Swear Jar

I'm not a Bud Light drinker, but this ad made me laugh until I cried. I wonder it if ever aired.

"Poop!"



Link

Allergy Test

Connor had his skin test for food allergies today. After his brush with the cashews in November, we wanted to find out exactly what the situation is.

He already had environmental allergen testing done in 2006, so this time they just tested a few foods. He had small reactions to peanuts, beans, peas, walnuts, hazelnuts, and almonds. The doc said he probably isn't allergic to those. He had a big reaction to pecans and a huge reaction to cashews (the large welt on the right).

We left with a prescription for an EpiPen. I hope we never have to use it.

Congratulations Rachel & Darius

Long overdue notice:

Baby Benno was born January 10. He's gorgeous! I hear that Mom and baby are doing well.

Congratulations Rachel & Darius! I can't wait to meet him.

Benno with big sister Josie:


Benno with big sister Tess:

Stronger

This Kanye West song was big last fall, and I dug it every time I heard it. In fact, I had to go buy the album.

My favorite lines:
"You know how long I been on ya,
since Prince was on Appolonia,
since O.J. had Isotoners.
Don't act like I never told ya."

I also like how he rhymes "wronger" with "longer" and "stronger".

Here's the video. I don't get it at all.



Link

Kanye's "Stronger" is built around a sample of a Daft Punk song called "Harder Better Faster Stronger." I don't have a problem with artists who borrow and build on bits of other people's songs. In fact, I think it's a true talent to take a semi-obscure, French song from six years ago and create something interesting and fun out of it.

Here's a wild video of the song made by a Daft Punk fan. It starts out slow, but things start to get crazy around 1:40.




Link

Just For Kix Winter Show

Tonight was our big Just For Kix Winter Show. Between the Bismarck North and Mandan programs, we had 350 dancers. That's a lot of kids!

Things went amazingly well: we rolled right along through 20 performances in 65 minutes, the kids were very well-behaved, and they danced beautifully. Marcy and I work so well together, and my assistant, Leandra, was a huge help behind the scenes.

GO JFK!

Check

We've been going to a weekly chess club at the library, and Connor has learned how to play. He can even beat me; I'm not much of a strategic chess player. He asked for a chess set for Christmas, and after much searching, we found a Pirates of the Caribbean chess set. It's really cool because the pieces are modeled after characters from the movie. One side is the good guys, with Captain Jack Sparrow as the king piece and Elizabeth Swann as the queen piece. The other side is the bad guys, with Lord Cutler Becket as the king piece and Davy Jones as the queen piece. It's just as fun as Dylan's Harry Potter chess set.

Speaking of Dylan, here's the update on his EEG last week:
The EEG still shows abnormal brain activity, though less than last year's EEG. This abnormal activity is mainly on the left side of his brain, but sometimes includes the right side, too.

He hasn't had any daytime seizures for 20 months, but he still has occasional nighttime episodes of distorted vision, which his neurologist believes are seizures. Since the goal is to have a completely normal EEG and no seizures, she increased the dose of his medication again. Other than that, we're kind of in a holding pattern. He's doing very well otherwise, so we just keep chugging along.

Family Portraits

Here are two family portraits from Christmas. We take a candid shot every year, and it's fun to look back and see how we are changing.


This year's photo of Brad's side of the family includes our newest family member, Leah.



Here's another impossibly cute photo of Leah:

Happy New Year

Best wishes for a happy and prosperous 2008.

Thanks for stopping by,

Michele