David is working on a whole new Halloween display this year with sideshow freaks and curiosities, so we have to hit every Halloween store around. Sam really likes the costumes and animatronics. Her favorite today was the animated Michael Myers. Charlie was less than thrilled. Here's Sammy below with her Halloween movie mask.
(David reporting)
In 1997, Lisa and I took a trip to Soquel, CA and found a great table and four chairs that we could afford on a photographer's income. We've really enjoyed redressing the chairs over the years, doing quick and dirty reupholstering from time to time.
Today we did our fifth covering and Sam did most of the work. She unscrewed the seats, stapled the new upholstery (with help from daddy), and then screwed the seats back on. Even Charlie helped out, but her hands were too weak to do anymore than a few turns of the screwdriver.
Seventy-five dollars later and we have a garage door opener that works again. One of the neighborhood strays decided a couple nights ago that the opener's electric eye needed to be marked and it shorted the eye out. Argh!
The bright side of this is that with all the strays in the hills around our house, there are no rats to worry about.
(David reporting)
I made a commitment to florescent lightbulbs last year, replacing almost every incandescent one in the house. But today I changed three in the girls' bathroom back after painting the room a couple shades of purple. I always thought that the light the florescent bulbs emitted had a greenish tint, but boy oh boy, I could really see it after painting the bathroom.
All of the white trim was slightly green when lit and it clashed with the purple—enough that I was forced to change the bulbs.
We're pretty proud that Sam and Charlie don't associate McDonald's with burgers and fries. They've probably only been in one a few times in their lives. Ninety-five percent of the time we eat at home and insist on them eating veggies and fruit. However, the girls do have an ice cream habit.
While they've only been inside McDonald's a few times, they do know the drive-through very well. They think it is an ice cream parlor. They're also very keen on Culver's and Freddy's.
We're finally getting a chance to post about our anniversary. This is what happens when you have kids. There isn't time to do anything!
We had our crystal anniversary (15 years) dinner at Perico's and ordered a feast—well, the adults had a feast. Charlie and Sam did their usual grazing on chips and then barely ate their meals. We all had a great time listening to the all-female mariachi band. Sam was really impressed with the trumpeter and told us that she wanted to play a trumpet when she gets older.
Parents either loved it or hated it. It had its problems, but we loved it and now Kiddie Park, the oldest children's amusement park in the U.S., has closed its doors ... we think.
A poorly written San Antonio Express News article tipped us off, but the grade-schoolers masquerading as staff writers weren't very clear about the park's status. Plus, the answering machine at Kiddie Park says it's "temporarily closed." Closed for good or not, it still leaves San Antonio without a carousel, and the Woo-Bloxberg family is very sad.
The above photo is Sammy and her cousins, Hannah and Emma, riding Kiddie Park's boat ride.
Charlie has a cute little freckle on the wrist of her left hand. She's had it since birth but hadn't noticed it until today and now she's trying to rub and scratch it off. She seems a little distressed that it will not disappear.
(David reporting)
Last week I called 811, the national "Call Before You Dig" number, and asked that someone come out and mark all locations of underground utility lines in our front yard. Lisa and I are planning to put in some rock-lined planter beds and I want to make sure I don't cut any lines when I start pick-axing next week. So, when I got home from errands a few days ago, I was excited to see the spray paint markings on the lawn.
Below is an important photographic example of why all homeowners need to know where their utilities are laid. On the left of the photo is an electrical transformer and on the right is our cable box with paint markings between them showing a buried electrical line (red) and natural gas line (yellow).
And what's that in the middle? A shrub I planted last year. Now, I'm sure that the lines are set a few feet into the ground, but if I'd known that they were there, I wouldn't have swung the pick axe so wildly. I might have dug a little more gently into the ground.
We were on our way to meet friends for dinner tonight and noticed that the outside temperature was 107 degrees. That was definitely the high of the day 'cause after we took this photo the temperature settled down to a cool 104. It's 10 p.m. as we write this and it is still 89 degrees with 51% humidity.
(David reporting)
Greil Marcus has long talked about Elvis being a punch line without a joke. The same is true for Michael Jackson. He's been the butt of jokes for a long time and when he died yesterday there seemed to be two camps: those who mourned and those who went right into telling jokes.
I have to admit, I came up with a zinger about an hour after the news broke about his death: The emergency room doctor was taken aback when the priest giving Michael Jackson last rites started crying uncontrollably. A nurse leaned over and told the doctor that the priest was very upset because he'd gone on a bunch of double dates with MJ and was very close.
See what I mean? They come so easily. Here's another: News reports are now saying that the L.A. coroner has announced that MJ died of food poisoning. Apparently, he died after eating 12- year-old wieners. Someone stop me!
Anyway, I started feeling kind of bad after reading a bunch of stories about MJ's life. He was a very sad man with a lot of problems who barely had a childhood—not that that excused his bizarre and possibly criminal behavior. So I reflected on how I treated him when we met in 1986.
He pulled up to the Carvel Ice Cream I worked at and parked in the handicapped spot right outside. It was late and there couldn't have been more than three cars in the lot, so it wasn't really a big deal. But as he walked in—with a young child I might add—and started ordering, I cut him off and asked if he had a handicap placard. When he replied "no," I told him sternly to move the car. He politely went back outside, moved the car and then came back in to order. It was kind of mean of me.
But no meaner than the inevitable punchlines, like me suggesting that he was loosening up the child with sweets before ... you know ... or my regrets for not having asked the child if he was being held against his will when MJ went to move his car.
David's been scouring local classified ads lately for lawn and garden items. He's complied a list of "items" that have piqued his interest:
(David reporting)
A months ago I bought a box of See's Candies at the Las Vegas airport for Lisa. She loves See's! Well, I made the mistake of eating the last chocolate, a scotchmallow, which is one of her favorites. She was annoyed so I had my mom go to her local See's store in California—there aren't any stores in Texas—and buy a box. I wanted her to bring it with her when she visits in a couple weeks. But that plan fell through, so my mom had See's ship a box of dark chocolate nuts and chews to us.
Well the box arrived tonight and when I opened up the packaging, the first thing I noticed was that the cold packs were HOT. Below is what I found inside the box. It's all Warren Buffet's fault, so a customer service rep said See's would send another one to us right away. The heat index here has been in the 100s, so I have little hope for the next box.
During these hard economic times, we're always looking to make some extra cash. This morning Charlie came across the most amazing Honeycomb (below, top left) ... see Jesus? We were going to sell it on eBay, but before we could put it in safe keeping, she ate it! We could have made big bucks like that lady who found the Virgin Mary on her grilled cheese sandwich.
UPDATE: Some people can't see what we're seeing, so David illustrated it for you below. See it now?
David has battled upper respiratory and sinus infections most of the year, with many trips to the doctor and several antibiotic prescriptions, including a couple antibiotic shots in the tush. But recently, the doctor suggested he start taking a daily allergy pill. Almost immediately David got better. Below is a shot of him after a doctor's visit. He was made to wear a mask because the doctor wasn't entirely convinced that all of his hacking wasn't due to the swine flu.
We continue the yearly battle with the red wasps. This beauty was knocked off of our eaves. David ran as it fell and the wasps started swarming.
Here's a sign of the times that we found in the supermarket checkout line. Apparently, not having a minimum $6,000 for a family insurance policy makes you an idiot in these tough financial days.
The girls had Passover seders at school in April. We noticed this unusually shaped piece of horseradish at Sam's seder.
This is an old photo from March 21. The whole family went to a birthday party for one of Charlie's preschool friends and there was a cool Mickey Mouse pinata that we beat the hell out of. It was actually David's first time hitting a pinata. It was great fun, but now, three months later, "Mickey Mouse Clubhouse" is Charlie's favorite TV show. It would probably scar her today, seeing her little boyfriend being torn apart.
Charlie is slowly graduating from her high chair to the table.
She can still create a big mess, so we put her back in the high chair for meals that tend to fall apart easily or for dishes with sauces.
Plus, she still likes to fall asleep at the table, so when we sense she's tired we avoid letting her sit in the big people chairs.
(David reporting)
Here's an attempt at catching up on all the events from the last couple+ months...
Sam and I went to L.A. in late March to help my mom pack up her house. My mom sold her house in Northridge, CA and moved into an apartment in my grandmother's building. Of course, our first stop was Papoo's Hot Dog Show in Burbank for some dogs.
Then for the next 48 hours I helped my mom pack and Sam went off to Lisa's parents to visit. It was the first time Sam was ever away from Lisa and me overnight. I found some interesting things while packing, and some disturbing ones...
My mom and stepfather are pack rats and we went through a bunch of dumpsters, throwing out anything that Goodwill wouldn't take. Luckily, my mom and I were thorough, because we found hundreds of dollars in change and bills hidden in boxes. Like I said, they are pack rats.
(David reporting)
My Facebook account is getting way more action than this blog and that's a shame. We'll see if we can't correct that.
So, today I finished a six-month-long construction project, building a play structure in the backyard. The actual building only took about 40 hours, but all the procrastination delayed the project a bit. The holes to sink the main posts were dug in November of last year, but I couldn't wrap my mind around how I was going to cement in the posts by myself and get the whole thing level and square. And the term "dug" isn't really accurate. I had to chisel out three feet of rock for each hole—by hand.
Anyway, this is what the play structure looked like for quite a while:
I bought the slide from Sam's old teacher, Miss Risa. It was the perfect size to connect the upper and lower yards—just what I envisioned. A couple months ago, I started feeling bad about the kids not having anything to play with, so I started building and everything worked out just fine, plus or minus a couple inches and degrees. Below is a photo of the bridge as I started building it.
And today, I finished staining, added the last canopy, and glider swing. Here's the finished product, which will never look this good again as the kids start abusing it:
That monkey Charlie was bouncing around today and came down hard on the tub edge. She chipped a tooth and after a lot of $$$ and worrying, her dentist assured us the only thing to worry about is school photos for the next five years until her adult teeth grow in.
(David reporting)
It's been a long time since we last posted to this blog. Lisa suggested we backdate some posts—we have a ton to write about.
The kids are out of school, Lisa has been working 20-hour weeks, and I've been transitioning to a new (additional?) career in corporate video production—so things have been a little busy. At the end of the day all we have the energy to do is sleep.
I've bought a new video camera, steadycam rig, studio lighting, audio recording equipment, and all the computer hardware and software to tie it all together. Below is Sam playing around with my new mic.
In October 2007, as we were preparing to move into our new house, David's van had to be towed to the mechanic when a ball joint broke. The wheel just slumped over.
Well, it happened again today when David was pulling out of a parking space, or something similar. Who the hell knows. The mechanic said something that sounded like Greek and we blindly handed over some cash. Twenty-four hours later the van was fixed.
We really have little to complain about. She turned 109K miles this week (11 years old this year) and hasn't cost much to maintain.
(David reporting)
Scott and I tried out an old southside restaurant called Big Lou's Pizza last week. It was pretty awesome and a sad reminder that there are no good pizza places near our house. It takes about 45 minutes to get there, so we won't be going too often. But we took our families back today for lunch. Three small pizzas, one lasagna, two salads and a tray full of desserts later—we all felt like going to sleep under the table.
Big Lou's claim to fame is its 42-inch pizza. Below is a photo of one of the gigantic pizzas at the table next to us. And below that is a video featuring Big Lou himself. The next visiting family gets to go with us to experience one of these treasures.
Well, it wasn't really a big bash ... just a few friends and the Reeps. But Charlie had a great time during the birthday dinner at Big'z Burger Joint. The cake we had was way too big so she got to eat a huge slice of cake. We can't believe Charlie's already two years old!
Sammy has admitted her love for a little boy in her class: Vance. And this Vance fellow has done the same. Apparently, he had his eyes on another little girl in Sam's class, but recently turned his attention to Sam.
Vance is the same little boy who came over for our first girl/boy play date last week during passover/spring break.
Welcome to the Bloxberg.com, home of the Woo-Bloxberg family. Lisa, Dave and Sammy decided in late 2006 to pack their bags and head for Texas. Shortly after our move, little Charlie came along to become the first native Texan in our family.
