Stuff of the Month! - December

Book: Popular Woodworking: 101 Tips and Techniques by ???.  I have lost some of the information on this title, but enjoyed it.  It was not a systematic treatment, but provided some practical ideas for particular situations.

Comic Book / Graphic Novel: Death, The High Cost of Living by Neil Gaiman.  Weird (as can be expected from Gaiman), but not particularly satisfying (unlike most of Gaiman's labors).

Movie (theater): Breaking Dawn, Part I.  We have come to an arrangement with some friends to exchange babysitting for nights out, much to everyone's satisfaction.  So we get away from baby to watch a movie about a really bad pregnancy.  Oh, well.  Beautiful locations and an engaging story.

Movie (home viewing): X-Men First Class.  Really quite well done retrospective to the early days of the X-Men.  Starts with the same "Poland 1944" scene as the first X-Men movie (which it expands on) for good continuity and respect of the film series, and has a perfect cameo by Hugh Jackman.

Honorable Mention: Thor (now on DVD; previously reviewed here)

Household project: Putting up our first large Christmas tree.  Funny how kids change your priorities.


Other thoughts:  Merry Christmas.

Big Shoes

Handsome

Sixth Month Check-Up

18 lbs, 27.75 in length, 17.5 in head circumference

(It is really cold to sit around in just your skivvies and wait for the nurses to come back and give you shots.  Fortunately, Aunt Grace gave Mother a warm scarf for Christmas!)

My Ball

Visitor for a Night

Ring Sling

Thank you, Uncle TJ!
Merry Christmas!

Fancy Dress Party

Sitting Up

Contemplation

Means reading your book while eating it.

Carrots

Steamed, mashed, and all over everywhere.  There was carrot up the nose, in the eyebrows, and all over the clothing.  I think they were a hit.

Early Christmas

Edmund helped Jonathan set up our exciting Christmas present from my parents.  

He was a big help with all the wires and buttons. 

We are quite pleased with the blu-ray player, we even broke it in by watching Thor, thanks to Uncle TJ!

Kids, these days, they are so good with the electronics.

Nerf Blaster

So Festive

Comparing Hands

Word of the Day

cleave \kleev\, verb:

1. To adhere closely; stick; cling.
2. To remain faithful.
3. To split or divide by or as if by a cutting blow, especially along a natural line of division, as the grain of wood.
4. To make by or as if by cutting.
5. To penetrate or pass through (air, water, etc.).
6. To cut off; sever.
7. To part or split, especially along a natural line of division.
8. To penetrate or advance by or as if by cutting.

Cleave is actually related to two separate but similar Old English words. Cleofan meant “to split,” while clifian meant “to adhere.” Today the same word carries both meanings.

Cover of the newest album

From the band "Hi Dad!"

First Coke

Wow, what was that stuff?? 

Please, may I have some more??

My Dad Is Turtley Awesome

From the far reaches of the West

For a Christmas visit

Happy after a looong nap

After a bad day a long nap makes many things better.

The After Party

PHUNKY Ladies Gingerbread House Decorating Party

Brandy Alexander

He is so our baby!

Learning about the Great Game

Football!!!!

First Christmas Present

Aunt Beth came for an early Christmas! 

There is something else in there! Way cool!!

New Baby

Welcome Mark Andrew!! Brother Paul Thomas and proud father Greg! Three handsome men!

Mother Becky, holds Mark. We are so happy for your four!  That plug looks rather large...

Bean Bag Boy

Just chillin'!

Jonathan's Boy

This movie looks interesting.

Stuff of the Month! - November

Book: Brightness Reef by David Brin (Book 1 in the Uplift series).  While it took a bit for me to become invested in the sci-fi universe in this book (ok, I almost gave up because there was so much backstory that was only revealed a little at a time), it really is a very creative polysentient world with characters I came to really root for in their weird alien ways.  Perhaps the most gothic sci-fi I have read in a while, very much in the Bronte tradition of building strong, complex characters with ordinary lives struggling with unjust circumstances beyond their control.

Comic Book / Graphic Novel: Marvel 1602 by Neil Gaiman. A rather creative look at what some of the most popular Marvel characters might have made of the late Elizabethan period.  Features the Inquisition, Sir Thomas Walsingham, exploration of the New World, and Professor X before the invention of the wheelchair for nonstop adventure.

Movie (home viewing): The Blue Max.  This movie really doesn't have a good noncombat story line or pacing, but has such good open cockpit aerial combat choreography and cinematography (and before digital manipulation) that its other shortcomings are forgivable.

Music: Transformers (soundtrack) by Steve Jablonsky.  We have had this music for a while, but was reminded again as we wound our way through the hills of Va & WV what great driving music this is.

Low point: Monsters vs. Aliens: Mutant Pumpkins from Outer Space.  I really don't see how they got so much of the original case together for this straight-to-DVD sequel which does so little to uphold the storytelling or feel of the original.

Other thoughts:  We had an amazing thanksgiving with four generations of family at a resort in WV, chronicled in more detail over the series of posts here. 

Fashion Show

 Thanks to Aunt Jenn and Uncle Caleb for the new clothes.  Edmund will be warm and cute this winter. 

"Get used to it, Edmund, for the rest of your life girls are going to hand you clothes and say, 'Try this on!'  Then they are going to take your picture and tell you how cute you are."  ~Uncle Caleb