Lil' Genghis, future world leader

... and she danced

2011-07-28T20:05:00.003-04:00

Our little girl stood still, just a moment, dwarfed by the big gymnasium about her, just long enough for mom to take a picture.

And then she was off, running and dancing and gliding and dancing and running all through the gym. Her first school with a gym. Her first non-preschool school. Her first public school. Her first big kids' school.

With the poise and speed that comes to those who've mastered basic motor skills, but the fearless confidence that comes only to those who haven't yet had a big scrape, Lil' Genghis ran all around the gym, running and dancing and gliding and running some more. She made a friend or two in a jiffy, chased them, was chased. At some point she screamed, "I'm the fastest girl in the world!" as she ran. And when another girl got her in the impromptu game of tag, she decided it was time to change games.

She's a big girl now. Starting Monday, she's in the big kids' school for the first time, with her name and little symbol -- a heart -- on the back of her little blue chair, on the letter "A" on the carpet the whole class will stand on, on her cubby, on her coat hanger. This time, she'll be hanging up her coat all by herself, and she'll have to be better about paying attention in school, and she'll surely learn to write her name. And there's other cool stuff, with many syllables, that she'll learn -- improved socialization and cooperation, phonemic awareness, some self-discipline and focus.

But sometimes she's going to wind up in the gym. And she's going to run. And dance. And glide. And run some more. And as she runs sometimes she'll laugh, like the sweet innocent girl she still is, but running in a direction she's helping set herself.

Deluxe dinner out: A haiku

2011-05-28T19:25:00.003-04:00

Race-car waterfall?
Golden showers in the Arches?
Close the PlayPlace NOW

Deep thoughts with Lil' Genghis

2011-04-11T22:00:00.007-04:00

So Lil' Genghis was enjoying a rare dinner at her favorite restaurant, the Noodle House, with a grandparent from either side of the family.

At some point she started using titles, like Mr. and Mrs. And then she corrected us when we called her Miss Isabella. She insisted she was Mrs. Isabella.

"Isabella," we asked, "do you know what the difference is between a Mrs. and a Ms.?"

She didn't pause. "A picture frame!"

Which, come to think of it, is actually a pretty good explanation.

Anyway, you're probably here for pictures of Lil' Genghis or something. She's back from Brazil, you see, leading to all sorts of interesting family reunions. For example, there's this:

boydog looks just a little too happy, doesn't he? And note the school bag and unicorn. We can run, but we can't hide. Even in our dreams.

Some day you may owe her a favor. But take the cannoli.

No, this isn't her first alligator.

It's amazing how much small mammals like to pretend to be small mammals. And this was really cool.

No salt.

Growing so big so fast

2011-03-26T09:18:00.001-04:00

So a couple weeks ago Lil' Genghis celebrated her 4th birthday, in Brasil, with Norwegians. It confused dad, who wasn't there, but clearly didn't confuse her.

"I'm not three any more!" she said into the phone. Such a mature way of phrasing things, no?

Or so dad thought. Yesterday, mom left an electronic message for her husband. It seems mom and Lil' Genghis got talking about Cassie, a stuffed unicorn Lil' Genghis considers her daughter.

Mom, I am not married to Cassie's dad anymore. We separated.

Really, Bebel? I'm sorry to hear that.

Yes, but we still sleep together.

What the heck happened to the little toddler we had?

Thoughts on the meaning of life

2011-03-03T21:41:00.001-05:00

Some days, you just have to chew on your daughter's head.

A Night To Remember

2011-02-19T22:04:00.004-05:00

mom for some reason married dad seven years ago tomorrow, so we got a babysitter, for the second time in the year and a half since we landed in Georgia, to celebrate A Night To Remember.

You may wonder about the weird capitalization in A Night To Remember, and it's because we're trying to evoke a classic book. You know, the Walter Lord one. The one featuring incredibly refined luxury and high-class, well-attired guests. Most of whom die after the encounter with the iceberg. That night with the RMS Titanic was memorable. It's safe to say we won't forget the end of this anniversary.

Through a complicated set of factors, we wound up at a redneck country Irish bar. The bar owner later introduced herself, explained the Irish name was her familial name, her brother started the bar, and died two years ago Monday, and he was a bit of a redneck and she's still trying to turn things around. Apparently two years in, she's just about one week away from actually getting beer on tap.

mom upgraded her Diet Coke to a Malibu-and-Diet not long after this conversation. dad sought an Irish beer on draft and found a Yuengling instead.

It's worth noting that the front windows of the place are shared amongst shamrocks and Budweister signs, with a sole Miller sign to top it off.

So there's country music playing. And there's offers to let us sing karaoke, but we were worried we'd bother the other six patrons.

But other patrons began trickling in, including this one guy. Next thing we know ...

The bar owner's hopping on the microphone to say, "Hey, you all know me, and I'm not going to hold back. Can you check the bottoms of your shoes now for dog shit?"

That didn't work. Aerosol cans of some sort of chemical warfare agent were employed, but found ineffective as well. So then she has the DJ play "Who Let The Dogs Out (woof woof)" followed by a worse song with a chorus of "So you think your shit don't stiiiaiink."

But it wasn't dogshit, it was the guy. And at some point the owner dutifully reports that another patron reported someone's ass exploded in the bathroom.

After some strong drinks, this was funny. And it was a damned long leap away from finding out mom had a Diego sticker on her shirt through dinner.

We wound up having an appallingly good time at our neighborhood redneck country Irish bar. We laughed like we haven't in quite a long time. It wasn't exactly like we had planned, but it was fun in its own way.

We can't tell you what the hell we did for the sixth anniversary. This year's, though, truly, was A Night To Remember.

What a difference 47 months makes!

2011-02-13T21:04:00.003-05:00

It's not really spring here, but the thermometer hit 65 degrees today in Georgia. (Massholes: Come visit. Really.) And what was today? A perfect day to celebrate 47 months with Lil' Genghis.

Yep, she's just one moon away from her 4th birthday. And she'll be in Brazil for that birthday -- unfortunately, away from dad, but fortunately, with like, a brazilian Brazilians and even some vikings, but that's a different story) for her birthday.

Anyway. Where were we? Oh. Today. 47 months. Springlike.

So Lil' Genghis wanted to go hiking, so we set out for Brown's Mount, a 500-foot, er, mountain rising opposite the Ocmulgee River from Macon, Ga. It's a nice relatively fast hike, unless you're Isabella, super explorer! She learned all about moss, and some other stuff, along the way. Let's take a look.

IMG_2948 from album 110213-Browns Mount, Ocmulgee trail, early sleep

Here she's guiding us up the hill. She also learned about trail blazes, and we talked some about trail blazers.

IMG_2949 from album 110213-Browns Mount, Ocmulgee trail, early sleep

Do you go around obstacles, or just over them? Another nice lesson ...

IMG_2953 from album 110213-Browns Mount, Ocmulgee trail, early sleep

Yes, she was running. She was happy!

IMG_2957 from album 110213-Browns Mount, Ocmulgee trail, early sleep

After she learned about moss, she started seeing it everywhere, and wondered who chopped down the tree. We learned about decay, and also stuff that's neat to touch.

IMG_2959 from album 110213-Browns Mount, Ocmulgee trail, early sleep
Mom wanted a picture, but Lil' Genghis wanted to keep looking around. Macon rises in the background.

IMG_2969 from album 110213-Browns Mount, Ocmulgee trail, early sleep
Holding hands, mom and Isabella thread their way between fallen trees, rocks and black bearsmoss.

IMG_2971 from album 110213-Browns Mount, Ocmulgee trail, early sleep
On the way down, she started to get tired. Gravity sucks.

After we got off Brown's Mount, we went to The Hat (sorry, Aunt Sharon) for lunch. Then we went to The Ocmulgee Heritage Trail, which runs sorta through Macon.

Lil' Genghis picked up her first stalker there.

IMG_2975 from album 110213-Browns Mount, Ocmulgee trail, early sleep
The boy was determined to catch her. "I'm going to catch her!" he stated, vowing to catch her.

(Uncle Joe, sound familiar?)

IMG_2977 from album 110213-Browns Mount, Ocmulgee trail, early sleep
Lil' Genghis strains up a small rise as mom is left in her dust.

mom was busy taking pictures from other angles:

All in all, it was a beautiful, beautiful day. Lil' Genghis learned quite a bit about nature, a city she often visits, ancient seas and her inner strengths. She heard the relative quiet of woods, let her fingers drag across moss, climbed a rock, touched fossils, got chips and salsa, made several friends, ...

and most importantly, wore herself flat out.

IMG_2979 from album 110213-Browns Mount, Ocmulgee trail, early sleep

Those first few moments ...

2010-12-19T21:05:00.004-05:00

We've had cause to remininsce about Lil' Genghis' first few moments on earth. There's a lot of little boys and girls out on their own or ready to see the bright lights.

Aunt Becky became an aunt the other day, as Aunt Jennifer's boy arrived. And we were at a shindig the other day, and by the time there were four women there, mom was the only one not pregnant (not very pregnant? awkward to write, and yet so appropriate.) And then a couple hours later little Cousin Madeline made her first public appearance.

IMG_2029 from album 101218-Madeline makes her public debut

We met her as Uncle Chris appeared to be breastfeeding -- not that there's anything wrong with that. It seemed like kind of a magical moment.

IMG_2032 from album 101218-Madeline makes her public debut

She seemed pretty sleepy, and not real focused on Uncle Chris. Sometimes dad used to feint weariness to avoid speaking with Chris as well -- looks like Cousin Madeline has not only the beauty of her mother, Aunt Heather, but her intelligence as well.

IMG_2037 from album 101218-Madeline makes her public debut

Here, Chris appears overwhelmed by this beautiful, perfect little girl, wondering just how he could have helped create her and bring her into the world. We know the feeling!

IMG_2040 from album 101218-Madeline makes her public debut

Here, they're both almost actually in focus, sort of.

You'll note the utter lack of photos of anyone else, including Aunt Heather, holding Cousin Madeline. Chris seems to want to enjoy every magical moment he can, and isn't that new dad who wants the mailman, the neighbor's dog and the neighborhood pharmaceutical voyeur to enjoy her company. Well, that, and he's completely wrapped around her tiny little clingy finger.

We tried sharing some of the basic advice (no guests who don't bring food, no feeding Chris after midnight or letting him get wet, sleep-n-play outfits look a whole lot better after you debate cutting off the shit explosion'ed onesies so you don't have to bring it over her face, sleep when baby sleeps).

Meanwhile, Heather and Chris and Madeline will continue to figure things out on their own, getting to know each better, grow with each other, and finding more room in their hearts and diapers for each other.

How to stalk employers

2010-06-14T20:58:00.004-04:00

This was supposed to have been a more comprehensive guide to getting some extra help with a job search, but it was rushed into production too quickly. Sorry. Good luck.

Some could call this time "The Great Recession." Too many people we know probably have other words, such as "The Giant Ball of Suck."

Here's a random collection of ideas that may help you find employment:

Have your computer do the work for you

OK, pick your favorite Web browser. No, not that one. I mean Firefox. Look, it's not a religious experience. It's a Web browser. It'll help you find a job. You can go back to using your 10-year-old version of Internet Explorer or the special browser made by Viking hermits in ice caves after you get the job. So if you don't have Firefox, get it. That'll help you in the next two steps:

Install the SiteDelta plugin for Firefox from https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/4337/.

When you get to the page, you'll see a long green button, "Add to Firefox". Click this and a new window pops up, with a countdown over the word "Install" -- they really want to make sure that you're installing legitimate stuff and have a few minutes to think it over. Don't trust us? Well, you're pretty smart, then. But you still need the job.

Then install Feed Sidebar for Firefox from https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/4869/.

This is it. If you're new to Firefox, you may want to take a look at just two other things: IE Tab Plus and Adblock Plus. The first lets you view Web pages in Internet Explorer from within Firefox; read that a few times and it'll make more sense. It comes in handy mostly for older Web sites with lots of bad coding, like the places with weird custom job application programs that run within the browser. Adblock Plus, er, blocks ads. You need to get a list of ads, called a subscription; try EasyList, which may be the default.

OK, now you've installed 2, 3 or 4 plugins. You'll have to restart Firefox for them to take effect. Restart Firefox.

Near the address bar at the top of the screen is a mostly orange box with little white waves emanating from a star; that's Feed Sidebar. This handles what's called RSS feeds -- mostly used in blogs, but used in some job sites and such. You can click it to peek inside, then click again.

In the bottom right corner of your browser is a little triangle, just hanging out. That's SiteDelta. It won't do much right now. We're going to use these to stalk jobs online. First we have to get some ideas.

Coming up with the first slice of jobs

If you're reading this, chances are you're not so much looking to drive a forklift, though you may be willing. Chances are you've got education and a career. So let's move ahead on that premise.

Are you a reporter? You probably know about JournalismJobs.com. A teacher in Georgia? TeachGeorgia. There may be other job sites oriented toward your specialty; take a look.

Because we've got to start somewhere, let's point your browser toward JournalismJobs.com. Use this as a learning tool, alright? If you go there and click on the Alert button, you see you can set alerts for new jobs -- show me only part-time jobs in Wisconsin, or full-time jobs in Arizona, or whatever. This is good to know.

But try clicking the "search jobs" link. Up pops a new screen (here). Toward the top is a new orange button with white radio waves coming out -- just like your Feed Sidebar button. Click that button. A new screen comes up with a list of jobs. At the top is a "Subscribe Now" button. Click that. A small window pops up asking if you want to bookmark it. Hit Subscribe. Close the windows. Your computer will now automatically check for new jobs posted here.

Once you learn to pay attention to that little orange icon, you'll see it in more places. To see what's new, click the Feed Sidebar button near the link bar in Firefox, near the top of your screen and the navigation commands. You can tell to check the sites you subscribe to regularly -- say, every 20 minutes.

But most employers still have just a list of jobs. This is OK; this is where SiteDelta comes in handy.

Now, let's say you're living near Macon, Ga., and thinking there might be a job at Wesleyan College in Macon. Can you find the employment page? First you have to find the right Wesleyan College, then hunt down the employment link on the main page. Eventually, you should get to http://www.wesleyancollege.edu/NEWSINFO/Employment/tabid/1009/Default.aspx. There's separate links to open faculty positions and open staff positions. But if you scroll down, you'll see it's the same page.

Remember that SiteDelta icon near the bottom-right corner of your browser? Click that. Once. A new bar appears at the top of your browser: "Page scanned. Click SiteDelta icon on next visit." SiteDelta will now be stalking this on its own schedule. (You can force the schedule by right-clicking the SiteDelta triangle icon, opening the sidebar, clicking Pages at the top, selecting SiteDelta Settings, then the Scan Schedule tab, then explicitly setting the frequency -- hourly, every 20 minutes, whatever.)

So now you're wondering -- what have you done?

Well, you'll want to open Feed Sidebar every day or two to see what new jobs are posted through your RSS feeds. And you'll check SiteDelta when the triangle turns red -- that's the only real notification you get. When SiteDelta shows up, you can right-click on it and select Open Changed Pages. If SiteDelta isn't checking as much as you want, you can tell it to scan your pages.

Now, on to other specialized job sites

Think for a moment about your industry and where you'd be willing to work. Think about how those skills may translate into other kinds of employers, if at all. Say you've got a background in marketing. Well, lots of businesses -- and even charitities -- need help with sales, marketing, public relations and the like.

Think about the steadiest employers in your area, if you're not willing to move. City government? County government? State government? They've all got Web pages, and they've all got listings of jobs (when they have spare jobs). The little communities within a 30-minute drive have the same thing. And then there's the weird quasi-government jobs, such as the local water authority or the regional planning agency. Make a list. Brainstorm. Think some more. Then find the jobs pages; hit 'em with SiteDelta or get the RSS feed or the subscription.

Other steady employers? Well, healthcare's big. You may not have training in nursing, but your skills may cross over there. Check the local hospitals. Arguably check nursing homes. SiteDelta and RSS feeds. Get your computer working.

Well, what about big employers? Most of American employees are with small businesses, but it's tough to find those jobs one-by-one. So let's keep stalking major employers. Your local Chamber of Commerce should have a list -- it may be online, it may not -- of the area's largest employers. Find the Web sites. Sign up, SiteDelta, RSS. Then find the Chamber of Commerce for your county, and the next few counties around, and the cities in those counties. SiteDelta. RSS. Whatever. Get it done. Check on it once or twice to make sure it really is working. And keep looking.

There are other ways to find jobs -- including those that are traditional, such as networking through friends and colleagues, or maybe standing on the corner in a business and/or chicken suit trying to get attention. There are plenty of books in your library and probably some resources online. But this is a great reason to check out the library, where odd-looking people are welcomed during the middle of a business day. And you can check out the Sharpe's novels on audiobook.

And we're outta time. Good luck!

Education

Indeed.com

Monster to post resume

State Web sites to post resume

Networking

Call a friend

Get references out

Get reference letters out

Draft resume, cover letter

Some steps to a special kind of happiness

2010-06-09T23:27:00.002-04:00

As with everything in life, there are different degrees of happiness. mom always sets the bar high.

Witness this:
To get kind of a happy belly:

Go to the grocery and buy a jar of meat sauce

To get a fairly happy belly:

Go to the grocery store and buy a pound of beef, a jar of Prego and a packet of Lipton onion soup powder.
Combine

To get the most amazingly happy belly from some authentic bolognese sauce:

Have a person born to parents of mixed, but largely Italian and French descent, in an area with heavy Mediterranean but multicultural influences
Have said person grow up with some self confidence
Have said person grow up with an unusual amount of determination, which gets her through night grad school
which gets her an MBA
which gets her a position as one half of her company's representatives in another country
where for no apparent reason she falls in love with a guy
then agrees to marry him
then moves with him to a place not known for its high levels of immigration from her nation of birth
who then links up with all eight people in the area
one of whom invites her to a farm for a child's birthday
where said husband points out a basket of nice tomatoes
that somehow she magically turns into one damned good bolognese sauce.

The third option's a lot more complicated, but entirely more rewarding. And sometimes there's a kiss at the end of the meal!

Fun with a criminal

2010-06-09T22:00:00.005-04:00

An old buddy of dad, who became a new buddy of Aunt Selle, had his Gmail account taken over by a scammer who was asking for help because he'd just been mugged in London. Suffice to say Uncle Jim hasn't been mugged, but he's probably ready to run the guy over with his tractor in Georgia.

This has little to do with Lil' Genghis, but, hey, it's entertaining to dad at least.

The astute among you will note carefully that dad's name is not Mark. Also, "JACKASS" isn't an insult so much as an inside joke with Uncle Jim, but the scammer just tried to ignore it.

9:29 PM Jim: Hi Mark
me: JACKASS
Jim: how are you doing?
me: fine, and you?
9:30 PM Jim: not too good...why dont you reply to my email about my plight ?
me: was thinking the other day about our old boss ... what was his name?
I didn't see an e-mail
Is there a phone number I can reach you at?
9:31 PM Jim: Oh
I sent an email that i got mugged in London
me: That's terrible!
Jim: And that i want you to loan me the sum of $2450 usd till am back home
yes it was
9:32 PM Are you there?
me: How do I get it to you?
9:33 PM Jim: through western union money transfer on my name in London
Where are you now?
me: You've got a common name.
Jim: Jim (Name)
9:34 PM me: I know your name, yes.
Jim: Name: Jim (Name)
Location:Craven Hill Garden, W2 3EA ,London, UK
me: No more address than that?
Jim: yes
me: European addresses always confuse me
Jim: that is all needed from western union
9:35 PM How soon can you make the payment?
9:36 PM me: What time is it there?
Jim: it is 2:34 am here now
there?
9:37 PM me: 937pm
OK, just got off the phone
9:38 PM Jim: Oh Ok...Can you still make it?
me: They say you can pick it up between 4:30 and 5 a.m., but the system's going down for maintenance after 5 p.m. ... Can you be there then?
er, system's going down for maintenance after 5 AM rather
Jim: Ok
me: It'll take 2 hours to process
Jim: Ok
9:39 PM Ho do you know that?
me: That's what they told me on the phone
Web site wasn't going through for some reason
Jim: Ok
Ok
9:40 PM me: Something about credit card authorizations as a cash advance or something
Jim: You can go to any western union Location arround you and make the payment
me: Never had a friend get mugged overseas before!
Jim: it was a bad experience so far
9:41 PM me: So far? You think you'll get mugged again?
Jim: i dont pray for such thing anymore
i mean since i was born
me: Well, why did you say it was a bad experience so far?
9:42 PM Jim: i mean that was the most worst experince in my life ever since i was born
9:43 PM me: Well, there was that thing with the stripper who turned out to be a hooker who turned out to be a cop
I'll never forget that story
Man, remember how much we laughed?
Jim: yes dude
9:44 PM Mike can you try and see if you can get the money send to me at a western union location right now ?
me: They said they'd get it to that whatever garden thing in 2 hours
so should be 4:30 a.m. there
between 4:30 a.m. and 5 a.m.
9:45 PM I think the delay may be the computer problems that are making them take the system down at 5 a.m.
No one gets mugged at a good hour, you know?
Jim: yes
9:46 PM so Mike how will you give me the info to get the money here ?
me: Is there a 24-hour one near you?
9:47 PM Jim: i really dont know
But am not sure
me: What was that postal code again?
9:48 PM Jim: W2 3EA
why?
9:49 PM me: Trying to find a Western Union near there
http://www.westernunion.com/WUCOMWEB/staticMid.do?pagename=agentLocator&method=load
Jim: ok
9:50 PM me: There's a place on Queensway?
Damned British make all the streets sound the same
Jim: yes
9:51 PM me: Do you know where that is? They're saying only .26 miles
from the postal code, anyway, don't know how that relates to your address
THE INTERCHANGE ORGANISATION LTD
12 Queensway
London, W2 3RX
+44-0808-2344572
You want to give them a call and make sure they're going to be open?
Or want me to call?
Jim: what did you post on my facebook?
9:52 PM me: What?
Jim: Ah, was just gonna warn you -- on the line with the guy now on Gmail. Jim, there's a
9:53 PM me: Aww, gee, did I make your bitch-ass moron self waste more than 30 minutes of your life for no gain?
I'm a bad, bad boy
But you're an utter loser moron
You're in Gmail chat real time and not even checking the e-mails as they come in?
Do you have the IQ of a syphallytic rhinoceros?
9:54 PM Can one man truly be this stupid?
I guess you can.
Fine work, fine work.
Jim: do you know how much i realise from this gmail account?
me: Well, if you weren't a complete idiot you wouldn't have wasted 30 minutes here
Nor would you open a conversation with the WRONG NAME
9:55 PM Give it up, guy
You're too dumb to be a criminal
And trust me, the real Jim and I have known lots of criminals over the years
and we laugh at them all the time
But we'll be laughing at you for a longer time
And still you talk
Face getting a little red?
9:56 PM Embarrassment? Anger?
Do you feel like your brain is smaller than your penis at the moment? Isn't that hard to do?
9:58 PM Awww, did I hurt your widdle feelings?
Go back to Lagos.

2010-05-17T08:35:00.003-04:00

Two peas in a pod, because that's what they were.

The first time that I met Adriana, ... I just remember the long hair, the big smile, and she had this shy demeanor at first. What you couldn't miss was how connected she and Bernardo were.

And now that she's gone way too early, I'm glad they got to live this story together, and I'm very glad I got to meet her and Isabella got to meet her. We will miss her.

I don't understand why things happen this way sometimes and it seems so unfair, but it's got to be a reason and a plan that we are unaware of, and I know for sure that she's in a good place right now, and I just hope that her family and Bernardo, they'll be OK.

Bernie, I love you. Be well.

Newly American

2010-05-11T19:31:00.002-04:00

It was cliched. It was kind trite. It was pretty darn sappy.

Black-and-white photos of immigrants past filled a big projection screen. There was the obvious German, the cute little girls, a sailing ship simply crowded with people wanting part of the American dream. The screen froze on a flag filtering out the sun -- then became a color photo, and pictures of more recent Americans filled the screen. The elderly immigrants, the kids, the soldiers.

Then it was time for the people in the room.

Australia ... Belgium ... Bosnia ...

Some stood.

Botswana ... Brazil ...

Suze got up, looking around a little, to stand with the others.

Cambodia ... Canada ... China ...

All these people, from so far away, wanting part of what I was simply born into.

Cuba ... Dominican Republican ...

Brown people. Maybe not rushing to be part of Arizona right now, but wanting to be part of the United States. Thinking that they've got a good chance here.

El Salvador ... Ethiopia ... Germany ...

And what of Arizona? These are people who, unlike the rest of America, know how many amendments there are now (27), how many voting U.S. representatives (435) and how long they have to wait before they're eligible to run for the House or Senate.

Malysia ... Mexico ...

These are folks who believe in our government, in our economy. If something's not right, it can be fixed. The states are the laboratories for democracy, yes, but the United States itself has also been a laboratory.

Nigeria ... Pakistan ... Panama ...

Will these newly minted Americans be the last to lose faith in democracy, the last to grow so cynical? Will they be the last to turn away from the American justice system despite modern threats like non-state terrorists?

Sierra Leone ... South Africa ... Thailand ...

No idea. But that's up to them, I guess. They've got the choice. In a few days they can all be voters. They'll probably more likely to vote.

Vietnam ... Yugoslavia ...

Is that the end? 117 new Americans, coming from 50 countries? No, not quite Americans yet.

I hereby declare ...

Suze has one hand up, taking a pledge.

support and defend the Constitution and the laws of the United States of America ...

And it's over. Suze is now an American in every way. How will she vote? It's up to her. How may she do on a jury? I guess we'll find out. How will she be as a mom? Heh, we already know that. How much will she participate in our nation? I'm not quite sure, but I fear for the parent-teacher organization she'll sure to take over in a few years.

It's up to her. At last, at long last, it's up to her.

Suze, with her new American-South African friend

Hey, look: It was cliched. It was kind trite. It was pretty darn sappy.

A note to another mom

2010-04-24T14:52:00.002-04:00

So remember I said Suze and Bel were next door taking care of the
neighbor's dog? I went to tell 'em about the hall of fame ... and
found them sorta scattered over the neighborhood. Isabella on the
neighbor's lawn, Suze farther down, the dog farther than that and
running. And the neighbor's alarm was going off rather loudly. Later
found out Suze had set the alarm, tried to go out the door and the dog
bolted.

I grabbed Bel and tried to catch up to Suze and the dog, but the dog
kept going. Suze eventually caught up to the dog, which had no collar,
of course. So I took Bel, went to get our dog collar and leash, barely
stopped our big dog from making an escape of her own, grabbed Bel and
the leash and collar and tried to meet Suze and Cocoa. It was fun
getting her back in the house and then getting out after, Suze called
the neighbor in Michigan, then started changing Isabella while I
waited forever for the cops to show up. Cop wanted to get the story
from Suze directly, and that's when I found out her asthma was going
badly. So I think she's almost ready to go out the door now, maybe.

Life with a toddler tends to be interesting!

Cousin Thor

2010-02-07T18:27:00.004-05:00

Cousin Thor, age 12, died this morning. A Rottweiler, he stole the hearts of Aunt Claudinha, Uncle Duda, Aunt Ligia and many other people.

Cousin Thor with Aunt Claudinha

If nothing else, Thor was a rather loyal boy. Sensing something wasn't right the first night he met dad, Thor took a bite. In that, he may have been a great judge of character. But while a security guard was stationed nearly outside his own front door, Thor was never one to slack off in his protective duties.

And he never quit loving or being loved. Hearts are broken on at least two continents today over his passing. And while he is survived by new siblings -- including Oliver, Gigi and Biju -- he won't be forgotten.

Here's to Thor, who's probably getting some picanha in Doggie Heaven now.

New cousin!

2010-01-02T11:03:00.016-05:00

Cousin Victor was one of the first babies of 2010!

Uncle Eddie and Aunt Amanda are happy but exhausted, we understand. Cousin Victor is about 7 1/2 pounds, 3,600 grams on earth, and 20 inches, or 51 centimeters. Aunt Ligia arrived from Brazil, and Aunt Wonderly has been there for a while helping the happy couple get ready.

We'll post more pictures when we get them, if it's OK with the happy parents. A note: Our photo gallery software broke again, so we've temporarily lost access to the pictures we've posted in the last couple weeks. Yay.

Three cheers for Cousin Victor!

Adventures in Babysleeping

2009-12-31T06:52:00.002-05:00

Lil' Genghis tried out her room yesterday, and slept until 3:17 a.m. Today, she made it to 6:24 a.m. before she wanted to curl up with mom in the big bed.

She's got her old favorites -- the cool turtle night sky light, the aquarium mounted on her bed that used to be on her crib. And she's got a picture of Cousin Aninha in there, of course, and falls asleep curled up with Cassie, her daughter and stuffed unicorn. And last night she also had to fall asleep with a toy Phillips-head screwdriver and a toy measuring tape, which she kept dropping.

And, yes, she cuddled the screwdriver, too.

So she's getting older, and moving surprisingly quickly with becoming more independent. This may mean, in time, mom and dad can actually touch each other for most of a night. Heck, at the present rate, she'll be sleeping until around 4 p.m. on Sunday, which'd let mom and dad catch lunch and a matinee of Avatar before she wakes up.

All hail progress!

Alternative future for Future World Leader

2009-12-30T07:26:00.002-05:00

Grandpa John came up with the idea of dinner at the Saigon Noodle House, so away we went. Lil' Genghis was having a grand old time stealing rice and noodles from us, avoiding any hint of protein or vegetable.

And she was playing with the chopsticks, clenching 'em in her fist sometimes as she shoved a napkin or straw wrapper or whatever between, showing us how she can use them. Very cute.

Then she started banging a spoon on a porcelain plate, and we stopped that. Later, she picked up the chopsticks, one in each hand, and started hitting the edge of the table. She kept going.

Then ...

"I want to be a drummer."

Rut-roh.

Rut-roh.

RUT-ROH!

Stay tuned for the amazing adventures as she sorta kinda tries to sleep in her own bedroom for a change ...

Santa Claus was coming, to town (photos)

2009-12-28T22:58:00.003-05:00

mom and Lil' Genghis worked awfully hard together to make the Christmas tree look stunning. Here's a picture of dad with the tree:

IMG_2943 from album 091225-Christmas fun

And here's a picture of mom with the tree, sorta. He had this idea of trying to get the lights to show in the photo, so nothing else did:

IMG_2947 from album 091225-Christmas fun

Of course, girldog was running security.

IMG_2949 from album 091225-Christmas fun

It's a blur of activity as Lil' Genghis discovers Buzz Lightyear/Woody The Sheriff sheets.

IMG_2963 from album 091225-Christmas fun

mom got the book of her dreams ... Jane Austen, revisited. A wee bit.

IMG_2965 from album 091225-Christmas fun

Chuck. Taylor. Converse. All-Stars. Wow. Thanks, Aunt Piu!

IMG_2976 from album 091225-Christmas fun

mom is excited about her daughter's new Star Wars T-shirt, but her daughter is more excited about a cheap light-up Christmas necklace.

IMG_2980 from album 091225-Christmas fun

So grown up.

IMG_2993 from album 091225-Christmas fun

Lil' Genghis likes this toy. Lots. And lots.

IMG_2996 from album 091225-Christmas fun

The newest cousin

2009-12-26T20:51:00.001-05:00

DSC03927, originally uploaded by rod_bv.

Elisa at 5 weeks.

Fun at the beach!

2009-12-20T21:28:00.005-05:00

It's just barely above freezing right now (at night), but earlier today Lil' Genghis took a trip to the beach. Sure, she was clad in a hat and heavier jacket and all, but she still had fun throwing sand, going down playground slides and, er, getting her feet wet.

IMG_2906 from album 091220-The Hat for Sharon, Claystone Beach with Bebel

For a while, we had the beach to ourselves!

IMG_2910 from album 091220-The Hat for Sharon, Claystone Beach with Bebel

Do you remember the last time you had so much fun with a stick?

IMG_2912 from album 091220-The Hat for Sharon, Claystone Beach with Bebel

mom and Lil' Genghis share a non-Praia-da-Costa beach moment.

IMG_2914 from album 091220-The Hat for Sharon, Claystone Beach with Bebel

dad just loves this walk -- like she's going to tear down the Empire State Building or something.

IMG_2919 from album 091220-The Hat for Sharon, Claystone Beach with Bebel

This may be the last time she flings sand this year.

Bebel really, really, really, really misses Aninha.

IMG_2931 from album 091220-The Hat for Sharon, Claystone Beach with Bebel

(fe)male bonding.

IMG_2937 from album 091220-The Hat for Sharon, Claystone Beach with Bebel

Curvy tunnel, happy kid.

Back in time

2009-12-19T18:30:00.003-05:00

Thanks to Uncle Nick, we have some priceless photos from the Stucka family scrapbook.

JohnStuckaII,May1944 from album 091219-Historic Stucka photos 1930s

Yes, that's Grandpa John, all right.

MaryFuchilaStucka from album 091219-Historic Stucka photos 1930s

Great-grandma Mary, Grandpa John's mother

JohnStuckaIfuneralprocession,PresofWeldingUnionNext2car from album 091219-Historic Stucka photos 1930s

The funeral procession of Great-Grandpa John

JohnStuckaI,bottomrow,4thfromright from album 091219-Historic Stucka photos 1930s

And Great-Grandpa John again, said to be bottom row, 4th from right.

Thanks, Uncle Nick! There are more photos in the album.

Early introductions, continued

2009-12-12T22:14:00.000-05:00

IMG_0950 from album 050410 nosa famila loca

Is Uncle Rodrigo a purse thief, or a mineira, or a morde-fronha? All good questions. No answers offered here.

IMG_0955 from album 050410 nosa famila loca

This is still one of the most beautiful sights dad has ever seen, almost up there with mom and Lil' Genghis.

IMG_0958 from album 050410 nosa famila loca

Everyone got closer!

IMG_0960 from album 050410 nosa famila loca

Aunt Selle, Aunt Piu and Aunt Rita make one of their first appearances on a Genghis family camera.

IMG_0963 from album 050410 nosa famila loca

We're cartoonish skunks. They knew us so well!

IMG_0966 from album 050410 nosa famila loca

Everyone reserves their emotions.

IMG_0969 from album 050410 nosa famila loca

What wonderful, wonderful ladies.

IMG_0981 from album 050410 nosa famila loca

Two goddaughters!

IMG_0987 from album 050410 nosa famila loca

Yep, everyone reserves their emotions. =)

Early introductions

2009-12-12T21:10:00.000-05:00

As some of you may know, much of mom's family didn't meet dad until more than a year after they got married. Grandpa John came along on the trip in mid-2005 as well, and he and his son felt like they were adopted, or perhaps had always been part of the family.

Now that Lil' Genghis is with us, we can also explain one of the few nice things about meeting the wonderful relatives so late. Ordinarily, if you've been dating a while, you get the "So when are you getting married?" pressure. Then after you've been married a while, you get the "So when are you giving us grandkids?" pressure. The late introductions kinda bridged that gap.

We were already married, so that took a bunch of the pressure off. And because people were just meeting us as a couple, it also meant nobody was going to be asking about our sex life!

Instead, it was all just wonderful fun, with food, family, food, friends, food, naps, food, dog bites and food blending together.

Here are some of the first photos:

IMG_0813 from album 050410 nosa famila loca

The meeting of the fathers.

IMG_0877 from album 050410 nosa famila loca

Aunt Ligia starts teaching her dance moves.

IMG_0883 from album 050410 nosa famila loca

Is Aunt Bruna looking happier because she's looking away from Uncle Rodrigo? Only she could tell, and she's too nice. =)

IMG_0899 from album 050410 nosa famila loca

One of dad's first introductions to the magic of Praia da Costa. The name needs work, but it's a wonderful place.

IMG_0905 from album 050410 nosa famila loca

From the old family homestead.

IMG_0915 from album 050410 nosa famila loca

One of dad's first introductions to the magic of McDonald's banana pies.

IMG_0917 from album 050410 nosa famila loca

When you see the fish phone, you know you've arrived.

We're back-ish!

2009-12-12T16:46:00.003-05:00

So you're probably thinking, "What the heck happened to this blog, and why are they still putting it on magnets?"

The correct answer, obviously, is 42.

But beyond that, you're wanting pictures of Lil' Genghis. We're cool with that. We just got hit with a double whammy:

The technology that dad was using broke for no apparent reason, and efforts by a number of people to fix it or even understand it fell flat. Ultimately, dad realized we could just start a second, parallel system and not add anything to the original thing.
The technology that mom was using drew kinda a creepy inquiry, so those photos went private

So now we're trying to get restarted and would love to share with you the latest photos of Lil' Genghis meeting her Brazilians-in-law ... only two different laptop chargers have broken so we can't get the photos off mom's computer.

That said, we're going to relaunch by going back to the beginning, in a sense -- mom and dad sharing their first Christmas, with Uncle Eddie, boydog and girldog.

Without further prolonging this:

IMG_4249 from album 031225 First family xmas

This may have been the first time boydog and girldog weren't actually trying to kill each other. Who knew man's best friend would be dog's best friend?

IMG_4260 from album 031225 First family xmas

Not really sure what's going on here, but it may not be legal in 32 states.

IMG_4305 from album 031225 First family xmas

Ho ho ho!

IMG_4317 from album 031225 First family xmas

This was our first and last Christmas in Georgia. There won't be a bow in his hair this time. =)

IMG_4336 from album 031225 First family xmas

Yes, Uncle Eddie is wearing shorts on Christmas in North America. And he's bonding so well with the dogs!

IMG_4348 from album 031225 First family xmas

There are so many deer up there ...

Chickens and parks and dogs, oh my!

2009-04-25T23:09:00.002-04:00

Lil' Genghis had a fun-filled day, beginning with being a temporary mom to chickens, and going to a great park ... twice! In the last go-'round at the park, Lil' Genghis even got to play with two other girls and three dogs at the same time. Very cool stuff, we tell you, very cool stuff.

Here's some photos:

IMG_0050 from album 090425-Chickens parks dogs flowers

The one on the right looks so contemplative.

IMG_0051 from album 090425-Chickens parks dogs flowers

She loves the sound the chickens make.

IMG_0058 from album 090425-Chickens parks dogs flowers

Scenic backyard, eh?

IMG_0072 from album 090425-Chickens parks dogs flowers

We're not quite sure why she made this face, but it's certainly a face to remember!

IMG_0073 from album 090425-Chickens parks dogs flowers

Now she has most of a snack bar in her mouth ...

Of course, snacking only holds up so long. So we went to lunch. At a Greek place. With a skylight. A skylight that showed the sky. Up high. Did we mention a skylight? Because someone was kinda fixated on it.

IMG_0079 from album 090425-Chickens parks dogs flowers

IMG_0077 from album 090425-Chickens parks dogs flowers

IMG_0078 from album 090425-Chickens parks dogs flowers

IMG_0083 from album 090425-Chickens parks dogs flowers

It looked like one of those mean prickler bushes, but turned out to be beautiful on closer inspection.

IMG_0089 from album 090425-Chickens parks dogs flowers

IMG_0091 from album 090425-Chickens parks dogs flowers

Park! Dog! Running! FUN!

IMG_0101 from album 090425-Chickens parks dogs flowers

Cousin Ollie is a professional model ...

IMG_0109 from album 090425-Chickens parks dogs flowers

... and a good boy! =)

dad went on a nature walk with girldog yesterday, and we're meeting up with Uncle Eddie, Aunt Amanda, Aunt Cindy and maybe more people tomorrow. More to come!

It was like "Diego" but REAL!

2009-04-18T17:33:00.002-04:00

Lil' Genghis met up with her intrepid and entirely platonic friend, Cousin J.D., for a trip to Capron Park Zoo! All four parents took turns carefully pointing out each animal, then turning around and running when they realized the young'uns had alreay moved on.

DSCF3778 from album 090418-Capron Park Zoo with JD

Coolest
Eyes
Ever

DSCF3783 from album 090418-Capron Park Zoo with JD
mom makes this face sometimes, though she doesn't want to realize or admit it ...

DSCF3790 from album 090418-Capron Park Zoo with JD

DSCF3807 from album 090418-Capron Park Zoo with JD

DSCF3799 from album 090418-Capron Park Zoo with JD

DSCF3810 from album 090418-Capron Park Zoo with JD

DSCF3813 from album 090418-Capron Park Zoo with JD

DSCF3827 from album 090418-Capron Park Zoo with JD

Gotta love it when the kitties clean themselves ...

DSCF3832 from album 090418-Capron Park Zoo with JD

I don't think he approves.

DSCF3841 from album 090418-Capron Park Zoo with JD

DSCF3850 from album 090418-Capron Park Zoo with JD

Aunt Rebecca wound up regretting the purchase of a Blue Raspberry ice drink thing. Her dentist, on the other hand, probably loved it -- No word on whether her teeth have changed color again! =)

DSCF3853 from album 090418-Capron Park Zoo with JD

DSCF3866 from album 090418-Capron Park Zoo with JD

We hope our distant cousins at Grandma Helena's place don't get jealous!

DSCF3870 from album 090418-Capron Park Zoo with JD

DSCF3875 from album 090418-Capron Park Zoo with JD

DSCF3889 from album 090418-Capron Park Zoo with JD

DSCF3892 from album 090418-Capron Park Zoo with JD

DSCF3905 from album 090418-Capron Park Zoo with JD

DSCF3912 from album 090418-Capron Park Zoo with JD

Another run for cancer

2009-03-24T21:18:00.003-04:00

Running alongside, in front of, or behind Uncle Bruno in a similar quest, Uncle Chris is trying to help find cures for cancer, especially in children, by running the Boston Marathon.

Through his fundraising page, http://tinyurl.com/chrisruns, you can learn a bit more about Uncle Chris and why he's doing this. Bruno kinda beat him to the fundraising punch here, even netting a donations from girldog and Cousin Linus, but no doubt Chris is still open to any sources of support from two-legged, four-legged, feathery or gill-y friends.

Wikipedia throws some doubt at the actual history of the Marathon as run by Pheidippides, which is different from the story dad remembers. You can read it and find a reference that Pheidippides ran the 26.2 miles, then dropped dead. dad remembers reading somewhere that the poor guy hallucinated a couple days, then died anyway. Either way, a marathon is not an easy thing. Both Uncle Chris and Uncle Bruno have run these before, and they're doing it for the best of causes. Our best wishes!

Let it snow

2009-03-22T18:52:00.001-04:00

The light shone orange through a cloud carrying some of the last, maybe, snowflakes of the season ... and Lil' Genghis was there to work her magic!

She's determined to catch one on her tongue, you see -- and about the time this picture was taken, she'd just gotten one on her forehead.

DSCF3665 from album 090322-Let It Snow

DSCF3669 from album 090322-Let It Snow

Some in the air around here ...

Here is, er, Gina Simmons:

DSCF3670 from album 090322-Let It Snow

And we even got a video of her running through the snow, but you can't really see the snow:

Yeah, baby!

2009-03-19T09:06:00.001-04:00

via Aunt Sharon, we find out Lil Genghis' and Cousin Savannah's class is already one for the record books. =)

Running from cancer

2009-03-17T01:39:00.003-04:00

Just a quick note -- Uncle Bruno is getting ready for the Boston Marathon, and could use a little help getting to the finish line.

As far as the cancer charities go, The Leukemia & Lymphoma Society is one of the better ones. As far as marathoners go, Uncle Bruno is a class act.

His story is inspirational to dad, who wound up in the emergency room during the last Boston Marathon ... for back pain. That's hopefully under the right treatment at last, and dad hopes to adopt a somewhat healthier lifestyle, much as Uncle Bruno did. And it's for a cause far more painful than back surgery, far more dangerous than a marathon.

So, short version: If you've got a few bucks you can spare, it could help.

In the third year already?!?

2009-03-15T21:13:00.004-04:00

It's hard to believe that two years and two days ago we were given Lil' Genghis and trying to figure out how everything worked. Now she's seemingly self-sufficient, capable of getting into her own bed, sort of brushing her own teeth, eating and drinking, trying to climb out a window that never got a safety grate, all that. =)

So a whole bunch* of friends and family -- and friendly family -- stopped by today to spend some time with our little future world leader. She got some neat gifts, sure 'nuff -- but seemed to enjoy the people more than anyone. For the record, party participants included**: Grandpa John, Uncle James and Aunt Mary, Aunt Liana, Aunt Jan, Aunt Linda, Uncle Josh, Aunt Rebecca, Aunt Cathy, Cousin J.D., Aunt Sussen, Cousin Rafic, Aunt Marina, Uncle Eddie, Aunt Amanda, Aunt Sara, Aunt Ann, Aunt Leeanne, Uncle Bill, mom, dad, and Lil' Genghis. A heckuva party, we tell ya, a heckuva party!

DSCF3568 from album 090315-Bel birthday via several She looked so innocent, before the sugar ...

DSCF3573 from album 090315-Bel birthday via several

DSCF3591 from album 090315-Bel birthday via several

DSCF3595 from album 090315-Bel birthday via several

DSCF3616 from album 090315-Bel birthday via several

DSCF3622 from album 090315-Bel birthday via several Aunt Leeanne insists that isn't a typo of "BC" ... Dunno. But check this out:

On the thumbnail, doesn't it almost look like "MIT"? And BU and MIT are so close together ... HRM!

DSCF3628 from album 090315-Bel birthday via several Coolest. Eyes. Ever.

DSCF3634 from album 090315-Bel birthday via several Birthday with Dora *and* Diego. Doesn't get better than that!

DSCF3639 from album 090315-Bel birthday via several One last kiss from Grandpa John, who spent a week with his favoritist little granddaughter ...

DSCF3646 from album 090315-Bel birthday via several It's just -so- fun to hang out the window while Uncle Eddie clings to my feet!

P1050606 from album 090315-Bel birthday via several

P1050608 from album 090315-Bel birthday via several Uncle Josh donates art to the birthday bash.

P1050613 from album 090315-Bel birthday via several Boots is dropping in for a while ...

P1050618 from album 090315-Bel birthday via several Yeah, a heckvua bash -- and this is after Uncle Jim and Aunt Mary volunteered to schlep Grandpa John to the airport!

P1050626 from album 090315-Bel birthday via several Another advertisement for protective window grates, with Aunt Leeanne rushing behind the scenes to hold Cousin J.D.'s feet ....

And a good time was had by all! =)

* Scientific term. Means roughly twice a (half a bunch).
** God, I hope I don't miss anyone.

Halloween, 2005

2009-02-22T11:29:00.001-05:00

Spooky times!

IMG_2693 from album 051031 Halloween

IMG_2683 from album 051031 Halloween

IMG_2705 from album 051031 Halloween

Of course, there are few things scarier than a priest around Boston these days ... Ugh.

Fixed!

2009-02-21T22:24:00.002-05:00

Sorry, a new firewall package disabled seemingly all traffic to the photo site ... which would explain why it also detected no attacks. Hrm. Sorry. That stuff is gone. Please let us know if you have any problems, OK?

Someone from Spain who runs a PayPal phishing site who tried to break into dad's computer 160 times will no longer be able to see our photos. No loss. =)

June 2007: Genghis hits the beach

2009-02-21T10:58:00.002-05:00

We blogged about this before, but never posted all the photos. When she was a few months old, Lil' Genghis headed up to Newburyport, Massachusetts, to check out nature:

DSCF1280 from album 070624-Bellinha in Newburyport

DSCF1282 from album 070624-Bellinha in Newburyport

DSCF1304 from album 070624-Bellinha in Newburyport

DSCF1313 from album 070624-Bellinha in Newburyport

For some reason, we felt nervous about carrying a baby up an outdoor staircase. Hrmph.

DSCF1321 from album 070624-Bellinha in Newburyport

When was the last time you smiled like that?

DSCF1339 from album 070624-Bellinha in Newburyport

Or smiled like that? =)

May '07: Some grandparents meet Genghis

2009-02-20T10:50:00.002-05:00

Grandpa Rinaldo and Grandma Lucia visited Lil' Genghis in May 2007, about two months after the little lady made her appearance into the world. We just got the photos online:

DSCF1060 from album 070512-Vo Mineiro, Lucia, Isabella

DSCF1056 from album 070512-Vo Mineiro, Lucia, Isabella

DSCF1080 from album 070512-Vo Mineiro, Lucia, Isabella

DSCF1072 from album 070512-Vo Mineiro, Lucia, Isabella

DSCF1093 from album 070512-Vo Mineiro, Lucia, Isabella

DSCF1104 from album 070512-Vo Mineiro, Lucia, Isabella

It's never too early to start wearing patriotic "football" clothing, right? =)

IMG_4568 from album 070512-Vo Mineiro, Lucia, Isabella

If dad remembers right, even two months later we were too busy to go through the answering machine messages. Aieee!

IMG_4574 from album 070512-Vo Mineiro, Lucia, Isabella

Grandma Lucia meets Cousin Isabellah at the Boston airport. It truly is a small world!

IMG_4576 from album 070512-Vo Mineiro, Lucia, Isabella

Aunt Aline holds her daughter Isabellah

IMG_4593 from album 070512-Vo Mineiro, Lucia, Isabella

So many babies, and only one with Uncle Rodrigo for a godfather. Coincidence?

Big announcement

2009-02-18T22:35:00.004-05:00

A moment many of us have been waiting for arrived this morning: or, rather, Cousin Julius arrived this morning. All 10 pounds 13 1/2 ounces of him. That's a big little guy! (For those of you stuck with the metric system, he weighs 48 Newtons. Quit whining. That's 4.92 kilograms of mass.)

Anyway, the little guy's doing alright, Aunt Sharon is doing all right, Uncle Pat is doing all right, and Cousin Savannah seems happier than anyone. What a big little baby brother!

We really didn't ask Sharon's permission, so let's just post two photos before she notices. =) We're also moving ahead with an idea to rename Aunt Sharon to S-Dawg -- anyone who can give birth to a baby as cute, cuddly and as ginormous as Cousin Julius deserves a good street name.

Learning and good clean fun

2009-02-16T20:32:00.002-05:00

We processed some more older photo albums today.

Here's Lil' Genghis' first trip to the library. She didn't stay awake through many books, as you can see -- but we had fun cuddling her.

IMG_4490 from album 070414-Isabella first library, river

IMG_4505 from album 070414-Isabella first library, river

IMG_4501 from album 070414-Isabella first library, river

dad loves this picture ...

IMG_4506 from album 070414-Isabella first library, river

DSCF1256 from album 070618-GirlGoneClean

Such a happy girl.

DSCF1251 from album 070618-GirlGoneClean

DSCF1262 from album 070618-GirlGoneClean

Clearly, though, not everyone was happy with the choice of godfather.

New old photos

2009-02-14T10:53:00.002-05:00

dad started randomly picking old sets of photos to process and get online -- and you can be the beneficiary of this cast-off stuff! =) I mean, you can relive with us earlier days in our family.

So the first two random picks feature Aunt Marselle with the dogs, pre-Genghis; and then a very young Lil' Genghis hanging out with Grandpa John, Aunt Ann and Aunt Beth. Good times! Anyway, here's some highlights -- click a photo to see the album. Note in the Memorial Day package, there are a few videos at the beginning, with Grandpa John -- good stuff!

IMG_3628 from album 060603 Marselle w dogs

IMG_3643 from album 060603 Marselle w dogs

IMG_3636 from album 060603 Marselle w dogs

DSCF1148 from album 070526-Memorial Day BBQ, Beth, Ann, Grandpa John

DSCF1158 from album 070526-Memorial Day BBQ, Beth, Ann, Grandpa John

DSCF1160 from album 070526-Memorial Day BBQ, Beth, Ann, Grandpa John

DSCF1174 from album 070526-Memorial Day BBQ, Beth, Ann, Grandpa John

IMG_4618 from album 070526-Memorial Day BBQ, Beth, Ann, Grandpa John

Blast from the past

2009-02-08T20:28:00.002-05:00

It's hard to believe Lil' Genghis has been hanging out with us for a couple of years now. Well, hanging out out, but she's been with us for a bit longer than that.

Anyway, we had a request to post some old photos, from Christmas 2006, when Uncle Joao's family came to visit with a friend, Uncle John and Grandpa John were both at our place, and Uncle Rodrigo got caught playing with action figures. Yeah, some people don't grow up.

Anywho, you also get some looks at Lil' Genghis when she was around 6 1/2 months, or -2 1/2 months, depending on how you're counting. And you also get some idea of what parents are like before they're used to the various indignities and challenges of parenthood, and can still be embarrassed. So take this photo as a key into the rest of the photo gallery ...

DSCF0345 from album 061225-Christmas Joao JS cunhado mau

Boydog update

2009-02-02T18:03:00.003-05:00

The vet today took out a 5cm/2-inch-wide hunk of skin off boydog, trying to remove all of a suspicious "growth" or "mass." Scary words ... they think he had cancer -- but it'll be another week before we know what's going on. So far, everything's looking pretty good. Turns out Chewie even had enough extra loose skin hanging around that he really doesn't miss it.

One bit of irony: His beloved mom-away-from-mom, Aunt Karen from the kennel, also works in the vet's office. And she was talking about boydog and how nice "she" did in surgery, she, she, she. And we thought, hrm. And then the vet, the guy who was poking and prodding and cutting our little lad, referred to him as her. Aieee! Poor little guy loses a bunch of skin, gets a ton of hair shaved off, loses every shred of dignity, and then is repeatedly mistaken for a girl by several animal professionals. Poor kid.

Especial thanks to Uncle Patrick the veterinarian and Uncle Ben, who let dad take the day off to look after his little boy.

Special update

It's benign. He might get some more, but our little guy's going to hang around for many years barking at the mailman.

Anyway, we'll give Chewie lots of love. =) Here's some photos:

DSCF3345 from album 090202-Chewie after surgery

That doesn't look too bad, right?

DSCF3352 from album 090202-Chewie after surgery

(Sasha and Isabella are keeping him company here)

DSCF3350 from album 090202-Chewie after surgery

Ack. Poor kid.

We've also got some photos from the last few weeks we still need to post of, well, happier things, but we'll get to 'em later.

Flickr you

2009-01-30T12:28:00.002-05:00

So we had something kinda creepy happen where other people were using pictures of the kids, so mom somehow got Flickr to only let friends and family members see the photos. So I guess if you can't see 'em, you need to get a Flickr and/or Yahoo account and then talk to mom about getting access. Sorry. But ... heck, not "kinda creepy," but really damned creepy.

So some old photo links are going to be broken from this blog, and the slideshow in the right bar has been replaced with a news feed from Bacon Today.

We realize most folks are here for the photos anyway, and regret the trouble.

Behind the scenes, we've since learned Uncle Humberto's father died; boydog is sick, and goes back to his doctor on Monday; and girldog is just really fat. Our thoughts are with Humberto and his family, and with boydog. We'll try to let you know more when we do.

Getting ready for Cousin Julius

2009-01-11T19:14:00.002-05:00

Aunt Sharon and Uncle Pat, who have done so well with Cousin Savannah, are getting ready for the (estimated) Feb. 24 arrival of their son, Cousin Julius.

Aunt Sharon seems to, like mom and dad, be suffering from the same loss of memory stemming the act of becoming a parent. Have a kid, lose your memory -- it's not a bad tradeoff at all, but it can be a little rough.

Anyway, so Aunt Sharon is trying to remember everything she needs to get ready. Any suggestions on what's missing would be wonderfully accepted; note some things, like baby wipes and diaper cream, are already hanging around because of Julius' big sister and are thus off the list. Here's what we recommended so far:

Disposable changing pads. Those Sleep and Play or whatever outfits that survive a blowout without bringing crap-covered cotton over your newborn's face. Small bottle nipples, if supplementing. Little diapers. Little pacifiers. A big bunch of swaddling blankets. Something in 7.62x25 Tokarev. Maybe the big bundling blanket thingy that zips from feet to head. A hardened stomach for all that meconium stuff, yech. A cool older sister. A couple of loving parents. Maybe a pet or two.

Bibs. Lots of bibs. And then some more bibs. And stock up on laundry detergent. Bottle brushes. Cheap dish soap, which rinses easily out of bottles. The manual to your car seat -- make sure you remember how to do it right, not necessarily the way you were doing it at the end. Diaper Genie refills. Waterproof mattress liner.

On another note, tomorrow Cousin Julius has a date with the photographer! Aunt Sharon hopes to get an idea of just how big he's going to be, which may determine his date of arrival.

Chillin' with Ligia and Duda

2009-01-11T00:28:00.002-05:00

So Lil' Genghis had another visit from Aunt Ligia, who probably finds this area's weather A) not as bad as Buffalo, where she raised two children; and B) a God-awful mess compared to Brazil. =)

Anyway, Aunt Ligia and Uncle Eddie popped by for a few hours today, during which time Uncle Humberto called in to talk to Lil' Genghis. And then we all went out to eat. Lil' Genghis even tried sushi (!), though dad thinks she was just trying to get at the rice. A few more months until she turns 2 years old, and then we can try to introduce her to stuff like shrimp and peanut butter and AK-74s with Bulgarian 45-round clips. Er, wait.

Anyway, some photos from today:

DSCF3202 from album 090110-Ligia and Duda visit

DSCF3213 from album 090110-Ligia and Duda visit
Is it possible to get too much love? Well, Uncle Eddie seems to be having a hard time breathing under all that love!

DSCF3228 from album 090110-Ligia and Duda visit
No, there are few hats like this in Brazil. =)

DSCF3181 from album 090110-Ligia and Duda visit
Awww.

DSCF3187 from album 090110-Ligia and Duda visit
There are aunts, and there are cool aunts, and then there are the cool aunts that bring Dora the Explorer stickers.

DSCF3193 from album 090110-Ligia and Duda visit

DSCF3195 from album 090110-Ligia and Duda visit
Awww.

We still have to post some videos. Soonly.

A new author in the family!

2009-01-03T00:31:00.004-05:00

As some of you may know, dad sometimes writes some stuff, but Aunt Amanda and Uncle Joao are published book authors. Now, joining their ranks is Uncle Rodrigo, who argues whether he's a "Senseless waste of carbon."

dad's regret from this Christmas present is that making a bleed for Uncle Rodrigo is probably the closest he'll get to making Uncle Rodrigo bleed. Damn.

New photos before a new year

2008-12-30T19:58:00.005-05:00

Yes, folks, we're looking forward to Lil' Genghis' third calendar year here on Planet Earth, where two Children of Abraham have settled a petty land dispute in a holy land and even would-be political hacks improve their success by standing up for what's right. Well, not really. Anyway, there's more for Lil' Genghis: Future World Leader to clean up.

But she's still in her innocent childhood stage. She's had an awful amount of fun lately, including a trip Sunday to see Disney on Ice. It was fun watching her.

So, the photos:

DSCF2956 from album 081219-Genghis doing stuff some time

Fastest bottle in the West!

DSCF2929 from album 081219-Genghis doing stuff some time

Do you remember the last time you enjoyed a shower this much?

DSCF2919 from album 081219-Genghis doing stuff some time

Painting Christmas colors, and wanting to share the fun!

DSCF2891 from album 081219-Genghis doing stuff some time

Thomas the Tank Engine the Ballerina!

DSCF2909 from album 081219-Genghis doing stuff some time

Checking out the new bouncy house!

DSCF2870 from album 081219-Genghis doing stuff some time

Waving to Aunt Leeanne!

DSCF2965 from album 081220-Bel Sasha snow, Jan Linda cookiefest

SNOW! YES! IT'S HAPPY TIME!

DSCF2970 from album 081220-Bel Sasha snow, Jan Linda cookiefest

Three women! Who-hoo!

DSCF2978 from album 081220-Bel Sasha snow, Jan Linda cookiefest

Love makes the cold warmer, eh?

DSCF3010 from album 081220-Bel Sasha snow, Jan Linda cookiefest

Ooh, cuddle time ...

DSCF3021 from album 081220-Bel Sasha snow, Jan Linda cookiefest

So thoughtful.

DSCF3031 from album 081220-Bel Sasha snow, Jan Linda cookiefest

DSCF3044 from album 081220-Bel Sasha snow, Jan Linda cookiefest

DSCF3038 from album 081220-Bel Sasha snow, Jan Linda cookiefest

Daddy, the Sudetenland is that way!

DSCF3050 from album 081224-Christmas Eve with Duda Ligia Humberto

Yes, the snow, a few days before Christmas, piled up to the window of a Toyota.

DSCF3055 from album 081224-Christmas Eve with Duda Ligia Humberto

"Pssst!" said Uncle Humberto. "I think Sasha wants food!"

DSCF3056 from album 081224-Christmas Eve with Duda Ligia Humberto

Lil' Genghis shares a light-up necklace with Uncle Eddie.

DSCF3061 from album 081224-Christmas Eve with Duda Ligia Humberto

Mmmm!

DSCF3071 from album 081224-Christmas Eve with Duda Ligia Humberto

Girls LOVE a good listener.

DSCF3077 from album 081224-Christmas Eve with Duda Ligia Humberto

Cousin Oliver brought some badly needed canine masculinity to the Christmas party.

DSCF3082 from album 081224-Christmas Eve with Duda Ligia Humberto

But of course Brother Chewie is pretty darned masculine.

DSCF3086 from album 081224-Christmas Eve with Duda Ligia Humberto

Uncle Eddie is happy to share his son's first Christmas.

DSCF3088 from album 081224-Christmas Eve with Duda Ligia Humberto

...... Not happy .....

DSCF3089 from album 081224-Christmas Eve with Duda Ligia Humberto

... HAPPY! These pictures were taken back-to-back.

DSCF3096 from album 081224-Christmas Eve with Duda Ligia Humberto

Uncle Humberto and Aunt Ligia check out the Christmas Eve spread, most of which she slaved over. Good, good, good stuff, we tell ya ...

DSCF3103 from album 081224-Christmas Eve with Duda Ligia Humberto

In wine, there is truth. Here, we see Aunt Ligia is one of the nicest and happiest people ...

DSCF3105 from album 081224-Christmas Eve with Duda Ligia Humberto

Cousin Oliver checks out the presents.

Presents, you said?

Presents, we agreed.

Of course, any kid is prone to get diverted from the real toys for a box, or something else that can be entertaining ...

DSCF3106 from album 081224-Christmas Eve with Duda Ligia Humberto

DSCF3108 from album 081224-Christmas Eve with Duda Ligia Humberto

More to come!

Upgrayedd

2008-12-24T08:29:00.003-05:00

Behind the scenes of the photo gallery, dad updated a significant amount of software. He also temporarily killed two important configuration files, so please let him know if you have any problems. =)

There are two photo galleries in there that we haven't posted much of anything from, on 12/19 and 12/20.

Merry Christmas!

Staying warm

2008-12-22T22:01:00.003-05:00

As some of you may know, parts of the family are being attacked by ferocious cold. For example, as I write this, it's only 77 degrees Fahrenheit in Brazil, at 1 a.m. ... freezing! So for absolutely no reason at all, we'll share a soup recipe.

Oh, yeah. And it snowed in the United States. A bit. Like, maybe seven inches on Friday night, probably another eight inches Saturday, and perhaps four more Sunday, followed by freezing rain. So, to this, all we can say is,
Welcome Aunt Ligia and Uncle Humberto!

At least Ligia spent some time in Buffalo. Freow.

Anyway, the recipe, again, for no apparent reason.

Recipe for Agnolini Soup
(Agnolini is probably spelled wrong; pronounced eye-o' lee-nee)
Classic Italian recipe, possibly adapted in Brazil.
It's closer to a pasta dish with a red sauce than a soup

Prep time: 20 minutes
Cook time: 25 minutes
Feeds: Stuffs three or four people completely full

Tools:
-- vegetable peeler (*1)
-- knife
-- cutting board
-- big pot
-- fire
-- big soup spoon
-- can opener

Ingredients:
-- minced garlic
-- 14 oz/400g/1 hectactre precooked kielbasa
-- 3 large carrots/5 small carrots
-- 2 cans of beef broth, each ~14oz/400g/14.6 kiloton
-- 2 cans of good-quality non-concentrate tomato soup, such as Progresso tomato-basil; ~19 oz/540g/3 fortnight each
-- one big package of cheese tortellini (*2), 20 oz/570g/12 klingons
-- 1 beer
-- 1 loaf Italian bread (optional)

Preparation: Open the beer. Baste the chef lightly, and maintain adequate moisture levels during the cooking process.

Peel the carrots (*1). Chop the ends off. Line the carrots up facing opposite directions so you can block 'em with one hand while cutting with the other. Slice carrots about 1/3-inch thick (8 mm/14.7 potrezebies). Dump carrots into the big pot.

Cut the kielbasa to a similar thickness. Dump kielbasa into the big pot.

Grab a big soup spoon. Dumb three heaping spoonfuls of the garlic into the big pot.

Light the big pot on a high fire. Stir occasionally until the kielbasa begins to brown; the other ingredients will cook in the kielbasa juice.

When the kielbasa's browned, dump in the two cans of beef broth and the two cans of tomato soup. Slap yourself in the forehead. Retrieve the greasy cans; use the can opener to open the cans, then dump the _ingredients_ into the big pot. Discard the now-empty cans.

(If you bought the bread, this is good time to stick it in your oven at ~300 degrees, unpreheated, wrapped in foil, and it'll come out great nice and warm.)

Stir soup occasionally until warm (but not boiling, probably about 10 minutes); you can find out by sticking in your pinkie finger. If it's uncomfortable for more than a second or two, you're good.

This time, open the package of tortellinis and drop them in; try not to splash yourself with hot soup. Wait a few minutes, then pull your bread out of the oven and cut it up, maybe add a little butter. By the time you're done, the tortellini should be close to being done (total cooking time, maybe 8-10 minutes). Taste one tortellini at a time to test doneness.

Serve in a big soup bowl, with buttered bread on the side. You can drop a little dried parsely and/or parmesan cheese on top.

(1) Chuck Norris would use a chef's knife, and then not need to call for an ambulance.

(2) You can get something like pepperoni and cheese tortellini, but you're already dumping in a pound of sausage. The cheese balances things out better.

Yeah, you thought were completely serious. Check this out:

Inside a neighbor's home, where it was safe and cozy, Lil' Genghis also tried out a rocking chair:

We got some great pictures we'll try to post.They're already online, if you look, though.

Nuttin' to do with nuttin'

2008-12-17T21:44:00.002-05:00

And, with thanks to Uncle Boboli:

Finally, since we're already way the heck off topic here, dad was trying to talk to Lil' Genghis about all sorts of stuff during her baths -- something about estimating densities greater than 1 turned into an example of using a rubber duckie to demonstrate kinetic energy penetrator impacts, for example. Somewhere in there he was reading from Chuikov's Berlin memoirs, which are phenomenally worse and more politicized than the incredible Stalingrad memoirs with the lessons on stormtrooper tactics. Witness this classical nugget of non-history:

When the hordes of Nazi invaders swept into Poland in 1939, it became clear that there was no one to defend the interests of the working people of Poland, except the masses of the people themselves, rallied around the Polish Communiists. They, the Communists, organized active struggle against the Nazis from the very first days of occupation onwards. At the same time those Polish communists who were in the Soviet Union initiated the Union of Polish Patriots. In April 1943 this body approached the Soviet government with a request for permission to form a Polish military unit to fight the Nazis. The Soviet government heeded the dcesire of Poles to fight Fascism arms in hand, and acceeded to this request. The formation of the First Polish Army started on 19 May 1943.

This entire quote only makes sense if you utterly ignore the fact that the noble Soviet Communists invaded half of Poland at the exact same time, and that the Polish Communist Party was, at that time, nothing but a puppet front worse than Vichy France became. It's a shame -- this book was apparently released well after Khruschev attacked the cult of Stalin, but it's more Stalinist than his earlier and better Stalingrad memoirs.

So, yeah, we're also talking to Lil' Genghis about the nature of evaluating historical sources in terms of self-interest, access to information, ideology and the like.

By the way, if you get a magnet this year, a hint: The quote on the Lil' Genghis, Future World Leader magnets was repeated by Iosef Stalin and can be found on his Wikiquote page, even though it was originally from Molotov.

Yeah yeah yeah we'll post some pictures of Bel sometime. Geesh.

Making connections

2008-12-14T17:45:00.005-05:00

mom and dad have been adding people like crazy to Facebook, but Lil' Genghis has been making lots of connections of her own.

Now, the human brain develops in some strange ways. Babies like peek-a-boo because it's so fun -- they have to learn that objects are permanent even when they're out of sight, and peek-a-boo kinda plays with that.

Still, a huge chunk of brain development occurs by age 4, so her brain's making all sorts of internal connections. Lil' Genghis is also learning to make all sorts of logical connections that seem obvious to us, but is pretty darned cool when a baby does it. Let's let dad babble on:

I had her on the floor, trying to convince her to stay still for a diaper change. So we were just sorta hanging out near the changing table, which has a cabinet underneath.

And she starts playing with the doors, opening and closing them, pulling out baby perfume and baby wipes and disposable changing pads and all the other sorts of detritus that a healthy toddler needs at some point or another, and then she's helpfully putting 'em back.

At one point, she opens up the right door and points at a 1-inch/3cm tall picture on a package of these swimming diapers -- "Dora!" she says, pointing at one of her favorite cartoon characters. Mind you, she hasn't been swimming in a good while -- and these things are for babies up to 15 pounds/7 kilos, which hasn't happened in a while. Then Lil' Genghis closes the door and plays with stuff on the left side of the cabinet for a while.

Minutes later, she gets excited, shouts "Dora!" and rips open the right cabinet door again, points at Dora, makes a little paddling motion with her left arm, then pulls both arms together as in a hug and says, "Coowd."

So let's think about what she was thinking about:
She remembered Dora on the package
She remembered the package held swimming diapers she hasn't worn in many months
She remembers swimming diapers are for swimming
She remembers how to swim, sorta
She knows how to communicate swimming and temperature
She remembers it's cold outside
She remembers most swimming pools are outdoors
And she realizes, though she's never tried it, it would be bad to swim in the cold

Sometimes I'm not sure how to balance my deep feelings of pride with my strident feelings of terror. Pretty smart little cookie we got here.

Quick update

2008-12-11T11:22:00.003-05:00

We never had a chance to post here about Uncle Clóvis, who passed away last week after struggling with cancer.

His hometown newspaper has a story on him; an English translation is here.

Most of the time, such stories focus on what a person's job was, and how it related to other people. There's a lot that here -- Uncle Clóvis helped launch careers, but at its most basic levels, he was working to bring music to people -- one of the simplest, most generous things a person can do.

That's just part of the story. It's fitting enough that before the story talks about what he did in business, it focuses on what he did as a person -- including being the loving stepfather of Aunt Amanda and the doting husband of Aunt Wanderly, one of Lil' Genghis' bestest friends in the whole world.

Our hearts go out to that side of the family. We're so sorry.

Other parts of the family have been having health problems as well, but not to the same degree.

Uncle Joao turned 50 last night, celebrating with a strong dose of food poisoning -- yikes! Very unfun.

A continent away, Aunt Piu and Uncle Robinho also got hit with food poisoning. dad is still struggling with a bad back, and in a major change, mom just got knee surgery that has her in strong discomfort and suffering through dad's household skills. She seems to be feeling better already, thankfully.

For those of you keeping track, Uncle Rodrigo knows about all this -- knows that his sisters and their husbands are sick -- and is still just hanging out at his apartment playing on a computer instead of lifting a finger to help his nieces. Figures.

Pictures, weeee got pictures

2008-12-06T10:00:00.006-05:00

Yeah, we haven't posted pictures in a month. But that's OK -- we've got lotsa pictures for you today. We were dabbling around with this Microsoft AutoCollage program, and got a cute little 8x10 photo out of some of the Halloween pictures:

081031-Halloween bumblebee abelinha_AutoCollage_16_Images from album 081206-Big photos-collage-mosaic

But wait! There's more! For just $0 and shipping and handling, we'll give you 2,500 photos in one spot.

"How," you say, "can you give me so much for so little money?" Because we're just going to give it to you all in one big photo. dad is of the philosophy that art should be measured in square feet, but for Brazilian's sake, we got a single picture comprised of thousands of little pictures printed up so it's about one meter wide. Rock n roll! =)

Let's see if the technology works here ...
Lightning bolt receiver over there ...
Zener diodes here
Thermocouple with paste here
Heat exchangers there and there
Aluminum to convert neutron radiation to gamma radiation .. whoops, not a good idea ...

YES!

No. We'll keep trying.

Wait! Hydroelectric power coming online ...

YES!

Alternative text for sucky browsers

Bye-bye-bye

2008-11-11T05:16:00.003-05:00

Lil' Genghis got to ride her first train this weekend, which was a pretty darned big deal for her. In this video, you get to see an actual train being pushed by Thomas the Tank Engine, a character created by a British minister and turned into a TV show sometimes narrated by George "Seven Dirty Words You Can't Say on Television" Carlin -- an odd but very workable combination.

Thomas was featured by Essex Steam Train in Essex, Connecticut, a wonderful little town where absolutely everybody stops their farm tractors, stops their cars, whatever, to wave at the kids waving back from the train.

Trains are a big deal in our family. When dad was a kid, Grandpa John had an office ringed with photos of trains. And of course Grandpa Rinaldo has worked with trains as a ~~three-continent drug lord~~ railroad executive, sometimes literally building new railroads through the middle of nowhere.

So let's start with the video. Folks, we picked out about 30 pictures we thought were worth highlighting. Seriously. Lil' Genghis just went nuts for the camera, and a lot of the pictures turned out rather well. How nuts for the camera? Well, dad was talking to Uncle Joe about it, and said, "Dude, we took a half a gig of photos and video." Uncle Joe replied, "Oh, that's nothing. We took more than 200 pictures in three days in New York City." Then we had to explain to Joe that his new camera takes -really- big pictures. We'd taken more than 100 photos of Lil' Genghis with Thomas in less than two hours. That photogenic. But the video ... make sure you listen to the end.

Isn't that precious?

DSCF2700 from album 081108-Meeting Thomas the Tank Engine
There was so much to see. She was fascinated with the carousel, even though she'd been on one before.

DSCF2735 from album 081108-Meeting Thomas the Tank Engine
Some of the really fun photos come just before Lil' Genghis attacks the camera. Like, here's the next photo:

DSCF2736 from album 081108-Meeting Thomas the Tank Engine

DSCF2741 from album 081108-Meeting Thomas the Tank Engine
Even with the world rolling by outside, Lil' Genghis had plenty to see inside -- a train car full of kids and parents, and a conductor telling stories about how Thomas came to help that day. Cool stuff. We took a video but it didn't turn out too well. Trains, are, well, loud.

DSCF2762 from album 081108-Meeting Thomas the Tank Engine
Quality cuddlin!

DSCF2770 from album 081108-Meeting Thomas the Tank Engine
And more cuddlin'.

DSCF2778 from album 081108-Meeting Thomas the Tank Engine
And a belly attack! She loves getting rubbed on people's heads. Thanks, Grandpa John!

DSCF2781 from album 081108-Meeting Thomas the Tank Engine
She got her first diploma that day.

DSCF2793 from album 081108-Meeting Thomas the Tank Engine
Yeah, we think she had fun on the train ride. We all did.

DSCF2798 from album 081108-Meeting Thomas the Tank Engine
Of course, a chance to throw in some extra physics never hurt ...

There was also a model train set inside that just absolutely fascinated her. We couldn't pull her away. Two attempts at bad video:

Last, but not least, because it's O-Dark-30, we wanted to be among the first to wish loyal reader and dear friend Aunt Marselle a happy birthday. She requested a special gift: A chance to see one of her favoritist photos again, from just over one year ago:

Time flies sometimes, yet Marselle is still just 18 years old. Feliz natal! Eu desejo muito mais annos com saude e felidades, tia. And, yeah, that's the same greeting as last year, we bet -- Lil' Genghis is still learning Portuguese faster than dad. Thank God she's getting her mom's brains and looks. Annnyway, Feliz Natal Marselle! =)

Um messagem para os amigos de pais com muitos armas nuclear

2008-11-04T12:00:00.003-05:00

Vote, please. Thanks, gringos.

Halloween II: The sequel

2008-11-01T13:17:00.002-04:00

Aunt Linda, one of our neighbors, was kind enough to e-mail over a half-dozen pictures she got of Lil' Genghis romping around on Halloween, even the one where she's trying to steal Aunt Linda's pumpkin. Here, courtesy of some wonderful neighbors:

Oct312008_0317 from album 081031-Halloween by Linda

Oct312008_0318 from album 081031-Halloween by Linda

Oct312008_0319 from album 081031-Halloween by Linda

Oct312008_0320 from album 081031-Halloween by Linda

Oct312008_0322 from album 081031-Halloween by Linda

Oct312008_0323 from album 081031-Halloween by Linda

Thanks so much!

Assault of the anaphylaxis attacker!

2008-10-31T22:03:00.002-04:00

Well, OK, Lil' Genghis' costume wasn't too terribly terrifying, but, dang, her mom dresses her good, huh?

She was much more mobile for this year's round of trick-or-treating -- even managed to escape our clutches a few times and go tearing down a prospective boyfriend's driveway before we recaptured her. A good time was had by all. =)

mom had the bright idea of taking pictures at around 4:30 p.m. (16:30), when there was still a good bit of light left. It was, well, a bright idea. Here are some of our favorite still photos, followed by a couple videos as our busy little bee buzzes by:

DSCF2639 from album 081031-Halloween bumblebee abelinha

So happy -- and this was even before she had gotten her first candy, a pack of plain M&Ms, from our friendly neighbors.

DSCF2628 from album 081031-Halloween bumblebee abelinha

Trying on the outfit. At this point, she didn't like the hat ooooone little bit.

DSCF2633 from album 081031-Halloween bumblebee abelinha

Wait, who's that?

DSCF2634 from album 081031-Halloween bumblebee abelinha

dad?

DSCF2635 from album 081031-Halloween bumblebee abelinha
CHARGE!
Look at how fast her little feet are moving. =) Let's throw in a video now to demonstrate her trick-or-treating skills:

DSCF2643 from album 081031-Halloween bumblebee abelinha
Here, she's loving the season and the nice pumpkin at Aunt Jan and Aunt Linda's house.

DSCF2647 from album 081031-Halloween bumblebee abelinha
Carefully down the steps with mom's help, our intrepid adventurer comes away with her M&Ms.

DSCF2650 from album 081031-Halloween bumblebee abelinha

Here Lil' Genghis is mounted on her Морь. But what does she look like dismounted, ready for hand-to-hand combat collecting?

DSCF2660 from album 081031-Halloween bumblebee abelinha
Her arm looks a little ghostly, huh? (This is sorta a trick photo -- flash and long exposure). Let's try another one. It's tough to get Halloween photos right ...

DSCF2663 from album 081031-Halloween bumblebee abelinha
mom certainly has the dark and mysterious look going in this picture, huh?

If anyone wants any surplus candy, shaped like human body parts, individually wrapped and dispensed from a coffin-like box, please come get some. Please.

Fastest birds in the South!

2008-10-29T07:04:00.003-04:00

An aside or two here: Uncle Joe and Aunt Cady apparently became the fastest parrots in the South the other day.

Actually, as Joe is doing the writing ... and we remember how well he rights, write? ... it's not quite clear if Cady was wearing the parrot outfit. Uncle Joe also neglected to mention one of the basics of journalism -- who-what-when-where-why-how -- such that we can only assume he was trying to flee an angry Chick-Fil-A manager.

As bad as the writing is, it's worth taking, er, a gander over there. Uncle Joe set a course record for the fastest-running parrot (5K, or as Brazilians say, quilos, in 25:05). Meanwhile, Aunt Cady came in first place in her division despite some challenges unrelated to being married to Uncle Joe. Congratulations to them both!

Down on the farm

2008-10-26T21:48:00.002-04:00

Cousin J.D., Uncle Josh, Aunt Rebecca and Aunt Leeanne joined us at a place called Winslow Farm for the youngster's first major outtings among livestock, exotic fowl and loads of crap. A good time was had by all, except the washing machine and a few sticks.

Extra commentary with most of the photos, and some fun videos.

Annnyway, we really did have lotsa fun. Let's see some results:

DSCF2529 from album 081026-Winslow Farm with JD

DSCF2531 from album 081026-Winslow Farm with JD

"Why is there a goat on a building?" you may find yourself asking. Well, you don't see many mountains for the goat to climb, do you? Silly city slickers soliciting satire salaciously.

DSCF2535 from album 081026-Winslow Farm with JD

Peahen? Peacock? Either way, (s)he's a beauty, eh?

DSCF2542 from album 081026-Winslow Farm with JD

You have to look for a while at this photo to figure out what it is. It's worth the effort.

DSCF2561 from album 081026-Winslow Farm with JD

Cousin J.D. and Lil' Genghis were so excited they tried breaking through a gate.

DSCF2566 from album 081026-Winslow Farm with JD

Some day, some nice girl's going to fall in love with those eyes. Maybe not Lil' Genghis though -- he kept pushing her. It's the girl that's supposed to play hard-to-get, lad.

DSCF2575 from album 081026-Winslow Farm with JD

Aww.

DSCF2579 from album 081026-Winslow Farm with JD

Through whose eyes do we judge ourselves? Many of Winslow Farm's residents have been abused or neglected by people.

DSCF2593 from album 081026-Winslow Farm with JD

Grandpa John always wanted a California Condor. This is likely to be the closest our family will ever get.

DSCF2597 from album 081026-Winslow Farm with JD

This little guy was doing his best to hide, but kitty porn is just sooooo pervasive in our society.

DSCF2602 from album 081026-Winslow Farm with JD

They look cute together when they're not pushing each other or trying to break down gates, don't they?

DSCF2604 from album 081026-Winslow Farm with JD

dad
loves
this
photo.

Lest you folks think we've given too much coverage to the farm's 71 cats, we do have a story on why dogs are cooler.

And then, as you've come to expect, we've got some videos, including one that could make Uncle Rodrigo sick.

Tech upgrades, new Lil' Genghis products

2008-10-19T18:15:00.005-04:00

Kind folks,

Behind the scenes we've made some extra changes to our Lil' Genghis photo galleries.

We had to upgrade the hardware that all this stuff runs behind, get a new router.

We updated the Gallery2 photo gallery software itself. But this improved upgrade also let us:

Fix the download-shopping-cart-as-a-ZIP thing. I don't know when that broke. Whoops. You can download individual files or entire albums by adding 'em to your cart, then telling it to Add to Zipfile. It can take maybe 20 seconds to process 50 photos -- give it a little time and it'll come through for you, and remember if there's videos in the mix it'll take it a while longer. Once you have the files on your computer, you can put 'em on a CD or take 'em online anywhere you'd like.
Through the software, you can print the pictures through Shutterfly, same as before. That's strictly between you and Shutterfly -- we're not involved.
Europeans can print pictures now through FotoKasten, a German outfit that may offer more convenience to Lil' Genghis fans in Europe. Someone does make a purportedly small profit off these prints -- the guys that created the photo gallery software itself.
Last, and potentially most interesting, we've enabled access to SnapGalaxy. This doesn't give us an easy way to not make a profit; we're trying to find out if we can make sure we won't be held liable for -your- prints if -they- raise their prices. We may jack up the prices somewhat to make a profit so we don't make a loss, if that makes any sense. SnapGalaxy may have the most potential as far as being able to ship internationally and has a -really- wide variety of products ... but we'd not like to owe money for your guys' products, and we don't want to make a profit from you. Anyway, once we figure out the pricing, you, too, can have your very own photo cremation urn. Wait, what?
We can also add PhotoWorks and Digibug support, if anyone cares.

Anyway, explore a bit. Any suggestions are gratefully welcomed.

dad

Pumpkin with pumpkins

2008-10-18T14:37:00.004-04:00

Just a year ago, Lil' Genghis hit her first pumpkin patch, having a hard time sitting up for a while, not being able to control her body temperature, generally not doing much moving.

What
a
difference
one
year
makes.

Wow.

DSCF2481 from album 081018-Pumpkin patch, bouncy house

DSCF2484 from album 081018-Pumpkin patch, bouncy house

DSCF2502 from album 081018-Pumpkin patch, bouncy house

DSCF2513 from album 081018-Pumpkin patch, bouncy house

And then there was the bouncy house!

DSCF2516 from album 081018-Pumpkin patch, bouncy house

Oh, boy.

Where Genghis came from

2008-10-13T16:24:00.004-04:00

National Geographic is starting to crunch a bunch of DNA to figure out where ancestors came from. This one uses maternal DNA. The more people who submit, the more accurate the analysis can become. It's not the worst Christmas present, even if it's not something cool like an artillery fuse.

Check this out:

Genographic Results Suzana v2 - Upload a Document to Scribd

More updates

2008-10-02T11:57:00.003-04:00

Lotta birthdays!
Today, Thursday, is Uncle Joe's birthday. And Friday is Aunt Sharon's as well. We earlier posted about five other birthdays, and apologize for missing some. Wow.

All of the photos from Brazil are now online, about 800 of 'em. A few videos in a smaller MP4 format are there as well, and we're uploading some to YouTube at this very moment. We'll try to post some highlights in the coming days, but feel free, of course, to wander a bit.

Behind the scenes, we upgraded some of the software the photo gallery runs on, and will upgrade more by this weekend. Please let us know if you guys have any problems.

On an unrelated note, we added a map over on the right side -->>>
that purports to show where our visitors come from. We can see a few problems -- supposedly one visitor comes from the Atlantic Ocean near Africa, and that Uncle Rodrigo maybe isn't checking up on his goddaughter. We don't have any control over the map or track you in anyway; this gadget just picks up your address on the Internet, but doesn't send us anything. Anyway, it is kinda neat ...

Travels, photos, burpdays

2008-09-30T21:46:00.002-04:00

mom and Lil' Genghis made their way back home this morning -- everyone's tired, but fine.

We just posted some 400 photos, with more to come as we dig through 'em, rotate them, etc. Uncle Rodrigo actually took some decent photos, though I guess when you take that many the numbers are in your favor.

And a Happy Birthday shout-out to Aunt Melissa, who is turning 18 today, and hopefully has celebrated with a nice Belgian beer, or twelve.

Cousin Aninha turns 1 year old tomorrow, Wednesday -- hard to believe the time's passed so quickly! Hopefully, not too many beers for her ... and let's hope they're not Skols, at any rate. Blech.

Aunt Becky also turns 18 years old, albeit on Thursday. Lil' Genghis did the gift-buying this year.

On Friday, Uncle Andy will wake up in Nebraska, hungover yet again, and realize he's survived another year. And also on Friday is Aunt Claudinha, who is also turning 18 -- celebrating a heckuva year in which she started her own business, moved, and adopted a truly insane dog.

Again, we hope to have pictures of some of these folks posted soon.

Road trip!

2008-09-28T21:23:00.002-04:00

千里之行始於足下。

Or, a journey of 1,000 li begins with a single step. Or, for those of you who want a different standard, a journey of 25,000 chains begins with a single step.

And so a bunch of folks are on the road, or will be. Grandpa John just made it back home safely after spending a week playing bachelor with dad -- we're pretty sure the blood stains will come out of the carpet, but only time will tell.

Uncle Rodrigo should be on his way back to Aunt Melissa, who's been happy while other family members visit her.

That gives mom a slight chance to breathe from Uncle Rodrigo as she gets ready for her own trip with Lil' Genghis. The lady folk are sickly but doing somewhat better; here's to hoping they've got the strength to stick it out. They should be getting comforted by dad around lunchtime Tuesday ... Not too early for a pina colada to help mom rest!

That original proverb came from Lao Ze's Tao Te Ching, who offers some advice to folks on taking things a little easy as the world's in transition. Here's to hoping mom doesn't rush to the vacuum cleaner or anything!

Rushing into action, you fail.
Trying to grasp things, you lose them.
Forcing a project to completion,
you ruin what was almost ripe.

Therefore the Master takes action
by letting things take their course.
He remains as calm
at the end as at the beginning.
He has nothing,
thus has nothing to lose.
What he desires is non-desire;
what he learns is to unlearn.
He simply reminds people
of who they have always been.
He cares about nothing but the Tao.
Thus he can care for all things.

Yeah. Pina colada.

We're supposed to be getting some photos from Uncle Rodrigo soon -- as well as, perhaps, pictures from Uncle Ed and Aunt Donna's wedding.

Mini-update

2008-09-14T22:01:00.004-04:00

On a completely unrelated note, with nothing to do with anything, we discovered the Church Sign Generator. One easy effort:

Lil' Genghis continues to eat, and eat, and eat some more. Let us fear the day when she discovers McDonald's double beesechurgers.

Anyway, Tio Babaca has posted some new photos:

Man, dad really really misses those head butts.

We should have probably mentioned this yesterday: Lil' Genghis turned 1 1/2 years old yesterday -- it's hard to believe it's been that long, or she's gotten this big so quickly. We may cut back a little on the human growth hormone but keep her on the anabolic steroids for a while. We'll experiment.

Three safe, none near Houston

2008-09-13T14:59:00.005-04:00

As many of you know, Uncle Joao, Aunt Bea and Aunt Bruna moved to a Houston suburb some years ago ... in the path of a big storm yesterday. So dad, worried a bit, and thinking he might be able to try to relay some information to the family in Brazil, tried calling Bea and couldn't get through. He poked around his e-mail, found a cell phone number for work for Uncle Joao -- and got a horrible connection, sounded like rain and wind whipping everywhere. Called again. Got mom. Got confused, maybe his cell phone wasn't working right and mom had tried calling him ...

No, the Brazilians knew exactly what kind of condition Joao was in, because he was hanging out in a chair having a beer at Great-Grandma Helena's back yard, where his cell phone rang. He'd had to go back to Brazil on business, and happened to just be hanging out.

His lady folk are confirmed safe with friends -- they're doing fine. No word yet on the house. Here's to hoping everyone makes it back home safely.

The Houston Chonicle is livemapping the damage; looks like cell phones are out around his house. The next-closest report is of trees down, but residents already clearing up.

More photos!

2008-09-12T23:15:00.005-04:00

Uncle Rodrigo, straining mightily against a well-earned reputation as a senseless waste of carbon, has posted some new pictures, focused on Lil' Genghis and Cousin Aninha.

Good start, Uncle Rodrigo. Maybe we can turn you into a Bucky Ball if you get enough good shots ... =)

Bel, I really miss you and mom. Try not to grow too much while you're away, OK? =)

Comedic relief

2008-09-11T08:32:00.003-04:00

A few people called dad last night for support because some things in their lives may not be going as well as they'd hope, but they're not even sure. Best wishes to you guys.

It's a scant offering, but perhaps if you need a smile, you might appreciate a 2-year-old girl named Pearl who acts to Will Ferrell much as Lil' Genghis should act to Uncle Rodrigo. Without further ado:

See more Will Ferrell videos at Funny or Die

Pictures!

2008-09-09T19:37:00.004-04:00

Thanks to Uncle Bernie, Lil' Genghis' good old buddy, we've got some wonderful new pictures of the little lady.

Not surprisingly, she's upside down in a good chunk of 'em. Mixed in are some pictures of mom, Great-Grandma Helena, Uncle Robinho (o padrinho honorario), Cousin Aninha, and, I think, the top of Aunt Claudinha's head, as well as the lady friends of Uncle Bernie and Uncle Fernie. Maybe we'll get more explanations later ... Let's enjoy the pictures NOW! =)

Lil' Genghis has been eating everything in sight, and this seems to back up that idea:

DSC02078 from album 090808-Genghis by Bernie at Helena

DSC02055 from album 090808-Genghis by Bernie at Helena

DSC02059 from album 090808-Genghis by Bernie at Helena

DSC02070 from album 090808-Genghis by Bernie at Helena

DSC02031 from album 090808-Genghis by Bernie at Helena

DSC02036 from album 090808-Genghis by Bernie at Helena

DSC02039 from album 090808-Genghis by Bernie at Helena

A great picture of Great-Grandma Helena and Cousin Aninha:

DSC02023 from album 090808-Genghis by Bernie at Helena

A good picture of mom trying to stay on top of things:

DSC02047 from album 090808-Genghis by Bernie at Helena

Annd a picture of dad:

Nuttin' quite like a visit from Aunt Becky ...

2008-09-04T01:02:00.000-04:00

BelSchool2 from album 080718 Natick mall, blowing kiss, flipflops, post surgery, Becky, school May 08

Lil' Genghis with some of her classmates and a teacher at the old daycare center. Boy, did she have fun there ...

IMG_0674 from album 080718 Natick mall, blowing kiss, flipflops, post surgery, Becky, school May 08

She do like to talk ...

IMG_0681 from album 080718 Natick mall, blowing kiss, flipflops, post surgery, Becky, school May 08

IMG_0691 from album 080718 Natick mall, blowing kiss, flipflops, post surgery, Becky, school May 08

IMG_0692 from album 080718 Natick mall, blowing kiss, flipflops, post surgery, Becky, school May 08

IMG_0695 from album 080718 Natick mall, blowing kiss, flipflops, post surgery, Becky, school May 08

Therapy for mom

2008-08-30T14:15:00.002-04:00

Updates to the update have been going in the comments of the Update blog post.

Just for mom -- the rest of you, don't try to understand or bother the link -- we have a therapeutic sound effect and a surprise to bring.

Update

2008-08-29T23:22:00.005-04:00

... some of you ... may not ... have ... heard. ... dad ... has been ... on his own ... for nearly ... 60 ... entire ... hours.

Ham steaks ... mostly gone. ... Cereal stocks ... exhausted. Milk .... gone. No ... bratwurst. Limited .... beer. boydog ... here ... Asian ancestry. ... still have .... peanut sauce?

No ... shouldn't grill ... child. ... must catch ... and trap ... squirrels ... or seek ... supermarket.

Ooh, pudding. OK. Feeling better.

So, while dad is starving to death, mom is whining about something or another. Apparently she doesn't like to be covered in baby vomit at 6 a.m. on an international flight. And she hasn't even said what time zone she was in yet! If she was in Boston/Atlanta time, she'd only had two hours before landing. Geesh. It's not like the three hours if she were on local time. Unless it was.

Yeah. So we're still waiting for pictures (presumably, not of vomit) from Brazil, but dad is told that Lil' Genghis should be feeling better soon. Whether it's from antibiotics, fresh-picked bananas from the backyard of Grandpa Rinaldo's home, or from medicinal doses of Cuarenta Y Tres, we're not quite sure. Hopefully we'll hear more soon.

In the meantime, let's all think sweet thoughts of mom and Lil' Genghis our globe-trotting (but not yet globe-conquering) adventurers.

On an unrelated note, a final round of pictures from the last month is slated to be posted Sept. 4. dad hopes to post more of the (much older) pictures in the near future, as soon as he finds more pudding or eats boydog ... or just goes shopping.

Lil Genghis hits Taunton

2008-08-29T20:22:00.000-04:00

mom and dad lived in the city of Taunton, Mass., for a while, shortly after they got married. Aunt Donna's wedding shower became a great excuse to return for the first time since Easter. Yes, our little girl got, er, lei'd.

IMG_0720 from album 080725 Eddie bday, Donna bridal shower, Hynes playground

IMG_0722 from album 080725 Eddie bday, Donna bridal shower, Hynes playground

IMG_0733 from album 080725 Eddie bday, Donna bridal shower, Hynes playground

There's the groom-to-be, Uncle Ed, who is clutching a foot. Last time the two had been together, there was an unfortunate diaper explosion. Then again, is there really such a thing as a fortunate diaper explosion?

IMG_0731 from album 080725 Eddie bday, Donna bridal shower, Hynes playground

And there's Aunt Donna, the honored bride.

IMG_0743 from album 080725 Eddie bday, Donna bridal shower, Hynes playground

She wants to be sedated.

Annnnnd more parks!

2008-08-28T01:54:00.000-04:00

IMG_0790 from album 080801 Caroline and Kate, the Malinis babysit, mall

IMG_0811 from album 080801 Caroline and Kate, the Malinis babysit, mall

IMG_0819 from album 080801 Caroline and Kate, the Malinis babysit, mall

Cousin Oliver gets luvins from his mom and dad

IMG_0825 from album 080801 Caroline and Kate, the Malinis babysit, mall

Bath time, and more parks!

2008-08-26T01:43:00.002-04:00

Rubber ducky, you're the one, you make bath time so much fun ...

IMG_0833 from album 080808 Bath, Auburndale Cove, onion rings, Cindy

IMG_0857 from album 080808 Bath, Auburndale Cove, onion rings, Cindy

IMG_0865 from album 080808 Bath, Auburndale Cove, onion rings, Cindy

IMG_0901 from album 080808 Bath, Auburndale Cove, onion rings, Cindy

Hey, now a video ... Make this one full screen and get really close, Uncle Rodrigo:

Rollin' and tumblin' and even bubblin'

2008-08-25T01:00:00.001-04:00

Lil' Genghis has enrolled in a gym -- called Gymboree, to be precise -- that lets her hang out with other kids, bounce around, walk along planks, climb mountains of foamy things, dance underneath a parachute ... all sorts of fun, tough to describe kinds of things. Fortunately, we got some pictures a few weeks ago:

DSCF2254 from album 080814 Gymboree

DSCF2256 from album 080814 Gymboree

DSCF2257 from album 080814 Gymboree

DSCF2241 from album 080814 Gymboree

Heeeeeere's Bella!

2008-08-24T14:54:00.005-04:00

American author Stephen King called it "The Shining," and British filmmaker Stanley Kubrick kept the name intact when he made the film -- except he made it "Stanley Kubrick's 'The Shining.'" Brazilians know it as "O Iluminado." Lil' Genghis knows it as a fun day in the park:

DSCF2374 from album 082408-Fun at water park

DSCF2363 from album 082408-Fun at water park

DSCF2360 from album 082408-Fun at water park

DSCF2358 from album 082408-Fun at water park

DSCF2343 from album 082408-Fun at water park

Yeah, the focus is off, etc, etc, but this is still kinda cool, eh?

And there's this introspective one here:

DSCF2350 from album 082408-Fun at water park

We also got some videos. The one in which she runs from an erupting water spout is just priceless.

Tech update/pictures coming

2008-08-23T22:48:00.002-04:00

Whoops.

dad earlier promised a bunch of pictures coming ... and got hamstrung by a weird technical problem. mom's "new" digital cameras takes pictures in a really inefficient format, and the 1gb file from a 9-minute video was crashing our photo gallery software -- it just wouldn't upload.

Behind the scenes, we've done some significant upgrades to the photo gallery, though it should look and act pretty much the same. It officially has built-in PicLens support, which makes it easy and kinda neat to browse through the galleries.

Meanwhile, we're trying to swap out some of the big videos for a different video format. Take a look here -- we've actually got a video of Lil' Genghis coming down a slide in less room than a single still picture -- and it looks and sounds pretty darned close to the original video.

Those other photos are coming, we promise. =)

Pebbles

2008-08-23T22:27:00.001-04:00

Pedrita., originally uploaded by Bel and Ana.

Cousin Aninha in a nice afternoon at the petting zoo. Auntie can't wait to kiss and hug you, sweetie!

Lotta pictures coming

2008-08-16T11:35:00.002-04:00

dad realized he's been blogging about non-Genghis stuff for the last month or so, and you guys surely want to see more pictures of the little lady. They're coming, he promises -- the plan is do post pictures every few days to get the interest of you, Dear Reader, up again, so you'll be checking this blog regularly in anticipation of the latest cute pictures, and after a certain period of rewards we'll crush your soul completely and go another month without pictures of Lil' Genghis. Sorry. That which doesn't kill you makes you stronger, and we need Lil' Genghis to have strong people around her as examples.

Speaking of strength, we have a cute chance to ridicule Uncle Rodrigo's semi-sorta-adopted second or third country, Norway. Norway, you'll remember, is the country that entered World War II one morning and gave up by lunchtime. They were so incompetent, in fact, that the puppet wasn't puppet-y enough.

So it's with little surprise politically and militarily, but lots of delight from a childish standpoint, that Norway is boosting the military role of one of its penguins.

There's a great video here. This picture, through CuteOverload.com with an unknown original source, seems to capture things nicely.

New additions (update)

2008-08-13T11:07:00.009-04:00

Come to think of it, "New additions" is a bit repetitive, isn't it? Hrm.

At any rate:
Aunt Vanessa and Uncle Emerson are doing well, as is Cousin Valentina! The little lady's mom wrote:

Queridos amigos,
Aí está a nossa amada Valentina!
Nasceu no dia 08 de agosto com 3,210 kg e 48 cm.
Uma fofura!
Beijos a todos,
Vanessa, Emerson e Valentina

For us Americans, it's important to note that she didn't give birth to a new Hummer -- Brazilians just don't recognize a decimal point as a decimal point so they stick commas in strange places. So Little Valentina is 7 lbs 1 ounce and 18 inches long. And you can see the family's already revised its e-mail stationery. How cool is that? =)

So here's a picture of the little lady:

Awwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwww. Nice work, guys.

Meanwhile, Uncle Rodrigo got some probing done by a veterinarian (oh, how dad loved to write that sentence) and so it's official ... Aunt Melissa has given birth to a son, whom they promptly named Cousin Linus Schrödinger, after the inventor of Linux and a physicist who speculated that his cat was both simultaneously alive and dead, depending on the quantum state of something or another somewhere something. Let the record show that by giving their cat this name, the parents have:

proven they're truly hardcore nerds
given birth to a zombie

Anyway, Cousin Zombie Cat is doing well, apparently getting some functions out of his brain besides a desire for, er, other brains. Here's one of his first videos with a new toy. Enjoy!

EDIT: Aunt Melissa has already responded to the "Zombie Cat" comment. But let's look at this analytically ... The theory is that a cat in a locked box, which can't be seen into, with a 50-percent chance of being washed in acid, is both simultaneously dead and not dead, a state that can't be determined until the box is opened after a set time. It's an illustration of quantum mechanics, which suggests that something can be in two contradictory states simultaneously.

So the cat's dead and not dead at the same time, which is another word for zombie. Fair 'nuff. OK.

But as soon as the family discovered the cat was indeed male, they named him after Schrödinger, thus affirming the zombie status. Zombies are considered neither alive nor dead, sorta -- perhaps something like a virus, which is capable of some basic acts of life but isn't considered to be alive in the general sense. Things that aren't really alive can't be sexed.

So at the same time, then, the cat is both dead and not dead, it's also both male and non-sexed. So do we refer to the cat as he/it and him/thing, if it exists in both states simultaneously? Or should we recognize that both states are valid at any given point and thus either becomes fair game?

More to the point, given that mom will certainly kill dad as soon as she discovers he went from a beautiful new baby to a discussion of unsexed zombie cousins in just a few paragraphs, do we consider dad to be dead or undead? Now we see how the zombies spread so quickly in the movies, and nothing is to be trusted.

Welcome again, Cousin Valentina, to a very loving, but sometimes nerdy and always weird extended family.

New additions

2008-08-09T10:09:00.004-04:00

We haven't heard yet, but we know Aunt Vanessa and Uncle Emerson were scheduled to meet their new daughter yesterday, 8-8-08. The little lady has a cousin with a birthday of 5-5-05, even. We hope to get some good news and a photo soon.

Meanwhile, Uncle Rodrigo and Aunt Melissa have taken their first child home.

They haven't settled on a name yet because they're not quite sure of the little, er, guy's sex. A veterinarian will help them out soon, we hear. More kitty porn here.

Meanwhile, let us all offer congratulations to the two newly expanded families, and once again encourage Rodrigo to propose to Melissa so their child can grow in a wholesome environment.

Hrm.

Do you think Uncle Rodrigo should soon marry Aunt Melissa? ( polls)

The world agrees: dad is very right

2008-08-06T21:40:00.006-04:00

Years ago, when dad worked with Uncle Joe and dinosaurs roamed the earth, dad just knew his colleague was an awful writer. Now Uncle Joe is being held up to the world as an example of one the worst writers ever -- or at least certainly this year.

Uncle Joe's wife, Aunt Cady, notes that, well, "i guess i’m supposed to be proud." You gotta start some place, lady. Anyway, she's got some more details and opinions over yonder.

The winning entry, for those paying attention:

Timothy Hanson, Commander of the 43rd Space Regiment in the 52nd Battalion on board the USAOPAC (United Space Alliance Of Planets Attack Carrier) and second in command to Admiral L.R. Morris of the USAOP Space Command, awoke early for breakfast.

Way to, er, go, er, Joe. Yeah.

Other amusing entries include:

Theirs was a New York love, a checkered taxi ride burning rubber, and like the city their passion was open 24/7, steam rising from their bodies like slick streets exhaling warm, moist, white breath through manhole covers stamped "Forged by DeLaney Bros., Piscataway, N.J.
-- Garrison Spik, Washington, D.C.

"Die, commie pigs!" grunted Sergeant "Rocky" Steele through his cigar stub as he machine-gunned the North Korean farm animals.
-- Dave Ranson, Calgary, Alberta, Northern Suburbs

Mike Hummer had been a private detective so long he could remember Preparation A, his hair reminded everyone of a rat who'd bitten into an electrical cord, but he could still run faster than greased owl snot when he was on a bad guy's trail, and they said his friskings were a lot like getting a vasectomy at Sears.
-- Robert B. Robeson, Lincoln, Nebraska

Nobody knew just who the steely-eyed stranger was, where he came from, where he was headed, or what his intentions were while he was in Dodge City; but he wasn't an hombre you'd want to stick your tongue out at or flip off, and any man who tried to tickle him would be asking for a long stay in a pine box, if you know what I mean.
-- David McKenzie, Federal Way, Washington

I heard her husky breathing as she came up the stairs, breathing exactly the way a sled dog breathes after competing in the Iditatrod as she sauntered into the room her hips swiveling from side to side like a Sherman M-4 tank with a 75mm gun forcing its way through the hedgerows of Normandy after D-Day in 1944.
-- Bruce Hannem, Citrus Heights, California

And of course, we should point out at least one of the guys that Uncle Joe beat:

Lightning flashed from the blue-black sky of this alien world and shattered the engines of the spaceship, destroying Reninger's last chance of escaping and reminding him of the time his sister returned from New York with the tips of her hair dyed blue, except for the part about the lightning and the spaceship.
-- Mark Murata, Kirkland, Washington

Let's hear it for our loser!

For those who just need absolutely more, dad can't recommend highly enough the beginning of Bad Hemingway, a collaborative effort that started off bright but fizzled pretty quickly. And if you like that, you might dig Naked Came the Manatee, a book by Carl Hiaasen, Dave Barry, Elmore Leonard and the heads of Fidel Castro.

Paws, South and furry

2008-08-01T09:03:00.005-04:00

Yesterday, Grandpa John got a special birthday present: A card signed by his beloved granddaughter ... with her left hand. (HAPPY BIRTHDAY GRANDPA!) Left-handedness, which isn't believed to be strongly genetic but somehow runs in dad's family, proves that Lil' Genghis will be more likely to be out of her right mind.

People who use their left hands are often called Southpaws. Sometimes Southpaws are disparaged; sometimes, as with economics and intelligence, they may be advantaged. Certainly when Lil' Genghis gets her first bullpup rifle we'll have to do modifications. However, when she's writing in Arabic from right-to-left, it'll be easier for her not to blur the lettering. All this is premised on her staying as a Southpaw; not owning a bullpup rifle or not learning Arabic are not really options, naturally.

And now on to the furry paws.

Uncle Joe and Aunt Cady had to watch Cousin Julius fade away last night. Often left in the shadow of his brother Dizzy -- generally acknowledged to be the only feline charged with domestic terrorism -- Julius was always the sweet guy, the cuddler. In her blog, Aunt Cady writes about how Cousin Julius just adopted himself into the family. Part of her touching tribute:

my parents found julius abandoned on their road and, after he ran right up to them and jumped in their car, they brought him to my apartment. my landlords were wary at first, but they soon fell head over heels in love with julius. i’d look outside in the afternoons and see them playing with him. when i moved, they didn’t want him to leave. he was just such an endearing cat.

Julius was preceded in death by a brother, Caesar.

'tis almost time...

2008-07-27T11:03:00.002-04:00

So Aunt Vanessa and Uncle Emerson are in the last stretch, it's home run time. We can't wait to meet you, Cousin Valentina!!
Here's a pic of the proud parents-to-be.

Health update

2008-07-22T13:16:00.009-04:00

mom made a conscious decision to keep this blog upbeat, keeping discussions of any medical problems or illnesses off the blog. Well, we're delighted to tell you today, Dear Reader, that the surgery was a success:

Beyond Uncle Rodrigo's health problems, though, Lil' Genghis got her first piercings today, little adornments for her ears. It's traditional for Brazilian girls to get their ears pierced, but a little less traditional to have tubes stuck in 'em so some puss can leak out.*

She went under a brief round of general anesthesia today and woke up, pretty disoriented, with the ear tubes, which should fall out in about 18 months. Until then, they'll be helping keep her inner ear free of fluid build up. Literally every time she went to see the doctor since last September, she had an ear infection -- at least six infections in nine months, and, we suspect, more infections earlier on that we wrongly attributed to stuff like colic.

So she's doing fine now with the tubes, which are a common surgery, and they should reduce the number of future ear infections, if not beat 'em off pretty much entirely. Time will tell. This has, with the possibility of an early bovine-American secretion allergy, been her only health stumbles. We think her vocabulary will soon take off now that she can actually hear -- imagine that!

And a special call-out to Aunt Catherine: In the recovery room, she got a little Strawberry Shortcake sticker and seemed pretty darned happy about it.

For those of you wondering, mom is recovering quite nicely.

* Would "Leaking Puss" be a good band name? mom still likes
The Horny Polentas," but dad is partial to "Occupied Montana."

A very special day

2008-07-21T13:10:00.003-04:00

Today is Grandma Biziza's birthday, hooray!
Here's a nice pic of her along with a slightly younger (er...) mom.

Happy birthday, Grandma. We love you!

Now on to some quick news about lil genghis: today she said thank you, which made mom burst with pride. That was said when she didn't want to eat any more of her cheese, spat it out and handed it to mom, who picked up the amorphous goop and was thanked. Awww.

Happy birthday!

2008-07-12T23:12:00.003-04:00

Today was the actual birthday of one of mom's good brothers, Uncle Marcelo, as well as the birthday celebration of Aunt Rebecca's and Uncle Josh's Cousin Jacob (Cousin J.D.). Pretty cool stuff!

We'll try posting some videos and photos from the American birthday bash. We, er, didn't get a chance to call Marcelo because of the -other- birthday. But, Dear Reader, we can share with you some of Uncle Marcelo's favoritist things.

He's a talented guy, you know, who can enjoy and understand the Peter Principle as easily as he can make a box of Kraft Deluxe mac and cheese, or a stellar piece of music. Here's some of his performances:

And a completely different style/genre:

Uncle Marcelo is a very talented young man, and, dang, he's so good with his niece. =) Happy birthday, sir! May you have many more of health and happiness.

.

.

Still here?

Oh, yeah. mom wanted to make this blog post a little more universal, to acknowledge that Uncle Rodrigo is one year closer to an official finding of senility. Yeah. "But he's the godfather!" ... yeah ... ready to leap to his Catholic duties, he is. Heh. Heh. We said "duties." Heh. Doody. Heh.

Nerdly updates

2008-07-08T07:49:00.004-04:00

There's a new slideshow over there --------->

Behind the scenes, the photo gallery server has gotten some new software upgrades, including support for PicLens in each gallery with pictures.

Scream if you have a problem.

And if anyone understands just how Apple bastardized the Unix startup system, please drop us a line so we can get mom's laptop printing again. Not to name any names, but as usual Uncle Rodrigo is out of his league.

Oliver visits!

2008-07-07T09:20:00.002-04:00

Lil' Genghis got an extra-special treat over a long holiday weekend -- a visit by Cousin Oliver with Uncle Eddie and Aunt Amanda.

We got a bunch of still photos, too, but are just posting the videos at the moment -- there's a lot of fun stuff here, including Lil' Genghis saying "Duda," the nickname for her uncle.

Almost everyone in question is here:

Here's where she calls "Duda" and shows off some of her walking skills:

Walking? Did we say walking? She's going really fast here:

She was even running from a stalker:

...

...

Now, speaking of stalking, boydog took a tough hit in a chase with girldog.

Let's go to the slow-motion tape on that one:

Is it just me, or at slow speed does boydog sound something like the bad guys in the "Alien" movies?

Feliz anniversario!

2008-06-23T10:46:00.003-04:00

Today is Aunt Piu's birthday -- Cristina is 18 years old!

DSCF0832 from album 071224-Christmas Eve at Chez Biziza

A more recent photo, with another special lady:

In other developments:

Lil' Genghis put two words together -- "want" and "not" -- in Portuguese. She's learning.
She's growing -- 3 inches, about 7 centimeters (in metric), in 3 months (13 weeks metric). She's about 15 months old now. 95th percentile height, 50th percentile weight. Grandpa John says that at 24 months she'll be half her adult height. At this point, she's already going to be taller than Grandma Biziza.

This is probably a rather inappropriate place to say this, but George Carlin died. Here's some of his profanity-ridden, filthy, hilarious thoughts on death:

Don't mess with Texas

2008-06-15T22:48:00.002-04:00

Lil' Genghis and mom came back from Texas last week, after a nice visit with Uncle Johnny, Aunt Bea and Aunt Bruna. dad thought his little lady had grown a _lot_, even though they were gone just a week. It's amazing how fast Lil' Genghis is growing -- and it's hard to believe the running, quasi-independent lady who joined dad for Father's Day today wasn't really doing much moving at all a year ago. Strange, how time flies.

Anyway, we have some pictures from Texas and a local park:

IMG_0335 from album 080531-Wellesley park, end of Bouncer

IMG_0339 from album 080531-Wellesley park, end of Bouncer

Lil' Genghis knows she outgrew her bouncer, but she's not sure what to do about it:

IMG_0349 from album 080531-Wellesley park, end of Bouncer

IMG_0363 from album 080603 Suze and Bebel trip to Texas

Heh ... Dude ... Heh ... Yeah. Dude.

IMG_0357 from album 080603 Suze and Bebel trip to Texas

It's hard not to have a good time in the Disney store. =)

IMG_0390 from album 080603 Suze and Bebel trip to Texas

Look at this action shot! It's just like the Brazil team falling back to Earth after barely missing another World Cup win. Er. Wait.

IMG_0393 from album 080603 Suze and Bebel trip to Texas

Isabella's dental work -- not quality, but at a price you can afford.

IMG_0405 from album 080603 Suze and Bebel trip to Texas

Aunt Bruna just hanging out.

IMG_0427 from album 080603 Suze and Bebel trip to Texas

Aunt Bea just didn't want to let go. =)

IMG_0435 from album 080603 Suze and Bebel trip to Texas

The trip ended too early for everyone except dad, boydog and girldog.

A blast of a video

2008-06-08T14:40:00.001-04:00

This one is posted just for Uncle Rodrigo. Buddy -- if you click on the main image, it'll bring you to the page. From there, you can make the video appear as full screen. Do it. Get -really- close to the screen, so you have little peripheral vision unfilled by the screen. Then hit play.

This'll give you a chance to see the kind of fun that your goddaughter has. Don't you feel better? =)

Photo blast

2008-06-08T13:56:00.002-04:00

mom and Lil' Genghis have been spending some quality time with Uncle Johnny, Aunt Bea and Aunt Bruna. No word on any pole dancing, but the little lady really seems to dig the pool ... and the stairs, we hear, which scares dad.

In the sort of timeliness that you've come to expect, we're posting some pictures that are just over a month old, and some that are "only" a couple weeks old. dad had to do this in a room that's at least in the upper 80s and very humid, so don't say we don't do nuttin' for you. Was that a triple or quadruple negative? Hrm.

Anyway, mom had Lil' Genghis chilling on her Exersaucer on the back porch when it wasn't quite so hot (It's 306.5 degrees in the metric system today.) Let's take a look:

IMG_0255 from album 080507-Isabella on Exersaucer, porch, dogs

IMG_0252 from album 080507-Isabella on Exersaucer, porch, dogs

IMG_0241 from album 080507-Isabella on Exersaucer, porch, dogs

IMG_0234 from album 080507-Isabella on Exersaucer, porch, dogs

IMG_0235 from album 080507-Isabella on Exersaucer, porch, dogs

dad really likes this one:

IMG_0323 from album 080524-Memorial Day weekend

but Lil' Genghis got some -really- good quality time alone with mom on a walking path, like this:

IMG_0301 from album 080524-Memorial Day weekend

See how happy she looks?

IMG_0297 from album 080524-Memorial Day weekend

There was also a great playground:

IMG_0281 from album 080524-Memorial Day weekend

IMG_0282 from album 080524-Memorial Day weekend

We've got some movies from there, too, but we're still trying to sort 'em out for yas. =)

Helping others

2008-06-03T07:49:00.000-04:00

We'd mentioned this before and no one took a stab at it; time to ask again.

One of Uncle Rodrigo's rare acts of humanity was to introduce us to Kiva.org, which lets ordinary folks make microloans to businessfolk in developing countries.

At this point, 485 businesses are seeking money. We've got $250 back from earlier loans (no defaults!) so, to cover Kiva's 10-percent overhead, we can make 9 loans of $25, or a smaller number of larger loans.

Why not flip through and make us some suggestions? It's actually kind of fun to figure out who is likely to succeed and help them get there. Realize, of course, a 6-month loan may ultimately do more good (because of later reinvestments) than an 18-month loan.

So far, we've helped:

Melecio Peñafiel, an Ecuadorean tailor;

Wilson Morocho, a furniture maker in Ecuador;

Umid Ismoilov, a Tajik vegetable trader;

Muhabat Muratova, a bedding saleswoman in Tajikistan;

and Mavjuda Juraeva, a Tajik woman who bought an inventory of children's clothes.

Who's next? Please help.

This just in!

2008-05-25T20:59:00.004-04:00

This just in ... scientific breakthrough ... scientists announce they've found replacements for human pheromones ... and now they've applied the research, beneficially, to babies.

Yes, folks, it's true.

Barry White is to adult sex as Norah Jones is to baby sleep. It's remarkable. Lil' Genghis is -good- at sleeping with Norah Jones.

Speaking of remarkable, check out this duo. You're not expecting this.

Genghis goes way off the road!

2008-05-22T12:47:00.002-04:00

Lil' Genghis loves any sort of ride in her stroller that involves bouncing. She adores anything that's new to her, like a big people-watching venture or a new adventure in nature. And she got two of those three -- not the mall -- when she went to a scenic bridge nearby. Check out her taking in the scene as Uncle Eddie maneuvers her around. (A note: Aunt Amanda isn't in many of these pictures because she was taking most of 'em. Nice work, eh? Tell her so.)

DSC03732 from album 080511-Big trip to Echo Bridge, nature

DSC03709 from album 080511-Big trip to Echo Bridge, nature

Here we see that Uncle Eddie could have gotten a good running start to knock Uncle Rodrigo off the bridge, but he didn't. Ah, well. Those opportunities are rare and not always obvious.

DSC03751 from album 080511-Big trip to Echo Bridge, nature

Now mom is smiling at the thought of her brother going into the water. Opportunity? No. But Lil' Genghis is happy.

DSC03793 from album 080511-Big trip to Echo Bridge, nature

DSC03773 from album 080511-Big trip to Echo Bridge, nature

DSC03873 from album 080511-Big trip to Echo Bridge, nature

Happy Mother's Day!

2008-05-19T12:30:00.001-04:00

The photos are a week late, but the fun is still all there ... =)

DSC03621 from album 080511-Mothers Day at Himalayan Bistro

DSC03610 from album 080511-Mothers Day at Himalayan Bistro

DSC03595 from album 080511-Mothers Day at Himalayan Bistro

DSC03573 from album 080511-Mothers Day at Himalayan Bistro

DSC03563 from album 080511-Mothers Day at Himalayan Bistro

DSC03550 from album 080511-Mothers Day at Himalayan Bistro

She -really- looks like she's ready to go race, doesn't she?

DSC03548 from album 080511-Mothers Day at Himalayan Bistro

Fun fun fun

2008-05-19T01:28:00.000-04:00

DSC03520 from album 080511-Genghis dad playing

DSC03510 from album 080511-Genghis dad playing

All three kids in one photo!

DSC03493 from album 080511-Genghis dad playing

Hittin' the bottle

2008-05-18T18:00:00.001-04:00

Yeah, this could start some interesting conversations with social workers ...

DSC03471 from album 080510-Genghis with beer in Mexico

She's clearly unhappy. How do you make someone happy?

DSC03417 from album 080510-Genghis with beer in Mexico

Yep.

DSC03433 from album 080510-Genghis with beer in Mexico

Good thing she's not driving!