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Pictures that move. (Grades are mine, then Josh's) [updated: 2.2.06] |
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Thursday, May 31, 2007 Ladies and gentlemen, we have toothage. Last week, Ava's first tooth started to come in. It's very sharp.  Ava did NOT want us to take this picture. :-P 10:47 PM || I want to be a comment. Post me! Wednesday, May 23, 2007 Neptune noir: A beautiful and heartbreaking return to form.  Apologies to those of you sick to death already of my "Veronica Mars" talk; you are more than welcome to skip this eulogy. But it needs to be said nonetheless. (Anyone who has yet to see the series finale and has plans to should also skip this post for now unless you don't mind some things being spoiled.) "Veronica Mars" was not a perfect show. Aspects of the second and especially third seasons faltered at times, though never to the point where the show wasn't still one of the best on television. And the first season... well, the first season may come about as close to a perfect year of television as I've ever seen. What did I love so much about it? It somehow managed to be simultaneously dark and light, warm and heartwrenching, funny and suspenseful. Good characters did bad things, and bad characters did downright horrid things. Death, betrayal and corruption reigned, yet always at the show's core was a relationship of unconditional love. And it all meshed together into this beautiful mess of complicated people and complicated situations and evolving relationships, with gray areas galore and characters we couldn't help rooting for even when common sense told us we shouldn't. It was brilliant, from the use of color and shadow in the lighting to the musical choices (Dean Martin's "That's Amore" accompanying a father's beatdown of his daughter's abusive boyfriend, e.g.) to the dialogue in which the characters spoke with that clever wit we can only dream of coming up with on the spot in our own lives. This season had cut back on the long-spanning mysteries, noir elements and darkness some, and introduced new characters like the way-nice Piz and generic Parker, all while short-changing some of the long-standing supporting characters who would disappear for episodes at a time or show up for a few throwaway lines (these flaws were partly the result of network interference, partly budgetary, and partly the creative team's own fault). The great thing about last night's finale is that the problems with this season all but disappeared and what we were left with felt very reminiscent of that first blissful and dark season. Everyone seemed to be back where they belonged somehow: Weevil, though still a decent guy, facing the temptation of falling back into a life of crime; Wallace helping Veronica investigate and paying a price for doing so; Logan using his fists to solve his problems and having a bit of a death-wish, all while pining for a Veronica who both hates who he is and can't help loving him; Mac helping Veronica solve a case with her fierce computer skills; Dick being a... um... let's just say himself; and Veronica and Keith back to their first-season outcast status. There was even some very welcome Jake Kane and Clarence Wiedman (plus the Lilly and Duncan portraits as a nice nod to their characters) thrown in there for good measure. Some fans are apparently miffed that things weren't tied up in more of a neat little bow, but I couldn't disagree more. "Veronica Mars" isn't the kind of show that should end all Logan-and-Veronica-get-back-together, Keith-wins-the-election, the-Marses-win-the-lottery and everyone-lives-all-happily-ever-after. That's the exact opposite of what this show has always been about, and for me it ended on a near perfect note. Keith paid the price for Veronica's somewhat selfish and definitely illegal actions, sacrificing his career, public image and possibly even freedom to protect his daughter, who just might not deserve it this time. The final scene of Veronica casting what was now a futile but still loving vote for her father in the sherriff's election and then walking off into the rain was a fitting end to a show in which the "good guys," such as they are, don't always win. But we fans certainly did. Thanks for 64 episodes. 10:47 PM || I want to be a comment. Post me! Monday, May 21, 2007 And now back to your regularly scheduled programming. At her meals in the high chair Ava likes to play with... well, pretty much everything. She has since essentially the very beginning. We have to keep the bowl out of her reach while we're feeding her, or she'll grab it and try to dump it. She also goes for the spoon a lot. Sometimes she just wants to grab it and play with it, sometimes bite on it (that teething thing strikes again), and sometimes actually help feed herself. When we first started veggies and she was unsure of the new tastes, I often had better luck getting her to eat it if I let her help guide the spoon into her mouth. A little messier that way, but whatever works (and it's a skill she'll need eventually anyway).    And: Have we started the dropping game already? 6:27 PM || I want to be a comment. Post me! Thursday, May 17, 2007 The rest of them. On to CBS, CW and FOX. The yay:
Thursday, May 17, 2007 Thursday mourning. Well, folks... it's over. Done. Kaput. No FBI spin-off, no midseason replacement, no nothing. "Veronica Mars" is dead. And the world cries big, fat tears of regret that they never gave this show a chance. Or at least I do. *sniff* I would like to thank Rob Thomas and the cast and crew for making a truly amazing show that I completely fell in love with, and, grudgingly, UPN and the CW for airing it as long as they did. I will miss it like crazy. I have to go cry now. :-( -- Beth-Annie (now accepting your cards and flowers) 11:59 AM || I want to be a comment. Post me! Tuesday, May 15, 2007 Time to be upfront. It's that evil time of year again when the television networks announce their fall schedules and make their final to-cancel-or-not-to-cancel decisions. Only two networks -- NBC and ABC -- have officially announced thus far, so we'll just go with those for now. (There are a lot -- a LOT -- of rumors I could post about shows on other networks, but I won't bother with anything unofficial, or this will just be confusing/long/cruel.) The yay:
9:34 PM || I want to be a comment. Post me! Thursday, May 10, 2007 Noisy noises and the noisemakers who make them. A couple of videos for your viewing pleasure: Ava has a conversation with herself. Ava, um, makes up for all that quiet time in utero. 10:47 PM || I want to be a comment. Post me! Wednesday, May 9, 2007 Who knew feet tasted so good? This post has been a while coming, because, as every parent knows, there can be a gap between your baby doing something new and getting that something new on film (or memory card, as the case may be). Plus, you know, procrastination, but we'll pretend that isn't part of it. Sometime around the end of March, Ava first got her feet to her mouth, and it's been a love affair ever since.     It's not just her own feet, either... Mommy's are awfully appetizing, too...  ...as are Cowie's. :-)  No foot in the mouth here, but it's cute anyway. 1:37 PM || I want to be a comment. Post me! Thursday, May 3, 2007 Breaking news. "Gilmore Girls" breathes its last. Unfortunately, I don't know how to feel about this. On the one hand, I would obviously prefer the series to go on. On the other hand, the show not coming back could increase the chances of a "Veronica Mars" renewal, as it creates an extra spot on the fall schedule. Yet on another person's hand (I myself only have two), "VM" could end up being cancelled either way, and then I'd have to face a next season with neither beloved show, which kind of makes me want to cry. A lot. Some people might say I should just not worry about things which are out of my control. Me, I've never been into that. :-P 2:43 PM || I want to be a comment. Post me! Tuesday, May 1, 2007 My baby is half a year old! How did that happen?  Besides the New Adventures of Stranger Anxiety, here's what else is new this month: Still no actual teeth, but teething seems to be going strong. It's near impossible to read to Ava right now as she immediately goes for the book as soon as it's put in front of her and tries to chew on it. If you try to hold it far enough in front of her that it's out of her reach, she'll squirm and rock forward trying her best to reach it, also rendering the attempt pretty much futile. We have to recognize when she's in just the right mood -- calm, attentive, not hungry or overly curious, and not feeling the need to bite on everything -- to succeed in getting through even a very short book. Hopefully we'll get past this phase soon. She seems to have developed a real preference for sleeping on either her side or her tummy; even though we put her to bed every night on her back (and usually asleep or almost asleep), for the last week or two she's been on her tummy by the time I go in her room in the morning. And she's managed to roll herself halfway across the living room a couple of times -- no longer will a mere blanket on the floor hold her. She also used to rotate herself by pulling up and then re-straightening her legs, but now she does it by actually lifting her butt up off the floor a smidge and pushing off with her feet. She can also maneuver herself toward something she's interested in but can't quite reach; we'll be amazed to suddenly see her playing with a toy that wasn't within her reach and that neither of us gave her. They're little things, but still so interesting to watch. She'll now turn toward a voice that says her name (when she feels like it, of course :-P), as well as other noises, though I'm not exactly sure when that started (it's not supernew). And she has frequent "talkative" moods when she likes to squawk, screech, squeal, squeak, yell or just generally jabber. Video of some of that hopefully soon (I'm not sure what we've managed to get on tape thus far). We're trying to teach her that "shhhhhh" and/or a finger to the mouth mean to stop, but not much success thus far. Needless to say, one of us has to take her out of church more often than we used to. In the food arena, we're still on rice cereal and oatmeal, but have barley cereal and five different vegetables waiting in the wings, one of which we'll try out this week (we're doing vegetables before fruits so that she has a greater chance of taking to the not-so-sweet veggies). And we've gotten her a training cup to start trying to teach her to drink from one (it can take a while, understandably, and she needs to have it down by the time she needs to start getting fluids from places other than nursing). We haven''t tried any liquid in it yet, but she's been getting acquainted with it and and sure loves biting on the soft spout.  And the newest development -- so new, in fact, I couldn't have written about it yesterday -- Ava can now sit on her own fairly well. With one of us right there in case she starts to topple to the side or back, anyway. But she's very quickly gotten much better at figuring out how to balance herself and catch herself if she starts to tip too far one way or the other. She can't get to that sitting position herself yet, but being able to sit and play brings a whole new dimension to things.  Other favorite activities:
  
11:53 PM || I want to be a comment. Post me! |
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Disc-shaped music. [updated: 2.2.06] |