The Adventures Of TEB(OT)

2012-01-31T12:32:00.000-08:00

Wish You Were There (But You Weren't)

Alas, there was no time for blogging whilst in Santa Fe this past weekend. The drive over was uneventful, the visit with the credit union on Friday went fine, followed by a nice dinner at a hilltop steak restaurant, where Brenna was on her best behavior (for a five year old). Saturday we spent time at a children's museum and at Pecos National Park, looking at Indian ruins. In between all of this we spent some time swimming in the hotel pool (indoosr, thank you kindly). In a paragraph, that sums up the trip, but don't despair, pictures follow.

I sometimes think that posting these blogs with pictures that my wife has already plastered all over Crackbook is counter-productive, but you don't get the witty (or lack thereof) commentary there that you would here. So, there.

I will proceed to milk these pictures for at least one more blog, as my life here at the house during the workday isn't terribly exciting.

Below is a shot of the main drag whilst entering Santa Fe. Consider this a reenactment, as we actually arrived in the middle of the night on Thursday. There was still a little snow on the mountains in the distance, and it was pretty darn chilly while we were there.

Here are a few shots of Brenna blowing bubbles at the children's museum on Saturday. She really enjoyed this place, even though we weren't there but maybe two hours. Part of the exhibits were inside, and some were outside, and she checked most everything out before we left for lunch.

Now outside, Brenna spent some time playing some of the musical instruments out in the garden of the children's museum. It was cold and windy, none of us were interested in being outside for terribly long.

Finally, as a sneak preview to shots to come, Brenna is tromping around here in a patch of snow on the way up a bluff to view the Indian ruins in Pecos.

I have a few pictures on my phone as well, and will try to post them in the near future.

2012-01-25T15:07:00.000-08:00

Introducing... Emily's Camera!

It goes to show that at least one person reads these blogs, that being my lovely wife. Moments after complaining about not having any new pictures to post here, my wonderful wife presented me with a wide array of shots from her new camera.

And without further ado, and while I have time before the wife and kid get home, here are a few of the highlights.

We recently went to the zoo with Rachel, and I once again was ran over. You may have seen the prior version of this picture on Crackbook, but here's a new one. Chances are if you're friends with my wife on CB, you've already seen this picture, but let's pretend you haven't, along with all the others that follow. Else, my existence here in Blogville is in complete and utter vain.

This is our child's safe place. No, actually her safe place is on a Dora couch under our dining room table, but she small child seems to favor small spaces, including one of our laundry hampers. Silly child.

The local fire station visited Brenna's school recently, and she came away with this nifty helmet.

Here is a nice picture of Brenna at one of her recent swim lessons. It's been really nice having this outlet for her, especially during the winter when it's too cold to do this type of thing outside. Hopefully upon our return from Santa Fe, we'll be booking her with her instructor twice a week until she's made up all of those days she's missed for some reason or another. We're still trying to capture the child in flight, flinging herself into the pool from the side.

And finally, here is another outside outlet, a local mall's play area. Like the sasquatch caught in it's native habitat, Emily captured our child in motion here. I promise, the sasqautch references will taper off eventually, although I'm going to have to exclaim at least more than once "it's pretty damn squatchy out here", as we're driving through the mountains of Arizona and New Mexico this weekend.

2012-01-23T12:35:00.000-08:00

Cry For The Indians

I'm coming up for air, at least briefly. I've been back from the frozen tundra of Eastern Tennessee for a few days now, and am about to turn back around for a business in the front/pleasure in the back trip with the family to Santa Fe this upcoming weekend. Perhaps that trip will result in some new photos to share with all three of you that frequent this blog. Since Emily received a new camera for Christmas, I know she's been taking pictures with it, but they've yet to make it to our hard drive where they're useful to me. I'm looking forward to seeing what's on there and will share some of those shots in the near future.

You'll notice that the ads are back since the re-design of the site. If the handsome black man is still to your right where I last spotted him, please click on him so we can raise a few quarters for our child's college education.

We had a pretty busy weekend around here, going over to Aunt Beth and Uncle John's on Saturday to watch Cowboys Vs. Aliens and apparently one of Rachel's favorite movies, White Chicks. We also ran errands on both days, including family going to the grocery store. I know, these are juicy tidbits about our lives that you tune in regularly for.

I had two installs to support for work at one this morning. With the help of Anthrax (the band, not the poison), I'm stumbling through the rest of my afternoon. As luck would have it, I get to work at one tomorrow morning, also. I probably should be napping right about now. Plenty of time to sleep when I'm dead, right?

I'll probably think of something insightful to share after I've logged off, but for now, and possibly until Santa Fe, that is all.

2012-01-19T14:28:00.000-08:00

My Blood Is Not That Color Anymore

It's been three weeks since I've last frequented Crackbook. At this point in my resolution I'm slightly torn. While I don't miss the vast majority of the nonsense that goes on there and is available for mass consumption, there are occasions where I think it'd be nice to reach out to someone and say "hello", or chat with someone I don't see that often in person who just happens to be on there at the same time as me.

That being said, it's also been nice to focus on other more constructive things, like this mental exercise.

I've been told that I should be posting updates to the Hoes blog as well. Picky, picky. Yes, I'll get around to that very, very soon. Perhaps later this afternoon. The weather continues to be mild for this time of year, and there are a few things going on outside worth taking pictures of.

Tomorrow I'll be taking the wife to a late birthday lunch. We've also moved Brenna's swim lessons to Friday nights, so she can go back to her old teacher, so that will free us up for some errand running on Saturday, and I'm sure some other things not worth posting here, but I'll do so anyway.

And for your trouble today, I leave you with no pictures, but instead one more interesting fact about Sasquatch (not sure if the plural is Sasquatches). The common Sasquatch will snap small saplings in two like matches to build shelter to protect itself from the elements. Should you come across a small grove of snapped saplings in the middle of the forest one day soon, be advised that a Sasquatch may have been there at some point.

The proof is in the pudding. Gonna have to upgrade our cable to include Animal Planet.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ILXBMxiZOUI

2012-01-17T14:58:00.000-08:00

Flying

Funny to begin with that I had to drive from Birmingham to Nashville just to catch a flight back to Atlanta that routes me home to Phoenix. I guess you have to go around the world sometimes for a $200 roundtrip ticket, but as fate would have it, the plane coming into Nashville this afternoon has mechanical issues, so I'm now flying home on a different airline through Houston, getting in at eleven tonight. Whoopee. Working tomorrow morning at the crack of dawn should be fun, but at least I've had ample time here at the airport to check my work email, and eat some underwhelming Mexican food for dinner. Caio.

2012-01-16T19:15:00.001-08:00

Sasquatch

True facts about Bigfoot:

1 - There isn't just one Sasquatch, as they're more commonly known. Sasquatch will congregate anywhere that there is ample cover, food (sorry, not beef jerky) and water.

2 - Sasquatch will communicate with one another via either whistles, howls mimicking their local four legged friends (coyotes, wolves, etc), or by simply clacking rocks or tree limbs against tree trunks.

3 - Sasquatch travel in small groups, most like a father, mother and any siblings.

4 - Like humans, the color of the Sasquatches hair can be vary, including gray as they grow older.

5 - If threatened by local trackers, Sasquatch will hurl rocks in defense.

More true facts regarding Sasquatch to follow as I continue my field research on Animal Planet.

2012-01-15T19:22:00.000-08:00

I've Been Everywhere

Hello again from Blogsville. Since we last spoke, I was leaving for Nashville for the weekend. I've since driven through a rough bit of snow, visited my parents and cousin-bro Bill and his fiance Veronica in Pigeon Forge, and driven back to Birmingham for meeting at work on Monday. On Tuesday I'll drive back to Nashville, fly to Atlanta, and back to Phoenix in time to crash for a few hours before work begins anew the next morning. Yippee. All of this time in the car was in an effort to save the employer a little money on my flight into town, but I got a nice bonus visit in with the family. So there.

Up next on the travel log will be a long weekend drive to Santa Fe at the end of the month for some business and pleasure, as Emily and the small child will be along.

And to abruptly end this blog because I have nothing else to add this fine evening, I give you a picture of my beautiful wife on a boat, and a gecko hiding in a rafter. Good day to you.

2012-01-11T14:51:00.000-08:00

The Pentagon Knows How To Turn Us On

Good heavens, not another blog about Christmas. Don't worry, I think this will be the last one before I start living in the present again. And I'm posting this blog on our crappy personal laptop with the "special" keyboard, so I will make this short.

Perhaps a month ago, our child was in a school pageant involving some groovy tunes and cool dance moves.

What? Cool dance moves? You know what that means, it's the return of Shaky Jake, Brenna's classmate that overshadows her at every turn with his smooth moves. Refer to the VBS pictures posted this past summer for reference, and you may remember this fellow.

Here he is taking center stage in this shot, with our child dwarfed to the left.

I was truly hoping Brenna was going to take that gift bag upside his head here, but it wasn't to be.

I know this was supposed to be the crowning moment of the show, the little kids' white gloves and clothes glowing in the blacklight, but all this made me think of was a crime screen from that CSI show.

Here's another quick glance at Shaky Jake, before I bid you farewell. I'll be on a plane most of tomorrow, and unless they have Wi-Fi, I'll be absent from here for a little while.

2012-01-10T13:56:00.000-08:00

Van Halen - Is It Live Or Memorex?

Can't say this is what I was expecting after waiting fifteen plus years for a new David Lee Roth/Van Halen song, but I'm holding out hope for this album, which drops in February. Obviously Roth's voice isn't going to be the same as it was some 25+ years ago, and this new song to me sounds like a Roth solo effort, but I'll take it, given the overwhelming amount of mediocre music that's out there these days.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3WfQ-hV3WtA

I'm hoping the new album will have some gems on it like this one from 1996, the last time the Van Halen brothers dusted Dave off for some studio time:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pA-DmFtryFY

And of course, something along the lines of this Sammy Hagar nugget would be fine with me as well:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sV0JX1CpHW4

2012-01-10T12:07:00.000-08:00

Smash, Grab, and Take It (For Yourself)

I'm thinking this needs to be my final Christmas related blog. It is, after all, the middle of January. This may be my final blog for a little while, anyway, as I'm heading to Nashville on Thursday, and won't be back for a week. Never fear, if I can't find the time to blog while I'm sitting at the airport, or elsewhere, I shall return with pictures of the parents, my cousin-bro Bill and his new fiance, and lots of sleeping trees.

I finally got the rest of the Christmas "stuff" put away during lunch today. This probably will be the only time you'll ever be granted a peak into the disaster that is our garage. We can actually fit a car in there, and God willing, we'll fit another one in there before summer is once again upon us.

We did a (not so) Secret Santa thing at Emily's parents house right before Christmas.

Tyler was there. He likes bacon strips. Don't we all.

Cool looking headwear by Emily.

Aunt Beth, Grandma Becky, Grandpa Ron's boots, and my child's ass crack were also present and accounted for.

Becky's headwear and nifty scarf by Emily. A lot of people got "crotcheted" by Emily for the holidays. She's crafty like that.

The stockings were hung in the hallway with care.

Nevermind that my child's ass was yes, still bare.

Tyler's woman friend Lily was there, and look, there's her twin sister Rachel sitting on the couch with her. I wore red shoes for the occasion, and my bare-assed child wore her Batgirl shirt. Grandpa Ron was enthralled by it all.

2012-01-09T15:00:00.000-08:00

Five Steps To Freedom

I somehow couldn't manage to find time to blog this weekend, nevermind the fact that we spent most of it sitting around the house. Good for our budget, good for getting my coin sales packaged and out the door, but not good for much else.

Speaking of coins, I'm doing everything in my power to find/make the time to continue with this desire to buy and sell on EBAY for some extra money for our household. Thus far January is looking pretty good, and I hope to raise the cash needed for my rental car and gas money for next weekend while I'm in Tennessee visiting my parents and cousin-bro Bill.

It's slightly ironic that the year we've committed to buckling down on our spending is shaping up to be a banner year for travel, and just today a trip later this month to Santa Fe has crept out of the woodwork, so it just keeps building.

Here's an example of the types of coins I'm selling. I could bore you with details involving my strategy in buying and reselling for profit, but I'll save that for my future multi-billion dollar, best-selling book. My God, have you ever seen a 100 year old penny look that amazing? Hmmm.

Well, moving onto other non-coin related things. I'm jumping back on the Christmas train, with a few more pictures from that period.

Our small child got this shrine to Disney dolls. My wife spent only a few hours putting this monstrosity together. Better her than me.

The small child received a number of other non-Disney related things, although I think I posted another picture here of her opening an Ariel doll. Anyway, she was well pleased with her haul.

Here I am on Christmas Eve morning (I think), sharing the mysteries of life with the small child. Apparently it was small enough to hold in my hand. Maybe it was a coin.

And here are the Grandparents Homans opening their gifts.

I seem to have ran out of uploaded pictures, so I think I'm done, for now. The wife and child will be arriving home shortly, and I still have a dishwasher to empty and reload before dinner.

Before I leave you, my apologies for any misspellings in any of these posts from January. This mediocre blog software has it's limitations, and those limitations are different on every laptop we have in the house. The laptop I'm using now is easier to type on, and upload photos from, but apparently I can't resize fonts or enable spell check from here. Oh well, I'm sure all two of you that read this can deal with that.

2012-01-06T09:59:00.000-08:00

Random Rachel

I heard through the CB airwaves that Rachel got the part she was hoping for in an upcoming youth play. Good for her!

For no apparent reason other than the fact that I was told that this morning, here are some random Rachel photo's I found on my portable hard drive from the last few months, including:

The 12 year old posing with a bunch of other fairies for Halloween, including our 5 year old water fairy.

Making Smores in Ron and Becky's backyard over Christmas. Pictured here with Aunt Beth and that pesky 5 year old that seems to show up in every photo we take.

Not sure what the 12 year old is doing in this picture, but you can insert your own witty commentary here, if you please. If I got a sweater with the same colors as her socks in this picture, I'd wear it. Honest.

A look of suprise as the 12 year old opens a gift card to the mall. Writer's disclosure here, whilst playing pool with her earlier that day, I accidentally asked her if she liked the gift card we had gotten her, not realizing at the time that she hadn't opened it yet. I stupidly thought she had done so in the above picture from earlier in the day at her parent's house. Oops. Good acting, Rachel, good acting.

And finally, a picture that's not new to anyone that follows my wife on CB, or saw me post this picture there myself, but here's a nice family shot taken over the holidays.

Rachel, your five minutes of fame are up, at least on my blog. I hope that you'll still let me live in your mansion when you become famous, or let me at least live in your tool she, ala Bill Murray in Caddyshack, and be your groundskeeper.

Ed. Note - Playing today in Homans' Head, for no apparent reason, Johnny Cash's "Fourth Man In The Fire"

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ewY9U_FVPeM

2012-01-05T14:12:00.000-08:00

Running Too Deep

This is my third installment of the year, in my continuing effort to justify no longer wasting time sitting idly on CB.

I'm glad the kids have started going back to school, I now have something to watch out my office window other than retirees on their bicycles (not that there's anything wrong with that, mind you).

I also noticed this afternoon the HOA patrol roll by in their window-tinted sedan, no doubt writing me up for the weeds and leaves in my front yard. I would hope that my Jersey Shore neighbors were also writen up for what looks like the tattered remains of a desk or table that's been sitting on their front stoop since November, as well as the other assorted trash in their front yard (including an old bottle of motor oil - Insert theme song to Samford & Son here).

Whilst pulling the aforementioned weeds, I had Keith Richard's "Running Too Deep" stuck in my head. I don't know if subconsciously I was thinking about the deep reaching roots of said weeds, or that I have more things to do than I have time for. I'm not sure what Mr. Richard's song is really about, as he's more of a mumbler than singer, but perhaps I can pencil in a few minutes later today to research the lyrics and see if there's a deeper meaning there.

This happens to me on a regular basis, having some soundtrack for my life playing in my head from day to day. Most of the time it's pretty appropriate for whatever I'm doing or dealing with at the time, other times not so much, but it's a constant thing that drives me crazy sometimes, especially when I'm trying to focus on work.

Anyway, I promised in an earlier post that I'd catch everyone up on our Christmas happenings. There seems like no better time than the present to relieve those wonderous days of yore.

My wife has been politely suggesting for a few months now that our digital camera is too slow when taking pictures with the flash, and also that having a camera of her own would be nice, since I admittedly use ours quite a bit for buying and selling coins on EBAY. So, being the loving husband that I am, I bought her a nice upgrade.

Well, I wouldn't go that far, but yes, I do what I can to make the missus happy.

Grandma and Grandpa Homans were here for Christmas week, and during one of those balmy afternoons we took the five year old out to the park across from our house for some ball kicking action.

Here's a shot of Grandparents Homans limbering up before the big show.

Grandpa Homans did an excellent Pele impression while entertaining the small child.

Emily tried multiple times to capture the ball kicking action, this being one of those shots.

Here is the "money shot". The small child rather enjoyed kicking the ball at me at point blank range, and despite the fact that said ball was partially deflated and soft as a overripe banana, I still was caught flinching during one of those occasions.

Look at how big our girl has gotten, time flies when you're kicking people in the crotch with an overripe banana ball.

Ed. Note - YouTube link for the Keith Richards' song in question:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XCn1498bYuM

2012-01-04T12:13:00.001-08:00

I Like My Yard A Little On The Trashy Side
(aka The Longest Blog Title Ever)

Word has slowly gotten around that I've given up (or am in the process of giving up) the Crackbook.

My wife, in response to this, stated last night "I hope this means you're going to blog more", and this morning, made reference to my decision as "nonsense". Sometimes men are actually pretty good listeners.

That being said, despite the naysayers and nonbelievers, I've managed to log into CB only once in the past week, and that was to say my goodbyes and offer up a link to this blog. I read somewhere that after three weeks most any habit can be broken, so I'm already a third of the way there. I won't go so far as to dub CB as a bad habit, as I completely realize there are some inherit benefits to what it offers the end user, if used properly. With my wife being on there, regularly posting family pictures and whatnot, and most people I know being friends with her already, my presence on CB was really not necessary any longer.

Jumping off of that dead horse, allow me to share a few pictures of what I've been up to lately.

Right now the majority of my pictures are on our other laptop with the funky keyboard that I detest greatly, so I'll have to ponder how I can move some of those over to this PC in order to catch everyone up on our Christmas festivities.

But in the meantime I offer you this.

Ok, so what the hell is it, right? With some of my Christmas gift card money, I bought some supplies to expand the shelter I built a few years ago on the north side of the house. Doing this will allow me to (hopefully) keep vegetables alive further into the summer, among other things. I've managed to keep the height of the shelter below our property wall, so the HOA can't see it from the street and demand that I tear it down. And thankfully, our Jersey Shore neighbors who moved in next door could care less what I'm doing in my yard, as they're too busy lifting on the second floor and listening to their rap music with their windows open.

Getting off on a tangent briefly, you can see the roof over their porch where I've had to climb up twice now and shut their dogs back up in that bedroom. In ten years of living here they are our fourth set of neighbors, and I'm thinking they may be the most interesting, so far.

Well, yes, I already knew that about myself, so let's move onto another topic.

The grape vine on that side of the yard has again turned a lovely shade of red, orange, and yellow. Brenna has enjoyed making leaf pressings or shadings (or both, I forget) from these. But wait, wrong blog to be talking about plants. Please head over to the Hoes blog to learn more about what's going on in the yard these days (damn, what a fine segue).

And because I know most if not all of you drop by periodically to see if I've posted any Brenna pictures that my wife hasn't already on CB, I offer this year-old picture that I still think is one of the most adorable ones of our child. As mentioned earlier, I have a TON of pictures from December, but they're on the other laptop. So stay tuned, resolution or no, I'm determined to make more time for this blog in 2012.

2012-01-03T13:24:00.000-08:00

Adios, Facebook

This morning I deactivated my Twitter account, after receiving an email that another random person I don't know was watching my "tweets". By the way, I haven't "tweeted" since May of 2010, and only think about Twitter whenever these random notification emails come my way.

I've been pondering doing the same with my Facebook account for quite some time, and finally concluded that the New Year is about as good a time as any to resolve to do away with as many distractions in my life as possible and focus on more important things, like say, the real world.

Don't get me wrong, it was highly enjoyable in the beginning, catching up with people from my past (distant and not so much). From time to time I've said prayers for people that have asked for them, for whatever reason. I have flipped through pictures of people's vacations to random locations, exotic, or otherwise. I've even gone so far as to engage in online chatting with a few of them.

But then I got sucked into playing some of the games on there, namely Happy Aquarium. I felt the need to log in at least twice a day to make sure my tank was clean and my fake fish weren't suffering unnecessarily. This lead to playing another online game non-related to Facebook that took more time away from doing more important things. After a number of months I recognized how much time I was wasting, and ceased doing them entirely. That was a little over a year ago.

And still I periodically logged in to look at people's dogs, relatives I've never met myself, nor will I ever. I read about people's beef with this politician, or this other person, or problems with their neighbors, problems with their spouses, problems with life in general. I started blogging less often because it was so much easier to just upload photos to Facebook and add one line blurbs about where I was, who I was standing there in the picture with, and what I was doing.

I've missed blogging, whether anyone reads what I say here or not, I've missed it. I work from home in a vacuum the majority of the time, and to me, expressing my thoughts here seems a little more sane than talking to myself. I tend to make more of an effort to share a story with a picture here than I would on Facebook.

I'm quite honestly tired of doing something because everyone else is. I realize that blogging is probably so 2006, but I don't care. For the same reason my favorite band to listen to is Voivod. Never heard of them? Good, that's how I like it.

This is not a formal declaration that I'm officially becoming a hermit. I'd love to hear from anyone that wants to "chat me up", but I'm tired of doing it on some billionaire's mind numbing website.

Facebook, I may be back some day, or find a need to log back into your site again, but for my sanity's sake, I hope not. This is one New Year's resolution that I think I'll be keeping.

2011-11-16T14:18:00.000-08:00

Kauai 1989_2011

Hi. Been awhile. My bad, we've been a smidge busy.

And even worse, there are no Brenna pictures in this update. Don't worry, I'll make an effort soon to work my way back to late September and fill in the blanks. For now, to keep this blog somewhat interesting, I thought I'd jump to the present.

Emily and were fortunate enough to spend this past weekend in Kauai (thank you, Aunt Beth!). This was Emily's first visit to the Garden Island, and my third.

My first visit there was with my family in 1989, so I thought it would be interesting to compare some of the most popular sites of the island in a swell before and after fashion.

Obviously I can't do a before/after of our accommodations, but the first two shots are of just that, views from the balconies of each.

1989

2011

At the top of Waimea Canyon is one of the wettest spots on earth. Don't even ask me to try and spell it, you can read it on the signs below. This is at about 5000 feet in elevation, at the end of a 22 mile winding road. Fortunately I was driving this go around, I'm guessing in 1989 I was sick to my stomach at the end of this jaunt.

1989

2011

I'm jumping around a bit here, since organizing photos on this blog site is such a pain in the ass.

The next two shots are from a viewpoint at Spouting Horn near Poipu, on the south side of the island. I recognized it right off when Emily and I got there, from years past.

1989

2011

This spot hasn't changed at all apparently in 22 years. This is the view of Wailua Falls, a few miles south of Lihue on the east side of the island, at the end of a 4 mile road that takes you through farmland and dead ends into a sea of chickens.

1989

2011

Back to Poipu on the south side of the island, here is the aforementioned Spouting Horn, still spouting.

1989

2011

As much as I enjoyed taking the Smith's Fern Grotto tour again down the Wailua River, this was a pretty depressing stop for me. According to our tour guide, this part of the island was hit with 42 days of heavy rain in a row five years ago, damaging part of the cave that the ferns thrived in at one time. To protect the public from any future rock slides, the cave has since been corded off. As you can see from the 2011 picture, the vast majority of the ferns have yet to recover. A startling difference from then to now.

1989

2011

Back to Waimea Canyon, another popular overlook of the Na Pali coast, inaccessible by car (we took a catamaran tour to view the cliffs, more pictures to follow, if time permits). I couldn't quite find the same view point as the 1989 shot. The mountain was partially obscured by clouds this go around, and maybe there's more vegetation blocking the view.

1989

2011

22 years separate the trips, but the experience was equally enjoyable. Emily and I hope to return to Kauai again in the near future, with Brenna, and anyone else that's willing to go with us.

2011-09-27T16:22:00.000-07:00

Morbid Curiosity

My apologies for being off the grid for a few weeks. I had some outpatient surgery late last week to ensure that we're not adding any new letters to TEB(OT), and spent time leading up to the procedure getting things done around the house, and have been laid up lame until recently.

I did, however, manage to drag my carcass off the couch on Saturday afternoon/evening to go with the family to the Desert Botantical Gardens in Phoenix. I've lived here for over ten years now and yet I've never been before, pretty insane considering how much we enjoy the Arboretum. Maybe the allure of cooler tempatures are what pull us to drive east instead of west?

Here's a horrible segue; they had these huge wooden insect sculptures all over the place. Here is one of them, pretty damn large, reminded me of War Of The Worlds for some reason. Emily took pictures of many more of these, some of which are pictured below.

Brenna is shown here flashing a new gang sign. I think it means take me to McDonalds (again). Can you believe the small child will be 5 in a week or so? Scary.

Here's another wooden bug of some sort. A shit weevil, I'm guessing. Ahem.

I elected to stay on my feet for the duration of our visit, until coerced into posing in this alcove with the rest of the family. Oof. Not pictured, Beth, who took the picture, and Rachel, who's simply too good for us (j/k). Ron was off shooting something, I'm guessing.

Here's another wooden bug. A dung beetle? I should read the signs; that's what Emily is for.

Hey look! Brenna posing next to a rock on a bridge!

No, wait, that's a desert tortoise eating some prickly pear cactus.

Ok, I know what this one is, a grasshopper.

Thank you all for your patience while I've been recovering. Posts may be pretty spotty for the next two months as we have trips to Birmingham, San Diego, and Kauai planned.

Five days removed from my procedure, and it only gets better from here. Good night!

2011-09-11T19:02:00.000-07:00

Week (Or So) In Review

My last blog post was over on the Hoes site, so while it may appear to the casual observer that I've been slacking off, I have officially posted something in the last week. My goal used to be to post something every two to three days, but as the demands of our small child increase, my blogging frequency has decreased accordingly. And that's just fine with me, I wouldn't miss this time with my little girl for all the slot machines in Reno.

We've had a very busy weekend.

Not pictured, on Friday night we drove into downtown Mesa for a cool guitars and antique cars show at the local arts center, complete with live music, crafts, and I think they had dwarfs juggling ferrets as well. You name it, they had it.

On Saturday we took the small child to her weekly swim practice, and spent some time at Aunt Beth's while the two sisters worked out. And then, because we couldn't tear ourselves away from Beth's presence, we meet she, Grandma Becky, Rachel, and Lily at the dollar movies to see The Zookeeper, went to Ross together (where I finally found another pair of low cut Converse in a half size, apparently a rarity, or else I'm just not looking in the right places), and then spent the rest of the evening at her house eating dinner and watching it rain for hours on end.

Yes, it finally rained...at least at her house.

Here is Exhibit A through whatever:

That last picture is Beth and John's driveway underwater. Shame it missed our house, although admittedly we did get some. Maybe there's more to come, only the shadow knows.

On Sunday, after church, Brenna and I played pretend cafe, where I was served a wide assortment of breakfast fare, all very tasty indeed. What a wonderful hostess she is. She even cleaned up afterwards with a (toy) vacuum. The small child has quite the imagination.

Finally, before I go, I was advised that the missus wasn't terribly happy with a picture I posted in the last Hoes blog. So, in penance, I offer awkward Tom photo number one, this taken back in 1988 when I was 14 or so, at Glacier National Park in Montana. Yep, that's all 125 pounds of me, Kid N Play hair and all. Maybe I'll make this a regular installment of the blog, I have nothing to hide.

2011-08-30T15:46:00.001-07:00

Got The Time

Another event-filled weekend has come and gone, and here I am on a Tuesday afternoon with nothing better to do than share a few pictures with you! You're so lucky!

We had better seats this weekend for Brenna's swimming lessons, so I took a few shots of what the small child is learning about these days for our xx.xx dollars a month.

1 - It's more fun to float on your back than on your stomach. Matter of fact I can think of numerous reasons to not be floating on your stomach.

2 - It's more fun practicing holding your breath on your own terms than being dunked by a Katie Holmes look-a-like swim instructor.

3 - It's more fun jumping off the back of a foam hippo than a live one. If you're jumping off the back of a live one, you've got some serious problems.

En route to Aunt Tansy's goodbye party, we stopped at a local outlet mall. With cousin Rachel in tow, everyone posed briefly by this horsie ride.

I have a picture of Rachel riding the horse also. Rachel, you're welcome.

Not pictured: Falling asleep on Uncle Don and Aunt Mollie's sofa, watering the yard and cursing Mother Earth numerous times, and eating fish for dinner with burnt rolls.

2011-08-23T16:13:00.000-07:00

A Week In The Life

It's been a very busy week here at the Homans' Household, and thanks to the aforementioned phone technology that's been dropped in my lap, I can bring you along for every spine-tingling moment.

For starters, we took the small child to a local mall to get one of those Build-A-Bear things, as a reward for her not clawing anyone's eyes out during the first few weeks of school. While we're not against bloodshed here in our household, we frown upon such things when they happen in public.

Before a nasty haboob rolled in, Brenna had a chance to play outside, posing here on a wiggly worm and a butterfly.

The most exciting thing to happen at school this week was discovering that Brenna doesn't have to keep her shirt tucked in all day. Our little caveman lawyer (inside joke) was pleased with this, and who can blame her when it's 114 outside.

Back to the subject at hand, here we find Brenna and Emily picking out an outfit for her new bunny, later named Hopsy Flopsy, or Fartsy Schmartsy, I can't recall at the moment.

Our cousin Darrick came down from Minnesota for the occasion, he's standing around in the background by the front door, checking things out. Just couldn't stay away from our wonderful August weather, could you Darrick?

Hmmm, so many names to ponder for the stuffed rabbit. Well, I gave that one away earlier, Hopsy Flopsy, Poopsy Doopsy, something like that. So much for suspense, I blew that one.

Okay, here's another picture with no story line to go with it. Brenna's getting a little help here keying the rabbit's name into the registry. I think for what we paid, we got LoJack installed in it as well.

Later in the week we bought Brenna a helmet for her bike, not pictured here. She felt inclined to ride around the pool table with it on. After all, it's hard to ride your bike in hell, with the tires sticking to the sidewalk and all, so for now we're indoors. Pictures of the Cinderella bike to follow perhaps in a later post, when it's cool enough to step foot in the garage for five minutes.

Ah, here's a nice picture of us enjoying a crisp fall evening on the veranda. No, actually it was 110 in the shade at the Lawn & Garden section of Wal Mart when I took this shot of our enthusiastic child.

Finally, typical attitude from the child, almost complete had there been a middle finger or some tooting involved.

And no, I'm not at all bitter about summers that last until Thansgiving, that's completely natural.

2011-08-16T19:30:00.001-07:00

More Shots From The Phone

I'm blaming my absence for the inability to email myself these photos from my new phone. Turns out I had to remove and re-add my Hotmail login ID and credentials to sync back up and forward these along to myself. Blah blah, technical jargon, yadda yadda.

Anyway, I'm summoning the energy for a quick update before I collapse for the evening, so here goes.

Our local Borders is going out of business (along with the rest of the country, is it 2012 yet?), much to our chagrin. While that means new books at used book prices, our favorite coffee shop at the mall is closing with them, so we'll be migrating to another locale for our Friday afternoons of fun in the near future. Here's a shot of Emily reading to the small child in the small child section of said bookstore. Brenna apparently thinks I'm part of the paparazzi.

Here she is in the play place at the same mall, striking the perfect mermaid pose atop this fancy, spotted turtle.

You must be this tall to crawl through a beaver.

In other news, with the help of Commander Brenna, these three fortunate souls were blasted into space from Grandma Becky's house. It's a good thing they had on their protective goggles for the trip, lest the creatures from Uranus steal their eyes. That one never gets old.

Finally, as a last gasp, here's another shot of our child from a week or so ago. God willing and my phone continues to email photos properly, I'll be back in due time with more randomness for your reading enjoyment.

2011-08-09T15:25:00.000-07:00

The Non-Informative Blog

Another week has passed in the Homans' Household, and there is nary a thing to share since the last update.

Brenna is slowly getting used to an 8 hour day at Kindergarten, and we're getting used to making it a habit of forcing our night owl to be in bed at a decent hour so the morning routine goes a little smoother.

For your viewing pleasure I've uploaded a blast from the past, Brenna going off to her first day of pre-school last year, and another shot of her from this year, but in a different outfit.

She's so grown up now, it's almost ridiculous.

I've been having issues with my phone (the one I've been bragging about) not emailing photos to my Hotmail account properly, so I have some good ones that are stranded presently. In the meantime, Emily took a few shots of Brenna being a mermaid over the weekend. There was a play involved, including at least four Acts, an intermission, audience participation, and oodles of singing. We took video of part of the show, but until I can track down the proper cable, uploading off the camcorder is no longer possible. The new phone takes killer video, but alas, the inability to email them to my Hotmail surfaces again.

So, until all is right with the world (which may take a while, depending on how you're looking at it), here is a picture of Tigger as a cross-dresser. Enjoy.

2011-08-03T19:45:00.000-07:00

Small Child Starts School

I've said this many a time in the four years that I've been maintaining this blog, my God how quick the time is flying. It seems like yesterday that I started this site, and now our small child is going to Kindergarten. Holy %#&*.

Well, when you last checked in, our small child was fighting crime and righting wrongs as Batgirl. After saving the world from imminent destruction, our caped crusader fled through the undergrowth back to the Batcave to start another day.

When she emerged, she was decked out in the following outfit, ready to head to school as her alias, Brenna.

I must say that I'm thrilled the wife took so many pictures from this morning. I probably would have taken one and called it a day. Landscape photography is more my bag.

Here is the small child in the car, heading to school.

And here she is getting out of the car at school.

And here I am walking her to the sidewalk. The pythons got quite a workout carrying that fifty pound backpack. The small child apparently didn't have any trouble with it, must be her low center of gravity.

Our small child is at the front of this line after school, awaiting pickup. Since Emily works afternoons at the church/school, it was a stroll across the parking lot for us. I'm guessing they lined the kids up by height. Our child is a head shorter than these Amazons.

Here's a picture of the crucial hand off of the small child from teacher to parent. Notice she's hauling her backpack with no issue. She's fierce.

And finally, the spoils of an excellent first day at school Pudding in the church office, over carpet with no towel, no less. The beard is well pleased.

2011-07-30T19:09:00.000-07:00

Bat-Girl

I keep calling her Cat-Woman for some reason, but here are a few pictures of Brenna dressed up as Bat-Girl for a birthday party we went too earlier today. Not pictured is me blowing up like Mrs. Puff from the dogs that were in the house and us having to leave an hour after we got there, which is a damned shame, as I'd been looking forward to going for the last week or so. The curse of animal allergies. I guess it could be worse.

Brenna enjoyed her costume so much that she kept it on when we went to Old Navy afterwards, calling the cart I was pushing her in her Batmobile (but of course).

2011-07-23T21:42:00.000-07:00

Still Here

Sorry for the absence this week, although I guess considering my six months of no blogging at all, this has probably seemed like a blink of the eye.

After Emily and I returned from our overnighter to Tuscon, my sinuses started feeling like they were getting infected, I'm guessing from breathing in something in that seventy year old theatre. The combination of that, not getting much sleep while we were gone, and then stupidly working for too long in the front yard on Tuesday afternoon, I literally collapsed into bed that night, and proceeded to sleep around twenty hours from that point until Thursday morning. I finally started feeling better after another long night of sleep going into Friday. Heat exhaustion, perhaps, or a combination of things, I don't know, but I'm finally feeling better now.

Completely changing the subject, here are a few shots of Brenna in her pool a few weeks ago, practicing her synchronized swimming, or some such.

This is my favorite pose out of the bunch, priceless.

Before we took our little trip, last weekend we took the small child to get a backpack for school, which starts up in just a few short weeks now. Brenna went for the princess backpack and matching lunch sack, neither pictured here (but you can use your imagination).

2011-07-19T20:18:00.000-07:00

Tucson

Emily and I left the small child with her favorite Aunt Beth on Sunday so we could drive down to Tucson to take in a Reverend Horton Heat show. While we were at it, we stayed the night.

The first thing we had planned when we arrived at the hotel on Sunday was to go swimming. The weather had other plans. Here is the view from our room. It was nasty. Good old monsoon season.

Here's where we took in the show, the Rialto, a seventy year old theater that's in the process of being renovated. Renovated meaning there were no seats at floor level. Those darned old pesky seats would have gotten in the way for the people in the mini-mosh pit near the front of the stage, anyway. Gabby, I love you, too.

The famous Hotel Congress is located across the street. We had dinner there and took advantage of their public facilities. TMI, sorry.

Swingin' Utters opened for the Reverend. Yep, Swingin' Utters. We'd never heard of them, and the lead singer looked to me to be about twenty, but apparently he's older than us. This was the only shot I took of them, testing my camera phone without the flash. We were on the rail right at the stage, and had a great view of this dude stomping around, whipping the mic cord around like a whip, and head butting the stand. What a character. The Reverend sure knows how to pick his opening acts.

I took a lot of blurry shots like this one. The camera took decent shots as long as no one was moving. Very unlikely that that's going to happen much during a show like this. The Reverend was up in our grill on numerous occasions such as this, and Emily got a wink or two from him.

Here's a slightly better shot of the infamous guitar solo whilst standing on Jimbo's bass. Superb, I never get tired of that trick.

And one more shot here for you. I took about sixty pictures, but most of them were a tad messy looking. Still, not bad for a camera phone.

We haven't sold our child to the gypsies, I promise some small fry pictures in the next post.

2011-07-13T18:06:00.000-07:00

Introducing Shaky Jake

A while back Brenna went to vacation bible school (the first of two, she's attending another one this week). At the end of the week the wee little ones got on stage (or in front of it, as the case may be) and did their thing in front of the parents. Emily and I thought we were being smart hustling down to the front row so we could get some cute pictures of our child dancing, doing the hand motions, shaking their money maker, whatever.

What we ended up with were numerous pictures of Shaky Jake cutting a rug in between us and our child.

Seriously, the kid was breaking out so many fierce moves the camera wouldn't even focus on him. He was just THAT fast.

Almost seizure-like. Don't get me wrong, I dance like a 5 year old hopped up on too much sugar, too.

Not that I ever did this in my single days, but he almost reminds me of the drunk guy at the dance club that's dancing too close to the ladies because he's lost all concept of personal space. In this shot Brenna appears to be ignoring him, looking the other way despite his sweet rollin' on the river moves. Notice again that he's the only one out of the group that's not in focus.

I finally started leaning into the aisle to try and get a clear shot of our kid, and this was the best I could do.

Emily went so far as to get in front of the kids here. Brenna's waving at her.

After the performance, Brenna showed us one of the classrooms that had a dingy in it. She's sporting a cool newspaper hat here. And that's all I have to say about that.

2011-07-12T14:47:00.000-07:00

When A Camera Isn't Handy

It's been a long time coming that I'd get a phone with a decent camera built into it. There have been many an occasion over the years, especially now that we have a small child, where something worth taking a picture would come up, and there'd be no camera on hand.

Not any longer. And now I can post damn near anything I feel like here because of the overflow of phone pictures that I have.

Here are some shots of Brenna's first swimming lesson. The small child is still getting used to going underwater, but after two lessons she's already getting the hang of it.

And how can you go wrong taking a picture of your small child posing with a plastic dog at Old Navy? I honestly would be embarrassed to whip out a real camera for such a thing, but here I can steathily pretend to be checking my messages on the phone and wham!

And finally, Brenna as a dog is priceless. Thank you cell camera.

2011-07-11T13:29:00.000-07:00

No Explanation For My Deviation

I've finally transfered all of my pictures off the new phone to my email. What a pain, a USB cable transfer would have been much easier. Poop.

At least I have plenty of Brenna pictures to choose from to keep me busy here for a while.

Jumping back to June, here is a shot of Brenna with some sunflowers from the yard.

She gets a kick stomping around in the tree wells after they've been filled.

And presently the many faces of Brenna.

The used car salesman:

The agitated used car salesman:

Sensing that Mommy is coming in for a tickle attack:

Got her!

More to come, including pictures of her first swimming lesson, and vacation bible school.

2011-07-08T21:15:00.001-07:00

Making Up For Lost Time

Although I have no complaints about my new free phone upgrade that I received last month, I'm quickly discovering why it was indeed gratis. Apparently Microsoft discontinued it over a year ago, but Verizon has brought it back from the dead, minus some of the features I was thinking were going to be on it. Nonetheless, for a free phone, the camera on this thing is pretty nice, 8 mega pixels to be exact. Below are four pictures I took on it of Brenna's recent haircut, and the quality is on par with what our normal digital takes. Unfortunately, since this phone used to upload photos automatically to a social network that Microsoft no longer supports, and it doesn't support upload via USB cable to the laptop, the only way I can get photos off of this thing is to email them to myself. Four photos down, 42 to go. One other really nice feature is being able to access the Internet where free wi-fi is available, and not have to pay Verizon for a data plan. You can't beat that with a cheap, obsolete phone.

2011-07-07T16:17:00.000-07:00

Portraits By Brenna

Look! A cloud! First one since April!

As promised in yesterblog, here are some pictures our child took whilst at ye old family get together on Sunday (not Saturday, as indicated prior, thank you kind wife for the correction).

Here's Aunt Molly.

And there's Uncle John.

I spy a Grandma, no doubt enjoying some fabulous fluff.

One of our child's favorites, Aunt Beth.

And of course, Grandpa.

2011-07-06T21:14:00.000-07:00

Most Wonderful Time Of The Year

I'm always torn when the monsoon season rolls around, and there's weather out to the east of us oozing in our direction to throw caution to the wind and stay up in the hopes of seeing a raindrop or two hit the driveway and evaporate almost instantly (run on sentence of the year, thank you very much). Before I had a four year old and a workload that requires that I roll out of bed at an insanely early hour in the morning, I would do this every summer. Now as I'm watching a green blob wander around drunkenly on the radar tonight, I'm inclined to hurry up and get this blog completed so I can catch some much desired sleep instead of going on storm watch.

Hey, I promised a few more short hair pictures, and here they are.

Here we are at the Arby's across the parking lot from the Cut'n Corral, rewarding our child for not clawing the eyes out of the hairdresser.

Here is Brenna wading around in a pool at the 4th of July thingy that we went to at the Church Mart down the road from us.

And finally, for your viewing pleasure, two fairies! Woo hoo!

Oh wait, and a shot of us taken by Brenna. More family head shots to come!

2011-07-05T20:20:00.000-07:00

4th Shenanigans

I don't think we could have crammed any more into our three day holiday weekend, short of calling in twisted to work today. Since neither of us drink any more, that would have been plain silly, anyway. I may add a second blog with additional pictures, but here are a few of the highlights.

We went to Emily's aunt and uncle's on Saturday and looked at the corn. Brenna was enthralled to the point of wanting me to pick and ear and hit her over the head with it. Yeah, exactly, who wouldn't want to do that. Unfortunately I forgot to pull one off in my haste whilst leaving. On the way back to the house that night we got rained on, so that was novel. Oh yes, notice how long Brenna's hair is in this picture, it got a lot shorter by the end of the weekend.

That was a fairly lame segue, but here she is getting her hair washed on the 4th before losing eight or so inches of her hair. Finally fed up with tangles, and all of the other joys that come with long hair, the small child voluntarily went to the Cut'n Corral for this trim.

Bam! Where'd all the hair go? In a plastic baggie is where it went. If we can ever wrestle it out of our child's hands, it'll get donated to Locks Of Love, or some similar charity for children that aren't hair farmers like ours.

Here's another shot of the hair, or the lack thereof. I'm sure I have a better shot of her from the back end, but I'm too damn lazy and far into this blog to look for one. Stay tuned for additional short hair pictures.

On Monday night the immediate family came over. Introducing Lilly! This is Tyler's new lady friend (man, I sound old saying it that way). Tyler told me that she's an avid gardener like myself, and she was stuck with me for longer than she probably cared. See the sheer expression of glee on my face having found someone with this similar interest.

The best dressed individual at the party was adorned before the end of the night with a Belle Of The Ball crown. Congrats John!

Thanks to a dust storm that moved in at sunset, the fireworks we were intending on watching from our backyard never happened. Determined to not let the crowd down (and another reason for winning the crown), John broke out the sparklers, pondering here if it was such a good idea to spray gasoline on the flagstone before lighting one up for our child. Aha! Another short hair picture!

The ladies in the family laid down their Pabst Blue Ribbons and picked up some sparklers for this photo op. Nice job, ladies!

And finally, before I go, I have to admit to one of the better dumb ass moments on my part in recent memory. Earlier in the weekend while Lilly and Tyler were playing the new Super Mario Brothers game on their Wii, I couldn't help but notice how Mario was constantly having to stay back for his little mushroom panted sidekick to keep up, or continually work his magic to bring the little dude back from the dead. Not noticing that Lilly was actually playing tag team with him, and was said mushroom pants, I made some rather stupid comments about how worthless the mushroom panted guy was, and what was the point of him being in the game. Oops. Back in the Nintendo days, Mario ran rampant through the obstacle courses on his own. Oh well, I can guarantee that won't be the last dumb ass thing I have to say.

Short hair.

2011-06-28T15:35:00.000-07:00

For The Record

Whilst talking to my mom this afternoon, the nice little book that (mostly) Emily put together for Grandpa Homans came up in conversation. There was a brief (30 seconds or less) debate regarding the Brenna drawing that made the back cover of said book. Mom thought the one I posted yesterday was on the back, and I thought it was a different drawing entirely.

After rummaging through the hard drive, I came across two others that were under consideration.

The first, of Brenna and Grandpa Homans going to the zoo most definitely didn't make the back cover, although I'm a big fan of this one. My favorite part of the picture is that it must have been an overcast day at the zoo; this time of the year I welcome the absence of the sun.

This, I believe, is the picture on the back of the book. Since it's no longer in my possession, I can't verify this for certain, but I don't recall Grandpa Potter being the one that the wife picked as the winner (see the next blog for the drawing in question).

In this shot, Grandpa Homans has taken off the baseball mitts and is catching two balls bare handed. Well, he's attempting to catch them with his stumps. It would appear the first ball has gotten past him, and Brenna's about to unleash the second ball in his direction.

So there you have it. You be the judge. Brenna thinks I'm correct.

2011-06-27T20:10:00.000-07:00

Hate To Say I Told You So

I had two goals today. First, to listen to The Hives "Hate To Say I Told You So", because I've had that song stuck in my head for weeks now. Second, to write a blog for the first time in three months (after my incredible double posting in one month, achieved back in March). Mission accomplished.

It would be utterly ridiculous to try and recap everything that the three of us (Emily, Brenna and I; not Curly, Mo and Shemp) have done since last we spoke, so I offer up here the last month in review. My apologies to April and May. Nothing good ever happens in those two months, anyway.

In celebration of Father's Day, Emily (mostly Emily) and I put together a nice little book of Brenna doing things over the years (yes, all four plus of them) with Grandpa Homans. Brenna contributed many a drawing for the book, but only one made the cut (for the back cover). I offer here for your viewing pleasure an outtake from those sessions.

This is apparently a picture of Brenna throwing two balls at Grandpa Homans, who luckily is equipped with hands the size of baseball mitts, perfect for the occasion. It would also appear that he is a blood relative of Harry Potter, so he may be levitating these balls in mid-air. A pretty impressive feat, indeed.

Emily went to a women's ministry thingy in Casa Grande in June as well, which was a nice little road trip for those of us that drove down to pick her up. They stayed at a hotel that was once the site of the San Francisco Giants' Spring Training facilities The place is apparently steeped in history, and it was interesting roaming the grounds and looking at the pictures in the lobby while we waited to pick her up. Below is a picture she took of one of the staircases there, supposedly modeled to look like a baseball stadium viewed from overhead. Well, okay then.

For no good reason in particular, here's a shot of our almost five year old. Egad, where has the time gone. As a reminder to those of you that stumble across today's blog, please click on the ad banners as you're passing through. I'm nearing another milestone that would allow us to deposit another paycheck in Brenna's college fund. In the immortal words of Robert Plant, "I thank you".

I hear that I had a birthday on the same day as Father's Day this year. I celebrated my 20th anniversary of turning 17. This years celebration was sponsored by Fanta.

Here, Brenna is showing off her happy, sad, not sure routine using a Red Vine. I made this up on the plane to see the parents over a year ago, to kill time, and the small child is still tickled to show this one off whenever she gets a chance. I look well pleased here that I'm teaching her well on the important things in life, like impromptu comedy.

We were the proud owners of a new dog for two days this month. Not sure exactly how that one happened, but he was a cute little bastard. Had it not been for my skin crawling, sinuses dripping, and Brenna staying perched on the top of the couch for fear that the puppy was going to eat her entrails, he might have had a chance at being a permanent fixture in our household. Alas, it was not to be.

I mean, don't I just look thrilled to have this dog in our house?

And finally, the grand finale for what may be the last blog for who knows how long, I present my lovely life adorned in makeup done by Brenna. Good evening.

2011-03-07T19:34:00.000-08:00

Bottle Up And Go

Nothing short of a Christmas day miracle, I present to you the second blog in the last 30 days. Go, me.

Recently Emily crocheted for Brenna a very nice duck, upon request. At the time of this picture, this was a legless duck (the best kind, IMO), but Emily later completed the project and everyone was relieved. The child was well pleased. I forget the name that she gave this creation, but it's something along the lines of Sparkleheart Buttonbow Rainbottom. Our child is a fan of the hippie names.

Shortly after this, the small child was none too pleased with coming down with the sick nasties. Grrr.

At one point I had aspirations of creating a separate blog just for Brenna's photo taking, but that's fallen to the wayside (among other things). Below are a few of her recent favorites to take snapshots of, including her vanity that Grandma Sheila got her some time ago:

And Potty Racers. Yes, our child is living the high life.

Last weekend the small child and I got caught in what started out as wet snow, but later turned to sleet, and eventually this hail storm, pictured here. That's hail covering the ground at a local gas station. I did not take this picture through the window of the card whilst sitting at a red light with the child in tow. Absolutely not.

Here's a swell picture of the same storm tearing over the mountains east of our house. The following weekend it was 80 degrees and all again was right with the world.

And finally, a random picture of my lovely wife and the small child being pleasant, posted here if for no other reason than I just like it.

2011-02-18T19:21:00.001-08:00

Another Month, Another Blog

I'm back again for what's becoming the monthly blog update on what's going on in these parts.

Let's see, I'm still working, Emily is still working, Brenna is getting bigger and sassier. Have a good night.

No, seriously, there's more, but I'll be giving the condensed version tonight for lack of time and motivation.

There haven't been very many new Brenna pictures to share recently, but here are a few. The first two are of her holding a rose that she picked up at one of the many locations where she sweet talks us into buying her stuff that ends up junking up the house. At least for this moment in time, she seemed to be enjoying this rose quite a bit.

Ah, the sweet smell of fake rose. As things continue to warm up outside, hopefully we'll have some fresh cut roses in the house. I hope to eventually provide an update on that other blog I used to maintain on a regular basis, the Hoes one. I still have an affinity for hoes, but haven't had much time for them lately, either, alas.

I thought I could take a cute picture of the small child by the window with the light shining in on her, but failed to stand her in front of the electrical outlet. Sometimes you capture the moment when it presents itself and you can't worry about the finer details.

Grandma and Grandpa H sent Brenna a beautiful Valentines Day card with a treasure in it, which she's displaying proudly here. Upon seeing the greenback in her card, the child exclaimed, "I can buy a hundred things with this!". We immediately ran out to the antique mall and Wal Mart and bought three things. Close enough.

Emily is back out at the Renaissance Festival. She didn't like the picture I took of her in her costume, so I present to you some random guy standing on a column looking classy. Regards.

2011-01-20T00:06:00.000-08:00

My Wife Made Me Do It

I hope you have thoroughly enjoyed viewing the girl in a box blog for the last six to eight weeks. That post wasn't exactly a crowning achievement of Blogdom, and I apologize profusely for leaving you with that half-assed effort for all of this time. After putting in 14 hours at work today, and drinking what seems like an entire pot of coffee, I'm ready to soldier on with this submission, sleep and whatever may come tomorrow be damned.

While I'm not phoning this one in, I'm also not going to reach back into the archives and post pictures of our small child and describe in great detail what she's been up to since she was residing in the box back in early December. I will mention, if I haven't already, that the money we saved on said box at a Black Friday sale was wiped out by two visits to the chiropractor to repair the damage done to my back carrying the damn thing to the car. God has a great sense of humor, I SO get Him.

So here we go, the quick and dirty summary of what we've been up to these past few weeks. Let's see, we went to Tennessee in mid-December to spend a week with my parents and ever-wandering cousin. It was cold, damn cold, and snowy too. Brenna enjoyed it all thoroughly. During this trip she overcame her fear of blacklight putt-putt golf, and endless twists and turns from the backseat of a mini-van.

Fast forward to January, where I took a trip to Birmingham for work and another visit to see the parents. It was damn cold there too, and snowy. Go figure, it is winter in most parts of the country (I say that after a 76 degree day here in the desert). I'm happy to report that I'm still employed, and expect to be until told otherwise.

Brenna is still enjoying pre-school, and we're counting down the months now until her summer break and the lovely weather that comes with that.

Here are some shots of her recent alphabet-related crafts.

O is for octopus, complete with Cheerio tentacles.

P is for Pig, looks like ___________ to me. Oh, snap, I went there.

M is for mouse. And a festive mouse it is/was/will ever be.

And finally, before I offend anyone else, here are a few Brenna shots from the past few months. As the Ren Festival approaches, I'll hopefully have some updates of the small child and I spending countless weekends together while the wife is peddling shirts for (foremerly known as) Rollie Fingers, and helping us fight off the IRS man until April.

Until then.

2010-12-01T14:51:00.000-08:00

Girl In A Box

I've been away. Not on a trip or perhaps a pleasure cruise. Just away.

In hopes of distracting you from the fact that I haven't posted anything in nearly a month, I present girl in a box.

We bought this ottoman on Black Friday thinking we'd use it to hide away some of Brenna's clutter, but instead it's primary purpose since said purchase has been storing Brenna.

Girl in a box was brought to you by the letter "M".

2010-11-08T04:44:00.000-08:00

Home For The Holidays

Unless something changes, I am officially home for the rest of the year. Hooray for me.

Now, I have some catching up to do with the blogging.

A few weeks before I left, Emily, the small child, and I accompanied Ron to a gun show over in Glendale, which is on the west side of the valley.

The show was on the floor of the Cardinals' stadium, which we had never been to before, so that was pretty neat.

After we were finished there, Ron took us to a huge sporting goods store close by, so Brenna could see all of the mounted animals. Being an animal herself, she fit right in. Here we see Ron trying to wrangle her for a picture. Denied.

Look, ma, it's a moose.

Don't mess with that squirrel's nuts. Sorry, I had to go there.

We also did some antique shopping, which Brenna enjoys thoroughly. Here she is running amok in front of the Glendale library.

Here is a somewhat non-related picture of a historic house in the neighboring area. I know nothing else about it other than just that. Pretty cool, nonetheless.

And finally, because I'm extremely biased, and I'm the one doing the blogging, here's a shot of my child running into my arms and giving me a great big hug. Yes, it's good to be home again.

2010-10-26T15:46:00.000-07:00

Dentist Halloween Party (oooh, scaaary)

This past Friday the three of us went to our dentist's Halloween/patient appreciation party. We were pleasantly surprised at how much fun we had, and although we didn't win any raffles, our small child took home first place for children's costumes (thanks to Emily's sewing skills).

In this shot, Brenna is pondering her strategy for walking away with the aforementioned prize. If you haven't guessed it, she went as Dorothy from The Wizard Of Oz. An albino Toto is in the background in that wicker basket.

The small child is apparently a big fan of Rick James. Given her parents eclectic taste in music, this isn't a shock. Here she is getting down to Superfreak.

The small child was somewhat skittish with some of the adults in costumes, particularly Satan from South Park, and the Mad Hatter (which was hard to figure, since she likes that movie)
Here she is climbing me like a tree at the sight of one of those people.

We went home with that balloon.

The very necessary silly pose for the night.

A nicer pose with Mommy.

And finally, the money shot. Oh, how we love money. Hmmm.

2010-10-17T00:36:00.000-07:00

Born Into This

Fair warning, as you scroll through this blog about our recent trip to the arboretum, please keep a scrollin'. You'll find two more new posts directly below this one, and I'd hate for you to miss out on any of my feeble attempts to be witty and humorous.

I've been instructed by the shift boss that posting last names here is akin to pooping on the White House lawn, so I'll be referring to my cousin and her family going forward as the M&D company.

Emily took a number of great pictures from our get together, below is a sampling for your viewing pleasure.

Here is shot of some of us already seeking out shade early on. It probably wasn't over 90 degrees today, but in the sun it felt a little worse. All in all, we did well, making it around the main loop and seeing the more interesting sights.

This picture was brought to you by The Cult, The Atlanta Falcons, and mad props to cool Chuck Taylors and prickly pear lollipops.

Catching Brenna and Alexander in the same frame was a bit like herding cats, but Emily caught them here jumping around the sundial.

This pose never gets old, and Brenna never gets tired of joining me in the festivities.

Here is the M&D company strolling along the main trail.

Perhaps embarrassed by their parents, the two small children start to distance themselves from us. I don't blame them, we're quite honestly and certifiably insane.

Case in point. Darrick is seen here trying to determine the whereabouts of the nuts falling from overhead while we were strolling through the herb garden. Turns out it was a squirrel.

Or was it? There seems to be evidence in this picture that it may have been aliens. The light from overhead and the small child's expression would seem to support this.

After all of that excitement, it seemed only logical to sit tight and wait for the arboretum tram to come around and cart us back to the parking lot. No wait, that's the zoo. Damn.

In a last ditch effort to get a picture of the two wild animals in the same shot, Emily is seen here wrangling them onto a bench together. They both look so pleased to be sitting with her.

Brenna spent some time during lunch visiting with her newest cousin.

After uploading this adorable picture, I thought briefly about us having a second child. Briefly. Very briefly. M&D company, it was a pleasure seeing you again today. We hate to see you leave the fine state of Arizona, but wish you well as you move back north.

2010-10-17T00:08:00.000-07:00

Desperately Seeking Good Pictures At A Cookout

Last night our little family drove up to Canyon Lake to join Emily's family for a cookout. While everyone else stayed on for some camping fun, we headed back to be ready for our trip to the arboretum this morning.

Apologies to grandma Becky, who has managed to provide for some good photo-ops on this occasion, including demonstrating here what a wall-eyed fit is. I wasn't terribly familiar with this expression, but in return I shared the old opossum running over my grave tonight, so the cultural exchange continues in grand fashion.

Two out of three campers agree that posing normally for a picture is boring, and oh so uncool. Get with the program, Uncle John.

This is how you do it. Besides Emily, and again Uncle John, no one in this picture is much in their right mind. There are enough gems like this to post a part two to this installment, and I might just have to do that at a later time, for kicks. This one should go in a gold frame over the mantle, right next to the Billy The Bass singing Freebird.

The sheer contrast of a sweet four year expression in the foreground with hot dog spearing in the background earns this picture a spot in this post.

Someone needs to show this young man how to properly consume campground food.

Rachel doing her best Don Knots impression.

Here's a shot of grandma Becky rustling the snipes out from behind her camp chair. Apparently the radioactive strips on the front weren't enough to deter the little buggers.

One more for the road, with ketchup in the side pocket.

2010-10-16T23:50:00.000-07:00

4!

We made it to the fourth birthday. And I'm only two plus weeks behind in posting about it. Don't worry, it'll get worse once I leave town again for work. And if I keep dealing with this ridiculous keyboard on our laptop, my witty commentary may be whittled down to spare me the inclination of tossing this thing through the office window out of frustration. Arrgh! Angry pirate!

The birthday girl is sporting in this first picture a nice shirt given to her by grandma and grandpa of the east coast persuasion. Grandpa of the west coast persuasion is looking on in the background, no doubt enthralled.

Ooooh! Look at that, another four pair of shoes to go with the forty she has now! No, seriously, like any other girl, you can't have enough of these things. And I have no room to talk with the endless line of Chuck Taylors I have in my closet. Moving on....

Here we see the pretty girl surrounded by the carnage of opened presents. She seems pleased with her haul.

What a great shot here of the small child blowing out her birthday candle. Whoever took this picture should be awarded with some sort of financial compensation, paid by money order or cashiers check. And what a damn fine cake this was. Emily has the egg less cake thing down like a science.

A well deserved hug for the fantastic cake making.

Brenna was given a gift card to Build A Bear by the aforementioned grandparents of the east coast persuasion, and below is what she came home with. I think the bear's name is Sparkleheart Sugarpants, or something similar. The child has a name for everything in our house, probably including the appliances, and I get confused in my old age. Whatever the case, if you push the bear's shoe, it repeats a dozen or so recorded messages, and has an English/Spanish translation included, which is handy for communication with our neighbors.

And finally, because it makes absolutely no sense to include this here, I present to you our small child in her underpants holding up a bird in a dress.

2010-10-14T15:18:00.000-07:00

Brenna Art Gallery

It's hard to believe I've been maintaining this blog for four years now. It would be neat if there was a way to print off or archive everything posted here since the beginning for Brenna. I might look into that in my spare time, ha ha, ho ho. Granted, I took a six month leave of absence from this earlier in the year, but I'm still here.

Today for your viewing pleasure I bring you some of Brenna's latest artwork. She's been focusing lately on drawing family members. I don't think some of these need much explanation.

This art gallery was brought to you by the letters E and F. The F, by the way, is a bearded daddy fish. So, there.

Stay tuned, pictures from Brenna's birthday to follow in the coming days. I must catch up on the blogging before I leave again at the end of the month for work! Arrrgh!

2010-09-27T15:46:00.000-07:00

Blog While The Bloggin's Good

Oh, the things that go on around here when I'm not around.

Seems the ladies had a tea party while I was out running errands one fine weekend afternoon.

There's the finger drinking tea pose.

The token face making from the almost four year old.

And a nice pose thrown in for good measure.

This random blue dog was invited to the party.

Mommy seems to be enjoying her imaginary tea as well.

And just because this picture won't fit with anything I could possibly blog about in the future, my daughter posing as a pirate. Arrgh.

2010-09-24T23:08:00.000-07:00

Mixing Business With Pleasure

I've managed to only work two nights this week; Monday and tonight. Yippee for me. I guess that's better than every night. I'll be heading to Birmingham later this week and am looking forward to spending part of a weekend with my parents.

I'm still playing catch up on posting recent pictures, which is a nice alternative to posing the small child in faked situations.

Here are a few shots of Grandma Sheila's recent visit, and Brenna enjoying a new table that Grandma bought her. Much fun was had by all.

Stay tuned for some more cookie baking with the small child, as well as a divine tea party with mama. And what does F stand for? Hmm, only the shadow knows...

2010-09-20T20:09:00.001-07:00

D Is For Dinosaur

More than a week later, and I've returned with many a photo to share with you good people. As luck would have it (for you), I'll be working a lot in the evenings between now and my next trip out of town (hopefully to cooler weather), and as a result, there will be ironically more time to post here (with the small child asleep, and whatnot).

Here is a sneak preview.

There will be, of course, lots of Brenna pictures, including ones like this at the laptop, making cookies with cousin Rachel, visiting with Grandma Sheila (now nearly three weeks ago), and a swell tea party with mama.

Catching up from a few weeks ago, here are Brenna's D crafts from pre-school, one being a dinosaur, and I'm not sure that that other thing is.

E is for elephant. Included here is a nice dinosaur craft, and a flower made at church a little while ago.

Be forewarned, these next few weeks won't be pretty, but we'll get through it. Cheers.

2010-09-12T21:02:00.000-07:00

More Of Brenna's Favorite Things

Given the short amount of time I have before bed to post another update, I'm taking the easy way out and uploading more of Brenna's favorite things, as taken by her with our camera.

- Her Mommy

- Her Daddy, doning the coin (or as Emily calls them Mickey Mouse) gloves

- Her Dolly, all wrapped up and ready for bed

- The cover of Mommy's book

- Brenna's rendition of a dead ladybug (her words, not mine)

2010-09-08T18:04:00.000-07:00

September Shenanigans

You would think with having a five day weekend for Labor Day, that I would have found time before now to post a new blog. However, between a visit from Grandma Sheila, and everything else that's been going on, here I am nearly two weeks on the other end of my last update. Shame on me.

Here are a few pictures since we last met.

Brenna has been enjoying putting makeup on anything with a pulse. Here is just one shot of she and her mommy, all painted up real nice.

Brenna's also been very interested in my coin collecting hobby. Here are a few shots of her donning the special coin handling gloves, and looking at some of the shinier ones. This picture was brought to you by Nutra-Grain bars and a filthy sink.

And finally, at least for now, a shot of her C work from preschool.

To recap, A is for alligator, B is for bear, and C is for cat. Stay tuned to find out what D is for, in the next update, along with some pictures of Brenna's visit with Grandma Sheila.

2010-08-30T15:10:00.000-07:00

B Is For Brenna

Brenna wrapped up her second week of school last week, and is still enjoying it very much.

Below is a picture of her latest projects, celebrating the letter B, a personal favorite of hers, for obvious reasons. As you can probably also tell, circles have been the recent shape of choice in class, and you can see below how much better she's getting at writing her name, now that she's receiving some professional guidance.

This is a recent water color that she did at church. I like this one so much I'm going to frame it. Perhaps I'm biased, but this is just as good as the artwork on Robert Plant's "Shaken And Stirred" album from the mid-80's. I think it should be vertical, from where her name is (not pictured), but I like it configured this way just the same.

First the crafts, then the girl.

Here's a random shot of her sitting on the couch in her long-sleeved pj's (because it gets so cold around here in late August), watching one of her favorites on Nick Jr.

Here she is enjoying some finger painting in her old high chair.

And finally some war paint, er, make up that she allowed me to put on her the other night. Sorry, no pictures of the job she did on me. How convenient.

2010-08-28T05:02:00.001-07:00

Brenna's Favorite Things

Seems to me that when you give an almost 4 year old control over your digital camera, that you get an interesting perspective of some of the things around the home that interests them the most, or that they're most fond of.

Things last night that fascinated the small child:

- Her knees

- Her daddy

- Her mommy

- Her home

- And probably most important, her Nick Jr, particularly The Upside Down Show

2010-08-18T14:23:00.001-07:00

Who Makes Your Money

The keys on our new laptop are configured differently than what I'm apparently used to on a standard desktop keyboard. Just about every time I reach for the Shift button for an upper case character, I inadvertently hit the Control button, sending my browser into the abyss. This makes the blogging process rather tedious. That being said, don't be surprised if in the future all of my posts are in lower case. I'm not crazy, just fed up.

Brenna is now into her second week of pre-school, and she's still enjoying it very much. They're going through the letters in the alphabet, so today I present you with crafts made on "A-Day". Included was a nifty song about an alligator snapping monkeys out of a tree, and a nefarious looking character with pasta for a mouth and a butterfly pendant.

2010-08-11T15:55:00.000-07:00

Brenna's First Day Of School

It seems like yesterday that I was firing up the old blog machine, posting things about Brenna's first words, first steps, and so on. Here we are nearly four years later, and the small child is going to pre-K two mornings a week. Wow.

Anyway, here are a few pictures of Brenna getting ready/dressed, showing off her new backpack, and the school that she'll be attending this year. From her teacher's weekly planner, it looks like she has a lot of exciting things to look forward to.

When asked what she did on her first day, the small child indicated that she sang songs and that was all she felt like telling me at the time.

2010-08-09T15:24:00.000-07:00

The Brenna And Rachel Show

Cousin/niece Rachel spent the better part of the weekend with us, and we were all tickled, particularly Brenna, who is very fond of her (not that we aren't).

Below are some of the highlights of the shenanigans.

On one of the two evenings that Rachel was with us, there was a makeup party. Blue Man Group, eat your heart(s) out, you've got nothing on these two. Brenna is so deliberate with her makeup application, it's pretty amazing, I should think, for a child her age. She made for certain that every square inch of Rachel's face was covered with something.

We were blessed Saturday morning with clouds and a little drizzle. What a great opportunity to use our pass to the Arboretum, which Rachel has been wanting to go back to for quite a while. Should you be interested in seeing more pictures of the plants, why don't you mosey over to the Hoes blog for a spell.

Here we are hiking a trail (at Brenna's suggestion) that I don't believe we've ever been on before. Of course, the one in the stroller had it easy.

Kuddos, by the way, to the wife and myself for having now lost thirty pounds this year between us. Emily is getting so thin she disappears behind the stroller!

Here are two misfires from lunch at the Arboretum. The first one capturing Rachel in what looks like a mid-sneeze, and the second one with Brenna smiling at her sandwich. Hmm, turkey and cheeeese.

Thumbs up, indeed, Rachel, thumbs up.

Admission to the Arboretum: Free

Lunch at said Arboretum: Twelve dollars

Capturing the ultimate "I'm humoring you, daddy" picture of the small child: Priceless.

2010-08-01T16:36:00.000-07:00

Short But Sweet

Here's the short of it:

- I'm still struggling to find an i.Link cable to upload video off our camcorder to the blog site. You used to could do it with a USB cable, but that was with Windows XP. 7 doesn't allow that. So, you'll have to just wait for Brenna's rendition of "My Life Would Suck Without You", sorry!

- The big storms continue to miss us, but we've gotten a few good rains, and the yard is enjoying the humidity. Hey, why don't you mosey over to the Hoes blog and soak in some pictures, I've posted a new update there!

- Why am I shouting?!

The sweet of it:

- Brenna posing (sort of), with one of her new shirts that Grandma Homans just sent her. She wore it all day with the tag still on it. I had to wrestle her to the ground like a hog to get it off of her for the wash!

!!!!!!

2010-07-27T14:56:00.000-07:00

Extreme Birthday'ing

In the same vain as extreme skydiving, extreme bungee jumping, and extreme hot dog eating, I present to you extreeeme birthday'ing.

You can't have an extreme birthday without an extreme cake. Red and brown just screaams extreme. This fantabulous cake was presented by Emily, and was her best foray thus far into the realm of egg-less cake making.

And of course, you can't have an extreme cake without an extreme guest. Emily's grandma, who was in town from the anti-hell state, also known as Colorado, was the lucky recipient of said extreme cake. She's overjoyed! And who can blame her, just look at that cake! Yowza!

Here is the extreme birthday guest, posing with two of her extreme grandchildren. Well, Rachel looks extreme, Brenna looks, hmmm, peaceful?

Perhaps she was that way because she knew some extreme cake was coming her way! Yes sir, that must be it. There was nothing left of this slice except little bits of red Styrofoam plate scattered across the floor. This picture was sponsored by Sophia's foot.

And you can't have an extreme birthday party without breaking out a tea set! And these aren't your normal run of the mill, lead based, spawned in a sweat shop, tea sets. No sir, this is the real deal Hollyfield! The small child was well pleased. Extreme!

And last, but certainly not least, the extreme "which camera do I look at" birthday shot! I got two and Beth got the others, but all together an extreme picture for the archives!

Editor's Note: In honor of Ron's fine Chuck Norris shirt... I hear Chuck Norris tried to put out his own line of toilet paper, but it failed miserably because it wouldn't take (censored) from anyone.

Good night!

2010-07-24T20:55:00.000-07:00

I'm In A Car... And I'm Siiingiing!!!

For those of you that have not friended me/us on Facebook, shame on you. You're missing out on lots of pictures, lazily uploaded there for your quick Brenna fix.

For those of you that continue to patiently wait for some nugget of wisdom to come emanating from my mouth, God bless you. I continue to make an effort to post updates here, if anything, to prove to myself that I'm not a one-trick Facebook pony.

Today, kind of on the spur of the moment, we took a ride up to Camp Verde, about two hours from here. I had been wanting to go back to Montezuma's Castle, at the very least, to finally collect a park stamp in my little National Park traveller book that I've had for the last four or five years. Brenna has a similar one, that has every park in it that she's been to since her birth. Hopefully one day she will grow to appreciate having something like that.

At any rate, my hope was that it would be slightly cooler there than here. While it was indeed cooler (92, compared to 106), it was very sticky, and despite the shade on the interpretive trail, it was pretty nasty. Needless to say, we paid an average of a dollar a minute for how long we were there, versus our admittance fee. If you venture over to Lazytown, aka, Facebook, you'll see some other trip related pictures, but only here, for our rabid blog followers, will you be able to witness our small child bellowing to one of her Glee CDs, while we rode back home this afternoon.

First, a token picture of our destination.

And secondly, what you came here for. Here she is, warming up to whatever song was playing for the hundredth time in a row. Something about loving someone and mashed potatoes, I'm not sure, it all runs together to me.

Despite the traffic lights request that she cease and desist, Brenna soldiers on, slowly moving to the climax of said re-baked song.

Yes! We're almost at the finale. Hands triumphantly waving, it's just a matter of time before that last note is struck, and I can enjoy the two seconds of silence before the next remake that didn't ever need to exist begins.

And there it is. Ladies and gentleman, a star is born. I'd never be allowed out of the house again if I was caught doing this to a Voivod (still the greatest Canadian heavy metal band to walk the earth) song, whilst in the car with the family; but if the small child can get away with it, perhaps I can as well. Dare to dream.

2010-07-19T19:30:00.000-07:00

Eye On The Prize

This past weekend we spiffed up the house for an open house. Hopefully we can keep things nice and tidy for the legroom, going forward.

Emily baked a tasty calomonden cake that gives me heartburn with every serving, but chased with a pair of Tums, and it's mmm delicious.

Rachel spent the night on Saturday, here she is dancing with Brenna with the Wii. Oh, those crazy, flexible kids.

And being useful as ever, here we see the small child posing in the sewing/guest/exercise room with a new friend.

For the record, Blogger doesn't know how to spell calomonden, either. Ha.

2010-07-13T14:13:00.000-07:00

No Excess Baggage

I keep forgetting now that I'm clocking in for work at 5 in the morning that my day is officially over at 2 in the afternoon, adding a little bonus time before the fam gets home to do constructive things like... post another blog! Well, that's just special now, isn't it.

This past weekend, Brenna and Emily baked some sugar cookies, and decorated them up with some gel frosting (is that what it's called, I'm so not an expert on such things). We won't go into the lively discussion had at Wal Mart about which package of frosting the small child wanted to pick up.

Anyway, frosting in the end was obtained, and here is the proof.

And yet more proof. By golly, we've got frosting!

Here's a shot of the cookie-faced small child, caught in the act of, well, doing something. Since we can't see her arms, there's no telling. Perhaps punching me in the gut Sean Pean style for getting too up close and personal. She doesn't look terribly happy here. Yes, perhaps that was the issue.

And finally, the fruits of Brenna's labor. A multi-eyed, smirking rabbit for your dining pleasure.

2010-07-09T22:04:00.000-07:00

Been A Long Time Since I Posted A Blog

Still here... been around.

This is probably the first blog posted on our new laptop; I loathe the keyboard, the shift and control button are not perfectly conformed to my hands. I'll get most of the way through posting this and will hit the wrong button and wipe everything out, mark my words .

I can't proceed any further without giving the required monsoon weather update. It rained today. Yes, indeed, and by golly, it actually rained when the clouds gathered. No dust storm or fruitless thunder and lightning, just a good fashioned (albeit short) frog strangler from the bank to our house this afternoon.

Continuing with complete randomness, here's a picture of Brenna getting ready for our recent trip to St. Louis. She did extremely well for 20 hours in the car, one-way, so well that we managed to cover 1450 miles in two days on the way back leaving us with a days vacation to sit around the house and unwind. Lovely.

Along the way we saw this scary beast of a storm.

One word: Cow.

Here we are with my parents walking across the Mississippi.

And here we are posing in front of the arch. Well, we, meaning everyone except me.

Here's a shot of the backseat passengers.

And finally, rocking my sign for victory as we approached home. I was, of course, parked safely in our driveway when Brenna took this picture of me.

As time permits, and to allow myself the ability to drag some more blog posts out of this trip, stay tuned for more pictures. Damn you Facebook, I will not conform and post a hundred pictures of St. Louis because it's easy. Good night.

2010-04-28T15:54:00.000-07:00

Household Epidemic

At first it was one.

Then two more fell stricken.

We knew we were in trouble when Senor Bird became ill.

2010-04-25T21:18:00.000-07:00

Barely There

The child just came in to me and said something in her incoherent gibberish langauge, and then wrapped it up with "and that's all I have to share with you". Yes, my thoughts exactly for this past week of non-posting. I'm getting ready to spend a week in New Jersey for work, with another trip to Wichita shortly thereafter. I'm digging deep these days for the Lord to grant me the serenity needed not to completely lose my mind with stress over two major projects coming one after the other, with a number of other things to wrap up right behind that. I'm doing better this go around, compared to my trip to San Francisco last November. Despite how bad I was expecting that one to be, God showed me that things work out if you leave it with Him, so I'm making more of an effort this go around to follow suit, and so far so good. God first, family second, work third, those are the Biblical priorities, and that sounds pretty good to me.

No pictures to share at this point, although the small child has been entertaining as usual. Tonight, she was entertaining us with impresions of various animals, including the normal ones like dogs, cats, and the like. She graduated to polar bears, lions, turtles, and a pretty sweet waddling penguin. Her encore was an aligator snapping robot that dispensed candy out of its head, perhaps like a Pez dispenser. It goes on from there. Hopefully before I leave town this Saturday, I'll upload some shots from around the yard to the completely neglected Hoes blog.

Until then.

2010-04-19T15:17:00.001-07:00

This Town Ain't Big Enough For The Both Of Us

Two posts in two days, man am I on a roll.

Here are a few more pictures from yesterday's Spring extravaganza.

The weather is good, getting better over the next few days. Should be perfect for my roses to settle in before the June heat kills them. Oh, I'm quite the pessimist. Or realist. Or fascist. Or something. Hmm.

Anywho, it's beginning to look like my two work trips this year will be multiplying to four, with yet another vacation attempt aborted in the process. Who on God's earth converts on a Friday? At least it's Florida and Hawaii, I can't complain about the locations, but may be disappearing off the face of the earth from Thanksgiving until New Years.

Stay tuned for some middle of the night ramblings, I will riding the caffeine train hard between now and my May 1 trip to New Jersey, and plenty in between that one and Kansas on June 1. It's going to get ugly around here.

2010-04-18T20:17:00.000-07:00

Another Day At The Farm

It took me a while to remember how to post a blog here, complete with pictures. All of the steps involved slowly came back to me, like resizing the pictures so they're not enormous when viewed, uploading them in the reverse order you want them displayed in your post, etc. In actuality, a bit of a pain, but I refuse to conform to the utter laziness of uploading enless photos with three word descriptions on Facebook. That site has it's place in the world, but not for blogging, and I will do my best to find the time to keep this site alive, God help us all.

The following is a photo log of our past two weekends.

Last weekend didn't get off to a very good start, as we discovered this grizzly accident in the bedroom, first thing on Saturday morning. A terribly crime, indeed, but all have to move on.

Brenna spent some time blowing bubbles with her favorite cousin last weekend. Fun was had by all.

Afterwards, or perhaps before, cookies were made and enjoyed by all. Cousin Rachel is perhaps unsure of the process, or maybe caught completely off guard by the picture taker, whomever that was. I dig Brenna's shirt, all of them should be an homage to her father, in my humble opinion.

Mmmm, cookies.

The first fashion statement of the Spring, matching hat with dress and shoes. The small child was running after a ball in this picture, perhaps a soccer uniform... if you're in the Swiss Alps.

And this weekend, another nice outfit. Brenna is seen hear serving up some "ice cream" for me as I'm taking her picture.

After numerous mediocre shots, Brenna graces me with her presence one final time for the best picture of the day, in my opinion.

2010-04-15T16:53:00.000-07:00

Back In The Saddle (Maybe)

Sorry, been a while. I've so not been motivated these past five months to monitor this blog, and since I've been away, I've had 157 spam-related messages attempt to post here. But, on the flip-side, the site somehow generated another five dollars in Brenna income from these foreign hackers, so take that ass monkeys.

Should I continue to feel moved by the spirit (or something similar) to continue on with this, please check in periodically. There are many a Brenna picture to post, and while Facebook is a convenient way to slap a number of them up at one time, the ability to share stories there is not the same as it is here in Blogville.

Torn between laziness and motivation, I continue to be sincerely yours.

The T in Tebot

2009-11-21T15:38:00.000-08:00

Been Around

This is by far the longest time between updates here. We've been a smidge busy, to say the least.

Since our last update, I've been to San Francisco for work. Here's a shot from my hotel room.

We've been to Hawaii. Here's a shot from Punchbowl.

I've thrown Brenna into the ceiling (well, close).

Hey, here's Brenna showing off a new fall outfit. It's finally under 80 degrees, hurray!

And just today, she helped Mommy make more sugar cookies.

Finally, this morning, Brenna helped me plant some poinsettas and about two dozen seeds in pots. Whew!

2009-10-29T14:22:00.000-07:00

A Day At The Arboretum

Here are a few shots of us at one of my favorite places in town, the Arboretum. Brenna is now officially old enough to enjoy the place, and walk around on her own quite a bit.

Here we are strolling along, talking about the Stock Market, or something equally deep, I'm sure.

Here we are again, crossing a bridge, and discussing some other serious matters. Actually, as I recall, the small child didn't want us to rock the bridge while we went across.

Pictured here is Brenna checking out the Clevenger House with Emily.

Posing inside the house.

Out of order here, Brenna and Emily walking up to the same house, through a nice herb garden.

Brenna being a human sundial in the new Children's Discovery area. This was worth the price of admission.

And finally, the spoils of humoring Daddy by going to a park with no swings or slides.

2009-10-23T00:59:00.000-07:00

Facebook's Lament

I for one will admit that Facebook has it's benefits. Besides connecting with people you haven't seen hair nor hide of for years, you can quickly upload pictures with little blurbs/captions, etc. This is fairly convenient for the guy on the go, such as I've become. With work keeping me more than busy (hence my posting this at 1 in the morning), as well as a wild and wooly three year old, it's becoming more and more of an effort to post anything here.

And therein lies my grief with Facebook, it sucks you in like any other bad habit. The convenience of it all completely destroys the art of the written word. And I'm now taking care of approximately fifteen fake fish in one of the many time killing games they offer there. My God, the distractions there are endless, and bordering on ridiculous.

But I digress. Perhaps I should blame the coffee for my rambling.

I have already posted the following pictures on, ahem, other websites, but the loyal blog followers will get my bonus rambling AND pictures, how nice for you!

A few days ago Emily and Brenna whipped out the aprons and chef's hats, and made some sugar cookies. Here are a few of the highlights. There are many more pictures, and when time permits (and/or should Facebook spontaneously combust), I'll submit another blog for your viewing pleasure.

Good evening.

2009-10-14T20:33:00.000-07:00

BIRTHDAY - More Cake

Hard to believe it's been nearly a week since I've posted last, but here I am.

Here are a few more pictures from Brenna's birthday party, including some chuckling, showing off how old we are, and then the always popular cake horns.

2009-10-08T20:01:00.001-07:00

Taller

We interupt our latest blogs about Brenna's birthday party to announce that Brenna is... taller!

2009-10-06T23:38:00.000-07:00

BIRTHDAY - Pizza

Continuing our leading up to Brenna's 3rd birthday, which is officially on Wed, 10/7, here are a few more shots of her party from this past weekend.

Upon coming into the house, the first thing our girl gravitated to were the balloons that I insisted we leave within reach. Brenna is a big fan of squeezing and/or kicking these things around the house, and we always have one handy for her (the last one we got was from Home Depot).

Here are some shots of Brenna and cousin Rachel enjoying some pizza. I caught Rachel about to flash some gang signs, it would appear. Fancy shoes, Aunt Beth!

More pizza enjoyment.

And if the last two shots weren't enough, here's another angle of the pizza eating. I told you I was going to milk these pictures for as many days as possible!

2009-10-05T17:02:00.000-07:00

BIRTHDAY - The Cake

In an effort to milk this past weekend's activities for all they're worth, I present to you the first installment involving Brenna's 3rd birthday party, which transpired this past Saturday.

Firstly, the birthday girl is presented here, showing off her dress for the occasion. You may recognize this outfit from her professional pictures, taken and posted a week or so ago. Never mind the scuff mark on the child's forehead, just an altercation with a wheelbarrow, I'm told.

The next three pictures document the small child assisting with the cake preparations, including sprinkling the, um, sprinkles, and setting the Cinderella candle just so. Ironically, after asking specifically for said sprinkles, they were picked around (pictures of this to follow on another day).

2009-10-03T05:05:00.000-07:00

Hello There

Well, I'd like to say that my being busy this week has been the cause for no updates, but in all honesty it's just been laziness. But here I am, cranking out a quick blog before Brenna gets up for the day, and Emily leaves for a church breakfast, posting the few new Brenna pictures that I have.

Brenna is having her 3rd birthday party later today, so we'll probably have some gems to post from that at a later time.

For now, here is a shot of Brenna partying it up with Emily at a friends house last weekend, and a shot of her enjoying her/my rocking chair. I had some good pictures of the child sitting on the floor in her underwear eating a popsicle, but I've been told there are weird people out there that might see those shots and want to borrow our child for an extended period of time. So, you'll just have to image the hilarity that ensued there.

2009-09-28T12:14:00.000-07:00

A Few More Brenna Pro-Shots

2009-09-26T21:18:00.000-07:00

Photo Op

Brenna hammed it up today at the photographers. I'll post a few of these at a time, there are a ton of them that we got to take home on a disc, enjoy!

2009-09-21T21:27:00.000-07:00

Just Another Manic Monday

Celebrating the beginning of Fall, we'll be dipping below the old 100 degree mark for a high tomorrow, and it looks like we'll stay below it for the next 10 days. Whoopity do. Elsewhere the leaves are changing, people are breaking out their Bill Cosby sweaters, and I'm still dragging a hose around the yard, sweating like a dog keeping the jungle alive. Very thankful for the rain we had about two weeks ago, but as it goes here in the desert, it may be Thanksgiving before we see any more. That gives me plenty of time to put more gutters and rain barrels around the house, in an effort to hoard every drop of rain that drips off the house for future use. Ah, but I digress.

We haven't been taking many pictures of Brenna lately, she commands the camera and wants to take pictures of us instead, so what we get these days is few and far between. But here's a new one of her proudly showing off her outfit for church this past Sunday, which she picked out on her own (well, I helped with the safe pick of a white tank top, what else the heck would go with an octopus patterned skirt).

The child has graduated to enjoying talking so much that she now goes off on these rambling discertations about shows she's seen while at Grandma's, and anything else that she feels like talking and/or complaining about. While getting her out of the car this afternoon, for example, she went from marvelling at the boys playing basketball at the park, to making this statement (and I'm paraphrasing, but this was pretty much what came out of her mouth), "When I grow up, I'll be able to go to the park and play basketball... and I WON'T need your help". Well, appreciatation for the game of basketball and a defiant comment all rolled into one, very efficient. I could go on and on about this subject, but then I would be stooping to her level, wouldn't I?

I made an effort to install our camcorder software on our new computer, after digging through countless boxes in our garage, but was thwarted yet again by Windows Vista, which told me it couldn't install the XP supported software. I even went to Sony's website and downloaded the Vista version, was able to install the application, and now can't get it to recognize when the camcorder is attached to the PC. I'm hoping that Windows 7 will be the answers to my prayers, buying it will probably be cheaper than flying to Washington state and pooping on Microsoft's front lawn to express my disgust over this inferior operating system that I was dupped into inheriting with our new computer. Ah, but I digress again. I say of this to express my apologies for the lack of videos of Brenna. I can go on and on about how much she's talking and how funny she is, but I can't do it justice without the video. For now, you'll just have to believe me, and if anyone would like to ship us another PC that's equipped with XP (you can't downgrade from Vista), I'll gladly install our camcorder software on that PC and upload some video for you all.

Enjoy and get it on.

2009-09-19T14:32:00.000-07:00

Busy Week

Not much of an update here, been a busy week with work, and running around with Brenna.

Here are a few more shots of her playing on the computer, still a favorite of hers.

2009-09-14T15:18:00.001-07:00

Quick Shot - Hanging Around

A few quick pictures of Brenna from the last few days, 1) holding balls again, 2) sitting in a rocking chair that was mine many moons ago, 3) doing something wierd with her arm, yes, holding a ball.

2009-09-08T20:15:00.000-07:00

Tookie Update

We had a busy weekend here in Tookieville.

On Saturday morning it rained for a few glorious hours. Brenna enjoyed splashing around in the puddles. It was grand. I look forward to doing this again the next time it rains, in December.

Later that day we went over to cousin Jenny's house, ate lunch, and fell asleep on the back porch (well, one of us did that). Here's a shot of Brenna playing with the big kids on an airplane thingy. I'm going to get one of these for our house, maybe to replace the couch with. That'd be sweet.

She didn't learn to do this from us.

Riding in the car today, coming home from Grandma's. I'm told the car was not in motion when this was taken. Check out the Hoes blog to check out some pictures of a thunderhead, which Emily also took pictures of while the car was not in motion.

Our daughter likes balls. Here are two of her favorites. This picture reminded me of another one I had seen recently. Since I have so much time on my hands, I searched it out, only to discover that it wasn't quite as similar as I had hoped.

Ok, so not quite the same, any reason to post a Led Zeppelin picture, though.

Oh yes, and a few cute Brenna poses to wrap my rambling blog up.

2009-09-04T22:50:00.001-07:00

Friday Night Brenna

Here are a few more Brenna shots, namely from this evening and this evening alone.

The first two shots are of her caught in the act of stuffing hundreds of gumballs down her shirt. What a sheer joy this was chasing them around the floor as they spilled out when we picked her up out of her chair.

Stacking cups is a favorite activity these days. She entertained herself for probably 30 minutes pouring the gumballs back and forth between the cups, sorting the gumballs by colors, etc, while I was out in the yard and Emily was catching up on things on her email.

After all of that, Brenna got ready to head out on the town. Her ensemble was complete with a watermelon hat, grungy pink tank top, no pants (just the bedtime Pull Up, thank you), and white dress shoes (not pictured). Add to this an entire days worth of dirt, grime, yogurt, etc, on the face, and you have a "This is how I roll" look come to fruition.

2009-08-31T16:51:00.000-07:00

Killing Time

This seemed like the perfect thing to do in between tasks at work in the middle of the night. I can't possibly stomach any more coffee, it's too late to do anything outside, and I have a rogue skunk to keep an eye out for in the back yard (nasty hold digger).

Here are a few new Brenna shots from this week. The first two are of her enjoying pulling balls out of our pool table, which she's discovered she can access with the help of her handy stepstool.

And here are a few more shots of her enjoying her computer time, enjoying a chuckle or two at something on Noggin that was tickling her.

2009-08-27T15:04:00.000-07:00

Hey, It's A Brenna Update

Brenna hasn't been feeling all too well this week, but don't worry, a) she's feeling better, and sleeping again (!), and b) I found some random pictures from weeks gone by that had escaped me, so there's something worth sharing!

At any rate, here are a few pictures of Brenna at church from a few weeks ago, doing some cool stuff (from the captions, looking at bugs in a jar, what kid doesn't like doing that?).

Here's a cool ghost that she drew on her travel etch-a-sketch knock-off. To this day she still talks about trick or treating last Halloween, and is counting the days down until she can go around begging our neighbors for candy again.

Here's one of our daughter showing off her hair. I have nothing more to say about that.

And finally, because she's spending most of her free time at home playing games on our computer, you'll get a lot more pictures of her being irritated that I'm disturbing her game playing. She's rather crafty with her left hand on the mouse, and now that she's figured out the wheel thing that scrolls pages up and down, she no longer needs us for anything short of feeding her and pulling her pants down so she can go to the bathroom. Otherwise, our job as parents is pretty much over. Or so I think.

2009-08-22T23:18:00.001-07:00

Late Night Blogging

Not much to share here, except this shot of a possibly teary-eyed Brenna, taken while she was playing on the computer. If she was upset about something here, I'm not sure what. She's got the right shirt on, I'll give her that. I think this and her AC/DC shirt are my personal favorites.

And a few more recent shots here of Brenna doing her regular nighttime routine of "disappearing" when it's time for tooth brushing. She alternates between hiding on the couch, and under the sheets in her bed, both of which are extremely effective, as you can imagine.

2009-08-20T17:04:00.000-07:00

Brenna Photography

On this wonderful Thursday afternoon, I offer you a collection of photos Brenna took while at church this past Sunday.