DJ Electric Daddy

Train Ride At The Spectrum

2009-01-08T01:33:00.001-08:00

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Water Ballooning

2009-01-08T01:31:00.001-08:00

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In a world baked by a relentless summer heat, one man and his son struggle for survival in the scorching suburban wilderness. When all good reason was gone, only the love of a good water balloon offered any relief. In this tale of never-ending pursuit of a cooling trend from the onshore flow, only semi-filled colored rubber
orbs can save the day.

The Muddy Tike

2009-01-08T00:15:00.001-08:00

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What started as a simple hosing down of the Mommy Wagon (also known as the Dani Doom Machine), quickly turned into filthy mayhem. Not one to turn down a chance to play with or in mud, The Sprite saw his window of opportunity and seized it with both hands.

A small (and I mean small, but it doesn't take much) puddle formed from the hose-down overspray, and quicker than a Republican legislator can erode your human rights, Mad Mudd McGuiness dives in bringing Lightning McQueen and Tow Mater with him.

I Know. Keyboards : A Sprite Wordgame

2009-01-08T00:02:00.001-08:00

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The Little Dirt Deville

2009-01-07T23:39:00.001-08:00

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Summer Heat Car Wash

2009-01-07T23:27:00.001-08:00

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Look At Me, I'm A Shy Exhibitionist

2009-01-01T18:53:00.001-08:00

The Sprite has reached that 'showoff' stage of his young development. Whenever he wants to attract, impress or get the attention of someone (it could be another child, a visitor to the house or a family member) he will often resort to some outlandish stunt. Usually this involves climbing and ultimately falling to the ground in a glorified flop. "Did you see that?" he'll ask. "Do you want to see this?" he'll inquire before repeating the stunt.

Recently we were at Irvine Regional Park for the annual Christmas Train that rides through the park to Santa's Village. Waiting in line for our turn to ride the train, a girl maybe 7 years old took a liking to our Sprite. This attention was met with cold shyness at first, but thanks to the young lady's persistence, was eventually returned with some very silly behavior of the "Do yo want to see this?" variety. Climbing on the railing, falling to the ground, fake-bumping into the wall, all including an array of sound effects to enhance the stunt.

His antics must have worked, The Sprite and his older lady friend were inseparable for our duration at the park.

I wonder how long this showoff phase will last. Generally, the little guy is very reserved and standoffish when meeting people. However, once he warms up to someone the antics usually start. He has started mimicking TV commercials and movies, invariably the slapstick physical comedy appealing to his sense of humor. Any time the Pepsi Max "What Is Love" commercial he rushes to the TV to ape the head-nodding and falling over. It cracks him up to no end.

I always thought he would be great on the stage or screen. He's a total ham and loves an audience. But he has to warm up and get comfortable first. Not ideal for auditions i would say. As parents I wonder what we could do to build his confidence enough to overcome his initial shyness. I'm not sure the showing off is a favourable trait but the humorous exhibitionism is definitely entertaining for now. We like to see this side of him more than the shy, reserved kid who won't answer when asked a question.

Of course on the other hand, a reserved kid is absolutely less likely to be abducted by a stranger. By my rationale, any douchebag looking to coax His Stubborness into the back of a bronze Toyota Camry will be greeted with nothing more than a stiff cold shoulder. Nothing can make this kid do ANYTHING against his will. So I take an ounce of comfort in this case. It's tough to know where to set balance between reserved/outgoing. For now it is not a problem obviously. We don't stop laughing at the non-stop goofball show when The Sprite gets going, and the lucky few he warms up to are treated to a great slapstick show. Hopefully eventually he will find enough self-confidence with other people to be his silly self right off the bat. It's s endearing.

A Monochrome Christmas

2008-12-31T01:36:00.001-08:00

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The Sprite explains why, contrary to popular belief, traditional Christmas colours of red and green are in fact incorrect. Instead, he proclaims black and white to be the colours of choice.

Building Christmas Cheer

2008-12-31T00:31:00.001-08:00

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The Sprite lends his hands to help ElectricMommy decorate the Xmas Tree. The whole house is given the seasonal sizzle in an effort to bring some yuletide cheer to one and all.

As you shall see, the little elf is quite deft at fetching and hanging. And his enthusiasm knows no bounds. Yahoo! This year has certainly been the most fun with the little fella, as he has been into the whole idea of it like never before. Christmas Eve he was wound up and ready to explode with excitement, he could barely contain himself.

We hope you all had a lovely warm and happy holiday season.

Wishing all the best for the New Year!

Kidz Soccer

2008-12-23T15:15:00.001-08:00

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Back in May The Sprite was signed up for the 5 and under soccer league at his preschool. It was a pretty good idea, get him out there and runing about with all the other kids. He's half Brit so naturally I was hoping his latent footie skillz would surface and he would run rings around all the Yank kids.

Sadly this was not to be the case. The latent Brit soccer skills will remain dormant for a while longer. Our little Becham wanted nothing to with the kids or the league. He wanted to ball, but got very frustrated when it would not come to him. He was fine in practice when he had a ball to play with. But come game time it all got a little overwhelming for him. Most of the other boys and girls were happy to get in there and battle for the ball. But The Sprite was one of several kids who didin't want to, er, play ball, as it were.

It was frustrating at first, but he got a little better a the 8 game season went on. I ended up going out there and running around with the kids. The Sprite kept close to me and ran about and got a couple of kicks of the ball. To be fair, he was one of the younger ones and the bigger boys were fast and dominated the control of play. A bit daunting for the little guy to compete with.

We'll try again in the future when he has more interest in doing it. And when he can bend a free kick around a 10 man wall into the top left corner of the goal.

Family Christmas Card 2008

2008-12-16T15:11:00.000-08:00

Here is the family Xmas card we made this year. We had a picture taken at the Christmas Show that took place at the Church where The Sprite goes to pre-school. Trouble was, despite their attempts to dress up the scene with a Christmas tree and poinsettia, the background was so stark and white. This is the before and after of the shot I edited and composited into something a little more attractive.

The original shot

The final image

Solace From The City

2008-11-13T02:31:00.001-08:00

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A recent family trip to Laguna Lake in Fulllerton. This little pocket of peace, quiet and solitude serves as a lovely break from the city. Only minutes away from downtown, you'd never guess this was in urban Orange County, and not somewhere more rural.

We like to go here in the evenings as the sun is setting, and do a lap of the lake. It is so relaxing. It is rarely busy there, but it has its share of walkers, bikers and fisherman. The Sprite loves to run and throw stones and scream. Not so much into the relaxing yet.

Laguna Lake is in an area known as Coyote Hills which is rapidly being developed (at least it was before the crash) despite passionate opposition and protest from the community. You can see why.

The Day We Tried To Ski

2008-10-14T01:03:00.001-07:00

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Every year, in late February, we make the only trip of the year up mountain to find out how much we suck at skiing compared to last year. On my father-in-law's birthday the whole family meets up at Snow Summit in Big Bear. At Snow Summit you can ski for free on your birthday, hence the occasion. We rent a cabin for a couple of nights which makes for a nice comfort after beating oneself up all day on the slopes. Driving back down the mountain exhausted and your body hurting was miserable when we did it.

Typically, Southern California ushers in a huge storm the preceeding night, which usually means; 1) treacherous driving conditions, 2) great skiing.

This year, right on cue, a storm swanied into town late Thursday night. So as we do each year, we arise with some trepidation at the crack of dawn, or earlier. Pack up the car with all our warm clothes and snow toys. Grab a coffee. And try to beat the commuter traffic on the 91 freeway, then ultimately wind our way up the San Bernadino mountain range via Route 38.

It was clear, however, that as soon as I got up and looked outside the day would be less than great. It was grey, damp, cloudy and no visible sign of land above 150 feet. As we sloshed our way toward the summit it was obvious we would not be needing the snow chains in the trunk. The rain had melted any snow on the road and luckily the cloud cover kept the temperature above freezing so damp was all we got.

We stopped for coffee and breakfast at Running Springs, just before Big Bear on the 38. Here, The Sprite got his first snow play of the weekend, climbing the ploughed-snow verges with Everstian determination. Unfortunately we only had wool mittens for him, unable to find toddler sized snow gloves anywhere. Unbeleiveable I know. He did have some good thermal undergarments and snow pants and jacket and the cold did not seem to bother him.

Once we met up with the rest of the family it was almost unanimous that skiing was out of the question. My brothers-in-law both decided it was worth a try, but they are significantly younger than the rest of us, and as such clearly willing to suffer for their cause. Or their thrills. As it turns out, despite visibility being alsmost nil at the foot of the ski slope, the fresh powder was outstanding, and the dampness did not make the snow 'sticky' at all. Basically, the conditions were incredible. I went out for a walk to shoot some snoe photo's in the afternoon, and the snow underfoot was like tiny little ball-bearings. Crump crump crump. It sounded as good as it felt. I felt a tinge of regret as I walked along some deserted back alleys, breathing heavily in the thin air.

I kinda wished I had sucked it up and gone skiing.

Especially as the next morning, a Saturday, the road outside our cabin that led up to Summit resort was bumper to bumper with eager skiiers and snowboarders, hungry for some action on the fresh snow. To add insult to the situation, the sky was clear blue. It was going to be a GREAT days skiing. If you could weave your way through the masses on the slopes. My father-in-law swore years ago he would never ski on a Saturday again for the very reason there were just too many people for it to be any fun. He's skied there for 50 years and seen it grow to it's current scale. He's earned his right to be picky. So, after breakfast, everyone packed up and left. A bit of an anti-climax to all that great powder.

Next year. Just hope I don't suck doublefold for having missed a year.

Semanal08 : Week 21 - Quadzilla : The Sprite Rides Free

2008-07-29T02:19:00.001-07:00

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It was way back in December, in Arizona. The kid got his first real wheels. He'd had a tricycle for a while and had gotten pretty deft at pedalling up and down the street. But this was different. This time he was motorised. He had the power.

Grandma, or Mama-G as she is known, had the crazy notion to buy the little fella his very own Yamaha Raptor Replica Quad. This thing is no toy either. It's as big as a full size 50cc Raptor and looks every bit the part. It runs off of a 12 volt battery, it has hi and lo speed, forwards and reverse. It also makes authentic 2-stroke ringningningning throttle sounds, which to anyone who's ever riden a 2-stroke knows is like a 100 peice symphony to motor-geeks ears. Of course it has none of the environmentally unpleasent side effects like the thick blue smoke of 2-stroke premix burning out the exhaust. I use the term unpleasent loosely, again, anyone who has ever riden a 2-stroke will know what i'm talking about here.

Well, it didn't take long before our 3 year old headcase was tearing up and down the street at full speed, locking up the rear wheels, skidding on opposite lock to get the thing turned around. He wanted no part of lo-speed, once he found out what that switch did it was full tilt. That is indeed my boy. It was near impossible to get him off the thing. And as equally near impossible to get the fantastic plastic into the back of the Chevy to bring it back to California.

Since he's had it, we ride regularly. Here, we take it out to the local park where he can ride up and down the path, terrorising the other lame, foot-propelled kids. See them turn and run when Quadzilla hacks down the tracks. Lately The Sprite and I have been taking rides around the block, he on the quad and myself on my mountain bike. Its a fun way to spend a few minutes these warm summer evenings.

Pretty soon, he'll be moving up to the real thing and heading back out to Arizona and the sand dunes to rev up a real 2-stroke. Ringdindinningningdingning!!!

The Long Spring of Infection

2008-07-07T01:34:00.001-07:00

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Fevers, flu, long cough, pink eye, scarlet fever, strep throat, tummy flu.

Semanal08 : Week 20 - Einstein's Revisited

2008-07-01T02:08:00.001-07:00

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A couple of weeks ago, on A Saturday morning, The Sprite and I were trying to figure out what we would do for a couple of hours while ElectricMummy enjoyed her turn to sleep in. Our little Early Bird is up to get the Weekend Worm promptly at 6:30am every weekend like German clockwork.

So we take turns to get up with him and find ways to keep him occupied while the other gets a couple of bonus hours of sleep. This usually entails sitting him in front of Playhouse Disney on TV whilst the unfortunate 'parent' sneaks some shut-eye on the couch.

But on this particular weekend The Sprite had his mind made up that he wanted to step back in time and watch some of those Baby Einstein's. you know, those DVDs of toys and toddlers and primary colors. These were great when he was an infant, we'd set him up in his swing and he'd sit engrossed watching these mindless (to adult eyes) video's.

We thought these DVD's were ready for the yard sale by now. He had grown and his tastes were more mature. We own every Pixar movie under the sun and they get played in steady rotation. Little did we know there was life in the puppet dog yet. We'll see if this weekend here was an anomaly or if Baby Einstein's once again become a fixture in The Sprightly Playlist.

Book Time With The Sprite

2008-06-12T07:51:00.001-07:00

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The Very Very Very Lazy Lazy Ladybug as read by His Spriteness.

One busy morning as I am rushing about the house deep in my morning ritual of putting on my cornflakes and pouring nice cold milk over a bowl of underwear, I heard a voice. It was talking, conversing, telling a story. I easily recognised the voice as that of my own child (now THAT'S parenting for ya) but it was different somehow.

It wasn't whining, pleading for some sticky sugary food item he is not allowed. It wasn't crying because the house next door was painted the wrong color. It wasn't screaming, shrieking at the top of his lungs, just to see if it's true that Daddies eyeballs start to bleed from sound over 21,000hz frequency and 120db of amplitude. No, this sound was quite, peaceful, conversational.

I stopped to listen for a moment, half expecting to hear a secret conversation with a new found imaginary friend, or worse. For him to be speaking in Aramaic, uttering strange ancient curses. But once I poked my head around his door, instead of picking an outfit for to wear today at school, I saw him sitting on the floor, book in hands, reading to himself.

Of course this would make any parent proud. The fact he chose to pick a book, one we had been reading every night for a couple of weeks, and voluntarily entertain himself with words was a huge step in the right direction as far as I am concerned. Not to mention it was darn cute.

Obviously he wasn't actually reading the words off the page. He's a way off from doing that. As I mentioned, we had been reading the book every night, and The Sprite Brain had clearly absorbed the story and memorised the words. This is almost more impressive, a trait he has displayed many times since, memorising words and books with ease. Matching the story to the pictures, and understanding the context, he is able to recount his most popular books.

I told ElectricMommy he would make a great actor if he can memorise his lines that easily. She said if he can remember a birthday or wedding anniversary (something his Dad is incapable of) she'll be happy.

Semanal08 : Week 18 - A Rant About Timekeeping

2008-06-10T23:01:00.001-07:00

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Time.

Where does it go. The sands in the hourglass.

"Ticking away the moments that make up a dull day" as David Gilmour sang.

Today, I rant about time and the management and keeping of it. it's been a recurring theme around these parts for some time now that we are always late. For everything. Since The Sprite was born it has only gotten worse. And now he is off to pre-school in the mornings, there are added complications and distractions to deal with.

Subsequently I have been getting to work later and later. The little fella just loves to help out. In fact he insists. Whether it is making my tea or taking the trash out, The Helping Hand of Sprite is there slowing me down. Trying to get everything done and get out the door in time without tripping over Little Monster has revealed an epic weakness in our system. We are all lolligaggers.

So it did not go unnoticed by the Power Behind The Door at work and I got a stiff talking to, well actually quite a limp talking to considering. ElectricMomy and I have tryed to work something out, some kind of system that works for everyone. With her off to full-time employment again it's tough getting a schedule where we can satisfy the needs of Corporate Amerika (which feeds and clothes us), yet allows us to deliver The Sprite to and from school safely and timely.

I'm sure it is nothing new and families the world over have to deal with exactly the same problems. It is also someting Corporate Amerika is fully aware of, it being nothing new to them either, so one would expect some level of understanding on their part. But also, I know that when The Sprite starts 'real' education we will have to be much more disiplined. School starts earlier and the stakes are higher than simply missing sandbox time.

I'm hoping these early years tune us to the fina art of getting up and out at a decent hour in the morning.

And with that being said, I'll leave it to Mr. Gilmour to take us out.

"Every year is getting shorter never seem to find the time.
Plans that either come to naught or half a page of scribbled lines
Hanging on in quiet desperation is the English way
The time is gone, the song is over,
Thought I'd something more to say."

Semanal08 : Week 17 - Chicken Pie Shop

2008-06-06T00:13:00.001-07:00

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It's a Friday night. We are hungry.

It's the end of a long week. Nobody wants to cook.

What to do.

We let someone else do the cooking. We get take out food and bring it home, sit in front of the TV with a glass of wine.

One of our favourite take away eateries is the La Palma Chicken Pie Shop. It is on La Palma Blvd in Anaheim and it serves chicken pot pies. Nuff said. The food is all home made and is really tasty. They have the best mashed potatos and gravy. And cookies. Macaroons, snowballs, molases, peanut butter. So tasty.

So what we usually do is get a couple of the take away dinners, 4 uncooked pies for the freezer, a pint of gravy and a couple dozen cookies to last the weekend.

The place is a real old school mom 'n pop shop, and a little bit dingey to be honest. It doesn't look much but the food is worth it. There is nothing modern or smart about it. The old boy that runs it is a character, he's a bit of a grouch. I imagine he's done this every day for the last 47 years. So no wonder he's grouchy.

On this night I was taking video of the place and captured a great conversation between the owner and a customer. At least I would have captured it had I not ran out of battery. From what I could tell, the owner was from Germany and the customer was stationed there at some point, maybe during WW2. I wish I had gotten that on camera. I'll have to go back another time to get some more details, however I don't think I'll be lucky enough to get an interview with the old boy. I'll be lucky to get my food while it's still hot.

Semanal08 : Week 16 - Lunchtime Playground

2008-06-04T00:05:00.001-07:00

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A few weeks ago, ElectricMummy had to go do some business things, which is nothing unusual, except on this occasion our little Sprite had a bit of a cough that kept him out of school. That left me on playground duty for a couple of hours. Which was actually quite nice, it got me out of the office and away from work for an extended period of time with a perfectly valid excuse.

So, with time to kill, the boy and I hit the swings, slides and sand for a brief playtime. He had fun running around (of course) and I had fun chasing him (again, of course) stuffing my Flip into his face wherever he went.

But like all good things, our relaxing afternoon came to and end when mummy returned and he had to go home for a nap, and I back to work.

Semanal08 : Week 15 - A Sprite On The Sand

2008-05-14T18:03:00.001-07:00

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On a warm, sunny Spring day the family took a little jaunt to the seaside. Mr. G loves the beach, and makes a beeline for the water the moment we release him from the car. So, we spent a Sunday relaxing down at Huntington Beach, looking out over the glistening Pacific Ocean. It was early in the season so parking was easy to find, and the spacious beach was practically deserted. On this day we took a stroll along the beach path, went along to the end of the pier and looked at the seagulls, got some food from one of the vendors along the path and had a little picnic on the sand. Followed by some fun and frolic, and the inevitable indigestion. Our attempts at building sand castles were thwarted by Senør Destructo himself, his Royal Spriteliness. But we did end up finishing the day off with some ice cream. A visit to the beach is never complete without it.

Semanal08 : Week 14 - First Move, Playground Fun

2008-05-10T01:55:00.001-07:00

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A little while ago, we decided that The Sprite was ready for the next big test in his growth as a media consumer. He successfully graduated from Baby Einstein, to The Wiggles, to Sesame Street, to every Pixar DVD available. Now he was ready for the Big Screen.

A semi-local movie theatre has $1 movies on Sunday mornings, so we figured we would test The Sprite's ability to sit through a feature length with little financial risk. The latest Pixar gem Ratatouille was screening, so this was a no brainer to get him into. And although this was least kid-friendly movie Pixar has made to date, G did very well, sitting still throughout the show. The story was more grown-up and the characters less cuddly than previous Pixar creations, but there was planty of slapstick to keep us all giggling.

After the movie was over, The Sprite needed to burn off 2 hours of couped-up, coke-fueled energy. So we headed across the street to the park for a walk and some fun on the big slide at the playground.

Semanal08 : Week13 - Fun With Water & Leaves

2008-05-06T00:32:00.001-07:00

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On a chill but pleasent spring morning, our little Sprite finds many an amusement in the back garden wonderland of fallen leaves, puddles, dirt and all manner of things to get himself filthy dirty and soaking wet. Oh well, boys will be boys. Anyhow, it keeps him busy and occupied for a time. Even if it means we have to rake up the leaves again after the G-Express ploughed through them for the umpteenth time.

Semanal08 : Week12 - Drive Time

2008-05-05T23:39:00.001-07:00

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Driving the commute on a Southern California freeway can be a trying experience. It can take hours to travel the two miles to Mrs Miggins Pie Shop, and hours to get back home again. At which point the huge commemorative pie you bought to celebrate Huge Commemorative Pie Week is cold and grossly unsatisfactory.

The roads are populated by nutters and maniacs, on cell phones, texting and eating cheeseburgers. So I do what any good citizen would do. Pick up his Flip and capture some artistically shot video of traffic lights and sunsets and blurry dashboard things.

Semanal08 : Week11 - An Early Start

2008-05-04T15:13:00.001-07:00

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A rare occasion when the whole family is up on time and ready to go early on a weekday. Being up and ready early made me ponder how I could maximize my productive time, without neglecting sleep, and still getting out of the door with enough time to get to work on time.

Sadly, on this particular morning, i spent too much time videoblogging to get myself out of the house on time.

I read an article about the 6 day week, following the 28 hour day schedule, whereby one would be awake for 20 hours and sleep for 8. Obviously this would mess with any work schedule as by day three you would be awake through the night. But I thought it interesting, as a way to maximise productivity, and to ultimately get an additional four hours a day to spend playing Guitar Hero on the Playstation

Humorously illustrated here: http://www.xkcd.com