Evey's first Halloween!

We had a great time! Went down to Jefferson's on Mass St., got a front row seat, and watched all the trick or treaters walk by. Saw a lot of friends walk by, too, including the Heimans! (Greyson was dressed as a shark!)

I walked outside to take a photo of Evey, looking in from the sidewalk. As soon as I walked outside, I heard a Dad tell his family, "Look at that bunny rabbit! She's trying to get out!" I looked over and saw Evey pounding on the window with both hands. Quite a sight. I got a photo here of that moment, too. Easily my best Halloween EVER. (Second-best Halloween -- when me and Abasolo dressed as the WWF tag team "Demolition," and went trick-or-treating with Dustin Rhodes, who was dressed as the Ultimate Warrior.)

Enjoy the photos from the evening. Evey liked her costume, for the most part. One of the photos was taken with my PDA.

The Jones Family, Oct. 2007

HAPPY HALLOWEEN!!!

Judy took this photo of us two weekends ago, as we were walking home from our Saturday morning walk downtown.

Evey's been getting up earlier and earlier lately (around 6:50 a.m. today) so that means I need to delay her a bit before we can go to daycare. She's drinking her bottle right now as I type this. The bottle always buys me about 10 minutes...

Evey is going to be a bunny rabbit today, her first Halloween. I know, I know, the blog readers voted for the chicken over the rabbit. What do you think this is, a democracy? Actually, Mom's vote counts for 100, while Dad's vote counts for 33, so the bunny costume actually did win -- 143 to 12. Sorry chicken costume!

Besides, the bunny costume fits her better. Also, I think the chicken won based on the cuter photo -- with her sticking her tongue out...

Please note: Evey will be appearing at GCSAA HQ today, from 2:30 p.m. to 3:30 p.m. Fans are asked to limit their time to five minutes with Evey, no autographs. Photography is OK.

'Rina and Evey

Marina and Evey smile for the camera at our house yesterday.

This weekend flew by. Unnaturally.

Here we come Monday...

News and notes

Yeah, it's 10:40 p.m. and I'm wired. I think it was our basketball game tonight that did it -- we took our first loss of the season, and yeah, we lost fair and square (the other team shot better in the second half) but the refs were ATROCIOUS. I'm too old to get worked up about stuff like that... no I'm not. They were really that bad. I used to ref, and it's not that hard. The fouls were 22-8, and we're not a dirty team. 22-8!

So, anyway, here's a news and notes blog post. I'm going to spew words here. You're forewarned: there may not be much of value here. But tomorrow is Friday, and maybe you need a time-killer...

• Exciting Evey news: We're on night four without the binky. Also known as the pacifier, Evey has not so much as seen a binky in over 72 hours. The experts say if your baby can go three straight days, they're off the binky addiction. So far, so good... wish us luck. It'd be great to have an easy binky weaning. Evey has been pleasant without the binky so far, but she has been complaining of headaches, and says she's more often stressed out...
• Who steals pumpkins? We live by Charlie's East Side, so we need to learn to expect some drunken foolishness every so often... Recently, Mike left a ladder outside in our side yard, a nice ladder, and someone walked off with it. I can understand that a little bit... that's a tool, and tools are appealing to a thief. But pumpkins? I bought three pumpkins for the front porch. Someone stole two of them. Who steals a pumpkin? I mean, really? Smashing pumpkins, I can kind of understand. You're a kid, you want to be cool. But someone actually walked off with my two biggest pumpkins. Whoever stole them, I hope they at least gave them to their kids.
• Sad news -- our friend Shelly, mother of Manning, lost her mom recently. My magazine staff, we're all going to the funeral, in Holton, Kan., tomorrow. Our thoughts are with Shelly and her family. This comes on the heels of my pal Clark's mom passing, and my other friend Clay's grandma passing. Our heart goes out to all of them.
• Adrianne is sick now. I'm not quite over my bronchitis yet, and now I've gotten Adro sick too. And as you know, if momma ain't happy, ain't no one happy! Seriously, I'll take care of Adro, because she took such good care of me when I was sick.
• Baby Sadie is coming over to hang with the Jones family tomorrow. We're pumped. It's going to be a baby party at our house! Break out the juice boxes!
• Speaking of juice boxes, Evelyn just learned how to drink from a straw. Well, she hasn't quite figured out the difference between "suck" and "inhale." As in, she inhales on the straw, gets a little juice, and then spends the next 10 seconds coughing. And no, there will be no Bill-Clinton-can't-inhale-either joke inserted here.
• Speaking of former presidents, I can't wait for our current president to become a former president. Hey, I know, let's poke Iran with a stick before we turn out the lights...
• I'm reading an H.G. Wells book, "Food of the Gods." It's not bad. But when I read it in bed, it knocks me out pretty quick. I need to read it when I'm sitting upright. That would allow me to get further than a chapter at a time.
• Best magazine I'm reading (besides my own)? Esquire. Rolling Stone has been decent lately. Sports Illustrated, always good. ESPN the Magazine I can do without.
• I'd like to say hello to anyone in FMS reading this (especially if you've made it this far!). Thanks so much for reading this. You guys rock. You guys bust your tails at work, I see this. I look forward to one of you becoming the next CEO... and then there will be hell to pay!
• Check out my daughter's wingspan in the above photo. She's going to be a baller. A serious rebounder. She might even dunk.
• I think KU loses this weekend. That's just my gut. I'm rooting for them... I just got a bad feeling. I'll say A&M 28, KU 21.
• Funny moment in tonight's Chicago Fire/DC United game... a player takes a swipe at another player's face, sort of a slap that whiffed. But it caught the guy's eyeball just perfectly to where it shot his contact lens out of his eye. The guy is looking for his contact, trying to figure out if it's still in his eye, or what. And then they show the slow-mo replay. And you can see just perfect, the contact lens shooting out of his eye, and then spinning away in the wind. Bizarre-o. (OK, you probably had to see it.)
• Who was your favorite Muppet Baby? I think mine was Rolf. Because he was cool.
• A bunch of people have been asking me, "who sings that song in the 'Goodnight Evey' video you posted?" (By 'a bunch,' I mean the voices in my head.) That song was sung by the very underrated Marcy Playground. Yes, of 'Sex and Candy' fame. That song is called "The Angel of Forever Sleep" and is actually a MP B-side, so I went way, way rare on you. Great song though, huh? MP is actually one of my favorite bands ever.
• I better go to bed before I start listing my favorite bands...

Superhero theme

For my nephew Jett's 5th birthday, my sister told him he could have his room decorated in any theme he wanted.

You know it warmed my heart when he said "superheroes!"

I was called in as an independent contractor and as a good uncle, to lend my limited artistic ability to this project. My sister wanted me to paint a few characters -- preferably those with a red and blue theme -- on Jett-Man's walls. Of course I was thrilled to accept the assignment.

I'm not done with the project yet -- the final, most important piece will be Spider-Man. I wanted to warm up a little before I got to Spidey, and I did that with these paintings of Captain America and Superman.

I'm relatively happy with the way they turned out. I've never painted a character on a wall before, so it was uncharted territory for me. The hardest part was the scale, and not being able to really see the "big picture." I drew the characters in pencil first, and then started painting. Up close, I couldn't see that I would have liked my characters to have been a little bit longer-legged. But that's OK, I can call that a foreshortening issue. I'm also not too happy about Cap's shield (I knew that would be a challenge) and I'm really mad that I chose to use that pink paint as a skin tone. That's something I'll try to go in and fix later.

I'm mostly happy with Supes, which surprises me. Such a hard character to draw. Why? Because he's got no mask! With no mask, it makes it really easy to make him look like your neighbor in a cape and tights... and creepy. But this guy looks like a kid-friendly Superman to me. And I'm really shocked that I nailed the Superman 'S' chest emblem. Sure, I can draw it, but I figured I'd screw it up painting it. Once I get the yellow in there, that 'S' is gonna look good.

But yeah, as you can see from the third photo, Jett just LOVES these paintings. Seriously, he was really pumped about them, I could tell. The photo doesn't convey that mood, but trust me, he was excited in person. He really wants Spider-Man up there pretty bad though, because Spidey is his favorite. To a 5-year-old, he probably just thinks Uncle Seth is tormenting him by not getting that one done first, but the truth is, I just really want to nail that one for his room, so I want to make sure I've worked the kinks out before I start painting the ol' Webhead.

Evey and the Lipfords!

Last Friday I took the day off to go work on my nephew's room (I'm painting superheroes on the walls... more on that later). After I left my sister's, I dropped in to see my good friend Sean and his family. It was momentous, because it was the first time Evey got to meet the Lipford's!

Sure, I've hung out with Sean a few times in the ten months since Evey was born. We saw Die Hard IV together. We hung out at the Laugh Olympics. But it was the first time Evey was able to tag along with Dad and meet these guys.

These photos of are of Sean, his wife, Kim, and their daughter Elizabeth. Their oldest, Christopher, didn't make the blog, because he's camera shy. As you can see, Elizabeth was ready for a Halloween costume party when I arrived.

(By the way, Sean is an Iowa Stater... but that's OK, because Kim is a JAYHAWK!)

Sick day

I'm at home taking a sick day today... I've got bronchitis. I'm getting better, though, I'll be back to work tomorrow. Just short of breath all the time, that's all.

Judy lent me her camera so I could download the photos from it. There were photos going back to December 06 on there. I'll be posting some of her photos these next couple days. Here are two of my favorites from Judy, Even and Adro at Target.

The family that reads together...

Evey and Adro, Sunday at Mirth (8th and New Hampshire).

Happy anniversary!

Adrianne and I celebrate one year of marriage today!

We've been celebrating all weekend. First, we had a "date night" Friday night, went out to dinner and then saw "Michael Clayton." Good movie.

Then yesterday, we got each other a gift... a NEW CAR!!!

That's Adrianne's new Hyundai TUCSON. Brand new. And it's all ours. Happy anniversary, Adrianne!

We traded in her little Focus for this bad boy. We wanted a smaller SUV to make it easier on us to get Evelyn around. This fit that niche nicely.

This was my fourth new car buying experience (I've had three Camaros since 1996). It was Adro's first. But WOW! You should have seen her. If you want to buy a new car, I'd advise taking Adrianne with you. She questioned the number crunchers TWO TIMES, and both times she had these guys jumping -- and she was right. In fact, the second time, when we were sitting down with the finance guy, resulted in the dude making a phone call the to the Hyundai dealership manager and chewing his ass. It was borderline uncomfortable. ...but we got it our way!

Anyway, feel free to ask me about the new TUCSON any time... I'd love to tell you all about it.

Congrats, Dad!

A special word of congratulations to my father, Boyd, who has been offered a job as a FOREMAN for the City of Wichita's public transportation department. Now, my Dad has not accepted said offer yet, but I'm still proud of him for being such a great professional, and teaching me a lot of the ins and outs of being a dependable employee and earning trust and respect in the workplace. My Dad comes from a military background, and he also did sales for a while. That makes him the perfect combination of a disciplined, determined, personable talker who can charm you and get you to do what he wants all at the same moment. And that's a special talent, folks.

I'll let you know what happens, but regardless of if he leaves the day-to-day grind of driving a bus for being the driving force behind the buses, I'm always -- ALWAYS -- proud of my pops.

(And since I just used the word "buses," did you know that "busses" -- buses with an extra 's' -- means "kisses"? Just a little random word trivia for you.)

Magnetic farm

"You made a match! Look what you did!"

There's a good chance I have this tune stuck in my head at any certain time of the day. Used to be it was a Pearl Jam song, maybe an L.L. Cool J chorus. But no, not anymore. Now it's songs from children's toys I have stuck in my head. Man, I'm old.

(Have you seen me lately? I'm like, 75% gray-headed now. How long ago did I get this gray?)

Anyway, Grandma Judy got Evey this "Magnetic Farm" toy and Evey LOVES it. She likes pulling the barnyard animals out of the slots, slamming them against the barn doors, making the thing sing and chirp. Good times.

**********

Happy Friday. I'm out-of-the-office today, taking a comp day for last weekend when I had to work. Going to my sister's house to paint superheroes on my nephew's walls. Photos of that project when it's done.

Wish me luck at hoops tonight... I'm out.

"You made a match... look what you did!"

Her FIRST bunny costume

I was looking at some older photos and came across this one. Evey as a bunny, taken Jan. 7, 2007. She was exactly one month old in this photo. That's a towel she's wrapped in, by the way.

Bunny!

Here's the Bunny costume.

Which do you like better?

Let your voice be heard... vote in the new poll!

(Old poll results: 14 people correctly guessed I'd party like a rock star at the Neuteboom wedding, while two people voted for me taking it easy... glad to see my mom and dad are stopping by the blog...)

Halloween nears...

And we've got TWO costumes to choose from.

We've already chosen, actually, but I'll let you see them both first. Here's the first outfit... the other outfit... tomorrow.

What do you think this animal is?

He lives next door.

At first, I thought he was a stubby raccoon. But then we heard rumors of a beaver living next door.

But we don't live that close to the river... do we? Don't beavers want to be near the river?

But I look at him, and I think... yeah... that's a beaver! Isn't it?

Whatever he is, he lives next door at the condemned house, next to Charlie's. He's a pretty good neighbor for the most part, but he borrowed my hedge clippers a month ago and still hasn't returned them.

His name is Wally.

TGIF!!!

My Mom with Evey and Marina here.

TGIF.

Thanks to everyone who voted in my latest poll! Even the two of you that were visiting this blog totally by accident!

We had 15 voters, and they overwhelmingly said they check especiallyevey.blogspot.com daily to every-other-day! Wow! 66% said that (10 votes), while 13% (2 votes) stop in weekly. One person visits monthly (we caught that person on a good week, apparently, as the poll was only up for 6 days) and two people stumbled upon the site. And found sheer cuteness.

Check out the new poll and let me know your guess...

Welcome Liam and Henry!

My good friend Greg Nunn and his wife, Adrienne, welcomed their beautiful twin boys to the world yesterday.

They are (in order of appearance) Liam Gregory and Henry Alexander.

Years later, Henry is going to want to know why he got stuck with the yellow blankie...

Congrats, Greg and Adrienne! You'll be great parents! And remember, what I told you, Greg: It's not as hard as everyone tries to tell you.

(What, just because they have TWO makes it even harder???)

Grandma Jojo with her two great-granddaughters

My Grandma came up with my parents a few weeks ago, surprising me. We all went to my sister's house and hung out, had a spaghetti dinner and enjoyed each other's company. My Grandma really loves her great-granddaughters.

Marina, my sister's daughter, is on the left. Evey is on the right. So cool to see these two together. They'll know each other their entire lives.

An email I just sent to a fellow Radiohead fan

Reason # 7,326 why I prefer to buy a CD.

OK, so I purchased last night when I emailed you. I had been drinking, of course, but was all geeked to buy the album and then download it today.

Well, I wanted to spend $12.00 on the CD. But since it’s in “pounds” or whatever, I’ve got to convert. So I went to a converter and it made sense to convert it to Euros. $8.58 Euros, I paid for the CD. Today I checked my credit card. My card was charged $18.58. Dammit. OK, whatever.

But then, this morning, I went to download. When it gave me the choice of “save,” “open,” or “cancel,” I chose “open,” because I wanted to choose WHERE I saved it. Well, nothing happens for about two minutes. I panic, and close the window and start over.

Then I re-enter the link they gave me. “We’re sorry, the link you’ve entered has already downloaded,” it told me.

So now I spent $6.50 more than I wanted to, and I have nothing but frustration to show for it.

There was an email address for problems, I emailed them my story at 7:30 a.m. and still no response.

We own the night

The new Radiohead album drops tonight at midnight. Pay what you want.

I'll be paying $12. Radiohead is worth it.

WORTH IT.

Evey is the KING.

10 months old!!!

Evey turned 10-months on Sunday.

Her two front teeth are steadily coming in... she can grind her uppers with her lowers, and it's something she likes to do from time to time. She stands up in her crib all the time, and it's just hilarious to walk in there and see her standing there, waiting for someone to walk in and play with her.

She's a tall girl -- seemingly half the height of Grandma Judy already (seriously). At her 9-month appointment, she registered at the 75th percentile in height, and the 50th percentile in weight.

She's suddenly eating anything that's easily swallowed... she ate some of my pancakes on Sunday, and some cantaloupe. Today she had some chicken. Her favorite food? Refried beans.

Yup, she's Mexican.

Luckiest guy in the world (part I)

Check out these two girls. Yup, luckiest guy in the world = me.

I just got back from five days on the road. First, a few days in Las Vegas for Eric Neuteboom's bachelor party. Then, I flew to Naples, Fla., to do a 1-on-1 interview with golf legend and entrepreneur Greg Norman.

Now, I'm back. Whoo-hoo!

I'm at work right now, and I rarely make posts from work (they pay me to blog on GCM's blog, not here). But I'm getting ready to grab lunch with Adro, and I felt like I could afford a quick 10 minutes to throw something back up here.

Evey said "ma-ma!" yesterday.

It was only a month after she said "da-da!" (heh!) but yeah, I was holding Evey, just back from my trip, when Evey saw her mom, reached out with both arms, and shouted "ma-ma!" What a sight.

Evey will be 10-months old on Sunday. She started saying "da-da," or, more specifically, "da-da-da-da-da," over a month ago. "Is she saying 'da-da?'" I'd ask. And we decided it was close, but it was also a little bit gibberish still. So we didn't throw a party, call the grandparents or mark the day on the calendar.

(But if she was saying 'ma-ma-ma-ma,' I wonder what our reaction would have been? Adro?)

So then we go to the doctor's office for Evey's 9-month checkup. The doctor is asking what Evey is doing these days, what new tricks she's learned. We told her about her crawling, and paddy cake, etc. "Is she saying any words yet?" the doctor asked. "Not... really," Adrianne said. "Well, she's sort of saying 'da-da,' but we're not quite sure..."

And then, mere moments later, Evelyn looked up at me as I was holding her, and shouted, "da-da!"

The doctor gave us a look and then said, "I don't know, guys... but that pretty much sounded like "da-da" to me...

And at that point I started jumping around, started doing the Robot, because yeah, that's right -- if the DOCTOR says she said 'da-da,' that's as official as you GET! Evey's first word, ladies and gentlemen! "DA-DA!"

But then, after five days on the road, Evelyn has mastered saying "ma-ma." And it sounds so cute. But she still says "da-da," too.

That photo at the top of this post, I took it with my PDA, right before I left for Vegas. And then I saved it as the background. So when I was on the road this last trip, every time I checked the time, or to see if I missed a call, I had their faces smiling at me. So cute!

More soon... it's so good to be back home.