A Besetting Vice

Besetting Vice

2007-12-31T23:44:00.000-05:00

What is Besetting Vice all about anyway? Although I know 90% of my readership only comes for Damian, I love the vacation/books/World Cup/highpointing/museum stuff. So give that a chance too - you might like it. And Hello from Damian:

Damian: Months 17-19 Update!

MuseumQuest! has its own website! Check it out often!

Welcome to our TravelBlog

2007-12-31T19:48:00.000-05:00

Little known British author/gardener/flirt Vita Sackville-West once said, "Travel is the most private of pleasures. There is no greater bore than the travel bore. We do not in the least want to hear what he has seen in Hong Kong." And I do not disagree with her. Why then, am I expecting anyone (that would be you) to peruse this blog? After all, it's just my personal trip accounts which are almost all far less exciting than any trip to Hong Kong. Because, as Huxley said, travel is a "besetting vice," and therefore not only must I do it to please myself, but I also have a compulsion to document it. This blog is the end result of that vice. Yes, I fully recognize the irony here, as a trip to the highest point in Alabama is not usually the stuff of National Geographic Traveler articles. Nor is a weekend in the capital of New York. Ah, but therein lays, perhaps, the point... If I'm going to spend the time and money to get somewhere (and the effort convince my wife to join me), then damnit, I'm going to make it as interesting and fun as I possibly can. Also, I'm sure I'm subconsciously trying to convince you (and myself) that all of this is worthwhile somehow.

Rest assured, we've taken some incredible trips (Hawaii, France/Switzerland, the Pacific Northwest) so it's not only the ridiculous and the sublime, but the grandiose as well. For those of you already familiar with my writing elsewhere on the Internet, you can expect more of the same here - just a bit more palatable to a wider audience (like my parents and hypothetical future children***). For those of you unfamiliar - the good; I employ some decent observational humor and typically include lots of good (often funny) links and pictures. My intent with this blog is to include lots and lots of our personal photos, which people often seem to enjoy. The bad; I write too much, as you have probably already discerned for yourself. Also, please bear in mind I'm starting this project in March 2005, in some cases years after the trips I'll be recounting - relying on my memory and pictures alone.
I also have done a cool thing (The World Cup Tour 2006) and continue on in my MuseumQuest! as well as working through the Modern Library Top 100 List.
Please enjoy, stop back often (as I have much to add) and feel free to send me your feedback (unless you are someone I happen to have made fun of behind your back within these pages. If that's the case, you're thinking of a different guy. And yeah, he was a jerk.)
I am neither a writer nor a photographer. (Both are evident within this blog). However, so far, I've enjoyed putting this together and when I look at the piles of pictures and remember some of our stories, I'm eager to continue sharing.

So that was the original intent of this blog - but then we went and had a baby boy which I tend to dote on a bit in these pages. So now this is about Damian as well. But no one seems to mind.

Summer 2007

2007-09-08T08:38:00.000-04:00

It's been a good summer.

Our little Al Bundy

Here he was playing with his ball, saw the camera, lunged for it, and...

...took his very first picture. This is true.

"Papa, seriously man, why do you let her put me in these outfits?"

My two favorite people in the world

A rare family portrait, on the ferry to Block Island

Yup, he's still got those dimples

And yup, he still likes to show them off

Tired Bubbers

Now where are his newspaper and pipe?

Taking after his mama, Damian can sleep anywhere in any position

Bubber foot

Somewhere on Newport, I took a picture I love

Behind the Breakers mansion, enjoying the day

Did you notice we dressed hims as "Newporty" as we could? We're awesome.

Bad picture of Damian, but notice how he has pushed our Sam Francis print askew in the background? And I like Hoang in this shot for some reason.

Enjoying the mister at our backyard spa

Uh-oh. This was the last time we left the Cheerios near the floor.

You can't see it, but he's talking on his baby cell phone

He's getting closer...

One of all time favorite pictures...

And another...

and another...

and another...

Until next time!

Life's a Beach, Then You Eat Applesauce

2007-07-04T16:31:00.001-04:00

The Bubbers' whirlwind life continues... another trip to Delaware to see his grandparents, a bunch of museums, some hiking, a visit from his grandparents, mobility, new foods, swimming pools, the beach... let's get to it.

So happy in his little outfit.

This shirt reminds me of how many times I misspell "accommodating".

After a long and cold winter, Damian was excited to just be outside in April

Tip toeing through the tulips

"Hello? Damian? You left your dog outside."

Too bad he's too short to let her in

Striking a pose. Seriously, he's just a good-looking kid, and so poised and mature and well behaved and...

... And likes to lick public windows. What of it?

Happy Mother's Day!

This turnip DID just fall off the truck

This picture is better with sound effects - something like "VVVwwwoooosss!"

The Bubbers ate a lot of IAMS before he decided they didn't taste all that good.

Some random cat in Essex, CT

Enjoying his shad at the Essex shad festival

Even when you only have 4 teeth, dental hygeine is important.

After tossing my rocks for a while, Damian actually became a helpful weeder...

...And he's also become a helpful little assistant, dutifully handling the family budget...

...And he's always coming up with new ideas, like, "What did I look like last Father's Day?

Like this. What about this Father's Day?

Like this.

Elizabeth Park

Really... Do I have to write anything here?

We've been working on our operatic duet

A big giant foot to the ribs really cracks 'im up

The boy likes his applesauce

Damian is already 10 times tanner than I've ever been.

Driving Into Year Two!

2007-04-21T11:39:00.000-04:00

Time for some new pictures, eh? Damian is doing well with his physical and occupational therapy and the therapists are great. Hoang and I are lucky that we can spend the time necessary during the week and we are lucky to have the cutest child in the history of the world. Sure he's a bit behind, but boy does he make us smile. He's got perfect comic timing and seems to know when the joke is stale. Without further ado, Heeeeeeeeeere's the Bubbers!

Those dimples aren't going anywhere! (Though his blue eyes are long gone). And props to BV reader Bill for recommending Neal Pollack's "Alternadad" there in the background - a good, funny, read for any of you new fathers out there. I've actually met Pollack - and we got along famously.

What? Did I do something wrong?

Damian reacts to a bad driver cutting him off in traffic

Damian displays his happiness that the jerk driver just got pulled over by a cop.

What? Did I do something wrong again?

I like how he has the tough guy camos and the manly shirt... with those slippers.

Not that he can quite pull off "tough guy" when he poses like this.

Not such a fan of the burro

Rock-rocking in his French sailor outfit

Or is it a prison suit?

Or maybe a French sailor prisoner?

In trouble at school again

He still enjoys magazines!

I don't know why, but I love this picture. That's my hand holding shade-tobacco seeds at a museum. (You're all reading MuseumQuest of course, so I'll spare the details here.) Even though he's blurred out, his mouth is agape and he's all interested in what I'm doing. Love that.

Easter Sunday was his golf announcer try-outs apparently

Right after his JC Penney catalog model shoot, of course

And before his toupee company shoot

It was freezing cold on Easter here, so we had no flowers to plop him in front of. This'll do.

Here he is on my chest, about to attack my face

Time to take another ride. Tires? Check!

Dashboard taste ok? Check!

Clothes for work? Oops!

Phew!

That's all for now!

Damian Home
Every Week in Pictures
Besetting Vice Home

One Year Old. Really? Already?

2007-03-03T21:37:00.000-05:00

Time sure has been flying here in Connecticut. Since the last Damian entry, we've celebrated a New Years, a Tet (Chinese New Years), a Valentine's Day, and MLK Day, A President's Day, A Boxing Day... oh yeah, and a First Birthday!

Back on January 25, Master Bubbers turned 1 with a bang. We kept it a small affair with just family and a few friends - which was good because it still kept Damian from a nap and well, he's just not so fun to be around without his sleep. Reminds me of his mother sometimes! Ha!

Enjoy the photos - This time, as seen through the mind of Damian.

Lie down, put your feet up, get comfortable with me. There are lots of pictures!

You better get serious too, like I do when I read. Here I am reading "Olivia" by Ian Falconer. Mama and Papa's friend Caroline got me a signed copy for Christmas, even though I've never had the chance to meet her yet. Thanks, Caroline!

Just hitchin' up my pants to show off my cool shoes.

I figure the fake smile will keep them away after just one picture.

Yawn... nope.

Back in mid January, I only had 2 little baby teeth. Back then, brushing them was fun too.

I'm growing a tail here. Heh heh.

I dig my coat, but I still hate not being able to chew on my fingers.

Broccoli? What kid likes stinkin' Broccoli?

No kid I know. But we ALL like making messes!

And speaking of making messes, when Mama was away at a conference for work, Papa had to bathe me for the second time in his life. (He does everything else though... I swear.) Anyway, he did pretty good with the toys and the shampooing and stuff, but I figured I'd make it interesting...

Ahahhaha ahahahaah, yep, that's what you think it is! The really funny part is that I've NEVER done this to Mama! aaaahhhahahhaha!

Just before my birthday, my Grandmom and Granddad came up to CT. This made me very happy.

Almost as happy as when I saw the cake Grandmom baked and decorated. My word, that's nice. And delicious!

Oxford shirt, pinstriped pants... man am I handsome or what?!

Happy Birthday to me...

Happy Birthday to me...

Happy Birthday dear Me-ee...

Happy Birthday to me.

Now let me eat some cake already.

Here I am, stuck in traffic on the way to work, listening to another NPR fund drive.

NPR Fund Drives make me cRaZy! Let's get to the presents.

Wait. I thought presents were supposed to make me feel good about myself. The Flyers?! Gee, thanks Uncle Ron.

Hmmm, the tag says this is off-the-rack. Take it back.

Uhh, um, I don't know how to say this, but I don't see designer labels on all of these...

Sigh. I don't know what these people expect me to wear in public.

Still relaxed with your feet up? Good, me too...even when I sleep.

Look at that! I suddenly got 4 more teeth up top!

Stephen Colbert hates this shirt, but I still like him.

Oh how he cracks me up.

I'm cute here of course, but I look like a girl.

Time to ride the zebra.

You didn't believe me when I said "zebra" did you?

Toilet paper + time + inattentive papa = lots of fun.

I prefer to call this "volume" and nothing else.

Ok, in this post you saw me grow 4 teeth, 4 lbs and what my mama says feels like 40 pounds! What else? No more blue eyes! See you in a couple months...

Damian Home
Every Week in Pictures
Besetting Vice Home

The Once Per Week Project Part 3

2007-02-11T21:16:00.000-05:00

Part One
Part Two

Look closely for the monster ducktail at 53 Weeks

Long story short - I was taking a picture of Hoang and didn't even notice the Bubbers at the bottom of the picture. This is that cropped piece, at 54 Weeks.

55 Weeks and 6 teeth!

No more blue eyes at 56 Weeks

Static is a serious problem in our house, but it works for Damian at 57
Weeks

Driving in the buff at 58 Weeks

Strike a pose at 59 weeks

Meeting a burro at 60 weeks

61 weeks old and a real big shot!

Excited for the tobacco museum tour at 62 weeks

63 weeks old and stylin' for Easter

Where did all these stuffed animals come from? At 64 weeks

Back to Part One
Back to Part Two

Steve 2007 Book Reviews

2007-01-06T17:34:00.000-05:00

Go here

But... It's Eleven!

2006-12-31T15:48:00.000-05:00

The excitement of the holidays continued after the Thanksgiving trip to Delaware. For December 25th was not only Damian's first Christmas, but his 11-month "birthday" as well. I've come to realize that 99% of you skip whatever I write and go straight to the photos. So that coupled with the fact that I'm late with this and I am otherwise occupied, this is my Christmas gift to you: Minimal words, just pictures and captions. Enjoy!

Why does he look like he did something wrong?

Why does he look like he did something right?

Why does he look like his father thought it would be funny to dress him in conflicting stripes?

All 3 of us (Hoang, Bubby, and me) have decided baby winter coats are too much hassle.

Enjoying the trains at the Connecticut River Museum

OooooOOOooOooo! I see the Static Monster!

AaaaAAAaaaAAAAaa! Look at that staticky hair!

Not exactly happy about the whole mitten thing.

But he loves his biter bisquits

And he loves his "Hungry Caterpillar!

And he loves his new sweater!

Because he really loves his 2 new little baby teeth!

Our first Christmas pose attempt - wearing a too-big sweater that my Granny knitted for me 33 years ago. Seriously.

Yeah, that's right buddy. I'm 34 years old. Stop laughing.

Ok, you could at least smile when posing with me. Oh wait...

You're just bummed YOU'LL have to wear a shirt and tie to work someday, huh?

On to the good Christmas poses.

He looks like he should speak with a British accent

After the 15th or so shot, someone found the ornaments behind him. Photo session: Over.

And here I thought Hoang and I had very stimulating dinner conversation.

Here's another one of those pictures he'll hate in a few years.

He absolutely hates hats on his head, so the fact he fell asleep like this cracked us up after Christmas Eve dinner at Mama and Papa T's.

But he revived enough to take this picture with his beautiful Mom. Christmas was only HOURS away!

Yay! Christmas!

Carefully inspecting more loot.

Carefully inspecting the inside of his nose

This is what a picture from a high-end digital camera looks like. Hoang's brother Duc took this shot of our Christmas brunch spread - the highlights included Maryland blue crab backfin quiche, waffles with strawberries and whipped cream, fried potatoes, shrimp cocktail, eggs with smoked salmon... on and on and all homemade.

Yay! Christmas! Part two!

Yawn! Christmas! It was a long day.

Here we are, all dressed up for the big day. Actually, my t-shirt IS special, which you can see by clicking on the picture.

Damian Home
Every Week in Pictures
Besetting Vice Home

The Butler Did It. Or Maybe the McCook. Or Perhaps...

2006-12-09T15:42:00.000-05:00

MuseumQuest!
Museum Number 5
The Butler-McCook House and Garden, Hartford
December 7, 2006

By Steve, with contributions from EdHill

The Butler Did It. Or maybe the McCook. Or... Or perhaps uninsured 21-year-old Kia Sportage driver Wilfredo Sanchez. Yup, it was definitely Willy Sanchez. You see, that punk failed to notice the large yellow Victorian house in front of him on Hartford's Main Street back in August 2002 and proceeded to drive his car into the living room of the oldest surviving house on Hartford's Main Street. For full details on the tragic accident, and what is very most likely a better description of the Butler-McCook House than I'm about to provide, check this out. Needless to say, through hard work and many donations, the house museum is back to being whole and one would never know what happened 4 years ago.

Now that I've dispensed with what is, to me, the most interesting aspect of this particular museum, I suppose I have to talk about my visit. Intrepid sidekick EdHill had agreed to meet me at the Butler-McCook House around 6 after work. Not-so-intrepid third stringers Excitable Mike and RoseHill had both agreed to join us and had subsequently both opted out. So there we were again: me and EdHill and a museum. We were not scared - though Ed did make time to down a beer across the street at venerable Hartford restaurant Peppercorns beforehand.

The Butler-McCook House and Garden Main Street History Center (the poetic official name) is an oasis of sorts. Just south of downtown and a few blocks past the Wadsworth Atheneum on Main street. So if you're familiar with Hartford you are now saying, "Wait... There's an over 200-year-old house there? Right near where I scored crack a few weeks ago?" Um, yes that's right - but who are you and what is a crackhead doing reading this nerdy blog? Didja check out my latest book report? (Note the beautiful irony of the John Adams quote here.)

The night Ed and I decided to go was an "Aetna First Thursday" event, which happens every month in Hartford. That meant that not only was the museum free, but there would be a delicious crudite and coffee spread as well. To top that off, I found free street parking (but Ed paid six bucks for some reason). Owing to the season, the house was decked out in Christmas finery and owing to the special event night, a group of women carollers seranaded us throughout the night. The scene was set for a perfectly lovely museum outing.

There are two distinct sections of the Butler-McCook House; the house itself replete with all the family possessions from throughout the generations and the "Main Street History Center" part which was a small museum about the history of the local area. Visitors are shluffled to the history center first. Once an addition to the original house, this section walks visitors through hte 300 or so years of Hartford history, particularly the Main Street-leading-to-the South End area. The problem with the 10 or so exhibits is that there are simply too many words. Now, any Besetting Vice reader is laughing at my hypocrisy right now and I accept that. There were several historic maps and photos of the area and more than enough anecdotes from days gone by.

Words, words, words...
And I like all that stuff - really, I do. It's all the geneology and family histories and stuff like that I don't care about. Even the house's namesakes, Sarah Ledyard Butler and her son James McCook who took the house over. It is amazing that the house has survived in it's original state and spot after 200 years of commercial and other residential development. And it's cool to scan the exhibits which chrionicle the changes of the environs from 1732 to present. Now that I think and write about the place, I've come to realize that I liked the History Center.

There was one other (temporary) exhibit, "Unbuilt Hartford," which consisted of nothing more than fanciful artist renderings of absurdly ostentatious buildings that never got built in Hartford. I think I was supposed to marvel at the overblown zeal of the architects and wonder what could have been in our fair capital city. Blech... These monstrosities were just way too over-the-top for my tastes; no need for massive ornate castles in central Connecticut. Ed, on the other hand, enjoyed the exhibit and the cheese that happened to be nearby. I found the exhibit silly (though I enjoyed the cheese as well); I can guarantee that most of those things were never meant to be built at all - they were merely goofy dreams of goofy 19th century architects. Ed, have you a rebuttal?

Ed's boy Scott explains to him that Trinity was supposed to be straight out of a romance novel.

"Another Octave" sang carols throughout our visit.
Once done with the History Center, we crossed the threshold in the restored house. The chorale group and their fans occupied the main living room, so I never got a real good look at that room. This was also the room that was a temporary garage for Mr. Sanchez's car a few years ago too. Across the foyer and into the other living room, we found a quaint Christmas scene of about 100 years ago. We also found a lovely guide there who told us we could not take pictures in the house. Hm. Really? You see, I had already been through the house earlier looking for Ed - and had snapped all the shots you see here. But this lady was tough and we never got a shot of the little Christmas tree with the orginal ornaments from back in the day.

In fact, everything in the house was original to the McCooks and or Butlers. The problem is that the vast majority of it is, well, it's kinda boring. Beds, dressers, highboys, candle holders, chairs. Upstairs, the house looked like my grandparents' house from maybe fifty years ago. There was Mama and Papa's room and the bed where all the kids were born. There was Auntie the housekeeper's room with her... um... her bed and stuff. Ooooh, the kids' room with a... er... a dresser. And lo! The attic goods from Reverand McCook's college days at Trinity as well as his military paraphenalia. I suppose I should get used to this sort of thing though, as I expect to see my fair share of highboys and bedroom furniture from the 19th century.

It was actually pretty interesting, to be honest. There were audio recordings of Ms. Frances McCook who lived in the house until 1971. Once I got over the fact that she sounded like a whiny man, her stories were fairly interesting - about the Blizzard of 1888 and about the hired Irish help, for example. She also pronounced "mama" and "papa" with the stress on the second syllables in each word, which we plan on teaching our son to do. Oh, and there was a McCook kid named Shed along the way at some point.

I listened to a guide tell some other visitors about Frances and found her to be a rather amazing woman. Here she was, alone and old in this large historic house on Main Street in urban Hartford, and apparently going out and checking up on her less fortunate neighbors. Frances even taught herself Spanish in her 80's so she could speak with the locals.

In my excitement to get across the hall to the antique toy display, I conked my head on the low hall light which burnt out the bulb. 3 musty bedrooms, a toy display, and an attic display finished out the upstairs, so we returned back down to the ground floor. There are some cool Asian paintings and authentic swords in the main hallway on the way back to the two most interesting rooms in the house.

One was the dining room, set up to replicate an old school Christmas dinner. But again, it really didn't look much different from my grandparent's holiday dining room. Though the details were quite impressive, right down to the tiny salt dispensers and plum pudding. We were told the traditional soup contained calf head, lemon, and egg. Admittedly, that was absent from my family dinners. The room also contains a working Edison original music box and an old Cheney clock. (MQ! fans, get used to the name Cheney in these pages.)

Crossing the hall, we entered Reverand James McCook's library. In it were contained some old Egyptian artifacts as well as some really cool Japanese armor from over 100 years ago. Here, a guide explained to us that Reverand McCook (Frances's father) was an Episcopal minister, a language professor at Trinity, and a so-called "Sociological Investigator." He was one of the first Americans who truly tried to understand and solve the nation's homeless problem - of the late 19th century. By all accounts he failed miserably (as one can see peering out his study window on any given night) but the man was honest and well-intended.

We slowly made our way back to the foyer, soaking in the garish wallpaper for the last time. Once there, Ed bought a mug and I smoothly asked Scott for permission to take a picture of the Christmas tree room. He mulled it over for a few seconds and let us down easy. You see, the curator would need to give me permission to do so, as they only allow media to snap shots of the authentic pieces. Well there you go! If this isn't media I don't know what is!

The now traditional "Thumbs up" shot photoshopped untraditionally. (Note Ed's clutch and my nerdy pen/paper in my shirt pocket.)

Speaking of Photoshopping... I had this great idea to go dressed as a butler and Ed would come as a cook. Short of that, we'd take pictures of each other in the garden and make it look funny. We never found a good 'shoppable' cook picture though.

Ed learning about Main Street history with 4 of the younger patrons that night

When you make a sign for your store, try to remember how many letters are in the word "nutmegs" before you start painting. Especially in the capital of the "Nutmeg State."

And I quote: "Take a picture of me with these spoons. I like spoons." Seriously.

Go ahead. Play the game. You can read.

Now guess. What kind of shop would have had this sign back in the day?

Click on the picture to read the answer. Admit it, you were wrong.

Mama and Papa's room. Yup, they had a bed. And a dresser.

Old Christmas cards. A few of you will be lucky enough to receive one of these this week! Shhhhhh, don't tell Scott.

True story: I mulled over eating one of these peppermint candies for a good 45 seconds which is an eternity when you're alone. I didn't and still don't know if they are antiques or not.

The dining room. Yup, they had a table. And some chairs.

I'm not sure who these women are; the hired help or some daughters. But what is important here is if you click on the picture and take a close look at the lady on the right you realize she must have been pretty homely. Because you KNOW the artist did his best.

The actual lightbulb that burnt out when I bumped it with my head. Now you know for when YOU visit the Butler-McCook House and Garden Main Street History Center.
Cost: $5.00 Adults, $2.00 Children
Hours: Wed-Sat, 10-4, Sun 1-4, Open to 8 1st Thu of every month
Food & Drink? Wine bar and upscale Italian at Peppercorn's across the street
Children? Only the truly nerdy
You'll like it if: You are a Hartford history buff
You won't like it if: You're old and it looks just like your own house
Freebies: Cheese and crackers!

For the Curious
A far better description of the family and the museum
The Antiquarian and Landmarks Society who own the house.
Why are we Connecticut people called Nutmeggers anyway?
Irish immigrant servant history
Strabismus explained
The most famous thing about Trinity College

BesettingVice Home
MuseumQuest! List
The previous museum visited, The Witches Dungeon Classic Movie Museum in Bristol
The next museum (sort of) visited, The Mystic Seaport

Damian: "A Perfect 10" Months

2006-11-26T12:03:00.000-05:00

Even before uploading anything, I think I will set the record on number of pictures this month. So why bother with writing anything? I don't know... But I will anyway. Damian celebrated his first Halloween shortly into his 10th month by dressing up in two different outfits (a Devil and a Lobster) and proceeded to Trick or Treat at 2 neighboring houses. Though those aren't the only places to which he "got around."

Hoang and I sent one of the pictures below to some friends and coworkers at work who had asked us to show them his Halloween costume. A few days went by and it became apparent that the picture of me boiling him in a pot was quite a hit around our company. Keep in mind our company employs tens of thousands of people all over the country. Anyway, a few days later Hoang was sent the picture of her husband and baby from someone she knew who didn't know it was her husband and baby. Pretty funny - and somewhat creepy. So who knows - you may have already been sent that picture by someone we don't know.

The early November sports landscape was hopelessly bleak as the Eagles fell apart, the Flyers never got off the ground, and UConn football went nowhere. UConn basketball began, though, and hope has been renewed for the Bubbers. Undeterred, Damian continues to hold out hope for "our" teams. I'm taking bets on if you think he'll see a Philadelphia professional championship before he goes to college. So just let me know.

I celebrated a birthday in November and Damian's gift to me was to go stay at his Grandma's for an evening and Hoang took me out to a movie (we had almost forgotten how to get there!) and a great dinner out. This came on the heels of a week in which Hoang took off from work to watch him 24-7 because Mama T went out to visit her other 3 grandchildren in Southern California. Going back to work after that was tough for Hoang - ss anyone can imagine. It's tough for us just to leave this kid everyday. Just look at him!

For Thanksgiving our little family drove south to see my whole immediate family in Delaware. Damian was a good traveler and even adjusted to sleeping in the new bed pretty well. He was quiet around his crazy cousins but warmed up to his Grandmom and Granddad (my parents) pretty quickly. My mom had him smiling as well as anyone in no time.

At his cousin Rachel's 1st birthday party in Delaware, Damian showed everyone that he can sleep as well as anyone by falling asleep in the midst of 8 little kids screaming and running around. That's my boy! Ok, enough of this yapping, time for some pictures!

"So, Damian, how do you like your first cigar (cookie)?"

"I do say, dear chap, it's quite lovely, mmmm kay?"

The fallen angel looks skyward and contemplates his fate...

...But has fun anyways.

The elusive lobster hides in the sea, avoiding my traps...

But alas, I have caught my crustacean much to his displeasure...

The wily lobster fights back with his formidable pincer claw!

But the wee lobster is no match for this salty dog. Into the pot he goes...

But lo! The lobster's mama saves him from the pot and all is well.

That story cracks him up every time.

Sleeping Beauties

Sick of the Eagles, Bubby sits up and takes notice of his own DVD.

The Bubbers limbers up in preparation for his workout...

...Which consists of a series of squats on the couch. But the real reason I am posting this is to show you the poor boy's swirl of hair.

I love this picture. It makes our house look so big somehow, even though you've now seen that couch and those pillows in a million previous pictures. Time for another "Faces of Damian."

The blank emotional slate to start.

"But Papa, I didn't mean to break the vase. I was just trying to show you how much I love you and Mommy."

"Oi vey, Papa, not that story again."

"La la la la, I don't wanna hear it!"

"Oh boy! I get to go to another museum with you and Edhill!"

Damian joins the Kiss Army

(This is for those of you who didn't get the joke - note his eye above.)

There are those dang pillows again. Oh... and Bubby's standing pretty well.

Every now and again, I can't come up with a suitable caption.

Joe Leiberman impression.

With his cousins Christine, Rachel, and Joseph.

Chubby Cheeks

Remember when Cousin Rachel beat him up in May? And then Damian exacted his revenge in July? The battle continues.

Hoang and I went out to see some friends and Grandmom watched him for the evening. She knows the way to his heart!

Note his deft little pointer finger.

Damian loves typing!

(And his Grandmom of course!)

There's nothin' like ending a long day with a nice relaxing rocking chair.
To watch a video of his computer skills, Check this out!

Continue on to 11 Months!

Damian Home
Every Week in Pictures
Besetting Vice Home

Doin' Fine at Nine (Months)

2006-10-27T19:05:00.000-04:00

I won't say it. I refuse to say it. I can't say it... okay - Time FLIES when you have a kid. There, I said it. It's so corny but it's so true too. I can't believe it's been a whole month now since his last monthly entry. We've all had a very busy month and it's only going to get crazier with the upcoming holiday season. Damian's social life took off a bit as his Uncle Ron and Stephanie visited us for a weekend. He was a bit shy and awkward at first, but after a while he was all smiles for Steph. Right around the time of their visit, Damian started consistently sleeping through the night without one of us having to get up.

Over the course of the month he also decided that whatever was within near-reach; he just had to have. Anything and everything - we haven't had a dangerous mishap yet, though he has dumped water on himself and has almost broken several glasses and dishes - all great fun for him.

His little personality is coming out more and more and while everyone has an opinion on who he looks like (we've heard it all - he has Hoang's father's head, my dad's dimples, and everything else in between Hoang and I.) But his personality is also a mix of ours; he definitely has our calm demeanors (which is nice), but I can tell he's going to be a little scamp like his mother. (Although, very much unlike his mother, he's quite a morning person.)

We all went to an OktoberFest party at our friend's Kyle's and Hans's house. Despite the cold and wind, Damian was great and even made a few new friends. We went to a wedding and had his 9 month check-up. All is well except a small ear infection that we didn't even know existed. (That's him being tough like his dad.)

While we try to severely limit any TV on around him, we can't help but notice that he really does seem to watch football longer and more intently than anything else. I'm serious. And yes, he WILL be an Eagles fan. I figure, if I've lived a life of Eagles misery, it'll be nice to have someone here in CT to share that with. Am I right?

You can tell I banged this out in 4 minutes (literally). So just enjoy the pictures already.

Which is fatter? His belly or his hand?

"Please dear Lord, no more vegetables!"

This picture is funny/cute for a couple reasons. Note the hat is inside out.

Note that neither Hoang nor I noticed.

Note my mom noticed and dug out an old picture of yours truly rocking the very same hat 33 years ago.

Aside from tearing up magazines, the TV remote is his favorite toy. It's always an adventure turning on the TV and seeing what show TiVo is recording or what crazy setting Damian has changed.

And even though we don't really let him watch TV, he knows the remote is used to turn it on. So after he pushes a button or two, he's always looking to see if the TV turned on. Cracks me up.

Too bad it's a blurry shot; our matching ducktails in the morning!

Damian helping his mama read his birthday card to her.

Here's what he thinks of you.

Just kidding.

We have a million pictures of him with his eyes shut or half-way there. I delete most of them but saved this one because, well... because he just looks naturally Asian in it.

This picture is for KO and his wife, Jenny. This isn't the place for inside jokes, but in this case, it's worth it.

Damian studies everything before...

...Jamming whatever it is into his mouth. Fortunately it was edible for once.

The loves of my life both looking lovely at a wedding

Bubby's first chopstick attempt - during which he nearly poked his eye out. He is only half Asian, y'know.

There's just something about a beautiful woman in a black designer dress and heels changing a dirty diaper. Maybe it's just me.

Whooooooo's got a duck on his head? After a nice relaxing warm bath, Bubby likes to...

Enjoy the latest Newsweek and look ahead to next month. Until then...

Continue on to 10 months!
Damian Home
Every Week in Pictures
Besetting Vice Home

Dumb News

2006-10-13T07:46:00.000-04:00

I hate local news. As I'm sure you'll agree, it's no longer about news but only local weather and a bunch of crappy nonsensical stories. As a result, I pretty much never watch it - and on the rare occassions that I do, I invariably find dumb mistakes or otherwise funny stuff. It dawned on my to start collecting them for your enjoyment. So... enjoy:

This one is kind of lame, but the reporter's sad face at the end of her live shot cracks me (and Hoang) up.

Not local news by any stretch, but I caught this and figured you'd enjoy it to. I believe this is called "Injecting personal hatred towards a notorious wench by predicting her horrible early death" and not "news."

Here's a story that makes me angry early in the morning. A LONG piece (I've sped it up) shot in the MTV style about shopping for clothes for your kids. I enjoy the studio lady's intro, because you can tell she's embarrassed about the piece. Kids like clothes in their favorite colors!

One of my favorites; Nothing like some good ol' Live dead kittens in Westbrook.

Fiery Explosion blows up the proper spelling.

This clip pisses me off. A man was murdered and the idiot reporter is interviewing a moron witness. (Please note the drunkard interviewee too.) It's not enough that the jerk witness states that the murder that took place was "really nuttin'" but listen closely and you'll here the reporter chuckle at that comment. Truly pathetic.

BesettingVice Home

I Can't Believe He Eight the Whole Thing

2006-10-05T22:44:00.000-04:00

Damian's eighth month was a blur for both Hoang and me - such a blur, in fact, that here I am writing about it nearly 2 weeks after it was "in the books." This month was sort of a crossover at work with our jobs - just as Hoang starts slowing down, I start ramping up. That said, we're certainly not ignoring our little boy! In fact, even with dual tuner TiVos and DirecTV, I can state with absolute certainty that our free "Damian Channel" is far more entertaining than anything else we could watch.

As with many boys, he was a little slow to pick up on a lot of the physical milestones but he's now fully capable of... well, of being darn cute. Oh - and sitting and getting around via his own special hybrid roll/crawl. He put quite a scare into Mama T one day when she left him on the floor for all of 45 seconds only to return to a missing Bubby. In that short time he had roll/crawled across the room and under the bed where he was grinning ear to ear. (As you'll see, those dimples have remained.)

Some other things that make him smile are: the Johnny Jump-Up (no kid loves it more than he does), me poking my nose to his plump belly cracks him up every time, and annoyingly, he seems to take extreme pleasure in yelling out at 4AM every so often just to get one of us up and into his room. Then he laughs at us for being stupid. Yup, that's my son alright.

All in all it was a somewhat uneventful month - nothing out of the ordinary. He ate a bunch of new foods (no teeth yet), he took his first trips to the grocery store and while he's still trying out new sounds, still no word as far as we can tell. (Learning English and Vietnamese at the same time is tough on a baby.)

I'm the one who went through some growth this month - I left my family for 4 days when I went out to Los Angeles. When he's 8 years old, maybe I'll beg for those trips at work. But at 8 months? I missed him (and Hoang) every minute.

Enjoy the pics! (As always, in chronological order accompanied with my witty banter.)

It was cold in August for a spell in CT and as a random aside, his sweatshirt has a "busy beaver" on it...

And that appears to be a busy beaver on the TV. Actually, this was just an excuse to add a Hoang picture - a "no make-up Hoang picture" to boot.

I swear that dimple is going to swallow him up some day.

Hello and goodbye spacebaby. Have a nice flight.

Once in space, you will experience feelings of euphoria

You will be prone to spasms of laughter and squeals of delight.

Upon returning to earth, you will now appear gigantic when placed on your mother's lap.

Boy, he really IS a busy beaver - now helping us shop at the grocery store. (He never uses a pacifier so it's odd that he has one in here.)

I love his little "Crocodile Hunter" shirt...

"Crocodile Hunter?!" he said, "Why are you scaring me papa?!"

The half-crawl, half cheesy highschool portrait handclasp pose.

The no-crawl, all cheesy wannabe model pose pose

Boy that looks like a big tree, Bubby. Why, it's the biggest tree in Connecticut!

Nerd hair. (Him, not me.)

We went to Elizabeth Park in Hartford and grooved to some great live jazz on a perfect Sunday afternoon in September. It was one of those, "This is what it's all about" moments you have from time to time. (And also one of those Damian-drooling moments, as you can see if you look closely.)

See what I mean? THIS is what it's all about (for me anyway...)

...Ok, THIS is what it's all about too. Dallass losing their first game and TO being upset. I plopped Damian down in front of the Cowboy loss and began explaining to him why we take such joy in these things.

"But TO scored a TD."

But the Cowboys still lost!

So I went out to LA for a few days and had asked Hoang to send me some pictures of Damian since I was missing him. Man, let me tell you - when I opened up the first picture she sent and saw this... it made my day. In fact, it still does.

Continue on to Nine Months!

Damian Home
Every Week in Pictures
Besetting Vice Home

MuseumQuest! The List

2006-08-29T21:40:00.000-04:00

Let's just say, we have our work cut out for us. My list has 335 museums. Three-hundred and thirty five (Give or take). Think about that.

Skip this giant list and go straight to what we've done here, you lazy bum.

Tally:
Done: 7
To Do: 328

Museum	Town	Type	Visited
Museum of Andover History	Andover	History Town
General David Humphreys House	Ansonia	Historic Home
Horse Cavalry Museum	Avon	History Military
Living Museum of Avon, The	Avon	History Town
Derrin House	Avon	Historic Home
Pine Grove Schoolhouse	Avon	History Town
Sprague History Museum at the Grist Mill	Baltic	History Town
Berlin Historical Society and Museum	Berlin	History Town
Bellamy-Ferriday House & Garden	Bethlehem	Historic Home
Old Bethlem Museum	Bethlehem	History Town
Farm Implement Museum	Bloomfield	History Industry
Captain Oliver Filley House	Bloomfield	History Town
Old Farm School	Bloomfield	History Town
Harrison House	Branford	Historic Home
Barnum Museum	Bridgeport	Collection Unique
The Discovery Museum	Bridgeport	Science
Beardsley Zoo	Bridgeport	Science Zoo
Housatonic Art Museum	Bridgeport	Art
Captain's Cove Seaport Attractions	Bridgeport	History Maritime
Bristol History Museum	Bristol	History Town
Witch's Dungeon Classic Movie Museum	Bristol	Unique Collection	10/28/06
Imagine Nation Children's Museum	Bristol	Children's
American Clock & Watch Museum	Bristol	History Industry
The New England Carousel Museum	Bristol	History Industry
Brookfield Museum	Brookfield	History Town
Brooklyn Historical Society Mini Museum	Brooklyn	History Town
New England Center for Contemporary Art	Brooklyn	Art
Daniel Putnam Tyler Law Office	Brooklyn	??
Putnam Elms	Brooklyn	History Town
The Prudence Crandall Museum	Canterbury	Historic Home
Chaplin Museum	Chaplin	History Town
Lock 12 Historical Park	Cheshire	History Industry
Barker Character, Comic & Cartoon Museum	Cheshire	History Art
Chester Historical Society	Chester	History Town
Stanton House	Clinton	Historic Home
Captain Elisha White House	Clinton	History Town
Canton Historical Museum	Collinsville	History Town
Cornwall Historical Society Museum	Cornwall	History Town
Bush-Holley Historic Site	Cos Cob	History Town Art
Nathan Hale Homestead	Coventry	Historic Home
Connecticut Museum of Glass	Coventry	History Industry
Brick School House	Coventry	History Town
Strong-Porter House	Coventry	History Town
Special Joys Doll and Toy Museum	Coventry	Unique Collection
Stevens-Frisbie House (The Cromwell Historical Society)	Cromwell	Historic Home
Danbury History Museum	Danbury	History Town
Charles Ives Birthplace Museum	Danbury	History Transportation
Danbury Railway Museum	Danbury	History Transportation
Military Museum of Southern New England	Danbury	History Military
Meekers Hardware	Danbury
Bates-Scofield Homestead	Darien	Historic Home
Stone House	Deep River	History Town
Osborne Homestead	Derby	Historic Home
Beckly Iron Furnace	East Canaan	History Industry
Old New-Gate Prison and Copper Mine	East Granby	History Industry
Gillette Castle	East Haddam	Historic Home
Chatham Historical Society	East Hampton	History Town
Comstock Covered Bridge	East Hampton	Unique Covered Bridge
Huguenot House	East Harford	Historic Home
Edward E. King Museum	East Hartford	tobacco/aviation history	12/13/2006
Historical Society of East Hartford	East Hartford	History Town
The Shore Line Trolley Museum	East Haven	History Transportation
Thomas Lee House	East Lyme	Historic Home
Smith-Harris House	East Lyme	Historic Home
The Connecticut Trolley Museum	East Windsor	History Transportation
Connecticut Fire Museum	East Windsor	History Industry
East Windsor Academy Museum	East Windsor	History Town
Nellie McNight Museum	Ellington	History Town
Purple Heart Museum	Enfield	History Military
Martha A. Parsons House	Enfield
Old Town Hall Museum	Enfield	History Town
Connecticut River Museum	Essex	History Town	10/20/2006 & 12/10/2006
Hill's Academy Museum	Essex	History Town
Pratt House	Essex	Historic Home
CT Valley Railroad Museum	Essex	History Industry
CT Audubon Society Birdcraft Museum and Sanctuary	Fairfield	Science
Ogden House and Gardens	Fairfield	Historic Home
Fairfield Historical Society	Fairfield	History Town
Falls Village-Canaan Historical Society	Falls Village	History Town
Hill-Stead Museum	Farmington	Historic Home
Stanley-Whitman House	Farmington	Historic Home
Day-Lewis Museum	Farmington	History Town
Old Stone Schoolhouse	Farmington	History Town
Brown's Forge Museum	Gaylordsville	History Industry
Merwinsville Hotel	Gaylordsville	History Industry
The Washington Oak	Gaylordsville	Unique Tree
Museum on the Green	Glastonbury	History Town
Action Wildlife	Goshen	Science Zoo
Colton-Hayes Tobacco Shed	Granby	History Industry
The Granby Oak	Granby	Unique Tree
Salmon Brook Historical Society	Granby	History Town
Abijah Rowe House	Granby	Historic Home
Cooley Schoolhouse	Granby	Historic Home
Weed-Enders House	Granby	Historic Home
The Bruce Museum	Greenwich	Art
Putnam Cottage	Greenwich	Historic Home
National Audubon Society	Greenwich	Science
Submarine Force Museum	Groton	History Nautical
Gungywump	Groton	History Native American
Ebenezer Avery House	Groton	Historic Home
The Dudley Farm	Guilford	Historic Home
Henry Whitfield State Museum	Guilford	Historic Home
Medad Stone Tavern Museum	Guilford	History Town
Hyland House	Guilford	Historic Home
The Thomas Griswold House Museum	Guilford	Historic Home
Thankful Arnold House	Haddam	Historic Home
Youthmobile Museum	Haddam	??	Mystery Museum
Eli Whitney Museum	Hamden	History Industry
Jonathan Dickerman House	Hamden	Historic Home
Burnham Hibbard House	Hampton	Historic Home
Institute of Living Museum	Hartford	History Medical
The Wadsworth Atheneum	Hartford	Art
Isham-Terry House	Hartford	Historic Home
Mark Twain House	Hartford	Historic Home
CRRA Visitors Center & Trash Museum	Hartford	science/trash/recycling
Ancient Burying Ground Corner Main & Gold Streets 249-5631	Hartford	History Town
Baldwin Museum of Connecticut History	Hartford	History State
Butler-McCook Homestead	Hartford	Historic Home	12/7/2006
Connecticut Historical Society	Hartford	History General
Connecticut Sports Museum & Hall of Fame	Hartford	History Sports	Mystery Museum
Historical Museum of Medicine & Dentistry	Hartford	History Medical
Old State House	Hartford	History State Science
Police Service Center Museum - 101 Pearl Street 722-6150	Hartford	History Police
Harriet Beecher Stowe House	Hartford	Historic Home
Connecticut Freedom Trail	Hartford	Unique History Trail
Katherine S. Day House	Hartford
Gaylord House Museum	Hartland	Historic Home
Museum of the Fife and Drum	Ivoryton	History Military
Connecticut Museum of Mining and Mineral Science	Kent	History Industry
Connecticut Antique Machinery Association	Kent	History Industry
The Sloane-Stanley Museum and Kent Iron Furnace Site	Kent	History Industry
Seven Hearths	Kent	Historic Home
Skiff Mountain Schoolhouse	Kent	History Town
Bulls Bridge	Kent	Unique Covered Bridge
Museum of Killingly History	Killingly	History Town
Holley - Williams House Museum	Lakeville	Historic Home
Salisbury Cannon Museum	Lakeville	Children's
Governor Trumbull House Museum	Lebanon	Historic Home
Lebanon Museum and Visitor Center	Lebanon	History Town
Dr. William Beaumont House	Lebanon	Historic Home
John Bishop Museum	Lisbon	Historic Home
Litchfield History Museum	Litchfield	History Town
The Tapping Reeve House and Law School	Litchfield	History Town
White Memorial Conservation Center and Nature Museum	Litchfield	Science
Allis-Bushnell House	Madison	Historic Home
Deacon John Grave House	Madison	Historic Home
The Sculpture Mile	Madison	Art
Lutz Children's Museum	Manchester	Children's
Old Manchester Museum	Manchester	History Town
Cheney Homestead	Manchester	History Town
Keeney Schoolhouse	Manchester	History/Town/Schoolhouse
Cheney Fire Museum	Manchester	History Town
Pitkin Glass Works	Manchester	History Town
Mansfield Historical Museum	Mansfield	History Town
Gurleyville Grist Mill	Mansfield	History Industry
Mashantucket Pequot Museum & Research Center	Masuntucket	History Native American
American Silver Museum	Meriden	History Industry
Rosa Ponselle Museum	Meriden	Unique Collection
National Shaving and Barbershop Museum	Meriden	History Industry
Frank Chiarenza Museum of Glass	Meriden	History Industry
Solomon Gaffe House	Meriden	Historic Home
Golden Age of Trucking Museum	Middlebury	History Transportation
Submarine Library Museum	Middletown	History Nautical
Middletown Sports Hall of Fame and Museum	Middletown	History Sports	Mystery Museum
Wadsworth Mansion at Long Hill Estate	Middletown	Historical Home
Kid City	Middletown	Children's
Middlesex County Historical Society	Middletown	History Town
General Mansfield House	Middletown	Historic Home
Davison Art Center	Middletown (Wesleyan)	Art
Eells-Stow House	Milford	Historical House
Milford Firefighters Museum	Milford	History Industry	Future Museum
Bryan-Downs House	Milford	Historic Home
Clark-Stockade House	Milford	Historic Home
East Village Barn Hill Schoolhouse	Monroe	History Town
Eliot Beardsley Homestead	Monroe	Historic Home
Amasa Day House Museum	Moodus	Historic Home
The Occult museum	Moodus	Unique BS
Mystic Seaport	Mystic	History Industry	12/10/2006
Mystic Seaport Children's Museum	Mystic	Children's
Mystic Aquarium	Mystic	Science Aquarium
Denison Homestead	Mystic	Historic Home
Denison Pequotsepos Nature Museum	Mystic	Science
Naugatuck Historical Museum	Naugatuck	History Town
Industrial Museum of New Britain	New Britain	History Industry	10/6/2006
New Britain Police Museum	New Britain	History Industry
New Britain Youth Museum	New Britain	Children's
New Britain Museum of American Art	New Britain	Art
New Canaan Historical Society	New Canaan	History Town
New Canaan Town House	New Canaan	History Town
Cody Drug Store	New Canaan	History Town
The Costume Museum	New Canaan	History Town
Hanford-Silliman House	New Canaan	History Town
The Tool Museum	New Canaan	History Town
The John Rogers Studio and Museum	New Canaan	History Town
The Little Red Schoolhouse	New Canaan	History Town
The Rock School	New Canaan	History Town
Philip Johnson's Glass House	New Canaan	Historic House
Yale Center for British Art	New Haven	Art
Yale Collection of Musical Instruments	New Haven	History Music
New Haven Colony Historical Society Museum	New Haven	History Town
Yale University Art Gallery	New Haven	Art
John Slade Ely House	New Haven	Art
Knights of Columbus Museum	New Haven	Unique Collection
Connecticut Children's Museum	New Haven	Children's
Black Rock Fort and Fort Nathan Hale	New Haven	History Military
Pardee-Morris House	New Haven	Historic Home
Peabody Museum of Natural History	New Haven (Yale)	Natural History
Monte Cristo Cottage	New London	Historic Home
The Hempsted Houses	New London	Historic Home
US Coast Guard Museum	New London	History Military
Science EpiCenter & DNA Learning Center	New London	New London
Shaw-Perkins Mansion	New London	Historic Home
Nut Museum	New London (Conn Coll)	Unique Collection
Lyman Allyn Art Museum	New London (Conn Coll)	Art
The Skitch Henderson Museum	New Milford	Unique Collection
New Milford Historical Society Museum	New Milford	History Town
Enoch Kelsey House	Newington	Historic Home
Kellog-Eddy House	Newington	Historic Home
Matthew Curtiss House Museum	Newtown	History Town
Children's Museum of Southeastern Connecticut	Niantic	Children's
Millstone Information and Science Center	Niantic	Science
Noank Historical Society	Noank	History Town
Norfolk Historical Society Museum	Norfolk	History Town
Martha Culver Memorial Museum	North Haven	History Town
The Norwalk Museum	Norwalk	History Town
Stepping Stones Museum for Children	Norwalk	Children's
Maritime Center of Norwalk, The	Norwalk	Science
Mill Hill Historic Park	Norwalk	History Town
Lockwood-Mathews Mansion Museum	Norwalk	Historic Home
SoNo Switch Tower Museum	Norwalk	History Transportation
The Slater Memorial Museum, Norwich Free Adademy Campus	Norwich	Art
Leffingwell House Museum	Norwich	Historic Home
Florence Griswold Museum	Old Lyme	Historic Home
BF Clyde's Cider Mill	Old Mystic	History Industry
General William Hart House	Old Saybrook	Historic Home
Uconn's Virtual Pathology Museum	Online	Online
Stone-Otis House	Orange	Historic Home
CT Aerospace Hall of Fame and Museum	Orange	Science	Mystery Museum
The Academy (Orange Historical Society Museum)	Orange	History Town
Plainville Historic Center	Plainville	History Town
The Stone Museum	Pleasant Valley	Science
Brayton Grist Mill and Marcy Blacksmith Museum	Pomfret	History Industry
Ruth Callander House Museum of Portland History	Portland	History Town
Lonetown Farm Museum	Redding	History Industry
Keeler Tavern Museum	Ridgefield	Historic Home
The Aldrich Museum of Contemporary Art	Ridgefield	Art
Hitchcock Museum	Riverton	Historic Home
New England Civil War Museum	Rockville	History Military
Academy Hall Museum	Rocky Hill	History Nautical
Dinosaur State Park	Rocky Hill	Science
Rowayton Historical Society	Rowayton	History Town
Mine Hill Preserve	Roxbury	History Industry
Salem Historical Society and Museum	Salem	History Town
The Huntington Homestead	Scotland	Historic Home
Waldo Homestead	Scotland	Historic Home
Sharon Historical Society	Sharon	History Town
Gay-Hoyt House Museum	Sharon	Historic Home Art
Shelton History Center	Shelton	History Town
Phelps Tavern Museum & Homestead	Simsbury	History/Old House
Connecticut's Biggest Tree	Simsbury	Giant Tree	9/8/2006
Somers Historical Society Museum	Somers	History Town
Somers Mountain Museum of Natural History & Primitive Technology	Somers	History Native American
Welles Shipman Ward House	South Glastonbury	Historic Home
Wood Memorial Library	South Windsor	Unique Collection
Pleasant Valley School Museum	South Windsor	History Town
Connecticut State Police Museum	Southbury	History Industry
The South End Schoolhouse	Southington	History Town
Bradley Barnes Museum	Southington	History Town	12/28/2006
Stafford Historical Society Museum	Stafford	History Town
N.E.States Civilian Conservation Corps. Museum	Stafford Springs	History
Stamford Historical Society	Stamford	History Town
Ukranian Museum and Library	Stamford	History Unique
Stamford Museum and Nature Center	Stamford	Science
Whitney Museum of American Art at Champion	Stamford	Art
Bartlett Arboretum	Stamford	Science
Hoyt-Barnum House	Stamford	Historic Home
Old Lighthouse Museum	Stonington	History Maritime
Captain Nathaniel B. Palmer House	Stonington	Historic Home
The William Benton Museum of Art	Storrs (Uconn)	Art
The Connecticut State Museum of Natural History	Storrs (Uconn)	Natural History
Ballard Institute and Museum of Puppetry	Storrs (Uconn)	Unique Collection
Husky Heritage Sports Museum	Storrs (Uconn)	Sports
National Helicopter Museum	Stratford	History Aviation
Boothe Memorial Park & Museum	Stratford	Historic Home
The Children's Garbage Museum	Stratford	Children's
Catherine Mitchell Museum	Stratford	Historic Home
Judson House and Museum	Stratford	Historic Home
Phelps-Hatheway House	Suffield	Historic Home
King House Museum	Suffield	Historic Home
Lock Museum of America	Terryville	History Industry
Railroad Museum of New England	Thomaston	History Transportation
Thompson Historical Society	Thompson	History Town
Tourtellotte Memorial Room	Thompson	History Town
Tolland Jail Museum	Tolland	History General
Hicks-Stearns Family Museum	Tolland	History General
Benton Homestead	Tolland	Historic Home
Torrington History Museum	Torrington	History Town
Hotchkiss-Fyler House	Torrington	Historic Home
Trumbull History Museum	Trumbull	History Town
Tantaquidgeon Indian Museum	Uncasville	History Native American
Unionville Museum	Unionville	History Town
Vernon Historical Society Museum	Vernon	History Town
Samuel Parsons House	Wallingford	Historic Home
Nehemiah Royce Museum	Wallingford	Historic Home	Mystery Museum
American Indian Archeological Institute	Washington	History Native American
Gunn Historical Museum	Washington	History Town
The Mattatuck Museum	Waterbury	History Art
The Timex Museum	Waterbury	History Industry
Harkness Memorial State Park	Waterford	Historic Home
Watertown Historical Society Museum	Watertown	History Town
West Cornwall Covered Bridge	West Cornwall	Unique Covered Bridge
Children's Museum	West Hartford	Children's
Noah Webster Museum	West Hartford	Historic Home
Museum of American Political Life	West Hartford	Unique Collection
Sarah Whitman Hooker Homestead	West Hartford	Historic Home
Savin Rock Museum	West Haven	History Town
Military Historians Museum	Westbrook	History Military
The Coley Homestead and Barn	Weston	Historic Home
Wheeler House	Westport	Historic Home
Buttolph-Williams House	Wethersfield	Historic Home
Hurlbut-Dunham House	Wethersfield	Historic House
Historic Cove Warehouse	Wethersfield	History Town
Wethersfield Museum	Wethersfield	History Town
Webb-Deane-Stevens Museums	Wethersfield	History Town
Earthplace	Westport	Sciene - Childrens
Jillson House Museum	Willimantic	Historic Home
Windham Textile and History Museum	Willimantic	frog bridge too
Willimantic Brewing Company	Willimantic	Unique Brewery
Weir Farm National Historic Site	Wilton	Historic Home Art
Wilton Heritage Museum	Wilton	Historic Home
Hurlbutt Street Schoolhouse	Wilton	History Town
Kerosene Lamp Museum	Winchester	History Industry
Solomon Rockwell House	Winchester	History Town
Connecticut Eastern Railroad Museum	Windham	History Transportation
Vintage Radio & Communications Museum	Windsor	History Industry
Huntington House Museum Windsor	Windsor	Historic Home
Luddy/Taylor Connecticut Valley Tobacco Museum	Windsor	History Industry
Windsor Historical Society	Windsor	History Town
Oliver Ellsworth Homestead	Windsor	Historic Home
The New England Air Museum	Windsor Locks	History Aviation
Noden-Reed Park Museum	Windsor Locks	Historic Home
American Museum of Tort Law	Winsted	History Law	Future Museum
American Mural Project	Winsted	Art	Future Museum
Wolcott Historical Society Museum	Wolcott	History Town
The Darling House Museum	Woodbridge	History Town
Glebe House Museum	Woodbury	Historic Home
Roseland Cottage/Bowen House	Woodstock	Historic Home

MuseumQuest! Has Begun

2006-08-27T12:04:00.000-04:00

So you're too lazy to scroll through the giant list. No problem... here's what we've done:

Visit 1. The Pinchot Sycamore in Simsbury, 9/8/2006
Visit 2. The New Britain Industrial Museum, 10/6/2006
Visit 3a. The Connecticut River Museum, 10/20/2006
Visit 3b. The Connecticut River Museum Part 2, 12/10/2006
Visit 4. Witch's Dungeon Classic Movie Museum, 10/28/2006.
Visit 5. Butler-McCook House and Garden, 12/7/2006
Visit 6. The Edward E. King Museum, 12/13/2006
Visit 7. The Barnes Museum, 12/28/2006

Incomplete Visits
A. Mystic Seaport, 12/10/2006

Many more soon...

MuseumQuest! (The List)
BesettingVice Home

7th Month Heaven

2006-08-26T23:11:00.000-04:00

You know how when there's some life experience that is new to you and everyone you know (and don't know) offers all sorts of advice and homey tales about said life experience? Things like, "New house, new baby" (ahem)? Well, the whole, "You won't believe how fast time flies when you have a child" thing is bearing itself out - as do most of those non-superstitious things, so Besetting Vice readers Leah-New-House-in-Chicago-New-Baby-on-the-Way, Jen-Relatively-New -House-New-Baby-on-the-Way, and Mel-Relatively-New-House-New-Baby-on-the-Way, take heed and good luck in the coming months. It's awesome.

Summer bore down on us here in New England during Damians 7th month and we suffered through several brutal days. But it never hit 100 degrees and we survived, though we certainly learned that he hates hot weather and often wondered what our parents did back in the pre-AC in cars days with babies.

Aside from the heat, it was a very exciting month for Damian. He met our friends Marni and Sean up from Hoboken, Hoang's cousin David in from Portland, Oregon, he went to yet another party at Kevin and Becky's where he was a perfect angel again. He really has no problem "meeting" new people and still just sort of soaks in the scene for a while. A bunch of Hoang's girlfriends passed him around all afternoon and aside from a couple complaints about the heat and the diaper, he made us proud. I stopped counting how many, "You're so lucky you don't even know"'s. (To be fair, most of those women have 1-3 year old kids who are certainly apt to get into more trouble than our immobile Bubby.)

After the Kevin and Becky shindig, we went for broke and took him to his first Irish Fest in Glastonbury. This 3 day fest is usually a drunken bacchanalia - but we were there with the sun up still so it was far more subdued and family friendly. Once again, our boy just chilled and even enjoyed the passing rain shower while friends Wendy and Rob met him for the first time.

Later in the month my parents visited from Delaware to spend some quality time with their grandson. (Since so many of you ask - this is the 3rd time they've seen him and Damian is their 4th grandchild.) It was nice for them to see him finally smiling and showing his funny little personality. Up until that point, only Mama T, Hoang, and I could get him to smile on cue. That barrier was finally broken by my mom (and Nguyet, my sister-in-law as well).

While Grandmom and Granddad were here, Bubby finally decided he'd like to roll over from his fat belly. Once he got over that hurdle, he couldn't stop rolling all over the place. He also began sitting up much better and generally being a bit more physically active. Sure, he's still a little behind the so-called average, but as of this writing now (8/27), he's catching up fast. And besides, even if he was lacking in some way, he'd be able to get through life on his looks alone. Am I right ladies?

It's nice now that Hoang and I never fear taking him out with us anywhere anymore as he's usually very content. For his 7-month birthday, we took the day off from work and drove out to our friend Laura's house in Narragansett for his first beach experience. Too bad the weatheridiots were horribly wrong as usual and it rained all afternoon. We still had fun at the house, but Bubby was upset about missing the beach. (If the rain weren't enough, the windy sixty degrees wasn't so much fun either. Ahhhh, New England in August.)

On our way home, we stopped in Westbrook, CT to eat at Bill's, supposedly, "the best seafood on this or any other planet." Now, I suppose if you're some rube from Cheyenne on vacation in New England you may think this. Being the food snobs we are, I'll just say, "It was alright." Wicked overpriced and overrated, but alright. But we certainly had fun, as we always do with Damian, as you'll see below.

"Why hello there cutest baby in the world! What do you have to say for yourself?"

"Please, please, no pictures. I've yet to comb my hair."

"Hmmm, what shall I do today? Perhaps I'll change into my UConn gear and help Papa barbeque some chicken."

"Now don't put the sauce on the chicken until the end of the cooking process, or else the sugars will carmelize and you don't want that, Papa, you don't want that."

'S' is for "Stickng my whole hand in my mouth."

True story about this picture: This past month when someone on my team at work was feeling down or stuck on a problem, I sent them this picture. And then they realized they didn't have it so bad. My poor Bubby.

All wrapped up. What's underneath there?

It's Damian's new Bumbo chair!

"I say, Mama, I'm quite stuck in this thing. Why does that make you laugh?"

"And you, Papa, with the poison ivy on your arm AGAIN?! When will you learn?"

"Looking at Grandmom and Granddad and the picture of my dad just above this, I guess I can expect the gray hair too, huh?"

"Ah well, for now I'll just enjoy my mama styling my nice brown hair-do."

"Back in this chair again? At least my hair looks good. What can I play with?"

"I guess I'll play with these things stuck to this leg thing sticking out of this chair thing. But what else can I play with?"

"I can play in one of my exersaucers. With a pair of shorts on my head."

I can play with the keyboard with my dad. zzçßxzx3 QAA1Q3`trft WQQ` --PA"

"And I can play in my Johnny-Jump-Up. Boy this is all so tiring."

"I guess I'll just take nap. While standing up... I don't care."

After a long rainy day in Narrangansett, We still had fun at dinner

The Happy Fried Scallop Dance

Locked in on the oyster crackers. In fairness to my always beautiful wife, I'm sure she'd like me to remind you again that these pictures were taken after a long, rainy day.

Locked in on the New England Clam Chowder. But is he ready to eat? We tested him first:

Contine on to the Eighth month!

Damian Home
Every Week in Pictures
Besetting Vice Home

Oy Vey!

2006-08-26T23:00:00.000-04:00

Modern Library # 52
Portnoy's Complaint
1967, Philip Roth

This may perhaps be the most difficult Top 100 Book Review I'll ever do. Not because I loved it so much I can't find the words and not because I hated it either. No... it's because "Portnoy's Compaint" is so downright dirty and sex-filled that I wouldn't know how to properly describe 2/3 of the book to the family audience who gather 'round their PC's to read Besetting Vice every few weeks.

If I had an alternate blog... hoo boy, let me tell you! Roth does not pull punches here and no epithet is left unsaid. Yup, even the dreaded word that every woman hates more than anything in the world. About 20 times. Now that I've given you the somewhat false impression that the book is merely a smut festival, I'll try to give my review.

Roth uses a very interesting convention to tell the story: Alexander Portnoy is a 33 year old highly successful single Jewish guy lying on his psychiatrist's couch. What transpires is a 308 page stream-of-conciousness monologue wherein Portnoy frames his life-history as one of misery at the hands of his overbearing Jewish mother followed by an endless series of sexual conquests - many of which are solo.

Within the first hour or so of reading, one realizes a few things. One, the "character" of Howard Stern that we grew up listening to is either a complete ripoff of the Portnoy character or every Jewish boy who grew up in the 40's and 50's in the metro NYC area really is a nebbish Woody Allen character obsessed with sex. There are lines in the book I could swear I heard Stern approximate years ago - "My mother did this" and "My mother did that" and as a result "I can't do this right and I'm miserable." Two, the famous scene from "American Pie" where the protagonist, shall we say, "enjoys" a cherry pie in privacy? Roth laid the groundwork with the pubescent Alex, shall we say, "enjoying" some fresh liver. Seriously.

But thank goodness for Stern, or else I'd have never understood all the Yiddish exclamations Roth writes. What is it with Jewish-American mothers? Is there something truthful about the fictional Jerry Seinfeld mom, Kyle Broflovski mom, or Portnoy's mom? From the book: "...A Jewish man with parents alive is a fifteen-year-old boy, and will remain a fifteen-year-old boy, till they die!" Such anger... such venom... such insight into the immaturity of Seinfeld and Stern!

But more than just sex, the book is about the post WWII Jewish experience in America. How they adapted and made a living, how the immigrant parents instilled academics and values in their children. It's very well written and certainly funny in many instances. I had high hopes for "Portnoy's Complaint" because of all the things I've heard about Philip Roth. But again, as I'm realizing with many of these Top 100 Books (coincidentally, several of which Portnoy tries to get his illiterate sex machine girlfried, aka "The Monkey," to read in the book) are in the Top 100 because they are "groundbreaking" above all else. That's not to say it's not enjoyable - it is.

As Alex Portnoy says, he wants to "Put the ID back in 'YID'." And in this book, he definitely does that.

Hoang Completed: 2006, Rating: 5
Steve Completed: 2006, Rating: 6.5

Top 100 Novel Reports
The Other Books
Besetting Vice Home

The Metacomet Trail Section Hike

2006-08-23T22:46:00.000-04:00

Go here

The Once Per Week Project Part 2

2006-08-03T22:05:00.000-04:00

I figure I'll arbitrarily break these up in 1/2 year increments.

(Part One)

First time in a Johnny-Jump-Up at 27 weeks

28 weeks old

Finding hotbuttons I didn't know at 29 Weeks

30 Weeks Old

31 Weeks old in August and in need of a hoodie.

Barely table high while sitting at 32 weeks

Damian - I am your Fah-tharrrr at 33 weeks

34 weeks old

Sleeping at the dinner table at 35 weeks

36 weeks old

Mr. Bed-Head at 37 Weeks

Representing his Vietnamese heritage at 38 Weeks

39 Weeks of baths

What's cookin' at 40 Weeks

It's about time I show him crying at 41 weeks

Bathtime with Jamal at 42 weeks

Rockin' Out at 43 Weeks

44 Weeks old and wearing a Tree Skirt

Enjoying a manicure at 45 weeks

Excited for a new outfit at 46 weeks

Mazel Tov! Happy Hanukkah at 47 Weeks!

Kicking it oldschool at 48 Weeks

Oink Oink at 49 weeks

The hair, the yawn, the sleepy eyes... At 50 Weeks

51 Weeks Old

Still has the dimples at 52 Weeks
Back to Part One
Continue on to Part 3

Damian's Backyard Friends Part 2

2006-07-29T12:07:00.000-04:00

In the time since we last visited our backyard, we bought a bird feeder. After a short while, the feeder attracted several birds - none of which we got a good picture of. These included cardinals, nuthatches, a Baltimore Oriole, and a red-winged blackbird. It also attracted the chipmunks and squirrels too, which in turn attracted the attention of our friendly neighborhood red-shouldered hawk. This post is more a biology lesson than anything, and if you are disturbed by the site of what a top predator is capable of doing to a cute little bunny rabbit, I suggest you hit the back button on your browser. Hey, all the animal kingdom is friends with Damian, predators and prey alike.

You all remember Baby Rabbity from last time? Well, um... more on him later.

Dovey!

Flyey!

Tomato Hornwormy!

Anty!

Chipmunky! (He's there, look closely)

Bearded Dragony! (He lives by the creek)

Spidery!

Squirrely!
Okay, so Hoang was watching the bird feeder festivities one afternoon and remarking how many animals we seem to have in our backyard. Then, all of the sudden from over the house behind where she was looking, a HUGE hawk swooped down and made off with a chipmunk - right before her eyes. I ran outside to see it perched up in a tree... it was not the more common red-tailed hawk, but rather a larger red-shouldered hawk. It was incredible! We didn't see another mammal in our backyard for a couple days after that. Then, one night I was poking around the yard and stumbled upon a rather disturbing site. Our friend Hawky had made a return visit and let's just say baby rabbity is now named Hawk Dinner. I (of course) took some pictures, but you'll have to click on them to see. I warn you, pregnant women (there are 2 of you reading this I know of), children under the age of 13, and anyone with a heart condition or affection for bunny rabbits do not want to see this. There are three parts of a rabbit hawks don't like:
The fur (note hawk feather to the left)
The entrails (piled oh-so neatly)
And... the head.

Besetting Vice Home

Six and One Half Dozen of the Other Months Old

2006-07-29T09:37:00.000-04:00

Damian's first year continues to fly by - it's crazy to us that he's already a half a year old. Just. Like. That.

The beginning of his sixth month saw the end of the World Cup Tour which was concluded at little Meghan L's first birthday party. It was a hot day and with so many people cooing over him, Damian played coy and pretty much slept through the festivities.

The beginning of July meant the start of the Tour de France which, despite the fact that cycling appears to be a very dirty sport, we both still enjoyed throughout July. The highlight of the month was a visit from cousins Christine, Joseph, and Rachel from Delaware. The last time they all met up was back in May; when Damian was a bit too young to interact. However, as you'll see below, he apparently remembers the way Rachel treated him and exacted some delicious revenge.

The visit was fun for all, as we went up to Magic Wings and enjoyed the butterflies. Damian's cousins had fun at our house and we all enjoyed the visit, but once they were back on the road to home, Damian appeared a bit relieved. After all, who were those people anyway and why weren't you devoting all your attention to me?! Fair enough, son, fair enough.

In July, I moved over to a new role at work where I now manage 15 people (same company, same department) which has been rather time-consuming as you can imagine. So that's why the BV updates are slow and short, unfortunately - at least until I fully get my bearings at work.

As for Bubby, he took it pretty easy the rest of the month, practicing new skills like sitting up, rolling over from his fat belly, "talking," grabbing more precisely, and wooing the girls. Thus far, he seems most adept at that last item. But we'll catch up with the other stuff this month!

(And by the way, Hoang has eased up on the "Bubby" thing and seems to now be stuck on, "JuJu Bear." I'll never figure that woman out. Also, I have no idea why he seems to be wearing the same blue tank top so often. I swear he has more than 3 shirts!)

Celebrating the 4th with Mama T and the Pillsbury Doughboy, of course

One of the billion butterflies at Magic Wings

Yes, that's a real butterfly on cousin Rachel...

...Who later reported it tasted 'just like rice cereal'."

Cousins Rachel, Joseph, and Christine.

Rachel make the first move, stirring the monster that lurks within Damian...

Oh my! the reverse clothesline to piledriver! (The joy on Hoang's face cracks me up.)

Fatty Feet, Fatty Feet.

After a hard day of spitting rhymes and laying down phat beats, Bubby nods off. And what does every hiphop artist enjoy after a long session in the studio? Yes, of course.

I just wanted the document the last time Damian can fit in his little papoose. Barely.

Someone found his toes!

Someone is embarrassed that someone found someone who found his toes!

Oi vey, my life is so tough. Racial Tension headache?

One of my favorite pictures of Damian - the the Tour de France on in the background.

He'll get that whole hand in there yet...

Gearing up for the UConn Football season next month.
Alternative Caption: Our Husky Husky
Bathtime!

7 Months Old!"
Damian Home
Every Week in Pictures
Besetting Vice Home

Meet the New Boss, Same as the Old Boss

2006-07-15T10:24:00.000-04:00

Modern Library # 31
Animal Farm
1946, George Orwell

I know... "Animal Farm?! The little novella about talking animals that we all read in 7th grade?" Yes, that's right. Even if I had read it prior - and I hadn't - the rules of the Top 100 game that Hoang and I are playing dictate that I would have to read it again anyway. You'd certainly think that I would have knocked this one off back when I was still trying to keep up with the goal of 3 books per year, since it's so short and simple to read. But alas, you must not know my passion for television.

First of all, this book gets major points for being so short and easy to read. Once I finished it, I sat back and wondered what it was that makes it so important and well-regarded. Sure, the allegory works well - but it's simple. Orwell is of course an excellent writer. But really, is it really that great? In one sense it is; If I were in 7th grade and read this, it would serve as the perfect lesson about literature. (Though Watership Down did the same for me, in much the same way, at a younger age.) And that lesson is that "Words mean things" and literature has a voice.

In the case of Animal Farm, that voice was an angry Orwell speaking out at totalitarian regimes, specifically Joseph Stalin's in 1940's Russia. Orwell was actually a socialist, so although many people think the book is railing against all forms of Communism or Socialism, it is not. What I found most interesting was that Orwell went beyond the easy targets (Lenin/Stalin) and hit bullseyes on the West, Hitler, Trotsky, the working class, and the propagandists - all using his talking animal convention.

Since everyone under the sun has read this book (hey, I haven't even looked at the dust jacket of The DaVinci Code either) there is no point discussing the actual plot. In one sentence, the farm decides to overthrow the dictator (the farmer), the pigs assume that role and take full advantage of it, the worker devotes himself to the farm and dies, there's a massive slaughter borne of distrust, and the pigs "evolve" into the men they are acting like. It's pretty good, but didn't really move me at all like I expected it to.

In a funny way, Animal Farm preceded the Looney Toons and "South Park" in that both used childish language and images to convey much deeper and more intellectual ideas. Seriously.

Hoang Completed: n/a
Steve Completed: 2006, Rating: 7

Top 100 Novel Reports
The Other Books
Besetting Vice Home

Fi Five Fo Fum

2006-07-12T19:09:00.000-04:00

Damian's five month "birthday" fell upon our 3 year anniversary; May 25th. That weekend we were fortunate to be able to have Mama T babysit him allowing us to enjoy a nice dinner out on the town. We also realized that pretty much every prior year around this time we took a vacation in the past: Like this one, for example. But alas, with Bubby in our lives now, there would be none of that this year. No matter, we had plenty of other things to attend to.

I'm learning quickly what it means to have a little kid; lots of birthdays for other little kids. Damian couldn't care less about his new friends yet, but he will in time. Especially around, say, the end of January next year. In the meantime he continues to just show up at the various social gatherings we go to and observe the scenes. He continues to be a very observant little boy, preferring to sit and look around (and probably maintain an internal commentary on the fashions and actions of everyone he sees - making his parents proud.)

Early on in his 5th month, Damian seemed to have gotten past his reflux problem. Hoang still stuck to her rigid(ish) diet and we still took some other precautions, but over time we got less and less strict about them. He also began sampling various foods - rice cereal, sweet potatoes, and squash. He did pretty well with the whole concept of eating, I must say.

Over the course of the month he became more and more mobile, learning to roll around a bit more and slither like a sidewinder on his back. He still hates to be placed on his belly, but he's making progress. The biggest step (for us) was that we figured out how make him smile and laugh almost at will. You'll see in the video below that his laugh is a bit odd (and remains so), but that was his first all-out laughing jag, so we're happy to share it with you.

Hoang has adjusted to being back at work and Mama T seems to love watching him all day long. The boy is certainly loved. Speaking of which, we celebrated Father's Day in June which was certainly a new experience for me. (It's weird to suddenly get a holiday in your honor during your 30's.) Both Bubby and Hoang treated me like a King all weekend and it was great to be a father - something that can never be taken away from me now.

The other big event during June was the World Cup. For those of you Damian fans who didn't at least look at the pictures of my World Cup Tour 2006 - you missed some of his best work yet. Like Dutch Damianokker, Iranian Shiek al-Damian, Chief Damianuu of Ghana, and Damiano, the Italian crybaby soccer player, among others. Sure, most of the "Tour" was me and Ed going to various bars and restaurants matching the ethnicity of the games, but it's still some pretty fun reading and viewing. Check it out here.

Anyway, he's such a good baby. He sleeps rather regularly only waking up once in the night to feed (Hoang is still breastfeeding) and generally being a quiet and healthy beautiful little boy. So far, I'm loving every minute of this. Enjoy the photos - as always in chronological order and 'clickable' to enlarge.

On his way to his grandparents so that we could celebrate our anniversary dinner. You see how happy he is for us?

Yet another Vietnamese manicurist. They're everywhere!

This was the first night we realized that his little wedge wasn't exactly holding him in place anymore. I was flushed with pride...

But not proud enough to keep him out of little baby overalls, apparently.

Apple cheeks

We used to call this little girl his "girlfriend." Then one day he decided to tear up her picture.

Photgraphic evidence from the night he learned to push his aquarium button. I was flushed with pride...

But not proud enough to keep him out of monkey suits, apparently.

I enjoy the air of confidence he had the first time we put him in this contraption...

...Yet the flash from the camera still startled him so.

Buddha belly

Proud Mama

Proud Papa

Matthew Brady photo from Antietam, ca. 1864.

His head looks so big here...

But not as big as his fat leg rolls!

Damian first laughing jag - he gets a bit mixed up with coughs and hiccups, as you'll see.

On to Six Months!

Damian Home
Every Week in Pictures
Besetting Vice Home

One Last Meat-Up for Soccer

2006-07-08T08:31:00.000-04:00

Our last stop on the World Cup Tour 2006 was, for me, the most anticipated. I had previewed the Brazil Grill restaurant the week prior by popping my head in during the group play Japan game. Even though it was a Thursday afternoon and the game meant absolutely nothing to Brazil, the place was packed and somewhat rowdy. In light of that, I figured that the do-or-die semi-final versus France on a Saturday afternoon would mean that we had to get there early.

And so, on a hot and muggy afternoon, Ed and I arrived at the Brazilian restaurant about 30 minutes before kickoff surveyed the scene. The set-up there is rather unique; we were getting lunch which meant grabbing a plate and loading it up with random stuff from the salad bar thing. But it wasn't so much salad; rather, it was various bean and rice mixtures, along with a bunch of veggies and meat parts. You see, the Brazilians like their meat. This was a churrascaria after all - a Brazilian barbeque place. We have a couple here in Hartford and the most uppity one is Braza. The difference between the Brazil Grille and Braza is that at Braza, waiters walk around with infinite swords of various meats, just waiting for you to ask for more. Then they run over and slice you off a hunk of cow or lamb or whatever - until you vomit more or less. At Brazil Grille, it was much more subdued in that you asked the guy at the counter for a hunk of meat out of the rotisserie oven thing and then you paid by the pound. (This way, the Ed's of the world can later boast, "I ate 2.65 pounds of meat today!") Oh, and there are never any Brazilians at Braza.

Brazil Grille, however, was chock full of meat-and-soccer lovin' Brazilians. By gametime, it was a standing room only crowd - and I think Ed and I were pretty much the only ones not speaking Portuguese. Even the totally Caucasian looking people near us were yapping away in the foreign tongue. The game was shown through a projector onto a big white wall as we all sat at long cafeteria style tables. (At Braza, one usually dresses up and dines at stylish tables with fine silverware and linen napkins. Here, it was all styrofoam and plastic - for after all, we were there for the soccer, not the Caipirinhas.)

The crowd was intense. They knew their soccer, and they knew their boys were the "best in the world." Heck, we'd been told that a billion times in the last few weeks of this World Cup, right? The first half progressed as Brazil missed several chances. The Brazilians around us were getting more upset with each passing moment. Here I was eating my chicken hearts and fried bananas thinking, "Calm down guys... It's Brazil. You'll win..."

Le GOAL! Les Bleus! Le GOAL! Oops. France scored. Let me tell you, as a lifelong Philly fan I felt a level of comfort in that room. Utter deflation... Silencio... And sadness. Lots and lots of sad looking people in funny hats and bright yellow shirts. The fat sweaty guy with the annoying noise-maker sat quietly and the meat consumption slowed to a crawl as well.

Ed and I watched a lot of teams lose during our tour, but nothing compared to the outright dismay at the Brazil Grille after the final whistle versus the Frenchies. Ah oui, some cried tears into their rump roasts and poked their pork butts with disgust. To add insult to injury, upon leaving the restaurant and emerging into the white sunlight, Park Road was filled with beeping cars covered in giant Portugal flags - for they had won their game that morning and were still celebrating. Several heated words flew back and forth between the dejected Brazilians and elated Portuguese. I'm sure it was something like, "Ha ha you stinky Brazilians, we conquered you a few hundred years ago and you are colonial pissants and you can't play futbol and you even speak our stupid language! Ha ha!"

"Oh yeah? You can take your salted cod and ugly women back to Europe and we'll keep our samba and our Carnivale and our thongs and our Brazilian waxes, you imperialist pigs!"

Yup, I'm sure - Just. Like. That.

I first attempted to watch the game here. Oops, I misread the sign but ended up with a pair of shoes.

I knew I was close - Brazilian graffiti!

Ah, yes, Meat. And lots of it.

With bellyfulls of meat, the crowd watched their heroes lose.

Brahma - Brazilian brew. Pretty bad, actually.

The Magical Meat Maker

Damian watched the game in his Brazilian identity: Damianinho.

He even wore his special Brazilian soccer diapers...

Oh yeah - definitely Brazilian

And thus ends our World Cup Tour 2006. I never planned on following it through to the end. But I had a great time and I'm already looking forward to 2010. After all, by then Damian will be complicit. And he is my son.

World Cup 2006 Tour Home
BesesttingVice Home

Random Soccer Thoughts

2006-06-28T18:03:00.000-04:00

As the World Cup is now whittled down to 8 teams, 7 of which even I could probably have predicted, I am moved to reflect. I stand by all of my soccer comments I wrote during the "tour." The diving and the whining and the crying is pathetic, and I will never get behind a sport where that is so prevalent. Perhaps get 2 referees or something, I don't know. And I'm sorry, the US had exactly 4 shots on goal in 3 games, over 4 and a half hours of "action." That's less than one shot per hour of soccer for our boys. And that, my friends, is also pathetic.

But I've gained an appreciation for the sport as well; especially the rabid fans around the world. I've come to realize that a naked orphan in Burkina Faso can play soccer with a pinecone. This is why it's so popular around the world; one can truly rise from the slums of Brazil or Ghana or wherever to succeed. And that's pretty cool.

Anyway, here's some random good stuff I've collected these last few weeks. First, I highly encourage you to view this short Swedish film about how soccer is really played. I happened to catch that on Link TV's 6 hours worth of soccer shorts. This was one of the few I didn't fast forward through.

Someone told me once I could write a Dave Eggers book better than Dave Eggers. Don't know about that, but I'd certainly write something incredibly similar to these two paragraphs, which he wrote:

The second and greatest, by far, obstacle to the popularity of the World Cup, and of professional soccer in general, is the element of flopping. Americans may generally be arrogant, but there is one stance I … stand behind, and that is the intense loathing of penalty-fakers. There are few examples of American sports where flopping is part of the game, much less accepted as such. Things are too complicated and dangerous in football to do much faking. Baseball? It's not possible, really—you can't fake getting hit by a baseball, and it's impossible to fake catching one. The only one of the big three sports that has a flop factor is basketball, where players can and do occasionally exaggerate a foul against them, but get this: The biggest flopper in the NBA is not an American at all. He's Argentinian! (Manu Ginobili, a phony to end all phonies, but otherwise a very good player.)

But flopping in soccer is a problem. Flopping is essentially a combination of acting, lying, begging, and cheating, and these four behaviors make for an unappealing mix. The sheer theatricality of flopping is distasteful, as is the slow-motion way the chicanery unfolds. First there will be some incidental contact, and then there will be a long moment—enough to allow you to go and wash the car and return—after the contact and before the flopper decides to flop. When you've returned from washing the car and around the time you're making yourself a mini-bagel grilled cheese, the flopper will be leaping forward, his mouth Munch-wide and oval, bracing himself for contact with the earth beneath him. But this is just the beginning. Go and do the grocery shopping and perhaps open a new money-market account at the bank, and when you return, our flopper will still be on the ground, holding his shin, his head thrown back in mock-agony. It's disgusting, all of it, particularly because, just as all of this fakery takes a good deal of time and melodrama to put over, the next step is so fast that special cameras are needed to capture it. Once the referees have decided either to issue a penalty or not to our Fakey McChumpland, he will jump up, suddenly and spectacularly uninjured—excelsior!—and will kick the ball over to his teammate and move on.

From this article.

A bit late, but I found several things in this article on point and funny. Figures, the writer writes for the Onion.

Remember this picture I posted and captioned,"Here, have some magic phony Italian fairy dust spray?" Well, here's an explanation of soccer's magic fairy dust.

And finally, it appears that cnnsi.com had the same idea as I did. But they had NYC, San Francisco, more free time, and a budget at their disposal. I don't know, you tell me. Whose is better? The Sports Illustrated World Cup Pub Blog.

This about sums it up for me

Is this the best Ecuador has to offer?

1. Native Americans in Holland? 2. Very attractive young lady. 3. Imagine wearing all that crap for 3 hot hours. 4. This dude in drag is blocking the very attractive young lady. Soccer is lame.

If I captioned ESPN

World Cup 2006 Tour Home
BesesttingVice Home

God Save The Beckham

2006-06-27T20:50:00.000-04:00

As with most Americans, I'm a bit of a mutt; A Germano-Scotch-English one. I suppose I'm mostly English, but I look a bit more Scottish I'm told. At any rate, I find a part of me cheering on the Brits at this point in the World Cup. We pasty white guys need to stick together.

Sunday was a lovely British morning with fog and rain blanketing the state. Ed and I were to meet up at The Half Door in Hartford's historic West End (home to one EdHill) to watch England take on Ecuador. For some reason, Americans have an unhealthy obsession with Irish pubs but you'd be hardpressed to find a bar touting itself as an English pub. Why is that? It is a bit odd isn't it? Ed was a little late, as usual, and I soaked in the scene early. Wow, there were a lot of Englishmen and women there, fully decked out in England jerseys and hats. The bar was packed and most of the tables were taken. Blimey!

Ed arrived and we ordered up some bangers and mash (err, veggie omelets, actually. Which upset me, because I'm liking the trend of "Ed eating meat" pictures for some reason. I'm sure he'll make up for it at the churrascaria next weekend.) How can he not? We drank our coffees and watched the game with the increasingly rowdy crowd.

Late in the first half, God's gift to women David Beckham bent a free kick into the corner and put England up 1-0 for good. It was all quite exciting for the crowd, who broke out in various songs ranging from the Sex Pistols to Anglican hymns. (Perhaps because everyone was missing church, as this was at 11AM on a Sunday.)

At the end of the match, a bit of melancholy overcame me as I realized our World Cup Tour 2006 was nearing an end. Only one more planned stop to make, and that was contingent upon Brazil winning a game (Update: They won, so the Tour continues!) It was the best of times, it was the worst of times as I stepped out into the dreary pall of the Dickensian day. A rat scurried near my horseless carriage and a beggar asked me for some change. I didn't give him a farthing, but I offered up the quip, "The more things "change," the more things stay the same."

Go England.

(Pardon the out-of-focus interior shots; I didn't want to scare people away with the flash again. Let's pretend they're "artistic.")

Oh those funny Irishmen.

Ed eating. Again.

This was the English beer of choice: Dorothy Goodbody. Unfortunately, the beer was overpriced ($8.75) and crappy.

A picture of me looking stupid wearing a nerdy shirt. Happy Ed?

I referenced Dickens above, but I saw Mark Twain at the game! He does live right down the street after all...

...Right here. Seriously.

Oh yeah. The game. Becks scored! Wooo!

The crowd goes wild!

The typical English hooligans stood around and discussed attacking the coffee/martini bar across the street. Oi!

Near the Half Door stands this clock. I don't know its story, but it strikes me as very British. So here you have it. A bloody clock.

One more stop to make next weekend with Brazil. But first, some random soccer thoughts.

World Cup 2006 Tour Home
BesesttingVice Home

Ed has a Heart After All

2006-06-22T14:38:00.000-04:00

At this point, I'm only writing this blog entry for the sake of consistency. Because our first attempt at a "Brazilian day" was a bit of a failure. Albeit a fun and delicious failture. We opted to watch the game versus Australia on Sunday at Goal International sports bar in Hartford's south end. The weather was Brazilian-hot, so that added some flavor to the day. Once we bellied up to the bar, it became readily apparent that we were sitting in a Peruvian bar/restaurant, not a Brazilian one. We decided to make the best of it, ordered some lunch, and watched some soccer.

The menu was extensive and the choices were pretty varied. We saw many South American families chowing down on whole crispy fish - which looked muy delicioso, but a bit heavy for a hot summer lunch. I enjoyed a nice Columbiana soda (there was literally nothing Brazilian about this place) and ordered cerviche mixto and pollo salada. Ed went wacky and opted for beef heart skewers and some other chicken dish. No one was scoring or pressuring in the game and the bar crowd was subdued.

"Holy crap that's a lot of seafood," I noted when the waitress finally brought up my HUGE pile of cerviche. Fish, squid, octopus, conch, clams... It was all in there, "cooked" in the acid of the lime juice. What's more, this "appetizer" came with a sweet potato of some sort, some corn, some real corn nuts which were awesome, bread with a hot aioli of some sort, and a giant piece of yuca which did nothing for me. Ed's heart dish (yes, I'm serious) was equally gigantic. Halftime and the score was 0-0. I thought Brazil was supposed to be the best?

I simply couldn't eat my entire "appetizer" and had to toss a lot of it (partially uncooked seafood in a car on a 95 degree day doesn't appeal to me). Our main courses were even bigger and we hardly touched them. Hey, look at that, Brazil scored - a pretty weak goal if you ask me. We had our chicken entrees packaged up and we watched some more soccer. Whoa! Brazil scored again late, the game ended, and we hit the road.

We should have gone to an Outback Steakhouse to support Australia for this game. Though the Bloomin' Onion' (or whatever) would have been nasty compared to the fresh and delicious offerings at Goal, it would have been funnier. Brazil will be moving on to the next round and I promise we'll find a truly Brazilian place to take in the action before the World Cup is done.

My delicious food

That, mi amigos, is cow heart on a stick. And that's Ed eating it.

Our first clue that this wasn't a Brazilian hotspot: Peruvian soccer team photos.
UPDATE: I previewed a Brazilian spot during a later game and it was packed. Here it is from the outside and assuming they win the next round, we'll be there on 7/1.

And here it is from the inside:

Up next, USA vs. Ghana... from Hartford's official World Cup Bar... at 10AM.

World Cup 2006 Tour Home
BesesttingVice Home

USA is a "Ghana"

2006-06-22T14:37:00.000-04:00

What a day I had in store on Thursday, 6/22! I had taken the day off the day the World Cup schedule was released, knowing the Ghana game would be huge. Oh, and also perhaps because I had gum surgery scheduled for 8 AM. Can't forget about the gum surgery.

I awoke and put on my red, white and blue outfit (minus the red) and la-di-dah'd my way into the periodontist's office. I just went to google images to show y'all what the ol' 4273 procedure looks like, but you don't need to see that. I can assure you, though, the pain in my wallet was far worse than any pain in my mouth.

With that nonsense out of the way, I could go cheer on the USA! I went to the official home of US Soccer in Connecticut, Vaughn's in downtown Hartford. An Irish pub owned by an Irishman (Johnny Vaughn) - but whatever works, right? It's not like there's a soccer bar in Hartford. Or Connecticut. Or the entire country for that matter.

I parked for free (broken meter!) right around the corner and secured the last seat at the bar. It was 9:25 AM. There's hope for US Soccer yet! By kickoff time, the place was packed - and I mean PACKED. Sure, it's a small place to begin with but still - this was a soccer game. At 10 AM on a workday. Hey, I was impressed. (Ironically, 10PM on a workday in downtown Hartford would be a harder draw. Ah, New England's Rising Star, how we love you.)

What's more, the majority of the crowd appeared to have the day off like me as most were drinking. I'm not sure I've ever had a beer at that time of day before, but there's a first for everything. And hey, I had just had gum surgery, so don't judge me. The crowd was boisterous and fun - until some guy Ghana scored an easy goal off of a Claudio Reyna screwup. Sigh.

Right around that time Italy scored in their game which meant we still had hope. Even though we had yet to score a goal ourselves in the entire World Cup, we still had hope. This was Ghana after all. I mean, where the heck is Ghana? Sheesh.

And just like that, the boys scored a beaut of a goal and it was tied 1-1! Renewed hope! The crowd chanted and sang and ordered more morning brew (and I don't mean coffee) and my gum stopped hurting and I hugged some random dude. (The same dude wouldn't stop yelling, "Here we go, NOW!" the rest of the game and I hated myself for showing him love.)

Just as the rousing display died down a bit, the referee showed us once again that the world hates the US by calling a phantom penalty in the box. Penalty kick! These silly displays are mere formalities at this level and yup, 2-1 Ghana. Refs suck in every sport the world over.

As you all know, the second half finished scoreless and the US lost; Ghana advanced. My man Excitable Mike showed up at halftime to join in the misery. I was remiss in my previous Italy-US report as I failed to mention his 1st half presence there. Apparently Excitable Mike can't watch full games or something. But what he can do is describe his plans for a trolley/tram system in Hartford. It only took him 2 minutes to chat up some random lady next to us about his plan. Hey, it's a great plan and I fully back him. I just may not be as passionate about it. And Mike, the Whale will return - have faith!

Anyway, I was totally bummed out after the loss. The afternoon slate involved Brazil vs. Japan and the Aussies vs. the Croats. I know I'll catch Brazil later on with Ed so I staked out a few sushi joints that I knew had a TV. No luck, as they weren't open yet or were empty at 3 PM. The Outback Steakhouse didn't open until 4. Lame.

But I had new gum skin! And by the way, where the heck was Ed?!

Ed was out in Milwaukee (Algonquin for, "The good land") on business keeping it real with Bernie Brewer

Oooooookaaaaayy.

This is Pingpong.

USA Scores (at Vaughn's)!

With Purple mountain's majesty!

Pingpong bounces like a pingpong ball to draw the weakest PK of the World Cup

And the Americans are sad. (Hey mom, I'm on TV! And I look like this!)

Yet another phantom soccer foul

Resulting in phantom knee pain. I hate soccer.

The camera man having difficulty finding hot American women

1 out of 2 ain't bad, I suppose, but...

We're certainly no Croatia***

Ah, yes, Croatia

Downtown Hartford's beautiful new Civic Center!

And gorgeous new "Hartford 21" building!

And... and... and this is still a mere 2 blocks away. Yay Hartford.
***
I may be a Sixers fan, but at least I'm not a Knicks fan. Good lord.

Onward to England vs. Ecuador

World Cup 2006 Tour Home
BesesttingVice Home

Italian Whine

2006-06-18T15:50:00.000-04:00

Despite my apparent zeal for the World Cup, I've never really been a soccer fan. Sure, I played up through 9th grade like every suburban kid in America. And yeah, I paid attention maybe a little bit more than others to things like the World Cup, but still. "Football" means football to me.

Then I watched the US-Italy game yesterday. Now... I'm a fan; an angry, jingoistic, red, white and blue fan. (Cue Lee Greenwood music.) Sure, the world hates us and most are totally justified in their hate. But as far as soccer goes, now I hate the world right back. Especially Uruguayan referees and phoney-baloney Italian diving machines. Here's what sucks about soccer: Diving and acting. It's part of the game and I can't stand it. Ed and I noticed while watching other games with "real" soccer fans, eveyone just accepts it. Puh-leeze. The Italians got their goal after a dive resulted in a free kick. The US got 2 wholly unjustified red cards because the Italians are good actors. Actually, they weren't - the ref was just that bad.

This guy really, really sucks
What's more, and another reason to love this plucky US squad; WE DON'T DIVE. Seriously, maybe that's why we'll never amount to much in international play but so be it. Every 5 minutes some Italian guy was rolling around like he just got shot in a drive by, only to recover fully within 2 minutes. Soccer NEEDS to address this crap and institute rules to stem it. Or Americans will never take the sport seriously.

So Ed and I drove down to Hartford's Little Italy section in an effort to watch the game with a bunch of Italians. With Ghana's improbable victory over the Czechs earlier in the day, the US now had a glimmer of hope. Unfortunately, they had never beaten Italy in a World Cup game, never won a World Cup game on European soil, and never won a game after losing the first. We were joined by the lovely Aoife, Ed's friend who was born and raised in Dublin by an Irish father and Sri Lankan mother. And that, my friends, is why our country is the best country in the world. Enough of my blather, let's get to the action.

Damian and I found the Spanish channel's pre-game show very inspirational

Hmmm, where to watch the game? Here? No...

Here? No...

Here? (Shudder) No...

Gatting closer... Here's a famous Italian bakery. I hate Italian cookies by the way.

Ah, yes, Francesco's in Little Italy. This should be beuno.

Mama Mia!

Ciao Bella! Ed and Aoife soak up the scene and watch the action.

Ouchie Outchie my heinie hurtsies!

Here, have some magic phony Italian fairy dust spray! Works like a charm!

There was some action between the Italian diving and whining

The fakery drove me to drink a nice Chianti. When in Rome...

"Oww-a, my back-a hurts-a! Waaaahhh!

Here's a fake back doctor right here in Hartford for your fake back injury. Jerk.

Gobba Gul with these wimps! Waaaahhhh!

Now I know why Italian moms coddle their sons so much.

After all this nonsense, I really needed some wine.

American tough. Brian McBride hopped up and got right back into the game. He made us all proud, especially in the face of the pansies from Italy.

One for the ladies
Damian, taking on the personality of Damiano, got into the act after watching the game:

Good one, but you don't look hurt enough.

Better, better... the blind cheating referee can't see that you're laughing.

Yes! You've got it Damiano! Pefecto! Like a true Italian.
In the end, in case you don't know, the US tied Italy 1-1. We had a goal disallowed on an offsides where the offsides guy didn't touch the ball. We played with only 9 guys the entire 2nd half (instead of 11.) We showed grit and heart and a panache in the face of the idiot referee and little-girl antics of the Italians.

This sets up a HUGE game Thursday with Ghana at 10AM. And we'll be there!

But first, it was Brazil vs. Australia

World Cup 2006 Tour Home
BesesttingVice Home

Iran, Iran So Far Away

2006-06-17T13:40:00.000-04:00

Our Saturday began with America's sworn enemy Iran taking on Portugal at 9AM. Since Ed and I had already cheered on Portugal last weekend, Damian took it upon himself to root for the underdogs yet again. Not that he likes Iran or its leaders or anything. I promise. He was smitten with the attractive Iranian girl he saw before the game:

Hummuna Hummuna Hummus!

I wanted to go here for the game (close enough, right?) but they were closed.

Iran looked good early, and Bubby was excited about their chances. Doesn't he look, ahem, "sheik?"

But alas, the Portuguese proved too strong and won. Poor Damian - maybe next match!
Up next was an important game for the US team's chances. Ghana was playing the Czech Republic and - though everyone knew it would be impossible - if Ghana were to win, we would still have a chance. So Damian quickly forgot about his Iranian losers and went on a Ghanian adventure to support his new favorite team. Into the jungle he went...

Damian saw the monkeys of Ghana...

He was fortunate to see - and not be seen by - an elephant there as well...

Against the Czechs, Warrior Chief Damianuu conjured up all the spirits he knew.

Unbelievably, it worked! Ghana won 2-0! Chief Damianuu was happy and the US was still alive!

If someone can explain this to me, I'd be appreciative.

The next game was US-Italy and now it actually meant something. Enjoy the report here!

World Cup 2006 Tour Home
BesesttingVice Home

Ay Carumba!

2006-06-17T11:21:00.000-04:00

Since it was Friday and since it was a nice hot day here in central Connect- icut, Ed and I figured that we simply had to take in the Mexico vs. Angola game at a true Mexican cantina. Now, Hartford has a massive Hispanic population, but they are mostly Puerto Ricans here. If Puerto Rico ever makes the World Cup finals, Hartford will have to declare a state holiday.

Ed and I met up at Ay Chihuahua Mexican Restaurant and Cantina. Despite the totally cheesy name, this place is authentic - owned, staffed, and patronized by Mexicans. The place is also quite large and very nice inside. Even better, beers were 2 for 1 during the game. Ay chihuahua indeed.

The game progressed and Mexico had a ton of chances to score but had nothing to show for it at halftime. The crowd, of which Ed and I stood out like... well, like two tall northern European dudes who just came from corporate jobs amongst 50 or so short day-laborer Mexican guys. Oh yeah -and we were snapping pictures too, which didn't exactly endear us to our new amigos.

You see, since our country is building a freaking wall along the Mexican border, apparently that's not going over too well in the Mexican-American community. (Chanting "Osama" at our national soccer team is a unique way to express their outrage)I never felt uncomfortable, but I also didn't turn around and snap a group photo of the 25 guys behind us either. We were asked what we were doing (which I expected) so I simply told them we were with the INS and snapping pictures to document illegal aliens. That's when I learned sarcasm doesn't translate so well.

Anyway, at halftime and the score knotted at 0-0, Ed and I realized that we'd yet to see a goal scored for the team we were "rooting" for on one of our excursions. (We missed the early Portugese goal last weekend.) We kept our curse to ourselves and enjoyed a meta-moment when an advertisement for the very restaurant we were in aired on Univision. Ed, a novice to the world of photo-blogging, fumbled and bumbled around with his new camera for the entire 30-second ad and ended up with 6 pictures of the floor. Ay-yi-yi... gringo stupido.

The game ended 0-0 and the crowd was thoroughly unexcited. We were getting more glares and grumbles so we simply paid our bill and hit the road. I really wanted to shout, "Viva la Revolucion!" Or, "Viva la Raza!" Or something like that to show our appreciacion, por favor, but alas, I did not. Muy, mucho scared.

Ok, so this guy and his hair play for Angola. Boy, he's crazy!"

Yup. His name really is "Loco."

There was apparently a Mexican dignitary on hand.

Such a cute little senorita.

Such a cute gordito senor

W's future ambassadorship

Just some Mexican beer I'd never heard of.

There were lots of guys there, but after this picture, I stopped trying.

I went through (one of) Hartford's ghetto(s) to get home and came across a gas station selling gas for about 17 cents cheaper than anywhere else ($3.01). Check out the old school pumps. I didn't get offered heroin and I didn't hear any gunshots. Ole!

The day ended at mi casa with a muy delicioso margarita. Viva la Mexico!

The next day, Damian cheered on Iran and Ghana. Check it out here.

World Cup 2006 Tour Home
BesesttingVice Home

USA! USA! USA! Um... Czech That...

2006-06-15T21:42:00.000-04:00

For some reason, I get very patriotic when it comes to soccer, cycling, and hockey. I guess because we are actually the underdogs for once in those sports and the random successes in my lifetime has been great fun to watch. Beginning with the 1980 US Olympic hockey team, then Greg Lemond, Lance Armstrong, the 1996 World Cup of Hockey team, and the recent rash of great American performances in cycling (post-Lance) - I'm ready for some soccer success. I went to a couple qualifying games and I've been reading all the press about how our team is going to do some damage this time around.

Well, they certainly did some damage alright; to their own ranking and to American soccer in general. Oof! I figured I'd take in most of the game at an all-American sports bar: Rookies in Cromwell, CT. The place has about 100 televisions and bad cover bands nightly and an array of artery-clogging fried pub fare. They have NASCAR Sundays in the summer. Now THAT'S America!

I took a loooong lunch and sped over to Rookies. I took my seat as the game began and was very impressed with the crowd - there must have been about 200 people there, most, it appeared, there to watch the game. Unfortunately Rookies didn't realize that the US was playing the Czech Republic at noon and only staffed one bartender and one waitress. I didn't care, as I wasn't there to eat or drink; I was there to cheer on our boys in blue! USA! USA! USA!

5 minutes in, down 1-0. Then it was 2-0 before halftime. And that's when I contemplated drinking. (The "All-American beer above is for purely illustrative purposes.)

Yeah, we got our butts kicked and looked like boys among big, giant Czech men at times. Sigh. Props to the two-table gathering of Czech dudes at Rookies who cheered (loudly) throughout. See, that's the difference. Believe me, if a Paraguayan did that at an English pub, they'd have died. Or even if a Dallas Cowboys fan did that in Philly. And that, my friends, is why American soccer has a long way to go. Let's hope the team gets it together for Saturday's match versus the Azzurri of Italy.

White guys, mandals, and televisions...

Mandals, televisions, and White guys...

USA! USA! USA! (It's funny to me that the director scoured the 80 thousand or so people to find her.)
On Tuesday, Damian finally got a chance to see an Asian team - a team tangentially representing half of his ethnic roots. Strangely, he chose to root for Togo this time out, sticking to his underdog ways. Perhaps because the South Korean coach's name is Dick Advocaat. One never knows what Damian is thinking half the time, but I'd have to back him up if that was his reasoning.

It's ToGO, Bubby, ToGO.
After that surprisingly exciting match (a 2-1 come-from-behind South Korean victory), D and I got ready for Switzerland vs. France. Of course my boy took the side of the Swiss, insisting on a change of clothes and to be allowed to watch the whole game sitting up on the couch. Unfortunately, the game was terribly boring and ended 0-0. Oh, wait. Make that nil-nil. I'm totally becoming a soccer dork.

You see. He's actually cheering the Swiss along.

And he endorses their products.

And the only thing he loves more than Swiss soccer is their knives (see shirt pocket).
The last matchup of the day pitted the mighty Brazil and the middling Croatia. Boy, talk about an opportunity for Bubby to back an underdog! He was with the Croats throughout the match, going so far as to repeatedly make sounds that sounded, to my ear, very much like he was saying, "Croat... Croat.... Croat... Uhhh... Urp... Croat." Even though they were down 1-0 late in the game, the Croatian fans proved themselves insane by lighting flares, signing, and dancing around with no shirts on. Damian was right - this is a team to watch! (Sidenote: I highly recommend watching the games on the Spanish channel rather than ESPN/ABC. They have their own independent camera crews and focus much more on the players' emotions and crowd reactions. The blather on the english stations doesn't add anything to the game, trust me.)

Damian settles in to watch his Croatians in their tablecloth jerseys take on Brazil.

Oh my. The Croats like fire.

This excites Bubby. He's a very passionate fan, as evidenced by his shirt.

Croatian fans = INSANE. Keep in mind they were LOSING at this point.

No amount of fire would make my Damian happy. His Croats were about to lose!

And when Croats lose, but play well enough to sing and light fires, Croats take off their shirts.

So Damian follows suit. (But they still lost. Poor Damian... so sad.
We took a few days off from the World Cup Tour, but will return on Friday from an authentic Mexican cantina in Hartford (And here's the report!). So yes, we missed the Poland/Germany match this week. Then again, seeing as though Germany won it in injury time, perhaps that was a smart move.

World Cup 2006 Tour Home
BesesttingVice Home

Bend it Like Damian

2006-06-10T23:41:00.000-04:00

Day two of my World Cup Tour didn't leave my couch. My options were limited and besides, it's time Damian learns a few things about sports and fandom. He's got some English blood in him from somewhere, so at 9AM we watched a rather lackluster performance in England's 1-0 victory of Paraguay. Our hero David Beckham scored (sort of) and looked quite dapper doing so. Oh, Becks!

I say, dear chap, Ye Merry ol' England could use a spot of tea
After England's victory it was time for Sweden versus Trinidad and Tobago. Seems kind of unfair that Sweden had to play two countries, but whatever. TnT were 2000-1 underdogs and amazingly came out with a 0-0 tie. I now know how a 0-0 game can be exciting. What's more, after the final whistle seeing the TnT team and crowd celebrating like they just won a billion bucks while the Swedes cried in their meatballs was a bit of a new experience for me and Damian. Soccer is weird like that.

Ya Damian, ya, da Svedes is goot, ya. But dey tie today, ya

Damian grew tired of reading about the Swedes and their cheap furniture
The last game today was Argentina versus Ivory Coast. Argentina is a bunch of pansies who fake injuries all over the field and the ref was totally in their court. It made me totally angry to watch this game. Damian too, as he was all about Ivory Coast as you see below.

Damian had to wear a bib because the phony divers on Argentina were making him throw up.

My boy likes the underdogs. Ivory Coast? Big fan, big fan.

Tomorrow, Ed and I will try to get all Portuguese on you. Click here to check it out along with an Orangey Damian!

World Cup 2006 Tour Home
BesesttingVice Home

Damian's in Dutch Now!

2006-06-10T23:38:00.000-04:00

Day three of the World Cup had another 3 matches on tap, two of which I planned to take in. After yesterday's indoctrination, Bubby (Damian) was ready to roll again today. The Netherlands were matched up against Serbia and Montenegro. Two on one again I see. No fair! For those of you familiar with soccer or speed skating, you know the Dutch are INSANE when it comes to cheering for boring sports. They all dress up in orange and sing songs for hours and drink a lot of beer and blow loud horns and stuff.

The Montenegro-ans and the Serbians? Who knows. And quite frankly, who cares as my son picked his team and went all the way with it from the opening kick-off. How far? Oh, you'll see. Perhaps it was the cute fans dressed up like orange lions that did the trick:

Whatever it was, Bubby was hooked on Orange. (I did explain this doesn't count for Syracuse.) In fact, those of you with TiVos or DVRs, perhaps you noticed when they scanned the crowd...

Didn't catch that? Zooming in further... who's that the arrow is pointing at?

Can't make it out? Using my BesettingVice Photoshop enhancement tool, I was able to pick out one fan in particular...
Positively rabid for the Dutch!
After the morning session, we drove out to Cheshire to celebrate our friends Kevin and Jenny's daughter's birthday. It was a beautiful day and there was great food and fun was had by all. Everyone, that is, except for Damian. He was a fussy-Gus all day long, crying and whining. We couldn't figure out why but determined it must be because he was missing the Mexico-Iran match.

Damian got his way and we hit the road after 2 and a half hours. This left enough time for me and EdHill to pick up our Tour again; this time to a Porteguese bar in Hartford. We sped over to the Cambrense Cafe which isn't exactly in the best part of town. But hey, if we survived Nazis on Friday, how bad could a bunch of Portuguese people be?

As it turned out, not bad at all. The Cambrense (This word means something to people from the old country) Cafe is a nice little sports bar that shows all the Portuguese and Brazilian soccer matches on satellite feeds. They serve food, but hell if I could read that menu. We got there at half time with the "good guys" up 1-0 over Angola. Wait... Angola made the finals? Yup, and what's more, Angola just got its independence from Portugal about 30 years ago. See what you learn with this soccer stuff?

The bar was crowded but actually somewhat subdued. I learned that this was because despite the winning tally, they played like merda and everyone was upset about it. Eh, what the heck. After the game, we mosied up Park Road to O'Porto, a very upscale Portuguese restaurant in which you can blow your entire paycheck if you want. Ed and I ordered up some delicious appetizers (squid, shrimp, and clam dishes for me) and called it a day.

On our way out, we talked to the owner who mentioned that today was tough for him because, get this, he was Portuguese, sure... but he was born in Angola! You see people, all you have to do is talk to random people and you learn the coolest things.

The first act of true insanity I've seen so far in this World Cup Tour...

...PortuPoodle.

PortuFans

PortuBeer

PortuBar

PortuBikes

And after that weak win, EdHill says, "PortuWhew!"

Onward to the USA game and a day with Damian

World Cup 2006 Tour Home
BesesttingVice Home

POLSKA!

2006-06-10T12:18:00.000-04:00

Ed and I arrived on New Britski's Broad Street about half an hour before the 3PM kickoff of Poland and Ecuador. I drove up and down the length of the Polish section and Ed marvelled at just how Polish the area is. English words were very few and far between. Which was excellent for our purposes!

(If you happen to be reading this today, 6/10, you can check out the Travel Channel show about the area later.)

I parked and we sheepishly entered the local sportsbar called Stadion Cafe. Once through the door, we were instantly transported to Warsaw. Props to Ed for accidentally wearing Polish colors which gave us instant credibility. The fact that we were the only two people out of the 130 or so in there that didn't know a lick of Polish was initially a bit disconcerting, but we figured it out. The beer list, menu, and all the signs were in Polish. People said, "Excuse me" in Polish. The bathroom signs were in Polish. Their broadcast of the World Cup was in Polish. Polska, Polska, Polska. Here is my impression of Polish:

"Beesh beesh schwa schwa ehh behhh beesh besh." The bartender girls didn't even know english and we had to ask a friendly patron to help us out when ordering. Of course, we didn't know what we were ordering, as the beer names were all zeshehsh or crzshsh or perhaps we'd like some ehhbshheh. So we just tried them all.

The atmosphere was awesome (though things turned a bit sketchy later on, as you'll see below), the crowd was riled up... THIS was what I was hoping for. So turn on your local public radio station playing polka, and let's go! POLSKA!

The unassuming facade of Stadion Cafe belies what was going on inside...

Does this guy look of sound mind enough to be carrying his son like that? POLSKA!!

The prediction sheet: Polish name, Polish name, Polish name... Ed Hill. POLSKA!

Surprisingly, several Poles stood, applauded, and respected the Ecuadorian anthem.

The first (true) pint. It's pronounced zchzwhhz, which is nice and easy to say after a few of these 6% bad boys. POLSKA!

The adjoining packed room. Note the Polish waiter guy's hair. And note all the empty bottles of Zchzwhhz. POLSKA!

I've learned that soccer fans get cheer and clap "opportunities." Weak.

Ed tries in vain to look more "Polish."

The bar area and bartender who didn't even know 2 words of English.

This would be Oczzchicshm beer.

And this is Peeshzzsht, of course.

"EB" Beer? Nope. This is "EhhBetsh"

I told you... POLKSA!
With Poland down 2-0 shortly after halftime, things began to get a bit more interesting. No, I wasn't expecting violence or anything, but I've now learned that the Poles celebrate victories by drinking more AND mourn losses by... drinking more. At this point, we gained a few new friends including a young kid named Greg - which was probably a lie. Greg is a self-described "Polish Hooligan." Greg later told us that he is, "not a fascist, but..." no matter what we were led to believe by his making sure Ed and I weren't Jewish.

Greg the angry Pole.

Shots of vodka always do the trick! POLSKA!

I'm scared. POLSKA! (As if I had a choice at this point.)

Actually, Greg was a nice guy as were ALL of the people we met.

It's just a shame they lost. So POLSKA-sad.
After the loss, Ed and I exited the bar and decided to grab some quick dinner somewhere on the street. Listen, we had a great time and I would revisit Stadion Cafe in a heartbeat. Just that one little Jewish thing - hey, the kid said something about his grandfather dying in WWII at the hands of the Germans and... Oh what the heck, this was America 2006! That stuff was 60+ years ago now! Let's just forget all about that and -

Say what?! Holy crap.
Yup. The saddest part about this is that it looked rather worn as though it's been in the cement for a good long while there on Broad Street. At this point a few giant Aryan youths stumbled by with bloody lips and swollen eyes. Ah, yes, a good old fashioned Nazi fight! Ed and I ducked into the first place we figured sold food, but judging by the menu, we had absolutely no idea what the hell they had in the kitchen.

Ed wouldn't go for the Pieczarkowa. Wimp.

Mmmmm, shredded root veggies in vinegar. No wonder these people drink.

Wash it all down with some delicious Oranzada!
Ok, funny story about the next picture. I just wanted a shot of the menu that we had to order from. Not really interesting, but when I took the picture, some old guy walked in front of my shot. He was not happy about this and asked me (in Polish, so I'm assuming), "Hey you scrawny little jerk! What are you doing? Do you want me to kill you?" I nervously laughed, showed him that I deleted it, and he went on his merry way. And I thought they all hid out in Argentina.

Not exactly a picture worth getting beat up over, eh?
That's it! Poland lost, but Ed and I won because we are much richer for the experience. Swastikas, fascist drunks, and nazi restauranteurs aside, we had an absolutely great time. Everyone was really nice to us, the Polish beer was good, the Polish food was (pretty good) - we ordered (what else) Cheese and potato pierogies and we survived our first experience with Polish hooligans. In fact, we were invited to the next Poland game versus Germany; we were promised that there would be many more Polish hooligans out in force and that their hatred for Germany was such that one could expect some serious violence that day. Too bad we're busy that day, huh? What excitement would tomorrow bring?

PS. When I went to Publish this post, check out the blogger Word Verification word. Hmmm.

Continue on to Day two, Tour stop 3 - With Damian!

World Cup 2006 Tour Home
BesesttingVice Home

Wurst. Crowd. Ever.

2006-06-10T11:53:00.000-04:00

I was a bit fearful as to how this day would turn out, as I had no idea whether or not the places I planned on going would be as soccer-friendly as I'd hoped. We Americans are always told that the rest of the world loves soccer, right? So wouldn't you think that the ethnic bars and restaurants whose countries were playing would be hopping? First stop: East Side Restaurant in New Britain, CT.

The East Side is a rather large and very well-reviewed German joint. The portions of food are ginormous, the beers bigger. When you get one of these monstrosities above, a guy appears out of nowhere and regales you with the "Ticky tocky ticky tocky oi-oi-oi" chant. Then they put stupid hats on you. Yes, even at 1 in the afternoon. So enough about the venue, what about the soccer?

Yeah, well... consider the German experiment a failure. My potato pancakes were good as was Ed's bratwurst; and the waitress was, um, interesting. But the East Side did away with their bar area! So we were forced to watch the tiny TV screen in a booth in a restaurant filled with the bus of elderly folks from a nearby retirement home. (Not kidding.) No one cared about the game but one waitress and one random guy. And yet, we had fun.

Guten Tag! It looked promising from the outside...

...And had a giant beautiful mural of Munich inside

No crowd, tiny TV, but Ed still had his weiner

This was it. Me, Ed, and some badly dressed old guy watching the game.

Ed celebrates the 4-2 German victory with a waitress

And that was that. The world's biggest sporting event was off and running with a whimper. The next stop had to be better. Afterall, New Britain is known locally as New Britski because of its massive Polish population. We paid our bill and drove 2 miles across town to "Little Poland."

To entirely different scene... On to Tour Stop # 2: POLSKA!

World Cup Tour Home
BesettingVice Home

World Cup "Tour" 2006

2006-06-09T20:52:00.000-04:00

I was able to fulfill a dream in 2004 by going to France to see the Tour de France. Another wish is to see the World Cup in all its insanity at some point in my life. Short of that, I was fascinated by a series of online articles in Salon back in 2002 in which the intrepid reporter attempted to watch World Cup games in ethnic bars matching the players on the field. He was in New York City and got paid to carry out his quest. Unfortunately I am in central Connecticut and only have a few random and weekend days to see what I can cobble together as far as this cool ideas goes.

Here's the deal: Soccer IS boring, no matter how you slice it. But there's something very attractive to me about the international game; the crazed fans. I get patriotic a few times per decade and it is always due to sports - cycling, soccer and hockey spring to mind. I can't explain it, but it's true. Also, Bill Buford's "Among the Thugs" remains as one of my favorite books (falling into that "Unbelievable non-fiction category I like best).

With all that in mind and with the knowledge that my quest is severely limited, let's get going. And anyone with any CT knowledge on where I can hit up some Ivory Coasters or Iranians at their local haunts, let me know. (Or if you want to file a field report, by all means. Stupid pictures required though.)

Friday, June 9
Tour Stop # 1: Germany vs. Costa Rica at a German restaurant in New Britain, CT

Tour Stop # 2:Poland vs. Ecuador at Stadion Cafe in New Britski, CT

Saturday, June 10
Tour Stop # 3:My couch for 3 games

Sunday, June 11
Tour Stop # 4:My couch and the Cambrense Cafe in Hartford

Monday, June 12 and Tuesday June 14
Tour Stop #'s 5 and 6:Rookies in Cromwell and my couch

Friday, June 16
Tour Stop # 7:Ay Chihuahua Mexican Cantina

Saturday, June 17
Tour Stop # 8:My couch and the jungles of Ghana

Saturday, June 17
Tour Stop # 9:Francesco's Italian Restaurant

Sunday, June 18
Tour Stop # 10: Goal International Sports Cafe

Thursday, June 22
Tour Stop # 11: Vaughn's for USA vs. Ghana

Sunday, June 25
Tour Stop # 12: The Half Door for England vs. Ecuador

Everyday
Tour Stop # 13: Random Soccer thoughts

Sunday, July 2
Tour Stop # 14: Brazil Grille for Brazil vs. France

Back to BesettingVice Home

Hello, We're in... uh... Delaware

2006-05-27T12:43:00.000-04:00

I'm writing this on a muggy Saturday early afternoon with Damian sleeping peacefully right next to me. Peacefully, that is, until he wakes up soon with a gurgling in his belly for some more food. The boy likes his food.

Damian had lots of "first's" this month, which I suppose I should get used to. Hoang, too, celebrated a first this month as well - the first Mother's Day in her honor, which was actually a somewhat emotional event for both of us. But that was nowhere near as emotional as May 17th- the first day back to work for Hoang. But first things first - so let's get to it!

(Uh-oh, Mr. Peaceful Sleeper is having one of his "End of the World" dreams again. I often wonder, what is he dreaming about that's so distressing? Our dog eating him? Hoang's milk tasting like anchovies? The day when he's old enough to read this blog and seeing himself in goofy outfits? What?)

Damian (aka Bubby... still) began his fourth month of life in a good way; finally starting to smile more and apparently getting over his painful reflux problem. His eyebrows finally darkened and his eyelashes finally grew in. Afterall, people without eyelashes are decidedly creepy. The last weekend in April Bubby enjoyed his first party - our friend Laura's birthday party way out in Colchester, CT. Laura had lots of her 30-something girlfriends there who were putty in Damian's hands. He just sat in his carrier and soaked it all in; he's really very observant and seemed content to just sit there and look around for three full hours. I could get used to that.

(Mr. Peaceful Sleeper is now sitting in my lap grabbing at my arm, staring wide-eyed at my lunch.)

The next weekend we made our first real trip to Delaware to see my family and friends - the first trip to the First State. Once again, our son traveled like a dream as he slept the entire 4 hours down and back. I could get used to that as well. Delaware was a whirlwind for young Damian as he met my whole family, including his 3 cousins courtesy of my sister. Little Christine and Joseph were somewhat indifferent to Damian, but 6 month old Rachel was fascinated, as you'll see below. Here's Joseph enjoying what it's like - for a fleeting moment - to have a brother instead of two sisters.

We made some trips around town and caught up with the Rudzis and the Nagys, but mostly kept it "in the family." Upon our return to Connecticut, Damian (aka Bubbsy) enjoyed his first book, "Brown Bear, Brown Bear, What do You See?" courtesy of Uncle Ron. Even at such a young age, he seemed to actually follow along and enjoy it.

(Mr. Peaceful Sleeper is now in full-on crying mode for no reason. Hoang... where are you?!)

At this point, I know you're being tempted to just scroll down to the pictures, but perhaps your connection is slow and they haven't fully loaded yet. In that case, you have no excuse but to keep reading. If that's not an issue for you, I'll wrap this up fairly quickly. Some other first's for Damian (aka Chubbsy-Ubbsy) were his first pure laughing moments and his first thumbsucking. Actually, more of a full-fist suck, but whatever works, right?

Around the middle of May, D had a chance to show his appreciation for his Mama on Mother's Day - and his apparent hatred of roses. After all, Hoang has made many (happy) sacrifices for him. So while I only cooked 3 of Hoang's favorite meals in a row for her (moulles et frites, fried eggs over easy with a fresh berry mixture on the side, and my famous crabcakes with fried potatoes and asparagus), Damian hooked her up with a lovely day at the spa - massage, manicure, pedicure, and stylish haircut. How can I compete with that? Oh, I also got Hoang an awesome Highpointers Club coffee mug. And she can't even drink coffee yet while she breastfeeds. I suck.

The spa day was great for Hoang for another reason - it came one day before her return to work. As all you working mothers know all too well, the return to work after X number of weeks in constant contact with your baby (16 in our case) is a bit heart-wrenching. Without getting into too much detail, let's just say my husbandly shoulder was employed quite a bit that night before "The Day."

Once thrown back into the corporate fire, Hoang adjusted very well and I was able to go nuts with my lists and planning skills. Now our mornings were a whirlwind of little steps to get us all ready and out the door by 6:45. We are very fortunate to have Mama T watching Damian during the workday. He gets all the love and care he'd get at home, with a full day of Vietnamese language training to boot. I can't wait until his first word is "ba," and I chalk it up to baby talk when in fact he's addressing me.

Towards the end of the month, we tried out some rice cereal mixture on D. He took to it like he'd been eating from a spoon all along, which I found rather amazing. His 4-month check-up went well, as he is now a 14-lb butterball with "good muscle tone." Heck, by that measure, I'm an Adonis. What is a baby like with poor muscle tone? I can't imagine.

Just this past week, as if to wish us a happy 3rd Anniversary (thanks for remembering), Chubbsy-Ubbsy-Bubbsy slept through the night! Of course, this meant waking up at 5:15 AM but that was a wonderful night... yet to be repeated again, by the way. Damian is doing very well and we're still enjoying every second of his little life. He cracks us up and even when he's being fussy at 3 AM, we appreciate every second.

(Mr. Peaceful Sleeper is sleeping again!) Enjoy the pictures... As always, they are in calendar order and are clickable for larger images.

"Work with me here..."

"...The camera is your friend..."

"...good, now show me sleepy...nice..."

"Nice work! Now show me happy! Love the camera..."

"Nice work! Job well done."

Cousin Rachel meets Damian and gives him a condescending pat on the head.

Rachel and Damian at peace

Rachel and Damian at war

Damian wins and celebrates with the universal heavy metal salute

Great-Grandmom calms Damian as he calls out Christine and Joseph

The happy cousins - and Damian still keeping a wary eye on Rachel

Even Mama can't distract him

Uh-oh, Damian is ready to go at it again!

But good ol' Great-Grandmom intervened and the Delaware trip ended well

Back in CT, Damian enjoyed reading about brown bears...

...white dogs, goldfish, red birds, and purple cats...

"What?! 'Purple cats?!' That impossibility makes me sad!"

Ok, so Damian is impossibly cute in this picture. But there's something that can make it so much better... Hmmm...

Ah, yes... that's it.

For some reason, he always seems to cock his head to smile. Cracks me up.

White is his color

His elbows look like pincushions or dinner rolls

Happy Mother's Day!

Damian's sad that Hoang is leaving him to go to work the first time

Mrs. Domestic: Homemade cookies, frying pan, washed dishes, rubber gloves, papoose...

Damian takes his first hike with his father and his lovely blue eyes

Evolution toe

My babies

"Hello? Operator! Yeah, see, this is the Bubbster see, get Jenkins on the blower, see! And make it snappy, my dame is waitin' see!"

"Had enough? Good. Now leave me alone to watch 'The Colbert Report', will ya?"

Continue on to Month 5 update!

Damian Home
Every Week in Pictures
Besetting Vice Home

Damian's Backyard Friends

2006-05-27T11:39:00.000-04:00

Our little family house is entrenched in Connecticut's vast suburbia. We're only a few miles from the city of Hartford, but we're also only a mile or so from a few large resevoirs/parks, which is nice. We have a little creek in our backyard and it appears my little edge community and gardens are attracting our very own Woodland Critters. I will add more as Damian meets them, but for now, here are his new friends:

This is Toady from last summer.

And here he is now all grows up, found in the very same spot; the herb garden.

Salamandery!

Big fat old Racoony!

Porcupiney from the winter!

Baby Rabbity!

Bumblebee-y! Correction: My father emailed immediately to say that this is actually Carpenter Bee-y, not Bumblebee-y.

Goldbuggy!!

Dead Waspy!
As you can see, we're well on our way to complete our very own Critter Christmas. Just a few more friends to meet - and I know we'll meet Squirrelly, Chipmunky, Robiny, Chickadee-y, and Froggy. Deery and Beary may be a bit more difficult, but check this out - Beary was seen in the neighborhood a few weeks ago:

(From the Hartford Courant)

Part Two!
Besetting Vice Home

Steve's 2006 Book Reviews

2006-05-27T11:01:00.000-04:00

(As a bonus for coming here, the title links to the worst reviews at Amazon; always good for a laugh or two.)

The Know It All, by A.J. Jacobs

This guy actually read the entire Encyclopedia Brittanica and lived to write about it. The memoir is at turns funny and insightful, but tends to be annoying and self-indulgent much of the time as well. But since Jacobs is a bit OCD like me, I enjoyed the book in the end and would recommend it to certain friends, but not all.

Most memorable part: I learned Opossums have 13 nipples.
4 out of 5
"Eats, Shoots & Leaves" by Lynne Truss
I found this book a bit disappointing after reading all the hype it had received. It was a'ight, I suppose, but Ms. Truss is a bit of a mess I'm afraid. I did get answers for a couple punctuaion questions I've always had (like, when I ask a question in a parenthetical, how do I continue the sentence?) which made the book worth it to me. However, some of her "answers" totally frustrated me; how to type possessives of names ending in s? Apparently there is no hard and fast rule other than Jesus is always Jesus'. Sigh. You can read it in a few hours and you'll learn a few things, but her haranguing gets a bit too tiresome, even for a jerk like me.

Most memorable part: The author's extreme Pavlovian hatred for people who mix up "it's" and "its." EdHill, would you like my copy?
2.5 out of 5

The Days are Just Packed, by Bill Watterson

Calvin and Hobbes was the 2nd greatest comic of my lifetime (behind The Farside). I haven't read a comics page since Watterson hung up his pen at the end of 1995. Well, except for Apartment 3G. Anyway, this book is phenomenal and necessary to all funny people's libraries, as are all of the Calvin books. (By the way, Calvin was in the running as a name for Damian.)

I always loved the snowman strips like this one. And I like when random people try to pull this stuff off in real life like this guy.

Most memorable part: Calvin's outward contempt for Mrs. Wormwood.
UPDATE: This site is fantastic and since haloscan deletes comments after a while, I wanted to save it for posterity in the post. Calvin rules.
5 out of 5

Assassination Vacation by Sarah Vowell

A non-fiction book that chronicles the author's travels to various plaques, monuments, and old houses that are directly and tangentially related to the assassinations of Presidents Lincoln, Garfield, and McKinley. Gee, ya think the guy who writes a blog that chronicles my travels to various highpoints, trees, and old houses would like this book? I don't even have to tell you; I loved it. The author, Sarah Vowell, is witty and has the ability to tie things together in a fascinating way that I've always enjoyed. Kind of like James Burke's "Connections" series on PBS (and books). For instance, the Oneida Community in upstate New York began as a kooky Christian sex cult wherein the older men deflowered the young girls as a matter of routine. Garfield's assassin, Charles Guiteau, lived there for five years - during which the Oneida Community came to be known as "The OC." Well, some guy (Robert Towner) left The OC in a huff because he wasn't getting his pick of the young virgins, so he packed up and moved west - to Orange County, CA. There, he organized the city council and built the Santa Ana courthouse - the very courthouse where the lawyer character on FOX's "The OC" tries cases. I told you... Fascinating.

Abraham Lincoln's son witnessed all three murders in the book. He was also responsible for an Artic expedition's resorting to cannibalism due to lack of foresight and funding. I could go on, but I won't. I learned about many things like Frank Lloyd Wright's mentor's hatred for neoclassical design and hence the Lincoln Memorial (which had a segregated dedication ceremony in the early 1900's) and about those people who toil daily in period costumes at little-visited historical sites. Of course, my MuseumQuest idea that EdHill and I have only just begun came to mind just about every turn of the page. That, and my marriage.

My marriage? Yes - you see, Vowell has a habit of dragging along family and friends to places like Garfield's mausoleum, the old jail in the Caribbean where some Lincoln conspirators suffered, and a random statue in the Lower East Side of Manhattan. They all join her, I imagine, because she's funny and recognizes that these people don't necessarily wish to go to such places sympathizes with them. I can relate - and so can Hoang. In one particular exchange, whereupon Vowell dragged her friend Bennett to a random house in Washington DC. Bennett (a la Hoang) plays along and notes the plaque (denoting the site where WH Seward was attacked the night Lincoln was shot) and merely shakes his head in disappointment. Been there, done that. Vowell even goes so far as to take her companions out to nice meals to make up for their suffering. Been there and done that too.

Somehow, it all works - and works well. The books makes some comparisons to our present day political landscape and especially the similarities between McKinley and Bush Jr. "Imperialism by God" and all that. That stuff will certainly fall flat for conservative readers but what the heck, it makes sense to me. Speaking of McKinley, Vowell missed a golden connection when discussing the night of his death in Buffalo. As you surely read in my New York highpoint report, Theodore Roosevelt was hanging out on the mountaintop when the word came that he was to be sworn in as President. Vowell thinks about making the hike herself but wimps out and instead opts for a shorter mountain with good views of the summit. But... McKinley? Highpointing? Um, hello Sarah, ever hear about Mt. McKinley in Alaska (Alaska's, the US's, and North America's highest point) and how there has been controversy over it's name (Alaska and we highpointers refer to it as "Denali") due to McKinley's genocidal Native American policies, among other things. I'll write her a letter.

Most memorable part: There are others in this world like me.
5 out of 5

Book Reviews Home
Top 100 Books of 20th Century Project
Besetting Vice Home