Mem Day Memories

Whasssssup, loyal McGsblog readers??!
So Memorial Day weekend was off the chain, ya heard?
So on Saturday we rolled to NYC, Queens (but not Hollis to be exact) to visit Roni's parents and celebrate Mickie and Ann's Jewish lesbian wedding. Saturday night was the rehearsal dinner - a good meal for sure, cool guests - although one seemingly cool attendee ruined his rep by busting out some retired old skool humor- he was commenting on his diet, and said he had a seafood diet - ie: he sees food, he eats it.. Hasn’t that one been permanently retired?
Anyhow, we had to be at the wedding site around 11 am the next day, so Roni could rehearse her speaking role. The wedding was held at the Puck Building, part of the Pratt Institute School of Architecture in Soho NYC. What a cool building - the wedding was held on the top (7th) floor in a space that was surrounded by windows..now usually a 7th floor view in NYC would be essentially a tour de neighboring buildings, but the view from this site was nothing short of spectacular - one could easily peep Manhattan to the East, North and South (no westside view, alas).. truly grand.
The wedding was very traditionally Jewish, save for the lesbian part, and really nice and moving..Mickie and Ann are a great couple, totally in love, and it was really emotional to see them profess this love in a formal ceremony. I've never understood our great country's hang-ups about gay marriage - this ceremony, my first formal gay/lesbian nuptial reinforced my thoughts that some Americans are just ass-backwards. As a married man I feel no threat from this union, and am very happy that 2 people who truly love and care for one another went for it..I hope they will have kids because the 2 of them will be fabulous, loving, caring and nurturing parents!
The band who played at the wedding was the apparently famous (Grammy nominated, Kennedy Center performing) Kit McClure, all girls big band.. they were hot, and even their version of Rapper's Delight was good stuff.

Next weekend, we are back in New York for Roni's 20th high school reunion. She went to Hunter College high school, and one of her classmates was Marvin Young, aka Young MC...you know if he;s in the house I'm gonna stalk him until I get a photo with him, whihc you my blog family will be privy to first..

Graduation Time Again

So I went to the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School's Graduation on Wednesday - this is the 5th one I've attended, and my first time as graduation marshal. I really enjoy these ceremonies actually - despite the silliness of pomp and circumstance, this school does it right - short, interesting speeches, and getting through graduates quickly enough to wrap-up in 2 hours, but not so quickly that the graduates don’t get a few seconds of their own to shine.
One of the things I like most is checking out the faculty regalia - the more degrees you have, the more likely you are to end up in something papal. Also, your choice of graduate/professional schools also has some determination in what you get to wear - the most fascinating outfit this year make it's wearer look like a cross between a green beret and Peter Pan - simply awesome. Why oh why I didn't I choose the school that would allow me to wear this getup or this outfit is beyond me....

Weekend Wrap-Up

What up y'all?!?!?
What a crazy weekend.
Friday night was pretty benign, but things got cookin' early Saturday am - Micah, who has been a late sleeper as of late so to speak, got up at 5:30 am - I went into his room to coax him back to sleep, but to little avail.

We finally arose, watched some Wiggles, and eventually rolled to the Waverly Farmer's market while Roni and Emmet when to the doctor's office to poke and prod Emmet at his 4-month checkup. Despite the fact that he got 4 injections, Emmet was chill - we picked him and Roni up and went to music class.

After a nap, and John getting a hair cut (the slowest cut I've ever received - a trainee at the Hair Cuttery who did me refused to use clippers, ergo she took a hella long time to get my fade right with scissors only), we went and rocked out at Rock 'n Romp Bmore - it was fun - we were treated to some low key, Television-esque rock and roll by Sylvan Screen. There were a lot of post-Ottobar parents in the house, as well as our great friends, Rafa, Alex and Amina...
Micah has commandeered all my guitars, and I'm hoping to parlay his interest into a child prodigy type deal (a young Tony Iommi or Jimi or Greg Ginn perhaps?), and this certainly helped push the message.

At 5:30 we had to run home to hook up with our newest babysitter, Leila-
after acquainting her with Micah and Emmet, Roni and I had a leisurely dinner at the Blue Agave. Poor Roni - given her allergies (or rather, Emmets, but Roni is still breastfeeding), she had to have plain poached chicken, plain black beans, plain rice, and corn tortillas - nothing we don't have at home! Girlfriend couldn’t even rock a margarita because of the lime juice (Emmet appears to have a citrus allergy on top of wheat, so, dairy, nuts..) ..But I snuck a few in.
We planned to do dinner and a movie, but not very well - so the only thing we could catch given our timing was the The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy at 10 at the Rotunda -
I enjoyed it, but Roni zzzzed through about 7/8th of the show.

We got home around midnight, and went to bed - Micah once again arose at 5:30 am, full of energy. Roni took one for the team and got up with him.
We headed over to Micah's classmate Jacob’s house for some play at 10: I ducked out to do some shopping at Whole Foods in Mount Washington, which was nearby. We are buying soy milk and rice milk by the case for Micah and Roni respectively, so believe it or not Whole Foods is somewhat economical - well, until I put any other items in the cart, knowwhatI'msayin'. The parking lot at this particular Whole Foods has a one lane road entrance that is always backed up -mainly because all these health nuts who will pay top dollar for organic foods can't bear to actually walk a few feet to get their damn food. These are the same MFs who take 10 minutes to choose an ear of corn while double parking their chopping carts.

After the play date, we headed over to Doug, Kerry, Anya and Benjamin's crib for Benjamin's 3rd birthday celebration. This was really fun - Michelle Dreyfuss, her husband Patrick and 3 year old son Patrick were also there. The kids had a blast on the swing set - there is a 4-seat swing that I pushed them in for a long time. We sang songs, most notable an extended remix version of "Down By The Bay" - we all had fun improving the lyrics and giggling ("did you ever see a pig...wearing a wig..etc...)

We made it home about 4:30, and Micah went down for a way-too-late but needed nap.
So did I, by the way. Then we began our Sunday evening ritual, which involves more laundry, cleaning, cooking, baths for the boys and taking out the trash. I really wanted to go out and see Lightning Bolt play at the Talking Head Club. For those unacquainted, Lightning Bolt is a bass and drum duo who plays punkish, fast but rhythmic dirges at top volume. The one other time I saw them, they had massive amounts of amps and set up in the middle of the floor, as opposed to onstage. Everybody circled around them and they tore it up - it was a thrilling experience. Apparently, hipsters don't like Lightning Bolt, because they are "too popular" , but nevertheless I'm sure this gig was packed to the nines with hipsters, all faking boredom. I decided not to go for a couple of reasons -
a) I was sure it would be packed and the Talking Head's layout is really bad for actually seeing a band when there are more than 40 people or so in attendance
b) The show started at 10 (which means 11) and there were 2 opening bands - including Baltimore's own Nautical Almanac - who play what I call "chutzpah music" because its basically just bunch of noise - played by folks who act likes its music/art, ergo it is??? I'm open minded, enlightened etc.. about music, or so I think, but NA's music is really just noise - they make Wolf Eyes look like traditionalists..
c) I'm nearly 36 years old - I used to think it was cool that I'd still go to such events until the Baltimore City Paper had a piece about creepy guys over 30 going to these shows (if interested, scroll down to the symphony tickets gift idea) to check out young hipster chicks..

Allright, I'm down bloggin for the moment -
catch you later!

Back in Fu(oo)ll Effect!

sorry about the delay in posting to all of my devoted readers - it's been a busy week.
I had to work this past Saturday, moderating two sessions of capstone project presentations by the school's MPH students, who are set to graduate in a week. It was fun, the projects were interesting, but I had to rush out to hop in the car and head off to Philly with Roni and the boyz in toe. We hit the road for Ambler to hang out with my parents and grandmother for a night. Roni's folks were also in the city of Brotherly Love, so they came over for brunch on Sunday morning. A good time was had by all and we hit the road back to Bmore on Sunday afternoon.

The only bummer about traveling on a weekend is that we rely on the weekends for getting some of the more banal things in life done - grocery shopping, for example, and laundry...
oh laundry, we are FOREVER doing laundry with a 2.5 year old and a 4 month old in the house, And the cycles move so quickly from washer to dryer back to washer that it seems like we never put the laundry away, just take clean clothes from the appropriate pile in the basement..
I just go down in my bathrobe every morning and pick out my outfit for the day.

This weekend we'll be in Bmore - we have Micah's music class on Saturday morning, and then are hoping to rock out Saturday afternoon (if naps allow for us to go) - this mother in Bmore is organizing a series of kid-friendly rock concerts in her back yard. A great idea - I'm sick of listening to the Wiggles and can't seem to get Micah into Slayer and Sabbath, so this may be the logical bridge.

Roni and I have a babysitter for Saturday, so we're gonna try for a dinner and movie (its a big assumption that we can stay up late enough for a movie)...it'll be interesting trying to find a restaurant that can accomodate Roni's crazy restricted breastfeeding diet (no dairy, soy, wheat, tomato, citrus..)
Poor Roni, she's a trooper -the good news is that Emmet is breathing a whole lot better with Roni on this uber-restrictive feeding plan.

Speaking of Emmet - here's a recent picture of Emmet and Micah.

Aight, that's all for now - hope you are all well!

Happy Wednesday!

I tried yoga for the first time today - my friend Nina is very kind, and has agreed to school me in the poses of beginner yoga poses. We did it on an outdoor deck off the top floor of school of the School of Public Health - providing a breathtaking view of wild wild East Baltimore. It was actually an amazing experience - stretching in the sun, feeling the cool breeze.
I'm pretty uncoordinated and my muscles are tight, but I'm gonna stick with this if Nina can tolerate me. For the past 2-3 months I've been working out regularly in the gym at the school, trying to get into a little better shape - and not only is the yoga good for a physical workout, its great for stretching.

Worry not

devoted McG's readers (aka - John..) I'll be posting soon with the details of this mother's day weekend - and up to date photos of the boyz.
in the meantime you can check out this site and let me know what I should order for Micah and Emmet!
And for fun check out this collection of terrible album covers!

May Day! And weekend wrapup..

so we packed the family into the Accord for the first major trip since Emmet Asher was born 3 months ago... And headed south to Richmond for the annual Klempner family Seder (Roni's mother's side of the family) , held this year at Rena and Bert's new crib in the River City..
so as an aside, I just have to note because of this event I had to miss the annual Biostatistics retreat for the 3rd year in a row..Maybe next year I'll be able to attend.
Anyways, I have come to the conclusion that Micah and Emmet are just amazing - actually, I've always thought this, but their good behavior this weekend made me extremely proud.
We sailed into Richmond about 2 pm, to Rebecca and Jon's hizzouse. Rebecca is Roni's cousin, Jon her husband - these two are an incredible couple, both my idols for various reasons which I'll get to, and they have a beautiful 16 month old daughter, Rose Tsippora (I confess , I'm not to sure about the spelling of the middle name)..
So anyway, why are they my idols?
Rebecca is a mutli-talented artist, and their house is filled with her paintings, and other artistic endeavors which are all quite striking. Further, she has successfully taught public school (one year in Baltimore County, two in Henrico County VA) for 3 years, something I could only handle for 1 year. And she’s just very kool to boot...
Jon is great to - and he's a renowned punk rock guitarist who is a member of the seminal late '80s plus straight-edge hardcore behemoth Up Front. I've always been a hardcore fan, but aside form Minor Threat have had little experience with the old skool straight-edge scene - have heard the names (Uniform Choice, Youth of Today (CA), and even seen some live (Warzone, Token Entry, legitimate Reasons)) but never been a scholar. Since meeting Jon, I have picked up an Up Front album (Movement, which rules, BTW) and a few 7-inches by said ensemble. Jon tells me Up Front is gonna do a mini-reunion soon including a DC date, and I'll surely find a way to be in the house for that.
So we roll to the Seder, and the whole family is in full effect - Ethan, another of Roni's cousins is in the house - he’s also got a bit of a famous buzz. He's currently developing an animated pilot for MTV and has a crazy, funny website (warning, much of the stuff here may be considered offensive by both the uber-conservative and the uber-PC, and well, many others too).
So as I piddle away at this PhD I am jealous of my relatives by marriage who are getting/have gotten well-deserved props.
The Seder was great, and the family tore it up with singing afterwards. Micah and Emmet had a blast and we hit the road for Bmorearound 1 pm Sunday. Family is really all that, I've gotta keep that in mind - the Phd can wait (shit, its waited this long..) , the career can wait (who knows what I'll be up to in 10 years anyhoo), but family and friends are for right here, right now.
Speaking of which, Aimee and Karl just joined the "club" with the birth of their first child, Caleb Teo Broman . I can’t wait to meet him!.