I managed to find a little time to upload some more vacation pictures in Flickr. I think the ones of Costa Rica are really good and the ones of St. John are boring. I am distressed that I can't find any pics of our first USVI vacation. Oh, well. I bet they are on one of the thousands of unlabelled CD-ROM's hanging around the house.
I still have a bunch of Costa Rica shots to sort through, plus a bunch from Oklahoma. My goal this month is to max my storage limit on Flickr.
I still have a bunch of Costa Rica shots to sort through, plus a bunch from Oklahoma. My goal this month is to max my storage limit on Flickr.
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