aberrant | undulating | relative

Violet Beauregarde: [while sticking her finger up her nose & digging] . Spitting’s a nasty habit.
Willy Wonka: [Glaring at her] I know a worse one.

One thing about me and vic; there is never a lack of philosophical discussion. We both hold strong opinions on the world and America and (I think) are comfortable sharing with each other, some insights recently acquired
and hard fought beliefs we’ve been able to shed.
It was a nice cartharsis for myself to be able to download to someone who is part of my life but not involved in the everyday minutae. I did miss the pau though and often found myself staring at children taking mental stock of whether it was ok for me to be away from him for so long. Answer=yes. Reason=don’t want little man to be unnaturally clingy to 1 person

so there was joy and there was rain,
“joy and rain, sunshine (no) and pain”
twas all good just a quick post with a visual sentiment for some of you for/from Vday (i realize i am a little late)

more pics and words to come . . . .

Va. Bill Sets Fine for Low-Riding Pants Damn the spot is getting hot! you can now legoslate against people you merely dislike!

orz

making the switch
give us time as we figure out the inbetween but i promise more posts as a result and more content too.

much fun in the 05- now actively in the job hunt. i have met some interesting folks interviewing and riding bart and being about versus being obi-wan-bobby; skywalkers crazy dad living in the desert in a cave no less! j/p but lets be positive i have many prospects and i am handsome and charming, i know! where is the modesty? well to tell you the truth i think my modesty has been coming off as timidity in the professional world so i must adapt. i code html and css well also, never mind the code for this blog i slapped it together from a temp. also i am talented artistically just not sure if i sell my self well incidentally i am coming into some problems because a lot of the things i used to put a lot of time and effort into before professionally were propietary so how can i post fab presentations i spent weeks on with marketing and engineering if i can’t show the presentations. or for that matter intranet sites and extranet sites. well se la vie
i got to see digital underground a couple of weeks ago in @zoe it was nice i got to meet shock g and money b in the vip with romes and her friend kristy? then last week i got to go to the channel party another vip occassion. it was good, by divine right was good and i was going to say that so was dub fx and link them but alas no link for them worked out of google so. dresden dolls were good but scary painted human gargoyles hagning around and people all dressed up and s.fun was had by all i think. here also i s a new set of ryan pics for the ryan fans

so good looking out to lu- on the N-gage let me say it is fun.so a lot of things have happened in the past month. we did the holiday Party Runs (link to gene holiday photos)
and here are some photos from christmas i have more but for your sake and mine here are some. ry got a bunch of toys and he like all of them very much thanks people. oh and clothes too!

ok so some interesting links for you new years promises-
picking out new shoes for your new activities
this is what i’ll be working on in my spare time
for all you ipod/public transport using persons
from everything i can tell this really works to upgrade and enable wireless connectivity to your tivo

click the pic for recent armijo fun. worksafe.
alas news well it seems congrats are in order for rudy and val as they are preggers or rather she is.
but its his fault.
also they sold their house and are homeless so if you live in sac holla. they are in the family shelter on 8th and lacienega rudy will be in the hunter’s cap. =j/p=
anyway good luck on the new house and new baby. challenges don’t get greater than this.
plus really good blogging lately i have really enjoyed the impassioned prose plus good job on letting your families have it they deserve whatever they get for raising two such generous caring and enlightened persons. =sarcasm=
plus what else
WAIT
i am not moving on.
We are adults with our own sets of values, and i have been not saying stuff because I felt like I was judging and I don’t know all of your motivations, but i was reading last night (the secret on ararat the new tim lahaye book) some christian fiction when this one passage really spoke to me. it was the main character drawing a parallel between our time (now) and Noah’s time right before the flood when morality was relative to what each man’s set of values were. he was saying that the only group persecuted for their beliefs anymore are ardent christians. (which by the way is not true, if you have been to church you will realize this; i have seen pastors chastising persons, without any humor, for not believing in the death penalty)
but it made me think, Am i not voicing my opinion for fear of being religiously oppressive to the alfonsos and radiant life?
or is it the appearance of that?
or am i like the people in Noah’s time simply afraid to speak on what others do because it wouldn’t be accepting even though i feel in my bones its a mistake?
here is the quote from the book

“the traditional definition of tolerance is living peaceably alongside others in spite of differences. But that view of tolerance has been twisted today to mean that everyone must accept the other person’s viewpoints without question because the truth is relative. What’s true for one person may not be true for another person, right?” end quote

so what am i actually saying? i don’t know. i am not sure. i don’t know you well enough anymore to tell you that what your doing is wrong. i am not even sure why concretely i am saying this. but it feels wrong, and some of the the actions that have grown out of it don’t sound like you guys. some of them sound mean-spirited and bitter; 2 things i know you both not to be.
I may be but i don’t think y’all are. and your families love you i don’t think that they don’t care. i saw your mom the other day and she looked stunned when she saw me, “have you seen my son?”
she attempted humor but their was too much pain in her eyes for it to come off that way,
it smacked of desperation and of loss.
I realize this is all none of my business but is this really the path of christ?

well with that said grain of salt.
hope we can kick it next time we are in sac.
we would love to see the new house and
meet the new family.

i am crazy. my son crazy. my wife crazy.
just so you can’t say you weren’t warned.
well life has been humming along in the armijo jr household.
RYAn is walking well and terrorizing the Armijo clan most splendid.
he can now say, (not on command, never on command):
MAMA DADA BELLE TOUGH, also he can bark like a dog.
also he is attempting his ABCs
and whenever he sees a dog he barks at them.
well actually i think its a liberty to say like a dog, he does his version of dogs barking
he got his flu shot,
(too bad uninsured; W is in again)
so this is just a check up
Ellen is doing well at work as far as i can tell, they all seem to like her.
i am doing well at home with master ryan, although i am beginning to look for work again.
need some design anyone?
also more links to pics.
the title goes to his Halloween pics
then here are the beginnings of his first birthday pics more to come . . . sorry about the low frequency in my postings. will get better fog lifting as winter descends.

I was startled to hear a plaintive wail (NOT from Ryan) coming from the dining room table Saturday morning. Bobby was anguished over his laptop installation. In trying to illicitly (Apple strictly prohibits owners (even as talented as Bob) messing with the innards of their laptops) change out his 40 Gb hard drive to a super duper 80 Gb one, he managed to mangle the keyboard, break off the connection point to the logic board, disconnect the power button and in a fit of tugging, scratch his LCD screen. Hence the wailing… Now many of our gentle readers know that next to Ryan and me, that laptop is Bobby’s lifeblood. It’s his workhorse, play toy, connection to the outside world, his universe to control, the baby that actually listens to him…

And God being good and merciful in all things great and small, my mum popped over for an unexpected visit and we were able to hop into the car and sit at the mac store for 45 minutes at the “genius bar” to talk to Scotty - Mac expert extraordinaire. As he looked at Bob as if he were a martian - “You did what? and then pulled what off?” I knew this was going to be a pricey experience. Dr. Scotty’s talking about a full keyboard replacement ($100-150), soldering to the logic board (labor charge), replacing the entire logic board ( at $700!!), all kinds of things that sound incredibly painful and expensive …. But at this point, both of us are glad that it can potentially be resuscitated. So we handed off the baby to the doctors and popped over to a scrapper store on the border of Palo Alto me as my treat for sitting interestedly at the bar and chatting up the techs, Bobby in hopes of getting his laptop back in the same trip.

$30 later, yes on stickers and crap, (note to Lu: better than the Fremont one, not as good as the San Bruno one) we get a call from the doc saying come and get it. Bobby is ecstatic, until he asks good old Scotty if he powered the laptop UP AND SAW IT START. Oh, he forgot. So we begin our trek home, Bob moping, and me trying to hide my ecstacy at purchasing a bunch of 50 cent metal letters for Ryan’s birthday scrapbook. As we were getting ready to cross the bridge over 101 back to our part of the world, on cue, Bobby’s phone rings and Scotty says, it really works, come and get it.

We charge back down the tree lined avenue to the mac mecca where the baby lives and breathes and the happy blue mac screen shines again. And the reason Scotty rocks, is he finagled the whole thing so it didn’t cost us one thin dime! Just more dough for me to spend on scrapbook stuff! Ahhhhh how our hobbies take control of our lives (well that little piece that’s still belongs to me at least) But it was a great Bobby and Ellen afternoon, capped off with a yummy and healthy dinner from Plutos (across the street from the mac store, of course!)

My favorite re-used blogging title - Snippets - is a compendium of small things I want to remember, the small things in life that make up the fun:
- Bob and his amazing first time recipe usage for parties: Broccoli/Cheese/RAMEN casserole yesterday; General Chau (sp!) chicken at Ryan’s birthday dinner, etc. Hooked up yumminess! BTW great dinner to everyone who attended our impromptu party on the boy’s real birthday!!

- Ryan and his many mishaps as he enters YEAR 1. On the Sunday after his birthday, as we all napped in various places in the house, he must have somehow conked his head on his little toybox leaving two scrapes just below the folds of his little almond shaped right eye. A milimeter or two and he would have bopped his actual eyeball! Ewwww …..

Then to keep it rolling, a few days later on Tuesday, his daddy changes him, dresses him warmly, packs up the bag and the stroller and puts Ryan in, ready for a walk in the brisk October sunshine. They get to the front door, and Bobby turns to pick his keys off the dining room table not 5 feet from the door. In the time it took him to turn around and get his keys, little Ryan had grabbed the front door and propelled himself and his stroller through the front door, bounces off the front step to land face down with his stroller toppled over onto him on the rough cement walkway.

Now Ryan’s bleeding non-stop from multiple cuts inside his mouth, and is bruised up near his nose. After a frantic round of calls, Bobby gets Auntie Edna in case they have to run to the hospital. But the nurse says, as long as he’s breathing and doesn’t pass out, he’s fine. He may have two black eyes though. So everyone waits for the next day, when Ryan escapes relatively unharmed with a scrape across the tip of his nose and a little scab on the center of his upper lip. Welcome to ONE!

Other snippets - a quick thank you to everyone who came and helped with Baby Ryan’s First Birthday. What a blessed day that was! After days of whatever weather, kinda cool, kinda windy, Sunday (8/26) turned into a perfect blue sky and warm breezy kinda day. The food was outstanding thanks to Edna and Rexie’s help, and especially Na’s friend Jing for helping to set up.
Ryan was a trooper, staying awake until the pinata, when a long nap with Nana was called for. And talk about a good sense of timing, waking up refreshed in time to cut the cake. We are so blessed to have great family and friends to celebrate our awesome little guy!

Bobby’s had some wonderful success for his family business with the awesome website he’s created for them: http://stampsandengraving.com. He’s got great talent and it’s being put to use in a really effective way for Tri City. I’m really proud of him!!

This weekend was fun, got to hang out with Chris, Lu, Dennis, his girl Jenny and her boy Brandon. Wow. Lots of loud. Lots of loud. But then plenty of broccoli ramen casserole to fortify you, along with a mess of sausages. And frozen banana cream pie. Whatever works for you you know. Thank goodness for Lu and her various paper products - some to eat off of, and some to scrap book from…… Sigh.

My biggest question of the day is whether, Nay got the new California King bed all put together. Enquiring minds want to know …..

hi
this is my new watch
its features: (for the jealous) The brain in all Swatch Touch models is a chip with a sensor, called an accelerometer. Forces of acceleration that act on the watch are converted into electronic commands for the special functions. The accelerometer only reacts to a slight tap of the finger.
this is my cousin paulie and ell and me at the fabulous Ledson winery; to which he is a wine club memeber, ah you remember your rich youth don’t you? then later that night after like 2 bottles of game rouge. we made it over to d and bs for more alcoholic fun
and his BC

It’s been so very long …. since I held you in my arms so tight …. and now that you’ve been gone …. something or other …

Anyway, a good 80’s schlock ballad as a welcome back to me and my blog! Thought I’d dash off a quick note just to get the feeling back, and the words flowing. Last 3 times I tried to blog, got all hung up on trying to capture what had gone on since my last post way back in April or June. Which was overwhelming to say the least, let’s leave it at - Very busy and very good, for the most part.

Now, off to fun and future things. The boys and I are off to a sunny, windy, and sorely needed vacation to the tropical isle of Maui. Along for the ride is Auntie NaNa, friend Jeff, Uncle Rexie and “friend” Amy, and Joel and Inez. Woo hoo, more fun than you can shake your kulo at.

The big question is when the boys rent scooters, who’s gonna wipe out? And what is the probability of all the girls getting drunk off mai tai’s and/or pineapple rum? ….. How much recuperation are Rexie and Joel gonna need? (leave for Vegas on Sun, return home on Tues, leave for Maui on Thur and back on Tues) And what about Ryan’s sand-eating capacity?? Enquiring minds wanna know.

On other fronts, work has been challenging for me, shifting managers, priorities and even cubes (they seriously moved me over 1 cube at a cost of approx $1200) insane corporate stuff….. And Bobby too, it’s been a roller coaster ride with his boss. Ryan does well 95 % of the time, but let me tell you that other 5% of the time, I hand the boy right back to him and say uhhhhhh…. I’m not worthy. And Bob is amazing with him. Direct when he needs to be, sweet and patient most of the time, and just able to handle him with true aplomb. The boy does spectacular in public, and really makes us out to look like all around parents of the year, which both Bobby and I contribute to, but really is due to baby Ry’s easy-going-ness. He’s a blessed babe.

Other stories abound, but this is enough for the comeback tour =)

yeah so it was an exciting afternoon at the armijo jr. house
it was a lot of playing, crying, and batting

it was a very athletic event

the king was there, TCB at batting practice

i got it!

chillin by the bbq

and i got proof
also another pic

but matt looks as though he could use a hot meal and a geffen rep.
j/p. i bought everything he has ever done. i think he’ll help rivers delve into his more melodic pinkerton side(hopefully!)

side note clip from the aclu on the future of republican lead america!
a future you can avoid
by making sure bush and his total info justice department don’t get to come back next year!

i have Lackadasia
here is a pic of ry in sac

i am so sad.
ozma is breaking up.
last time i saw them was with romes on pa. I remember cause she bought a child’s sponge bob shirt especially for the show and the dudes wearing the nerd-core shirts were jocking. but what impressed me about the show was that they rocked so hard that i felt akward after leaving. like something was going to happen. i had witnessed such true rock that the world was different. can’t express. I can say i had to stop listening for awhile due to emotional dependence.
here are some pics of ry too.
bye

ryan at the grove so we had fun this last weekend on the run. went to cindy’s wedding it was a very classic wedding. i only know because i heard everyone say it like 800 times. it truly was classic. but if someone says classic to me again i am finna snap. including ellen.even the barrio fiesta dancers whom i expected to be tedious (not being a fan of traditional philipino dance) were entertaining. some of the dancers makeup was kinda weird though; like instead of foundation they were using bonfire ash. (possibly it was a weird alcohol combo on my part beer+wine+chapagne). oh yeah plus the allergy meds-(flonase+sudafed+claritin+azithromax+motrin). so possibly thats the reason. i did see the cutest little thing on her table. got a pic too. its like a place holder in case you happen to run across her seat at the party. nice. because let me tell you sometimes (and this is from experience) you gotta tell people get outta my seat. but what i was thinking was “would this work for the everyday occasion? or is it a wedding only type of idea?” so that was saturday. oh also the mass was at mission san jose and it was classic. very! i love the old churches! i can’t quite lock it into one thing in particular;
whether its the smell of the wooden pews and the polish, or literally hundreds of years of candles and incense, or their total lack of modesty when using gold paint. but its something that sets the nostaglia on high.
and the priest i felt so bad for him he had a great homily very insightful and funny, but one of his jokes no one got (i did) but it seremed as though no one else did. and it was such a shame because it was especially witty.
so that was saturday.
Sunday we woke up and said we gotta get outside and be with the world.
so one of my friends had mentioned that there was an argentenian piazzola (guessing on the spelling) going on at the stern grove on 19th in the city. it was a cool trek stopping first in “pally altoe” (AArons Pronounciation) to pick up chika romes and the Mercuris. let me stop here and commend these people on their planning. they brought milanesa sandwhiches veggie chips (which incidentally are the shit) and beer and wine. lifesavers. i brought a stroller and a bunch of apologies. but good looking out elena m. also we got to sit next to armand assante, i had no idea he was argentenian, also had no idea his real name was mr. mercuri, its ok though they keep it on the low. it was hecka tight i highly recommend. the park was beautiful and the weather was perfect regardless of what you liked, you could sit in the sun for 85 degrees or sit in the shade for 70. all in all ryan did well. he really enjoyed the park, really enjoyed the people. but he enjoyed the music too much, he started singing along and although i can’t prove it i am pretty sure chika called security on ryan. we walked aroun d for a little while and eventually the Armijos got sleepy listening to the entrancing south american melodies.
more laters

here now totally unrelated my new favorite band album for this week. probably this month just have trouble commiting. ha! her space holiday
here is just a verse from one of my favorite songs
things to do with your hands
You know it kills me to see such a pretty girl so tired
You’ve got your mother’s cheekbones and your father’s crooked smile
Forget all those places that you’ve never really been
And all those situations you somehow found yourself in
Let your body sink into me
Like your favorite memory
Like a line of poetry
Or a fucking fit of honesty
I’ll do my best to keep you, keep you sleepy as the south
With my old watch on your wrist
And my thumbs inside your mouth
Suck on my fingertips until you kill all my prints
So your boyfriend has no clue
Of how much I’ve been touching you