Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays

I just wanted to wish everyone a Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays to you and yours. May you be blessed with the love and company of friends and family, and may you all be blessed with a wonderful year in 2008.

Keep an eye on http://www.inatree.org and http://www.frugalmom.org in 2008.

Cheers,

Brandon, Jessica, Aiden, and baby!

I would like to note.

I would like to take a moment to note that the woman below is an amazing, beautiful, and talented person.

I am lucky to have her as my wife.

That is all.

Ketchup is not an Entree, or a beverage for that matter.

However, I have a 2 year old boy who would completely disagree with that statement. Aiden has more interest in eating ketchup than he does in just about anything else. It is somewhat amusing at times, but it can get gross too. I, like any other red blooded American loves ketchup on things such as burgers, hotdogs and French fries, but not nearly to the extent that Aiden does. He will pretty much eat anything if I let him smother it, or dunk it in ketchup. I even caught him dipping a banana in it, but today was interesting. It’s Officially Thanksgiving day, but I was supposed to be working, instead I am at home, on call. So I made breakfast for us this morning, nothing too fantastic, just some waffles and sausage. I was hoping not to introduce ketchup to the table because both of these foods are highly acceptable (to me, and Aiden) without ketchup. However, Brandon thought otherwise, and decided her wanted ketchup for his sausage (gross, right?) Aiden saw it and insisted on having some as well, but he didn’t stop at ketchup on the sausage, he wanted it all over his waffles, and then when there was a bit left o the plate he proceeded to dunk his fingers in it ad suck it off. You think this is getting gross, just wait until lunch.

So for lunch Aiden had veggie corndogs, with ketchup of course, and some steamed baby carrots on the side. I advised him to dunk his little corndogs in the ketchup, which of course he would have done without my prompting, but when he finished them he was on to the carrots. He started out just gingerly dunking them and sucking off the ketchup to dunk again. I saw no harm in this and went about loading the dishwasher, it had been several minutes now and he wasn’t, to my surprise, antsy to get down. So I asked him if he had finished yet. I looked at his face and he had the ketchup ramikan up against his mouth and chin and he was drinking/licking out all the ketchup. It was everywhere, his face was coated, and it was even all over his neck! YUCK!!!!! This is something my brother David would have done as a child (or maybe he still does?) I am thinking it’s a boy thing. We’ll see if our next little one likes Ketchup as much as her big brother does!

Happy Thanksgiving to all!

John Mayer

So I love John Mayer (his looks and his music) I love his style and he new album Continuum is FABULOUS!!! My husband got it for me because he knows how much I love John Mayer. The latest single is called “dreaming with a broken heart” which is a bit of a sad love song. It’s Hilarious because whenever I am in the car and it comes on naturally I turn up the volume a little. Aiden is usually in the car with me and he has picked up on some of the lyrics. He is quite the little singer. (He knows row row row your boat, and Old MacDonald had a farm) I never intentionally taught him this John Mayer song, but whenever it comes on he sings along, it’s is about the cutest thing ever. There is a line in the song that says “cause you’re gone, gone, gone, gone, gone” This is Aiden’s favorite line, he never misses the chance to sing “gone” and he always does it 5 times (which is right!) it’s so cute!

Brandon is now tracking the traffic our site receives which is actually kind of fun. We can look to see what kind of search will give them our site as a “hit” Many of you might remember my post early this year about pubic hair. If you have read it you most likely have not forgotten it, if you haven’t, give it a go, it’s funny!
http://www.burtonbowman.com/2007/01/23/just-another-day-in-labor-and-delivery/
That’s the link to it. Apparently our site gets most of it’s traffic because of that post, if you Google “Labor and Delivery shaving” My post is at the top! Crazy, huh? I didn’t realize how concerned people were, but trust me, if I can just raise a small amount of awareness about this important issue I will be satisfied!

New Look

Brandon and I (mostly Brandon) are re-vamping our blog, so to speak. I am the main author on the blog, but Brandon is the main administrator, so he keeps things working, and I keep them interesting. I am going to be posting a new category of posts mostly all relating to finances, and saving money. I haven’t changed my career, but saving money is a personal hobby of mine, and my husband has been encouraging me to share my knowledge with the world, or the people who read our blog, both I guess:) I would love to draw the interested of strangers, it would be fun! You know like a fan club. Anyway when you see those posts that is what they are about, basically me writing about one of my hobbies. Having a life on a budget, not necessarily a budget, but basically how to do anything cheaper. But doing it well! Anyway read the posts as they come out and you’ll get it. Also we wanted to change the way the blog looked (when I say we, I mean Brandon) But I like it. I am mostly of the mindset of if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it, Brandon enjoys renovations, so now our blog is prettier. Hope you all enjoy it, more to come.

New Pictures

So I loaded up a bunch of new pictures, these were taken at Aiden’s Birthday party, which was held on Sept 22nd (his real b-day is Sept 15th, but mommy wasn’t organizer enough to have everything together in time, so we had it a week late) We had planned on going to this great park called Burton Chase park in Marina Del Rey (right on the Marina) but the day of the party we had this flash flood thing going on, so we wound up having the party at our dry home. Aiden had a lot of fun, you will see some of our guests in these pictures as well, there are several shots of Aiden with Brandon, and the little blonde girl helping Aiden open gifts is his bff Kaitlin. She turned 2 just a couple weeks before Aiden did. Her mom and dad are in some photos and they are Alona and Marc, there is also Madi, Laura, Laura’s mom, Chris and Lori, Claude and Denize, and Greg and Ethan. Aiden had a great time opening gifts although he seemed a bit overwhelmed. Holidays and Birthdays are a lot more fun with little ones though, they get so excited about everything!

Today we went to a portrait studio and had some posed pictures of Aiden done, I will have the proofs online in a few days, they turned out pretty cute, he had on a regular outfit and then a Monkey costume which was completely adorable! He hated it though, he was so afraid of the studio. He had to see his pediatrician recently and I think he was thinking he was back again, because he had a mini panic attack! You can see the leftover tears in some of his pictures, it about broke my heart. The photographer was great though, and so patient with him. I was very impressed. Brandon’s Grandmothers have been requesting “real”photos of Aiden, so I needed to get them done. So please enjoy these and check back next week, there will be more!

Called

So it’s 0430 and I am actually writing this from work. I have been working nights short term the last few weeks and completely hating it! But I will go back to days soon enough, and all will be just a nightmare inmy past. They put me on call though, but at 1:30am my phone rings… we need you to come in… blah blah blah… So here I am. Tired and cranky, and hating every minute of working nightshift. So My family had a nice busy weekend, My husbands mother, Judy, and her new husband Kelly and Brandon’s brother Matt were here for the weekend, so we spent our timw with them, showing them around LA, but mostly just hanging out. Funny story though, here goes.

Last night (Sunday night) we decided to go to the Santa Monica Pier for dinner at Bubba Gump shrimp company (yes like the movie FOrrest Gump) and after dinner as we were heading back toward the car, I see no other, but, yes, wait for it. Britney Spears. Crazy huh? No kids, no K-fed, just her and some girlfriends. No shutterbugs at the time either. No one noticed her but me, I looked her right in the face and was like, oh yeah, that’s her. Then I proceeded to tell Brandon, who was surprise how “chunky” she had gotten. She has been under a lot of scrutiny lately for the care (or lack of) of her sons Sean and Jayden. Apparently she gives them coca-cola in their bottles, among the other numerous things she has been sighted for. I feel kinda bad for her, she looked really bad, and her skin close up is terrible!! Her wig was a bit ill-fitting as well, but what can you do? So it’s a nice little bit of notoriety for Brandon’s family as they head back to ole SD, they got to see (sort of) a big time celeb. Excuse me for all the typos and mispellings, it’s 4:30 in the morning, plus there doesn’t appear to be a spell checker on this, so bear with me.

Other than that Brandon, Aiden and myself are continuing to lead boring lives, with the Britney Spears episode being the exception (wow, we need to get out more!) Any offers for babysitting will be gladly accepted!

Vanessa Carlton

So last night Brandon and I trekked through West Hollywood to walk to the Roxy theatre to see Vanessa Carlton. People my age will remember her with that song 1000 miles, and if it doesn’t immediately come to mind when you hear the unmistakable intro on the piano you will surely know who she is. She kinda dropped off the map for a while, but she has a new album coming out this fall and she is out promoting it. I entered a contest and won tickets to see her which was pretty great, because I absolutely LOVE free stuff. (hey I am only being honest, and who doesn’t like free stuff?) I didn’t really know what to expect seeing as though she has been in hiding for some time, but her music is just as amazing as I remember. I bought her CD be not nobody like 6 or 7 years ago, and I always liked how talented she was both vocally and on the Piano, she is really quite amazing. So we went to the concert and she had a surprise guess, none other than Stevie Nicks. WOW what a legend, she even sang with Vanessa. I know she is a little before my time (OK a LOT before my time) but that doesn’t change the fact that she was a groundbreaking female artist of her time (Think “Landslide” before the Dixie Chicks did a cover, THAT is Stevie Nicks) The concert was sold out, wall to wall general admission, standing room only, so we were a bit crowded and we smelled like moldy cheese when we came home, but it was totally worth it!!!!

http://youtube.com/watch?v=XIQtLAk8OWk
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dTIjuhjsagQ&NR=1

so check out this clip, it’s Vanessa and Stevie singing “The One” For that matter if you forgot about Vanessa Carlton just type her name in Youtube.com and your memory will be refreshed. SO check out the clips, they are great!!!

In new news, Aiden is now 22 months and obsessed with Elmo, and newly interested in curious george cartoons. I think most of you know that we don’t own a television at all, so we occasionally allow Aiden to watch clips of Elmo on youtube.com he loves it, infact he loves it a little too much, we may have to get rid of the laptops as well (right… like that would EVER happen) Brandon and I are busy and enjoying our summer, we need to get to the beach a little more though I think. This weekend sounds good, I love to swim in the ocean. Aiden is also learning to swim which has been fun for me, and a little scary for Brandon. We take hi to the YMCA usually at least 1 time a week. he has a little life jacket and if he wears it he can swim all night without help, but without it he can swim too, pull himself to the edge and get out. But mostly he loves to climb out and jump in to make a big splash. He is somewhat fearless, but he knows his limits. Brandon and I have been truly blessed with an amazing child. Hope your summer isn’t going by too quickly!!!

Music, 300, and Web 2.0

Hi Folks,

It has been a while since I posted, I never really got into the habit and even was long out of the habit on my tech/geek blog, so it has been a while. But since I recently relaunched my tech/geek blog, I decided I would try to post more often over here too.

Music

Do you ever find a band that just grabs you, their sound is awesome, and their lyrics speak to you?

I recently discovered a band called Bayside that is all of that for me. As you can see from my Last.FM Profile, I have been listening to them a lot.

I encourage you to check them out and if you like them, pick up their latest album on iTunes

300

If you haven’t seen the movie 300, you should. If you don’t know what it is about go here and watch Trailer 2.

300 is a movie adaption of the graphic novel by Frank Miller, if you’ve seen Sin City, then you know how amazing Frank Miller’s work can be, when brought to the big screen. The movie chronicles the story of King Leonidis of Sparta and 300 Spartan soldiers who make a stand against the invading Persian Army, led by King Xerces I of Persia. As the movie is an adaption of the graphic novel, both have taken some liberties with the actual history, as the story is based on true historical events, but in my opinion as a history student, the liberties taken are no more than any play or opera would take.

I’ve seen the movie twice at the local IMAX theatre (if you have an IMAX available then DEFINANTLY see if there). The movie is graphically stunning and very moving, I think that it will be my favorite movie of 2007, by far, and in many ways, sets a new bar for movie adaptions of graphic novels and comic books. So I’ll leave this topic with two things.

1. GO SEE THE MOVIE!
2. “There’s no reason we can’t be civil” –King Leonidis

Web 2.0

I thought I’d take a minute to go over some of the fun Web 2.0 type sites and services that have caught my eye and suck up my time. I personally blame my friend Bwana McCall for any time wasted, as he draws my attention to most of these, and hops on every new Web 2.0 thing that comes out.

First is Last.FM, last.fm is a social networking site that focuses around Music. There is a plugin for iTunes on Windows called iScroggler (there is iScrobbler for the Mac) that will automatically report what you are listening to, to your last.fm profile and last.fm generates statistics of what you are listening to. It can also tell who has similar tastes in music to you, what they are listening to, and will try to recommend bands you may like. So it can be a fun way to find new music or people with similar musical tastes. Right now I mainly use it keep track of what I have been listening to and give people a passive way to view said information.

Second is Twitter, Twitter is a sort of “online presence” mashup. It let’s you constantly update your profile with whatever the hell you are doing, your “presence.” Some people call it an “away message on steriods.” Merlin Mann of 43 Folders and MacBreak Weekly (both of which are awesome) refers to this as part of the online phenomonon of “personality spamming.” I’d seen Bwana using it and had heard rumblings about it around the Internets and in podcasts and decided to start using it. It is pretty amusing, and a fun way to just throw up little blurbs about what you are doing, for those times when you want someone to know, but don’t have any who’s attention you can quickly grab. You can see my Twitter profile and get another little glimpse into my life.

Finally, there is Mugshot, this service is sponsored by Redhat and is open source, which is good! It is meant to be an aggregator of all your various online “identities.” I’ve only started playing with it today, and am not sure what I think of it yet, but I’ll post a more detailed review in a couple weeks when I’ve had a chance to get to know it better.

Talk, talk, talking

Aiden’s language has really taken off lately he says more than double the “normal” amount of words for his age. Of course it helps to have such a smart (and modest) mommy. He is pretty taken with his babysitter’s pets. She has a cat named bobby and a fish named bubble. So when Aiden comes home it’s bubble and bobby, it’s pretty cute. He sometimes says Bobby, and sometimes says kitty. However kitty doesn’t really sounds exactly like kitty, it comes out a little like titty. This is slightly amusing, in public (like today when Aiden and I went to target) Aiden was sitting like a big boy in the cart and saying “titty mommy, titty” (he saw a toy cat) well not everyone can understand what he is saying, Ok well maybe they were misinterpreting it. Aiden was breastfed, but when he was 13 months old (3 months ago) we both decided we had had enough. But when he’s asking for titty in target it doesn’t really seem that way to onlookers. Not that I have a problem with toddler breastfeeding, but the way he says it. I’ll admit that I used to call them boobies, but that was before he could talk. I guess it could be worse, huh?

I was reading some articles on “lactivists” these are people who advocate for public breastfeeding. I guess there have been some pretty heated debates. They never happen here in West LA, in fact if you have the “nerve” to give your baby formula you might as well be blowing smoke in their faces while beating them in your rat infested cardboard box. The hospital where I work has a very high status type of clientele, and according to studies on breastfeeding women with higher education and make more money are far more likely to breastfeed. Seems funny, you don’t have any money for your rent, but instead of breastfeeding you buy formula? Doesn’t make much sense to me. I understand sometimes it is impossible to breastfeed which is why formula should be readily available. It just seems so weird to me that a stay at home mom would chose otherwise. Ok so there was my shameless plug. Oh, and BTW I HATE teaching women who know everything to breastfeed. I have to act like it’s rocket science, it’s not. It’s work and it’ll take some time to learn, but it’s really not that difficult, women and babies have been doing it for thousands of years. However I hold strong to the belief that if your child has enough teeth to chew through a porterhouse, they no longer belong at the breast.