God's Birthday Present to me!

Today is my 36th birthday! Yeah Me! I decided to go work out at the gym this morning before work and God blessed me with the perfect birthday gift. As I entered the packed weight room and moved over to the leg curl machine, I noticed the quintessential Microsoft employee. He was a late 40's early 50's skinny, pasty white nerd with glasses. Not the old school type of nerd you used to feel sorry for when they got spat on riding the bus, but the modern nerd version who grew up, got a job at a software company and thinks he is the smartest guy in the world. He was working out with his trainer who was a 20's something gal (not bad looking) and I could tell this guy was attempting to impress her with the only thing an arrogant pasty white nerd can, his "intellect".
As I began to work out, I noticed that this guy was wearing a Che t-shirt. I hate Che t-shirts almost as much as I hate the morons who wear them. I was thinking of a way I could confront this jackass when God presented me with the perfect opportunity. This guy's trainer asked him who was on his shirt and you could tell from the way his eyes lit up that he was hoping she would ask him that question so that he could impress her with his knowledge of the "great revolutionary" Che Guevara.

The guy goes into his mini lecture on the "great" Che Guevara, telling her "Che was a freedom fighter who fought to free poor people throughout Central America..." he went on to say that "the CIA assassinated him before he was able to free all of the peasants and bring about a just society in Central America." At this point, I've had enough and say, "Why are you lying to her? Che was a mass murderer who tortured innocent men woman and children. He was one of the worst tyrants of the 20th Century." The guy says to me "One man's tyrant is another man's freedom fighter." to which I replied, "Where's your Hitler T-shirt? Is it dirty, or do you only wear it on the Sabbath?" At this point the trainer stepped in, and moved the guy over to a different part of the weight room.

It always shocks me when I see grown, educated men working out at an exclusive and highly expensive club celebrating a guy who would have taken great pleasure in torturing and killing him. The other thing that shocks me is that at this club, most of the low level employees are recent immigrants from Central and South America. The guys who clean up the locker room, wash the floors, and clean the toilets for minimum wage might have relatives who were tortured and murdered by Che and this jackass is prancing around in a Che t-shirt... unbelievable...

Cat as Pillow.

Knuckleheads!

I have no idea where these two think this crap up...

GG's Letter to Violet...

Dear Violet,

It has come to my attention that you are being pressured to give up the binky. Do not, I repeat do not give in to the pressure. Mommas rarely know best when it comes to binkies... Let me tell you that my binky is like a friend, no in fact it is better than a friend. A binky will never let you down. Your Mom is going to attempt all kinds of crazy stuff to get rid of the Binky, bribes, spanking, telling you she "lost" it. Don't believe it. It is all lies... Make a deal with her, you'll give up your binky if she gives up posting on Facebook.



Binky Up!

GG

Emi hiding in a cupboard!

Pictures of Emi!

A couple of remodel pictures...
Our remodel is nearly done... here is my favorite part so far... the new glass garage doors. first the before pictures...



and after...



This baby glows like a chinese lantern at night.

Movie Time

Yesterday was a big day in my girls life, as I introduced them to my all time favorite movie, "Planet of the Apes". Both GG and Emi loved it. The first scene with the apes they both yelled "Monkeys!". GG asked me why the "monkeys" were talking and I was able tell her it was due to man's inhumanity to man which pretty much describes every situation not covered by my attage either her daddy loved her too much or not enough.

Greatest Comic Book Cover Ever?

Lileks says this is the greatest comic book cover ever, and I agree!

Sister Fight!

GG doing what she does best, Emi doing what she does best....

My Zoolander Moment



I had a strange Zoolander moment this morning on my way to work. I stopped to get gas at the local gas station, which was unusable busy, and I took the last pump available. As I got out of the car I overheard a lady at the next pump say to a guy pumping gas, "Are you seriously smoking while you pump gas?" The guy who was smoking as he pumped gas said, "Yep". The gal quickly replied, "Then you are as stupid as you look!" The guy sort of shrugged and gave a so what look. Then the lady said, "the worst part of this is that you are going to kill all of us, along with your stupid ass!".

I quickly walked into the gas station to avoid the stupidity. As I walked past the pumps, I counted no less than 12 "No Smoking" signs....

Emi is a jumping fool!

I haven't posted for a while.... but here is video of Emi who has just learned to jump. She can't jump very high yet. But she can jump alot. GG tries to get into the action...

Emily Helen Hastings

Here is the eulogy I wrote for my Mom's funeral...

My mom was a great mother first and foremost. She lived her life dedicated to her three sons. She believed in raising men who had a wide variety of interests and talents. She wanted her sons to be renaissance men.

In this vein, she pushed us boys into music at a young age. All of her sons were required to take piano lessons at the age of 6 or 7. Each of her sons excelled at music and over the years we played Piano, violin, cello, electric bass guitar, trumpet, trombone and pretty much any other instrument someone needed us to play. We played all styles of music from classical, jazz, rock, reggae, etc. Expanding our musical horizons she made sure we had season tickets to the Billings Symphony, and we had many great times attending musicals, concerts, etc.

In addition to musical pursuits, mom was passionate that her boys be exposed to physical and intellectual pursuits. Mom insisted we boys figure skate as children. Every Friday afternoon, Mom would load us on a bus in Lewiston, we would get off and spend the night at our grandparents ranch, then early Saturday morning drive into Great Falls to take skating lessons. Mom always sewed the elaborate costume we wore for our Ice Shows. I have often bragged to my wife that my natural grace is directly related to my Mom forcing me to be a figure skater. Mom sacrificed to make sure that us boys could attend Basketball camps, football camps etc. every summer.

Mom was always cutting edge and interested in the latest and greatest new things. She purchased our first computer in the early 80’s when no one had computers. Mom had the foresight to know that her sons needed to intellectually stimulated. To further this, she made us go to computer camps, college for kids and other such pursuits. Mom was very proud that her boys were intellectually curious as she was.

Mom was passionate about making sure her sons had a strong work ethic and that we be self sufficient. This translated in us boys getting paper routes at a very young age. Once each of us were making our own money, our parents made us use or money to purchase the things we wanted. Going to movies, buying keyboards or guitars soon became our responsibility. If we wanted something, we earned the money to buy it ourselves. We were required to wash our own clothes and cook many of our own meals. The value of this self sufficiency did not become apparent to me until I left home and saw how many guys my age couldn’t wash their own clothes or manage their finances.

My Mom was an innovative award winning teacher who touched the lives of hundreds of children in Alaska and Montana. Teaching was very important for my Mother. For many years she was a kindergarten teacher, and realized that some children are not ready to move on to the 1st grade. She seized on this fact and developed a new transition grade to help these children reach their full potential. My brothers and I, over the years, have often run in to former students and the parents of students of my mother and the reaction is always the same, universal love and respect toward my mother as a teacher.

My mom was a lifelong ardent Catholic, who took her Catholic faith very seriously. Mom was always a public school teacher but she made great sacrifices to ensure that her sons attended Catholic grade, middle, and high school. I believe my Mom would have been extremely satisfied that two of her sons graduated from Benedictine Universities. Her faith was source of strength in her life.

Mom was an avid walker. Mom was a five foot tall dynamo. She loved to go walking with friends as a form of exercise. Growing up we walked everywhere. We walked with Mom to school, on vacations we walked across San Francisco, Seattle, Washington DC. I have very vivid memories of often seeing Mom walking with friends with her unique walking style, hands raised above her head to prevent them from swelling.

Growing up with a Mom like Emily was always fun. She had a natural curiosity and a great intellect, and liked to laugh with her kids. You never knew what was going to happen. One time we were coming back from a trip to Richland Washington and stopped in Walla Walla. Walla Walla is known for their great sweet onions and Mom decided to buy two 100lb sacks of onions. We had Mom, Dad, the 3 boys and Grandpa and Grandma in a Chevy Suburban with 200 lbs of onions. It was 100 degrees out and after about 10 miles all of us were suffering from the effects of that many onions in an enclosed space. My dad decided to mask the smell buy putting the onions into our sleeping bags…. 5 years later those sleeping bags still smelled like Walla Walla sweet onions…

Nice Fall Day

Saturday was a nice fall day so I asked the girls to help me rake up some leaves. It only took about five minutes for them to decided it was much more fun to play in the pile of leaves....

Happy Anniversary Wife!

Happy anniversary wife! We met 15 years ago this month and married 7 years ago this month which demonstrates our subconscious desire for efficiency by having both of our possible anniversaries in the same 15 day span.

The past year has been the best yet as we have been able to see our two children grow and demonstrated both the best and the worst parts of each of us. It is my sincerest hope that we have 50 more great years together!

I often thought that the best decision I ever made was to ignore the advice of my friends who claimed if I dated you, you would somehow end up killing me in the end. It has been 15 years and I am still alive, so the jokes on them!

Emi interacts with Robot GG.

Might Makes Right!

GG is learning the concepts of "bigger" and "smaller". She now knows that she is bigger than Baby, and in turn she is smaller that Daddy and Moma (for now). Being bigger than someone naturally give you the right to put them in their place as these pictures demonstrate.


Baby sitting on a chair, GG jumps up to same chair.


Baby begins to realize that the chair is not big enough for two...


GG begins the process of extracting Baby from chair.


Process nearly complete...


Sweet victory!

Emi eats a Sucker.

Emi has a bit of a sweet tooth.

Random pictures from last weekend.