The Long Winter Night

This morning was Dylan's annual EEG brainwave scan. For this test, his brain must be extremely tired, so we have to keep him up all night. I took the first shift, during which we did a jigsaw puzzle, played several rounds of his US geography card game, and watched Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix.

I took this picture of Dylan just before I woke Brad at 4:00 am for his shift to start.

He and Brad spent the rest of the night putting together two new Lego sets that Dylan had gotten for Christmas and saved for his long, sleepless night. They worked for five hours and finished both before his 9 am appointment.

Here is a picture of Dylan hooked up with the pilot cap for the test.



They were home at 10 am, and both went right to bed. Here's a picture of Dylan with his two completed Lego sets after he slept a few hours.


We'll get results when we meet with his neurologist next Friday. I'll report back after that.

Peace from me to you.

Dylan's Christmas Brain Teaser

Dylan conceived and executed this video himself, with a little help from Brad.



Translation of his introduction: "Do you know what song this is? Well, try and figure it out."

Hint: notice what letter is missing from his alphabet.

My favorite part is his expression at the very end. My second favorite part is that this video documents that stage when his new permanent teeth are coming in.

RS Page 86

As I was making my way through the last issue of Rolling Stone, I turned to the "Downloads" page to find a review of "Lord Don't Slow Me Down," the recently released single by Oasis. I was surprised to see it there because, while they still warrant many column-inches a week in England and grace the covers of numerous magazines abroad, Oasis is virtually ignored, I daresay unknown, in the U.S.

The text reads:

"By both musical and biological standards, the hard-living, hard-brawling Brothers Gallagher should've expired years ago, but they're still cranking out records at a decent three-year rate, causing Brits to cheer and Americans to say, "O-ay-who?"Here's reason to care again: This single from their forthcoming disc is a hot blues-rock kick, with Noel howling about that really irritating itch that only smack can scratch." Kevin O'Donnell

This is a terrific song, and I blogged about it in October. Go on, have another listen.

Rock And Roll Heaven's Gate

This is one of my two favorite songs from Despite Our Differences by Indigo Girls. The look of the video is a bit disturbing, but I love Amy's plaid pants and the synchronized dance by the paper dolls.

The best part of the song itself is the guest vocal by Pink, who adds a powerhouse countermelody toward the end.

Let's Hear It For Lefse

Dawn blogged last month about making lefse, and I got inspired to follow suit. It's something I try to do once or twice each winter. Making lefse used to be an all-day affair until I started cooking on two irons simultaneously. I inherited one iron from my mother-in-law, and then I found one at a rummage sale a few years ago. Now it goes much faster. This batch only lasted about three days because even Connor eats it. I like mine with butter and sugar. Yum!

I Got Elfed

I got elfed!

This takes awhile to load, but I hope you'll find it's worth it.

Short Skirt Long Jacket

We're still watching and enjoying Chuck. It's funny, and I especially like the references to pop culture. Here's a clip of the opening credits, which feature "Short Skirt Long Jacket" by Cake.

Dylan, The Masked Marvel

Here's a quick smile for you.

Link

Better

Connor's doctor said having one's tonsils removed is a strange surgery because the patient looks fine on the outside, but feels like a truck hit him. He said that during the recovery period, Connor would feel rotten for days without improvement, and then suddenly feel better.

Today was the day Connor felt better.

Say "Aahhhhh"

Connor had surgery to remove his tonsils and adenoids last Thursday. Everything went as planned, and his recovery has gone exactly as his doctor predicted. The first few days have been hard, and it was tough for me to go to work this morning and be away from him. We just have to remember to stay on top of his pain medicine and encourage/force him to keep drinking fluids.

Hopefully this will all be worth it when he heals.

Oh, Nuts!

Yesterday, Connor tried cashews for the first time. He ate two, and promptly complained of a terrible taste in his mouth and a sore throat. He tried washing it down with water and crackers, but his discomfort wouldn't go away. Then he started gagging, which turned into vomiting. I assumed that they just didn't agree with him, but after the vomiting didn't stop for over an hour, I took a closer look and discovered that he was covered in hives.

I immediately gave him a dose of Benedryl and called the doctor. We found out that no one keeps office hours on the day after Thanksgiving, so we loaded everyone up for a trip to the ER.

There, they gave him a dose of Zyrtec and an anti-nausea medicine, and sent us home with instructions to have him tested for food allergies.

Then he was fine until 2:30 am, when he woke with the hives returned and gasping for air. We dosed him with Benedryl again and fired up the nebulizer for an Albuterol breathing treatment. That solved the problem, and off he went back to sleep.

Yikes, that was scary! This kid has been to the ER more times than the rest of the family combined. The good news is today he's fine - until Thursday, when he's scheduled to have his tonsils out!

Color Me Thankful

Myspace Comments at WishAFriend.com

Cowboy Week

Last week was cowboy week in Mrs. Towne's kindergarten classroom. The kids could dress as cowboys and cowgirls on Wednesday. Brad made him a custom belt buckle, and he insisted on tucking his jeans into his boots. They had a pretend camp out and learned how to square dance. Connor loved it. This is the stuff that makes memories.

Movie Marquee SNAFU

Demotivators

Susan pointed out this website that sells products with a dark twist on a familiar product: motivational posters. Click here for the Demotivators website.


Here a a couple more of my favorites:

Free Rice

Here's a fun little time waster that's not really a waste of time. Free Rice is a vocabulary quiz that donates 10 grains of rice for every vocab word you get right.

It also scores your vocabulary level. I hovered around the 40-41 mark most of the time, but did make it up to 45 at one point. Warning: can be addictive. By the time I forced myself to quit, I'd racked up 2000 grains. I'm such a sucker for word games.

Department of Misused Quotation Marks

I discovered a funny website that posts photos of misused quotation marks, along with dry commentary. Coincidentally, the same day I came across this website, I noticed a sign with misused quotation marks in the lobby of St. Alexius Medical Center. I should go back and take a photo to submit to the site.

Click here to visit the site.

Carve Away

We really get into Halloween, and I love carving pumpkins. This was the end result of our pumpkin carving this year.

Dylan carved his own pumpkins for the first time this year:




Brad did this bat.


I carved this stormtrooper for Connor,


and this cat on a fence for myself.


Fun!

Spooghetti

Tonight was Northridge's annual PTO fundraiser called Spooghetti Supper. Since the kids aren't allowed to wear their Halloween costumes to school anymore, this is also a chance for them to show off their costumes to their friends. It's a good time for a good cause.

This year we've got two Harry Potters - the Quidditch Harry and the regular Harry. The temporary black hairspray didn't totally wash out of Connor's hair, so now it's got a bit of a grayish hue. Connor was so unrecognizable with black hair that both sets of grandparents didn't know who he was.

Cigarettes in Hell (Redux)

Awhile back, I posted about an Oasis song called "Cigarettes in Hell," but at that time I couldn't find the actual song to post. Since then, I've discovered it on YouTube, so in the interest of my continuing mission to spread the gospel of Oasis, here it is. The video isn't really a video, but it's the audio that counts.







link

I love Noel's sense of humor here, and songs like this pretty much cement his position as King of the B-Side. What he "throws away" as a b-side is better than what a lot of other songwriters come up with for a-sides.

Tragedy Strikes

Brad's cousin, Bram Davidson, died Monday of a heart attack at age 33. I didn't know him, but it's been hanging over me all week. The sudden death of such a young person makes me contemplate my own mortality. How tragic and sad.

Here's a link to his obituary.

Here's a link to his blog profile.

Upgrade

After limping along with prehistoric cell phones, Brad and I finally got new ones. These have all the bells and whistles, including ringtone capability. I chose "Songbird" by Oasis. FYI, here's a clip of the song.




What a racket ringtones are: two bucks a pop, for only a snippet of the song. Oh well, it's pretty cheap entertainment. It's kind of fun to "make a statement" with my ringtone. I think my statement says, "Oasis is the best band in the world."

Turn, Turn, Turn

Here was the view out my window this morning. Our Autumn Blaze Maple is really blazing this year. Gorgeous!

More Birthday Photos

We had family over for cake tonight, so here are a few more shots from Dylan's birthday.

Dylan's favorite gift, his first guitar. As I was tucking him in tonight, he said, "Thanks for the guitar, Mom. I wasn't expecting THAT!"

What a handsome nine-year-old!

Happy Birthday, Dylan

He's 9!

When I was a kid, my mom used to make special cakes for our birthdays. These were regular sheet cakes cut into shapes and frosted to look like a rocket, or a clown, or a guitar.

I'd like our kids to have similarly fond memories of their special birthdays, so I asked Dylan what kind of cake he'd like. He said he wanted a golden snitch cake. You know, the flying ball that Harry Potter chases in the game of quidditch. It took two tries, but I managed to make a spherical golden snitch cake!



I baked it in two pyrex bowls and set one half on top of the other, held together with toothpicks. I was pretty proud of myself on that one. Brad added the crowning touch: two construction paper wings and the Gryffindor crest on the cake board. Dylan loved his cake.



We hosted his friend party at Snoopers Tons of Fun. We'd had a couple of bad experiences there at other kids' parties, but this time it was terrific. It really helped that we had the place almost to ourselves. The pizza was delicious, and the kids had a great time.


Sock-footed fun


Doling out game tokens


The place to ourselves


I'll post some more pictures from his family party soon.

Happy Birthday, Number One!

Justin at MSG

We finally got around to watching the Justin Timberlake concert from Madison Square Garden on HBO. It was great! Talk about a hard-working showman. Justin sings and dances and plays piano. He also executive produced the show.

One of the things I really liked about the concert was how they changed up the songs in interesting ways. "My Love" was a highlight of the show for me. Here's the clip:

Link

I know many of my faithful readers are dismayed about my thing for JT. Too bad - I'm still knee-deep in this craze.

New Oasis single!

The new Oasis single, "Lord Don't Slow Me Down," won't be available until October 21, but they released the video today. Watch it HERE and NOW:



I'm so excited!! This song rocks.

This is a warm-up for the upcoming DVD release of their feature film, Lord Don't Slow Me Down, which was shot on their huge 2004-2006 world tour. Click here to jump to the film's website. They've got a trailer for the movie, and you can play virtual Frustration (AKA Trouble). Remember that game? You roll the die by popping the plastic dome in the middle of the board.

Anyway, it's a beautiful day in the Oasis neighborhood.

Sleep Tight

Here's how Connor fell asleep tonight. He rolled over shortly after I took this picture, so all's well.



'Night.

Chuck

Premiere Week got off to a great start for us with Chuck. We laughed through the whole thing.

My two favorite moments, among many, were the Journey ringtone on Chuck's phone ("Anyway You Want It") and the "Vicky Vale" reference from Batman. Here's the clip:



Can't wait until the next episode.

Two Funny Birthday Cards

From Shari:

From Brad:

Patriot Marching Band

We attended the parade today, and it was a beautiful morning for a parade. I only managed to take two pictures, both of my alma mater Century Patriot Marching Band. I look back fondly on my days in marching band, and I was so proud to be part of the Patriot Marching Band.

I'm not usually one to be critical, but most of the bands looked pretty shabby. Even St. Mary's, which is often the sharpest band in a parade, was out of step and sloppy. Maybe they are heavy on the lower classmen.

A couple of bright spots: New Salem looked and sounded pretty good, and BHS has added fun choreography to their cadence.

Candy is the big draw for the boys, and they came home with enough to rot their teeth for a few months.

Garage Makeover

Our garage makeover is nearly complete.

One neighbor commented that we should move our TV out there and turn it into our new living room. Another neighbor commented that he liked all the new outlets we added. Can't have too many outlets!

Now Brad won't have to fold in the mirrors on his Suburban to pull into the garage.

PaPa's Pumpkin Patch

We went to PaPa's pumpkin patch today, which, unbeknownst to us, was opening day. Here are some snaps from the day.