Happy Birthday to Woo

My wittle wucy turned 4 on Friday. On 4/4 she turned 4. We decided to be good examples to Abigail and Grace, cementing the good attitudes they are sure to have toward education, by taking them out of school on Friday to go to the zoo. Julie was sure that Friday would be much less crowded than Saturday. Seeing the 10,000 or so elementary students changed her mind. Luckily they didn’t stay much past noon.The sun was intense (it is the desert after all), but we were somewhat prepared for it. What I certainly was not prepared for was shelling out $16 for 2 ICEEs and a frozen lemonade. So much for saving money by bringing our own lunches.

The girls really enjoyed the zoo. The highlights were the petting zoo and the monkey enclosure. I had never been through it before. You literally go inside this exhibit and are walking around with these spider monkeys. They have the walkway sort of chained off, but the zoo folks that are in there with you encourage you not to touch. Because the monkeys touch. And who knows what else they touch. In these photos the monkeys were probably less than 5 feet away. Luckily I didn’t get unmentionables thrown at me.

they kept running past

pretty close to the monkeys

Lucy wouldn’t let us leave the zoo without experiencing that all-time favorite zoo exhibit, the carousel. Unfortunately I had spent $16 for hydration, so I only had money for 2 of them. Abigail was good to let Grace go in.

on the carousel

The petting zoo took me back a few years to when I would go there as a kid with my grade school classes. There was always some idiot kid who would try to ride, poke, push, or otherwise annoy the poor animals. And 25 or so years on proved that the tradition holds true. This one kid had a good time pulling tails. And when I say he pulled their tails, I mean he grasped the tails with his might, lifted them up as best he could, and they held on for dear life as the animal tried to run away. Julie decided she had had enough when the kid started choking the goat with his bare hands. Of course they didn’t react too well to Gwenyth approaching with a “brush” either:

this goat was trying to hide from Abby & Gwen

They seemed to take a little better to Grace:

I think she brushed every one of the goats

Somehow I was able to navigate traffic back to Arrowhead without falling asleep. Who knew that watching lions and tigers and bears (oh my!) could be so tiring? Maybe it was the lions and tigers and bears that I left the zoo with. Hmmm. We picked up the ice cream cake that Julie ordered from Baskin Robbins, they we went over to Fuddruckers for some good grease. Lucy really had a great time and seemed happy.

How did you know, Denise?

I love how she's holding the butterfly net like flowers

everyone wanted in on the action

We spent the rest of the weekend painting a few walls. Twice. The first was a little too Big Bird. It sort of reminded me of a restaurant in Tijuana. So we toned it down a bit. I’m afraid that it was just the beginning of the projects to come. Lots to finish.

I’ve been putting in some insane hours lately. We just went live with a project early this morning. So if you have a new rebate with Apple or you are needing to check the status of your recent rebate with Apple, it will hit software that I wrote. Very exciting.

Somehow the advent of the nuclear summer keeps getting pushed back. I can’t remember a spring as nice as this one. I’d better stop talking about it before I jinx us all.

More pictures here: http://www.flickr.com/photos/midder/

Color Correction

We watch lots of HGTV at our house. Julie especially likes watching Divine Design with Candice Olson. She’s got some amazing designs. My favorite show is Color Correction, with that “designer” that used to be on Extreme Home Makeover, Constance Ramos. I enjoy it in much the same way that I would enjoy watching a train wreck. It’s so bad that you just can’t turn away, though at the same time you cringe every time she displays one of her designs. It helps me harken back to the time when I first heard Aaron Neville sing. I remember thinking, in all seriousness, “Oh that’s nice. They let a . . . boy sing.” (By the way, I worked on that sentence for quite a while. The truth is that you just can’t say that in any way that’s PC. So I just said it. Apologies.) So it is with Constance: “Oh that’s nice. They let a color blind, tacky designer loose on HGTV.”

She’s a little OCD about her “palette” that she makes the poor saps who signed up to be on the show use. It’s purple, light purple, dark purple, and then some God-awful bright orange/yellow color that she dreams up. She thinks that particle board is crown molding; spray paint is for glass knick-knacks; and “art” is putting some little thing in the middle of a board, putting it on the wall, and show-casing it with the tackiest bright brass accent lamp that you’ve ever seen. It is truly unbelievable. I am absolutely floored that this woman has a show on television. It certainly is all about her. Somehow she comes out with 37 different outfits in a 30 minute show. Unbelievable.

The first episode we saw is highlighted below. The first picture is the “before.”

hccor204-before-living-room_w609.jpg

Notice the standard screen door above, with the standard vertical blinds (what else are you going to do with those doors, really?). Below is (seriously) the “after” shot. I think I honestly heard the “carpenter” say something like: “And, if you ever want to go outside, you just pull this board off of the velcro that’s holding it up, and you just go outside!” !!!!?!?!? Yeah, and then you just throw the piece of board off to the side, ignore the cheesy rope lights hanging out, and make your way outside. But, hey, at least you’ve got “balance” on that wall and some “custom” art pieces. Unbelievable.

hccor204-after-living-room_w609.jpg

This is the before shot of the dining room.

hccor204-before-dining-room_w609.jpg

Notice the “crown moulding,” the custom crap (there’s just no other word for it) wrapping the stairs, and the very hip, stylish wallpaper in this lovely “after” shot.

hccor204-after-dining-room_w609.jpg

I leave you tonight with a close-up of the “custom” artwork on the wall. You should have seen the faces of these poor people when the big “reveal” happened. I hear the bank is demanding the loan be paid in full immediately because that house will never sell, even when the real estate market rebounds in 2060.

hccor204-wooden-frame_w609.jpg

Spring break, bonfires, and birthdays

The girls had their spring break last week. It of course coincided with a horrendous week for me at work, so we were never able to go out and do all of the stuff we had hoped to. But the girls did have a “late night” with their friends, we went up to the White Tanks for some hot dogs and smores, and got to go swimming yet again. Mixed in there somewhere we were able to celebrate Gwenyth’s 2nd birthday a few times.

Last Friday night, we piled in the trusty van and headed out to the White Tank mountains. I spent the better part of that afternoon in the hunting and gathering mode. I hunted and gathered firewood from over in Marley Park. They had just planted a bunch of fairly big trees, so there were broken tree boxes all over the place. Those, along with some pallet-looking things that I pulled out of the dumpsters, served us well for firewood. I thought we had enough to burn for 3 outings, but we ended up burning it all in the one trip. Of course I am a pyro. Not sure if that had anything to do with it. I heard the next day that some folks swore that they saw another version of the “Phoenix Lights” that night. I don’t have the heart to tell them that it was just my bonfire at the White Tanks. Enjoy the picture of Lucy posing on her 3rd trip to the toilet (nice facilities, by the way! All of you Maricopa county residents can rest assured that your tax dollars have been well spent!).

All the kiddos

Gwen & mom

bonfire

I have no words

Saturday was actually Gwenyth’s birthday. We chose to let our friends throw a party for their little guy, Jackson. We haven’t said this out loud to each other, but I get the feeling that it’s because we knew that they would throw a better party than we would, and we didn’t want to miss out. They started heating their pool on Wednesday or so, to ensure that the temperature would be tolerable by noon on Saturday. Indeed it was great. I’m afraid that their gas bill may put a damper in their vacation plans this summer. Regardless, the girls were able to swim without fear of pneumonia. At least not until they got out of the water. It was a bit cool and windy on Saturday.

Jackson's birthday same day as Gwen

all the kids

Gwen in tube

got to keep the sunglasses

Tonight we officially celebrated Gwen’s 2nd birthday. We invited Grandma and Grandpa Elcock and great-Grandma Eslin out for a low-key evening. We went to Outback where Gwenyth got (what else?) “chicken noggats.” We came back home and opened up the loot and had a good time. She finally got her own little big wheel. I cannot believe that little Gwenny is 2!

Oh boy!

Here we go

More presents

Cake time

We love you big 2

Finally, Julie couldn’t believe the similarities in these 2 photos. See if you can guess who is who.

Julie Age 2

Gwen age 2

http://www.flickr.com/photos/midder/