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.

See and download the full gallery on posterous

Posted via email from Brian's posterous

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.

Posted via email from Brian's posterous