Sass-A-Frass

I like to tell McKenna stories at bedtime. Not necessarily read books, but make em up on the fly, and just let both of our imaginations run wild. She'll add and edit as she sees fit, and that's perfectly fine by me.
For the past week, I've been creating this enchanted kingdom where she's trying to become a princess. (She's six! This what six year old girl's wanna be when they grow up. I wanted to be a fireman at six. Go figure.)
She can only become a princess by helping other princesses find their true love- and I have her spend each night in a different Disney Princess'
Kingdom where she helps Snow White or Cinderella, or the Little Mermaid, etc. find their Prince Charming and she gets closer to her Gold Tiara Princess Coronation.
Now we live in a Disney DVD household...so she's well-schooled on the
Happily-Ever-After...I can tell she's into it, and it's fun for me too, I'll admit.
Here's a quick aside before I continue...now that I see this art on a daily basis, Have you ever notice that these Princesses never interact with each other?
When you see them on clothes or on coloring books there's always this group shot -usually the Big Four- Cinderella, Sleeping Beauty, Ariel, & Snow White- they all look fabulous and are ALWAYS looking right at you....never acknowledging
that the one sitting next to them exists. Very much like a "Desperate Housewives" advertisement, or that VH-1 "Divas Live" where Whitney Houston and Mariah Carey shared the same stage. I don't know why, but this cracks me up to no end...
Back to the show- McKenna decides she wants to make up the story over the weekend.
I thought, "Why Not?" and let the little Spielberg have the reins...
She breaks out into this pretty fantastic crossover story that involves both Princess Jasmine from "Aladdin" and includes Tinkerbell from Pan's Neverland coming in for a last minute save.
She's obviously oblivious to the laws of Licensing, but it was still a pretty kickass tale.
But the capper is she included me and her mom in the story as well....we come riding in on Alladin's magic carpet and help her fight the palace guards, and I'm thinking-
"Wow! She put us in her fairy tale! In the Hero-Saves-the-Day role! How awesome is this?"
And then she drops the hammer.
"And after you get off the Magic Carpet, Daddy, the Carpet was like, 'Whew!', because
you're kinda a heavy guy, Daddy."..............

Cancel Christmas!

What a Sassy Frassy Lassie!

BlobDaddy

From the Mountains to the Prairies

Hey there! Hi there! Ho there....
No- I'm not talking about the Red Light District-
Just have some Kenna Sketches backlogged up from
my Procrasterdamned Travel Blog...so rather than wrap up
my story, I'll just post a triple done sequentially to fill up
the lull between posts.
9-11- Hard to believe that was five years ago.
It was such a gorgeous morning (not unlike today) in NYC....
I remember getting to work and the receptionist said..
"A plane just hit the Trade Towers" and I went to my desk thinking
it was a Cessna or some other small aircraft.
Then I went into a meeting with my design team and get a phone call
from my wife. She was in the Queens county courthouse for jury duty, and had seen the
plane hit on a television they had in the auditorium where you wait to get called.
"Do you know a plane hit one of the Twin Towers?"
"Yeah, babe I'm in a meeting right now..." (I still had no idea how big this was...)
"Uh...O.K. listen call me AS SOON as you can alright?"
Just then someone walked into our meeting and said-
"Another plane just hit the second tower."
Meeting over.
Then a scramble to the roof of our building where we had an unobstructed view
right down 6th avenue. We could see both Towers in flames. People were crying-screaming- taking pictures.
All cell phone service was shot. The only TV reception we could get on the set in the office was
a Spanish cable station so we could see the images but had no idea what was being said.
Then both Towers fell. People were dying. We worked right across the street from what
was now the tallest building in the city- The Empire State Building-could it be next?
The radio stations were saying there could be as many as five more planes in the air.
Panic was setting in....Should we leave?
We'd looked around the office and our bosses had already left!
I called my wife and told her I was coming home.
Mass Transit was completely shut down. No Buses-No trains.
I walked across town and with tens of thousands of people.
Walked over the 59th Street Bridge back to my house in Queens watching the smoking ruins
of a building my Dad had worked at for 2 decades. The madness of the day finally settling in...
I picked up my two year old daughter from daycare, went home with my girls and cried for days.
So much has changed since then...
God bless us, everyone.

Amsterdamaged

GoldMember: "Look. My vinky was a key"
Nigel Powers: "Only a bloody Dutchman....."
-from "Austin Powers' Goldmember"

"AMSTER-ABOUT-DAM TIME! PART DEUX"-

Hi. I've come up for air to finally Finnish my tale...sorry for the delay-
The trip needed to sink in a bit for me...I had to work it on others like
a comedian works out his material in the comedy clubs before I felt like
throwing it out there. I always seem to remember more of it talking it out.
We all had a shortlist of what we wanted to see while we were there and
AnneFrankehuis was at the top of the list. The museum of the young Jewish diarist,whose family hid from the Nazi's during WW II is probably the most
sobering thing you'll ever do here, but it's incredibly powerful.
There were people there who were visibly moved to tears by the stark imagery.
We left and appropriately enough, it started to pour. Sheets of rain.
We ran to a cafe across the street an had an accidentally wonderful breakfast.
Pretty cool for just stepping in from the rain!
Now when it rains in New York you can usually sit tight somewhere and wait for a lull-
but it never happens here I guess. The clouds were set on "Riot Hose" for the entire afternoon.
We picked up some 5 Euro umbrellas that were suprisingly sturdy for off-the-street rip-offs.
We knew the weather was gonna be crap so we'd planned to take the tram to the Musuem Quarter
and see the Van Gogh and RijksMuseum. I can't lie. This is why I'm here.
Van Gogh was like a hero to me growing up.
The place was laid out like a career retrospective, and at the later stage asylum pieces you see him
just completely lose his grip through the canvas and it tears at you.
Wheatfield With Crows is frickin huge. You can see the defeat right there.
It breaks your heart.
And to see a Rembrandt self portrait thisclose is something I'll savor for the rest of my life.
I could see the cracks in a Vermeer. An amazing day.
Unfortunately the weather also prohibited a trip to Vondelpark, which really bummed me out.
We headed back home, had an amazing dinner at this mom & pop place, where we tried some
"Dutch Cuisine"- some excellent cheeses, bitterbollen-which is like a deep fried ah spicy meat-ahball!
(think about how much fun it is among three men to order anything that sounds like "Bitter Balls")
and most importantly, some great, sweet, sweet, Beer. Beer in Amsterdam tastes amazing!
Even Heineken-which stateside I think tastes like Panther- Piss goes down great!
I was like Frank the Tank!
"Fill it up again! Fill it up again! Once it hits your lips, it's so good!"
Our bellies full we decided it was time to hit what became known as the RLD:
The Red Light District.
I'll have to split this story yet again unfortunately cause I'm bloody exhausted, but
I'm sure you'll be back for the finale. I promise the next post'll be sooner.
Holy CliffHanger!
Ribbit