A Long December

If you don't like your Christmas present from me this year, don't take it personally.  I really did try to put some thought into it, but I have never been so unprepared for anything.  My brain hasn't caught onto the fact that this year is almost over.  I think it's about 80 degrees today, so it doesn't feel like winter.  I do actually have my shopping done, though I admit that a few things are still in the mail.  I am becoming increasingly dependent on internet shopping to fulfill my shopping needs.  This is a year round thing--not just a holiday thing.  I guess I figure that if people will bring things to my front porch, why should I have to go to the mall?  I didn't get Christmas cards out this year either, so this blog will have to suffice.  Maybe I will send New Years cards.  That's a thing isn't it?

Over the last couple of weeks, I have been spending some of my days off working in Big Spring.  I have had a lot of people ask me if I am planning to move there.  I will put an end to that rumor right now and just say no.  They are just understaffed right now and looking for some extra help.  Let's just say I did it for the money.  They hired two new people this week, so I may be done with that for a while anyway.  Also, since my last blog, the Murray household has become cornucopia of germ warfare.  Let me give you an example of how this works.  Ethan, the disease incubator, goes to daycare and collects every strain of sickness that he can find.  He ends up with pink eye and an upper respiratory infection.  Since that is all his body can handle, he passes a sinus thing with a neverending cough on to me.  Three weeks later, I feel fine except for the cough.  Meanwhile, Tiffany is just getting over some weird viral infection that is symptomatically flu-like, but which the doctor says is not the flu.  Luckily, Ethan and I have avoided all of that mess.  After a few missed days of work, doctor visits, and a lot of lying around in front of the TV, we are all on the mend.  Saturday, although Tiffany was still sick, we took our child to the mall for a visit with Santa.  As you can see from the picture, Ethan was not impressed.  He was fine talking to him with me standing there, but when I moved out of the way for the pictures he started making faces.  I think he though we were going to leave him there.  At least he didn't throw a fit or anything.

My sister had a baby on December 3.  If you want to read any cute stories about him, you can check out her blog.  I just lied to you.  There are no cute baby stories on that blog, but there probably will be one of these days.  I haven't made it to visit yet, but I hope to remedy that situation very soon.  Thanks to the internet and digital photography, they don't seem quite as far away.

"You were only waiting for this moment to arrive"

So this morning I saw a Suburban stuck in traffic behind a Smart car.  I don't know why this was so amusing, but it struck me as pretty much hilarious.  I guess the driver of the Smart car was just being a jerk, because he could have easily pulled over enough for the other guy to go around.  Maybe they could have negotiated some kind of deal.  I'm sure they could have just put the Smart car in the back of the Suburban and carpooled for at least the part of the drive that they had in common.  I'm all for saving the planet.  One thing that I could do without though is birds.  This year we have had--I'm gonna say an infestation of birds around town.  It looks like a plague, or perhaps something from a Hitchcock film.  They are so prevalent in our neighborhood, that some days I cannot see rooftops.  Our roof is currently a sickly white color from the high amount of bird excrement that is covering everything.  I am having to constantly clean off the porch, as well as my truck.  Maybe I need one of those fake owls like they have on top of Sears.  I would just as soon stand in the backyard and shoot them, but I don't know if I could get rid of them fast enough.  They might even try to peck out my eyes.  Is is true that eating rice will make them explode?  Rice is cheap.

It has already been two weeks since we got back from New York.  Time flies when you are having to work.  I think that's how that goes.  The trip went quite well.  All of the shows that we saw were good, but I think that we agreed that Promises, Promises was our favorite of the bunch.  Sean Hayes may be the best stage actor we have ever seen.  He was hilarious.  As for the rest of the trip, we pretty much took it easy.  The weekend we arrived was definitely an interesting time to be in Times Square.  All of the Halloween freaks were out in full force.  This is of course in addition to the normal weirdos that wear costumes for no good reason.  I'm talking to you naked cowboy.  We did spend a few hours in the Met one day.  We took a walk around the World Trade Center site and through Battery Park.  We hit some of the shopping highlights like FAO Schwartz and Macy's.  We also visited the USS Intrepid, which is a WWII aircraft carrier that is docked at Pier 86.  We also walked through the USS Growler submarine and the British Airways Concorde.  All of this was fascinating to me, and I think it would have been even more so if it hadn't been windy and rainy that day.  I can't complain too much though.  The weather was pretty decent for November.  I think we only wore our heavy coats one day.  The last night we were there, which happened to be our anniversary, we headed to Rockefeller Center to catch a taping of Late Night With Jimmy Fallon.  As I am a big fan of this show anyway, it was exciting to be there in person.  The guests were not anything special.  We had Dr. Phil, who like always had nothing to say.  Nina Dobrev from the Vampire Diaries was kind of interesting even though we didn't know who she was.  Musical guest Duffy needs to rethink her career choice.  Lastly, they had one of the guys from Microsoft there to demo the new Kinect that came out that day.  As if they were making up for the subpar lineup of the evening, they gave everyone one in the audience and XBOX with Kinect.  Getting them home was a challenge in itself, but it is always nice to win something.  Now I have two of these things sitting in my living room.  I fully intend to hook up one.  The other one may make a nice gift for somebody, or maybe I'll just sell it.  I will be glad to entertain all reasonable offers, whether they are monetary or not.  If you think you deserve it the most, let me know why.  I guess that about covers it for now.  The last two weeks have been nothing but work really.  We are looking forward to eating some turkey next week, as well as having a few days off.  You might hear from me before Thanksgiving, but I wouldn't bet on it.  Oh, and there are a few pictures of our New York trip on Tiffany's Facebook.  If you don't have Facebook, first I have to ask Why Not?  Secondly, something involving email might be arranged if you let me know.  Thirdly, if you do have Facebook, but don't want to be friends with Tiffany, I could probably post some pics on my page.  If you do have Facebook, but aren't my friend, stop reading this blog you creep.

"10"

I had planned to find some pictures of each of our New York trips for this blog, but life is busy these days and I just didn't get it done.  Photos from the first trip were shot on film, which means they are not readily available like the newer stuff.  There is actually only one picture from our honeymoon that has both of us in it.  It was taken inside the crown of the Statue of Liberty, where I knew nobody could run away with my camera.  That photo hangs in our living room today, and it is still one of favorite pictures.  Though I don't think it looks like us anymore, Ethan is able to point out both Mom and Dad in that picture.  I do think he is a genius though.  I have scans of most of the wedding pictures, and I had a good time looking through them once again.  It was a fun day for everyone, and not near as boring as most weddings.  I'm pretty sure I'm not biased.  Our family has changed a lot since then.  There are many new faces, as well as a few who are no longer with us.  Thanks to everyone who made that day special and everyone who has helped us along the way. Finally, thanks to my wonderful bride who has managed to stick with me for an entire decade.  Happy Anniversary!

To my friend Erin, who reads this blog:  I'm still sorry that your boss made you work on our wedding day.

I just realized that I got so caught up in the sentimentality of the day that I forgot to mention what we are doing.  We have tickets to Late Night With Jimmy Fallon!  I have been a huge fan of his since he was on Saturday Night Live, and I find myself watching his show more and more all the time.  I am super excited.  The only downside here is that I had to get this tickets with no idea who was booked for the show.  It turns out that the guest is Dr. Phil and Duffy (whoever that is) is the musical guest.  Tiffany is pumped about seeing Dr. Phil.  I could care less, but it's really Jimmy that I wanted to see anyway.  Despite the name of the show, it is actually recorded at 5:30.  We should be done in time to catch a nice dinner or perhaps another Broadway production.  Tomorrow we head home.

Let's Just Call This One Wednesday

Wednesday is a great day in New York.  Many of the shows have matinees, and so once again we have two shows to attend today.  The first is La Bete, which is a comedy featuring David Hyde Pierce.  We saw him five years ago in Spamalot, but most people know him as Frasier's brother Niles.  He is always hilarious, and I expect this play to be no exception.  Apparently the play is written entirely in rhyming verse, which should at least be interesting.  Tonight at 8 we will be seeing Time Stands Still.  The selling point for me on this play was the great Laura Linney.  I have been a fan of hers for a long time, and she never ceases to amaze me.  If you aren't a fan of independent film, you may have no idea who she is.  She has done a few big movies, so you would probably at least recognize her.  Currently she is on Showtime's The Big C, which is totally worth your time.

A Pound of Flesh

Happy Election Day!  Get out there and let the world hear your voice.  You know I don't need a special day to share my opinion.  We had to vote early since we are out of state.  I actually like the convenience of early voting anyway.  There are no lines, and I can vote at places like the mall.


Hooahh!  Tonight we are going to see Al Pacino in William Shakespeare's The Merchant of Venice.  Seriously, what else do you need to know?  This is a limited engagement, and actually it is still in previews until November 7.  That means nothing to me.  I can't imagine they are changing much in regards to a play that is over 400 years old.  We were so excited to see Pacino in person that we had to rearrange our whole schedule for these tickets.  Dare I say it was an offer we couldn't refuse?  There is a film version of this from 2003 which we watched recently.  It was decent, but I am excited to see it in a staged production.  It's kind of a downer of a play, but did I mention that Al Pacino was in it?  He is playing Shylock, and some other people are probably playing the other parts.  That is all.

Gunter glieben glauchen globen

Tonight's the night we are going to see Rock of Ages.  This is the only one of our picks this year that was primarily influenced by outsiders.  It comes highly reccomended to me, although I probably would have decided to do this one anyway.  I don't even know that much about the actual plot, but I do know that all of the music is 80s glam rock.  I really didn't need to know anything else.  As an added bonus, Dee Snider of Twisted Sister is playing one of the roles.  There is no way that won't be awesome!  Joel Hoekstra, the lead guitarist from Night Ranger is part of the stage band.  I also read the other day that Jenna Jameson is probably going to join the cast, though it won't be until after we see it.  If you don't know who she is, it isn't a good idea to Google her.  Consider yourself warned.

All Hallow's Eve

Happy Halloween everybody.  I guess Ethan is Trick or Treating without us this year.  He has a cute monkey costume, so hopefully somebody will get some pictures.  I don't know what to expect from the great city of New York, but there are bound to be some exciting things going on.  Since we have theater tickets, we will just have to hang out with the freaks afterwards.  There are two shows today.  The first is an afternoon matinee called A Life In The Theatre.  This is a David Mamet play about backstage antics in the theater.  Yep, it's a play about plays.  The great Patrick Stewart (Star Trek's Capt. Picard) is in this, along with T.R. Knight who I think was on some TV show that I didn't watch.  Later tonight, we have tickets to an Off Broadway production of Avenue Q.  This show ran on Broadway from 2003 until 2009 when it moved Off Broadway.  It was one that we wanted to see on our last trip and just couldn't squeeze it in.  It doesn't feature anyone that I am familiar with, but there are puppets involved.  Many of the things I have read describe it as Sesame Street for adults.  In case you are dying for more trivia, it won three Tony awards in 2004, including Best Musical, and it ranks 21 in the list of longest running Broadway shows.

Perhaps we can find a place to catch the end of Game 4 tonight, which I am hoping is not the last game.

I say a little prayer

Assuming that everything went to plan, we are on our way to New York.  This blogging in advance seems like a lot of work, but I am hoping it will save time explaining the shows to everyone individually.  Sometimes technology is a wonderful thing.  In case what I write here is not enough, I have included links to the websites of all of the shows at the top of the main blog page.  Look around a little.  If you aren't reading this from the Blogger website, you may be out of luck.  Do your own Googling.  Tonight we have tickets to see Promises, Promises.  It's based on the Billy Wilder film The Apartment from 1960 starring Jack Lemmon and Shirley MacLaine.  The musical originally ran on Broadway from 1968 until 1972.  It features music by Burt Bacharach with lyrics by Hal David and book by Neil Simon.  The primary cast includes Kristin Chenoweth, Sean Hayes, Tony Goldwyn, and Molly Shannon.

Depending on our arrival time and how we feel when we get to the hotel, we have discussed checking out a late afternoon showing of Colin Quinn: Long Story Short.  We were always a fan of his on SNL, and this is his one man show about the history of the world.  It was directed by Jerry Seinfeld.  Although we would like to see this, we are just going to play this one by ear.  There may not even be tickets available when we get there.

For all of my Abilene people, do yourself a favor and check out Elvis T. Busboy tonight at Strawberry's.  I'm sorry I can't be there to party with you.

Why, Rangers, Why?

Early tomorrow morning, we will be on a plane and headed for New York City.  I have about a million things that I have to get done between now and then.  Tiffany has exactly enough vacation time with her new job to be off next week, so she is at work today.  She is pretty much through packing though, whereas I like to wait until the last minute.  Ethan has agreed to stay home and babysit our parents while we are away.  As a special treat for everyone, I will be publishing a short blog every day this week.  It is mostly to keep you informed about the shows we are seeing on Broadway this week.  Since these were written in advance of our trip, they are not reviews of the shows.  That would require a Flux Capacitor and a Delorean, and I have neither.  I will be glad to give my opinion on these shows in more detail when we get home.  If you don't care about Broadway theater, point your browser elsewhere for about a week.  As for the other things we will be doing, you might check something more immediate like Facebook.  I'm not making any promises though.  Other than the shows we have tickets for, there is no agenda for this vacation.  Theater is a big part of these trips.  Last time we saw eight shows in six days.  This trip is shaping up to be the same way.  I know it's not for everyone, but we enjoy it.

The Great Pumpkin

This will probably be my last official blog before we leave for New York.  I know that makes you sad, but I promise you will not miss me that much.  Actually I do have a few things that I plan to post later in the week.  I guess that means that this blog started out as a lie.  The only thing I can say to that is, "Don't believe everything you read on the internet."  Saturday we had planned to get out and run a few errands around town in preparation for our trip.  Unfortunately, it rained all morning.  Now I don't mind the rain so much, but trying to deal with a small wet child didn't sound so appealing.  I was going to use the word infant in that last sentence, but then it occured to me that he might be a toddler.  Someone is going to have to school me on those words.  I'm not sure I know the difference.  I know a toddler is older I guess, but I have no idea when one becomes a toddler.  He is currently 16 months old, so whatever category he falls into is fine with me.  Clearly I'm guilty of this, but why do people refer to their children's age in months?  Why can't he just be 1?  I don't go around telling people that I am 404 months old, or that Tiffany is---well nevermind.  It just seems kind of crazy.  I can see that like many of these blogs I have gone off on a tangent.  Without them though, this blog would be considerably shorter and less interesting.  To get back on topic, Sunday was a little more productive.  We came home after church and prepared our gourmet lunch of tomato soup and grilled cheese sandwiches.  Grilled cheese is probably one of Tiffany's top three foods, and we are always on a quest for the perfect sandwich.  This week was colby jack on potato bread.  I know it's simple, but taste buds don't lie.  It was amazing.  After a short nap for Tiffany and Ethan, we headed out to the DRI pumpkin patch.  We did this last year and got some pretty good pictures, but Ethan was much more interested in running around outside than actually posing for the camera.  We did get a few images worth keeping.  This morning I have been tinkering around on the computer a bit.  Somehow my iTunes library got corrupted.  Fortunately I have a backup, but it is still a process when you have over 12000 songs.  It does seem to be working now, which is a good thing.  You can't take a trip without your tunes.  Well, I have a few things to do around the house before I head to work.  Have a great week, cheer for the Rangers, and I will see you when I get back.

Big Tex

It was an eventful weekend.  Saturday was my cousin Rob's 40th birthday party.  Tiffany opted for a quiet evening at home (Sarah's home) while the rest of us were out partying.  We had a good time taking over BoomerJack's in Bedford.  There was plenty of beer, plenty of food, and plenty of good music courtesy of Elvis T. Busboy and the Texas Blues Butchers.  It was fun to visit and everyone seemed to be enjoying themselves.  Sunday morning, Sarah, Josh, Tiffany, Ethan, and I headed to Fair Park.  We have been going to the State Fair for several years now, and I have never seen so many people there.  There were long lines to everything, and many of the exhibit buildings were so packed that you could hardly move.  I know pushing a stroller didn't help our situation any.  We did manage to get a little junk food in our system, although we passed on this year's food winners.  The fried beer just didn't look that exciting to us, and the lines for the fried Frito pies started somewhere in Fort Worth I think.  We did stop for some fried butter and cookie dough on the way out though.  The day wasn't a total bust.  We took Ethan to see the stunt dog show.  He loves dogs, although he wasn't sure what to think about the three legged diving pit bull.  He also took a spin on the carousel with all of the other kids that can't ride anything else.  Next year he should be old enough to get on some of the "cool" rides.  Other than one quick power nap in the stroller, Ethan was awake the entire day.  I thought surely he would fall asleep as soon as we put him in the car, but he talked to us the whole way home.  At least he was in a good mood.  The rest of the trip was uneventful.  We got home around 8, put Ethan to bed, unloaded the car, and had just enough time in front of the TV to catch up with Dexter before hitting the sack ourselves.  This morning I took Ethan to the doctor for his 15 month visit.  He fell in the parking lot and skinned his knee before we even made it to the door.  Then they gave him three shots, which didn't make him too happy.  He actually handled it pretty well, but the look on his face told me that he wasn't excited to be there.  Afterwards, I took him to daycare.  He seemed just as happy to be there as anywhere, so I guess the doctor's visit wasn't too traumatic.  For my mother, or anyone else who is keeping track, the vital stats are as follows:

23 lbs., 10 oz.
33.5 inches long (Dr. Maslanka said he was basically off the charts for his age.)
good pulse, heartbeat strong, lungs sound good

Also, the doctor was very impressed with the amount of words Ethan can say.  He expects him to start grouping words together within the next couple of months.  I think that's about it.

Time Keeps On Slippin'

The weather was wonderful today.  I don't think it got much above 70 degrees.  I am always in a better mood when it isn't burning up outside.  Ethan and I spent quite a bit of time outside playing after dinner.  He loves to be outside, no matter what the weather looks like.  I know people always talk about how fast their kids grow up, but it has been amazing how quickly it actually happens.  As of last week, he is fifteen months old and becoming more fun by the day.  The downside is that he doesn't sit still for very long.  Chasing him around has proven to be quite a workout.  His vocabulary is improving by the day.  New words include ball, puppy, and oval.  That last one is apparently the product of learning shapes at daycare.  Tonight when we were outside he correctly identified the zero on our mailbox as an oval.  He loves to read books, and I have caught him a couple of times sitting on the floor reading out loud to himself.  It is hilarious, and I don't think it will be long before he can correctly read some of these books.  Many of them I have read so many times that I don't even need to look at them.  If you want to know what Brown Bear sees, I'm your man.  Last week I found myself singing Moo Baa La La La to the tune of Lady Gaga's Bad Romance.  For all I know, that may be the actual words anyway.  By the way, where does one get a dress made out of meat?  Since his parent's are music fans, it is no surprise that Ethan loves is as well.  Much to the chagrin of my mother, his favorites seem to be hard rock and heavy metal tunes.  He has had plenty of exposure to all kinds of music; he just knows what he likes.  I'm sure I have mentioned this before, but I think everyone who likes music is a rock fan.  If you think you don't like rock music, then you don't really like music at all.    What else do you need to know?  In less than four weeks, we will be in New York City.  We booked this trip several months ago, and I am so glad that it is almost here.  I seriously need a vacation.  Anybody that has any suggestions for cool things to do, let us know.  Since this is our third time, most of the touristy stuff has been scratched off the list.  Things have been crazy busy at work the last couple of weeks.  Now that school is back in, all of the kids need their amphetamines.  No wonder that we have a drug problem in this country.  We hook them at a pretty young age.  What happened to teachers with rulers and paddles?  Lastly, the fall TV season has officially begun.  I am trying to limit my television viewing, and having a small child in the house helps quite a bit.  We did rent and breeze through the first season of Glee.  Although completely ridiculous and unbelievable, I am totally addicted to that show.  I guess it goes back to the music thing.  The only other must see show on my list right now is Dexter.  Last weeks premiere was amazing.  We have also recorded Boardwalk Empire, which I hear is awesome.  I guess that's it.  I apologize now for the randomness of all of this.  I was typing really fast.  Hopefully most of it makes sense.  There is only a limited amount of time to get this done.  For shorter and somewhat more frequent info, follow me on Facebook.  Speaking of which, if you are reading this via Facebook, there may be a delay in the actual time that it was posted.  Sometimes it posts there within a few minutes, but a couple of times it hasn't shown up for about three days.  Very little in this blog is time sensitive, so it probably doesn't make a difference to most of you.  If you need to read this immediately, you can bookmark it on Blogger, or even subscribe to the RSS feed.  That's it for now.

So Much To Say

Even though I am attempting to blog more frequently, it has been so busy lately that I feel like I am getting behind.  I think I am also back into a creative groove.  I have several blog ideas in the back of my mind.  Most of them will probably stay there.  Today is Tiffany's birthday.  Feel free to send her birthday greetings in a method that is appropriate to you.  All mail, phone calls, text messages, IMs, and Facebook posts will be accepted.  I know personal contact is kind of rare these days, but if you happen to see her in person and wish her a happy day, that would also be appreciated.  Now that's out of the way.  Let's back up a few days.  Last Monday was Labor Day.  My mother was in town.  We met her for dinner at the Olive Garden, which was lovely.  Ethan was a little crazy, which is just who he is.  He gets it from his mother.  We got home around 7:30 and there was a massive amount of water sitting in my yard.  I will add that it hadn't rained or anything like that.  Nobody else's yard had water in it.  After walking the lot, we discovered that the water was leaking at the meter.  Now this is on a holiday and it is getting dark.  It is probably not the best time to have plumbing problems.  This is where living in the right place has its advantages.  I called to Potosi Water people.  They had someone at my house in less than ten minutes.  After pumping out several gallons of water and getting it shut off, we determined that the break was on the service side.  Normally this would be a bad thing.  I don't know if he felt sorry for us, or if he was just genuinely nice.  He checked his truck and decided that he had the right equipment to fix it himself.  This probably saved us $500 and a lot of major inconvenience.  I also learned a couple of cool plumbing tricks.  We were probably only without water for about 90 minutes.  Thank you to Potosi Water.  The rest of the week went pretty smooth.  Saturday we went to Dallas to see Dave Matthews Band.  We made a stop at Sam Moon, which Tiffany has been trying to talk me into for years.  After stepping three feet through the door, I already knew that it was my least favorite store on the planet.  Hobby Lobby, you just moved up the list.  Basically it is a giant warehouse sized room full of junk jewelry and purses.  I am hoping that this fulfills the Chinatown requirement for our New York trip.  Ethan and I left Tiffany there and wandered around the mall for a while.  After we had our fill of shopping, we met Sarah at her house in McKinney.  Ethan was glad to see her, and apparently he wasn't any trouble while we were gone.  Tiffany and I arrived at the Superpages.com Center in just enough time to catch the show.  We had a good time at the show, but it was hot and humid the whole night.  The setlist was steeped in new songs, as well as a few obscure ones.  It probably wasn't my ideal set, but the performance itself was amazing.  I will say this.  I love DMB.  I hate their fans.  Back in the day, Dave Matthews fans were drunk college kids and frat boys.  They still seem to be those same people, just older.  I'm sure there were probably some normal people there, but none of them were sitting in our section.  We had a good time anyway, and a big thank you to Sarah and Josh for watching Ethan for us and letting us crash at their house.  Here is the Dave setlist for anyone interested:

The Last Stop

Shake Me Like a Monkey

Granny

Why I Am

#41

Big Eyed Fish

Seven

Can’t Stop

Spaceman...> Corn Bread

Write A Song

Lie In Our Graves

Baby Blue

You and Me

Everyday

Jimi Thing

Some Devil

Ants Marching

Taking candy from a baby....and other stupid sayings

I have told this story a few times in person, but I am pretty sure I haven't written about it on the blog.  If I have, you can either skip over it or indulge me one more time.  I don't know if it will even be funny when it's read.  I think some things are just meant to be heard.  Maybe you can find someone to read it to you.  This actually goes back a couple of months ago to our trip to Minnesota, but something happened a couple of nights ago that reminded me of it.  We were on the plane, trying to get as comfortable as three people can be in two airline seats.  Tiffany pulls out what she refers to as a three-bite Snickers bar.  I'm thinking two bites is closer to the truth.  She unwrapped it and ate the first bite.  Then in what can only be described as a Matrix-like maneuver, Ethan grabbed the remaining candy and put the whole thing in his mouth.  That in itself is pretty funny.  I'm not sure, but that may have been the first time he ever ate any chocolate.  After some serious chewing and smearing chocolate all over his hands and face, we assumed he was done.  Tiffany got out some raisins, which she deems a more appropriate snack.  He proceeds to eat a box of raisins, and when he is done he spits out a solid chunk of peanuts.  Somehow he managed to suck all of the chocolate off of the candy bar and then hide it in his secret chipmunk pouch until he decided he was done with it.  So now we know that Ethan likes chocolate.  I believe that assorted Godiva truffles are his favorite, but he isn't really that picky.  The other night Tiffany was sitting in the living room about to eat a piece of candy that her mom brought us from Austria.  She had the candy on the chair behind her back in a place presumably out of site to someone who is not even three feet tall.  Neither of us saw him take the chocolate, but a couple of minutes later he was standing in front of us with it in his hand.  I thought I was going to have to get a crowbar to pry it out of his hand.  He really wanted it.  Anyway, there is an old story to go with the old picture on this blog.  You didn't know it was an old picture until I just told you.  I never have learned to keep my mouth shut for very long.

As far as new things go, this morning I bought tickets to see Al Pacino in The Merchant of Venice.  I thought I had my show schedule for NY worked out and then this came up.  We are going to have to drop something else, but it will totally be worth it.  Al Pacino is one of my favorites and possibly one of the greatest actors of all time.  After a few disturbing conversations at work, it occurred to me that not everyone is as much of a movie fan as me.  Maybe you don't have time to see all of his movies, so I will leave you with the short list.  Add them to your Netflix queue.  You can thank me later.

The Godfather

Dog Day Afternoon

Scarface

Glengarry Glen Ross

Scent of a Woman

Donnie Brasco

Pardon Me

I was checking out the blog archive earlier and realized that my blogging activity has severely declined this year.  In 2008 I had 63 posts, followed by 54 in 2009.  Here we are at the end of August and this is post 17 for the year.  Of course I like to think that it's quality, not quantity that matters.  Actually I'm not sure there is much quality here either, but I guess I will keep doing this as long as people keep reading it.  For another perspective on life, you can read my sister's new blog.  She already posted twice this week, and I think her blog is prettier than mine as well.  This last weekend was eventful.  Friday I left Tiffany and Ethan at home and headed to New Braunfels for some quality time with Rock and Roll.  Tiffany was originally supposed to go with me, but she was unable to get off work.  We had a heart to heart about how I didn't love her enough to miss these shows.  She totally understood where I was coming from.  Friday I went with my cousin Chris (technically a cousin's husband) to see a rare acoustic performance by the Toadies.  It was at Whitewater Amphitheatre with a small crowd of 300 people.  I have honestly never seen a show quite like this, but it was amazing.  The show only lasted about an hour, but it was a fantastic performance.  The tickets weren't expensive, and I definitely feel like I got my money's worth.  They may never play a show like that again.  Saturday night we went to Gruene Hall with a group of people to check out Jonathan Tyler & the Northern Lights.  I have been meaning to check these guys out for a while, and I am really glad that I finally did.  They are kind of the love child of southern blues and 70s guitar rock.  They're from the Dallas area.  If you haven't heard of them already, you will.  Maybe that should say you have heard of them, because I just told you about them.  After two days of rock, I made it home in time to spend the afternoon with my family.  I think they were happy to see me.  Yesterday was just another day at work.  It is starting to get into the busy season.  All the kids are back in school passing germs back and forth.  The holidays will be here before we know it.  I have spent the morning finalizing out New York theater schedule.  We have some pretty good shows picked out this time.  I will discuss them specifically in a future blog.  I have thrown in a couple of shots of Ethan for good measure.  There will be more to come shortly.  Finally, I recommend that you all try Godiva red velvet truffles.  They will be available tomorrow, or sooner if you are able to sweet talk the girl behind the counter.  They are heavenly.

Take Two Beers and Jump

I have been trying to get a picture of Ethan standing up or walking for a couple of weeks now.  He is now walking (running) very well now, but he is hard to catch with the camera sometimes.  Things are good at the Murray household.  Last weekend my mother was here.  She hung out with Ethan on Friday so Tiffany and I could go out.  We went to see the Toadies play at a bar here in town.  As always, the band was terrific.  Another plus is that they didn't get shut down this time.  I'm not still holding a grudge.  Despite the torrential downpour we had that night, there was still a good crowd.  Being soaking wet didn't stop me from having fun.  If I was going to guess how many times I have seen this band, it's around 20.  I would probably rank this as one of their best.  The setlist was fantastic, inluding a great cover of The Beatles' Don't Let Me Down.  I am looking forward to an acoustic show in New Braunfels at the end of the month.  Saturday night we had the extended family out for steaks.  It was a good chance to visit, although most people just watched Ethan do his thing.  Now that he has mastered the art of walking, he has moved on to climbing.  He is not going to be happy until he has conquered every piece of furniture in the house.  It probably won't be long though.  He is freakishly tall.  According to my official measuring stick, he is over 5 inches taller than I was at a year old.  Maybe that means something and maybe it doesn't.  He is already able to reach things on the kitchen countertops if they are close enough to the edge.

I have divided my time the last two days between cleaning up around the house and planning our trip to New York.  One of these things is fun.  The other one isn't.  We already have the hotel and flights booked.  Now I am trying to figure out what we are going to do while we are there.  I'm not really worried that we'll be bored.  We do like the theater, so that is definitely on the agenda.  I already have a few shows in mind.  Also, I would like to get tickets to see Jimmy Fallon.  I watch his show almost everyday, and he just keeps getting funnier.  I will gladly take suggestions for anything worthwhile.  We have pretty much done the tourist stuff, so I am looking for things that might not be as common.  I got a book that has a bunch of New York oddities.  I have bookmarked several of them.

I need to get back to something productive, but I would like to give props to Jet Blue's Steve Slater.  Since witness accounts vary, who knows how much of his story is true?  He's already been charged with two felonies, but anyone who works with the public has had days when they felt just like this.  I say cut the guy some slack.

Rent This Space!

Ethan--the opposite of packing

Lots of new things happened since my last blog.  Ethan took his first steps, had his first haircut, and flew in a plane for the first time.  Up until a couple of weeks ago, we had only seen him take steps by accident.  Then one night he realized he was walking.  Now he is practically running everywhere.  He is also running into things, but he doesn't seem to mind.  He does look a little like an abused child, but how else is he going to learn that running into walls sometimes hurts?  We took him to get a haircut so that he would look presentable at my cousin's wedding.  He was well behaved the whole time.  He just sat there like nothing was going on.  I still cry sometimes when I get a haircut.  We spent last weekend in Minneapolis.  The wedding went off well, and we got to hang out with the family a little bit.  We let Ethan stay up late on Friday night since he was enjoying himself so much on the dance floor.  He has excellent dancing skills.  We only had one problem.  While the rest of us were doing the YMCA, he was doing the YYYY.  We will work on that for next time.  I am hoping that someone got some pictures of all of this.  I have nothing except a couple of shots that I took with my phone.  It was a short trip, but Ethan handled the plane ride without incident.  Mostly he just slept.  I'm prepared to say at this point that he is ready to travel the world.  We don't have any big family trips planned at the moment, but I am ready to go whenever.  For now, I will just settle for going to work.

The Pacifier

Once again I have a million things to blog about and not enough hours in the day.  Here are a few pictures from the first birthday party.  Yes, I know it was three weeks ago.

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an orange on a toothpick

'Twas the night before Friday and all through the house, not a creature was stirring, except me.  I can't sleep.  I probably shouldn't be tired anyway--it's only 10:30.  Lately I find myself going to bed much earlier than I used to.  This is where it all begins I guess.  Pretty soon I'll be eating dinner at 4 in the afternoon and complaining about the weather.  The truth is that I've been a grouchy old man for a long time.  I was off today, and I had every intention of getting something posted on the blog earlier.  I spent a great deal of the afternoon at the computer, sorting through the last year's worth of photos.  People with children take a ridiculous number of pictures.  I have some shots that are just the same thing over and over, each one barely distinguishable from the previous one.  After all that, I didn't get anything written.  Now I am sitting at my laptop in the dark and have completely forgotten what I was going to write earlier.  I'm not much of a rough draft kind of guy anyway.  Sometimes I do have an idea in my head, but mostly these words just spew forth like diarrhea of the mouth (or keyboard).  Occasionally I check for spelling errors, but often I don't even bother to read what I have written.  I will admit to occasionally editing or rewording something after its original posting based on readers comments.  A good blog, like a song, is always a work in progress.

Ethan's first birthday party went just fine.  I'm going to say there were 15 to 20 people here.  We scrapped the original plan to cook hotdogs and hamburgers, and instead picked up a boatload of barbecue from Betty Rose's.  The food was delicious, and there was enough left that I ate it for about four days afterwards.  We even had to throw some potato salad away.  I just couldn't look at it anymore.  We also have a ton of new and irritating toys to play with.  I don't know why these things don't have volume control on them.  Speaking of annoying sounds, the backup battery in our security system chose last weekend to die.  I called ADT.  They told me how easy it was to change out.  What they didn't tell me is how difficult it would be to find the replacement.  Actually, it wasn't hard at all, but the only place in town that carries them was closed on Friday, Saturday, Sunday, and Monday for the holiday.  I need a job like that.  The problem here is that the alarm panel feels the need to remind me every four hours that the battery is low.  No amount of reasoning would make it stop beeping.  I did MacGyver some tape on there to make it quieter, but every four hours is pretty extreme.  Somehow it didn't wake the baby though.  Other than the complete lack of sleep, we did have a good fourth of July.  We spent the evening in Merkel with Mike and Elizabeth, stuffing our faces with shrimp.  Ethan managed to get a few bites down, but he was mostly just excited to see his cousins and hang out.  I am pretty sure he ate carrot cake and ice cream though.  Tuesday morning we woke up early.  On the way to see the pediatrician for Ethan's one year visit, we made a quick stop at the battery store.  The doctor's visit went well.  Here are the vital stats for anyone keeping track:  21 lbs., 7 oz., 31 3/4 inches long.  They also took a measurement of his head.  I am going to assume it is normal size, but mostly because I don't remember the number.  It wouldn't matter if I did anyway.  Who knows the measurements of a normal size head?  Ethan had to endure four shots.  He wasn't happy about it, but he did survive.  They said that at this point everything looks normal.  No doubt that this has everything to do with our superior gene pool and excellent parenting skills.  One more thing for those of you that don't read the Enquirer--my sister got married a couple of weeks ago.  It's a good story, but I don't want to think about it anymore.  Congratulations Callie and John.

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Dr. Acula

At the beginning of last week, Ethan was sick.  The daycare called.  Tiffany picked him up and took him to the doctor.  He was running a fever, but they couldn't any sign of infection or anything.  They drew blood twice before deciding that their lab equipment wasn't working correctly.  Then Ethan and Tiffany had to drive to another office so they could take whatever blood he had left.  Fortunately I was at work this whole time and missed out on all of the screaming.  I did go the next day to find out the results.  The results were this:  routine viral infection, keep fever down with Tylenol.  The poor baby was hot to the touch, which is amazing since he was now missing so much blood.  He obviously didn't feel well, since he didn't even want to do much but be held.  After a couple of days, he seemed to feel better.  His appetite returned to normal, and by the weekend he was ready to begin his next adventure.  I do think it's interesting that the daycare won't keep sick kids.  Everybody knows that's where he got the germs in the first place.  As the weekend rolled around, we prepared for our little road trip.  Saturday afternoon we drove to Buda to visit Tiffany's sister.  The sun was in full effect, so we checked out the neighborhood pool while we were there.  Ethan enjoyed the water a lot more than I expected him to.  He has no fear of the water, which may not be a good thing.  We went out to dinner that night, and Ethan proceeded to flirt with all of the waitresses.  Afterwards we drove into Austin for some Amy's Ice Cream.  It was amazing as always.  Sunday after eating some killer breakfast burritos, we headed loaded back up and headed for The Woodlands.  We arrived about mid-afternoon and spent a little time visiting with Em, Ryan, and the girls before heading for the Toyota Center.  Ethan agreed to be good while we were gone.  On th way to the show, we stopped off at Pappasito's for some Mexican food and margaritas.  I will gladly recommend the pulled pork enchiladas.  Sunday was my 14th time to see Tool (8 for Tiffany) and I am looking forward to my 15th time.  They are that good.  In addition to another great performance, we ran into my friend Jeremy.  After the show was over, we met him at La Carafe and discussed life and music over a bottle of wine.  We made it back to The Woodlands around 1:30 AM.  Surprisingly, nobody at the O'Shaughnessy house waited up for us.  Apparently Ethan did fine without us.  Emily insists that he was not any trouble.  We may never know the truth.  Monday we made the trip home.  We hit up Shipley's on the way out of town.  They may be a bit overrated, but have you really ever had a bad donut?  I guess that pretty much brings you up to speed.  Yesterday I went to work.  Today I went to work.  Tomorrow I will go to work.  Friday, work.  This is what I call future blogging.  I am now covered for a few more days.  I haven't figured out how to take future pictures yet.  Saturday will be Ethan's first birthday party.  Technically he won't be a year old until Tuesday, but guess what we are doing on Tuesday--work.

"Every picture is of you when you were younger."  --Mitch Hedberg

For Emily:

I was wrong about the cousin thing.  You and I are first cousins.  You and Ethan are first cousins once removed.  Molly and Allie are second cousins to Ethan.  There is also way more to this cousin thing than you even want to know.  It requires some skill in mathematics and a detailed family tree.  There are such things as double cousins, half cousins, and double-half cousins, among others.  Thanks again for letting us stay with you.

For Sarah:

I'm not ignoring you.  You can call me tomorrow, or perhaps I may call you tonight.  It wasn't my fault.  There are worldly factors that are beyond my control.  If your name isn't Sarah, stop reading this.  You don't know what I'm talking about anyway.

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Reality?

I don't even know where to start.  Let's just just jump right in.  Ethan's newest trick is that he can open every drawer in the house.  It's not a great trick.  The cat used to do it all the time.  Speaking of the cat, what do they make feline cuisine out of?  I only ask because dogs seem to prefer it to their own food, and babies don't seem to mind it either.  Mostly Ethan likes to play with it, but he has managed to sneak a couple of bites.  At least he isn't a picky eater.  This week he has also had a healthy dose of asparagus, beets, and a few other things that most people won't eat.  In dental related news, he finally has a couple of teeth coming in.  His two bottom front teeth are poking through just a little bit.  I am quite relieved.  Last week he was drooling like Niagara Falls.  I can't believe Pampers hasn't invented a product for this.  The drool seems to have subsided for now, and other than being a little cranky for a couple of days we came out unscathed.

"The Rant"
So I come home from work the other night, and Tiffany is watching a show called Toddlers and Tiaras.  It should be called White Trash Parents Who Dress Their Kids Like Hookers & Pimps.  Basically this show is about beauty pageants for children.  When I say children, I don't mean teenagers.  They actually have a category for 12 to 24 month old kids.  Anyone that would whore their kids out like that deserves to be shot.  The highlight of this particular episode was a five year old girl with a spray tan and an $1100 dress.  I'm going to leave it at that.  The rest of the things I have to say on this subject are probably not blog appropriate.  I will mention that this show was immediately followed by something called I Didn't Know I Was Pregnant.  You guessed it.  Somehow these people go nine months without any idea.  Reality TV is making people stupider; it has to be stopped.  Maybe we need a reality show where we round up all of these morons and put them in a Roman coliseum and let them fight each other to the death.  Maybe we could throw some tigers in there for good measure.  That would at least be entertaining.  Consider that my contribution to overpopulation.  I have a few other ideas as well, but I will save them in case I need future blog material.



Ok, I'm over it.  I feel much better now.  Tiffany should be home from work shortly.  We are going to hit the party store in preparation for the first birthday celebration going on here in a couple of weeks.  I still think first birthday parties are stupid, but I have been outvoted by all of the women on the planet.  I am sure Ethan won't remember it.  I only remember one birthday party from my entire life, and I was at least ten.  If nothing else, I guess it gives us a reason to show off how cute our baby is.  He is adorable when he isn't acting like a little devil.  The adorable comes from me, so I guess his mother is to blame for the other part.  There will be more details to follow on this whole ordeal.

some clever blog title

In an effort to get a few more pictures up, I will also grace you with a few choice words.  First off, what is up with everybody dying?  I mean we had Dio, Paul Gray, and now Gary Coleman.  Luckily Bret Michaels seems to be immortal.  It occurs to me that most people who read this blog probably don't even know who these people are.  If you don't care, fine.  If you do care, google.  Second on my agenda today is this:  our house is haunted.  Last night after we had gone to bed, Tiffany and both heard some noise from the living room.  I got up and checked everything out.  All the doors were locked.  All of the windows were closed tightly.  The baby was sound asleep.  We went back to bed.  Twenty minutes later, the metal basket that hangs in our shower fell with a loud crash and once again startled us out of bed.  No shampoo bottles were actually harmed.  I guess that could be just a freak occurence, and I still have no idea what the first noise was.  Another thing is that many of Ethan's toys seem to make noise when nobody is anywhere near them.  Maybe I watched Child's Play one too many times as a kid, but I think a few of these things are inherently evil.  Since we built this house, I am pretty sure nobody has died in it.  I am not sure whether or not we built on an ancient Indian burial ground.  I will do some research and get back to you.  One thing you should know is that the prospect of having a haunted house doesn't bother me in the least bit.  I mean it bothers me that it is keeping me awake, but I don't have an issue with dead people hanging around.  Perhaps my house is just the place people go before they move on.  My guest bedroom is available for anyone who wishes to come check it out.  By the way, for anyone who cares, I am glad that Lost is finally over.  I have come to terms with the finale.  Note that I didn't say I liked it.  I think like anything else, the reality just could not live up to the hype.  There probably wasn't an ending that I would have been completely satisfied with.  Maybe I will watch it again in a few years and think that it was the greatest show ever.  Right now I am just glad to have an extra hour a week to be more productive.  Actually I have two hours, since 24 no longer exists.  Its finale was amazing, and I am totally looking forward to the movie.  You know it's coming.  Summer is officially here.  Maybe not officially--I'm not looking at a calendar, but I know that it is hot outside.  Who knows when summer starts around here anyway?  We really only have hot and cold (or Hot N Cold for you Katy Perry fans).  I talked to my sister last night.  It sounds like wedding plans are coming along great.  Tiffany and I are thrilled for Callie and John, and we can hardly wait until September.  Also, here is a shoutout to Slim, Shelley, and Ethan's first first cousin, Kaycee Danielle.  In other family news, my cousin Emily is here tonight.  Ethan gets to meet his cousin Elizabeth for the first time.  I will do my best to get pictures.  If I don't, you can always read Emily's blog.  She is much better at this than me, and if you are reading this from Google Blogger instead of Facebook or Posterous, there is a link on the page.  Have a great Memorial Day weekend.

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Reunion pics

I am still testing a new blog site, so I don't know how this will look.  Here are some pictures that we took at the Murray reunion at Lake Brownwood last month.  After looking through the pictures, I realized that almost everything we took was of Ethan.  Hopefully somebody out there took some of everyone else.  I know Maegan took some of Ethan as well, but I haven't seen them.  They are probably better than what I got.

By the way, I had a cell phone incident the other night and pretty much obliterated my contact file.  If you have time, either shoot me an email with your number or text me with your name.

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