Scripture + Dr. Seuss

I’ve been listening to a live worship CD a lot lately.  It was a freebie, and I figured I’d give it a listen, as I’ve been wanting to find some fresh songs (or at least some fresh takes on old songs).  Sometimes, the artist who records a good song makes me not like what is a very good song.  I need to be able to get past the performance and into the heart of the song…

Rambling.  Sorry.  Point is, I’ve re-discovered a few songs that I’ve decided I now like.

One of the things this group does is read appropriate/related scriptures in between songs.  I like that.  The songs might be based upon scripture, but scripture IS scripture.  Well, my mind was wandering a bit, and this is what I heard in my brain while driving home from work last night (beginning in Revelation 4):

Surrounding the throne were twenty-four other thrones, and seated on them were twenty-four elders. They were dressed in white and had crowns of gold on their heads. From the throne came flashes of lightning, rumblings and peals of thunder. Before the throne, seven lamps were blazing. These are the seven spirits of God. They looked and they saw him step in on the mat. They looked and they saw him – the Cat in the Hat.

This was when I knew I needed a vacation.  Or at least a break from children’s books.

Things I Learned While Suffering From Swine Flu

I’m back amongst the living. Mostly. I shall return to work in the morning. These are a few of the important things I learned while swine flu kicked my butt:

• George Carlin is the best narrator to ever grace the island of Sodor.  Ringo Starr is next best… not bad at all, only second-best because Carlin was just plain awesome at it.  Alec Baldwin is third-best, and that’s not an indictment of him as much as it is a statement of just how good Carlin and Ringo were.

  (The worst?  Pierce Brosnan, by far.  Just bad.)

• Roger Miller is the best guest host the Muppet Show ever had.  Just a perfect fit- he’s self-deprecating and wacky enough to do it just right.

  (Worst?  A tie.  Roy Rogers and Candice Bergen.  Rogers because he just couldn’t make it feel right.  Bergen because she’s Candice Bergen.)

• One could do a whole lot worse than having such limited dietary options such as chicken soup and Gatorade.  Not a horrible way to live.
• Everyone in the house suffers when I’m sick.  The kids have to put up with a grumpy, fast-tempered Daddy.  The dog has to deal with an angry man who is quick to take out his anger upon the poor pooch.  But most of all, my amazing wife… sheesh… I hereby nominate her for sainthood, immediately, for putting up with me this week.  I’m a horrible person when I’m sick.
• I got incredibly bored with the internet.  Check Gmail, check the forum, check twitter, check RSS reader, repeat.  And repeat.  And repeat.  Mark it down… October 2009… the month I got bored with the net.
• I’m caught up on this season of The Office.  Wow.  What a fantastic, awkward, hilarious show.  I (heart) Jim and Pam.
• This city has a couple decent football teams.
• I still have the ability to sleep for a ridiculous number of hours.  I just need the flu to help me accomplish such record-breaking amounts of sleep.
• Something I already knew, but was reinforced in a major way… when I’m sick, I want to be completely left alone by everyone and everything, except Robyn.  I don’t want emails, I don’t want phone calls, I don’t want my kids… just my wife.  If you called and I seemed short, please don’t be offended.  You just aren’t my wife, and therefore, I didn’t really want to talk to you

They’re 2, They’re 4, They’re 6, They’re 8…

Please keep in mind that I’m a self-proclaimed BRUTAL artist…

Thomas the Pumpkin Engine and Sir Pumpkin Hatt

Sunday Afternoon Swine Flu And General Life Update

I’m finally starting to feel better.  My symptoms are no longer “flu-like”, but some very nasty cold symptoms remain.  Cough, sore throat, congestion… can I go to work tomorrow?  Unsure.  I think I’ll call my boss later to gauge if he wants me in or if he’d like me to stay away another day.
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How about those UC football Bearcats?!  Obviously, undefeated, ranked top 5 in the nation, they have to be thinking about that undefeated regular season and a BCS bowl game.  But UConn, WV, and Pitt are not pushovers.  One game at a time, fellas, and see where the BCS computers send you.
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I am on record as saying the Bengals lose by 2 scores today.  It’s not that I’m a pessimist, just that this team is worn down in the trenches, and I don’t see how victories against decent NFL teams are going to happen.  The O-line desperately needs their (fat) top draft pick.  The D-line is just decimated with injuries.  And with a loss, I’ll go ahead and predict that the bandwagon will start to unload…
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Our annual pumpkin carving happened earlier this afternoon.  While I don’t think anything will ever compare to the pure (creepy?) awesomeness of the 2005 Toby In Utero jack o’ lanterns, I’m pleased with my 2009 efforts.  Pictures to come, likely this evening when there is no more football or baseball left to watch. (Let’s go Angels!)

Robyn’s Weddingstuff

Robyn has this splendid career idea for our family: “Wedding In a Box”.  She gets to be the wedding coordinator, the photographer, and the cake maker.  I get to be the minister, the pianist/guitarist/singer, and the DJ at the reception.  Awesome.
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So, I posted a few weeks back about my co-worker who was getting married.  To recap, co-worker was planning on making her own wedding cake, had never made a cake before (let alone a wedding cake), was 11 days away from the wedding, Robyn offered to help, and it was scheduled that they’d make the cake together 2 days prior to the wedding.

To continue the story, my c0-worker followed me home the following Friday after work.  I distracted the kids for a couple hours while they made the cake.  Obviously, a lot of conversation can happen when 2 women share a kitchen for a couple hours… much of the discussion was wedding-related, for obvious reasons.

One of the things that came up was the fact that she had no wedding photographer.  After the cakes were loaded into my co-worker’s car, as goodbye and good luck and other useful sayings were being said, Robyn offered to be the wedding photographer.

So, for someone Robyn had never before met, she was the wedding photographer and the wedding cake maker, for free.  Color me impressed.
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This week, she had another wedding cake to do.  This one has been in the backlog for about a year, now. (And now that it’s over, that takes the backlog down to… zero.  So you hataz who don’t like cakes taking up valuable blog space, you may now rejoice.)

Robyn wanted a fall wedding. (I didn’t want to wait that long )  Now, she has made a fall wedding cake.

She made the leaves with marshmellow, sugar, food dye… heck, I don’t have a clue.  I just know it made her hands weird colors for days.

Unless you’ve ever lived in a house where an enormous wedding cake has been made, you have no idea the sacrifices that must be made.  Especially with regard to the fridge.  Seriously, people, I’m trying to get over swine flu… there’s no room in the fridge for my chicken soup and Gatorade!

Today, she put it all together.  This is what receptiongoers will see when they arrive…

Recent Miscellaneous Happenings

More photo goodness.  Goodnesses?

Before the weather turned colder, we had frequent milkshake nights. Tobe very much enjoyed, and also managed to get significant quantities of milkshake all over various parts of his face. I managed to consume my share of milkshakes in a much more sanitary manner.

We make pizzas pretty frequently. And, of course, when I say “we”, I mean “Robyn”. She makes a killer veggie pizza. Apparently, our oven needed to be cleaned. There was no fire, but the smoke was rather impressive.

Going to a wedding used to mean me being a groomsman or a musician. Going to a wedding now typically means Robyn made a cake. Regardless, weddings are a great excuse to dress up and have a good time. I need more excuses to get dressed up with my wife, that’s for sure.

Of course, it’s also possible that going to a wedding means “I got to play with a fisheye lens on a camera I can’t afford.” It’s good to be friends with the photographer.

Aimee is a disgusting baby. We love her anyway.

Here she is identifying animals with her mommy. She woofs for doggies (including Pacer), she moos for cows, she quacks for ducks, she buck-buck-bucks for chickens, and I think she kinda meows for cats.

Have I ever mentioned that she loves her doggy? Well, she does. A lot, actually.

Toby’s friend Brian had his birthday party at Club MMA. Toby went and (1) got his butt kicked by smaller children and (2) provided comic relief for all of us. He just doesn’t know how to be aggressive. I guess I’m gonna have to teach him how to be a big, tough, mean man, huh? (Crickets chirping.) Ok, any tough guys out there wanna teach him how to be aggressive? Like father, like son? Unsure…

Thousands of trips to the zoo have happened. I can’t imagine a better use of my parents’ discretionary income than a renewal of our family pass with free parking and unlimited rides. (Hint, hint… Christmas is coming… cough cough…. hint, hint, zoo passes…)

We went to Gorman Heritage Farm for their annual Sunflower Festival.  Gorman is a real, working farm, smack dab in the middle of rural Evendale.  (What?! You don’t think Evendale is rural?  Ok, neither do I…) A few years back, I bought us a family membership, thinking it would be a cool place for Robyn to take Toby.  Maybe it’s time to renew?

The Difference Two Years Makes

These 2 pictures were taken 22 months apart.

I had a complete breakdown last weekend, thinking about how fast my boy is growing up.  It won’t be too long before he’ll refuse to sit on the alligator for a picture.

(Brandon, and anyone else who is a first-time parent are about to be a first-time parent- Everyone told me how fast it would go.  I nodded and smiled… yeah yeah yeah, I know, I know… Cherish every moment.  Be like Jim & Pam at Niagara Falls, pardon The Office reference, and take lots of mental pictures.  Time absolutely freaking flies.)

Swine Flu

I have it.  Toby likely does, too.  Good times.

The Combine

After the zoo trip on the Daddy Vacation, I had to go to church.  I dropped Toby off with Robyn’s mom and sister.  After fulfilling my church duties, my intention was to pick Toby up and head for home.  Upon arriving at the in-laws’, we were invited to have dinner, and they were getting ready to order LaRosa’s, so we stayed.  It was the two of us, Robyn’s parents, Meghyn & Marley, and Uncle Larry.

Now, Toby hasn’t spent much time with Uncle Larry.  And it’s not that Uncle Larry is a mean person — not at all.  But, to Toby, he’s not much more than a stranger.  Tobe confessed to me that he was “scared of that man”.  Well, Larry is a professional artist.  Very talented fella, I say.  And I figured a drawing might be a nice icebreaker.

I told Toby that, not only is Larry a very nice man, he’s really good at making pictures, and he’d probably be willing to draw something for him.  Slowly, Toby mustered up the courage, approached the “scary” man, and humbly asked if he’d draw him a picture.

Larry: What would you like me to draw for you, son?
Toby: Um, probably a combine.
Larry: A WHAT?!
The Rest Of Us: (stunned silence, a few gasps, and some laughter)
Toby: A combine, you know, like on a farm.
Larry: Do you even know what a combine does?
Toby: Yeah, it’s the thing that turns corn and wheat into Cheerios.
Larry: (disbelief, muttering) He wants me to draw him a combine…

45 seconds later, the masterpiece was handed over:

Ah, Toby.  Most 3-year-olds would be asking for drawings of cars, or firetrucks, or dogs, or people.  Mine wants some obscure piece of farm equipment that processes his breakfast.

Best. Story. Ever. (Especially if you were there.)

Toby’s “Daddy Vacation”

A couple weekends ago, Robyn & Aimee went to Gatlinburg with my mom and my sister. It’s an annual trek that has, up until this year, always included Toby. This year, however, it was decided that a true “girls’ weekend” should happen, and Tobe stayed home. But we couldn’t sell it to him that way. For him, it had to be more of a “you get to go on a Daddy Vacation!”

Robyn left a camera behind and requested that the Daddy Vacation be documented. So, here goes…

Thursday night, Toby and Ian and I went to check out a grand piano some dude was selling out of his garage (no lie), then we all hit up Fountain Square for a Graeter’s dessert. The camera was unfortunately left at home for this portion of the Daddy Vacation. We went home, talked about the weekend’s plan, and went to sleep.

The first morning was rough. I wasn’t ready to wake up yet. But Toby was. He must’ve thought it was Christmas morning or something, cause he was ready to party with his daddy. I told him I was very tired and needed a few more minutes to get myself together. His response? “I could make you some coffee.” Indeed.

We decided to go downtown. I didn’t want to deal with finding a place to park on a weekday, plus I wanted Tobe to experience the Metro for the first time, so we gathered some quarters and hit the bus stop. He LOVED it. Even now, a week and a half later, every single time he sees a bus near our house, he says “Look! Daddy! It’s bus #33! That’s OUR bus!”

From Gov’t Square, we walked toward Fountain Square. Tobe reminded me that we were just there the night before, and that he’d be fine with getting more ice cream. But we had things to do, so after stopping to chat with a policeman and his friendly horse, it was on to Carew. Among other things, he got to have his first Auntie Anne’s pretzel.

Uncle Labron has a shop in Tower Place, and he was able to go to lunch with us. We took multiple SkyWalks, which Toby loved, and wound up at Wendy’s on 4th. Tobe got to have ketchup, so all was well with the world.

One of the things I thought would be cool to do was go to the Carew Tower observation deck. But it was a rainy day… oh well. We went for it. Not sure how much he cared, as I had to lift him up for him to see anything.

After I took his picture, he wanted to take mine. “Ok, Daddy, smile! (click) Uh-oh, Daddy, I think I didn’t get your head in the picture.”

He was more interested in the creepy binoculars. And rightfully so.

After riding the elevators, we walked over to Bromwell’s to look at fireplace stuff. That place ROCKS. Jeff, the owner, was open to being photographed. When it became clear that his head would suffer the same fate as mine did on the observation deck, Jeff ducked to get in the picture.

On Saturday, we went to the zoo. Toby insisted upon taking his stuffed polar bear friend.

It was a good weekend. Busy, but good. He slept in my bed with me, in the absence of Robyn. He sure was ready for Robyn to come home, though.