Terrible People doing Terrible Things

That's what we call the shows that Apryl likes to watch, like Grey's Anatomy. It's filled with people who do terrible things like lying to their moms about being cured from cancer, just to get the mom out of their hair. Or Private Practice, where the main character is something that I won't say on a family blog, but it kind of rhymes with Andrew Bogut. Anywho, she "falls in love" with a married man, whose wife is having a baby, and the main character is treating the wife, and it's all supposed to be admirable.

Or Brothers and Sisters, where...ah, you know, it's not even worth it. But I watch snippets and think, how can these writers not see how the one normal, considerate, kind character they have, they try to make him look like a crazy greedy Republican whatever. It's just a little bit stomach turning.

I'm such a killjoy.

Disney's FastPlay

is a vicious lie. I like Disney, I do, I think they made a fine motion picture back in the day, but I feel that they hate me. Honestly, they hate me. Why else would they make it a Herculean task simply to get a DVD to play the movie for which you purchased the DVD? Do they think I bought the disk so that I could sit through 15 minutes of previews for shows that came out thirty years ago? Land of Time XLVII? What percentage of their customers are purchasing Peter Pan for themselves, versus how many are purchasing it for their kids, who will want to watch it RIGHT NOW. Seriously, what frickin' genius decided that DVDs will henceforth NOT play the movie when you pop it in, but will instead make you sit through 15 minutes of dreck, after which you will be permitted to access the menu and select Play, and THEN, sit through another 5 minutes of warnings. So, if you want to watch something, add an extra 20-25 minutes to your plan. Disgusting.

Not that a company like Dreamworks is any better, where they've disabled the menu button for the first 10 minutes. Is it any wonder that people illegally download the movies from bittorrent and simply, I don't know, WATCH the movies? What other industry is so resistant to their customers actually accessing the material they sell?

Do NOT, under any circumstances, select "FastPlay." It is actually "SlowPlay as you wait through ridiculous previews"

More pictures, from Easter

Here are the pictures from Easter. I have fallen prey to the classic blunder of thinking that everyone will find pictures of my kids as fascinating as I do, but I don’t care. If you’re offended, it’s likely that your computer is equipped with a doohickey that will allow you to navigate away from this site, to some spectacle more worthy of your time, like this, or this.


Easter outfits, in the backyard.Where do kids learn how to pose? It's not like I've ever sat down with them and gave them mugging lessons.
Halle was impressed by the twirling capabilities of her dress.
Matchy-matchy.


Ok, the next three pictures were taken with the rapid-fire and are presented as a series. One, a good picture; two, a classic Jack-look to Halle; three, Jack looks like he should be holding a pitchfork and wearing hornrimmed glasses.


Aerin on Grandma Syd's horse.
Gwen before she was too slobbery.



Apryl even had an Easter outfit.

Pictures from the past little while

On the New Trampoline. Aerin is actually quite bad at jumping. Just needs more practice.Rapid-shot mode is awesome.
Gwen outside, looking for something to eat. *shudder*
Our huge sliding glass door to the backyard.
Our huge sliding glass door to the backyard.Aerin on her "new" (shhhh, don't tell her) bike.

I love the smell of misery in the morning. Smells like... well, misery. Heh.
Sitting on the countertop, making faces. I says to them, I says "Halle, what are you guys doing?" She says, "Just sitting on the counter, makin' faces."
Jack does love him some LiveWire.
Halle is crazy.
So is Aerin.
Really crazy.
Sometimes I think Aerin is a movie star.
Those of you who know Halle know that this is a classic Halle-face.
Wide-angle shot of the counter where they like to sit and make faces.
I know that the blush in her cheeks is from crying, but I still think it's dang cute.
On one of the days that it snowed in April at our new house. Can you feel the excitement? Apryl says she couldn't get them to come inside.
Another classic Halle-face.
Jack is wishing he had gone to the U.
The girls in their polo dresses that they have now outgrown. Sweet, we got one use out of them. That's a solid return on investment. Seriously, though, how cute is this?


Oh, and Gwen matches, although hers was purchased somewhere else.
The boy doesn't like wearing a tie any more than his old man does.
Gwen is a Cougar, but not a "cougar", obviously. She's just a baby!

Test

I want to see if these pictures are big enough.