Bathroom Musings

Posted by He Said

And now for something a little lighter.

Ask anyone in my family and they will tell you that when I go to take "my morning constitutional" as my father called it, I have a tendency to lose track of time. I might find myself reading a good news story, or shopping for my latest "obsession".

Many times though I find myself playing a game (get your head out of the gutter). It doesn't even have a name. It's one I have played since I was a young boy. Ok. Go write your dirty comments, then come back and finish.

Lets call it Bathroom Musings for the lack of a better name. If I stare at an object, a shape or pattern I start pulling images from them. If I had any sort of artistic skills they would be great inspiration for drawings.

The large tiles in our bathroom have a numerous number of animals, shapes and objects in them, and they change every time I stare at it. Especially depending on my mood. Here is the main whole tile I see at my feet.

Just the other morning, I was in a good mood and the first shape I saw was a heart. A plain and simple heart. Do you see it...

Then as I stare at it, it starts to get a little more complicated.  Like the roaring lion! He is facing left.  His nose is probably the most defined.  Do you see it?

Then on darker days there are evil characters sometimes.  Demons and ghouls. Like this evil face with the Bob's Big Boy hair and depending on how you look at it, he might have an over sized head with a little black body riding on a broomstick.  Yes. I have been watching ALL the Harry Potter movies with the kids.

Maybe I will post some more as I see them (if you care to see more, let me know).  Do any of you play a game like this?

Reminders…

Posted by He Said and She Said

She Said…

As we walk down streets and up alleys in Beijing, we see things that remind us of friends and family. We want to share these with you.

This one is for Libby over at Libby Logic. She and I share a similar appreciate of all things comfortable. What size and how many, huh, Libby?

CJ, this one has you written all over it:

This next one will seem strange to most.  Living here, we don’t have all of the amenities we have back home, such as a utensil organizer. Eileen, I think of you every time I open my drawer.

Memories of living on Lake Street next to Eddy come flooding back with this one:

and this one…wait, these actually make us think of CJ AND Eddy.

  
Facebook is a magical thing. Through it I have reconnected with friend from down in the west Texas town of El Paso. Paloma, this one is for you (and sorry, this was the real store – no special price!):

Dad, this one is ALL you:

and this one...

He Said…

This one is for Rebecca at work, seeing as now I can’t NOT think about her every time I see a fricking Hello Kitty, and yes, this was an ENTIRE store FILLED with that damn cat.

Chris, this one is for you.  What is more patriotic in China than a RED Baby? An entire catalog dedicated to your RED Baby.

This one in particular makes me think of all the Best Buy fanboys at home.  Now even though I won’t go into the Blue Box at home, this is ONE Best Buy I could get into!

We picked this up at the local Jenny Lou’s.  Eileen, we miss you!

  
This one had me thinking about Kevin and Kevin’s for DAYS (Bitters)!

 
… and Barbara AND Kevin, need I say more!  Of course just behind our building they are erecting the new Microsoft Beijing campus, but without signs, it’s not worthy of a picture yet.

Damnit, why won’t this thing get a signal???

and lets not forget Amy, Brad and Hannah PEW PEW!

 
And not a DAY goes by that I don’t think of Rob or Jami and their love affairs with their bicycles. Can you see the end of them…I can’t?

This is more of a generic one, but all the Dexter fans back home (Ok, Barbara and Kevin get double billing), I think he was here in the kitchen.  The glasses at this restaurant all have this dripping red blob.

and Jacob, if you were here, this would be your new home, food, coffee, English speaking customers AND BOOKS!

  
Speaking of books, Jacob.  I know you would have had to climb to the top as well!!!!!

and you would probably bankrupt us eating at the Union Bar & Grill.

 
Ok Eddy gets double billing too. You KNOW you want one.  Notice the winter hand warmers installed. Oh, you know you want a closer look.  The handlebar gloves look like something you would have invented.

And every time I see this one I think about work. 

Question: “Should we do it right, or fast?”
Answer:  “BOTH”

Result.

 
Stella, this one is for you.  For some reason the style of these make me double take every time I see one.  They look like a mini Westfalia camper.

A Few Pics ….

Posted by He Said

Life
I just thought this guy’s shoes that I saw on the subway were cool.

 

Secret Chinese Military Weapon Discovered
Moments after this was taken we were shoo’ed away by security telling us (I can only assume) “No Pictures.”  Should I forward these to the U.S. Governement?  Is this China’s new secret military weapon?

Green Tea is NOT Good In Everything
And this my friend is Sprite.  Not just any Sprite, but Lemon Lime Green Tea Surprise. At least that’s what I THINK it was. Yeah, now I know how to avoid it.

Sticker Shock
This is a book on display in the Chinese Museum of Natural History on loan from the U.S.  Let’s just put it this way.  It’s an ACTUAL copy of a book with an ACTUAL WARNING on it placed by a school district warning that the content within about evolution is a THEORY. Now don’t that just make us all look ready for some educatin. I was also wondering when the Bible was going to get these warnings. And yes. I broke the no camera rule just for this picture.

I’m To Sexy To Need Puberty
Is it just me or are these “characters” just a TAD bit sexual for what, 12? The tissue paper on the “action figure” is to protect the innocent customers who may enter the store. And yes, I will take orders for the either the naked “action figure” or the mouse pad with bountiful wrist rest.

Gotta GET Me Some Of Those

 

I walk past this shop every day on my way to/from work.  Now I LOVE the steamed dumplings around here, but the idea of eating here is rather difficult for me.  I bet you can see why.

Freezing your VW Off

Poor Stella.

I bet she thought she was going to get special treatment.  Appears when the weatherman says 6° and snow I should listen and put you in the garage.  Now you must sit till the weather warms up enough to unfreeze you.

Charmin Likes A Little Fantasy Play

If only she could pay her own way using feather boas at a burlesque show.  Probably not gonna happen though.

Don’t bother asking what the boas are actually for.  We are all adults here and you already know. I can say I don’t think we will be using them after the dog has been sleeping on them.

Back From Nowhere

It's been sometime since I posted. No, I did not go anywhere and I have not been ill and yet I have been profoundly absent from this blog. This has not slipped past Susanne as she frequently jabs at me on twitter and this blog about my lack of literary proficiency.

There is a great deal of irony to this as it was I who had tried on several occasions to start a he said/she said type website on more than one occasion. It took the ease of Blogger, the need for an outlet for Susanne's creative voice and a poke in the eye with a stick to finally bring this site to fruition.

Of course no one screamed for my return. I assume that was purely from a shock so great from my absence that all readers of this blog were left speechless and unable to type nasty twitter posts demanding a new grammatically incorrect, apostrophe mistake laden masterpiece.

So where have I been?

My employment world has been full of upheaval recently and as I fear getting Dooce'd I do not blog about work, but suffice it to say I used to manage a group of 17 great hardworking technically creative artist types. This was difficult for me in the beginning as it was my first management position. Just as I was getting a handle on it, just as I thought I was getting a handle on it AND doing a damn fine job, the world shifted and my team was redistributed in an organizational shuffle.

To steal a quote from the Dark Tower "The world moved on." And you know what, I am beginning to like it. Not the change in my job specifically but the world around me. My beautiful wife and my lovely kids (who by FSM, don't get me wrong can really put a twist in my kilt) are bringing me joy with some of the silliest things like this, this, this and this. Since my work world moved on I am focusing less on the stresses of work and more on the joys of my family. This weekend we had many and I wanted to share them here. If that wasn't the most winded and winding intro there is, well, at least it will give Susanne a chance to knock me for my grammar and apostrophe usage.

This weekend was Mothers Day and by golly, if Susanne didn't put me to work in the garden. We went to breakfast first where we both were stunned to see our 5 year old drinking his cuppa (hot cocoa) and reading the paper (kids menu).

Seriously. How friggin old does he look here?

And my beautiful wife enjoying some time with Braedyn.

And only days before my oldest boy Jacob came to visit. Of course when he comes over Dad is chopped liver, but it is so nice to see all of them so happy.


So what was this post about? It doesn't matter. Today's post wasn't for you dear readers. It was for me and I sure enjoyed it. Almost as much as Braedyn enjoyed the whip cream from the cocoa.

Moyle Family Has The Worms

Ok, they aren’t worms per say, and we don’t have them in a bad way.

Emily received a Butterfly Habitat for Festivus and we received the caterpillars in the mail sometime over a week ago.  I have to say I was shocked at how TINY they were.  I mean we are talking a grain of rice.  Well, in a matter of days they have ballooned to an incredible size and now they look as though they are settling in for a long winters nap.  Ok, maybe a short one in a chrysalis.

From 2-18-2009

Walking On Air

The kids were playing a “jump over daddy off the couch” game last night and I couldn’t resist trying to capture it from my perspective. I just love this one of Em.  It really captures the joy of the leap as only a child can experience it.

Curiosity

My mother-in-law bought me a remote control for my K10D this Festivus.  I was learning how to use it and the camera was sitting on the table taking pictures all by itself, which was a very curious thing to the kids. 

From 1-17-2009

From 1-17-2009

Nothing Like A Pup Picture To Cheer You Up

From the Archives.  I was scanning my old Australia photos and found this puppy pic from the late 80’s.  Even if the exposure is so poor than you cannot see her eyes, it sill warms my heart.  Sierra was a wonderful pooch who has been gone for many years. I miss you girl.

Soccer Season Finale

This last Saturday was the seasons final game for Braedyn.  I couldn’t help myself but to use my favorite video creation site Animoto to make a little music video of the entire season.  It’s so easy, and it makes such fun vids.  Check it out.

EDNJESS

I had a bunch of old film developed and this was one of the pics on the roll. It’s from many years back and I was shocked to see the images came out at all. I love it. I hope Eddy C. and Jessica C. don’t mind me posting it here. EdNJess , it does sound like a foreign city name doesn’t it? :)

I was once young….

I was once young…and fat, and a smoker, and a long haired unemployed loser. Susanne fell in love with me anyway (boy, I sure did marry down in the intelligence area didn’t I, she married down in every other category).

My kids might look at this someday and say, “Dad, you weren’t too bright back then were you? Or maybe you were just drunk a lot?” In my defense, all I have to say for myself is…is…so anyway you should scroll down, my lovely wife wasn’t so perfect either (at least she LOOKS GREAT doing it). Who photoshopped the cigarettes into these anyway? ;)