Happy New Years Eve!

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Originally uploaded by bartraeke

From Erin, Elmo, half of Ninja, and the Queen's left hand and knee.

Some More Erin...

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Originally uploaded by bartraeke

To tide you over for the New Year. I did shoot, edit, and save the first video blog, so remember to set your calendars for the 2nd.

The Teaser Trailer For the Change that Will...Change...Things.

Ladies. Gentlemen. Small children of indiscriminate age.

BEHOLD!

Okay, Seriously, I Hate Doing This Again:

But I'm wondering how many people still pay attention to me since my hiatus. Which I swear I had good reasons for.

Because I'm really hoping some of the new content will really be enjoyable, and maybe even increase the faithful few to a faithful few more.

So, tomorrow, there will be a little teaser of the "flagship" feature of the relaunch. Tell your friends. Tell your enemies. Have your enemies tell their friends and enemies. Post bulletin boards at church or temple. Just spread the word.

Merry Christmas!

And to all a good night...or whatever!

Christmas Eve Humpday Haiku:

Relaunch is nigh.

So new presents for you, well

the ones that remain

Holiday Traditions (A Guest Blog)

The following is a guest blog, courtesy of CelticBuffy over at Serving up Life... Being that it is Christmas Eve, I felt it a fairly appropo.

If anybody else wants to get in on the guesting action before the New Year, let me know!

There are very few traditions that my family follows for Christmas. We bounce around from year to year, depending upon work schedules, and whose turn it is to have the children. There is, however, one thing that remains constant in our family from year to year, whether we are all together or miles apart. What, you ask, is this prevailing tradition? It is our Christmas Vacation.

No, not that kind of vacation, although I certainly wish it was! :) I'm talking National Lampoon's Christmas Vacation. Hanging with the Griswold's. Enjoying the fact that someones Christmas is way more messed up than ours. Every year my sister(of the heart, in-law), my (second) parents, and my kids and I watch poor Clark try to pull together the ultimate family Christmas. More often than not we are all watching in our own homes, far apart from each other, but we always watch it. It is our one Christmas constant.

I recently realized how many Christmas movies there are that we like to watch during the month of December. So I decided to make a list of our top Christmas movies. In no particular order they are:

~Fred Claus

~Die Hard (because a little Bruce Willis always makes the holiday brighter)

~The Muppet Christmas Carol

~ Gremlins (I'm saving this until the kids get a little older)

~The Family Stone

~The Santa Clause ( and Santa Clause 2 and 3)

~The Nightmare Before Christmas

~Holiday Inn

~Elf

~Home Alone

~White Christmas

~Polar Express

~Scrooged

~Miracle on 24th Street (the original)

~A Christmas Story

~Bad Santas (on my need to see list)

Don't even get me started on the Christmas specials and cartoons that need to be watched to ensure maximum holiday spirit! Of course there is one notable film missing from this list. Jimmy Steward in "It's a Wonderful Life" is a great Christmas movie. Unfortunately during the holiday season of 1985 (I think) my cousin, uncle, and I made it our mission to watch it every single time it was on TV. Since my grandparents had a dish (no not DishNetwork, this was one of those freakily huge satellite dishes cemented into the yard since you couldn't get cable in the boonies those days) with oodles of channels I think me managed to watch that movie over 50 times in the two weeks of vacation. As you might imagine, I haven't been able to bring myself to watch it since then.

I leave you with the immortal words of Clark Griswold and hope you have a much more sane Christmas than he did!

"Where do you think you're going? Nobody's leaving. Nobody's walking out on this fun, old-fashioned family Christmas. No, no. We're all in this together. This is a full-blown, four-alarm holiday emergency here. We're gonna press on, and we're gonna have the hap, hap, happiest Christmas since Bing Crosby tap-danced with Danny f***ing Kaye. And when Santa squeezes his fat white a** down that chimney tonight, he's gonna find the jolliest bunch of a****les this side of the nuthouse."


Happy Holidays!

Inching Step by Step

Still looking for guest blogging...don't miss your window folks!

Guest posting anyone?

Anybody interested in doing some guest posting before the 2nd? Go ahead and send me a post to bartraeke@gmail.com and how you want to be credited, and I'll do it.

The Countdown with Pictures Continues.

In the Meantime

I'll give you guys some more Erin photos (especially for David McMahon who asked me last night "when's the baby due?" Yeah, thanks David. ;) ) Don't forget that I have asked for help.

Here's Erin with her bunny fufu.

Need Some Help

Okay guys and gals, one of the things I want to do requires a cartoon representation of myself. I have someone working on that for me, but that's not it.

Is there anything you guys want to see more of? Less of? Anything I don't do that you'd like to see? Suggestions welcome, though I will obviously heed them at my own discretion.

Let me know via supa dupa comments.

HEAR YE, HEAR YE!

I am hereby announcing my return.

Set your calendars. Full force on January 2nd. I might have a pithy update here or there, but that's when I'll be back.

Perhaps with a new twists. Maybe a new look. I still don't know about that, still contemplating.

So...

Who misses me?

I promise I'll be back soon, though I'm unsure of an exact timetable. I swear it isn't Erin, that's simply coincidence, but I've hit another stagnant writers block again. I seem to get them once a year for a couple months, don't I? I'll have to have a strategy for that once my creativity comes back to me.

In the meantime, feel free to tell me how much you missed me, or not.

Weighing In: Whoops!

I sorta forgot about weighing myself for awhile there. Luckily, I didn't completely forget about trying to lose the weight. Probably because Jessie is back on Weight Watchers to get back to her pre-pregnancy weight, which was her goal weight.

Starting weight (8/12/08): 221.4

Weight today (11/17/08): 184.6

Last week (well...it was like 3 weeks): 186.2

Difference from last weigh in: -1.6 lbs

Overall difference: 36.8 lbs

She's Still A Baby.

Finally Comfy
Originally uploaded by bartraeke

Coming up on 4 weeks old this Saturday, and she's still a tiny lil baby. And she still spends a good portion of her time sleeping.

She has possibly picked up a bit o' colic, though. Yay?

Humpday Haiku: Being Home Leads to No Blogging

Sorry, no updates

don't have much to say really

Jessie made me though.

Well, she did, sorta.

Humpday Haiku

Yes we did, yes we

did, yes we did, yes we did.

Yes we effin' did.

Raise Your Hands Like You Just Don't Care

Raise Your Hands Like You Just Don't Care
Originally uploaded by bartraeke
And here it is, your Halloween moment of Zen.

Humpday Haiku: The First of Many, Probably

My kid peed today

not really news you'd say? Wrong.

she peed right on me.

Don't ever let anyone say that you have to worry about that problem only with boys. It happens with girls too, when you're holding them and they have leaky diapers.

Weighing In: This, Too, Surprises Me:

No gain or loss, back to the line of scrimmage. Like a running back who hits a solid wall of defenders.

This surprises me only because, while the food people get/make and bring for you is good, it's also the stuff I've stayed away from in large doses. And they've got them to us in large doses. Awesome food, but not really conducive to a diet. Several days worth of Boston Market...a huge pan of lasagna...etc. Not to mention the brownies that my mother in law made early last week, and then the new pan I made last night. It's a wonder I didn't gain 2 or 3 pounds, and I'm honestly curious as to how I managed it. I guess eating really light breakfasts and chugging the water really helps. I doubt I was burning tons of calories bouncing the baby. Or building my DIY light tent/soft box, or bidding on a flashgun (which I won, yay, I can experiment with bouncing and off camera flash for pictures with Erin!), or the other "activities" I did this week.

Starting weight (8/12/08): 221.4

Weight today (10/27/08): 186.2

Last week: 189.4

Difference from last weigh in: 0 lbs

Overall difference: 35.2 lbs


And now, some more baby eye candy. She drools like daddy!

Flashback Friday: Remember The Not Too Distant Past...

When my daughter was born? Hey, it happened in the past, it COUNTS!

Okay, that's about enough of baby week. From now on, it'll be business as usual, which means of course I'll do whatever I please...put at least now you'll only get updates here and there on Erin.

She's a Real American...

She fights for the rights of every man...

Uncanny, isn't it?

But seriously, she's already picked up this little idiosyncrasy...holding on to her ear.

Good god how can you people stand it? The adorable levels must be driving you insane. My demon spawn will rule the world, I say! Through the power of death by cuteness!

Humpday Haiku: This Week It's All About The Kid

Burrito Erin

all swaddled up nice and tight

not for consumption

She gets that pissed off look from her Daddy.

I Already Have a Funny Story

Cutest Thing Ever
Originally uploaded by bartraeke

So Jessie and I are talking about the transition from merconium (sp?) to regular poopies, and she mentions she was told that breast fed babies don't have stinky poos. I told her that all poop has some smell, it's only that the poop isn't as "HOLY CRAP THAT'S AWFUL" as solid food poop. But then I realized it was only a representation of a proud mother:

She already thinks her daughters shit don't stink. Heh.

A Glimpse:

Cheryl's Camera 019
Originally uploaded by bartraeke

Of me actually being all dad like.

What I'm sitting on is what acted as my bed the night before. Funny thing was, I had told Jessie that I have the ability to jump from asleep to awake really fast, but she had never seen it. In fact, since I'm always a very reluctant waker, she didn't think it was possible. Trust me when I say that in my half asleep state hearing that Jessie had progressed to 9.5 cm overnight, I was up in an instant. :)

Weighing In: Sometimes I Surprise Even Myself

I was totally expecting to gain, or to hold steady, with all the hospital cafeteria food I've eaten the past few days. Lo and behold...another nice drop. You'd have thought I had had the kid! (Kidding honey, kidding).

Starting weight (8/12/08): 221.4

Weight today (10/20/08): 186.2

Last week: 189.4

Difference from last weigh in: -3.2 lbs

Overall difference: 35.2 lbs

And now for some baby eye candy.

World...

Meet Erin. Erin, meet the world. You guys get along okay now.

Born today, the 18th, at 12:26 pm. 7 lbs, 7 oz. The Queen is doing well. Your host is very giddy.

The Heiress has arrived. Now, the hard part begins. ;)

Trivia That May Only Interest Me

The Gibson SG. A fairly iconic guitar in it's own right, though lesser known to the general public than its big brother, the Gibson Les Paul.

But did you know that the SG is actually a Les Paul? Well, not anymore, but originally, the SG was released as the new model of Les Paul in 1961, after guitarists asked for a double cutaway design for easier access to to higher frets, and because Les Paul sales were down and they wanted to compete better with the Fender Stratocaster. Les Paul, the guitarist, didn't particularly care for the new design however, and asked that his name be removed. So, Gibson obliged, and called the newer model the SG (though in a side bit of trivia, because Les Paul nameplates were so abundant in the storerooms, SG's continued to have Les Paul on them for a couple more years). SG stands for Solid Guitar, for those curious about that, as well.

Angus Young of AC/DC, noted SG user.

Tony Iommi of Black Sabbath (and his own merits, of course), another notable SG player.

In more guitar related trivia, the Gibson Explorer was released back in the 50s. It flopped horribly (and was also briefly known as the Futura before being changed to the Explorer). In the 70s other companies started paying homage to the Explorer, and the style saw a renaissance, especially with hard rock and heavy metal groups eating the design up, and Gibson started making them again. Those original Explorers are true collectors items, though, going for hundreds of thousand dollars. Well, less than a hundred were made (actually estimated at less than 50), that'll happen, right?

Humpday Haiku: Right of Way

I have right of way

that means you don't wave me out

learn to drive dumbass.