messy ice cream face

How great is it to be a kid!?



















Also, on my last post, the videos aren't working. They got taken off of YouTube due to some kind of copyright infringement. Apparently the networks and producers of TV shows don't like people copying their shows so that everyone who watches YouTube can see them. Great, next they'll be telling me I can't copy and download movies or music. Oh, you mean that's illegal?

SYTYCD - 2 breakers and the Gold Inferno?

Go Victor! It's your birthday!


Twitch baby twitch!


What the crappity crap?!

home improvement

I'm no handy man. I didn't grow up in a family that did a lot of jobs around the house. My parents did some small things from time to time, but as a whole, they never really did much to the homes we lived in. There is really only one thing I remember them doing - when I was a kid they had to repair the floor under the toilet because of water damage to it, but that's really the only thing I can remember.

Well, being a homeowner for the past 1 1/2 years has forced me to do handy man/ DIY type stuff. I'm really not thrilled (to say the least) to have to do things like this. One reason is that I really don't feel competent doing them. Stemming from this, I always feel like I'm going to do more damage than repair. I am more like Tim 'the Toolman' Taylor (Home Improvement the TV show) than Bob Villa (formerly of This Old House). I'm afraid I'll make a huge whole in the wall or break a pipe or electrocute myself. So I'm hesitant to jump into any home projects.

But after a 1 1/2 years in our house and after 1 1/2 years of us saying we need to trade our huge water guzzling toilets for newer more efficient ones, I finally made the plunge. I did the upstairs toilet 5 or 6 weeks ago and it wasn't too bad. It only took me 2 1/2 hours, which for never having done it before and not knowing what I was doing, was not too bad (or at least I think so).

Having lots of confidence from having done the first toilet, I set my mind to replace the basement toilet. And it only took me a little over a week to get it installed. Yes, a week. Not an hour, not 2 hours, not even five hours, but more than a week. There were so many issues with removing the old toilet. And once I got it up, there quickly arose many issues with getting the new one in. Whoever installed the old one took a lot of short cuts which meant I couldn't just take the old one out and put the new one in. It was a lot of stress and hassle to figure out what needed to be done and then to execute the correct course of action.

I won't go into all the details. In fact I'm going to try really hard to repress the whole experience. I'm going to shove it down deep inside, deep down in a place where it can never bother me again. I'm joking. Well mostly joking. Well maybe I'm joking a little and the rest is mostly serious. I am really glad that the toilet is installed and I will never have to do it again. Until we get another house which has an old toilet. Please no, just please no... And now I've got a ceiling fan to install in Adelle's room. But I've told Jo that once the fan is done, I'm done with home improvements for a while.

In other news, we got a minivan. I never thought I'd be excited about a minivan. But we got a cool one. Its a Mazda MPV which is described as 'the sports car of minivans.' But who am I kidding, its still a minivan.

SYTYCD week 1 auditions

So You Think You Can Dance is on! Well, not right at the moment, but the season has started. Right now they're showing auditions. Did I ever mention how much I LOVE poppers and breakers? These 2 guys are unbelievable! Two more S i double K poppers:

Robert Muraine


Phillip Chbeeb

Meatwater?

I saw this a couple of weeks ago and told Jo about it and we decided it must be a joke. But then I saw something yesterday about this and am still trying to figure out of this is for real or just some kind of a joke. Meatwater is billed as a "High Efficiency Survival Beverage" and is basically meat flavored waters. The web site lists flavors such as Beef Stroganoff, Fish'n'Chips, Tandoori Chicken, Dirty Hot Dog, and many others. See the web site: Meatwater.

If its a spoof on flavored waters, its the best one ever. And if its for real, its one of the weirdest products ever. Don't get me wrong though, I would try Meatwater in a heartbeat, just like I tried Jelly Belly's Bernie Bott's Every Flavor Beans, designed after the fictional product in the Harry Potter series.

Anyways, I've read lots of web sites talking about Meatwater. About half say its a real product, but not available in the US. The other half are saying that its some kind of parody or art project. The Gothamist.com names a guy from Brooklyn designer/photographer Till Krautkramer as the brain behind the product.

So is this real or a parody/ hoax? Its your call!

Lost, so you think you can dance

Is it just me or is Lost the best thing that has ever been on TV (with the exception of the A-Team of course)? This season has been phenomenal and I've been blown away by so many episodes. Anyways, the most awesome show has some cool new little toys. They're in no way shape or from as cool as the McFarlane line, but they're cool in a Lost meets Legos kind of way. Although to me, Kate (#3 on the top line) looks a little too much like Sayid (#1 on bottom). I found this on actionfigureinsider.com.


















Also, So You Think You Can Dance starts again this Thursday at 8 pm on Fox. Watch it!

quite possible the greatest song ever, pee, and a photo

Mayonaise by the Smashing Pumpkins. It wrenches my guts and often makes me want to cry. Ahh, they don't make music anymore like they did in the 90s. And thankfully, they don't make fashion like they did in the 90s either.



In other news, Evie peed on Adelle today. I had Evie on the ottoman to change her and thought that things were 'safe'. I didn't have Evie's diaper on yet, but was trying to make the switch. Adelle was standing right there watching and Evie started peeing, and I mean quite forcefully. Think water fountain. What I am about to write is no exaggeration: Adelle got a face full of Evie pee. I kid you not. Evie peed in Adelle's face. I still can't believe it.

Here's a cute photo of Evie:

new music & a Target mess-up

Check out Vampire Weekend. I read about them a couple of weeks ago and have been listening to them ever since. Really catchy-pop-rock-indie-type fun stuff!
http://www.vampireweekend.com/
http://www.myspace.com/vampireweekend

Also, I've seen this picture on several web sites. I saw it first on i-am-bored.com under a posting called "Desk Discrimination". Apparently Target has already made the correction.

how to dance properly, children's photos

This made me laugh: How to Dance Properly. I found it here: http://www.zefrank.com/.

This is also pretty entertaining: youngme - nowme. This site asked people to re-create their childhood photo. The re-creations are side by side with the originals. Here's an example of what you'll see:

Gas prices, child labor and army men?

My parents visited over the past few days. They left me a USA Today from this past Friday, May 9. So I read it. I usually don’t read the newspaper. I have issues with something you read once then toss. So I never buy them, but only read ones people give me (which is not very often; I might average 1 paper a month).

As I read this one, several articles caught my eye. They really have no relation to each other, but they all struck me as poignant in different ways. The first was a series of articles on rising fuel prices and their affect on our nation. It seems that people are becoming more conscious of fuel consumption - they are selling or parking their SUVs, riding public transportation, riding bicycles, and selling their homes far out in the suburbs to move closer to their jobs. It’s interesting to me that they could have been doing these things all along, but only now with pinched wallets change their lifestyle. This goes along with an article I read a while back in National Geographic. That author observed that almost every decision made in America, either on a macro or micro scale, is economically motivated. In relation to that, the impact of consumerism, environmental issues, and waste don’t even make the radar until rampant consumption, abuse of the environment, and waste are no longer affordable.

The second article that caught my eye dealt with child labor in Mexico. This article highlighted the fact that these illegal child workers pick crops which are exported to the US and Canada. These are not things we even really need to sustain life, but are crops like “spinach, cabbage and other vegetables that fill American salad bowls.” Other crops they pick are Asian vegetables such as baby lettuce, Chinese cabbage and spinach, all essential (sarcastic wink) to life in the US and Canada. Its good to know that these little Mexican kids are slaving away to put greens in our salad bowls. They should start taking pictures of these little kids and putting them on the front of salad packages. They could write something like, "This salad was hand selected by 9 year old Juan Gonzalez. Juan worked 10 hour days to this spring mix to your table. Gracias Juan!!"

The last article that caught my eye was one dealing with US Army bases and how the living conditions in some of them are not up to snuff. I understand that troops need places to sleep and shower, but here’s a quote in regards to temperature in one building that makes me wonder what kind of soldiers we have in the US Army:

“There are now two furnaces per barrack, but Corriveau (an Army official) said the building can’t be updated to provide room-by-room temperature control, upsetting many soldiers during the cold winters. (emphasis mine)”

It seems to me that there is something wrong with a bunch of ‘soldiers’ being upset by a being cold. I mean come on, what kind of people are being recruited these days? What kind of training are they getting? Al-Quaida is living in caves and our guys complain because they can't have better control over a room's temperature. But even worse, it was a soldier’s dad who helped break this story with videos showing “rusty stairways, peeling paint, broken toilet seats, a flooded bathroom and mold all around.” I agree the conditions aren't great, but just imagine his fellow soldiers' reactions when they found out their buddy's dad had been whining on his son’s behalf.

So America continues to amaze me as well as horrify me. I'm amazed at our greed and lack of concern for anyone but ourselves. And I'm horrified that the above articles are all true. Lastly as a disclaimer, I'm aware that I've greatly simplified all the issues represented in these USA Today articles and am aware that my analysis is tainted with my opinion.

insanity defined

I love quotes. I heard this one somewhere recently then read it on a blog just now. Its my new favorite quote:

"Insanity is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results." - Albert Einstein

there will be blood

Wow! Another really intense movie experience. This is the 3rd really intense film I've seen in the past 2 months or so. The other 2 were No Country For Old Men and The Proposition. Daniel Day Lewis was so awesome. I mean he was intense, ruthless, unnerving, and amazing. The musical score is so eerie and it gives the movie this really strange and freaky vibe. 2 thumbs up!!

an intense week

This past week was quite intense. Actually, the past 10 days have been intense. Last Sunday, I had to coordinate a large event at BRV (our church). Thankfully, all went well, but I'd never done something like that before and was hoping things would go as planned. Then my wife woke me up at 1am Tuesday morning telling me her water broke. And 10 hours later, our 2nd little girl was born. Since then we've been joyfully deprived of sleep and life has changed lots (for the better!). And then on Friday morning I got a call from my mom at 7am, which let me know something bed was up since she never call that early. She let me know my grandmother (my dad's mom) had suffered a massive heart attack at 4am that morning. Then my grandmother passed away about at about noon on Friday. So I had to make the decision to go to the funeral in Georgia or not (it was today and I didn't go). Now pile work pressure on top of that. To be more specific the pressure of one particular person at work who has been really stressing me out. And then blend that all that together and you have one of the more intense 10 days of my life.

new pics of Evie

Here are some more pics of Evie and the rest of the family too:

Click here for the birth story: http://www.xanga.com/babygarrett2