YEEEEEEEEAAAAAAAHHHHHHH!!!!!!!

To buy or not to buy?

First a disclaimer: This is a post by Tim. The opinions found in this commentary do not represent the views of Jean Anderson or any of her subsidiaries. On with the post…

Imagine the following (metaphorical) scenario: You are a young child and have always wanted a puppy. Christmas morning comes, and under the tree you see a puppy-shaped box (I said use your imagination). Your heart jumps for joy! As everyone opens his/her presents, you save that special box for last, knowing that it will make your every dream come true. Finally, the moment arrives, and you open the box! Inside, however, all you find is a note that says, “Sorry, the puppy ran away.”

Here’s another scenario (bear with me…): You find a treasure map in an old trunk in the attic. After months—nay, years—of anticipation and preparation you’ve put together an expedition to recover the treasure. You follow the clues, you dodge the traps (unfortunately losing a couple of members of your expedition—collateral damage, you tell yourself), and you finally arrive at the burial site. After hours of frantic digging, you unearth a box! Then when you open it, all it contains is an expired Denny’s coupon for buy-one-get-one “Moon Over My Hammy.”

It is my hope that these scenarios can come close to conveying my unfortunate experience with a childhood hero this past May 22. No, Indy didn’t touch me there, but he might as well have; I’m just as scarred by our encounter. I bring this up now, as I currently face a daunting dilemma: the film-that-must-not-be-named has been released on DVD today.

Does the DVD collector/completist in me buy it to round out (square out?) the quadrilogy, or does the Indiana Jones fan in me continue to deny its very existence, shunning it from my home? Do I give it a second chance? It may be worth it for the special features (wow, how did they make such a crappy movie?). I’ve been hurt already by this film, and I don’t want to get hurt again. What say you, loyal readers of the blog? I don’t want to just run a poll, because I want more feedback than just a “yay” or “nay”. Who is on Indy’s side, who?

Dear Russian Dance Party

Dear Russian Dance Party,

First of all, and I know this is shamefully belated, but welcome to the neighborhood. We like you guys; or should I say, we really want to like you guys. I can’t tell you how thrilled we were when you, a friendly, normal-looking, young Russian couple, moved into the apartment above us. We really enjoyed chatting with you those two times about our miserable internet connections; we shared smiles and laughs. Because of these lighthearted interactions, we foresaw not only good neighborly relations, but potential friendships too. I must say, we were relieved and optimistic.

I hope you don’t mind if I go ahead and collectively call you “Russian Dance Party;” the moniker simply refers to the bizarre Euro-techno that, we have gathered, regularly thumps from your apartment… especially on Sunday mornings. Not that it bothers us. Whenever we hear it, we smile and comment that Russian Dance Party has started up again.

We have gathered that you are smokers. Not that it bothered us… in the beginning. But then the weather cooled down, so we finally, delightedly, shut off the A/C and pulled open the windows to enjoy the rays of sunshine and let in the fresh breeze and listen to the leaves churning in the wind. Along with this fresh breeze comes the pungent smell of your cigarettes, which you are smoking on the tiny metal balcony above our front door. While speaking Russian very loudly and feverishly into your cell phones. So just after they are opened, our windows find themselves once again shut.

We realize accidents happen. But it seems that, somehow, your cigarette butts occasionally wind up on our front steps. And once, your lighter found its little way there too. We appreciate when you pick up these items or throw them in the trash, rather than leave them at our front door. Perhaps surprisingly, we also notice when you don’t. Maybe the best solution would be to stop knocking things off your balcony. Just a suggestion.

We have also gathered that you drink. Although we are not imbibers ourselves, we recognize that drinking is a popular pastime among our peer group and would never fault you this behavior. Sure, it’s fun to line up your empty beer bottles on the precarious edge of your tiny metal balcony above our front door. One’s degree of alcoholism is always commendable and is worthy of display. It’s not so fun, however, when we’re lying in bed in the early morning, after a long night of thumping Russian Dance Party, only to hear a liquor bottle fall from your balcony and smash into a thousand pieces on our front steps. Again, we appreciate that you promptly showed up to clean up the pieces of glass, but in the future, we could recommend that you NOT DROP THINGS ON US FROM YOUR BALCONY.

Anyway, on with Russian Dance Party! We look forward to future friendly interactions with you, but we realize that friendship is pretty much out of the question at this point. If you find this to be a deplorable situation, then we would hope that you seriously consider our suggestions of COMMON COURTESY in order to remedy the matter. Thank you.

Sincerely yours,
Americans with Fuzzy-Headed Baby Who Live Downstairs

H&M Hottie

I realize now that I must buy ALL of Weston's clothes at H&M. :-)

Fun with Tuesday

I had a really fun day yesterday. It started out like most other Tuesdays... there were some chores, there were some errands. But by mid-afternoon, it started to get good. First, Weston and I headed over to the Kidspace Museum for their monthly free night. I've been dealing with a little bit of Portland jealously lately, after my friend Heather wrote about the Portland Children's Museum, which looks AWESOME. But as it turns out, the Kidspace Museum is like the Pasadena version of the Portland Children's Museum! Hooray!

The entyway is really snazzy-looking with all these shiny metals and orbs:

The museum has a variety of exhibits and play areas, but the early childhood playroom is where it's at. Weston and I hung out there the whole time, along with a bunch of other kids and moms. There's a slide with all this brightly colored material on top that the kids loved playing in:
The rest of the room is chock-full of toys and blocks and crawling mats and fun shapes and pretty much anything and everything that might stimulate a young mind:
Weston was taking it all in:
Still taking it all in:
Here we are, enjoying our Motherboy time (thanks to Dana and her blog post for the photo!):
Here are Annie and Megan, with little smiley Elijah:
And here's Dana with cutie patootie Owen (oh, FYI Owen, Weston had that plastic corn in his mouth at one point... haha, sorry):
Then Weston and I returned home to discover that Timmy was able to sneak out of class early! Woohoo! So, Tim and I were able to play with the kiddo and eat dinner together, which was nice. Then it was time for the presidential debate! Yay! I love debates, and Tim humors me and watches with me. However, I only love debates on TV, not on my blog, so I won't say anything else about it. :-)
After Weston's bathtime and bedtime, I decided to do something that I hadn't done since having a baby. I WENT SHOPPING. Like, for myself. For clothes. For reals. Whee!! I had a 20% off coupon for Kohl's, so I drove over there and tried on a million items. I actually only ended up getting two things, though, because I'm a tightwad. First, having been inspired by my friend Liz's exploit into the world of purple shoes, I purchased this tunic, which is a look that I have never before considered, and which, my friends, are no longer only for medieval knights or lords of Rohan:
I also purchased wide-leg jeans that sort of look like this (except they're a lot darker):
Look at me, trying out these new styles. Whee! And of course, I purchased a new toy for Weston (see photo below). No, not the animal choo-choo train, not the safari baby... just the tiger that Safari Baby is playing with. Well, I am kind of a tightwad. FYI, I searched on the Fisher-Price website for a photo of this toy, and the website suggested that I should "let the tiger ride on the Amazing Animals Sing and Go Choo-Choo." Hmm. But I don't own the Sing and Go Choo-Choo... hmm. The website also said that the tiger toy is good for Baby because, and I quote: "Baby's actions make intriguing things happen, sparking curiosity." By "intriguing things," I think they mean the toy's clicking and croaking (I mean purring) sounds. I think Fisher-Price might take themselves too seriously sometimes.
Anyway, when I returned home, I discovered that my friend Rebecca had dropped off a special, adorable surprise: a brand-new onesie for Weston!!! Yaaaaaay! How cute is this:
Rebecca and another friend Natalie recently started a company called Max & Magnolia, where they sell hip onesies and other baby goods. SO CUTE!!! Thanks, Rebecca! It was the perfect end to a fun-filled day. :-) (And Weston totally digs it!)