More Pictures Shortly

Oh my word... after days and days of struggling, I finally got this picture of the birthday boy to load. Yay!!! I am going to try to meet up with my friend to get my memory stick today so I can see if there are more worth posting. I might even get around to posting one of myself eventually... I'm sure my friend Raia would appreciate it!

I am going home to clean house, build a new big wheel and set up the soccer goal that I got for Jimmy for his birthday. He is even hitting the ball off the t-ball with the bat. Granted, he uses the bat with one hand, but he is clear on the concept, which is really good... I think he will get soccer right away. He loves to kick the ball around the yard.

Berlin and the Fixx

I have been so busy, I haven't gotten around to writing about my most recent concert. I was my second of the summer, having seen the Killers and Keane in early June (phenomenal show!!!) I saw Berlin and the Fixx on July 21st at the 9:30 Club. Although I would have paid to go, the nice folks at DC101 saw that I didn't have to. My new most favorite station. You know, I enjoyed the show, but emotionally for me there is this huge disconnect...

Terri Nunn is a great performer, but she was a little too risque for me (when did that happen?) in terms of stage performance. A big part of the act was flirting (for lack of a better term) the whole front row, regardless of gender. During "Sex," the whole performance seemed to have been cranked up a couple of notches from the 80's. I felt way old and prudish.

When she played the older stuff, she kept referring to the band onstage as "we" as in "when we recorded this" or "on our first album." I was thinking it must be the "royal we", because those kids she's playing with now might have been old enough to remember "Take My Breath Away" at age four or five (like me remembering the first time I listened to Fleetwood Mac's "Rumours" or the Eagles or something), but weren't even playing their instruments when Pleasure Victim and Love Life were recording. I never realized how completely partisan I am to the boys, especially Ric and John, until I went to that show. I am very sad that I missed going to "Bands Reunited" to see them play together one last time.

With that said, Terri has some incredible talent backing her up, especially Mitchell. He is amazing. I can't wait to hear some of his electronic stuff. Dude is crazy talented. I talked to him for a few minutes after the show - I showed him my twenty year old Love Life t-shirt and he started talking about the care he has taken in the programming to recreate those original sounds from the first two albums. He did a great job, he really did. I wish I had seen Dallan play - he was their guitarist and I gather he left fairly recently. I picked up their new album 4Play and he was on the cover of Depeche Mode's "Never Let Me Down Again." He has an amazing voice. I would be remiss if I didn't mention that Carleton and Chris both were great live as well.

The opener was the Fixx... they were pretty tight and probably should each turn over half their take for the night to the soundman. He was working so hard, playing attention to every detail while they were onstage. "Red Skies" was perfect, absolutely perfect. Cy Curnin was a trip - he came out looking less like a rock star and more like a college professor. He must have downed like six glasses of wine while he was on stage. Seriously. He was trying to keep count, but found it difficult since, as he told all of us, he had taken a valium or two before taking the stage. Didn't affect his vocals at all, but I thought it a swift wind had cut through the 9:30 Club, he would have done a face plant off the stage.

It was a great show. Probably the first show I have been to in ages where I wasn't the oldest person there. At an 80's show, I am about average. I hear ABC and the English Beat are coming - I might actually have to go. I had a really good time at this show, reliving the better parts of my youth.

Cakey Jakey

Needless to say, the cake lost...

Photo Issues

Okay, I have been remiss in posting. Everytime I want to write something about the party, I want to post photos, but I have had a heck of a time getting them uploaded to the blog. So here is the photoless update.

Jimmy's party went really well. It was the usually cast of characters - more adults than kids, but some new faces...

• The almost year old Jonathan, who attended his first Kirkland birthday. Actually, Jacob took a little bit of an interest in him, which is sort of cool since we have been friends with his parents for so long.
• Baby James, my friend Amy's four week old, attending his first birthday, period. He slept through most of it.
• Michael, Jimmy's first real friend. People told me that Jimmy's face lit up when he noticed him walk up to the table.

Of course Molly, Ethan, and Maddie came too. I can always count on Tori to bring her kids. I miss her living in the neighborhood, but it is nice to just be friends, without the neighborhood drama - not really hers or mine, but just the air of drama of others around us and our opinions on it. After I am done with my class and we are back from New Orleans, we talked about going to the fair together in mid-August and going out to her house for a visit at the end of the month. I am really looking forward to it.

Jimmy got some great books, heavy on the fish and whales that he loves so much, cool toys and new clothes. He also got more money for the college fund. He liked the dinosaur cake (I had to totally change the theme of the party stuff two days before because the bakery no longer made Thomas the Train cakes - damn them!!!! :-), but not as much as his brother who managed to cover himself in the frosting. I was just amazed - the frosting was orange and green. He looked like a love child sired by SheHulk and the Thing! He was very happy to have everyone singing to him - for the first time, I think he understood that this was his special day. It was nice. The next day, I got my first normal four word sentence out of him: "I want my book" as he handed me the Dora book for his Leap Pad. He never ceases to surprise me.

He got promoted to the fours class on his birthday at Kindercare and they are encouraging me to potty train him immediately. I really haven't because I wasn't sure how to do it without the language. This one teacher was like, he's a smart kid, he doesn't like to be wet, just slap some underwear on him and let him figure it out. It's worth a try. That is how has bridged every language difficultly - to figure out a way to do it on his own. Why not try it with potty training?

I stayed home sick yesterday as well - partly a quesy stomach, partly the heat, but I did make it out to Jimmy's school to meet the woman who is filling in for the rest of the summer session. Very nice - not Bethany, but very nice and a good fit for the group. When school starts, instead of being one of eight with three teachers, he will be one of two with two teachers. I am really excited about the potential that exists with that situation. Granted, it might be lonely, but for my son and the other child, it could be a huge opportunity to get a lot of new skills with one on one work. I would be perfectly happy if it stayed that way until at least Christmas.

I will give the photos another attempt later today or tomorrow.

Jimmy's Turning 4

Well, my little boy is turning four on Monday. I cannot believe that this has all gone by so quickly. I still baby him, for all the obvious reasons. Chronologically, he is four, but his developmental delays make him seem a year younger most of the time. I kind of hold on to that a bit. He still likes Thomas the Train, Elmo, and Boohbahs. He hasn't moved on to Power Rangers, which is nice. Childhood in many respects moves by so quickly. In many ways, it has been extended for him.

I still face having him one year away from kindergarden, wondering if he will make enough progress this year to succeed when he does go. I'll keep him out an extra year if he isn't ready. I have already felt a little bit of pressure from some quarters to promote him no matter what. In this case, I am pretty confident in that my instincts will probably be right when the time comes to make the decision. I honestly believe that no matter how hard this all seems right now, that Jimmy's going to grow up and be okay. May be harder to marry off, but he go to college. The way his brain seems to work, it will probably be MIT!


So happy birthday, baby!
You have come a long way!!!!

Scotty

For those of you who don't know this about me, I sort of worked for a year or two with a company that put on Star Trek conventions. I had the opportunity to meet a lot of different actors and, in the case of the actors from the original Star Trek series, spend a great deal of time with them. For about a year, I saw Jimmy once or twice a month. He was a dear, sweet bear of a man and I will miss him greatly and will remember him with a great deal of fondness - both as "Scotty" and Jimmy.

The Housing Bubble

I found this blog linked to a story on MSNBC about the housing market. It's a completely fascinating assessment of the current housing market. We bought our townhome in 2002 for $170K. Things are regularly listing and going in our neighborhood for $330-350K. I don't think we would necessarily be that hurt by a likely market correction (I think $270-300K is more realistic for our house, which means we are still up), I know a good number of new buyers and recent sellers in our neighborhood who would quickly be upside down. It's scary what that could potentially mean for the national economy.

The Greatest Band Ever

In my quest to avoid homework this evening, I went surfing the Smoking Gun. I stumbled across their Backstage section, with the concert riders for all manner of musician. Metallica's clocks in at 24 pages. The Foo Fighters' rider is just hysterical. My love for Dave Grohl and company officially knows no bounds! Love them! Actually, so does Jake. We were watching them on TV once and he started bopping around. It seriously looked like he was banging his head. That's Mommy's Little Maniac!!!!

Coach from Hell

Or if he isn't from Hell, I imagine he will be going at some point in the future...

I'm back!!!!

Vacation Blog Bits

• A vacation with small children is not really a vacation. It is merely a change of venue for the circus that is my life.
• Once the venue had changed, the powers that be saw fit that I struggle for a good 25 minutes with the cork on the bottle of wine my mother-in-law brought. Just when I needed the alcohol too!
• Kids get car sick. Good kids, like Jacob, wait until they have stepped out of the car before spewing fries.
  

And that was the first day... I was going to try to keep track of everything, take some pictures, and post them. It all went by so quickly, I didn't do any of that. When I got home, I had pretty new flooring, courtesy of my in-laws and the labor of my husband. Very exicting!

Off on Vacation...

Well, I am off for a week... Taking my boys to the mountains to play...












I will return in a week or so, with news or at least
a few interesting stories... Take care!

Mariah and Madonna - Two Great Tastes...

Or two women completely lacking taste... or class... or perhaps even a following these days. You be the judge.

http://www.nypost.com/seven/07062005/gossip/pagesix.htm

The link in the title features a great photo of Mariah. Check out that immaculate manicure!

London Calling

A girl named Annie has a great blog on the London Underground. Check it out. In many respects, the Brits are a much tougher lot than we are... the Blitz, the IRA and now Al Qaeda. If it is truly Al Qaeda, Bin Laden, and the rest, I think they have made a huge error. I fully expect the British will get retribution in a way that our government has not be able to for 9/11. My long held respect for the British has reached new levels after yesterday. Amazing people.

Autism Hits Forbes

Because ultimately it is all about money. It is interesting to note the vagaries of the labeling that goes on, not only between school districts, but between the educational and medical communities. Even though Jimmy was diagnosed earlier this year, the school district has thus far declined to change his label from developmentally delayed to autistic. I am researching exactly why that might be, in hopes that the change in label would give him additional services.

Fleeing to Texas

Back in May, my dad and stepmom went to Texas to watch my sister's kids for a weekend while Becky went to a wedding in New Orleans. Most people, when they go out of town, bring home a t-shirt as a souvenir. My dad, being clinically insane, bought a house. About ten minutes away from sister. I have such mixed emotions about it.

I went to California to visit them the month before, in April. I knew possibly retiring to Texas was in the discussion stages and it didn't bother me, but it certainly wasn't reality. Having grown up in California, it was nice to have an excuse to go visit. My best friend from high school and my best friend post-high school both make their homes in the Bay Area and have for a long time. The reality of two small children has kept me unable from going out west as much as I would like to, especially when I have a sister in Seattle that I don't get to see at all and the one in Texas who I don't see all that much either. Having Dad in Sacramento gave me a legitimate excuse to travel a bit more out that way. With him gone, I don't know when I will make it out again to see my friends. Sort of a bummer.

Then again, Texas cuts the plane time in half. Those were some long flights out and back, with Jacob screaming pretty much the whole way coming and going. You know, I hated those children and parents when I was single and flying. Wow, that bit me in the ass, huh?

Tom Cruise is Nuts

Great website - I can't wait to buy the t-shirt! I will wear it proudly!

Free Katie

The original op/ed piece is at the NY Times website (registration req'd), but I think Tom Cruise is the most irresponsible dipshit on the planet. Just my opinion. Big talk for someone without a uterus - there are certain subjects that should be off-limits to men entirely - anything related to abortion, breastfeeding, probably pregnancy in general, and absolutely nothing about postpartum depression. He's a moron. I am completely embarrassed that I have contributed to any part of the fortune that he has given to his pathetic little "religion." I won't be making that mistake again - I am skipping "War of the Worlds," largely because I might forced to take a pick axe to the screen at the site of his deranged face. Buddy, Hinduism, Buddhism, Islam, Judaism, Christianity - those are religions, with a kind and loving God and no mention of aliens or motherships.

Brooke, when you finish putting that Manolo is his ass, will you please rescue Joey Potter before she gets roped into breeding with that fool?

The End of an Era

When we bought our townhome in July 2002, I was very excited about my new neighbors. There were four townhomes in a row - between the four, there were twelve kids. Jacob's arrival in 2003 made thirteen. The neighborhood is pretty decent - not chic by any means, but a mix of mostly white and Latino families from all sorts of backgrounds. A few people who we might refer to as "countrified" for lack of a more polite term. These neighbors are the ones you tend to have trouble with and we did have a lot of trouble with one.

We had so much trouble that eventually one family left, bringing the total down to ten kids. Last night, I had nine kids in my house total as the family with six of them, my immediate neighbors, loaded the van to move out to Front Royal, essentially following the first family to the new town. They were renters - supposedly, the landlord will be doing some work on the house and putting it on the market. The kids ran amok in my house, all over the backyard, getting in the pool fully clothed and stay in until they were waterlogged prunes. I ordered Dominos and sodas and let everyone eat in the living room, carpet be damned. (Doesn't matter, it's getting ripped out next week!)

The four house used to have game nights and cookouts - they dynamic was dying out after the relocation of the first family and is now dead with the departure of the second. My husband is not real social, so I had to miss more get togethers than I would have liked. I enjoyed the times I did spend with them. Since I have no girls of my own, I was especially close to some of the little girls. Their birthday parties were my excuse for buying Barbies and pink, pink, pink!

New neighbors have and will move in, but it will never, ever be what it was. What we had collectively was pretty unique and even if we keep in touch, it will never be what is was. I feel a sense of loss about the whole thing.