A BLOGGED ARTERY

Sun, 28 Jun 2009 21:06:05 -0700

A list just to get the blood flowing again...
Ten Things that happened in June:
1. Connie’s summer break started
2. We paid off a car
3. The park a few blocks from the house finally opened
4. Aforementioned park was visited roughly 10 times in three days
5. Renelle and Daniel Rice got married. It was righteous!
6. The weather didn’t suck
7. Taylor tried cutting his own hair
8. Took a trip with the Jefferson’s to the Cat Haven
9. Margot & Ryken’s first trip to the zoo
10. Margot and Ryken’s first viewing of Sesame Street

Ten Things that DIDN’T happen in June:
1. Taylor’s summer break didn’t start...nor will it...ever
2. The driver of our paid off car didn’t stay far enough away from our car that is not yet paid off. Let me say that a different way: Taylor rear-ended Connie and twins at a stoplight. Most of the damage was emotional.
3. The park a few blocks from the house didn’t get designed by someone who understands that it is sweltering hot is Visalia year round...not enough shaded areas.
4. We didn’t make a trip to the park without Margot doing this...

1. It didn’t fall below 100 degrees at the Rice’s wedding until well after the sun went down.
2. We didn’t quite make it through June staying under 100 degrees. We were in the clear right up until this last week.

1. Taylor didn’t get offended when his co-workers told him he needed to cut the rat tail.
2. It was abundantly clear the guide at the Cat Haven didn’t have kids. But she did like to hear herself talk...the tour of 5 cats took 1 and a half hours.

1. Margot didn’t get to touch the brush at the zoo. Cause Ryken...

1. It didn’t take more than one time for the girls to start asking quite desperately for “Elmo” after watching Sesame Street once. Has not let up. We’re scared.

Top Ten Twin Words:
1-3: Bubbles
1. Up
2. Poo-poo
3. Mama
4. Papa
5. Ball
6. Elmo
7. Elmo

Top Ten ways to see more pictures from May and June:
1-10. Visit the GALLERY.

Love.

MAYDAY! MAYDAY!

Sun, 31 May 2009 15:00:03 -0700

May is peculiar month.
The year is almost half over, summer break is almost beginning, and the weather is making its dramatic change from pleasant to fully intolerable.
<break>
Ok. Today is May 31st. Took me 15 days to come up with the first sentence of this post and another 15 to think about what would be next. ORRRRR (here is the real truth), this month has been incredibly busy. We’re still struggling to know how to do life with my work schedule cause most days feel like this.
2am-12pm = work (taylor + target)
1pm-2pm = nap time (taylor + margot + ryken)
3pm-5pm = play time till connie gets home (taylor + twins)
5pm-7pm = dinner, pick up house, meaningful conversation, walk with twins, bath time, stories, bedtime, pick up house again, shotgun planning for next day (taylorandcons + twins)
8pm-1am = nap time pt II (taylor + not connie)
Getting off work at 12 noon was awesome initially. Felt like I had the whole day to do stuff. Took me a week to realize 4-5 hours of sleep a night was not enough hours of sleep a night. 93 days later still realizing 4-5 hours of sleep a night is not enough hours of sleep. Suffice it to say this has been a season of major change for us....thank you Mr Obama for ushering it in. Consequently the computer has been lying dormant most evenings, hence the gap between starting and finishing this post.
In other news....
• Mom and Dad Armerding made an impressive 3 day visit with Allison over Memorial Day weekend. 72 hours of catching up, 30 hours of driving. Not sure how or why but the twins decided to unleash their verbal repertoires in an unprecedented way while the folks were here which was pretty cool (video footage coming soon).
• Connie and I commandeered a Flip Mino from Costco and have already put gobs of gigs of girls on the ol’ puter. Again....videos coming soon.
• Friday night softball team has struggled this season winning only 2 games. Last week I did manage to hit a grand slam....bringing the score to 23 (them) to12 (us). This week I did manage to roll my ankle while standing on third base. Next week I will manage to eat the remainder of the two pounds of Super Bubble I bought at the beginning of the season.
• Our taylorandconnie.com domain name is expiring and we’re deliberating about whether or not we should keep it. Facebook + the recession = no one visits this blog. Maybe you should cast your vote...
• And as always new photos up at the GALLERY.

p.s. next post might not be till 2010.

UNSATISFIED & IRRESPONSIBLE

Thu, 16 Apr 2009 14:48:12 -0700

So these two words mostly describe my relationship with our website.
Nonetheless, I spent a few hours giving it the old Extreme Makeover with some help from Ty Pennington.
It’s not quite there. But I’ll settle for a soft opening.
Albums at the gallery have been updated and I’m slowly adding more content...
And here’s a brief update:
- Eric and Lori just had a baby girl! Adelaide Noel (like the Sufjan song). She was a lot of pounds.
- My grandmother Jean Carlson passed away so I traveled to Michigan via Chicago. A wonderful weekend despite the reason for going. Got to see Mom, Dad, Allie and lots of relatives. Also had a smashing evening with James Exley in Chicago. We went to a great restaurant called The Publican. Check it how at www.thepublicanrestaurant.com
- Ryken and Margot are sprouting new teeth like no other.
- We need new tires on the Camry.

[ Oh, and for those of you that have this site linked from your blog, or other site just enter www.taylorandconnie.com as the website. If you cut and paste the URL that eventually comes up you might have some trouble. ]

SKIPPING STUFF

Sun, 18 Jan 2009 19:36:55 -0800

An epic blog.
It has to be.
It’s been two months folks.

I have deliberated about scrapping this thing...the blog...the site...and starting over. But if my online life is anything like my real life this hit-or-miss updating will just repeat itself regardless of how I repackage it. “Hey”, your saying, “its 2009, apathy was so last year”. Ok. You’re right. I won’t apathize my way out of this cyber corner or its cyber demands yet. But there are a lot of super-fresh sites out there and this one is starting to feel like the Big Dog shirt my parents bought me in 6th grade right as Big Dog was making an exit and No Fear was making an entrance.

Dang. I want to make a list right now. Its very tempting. Some bullet points would save me time rather than paragraphs of life updates. Maybe I’ll go-green and try a hybrid.

Since the beginning November I guess...

JOBS
- Taylor is still with Target (The Get), still wearing red and khaki every day, still carry a clipboard for significance. He (I)(we) recently was asked to interview to be a Target store manager. He-I-we studied ferociously, spoke to the mirror, contemplated teeth whiteners, bought new pants, and after the whole ordeal was told there no Target stores available for him to be a Target store manager at.
- Connie is still working part-time in Hanford and is the object of much infatuation by her co-workers. You see, Connie is great at her job, she is young, she has blonde hair and she is a good public speaker. At the winter staff party I realized many of these co-workers wish they were Connie. Connie and Taylor wished these co-workers weren’t so intoxicated at said party.

TWINS
- The girls turned one on Dec 19th. Pictures available for viewing at the Gallery. They are getting happier and funnier and louder and then at some times madder and screamier and smellier. The two recently experimented with a strain of the flu which left them more lifeless than we had ever seen them. I think Connie got barfed on 6 times. Not like, oops, baby barf landed on my hand...like, oops a river a baby barf is not landing anywhere other than on me. Then one night in the middle of sick babies Connie and I were running to opposite bathrooms to experiment with giving the flu back from whence it came. We have called these days Sickfest 2009. [If you are a Facebook acquaintance of mine you can find some nice candid shots of Sickfest ’09.]

MUSIC
- I don’t hunt. I don’t fish. I don’t bike ride. But I do have an insatiable desire for new music and acquired some great albums in 2008. If I did hunt, these would be hanging in my gun room.
[in reverse chronological order]
- Ratatat: LP3
- Deastro: Keeper’s
- Dear & the Headlights: Drunk Like Bible Times
- The Submarines: Honeysuckle Weeks
- Rosie Thomas: A Very Rosie Christmas
- Ananthallo: Canopy Glow
- Delta Spirit: Ode to Sunshine
- Paper Rival: Dialog
- Whitely: The Submarine
- Copeland: You are My Sunshine
- The Uglysuit: Uglysuit
- Sigur Ros:...the newest one
- Ra Ra Riot: The Rhumb Line
- Santogold: Santogold
- John Mark McMillan: The Medicine
- The Stills: Oceans Will Rise
- MIA: Kala
- Blind Pilot: 3 Rounds and a Sound
- Band of Horses: Cease to Begin
- Dr Dog: Fate
- Paper Route: Are we All Forgotten EP
- Via Audio: Say Something
- Cool Kids: The Bake Sale
- Vampire Weekend: Sefltitled
- Coldplay: Viva La Vida
- Death Cab for Cutie: Narrow Stairs
- Ghosty: Answers
- Mates of State: Re-Arrange Us
- Aushua: No Harm Done EP
- Dosh: Wolves & Wishes
- Nik Freitas: Sun Down
- Tokyo Police Club: Elephant Shell
- Efterklang: Parades
- David Karsten Daniels: Fear of Flying
- AA Bondy: American Hearts
- Jon Foreman: 4 Seasons
- PlayRadioPlay - Texas
- MGMT: Time to Pretend
- Bon Iver: For Emma, Forever Ago
- Kenna: Make Sure They See My Face
- The New Frontiers: Mending
- British Sea Power: Do you Like Rock Music?
- Moving Mountains: Pnuema
- Headlights: Some Racing, Some Stopping
- Anthony Skinner: Crush EP
- Nada Surf: Lucky
- Jason Collett: Here’s to Begin Here
- The Go! Team: Proof of Youth
- Lonely Dear: Lonely, Noir
- Radiohead: In Rainbows
- Jose Gonzalez: In Our Nature

Wow. That was a bit excessive. 51 albums. And if I had to pick my top 5 it would be...
[by virtue of how many times I listened to them]
1. John Mark: The Medicine
2. The New Frontiers: Mending
3. Paper Rival: Dialog
4. Bon Iver: For Emma
5. Via Audio: Say Something
6. Mates of State: Re-Arrange Us
7. Dr Dog: Fate

Well top 7.

ALL OTHER STUFF
- Connie got a sewing machine for Christmas and has been experimenting like major. First project was stockings for the twinzers. They are way bomb. Boom!
- The drums finally landed back home and the girls are learning to shake their bompers when dad rocks out.
- The garage door is broken
- Miles is still sleeping 20 hours a day.
- And consensus x4 that we need a family vacation soon and very soon.
- Our friends the Aicklens, had another baby daughter, Remy. Three years ago Tiffany & Travis had a baby girl which started an explosion of XX fertilizations within our community of friends. 8 of the next 9 births were or will be little ladies. The twins will have lots of friends.

Until next month....gubbye

And like always....new pics at the GALLERY.

[this month’s song is Jump in the Pool by the Friendly Fires]

OCTOBERWEEN

Sun, 2 Nov 2008 21:07:38 -0800

I have finally convinced myself that making one post a month to this site will be sufficient. Good-bye apologies for the infrequent updates.
Good-bye references to stagnant blogs.
Good-bye regret.
Good-bye pressure of the world bearing down on my shoulders, on the left side of my brain, and on my typing fingertips.

The once-a-month revelation really came from our practice to post a new picture gallery each month. I figured, rather than laboring with the mish-mash, half-hearted blogs every other week I would wait and roll out a truly stupendous update every 30 days. And honestly, 30 days come pretty quickly.

October was an interesting month. The weather has been...
[ I was doing some yard work today and a random observation popped into my head...this observation was that when I catch up with my family (in particular my dad) I always talk about the weather. I felt surprised because the weather feels like one of those cliche conversation pieces that is almost offensively obvious....I am picturing a man walking by his neighbor’s house in the South. After some obligatory gossip the two start talking about the weather...the weather, as if it’s unknown to them, or surprising, or anything but abundantly apparent. Anyway I chuckled to myself cause I DO THIS. Granted the weather where my family lives is very different than the weather where I live...so maybe its not that weird. ]
...I was starting to talk about how the weather has been unpleasant this month. High to mid 80s through almost the whole month. Robbing the fall and winter season from a person is psychologically damaging. Winter in Visalia feels kind of like someone opened the freezer door and a little bit of frosty air wafts in your face. It’s pretty weak.

So what else...(time for bullet points cause I gotta go to bed)
- Two sets of our friends were married this month: David & Mary Mendez and Mike & Kanoa Salazar got hitched a week apart from each other. Yay marriage
- Connie picked up an extra day of work each week cause her counterpart took another job.
- Ryken stood up on her own for the first time.
- The twinzers experience their first Halloween party
- Oh...Taylor (me) finally did sign up for FaceBook and it has been cannibalizing his time.

All done for now. In case you couldn’t find the gallery link on our main page you can click the link HERE and check out the new pictures. Till next month...