Hope Likes Loud Noises

Up until a few weeks ago, whenever The Civee or I would have to vacuum, we’d wait until Hope was asleep, because we didn’t want her freaking out over the noise.

Well, one day, there was a cereal emergency (or some other type of food) and we needed to run the vacuum with Hope around.  I held her while The Civee vacuumed.  Predictably, Hope started crying.  But not because the vacuum scared her.  She was going crazy because this machine was making this loud noise and she couldn’t be near it.  So I put her down, and she slowly walked up to the vacuum and knelt by it, trying to figure it out.

Now, house cleaning is somewhat easier- we can vacuum with her around, even if she tries to re-direct where its going.

But we shouldn’t have been surprised- Hope likes loud noises.  Not a plane, car or firetruck can go by outside without Hope getting excited (and because we live a block away from a fire station, we hear a lot of fire trucks).

A while back, Hope’s grandma got her one of those Fisher Price popcorn poppers that every kid seems to have.  Hope is still learning how to use it, but I think she likes having something of her own that makes noise.

Here’s Hope with both the real vacuum and her popcorn popper (warning: you may want to turn your speakers down for the first half, the vacuum is a little noisy):

As I’ve hinted at, Hope also likes to make loud noises. My favorite is the one that goes DA-DA.

An additional note for the grandparents: just because she likes loud noises doesn’t mean that Hope needs more toys or other items that make loud noises.  She’s quite capable of seeking them out on her own.

We Have to Go Back

A few months ago, I wrote that it was about time for another season of Lost to start up.

Of course, the show ended a year ago, so that new season wasn’t happening.  And today marks the year anniversary of the finale, which I recently re-watched.  My reaction to the finale was pretty much the same as it was when I was re-watching the whole series in December- I didn’t expect any more answers, so it was fun to concentrate on the characters and their journeys.

Lost managed to combine great characters with intriguing mysteries and a mythology that one could get (excuse the term) lost in.  I don’t think I could get as wrapped up in another show as much as I was with Lost, and I’m not exactly looking to.

Since Lost ended, we got a nice little epilogue, a Weezer CD named after one of the main characters and a tease of a new show starring Terry O’Quinn and Michael Emerson.  But the show’s creators and producers have moved on to other things, and there won’t be a season seven.  Even though every single question may not have been answered, I’m fine with that.  Most of the characters (pretty much everyone except for Michael) got a happy ending and enough of the questions were answered to make the whole thing not seem like a waste.

Even though there’s no future for Lost, I’m glad I have my DVDs and can go back and watch anytime.

My Outdoor Workshop

This afternoon, I was painting a few spots here and there outside.  I had some paint left over and The Civee suggested I use it to paint one of a set of tables we’ve had for a while.  The tables are very functional, but we’ve been talking since almost the day we got them about painting them white.

So I took one of the tables into our side yard and painted it on the grass.  There was a problem when I got to the bottom of the table legs: I wouldn’t be able to paint them.  Fortunately, we have some old stumps (that I believe are on our property) that I put to good use:

(and that’s the first time I’ve ever used the word “fortunately” when referring to one of those stumps).  Not only did the stump help with the painting, but it also helped the table dry out (or so I think).

All three of us spent a lot of time outside this weekend.  Most of the time was spent doing work (like painting and gardening), but we also had some fun- last night, we ate dinner outside with The Civee’s parents.  As an added bonus, we’re about a mile away from Crew Stadium, which was hosting a music festival this weekend (Rock on the Range-  not exactly my definition of rock), and we could hear some of the songs and the crowds throughout the weekend.

Despite the concert, it was great to spend time outside in the sun.  We’re getting a fence soon, which is something The Civee and I are looking forward to.  But Hope’s looking forward to something different.  All she wants is for these strawberries to ripen:

Was it Randy “Macho Man” Savage or “Macho Man” Randy Savage?

Like most people who started watching wrestling in the 80s, the person that drew me in was Hulk Hogan.  Hogan was a big guy with a lot of charisma who would take on these seemingly unbeatable monsters and win. The thing was, Hogan was entertaining, but he was very one-dimensional.  And even at a young age, I felt like his act got old.

Then, a year or so after I started watching, a new bad guy debuted- The Macho Man Randy Savage.  Here was a challenger to Hogan who wasn’t some huge freak.  Rather, he was a guy who could wrestle and cut a great (if somewhat incomprehensible) promo.  At WrestleMania III, the big match was Hogan vs. Andre the Giant, but the best match was clearly Savage vs. Ricky Steamboat.  Sure, Savage was a bad guy, but he was cool.  And he lost the match, but he had it coming, after terrorizing Steamboat and Bruno Sammartino for months leading up to the big event.  Another thing that I think may have lead to me being a fan of the Macho Man was the rumor that he lived on Staten Island, and I thought it was really cool that a great wrestler lived in what was then my hometown.

A year later, Savage (who had turned face) won the big title at WrestleMania IV, and he held it for a year before dropping it to Hogan (and I must have been the only one of my friends who wanted Savage to win).  Up until The Rock debuted in 1996, no one could cut a promo like Savage.  I stopped paying attention to the Macho Man after he left for WCW in 1994 (ish), but I’ve always enjoyed watching his old matches and promos.

This afternoon, I found out (via Twitter) that Randy Savage died.  It surprised me.  But even more surprising was the outpouring on Twitter and FaceBook.  Not just from friends and others in my generation, but even from other entertainers, such as tweets from Andy Richter and Weird Al Yankovic mentioning the Macho Man.

This afternoon, I caught some YouTube clips of Savage.  He’s still entertaining, whether he’s comparing Ricky Steamboat to a CUP OF COFFEE (YEAH!):

or jobbing to a hamster:

Now I Have to Watch My Mouth

Ever since Hope was born, The Civee and I have been naming her toys for her (although The Civee would probably claim that between the two of us, I do more of the naming).  We’ve tried to be creative.  Sure, she has a stuffed monkey named “Monkey,” but she also has a few friends with unconventional names.  The penguin in the picture to the left is Schmidlapp.  Hope has a stout giraffe we call “No Neck.”  And there’s some weird stuffed bear/mouse hybrid named Mouse Rat.

As you can see, Hope likes to hold on to them tightly, or walk around with them, holding them by the tail, nose or other appendage.  And without a shadow of the doubt, we can say that she knows who they are.

A few weeks ago, the three of us were hanging out, with Hope running around the living room when I said something about Schmidlapp.  Hope stopped what she was doing, walked across the room, picked up the penguin in question and brought him over to me.

My immediate thought was “oh great, now I really have to watch my mouth around Hope.”

But even though I now have to be more cautious with what I say and call things, this has been a great development.  Hope knows more than the names of many of her toys.  She can point to some of her body parts when asked.  She knows where the pictures of her cousins are in her room.

For a few months, we’ve been using some basic sign language with her. Mostly eating-related, she knows signs such as “all done,” “more” and “bib.” She’s taken well to the signs, although lately, instead of making the sign for “more” when she wants more food, she points and makes a noise similar to “mooooouhhhh.” Because her (now repaired) cleft palate meant a possible delay in speech development, Hope gets to see a speech therapist, who we meet with about once a month.

According to the speech therapist, we can count the signs Hope knows and other things she responds to as words she can “say.”  Teaching her sign language isn’t about teaching her sign language, but rather how to communicate, starting with gestures, then verbal noises and moving on to actual words.

(On a side note, we started teaching Hope the signs before meeting with the speech therapist.  When we told the therapist which signs Hope knew, she questioned why we would want Hope to know the sign for “bib.”  Hope, who was walking past the therapist as she asked the question, started patting her chest- our sign for bib.)

Since the palate repair Hope has been making all sorts of new noises and sounds.  We still have to work with her to develop her muscles to get her to verbalize more.  But now that she’s actually figuring out what we’re talking about, I’m really going to have to watch what I say.

Blue at 17

It’s kind of hard to believe, but DGC records released Weezer’s first album 17 years ago today.

Although I didn’t hear it till about seven months after it’s release, it’s easily the one record/tape/CD I’ve listened to more than any other. And while Weezer has released a ton of great (and yes, a few not-so-great) songs since, the Blue Album has always been my favorite because of a combination of the songs, the way the album sounds and some other factors.

I’m not sure where I heard it, but I’ve heard musicians say that the music of their youth is the most important music to them personally (Weezer’s Rivers Cuomo even wrote one of those not-so-great songs about the music he grew up listening to and what those songs mean to him).  And I can see why.  I first heard Blue near the beginning of my senior year of high school and it’s been in my CD player (even though I don’t use that particular device on a daily basis) ever since.

Sure I know every word, but the songs still sound as fresh as the first time I heard them.  To me, Blue still rocks and is fun to listen to.  What more can you ask for out of an album?

One of the things that catapulted Weezer to music fame was their use of music videos for Undone and Buddy Holly.  Weezer has had some great official videos.  But they’ve also had some really creative fan-made videos, like this one for the most underrated song on Blue, No One Else:

May 10 is an important day for Weezer for reasons other than Blue’s release.  Their fifth album, Make Believe (which I also greatly enjoy) was released on this day in 2005. And on May 10, 2126, the crew of Betsy II will Blast Off for Nomis to save the planet from being swallowed by its sun.

I Think I Know Where Jack Bauer’s Been

One year ago, Jack Bauer was a wanted man, advised to leave the country by a President forced to declare Bauer a criminal.

Yesterday, terrorist mastermind Osama bin Laden was killed by American forces in Pakistan, reportedly the victim of getting shot in the face.

In all seriousness, this is some good news for the United States and thank you to all the servicemen and women who protect our country.