words

8/24
Shit! Did I leave the krill grill on? I’m always forgetting things. Should I go back and check or just trust the logic that of course I turned it off before I left. Why wouldn’t I? I always turn it off. What is the worst thing that could happen – I burn the ocean down? Next krill grill I get is going to have a timer that I can set and have it turn off. Maybe I’ll just haul them in a sack and cook them over that volcano spewing from the bottom of the ocean. Nah, that’s a little too hot for my taste. I want them cooked, not blackened.

exhale

(props to mikey for the art – i’ve been thinking about grabbing more and writing short paragraphs about them also.)

8/13
Tense muscles are pulling tight on the fingers. Relaxation is not an option. Is it supposed to feel like this? Fingers fumble furiously over the electrolyte filled bottle. Push the palm against the cap and try to pry it loose. Look around for some assistance. Offer the bottle to the baby. Giggles rebound over the request. Splash! Splash! Splash! Tiny fingers show off their dexterity. Re-channel the energies at the task at hand. Need a distraction from the pain. The liquid is something to wash down the little orange pills to fool the pain.

8/12
Insert a portion of your eye into the realm beyond the last light. Does your eye perceive the change without the presence of your brain? Or does it cease to connect with the cortex as it passes the barrier? The lights are fantastic. A spherical pattern trails and follows the eye as the last light fades into the distance. Has the order been rearranged while the eye begins to emit new electrical impulses throughout the darkness that it leads into? Is it too late to return? Has the eye purchased a new direction in its existence?

Wax Poetics 24

Wax Poetics #24 – Mandrill/Eddie Cheba
Oh NoDr. No’s Oxperiment
Spellbound – Poolside Fiesta
leroy burgessthrowback: harlem 79-83
Marcos Valle
Far Out Recordings
Mandrill
Larry HarlowFania Records

i24-Front i24-Back

Wax Poetics

logo

I subscribe to Wax Poetics, a publication that deals with crate digging, funk, soul, hiphop, and the like. I read through each issue, commenting on the various things I should check out. But alas, my mind is not as strong as it once was and so I forget all these lovely suggestions. Now that I am given an hour a day on the bus, I have started to go back through the issues and write down some of the artists, albums, and labels that seem to be noteworthy of further exploration.

I’ll try to provide links for the various things I find and you can, if you like, check them out yourself. Each issue contains quite a bit more areas to explore, these are just the ones that I am less familiar with or have had my interest reignited in them after I saw an article or an ad for them.

Lucky you, there is no particular order to my madness. I think I have all issues but 3 out of the 37.

around the couch.

otto’s newest trick involves doing laps around the futon. he finishes with his typical flair when he sees the camera – charge!

around the couch. from beef moe dee on Vimeo.

Walking

So long since words or pictures have been written here. There are a few draft posts that haven’t made it but maybe for another time. Otto has begun to enter the bipedal world he was destined for. It is a marked transition. Since our house is all one floor, steps aren;t a problem and he can sprint around the house all he wants. Granted, walking on the couch sets my heart a flitter.

Walking Around from beef moe dee on Vimeo.

Year One

Thanks for all the fun Otto.

Year of the Otto from eric thorberg on Vimeo.

long long ago…

…i used to post stuff to this website. Now, i am lax with all my ramblings and postings over on the facebook. But here are a few photos and videos from the past month or so.

Spring Break 2009 – Monterey

This is going to be a pretty simple post with lots of pictures. We went down to Monterey this last weekend to help Terry celebrate her birthday. Otto loved all of his new adventures and gramma Terry got to shower her favorite grandson with love and attention. It was nice to hang out by the ocean and the sun. I’d like to go there again. ;) US Open at Pebble Beach in 2010 anyone?

IMG_0263 IMG_0264 IMG_0266 IMG_0267 IMG_0268 IMG_0269 IMG_0273 IMG_0276 IMG_0279 IMG_0280 IMG_0281 IMG_0283 IMG_0284 IMG_0286 IMG_0287 IMG_0288 IMG_0289 IMG_0290 IMG_0291 IMG_0292 IMG_0293 IMG_0296 IMG_0298 IMG_0299 IMG_0301 IMG_0302 IMG_0303 IMG_0305 IMG_0306 IMG_0309 IMG_0314 IMG_0315 IMG_0316 IMG_0317 IMG_0318 IMG_0321 IMG_0322 IMG_0325 IMG_0326 IMG_0327 IMG_0328 IMG_0329 IMG_0330 IMG_0332 IMG_0333 IMG_0334 IMG_0336 IMG_0337 IMG_0338 IMG_0339 IMG_0340 IMG_0341 IMG_0342 IMG_0344 IMG_0345 IMG_0346 IMG_0347 IMG_0352 IMG_0353 IMG_0354 IMG_0355 IMG_0356 IMG_0357 IMG_0358 IMG_0359 IMG_0360 IMG_0361 IMG_0362 IMG_0363 IMG_0364 IMG_0365 IMG_0367 IMG_0368 IMG_0369 IMG_0373 IMG_0374 IMG_0375 IMG_0376 IMG_0378 IMG_0379 IMG_0381 IMG_0382 IMG_0383 IMG_0388 IMG_0390 IMG_0391 IMG_0392 IMG_0393 IMG_0395 IMG_0396 IMG_0399 IMG_0400 IMG_0401 IMG_0402 IMG_0405 IMG_0406 IMG_0407 IMG_0408 IMG_0409 IMG_0410 IMG_0411 IMG_0412 IMG_0413 IMG_0414 IMG_0415 IMG_0416 IMG_0417 IMG_0418 IMG_0419 IMG_0421 IMG_0422 IMG_0423 IMG_0424 IMG_0425 IMG_0426 IMG_0427 IMG_0428 IMG_0431 IMG_0432 IMG_0433 IMG_0434 tree

12th Annual St. Patrick Day Cribbage Tournament

18 men entered, 1 emerged victorious. For this year, Mikey rules supreme.

Beef Lenny Chard Hillbilly Adam Delfel Stelly D Tall Aaron Mugger Arn Mikey Dougie Terry Jim Seth John

The results can be seen here.

More photos at my flickr page.

Weekend!

An interesting weekend. Otto got sick for the first time. Not sick as in a fever but a stuffy nose. He didn’t seem to deal with it very well Saturday night. Didn’t get more than a couple hours of sleep that night. However, Sunday morning, mama got the saline drops and we squeegeed some of the snot out wit the aspirator and he was feeling a little better today. To get out of the house for a bit, we wandered over to the park and got some good swing time in. Regardless of how stuffed up he was, the swing definitely makes him giggle and laugh every time. I also got a new camera over the weekend and have been trying it out. Overall, a much better experience as my last one had seen a lot of wear and tear. It’s nice to see crisp clean images again. This camera appears to take much better sound with the video.

Instead of posting them here, I’ve started to host my videos at Vimeo. More storage and they don;t get compressed as much it seems. So enjoy these if you are bored or just want to see more of Otto.

I also did some salting/pickling of meat and vegetables this weekend. Got started on corning 12lbs of brisket for the St. Patrick’s Day Cribbage Tournament. Also feling a little saucy, so i’m doing a batch of refrigerator pickles withe cukes, carrots, beans, and sweet peppers.

Otto @ Dinner

I know. No new posts of Otto in a while. most of my activity has been on facebook. But one of my many photo endeavors has been to try and capture Otto at dinner very night. It doesn’t happen all the time. He seems to enjoy the camera. He hears the beep when it goes on, he lights up, and turns toward the camera. Although, dinner time he’s not so happy sometimes. He’s tired and at the end of his rope. He just wants to be fed, take a bath, and go to bed. Here are the first few photos in the set.

2-16-09 O Feb 17,2009 O Feb 19, 2009 O Feb 20, 2009 O Feb 21, 2009 O Feb 23, 2009 O Feb 24, 2009 O Feb 26, 2009 O Feb 28, 2009 O Mar 2,2009 O Mar 3, 2009 O Mar 4 2009 O Mar 5 ,2009 O Mar 6, 2009 O Mar 7, 2009 O Mar 8, 2009 O Mar 9, 2009 O Mar 11, 2009 O Mar 12, 2009 O Mar 13, 2009 O Mar 15, 2009 O IMG_0221 IMG_0225 IMG_0230 IMG_0233 Mar 31, 2009 Otto Apr 1, 2009 Otto Apr 2, 2009 Otto Apr 3, 2009 Otto Apr 6, 2009 Otto

You can follow along at this link.

EDIT: Excellent. When I add a new picture to the set on Flickr, it also adds it here.

Free Stuff

The first ten people who comment here will get something I or Megan make. Could be a real life thing. Could be imaginary. Depends on what I think you will like and my inspirations. (Note, it’s going to be something I think you will like. Actual liking not guarenteed!) The only real rule is that you have to make this offer in your own journal/blog. (and this really isn’t a rule, if you comment, you will be included!) Megan will take either the evens or the odds and I will do the others.

Meat!

Meat!

Mexico

We spent a lovely week in Mexico with Brain, Tamara, and Blake. Otto made his first trip outside of the country. He was a good traveler. It helped that both flights to and from San Jose were direst flights. Not a whole lot of action on the trip.. lots of lounging at the condo, cooking food, drinking, and going to the beach. Weather was pleasant 80 and either partly sunny or sunny. One of the highlights was brain having to “practice” his spanish while arranging for the tow truck to take our car to a local garage to get fixed. The fresh tortillas were a hit. Tom/cuke/pepper salad was tasty at every meal. The waitresses at one of the restaurants took turns holding Otto while we ate our dinner.

Fishie Bananas The Infamous Beard Boy Happy Momma and Otto This is How We Do It In the Plaza Bowl of Booze Good Times Are you talking to me? Smiling Lounging Eating Avocado Dead Pufferfish Brokedown Cemetery

trying out yet another way to easily post a group of pictures at a time. We’ll try the flicker route for some of the bigger sets.

Otto eats!

I feel like I use exclamation points too often. But ofter one word or a short phrase declarative will make me do such things. Otto stepped up and decided he wanted to try and eat a little bit of real food Saturday night. Megan had made some applesauce in preparation a few weeks ago and had frozen them as cubes. He was tentative at first but after a quick explanation by Delilah, he enjoyed the mushy chunky delight. The first time, he didn’t quite understand the spoon which is why he got the finger. (and Delilah licking may have also influenced that decision.) However, on Sunday, he had no problems eating it off the spoon for momma or poppa. I think Delilah was a little depressed that he didn’t get it all over the place yet.

Here are two movies – Delilah giving the training. Otto following the master.

Mmmmm….deep fryer.

Not the best way to eat food but as a once a year type of thing, it brings some excitement and good eats. We had a few friends over for NYE – Chard, Ang, Axel, Anya, Lucas, and Delfel. Fixings for the evening were ribs, deep fried cod, asian slaw, and some latkes. Everything went off pretty smoothly other than the fryer tripping a few circuits. The night saw some drinking and later singing/dancing contests to Beyonce’s “Single Ladies” ala JT and Adam Samberg.

Since I had borrowed the fryer from Chard, I figured I’d have to get one more use out of it. Empanadas sounded delicious. I made up a batch of beef picadillo for the savory and also made a batch of chocolate chip – banana ones as the sweet. Very delicious!

Giggles

Momma and Otto playing a little game.

He giggle on a routine basis with appropriate encouragement. Lifting him up and down is a fun one. He’s also got various noises he’ll respond to.

Otto Xmas I

A few photo shots from Otto’s first Christmas. Not a whole lot of action. A big snow storm shut the City down in the days leading up to the 25th. We had a couple of dinners with Chard and Ang. Steak on the 24th and Guinea Fowl on the 25th. Otto opened some gifts on Christmas morning. We’ve also been trying out leg warmers. He’ll be trying out for the circus soon.

5 Months Old

Otto turned 5 months old today. He got a new used car from his friend Lucas. He’s also been spending lots of time with his new friend, teddy.

Baby – Santa

Otto meets Santa.

Wait...why...what's going on!?

Wait...why...what's going on!?

turkey day.

The family came out to celebrate Thanksgiving and to meet Otto for the first time. Otto was thrilled to meet everyone and tried to keep it lively most of the week.

  1. Jadelyn felt the need to keep us entertained with her fashion show.
  2. I managed to successfully to prepare Turkey Day.
  3. We made new friends at the zoo.
  4. A couple of pictures overlooking Elliot bay from each side.
  5. It takes Jadelyn awhile to pick the right shoes.
  6. Pictures of the family with Otto. (I would have put yours in Charlie but did you want 2 pictures with your eyes closed. :) )

Overall, an excellent week for Otto’s first visit. Everyone got to hear his little giggle and he can’t wait to see them all again sometime next summer.