Glen Hansard's indie rock project from Dublin. This instrumental is just haunting.. really love it.
Enjoy.
more and more, as i drive around the bay area visiting friends and trying to keep the kid busy, i see signs of the recession. dozens of for sale signs in the belmont hills - where i thought no one had money troubles! empty storefronts in the stonestown mall (both pottery barn and gap kids are gone due to rent increases). today, in burlingame, the babystyle store was gone. the web site said they went bankrupt. "fancy" restaurants sit empty all over the place while places like fresh choice and corner taquerias are packed.
ryall on his birthday at the playground
does anyone else think that newly-sworn-in Attorney General Eric Holder looks a wee bit like Oprah's Stedman? Maybe it is the mustache....
we've had amazong weather this week in SF. high 60s and low 70s with lots of sunshine and blue skies. definitely much nicer than it normally is this time of year. ryall and i have headed outdoors every day - to the park, beach, or playground. the house now has little piles of sand in it (it collects in his pant cuffs. you'd think i'd learn by now to empty them before we come inside) from our adventures and the smell of sunblock lingers on ryall's skin.
it always cracks me up to see how SF people dress in this kind of weather. some people go totally overboard with the summer gear while others don't seem to believe that it is really nice out. today at the playground there was a woman in a tiny tank top and skirt right next to a woman in a wool coat, pants and hat! someone had to be cold or hot i'd think. ryall and i were just fine in long sleeve t-shirts and pants.
yesterday in the park i saw a young man wearing a long wool coat and a wool scarf! it was at least 72 degrees out. did he not notice?
nice days make for nice sunsets. the sky gets all pink and purply and i love that i can watch the sunset from our living room couch. this is the time of day where ryall and i are starting to tire of each other a bit and we both wonder when tung/dad will be home. so it's nice to at least get to sit quietly and watch the sunset over the ocean while ryall stares at "jack's big music show" on the tube and throws his toys.
a sleep update. all in all, ryall is doing really well with sleep now. he goes down at night with no fuss at all and takes two good naps most days. he has even learned to say "night night" (he says "nigh nigh") when we are starting the bedtime routine. he still wakes up a few times overnight and we hope that fades in time. overall, we are so happy with the progress and changes in just one month!
a chart:
this morning the kid had a little red bump on his nose. with a tiny spec of blood in the middle of it. so i saw it as an open flesh wound! danger! and i literally asked my husband if he thought it was a flesh eating bacteria. he said the kid probably bonked himself in the face with a toy. it was pretty much gone an hour later. i'm insane before i've had my morning coffee.
we'll be in missoula, montana at the in-law's house for christmas. i'm always amazed at one thing in particular when we visit them over the holidays: the holiday tchotchkes! there are hundreds of them and they are all perfectly placed in tidy rows and groups around the house. tung's dad does this. he does it with everything and i find it oddly satisfying that he cares so much about grouping and placing things properly. part of the amazement with these holiday decorations is that there is never a speck of dust anywhere near or under them.
tuyen also organizes the gifts under the tree so that they are just so.
ryall will likely show up and sweep his arm right thru any of the decorations he can reach. then i'll watch tung's dad put them back in their places.
a few pics from xmas 2006 in montana:
