Record Player

by Grant

    Ok, I'm desperate. I've been searching for a record player that can hold multiple records at a time, play one and then when it's done it drops the next one down. I have a whole bunch of records and Titus is a dancer. That white boy has some rhythm. Where he got it, I'm not sure but he's got some moves.

Anyway, if anybody has one, even an old big cabinet one, please let me know. The only requirements are that I need it to have the needle, handle multiple records, and work (or semi-work).


p.s.
Don't tell me to look on e-bay. A bunch of shysters. Charging more for the shipping than for the record player, what a joke.

technorati tags:record, player, turntable, phonograph

Weekend Away

by Grant

    Well, we just got back from an extended weekend at my Dad's. My Grandma is slowly going downhill health-wise and wanted to see the baby girls.

    I had to work later than I had intended on thursday and my wife (in whom I am well pleased) packed everything up by herself and was ready to go when I got home. What a woman! The trip home went pretty well, although we've done so little traveling that ours boys were having a little trouble adjusting. I don't mind stopping and letting them stretch their legs, but the girls sleep well as long as the vehicle is moving so we just kept on truckin'. Overall things went surprisingly well. Mom was a good help with the babies and the boys were pretty good. They just kept wanting to go outside, which is great in all, but their father is a lazy lounging lump (hmmm. I wonder if that website has been taken?). Anyway, I spose it was good timing because we haven't been home in seven months and Dad had a new computer that'd been awaiting someone to set it up so I was nominated. Other than the requisite family squabbles it was a good weekend. Traveling with the kids and hauling all the stuff that we need is really hard on Rebekah so it's usually very stressful.


Forrest & Titus playing with a cargo bag


Apparently the cars make
too much noise for Forrest


Pondering Life, Pondering Love, Pondering Chocolate



Regal and Royal


Serenity Hamming it up and Liberty bemused (LIberty's on the right)



One happy Serenity


Arrangment by Grantio



Once again, Liberty just watches

Videos

Serenity Swinging. Not easy to see, but look at those nice and wide eyes.

This is primarily of Liberty.If you listen carefully you canhear some "whacking" That'sme thumping on Serenity.

For those impatient ones out there...

by Grant

    ...Please know that I have been working tonight on getting the recent pictures offloaded from our camera, touched up, and uploaded onto our photobucket site. I also have taken two videos, recompressed them and rotated and uploaded those. Now, I'm a little tired of doing all that boring stuff so I'll do a baby/life update.

Baby/Life Update

    Today Rebekah attempted to do a yard sale with Keren and Kathie. In an attempt to be supportive, I will not make any comments on the success of said endeavor :)
I was very pleasantly surprised that I was able to sleep in with Forrest (he had a rough night so was in bed with me upstairs) while Rebekah took our early bird with her over to Kerens. After some much needed alone time (oh dang, I forgot to watch a movie in surround sound. I can't do that with kids in the house), I left in search of rocks. Man, I really don't want to bore myself writing this. Suffice it to say, that we were in need of rocks (roundish riverish rockish, woops, rocks). I took the long way home yesterday, which coincidentally runs by a river, and lo and behold I found voluminous piles of nice round river rocks (say that 300,000 times fast). Well, my normal personality is to ignore something like this because there's no sign that says, "Free rocks." So, do I just take the rocks on the edge of the field where they have been piled on the assumption that they are in the farmer's way? Or, do I try to get permission from somebody (who? it's not like every field has the owner's name). I ponder a couple things and then I decide to go to the nearest farm house. After greasing the skids with some jokes and leveraging my charm (stop laughing!) I feel confident that although they don't own the field, they have given me the green light to take the rocks.

So, anybody ever pick up rocks? They're kind of heavy. I mean, not each rock by itself, but put a few of them together and they weigh a bit. Well, Rebekah went on a girls night out (with the twin girls) and I took the boys and went on a high priority rock retrieval junket. After a few minutes a pickup pulled up to our little gang of merry men. Thankfully, no firearms were in sight. The driver was a migrant worker (most likely as his English was poor) but he was friendly and told me to take as many as I wanted. After my wife got home she was excited about the rocks. What a woman. I give her jewelry and thoughtful gifts and nary a smile and I brings some rocks home and she's ecstatic.

Where's all this leading? Don't know and don't much care. All I know is that I've probably moved a ton of rocks by myself. I'm tired and a little sore.

Oh, you want to know something about the girls. Well, I'm holding a squirmy Liberty and she's pulling the hair on my chest. Rebekah is trying to burp Serenity. The boys, I think, I are asleep upstairs and it's only 9:40 PM. How amazing is that?

hard to type with one hand on the keyboard and the other hand patting a baby.

(evil) Simpsons vocabulary word and short update

by Grant

Otto (the Bus driver that looks like a guitarist for the equally evil Gun's 'n Roses) is getting married. Reverend Lovejoy wants paid for his services, and asks politely for his honorarium. That word is easy. The next one learned me good. Emolument. (If you're slow, that's a synonym for honarium. If you're slower, that's a synonym for tip).

Baby/Life update:
Girls are doing pretty good. I have never seen such projected spit-up though. Liberty actually sprayed copious (that's a good word) quantities out her nose. Oooh ooh ooh. Another word that was on the Simpsons tonight was "Usurper." Featured very prominently. Today's Simpsons was brought to you by the word, Usurper. Ooh, and I figured out how to spell "soiree" yesterday. I spent probably 20 minutes one day trying to get the spelling right and finally gave up (the Internet Gods failed me). BTW, those who have actually watched the simpsons enough to know that occasionally there is an inappropriate word should know that we have TV Guardian which faithfully mutes our TV to protect sensitive ears from learning naughty words until aforementioned ears attend their first day of pre-school. But I digress. This afternoon/evening I've been holding wee girls and Rebekah has been playing with the boys. A nice change for both of us. Hopefully Rebekah wore the buggers out so they'll sleep.

BTW, my Dad is doing better and wanted to let anybody know that is reading this that he appreciates your prayers and is very grateful to God. He is not back to 100% and is not sure if he will get totally better but is still thankful. It's amazing how certain events such as a near-death (or close enough) experience can shape your perspective up.

Closed Captions

by Grant

    A dirty little secret of lazy parents (I put myself and pretty much all normal parents in that camp) is the use of closed captions. This way you can watch TV while your kids are being noisy, which is always, without deafening yourself with Law & Order "Duh-Dums." Actually, my wife and I started watching TV this way pre-kid. I don't remember why we started, but I do know that it was really easy with her TV. She had a 20" TV which actually had a dedicated CC button. You didn't have to wade through menus to turn it on and off at will. A couple button pushes and it was on or off. Watching TV with closed captions, hereafter referred to as CC, has it's pluses and minuses. First, we'll cover some minuses. One (and the biggest), it tends to annoy people. Get over it, I always say. Second, depending on what you're trying to watch, the CCs may be slow, inaccurate, or downright garbage. Since I'm of the younger generation (although my body tends to disagree) I don't get my news from TV but from the Internet so that doesn't annoy me. I also am not a big sports fan so it doesn't annoy me there. Live events like awards shows I shun as well. Basically, live events are where closed captions don't work unless you truly are deaf. Even then I think it's insulting to those who are aurally challenged. But I digress. Getting back to the minuses... there's one other one. Sometimes CCs will give away the punchline to a joke. It'll pop up the answer before the comedian has finished setting things up.

Now on to the positives:
1. You learn a lot. I enjoy the Simpsons (yes, I know you think it's evil even though you've never watched more than 5 minutes of it 10 years ago). And one thing the Simpsons has in it is a lot of hidden humor. The songs that they'll play during some event won't just sound appropriate, they frequently will be written for something exactly like that situation.
2. It exercises your mind more. You are actively using your brain, unlike most TV watching experiences. You cannot help but read the text. So, I think that by using CCs it slows down brain rot.
3. It helps you to spell. 'nuff said
4. You catch other hidden humor that is very subtle. Example: on the Simpsons they did a French version and they had Moe the bartender. (See, told you Simpsons was evil). Well, Moe, since he was French, was actually spelled Meaux. There is no way that you would have known that unless you had CCs on.
5. I like it. You will be in my favor if you turn to the dark side.

Baby/Life update:

The girls are doing well. Still fussy (please God, when will this end???), but otherwise healthy. Whenever I hold them they're fussy. Rebekah says it's cause they sense I'm stressed. Well, maybe I'm stressed cause they keep fussing? huh? They ever think of that? Rebekah had a rough night last night so I'm going to work from home part of today to let her catch up on sleep.

I've been struggling with allergies that are knocking me out. At the same time, my back muscles started hurting a lot worse. Thankfully, I got some rest over the weekend, but am still trying to adapt.

The boys are good but taking advantage of any distractions we have. You have to stay on the constantly. I guess that's why they call it "training"

Still no jealousy. Sometimes Forrest misses his Mom she thinks, and he'll go sit by/on her when she's holding a baby. But I am much more involved with the boys now--for better or for worse.


There's a line from an evil heathen song that runs through my head frequently these days. "You'll be lucky if you get out of life alive."

I'm this close...

by Grant

    ...to putting a microphone by these girls and recording a couple hours of them fussing. Then, I think anyone that claims to really love kids should listen to it. Tell me that you don't have indigestion and feel like voting democrat (I'm not sure what that has to do with it, but I guess it would indicate some amount of distress). Aargh! I've been working on Rebekah's computer so she was putting the boys to bed which is about a two hour ordeal. The girls are in the swings and they'll cry for about 10 minutes, take 3 off. 15 on. 5 off. And so on, and so on. Rebekah has decided, I think rightly so, that if they stop crying when they get picked up that they are fine and can cry. We have to worry a little bit about them crying so hard it that they spit-up and we don't want them to burn up too many calories. But with two babies and two other kids, dedicated time is hard to give unless absolutely needed.

We are still sleep deprived, but I think that Rebekah is getting a handle on the girls (as much as is possible). We're trying to edge back into normal life. But it's a big adjustment. <sigh> there the girls go again. I think I'm gonna go take some pills and drink a bunch of nyquil.

Evolutionary Wow

by Grant


    I am sitting here working on getting pictures ready for the blog and trying to let Rebekah sleep. So, I'm watching the history channel as it is or, as I like to call it, TV that doesn't rot your brain, and they're talking about the "Mysteries of the Smithsonian"

    Sooo, they're talking about the Tri-ceratops. Ya know that dinosaur? It was my favorite when I was a kid. I liked to root for the underdog. There the dino is, just minding his own business, eating some ruffage (or is it roughage?) and along comes the mean bully--Tyrannosaurus Rex. Talk about a jerk. Not only does he have bad breath and thinks he's some super stud (just cause he's so tall and stuff). But to add insult to injury, he wants to eat the poor little Triceratops. Man, the indignity of it all. But it's hard to eat somebody that has three big spikes that can stab up into your soft underbelly, trust me I know (stupid porcupine).

    Well, come to find out, they (el Scientistas) faked a healthy percentage of the skeleton @ the Smithsonian. They didn't have the entire rear end of the dinosaur (The T-Rex probably made off with that part). Since that didn't have that part, they grabbed pieces from another, unrelated skeleton that was unfortunately in the area when the ugly confronation took place. I'm guess the two dinos were having a little rendezvous. Anyway, the "experts" merged that other skeleton with the pieces that they had and the end result is what we see in toys, etc. today. So, 100 years later (almost) they decided to "fix" it. So they used some computer software to figure out what the dinosaur really looked like (called extrapolating and while science is used, there is no guarantee of accuracy. It is a scientific "guess"). Once they had a design (like building a frickin' house) they made "bones." Do you notice I'm using "" a lot here? That's because there's no fact and no truth to this stuff. How can you trust a community that just makes stuff fit to look good? I thought that's what women's fashion was for?

And they wonder why we don't swallow stuff like global warming without question.

Stuff for Grandmas

At a park in Boise. Trying to fly a kite

Forrest with my head-lamp.

Thankfully, with LEDs, it takes a long time to run down

Forrest, looking slightly insane

Titus during one of the days I had to work from home.

He's being very good :)

More stoner pics

Here I sit.

by Grant

   With two little girls (one very fragrant) on my chest. Quite cute, really. A wee bit difficult to work on my laptop, but I manage. The past couple of nights I've stayed up late with Rebekah to help her. The morning comes far too soon on days like that. I'm convinced that Coffee is a "God-sanctioned" drink. I can't imagine trying to get through the day without it. I also take Ginseng which helps relieve some of the more extreme fatigue. Oh, and Meth. Yeah, that really helps. Can't believe I forgot that. (Of course, I don't take meth. I've never even smoked Mary Jane as the hippies call it). I have to work on Sunday morning, and so I got this afternoon off. I managed to get a nap in and it was weird because I could actually feel the sleep overwhelming me. It took about a minute. Usually, when I notice sleep, I am too alert to actually "fall" asleep. Not this time. I slept until Titus came and woke me up. I made him get in bed and he played with my headphones that were laying there for awhile. Then Rebekah came in and traded me for Liberty. Not sure what extra sleep I got during that whole process but at least I was able to stall for a bit.

Oh, as far as working on Easter. I'm supposed to work on more sundays to help another guy out that works every Sunday (if I don't). The nice thing is that we can typically do it from home and it's generally punch a few buttons and check the output on some stuff. So, it doesn't have to be high stress or anything but it's hard to juggle kids and do that stuff too. But since he has been doing it exclusively for four months I figured it was time to give him a break.

Hopefully within a month or so the girls will sleep better. Maybe we can even get them to sleep at night! :)

Splat

by Grant



That's the sound that Titus almost made on Saturday. The boys and I were outside and they were playing in the truck in the carport. I was working in the basement trying to get a phone line wired up for Rebekah. The boys were doing really good, but I guess they got bored. Alarm bells started going off in my head when Forrest came and asked me where Titus was. At the same time Rebekah (who was in the house) started coming outside with the same quest: Find Titus. Rebekah rounded the corner and screamed at him. I took off running at full speed rounding the corner (a little behind and on the outside--of the corner that is) and almost killed myself as the dog did a "deer in the headlights" response and just stood there. Little Titus was at the extreme end of the driveway by the mailbox. On a US Highway no less. Thankfully, when he heard us yelling, he turned around and started trotting back. One small thing to be grateful for, that he is fairly obedient now. Another small blessing is that there was light traffic. But obviously, this was far too close to a tragically horrible end. I don't think Titus understood, but I spent the next few minutes reinforcing it to Forrest how death is final. I blame myself for not supervising him closely enough. We went outside again tonight, but I took a timer with me so I wouldn't forget to check on them. Rebekah was also keeping a sharp eye open. After awhile though, we just gave up and sent him inside. He was very upset. It's really hard to take the boys outside because of the danger, but they love it. I'm not sure how to manage doing the work that I need to do and keep a lookout on the boys at the same time. Somehow we'll manage though.



Baby update:

The girls are just as fussy as ever. I was hoping for a nanny or an au pair for the baby shower on Saturday but no such luck. Just diapers and some clothes. Oh, and cake. But my dad wasn't around to eat any.