Saturday, June 19, 2004

Dansen and Trench and Syrinx...This One's for You!

Oh, we're selling a car. Help us by buying it.

Found this on a friend's blog, scored 16 out of 20 for detecting fake smiles.

Funny thing about summer is that the more it comes around with each passing year, the more I dread it. Of course, coming from a tropical climate like Singapore, you'd think I'd go gaga over it and be all wacky and happy, but something funny happened on the way over to this green-ass state. I got used to the dark wet coldness and now my body basically rejects summer.

Here are the good things about summer: It's warmer, so people wear less clothing - not that I get any jollies out of that. Not at all, my beautiful lovely wife. 4th of July. Not having to worry about Alex being too cold. And evidently, summer is starting to mean baby births. I'm sure my wife will see that it doesn't become a trend. Ice cream tastes much more satisfying. Bike riding, though having babies will curb that.

Here are the things I don't like about summer: Too freaking hot sometimes. Getting into a hot car sucks major ass. Bugs. I hate bugs. Anything with more than four legs are just not my friend. Allergies, big time. I was sneezing my head off last 4th of July. Reruns. TV programming goes into the slums of reruns. Sweat. I don't like being that sticky all the time. Just some of the times. Appropriate times.

Well, anyway, this is what's been going through my head. I just finished inflating the kiddy pool for Alex, will be kinda fun to see him splash about in it, though I think he'll probably be indifferent about the whole thing and just thing that it was some giant bathtub.

Alex and I have this little game that has very little rational - in fact, I don't really even know how the game works. But he'll be standing in his crib, holding on with his hands on the railing. I'd squat down and look at his legs, and either nibble at his toes or kiss his tummy, or say, "Where did Alex go?" He's usually respond by batting me on the head. So I'd pop up over the crib, and he'd pop down, squealing and giggling away. I'd pop back down and give him a kiss through the rails, and he'd laugh...

Now I know what Tom Hanks or John Goodman or Robin Williams were talking about while being interviewed by James Lipton on "Inside the Actor's Studio". One of the questions is, "What is your favorite sound or noise?" The three of them have said something like children laughing, or family laughing. The sound of my little boy laughing always puts a smile on my face.

Tuesday, June 15, 2004

I have to admit that a huge part of me not writing for the past few days are because a couple of my loyal readers are now on the road, on the way to Montana. I suspect that oftentimes they read my blog because they're bored at work, but it doesn't really matter to me either way. Trench and Syrinx are now on their brand new adventure, and we already miss them tremendously. Nobody can intimidate my little boy more unwillingly than Trench. Couldn't imagine if he actually tried.

So we finally got the van back in our possession, after we traded 800 big ones with the evil auto mechanic corporation for our van. I swear that they could do whatever they wanted - and we wouldn't have a clue. Other than the panel lights being brighter, I couldn't really tell a whole lot of difference in the ride. It's great though, that Alex really fancies the ride. I took him to the video store and he was just about asleep twice. On the way there, and on the way back. I think the ability to look out the window is quite a treat for the little guy.

I have to brag about this, being how I basically utilized my bargaining powers to gain monetary things. I used Gmail swap and my invitations to get these things so far -

$5 to paypal from a guy in Britain,
$5 to paypal from a guy in China who has my same last name,
$10 from someone,
$10 from someone else,
$20 in Amazon.com gift certificate,
Game boy Advance (probably cheated out of it, he hasn't emailed me back after I trusted him)
True Crime for PS2 (still haven't gotten back to me yet either)

Actually, I shouldn't complain about the things I didn't get because they were free invitations after all. I think that aside from the monetary gain, I discovered that I can be a pretty slick negotiator if I really tried, as long as it's anonymous and as long as it's fun. Unfortunately, the swapping is now almost gone down in value. I have 6 more invitations again, and it seems that the swaps are getting lamer and lamer. Now it's down to just groveling.

Alex is getting to be more of a handful now. Seems like he's impossible to hold anymore, what with his increasing weight and wiggliness. Whenever you hold him facing you, he wiggles to see in front. And whenever he's facing the front, he'll make himself stiff as a board, ready to pounce from your arms. In fact, I'm fairly certain that once he learns to walk, he'll need tranquilizer darts of some sort of humane leash to keep him from wandering off. Mobile thrill-seeking knee biter...

Sunday, June 13, 2004

I think that the triathlon is making these choppers circle the area, which is a little strange. Makes me feel like we're living in a bigger city, and there's some car chase going on or something. I'm curious enough to want to wander out to the closed streets, and I think Alex would just get a kick out of it anyway.

Having a nice, relaxing day. Kicking it back. I think my little boy is up from his nap.

Oh no, it's just the videogame downstairs in demo mode.

Stream of consciousness.

By the way, I am enormously bummed out that Trench and Syrinx are going to Montana, and then to Japan. I've lost two loyal readers, albeit temporarily.