My Most Favorite of All

I often write about my favorite things. But now it's time to reveal my most favorite thing of all: my husband. Today we celebrate six years of marriage!! Here are just two reasons why he's my most favorite:

(1) You know how I'm always complaining about our camera, which is the Worst Camera Ever in the Great Expanse of All Time and Space? Well, Tim bought me a new camera for our anniversary. And he didn't pay for it out of our meager savings account, either; he used the money that he earned from his week-long temp job at a theme park design studio. I can't wait for it to arrive. It will be so nice to have a camera that isn't held together by RUBBERBANDS.

(2) I forgot to get Tim an anniversary card this year. I've been so focused on the date night planning that that small little detail apparently fell through the cracks. So, when he told me that he was going to Rite-Aid to get a card for me, I asked him to pick one up for himself, too. We laughed about that for a long time. And yet, he DID. That, my friends, is love. (FYI, it's a giant card with a picture of Bumblebee, the transformer.)

That man is my absolute favorite. And we are so excited about our date night!!! (This was typed right as Tim started playing the score from Terminator 2 on his computer.)

Thursday with Thim: Punchsplosion!

Man in crowd #1: Hey, look, everybody! Tim's back!
Everybody (in unison): Hooray!

Okay, so Tuesdays with Tim have been a little... erratic. Things have thankfully gotten kind of busy for the summer, and I have not blogged for a while. In an effort to do better while still maintaining a semblance of alliteration, I'm blogging on (or near) Thursday. It's a stretch, I know. And in a continuing effort to stretch the limits of the English language, I'd like to discuss my new favorite word: punchsplosion. Now, you're probably saying, "You just invented that word! It can't be your favorite!" Well, yes I did. And yes it can. Look, I even made it look like it's in a real dictionary:

They say that necessity is the mother of invention, and with so many action-packed movies coming out this summer, common techniques in movie trailer editing have necessitated a new word to describe their explosive awesomeness. That word, my friends, is punchsplosion. I'm sure you'll recognize this phenomenon watching trailers for Terminator: Salvation, Transformers 2: Revenge of the Fallen, GI Joe, and any other action spectaculars slated for release this summer. It occurs when a character in the trailer punches someone/something/the ground, and immediately following the punch we cut to an explosion, making it seem like that punch has caused massive devastation. Punchsplosions most often occur in time with the beat of the heart-pounding adrenaline-pumping music in the trailer.

I've posted an example here. I haven't seen Terminator: Salvation, so I cannot vouch for its quality (or lack thereof), but its trailer is a great example of the punchsplosion. Specifically, jump to 2:15 for a significant one, and 3:23 showcases two consecutively.

See what I mean? Your challenge this week is to find the trailer with the most punchsplosions. With Transformers 2, Terminator: Salvation, and GI Joe all coming out this summer, this shouldn't be difficult. In fact, if I remember correctly, I believe there is a Terminator: Salvation trailer that even features a nuclear punchsplosion! Any trailer is eligible, regardless of the release date of the film. To submit, post a link to the trailer in your comment along with a punchsplosion count. Multiple submissions will be allowed. I will watch the trailers and count 'em up to confirm the winner (posting the times where punchsplosions take place as I've done above would be helpful but not necessary). The reward for the winner will be all of the awesomeness imbued to him/her by the constant exposure to the punchsplosion. Good luck to all!

EDIT: It has come to my attention that the punchsplosion may be more elusive than I had anticipated. Therefore, I will modify the objective of the challenge: not only will quantity be considered, but quality will play a larger role in the judging of entries. If you can find the best punchsplosion, post it. Abbie's comment also brings up a good point... if you've got the editing chops, feel free to edit your own punchsplosion montage. In fact, that would be an instant win. That would be awesome. Good luck!

The Worker and the Wanderer

In this production, tentatively entitled Summer 2009, the part of "Worker" will be played by Tim, and the part of "Wanderer" will be played by Jean. (And no, that's not as in Wanderer from The Host, which, FYI, is a really good book that I really hope they turn into a movie.) (And yes, Paramount, I would be more than happy to play the part of Wanderer in the movie, thanks for asking.)

In fact, my effort to go mobile with my motherhood operation this summer (in light of Tim's full-time work and looooong commute) and wander around the country with nothing but a toddler, a tube of chapstick, and an enduring sense of adventure (along with a million other things) appears to be successful. It looks like I'll be heading to PA for 2 weeks in June, WA for a week in July, and OH for a week in August. So, hooray!! Oh, and like I said, I'll be traveling with Weston (at least for the first two trips), so please pass along any advice you have about flying alone with a lap-toddler, and then please wish me good luck. After that, please wish my husband good luck for my third trip when he will watch Weston (alone) for 9 days straight in August. Bless his heart.

Anyway, Tim and I celebrated this past weekend (ahh, glorious weekend... it holds a whole new meaning for us) by going to Downtown Disney and having dinner with our very favorite Orange County Whites!! When Tim and I were living in Provo, these two super people were our next-door neighbors (excluding the sparrow that decided to live in between our apartments on top of the stairwell light), and we shared many laughs and good times with them. And now they're in California too! AND they have a ridiculously adorable new baby who I kept asking to hold! Haha! It was a great time. We love Emily and Jared and Max!

The fam:

Jean and Emily:

Okay, this is unrelated to our get-together with the Whites, but when Tim and I were exploring Downtown Disney a bit, we decided to pop into the giant lobby of the Grand Californian and let Weston walk around and explore. He happened to find these cute, kid-sized chairs in front of a TV that was showing a Disney movie, and he had to try them out:

The best thing about these photos isn't the little chairs, though. It's Weston's outfit!! It started to get chilly while we were there, so I decided to change him out of his shorts and T-shirt into his "backup outfit": this long-sleeve, long-pants number that's been in his diaper bag for a few months. It turns out that it's a little bit snugger than I used to recall. :-) (And yes, those are socks with sandals, too.)

Outsmarted by a Baby ABC Book

OKAY.

I'll be the first to admit that I'm not the sharpest tool in the shed. (Feel free to pause for a moment and recall a few personal anecdotes of my hilarious and endearing idiocy throughout the years. And....... we're back.) However, I consider myself a relatively learned person. At least, I did until a few days ago. And then I met my nemesis, the "Look and Learn ABC" book that I got for Weston at the bargain rack at Barnes & Noble.

It looks innocent enough, right?

It has cute, bright, real-life pictures of basic objects for all of the letters of the alphabet. It's been fun to read with Weston, because I can feel like I'm starting to educate my 14-month-old (who listens for 6.5 seconds on average and then walks away, leaving me talking to an empty room) by pointing to the letter, sounding it out, and then pointing to all the objects on the page.

But then I turned to the Q-R-S page:

Look a little more closely at this example of the letter "Q":

Wait... what? "Quoits?" WHAT THE HECK IS A QUOIT???

I have seriously never, ever heard this word before IN MY LIFE. And here it is, in an ABC book for babies. (Apparently my mom never bought me this book.) Anyway, after a spell of confusion, followed by shock, followed by plummeting self-confidence, followed by anger, followed by general curiosity, I decided to find out what in the world a "quoit" is. Wikipedia says that "quoits [apparently plural] is a traditional lawn game involving the throwing of a metal or rubber ring over a set distance to land over a pin (called a hob or mott) in the center of a patch of clay."

Ohhhh... quoits! Of course.

(????????)

In our house at least, this ringed object made by Fisher-Price is called the "ring stacking toy." Who knew that all along, it was actually supposedly the game of quoits? (On the upside, I have gathered that I should probably just call it "quoits" from now on. That's one syllable compared to four.)

So anyway, I learned a new word this week. Not from reading Shakespeare or The New Yorker. From reading my toddler's ABC book.

Good for me. :-)

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In other news, here is an absolutely darling picture of my lovies at the Americana today:

Updates of Various Natures

Update #1: FACEBOOK
Well, I guess the answer is, To Facebook! Thank you all so, so much for your very thoughtful and very helpful comments about Facebook. Thanks also for answering the poll questions. I no longer fear Facebook, and as some of you have probably noticed, I've gone ahead and joined. (To shame!!) No, but I think it will be fun... or, at least it will be another webpage to visit while I am mindlessly exploring the internets. But I also think that, sadly, my soul is a little more machine and a little less rage today than it was yesterday. :-)

Update #2: INTERNSHIP
(I'm setting the scene here: Picture Janine, the receptionist at Ghostbusters headquarters. Picture the scene where she's getting ready to go home, but then she picks up the phone for what turns out to be their very first ghost-busting job. Now picture what she says...) WE GOT ONE!!!!!!! Yaaaaay! Although we've experienced a few disappointments and a lot of waiting, Tim recently learned that he's been hired for a summer internship by Luxoflux, a video game design studio in Santa Monica. Whee!! We are thrilled! The pro's? It's a paid internship; it's in the area, so we don't have to relocate; and it's in video games, which Tim has been hoping for. The con's? It's in Santa Monica, which is a killer commute from Pasadena; AND we still only have one car, so either Jean goes carless for the summer (wide-eyed look of shock and horror on my face), or Tim carpools or takes public transportation all summer (painful groan on his part). We're working on it... but the point is that we have an internship. (Cue angelic choir!!) Which he is starting tomorrow/today. :-)

Update #3: WHERE IN THE WORLD IS JEAN ANDERSON?
Now that we know Tim is going to be spending his summer working and commuting and sleeping and commuting and working, I'm debating whether or not I should just travel a whole bunch with Weston. (And by "a whole bunch," I mean once, and perhaps twice.) After all, Weston's not going to see his daddy on weekdays anyway, and he can still fly for free. As for my part, I'm not working right now, although I will be rocking the motherhood gig on my own for the bulk of this summer. So, why not go mobile and transfer the operation to new locales? Nothing is for sure yet, but my first transfer may be to Pennsylvania in June. We'll see.

Update #4: RECENT ACTIVITIES AND THINGS OF THIS NATURE

The Aquarium

We went to the "Aquarium of the Pacific" last week (back when we were still celebrating Anderson Family Fun Extravaganza before Tim got a mini-job at a theme park design company, which has been occupying his time over the past few days). Anyway, there were many fishies there. And yes, I repeatedly referred to them as "fishies," not fish, when trying to get Weston's attention in my high-pitched mom-voice:

There was also an octopus, which we were lucky enough to see moving around in its tank, instead of being all boring and just huddling in a ball in the corner:
We fed sugary nectar to the birdies (not birds) at an outdoor display. I remained extremely calm and ever-attractive:

...while Tim completely FREAKED OUT and ran around like a lunatic:

Next we walked along a cute boardwalk by a marina towards "Shoreline Village," a waterfront shopping/dining area, and on the way we passed a sweet sailboat:

After we walked around Shoreline Village, visited some shops, and got a couple soft pretzels, we kept heading westward until we saw this beauty:

Overall, it was a really nice day in Long Beach. But for some reason, Weston was always much more eager to push the stroller himself than for us to push him in it:

There he goes again, that kooky ol' kid of mine:

Ikea

We went to Ikea last week, too. I visit Ikea frequently. I love it because of (A) the "family parking" (located right at the entrance to the parking garage); (B) the meatballs for me and 99-cent mac & cheese for Weston; and (C) the children's section, where Weston can play with all the toys and furniture:

The Park

Last week we also went to a new-to-us park, where Weston followed around a cute little girl in pink, and where we also nearly sweated ourselves to death because it was SO FREAKING HOT OUTSIDE (the mall quickly replaced the park):

Max

Weston's friend Max came over on Friday. Max had a great time playing with all of the novel new toys, and Weston had a great time following Max around and seeing what amazing new things could be done with his toys. At one point, they just sat across from each other and played with big blocks:

Weston started handing individual blocks to Max ("Da!", which means, "Here you go, Max"). Max kindly took them, and then he started handing them back, too. (It actually became rather comical when they would both hold out a block at the same time for the other kid to take, but would be unable to take the other block. Kind of a baby-block-impasse, haha):

They also enjoyed watching a Sesame Street DVD. I'm assuming that they enjoyed it; it's kind of hard to tell from this picture:

The Zoo

We went to the zoo, and Weston got to pet a sweaty, bored goat that was surrounded by its own droppings. Communing with nature is so magical:

A Haircut

Since Weston's baby mullet was reaching nearly to his bottom and his baby bangs were beginning to block his vision, we finally decided to cut his hair nice and short on Sunday... with scary buzzing clippers!! AAHHH!! Surprisingly and fortunately, it was fine. Weston wasn't so much scared of the clippers as curious. I must say, Tim did a fabulous job (and it didn't hurt that I was placing morsels of cupcake in Weston's mouth throughout the entire experience). The finished product:

What a cuddle-worthy little boy:

The Park

Finally, on Monday, we went to "Johnny Carson Park" (heh heh... only in California) in Burbank before picking up Tim on the last day of his temporary job. We clomped around in the grass, stared at and chased after other children, and enjoyed some thawed peas and a cold leftover pancake for dinner. Okay, it was pretty much just Weston who did those things. What a cutie that one is: