Scorsese + Stones = new doc

Joe sent me this trailer for a new Stones documentary filmed by Martin Scorsese called Shine a Light. Sounds and looks like it'll be really cool!

Whole new world

Today, Jane turned 15 weeks old (I'll be happy when I can stop counting in weeks... maybe I can do that now?) and started her first day of daycare. We're doing a nanny share with a family who lives in our 'hood. It seemed like a pretty good situation when we first discovered/heard about it, and so far we like the nanny. Liz was very worried and stressed about Jane starting daycare, plus she went back to work today too. So, this is a new twist on being new parents that we're sorting through. But Liz, as always, has been very focused on this and has just about thought of everything in order to keep things from falling apart. And for that, I'm very thankful. Liz has been focused on Jane and being a (great) mom, and I've been tyring my best to be a helpful dad and husband.

But the baby thing continues to open our eyes to a whole new world. Now as parents we have to worry about China. Not China as in "those commie reds," but China as in "that country that supplies the US (world?) with baby products." Seriously, seemingly every baby product we own -- from toys to clothes and everything else except our bottles -- are produced in China. And now that China has demonstrated that their standards for quality control are not the greatest, we've got to worry like crazy people whether our baby is exposed to all sorts of bad stuff. I knew I was signing up for (partly) a lifetime of worry by having a baby, but this is some serious modern-day worrying. Sure doesn't seem like the garden-variety worrying my parents did (eg, out past curfew, did he dress himself properly today, etc.).

Now I pay attention to all sorts of parent/child-related content on the web... such as this, uh, interesting story about people reserving domain names for their kids. Who knew? Not me. But in this case, I don't think I'll be reserving a domain for Jane. That just seems a bit excessive.

Missing: Megan Elizabeth Welch

UPDATE, 8/19: Megan has been found. Thanks to everyone who helped out.

I wanted to help spread a message from my sister in law that her step-sister has been missing since Mon, Aug 13. Here are the details, including a picture. Please help if you are able.

Name MEGAN ELIZABETH WELCH
DOB March 10, 1993
Height 5 ft. 6 in.
Weight 140 lb.
Hair Light brown, short
Eyes Hazel
Others Freckles and wears braces
Scars Chicken pox scar under right eye
Wearing when last seen:
Jean shorts and tank top (unknown color), Silver earrings, pierced and a Star of David necklace, White watch and flip flops

Picture attached was just taken last week.

Note: Megan takes several medications and has not had any since Monday morning.

Last seen Monday, August 13th about 3 PM in Laurel, Howard County, MD.

If seen, please call Howard County Juvenile Dispatch 410-313-2620

What's new?

Things have been busy around here lately... The weekend was a full one as usual. Well, maybe not full exactly, but with the baby, time seems to evaporate. I spent some time working on the yard over the weekend. Yardwork is not my idea of a good time. Mowing the lawn is not something I look forward to in the least. Weeding the backyard so my property value don't drop like a stone does not make me smile. But I did it. At least it wasn't a thousand degrees like earlier this week.

On the topic of work, I was offered and accepted a new position within our newly re-orged department. It's a promotion, which is really nice. So I'm pretty happy about the way that turned out. But even at the last minute, I was contemplating taking the package. In the end though, I think this is the best move for me at this point in time. Should be a busy period from now until maybe the end of the year though. We've got a lot to work through while we transition work from people who are leaving, and most people who are staying will have new responsibilites to pick up. And it looks like we'll be shorthanded until all the positions are filled. Should be fun! I'm just glad things are settled for me, and now I can move on.

On a sad note, I sold my Miata today at Carmax. I've had that car for 11 yrs, and it was the best car I've ever owned, hands down. It was certainly impractical, but, man, it was a lot of fun to drive! Like driving a go kart. I kinda regret that I didn't do some fun drives leading up to this weekend, but time did not allow for it. I drove it to work a bit this past week, but only was able to drive it twice this weekend: once to pick up some Chinese for dinner on Sat and then the drive today to Carmax. Wished I could've driven it more over the weekend since it was so nice. When I drove it up to Carmax today, we video'd my final "approach" (ie, me getting in the car, putting the top down, and turning it on). I put on The Great Twenty-Eight by Chuck Berry and hit the road. I figured that was a fitting way to say goodbye. And then I got up there, they gave me a check (after a coupla hours of waiting -- it was busy there), and we were on our way. Still a little bummed, but I couldn't keep it forever! We've def had a lot of change going on this year: new baby, new house, new car, sold old car, new job... I need some dramamine! I don't think we have enough going on right now... let's see, what could I do to make some things happen around here?? Eh, nope, this is enough for me... Life is good.

The last bit of info is that our nephew Isaac is coming down tomorrow for the week -- he'll be leaving on Sat. So we're excited about that! I haven't seen him since Jan, and he hasn't been down here since last summer. He's excited to meet Jane, and visit w/ Grandma, Grandpa, Uncle Greg, Aunt Dena and his cousin Mason. Hopefully, I'll have some pictures of his visit to post when he heads back home to NYC. Getting his travel arrangements worked out has been a bit difficult, but I think everything will work out. We're excited to see him.

Benefit for John Stabb

Recently, John Stabb from Government Issue got severely beaten up near his home in MD. On dcist.com, there's now information about a benefit concert for him tomorrow night at the Velvet Lounge. I think when we were kids we saw GI more than any other harDCore band around. Mostly because they played like crazy. But they're a big piece of my teenage years (and beyond).

Velvet Lounge to Host John Stabb Benefit Show

GI on youtube.com

Jane at 12 weeks

This past Wed (8/1), Jane hit the 12 week mark. So now at 3 months, her lifetime achievements include meeting her great grandmother, continuing to add OZ's (altho she's still small compared to other babies her age), smiling a *lot*, sleeping for 5-6 hr stretches at night, and shrieking happily while watching the mobile in her crib. So, life with Jane is good. She's starting to show some hints of personality now. It's still tough at times, but it's much easier and more enjoyable compared with 1 or 2 months ago. Here are the latest pics:

View Slideshow

Old video but still very funny

This is via dcist.com, but it's pretty funny (and very real). It's a clip of WRC news anchor Jim Vance laughing uncontrollably during a news piece about fashion models. Hearing people laugh like that just makes me laugh. Reminds me of the old Carol Burnett shows where they would lose it while doing their skits. Loved that!

glumbert.com - News anchors can't stop laughing at falling model

NoTV

Apparently our DirecTV receiver has died on us. It happened over the weekend. Once we realized we weren't gonna get any TV reception, we rolled through our Netflix DVDs we had at home: Weeds (season 1), The Machinist, and Children of Men. We don't get Showtime so we don't watch Weeds usually, but I had heard it was good and it turned out "they" were right! It's a funny show. The Machinist was also good. It's kinda in the same vein as Memento, which I loved. Christian Bale is the protagonist, and he dropped a bunch of weight for this movie. Boy, does he look unbelievably freakish. I'd recommend that one.

Children of Men was not nearly as good as I had hoped it would be. I really wanted to like it, but in the end it left me cold. I usually go for the whole dystopian future kind of sci-fi movie, but this one was a little too serious. Pretentious maybe. It was well done, ie, it looked good, but I was just left thinking "eh".

But as for not having any TV, it's been kinda nice. We miss it when we're feeding Jane, for example, and would usually be watching something while she sucks down her bottle. But it's nice to not have to search and search for something -- anything -- to watch. Plus being able to listen to music or just read is nice. Liz might have a slightly different opinion since she's at home all day w/ Jane, but I think she mostly agrees. We have missed episodes of shows that we regularly watch, like Flight of the Conchords (awesome!), but they'll replay them, I'm sure. At least we didn't miss any Sopranos or the Wire!

DirecTV is shipping us a new receiver for free, which is nice. It's a DirecTV DVR, not a Tivo receiver, which is what we had before. So I'm a little wary of the non-Tivo, but I'm sure it'll be fine. Heck, it's free.

Rock n Romp

Last Sat afternoon, we took Jane to the Rock n Romp at McGinty's in SS. RnR is a semi-regular event where local DC indie rock bands play at kid-friendly volume for kids and parents alike. Lately, it seems that most of the RnRs take place at McGinty's. My buddy James's band, J. Forte and the Secret Pop Band played this time around -- which is why we went -- as well as Greenland.

We got there at 3pm and chatted with James at the bar for a bit. There was a pretty good sized crowd there of kids and parents -- mostly bigger kids around ages 2 through maybe 5 (I dunno, not the greatest judge of kids' ages). The Secret Pop Band played first chugging through their indie pop -- good stuff! Some friends and my brother and sister in law joined us with their kids, too. Seemed like some kids were into it while others were definitely not into it. Jane ended up getting hungry after the Secret Pop Band played, so we split. I think it's a great idea to do that for parents and kids, but maybe next time we go will be when Jane's a bit older. We're so eager to start doing kid stuff that we just couldn't wait...

No Birchmere here

Apparently, as is being reported by several of the Silver Spring blogs, the deal to bring a second Birchmere here to SS is dead. I find this to be disappointing on one hand since I think it would be a feather in SS's hat to have the Birchmere here. However, I can't say that I'd go to see many shows there. In my whole life of living in this area, I have only been to the original one in Alexandria once. But you know, maybe I would go more often if it was close by. Plus I'd guess I now fit more into their demographic since I'm an oldster. Maybe I'd enjoy some nice quiet acoustic folk or bluegrass or blues. It would be easy on my ears... Eh, I don't really see that happening.

As for the rumor that the county wants a comedy club, I say I'd rather have the Birchmere. As little as I would go to the Birchmere, I would go to a comedy club less. But I guess other people would go more often to a comedy club. The county wants a tennant that generates more revenue than the Birchmere is what it sounds like it comes down to. I hope they bring in something good, but odds are I won't be spending much time at anything they bring in. This town does need some more decent bars, tho, that's for sure. But I say that about most places I live in, visit, read about, see on TV. You get the idea.

Here are a coupla links to posts from SS blogs:
Silver Spring Singular
Silver Spring Penguin

Should I stay or should I go?

The update on the job situation is I decided to reapply to several of the new positions at work. I figured this was the best thing to do for several reasons. First, I only applied for positions that if I got them would be promotions and would give me good experience and broaden my skills. Second, if I don't get offers for any of the positions I've applied for I can still take the package. So I reckon either way, I land pretty well. It was *very* tempting to just opt out and bail, but I decided that in terms of my future "career" (whatever that is), I'd put myself in a better position by trying to boost my experience. We'll see what happens...

Reality Check

A little update on life in general: got a lot going on at the moment. It is beyond great to have Jane here now, and she's getting so big. We're all adjusting to each other I think, and the past 9 weeks have not been without their challenges and stressed out periods. But I guess that's probably just life w/ a newborn. Once Jane started gaining weight in earnest, we thought "well, we should be good to go -- hurdle hurdled." Jane sez, "not so fast." She's been showing some signs of acid reflux altho the doc says that it's not full blown. Whether it is reflux (I'm not completely convinced) or whether it's just garden variety gas, the bottom line is she has periods of extreme fussiness/discomfort where she will not sleep or let us lay her down. But on the plus side, Jane's way more alert now and her expressions are very funny sometimes. I say "we" have to deal w/ her fussiness, but it's actually Liz who is bearing the brunt of the cranky baby. I feel badly about it, but I gots to go to work.

Speaking of work, there's a bunch of stuff going on. Causing a bit of stress. Big decisions to make. My department's management just announced a big re-org/realignment/whatever on Tuesday. What it comes down to is whether I want to stay or whether I want to take a severance package. The packages are pretty generous, but I've got this life situation now -- baby! -- that doesn't allow me to be too cavalier about what I do. So I'm not sure whether to roll the dice and take the package or stay at the company. Oh yea, I gotta decide before midnight this coming Tuesday. Ugh.

And I'm putting some pressure on myself to get a car very soon. I currently have an old two seater (Miata), and that just ain't gonna work out w/ aforementioned life situation -- baby! We're looking at small SUVs, but I think I'm going w/ a Honda CRV, most likely a used one. There seem to be a lot of features and it gets pretty decent mileage. We're looking at the CRV type cars because we also need room for Lucy in the back. The drop dead deadline for the car purchase is mid August when Liz goes back to work. At that point I've got to have the ability to put Jane in my car. I'll be a little sad to get rid of my car, but all things must pass. I've had it for 11 years, and it has been great to me.

So, that's the update at the moment. I'm sure there are other things that need getting done (our yard is turning into a weed species showcase), but for now I'm only doing the important stuff. In fact I barely made time to write this.

LightningPod

Apparently, there are many stories of people getting struck by lightning while using their iPods... that's a little scary. According to the article, if there's lightning even close by, there's a chance the devices could become receptors because they're made of metal.

Experts warn of lightning-strike injuries with iPods

Jane at 8 weeks

Here are some pix of Jane in the weeks between 4 and 8 weeks old. She turned 8 weeks on July 4 and rang it in at Rehoboth listening to fireworks (she was inside). While I was looking at some of the pictures at the beginning of the slideshow, it's clear how old they are because she's already gotten much bigger than that. Seems like she literally changes every few days... maybe I've said that before. I'll probably say it again. Anyway, she has really put on weight compared w/ 4 weeks ago, and we're really happy about that. So far the consensus seems to be that she looks most like me. I can see that, but I think Jane is showing more of Liz as she gets older. You be the judge!

Also, as you'll be able to tell, I have discovered the super close up feature on my camera. There are a lot of close up shots. A lot. So, please enjoy...

View slideshow

Rock History + Maps!!

What could be better?? I can't think of any better combination than rock history and the new street view Google maps. It caught my eye, anyway... I've already sent the link to pretty much everybody (all 3 people) who reads this blog, but I thought I'd post it anyway.

Sixty-Second Rock and Roll Tour at rollingstone.com

Government Issue

GI is waaay under-represented on youtube. This is from an '88 show at Maxwell's in Hoboken, NJ. 2 songs.

Minor Threat

Live from 930 (?), circa '82 (?).

Marginal Man

Live from GWU, '85. Posted to youtube by Mr. Kenny Inouye.

Rites of Spring

Live from 9:30, '85.

Dag Nasty

Live at 9:30 circa '84 (?) w/ original singer, Sean Brown.