Chomp

All in the mouth
Originally uploaded by Dread Pirate Robert.

Aaw, look how big his little mouth is getting!

Milo hearts apples
Originally uploaded by Dread Pirate Robert.

Milo = Apple

Milo is the Greek word for apple and he sure loves them. They're starting to fall from the trees around here and he's become quite the little ground forager. Whenever I pick him up from the babysitter (her neighbour's apple and plum trees hang over the fence) he's got one in his hands and is happily gnawing away. Man, he gets mad when you try to take them away from him. So I don't.

Hey, not a bad photo for holding the camera at arms' length and just firing away. I love the rays of sun across his face. And yes, he ate the whole thing, though I did manage to get the stem and most of the seeds before he could gulp them down.

Milo in toyland

Man O man, Blogger's been naughty today. Anyway, last weekend we went to visit some friends and their boys, Owen and Nolan. (It's like Walker and Texas Ranger for hockey fans.) These two kids are the source of many boxes of second-hand baby clothes. That makes it time for another list:

Two lessons I've learned from the mom of two boys

1. You need a lot of clothes.
2. After two very active boys, you want to give all your baby clothes away because you're pretty damn sure you're not having another one

Owen is four now and Nolan is three so Mom and Dad have had years to accumulate toys. I think they need a bigger back yard.

Milo in toyland
Originally uploaded by Dread Pirate Robert.

Toyland or gravel?
Originally uploaded by Dread Pirate Robert.

Milo Rocks!
Originally uploaded by Dread Pirate Robert.

The most important thing I've learned today so far

Maybe I should make this into a list:

The #1 Most Important Thing I've Learned Today So Far

1. Don't shave your face with one hand while holding your coffee with the other. It will go wrong.
You will either
a) make yourself bleed
b) get stubble in your coffee
or
c)some combination of the two. (Think: bloody stubble in the coffee)

Summer Weekend

Yup, it was just about perfect. Milo got to play in kiddy pools and a sprinkler, his friend Harris came to visit, we went to the park and on lots of walks, he ate watermelon, pears, and plums, his naps were long, and he was in superhappy adorable mode the whole weekend. Mommy and Daddy even got some good snuggling time too, plus some lounging-around-drinking-beer time.

And for some reason, his jean shorts get looser as they get dirtier. As you can see here, he was in full-on plumber mode by about 6pm.

More on the Stephen Colbert Bridge...

As I've mentioned before, a web site in Hungary is having an online vote to name a new bridge. Stephen Colbert, Hero, went from under 2000 votes to more than 400,000 in one day -- and the votes are still coming!

However, navigation in Hungarian can be a little tricky, so here is without a doubt the simplest way to vote, vote, and vote some more!

Apparently Blackwind, a fellow Canadian and contributor to the Colbert Nation message boards, has whipped up a little C++ doohickey that makes the voting easier...

Here's a set-it-and-forget-it program to aid with the bridge campaign. I've written it in C++ to ensure that it'll run on all machines without the download of additional dependencies. Note that C++ isn't my language of choice, so a bug or two may have slipped under my radar. If problems arise, I'll try to fix them in a timely fashion.

http://www.xenostasis.com/junk/bridge.zip (12KB download)

Instructions: Unzip it, run it!

And there you have it! Soar like an eagle, my friends, on the wings of truthiness.

Man, I hate those Comment Spam monkeys...

All right, comment spammers, you've forced me to do it.

Today I had to delete about fifty crappy comments -- fully half of them were "Here are some links that I believe will be interested..." NO! I don't find them interested! And teach your crappy comment bot how to spell check!

From now on, my beloved readers will have to type in a few characters of meaningless gobbledegook (although I had to type in "boobles" once...) before they can comment on this blog.

I'm sorry, but until I can press a button that automatically gives those jerkwads some form of painful festering pus-oozing disease, this'll have to do.

Here's a few of them:

Anonymous said...

Your are Excellent. And so is your site! Keep up the good work. Bookmarked.

Jerk. Like I need YOUR validation, monkey-bot. BOOKMARKED... NOT! DELETED!

Anonymous said...

Here are some links that I believe will be interested

Ha! Your grammar sucks! And so do your links! DELETED!

Anonymous said...

Your website has a useful information for beginners like me.

"A useful information for beginners?" Sure, here's a tip: Turn on comment verification to help rid your site of scum! DELETED!

Anonymous said...

Your are Nice. And so is your site! Maybe you need some more pictures. Will return in the near future.

Oh, I need some more pictures, do I? Clearly you spent some time evaluating my site before posting. And you "will return in the near future?" Don't threaten me, ya little weenie-bot! And just to show that I'm NOT nice, up yours! FIRST MOCKED, THEN DELETED!

Anonymous said...

I say briefly: Best! Useful information. Good job guys.

Not brief enough. DELETED!

Anonymous said...

This site is one of the best I have ever seen, wish I had one like this.

Yeah, you wish. You wish you had a life and a brain too. DELETED!

Anonymous said...

Interesting website with a lot of resources and detailed explanations.

Meh. Just plain crap. DA-CHEATED.

Anonymous said...

Very best site. Keep working. Will return in the near future.

Like I said, don't threaten me, bot-tard! Go find some other place to peddle your steaming piles of crap-links. DELETED!

Aah, lapsing into Strong Bad persona is so satisfying. But the boxing gloves make typing a bit slow.

Milo and Friends

Milo went to his friend Harris' birthday party on the weekend. We all had a great time and Harris, who's about a month younger than Milo but is ahead by 3 on the teeth count, was supercute.


I know that Milo is already tapped to be the boy drummer in Chloe's otherwise all-girl rock band, but Harris has the drummer genes. Maybe after Milo tires of being a 15 year old touring with twenty-something rocker chicks, he can get together with Harris for some serious collaboration.


I agree that kids need to wear their bike helmets, but won't someone design a helmet for kids that don't accentuate their already-huge heads? Seriously, this makes him look like a bobblehead. Or Marvin the Martian. Or the great Gazoo.

The Stephen Colbert Bridge

Okay, the site has been fixed. What site? The site in Hungary where you can vote for the name of a bridge.

The Chuck Norris Hid ("hid" means "bridge" in Hungarian, or so I have deduced) which was formerly leading the voting, has slipped to fifth.

And the Stephen Colbert Hid hasn't got even clost to that... so far. Vote early, and vote often. From multiple computers, if possible.

Click here, Scroll down to "Stephen Colbert hid" (It's right above the "Steven Segal hid" and the "Steve Yzerman hid" options... Man, those Hungarians have some great options!) and click on it, then go to the bottom and click the vote button -- I think it says Elkuld or something similar.

UPDATE: The kind people over at Colbert Nation have set up a link that avoids the language barrier. Plus some helpful hints on turning this vote into a New Ohio!


Oh, and Happy Firefox Day everybody! Apparenly aliens like Firefox too.

Attack of the Crab Monsters!

Well, not so much "attack" as "encounter." FYI, this post has nothing to do with the Roger Corman movie of the same name, I'm clearly just taking advantage of the exploitative title to captivate and titilate my readers. (And so I can say "titilate" more than once.)

The August long weekend at Miracle Beach.

The sun was sunny, the beach was sandy, the water was warm, and Milo was happy.


Then along came a crab. Poor critter, separated from the ocean by a sandbar... it didn't seem happy to see me. It's pretty cool how they dig themselves into the sand with their back legs.


Hey, let's show it to Milo! But don't let his fingers get too close... (If you're looking for closure, the tide came in and as far as I know, the crab survived another day.)


These little crabs are much safer. Milo was far less hesitant in trying to poke the tiny ones. Too fast and the tide's coming in.


A great afternoon at the beach. And about a minute later, we're back at home hosing Milo down and opening a beer. Heaven.

Long Weekend at the Beach

Aah, the long weekends of summer. Here in Vancouver, we get three: July 1, August 1, and the Labour Day weekend of September 5. So I guess it's two down, one to go.

Our most recent one was a resounding success. The weather was hot and sunny and we had ferry reservations so no lineup hassles.

(Aah, remember the days when you didn't need reservations? When the government ran the ferries as if it were a necessary part of the highway system and the only access to the rest of Canada for several hundred thousand residents? Now, we get privatization, corporate control, and the fleecing of the taxpayers who built the damn thing.)

But I digress. A couple hours up the highway lies Miracle Beach, and Milo's Gramma and Poppa. Comfy beds, sandy beaches, and a couple of eager babysitters.



And, of course, plenty of photo ops for the boy. Water, sand, sun, and a shell full of seawater. What could be better?

Man overboard!

Man overboard!
Originally uploaded by Dread Pirate Robert.

This is Mom's new wallpaper at work. Milo is now safe from potential drowning, although the only water near him is the dog's water dish, which he usually dumps on his pants after splashing in it for a bit.

Milo in a suitcase

Milo in a suitcase
Originally uploaded by Dread Pirate Robert.

Comfy to sit in, while it's open. Probably a little cramped when it's closed. Sigh, I guess we can't check you as luggage.

Speaking of which, can you believe that American Airlines is charging us for Milo? Even though they say that children under 2 fly for free, there's a clause for international flights that states they may charge a "nominal fee, typically less than 10%" of a full price fare for infants. Except it's not 10%, it's closer to 50%. He better get his own seat...

Milo in a basket

Milo in a basket
Originally uploaded by Dread Pirate Robert.

Hmm... Blogger photos aren't working right now, and I'm supposed to be. Before I get too busy, here are some new Milo pics!

Thank goodness Flickr is here. That reminds me... what ever happened to Fotolog?

The TV shows of our lives

I haven't done a blog meme in months... and I was curious how this would turn out. Yup, I watched a lot of TV before the boy came along and I'm a bit embarrassed by my results -- way more shows than Craig Cheslog, from whom I took this meme, or Larry Kestenbaum, the guy Craig got it from. But I think I'm younger than them, I've had access to cable all my life, I've worked in the media industry and know people who worked on several of these shows, and I used to work in places where the TV was on constantly. Yikes. Plus my wife, sister, parents, and various housemates have had some say in the matter.

Instructions: Bold all of the following TV shows which you've ever seen 3 or more episodes of in your lifetime. Bold and Italicize a show if you're positive you've seen every episode of it. If you want, add up to 3 additional shows (keep the list in alphabetical order).

24
3rd Rock from the Sun
7th Heaven
Adam-12
Aeon Flux
ALF
Alfred Hitchcock Presents
Alias
Allo Allo
American Idol /Pop Idol/Canadian Idol/Australian Idol
America's Next Top Model/Germany's Next Top Model
Angel
Arrested Development
Babylon 5
Babylon 5: Crusade
Battlestar Galactica (the old one)
Battlestar Galactica (the new one)
Baywatch
Beavis & Butthead
Beverly Hills 90210
Bewitched
Bonanza
Bones
Bosom Buddies
Boston Legal
Boy Meets World
Buffy the Vampire Slayer
Bug Juice
Chappelle's Show
Charlie's Angels
Charmed
Cheers
Columbo
Commander in Chief
Coupling
Cowboy Bebop
Crossing Jordan
CSI
CSI: Miami
CSI: NY
Curb Your Enthusiasm
Dancing with the Stars
Danny Phantom
Dark Angel
Dark Skies
Davinci's Inquest
Dawson's Creek
Dead Like Me
Deadliest Catch
Deadwood
Degrassi: The Next Generation
Designing Women
Desperate Housewives
Dharma & Greg
Different Strokes
Doctor Who (new Who)
Doctor Who (series 1-26)
Dragnet
Due South
Dungeons and Dragons (old cartoon)
Earth 2
Emergency!
Entourage
ER
Everwood
Everybody Loves Raymond
Facts of Life
Family Guy
Family Ties
Fantasy Island
Farscape
Fawlty Towers
Felicity
Firefly
Frasier
Friends
Futurama
Get Smart
Gilligan's Island
Gilmore Girls
Gomer Pyle, U.S.M.C.
Green Wing
Grey's Anatomy
Growing Pains
Gunsmoke
Happy Days
Head of the Class
Highlander
Hill Street Blues
Hogan's Heroes
Home Improvement
Homicide: Life on the Street
House
I Dream of Jeannie
I Love Lucy
Invader Zim
Invasion
Iron Chef (Japan)
Iron Chef (USA)
Hell's Kitchen
JAG
Jackass
Joey
John Doe
Kath and Kim
LA Law
Laverne and Shirley
Law and Order
Little House on the Prairie
Lizzie McGuire
Lois and Clark: The New Adventures of Superman
Lost
Lost in Space
Love, American Style
M*A*S*H
MacGyver
Magnum P.I.
Malcolm in the Middle
Married... With Children
Melrose Place
Miami Vice
Mission: Impossible
Monk
Moonlighting
Mork & Mindy
Murphy Brown
My Family
My Favorite Martian
My Life as a Dog
My Mother the Car
My So-Called Life
My Three Sons
My Two Dads
Mysterious Cities of Gold
NCIS
Night Court
Nip/Tuck
Northern Exposure
Numb3rs
One Tree Hill
Oz
Perry Mason
Picket Fences
Pirates of Darkwater
Pokemon
Power Rangers
Prison Break
Profiler
Project Runway
Psyche
Quantum Leap
Queer As Folk (US)
Queer as Folk (British)
ReGenesis
Remington Steele
Rescue Me
Road Rules
ROME
Roseanne
Roswell
Samurai Jack
Saved by the Bell
Scarecrow and Mrs. King
Scooby-Doo, Where Are You?
Scrubs
Seinfeld
Sex and the City
Six Feet Under
Slings and Arrows
Smallville
So Weird
South Park
Spaced
Spongebob Squarepants
Sports Night
Star Trek
Star Trek: The Next Generation
Star Trek: Deep Space Nine
Star Trek: Voyager
Star Trek: Enterprise
Stargate Atlantis -- New season
Stargate SG-1 -- New season
Superman
Supernatural
Surface
Survivor
Taxi
Teen Titans
Teletubbies
That 70's Show
That's So Raven
The 4400
The Addams Family
The Andy Griffith Show
The A-Team
The Avengers
The Beverly Hillbillies
The Bionic Woman
The Brady Bunch
The Colbert Report
The Cosby Show
The Daily Show
The Dead Zone
The Dick Van Dyke Show
The Flintstones
The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air
The Golden Girls
The Jetsons
The L Word
The Love Boat
The Mary Tyler Moore Show
The Mighty Boosh
The Monkees
The Munsters
The Mythbusters
The O.C.
The Office (UK)
The Office (US)
The Pretender
The Prisoner
The Real World
ROAR
The Shield
The Simpsons
The Six Million Dollar Man
The Sopranos
The Suite Life of Zack and Cody
The Twilight Zone
The Waltons
The West Wing
The Wonder Years
The X-Files
Third Watch
Three's Company
Top Gear
Twin Peaks
Twitch City
Upstairs, Downstairs
Veronica Mars
Wings
What Not To Wear (US)
What Not To Wear (UK)
Whose Line is it Anyway? (US)
Whose Line is it Anyway? (UK)
Witchblade
Will and Grace
Wonderfalls
Xena: Warrior Princess
Young Hercules

I've added Xena: Warrior Princess, The Colbert Report, and Samurai Jack. Man, that's a lot of TV. And I'll never get that Alf/7th Heaven/90210 time back.

So what about you? TV junkie? If you do this on your blog, please post a comment so we can compare results.

Just in case you're curious, Milo, who's now 13 months old, doesn't watch TV. We try to turn it off if he's around, unless it's hockey or baseball. Then we just mute it.