11.23.2009

Don't Forget The Coffee, Billy Joe

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Friday night we celebrated my Mother's [redacted]th Birthday by enjoying an excellent meal at Sanford. You can tell how satisfying it all was by the clear photographic evidence that I was asleep standing up.

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Happy Birthday, Vicky!

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This was the desert my wife ordered. Sometimes a chocolate ganache is just a chocolate ganache.

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Caleb enjoys an Alterra coffee as we wait for Milwaukee's 83rd Annual Holiday Parade.

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Sam finds a seat at the parade.

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Craddock, Cousin Aidan, Auntie Kim, and Caleb are waiting for the next marching band.

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Granny and Sam
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Caleb tries on Mommy's hat.

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Aidan may one day regret choosing that British dentist.

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This guy is nuts. He's also the highlight of the parade.

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Who doesn't love the Weinermobile? I take a great big whiskey to ya, Brooks Stevens!

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That's funny... he never has a second cup at home.

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Sam and Aidan among the wild creatures of the Regency's 26th floor.

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Lunch break!

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Sam and Caleb join Ann in the galley of the Challenge.

Happy Thanksgiving from the whole family.
Public employees, please enjoy your state-mandated furlough day.

11.16.2009

I Often Dream of Trains

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Caleb finds a friend at Maia's birthday party.

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Caleb and Sam inspect the new woodwork in Maia's room.

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The ladies.

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I. WANT. CAKE.

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That's a pretty good grabber.

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Every weekend is Trainfest weekend.

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At Ayana's birthday party, Caleb prepares to fall back into the ball pit.

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Caleb on the zip-line.

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Sam on the zip-line.
That's right, we're raising superheroes.

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Sam and Caleb, happy to see their buddy Krish at Ayana's birthday party.

Caleb at Trainfest

Sam at Trainfest.
The booth pictured above, furnished by the Wisconsin Garden Railroad Society (who also put on shows at the Domes each year), really captivated Caleb, who parked himself on the floor and did not care to move for the next hour and a half. Mostly, he was interested in the Thomas and James trains that you can almost sort of see in the crappy cell-phone photos above. Had we not dragged him away, Caleb may have been happy to sit there straight through until the 2010 Trainfest. Sam wins a spirit award for putting up with it all, as he's not much of a train enthusiast, though he was pleased to find a LEGO Batmobile and a die cast airplane.

Meanwhile, I've switched my particular gauge allegiance from the HO scale to the N scale.

11.09.2009

Fangs and Sweet Beguiling

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At the Lil' Michigan duck pond.

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Cue "Flight of the Valkyries"

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At the reptile expo at the Milwaukee Public Museum.

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Raking the leaves.

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Caleb preps the cats' food.

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Isaac and Sam play the bongos, while Olin waits his turn.

11.04.2009

Unafraid Of What A Dude'll Do

Just so that I have something to report, I will tell you that I read this book. Or most of it. I liked Hajdu's Positively 4th Street enough to pick this up from the bookstore some weeks back, even though it's just sort of a collection of reviews of books or records that Hajdu wrote for various magazines. The reviews make enough moves towards cultural criticism, towards something to say about the artists or writers or musicians these pieces profile, to make it relatively legit to refer to these pieces of writing as "essays."

Hajdu is more interested in jazz than I am, or at least writing for an audience more interested in jazz, so I skipped over some pieces late in the book because I'd put in the work in earlier pieces and learned things about Billy Eckstine and Wynton Marsalis. He has interesting takes on certain people -- lauding Bobby Darin, for example, and getting Woody Guthrie right as a person whose chief talent was a kind of punk anti-authoritarian. He also makes good fun of prententious old Sting, and writes about the everyman qualities and transgender proclivities of the under-appreciated Elmer Fudd. So, sometimes, a pretty fun book.

It's important to know that Hajdu is a fan of "grown-ups" as in many of these pieces he utilizes a recuring cannard that a particular thing (rock n' roll, the comics form, Bugs Bunny) are adolescent in nature and design, and that adult responses (the late-period pop of Elvis Costello or Bobby Darin, the journalistic qualities of the comics work of Joe Sacco or Marjane Satrapi, Mr. Fudd) are as worthy or perhaps worthier than the juvenilia that inspired or kickstarted them. I'm not totally convinced, but then again I have never learned to put away childish things. I go back and forth on whether King of America is a better record than My Aim Is True, whether Maus is all that much greater than The Killing Joke, and whether or not I mind other guys dancing with my girl. Are the kids alright?

11.02.2009

If Blood And Love Taste So Sweet

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Our house, in the middle of the street, accented by autumn.

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Olin and Sam using trainer chopsticks.

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Caleb the lefty.

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Trick or Treating on the East Side, with our neighbor Cynthia. Cynthia and Brian live just down the street from Cousin Aidan, and every year they give out both candy and comic books. Sam picked up Batman Beyond #17.

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This years' most coveted treasure: Tootsie Pops. Particularly the red ones.

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Trick or Treating, round two, with Olin in Bay View. Olin is dressed as Rocket, whom you will remember from your viewings of Little Einsteins.

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The whole gang -- Kiva, Ruby, Sam, Caleb, and Olin. Kiva is dressed as the H1Ni virus.

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Sam covets the loot.
You're just too good to be true / Can't take my eyes off you
You'd be like Heaven to touch / I want to hold you so much

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Caleb's haul, and his road-rash'd philtrum from a tricycle accident early in the day.

Loot!
They probably wouldn't be looking so cocky if they knew how much of that candy was going to end up in their father's tummy.

Best bits of loot: Beanie Babies, balloons, glow-stick bracelets, a Batman Beyond comic book, Reese's Peanut Butter Cups.

Worst bits: the out-of-the-box fruit roll-up (for cheapness), pencils (for the outmoded technology), Candy Corn-flavored Dots (for waxy candy chemically reconstituted to taste like a different kind of waxy candy).