Twitter Machine Tuesday

I can't avoid the biggest topic of the past week: Super Bowl.  So it has found its way all over the Twitter Machine this week.  From commercials to food to the game itself even.  It is a cultural phenomenon that extends to more households every year than any other televised event.

Maybe the State of the Union should be a bigger deal.  Maybe it's always more of a let down than anything else.  But it's still an event and day that has an effect on at least a third of our population.  That is, for lack of a better term, a big deal.

Without further ado...
-The Avengers...yeah going to see the shit out of that
-In a related story Amazing Spider-Man looks fantastic too
-I have no problem saying that Joe Montana would have found a way to win that Super Bowl #stillnumber1
-Now that there's no more football we can focus on the real game. Pitchers and catchers report in 11 days #sfgiants #hopespringseternal
-John Carter = Avatar 1.5 #amiright
-For once I didn't overeat during the game.  Although I was craving the Buffalo Wild Wings.
-I started getting spam comments on here, but they're deleted before I can even get to my main page.
-In case you're wondering, our girls paid no attention the game. They were however interested in The Lorax commercial. #prettycolors
-Grace got so frustrated with this new toy that she headbutted it...and immediately started bawling.
-Multi-Grain Peanut Butter Cheerios. It's almost as if they have no idea what customer they're trying for.
-They just so happen to be a delicious cereal.
-Got the first glimpses of Cadbury Creme Eggs at the grocery store. #omg #lovethem #caneatadozen
-The Roman empire thought Madonna's halftime show was a little over the top.
-MIA flipping people off apparently is the new Janet Jackson's nipple. America needs to chill out. It's just a finger.
-I respect Giselle standing by her man. Tom Brady can't throw the ball and catch it too. He can just throw it better.
-Chuck Norris' last endorsement was for God, and we all know how that worked out.
-Are we really that surprised that Apple uses cheap, overseas labor? Imagine what an American built iPhone would cost.
-I've never been less invested in an Oscar season, but I'm still very invested in TCM's 31 Days of Oscar.
-Doing the Photo a Day Challenge on Instagram. Trying to be creative with it when I can.
-For example one day's prompt was "stranger" so I took a picture of Billy Joel's The Stranger album cover
-Nice people always makes my day. I'm an honest, upfront guy, and I appreciate when someone does the same.

Hope everyone has a good recovery after Super Bowl week.

Cleaning Out My Closet

This isn't some reference to Eminem and airing my grievances.

It's a more literal title.

Yesterday Erin and I had a very relaxing Super Bowl Sunday ever.  We went on a walk in the morning with my in-laws.  We pulled some weeds in our front yard.  I finally got a haircut after months of putting it off.  Erin made a buffalo chicken dip which was our big indulgence during the game.  And we watched the Super Bowl in our living room while playing with our girls.

It was fantastic.  We didn't over-eat or drink.  We just relaxed.

After we put the girls down for the night, we ate dinner and folded laundry while watching The West Wing.

Then we decided to start doing some cleaning at 10:30pm.

Erin was on a mission to match every unmatched sock in our house.  She got damn close to 100%.  She also pulled clothes out of both of our closets.  This started as a way to find more socks, but it turned into getting stuff out in the open instead of piled away in our closets.

With all these newly matched socks to fill my dresser drawers and clothes on the bed and floor instead of my closet, I figured it was time to do some reorganization.  It was also a great time to look for potential clothing donations.  So I started cleaning up my drawers and finding stuff in my closet that had to go.  I took all the shoes that we stack up in our laundry room and actually organized them in my closet.  I let go of shirts and other clothing items that I was holding onto for no good reason and filled up 2 garbage bags with donations.

We stayed up until after midnight reorganizing everything.  Our closets and bedroom haven't been this clean since the day we moved in.  It was a great feeling.

The only thing that made it better was the girls going into our closets this morning and not knowing what to do.  There was nothing piled up on the floor to play with, so they exited just as quickly as they had entered.  I guess they'll need to find another pile of clothes to play in.

Daddy Daughter Days

Every Thursday my wife takes my Subaru to work and leaves me the Highlander.  Mostly because the Subaru is small, and we've never really tried putting the car seats in my car.  So it's just easier to trade cars for the day.  This particular Thursday started with this text message:

It started a debate on Facebook.  Not really a debate.  Mostly Erin's friends all rushed to her defense and agreed that carrying dental floss in your car is totally normal.  I still don't buy it.  We can't make phone calls or text message while driving (which ironically she was doing), but everyone thinks it's okay to floss while driving?  Are all these people eating popcorn and peanut brittle behind the wheel?  I just wonder what Oprah would tell all these flossing drivers.  I have nothing against dental hygiene.  In fact I would consider myself pro-brushing and flossing.  I also get the floss in the purse thing because women carry EVERYTHING in their purses, but floss in the car is a little overboard and unnecessary.

After breakfast we decided to get every toy that we store in the basket next to the fireplace out and on the floor.  And an empty basket is the perfect place for two little girls to sit.

Grace was also playing her own version of peekaboo.  Or she just liked the taste of the arm rest on the couch.  Either way.

Ana decided that she wanted needed whatever was behind the TV stand.  That was until she had trouble getting back out.  Then it was up to dad to come to the rescue.  The moment she was out, she went right back to the TV stand and tried to squeeze behind it again.

The weather was so nice that we put on our hats and jackets and played in the back yard.  I took about 20 pictures, but I won't share them all.

Grace immediately gravitated to this wiffle ball.  Ball may be her favorite word (just need to teach her to say "Play" before it).  She was running through the grass and throwing this ball which was all sorts of adorable.

Ana went right to this little wooden bridge that goes over some rocks that border our grass.  She climbed onto it, and she couldn't be more proud of herself to be up there. 

Not wanting to be left out of all the fun that is bridge climbing, Grace joined her sister almost immediately.  She refused to let go of her ball, so steadying herself was an issue.  But she eventually climbed to the top too.

Ana kept finding herself in precarious positions.  Here she crawled into a shelf on our island.  But at least she was smart about it.  She put the tops of our Tupperware on the shelf above first to improve her dexterity and then crawled in.  Didn't stop her from getting stuck though.

She has great taste in movies.  Get it.  If she had picked out Groundhog Day to eat, I would have thought it was a sign.  I'll just need to floss out those bits of DVD.  If only I had some in my car.

Another great day with my girls.  Have a great weekend everyone.  Go footballers!

Twitter Machine Tuesday

The San Francisco Giants were doing a casting call via their website to appear in a commercial for the 2012 season.  I of course wrote the story leading up to their birth and about the fact that one of my daughters is named after Buster Posey.

I received an email yesterday that a producer would be in contact with me to appear in the commercial.  I thought I was pretty special until like three other friends said that they received the same email.  So I think they just wanted people to show up to appear in crowd shots.

Their loss since my kids are adorable and would make for a great ad campaign.  Plus I would have certainly blogged about it and given them the exposure that comes with a readership of literally dozens.

On to the Twitter Machine:
-Are you reading my wife's 30 before 30 series?  She is a MUCH better writer than me, and I love her stories (and her).
-The girls adore my in-laws' dog. Like so much that Ana just walks up to her randomly and hugs her.
-Grace prefers crawling onto the dog bed and laying down. With or without the dog on it.
-I've been brushing hair off them constantly since then.
-What the hell is a Lana Del Rey?
-Thought Super Bowl Sunday would be a good day for snowboard lessons, but the weather hasn't really cooperated #inconvenienttruth
-Pinterest gives wives/girlfriends one more reason to be mad their husbands/boyfriends didn't get them the perfect gift.
-Blake Griffin's dunk was ferocious and entertaining as hell, but let's not crown it #bestdunkever just yet
-I'd still say Baron Davis on Kirilenko was a bigger game and a better dunk
-I say this with a certain amount of pride: I've never watched a second of Glee or American Idol #sorryFOX
-We should be finished with Season 3 of The West Wing by the end of the week. #giftthatkeepsongiving
-I think I'm going to try and get Erin to watch The Shield. May take some convincing but it's excellent television.
-I have a perfect gift for the traditional 5th Anniversary theme, but I don't know if I can wait until July to give it to Erin #wood #impatient
-There's a contest to watch nothing but The Simpsons for 5 days straight in honor of the 500th episode. Can't enter. #stupidwork #stupidresponsibilities
-Seriously 500 episodes! That is staggering.
-I can't get behind a high school kid picking his college being a televised event. Seems exploitative.
-Of course I wouldn't hesitate to appear in a Giants commercial with my girls #hypocrisy
-Trying to figure out which book I should read next on my Kindle #suggestions
-I really have no interest in the Super Bowl. I feel like such a girl because I care more about the commercials.
-I mean David Beckham in his underwear for H&M screams football #ineurope
-Which leads me to 2 questions: 1. Why is H&M buying ad time during the Super Bowl? 2. When will it air?
-I don't know if that last joke translates well without the over-the-top gay voice that I do way too well
-Haven't had Thai food in too long. That absolutely needs to change. Pad Thai and Panang Curry = YUM
-Erin says we can't go see The Black Keys and Arctic Monkeys because it would be back-to-back concert nights. #partypooper
-I need people to convince her why it's an awesome idea.

I'll leave you with a picture of Grace with Molly (the aforementioned dog).  As I wrote above, they love her.

This Place is a Zoo

Our girls love animals.

Well they love dogs for sure.  They call every animal a "doggy", so I'm just assuming that they love animals in general.

We finally had a chance to confirm it yesterday.

Erin's grandma gave us a year-long pass to the Sacramento Zoo, so we can take the girls whenever we want.  Since the weather has been so nice recently, we decided that Sunday was going to be a Zoo day.

I remembered the Zoo being much bigger when I was a kid.  Maybe I thought it was bigger because I loved running all around and seeing all the animals and my sheer excitement blinded me to it's actual size.  Realistically it isn't large at all compared to other Zoos, but I still loved taking the girls there.  Seeing their eyes light up at all the animals filled my heart with so much love and took me back to being a kid again.

My favorite part: Pointing out the lion to Grace who instead pointed out the ball in the lion's pen.  Yes Grace, we know you know the word "ball" and it is very cute.

I look forward to going back there with them every few weeks.  I just don't think it will ever get old.

Their faces tell the story, so I'll let the pictures do the rest of the talking.