The Jack Noodle Journal

The Little Noodle’s two bottom front teeth are slowly gouging their way up out of the bone of his jaw, poking through the tender flesh of his gums. We can’t see them yet but they are there. You can feel them. I’m sure if you could translate G’s baby talk right now he would tell you that, “Teething is a bitch!” He’s not having a very fun time with his soon to be new teeth.

It seems painful. I don’t remember what it was like. I do know tooth pain though.

Gilby is usually pretty happy and cheerful so it makes you feel bad for him when he still tries to smile and be happy through his tears and tooth pain. Memories from month one are coming back! Wondering if you’ll ever be able to help baby stop crying.

Only 30 more teeth left to grow buddy. Hang in there!

Well I completed my voting! Yep. I am all voted up now. No need to put any more flyers on my door or commercials on my TV.

We haven’t taken our ballots in yet so I guess technically we haven’t voted. We like to walk our ballots down the street and put them in the box at the elections office on the actual day. It adds more of the voting event feel back that the mail in ballots took away.

There probably is a pretty large number of people that vote and then forget to mail or take their ballots in. I had to actually fish ours out of the recycling bin last night when putting out the garbage. That dirty hippy recycling act almost cost us a couple of votes!

I’ll be glad when this election season is over with! I hope that there is a clear and decisive presidential victor. I hope it’s not close. No ballot recounts and embarrassing fiascos like 2000 please. I want to know who the next president will be by no later than the 6th.

The G Boy and I went and saw “Tropic Thunder” on Tuesday at the Mommy Matinee. It was everything I had hoped it would be. Pretty silly, pretty funny. The cast was excellent. Robert Downy should be nominated for an Academy award. Really? Sure, why not. Tom Cruise was pretty awesome as well.

We missed the end of the movie but I’m sure the last 10 minutes turned out fine. G and I were unaccompanied on our Mommy Matinee adventure. The little guy slept pretty much through the whole thing but then his daddy had to go to the bathroom. Hmm a dilemma. I couldn’t leave the Little Noodle with another strange mommy in the theater could I? I had to take G to the bathroom with me. Of course he woke up while I was in the bathroom and was like, “Where the heck am I now?”. When we got back to the movie he started crying. I noticed that his diaper had leaked and his outfit was starting to soak. Hmm maybe he could hold out for the last 10 minutes? He couldn’t. He cried more, which is okay to do at the Mommy Matinee, but I couldn’t concentrate (not that it required much) on the movie anymore, and was starting to get a headache, so we bailed.

It was a good movie though. They haven’t been picking the best of the best for the Mommy Matinees. The last one we saw before “Tropic Thunder” was “Step Brothers”. That one was fine.

I have been doing some mild hand wringing this week over the state of the economy like everyone else has been I’m sure. I might be more nervous from only being in the actual office two days a week. I’ve been missing out on the rumor mill and have to make an effort to get a gauge of the work environment. I think our company is doing fine still. There’s an over abundance of work for the rest of the year, so that’s good. If any of the giant corporations from whose breast we suckle tighten their belts though, the trickle down would hit our company. Most assuredly Noodle the plumber would be out on the sidewalk eventually.

I don’t know. I think I’m safe through a first round of layoffs.

I’m just being paranoid.

Like I said, there is plenty of work right now.

I just don’t want to be surprised this time. I’ve got more at stake compared to the last time the unemployment fairy visited me.

I’m going to get serious about fashioning a Plan B. Are you guys working on a Plan B? I think it would be smart to get ye ole resume and portfolio in order, tighten up the household budget, cut spending, and keep an eye on the classifieds. It can’t hurt to be prepared right?

Just in case.

Yeah, so the little Noodle has had a cold most of the week. Poor guy. I think he’s starting to feel better. He better start feeling better, he has to go see his grandma tomorrow. His nose was running pretty good at the dog park this morning.

Oh my gosh, the G Man is starting to crawl! Well, now he is perfecting that drag your body over the floor, sort of flop crawl. Any second though he’s going to break into full speed ahead crawling!

In other news, we decided to suspend our Netflix subscription. We haven’t been watching any DVDs lately and it didn’t seem…

What?

The photo up top? What’s the deal with it?

Oh.

Well, one of my coworkers while doing very important work related activities I’m sure, found the website Man Babies, yet another freak show, roadside attraction along the information super highway.

Some of them are kind of funny. Most of them are quite bizarre.

My coworkers were egging each other and me on to create a man baby photo using myself and G Noodle.

Last night some of the gang were over and after everybody had a few drinks, I thought, “I should totally make up a man baby photo right now”.
There was then minutes of entertainment for our house guests who watched as I constructed the above monstrosity.

I submitted my creation to the manbabies.com officials. We’ll see if they accept my submission.

There’s definitely something creepy to the switched head Noodles. Maybe it’s the diabolical smile on the mini me. Oh well. It was just too weird to not share with you folks.

Hey all. I’m back. What? You didn’t even know we were gone? Well we were.

We flew down to Arizona for the weekend so G Noodle could visit with his grandparents. Quite the jet setters right? No, not really. We were gone for 4 days.

It was a really fun trip. It was a little too short though. Just when you thought it might actually be turning into a vacation it was time to go back home. We’ll go for a longer stay next time. It was really good for G to see his grandpa. I think Mr. Baptist was jonesing for a G fix.

It was 90 degrees every day we were there! Cooler in the evening times. Coming back to cold Portland was a shock to the system. We have decided that October is the month to visit Arizona. It was just right. Perfect. Not boiling hot like when we visit in August and not too cold like when we visit in December.

The real story is of course, how did the little man do? G Monkey did awesomely. It was a tad stressful flying with the baby for the first time. Figuring out how to get through the airport was a learning experience. We weren’t entirely clear on all of the traveling with baby rules. You take the child out of his car seat, put the car seat on the x-ray belt and then walk through holding the child. Baby doesn’t ride the conveyer belt through the machine! Now we know.

Gilby was great on the plane. He is quite the little flyer! He only cried twice. One of the times he cried we think it was due to the altitude drop during our descend and pressure in his ears. He slept most of the time while on the plane and made goo goo eyes and smiles at the other passengers when he wasn’t sleeping.

It was an adventure. I really enjoyed traveling as a family unit. When the trip was over we all cheered and gave high fives! “We did it!” we cried.
No not really. We were pretty wiped out when we finally got home last night.

Of course I took way too many photos of the trip like all good daddies do. You can look at some of them here if you so choose.

Unfortunately now the little G monster has a cold! His first one. His Nose is filled to the brim with snot. Damn those dirty commercial airlines! Yes, I too feel like I have a cold.

We’re going to stay in our PJs today.

Here are a couple of things I had laying around that I thought I would put up for some closer examination.

Quite a few people have been landing on this here journal after doing web searches for “dark, sticky stew”. It’s funny. It has been coming up on my charts frequently over the last few weeks. What they are finding is this post from January 8th, 2006 where in I talk about how I was cooking Jamie Oliver’s recipe for dark, sticky stew. Mmmm… I am totally going to make that again. It was SO good. It would be a great meal for this fall weather we are having.

I have been meaning to read this article from the Atlantic on how Google is making us stupid. It seems really interesting. I haven’t made it through it yet because it’s so long which is funny because the article is about how the internet is causing us to not be able to read large amounts of text anymore. I think there is something to this. I haven’t finished a book in a long time. I would love to be a reader but I just can’t seem to do it anymore. I’m really good at buying books and starting them, but I’m horrible at finishing.

I also read this fairly enjoyable article from Adbusters about hipsters. I am definitely not hip or cool enough to be considered a hipster but I do (did) enjoy frequenting their haunts and observing them in their natural environments. In a city like Portland you can’t walk too far without stepping in a nest of them. I don’t know about the label though. I think some of these kids are just genuinely cool even when they aren’t trying.

The article poses the interesting thought that surely the end times are nigh and the fall of western civilization is imminent when your rebels are no longer rebellious.

The article references another article called “Why the hipster must die“. Maybe I’ll read that one too.

I don’t know, that’s a lot of reading.

Oh sweet, sweet weekend how I long for your loving embrace. Your loving, sweet, wet, rainy embrace. Only a few more hours and then we will be together.

I would love to sleep in at some point during the weekend. Get some extra hours. I can’t imagine that happening though.

I probably won’t be mowing the lawn this rainy weekend. It’s a jungle out there.

It has been a pretty good week here in Noodleland. I’m finding that I have been ecstatic and excited beyond measure on Wednesday nights after finishing up my homeworking and baby fun duties for the week. “Yeah! I made it again!”. Then Thursday afternoons midway through my office stint, I am thoroughly exhausted. Come Friday night though I get close to ecstatic again. “Yeah! I made it through the office duty!” Oh, the roller coaster! I know, I know. Stop whining. No, it’s good. I’m just saying, Thursday afternoons through Friday, I am exhausted.

So yesterday I gave in and signed up with the Facebook cult. My statement up until then when asked if I was on Myspace or Facebook was to say, “Yeah, I call my space jacknoodle.com. I’ve been on it for years!” I would usually get an eye roll and I swear a couple of you said “jerk” under your breath.

People from a hundred years ago have been emailing me after finding my brother on Facebook, and a lot of you have been saying Facebook this Facebook that. So I joined up. Mostly to see your photos. Finding people from a hundred years ago has it’s own sort of car wreck, rubber necking sort of entertainment value to it as well. Whatever. I’m on there now. It’s fine. I have the Noodle Journal RSS feed pumping through it so hopefully that bring some extra eyeballs to my original my space.

So yeah, hows about that vice presidential debate? It was something alright! I actually missed most of it. K, G and I were trying to get into the Bagdad to see it but they filled up and turned everyone else away. Maybe I’ll listen to it today while working.

Ah.. I don’t know. Maybe I’ll skip the news world today and just stick to music listening.

The little guy is napping now in my lap. I thought I would try to get a journal entry loaded to the books while he snoozes. I still don’t have that lay down without waking him up move figured out yet. He’s like one of those old dolls whose eyes pop open when you set them down.

“Hey Papa, where are you going?”

I said it before but I’ll say it again, I have to figure out how to set him down so I can get some housework done! It really sucks that K has to come home to her two boys sitting in squalor.

We have been hanging out and listening to tunes this week.

I bought the G man “Julie Andrews Selects Her Favorite Disney Songs” from iTunes the other day. It’s pretty awesome. Oh man songs like “Chim Chim Cher-ee” and “When You Wish Upon a Star”? Forget about it! I just had to laugh at myself. I was getting all teary eyed and sad holding the baby listening to Dumbo’s mom sing “Baby Mine”. Oh yeah.

There’s a pretty alright children’s section on iTunes. I almost pulled the trigger on the They Might Be Giants kid’s album “Here Comes the ABCs” but I thought it was still a tad old for the little guy. I will be getting it for him though, in the near future.

We have also been listening to the new James album, “Hey Ma“. Ah! It was so nice to hear from that band again. Hearing Tim Booth’s voice in the opener during the first listen is shiver inducing. The album is good. It works well at reminding you why you once loved James. I don’t know what the longevity of my listening to it will be but it’s entertaining.

Last week during my office hours, I was getting bummed out listening to the news on NPR. I thought to myself, “Gosh, buying a new album will make me feel better, and help me block out the horrible and repetitive news of the day”. Then it hit me. The new TV on the Radio! Of course!

I love the new TV on the Radio album, “Dear Science“. Go out and give it a listen right now. The lyrical content and themes make it a great choice for those 24 hour news listeners out there. It definitely has the feel of an election year album. Perhaps that is just me putting that on it and not their actual intent. I should do some reading and find out.

“Dear Science” isn’t like the older TV on the Radio albums, so be prepared. It’s more produced and robust than their other works. More dense. I was missing their fuzzy guitars and rocking at first, but I’m okay with it now.

The video for the song, “Golden Age” is pretty crazy. I love the weird new agey, mysticism to it. Yes, it’s silly but that’s the point. It’s awesome.

Oh. The G man is waking up.

Say hello, buddy…

He says hello.