Marc is posting TONS of new pictures. Check them out.
Sunday, December 30, 2007
Also, speaking of Grandpa.
I wanted to share these pictures of when my dad made it out last month. It was a great time. He bought us Apples to Apples for Christmas. It is a great game!
Marc is posting TONS of new pictures. Check them out.
Marc is posting TONS of new pictures. Check them out.
Ah. A moment.
Seems like forever since I have been able to sit down and actually concentrate on blogging without the possibility of annoying Marc (because I can't listen to him and type), answering Lola's questions or needs, and/or having to surrender to Sid's needs. It is actually very quiet right now. Sid is asleep, and Marc and Lola took Maggie to the airport.
Christmas was so much fun. Lola got lots of goodies, as did the rest of us. Santa brought her twins and a digital camera. She loves taking pictures. It is a cute, fun little camera. I wish we had opted to buy a camera that took better pictures. The quality is very poor. Check this one out:
Oh, and it has games, special frames and clip art that you can add. Too bad the pictures aren't better. She did take the picture. I am not sure that she added the frame.
Maggie came and spent the holiday with us. We had a fabulous time despite some illness. We drank a lot of champagne, played a lot of wii, and bought lots of shoes. (DSW is having a HUGE discount sale right now. I bought 4 pairs for less than $50.)
Sidney is growing like a weed. He is changing everyday. He has become more content, has started eating cereal, and still wont' sleep through the night. Oh well.
I wanted to blog about a couple of things in particular lately:
I was waiting for the light at Keystone and I80 right before Christmas. There was a gentlemen pushing a wheelchair with an obvious handicap. He had his bags and was carrying his sign. I'm biased about asking for money. On one hand, I can understand being temporarily stuck. On the other, I remember working fast-food, seeing the guys that I saw earlier begging for money ordering burgers, holding their 12 packs. This gentleman received two handouts in the time that I was there. Both were a food item (a can of food and box of food) and a cash handout that he discreetly placed in his pocket. I was overwhelmed with the kindness (one lady got out of her car) and the brilliance of carrying food with them. I am hesitant to give money - unless it is a claim of being stranded or such. I have also heard horror stories of people buying and giving food to those asking (begging) only to be told that they are allergic or don't prefer the food that was presented to them. Really?!?! So to bring this to a conclusion: great idea to carry food in your car and I was totally warmed by the kindness that these people presented to this man.
No big plans on the start of the New Year. I will probably be sleeping to keep in time with Sid. I am hoping to get Lola enrolled in preschool - just need to make some calls this week. Hopefully just a a happy, healthy 2008 for the Tiars. Hey Dad, maybe you could move out this way?
Oh. And my moment. This was finished as it is being published 36 hrs after I first started. They may be short......but they are lovely.
Happy New Year. Best wishes for happiness and good health!
Christmas was so much fun. Lola got lots of goodies, as did the rest of us. Santa brought her twins and a digital camera. She loves taking pictures. It is a cute, fun little camera. I wish we had opted to buy a camera that took better pictures. The quality is very poor. Check this one out:
Oh, and it has games, special frames and clip art that you can add. Too bad the pictures aren't better. She did take the picture. I am not sure that she added the frame.
Maggie came and spent the holiday with us. We had a fabulous time despite some illness. We drank a lot of champagne, played a lot of wii, and bought lots of shoes. (DSW is having a HUGE discount sale right now. I bought 4 pairs for less than $50.)
Sidney is growing like a weed. He is changing everyday. He has become more content, has started eating cereal, and still wont' sleep through the night. Oh well.
I wanted to blog about a couple of things in particular lately:
I was waiting for the light at Keystone and I80 right before Christmas. There was a gentlemen pushing a wheelchair with an obvious handicap. He had his bags and was carrying his sign. I'm biased about asking for money. On one hand, I can understand being temporarily stuck. On the other, I remember working fast-food, seeing the guys that I saw earlier begging for money ordering burgers, holding their 12 packs. This gentleman received two handouts in the time that I was there. Both were a food item (a can of food and box of food) and a cash handout that he discreetly placed in his pocket. I was overwhelmed with the kindness (one lady got out of her car) and the brilliance of carrying food with them. I am hesitant to give money - unless it is a claim of being stranded or such. I have also heard horror stories of people buying and giving food to those asking (begging) only to be told that they are allergic or don't prefer the food that was presented to them. Really?!?! So to bring this to a conclusion: great idea to carry food in your car and I was totally warmed by the kindness that these people presented to this man.
No big plans on the start of the New Year. I will probably be sleeping to keep in time with Sid. I am hoping to get Lola enrolled in preschool - just need to make some calls this week. Hopefully just a a happy, healthy 2008 for the Tiars. Hey Dad, maybe you could move out this way?
Oh. And my moment. This was finished as it is being published 36 hrs after I first started. They may be short......but they are lovely.
Happy New Year. Best wishes for happiness and good health!
Holidays and photos
We're in that weird week between Christmas and New Years when it sort of feels like you shouldn't have to work. I finally cleared off the camera and posted some stuff around here. New pictures of Sidney, Lola, and an entire album of holiday photos, from Thanksgiving to Christmas. Also new videos of Sidney on his page.
We had a great Christmas, and in the tradition we enjoyed as kids, calling each other after opening presents to compare notes on what we received...I'm really enjoying my new Nintendo DS Lite with BrainAge2, drinking good beer, new shirts are ready to be worn, and my coffee is being drunk from a nice mug from Portland. Among other things. We ate, we drank, we were merry.
Welcome, 2008. Let's hope for the best.
We had a great Christmas, and in the tradition we enjoyed as kids, calling each other after opening presents to compare notes on what we received...I'm really enjoying my new Nintendo DS Lite with BrainAge2, drinking good beer, new shirts are ready to be worn, and my coffee is being drunk from a nice mug from Portland. Among other things. We ate, we drank, we were merry.
Welcome, 2008. Let's hope for the best.
Friday, December 21, 2007
Notable news
Just a couple news flashes from the household...
We got a Wii.
Sid apparently has pinkeye.
Maggie's here for the holidays.
That's all for now.
No wait, got a couple pics from that trip to SF a while back to share:
OK, now I'm done.
We got a Wii.
Sid apparently has pinkeye.
Maggie's here for the holidays.
That's all for now.
No wait, got a couple pics from that trip to SF a while back to share:
OK, now I'm done.
Friday, December 14, 2007
Marc's enormous post about all kinds of stuff in our lives
OK, here I am, back again so soon. Still not loading pictures, but my mind was racing last night after posting the last little blurb, full of other little items of note. When I converted the old cheztiar into this blog format, it was in an effort to preserve our little familial goings-on, rather than losing them each time I revised the front page. So at this time, as we approach the end of the year, when everyone is looking back on the past and ahead to the future, I want to toss out a bunch of stuff in that spirit. It may not make for the best reading for you, dear readers; the minutiae of the Tiars' recent lives, spouted forth like a broken sewer main does not "Ulysses" make. But if you're into stream of consciousness, random tidbits, and odds and ends recorded here for posterity, read on...
In the kids department, we had another one this year. Young Sid is going on five months old now. Doesn't sleep through the night. Taking formula isn't going very well. He cries more than Lola did and takes really short naps. But he's growing like a weed, cute as a button, and going to turn out OK. Lola turned three recently, and she's still our little princess. Adorable barely describes her on her worst day. That's still little comfort when she calls us back into her room 3-4 times for a sip of water or other ridiculous reason after going to bed, or when she wakes up at 4am still, or insists on pooping in her diaper (she still sleeps in one) when she knows darn well how to use the toilet like a big girl. Perhaps some regression due to baby brother and new house is going on... Both kids have had their share of colds lately, lots of runny noses, coughing, etc. but we bought a nice vaporizer that keeps a room nice and humid through the night. Speaking of devices we bought, as of a couple weeks ago, we're the proud owners of a remanufactured Roomba robot vacuum. It's still more of a novelty than a real labor saver since you still have to pick up a bunch of toys and shoes and stuff, but it works OK and it's kind of fun. Returning to the topic of Lola for a moment, Morgan toured a couple preschools this week, so we're starting to think about it. Expensive! Need to figure out the best schedule and what's affordable, but we think we've found the place when it's time. No daycare for Sid yet though, we're not ready for that yet.
(This is silly, I started writing this as a text document that I would paste into cheztiar later, but I'm having to do it in such small bits as time permits, I should just be writing online in the first place...but I digress.)
One other thing I envisioned doing a lot of on this here website was sharing books, music, and movies that I've enjoyed (or not) with you all. Not much reading going on these days - by the time I get to bed, too tired to read much, and what I've been reading is pretty dull. I picked up a book on coffee, a sort of reference book on personal finance, and one on making beer. I need to get back into some page-turner fiction. Most of my reading these days is Wired magazine, trying to get through one issue before next one comes, or the various blogs and websites I try to hit every day. I guess reading is reading, but a book would be nice sometime soon.
Speaking of personal finance, that's the other thing on my mind these days. I must be a real grown-up now, I think a lot about ways to retire early, save a lot for retirement, writing a will, and look forward to doing taxes so I can see just how much having a 2nd child and a home equity loan will improve our tax situation. This year, I opened a Flexible Spending Account, another tax break for medical expenses, and enrolled in the Hartford's 457 plan, yet another way to save on taxes and save for retirement pretty easily. Fat nest egg, here I come.
Musicwise, I just recently started listening to Sublime again. After getting the box set earlier this year, it's kind of sat on the shelf for a while, so I brought it out to listen to again, and have been really enjoying it, getting back into their music again. I have to say, I really think they claim the title of "my favorite band ever". Which brings me to a trivial little anecdote. With my renewed interest, I thought I'd look to see what Wikipedia had on Sublime. As expected, a good thorough entry, and good entries on each band member. So, reading through the entry on drummer Bud Gaugh, it mentions he now lives in Nevada. Huh, interesting coincidence. So I visit his MySpace page, read about his new surf band (which sounds great, looking forward to hearing what they put out), and it turns out he lives in Reno at least part of the time. More coincidence. Among all my reading and websurfing, I am referred to a recent SPIN magazine which has a good article on Sublime's legacy and a tribute band back east called Badfish. So I go to find that issue at the library, and Foo Fighters are on the cover. Foo Fighters just announced a concert date here in February, which I think I'll be attending. And the final coincidence...Dave Grohl is wearing a Bucket of Blood Saloon t-shirt on the cover...it all comes back to Reno. (I've always maintained, besides being a great place to live with lots of interesting history, Reno is forever destined to be the footnote to history...famous people get arrested here, relatives of famous people die here, we're mentioned in songs randomly.)
Movies...never get to those much anymore. Netflix (and the library) keeps us in recent release, but all our time is getting sucked up by Six Feet Under these days. I can't give up any more time to TV series!
Changing gears again here, let's talk food and drink. Morgan and I celebrated our fourth anniverary with dinner at Harrah's Steakhouse, probably the oldest fine-dining establishment in town. A bit disappointing, mostly the crowd, but the food was nothing that special. We'll probably return to LuLou's or 4th Street Bistro in the future. And there's always our usual splurge that doesn't really qualify as fine-dining, SUSHI. For now, our attention is on Amish Friendship Bread since receiving a starter for a coworker. I continue to dwell on my love for two beverages - beer and coffee. Someday you'll all be regular customers of Marc's House of Barley and Beans (I still need to work on the name...)
In the technology realm, we're still happily wireless and using the laptop around the house most of the time, but I had an epiphany recently and added 1GB of memory to the desktop PC in the office and it runs SO much better now! Still need to tidy up the hard drive some, and I think I've committed myself to migrating to Picasa to organize and tag photos. With two kids being reared in the age of digital photos, we're rapidly accumulating hundreds of digital photos with little organization. At least I've got some piecemeal backup systems in place, but I need something more systematic I think. Picasa and some kind of offsite storage may be the answer. Not sure when I'll have the time, but at least I've started thinking about it... I dabbled in trying to burn a movie onto DVD, wrestling with the matter from every angle before deciding the DVD burner on the laptop is kaput. Sigh.
I'll toss out a plug here for a game we've been enjoying quite a bit lately, courtesy of Grandpa Dave, Apples to Apples is our latest party-game fascination.
And lastly, I just want to give a shout-out to our little dog Daisy. She's seen some rough times lately, with her diagnosis of Cushing's Disease, recent stomach issues, difficulty with stairs, and general aging. We still love her, and hope she'll stick with us comfortably for a little while longer.
And with that, dear readers, I'll come to a close. If you've read all of this, I owe you a coffee or a beer. Keep coming back to cheztiar in 2008.
In the kids department, we had another one this year. Young Sid is going on five months old now. Doesn't sleep through the night. Taking formula isn't going very well. He cries more than Lola did and takes really short naps. But he's growing like a weed, cute as a button, and going to turn out OK. Lola turned three recently, and she's still our little princess. Adorable barely describes her on her worst day. That's still little comfort when she calls us back into her room 3-4 times for a sip of water or other ridiculous reason after going to bed, or when she wakes up at 4am still, or insists on pooping in her diaper (she still sleeps in one) when she knows darn well how to use the toilet like a big girl. Perhaps some regression due to baby brother and new house is going on... Both kids have had their share of colds lately, lots of runny noses, coughing, etc. but we bought a nice vaporizer that keeps a room nice and humid through the night. Speaking of devices we bought, as of a couple weeks ago, we're the proud owners of a remanufactured Roomba robot vacuum. It's still more of a novelty than a real labor saver since you still have to pick up a bunch of toys and shoes and stuff, but it works OK and it's kind of fun. Returning to the topic of Lola for a moment, Morgan toured a couple preschools this week, so we're starting to think about it. Expensive! Need to figure out the best schedule and what's affordable, but we think we've found the place when it's time. No daycare for Sid yet though, we're not ready for that yet.
(This is silly, I started writing this as a text document that I would paste into cheztiar later, but I'm having to do it in such small bits as time permits, I should just be writing online in the first place...but I digress.)
One other thing I envisioned doing a lot of on this here website was sharing books, music, and movies that I've enjoyed (or not) with you all. Not much reading going on these days - by the time I get to bed, too tired to read much, and what I've been reading is pretty dull. I picked up a book on coffee, a sort of reference book on personal finance, and one on making beer. I need to get back into some page-turner fiction. Most of my reading these days is Wired magazine, trying to get through one issue before next one comes, or the various blogs and websites I try to hit every day. I guess reading is reading, but a book would be nice sometime soon.
Speaking of personal finance, that's the other thing on my mind these days. I must be a real grown-up now, I think a lot about ways to retire early, save a lot for retirement, writing a will, and look forward to doing taxes so I can see just how much having a 2nd child and a home equity loan will improve our tax situation. This year, I opened a Flexible Spending Account, another tax break for medical expenses, and enrolled in the Hartford's 457 plan, yet another way to save on taxes and save for retirement pretty easily. Fat nest egg, here I come.
Musicwise, I just recently started listening to Sublime again. After getting the box set earlier this year, it's kind of sat on the shelf for a while, so I brought it out to listen to again, and have been really enjoying it, getting back into their music again. I have to say, I really think they claim the title of "my favorite band ever". Which brings me to a trivial little anecdote. With my renewed interest, I thought I'd look to see what Wikipedia had on Sublime. As expected, a good thorough entry, and good entries on each band member. So, reading through the entry on drummer Bud Gaugh, it mentions he now lives in Nevada. Huh, interesting coincidence. So I visit his MySpace page, read about his new surf band (which sounds great, looking forward to hearing what they put out), and it turns out he lives in Reno at least part of the time. More coincidence. Among all my reading and websurfing, I am referred to a recent SPIN magazine which has a good article on Sublime's legacy and a tribute band back east called Badfish. So I go to find that issue at the library, and Foo Fighters are on the cover. Foo Fighters just announced a concert date here in February, which I think I'll be attending. And the final coincidence...Dave Grohl is wearing a Bucket of Blood Saloon t-shirt on the cover...it all comes back to Reno. (I've always maintained, besides being a great place to live with lots of interesting history, Reno is forever destined to be the footnote to history...famous people get arrested here, relatives of famous people die here, we're mentioned in songs randomly.)
Movies...never get to those much anymore. Netflix (and the library) keeps us in recent release, but all our time is getting sucked up by Six Feet Under these days. I can't give up any more time to TV series!
Changing gears again here, let's talk food and drink. Morgan and I celebrated our fourth anniverary with dinner at Harrah's Steakhouse, probably the oldest fine-dining establishment in town. A bit disappointing, mostly the crowd, but the food was nothing that special. We'll probably return to LuLou's or 4th Street Bistro in the future. And there's always our usual splurge that doesn't really qualify as fine-dining, SUSHI. For now, our attention is on Amish Friendship Bread since receiving a starter for a coworker. I continue to dwell on my love for two beverages - beer and coffee. Someday you'll all be regular customers of Marc's House of Barley and Beans (I still need to work on the name...)
In the technology realm, we're still happily wireless and using the laptop around the house most of the time, but I had an epiphany recently and added 1GB of memory to the desktop PC in the office and it runs SO much better now! Still need to tidy up the hard drive some, and I think I've committed myself to migrating to Picasa to organize and tag photos. With two kids being reared in the age of digital photos, we're rapidly accumulating hundreds of digital photos with little organization. At least I've got some piecemeal backup systems in place, but I need something more systematic I think. Picasa and some kind of offsite storage may be the answer. Not sure when I'll have the time, but at least I've started thinking about it... I dabbled in trying to burn a movie onto DVD, wrestling with the matter from every angle before deciding the DVD burner on the laptop is kaput. Sigh.
I'll toss out a plug here for a game we've been enjoying quite a bit lately, courtesy of Grandpa Dave, Apples to Apples is our latest party-game fascination.
And lastly, I just want to give a shout-out to our little dog Daisy. She's seen some rough times lately, with her diagnosis of Cushing's Disease, recent stomach issues, difficulty with stairs, and general aging. We still love her, and hope she'll stick with us comfortably for a little while longer.
And with that, dear readers, I'll come to a close. If you've read all of this, I owe you a coffee or a beer. Keep coming back to cheztiar in 2008.
Tuesday, December 11, 2007
A couple holiday treats
First, this gem from my mom featuring a dancing turkey, European-style.
And,trying a little something new, may I present the dancing Tiar family elves. I tried to sneakily download that file and embed it in this posting, but things got all useless with headless elves and black background, so heck with it, I'll just link to it on their site...
I know I've got some new photos to load, just no damn time to get to it! Holidays are upon us, winter's finally here with at least a minor snowstorm, work is busy. Wow, I just looked back at when I last posted. I can't believe since then, we've had visits from Morgan's dad and Maggie, lots of fun with both of them, some Christmas shopping, Sid's 4-month checkup (50th percentile on height and weight, 80th on head size), and, it seems like, lots of other stuff going on. Also got my new tattoo, in honor of little Sid, which I'll post a photo of when I get around to photo updates.
Anyway, I guess that's enough rambles for tonight. One more link of note, for readers of Cory Farley, formerly of RGJ, he's now blogging on his own in his retirement. Good stuff.
And,
I know I've got some new photos to load, just no damn time to get to it! Holidays are upon us, winter's finally here with at least a minor snowstorm, work is busy. Wow, I just looked back at when I last posted. I can't believe since then, we've had visits from Morgan's dad and Maggie, lots of fun with both of them, some Christmas shopping, Sid's 4-month checkup (50th percentile on height and weight, 80th on head size), and, it seems like, lots of other stuff going on. Also got my new tattoo, in honor of little Sid, which I'll post a photo of when I get around to photo updates.
Anyway, I guess that's enough rambles for tonight. One more link of note, for readers of Cory Farley, formerly of RGJ, he's now blogging on his own in his retirement. Good stuff.
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