Jesse Peterson

Yesterday, I took the day off of work. I have some extra vacation that I have to use up before the end of the year. And Nancy was able to score a baby sitter unexpectedly for the day. So I took the day off to spend time with Nancy.

We both got our eyebrows waxed. (I don’t know if this is what you would call a “typical” couple thing to do when you don’t have the kids for the day.)

(So, yeah, I really didn’t get a picture of my eyebrows before. But Nancy would say that this is a good illustration of the “Before” eyebrows.)

Sydney got her ears pierced Wednesday of last week, 12/5/2007. Nancy had taken her to the mall after she was done with gymnastics. They were walking past claire’s boutique. Sydney has been into putting lots of hair accessories in her hair lately; pony tails, pig tails, clips, headbands, etc. While they were looking around, Sydney asked to get her ears pierced.

She did very well. She was very excited. Nancy had both the video camera and still camera handy, so she was able to capture the moment. I was there too, along with Adelaide. The two employees at the store worked together to pierce Syd’s ears. In this way, they pierced both ears at the same time. Sydney, who needed two nurses and Nancy to hold her down to get a shot, didn’t cry at all when her ears were pierced. I guess it all depends on if you want it (earrings) or not (shot).

Sydney picked out pink flower earrings. (I think that she picked them because they were pink.) She is excited that she will be able to pick out earrings from Walt Disney World, as we will be going there soon. Once we get back, she will be able to take her starter earrings out and put in whatever she wants. She wants Mickey and Princess earrings.

One of my neighbors down at the end of the cul-de-sac has one of the best Christmas displays. It is very simple, but it is a highlight of our Christmas light tours. Their house only has this: a leg lamp. (The picture is blurry. I had to use night mode and my knee as a mono-pod to steady the camera.)

The leg lamp, which is like the one in the movie “A Christmas Story“, is displayed in a window above their garage.

And that’s it. They don’t have any more Christmas lights, just the leg lamp. Simple, subtle, pretty cool.

[I have found that you can buy a lamp like this yourself at www.redriderleglamps.com.]

In tonights episode of ‘Pushing Daisies‘, “Bitter Sweets”, we discover that a candy store opened across the street from the Pie Hole. The new owners of the candy store, brother and sister Billy and Dilly, are ruthless small business owners who stop at nothing in the name of competition. The candy owners do all sorts of nasty things to the Pie Hole and Ned. Ned doesn’t want to retaliate though. But Chuck and Olive do; and they do (retaliate, that is). Chuck and Olive break into the candy store (Olive puts on her riding helmet, she used to be a jockey, and runs head first through a glass door) and let rats loose. When Ned finds out, he goes over to the candy store to clean up the mess. He unfortunately finds one of the candy store owners, Billy, dead. Ned gets caught holding the Billy’s body and sent to jail for the murder. Chuck, Olive, and Emerson investigate to find the real killer and prove Ned’s innocence. Olive tries to distract the living candy store owner, Dilly, so that Chuck and Emerson can sneak into the candy store and look for clues. Dilly sees Emerson sneaking around in the candy store though, and tricks Olive into becoming a hostage and pushes her into a trunk of the car. Eventually Dilly confronts Chuck and Emerson in the candy store. Chuck and Emerson talk to Dilly and convince her that they are trying to help find the real killer of Billy. Dilly is convinced to let Chuck and Emerson go. She also says as she let’s Chuck and Emerson go, “And take your trunk monkey with you!”

Did I hear this right? Yep, she said “trunk monkey”. Awesome. Haven’t heard about trunk monkey? Trunk monkey was featured in a series of commercials for Suburban Auto Group. The commercials are pretty funny and were an Internet viral video.

Back to ‘Pushing Daisies’. Everything turns out all right and Ned is freed from jail.

Back to the trunk monkey. Here is the first “Trunk Monkey” video, “Road Rage“.

[Updated 11/29/2007]: Here is another perspective on the Pushing Daisies episode “Bitter Sweets”.

I am back from Denver, Colorado. I was out there for the first ever Pearson Technology Summit. I work in Iowa City, Iowa in the “A & I” group. We basically write systems to manage high-stakes educational testing. Things like the end of school year state-wide test. We provide the actual tests and score the answer sheets. I currently work a product called Pearson Access on the Identity and Access Management team. (Fancy name for the group that manages peoples user accounts; their usernames and passwords.) This is a rather detailed account of the trip which occurred Tuesday, November 6, 2007 through Friday, November 9, 2007.

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My Google account was suspended yesterday afternoon. The gadgets on my Google home page stopped loading. I then tried to log in to GMail and upon logging in I got a message that my account was suspended. I don’t know why? I sent an inquiry to Google Accounts yesterday but haven’t heard back from them yet.

In the mean time, I have opened another account.

This is very strange…

Halloween 2007 is wrapping up. I think that Sydney and Adelaide had a good Halloween. This evening, around 6:30pm, Sydney the fairy princess and Adelaide the monster set off down our sidewalk with treat bags in hand. Sydney, being 4, was very excited. Adelaide, being 20 months, just wanted to chase after her older sister.

(Nancy was decked out in goth attire. She looked like Abby on NCIS. She was very cute.)

Houses that had dogs were a big hit with Syd and Ad. They stopped to talk with and pet the puppies.

About half way around the block, Ad figured out the system. I would pick her up the front steps. (She still isn’t too good climbing steps.) She would then totter up to the door and step right up to the candy bowl and pick a piece of candy. (She was partial to suckers when she could find them.) She would them put the candy into her bag. She did very well.

Overall, this was a very cute year for trick or treating, as both girls really liked it.

In tonights episode of ‘Pushing Daisies‘, “Girth”, we discover that Olive used to be a jockey. Yep, a horse jockey. Ride on the back of a horse in a race jockey. We discover that she was a pretty good jockey. The episode was about a jockey that “died” in a race in which Olive’s horse ran him over. But the dead jockey is back after 7 years in the form of ghost to extract revenge from the four people who knew the truth about his death. (Olive is one of the four.)

Ned has to visit a ghost of his own; the memories of the father that left him when he was young. Ned goes back to his childhood home, which is right next door to Lily and Vivian’s house (Chuck’s aunts). Ned visit’s Chuck’s aunts, and while eating a strawberry pie, discovers that he had a part in making the pie that the aunts had. When he takes a bite, the strawberry reverts to its shriveled, dried form. This means that Ned had touched it before. He realizes that Chuck has been making pies for her aunts.

After Ned and crew discover that the dead jockey isn’t really dead (he was revived and had some bones replaced so now he is really tall, the antithesis of a jockey) and the now-alive jockey’s mom was the revenge seeker, Ned understands that Chuck misses her aunts. But Halloween provides a perfect opportunity.

Ned and Chuck drive to Chuck’s aunts’ house. Here is the good part. (Reason #3 for why I love ‘Pushing Daisies’. Here was reason #2.) Chuck dons a sheet with two eye holes cut into it and walks up to the door. She rings the aunts’ doorbell. You then hear the aunts’ say something to the effect of “who is trick or treating at 2:00am?”. Lily says, “I’ll get the shot gun.” Vivian says, “I’ll get the candy bowl.” When they open the door, Chuck holds up her plastic pumpkin and says, “Trick or Treat.” Both of the aunts smile upon seeing the “ghost”. (Chuck is dressed as a ghost, and she IS a REAL ghost: someone back from the dead.)

This show could be gory, with all of the death and such, but it turns out to be quite touching.

[Updated 11/1/2007]: Here is another perspective on the Pushing Daisies episode “Girth”.

Tonights episode, “Pigeon”, had another “moment” that I will label “reason #2″ for “Why I love ‘Pushing Daisies‘”. (Here was reason #1.)

Olive, the waitress at the Pie Hole, has delivered a pie to Chuck’s aunts, Lily and Vivian. Olive is speaking with Vivian, the brunette and cheerier of the two aunts. During the conversation, Olive works in the phrase “birdhouse in your soul”. Ooh, ooh! This is the name of the song by They Might Be Giants from the album “Flood“. I love this song!

The show does to commercial right after this conversation.

After commercial, the show starts with Olive and Vivan singing the song “Birdhouse in Your Soul”! Awesome!!!

Honorable mention goes to the plot elements in the show: a pilot. Yeah, the pilot dies in a crash and all, but still, this was an aviation reference. Being a pilot (with no time nor money to fly right now though) I always enjoy an aviation reference.

[Updated 10/25/2007]: Here is another perspective on the Pushing Daisies episode “Pigeon”.

Adelaide has started using the phrase “uh-oh” at appropriate times. [There was some contention by Nancy that Adelaide also started saying “up” recently when she wanted to be picked up. So there will have to be a “mom” decision as to what her first words were.] She seems to have picked up the phrase last Thursday night. When she says it, there is consistently an extended pause between “uh” and “oh”. She is pronouncing the two parts of the phrase very deliberately. I heard “uh-oh” a lot yesterday in church. As Sydney goes to Sunday school, it is just Adelaide and I at church. So she wasn’t influenced by Syd. (When Syd’s around, after Adelaide says “uh-oh”, there is usually a lot of giggling from Syd (”that’s what little girls do“) and some form of tattle tailing of the form, “Dad, Adelaide did [fill in the blank]!”) Adelaide would drop her blankie…”Uh-oh!” Adelaide would drop her book…”Uh-oh!” Adelaide would drop her cup…”Uh-oh!” Adelaide would drop her binky…”Uh-oh!”

Adelaide is talking…”Uh-oh!”