just a quickie

i am such a dork. when we sat down at red lobster on sunday for pop pop's belated birthday dinner, i was so excited to be sitting across from an open window because the light falling on erik was perfect for pictures. i took a few, but this is my favorite. it's beautiful in color (you can see his gorgeous blue eyes) but i like it in black and white too.

erik-isms

erik certainly has a unique point of view. last week we had our first "taco night" in ages, probably the first since he's been having dinner with us. he seemed to really like it too! a day or two later, we asked him if he enjoyed taco night, and his reply was "sour cream!" this kid has a thing for condiments, especially mustard (the coarse grain kind) and sour cream, and will eat them by the handful and ask for more. so i guess for erik taco night is just an excuse to eat lots of sour cream. i think he gets this from his opa!

this evening at dinner i was asking him some questions and he kept answering "yes" to everything. so i asked him if he could answer a question with something other than yes, and he said "applesauce!" silly erik.

for at least a couple of weeks now, erik has been saying something that peter and i could never understand. we guessed about everything under the sun, but just couldn't figure it out. erik was getting frustrated, but couldn't explain to us what he was saying. usually i can understand 99% of what he says in context, but he was saying this randomly and in many different places. it sounded like "super motorcycle" or "silver motorcycle" or something like that. finally yesterday he was watching yo gabba gabba and the segment "super martian robot girl" came on (one of my favorites!) and he shouted "super martian girl!" at long last we knew what he was saying! i guess erik's a fan of super martian robot girl too.



we had a really great weekend, including a trip to the carnegie science center, a birthday dinner at red lobster with pop pop, and i got to have a girls night out at dave & busters on saturday night. i reckon i'll get around to blogging about it and posting some photos sooner or later. i have been really distracted/busy lately with TAing microbiology lab for med students. it's actually kind of fun. the group of students we have are very entertaining, especially because today's lab dealt with syphilis and gonorrhea. they kept saying things like "where's the bacteria? oh, sean has gonorrhea!" and "i should be ok as long as i don't rub this petri dish on my genitals, right?"

a few photos from the science center that i have already uploaded ...

here are adam, maggie, morgan, and erik coloring papers which they made into airplanes and attached to balloon rockets to launch:


here is me missing luna at the model railroad:


here is erik pushing maggie's stroller:


maggie and erik playing in the water:


cool sea thing:

last night's sunset

it was pretty. here are a few photos from erik's window.

erik attacking the paparazzi

i frequently try to take pictures and videos of erik on the sly since he's increasingly irritated by my stalking him with the camera. i can't help it - he's just too freaking cute! in this video you see a few precious seconds of erik playing with his cars, followed by him telling me "no pictures!" then knocking me over and finally declaring that "mommy's ok!"



i guess i should be careful, or one day he may end up like this:

i feel like blogging but i don't feel like blogging

so here are some pictures to look at. these are my top 5 most popular photos on flickr:











what do you think?

monkey!

little monkey
Originally uploaded by stupid blue

moon palace

i had a wonderful dream last night! i'm wishing i'd written down the details this morning when it was still fresh in my mind, but here's what i remember.

i was attending some sort of party or fund raising event and the entertainment for the evening was a 'battle of the bands' type face off between coldplay (meh) and luna (YES!). for the record, the luna lineup was dean wareham, sean eden, lee wall, and britta phillips. i watched the entire sets for both bands, which unfortunately i remember nothing about other than luna was amazing as always, and after they were complete, the judges decided that both were so good that they couldn't choose a winner and that each band had to choose a final song to play and the audience would get to decide. the bands were given an hour or so to choose a song and practice. somehow i managed to be sitting in with luna as they weighed their options. the obvious choice was '23 minutes in brussels,' but they also considered 'freakin' and peakin'' which i would have LOVED. i got to listen to them play a bit of each, and they decided to do '23 minutes in brussels' which i thought was for the best since i figured it would be more popular with the audience. somewhere in there, i was talking to sean and told him that i had been working up the courage for over 10 years to ask him for his autograph, but all i had was my invitation to the event. he took it and walked away and i wasn't sure what he was going to do. actually i never got it back before i woke up, so i will never know. in reality, i did get his autograph once back in 2000, and he was really nice and talked to me for a few minutes. dean too! i think i was maybe one of three luna fans at that show at penn state. but i digress! so back in dreamland, both bands took the stage. coldplay went first and played 'clocks' which i find ok, but in my dream i was outraged and thought it was unfair that they were playing a song that probably everyone in the audience had heard before. luna played next, and belted out the most amazing rendition of '23 minutes in brussels' and i relished every second of it. anyone who has had the fortune of seeing them play live understands how awesome that truly is, especially since they've been disbanded for almost 4 years! sadly, before the audience had a chance to vote, i woke up. but in my mind, there's no doubt that luna blew coldplay out of the water.

here is a photo of luna from their last REAL concert. this is the last time they ever played '23 minutes in brussels.' when playing live, they would really stretch the song out and it was gorgeous and different every time i heard it. in the last shows, britta would move into the middle of the stage, situated between dean and sean to get the full effect of their transcendent guitar interplay. can you tell i like luna much?

this is the city life

you know you've been living in the city too long when your son looks up into the sky, sees a small flock of birds, and says "helicopters!" fortunately, we saw a pigeon in a parking lot today and he knew that it was a bird, so he is at least aware of their existence!

20 songs

i made this list for facebook, but thought it was interesting enough to post here too:

i don't really know how to choose 20 songs. my tastes in music, as in many things, are questionable at times. but i like what i like, and here are 20 songs (in no particular order, and not necessarily my favorites) that i like (and two that i don't).

1. sucking ice cubes - luna ... brings back so many memories, especially driving way late at night in the middle of nowhere nj and feeling like i was on another planet. lately it has a totally different meaning. it is on a cd that i often play while i am giving erik a bath, and every time that feedback starts he looks at me with a huge grin and then bounces to the rhythm.

2. try not to breathe - r.e.m. ... i am not a big r.e.m. fan, but automatic for the people is one of those few albums that i can listen to from start to finish and enjoy every track. this song is melancholy but hopeful and i feel like i can really relate to it.

3. trigger cut - pavement ... i don't know why. i just love it! reminds me of fun times in high school.

4. let down - radiohead ... ok computer is another one of those albums that i can (and regularly do) listen to from beginning to end and never get the urge to skip a track. let down is one of my favorite songs to listen to when i'm feeling angsty. and no surprises too.

5. born of frustration - james ... james is one of those bands that i forget how much i like until i listen to them after a long break. this is maybe my favorite james song.

6. la poupée qui fait non - michel polnareff ... luna did a really nice cover, but i definitely prefer the original. this is the first song erik ever sang along with and he still loves it.

7. strange - galaxie 500 ... 'i stood in line and ate my twinkies.' does it get any better than that? i too often wonder why everybody looks so strange.

8. the divorce song - liz phair ... reminds me of driving home from high school with my best friend every day. we must've listened to this song a thousand times. i used to adore liz phair. now, not so much.

9. magnificent seventies - the american analog set ... just really groovy and i love it. the rest of the song doesn't live up to the perfect opening, but it's still one of my faves.

10. leslie ann levine - the decemberists ... who knew an accordian could sound so good?

11. perfect day - lou reed ... 'i thought i was someone else, someone good.' at first glance the lyrics might seem to speak of a happy day in the park, but it's really so melancholy. it's beautiful and sad. transformer is another album i have listened to over and over again.

12. wanted dead or alive - bon jovi ... i don't really like this song, but it was the first i was able to play all the way through on expert drums in rock band. yes, i am a HUGE dork!

13. sunshine superman - donovan ... one of many great donovan songs. 'cause i made my mind up you're going to be mine.'

14. i'm waiting for the man - the velvet underground ... it speaks of a lifestyle very different from my own. but i always wondered ... 'feel sick and dirty, more dead than alive'

15. oh my darling, clementine (traditional) ... oddly one of the top played tracks on my ipod. i never really listened to the whole song before erik was born, but it's really sad. (i'm sensing a trend here ... i seem to fall for sad songs.) 'ruby lips above the water blowing bubbles soft and fine'

16. ceremony - new order ... amazing song. 'i'll break them down, no mercy shown/heaven knows it's go to be this time'

17. kksuck2 - the dead milkmen ... with a name like that, it sounds awful, but it's actually a pretty lovely instrumental. i could have chosen any number of dm songs, but i have always really liked this one.

18. she drives me crazy - fine young cannibals ... i don't like this song (or group) at all, but every time i hear it (which is mercifully rarely) i laugh out loud because when it first came out, my mom thought the lyrics were 'she tries to get pregnant (and i can't help myself)' and was completely appalled.

19. night nurse - dean & britta ... absolutely beautiful. my favorite dean & britta song to date.

20. super-electric - stereolab ... infectious beat and just sounds really really cool. i especially like the version recorded live for the bbc on abc music.

congratulations steelers! it is a good day in da 'burgh!

in case you live under a rock, the steelers won the super bowl tonight! WOOOO!

the defining moment...