bastone.org

Author: joemama

  • Fireworks in D.C.

    We spent this past Fourth of July in D.C. with Susan and IssacIsaac. We were going to spend the afternoon on the Mall, then go to a high school somewhere north of the Mall that gave us a view of both the Capitol and the Washington Monument. Unfortunately, a whole bunch of other people had similar ideas.

    We walked down to the Mall and ran into a parade. I think we ran into the end of it, because all we saw were some Vietnam-era helicopters and a group of people celebrating 40 years of Hare Krishna. Then a bunch of cops flew by.

    Finally, we made it to the Smithsonian. Where, of course, a bunch of people were standing in line, waiting to get in. But at this point, Julia was not a happy camper. Waiting another 20 minutes in the heat was not an option. So we headed back to the apartment. It ended up being a good thing, though, as a thunderstorm rolled through later in the afternoon.

    For the fireworks, we went to a high school somewhere north of the Mall. We got there about half an hour before they started, and there were already several people there. Kids were shooting off those cheap fireworks and sparklers on a fenced-off basketball court. When the fireworks did start, the kids shooting off the fireworks decided they needed to compete. Things started getting out of hand when a couple fireworks popped only a few feet away from us. The fireworks themselves were pretty good. Except for one thing – the smoke from the fireworks drifted into our view.

    We gave up and went home. On the way, there were people setting off fireworks of all sorts. It was chaos, just absolutely crazy.

    Anyway, here’s a couple pictures from our day there.

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  • Bastone Family Reunion

    I don’t think it was originally intended as such, but the cookout Mom and Dad had sure felt like a family reunion. Sure, everyone except Sharon, Julia, and me were much more able to get together for a get together. But now Susan and Issac are in D.C., so it will be harder for them to get to NY, and it was hard enough for Sharon, Julia, and me to get up there. (You try making four 5-hour trips with a 5-month old over the course of 7 days.)

    So we made the most of it, passing Julia around to whoever would hold her. And, as we’ve always done, we took pictures of Julia with whoever was holding her. Since there were so many pictures, I’ve started a new album in the gallery.

    And a couple of pictures I liked:

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  • Picture Showcase #6

    I was going to title this post “Pictures of the Week,” but it’s a lie. I don’t get a chance to post pictures every week, so I’ll just resort to something that sounds better.

    So I’ve uploaded about 50 pictures. Julia has been trying some more foods. So far, she’s had green beans, peas, sweet potatoes, and carrots. Fruits are coming soon!

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  • Redneck Hockey

    So the [tag]Carolina Hurricanes[/tag] won the Stanley Cup last night. While watching the news tonight, I swore I heard some politician annouce to his colleagues that “Redneck Hockey had arrived.” A quick search online, and sure enough, Redneck Hockey is alive and well.
    What, exactly, is “Redneck Hockey?” I’ll open the floor here to suggestions…

    [tags]Stanley Cup, hockey, redneck hockey[/tags]

  • A new Google search

    So there’s a new tool out from google that lets you search U.S. government sites. That seems fine and all, a one stop place for anything related to the government.

    Well, almost. In an article posted on CNN just yesterday (6/14), the government, in a rush to digitize information, has made it a lot easier for identity thieves to get their information.

    So let’s review. The government has put all sorts of information online. Some of it may contain sensitive information. Google has crawled through these sites and made it easy to find this information. So now all identity thieves would have to do is deduce some key searches, and they’ve hit the jackpot.

    [tags]Google, government, identity theft[/tags]

  • A New “Ringtone”

    I had read an article in the NYT this morning, and Susan sent me a link to it. Kids had taken an annoying sound that was supposed to make them scatter and made it into a ringtone. The idea is that is makes such a high frequency noise that teens can hear it and older people cannot.

    I listened to it. It’s just annoying.

    Apparently, these kids just haven’t heard of the vibrate feature on the cell phone. I have yet to own a cell phone without this feature. And can these tiny speakers in the cell phones actually achieve that high of a frequency? I have no idea, and I really don’t care. This will just be one of those fads that pass.

  • Julia’s Big Weekend

    Julia had a big weekend. On Saturday, she tried green beans for the very first time. Her reaction was priceless. It wasn’t one of those grimaces you see on TV. Although Julia was a bit fussy right before Sharon started feeding her, Julia just froze as soon as she tasted the green beans. Then she was trying to figure out what the heck was in her mouth. Eventually, she ate it, but had problems with her tongue pushing out the green beans. All in all, it was a good first try at eating solid food.

    On Sunday, Sharon went to get Julia after she woke up. We let her sleep on her belly (I know it’s bad, we do it anyway), and we found her on her back. She had finally turned over. It was so neat. We were just disappointed we didn’t get to see it.

    I was looking after Julia later in the morning while Sharon was out for a walk. I heard her talking, so I looked in on her. She was up, and looking around. And out of the blue, she flipped over for me. It was so great to see her do that.

    As always, I’ve uploaded 15 pictures to Julia’s gallery. Here’s a couple good ones.

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  • More pictures!

    As promised, there’s more pictures (60!) of Julia online now. Here’s a couple of my favorites.

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  • Some Random Thoughts

    There were a bunch of things I wanted to blog about, but never got around to it. So here’s a memory purge.

    • The last day of school for Guilford County was today, but the EOGs (End of Grade tests) were in mid-May. What in the world do students (and teachers, for that matter) do during those few weeks? Hang out? Play games? In New York, the Regents tests were at the end of June. School was done when the Regents were over. There was no wasting time after the tests were done.
    • What’s the deal with the gay marriage amendment? Bush knew it wouldn’t get anywhere, but he’s still wasting time on it. Or maybe he’s just pandering to his base.
    • Speaking of President Bush, doesn’t he have enough on his plate before talking up this amendment? I mean, with the wars, the economy, spying/privacy scandals, and immigration ‘reform’, doesn’t he have enough going on?
    • Did you see Steven Colbert roast President Bush? It was funny, though Bush and the mainstream media didn’t seem to think so. I guess it’s not too funny when you’re the one being roasted.

  • Four Months!

    I can’t believe Julia is already four months old! She’s doing well, and is growing so fast! Grabbing for things, talking to her hands, and she’s just about to roll over. Sharon and I thought she was going to do it this past weekend, but she just couldn’t quite make it.

    I’ll be putting some pictures up tomorrow. After seeing how many pictures I’ll have to sort through before making my next addition, I’m just going to wait until tomorrow and go to bed.