Les Singes: The Life of Monkey Boy

Changement: Change

Bygones!  Yes, change is powerful and I'm doing my best to embrace the recent changes in our life.

First: I did it, I called my dad Thursday night for the first time in over a year.  Enough was enough and I figured I best call him to see how things are going.  He was actually hospitalized late last year because his heart stopped beating while dining in a casino.  Thankfully they were able to revive him quickly, but for ten long minutes his heart wasn't pumping.  Scary thought.  My dad says he's at about 90% and getting better. 

Our conversation lasted for about ten minutes.  It wasn't the most cohesive discussion I've had on the phone, but it was a start.  His partner was surprisingly kind and she even took time to ask about Baby Singe.  Now that's something I wasn't expecting.  My dad's birthday is next month and we vowed to meet up in person so he can meet his granddaughter.

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Second: Speaking of our daughter, she turned ten months old on Thursday.  Take a peek at this 36 second video recorded late last week after one of her baths.  She's well on her way crawling wise and is becoming increasingly independent.  Change is happening.  It's safe to assume we're very smitten with our offspring.

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Third: do you like coffee?  If you asked me that very question seven years ago, I'd say no.  For the past seven and a half years my wife worked for a rather large Seattle based coffee company.  Well that's all about to change.  Yes, there's the word again.  (I can say "changement" if you prefer)  My wife landed a new job after a month of interviews with a couple companies.  It's going to be a sad final two weeks as my wife winds down her last days.  We've both made many friends over those seven plus years.  It honestly hasn't sunk in yet, but it's a reality.  
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Blogger note: Thanks bearing with my recent blog feed issues.  Many of you stumbled into my French Word of the Day blog for the first time.  If you're interested in finding it again, you can add the following URL to your Google Reader if you want:

http://lessinges.typepad.com/mot_du_jour/

FKT: Père Noël Chante

Note: if you're a Mac user and you'd like a slightly enhanced version of the above video, which I don't understand why you would, you can find it here. Turn the volume up for both versions since we didn't want to wake a sleeping baby and ruin the whole "santa thing" at the ripe old age of five months.

Flash Gordon's Life Lesson

Happy October 1st. It's the final quarter of the year. Which means it's time for me to share a podcast with you. Click this bitchin' link to hear me talk in a normal voice about my weekend. Previous podcasts I've created can also be found in this same cyber residence. I'm still kind of new to the whole podcast thing so treat me with kid gloves. A permanent link has been added to the left margin where it says MB Podcast. I felt the need to have a mellow post after my "serving our country" discussion. It seemed like the right thing to do.

Oh, the title of the post refers to a Saturday lesson I received about Flash Gordon's amazing powers to repair all of the world's problems from a six year old boy. Flash moves so fast, he can bring the dinosaurs back to life. I'm kind of glad we have a daughter.

The Night Job that Doesn't Pay

If you have five minutes to spare, which I'm quite certain most bloggers do, then you can listen to a character I created several weeks ago.  Five minutes, now you can't say I didn't warn you about the length of the audio clip.

I'd like y'all to meet the one and only Havret.  Please give him a warm welcome by lending an ear his way.   I spent the better part of my Wednesday night fooling around with all the different audio formats.  If this doesn't work, maybe I need my next "why I'm not" post to be "why I'm not a computer programmer".   My first take was about seven minutes long, but I'm totally guessing about the duration since since I foolishly forgot to hit the red record button before I started rambling.

Here's a sample audio clip of Havret. (the full version resides in cyberspace somewhere)

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People ask what my dream job would be and I'd have to say to do some sort of voiceover work.  I guess you will all be the judge whether or not I'm fit for that line of work.  It's hard to get into character with a baby monitor echoeing in the background.
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Oh, this wicked blogger is on the verge of having her first child.  Wish her luck as Chase is about to make his grand arrival, if he hasn't already. 
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EDIT: seems I really need to do the "Why I'm not a Computer Programmer" post since none of this audio is working as I'd like.  I'm going to leave this post up anyways because I need something to show for three hours of computer time.

Milk Coma

Some birthday girl told me yesterday she doesn't believe in luck. Well I don't believe the notion that there's no such thing as luck, but that's a story for another day.

The video is about 10 days old, but you get the point. The baby Anna does exist and actually moves too. She's nearly able to smile on demand and she knows how to avoid confrontation at all costs. She can locate Seattle on a map of Washington state too. She's destined for greatness I tell you. So there you have your first official Baby Singe video appearance on this blog. Enjoy!

If I was a NASCAR automobile...

Paul Smith, Timex, Pampers, Browns, Carters, Avent, Medela, Suave, Ivory, Crest, Phillips, American Crew, Crest, Banana Republic, Gap, Clarks, Eddie Bauer, Maytag, Yami, Stouffers, Quaker Oats, Typepad.
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MINI Cooper, Apple, Chevron.
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Starbucks, Samsung, Microsoft, Yahoo, Typepad, Google, Odwalla, Labtec, Fellowes, Speedo, Prentice Hall, Logitech, IBM, Plantronics.
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MINI Cooper, Samsung, Coke, Apple.
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Subaru, Bob, Asics, Adidas, Nike, Polar, Zenith, Maytag, TiVo, Graco, Maclaren, Skip Hop, Apple, Yahoo, Typepad, Canon, Bissel, Asko, Nintendo, DirecTV, Timex, Crest, Sealy, Pampers, Scholastic

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See, this is precisely why I don't need to sell ads on my blog. Or maybe it's a better argument for why I should. It was a bit nauseating to track the brands in chronological order and I'm sure there are many others I didn't include. These are many of the brands I encounter on a fairly regular basis. So if I was a hot rod and was to plaster myself with ads representing my hobbies, interests, and trappings... the above list is a decent start.
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If you don't want to hear me sounding all fatherly, it would behoove you to avoid this video clip shot a couple weeks ago by a monkey. Warning: this video won't load for all any users. This weekend I vow to bring videos to the masses. It's my goal for Q3. I really do love goals, they keep me motivated and stuff.  EDIT - apparently I really need to work on the video thing because I can't view it at work on my IBM computer.  I blame the fact I have an upgraded version of Mac software on my home computer and the parity between the Canadian and American dollars.  Damn you Canucks!

Big Guys Make Poor Decisions

BIG GIZ

I spied this lovely customized license plate today.  I had to do a triple take and then grab my camera phone.  Perhaps I'm a bit too hooked on phonics for my own good?  This is precisely why it's not always a good idea to be clever with your license plate.  I resisted the urge to etch "must you share your sexual exploits?" on the side of the minivan. 

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When I'm overtired I sing songs to my daughter that should never enter one's ear.  This morning I was singing this riff in a falsetto called "sweet sunshine".  After about three repeats of the Sweet Sunshine chorus, I think my wife was going to kill me.  I can't blame her considering my talents as a singer are lacking.  It was determined I would get weekend custody of the child, that's how bad my singing is.  I will make this song available via a podcast for all those interested parties.  Recently I've been making up all kinds of weird songs which clearly shows I'm stable.

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Last night I pushed Anna in the stroller for roughly 106 minutes.  It was great exercise for me, Anna got to nap, and mom got a break from parenting for just a bit of time.  I know this will sound materialistic and crap, but I sure do love our Bob jogging stroller.  It rocks the house yo.  Bob is a stroller, not a big guy!  That's what we say in The Giz Biz.   I've come to grips with the fact I just might be a yuppie.  I'm going to attach a "stroller computer" so I can track mileage walked with said stroller.   Who needs Hydroxycut™? 

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For shits and grins, go here to see some of my handy work.

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Podcast test, shhhh!

FKT: brave or stupid?

Today's post is in video format yo! A little bit of background here.  On Wednesday's post I asked readers to submit a question which I would respond to via my first video post.  You can read the comments in their entirety or watch me stumble through them with my flimsy cue card.

This is my punishment for buying a sweet laptop with a built-in webcam. I created a YouTube link to the same video making it the talk of the internet or just more accessible. This is my first official video post so tread lightly or not.   Have a good Thursday!

Not Draining Oh

Today's lesson in home ownership, brought to you by KommonSense™

Alright so maybe there isn't a brand known as KommonSense™, but perhaps there should be so I can buy some.  Roughly three weeks ago when our house project began in the basement, I explained to our contractor as much as I could about the bathroom situation and how we wanted things to look when complete.  Two and half weeks later, we had a new basement bathroom which looks damn spiffy (see left margin for photos because I'm in too foul of a mood for linkonics). 

A couple days before the project was complete, I noticed the shower draining very slowly.  I left a message for the contractor expressing my concern about this.  The following day he poured some commercial grade declogger down the drain, hoping to clear the blockage.  A couple days later we pay the contractor for his work and I attempt to deflower the shower on Sunday.  Within minutes of taking my shower, water was above my ankles.  I promptly finished my shower and stared at the pooling water in disbelief.

I alerted Mrs. Lessinges to our problem.  Water was hardly even disappearing down our drain.  No clockwise swirl was present.  No bubbles in the water either.  I had to look carefully at the water line to see any progress.  It was like staring at a minute hand on a clock for signs of movement.

Our contractor suggested we get a plumber out to assess the problem.  A friendly plumber came and he wasn't able to plow his powerful snake through the clog.  The gentleman said this was a first for him... this was a first I didn't want any part of though.  I paid the man and then contacted our contractor.

Diagnosis: the pipe connecting from the shower drain to the main sewer line has either rotted away, is in really bad shape, or never existed in the first place.  I guess oftentimes basement drains just drained into the soil and were aimed to prevent water runoff.  Mo bathrooms, mo problems!

Potential Solutions: pour even stronger chemicals down the drain to try and eat away at the clog.  If this doesn't work, (which I don't think it will) then we have to really think about our options.  The most likely scenario involves tearing up the tile in the shower floor to access the drain pipe.  This is not what I want to see happen, but the shower drain has to be fixed permanently. 

Finger Pointing: 50/50.  When I called the contractor today to explain the lack of progress the plumber made, he admitted it's a 50/50 thing.  I was so scared of the shower before the project began I never turned on the water in there for more than 15 seconds.  It always came out brown in my two attempts so I didn't pay attention to the drain issue.  I wish I had so I could have alerted the contractor before he began.  I suppose the contractor should have checked the drain before he started the project too.  However, I'm going to cut him some slack because he did a really good job and was attentive to our needs. 

Lesson Learned: owning a home can be a real bitch sometimes.  However it's a worthwhile bitch if you ask me, especially in Seattle where house values appreciate so well.  Even though this plumbing snafu totally sucks ass, we still have a roof over our heads and a working shower on the main floor. Oh yeah, when buying a house --> make sure you have great home inspector.  Your home inspector shouldn't be ogling your realtor.

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Mood Improvement

Totally Wicked New Direction

I thought it would be a swell idea to shake up my blog a bit. You can see the layout has changed somewhat. (Unfortunately while I was making minor changes to my site, I shook up some blogs I commented on. Please see the official apology at the bottom of this post.)

More importantly, Tuesday evening I sat down and chatted with a lovely woman by the name of Buffy. She opened up to me about the significance of International Talk Like a Valley Girl Day which just happens to be September 20th each year. It was enlightening chat, to some extent, when she actually answered my questions. Lend an ear by clicking on the link below.

Buffy interview

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Seattle, WA

Blogs are everywhere these days. Essentially a blog is an online journal where the most recent weblog (or blog) entry appears at the top a web page or web site. Readers of the blogs tend to comment on them in an attempt to spawn conversations or maybe even relationships. This particular blogger tempted fate on Tuesday. Somehow the Seattle blogger may have inadvertantly screwed up Tuesday by unearthing a rift in the space-time continuum, also known as the blogosphere. Said blogger password protected his Typepad site to make some minor changes on his blog. Luck would have it, this apparently created problems when said blogger commented on some of Google's fantastic blogs.

The blogger, who wishes to remain nameless, claims the incident was unintentional, stating he will never password protect his blog again. "Golly gee, I wish I had a mean streak like that. I sit at my desk and work very hard all day!" The blogger in question said he plans on making it up to his readers somehow in the not too distant future by offering prizes. So while you're watching The Rachael Ray Show or volunteering at a shelter for troubled youth, don't forget about those bloggers in cyberspace. The look on this blogger's face tells it all, a sideways smiley face.