20 baby products great for traumatizing infants

Remember Cracked magazine when you were young? Check out their list of must-have baby products. I'm eyeing #19; what am I supposed to do with a baby when I have to go?

What are these things are called again? chopsticks?

Tall iced Americano with room and extra ice, please

photo posted from my iPhone

Chilling on the deck

Enjoying the beautiful Seattle weather.

Test #2

Another view from Costco

Testing blog entry

TGIF

It's 8am and only 68 degrees, but supposed to hit 90 later today. Do I look bothered?

photo posted from my iPhone

Cool new ride

Iris rode in a shopping cart like a big girl for the first time yesterday at Costco


photo posted from my iPhone

Posting on the go

We're hoping to post more frequently now we can do it from the
iPhone.

Sox up 10-0 in after 1 inning

3 things to note:

Charlie Zink, lifetime minor leaguer and a knuckleballer, was called up from Pawtucket to start his first major league game tonight. He replaced Tim Wakefield, also a knuckleballer (as if you didn't know), who just went on the 15-day DL. I read that it's just the 3rd time ever (and first time since 1953) that the Sox will have 2 knuckleballers start games in the same season.

2. Big Papi David Ortiz hit two 3-run homers in the first inning. !!!!!

3. Kevin Youkilis pulled a Bob Stein, striking out twice in the same inning. Bob Stein is one of my college buddies and told me that he once struck out twice in the same inning of a little league game. (I mentioned this to Bob just now & he wanted to know if Youk's 2nd K came down by 1 run with the bases loaded, so Bob's 2Ks were worse--he wins! yay!)

Here's the play by play for the inning:

Bottom 1st: Boston
- J.D. Drew walked
- D. Pedroia singled to center, J.D. Drew to second
- D. Ortiz homered to deep right, J.D. Drew and D. Pedroia scored
- K. Youkilis struck out swinging
- M. Lowell singled to center
- J. Bay safe at first on third baseman R. Vazquez's fielding error, M. Lowell to second
- M. Lowell stole third, J. Bay stole second
- J. Lowrie doubled to deep left, M. Lowell and J. Bay scored
- C. Crisp flied out to center
- K. Cash walked
- J.D. Drew singled to right, J. Lowrie scored, K. Cash to second, K. Cash to third advancing on throw
- D. Pedroia singled to third, K. Cash scored, J.D. Drew to second
- D. Ortiz homered to deep center, J.D. Drew and D. Pedroia scored
- K. Youkilis struck out looking

10 runs, 7 hits, 1 errors
Texas 0, Boston 10

I think the sox may win tonight--stay tuned. It's either that or synchronized diving.

UPDATE: Kevin "Don't call me Steiny" Youkilis ended up having quite a night. After his 2 K's in the first, he made 2 errors, 1 while playing third and 1 at first base. But, most importantly, also had 2 homers, including the game winning 3-run homer in the bottom of the 8th as the Sox won a shootout. Final score was 19-17. My dad was there too.

Countdown clock to a ticket

There are plenty of days when I wonder why I live in Seattle. Yes, the scenery is beautiful and the weather is generally mild. But there are a few things that make me scratch my head, and wonder "Only in Seattle..."

1. People reading books while walking. How much attention can you be paying to the book when you're supposed to watch where you're going? I don't think I can read a book and walk around the house myself.

2. It's legal to ride your bicycle on the sidewalk. I really hate it when bicyclists choose to ride in the designatd bike lanes on the road and on the sidewalks just because there's a red light or "don't walk" sign.

3. The Seattle Police Department haven't convinced me that they're better than the police at the mall. Ask anyone who works downtown, and they can point out which corners you can score drugs. Do you think you ever see any cops there?

4. You can actually get a ticket for jaywalking here. Of course, it's illegal everywhere else but, here in Seattle, they actually enforce this law. Reading the local paper today, I also found out that it's illegal to cross the street once the "don't walk" sign starts flashing. Click here to read the explanation, Illegal to start crossing once "don't walk" sign starts flashing.

I'm sure I'll have more to update on this list, but I don't want to seem like a sour puss.

Sox Trade Manny!

Unbelievable trade by the Sox today (not to Green Bay but to the Dodgers) but Manny really forced their hand and got what he wanted. We'll see if he still wants it a week from now. He'll probably be crying that he wants to come back to Boston just like he did when he left Cleveland to join the Sox for the '01 season.

The Sox got Jason Bay from Pittsburgh and also had to give up 2 young prospects:
relief pitcher Craig Hansen and OF Brandon Moss. I think Moss was the better of those 2 but I guess it doesn't matter anymore.

Sox fans all knew Manny was a head case when Duquette signed him in late 2000 and were a little wary of the potential $200M deal but it worked out better then we could have hoped with the 2 World Series wins in '04 and '07, and Manny winning the WS MVP in '04.

But the way it ended sucks. I'm sure Yankee fans are happier today than Sox fans

So long Manny--Have fun playing for Joe Torre.
Hope he doesn't make you cut your hair!

Texas Trip

We went to Texas over July 4th weekend to celebrate my dad's 70th birthday and my brother Gary's promotion to Colonel in the Army. We've been back for over 2 weeks - here's a long overdue Texas-sized posting with lots of pictures.

We went to the airport with Aunty Helen & Uncle Martin

and flew to Austin where we stayed with Aunty Geegy & Pepere Gerry

and on Saturday Mom & Reg flew in from Florida.

On Sunday we drove to outside of San Antonio to see Uncle Gary & Aunt Jojo

and cousin Sarah, here with Pepere

Gary had the smoker up & running at 4AM & made LOTS of meat, including beef brisket and these awesome baby back ribs, per Irene's request, which we ate the next day too:

then we had cake--Red Sox themed, of course.

Aunty Geegy thought she had a new dog when this chihuahua
showed up but the owner came looking for her just before we left.On Monday we went swimming at Barton Springs in Austin. The water bubbles up from underground at 65 degrees year-round. Guess who thought that was too cold?

Then we visited my G'town buddy Morty & finally got to

meet his daughter Grace (of Gracie's Crib fame)

Then we posed for picturesand then relaxed with a cold, tasty beverage

OK, not really. She didn't have any beer--I swear.
We all know she only drinks Knob Creek.

Then, on Tuesday my brother Gary got pinned with his silver wings as he was promoted to full bird Colonel (he was a Lieutenant Colonel before). We weren't able to to attend the ceremony because we were flying back that morning, but we could not be more proud to have such a high ranking officer in the family

Congratulations, Big Gar!

Sick with colds

We all survived the heat of Texas. It was a great visit, seeing everyone to celebrate Gerry's 70th birthday and Gary's promotion. The whole family has been sick with a cold since getting home. We're all trying to recover so we'll try to post photos and videos once we're all feeling better.

Two Teeth!

As you may have noticed on some of the recent pics on here, Iris now has two teeth, and no longer looks like Gummy Joe on the Simpsons.

THIS:
NOT THIS:
I'll buy a beverage of your choice for whoever's the first person
to post in the comments what Gummy Joe calls his tooth.

Busy Week

Last weekend we were very busy and it has continued into this week, with Irene's sisters visiting, driving down to Portland, Fred's 2nd aqua rehab visit (of 8 for his bum knee) we were go-go-go all weeekend. Here are some of the highlights:

Here's a video of Freddy on the treadmill in the hydrotherapy tank. (yeah, I know, we're getting the cat hydrotherapy. It's Fred--what can I say?)


And here's one of our nephew Ryan breaking a board blindfolded during a Tae Kwon Do demonstration (he has a black belt!)


And here's your weekly dose of Iris photos, on a swing down in Portland and enjoying some sweet potatoes. I think the second one here is my new favorite pic of Iris - I just love her expression in it--she's like "Don't BS me, dad!"

JJ= Cate Walsh!

Cate Viola Walsh was born on Saturday. Here's the entry from the Walsh family blog:

She was born yesterday, 6/21, which was both her due date and our 11th wedding anniversary. We've named her Cate. Here's a picture:

She was 7 lbs 7 ozs, 20 inches long. We're home now -- the hospital visit turned out to be 2 days long, but that was only because we were there for a day beforehand for some light induction.

Ain't she sweet?
Congratulations to the Walsh family from the Martel family!!!

Happy 7 Months Iris! (tomorrow); JJ Walsh Update

Iris turns 7 months old on Saturday - she's really getting up there isn't she?

Here's your JJ Walsh update: JJ is due tomorrow but will be induced at 5PM today EDT because of her mom's raised BP (this all sounds very familiar to Irene and me). Visit Walsh Boulevard for more updates. We're sending happy thoughts to all the Walshes: JJ, mom Julie, brother Jackson and dad Keith.

Here are a couple pics of Iris from this morning--her 2nd day with Aunty Helen, who's now also known as Nanny Helen. (Helen took the first two about 10 minutes apart)

Sad time :(
Happy time! :)
(Too bad it's too late to cast for a baby Joker in the new Batman movie)
Sleepy time x)

Iris Feeling Better

We probably would have brought Iris in to day care today but her Aunty Helen volunteered to keep an eye on her. Looks like they're having a good day together - here are a couple pics Helen took with her iphoneYou can see her tooth in the second one. We called the day care to let them know she's staying home another day & found out that a LOT of the kids there are sick with the same stomach bug that got Iris, me and Helen so sick. So we may keep her home tomorrow as well, just to be safe. Hopefully the coast will be clear on Monday.

Have a great weekend everyone!

Celtics are Champs!

Iris finally got to see one her teams win a championship, and it took almost 7 months of her life. She doesn't own any Celtics gear yet but daddy will take care of that soon.

In other news, I am back at work, while Irene is home taking care of Iris and her Aunty Helen who are both still under the weather. Poor Iris -- she's been pukey and poopy for almost a week already. When I brought her to the doctor on Monday he said it's not uncommon for babies to take 7-10 days to get over a stomach bug, while adults might take only a couple days.

The most important thing is to keep her eating and well-hydrated, and as long as she has wet eyes and mouth, and a wet diaper at least every 8 hours, (which she has so far), she's doing okay. Still, it seems like she's been sick forever and she's not doing any better this morning than she was on Monday, which is a real bummer.