Of Birthdays and Breakdowns

As you may have read in the previous post, it was the nephew's birthday. It was actually last week, but the family celebrated it on Sunday. My brother created a fine Bob the Builder cake. Of course, it was yellow cake baked in a bowl (trust me – it's the best cake you can have). He cut off the top inch of about half the cake to make Bob's face smaller than the hard hat. It seriously looked just like Bob. It was brilliant.

When we arrived, there was one whirling dervish nephew with dark circles under his eyes. At 3 years, the birthday joy was apparent and the kid was totally high on adrenaline and sugar. He ran, he hardly ate (except cake), he got excited about presents, he hated curling ribbon on packages, and he loved the huge Tonka dump truck he got. It even came with a hard hat. Now he has two hard hats, so his cousin could wear one too and they were ready to work.

The best part of the party was that the nephew, in spite of his energy and sleep deprivation, seemed to have a great time. He didn’t have a meltdown (while we were there at least – who knows what happened after we left). He didn’t cry. And, he shared his toys (mostly). I think he even liked the Cootie game I gave him, but who could tell after the Tonka truck arrived?

I, on the other hand, have been a bit sleep deprived for a few weeks now and had to have my own breakdown. I think I need to call in sick to work and just sleep all day.

Fly Like an Eagle

Sunday was the nephew's birthday, so the DH and I drove from our place in Seattle to the nephew's place in Redmond. We went over Lake Washington via the SR520 bridge. On a Sunday afternoon, it's usually a breeze (unlike my commute, which is never a breeze). This time was different. I've had a lot of experience in how SR520 backs up and we had the oddest slow-down. On a Sunday afternoon you wouldn't expect any slowing at all, in the first place. In the second place, it doesn't usually happen when you're already two thirds of the way across the bridge.

As the traffic slowed, the DH and I commented on what a strange place it was for traffic to slow. We could see out ahead and there were no accidents and it didn't look like there was anything in the road that people had to drive around. Nothing. Until we got even closer. It looked like a big seagull at first, but as we got near, it was a young bald eagle. The eagle was riding the wind right above the bridge and it was breathtaking. Traffic slowed considerably in both directions to view the amazing bird just hovering not more that fifteen feet from where we were in our cars.

The most astounding thing to me is that this eagle spotting was in the middle of a rather large city. It was the same feeling as seeing a flower growing out of a crack in the concrete. So beautiful and so unexpected that it just makes you feel privileged to see it.

The Buzz on Movies

I've seen a couple of movies since the DH had his surgery, but I think I like the one we watched last night better than most. We watched Elizabethtown even though he thought it sounded suspiciously like a chick flick (and he outright refused to watch Pride and Prejudice even though I batted my eyelashes a whole bunch).

The story is about a guy who creates the worst shoe fiasco in the history of making shoes and decides to kill himself over it. Unfortunately, his dad died in Kentucky, so he has to go take care of his dad's funeral plans instead of dying. It's then about his road to self discovery. (Sorry if that sounds like it wouldn't be any fun to watch -- I promise it is.)

We both really enjoyed it and have looked into getting the soundtrack. It was really good too.

We also watched The Brother's Grimm, which was only mediocre and Serenity, which was very cool. If you like Asian films, you'll love Serenity. It was also just beautiful to see. I would have enjoyed seeing it in the theater.

What's in a Name?

So, after reading annzy's last couple of posts, I realized that the part about blogging that I like the most is naming the post. I secretly think this is the only reason Ann blogs too. It's cathartic and fun to write, but it's even better to come up with a clever tag line. It was the same way when I wrote for a living. I was writing technical documentation and my favorite part was naming the chapters or topics. I was really good at it too. All the clients loved me. It's good for your self esteem. (Not quite as good as cleaning someone's kitchen, but almost.)

Now I think I'll have to write more often so I'm forced to think of more clever names. Of course, this could backfire and cause the mother of all writing blocks, but I don't think so.

It'll be fun. Really.

Beetlemania

Since the DH has been laid up with tummy incisions, we’ve watched a lot of movies and TV. He loves CSI and I think it’s a little too gross, but that’s part of our charm as a couple. One thing we’ve both loved is watching Beetles Anthology. I can’t rave about this enough. It’s eight 70-minute segments, so it took us a while to get through it, but I loved the whole thing.

Having grown up with only the aura of the Beetles and never experiencing the mania first-hand, it was very eye opening and fascinating to watch. I didn’t realize that the Christian right in the Southern US had Beetles record burnings after John Lennon’s offhand comment about someone telling him the Beetles with more popular than Jesus. It was also interesting that it didn’t mention the rift between the band and Yoko because Yoko had to approve all the video footage in order for them to use John’s image. I also got some great insight into how the Beetles revolutionized rock music in the 60’s. The pioneered things I just take for granted as part of rock and roll now.

The long and short of it is that I would give Beetles Anthology five stars and highly recommend it.