Some NYT links to check out

Dip Once or Dip Twice? Here is an article about double-dipping your chips. Personally, Nikki and I are single dippers, and we plan on raising Zoe as a single dipper too. ;)

An article on meat production and its impact on the world's population and climate.

Photos of a really interesting home in Arizona

Sag Paneer Success!

Tonight was my second try at making Sag Paneer at home and it was a good! For those of you who aren't familiar with Indian dishes, Sag Paneer is a spinach puree with cheese cubes. I used more spices this time (cumin seeds, fenugreek and cayenne pepper) in addition to the other seasonings. Next time I'm going to add an onion and maybe a tomato. Yummy.

I'm also going to fix a cabbage curry this week. My hope is that I can learn to cook Indian dishes as well as the food we get out at restaurants.

Zoe enjoyed dinner also. I asked her if her tummy was full of spinach, and she lifted her shirt and put spinach directly on her stomach. This was the best picture I could get. If you look closely you can see what's left of it by her belly button. It was sweet.

Okapi Video

One of our favorite animals

Mammaws and a movie

Zoe had a good time playing at Mammaw's today while Nikki and I went to see Persepolis at the Angelika in Plano with our friend Sheedeh.

Voytek the WWII Bear Vet

Here is an interesting story about a bear who was a member of the Polish Army during WWII. Seriously, they gave him a name, rank and number and he took part in the Italian campaign.

Mockingbird

We have a mockingbird thats been visiting our patio. We put out some bread for her. I think we will call her Ariel.

Zoë's Night on the Town

Both Zoë and Daddy had late naps so we stayed up late tonight! We went to the Dallas Museum of Art (Thursday nights the DMA is open late and its free). Afterwards we had dinner at Veggie Garden. You can see the beautiful cashmere sweater Nikki knitted for Zoë in the photos. She grew faster than Nikki could knit it, so this may be the last photo of Zoë in this sweater.

Plaid Faction

OK...this is interesting and very long!
For those of you who don't know I use to play drums. From high school until about 2000 I was in about 8 or so different bands. I was planning on posting a blog about my drumming days later on, and I still am going to, but I came across something interesting tonight on the internet which I have to share.

I was surfing on YouTube, watching concerts and I did a search on some of the bands I used to be in, and I found some videos! "Wow", I thought, "This is interesting". Then I did a google search and found that this year (in 2008) one of the band members created a website for the band. The band's name was Plaid Faction. I was in the band for about a year, and they kicked me out...I have my version of why and I just found out tonight their version. But first let me tell you about the band and about being in bands.

As a musician you don't always play the type of music you want to. Sometimes you can't find the right people so you settle on "good for now until something better comes along", which is what the band Plaid Faction was to me. The band I was in before Plaid Faction was great. They were called The Grind. They were a mix of funk, true punk, and alternative rock. Imagine Bob Dylan, the Sex Pistols and old Red Hot Chili Peppers and their you have The Grind. But the Grind inevitably broke up and I was left bandless. So I answered an ad for drummer and auditioned for Plaid Faction. They were a bit cheesy, but I figured I could play with them until something better came along.

I auditioned and they asked me to join. I tried interjecting my own style and stage presence. I stood up most of the time with no seat while I was playing (you can see that in one of the videos Ive embedded below). Plaid Faction wasn't into that, they were a bit more tame, I think they were trying to be pop stars.
So anyway, I came across their website tonight. I was one of several drummers Plaid Faction had in the many years they were together (I was only in the band for a year). But regardless of that short amount of time I get my own personal section under their stories! Here is an exact copy (as of January 23) from their website of what they had to say about me:

Skip came along and saved our butts a bit. So there we were with an upcoming gig and no drummer. I can't remember if we rescheduled the gig or not or just found Skip on really short notice and played the original slot. Either way, Skip came in and learned all the tunes really quickly and we got back on track. Skip was pretty much the polar opposite of Brandon though. He really didn't have any funk in him to speak of and to be honest, at that time didn't really have a good sense of time. Which is a fairly important skill to have in a drummer. But to be fair, we didn't have a great sense of time as players at that point either. The difference was, we knew it, Skip didn't :)
On the flipside, Skip was a heck of a nice guy and had a great stage presence as you can see in the videos. He had a really hard driving, kinda "Hulk Smash!" sort of playing style that everyone dug. He also wore a (then) cool headband, had tassels on his sticks, knew how to spin his sticks like Tommy Lee and would just periodically stand up while playing and just start beating the crap out of his drums. Of course at that point, he usually quit playing the bass drum and we all fell apart rhythmically, but the crowd ate it up.

But as time went on and we all continued to grow as musicians, it quickly came apparent that Skip was not and we all felt that he was starting to hold us back a little. So the search was on...

then they talk about trying out other drummers...

When my guy came in, he also brought a note with him. He said Skip had shown up and caught us trying out drummers. My guy actually asked Skip if he was auditioning for the band as well, hehe. Ouch. Ok, so we weren't the smoothest operators at that point. If I remember correctly, we were trying out drummers on the night one of Skip's favorite bands was playing at Trees. We knew (thought) that Skip would be there and wouldn't come to the rehearsal studio. Obviously, we were wrong. Skip apparently went to the front desk and got a piece of paper and wrote a note. It said something like:

"I guess you guys are looking for a new drummers. That's fine. Good luck, I'll pick up my stuff later."

And I think that was the last we ever heard from Skip.

Here is the thing. I was mad when I first read this about me on their site, but the more I think about it the better I feel. This isn't about me now, its about me a long time ago. It seems to me that was their glory days, not mine. I hardly think about Plaid Faction. I'm happier now in my life than I was back then, and for those of you who know me I'm a completely different person now than I was then (you may not even recognize me in the video). I'm into my family, my friends, my art, my current life.

They are obviously spending a lot of time and energy putting up the website and videos. The only time out of my life that I have ever spent writing about them is this blog posting, and after I post this blog I will not really give them or the band I was in 17 years ago much thought at all (maybe in a James Joycean kind of passing cloud way). I would like to thank the band members for taking so much time to write about me on their website, posting 5 videos on YouTube with me playing drums with them 17 years ago in Dallas (it was actually fun to watch), and posting photos of me in the band on their site (even though those photos are unbearably embarrassing, you have my full permission to laugh at the silly photos - I'm the one with the beard and long curly hair).

So here are a couple of the videos they posted on YouTube. Please judge for yourself from the video of how bad of a drummer I really was ;)

Skip's Birthday

We had a good time this past weekend. Skip says thanks for the presents, cards, emails and text messages... and we saved everyone a piece of online cake! >>>>>>>

Zoe and Nikki picked out a blue hummingbird feeder to start off the soon to be bird feeding metropolis that will one day exist in whatever backyard we will have. We are going to hang it up here at the apartments and see if we can get any hummingbirds to visit.

Goth Love

Here is an interesting story about a Goth couple and their dog leash and collar. I wonder if he also carries a plastic bag for the poop?

cutie camouflage

Kalachandji's

We just got back from a great veggie restaurant in Dallas called Kalachandji's. It is a Krishna temple with restaurant attached. They have a beautiful outdoor atrium with tables and a tree growing in it (it was a bit too cold today to sit outside though). The temple itself is very nice also, lots of statues, paintings, and the ceiling is painted as a blue sky with clouds. There is a statue of the swami who opened the restaurant that looks very lifelike (at least I think its a statue, maybe its the actual swami...not sure).

How to Speak Zoënese

Here is an English to Zoënese translator

• Daddy - pronounced "dada"
• Mommy - "ma"
• Duck - "duc"
• Moon - "MA"
• That - "dat", usually pronounced "DAT!"
  
• Stick - "s-tic"
• Ball - "ga"
• Flower - sniffing noise
• Yes - "yea"
• Cat - "g-at"
• Dog - panting sound
• Clouds - "cla"
• Banana - "nan-na"
• Milk - "mea" along with the milk sign
• Ut-o (like when you make a mistake) - "ut-O" with an ascending "O"
  
• Circle - "cul" pronounced like cul-de-sac
  

We are still researching the English meaning for the following words: daba-dub, eeeeeeeeh, diddle-diddle, grub-ub, and numa.

Please post a comment if you know any of them. Thanks.

Interesting Animals

Here are some photos of interesting animals:

Aye-aye -Nocturnal primate from Madagascar. The Aye-aye is an endangered species due to their habitat being destroyed and native superstition. The Aye-aye is viewed by villagers as the bringer of death and killed on sight. The villagers believe that if one should point its long middle finger at you that means you'll die.

Star-nosed Mole -A small North American mole found in eastern Canada and the north-eastern United States

Narwhal -Arctic mammal with long tusk related to whales, dolphins and porpoises

Okapi -mammal of the Ituri Rainforest in central Africa, closely related to the giraffe. Discover by Western society in 1901.


Angora rabbit - one of the oldest types of domesticated rabbit, originating in Turkey. They have a special name in German, "menschenheilkaninchen", which loosely translates as "mystical, magical, human healing rabbit". They are bred largely for their long angora wool, which is removed by shearing, plucking, or combing. No rabbits were harmed in the making of your sweater :)


Leafy sea dragon - marine fish related to the seahorse found around southern and western Australia


Slender Loris -small mammal (about 5 inches) found in India and Sri Lanka

fortune cookie

Interesting article about why there are no fortune cookies in China, mostly because they originated in Japan.

Video at the Park

The Tale of the Floppy Eared Bunny

This evening we were at the nature preserve taking a walk and notice a black and white bunny in the brush, and didn't think much of it. Then it slowly surfaced that there aren't many black and white floppy ear bunnies in the wild around here. Skip walked over and tried to get the rabbit to come out of the brush, but he wouldn't come. Another lady showed up and tried also. It was now apparent that some apathetic cold-hearted person dropped off a pet rabbit in the woods. Skip and the lady went into the brush and tried several times to catch him. They got within a foot, and could pet the rabbit, but as soon as they tried to pick him up the rabbit bolted. They finally caught the rabbit by throwing the lady's fleece jacket over him then picking up the jacket (while this was going on a wild white tail rabbit ran by). Zoe was having fun watching this as well.

It turns out the lady works for the nations largest no-kill shelter, Best Friends Animal Sanctuary, and she knows a vet who specialized in rehabilitating rabbits (Wow, talk about running into the right person!). She had 2 dogs in her car, so we took the rabbit to her house. Nikki sat in the back seat holding the rabbit (he peed and pooped on her). We got to the lady's house and she had a cage and some food.

We didn't have a camera with us but he looked like the photo we've included.

Dub-ba Dub-ba video

Non-sequitur minutia mumbo jumbo

Here is some random stuff over the past couple of weeks

• Jen and Greg were in town to share good news (waiting until they put it on their blog before we say what it is)
• Angie and Jeff are moving to Frisco next month
  
• Skip found out he likes olives
• Nikki and Zoe are meeting up with an AP parent group in Richardson. Zoe enjoys the playing with other KOCPs (Kids of Crunchy Parents)
• Skip finds out the voice for Elmo is not a small woman but a large man (weird)
• We met Anthony (an old high school friend of Skip's) and his family in Valley Ranch for lunch. We hadn't seen them in 6 years.
• Read a really long article on NY Times about The Moral Instinct
• Read another short article on BBC News about a pair of twins that married each other, not knowing they where related until afterwards!
• Went bowling with Donovan
  
• Zoe stuck some green stickers on Miro
• Nikki is really into the Brothers Karamazov right now

Some park photos

Some photos from our weekend walk this morning

Cutie 4 eyes

Zoe playing with Mommy's glasses

Memoirs of an Air Force Brat

This weekend my mom gave me a photo of me and my brother Donovan that was taken at Hanauma Bay in Hawaii when I was in 6th grade. We were living there at the time. It made me start thinking of the places I lived growing up and what a time line would look like. So I typed one out and thought it would be interesting to share. I included brief description of exactly where these place are.

• Born in Panama City, Florida on January 21, 1971. (Panama City is in the panhandle of FL)
  
• The time between Florida and Ocean Springs my parents were in Virginia for a year, but I don't really remember it at all.
  
• Kindergarten until 5th grade in Ocean Springs, Mississippi (about 10 miles from Biloxi on the Gulf of Mexico)
• 6th grade was in Hickam AFB, Oahu, Hawaii (less than a mile from Pearl Harbor, about 10 miles from Honolulu)
• 7-9th grade was in Riverside, California (about 50 miles east of Los Angeles)
• 10th grade until 2003 the suburbs of Dallas, TX

So that's where I spent my school days growing up. My dad was in the Air Force for over 20 years, and they made him move around about every 3-5 years or so.

Each place left interesting memories with me. In Biloxi I remember the fierce thunder storms that would roll in from the Gulf, driving over to New Orleans and smelling the sweetness and stink of that amazing city, or driving over to Pensacola to watch the sunrise on the beach with the seagulls and sandpipers. In Hawaii I loved boogie boarding at the beach when a light rain shower with no clouds in the sky would float by. In Riverside I liked going up to Big Bear Mountain to collect fresh spring water in jugs that streamed out of a pipe someone had drilled into the rocks.

When I was young it was a bit hard to be the "new kid in school", but now that I'm older I appreciate the fact that I got a chance to live in all these different places.

Walking in the Woods

Some photos from this morning. Walking in the woods in Plano.