Toddlers and Skeletons

I've decided that Corwin is a toddler now, not a baby. Actually I haven't thought of him as a baby for many months now- like 11. I've always thought of babies as these little personality lacking humans. But Corwin has always had personality, so therefor, he couldn't be baby. Plus he is now capable of taking, like, seven steps in a row now without falling. He'll be shooting hoops before we know it.

This isn't the best picture of Corwin, but it shows off his cool new Social Distortion onesie. Thanks Maurice and Bernie! At this point I think it's a safe assumption that he is the only punk in the tiger room at daycare.

And we also have me and Corwin playing out in front of the apartment last night with his birthday firetruck.

Wet as a drowned Rat

Saturday night after Corwin went to bed, I walked down to Memorial Park to catch the free Bright Eyes show that Omaha was putting on. Most years they have past thier prime rock bands like Three Dog Night or the Beach Boys sans Brian Wilson. But two or three years ago they had 311 with Grasshopper Take Over opening. 311 was good, but I thought GTO was better.

This year Mayor Mike Fahey arranged for Bright Eyes to play. Bright Eyes is basically Omaha native Conor Oberst and whoever is playing with him at the moment. They are nationally known and recognized on the Indie scene. The music isn't really accessible the first time you hear it, but is very good if given a chance. Some of thier music is conteporary rock, while other is really folk or country inspired.

Bright Eyes played from around 8:10 to 9:40. It rained heavy and steady from around 8 to 9:15. Cell phone cameras suck, but here is a picture of soaked Scotty just as the band started. I have to get me a pocketsize digital camera at some point. The show was really great despite the fact that I was cold, wet and blinder than usual for most of it. I should have worn contacts and a rain parka. But the crowd that stuck around was good (but rather young, or I'm getting rather old.) Some people created a mud slide on one of the hills. And who doesn't love girls covered in mud?

Conor Oberst and crew are talented. They sounded great live and have a violin in the band. There is a serious dearth of modern bands taking advantage of the violin/fiddle. If I weren't so lazy- and lacking of any musical skill what-so-ever- I'd learn how to play violin.

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Corwin celebrated his first birthday this week. His first year has been very good. He has grown and learned and changed so much. The first six to eight weeks were very hard. I don't really remember it now, but I recall thinking at the time, "This is really freaking hard!" But you adjust and he gets better. You learn to survive with less sleep. I still don't get enough sleep, but you adjust. I don't go out as much as I would like to anymore. But when he smiles at you, its special. I can't imagine life with out him. But I have an all new respect for what single mothers do. I am so glad that Corwin has two caring loving parents that want to be parents.

Corwin got many cool things for his birthday, and was even able to help unwrap his presents some, unlike Christmas. Anke and I got him what is surely the worlds coolest rocking horse, Marlo the Pinto. The rocking horse is actually for 18 months and up, but as Mom always said, "He'll grow into it." He likes Marlo and pets him on occasion. But Corwin doesn't like to ride for long stretches yet.

On Saturday we had a small party for Corwin in Maurice's back yard. He and Bernie were there along with Grandma and Grandpa. I still find it weird to think of my parents as grandparents. Of course they don't find it weird in the slightest. I do believe they feel they had to way too long to achieve that status. We had cake and some truly fantastic steaks. (Thanks Russ!) He got a couple of cool toy cars and some nice clothes from the family. Uncle Mo and Aunt Bernie got him the coolest Social Distortion onesie. I'll have to post a pic as soon as he wears it. I'm sure the other parents at day care won't let their kids play with Corwin anymore after seeing him in his new punk gear.

We also got Corwin a little baby pool to splash around in. He really loved it. Although Mommy and Daddy didn't love blowing the bloody thing up so much. But it was worth the breath the I had to expend to see the fun he had with it Saturday and Sunday afternoons.

Happy Birthday, Corwin. Thank you for the joy and love you've brought to so many lives.

It's here! It's here!

My transmission has finally arrived. The torque convertor didn't come with it, but that should be arriving within the week. I hope. And I just ordered the cooler- like a tiny radiator- for it. Summit should ship that tomorrow.

It looks good, but it's what is on the inside that really counts. I won't know about that until I get it in the car. Happy Day!

Puzzle

Last week at work we put together a 1000 piece puzzle as a *cough* team building exercise *cough*, that happened to be laying around the office. No one will fess up to whose puzzle it actually was. Anyway, compare the box to the actual puzzle. Yeah, thats right! They aren't the same! But they are both by the same artist and have the same trees at the top. It took us about a day to figure out that the box had the wrong puzzle in it. But we perservered on like fools or perhaps, programmers and analysts looking for anything else to do but actual work. Ok, we actually got some work done. It did take us three days to finish.