How cute is that?

I sent Mike a link to superheroes drawn in 80′s album style and this is his response:

When I was in my early 20′s, there was a running joke amongst my friends on how many W-2′s our friend Shawn (aka The Gimp*) would get in a given year. Shawn shuffled around jobs like a topical STD, bouncing from retail, back office, back to retail, then taking a detour to Austin’s premier Haunted House, then back to back office. My memory is fuzzy as I get older, but at Shawn’s peak he was up to maybe 10 W-2′s he was going to receive one year. That’s a lot of jobs. That’s a lot of “F-ck you, f-ck your job, I’m out of here!” too. It gave me a lasting impression that Shawn was simultaneously the world’s best interviewer and worst employee.

Amongst my closest friends, I think I’m in the middle of the pack when it comes to the number of jobs I’ve held. Since High School, I’ve worked at 4 companies in my life**. I’m fiercely loyal and grow on people like a non-threatening fungus in the corner of your shower tub, so people keep me around for something. I think our buddy John has been at his current employer so long, he immediately jumped on his PC to do reports after being  born on the copier.

As it stands, my current job is probably the best job I’ve ever had. I get to come to work to my friends, tool around with technology, and have meaningful conversations about Roman literature (we fiercely debated which was more ‘bad ass’: Virgil’s Aeneid or The Georgics last friday). Well, at the end of the month I’ll be moving onto another company, because biology (read: baby 2) dictates it. I had a hell of a run with my homies over six years, which included a lot of good times and strange homo-erotic humor. What makes me feel good about the whole situation is when I told my boss Troy that I was resigning, he replied:

Hey, if the new place doesn’t work out, I’ll always take you back. Nobody gives a full body massage like you do.

* Shawn once told us that he believed he gave an air of respectability to the nickname we gave him, The Gimp. I can’t make this stuff up.

** I did spend two weeks at CompUSA, before never showing back up to work. Take a look at them now..

Now, for your Consideration: Morrissey – The First of the Gang to Die. 

Ok, so I apologize for not posting more about our new little guy coming in two months, aka Hai 2.1 RTM (Release to Manufacture) Gold Edition. The reason being is Viv has gone through some major developmental changes over the last couple of months, and its taken too much of our (already reduced) time these days. We have a name ready for him, Elliot (spelling to be hashed out later), and we have his room ready to go. What we don’t have ready is dealing with him and Viv at the same time.

Now for your Song of the Day:

Sleigh Bells – Rill Rill

Ok, so I decided to be a decent Dad yesterday and take Viv out on a little bike ride (not really her own bike, I have to push it, but she peddles and that gives the illusion that she is powering herself) while Em cooked dinner. We end up around the block from our house where there is a little park like island that has some crushed granite trails and is heavily populated by greenery. I decide to take my little cupcake off her bike so we can look around and explore the fauna around. Viv happily picks up rocks, pebbles, and other debris to check them out, all with wide eyed amusement. I even hand her some fir leaves, which she responds “stinky!”. Cool stuff.

After about 15 minutes, I stoop down and tell her:

Dad

We have to go now Viv. Mamma’s waiting for us.

Viv

No.

Dad

Come on, let’s go.

I pick her up and she goes wet noodle on me and screams, “NO!”. I put her down to see if she calms down, but she’s not having any of it. I pick her up again, pull her tricycle with me and she’s hanging off my side, arms in a referee “touchdown” position, screaming “NO! NO!”. I look ahead of me and there are two people looking our direction. To put this in perspective, I’m emerging from the bushes with a little toddler girl on my side screaming no. I smile and want to yell to them, “I’m no diddler!”, but just keep trucking (because nothing says you’re a diddler more than saying you’re not a diddler). Meanwhile, Viv is adding “HURT! STUCK!” to her litany of screaming.

About two blocks later, I finally get home and she’s calmed down. I figure I might as well stand there wait for the cops to show up, but they didn’t. The garage door was opening and Viv just smiled at me like nothing happened, and that’s when it hit me–this is my life now.

Viv is un-officially, officially terrible at being two. The last two weeks has been a political struggle between a unflinching, military junta backed despots (the parents) versus a persistent, populous backed rebel fighters (Viv). This weekend has been a barrage of wet noodling (falling limp the ground), whining, mood swinging, and temper tantrums. We’ve decided to set a zero tolerance policy against these threats, cumulating to a simple argument: “We don’t negotiate with Toddlers.”

We hold out possibility that Viv is possessed by some ancient demon who has a short temper when they don’t get their milk in a timely manner.

Hey, it’s been 8 years since I married my sweetie! We went to the Melting Pot to celebrate because we had cancelled a few reservations there previous years due to unforeseen problems, so we were determined to get there this year. Nestled in a nice little strip mall, the restaurant was cozy, inviting, and unlike our regular fine dining establishments we frequent, such as Luby’s.

Our waiter took a while to get to our table, but his short breathe and slight patina of sweat reassured us that he JUST got there. While very informative about our choices, we felt a little lost in all the configurations for our hot pots. We ended up with the classic four course meal.

First Course: Swiss Cheese Fondue

The base of this fondue starts with white wine. If you read any crime/mystery novels in your time, remember that detail. Served with different bits of bread and an assortment of vegetables that I would feed to my daughter. The cheese fondue was very tasty at first, but by the bottom of the pot, I couldn’t shake that bitter taste of the white wine. Not to mention, I was full at this point. We had contemplated getting the 3-Cheese Wisconsin fondue, which the teenage diners behind our booth opted for, and let us know how much they loved it in every bite. I think we made a bad decision.

Second Course: Salads

Not going to say much, it was bagged greens in a bowl, with dressing.

Main Course: Court Bouilon

This is the vegetable broth one. I wasn’t quite aware of this, I thought it was all oil type fondue, but whatever. Take wafts of the pot while waiting for it to come to a boil brought back lots of memories of me eating Ramen. Yes, it smelled like Ramen. Just. Like. Ramen. Em though the bits of vegetables floating around the brown broth looked like someone threw up it in. I agreed.

The meats were peppercorn sirloin, teriyaki steak, scrimp, and chicken (with vegetables on the side). I’ll be honest, it all tasted like boiled meats to me. Not the greatest by any stretch of the imagination and was, for the most part, very mediocre. HOWEVER, the mushrooms with the green goddess was quite possibly the best part of the main course. I could have opted for a boatload of those instead of the meats.

Dessert Course: Raspberry Peanut Butter Dark Chocolate.

Ok, holy shit. This was good. Everything was good, and if you had to endure the first half of  the meal for this, it was worth it. I wanted to pick up the pot and paint that delicious chocolate all over my face, put some in my pockets for later, and wait until past midnight to eat it. Definitely worth the trip now.

As you can tell, I wasn’t overtly enthusiastic about our trip here, considering the entire cost of the meal. Last year we went to Perla’s and that was worth every penny and cost marginally more than Melting Pot. My advice to you, dear readers, go for the cheese (pick the right one, or your ancestors will pay the price) and dessert courses.

It’s intense potty training up in here. Em started the whole potty training session this friday and it’s been going nonstop. We finally had a break through today when Viv finally went #1 on the big toilet, with many mini-M&M incentives to get her there. Now, a shot of Viv on the potty watching a movie on her tablet (just like her father!):

Ten-Twenty-Ten by Generationals

It’s been crazy busy around the house, primarily because two-year olds can be selfish little jerks. All Em and I want is a quiet night where we can watch a really bad movie, possibly a dinner that doesn’t require sanitary wipes every five minutes, or lack of crying. I’m sure it’s the two-year-old thing, but Viv is very sensitive to stuff these days, especially if she can’t quite figure out how to do something (she goes bat sh-t if it’s mildly frustrating). From what I hear, puberty is much easier.

So the Frank-in-Law had his other shoulder surgery the other day, but then he developed a blood clot in his legs, so he’s batting 0.250 with his four limbs. We’re waiting to hear back to see if he has a flesh eating fungus on the other leg. It looks like the operation on his leg has been successful though. They replaced his blood with a 50/50 Oil-Gasoline mix and an octane booster for winter storage.

Everyone (read Emily) is getting excited to meet the new baby, but we’re still about 4 months away from that. It seems like Em has been pregnant forever, so it feels like he should be born this month (but don’t tell Em that she looks 9 months pregnant if you don’t want your fingers eaten off–i’mjustsayin).

And by the way…HAPPY BIRTHDAY VIVIEN! MOM AND DAD LOVE YOU MORE THAN THE DVR!!!!