Run Baby Run

Nevermind all that zoom zoom zoom, and 0-60 crap you hear about on TV. You ever seen a toddler that's just learned to walk?

Sow's mom, brother, his wife and their daughter all came to visit yesterday. Sow mom is still here, but her niece was a bit more trouble than they'd expected so the others went back last night. Maybe it was her third time dancing on the table at lunch, or possibly climbing over the people at the table next to us. She's about a year and a half and recently learned to run. In this case thru the mall, house, street, dirt... Shoes or not, that kid can truck.

So, yes, they left, but not before taking them around Chiang Mai a little. Since they were short on time we took her to the park to feed the catfish as a runner up to seeing the zoo. These catfish are huge. About 3-4 feet long. They just come up and suck down whatever happens to be floating on the surface.

Usually there are a lot more perch biting at the kibble. Of course, the kibble wasn't making it very far from the edge. Better than in her mouth. Her other little character trait was with eating everything in sight. Well, sampling everything in sight. Every time I'd turn around she'd have a different piece of fruit, bread or random edible in hand. She'd nibble a bit, tire of it, offer it to you, set it down somewhere, then off to see what else was around.

It didn't seem like all that much trouble to me, but then she did tire out 5 adults in a matter of a few hours. Ray was gonna be sleeping either way, but I'll give her credit.

Sign This!

Ray hasn't learned to talk yet, but we're seriously thinking of starting him on sign language. My friend Chris has been pointing us at the right books. But lookee here. He's already got a head start at telling people off! I think that might be Italian?

Belated Announcement...

I got word last night that my friend Mark & his wife Heidi had there 2nd baby. Ok, it was a little while back. Actually around the time we'd originally expected Ray. Things have just been a little crazy around the DeVito household.

Mark's the same guy who started MetalBabies.com around the time his son was born. So do something nice and buy something from him. He's got one more mouth to feed now!

Hungry Ray

Ok, so Ray has two ways to let us know he's hungry. One I call his hungry face. The other, well, you've seen babies do that one. Anyhow, here they both are:

Don't think we're heartless, Sow's in the background getting ready to feed him. I'm laughing and crying at the same time. Ray was having a bad day that day. He's better now. He got fed seconds later...

*You'll need Quicktime 7 to view this one.
It's got much better codecs so it's a worth while download.

Jim Flora

Today I was digging around online for reference of one of my favorite artists, Jim Flora. I'd told a friend here about him, and wanted to show him what I was talking about. He was one of the first album cover designers ever. His Gene Krupa and Kid Ory covers are still two of my all time favorite album covers.

He did that until the mid-fifties when he got fed up here and moved his family to Mexico. While poking around for a good image I found a book that came out about him last year. The Mischievous Art of Jim Flora. I can't wait to get my hands on this one!

Mandelbrot-ccoli

I'm sure you're all sick of turkey, so I'll give you this. I found it at the supermarket the other day. I'm not really quite sure what it is. I just saw it quick enough to take a picture. I like to think of it as mandelbrot-ccoli.

Gobble Gobble...

A lot of you have asked what we're doing for Thanksgiving. Turkey is, well, something you just don't find out here. And with all that big bird flu scare, I hear a lot of people are going with ham this year anyhow. So we made Ray our ham and jammed a big old apple in his mouth.

For dinner we went thai. It used to be if people dined out on Thanksgiving or Christmas they'd go Chinese. But that's probably because Thai food wasn't very common. And people used to be a lot more thick headed when they thought the Chinese were the only heathens that would stay open on holidays. Anyhow, this is Thailand, where everyone says, "Thanks what day?" Can't wait to see what they call Christmas.

Hope you all have a Happy Thanksgiving!!!

Doi Suthep

Today we took Rayluk to Doi Suthep, a buddhist temple up on the hill overlooking Chiang Mai. It's the same place we could see from our hospital room when he was born. He's seven weeks today by the way.

The first thing we came across was this elephant at the base of the temple. He pretty much just stood there, rocking back and forth, waiting for some tourist to buy the chance to feed him.

Up at the top is the wat which is the center of the temple. It's supposed to mark the spot where a mystical white elephant died after roaming the mountainside with the bones of a certain monk in a box on it's back.

Ray had an excellent time.
You can see he really enjoyed himself.





Some of the buddhas around the outside of the inner wall.



And we had just enough time left over to
stop off for a quick bite on the way home.

New Issue Of PREMIERE

Hey everybody, look! My dad's on the cover of the new issue of Premiere.



Ok, it's not my dad, but it's the guy playing him in the movie based on his book. Jake Gyllenhaal. Jerry told me about this the other day, so I ran out and combed all the newsstands that carry any farang publications, and finally found a copy - for $8!? So I just stood and read it there.

"David Fincher’s Zodiac, in which he’ll play the author of the book of the same title, Robert Graysmith. The story tracks Graysmith, then a newspaperman, through the investigation of the San Francisco area’s infamous Zodiac killer. She’ll have her hands full, he notes, as will they all; the script is 190 pages, which could easily make for a three-hour movie and which will certainly occasion a lengthy shooting schedule. This doesn’t intimidate Gyllenhaal, who’s what athletic coaches call a gamer: “Hey, it was two hundred pages,” he deadpans."

Photo ©2005 Premiere magazine.
*farang - is the thai term for foreigner, that's me and you.

Spare Some Change?

I love these two piggy banks. We got them around the same time we moved into the house we're renting here. I've never seen them for sale again. There were a couple others I'm bummed I didn't get at the time. All in the spirit of traveling light. I pull out all my thai coins and save the shiny ones for Ray. The green one's pretty much full already. I still manage to squeeze a 5 or 10 baht coin in there every now and then. The white one reminds me of the little forrest ghosts in Princess Mononoke.

The other day I noticed a one baht coin that felt different. It looked a little different too. Wait a minute, the king looks older. Is this like the young Elvis vs. old Elvis stamps? And of course, Elvis today. Anyhow, at a closer inspection I noticed it was actually a 2 baht coin. Brand spanking new. That's going right into one of Ray's banks.

These are a few of the thai coins. The one on the lower left is the 2 baht coin I found. It's about the size of a penny. The tiny brass looking one next to it is the 50 satang, which is worth half a baht. There's actually another one that looks similar but even smaller. The 25 satang. This may be the smallest coin ever.

Maybe not, but it's sure treated like it is.

I only ever get these at the supermarket. Nowhere else. One of the few places that actually uses a register and has products that end in .25 or .75. At 40 baht to the dollar. 1 baht is worth 2.5 cents. Which makes this little piece at .625 cents. If you try to spend them anywhere other than the supermarket you'll get a dirty look, like you're trying to by a car with pennies.

At the supermarkets in Bali, if it comes out to a fractioned number they actually give you candy for change. One of the coin trays is full of them. Once I tried to pay for something with the same candy bits. They just stared at me and didn't find it cute or amusing. Go figure, neither had I?

Ok, well, actually I had found it cute.

Introducing Lilah Miranda Zweig

Just got official word. There's a new Zweig among us. The cutest so far. She's cute! She's cute! She's cute! I approve of my little boy dating her. I see a lot of both David & Denise in there and it only sweetens the deal. I can't wait for us all to meet her. She should be outta quarantine by about then.

Congrats guys on a wonderful production. Or is that reproduction? Nope, wait, she's an original!

It's not in kilos so I get a bit lost here. But it sounds like a good size and a healthy baby to me:

Delivered via c-section
Nov 14th at 11:31pm
8 lbs, 12 oz.

Who Misses Rayluk?

Ok, I know I've fallen behind on posting pics of Ray. But there's been so much going on. So here you go, this should tide you over for a bit.

Slow Bus To China, ok, Myanmar...

So today I stepped foot into my first military dictatorship every. Ah, the Union Of Myanmar. I even spent about 20 min! But let me back up a bit...

Sow and I went over to Thai Immigration the other day to get an extension on my 90 day visa. Can you believe it? I've almost been here that long!? After many calls and a variety of descriptions as to what I needed to bring. What I need to do. That I might need to set up a Thai bank account. We finally discovered that back in LA, yes, almost 90 days ago, they did in fact give me the wrong visa, which I'd pointed out at the time, but they swore it was alright for renewal. As it turns out, this is not the case.

So what to do, what to do? You do what I did today. What so many ex-pats living in Thailand do every month... LEAVE!!! ...and head straight for the border. No, not Taco bell!? Mae Sai. On the Thailand-Myanmar border. Luckily, leaving can be as easy as hopping on a mini-bus for only 600 baht (that's 15 bucks!), and driving the four hours to the border for a new stamp in your passport. Good for another 30 days! That's easier than gaining renewal at carousel! (Common' people, Logan's Run! sheesh...)

This is so common, they have buses that leave almost every day. So this morning I got up nice and early. Got things ready. And headed down to the travel agency to wait on the mini-bus for my 8:00am pickup. And promptly stood around till 9:10am waiting.

All in all, Mae Sai was pretty uneventful. It's really one big boulevard, littered with tourist shops, that dead ends into the border. Really not much more than a really big u-turn. If you dressed it up a bit, it could be the entrance to just about any Hollywood studio, post 9/11. Only at studios they have working computers to check ID. I'm not quite sure what they look for. They quickly scan over your passport, demand 250 baht, and then hold onto it while you go to the other side to shop or whatever. Of course, of the first three things offered to me, none of them could be carried back across the border. Cigarettes, playing cards, and pornography. I told the guy I'd given up pornography when I stopped smoking while gambling. He just stared at me.

Anyhow, I didn't really get much time to look around, but I'm not sure if I missed very much. I'd actually like to go back to check out a lot of stuff along the way, like Chiang Rai and a few national parks we passed thru.

By the way, here's the website for Myanmar tourist info. Funny, they don't mention a thing about the military dictatorship?

http://www.myanmar-tourism.com/

BANGKOK the movie!

You might recall to the events of last year that lead up to Sow and I meeting. I'd come to Chiang Mai with some friends to film a Cambodian field in Thailand, since standing around in some random field in Cambodia could turn out to be dangerous, and in fact turn out to be a real mine field. We came for one week and stayed for four. Just what was it that brought us all this way? How was this more than just four friends and a DVcam out to pillage the country side? Now you can see the true origin behind how Rayluk got his super powers, in...

Yes after all this time, and working double shifts, Colin has finally finished editing, not only the movie, but this handy-dandy movie trailer for our film shot on video. Check it out at www.bangkokthemovie.com, and click on TRAILER. Also, be sure to check out all the other stuff we scrambled together in just a week or so.

Fireworks!

Last night I picked up some fireworks alongside the river, but I managed to restrain myself into only lighting the sparklers we put in our krathong.

I got an assortment of sparklers, cherry bombs, bottle rockets, and a few other things I'm not sure what they do.. Like this cock rocket. I love all the packaging. Back in LA I have a bunch of fireworks wrappers from India. This one reminds me of my friend Zak in Berkeley.

The night before I moved to LA was the 4th of July. We fired of some things (mostly farts), and sat around watching Night Of The Living Dead, Dawn Of The Dead, and Day Of The Dead. Zak told me about when he was a kid, he and his friends would ride their bikes down to the Berkeley marina early in the morning and find all the unused fireworks people had dropped.

He particularly loved the packaging off the Mexican fireworks. I know Zak will love the one above since it's got a cock on it. This is him at Halloween years ago. He sent it in to Jones Soda and they made a label out of it.

I'm sure I'll shoot a few of these off tonight, but I want to save some for when people come to visit us. I also bought a bunch of the balloon lanterns for later on too. So come visit us and we'll set a few things off!

I believe Colin & Daniel are coming back to Chiang Mai in mid-december.

*P.S. - check out the Jones Soda site and maybe get one of these in time for the holidays:

Loi Krathong

Tonight was the start of Loi Krathong. It begins on the day of the first full moon of the 12th lunar month. November to you and me. It lasts a few days. People have been shooting off fire works for weeks.

During the two main nights, everything revolves around the river. The first night is for the Krathongs. Little floats made of banana leaves with orchid flowers, candles, incense, and a small amount of money. Some add a few fire works to theirs. Usually just sparklers, because you want it to float as long as the candle is lit. If it sinks before this it's bad luck. No one's supposed to touch the krathong until the candle burns out. Then only small children are allowed to sit down stream and collect all the money. Good luck for them I suppose.

We'd been planning on celebrating with Rayluk since before he was born. We'd even bought the little jacket he wore tonight before then too. There were a lot of fireworks going off, so I put a little cotton in his ears. Somehow we ended up with a whole bag of cotton balls when we returned from the hospital six weeks ago. Go figure? He pretty much slept thru the entire event but it was nice to share our first festival together as a family.

The second night is even better as far as I'm concerned. So cool, that you see signs of soon before Loi Krathong until long after. Easily thru new years. It's when everyone releases the large paper lantern balloons. The sky is littered with them. Funny thing is, I've seen thousands of them in the air. I've only once seen one land after the fire has burned out.

Same thing goes with these on looking forward into the new year. If the balloon catches the air a lifts away, it's good luck. If it drops back down, gets hung up in a tree, or catches fire, it means you shouldn't count on a whole lot out of this coming year. We released one of each and they both travelled well.

Farang Too Strong

There's nothing like the thai people to make you feel like a giant. A big fat heavy giant. There's a chain of super stores here called Lotus. They're kinda like Target or Walmart for people who aren't obese. I love everything they have. None of it in my size.

For a long time I only had a fold out stool to sit on while writing my blog or surfing the net. Later I upgraded to one out of metal green folding chairs we have for outside. Apparently these are made of cold rolled metal. Which means the metal is not cast hot. It's shaped while cold. Which in turn means it can be reshaped while cold. Reshaped by the smoothness of our tile floor and the weight of a my fat ass. Ok, the weight of anyone not thai. One day I found myself gently sinking to the floor as the legs slowly slipped across the tile. Bending at the knees that were not there before.

I moved back to the stool for a few days, until parts of me started to fall asleep. Parts that you'd never ever want to fall asleep on you. Not the kind of tingling you're usually after. So off to Lotus I went again. Ready to buy the biggest, strongest, coolest chair I could find. What I found was a white plastic patio chair with arms. Seemed pretty good. Tried it on the floor and everything. Even fit squarely on the back of the scooter. Got it home. Plopped it down in front of my laptop. And "Squeeeee!" It slipped all over the place. The tile was too smooth for it. I quickly McGuyver'd something together to stop it. I took one of our door mattes and was barely able to slip a corner under each leg. That way when it pulled, the matte held it in place. This worked for quite a while. At least until the last few days when the strings of the matte started pulling apart.

Again it was time to get a new chair. None of these crappy weak-o chairs. I was on a mission to find a good solid wooden chair. Maybe something that even folded up. I recently heard of Baan Tawai, a small city about 12 km south of here near Hang Dong. Yes, Hang Dong. Walking thru shop after shop of thai furniture and handicrafts. I quickly forgot what I was looking. It reminded me a lot of driving all over Bali to find furniture with Bill a few years back. I saw a few things I liked, but wasn't going to buy anything until I got a good look around. Finally I saw something I liked which synchronized with the time I started to feel too hot too keep looking around, and went ahead and purchased a pretty nice teak folding chair for about $40. The girl there helped wrap it up and tie it to the back of my scooter too. Why not. It was a pretty easy drive down. When in Rome...



Anyhow, I'm now writing this from my new strong, no-slidin', really comfortable, teak folding chair.

Rabbi Not Included

Well, as of today Rayluk and I look a whole lot more like each other. You'll never notice the difference, but the similarity is there. It didn't take place in a temple. There was no rabbi present. It wasn't exactly a bris. But I did bring some kosher crackers.

Yes, my little boy got circumcised toady. He handled it so well. And he's now sleeping like, well, a baby. Sorry but I got absolutely no photos of this event. You're lucky I'm even posting it. I already showed you the belly button nubbin! Ain't that enough!? You people! Sheesh!!!

Dog Blog 2

Sorry about yesterday's posting. By the time I had anything ready, my server was down for scheduled maintenance. Like I said. It was scheduled. I knew about it. But somewhere in all that 15 hours ahead, subtract 3 for east coast, ± 1 hour for daylight savings, oh wait, my server's on the west coast so that's P.S.T... aw heck, I give up. Anyhow, I'll post that another day, because today got a lot more interesting.

24 Hour Siege

I've been told to expect to change up to 10 diapers a day, but we never seem to hit that high of a margin.

On the other hand, we never expect to hit a margin of zero though. Ray went a full 24 hrs between yesterday and today. I gotta say, pret-ty rough. Nothin' coming out, so not much going in. A full belly, but still hungry. Little pangs in his abdomen disguising themselves as hunger. Usually a feeding can calm the most savage baby, Without that card... oh my god, I see where all the horror stories come from. Man I've never been so happy to change a diaper. Whew! What a change in attitude. Pretty funny seeing it happen in Sow's lap though. Sorry honey...

One For The Yearbooks

I look at these and I think how good they're going to look about 17 years from now in Ray's high school year book. There are so many too pick from, but I hope they don't recognize him from making this face on his school desk!?

The heats come back to Chiang Mai. It keeps teasing like it's going to give us some nice cool and overcast days, but they disappear quickly and heat up even faster. It's starting to cool off in the evenings at least. Sow's warning me that I'll need to bundle up soon. I'm not quite sure what she's talking about. I was here last xmas and I only felt cold once. I did see somem big old bulky down filled North Face jackets for sale at the mall the other day though!? So I guess somebody feels a little cool this season. For now, Sow & Ray will have to make due with the the cool tile floors and our trusty 3-speed fan to keep back the heat. Oh yeah, we have that A/C thing too, but that's only in the bedroom.

More Pics From A Mall Near You

Got some more pics of Ray resting up while hanging out at the mall the other day.

That stroller is so magical. It's better than baby Nyquil. Babies are supposed to fall asleep when driven around. Since we don't have a car, this stroller does the trick very well. I even put him in it at home sometimes so he can sit up, and if he's being snarky I can push him from room to room to room. They're not big rooms, but he doesn't know that.

I haven't had a coffee since I've been here. That's over two months now. Maybe that explains why Sow & I have never set foot in a Black Canyon Coffee before, let alone known they served some kick-ass food. They also had some nice looking coffee desert drinks, the Mocha Glacier, and iced mocha blended with espresso beans and a scoop of espresso ice cream on top. Also, the Blackpaccino, I didn't quite get past the name on this one to see what's in it, but I'm guessing it's either cappacino or Al Pacino!?

All This Sleep Makes Me Tired

Ass up. Nose down. In heat. In cold. In momma's arms. In his bed. In ours. This boy gets more sleep than I could imagine anyone getting. Other than my friend Jerry maybe. I think maybe he's storing up his energy for screaming and he doesn't always wait until he's awake.

Here's Ray laying on the bed next to my latest Chuck Palaniuk novel, Diary. It's a little over his head so it puts him out pretty quickly. Like he needs more sleep. O wait, daddy needs him to need more sleep...

Happy Birthday Margot!

This is my sister Margot. This is her hanging out with Jared. No, not the used to be a huge fat guy and ate a ton of Subway sandwiches Jared. Smith Jared, The Sex & The City off-Broadway actor turned supermodel Jared. All the girls think he's dreamy. I don't see it...

Today is Margot's birthday. She leads a busy life. Working hard all day. Holding down a second job three evenings a week. And topping the whole thing off by taking a Photoshop class in the other evenings. And still she finds time to hang out with Smith Jared!? With all that you'd think it would make her look a whole lot older. Guess not. You go girl.

Happy Birthday!!!

Pimp My Ride

Last night we'd planned on running out to the mall for Japanese food, A/C, and to look for a baby stroller. By the time we'd finished feeding, changing diapers, and dressing Ray, it was a little late and a little too cold to take Ray out on the Scooter. *Just kidding mom. It wasn't that cold. So instead, we went today after my thai class. Making much better use of our free A/C hours.

We took the red car there. Phew! You can relax now mom. Found a slick little green stroller and a new hat for Ray. Got that Japanese meal we'd been after. And had enough time to send Sow off to a movie to start to balance out the last few I got see. That's one The Legend Of Zorro to add to her tally.


Having this new stroller makes it all possible. I pushed Ray around the mall for a while. We saw the 4th floor. The 3rd floor. He started getting fidgety. I found an internet cafe in the center near the other end of the 3rd floor. Bought an iced lemon tea, cha manao, and waited for the first glimmer of baby hunger to set in an fortify it's position. It did, and I had a bottle in his mouth before you could say, "Quiet that screaming toddler!"

We had a great time hanging out. I think the combination of the cacophony of noises, the slight wobble and jiggle of being pushed in the stroller, and possibly his flirting with all the thai girls that made it such a wonderful afternoon for us all.

Oh, and Sow enjoyed the movie!

Shopping for a new ride.


Abandoning you husband and baby for two hours
of the best lukewarm sequel you've ever seen.


Breaking in a new stroller & sleeping thru lunch.


Marking your new territory with a little drool.

My Dog Ate My Blog Post

Well it finally happened. I missed writing a post yesterday. You could ask what my excuse is, but you probably don't want to.

I tried a new thai dish for lunch yesterday. It was really good. Spicy. But not really hot, just tasty. It only made the center of my tongue hot, so the rest of it was free to taste all the flavors. About halfway thru, Sow pointed out some long dark green looking vegetables in my bowl. Thai people commonly eat those to help with constipation she said. This is where the trouble began. But you probably already knew that.

I didn't think much of it at the time. Nor for the rest of the day. It was just delicious.

Somewhere around 10:00pm I started feeling a little uncomfortable. I was a bit too tired to write anything and somewhere in there I drifted off to sleep at an odd angle to the bed. I had a series of weird and frightening dreams, broken only by the need to scurry off to the bathroom, only to return and have another nightmare. But you probably didn't need to hear that.

Needless to say, I'm crossing that one off the list. If I lose more weight, do you think I'll be having any flashbacks later on?

So I had all afternoon to write something you say. I ate lunch at 2:00pm and had a full 8 hours to write something. What happened to all that time you ask?

Just a lazy old sunday. Am I just lazy you ask? But you probably don't need to. I mean, why do now what I can put off till 7:00am PST?



It was extremely hot out yesterday. And it wasn't the usual, "It's not really that hot out, it's just the humidity." This was hot, hot, scorcher, hot out! I grabbed Ray. I grabbed my laptop. Headed for the bedroom. Flicked on the A/C. Calculatingly stripped down to my boxers. And splayed myself out on the bed.

Ray and I hung out there most of the day. Until I ran out and grabbed dinner for us. It was nice. It was cool. It's a retreat of solitude I don't usually resort to. I might start making a habit of it now. In fact I'm writing this from that same fortress of cool right now. I've just rocked Ray to sleep in my arms. Sow seems to have drifted off too. Probably from watching my hypnotic dance of the sleeping baby.



Does this answer your inquiries? Does this address all your concerns? I could ask if this is a solid excuse. But you've probably already passed judgment.

Let's just blame it on the dog.

Books In Thai

Look what I found for Sow! Thai translations of some of my favorite books!!!

When Sow was still pregnant with Rayluk I started picking up things for her to read. Each week I'd pick up the latest edition of that thai tabloid about ghosts and ufo's. Then I'd poke thru the novels and see if there was anything that look remotely familiar. Sometimes I'd pick up a thai book thinking it looked cool and wished I knew what it was about, only to discover that it was actually a translation of one of my favorites. That's how I found The Hobbit. Sow really enjoyed that one.

One day I'd run across copies of The Art Of The Steal by Frank Abagnale, a weak follow up to his first book Catch Me If You Can. They made a pretty good movie, but it's a much better book. After weeks of trolling thru thai books stores (at both malls in town), I finaly found a copy, on accident. Sow's in the middle of that one right now. Every few pages she turns and gasps, Impossible!? Did he really do that? If you haven't read this one you should check it out. The movie really doesn't do it justice.

The day after Rayluk was born, I'd gone over to the mall to pick some things up for her. While I was there I stumbled across a table of clearance books. A little yellow book with a kooky little mouse with a hat and cane on the cover caught my eye. I looked closer and it was Stuart Little. In Thai! Later that day when they brought Ray to our hospital room for the first time, he fell asleep as Sow read the first few chapters to him.

In my searches I've found a few other things. A copy of The Nine Billion Names Of God. This version was in thai and is actually a compilation of a lot of old short sci-fi stories by different writers, most of which were used for radio dramas in the 50's. The two best shows were Dimension-X and X-1. I just happen to have most of these ones on my laptop.

And one final book I found. One of my personal favorites, Harry The Dirty Dog. I could hardly believe my eyes when I spotted it. I'm glad I got it, because I haven't seen it again.

This is the life. Sow's copy of Catch Me If You Can on one side and some baby wipes on the other.

The Doctor Is IN

Today was a rough day for Rayluk. He had to come home take 2 baby aspirin, a cold compress and a milk bottle.

It was his one month doctor's visit. At one month there's another shot involved. This time was a second hepatitis B shot. Right in the ass. Well just left of the ass to be precise. It didn't look that rough at all. The doctor looked him over. Checked him with his stethoscope. Gave him the shot. Then gave him a nice little cotton ball. I've never heard him cry so loud.

On the other hand his new measurements are in, and he's grown quite a bit. He's now at 4175 grams, up 1215 from a month ago. And he's gone from 51cm to 56cm in length.

Right now he's laying in my lap. It's hot out but the fan is blowing a gentle breeze over him. He's dreaming. I'm not sure of what, but it's making him giggle and smile. I like to picture him running thru the woods chasing a rabbit or an elk. Then thinking of something funny and laughing so hard milk comes out of his nose.

Just wait till next month when he gets four shots.

There Comes A Day...

I know I've talked a lot about my cute little boy Rayluk. "The World's Cutest" I believe some have called him. That's a lot to live up to. A lot of pressure to put on such a young boy. Well, he's over 4 weeks now. That's a month, right? I guess we can call him young man. There comes a time in every boys life (we'll call it 4 weeks) when he has to come face to face with the harsh realities of life.

Kids grow up so fast these days. They learn about sex, violence, crime, etc... They get it all from video games I hear. We'll just start with acne. Yes, my beautiful little baby boy has acne. The doctor says it's probably because of hormones he gets from his mother. I just look at it as a way to pull him down off that precarious pedestal. Keep him from all those embarrassing paparazzi. Save him some face so to speak.

I thought I'd document it.

Warning: Roll over at your own risk.
Ala Ren & Stimpy close up.


*note: this looks much worse than it actually is.
I shot these really close up with a macro lens.
Makes that thing look huge!

New Movie Day!

Woo-hoo! It's new movie day! A bunch of new movies come out here today!

I've been wanting to see The Corpse Bride for a while. I've heard to not get my hopes up too much, but it looks really cool.

I've also really wanted to see Lord of War. I have yet to see a trailer for it, so this is based almost entirely on the poster. Oh, and Nicholas Cage of course. I even enjoyed him in movies like Face/Off & Con Air. I'll try not to get my hopes up on this one either, but I'm hoping it'll be good.

It looks like there's a host of new movies coming out from now till new years too! I can't wait. We've reached that point where Sow and I won't be going to many movies together for quite a while. As much as I'd love to start finally bringing a screaming baby to a loud movie, we'll just have to tag team it. I'll watch the first half and then we'll swap and she'll watch the second half I guess. Then we can talk about the movie afterwards over ice cream and pie.

Corpse Biride ©2005 Warner Bros. Entertainment Inc.
Lord Of War ©2005 Lions Gate Films

4 Weeks!

Look who's 4 weeks today! Rayluk! Yes, Rayluk. He seems to finally be getting into this whole diaper change thing.

Wall's

On my first trip to Bali my friend Bill turned me on to Wall's Ice Cream. Specifically Magnum bars. These have to be one of the greatest things ever made.



Last year while I was here in Chiang Mai with Colin, Daniel, and Ilya, we were filmed out at Huay Ting Thao. A recreational lake area that people go for swimming, fishing and relaxing in huts along the water. We were a ways off from all the people and the water, but a motorcycle with an ice cream sidecar kept circling by. The whole time playing the Wall's ice cream theme. Very catchy. I found their website, but unfortunately they don't play the tune on it. I do have Sow on video humming it though, so that'll have to do for now.

Manicure / Pedicure

Sow tried to pawn this one off on me. I owe her. I owe her big. In fact she's out shopping right now. It's the first time she's left the house by herself for months.

The idea of having to clip Rayluk's baby nails is one of the scariest things I can imagine having to do. On the heebie-jeebies scale it's right up there with nails scratching on a chalkboard. If we don't cut them, they get long and he'll scratch himself every time he rubs his face. Don't tell me you haven't noticed the little mitts he wears!?

And she's so good at it too. Gently grabbing each finger. Each toe. Small little clips. Clip-clip. Clip-clip. And nothing more than nail coming off.

Man Cuts Down Tree With Housewares

Saturday, while I was waiting to get a couple orders of Sow's favorite soup for lunch, I spotted a man across the street standing on a tin roof cutting down a tree. I was amazed at how quickly the limbs were falling. I watched him hold onto the tree while he swung his other arm in a flurry, but it was hard to tell just what he was holding.

After a while I realized he was using a common butcher knife. Who knew how many animals had been spliced and diced using that very knife. Now it was being used for deforesting. Just a couple good whacks and he'd take off a large limb. A single whack would clear off a few of the smaller branches. I kept waiting to see one his limbs drop to the ground but my soup came too soon and I left.

Last year I saw a similar thing in Phnom Phen. The four story building next door to our hotel was being razed by a couple guys with their bare hands and the use of a hammer. I watched over a few days as they demolished the entire thing. Finally down to the last arch which one of the guys teetered atop and pounded away at the cement and rebar.