Christmas Ale Tasting Party

Saturday was the 9th Annual Pastalaniec Christmas Ale Tasting Party. Dziadziu was in charge if picture taking, so official pics will be up later. This year we mixed it up by splitting the tasting into three parts: 1) match the Downstream Wimpy Industrial Beer description with its name, 2) match the Downstream Wimpy Industrial Beer by tasting it, and 3) match the Christmas Ale by tasting it.

Sean helps decorate

Sean is temporarily distracted from decorating

Grandma helps on Saturday by watching Sean while Dave gets ready. Sean thinks he is a cat...

Kerry shows Sean that Texas is bigger than France

Grandma with Ike Heider

Collin, Abagail, Morgan and Mackenzie (Sean is in the background)

Carol massages Jenn's feet - Alton is due next month!

15 Days Until Christmas

This is where I go to get fed, right?

Today we made sure to attend the 11pm Mass at Sacred Heart. After Mass the blessing of the new Co-Cathedral's great bells was scheduled, along with the last tour of the new church prior to its opening in April 2008. The bells, named after the founders of religious women's orders in the Houston area, did not arrive on time - held up at customs in the Port of Houston. All 4 bells weigh about 2-tons! As Father Troy said - it was not so much a problem for the clergy, the scheduled bishops or the parishioners as it was a disappointment for the 100+ nuns who came! The tour was great. Most impressive so far were the 2 installed statues - click here to see the Shrine to the Sacred Heart of Jesus Christ - a painted wood statue with a gilded gold rippled wood background. The picture does not do it justice!

After Mass Barbara ran the YMCA Jingle Bell 5 mile run - Christmasy, but 85 F and humid!

Who needs lead contaminated Chinese toys when I can have tennis balls?

Yesterday Barbara and I finally played tennis, after talking about it for 6 years. "Played" would, however, imply something like a volley back and forth. Usually the ball got to my side and was either 1) missed, 2) hit awry or 3) hit back to Barb but out of bounds. At first she thought I was trying to be funny - she finally became convinced that I have no eye-hand coordination whatsoever - the truth! The fact that I just switched form -7.5 to -8.0 contacts just supports her conclusion. Basic web research shows that -8.0 means I see the same thing at 20 feet as a "normal" person sees at 1,000 feet. Yikes!

Sean loves the tennis balls in a can!

Nemesis II

Today we finally broke down and bought a new Roomba 560. Our old 3rd generation Roomba's, Nemesis and Dr. Doom, were starting to show major signs of old age. This 5th generation Roomba rocks. It is much quieter, navigates obstacles even better, and even slows down before it bumps into things. Amusing: because it sounded different Barley followed it around with her claws unsheathed for quite a while!

Welcome to Houston

The new Roomba's "lighthouses" require C batteries, something we have no other use for. I went to grab batteries from our battery storage unit in the garage and found the above (excuse the out of focus picture.) Apparently storing batteries for 2+ years in a garage in Houston is not a good thing - 7 out of 8 were bad.

11 Months Old Today!

Christmas means... new things to eat?

First, please pray for our next door neighbor, Howard Pool, who passed away Monday, and his wife, Mary. Howard was almost 82 and and an inspiration. He biked the MS-150 13 times, I believe, including several since we have lived next door. He served in the Pacific in WWII. He actually made me into a willing, talkative, neighbor - much to the surprise of many. Barbara was able to go to his memorial service today at South Main Baptist Church, which was filled to the rafters with his friends and family. Obituary

A cat and her boy!

Sean enters the final month of his first year full of laughs and smiles. He crawls to the front door when I come home - from wherever he is. He seems very satisfied with crawling and not walking yet, but does stand on his own when it suits his purposes (usually trying to reach something) and has good balance. Over the holidays he had plenty of time to hang out with other kids and he is pretty social. I think he just had a growth spurt as he can now spread his chaos to things on the dining table that he could not reach 2 weeks ago.

Sean the cat tamer uses a frond from Palm Sunday (not realizing it is Christmas now)

Kraft Sharp Cheddar Shredded Cheese Breakdown

Kraft's Sharp Cheddar Shredded Cheese is packaged in Zip-Pak Resealable packaging - a division of Illinois Tool Works. Their Hi-Cone division invented the 6-pack plastic ring beverage carrier in the 1960s!

Interesting ingredients:

• Annatto: from the lipstick-tree, a color agent
• Potato Starch: Per the International Starch Institute - Denmark produces more potato starch per capita than any other nation!
• Cellulose Powder
• Natamycin: A "natural" mold inhibitor
  

Thanksgiving Part II

A cold bug brought down from Denver is slowly doing in this branch of the Pastalaniec Family. Sean first, then Dave and now Barbara. Dave blames this for accidentally deleting most of the photos of Thanksgiving in Kerrville - we will rescue those from other cameras and post later. Summary - a very nice time with all the Boyces. Sean and Elissa continue to get along famously. It was cold and rainy all weekend in Kerrville, but we had fun inside talking and watching football just the same - congrats to the Ags...

Sean's first cold! He has a runny nose and everything else - even though he does not understand it he has been a trooper. However, he will not sleep more than 7 hours or so at a time - ouch!

Sean's new trick is opening and closing doors - mainly closing since he can't reach a doorknob yet. Right now you cannot ever open a door without assuming the he is right behind, waiting to close it.

As stated in the last post we spent the first Sunday of "Thanksgiving Week" with the Milby clan. Pictures:

Eric and Dave watch Rachel and Sean

Cousin Kayla watches Daniel while massaging Anida's back

Sean and Daniel playing

Rachel, "Patient Zero" for the current Pastalaniec cold epidemic, gets some much needed rest!

Happy Thankgiving

We celebrated Thanksgiving at the Pastalaniec Compound in South Houston. Grandma and Dziadziu cooked up a delicious spread, as ususal. Traditional delicacies included Spinach Madeline, Tofurkey, and Rabbit-Free (i.e. vegetarian) dressing along with more normal fare.

Last Sunday we had Thanksgiving with the whole Milby clan, hosted by Anida's sister Teresa. Barb and I also had a double date with Eric and Anida last night - thanks to all the grandparents for baby sitting.

Last Saturday was our Godchild Morgan's baptism at St. Vincent DePaul. It was beautiful - hopefully we will have pictures posted soon...

Sean models a cut lip for his first Thankgiving - also slight bruises on each cheek. Sean is a big fan of the face plant.

Pastalaniec family, minus photagrapher Joanne


Joe and Joanne pull the Tofurkey wishbone

10 Months Old

Happy 10-Month Birthday! Sean is growing and advancing with leaps and bounds. He stood for almost 10 seconds the other day. He thought he was being held up by a shoe lace he was holding up from a shoe in his toy box - psyche!

He seems to be trying to use four words - mama, dada, cat and uh-oh. The uh-oh sound is the most definite and the funniest - he uses it at appropriate times but can only say "uh" not "oh."

For the last week he has been using his walking toys to "walk" around the living room. He pulls up and crawls on every thing. He latest trick is trying to do chin-ups on the dining table.

Halloween Night

Pictures shamelessly lifted from the new re-branded Gator Blog!

Besides making a grab for Morgan, Sean slept through most of Halloween. Dave missed his trick or treating with the Carters and Johnsons for the first time in 5 years. Duty called and he was at ISP Corporate in NJ.

The gangs all here (well, minus sick Braden and sister Gillian) (and mostly awake...)

Halloween Weekend

Above, another picture taken at PicturePeople in the Galleria. They did a great job and it was well worth the shekels.

Sean has not yet selected a "comfort object" as many crumb crunchers his age do (e.g. blanket, stuffed animal, etc.) He does, however, pick favorite objects for one or two day periods. This weekend it was both a plastic back massage thingy and the plastic measuring cup/cap that comes with our laundry soap. When he crawls around the house carrying the cap it sounds like a pegged-leg pirate is walking around. At least he had the good sense to pick plastic objects! 2007 is the 100th anniversary of plastic! Bakelite on Wikipedia, 1950's film on plastic, Ansco Panda Bakelite Camera - made by GAF (now ISP.)

Saturday we went to Joshua Nolen's baptism in the Woodlands. The service was held at St. Anthony of Padua Catholic church. Interestingly enough, there is a St. Anthony of Padua church on Woodlands Drive in ... Singapore. Google maps would not give me directions from Houston to the church, causing me to look closer and change my search criteria!

Sunday we went for a walk around the ponds in the back of the 'hood and then on another walk with the Johnson's to go to some open houses in Westwood on "the other side of the tracks." In a neighborhood where most house go for $150,000 tops there is one street with new houses being built on existing lots and being sold for $500,000 and up. We went to three houses, which all had cool features (including closets! We don't have many of those in this neighborhood.)

4117 Woodhaven
4125 Woodhaven
4130 Woodhaven

Hidden room with a "Texas Basement" - a climate controlled portion of the attic

Kitchen with cool brickwork around the stove

More cool kitchen brickwork

Halloween is Coming!

Sean 9-Month Dr. Appt. Update:

• Weight: 18 lbs. 12 ozs. - 25%
• Height: 29.4" - 90%
• Head Circumference: 17.5" - 25%

Still tall, skinny and with feet and ears too big for his head! :-) He remains a joy and a happy baby. He has 7 teeth now and more are coming. Sean is very mobile and sits, stands and kneels (A Catholic!) and is close to walking. He hates to go to sleep at night and end the fun, but has really established a routine anyway. By the time 8:30pm comes around he is really ready for bed.

Sean loves to feed himself everything and eats most of what mom and dad eat now. He will crawl into the kitchen and pick the Cheerios box or Goldfish bag off the shelf and try to get into them.

Late October...

OK, it has been an inexcusably long time since the last posting. The weekend before last we went to Denver for our annual rite of fall with the Wheatley's. For 11 striaght years now it has not been autumn without a visit to Eric and Anida (now with Daniel and Rachel!) We forgot our camera, see a cute picture of Rachel and Sean HERE. The toy they are playing with - the Leap Frog Musical Table - Sean liked so much we picked one up from Craig's List within 3 or 4 days for $15 - he loves it! We had a great time with Eric and Anida and the kids and going to the Great American Beer Festival. Texas did not do so well this year...

Brewery	Beer	State	Medals	Category
Fredericksburg Brewing Co.	Pioneer Porter	TX	Gold	Brown Porter
Fredericksburg Brewing Co.	Enchanted Rock Red Ale	TX	Bronze	Irish Style Red Ale
Saint Arnold Brewing Co.	Saint Arnold Fancy Lawnmower	TX	Gold	German Style Kölsch/Köln Style Kölsch

Dave and Sean did suffer from a short-lived virus that Grandma and Dziadziu also caught. Further investigation revealed that Dave caught it at work, leading to more celebration than planned of National Infection Prevention week at ISP - Texas City last week!

Elissa's 2nd Birthday gave everyone a chance to dress up for Halloween early. Above are the Cavemen (uh, CavePEOPLE - I just went to harassment training) Pasta's with little Pasta-Saurus.

The birthday girl shows off her much improved birthday cake eating skills (compared to last year!)

Nana with Sean, Elissa and Claire

Bring in the clowns!

Sunday we went hiking in Brazos Bend State Park. Afterwards Grandma and Dziadziu help Sean practice walking.

Dave and Sean on the trail

Uncle Joe and Sean planning future escapades...

Narcissistic Bachelor Dave Blog

Mom and Sean are in the Hill Country for a few days to visit Nana and Grandpa and for Barb to work. (Don't miss Sean's 9-month bday blog, below.)

Dave, confronted with two days alone, reverts to his bachelor ways. First, Sunday night dinner - Wolf Brand Chili with cheese or Kraft Macaroni and Cheese with tuna, peas and picante sauce? Due to my 2+ year boycott of Campbell Food products, Wolf Chili was out. (Dave to Campbell - I opened your soup and it was spoiled. Campbell to Dave - here are some coupons for Campbell products! Dave to Campbell - it happened again, spoiled soup! Campbell to Dave - here are some coupons for Campbell products! Dave to Campbell - your soup made me sick. I will eat no more Campbell products until I recieve from you a quality improvement plan. Campbell to Dave - here are some coupons for Campbell products!)





So on to menu item #2:
-One box Kraft Deluxe Macaroni & Cheese
-One can of dolphin free tuna
-One-half bag of frozen peas
-1/2 cup Pace yellow label picante sauce

It was great! Warning: Married men, even if you do not normally cook you should make it a practice to cook something at least once every six months. In case of an emergency you should be able to locate pots and pans and NOT spend 10+ minutes trying to figure out how the only can opener in the house works.


Yes, Pace is now owned by Campbell Foods - it is the one exception to my boycott. My only Karmic justification is that the person who developed Pace into what it is today before selling out to Campbell now runs NatureSweet Tomatoes - a cool company based out of S.A.

Sean is 9-Months Old!

Asleep after a busy Saturday (with the Ags atop the Big-XII South for the first time since 1998!)

Sunday morning with Dad in his Chair

C'mon Dad, I'm funnier than the comics!

Looking to see if someone is watching...

Rare shot of my upper teeth (Dad says naming rights will be available for my future braces installation.) Notice the new baby friendly furniture in the background - CDs have now joined the beer bottles in the garage.

Sean Bath Time Video

Grandma has babysat Sean for two days now while Barbara works. She and Sean play hard! Both days Sean went right to bed at 9pm, like someone flipped a switch. Dziadziu brought over lasagna for dinner tonight... Thanks guys!

Sean enjoys bath time, which is typically "sit in warm water and chew on different toys time" for him.



Daniel and Rachel in Denver now have a combined blog! Look for the link on the right hand side-bar.

Company Boy

We had a busy weekend, focused around a Sip-n-See for Morgan, our God Daughter. The theme was nursery rhymes and Mom, Keri, Michelle, and Tamme put a couple of weeks worth of creativity into planning the event.

Some pictures from last week. The most recently used SD-Card is suffering technical difficulties...