San Diego pictures

Woo hoo!  Marc got some photos posted in a timely manner!  We hit San Diego for a few days recently, the zoo, a few beach visits (not hot enough to bask or swim, just play), and a couple breweries for Dada were among the highlights.  As per my previous post, no captions anymore, so if there' s something you're curious about, just ask!   You'll find pictures in a new album in the gallery.

Next big adventure chez Tiar...the chickens are in the coop.

Videos!

It's obvious I can't keep up with the Sid and Lola pages on this site.  So for now, some embedded Flash video for your viewing enjoyment.  Please, take a stroll through the last YEAR of inactivity in the video department with this brief sampling of fun...

Lola sings Jingle Bells, December 2008
[flv:http://cheztiar.com/MVI_3121.FLV 480 368]

Sidney gets fit on the Wii, January 2009
[flv:http://cheztiar.com/MVI_3129.FLV 480 368]

Sid dances, January 2009
[flv:http://cheztiar.com/MVI_3180.FLV 480 368]

Road trip with Paigey and Grandpa, not sure where we were going...March 2009
[flv:http://cheztiar.com/MVI_3382.FLV 480 368]

Ring around the rosie, August 2009
[flv:http://cheztiar.com/MVI_4097.FLV 480 368]

Lola sings "sticky", August 2009
[flv:http://cheztiar.com/MVI_4102.FLV 480 368]

Sid rolls in on his Spiderman scooter, August 2009
[flv:http://cheztiar.com/MVI_4107.FLV 480 368]

Sid bonds with Tasty, October 2009
[flv:http://cheztiar.com/MVI_4356.FLV 480 368]
And the masterpiece, the grand finale, Lola presents a classic of our time, Don't Stop Believin', October 2009
[flv:http://cheztiar.com/Journey.flv 480 368]

Yearbook photos

I guess the latest thing on Facebook is this yearbookyourself.com thing where you can make fun photos of yourself.  I don't do Facebook, but it's kind of quiet at the store today and I couldn't resist.  Marc through the decades:

[caption id="attachment_540" align="alignnone" width="210" caption="1968"][/caption]

[caption id="attachment_541" align="alignnone" width="210" caption="1978"][/caption]

[caption id="attachment_542" align="alignnone" width="210" caption="1986"][/caption]

[caption id="attachment_543" align="alignnone" width="210" caption="1990"][/caption]

[caption id="attachment_544" align="alignnone" width="210" caption="2000"][/caption]

Yes, we're still here

I guess one post per month is about the most I can eke out these days.  The time flies past without even realizing.  No excuses, other than the same ones you've seen before, just too darn busy.  And Twitter has become my big timesuck.

The main reason I logged in today was, I did want to share this article about the health care system in Canada vs. the US.

Aside from that, mainly business as usual.  Kids are OK, business is OK (but never as good as we'd like it to be!) at the store, and we long for leisure time and activities.  We are going to break free and do something fun this weekend for the 4th of July, looking like a two-night stay at the lake, so that should be GREAT!

Brian and Sonya's wedding consumed a lot of last weekend, a great time was had by all - Cosmo and Maureen visiting, me camping with the men bachelor party style in Black Rock country, the Pub and Sub dinner the night before the wedding, the wedding at beautiful Galena Creek park featuring homebrewed hefeweizen by Marc Tiar, and the reception at Brian and Sonya's house afterwards, celebratory as you might expect.  It was truly a fun-filled span of days.

Tasty is now an outdoor cat, venturing out most of the time, overnight even on some occasions, and is no worse for the wear.  Hopefully the time spent outdoors will cut down on cat dander in the house, a potential help for Lola's allergies.  She goes in for her sinus CT scan tomorrow, then back to the ENT a week or so later for assessment.  Hoping for the best.

Also since last post, Morgan and I went to see Mamma Mia, her birthday gift redeemed finally, and we had great time.  I'm not too macho to say I enjoy a good musical.  Sushi dinner before the show didn't hurt.

Well, I suppose that's all I have interesting enough to post for now.  I know I never got those videos posted.  Someday when I have some free time.  Until then, see you next month (easy to say since June ends in about 6 hours!)

Big photo update!

Finally got to clear off the memory card and upload some pictures.

• New Lola pictures!


• New Sidney pictures!


• Assorted other shots


• Sacramento zoo pictures!

After plowing through so many, it seems like I posted so few.  I probably only put about 10% on here, the rest just aren't cream of the crop enough to post publicly.  But I've got a hard drive full of memories if you ever want to kill some time...

My next big goal here is movie clips - time to load some new ones.  Not sure when, but stay tuned...

Back to it

Sheesh, over two weeks since last I wrote here. Between holidays and the usual busy-ness of life with two kids and running a business, blogging has taken a back seat, clearly.

We had a nice Christmas, snow and all, and a visit from Aunt Patty to round things out. Lola has hardly had any time on her trampoline that Santa brought, between cold, snow, and punishment for some pretty bad naughty times we've seen in recent weeks, she hasn't had more than a dozen bounces on it, poor thing.  We're all enjoying the Wii Fit we got, and myself, I've used my Skeletool and new headlamp multiple times, but hardly touched the two books I got that I'm very excited about.  I was truly rewarded with some great stuff.

Weather-wise, irony abounds - our friend in Portland barely made it out of there they had so much snow last month, and today, 2nd week of January, it was almost 60 degrees here. I saw a guy in shorts and short-sleeve shirt outside today! (Oh, and reports from southern France, normally balmy on the Mediterranean coast, are of COLD nasty weather there too!) Weird winter, to say the least.

At EcoReno, business was pretty good leading up to the holidays, but has certainly slowed now.  That's not unexpected in retail, particularly in the economic climate we find ourselves in.  We're starting our monthly EcoChats, little environmental lectures/seminars, this Saturday, expanding our product selection all the time, building lots of great word of mouth and buzz in the community, and getting publicity more and more.  We got a mention on the radio and a TV spot - if you check the EcoReno blog (and if you don't, you really should, we do post stuff there that's worth seeing, and if you like us enough to read this site, you should definitely read that one too), you've already seen this, but it's worth including here too.  May I present, a small portion of my 15 minutes of fame:

[flv:http://goecoreno.com/EcoRenoKRNV.flv 480 368]

And lastly, I'm happy to say I've updated photos in Lola's album, Sid's album, and added photos from Lola's (sort of broken second-hand) new digital camera she got for Christmas.

We're nine days away from a new President.  Happy 2009 to all.

Holiday cheer, Lola style

[flv:http://cheztiar.com/merryxmas.flv 480 368]

More videos

These are guaranteed to make you smile and/or laugh.  Two new videos on Sids page and one new one on Lola's page.  Good stuff.

Hell hath no fury

Wow, keeping up some semblance of a regular schedule of posting amusing anecdotes here is getting harder and harder.  Between family, the store, and now the holidays descending upon us, blogging keeps getting pushed further and further down the priority list.

I'm here to tell you about what happens when a four-year-old cumulatively loses about 4 hours sleep in a weekend.  We had people over on Friday and Lola was up late being the life of the party.  Then Saturday, we went to dinner at friends and she stayed up late with her DG who was babysitting.  So last night, the trifecta was completed and Rayna and Kelly came over for dinner.  We were determined to put Lola down and hour early, at 8pm, because she didn't even get a good nap.  We started at 8.  Over the course of the next hour, we bargained, scolded, spanked (yes, we spank, but it's pretty rare and really just for these most hellish occasions), coerced, and generally fought with our daughter.  She wants Dada, she wants Mama, she wants milk, she's cold, she's hot, her head hurts.  One thing after another, the games get played.  And Dada gets more and more frustrated and pissed off.  The screaming reaches a crescendo and another round of spanking.  Eventually, Lola got so upset she threw up in her bed.  And then on her floor while we were stripping the bed.  Great.  We took away her little Christmas tree.  Finally, after what felt like hours of battle, she settled in and went to sleep.  Let us never schedule a weekend like this again.

In other family news, we're gearing up for the holidaze, the (real) tree is up, stockings are hung, and "we'll tell Santa if you're naughty" threats are tossed around casually.  I can only think of two things that might comprise my list, so I should really be thankful for all I have and don't lack.  EcoReno is joining in - Morgan's building a trash Christmas tree to show off during the CalAve merchants' annual Holiday Stroll (in which we are participating).  Winter is a mere two weeks away according to the calendar, but we have yet to see any real snow, and people are still riding bikes outside.

Library work is its typical self, but we're circling our wagons for yet another cut to the budget.  People are now getting concerned about layoffs, but they are still telling us that's the last possible option.  I'm feeling pretty solid and lucky to be able to feel that way - we're seeing more and more people we know, or one degree of separation away, that are impacted negatively by the state of the economy.  If someone could please turn things around, now would be a good time to do it.

Been drinking some interesting beers lately.  Between two friends, I secured three bottles of The Abyss this year, as well as some Hallertau, and one precious bottle of Palo Santo.  As long as we're talking festive, Morgan and I got a chance to go out to a movie recently, saw the new James Bond movie.  A little disappointing as a Bond movie, acceptable as a movie, and enjoyable as an opportunity to go out for an evening.

Not much else to report really, so I'll sign off here.  I've got some EcoReno blogging to do too, so take a look there if you'd like.  We did just buy a new camera since the old one started failing, so I'll have a whole slew of new photos of kids and holidays and stuff to post soon, but for now, check out this cool website.

Princess party photos

As Turi describes in his post, we had a joint birthday party for Lola and Sofia last weekend.   The theme was Fancy Nancy, and everyone turned out in all their fanciness.  And thus, a new album is born.

More Palin fun

Great fun from Saturday Night Live:

Friday fun

OK, this item barely qualifies as fun, but first up today is a little historical note, perhaps not well know on this side of the country.  Crossed my screen in an article about something else entirely unrelated, but I was interested enough to read more and it's fascinating.  Consider this - a fire burning, underground in a coal mine, beneath a town, since 1962, and expected to burn for the next 250 years, and the non-existence of the town as a result.   The Wikipedia article covers it pretty well, but winner of "most appropriate website name telling the story" is awarded to DamnInteresting.com's page about it.

Now on to the fun.  You may find this little site somewhere between mildly amusing and totally hilarious, but at least it's clever.  What life would be like with Sarah Palin as president.

And last, in a little nod to "Found", I present this little scrap of paper found at the library this morning.  No idea where it came from.  Can't be bothered to scan, so I transcribe:

"I have a room at the Sands (Empress or back tower) #[omitted] if you got no place you can come by and check it out - bout 11 - see whats up?"

What is up, indeed.

Beer Mecca

I'm back in one piece today from my first pilgrimage to the Great American Beer Festival in Denver.  Needless to say, it was immensely enjoyable.  While poor Morgan was stuck here with kids who turned sick upon my departure, complete with vomit and lack of sleep, I was tasting some of the best beers in the nation, nay, world.  Brian and I went Thursday and Friday sessions, tasting probably somewhere around 70-80 beers if I had to guess.  No, we weren't a total wreck, they only pour one ounce tastes, and over the course of about 4 hours each night, it's pretty moderate if you're there to actually enjoy the magnificent diverse world of beer and not just party like a frat boy.  Denver seems like a nice city, too.  I find myself lacking any real narrative of the last few days other than thinking in images and little sound-bite-like nuggets of recollection.  So with that in mind, here are some highlights in words and pics:

• Best brewery we tasted - Dogfish Head


• Best beer we totally missed out on - Utopias


• Quite memorable beer - The Abyss


• Local breweries represented - Buckbean, Brew Bros, Great Basin, and Silver Peak.  Reno, represent!


• Best schwag - stamped leather Mirror Pond coasters from Deschutes  (honorable mentions: Session Lager temporary tattoos, stickers galore, and at least four free beer magazines)


• Best non-festival things we did - Killer shopping for beer with Lance and Rosie, lunch at Bull and Bush, and late night snack and beer at Cheeky Monk Belgian Beer Cafe, breakfast at Tom's Diner (straight out of Pulp Fiction, seriously), coffee at Illegal Grounds in a neighborhood full of cool old houses

Some pics, courtesy of Brian since I didn't bring my camera...

[caption id="attachment_432" align="alignnone" width="300" caption="Great American Beer Festival"][/caption]

[caption id="attachment_433" align="alignnone" width="300" caption="Lance, Brian, and Marc at the GABF"][/caption]

[caption id="attachment_434" align="alignnone" width="300" caption="Cool buildings in our neighborhood"][/caption]

[caption id="attachment_435" align="alignnone" width="225" caption="$15,000 55-year-old Macallan single-malt"][/caption]

Yes, that scotch is really priced at $14,999.  That liquor store has 64 cooler doors full of beer.

PS: added a smattering of new pictures to the miscellany album, from a few various outings, none enough to get their own album.  Oh yeah, and I missed our first snowfall while I was gone.

Photo update

Finally cleared the camera of some photos and got them posted...Lola photos, a few of Sid (I don't know why we take and post so few of him compared to Lola), a few from the Balloon Races as seen from around our neighborhood, and a bunch from everyone (except me)'s day at King's Beach.  Hope you enjoy.

As an added bonus, in extreme contrast to the warm fuzzy tone of the above, take a look at this disgusting mess.

Lola's magnum opus

This is what happens when a 3-and-a-half-year-old helps herself to the digital camera, accidentally puts it in video mode, and gets creative, unsupervised and unbeknownst to any of the adults in the house.  39 little clips of 1-3 seconds each (about 2 minutes total, so be patient, it's a bigger file than most videos around here).  Found later, thoroughly enjoyed, and stitched together for your enjoyment.   Thanks, Lola.  You're really great.

Time for an update

Lots of STUFF dominating my thoughts these days, my mind is crowded and time to spew forth a bit.

First of all, just a brief commentary - we ventured out to the spectacle that is the rib cookoff tonight.  Morgan had called to say some coworkers were headed down there after work and would I like to meet them with the kids.  Sure, yeah, ribs sound good, I've never been to the event.  Wednesday night, shouldn't be too crowded, parking not too bad.  Oh the humanity.  If I ever think that sounds like a good idea again, somebody smack me.  Yeah, I wanna park like 10 blocks away, walk down there to stand in line for an eternity to eat some  (admittedly delicious) ribs at like $20 a pound, drink some overpriced (admittedly delicious) beer, and wade through the lowest common denominator crowds that plague special events around here with a double stroller.  In the warm August night.  Hearing too-loud music that I don't like much.  Smelling the port-a-potties.   With Sid ready for bed.  Ugh.

Now that I've got that debacle off my chest, I can move on to the other things that seem to dominate my psyche these days.   Number one: EcoReno.  For the few of you who may not have heard, we're opening a business.  A little retail shop to sell all things environmental, sustainable, recycled, nontoxic, organic, etc.  With any luck at all, we can make a small difference in the future of our planet and make a little money on the side.  So we just (well, actually tomorrow) got a small business loan, locking us in to indentured servitude (or, god forbid, bankruptcy) for the next 7 years and are currently navigating the choppy seas of business licenses, tax permits, fire inspections, merchant credit card processing, shelves, accounting, and the like.  This is huge.  I had no idea how many hoops there are to jump through, and I marvel at how many people are actually capable of opening a successful business.  Let's hope we join their ranks.

Number two: Burning Man.  Most of you know, I've had a love-hate relationship with this thing for 13(!) years now.  Gone, not gone, missed it, gone back, stayed home, etc.  We sat it out last year because we had just moved and had a baby boy, no big deal.  This year, a confluence of opening a business, babysitting, money, etc. conspired to keep us home.  And how it pains us.  Perhaps more than ever before (and I have felt this way to some degree quite a few times previously, even when I thought I never wanted to go back), it really saddens me to not be there, thinking about what people are doing out there right now, envying the loaded cars we see coming through, reading blog posts live from the playa.  Next year, we will return, come hell or high water.

And with that, may I present some updated photos of Lola, including two series of self-portraits we found on the camera after the fact, and, to a much lesser extent (sorry buddy, when you can swipe the camera and take pictures of yourself, I'll post 20 photos of you too) Sid.

Crummy.  I was going to post a new snagfilm but their site is down.  Or out of business.  Something.

Real quick

Had to share this.  It's not exactly throwing red paint on fur coats, but kinda like one of those big city attention grabbing PETA protests...two bikini-clad vegans bearing signs that say "Go Green Go Vegan" right here in downtown Reno:



Thank you, camera phone.  UPDATE: Turns out I should have stopped for lunch and free gas.

Also, a few additional pictures from Black Rock.

A funny thing happened

I am a jumpy person. Even when I know someone is around, I still find myself startled when they approach when I am not paying attention. I think I have passed a bit onto Lola, mostly because I think she senses it from me.  I try and be brave.  We watched the fireworks on the 4th and she was fine. (I do not get scared of fireworks.)  I encourage her to turn on lights when she thinks it is too dark, ensuring her that everything is okay and that she has control to change it.

Last night, we were at a friend's house in downtown. He lives on the 14th floor.  It was a great evening. We were out on the balcony enjoying the cooler breeze when some VERY loud popping and flashing lights started.  He faces away from the river and Wingfield park. A friend said, "Oh, it's fireworks!"  Nope.  I was sure that it wasn't.  It was so loud. I quickly grabbed the arm of this friend and took myself inside. The others of our party moved onto the balcony, where I was sure that they were going to die. I headed for the middle of the rooms thinking that I had a better chance of survival if the building went down.  Meanwhile there is still flashing and loud booms, which I am sure is gunfire and a bomb.  I was terrified.  So if the building didn't go down, then I was going to have to face carnage when it was over. Bodies were going to be strewn about the park. There would be total chaos in the streets below. Who is bombing Downtown Reno? Why would someone bomb downtown Reno?

I think the the one thing that made this all worse was that I had convinced my friend (the one that said they were fireworks) that it was indeed a bad situation and she had moved right inside with me.  I will keep her identity hidden.  But Genoveve was right there with me, cowering in the apartment.

So after a few moments, after visualizing the complete destruction and planning my escape from the building - both if it kept standing or if I had to unbury myself from the rubble, everything became quiet. The FIREWORKS were over. I was no longer a target for a terrorist attack, but now a mark for the other guests and the hard laughter that soon followed all at my expense.

newsworthy

Check us out.  If you're impatient, we're at about the 2 minute mark.  Good times.

[flv:http://cheztiar.com/artown_news.flv 480 368]

And as long as I'm here, I added a few new photos...to Lola's album, Sid's album, and some obligatory kitten pictures.

Stuff online

I've been receiving Harper's weekly review email for some time now and really like the weekly roundup of world news with that special Harper's tone to it.  Here's this week's.  I may start sharing these more often.

Went to enjoy the opening festivities for Artown last night, ended up on the late news.  Trying to capture and retain the video, but for now, it's on KTVN's site.

That's all for now.