Saturday, March 31, 2007
Bridge to Terabithia
Well, we didn’t see Meet the Robinsons today but Eliana and I did go to the theater for a father-daughter date and see a matinee screening of Bridge to Terabithia.
The movie is rated PG and rightly so. There were several instances of profanity which, in my opinion, was completely unnecessary. I suppose Disney feels anymore that a G rating is the kiss of death for a non-animated flick. Otherwise, it held Eliana’s attention pretty good.
Carmi did not want to go see the movie because it was rumored to be quite sad. Neither of us has ever read the book but as it turns out, the rumors were correct.
I cried…and I’m pretty sure that the Little Empress did too.
{extended}Friday, March 30, 2007
Meet the Robinsons
A new animated Disney movie is in theaters today called Meet the Robinsons.
From what I’ve read about the movie so far, it’s set in the future and tells the story of a 12-year-old orphan who invents a machine that will help him find his birth mother so they can become a family.
The film is said to promote a pro-adoption theme so that’s a good thing.
I’m hoping that we can go see it this weekend…probably tomorrow.
{extended}Wednesday, March 28, 2007
Looking for a story
Monday, March 26, 2007
Mommy’s mean bone
Carmi is sick, bless her heart. I’m talking the puking kind of sick. I’m just so grateful that she waited until we arrived home from New Bern to hurl.
Tonight we were sitting at the dinner table and Carmi was trying to eat a little bit. Eliana had eaten all she wanted and was up prancing around.
I told Eliana that mommy’s “mean bone” was acting up and that’s why she didn’t feel good.
Eliana ran over to Carmi and gave her a big hug and said, “Mommy’s got a SWEET bone!”
Then she cut those beautiful brown eyes around to look at me. Pointing her finger she added, “And YOU’VE got a pooty bone!”
{extended}Friday, March 23, 2007
New Bern - Day 2a
By the time I rolled out of bed this morning around 7:45, Eliana was already up and dressed and ready to go to the pool. Unfortunately the pool is still closed and it’s taken me all day to convince our child that she CAN’T go swimming. It’s not that we won’t LET her go…she CAN’T go. Arghhh…
As soon as I got dressed and situated, the two of us went downstairs to the hotel restaurant and had breakfast before hitting the town.
Our first stop was the Pepsi Store. Pepsi-Cola was first invented by Caleb Bradham in his pharmacy in 1898. The store now sits on the very spot once occupied by Caleb’s pharmacy. We bellied up to the bar and enjoyed a cold, straight-from-the-fountain soda which was originally called “Brad’s Drink”.
Next we walked a couple of blocks over to the Fireman’s Museum. Eliana and I were the only patrons present so we received one-on-one attention from the little lady behind the desk who gave us a tour. This building, next to the modern fire station in New Bern, houses horse-drawn steam engines from the 1800’s and an extensive collection of other early firefighting equipment along with rare photographs, Civil War relics and even the mounted head of a faithful old fire horse named Fred, who died in his traces while answering an alarm. Seeing Fred’s head was a little weird but interesting nonetheless.
We were both getting hungry by this time so we stopped at the Cow Cafe on the way back to the hotel. We enjoyed lunch and ice cream!
{extended}Thursday, March 22, 2007
New Bern - Day 1a
Our first pictures are up in the gallery.
{extended}We just arrived in New Bern, NC
We just arrived in New Bern, NC and this is the view from our hotel window. Well, actually we arrived about an hour ago but it took several trips down to the car to get all of our…no, make that Carmi’s…stuff.
Oh, and it took a call to the hotel’s tech support office to get our broadband access up and running. You know me. I gotta have my internets! There is an access point right outside our door so we have an excellent signal which translates to FAST, baby.
Poor Carmi is attending paralegal seminars. The Empress and I will be hanging out for a couple of days and enjoying some time together. We’ll be in town until noon on Saturday.
More pictures later. Right now, Eliana and I are headed down to the water to get close to some little duckies.
Tuesday, March 20, 2007
I wanna die
Eliana and I were riding home after work when out of the blue she said, “I wanna die.”
“You want to DIE?”, I asked.
“Yeah, I wanna die.”
“Well…eventually everyone WILL die, sweetheart, but why do you want to die right now?”
“I wanna see Gran’Daddy. I’ve never seen Gran’Daddy.”
{extended}Monday, March 19, 2007
In the flesh for about 2 hours
My mom is down in Florida right now visiting with my oldest
most mature sister. Before leaving, I promised to bring her computer home with me during her visit to reformat the hard drive and give the ol’ PC a new lease on life.
Now I’m quite comfortable with computers. I’ve built a few systems from scratch so I’m not afraid to jump right in. However, the planets were definitely not aligned on this day and if anything could go wrong, it did.
Carmi came home after I had been in the flesh for about 2 hours.
“This thing is so aggravating, it would make a preacher cuss!”, I grumbled. After a short pause, I followed with, “And thank goodness I’m not a preacher!”
I’m just sayin’...
I WILL make a confession though.
There was one particular issue that had me scratching my head for the longest time. The source of the problem? The stupid CD drive was not plugged into the motherboard. I guess it turned loose when I opened the case to put in some additional memory.
It’s nice to be able to laugh at oneself.
I’m going to the altar now.
{extended}Saturday, March 17, 2007
I’ll fix your boo-boo
Before putting Eliana to bed tonight, I noticed that a scrape on her knee from a few days ago was bleeding a bit.
“Come into our bathroom”, I said, “and we’ll put a band-aid on it.”
The girl is all about band-aids and would wear them as fashion accessories.
After fumbling around a bit in the drawer, my hand landed on a box of the little miracle workers.
“Now sit down and I’ll fix your boo-boo.”
She pulled her pajama bottoms down and took a seat on the edge of our hot tub.
“Oooooh…that’s cold.” she gasped.
It wasn’t until the band-aid was in place and she stood back up that I realized she pulled EVERYTHING down and her bare bottom had been on the tile.
{extended}Wednesday, March 14, 2007
A tiny treat
I picked up Eliana from preschool at noon and took her to mom’s house. The three of us were to have lunch together and mom was going to keep Eliana for the afternoon.
We walked into the kitchen and mom called for Eliana to come onto the back porch. When they disappeared through the doorway, I heard not-so-quiet whispering and then Eliana asked with a twinge of concern in her voice, “But why is it so LITTLE???”
I almost hurt myself laughing.
Mom had a decorated cake - maybe 6 inches across - with a single candle for my birthday and our dessert but Eliana just couldn’t understand why her daddy was getting such a tiny treat.
{extended}Lordy, Lordy, look who’s 40 (um…plus 4)
Yes, that’s correct. Today is the 23rd anniversary of my 21st birthday.
More importantly, if dad was still living, he and mom would be celebrating 60 years of marriage today also. They did enjoy 55 years together which is remarkable. Not remarkable that they enjoyed the 55 years but remarkable that they were together that long. Oh…you know what I mean…
Love you, mom!
{extended}Tuesday, March 13, 2007
Orange creme Hershey kisses
Hershey has released orange-flavored white chocolate kisses as a “limited edition” offering for their year-long 100th anniversary celebration.
Oh man…these things taste a lot like orange creamsicles which I love, love, love. They are so sweet, though, that it’s difficult to eat more than one without drinking something to wash it down.
Eliana doesn’t seem to care for them. Strange girl…
{extended}Saturday, March 10, 2007
Does that make you happy?
Carmi and I always alternate giving Eliana her bath. For some reason, she does NOT like it when it’s daddy’s turn. Maybe it’s because I don’t let her play as long in the water??
Earlier this evening, Eliana asked if it was mommy’s night to give her bath. I said, “Yes it is. Does that make you happy?”
“Well”, she started. “I’m not happy that I have a bath tonight. But I AM happy that mommy is giving me my bath.”
{extended}Friday, March 09, 2007
Kindergarten registration
Carmi and I went to one of the local elementary schools this morning and registered Eliana for kindergarten in the Fall.
We had to take Eliana’s birth certificate, social security number, record of immunizations and proof that we actually live in town (I took our latest water bill). Eliana’s only birth certificate, of course, is from China but it had been translated. When Carmi mentioned the Chinese birth certificate to the school representative, she stammered, “Uh…we’ve never had this happen before”.
Wake up and smell the coffee, people. This town doesn’t just have kids wearing Budweiser t-shirts and camouflage hunting pants anymore.
{extended}