HELLO FAMILY!

Here's a long-overdue post about recent events. As it is the first once since April, there is obviously many months worth of material left out. These pics are from the month of August. I want to post some tasty pics of fourth of July, but that would take a long while since there are very many to go through. At least here you can get a small sampling of the life and times of Em Hansen (Trent!).



James and Tris brushing tooths like every night.


Where I went on my 25-Alive birthday. My great friend Djiana picked me up and we spent a bunch of hours at Blacks Beach in La Jolla, and then went out to lunch!


A few recent art pieces by me in an art&music show put on by a friend named Kate. A good learning experience... I got some perspective on the conditions under which I would do another show of this type, i.e. room setup, other showcasing artists, door price, etc. I also got a good perspective on my actual work that I am doing as a straight up "Artist" and what I like about what I am doing and what I want to change or focus on with future projects.

Tris in the morning time with our cat Captain Ashface. (Some of you may not know that our first cat, Dorothy Snogboggler, passed away while we were on vacation for July 4. We miss her.) Captain is rad, and she is FRICKIN crazy. She's a cuddler, but also a fierce attacker and meower for food.




These are all pics of the war protest James and I rode our bikes to in downtown San Diego. It was my first one! It was a good time. Lots of good minds around to talk to and people holding up signs and talking about real things. At the start there were about 200 people there, and it dwindled as time went on to me and James and about 15 others including a homeless chap who had had a few whiskys named Breeze who got ahold of a sign and was yelling up a storm: "Bring our homeboys home!" and he was a very excellent addition to our group of young and old. I'd say the best part of the protest was literally standing on the curb, with my flip-flopped toes scooching into the road, one of my hands holding up a peace sign and the other holding up a sign that said BELIEVE. I stood there for three hours like that, and cars of all kinds, rich folks, poor folks, folks of all colors, cab drivers, teenagers, old ones, little tikes, tons of people drove by and "honked for peace". Of course there was the occasional Bush supporter (this is a navy town, after all) who yelled obscenities and flicked us the bird, but we laughed and peaced on. Busses would drive by and I could see our reflection in the windows, and that felt great: ME amidst a mass of people with our human beliefs broadcasted out to the mass public. After the protest James and I got a delicious meal at Rock Bottom. Mine was the bourbonzola burger: a veggie burger on a bun with fried onions and gorgonzola cheese and some kind of drug-like teryaki sauce which now visits me in my daydreams. After dinner we headed to the Onyx Room where there is free live jazz by the city's best trumpeter, Gilbert Castellanos. This was a very good night.


James' mom Mary came over for her birthday on the 30th. I made an experimental dish: onions sauteed with olive oil and brown sugar, then mushrooms and good-chicken chunks added, and then some pear. YUM with couscous. Mary had a great time, and won $8 on lottery tickets!

This is a breakfast I made for James and me to celebrate the first of September. The drink was fresh juice made of mango, grapefruit, pear and champaigne!

Also, I made another extremely tasty snack this afternoon which I think all of you should know about because it is very simple and delicious. Ok: put a pita in the toaster oven for a couple minutes. Take it out, put a little bit of sour cream on it, and then smear it with a bunch of hummus. Then put sliced fresh tomatoes and avocado on it. DUDES...

This month is shaping up to be a good one. I actually am going to be showing those same pieces in another friend's art show, which I am and am not looking forward to. I'm going up to see Jean Shearer at the farm she is working at during the weekend of the 22. I am also applying to a four-course copy-editing program through UCSD as to be employable as a master of grammar and punctuation. From then on, the world is mine and I will douse it with em-dashes! No just kidding, I'm hoping to get a part-time gig and magazine/newspaper/publishing company, or even better yet as freelance, and dwindle my days of coffee-making down to the barebones.

I hope everything is great with everyone and I would like to hear all about it!
Um, are there any additions yet? If not, Jess, can you stand up?
Let me know.

Ok, love you all,
em

EM'S FIRST POST

Greetings from the Golden State, all you sweater wearers!

It is Thursday morning, and the birds are chirping outside. Sun is shining through the used-car-style flags we have hung up outside our apartment, which I snickeringly thought of to celebrate James' 29th birthday last month. Some traffic passes by every now and then, but I think for the most part, people are at work, as it is 10:23. Yes, I shall be attending the old coffee-sling routine in just an hour; today is one of my short days: 1130-330, on other days I work 7-3.

So, what should I start with... well, I have been spending a lot of time recently coordinating a food drive, which I titled FARE FOR CRONIES. I was going to call it FOOD FOR FRIENDS, but that was just a little too cheesy, so I checked the thesaurus for synonyms and laughed as I made some arrangements: Fodder for Fellows, Cheer for Peers, Cuisine for Cousins, Bites for Buddies, Chews for Chums. Hey, no reason why a little do-gooding can't be a very fun time! I went around to all the businesses with a letter explaining what I wanted to do (have them host a drop-box for a full week starting this Sunday) and got 19 businesses to participate, all within three blocks of the Business District of Park Boulevard in University Heights, which is where Twiggs is located. Twiggs Coffeehouse is where I work. I have been taping up big bright orange posters at local grocery stores and this weekend I will be passing out flyers at the Earth Day Fair, and possibly the Adams Avenue Roots Festival, which, annoyingly, both occur on the same weekend every year. Wish me luck in gathering tasty healthy treats for the less-fortunate. I have already gotten three shopping bags full and it hasn't even started yet!



Besides the food drive, I have been excitedly tending my container garden outside our apartment! I have some decorative flowers, some cactus, some plants I don't know the names of that came from James' old apartment, HUMONGO broccoli, onions, carrots, dill, peppermint, butternut squash, bell pepper, and a poinsettia which I snagged from a line of almost-dead ones at one of our favorite bars, brought it home and back to life, only to have all the leaves be eaten by one Dorothy Snogboggler, who sniffs a piece of grilled chicken with a snooty nose, but would devour all of the leaves of my plants if she had her way. So, again, I am trying to bring that one back to life, and be tender to the broccoli and pepper plants, which she has graciously munched on quite a few times.



Note: none of my plants have produced edibles yet, although there is a very tiny broccoli baby hiding in the leaves!!!



The insatiable Dorothy Snogboggler, or El Gato Dorotea Snogboglier (the g's are silent).

Other snaps from recent times:
(Sorry these are kind of hap-hazard... James has a lot of the pics on his computer, so next time I will try to be more prepared with better pictures!!)








So, James's band the Hi-Lites just released their first full-length album titled Hi-Altitude. It is very good indeed and they have been selling copies at shows. They just signed on with Megalith Records, which is owned by a guy named Bucket, who is the singer of the band The Toasters, a second-wave Ska band from England. The Hi-Lites are planning a ten-day tour of the South-West for the beginning of June! James just finished his latest song which is a voal piece called Golden Paved Road. SO AMAZINGLY GREAT, and I have only heard it played by computer interpretations of musical notes... just wait til the band plays it live!

Also, we bought our tickets for our east-coast appearance, coinciding with the ever-comical 4th of July. J&B/M&D have been giving me updates about the person count and bedroom assignments. IT IS GOING TO THE BEST, I CAN'T WAIT TO SEE ALL OF YOU!

Besides that I have been making up recipes for sweet snacks and hearty dinners, also finishing Ayn rand's Atlas Shrugged, which I have been reading for 1.5 years and have about 75 pages left!! Also, riding bikes, walking, sniffing the air, going to the beach, trying to save some money, anticipating Marveller #3, new RI! products, and thinking about the world.

Well, it is time for me to go to work and make slurpy warm caffeine concoctions for the public.

More to come on the blog soon, as there are many shows, events, fun times and deep thoughts going on out here.

I hope all of you are feelin real good.

Love you!

-em

Ps. how do you make the text-size smaller?

Family Gatherings, Florida, and just life in general.

HELLO family.
My mom has been nagging me to put up the photos from our latest family gathering... so today (since I'm on vacation) I thought it was time to share these pictures with you all.

First of all, there was the meeting of Rex...



^^^a lovely picture



I like that picture also.



Interesting how no one is looking at the same camera. Haha

and finally...the only picture of the baby crying...



Interesting whose arms Rex is in where he is crying.....
Haha.

And there are other photos from that night. Like hot tubing



So that was that night. And as some of you know, I was in Florida for the past 4ish days (from Friday morning at 1:30 to 4:00 Tuesday morning) for a chorus trip (slash band and orchestra). It was great fun. We went to disney world and I met many disney charactors (including Mickey Mouse, Lilo from Lilo and Stitch, Wolverine and Storm from X-men, Goofy, Minnie Mouse, Buzz Lightyear, one of the little green toy soldiers from Toy Story, Captain America, and many more)
The reason we went was because of a chorus/band/orchestra competition called the Musicfest. We ended up winning 8 first place awards along with one second place award. We won the most awards of all the schools that were there.
And I also went on many rides. (Including some super fast rollercoasters! WOO!)
heres a picture of me and my friends riding on the Tower of Terror.



All of my friends are on the right hand side. I'm the one attempting to pose for the picture haha.
ANYWAY, thats all for now, I hope you enjoyed the pictures and I hope to see you all SOON!!!

GIVE SANJAYA A CHANCE!!!

Come on! I voted for Sanjaya 38 times the other night! Yes, it is that funny to ruin American Idol. Most of you know how I feel about not being picked at MY idol audition a few years ago, instead losing out to a Guy dressed in a Tony the Tiger costume who did not even sing at all, and a girl who sang in a pitch in didn't even know existed, yet she was so large they picked her just to make fun of her on the actual show in front of Paula, randy and Simon. So, why not give Sanjaya a chance? As you know, most people dont need talent anymore to be singers in the music biz...Check out Paris Hilton's new CD or Lindsey Lohan's little sister's X-mas album...yes, i do not even know her name...Does anyone?
The Christening was excellent indeed...Rex slept through the whole thing. He was the most behaved baby there! There was one little boy who had a pretty serious case of "Ants in the Pants" that made us laugh...St. Bart's really is the best church around, even for those who do not like to go to church, it sure is beautiful and peaceful...
I do not have any pics to post that are interesting, so I will wait until something embarassing happens and I can get good shots of it. Oh wait! I do have some audio files of the ALLMAN BROTHERS concert I went to last Thursday! As soon as I can go home and figure out how to add them to this I will! I never sat around so many over 60 hippies smokin dubes and wearing Tye-dyes with ponytails since....well....Ever I guess.

VOTE FOR SANJAYA! HE CAN WIN ON HIS HAIR ALONE!

Rex's Baptism Update, etc.. With Links to Funny Stuff!

This post will be a bit of a hodgepoge...

So Rex (who our innapropriately named neighbor Sandy refers to, in her Whiskey-and-Kools-soaked voice, as "King Baby") was baptized on Saturday at St. Bart's. It was a nice service - some pics are below. Unfortunately we don't have any better shots of Rex being dunked into the deep end of Christianity...





Yes.... Rex has two godmommies, Jessica and Daphne's sister Meghan.... No word yet on whether their duties are only enforceable in Massachusetts.

Can you believe that Sanjaya is still on American Idol? I can. America is just that stupid. My money's still on Melinda. Or Beyonce. She's popular. Speaking of tv, if you haven't had the chance to check out NBC's excellent Friday Night Lights, well... you're SOL until the fall (hopefully they'll bring it back). Seriously though, Daphne and I both think it's one of the five best shows on tv, along with 24, House, The Soprano's (click here for an excellent, if a little foulmouthed, video summary of the first six seasons) and Family Guy (didn't see that one coming did you)?

Friday Night Lights features the yummy Kyle Chandler. To wit:



One of Daphne's "Top 3", along with Kirk Herbstreit (don't ask me)



and John Cusack (starting to look a little puffy if you ask me - where's the hottie from Better off Dead and the Grifters?).



So now you've been fully updated on Rex's baptism, our tv viewing habits (also, don't miss the Shield and Dancing with the Stars) and Daphne's "free passes" as it were.

Come on.. someone else blog... When you don't, you make Baby Jesus cry, but when you do, you make Rex look like this:



Stay Nappy Classy San Diego....

Babies look weird in there!

Well, here it is....baby to be named later! Kinda looks like an alien. So, I am trying to decide on this first picture....Is "it" picking it's nose, or sucking it's thumb??" Well, knowing mine and Luis's habit's, it's probably picking it's nose. hahahaha! The bottom picture shows the stomach, head and what Luis thinks is it's "Junk," but we all know it's a foot.

Anyway, I hope this posts properly.....Click on the pictures to make them larger so you can see better...Technology is wonderful isn't it?

Judi is okay...Jay spoke to her earlier. They are keeping her over night and maybe tomorrow. I will see her tomorrow night and keep her company.

Love,

Jessica

Those Babies Keep a Comin!

Hello everyone in our wonderful family!
So, as you all now know, there will be a new addition to our clan on September 18th, + or - 4 days, whatever that means...I guess it's never a sure thing.
So, if anyone has any name ideas I'd love to hear them. We are almost settled on Jack, (trying to keep the J names going), but I am having trouble with the girl names. Ella (After Ella Fitzg.) is my fave girl name, but no J in there....Hmmm....
I am still sick a lot, but hopefully that will go away soon. Then the basketball comes! Funny - I have a wedding in June to be in - have to get that dress altered now and NO DRINKING! Then I have my 30th Birthday in June, NO DRINKING! Then one more wedding in October to be in- lose the baby weight and DRINKING! YAY!
So, hope everyone is well and the 2007 predictions look to be right on the money! What were some of the other ones?

Love

Jessica

Babies Babies everywhere!

Haha!!!
I was going to post a while ago but unfortunately I forgot my blogger password and I had to go through this long process of getting my password but well now I'm here.
ANYWAY, while on the topic of babies, I'd LOVE to announce that I changed my first baby diaper with no one else to help me ANDD I also fed him too, with no one to help me.
Wooooo! I was on a roll. And luckily, when i changed him he didn't pee in my face. My mom suggested using a diaper as a shield but I didn't need to use that, thankfully.
Well I hope I get to see Rex sometime soon!
Byebyee

POST POST POST

Hey everyone! I can finally post! Jeremy is a genius...
Rex is so beautiful! I highly reccommend everyone see him when you get the chance.
He has HUGE testes! Very impressive!

Love that pic of mom and dad....Thanks jay.

New York Update - Rex and More (including bad swears)!!!

We had some visitors here the past few days. Katey was here on Thursday (unfortunately we did not take any pictures, but see below!), Judi visited over the weekend and left yesterday and was a big help and a lot of fun, and some of Daphne's family was over on Tuesday. Pictures are below.

Here is Judi and Deb. Mom - I don't want to hear any "static" about the Allan double chin.



Here is a shot of the proud grandma with the boy...



And here are the proud parents apparently performing some kind of surgery on Rex... "it takes a steady hand...." I'm actually not sure what we were doing here - maybe checking his diaper (or as some people insist it's pronounced - "di-a-per").



Lucky for me, I head back to the office on Tuesday ... and maybe even to work! Daphne gets to hang out and eat bonbons and drink gin all day (well, gin now - margaritas in the summer). We're in Western Mass on St. Patrick's Day and the Sunday after - the tentative plan is for yours truly to run the Holyoke 10K (fun!) and to try to see people on Sunday. Easiest for us (and hey - isn't that what matters) would be to go to the Hansens some time on Sunday and if the Waterpeople or others in the vicinity could drop by there (if there is interest), that would work. Let us know... Email me at jmnaylor33@yahoo.com and let me know! I forget how to embed the mailto link into a post. I'll remember.

Since this is a blog, and not exclusively Rex-themed (although your posts are necessary for that to happen!), here are a few other pics of New York, Paris, etc., that we've taken over the past year. Clearly, we are no Emily Hansen (or even John Waterman or Mike Naylor) when it comes to kodachrome excellence, but we hope you enjoy them nonetheless. Take care!

The Shakespeare and Co. bookstore in Paris....



The Big D and J-Dogg in Gay Paree...




I don't know what happened here. I think I asked Katey something about whether she was kissing the Blarney Stone when she went to Ireland. And by Blarney Stone, I think I meant something else....



Here is one of Jessica and her date to her 31st birthday party (oops, I mean 29th - seriously though Jessica, you don't look a day over 32). Thank you, thank you I'll be here all week.... Please tip your bartenders and waitresses. Try the veal.



Finally, a Mike Naylor sighting!!!! Is that a Naylor in your pocket, or are you just happy to f*** me???!!?



Be well Crazy Allans...

12 Days to go....

.... Until I go back to work. Bummer, although I am very lucky to be able to take 4 weeks off so we can take cool pictures of Rex like this:



And this:



And even though it isn't Rex, this:



Thought you'd like that one. We're digging out, just a bit, from the "snowstorm" (ha!) we got yesterday. All three inches. Katey is coming by a bit later today to see the boy. We'll get some good intra-family pics then (that almost sounds dirty).

Mom (Judi) is going to be in town this weekend and the Hansens are visiting next Saturday (right?) We're getting visitors from the "other side" of the family on the 20th (Daphne's mom and sister, aunt Betsy, cousin Lauren and Lauren's partner Kai) and the 25th (Daphne's dad and Gail, or as they refer to themseleves on all correspondence to us "Don & Gail").

Hope all of you Crazy Allans are doing well. Let me know if you have any questions about how to post on the blog (I know Molly knows how it works). If you want to leave a comment, just click the link below that says "0 comments").

Peace, Out.

Rex is Here!!!

So all of you know by now that Rex Avery Naylor was born on January 30 at 5:35 p.m. He weighed 7 lbs and 8 oz when he came "down the chute". Here is one of the first pictures our doula took of him with our digital camera:



Like most of us, with the possible exceptions of Keith Richards, Jerry Garcia and Grizzly Adams, he looks much better all cleaned up. So:



For the backstory, Daphne woke up around 4 on Tuesday having some contractions, but went back to bed. She got up at 5 when they were more serious and stayed up from there. I woke up at 7 and she told me that they felt pretty strong. She had some water so she wouldn't dehydrate. At 8 we called our midwife practice (we used midwives rather than an OB). They told us it sounded like early labor and to relax, rest, maybe go for a walk. I went into work to finish up a couple of things and planned to be home by noon for a long labor (because they say the first ones are the long ones).

I called Daphne at 9:30 and again at 10:30. At 10:30 she told me I had to come home. I got home at 11 and started timing contractions. Immediately it was clear that the baby wasn't waiting long. They were one minute long, three minutes apart for the hour I timed them. We called our doula and midwives and they told us to come to the hospital.

We got to the hospital at 1 and Daphne was already in active labor. The birth center at Roosevelt/St. Luke's hospital has a tub in each room, so Daphne got into that and progressed through the hardest part of the first stage of labor - transition. Even this progressed quickly and suddenly Daphne was pushing Rex out. All of the women in the room were supportive. I was kind of like a coat rack, a nice thing to have, but one you don't really notice unless you don't have one to hang your coat on and are left throwing it on the floor.

Anyway..... the rest is history and since then we're doing great, enjoying Rex, and taking lots of pictures, like this:



this:

and this:

So that's the update. We will be in Western Mass St. Patrick's Day weekend for the Holyoke 10k (I'm going to try to run it although I think Daphne wil lose her pregnancy weight before I lose my "sympathy" a/k/a french fry and pizza weight, so we'll see). Hopefully we'll be able to see most of you guys in Western Mass then. Otherwise, we're here in the 'hood. Local folks like Katey and Jessica are welcome pretty much any time and if anyone else wants go come to NYC, give us a call.

That's all, folks...

Fun Weekend

So we attended an "orientation" session at Roosevelt/St. Luke's Hospital - a mandatory session so we can use their birthing center.

4 hours on a Sunday morning in a conference room isn't always the most fun, but it did give us the opportunity to see Lauren Ambrose, which was nice.

You may remember her from Six Feet Under and other tv, etc. She was also in the orientation session and is huge.

Another year gone by...

And us without a J-Dogg - D-Nice Holiday Party this year!