Friday, September 26, 2008

The Office

We had a little get-together at our house last night for the season premier of The Office. Between the Zesigers and Dansies we had six adults and ten kids under the age of seven upstairs. With the kids there was some yelling, running from room to room, playing, somehow gravitating to the loudest toys in the house, and a bit of crying.

I'm sure with all the toddler noise there was a fair amount of the show we didn't hear. Nevertheless, this was the most fun I've ever had watching The Office. I'll take the yelling, running, playing, and crying any day.

Thursday, September 25, 2008

New Music

I bought Jackson Browne's new CD Time The Conqueror that came out a few days ago. It's his first studio album in six years. I'd be embarrassed to tell you how many Jackson Browne CDs I own. Think of how many CDs would be a lot to own by one musician....then quadruple that number.

I recorded John Mayer on Austin City Limits and watched that last night. The kids were intrigued. Particularly my five year old Danica. She was either fascinated by the different instruments, or she has a crush on John Mayer. Her eyes were glued. I must say, I was fascinated also. I'm always impressed with people who can play the guitar as well as him. Amazing.

By the way, we're psyched for the season premier of The Office tonight. Finally.....something worth watching on television!

My Dog Looks Like A Stuffed Animal




We went to the Kolob area and took some family pictures on Sunday. Here are a few with our fuzzy family member Dwight.

Saturday, September 20, 2008

Free CD If You Can Beat Me

Boooooh yaaaaahh!
Let's get some friendly competition going on here. Until the end of October, I will give a free CD to anyone who can beat me at this typing test. It takes one minute, and you have to post your score here.
80 words

Speed test

Read it and weap suckers! 80 Words Per Minute! Take this typing challenge and post your score. And make sure you include how humbled you were by the typing master of disaster.

Monday, September 15, 2008

Cory Reese - Master Toilet Plunger

I survived the latest Dad Party weekend. Every night I would reward myself for surviving the day by eating a quadruple serving of strawberry cheesecake. Those people who say you shouldn't use food as a reward haven't sat through church with four kids age seven and under.

As I was getting the kids to bed last night, I had a child develop a mad case of diarrhea and went through five pair of underwear in lightning speed. It was a big enough job that I needed to pull out the big guns - the baby wipes.

Unfortunately, in my haste to aid a needing child, one too many wipes ended up in the toilet and she ended up plugged. Our toilets have extrasensory perception and can realize the absolute worst time to be clogged. Then they strike.

They don't scare me though. Having had really crappy (sorry, pardon the pun) toilets for years, I honestly could not have unplugged more toilets had I been a janitor in an airport. When you're employing the plunger repeatedly after a three year old, you know your toilet has a problem. We've since upgraded.

There's something else in our house that has extrasensory perception - the plunger. It can sense when I'm on the verge of giving up. At the moment when my feet are wet and I am about to give up, put boards across the door and just tell everyone "Don't use that bathroom anymore. It's been condemned."....that's when the plunger does its duty. You can't try to fake it though. I can't just plunge twice and then say "I'm done" so it will start working. You really have to have reached your last nerve before it will be successful.

I'm not going to complain too much though. I don't want to jinx the forces of the plunger.

Friday, September 12, 2008

More Dad Party Fun

We are, as I speak, in the midst of another Dad Party. Mel is doing a home show for Scentsy in Las Vegas so I get to be the ring leader for three days. The part that's different with this Dad Party is that we've added another kid to the bunch - Jackson's friend is staying here until Sunday while his parents are out of town. Thankfully he's a good kid. Otherwise, having four kids running around may put me on the fast track to the funny farm.

Admittedly, I haven't been quite as ambitious on this Dad Party. We haven't had any water fights, blowing a paycheck to the ice cream man, or hours spent at the park....yet.

I stayed up too late working on music stuff last night so I'm pretty proud of myself that I'm even upright. Time to muster the energy to head to the park.

Thursday, September 11, 2008

Eating My Words

I posted scathing words about what is arguably the worst show on television: America's Got "Talent". I still think the show is utterly ridiculous, and I would rather spend a day with Fran Drescher (the most annoying voice in the world) than one hour with David "The Hoff" Hasselhoff. But..... during the very limited amount of time I spend watching TV I flipped to these guys on (it pains me to say it) America's Got "Talent".

They are two amazing violin players playing to some music you wouldn't normally think of featuring violins. I feel like I'm betraying everything I stand for in saying it, but I found something on America's Got "Talent" that I enjoyed. Here's the video. What do you think?

Wednesday, September 10, 2008

The Tickling Off-Switch

I am so thankful my kids have not yet learned an important lesson that I learned as a kid:

If you start crying, Dad will stop tickling.

I remember that when I was being tickled, I would be laughing so hard that I couldn't breathe. I loved being tickled, but I would laugh so hard that my stomach hurt. Then I found the off-switch if the tickling carried on too long - start crying. Worked like a charm.

Luckily my kids haven't found that off-switch yet. Therefore, I get in a pretty good amount of tickling each day. That's one of the simple pleasures in my life to hear my kids howling with laughter.

Mel has a different off-switch when I start to tease her. She just kicks me.

Thursday, September 4, 2008

My Kids Like To Eat Dead Animals

Some kids like to eat candy. Some kids like to eat cake. Some kids like to eat ice cream. My kids like to eat dead animals. (They like candy, cake, and ice cream too by the way.)

Before you reach for the vomit bag, let me explain.

Dannon has a creation for kids which as basically a yogurt smoothie thing that they call "Danimals". The funny thing is that ever since Jackson was a tot, he has called them "dead animals". Even though he is now seven, these concoctions in our fridge are still called dead animals. Of course that is what the girls refer to them as also.

So next time you go to the grocery store, I dare you to ask the clerk where they keep the dead animals.

Tuesday, September 2, 2008

Living For Eden by Paul Cardall


My friend Paul Cardall released his new piano album "Living For Eden" today. This is a two-disc set including twenty four songs. There are a few impressive things about this album:

1) There aren't any "fill songs" on the disc to just take up space, every song is really good.

2) Half the songs include Paul's band which gives the piano music a really deep sound. The other half of the songs are primarily just soft piano. It's a perfect mix.

I spent some time with Paul in a recording studio a few days ago and was intrigued by the way he thinks through music and his attention to detail. This album needs to be in the home of anyone who loves piano music.