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a place where I is

Don't abide it.Monday night.

I’m falling asleep in my head.

You know the feeling?  Somewhere in the back of my brain, I’m already asleep.  There’s a dense, heavy rock in my skull, and it’s taking up valuable neural space I could be using to produce real-time cogent thought.  Except, I can’t; because of that sleepy rock taking up all the room.  Even if I shake my head around the rock won’t go away.  I know this means I should just give up on the evening and hit the sack; but I’m stubborn and American and, I don’t know if you heard, but we do what we want.  What?

I think I’ll go out to the woods somewhere and find a place where no one is. Through the grip of my hands and the ache of my back I’ll turn that place from a place where no one is into a place where I is. I’ll maybe dig a hole in the ground, reinforce it, and live like a hobbit. With little windows in the side of my mound-home that let in the sunlight and keep out the rain. It would smell like earth and woodsmoke inside. Or I could build a house on a platform up a tree, perched above the wilderness. There’d be a beautiful evening vista, maybe mountains and a river. It would be full of breezes and fresh air and would stand strong against the winter storms. I could take my family there; maybe to a cabin built hard against a lake, with a water wheel. We could live inside and sleep bundled up in patchwork quilts Sharaun makes out of scraps of last year’s workclothes. We could eat fresh fish and maybe wild turkey. Burn candles. Sit on the porch in rocking chairs.

Is this so much to ask?

As a young teenager, I had really bad acne.  For about two years, all through 7th and 8th grades of junior highschool, I suffered.  No, not suffered like so many around the world starving or bearing the brunt of social injustice… but the teenage kind of “suffering” caused by… pimples.  It was bad enough that even my best buddy Kyle would sometimes give me crap about my face, since he was blessed, at that age, with smooth unmarred skin.  On the whole, I didn’t let the acne bother me too much… I think I was young enough that it wasn’t the end of my social universe.  But I did hate it.  I hated it.

Sometime during the apex of my affliction, one of those lifelong kind of memories was burned into my brain:  I was laying on the couch in the living room one evening; my folks were watching TV while I rested, and obviously thought I’d fallen asleep. But, as I lay there, awake with eyes closed, I listened-in on their conversation about their sleeping child.  “His acne is really bad,” lamented my Mom.”  “Yes, it is,” said Dad.  Mom continued, “I remember how bad it was when I was his age; it must really be hard for him… I just wish it would clear up.”

The conversation continued, but the sheer pity expressed in my Mom’s voice flat-out sunk my heart.  My parents were talking about me like some terminally ill patient.  Condemned to be glimpsed through my wretched veil, apparently, they mourned for me.  Talk about a terrible conversation for a kid to hear; a real self-esteem torpedo.  I don’ t think I’ll ever forget overhearing that conversation.  Hurting themselves, feeling the hurt I had myself, I heard my folks’ personal suffering for their child’s condition.  And that, people, is what parenting is all about.

I didn’t write well, that rock of sleep is dominating… I know this could be better.  I can’t find the phrases.  Goodnight.

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same old stuff

Turning upside down.Monday.

The weekends are never long enough; this one was no exception.  Despite being jam-packed with activity, it still managed to feel too short by half.

The weather cooled off significantly Sunday, so much so that, after church, I opened the house wide to get the fresh air in.  After reneging on what would’ve been my second kids’ birthday party of the weekend, Sharaun took Keaton off and left me to the breezy Sunday afternoon.  After a nice sandwich, I settled down on the couch for a long nap while the iPod provided background.  But, that’s not why I started this paragraph.  In fact, I wrote it to talk about the weather and how it’s turning (which isn’t really happening yet, but today’s cooling got the ball rolling) gets my brain turning to the Fall.  My favorite season; Fall.

This morning Sharaun called from Ross, “Hey,” she said, “They have this big animatronic witch here, she stirs a smoking cauldron and you can speak through her with a wireless microphone.  It looks pretty cool and expensive, but they have it on sale for $60.”  I was vaguely interested, but having not seen the prop myself not quite enough to recommend a $60 purchase.  Then, later that day, after checking the mail, a Halloween costume catalog arrived.  In the catalog Sharaun found the very same witch she’d seen earlier at Ross, but retailing for $230.  Being able to see the thing in the catalog, I realized it’s actually pretty dang cool, and that $60 is a pretty hefty discount from a $230 pricetag.  So, after dinner we stopped by Ross and picked her up.  Could be an easy “gimme” prop for the year… but I still think I’m going to try and build something.  Buying props already…

Ahhh… who am I kidding.  I’ve got nothing more to write.  Good weekend, busy week, same old stuff.

Goodnight.

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two entries on the week

Close to the edge.Two entries on the week.  That’s not so good.

Sitting here listening to Yes’ Close to the Edge, one of those albums that’s about as close to a perfect album as there’ll likely ever be. Up there with Dark Side of the Moon and other luminaries, it just never gets old or ceases to be fascinating in every little note, downbeat, or Anderson-dominated harmony. If you don’t have this album, your collection is sorely lacking. Maybe one day I’ll put together a list of my top-ten “essential” albums or something; that would be totally fun and interesting… for me only. Moving on.

Today I got hit by a mini-wave of morning-time malaise… something that I’m unaccustomed to as I’m usually quite the morning person. I went through my well-rehearsed routine: Waking; heading to the water closet to evacuate and read, in order, CNN, MSNBC, the local California paper, and paper local to where we grew up in Florida; saying a small prayer of thanks for the things I have, a smaller one asking forgiveness for some of the more ridiculous things I’ve done to put those things in jeopardy, and another one as a catchall for all those among humankind who hurt and have needs (with age, these prayers, you see, don’t seem like just so much soliloquy to me anymore); stripping for the shower; dressing post-cleansing; and heading out the door after kisses for Sharaun and Keaton.

At some point in this daily dance I was struck by a gloomy thought: This is what I always do, and this is what I’ll be doing for a long time to come. Really, it shouldn’t be a gloomy thought… but this morning it seemed that way. While I consider myself far from a person prone to depression, for a flash there today I felt a little “locked-in.”  But, the moment passed almost as quickly as it alighted, and (almost) all was right with the world again.

And now I sit here in the evening, like so many other evenings, perched above the keyboard of this machine again.  I changed the music; Close to the Edge played through nearly three times and it was time to shuffle.  Playing a nice Emitt Rhodes track now, pleasant, sounds right.

Well guys, after that… time to talk Halloween.  I’ve been becoming more and more aware that I’m actually a little late getting started on my annual prop project.  I’ve already decided what I’m making this year, and even have the a parts list; I’ve just not started cobbling it all together.  Moreover, I’ve actually been a bit on the fence this year about doing our annual party.  I do this every year though; start thinking we’re too old to throw such a raucous bash, start thinking it might be nice just to decorate the house as usual and save the Halloween fun for trick-or-treating with Keaton instead of having a houseful of drunk folks.  But… in the end, upon sharing my reservations with Sharaun, she always manages to convince me to go ahead with the status quo (she’s nearly done it again this year as well…).

Before I go, I figured I’d link-drop the P4K’s recently finished weeklong feature, “The Top 500 Songs of the 2000s.”  I’ve been enjoying the list immensely; and while I don’t always agree with it (who could, at 500 tracks strong and Pitchfork’s love for freak-folk and electro-dance), I do heartily support some of the choices.  For instance, while I’d liked to have seen Amerie’s “One Thing” crest higher on the list (I love that song so hard), I do agree that Beyoncé’s “Crazy In Love” is definitely in the right sitting atop it (if you wonder why I chose those two to compare, just give each on a listen and you’ll get it).  And, as for the #1 pick… I was surprised.  Interesting, in that Sharaun has always loved that track, even more than I did (or ever have) upon first hearing it waaay back when.  I always knew she had pretty decent taste in music.  No wonder I married her.

Goodnight friends.

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disneyland!!

For real magical.Hey internet.  You still here?  Cool.  Hope you saw to things while I was away.

Hold tight, this is a seriously unreasonably long entry about our past weekend.

We spent this weekend family-style down at Disneyland.  I borrowed the mobile broadband card from work, juiced up the bluetooth, and worked from the road on Friday’s long-haul drive down south.  Rubber to the asphalt around 9am, we rolled into southern California around 6pm – with a lovely two hours of LA traffic to cap off the drive.  After a nice meal to settle us before bed, we tucked in for the night with designs for an early start to day-one in the park.

Since our time would be limited, and because I’m a huge nerd, I decided to do some online research into good ways to “attack” the park; in hopes that someone, somewhere had done some research into traffic patterns or ride wait-time statistics or something, in an attempt to make an efficient “itinerary” for the day.  Now, I know that previous statement may border on heresy to some – but rest assured I was looking to do this planning as transparently to the “fun” of the day as possible; last thing I wanted was to suck the frivolity and spontaneity from our time there.  Anyway, some quick Googling landed me on the page of some software called RideMax.  Curious, I explored.  I’ll let the product pitch write for me here:

RideMax is a computer software program guaranteed to help you save time waiting in line at Walt Disney World and Disneyland.

RideMax allows you to specify the attractions you wish to ride during your visit, then uses a sophisticated scheduling algorithm to order your attractions so that the amount of time you spend in line is minimized.

Using historical wait time statistics for each attraction as a foundation, RideMax analyzes millions of different ride sequences in order to create a minimum-wait-time itinerary. This schedule is tailored to the expected crowd patterns on the day of your visit, for the attractions you want to ride!

Well what do you know… other nerds like Disneyland too!  After some additional research on some Disney forums, I decided that, for $15, even if the application was a complete bust it would be an OK risk-buy.  So, I sprung.  Sharaun and I sat down and walked through the attractions, picking those we’d like to see in our marathon two-day visit to both Disneyland and California Adventure.  A few clicks and optimizations later, RideMax generated what looked like a plausible set of schedules, one for each of our park days.  In addition to the minute-by-minute walk-through, the software also provided a bunch of tips on things like how to get the best seats for parades, fireworks, shows, etc.  We were both a little skeptical, but figured that, at the least, we had an organized way to hit the park prepared.  So… we went with it.

Now, to our time at the park.  I think it’s best to do this going ride-by-ride, in order of our actual fifteen hour day at the park.  For posterity, I wanted to remark on how Keaton reacted to each attraction.  You, readers, get to share in my OCD-like obsessional with documenting minutiae.  Here we go:

Day One:

Story Book Land Canal Boats: We did this bright and early on day-one, and Keaton mildly enjoyed the quick boat trip around a set of miniatures.  Probably a “skip” for future visits; although she did like going into the whale’s mouth.

Alice in Wonderland: Keaton loved this one.  She’s a big fan of the movie already and so she recognized all the scenery and themes.  Probably one of her favorites.

Buzz Lightyear: Again, Keaton loved driving the little car with the joystick and shooting the targets.  Good stuff.

Peter Pan: Keaton loved flying over London and getting to see Tinkerbell.

Dumbo: Keaton had a blast on this with Dad; making our Dumbo go up and down with the switch and spinning around.  A perennial favorite.

A Small World: I think I enjoyed this more than Keaton, but she did like the song a lot and was singing along by the end.  The way they’ve integrated the characters into the different areas made a fun game for her trying to spot them all.

Teacups: Keaton adored the teacups… and wanted me to spin us faster and faster and faster.

Autopia: Underwhelming for Keaton; might be more exciting once she’s actually able to drive the car herself.  Probably a “skip” until then.

Tiki Room: I always love the Tiki Room show… and Keaton marveled at the 360° animatronics as well.  The fake thunderstorm at the end gave her a start, but she left talking about the cool birds and fountain.

Thunder Mountain: Believe it or not, Keaton did really well on this roller coaster.  She caught onto the fact that you’re supposed to scream when it’s scary and channeled all her nervous energy into making her screams count.  She was a trooper, and we think (based on our later learning) that the outdoor theme of the coaster helped a lot.

Mickey’s House: Photo-op with the Mouse; long wait but worth it for Mom and Dad…

Pixie Hollow: Meet-and-greet photo-op with Tinekrbell and another fairy.  Keaton loved meeting Tinkerbell, and the photos and video Sharaun and I took made the wait more than worthwhile for us as well.

Matterhorn Bobsleds: Keaton was terrified on this ride.  She sat with me, in my lap, and I held her close with my arms around her.  Since a lot of the ride is in darkness, and there are crazy-loud, growling yeti’s with death-red eyes popping out around corners… she really had a bad time with it.  She cried the whole time, and left us feeling like mildly bad parents for giving it a try.

Celebrate! A Street Party Parade:  We staked out some decent seats, bought some frozen lemonades, and watched the show.  Keaton sat on my shoulders and we danced the entire time.  She bopped around up there shouting “Hi!” to all the characters she recognized in the parade.  An awesome show.

Finding Nemo Submarines:  Our longest line of the day, RideMax was only able to get us down to about a forty-five minute wait (a testament to RideMax right there, being that it was our longest line-time of the entire day).  By now I think Keaton’s skittish on any ride that’s 1) dark and/or 2) loud.  She was scared on this ride at the climaxes (it is actually really loud at points), and it didn’t end up being worth the long wait for us because of it.

Winnie the Pooh:  As we walked in, Keaton’s building fear was apparent: “It’s dark!  I don’t want to go in!”  Turns out that the mildness of Pooh was just what she needed though, and it calmed her until we hit the next ride…

Haunted Mansion:  The culmination of Keaton’s fear… dark, loud, and scary to the max.  I don’t think she opened her eyes once the entire time, she was absolutely terrified; wrecked.  Instead, she buried her head in Sharaun’s lap and cried softly, while shivering… actually shivering.  If we felt kinda bad after the Matterhorn, we felt downright negligent after this one!

Pirates of the Caribbean:  A bit leery after the Haunted House, we decided to tackle Pirates anyway – despite the fact that it’s 1) dark, 2) somewhat scary.  Surprisingly, she ate this one up, and actually reveled in the little stomach-dropping flumes (she liked getting splashed a bit).  A good last ride of the day.

Fantasmic:  On the night we went, the show broke down about halfway through.  A bummer, since we had good seats after dinner in New Orleans Square.  What she saw, she totally loved.  And man, I wish we could’ve seen the whole show… it looked crazy awesome.

Fireworks: Fireworks happen in the dark.  Fireworks are loud.  Keaton watched, but she plugged her ears and complained that they “hurt” her chest (the shock of the booms, I guess).  Sharaun and I loved watching them though; a perfect cap to a perfect day.

Day Two:

Princess Faire: Meet-and-greet photo-op with three random princess characters.  By the grace of God we got Ariel, and this was probably the highlight of Keaton’s entire weekend in the park.

A Bug’s Life Show: Keaton cringed in fear at this 3D show.  The “interactive” nature of the effects, puffed-air, water spray, etc. coupled with the 3D stuff and dark, loud, theater made it unbearable for her.  We had to leave out the back just minutes after the thing started.

Heimlich’s Chew Chew: Simple and fun, Keaton enjoyed it.

Francis’ Ladybug Boogie: Teacups redux, so she enjoyed it as well.

Monsters Inc.: She really likes these ride-though things when she has the context of the movie from which the scenes are drawn.  This one was no exception, although she was scared of the “bad” monster when she spotted him lurking around one dark corner.

Flik’s Flyers: Another Dumbo-style ride, but not controllable.  Fun and well-themed, so Keaton had a good time.

King Triton’s Carousel: Merry-go-round, Little Mermaid, no-brainer.

Mickey’s Fun Wheel: Keaton and I liked this immensely, Sharaun gets freaked out on ferris wheels, especially high ones, so she clung on for dear life while we rocked the cab a bit to antagonize.

Boy; reading over that, Keaton comes off kinda wimpy…  Owell, she is a three-year-old girl 🙂

Know what I loved about our time there?  The fact that Disney takes advantage of modern technology.  At the beginning of the day, you can pickup a PhotoPass card that you carry with you throughout the day.  Whenever you see a professional photographer roaming around, they’re everywhere, especially tagging along with all the wandering characters and at the popular photo spots, you give them your card and they scan it and take your photos.  Then, instead of the old-school before-you-leave-the-park stop off at the photo place to purchase prints, you can go online up to thirty days and peruse all the professional photos taken of you and your family that day.  From the website, you can order prints, digital copies, etc.  They even do fancy Photoshop stuff for you, like on the example image I jacked from their preview site below.

Wow!

Neato!  In addition, on the Buzz Lightyear ride they snap patrons’ photos as they travel throught the attraction, not unlike most modern roller coasters.  But, at the end, instead of buying an instant print of your photo, you can look up your snapshot, enter an e-mail address on a touchscreen keyboard, and zip the thing right to yourself over the internet.  I had our picture on my iPhone as we before we even exited the ride.  Amazing.  Good lookin’ out, Disney.

Oh and you may be wondering what we thought of RideMax’s plan.  Overall, the software was well worth its $15 pricetag.

We did have a few bones to pick, namely that the software doesn’t account for things like the Disney Princess Faire and Pixie Hollow character meets – two things which are big deals for the kids and also garner big crowds and long lines (we waited about forty-five minutes for each, using the “free time” built into our RideMax schedule).  RideMax also makes educated guesses on the FastPass return times for popular rides, but if the day is just a little slower than the software predicts (as ours was), your actual return time at the point you’re supposed to grab the passes may be much sooner.  This happened to us with Splash Mountain, and we couldn’t grab the FastPass without wrecking the rest of afternoon’s lineup.  Unless you’re willing to take advantage of the “late FastPass” loophole, this could mess up your plan.

But, in the end, the wait times the software predicted were dead-on, and, although I’m not certain if it was the schedule or that we just got lucky – but it really worked for us (we weren’t the only ones either, I saw a couple other folks consulting their RideMax itineraries while standing in line).  The schedule wasn’t so rigid that it detracted from the fun of it all, there was ample time for frequent three-year old potty breaks, sightseeing, and shopping, and it really did prevent us from wandering aimlessly and wasting precious time.  We were even able to fit in three additional attractions in the “between time” that shook out.  For us, we’ll definitely use it again.  Oh, and yes – they are working on an iPhone version… which I can only hope will offer “live” user-reported data like FastPass return times and attraction wait-times, all in real time.  To have an adaptive version based on actual in-park data optimize your route while you’re walking through it would be so cool… sign me up for the beta.

And, overall-overall, the trip was simply amazing.  Watching Keaton look around the park in wonder sparked something ultimately reminiscent in me, and there were literally times where I was enjoying our time so much that my eyes got a bit misty.   No, seriously… there were times where, watching her amazement, I nearly teared up.  Call me a huge sucker or sissy or whatever, but we really did have a fantastic time together at the park.  Kinda magic, in fact.

Goodnight.

Posted on

when are you coming back?

Because it's all knotty, innit?Thursday.

Music post. If you don’t care you may safely ignore. Although… before you do, note that this one contains both mystery and intrigue and perhaps the makings of some cool “internetty stuff” too. So, maybe you wanna read it after all.

Got online for the first time tonight around 10pm, and was greeted with a pleasant surprise. Let me explain.

See, for Radiohead fans, it’s been a neat couple weeks. Just last week we get the surprise online-only release of their tribute track to Mr. Harry Patch, Great Britain’s last surviving WWI veteran who passed away last month. Then, an online interview with Thom in which he says the band is “done making albums.” No, not breaking up, just presumably eschewing the aging long-player format for a while. In this same interview, Mr. Yorke says the following:

“… we’ve actually got a good plan, but I can’t tell you what it is, because someone will rip it off. But we’ve got this great idea for putting things out. In a physical realm and a digital realm. But, yeah.. no, I can’t tell you what it is. [Laughs] Sorry to be so vague about everything.”

Cryptic… And, finally, tonight. I log on to the internet’s #1 “back alley” for digital music acquisition. No, I won’t mention where. However, upon checking the top ten items for the day, I was surprised to see yet another unrecognized-by-me Radiohead item in the top spot. Sure enough, it’s a new song – and it’s legit; it’s Radiohead. But where did this thing come from? In an odd twist, the uploader hasn’t provided any information about where the track was sourced. Unusual for something as high-profile as a brand new Radiohead track, which is a sure-thing to take the #1 spot. Most uploaders would want to bask in the glory of breaking such a leak.

Anyway, it’s ostensibly a “scene” rip, and it comes complete with an NFO file. (If you don’t know what I’m talking about at this point, check the links on those words.) Opening the NFO, the mystery deepens: The release group is some heretofore unknown called “Wall of Ice,” and although the file appears quite authentic to a scene release, replete with the standard ASCII art and rip/group info, its only other contents are just some rambling (not very much unlike the ramblings of Radiohead’s own Thom Yorke on the band’s official website, hmmm…):

    iiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiii
      iiii         i just wanted to reassure readers          iiii
      iiii          that following representations            iiii
      iiii              seeking confirmation                  iiii            
      iiii           that before your very eyes               iiii                       
      iiii             behind the wall of ice                 iiii
      iiii         that the box is not under threat           iiii
      iiii          however they are set to remove            iiii
      iiii                    other boxes                     iiii
      iiii       in fact i have the list in front of me       iiii
      iiii         i went to a briefing on their plans        iiii
      iiii           and challenged them to tell me           iiii
     iiiii           exactly what the cost would be           iiiiiii
    iiiiii                                                    iiiiiiii
   iiiiiii             they spoke in broad terms              iiiiiiiiii
 iiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiii

Furthermore, dear Watson, the uploader of the song and NFO is also a mystery, having been registered for quite a while on this particular site, but without much account activity of note. After uploading the track his or her “paranoia” settings were changed to “level five” (the highest level of usage-statistics obfuscation allowed). Who is this person? How and where did they come by this track? Are they perhaps an agent of the band, or someone actually from the band? Could this be an orchestrated, purposeful “leak?” My cursory research shows that the track likely made its internet debut through that uploader on that site…

Perhaps more telling, the track, entitled “These Are My Twisted Words,” is numbered as “01” and the release date listed in the NFO file is 8/17/2009… or next Monday for Marty McFly. An indication that more are to follow? Could this be the “great idea for putting things out” Thom talked about in the above quoted interview? Are Radiohead going to do a NIN-inspired album release, maybe all ARG style? Drop a new track on the web’s most exclusive underground music sharing site and bury clues to the next track within the self-leaked release? Could the NFO file be hiding breadcrumbs leading to the next track?

Dunno; but I’m willing to follow everyone else (well, those fanatic enough like me) down the rabbit hole on this one just in case.

There. Wasn’t going to write tonight. Pulled this together while listening to the new track and F5ing the sluething threads on the forums. I get totally engrossed in this stuff.

Goodnight.

Posted on

brain-rotting backseat entertainment

Remorse... it's like nothing else.Happy Tuesday internet.

Sharaun’s subbing on someone’s soccer team and I’m, again, listening to the iPod.  The Allman Brothers are on, a seemingly neverending live track (sounds so good right now I kind of hope it doesn’t end).  Got a lot done at work today… was a productive one.  Let’s blog about something unusual.

For the upcoming roadtrip to Disneyland, I had been thinking about getting one of those portable DVD player things to help keep Keaton entertained on the drive.  The only problem with those, however, is that they’re just not flexible enough.

I mean, we never watch actual DVDs… we watch DivX-encoded AVIs or H.264-encoded M4Vs… and you can’t play those on a DVD player.  So, to get the universalism I was looking for, I began pricing those little “personal video players,” only to find that they’re way more than I want to spend and don’t support nearly enough codecs.

That’s when I got the idea.

We recently upgraded our home computer’s flatscreen, since the DVI port went bad and it could only do analog video.  Rather than throw the 19″ widescreen LCD away, I shoved it in the garage in case I could use it one day.  And, today was the day.  By taking off the stand at the bottom, I had a perfectly flat little (big, actually) monitor.  With some help from the Dremel I fashioned an adjustable hanging strap that threads through the back of the housing, and tightened it perfectly to hang from the passenger seat headrest (it can also be adjusted to hang one side from each the driver and passenger headrests, positioning it center view for all rear passengers).

Add one $25 400W two-outlet DC-AC inverter, plug in the laptop and headphones, and you’ve got unlimited video for roadtrips.  Heck, with the wireless broadband card you could even stream movies or TV to the thing if you wanted to… or purchase content on the fly.  The only drawback is that the thing is too big for the job… leaving Keaton strapped just a couple feet from the screen.  Pure brain-rotting backseat entertainment; you have to give it to technology, don’t you?

Now it’s close to 10pm.  An epic track from Wishbone Ash’s live record is tearing up the speakers, and I just opened a cold beer.  It’s dark outside, but it’s still warm enough (and I’m lazy enough) that the air conditioning is still on.  So it’s nice and cool in here, the fan is running above me.

It’s precious territory.  Goodnight.

Posted on

a burp about my hot dog

'bout it 'bout itSunday night and I have a headache.

Some old blues tune is on the iPod and the tinny harmonica sounds harsh; not good for the aforementioned headache.  A skip brings up some Burrito Brothers tune with a lot more bottom and rounded sound, better for the now twice aforementioned headache.  No music would be best, but I feel like music.

Sharaun’s birthday is soon, and we wanted to do something fun as a family to celebrate.  For a while, I’ve been kicking around the idea of a guerrilla trip down to Disneyland.  By “guerrilla” I mean that it wouldn’t have to be some grand elaborate planned thing, but instead just a spontaneous weekend getaway.  Ever since we got the new car, I’ve been thinking about the viability of such a trip even more.  And, early Saturday morning, while Sharaun was off at the gym, I went ahead and booked one.  Drive down, get a hotel, spend two days in the park, and drive back; all done in a weekend.

And while it’s by no means “cheap,” it’s not all that bad for a weekend spent away at Disneyland.  In fact, it’s reasonably-enough priced that I could see us maybe doing it again sometime should this trip go off as a wild success.  Sharaun and I are really excited to take Keaton.  She did Disney World while we were in Florida a ways back, but we knew at the time she was a little young to really appreciate it.  Even at three it’ll be a stretch, but at least she recognizes the characters now and gets excited at the prospect.

Just a funny Keatonism to close up the entry: This particular one happened on the drive home after a dinner with friends the other evening.  That night, the kids got a special dinner of their own by way of hot dogs and macaroni & cheese (lucky kids).  Somewhere about halfway home, she piped up from the backseat and said, “Hey, I just had a burp about my hot dog.”

Man, once we realized what she was trying to say, we had a good laugh.  “About my hot dog…”  hilarious.

Goodnight.