It would seem that after spending 90 minutes pretending to be horses on Sunday that my previous levels of Hayden affection have been restored to normal levels.

Ignore the fact that while Brie was out at bookclub I let Hayden wander around without pants for the evening.
It’s a boy thing.

This weekend we did an early birthday celebration for Hayden while my parents were in town. The main gift was an Aqua Doodle (think Magna Doodle, but with water instead of magnets).

The border of which has basic instructions for how to draw things like a train or an engineer.
Hayden requested that Brie draw an engineer for him.

After which, Hayden took the aqua pen and drew a line from the engineer’s groin down and stated “he needs to pee”.

He really had to go a lot

I’m so proud of him. He’s already funnier and definitely more artistically talented than I am.

Pictures from friend Shawn Wilkoff’s wedding, 8/25/2007.

This was an awesome wedding. The ceremony took place on a theatre stage, and afterwards they opened the curtain to reveal the reception area.

I wound up taking mostly black and white pictures because the light was pretty low.

Stephen Colbert recently broke his wrist. Since then he’s been trying to raise wrist awareness. Starting Monday you’ll be able to buy his “WristStrong” bracelets to help recognize this serious issue of wrist injuries, with all proceeds going to the Yellow Ribbon Fund to assist injured service members and their families.

As the victim of a wrist injury I think I will do my part to contribute and raise awareness.
Anyone else want one while I’m buying?

Act fast!

I got a call at 4:45 this evening at the start of my 30 minute commute to say we had a showing for our house tonight from 6:00 to 7:30.

Not a huge deal. I call Brie to tell her to get Hayden and we’ll do dinner out tonight.

I rush home, get there about 5:15. I straighten, vacuum and clean sinks and I’m out by 5:45.

We go to dinner, get a treat afterwards and return home at 7:30.
All the lights are still on and there’s no realtor card, so we figure they didn’t show.

It’s not until 8:30 after Hayden’s bath when they finally show up. The realtor said their appt went until 8, but still, they’re 30 minutes late for when they thought they were supposed to be gone.

WTF?

Thanks for making me rush home, clean, and then go out for dinner when we had planned to eat in tonight.

I guess they’ll reschedule.

Hayden has really been getting into imagination play recently.

This evening after dinner we walked to the park. At least, I walked the whole way to the park. He walked halfway and spent the rest of the trip on my shoulders, which, ow, that boy is getting big.

At the park we got sticks and dug up dirt around an old tree stump that I believe was making a slide for the crickets. I didn’t follow that one too much.

On the way back we had to run because the “piggies” were chasing us and they were going to lick us. We made it home unlicked, and then it was bathtime.

After bath we did our normal read books, get water, sing “Hush Little Hayden” routine, except we didn’t drink the water. We got the water ready in the cups and then took a long comb and stirred them up. The comb was either a whisk or a magic wand, I’m not sure. Hayden turned the water into cookies, then popsicle cookies, then butter cookies.

After this we had to put up the toddler gate in his room to make sure the monsters didn’t get in. The monsters seemed to gather near the gate and Hayden broke them with his comb/wand/lightsaber.

Afterwards it was time for our warrior/chef (I hear that a new cross class in the new D&D 4th Edition Rules) to go to bed.

We took down the gate, sang our songs, did our hugs and kisses and said goodnight.

As promised here’s the
Indie Rock Baseball review of Bloc Party - A Weekend in the City

1. Song For Clay (Disappear Here) - single
   no runs, man on first, no count
2. Hunting For Witches - ball
   no runs, man on first, 1 ball
3. Waiting For The 7:18 - ball
   no runs, man on first, 2 balls
4. Prayer, The - single
   no runs, man on first/second, no count
5. Uniform - single
   1 run, man on first/second, no count
6. On - ball
   1 run, man on first/second, 1 ball
7. Where Is Home? - single
   2 runs, man on first/second, no count
8. Kreuzberg - ball
   2 runs, man on first/second, 1 ball
9. I Still Remember - single
   3 runs, man on first/second, no count
10. Sunday - single
    4 runs, man on first/second, no count
11. SRXT - ball
    4 runs, man on first/second, 1 ball

Final score: 4 runs, 2 on base, no more at bats.

I’m impressed. Not a strike in the whole cd, and I can see a lot of these improving with multiple listens.
I can completely recommend picking up this cd if you like indie rock.

Somebody else needs to join Swamble with me to make crazy wagers for no benefit, because I like calling things and having it recorded when I am right.

For example, I’m calling that there will be a surging of the popularity of British pop stars in the United States in the next year.

Shuller pointed me to this concept called Indie Rock Baseball.

It goes like this:

* You start with two outs and no one on base.
* Each time you skip to the next track without finishing the one you were listening to, that’s a strike.
* Each time you finish a song, that’s a ball.
* Each time you actually *like* a song, that’s a hit. Naturally. Or a single, if you prefer. This also resets the count (as would four balls). Now you would have a runner on. Another hit (or walk) would advance the runner, etc.
* There are multi-base hits for songs you really like. It does help open things up, but please use sparingly, as we don’t want these things to end up being just another bunch of lopsided Yankee-Devil Ray games.
* A runner scores from 2nd on a hit. I guess this would also imply a runner on 1st would score on a double. Use your best judgment.
* Once a record reaches three strikes, it’s OUT. Of your CD player (or preferred music player).
* Otherwise, you post the result (e.g. 1 run, 2 left on base).

I decided to use this to review the new Rilo Kiley cd.

1. Silver Lining - single
   no runs, man on first, no count
2. Close Call - single
   no runs, man on first/second, no count
3. Moneymaker - single
   1 run, man on first/second, no count
4. Breakin’ Up - ball
   1 run, man on first/second, 1 ball
5. Under the Blacklight - single
   2 runs, man on first/second, 1 ball
6. Dreamworld - single
   3 runs, man on first/second, no count
7. Dejalo - strike
   3 runs, man on first/second, 1 strike
8. 15 - ball
   3 runs, man on first/second, 1 ball, 1 strike
9. Smoke Detector - strike
   3 runs, man on first/second, 1 ball, 2 strikes
10. Angels Hung Around - ball
    3 runs, man on first/second, 2 balls, 2 strikes
11. Give a Little Love - ball
    3 runs, man on first/second, 3 balls, 2 strikes

Final score: 3 runs, 2 on base, no more at bats.

All in all a good score for any cd I think, but a bit less than I’d expect for Rilo Kiley. There are no doubles in here, which is unusual. I’d say their previous albums are half doubles, with one home run at least.

I just picked up the Bloc Party album that came out in February. I’ll take a look at that in the next day or so.

We talked to the head of the school and Hayden will be moved up to the next class a little early.

All of his best friends have already moved up and most of his class is made up of younger kids who don’t have his verbal skills yet, which is likely the cause of the majority of the distress.

Hayden has already spent one morning in the new room and was very excited to see all his friends again, and the last two nights he’s been an angel. No more temper tantrums at home.

On top of that, the weather’s been nice, good volleyball has been had, and we’ve had a repeat showing of our house.
Hopefully they’ll make an offer, but they may be trying to sell their house first.

Hayden peed in the woods for the first time today, which is an important step for any boy. He was very excited and went back for another try 20 minutes later.