news from 'round Rancho Relaxo

Spring hasn't quite sprung

2009-03-13T20:13:00.002-04:00

Nevertheless, I got out to do some of the activity pictured above again for the first time since last Summer and before we got 7 more inches of snow. It was the pinnacle of awesomeness.

why so few blogs now?

2008-08-10T12:14:00.003-04:00

It's amazing how little you can prepare mentally for how much time you won't have anymore when you get one of these little people in your life. Things are great. Liam is great. Life is great. I just don't have time enough to shovel food in my piehole, let alone keep up with this!
It's been a long time, I know. I'll try to be better about it, but if you have a problem with it, you'll have to talk to Brave Sir Liam first. He'll set you straight.

rub a dub dub

2008-05-02T21:01:00.002-04:00

So we have been triumphant in giving Sir Liam his first bath and we lived to tell the tale. Actually, he was quite cooperative. He is unreal so far. I think we'll keep him.

Liam Robert Nelson Cann

2008-04-10T19:12:00.003-04:00

4/10/08
8:26 am
9 pounds 5 ounces
21 inches long
Ginella and I are speechless.

This baby is late!

2008-03-27T20:04:00.004-04:00

Well, the due date came and went and it appears the bun has already inherited our inherent trait of "hitting the snooze button" a few times. We can't wait to meet him or her (the bets seem to be heavily in favor of a boy), but I guess we will have to for now. The words *any time now* have new meaning...

anticipation

2008-03-03T19:22:00.003-05:00

So, like Jean-Luc Picard, the midwife told us that the baby is "engaged", which loosely translates to "locked and loaded". She also said "welcome to hell month"; I guess the last 4 weeks of pregnancy are uncomfortable and nerve racking because this tiny little human could decide to arrive at ANY TIME NOW. I guess this explains this feverishly excited anticipation we both (and the bun) feel. Technically we are at t-minus 3 weeks and counting. Holy crap.

2008-02-15T19:43:00.002-05:00

it appears that our nephew Tanner is a budding musician. As you'll see in this video, he seems to favor the tenor ukulele...

love is in the air

2008-02-15T19:17:00.002-05:00

We woke up one recent snowy morning to find this at the end of our driveway. Wierd. I guess the car-heart-shaped-donut bandit felt like paying us a visit. Ahh, love is indeed in the air...and in the snow...

so it begins...

2008-01-25T19:45:00.000-05:00

So, I have survived to tell the tale of my first baby shower. What a crazy affair, complete with diaper cakes and a guess-what-melted-candy-bar-is-in-this-diaper game. It was also an amazing display of generosity from our friends and family and some of the pictures can be found here!

now playing...

2008-01-05T23:41:00.000-05:00

We recently accompanied 2 of our dear friends to their "3D" ultrasound. At the end of the procedure, the baby finder was kind enough to invite Super G and the bun in the oven over to the machine to take a peek. We managed to sneak 45 seconds of this into a movie. Enjoy!

changes in the fleet, part II

2007-12-12T23:42:00.000-05:00

So the second car is a 98 Camry with 155,000 miles on it and a slightly neglected interior. Quite a departure from heated leather seats and the quirky Swedish acoutrements that came with the Saab I recently sent on its not-so-merry way (looky here for that story).
I have to say, though, there is something very liberating about driving a "shitbox" at my age. It has a tape deck, so I was forced to listen to the only tape I could find: Faith No More's "Album of the Year". It felt, well, very "metal" to be driving a car like this again.
The car now has a name and a theme song. Its name is "sweet camry" and it glides me elegantly down / up Route 3 every morning to the theme of the Eagles' "Sweet Darlin".
Oh sweet camry, you get the best of my love.

changes in the fleet

2007-11-22T13:00:00.001-05:00

Change number one was a matter of accepting our fate as minivan owners. Now we just have to find a badass skull sticker or something like that to reclaim some of our mojo...

Oh, yes there is also change number 2 (details coming once I have pictures)....

Good night, Sweden

2007-11-08T17:41:00.001-05:00

Well, it's the end of an era for the fickle Swedish chariot that has been my car for the last few years. The Route 3 southbound traffic demon ate the front end of this vehicle and sprained my ankle pretty fiercely. Luckily that was the only human injury.
So, we all bid the Saab a bittersweet farewell...

it's in there...

2007-11-03T21:07:00.000-04:00

Well, we had the first ultrasound today and it was more indescribable than hearing the baby's heartbeat for the first time. Unbelieveable. The ultrasound tech even let our family members come in and take a look. Below is a crappy picture of a printout from the event. Like I said to my cousin Andy, It looks like the baby is either waving to us or saying "4 more months and you two are mine!"

tradition

2007-10-05T22:41:00.000-04:00

My father, his father and I were recently honored for 100+ years of combined service to that "secret society" we belong to; the Freemasons. It has been a tradition in my family that the men become Masons. Both of my grandfathers, most of my uncles and of course my father are members of the fraternity.
It made me lament on the word tradition.
Perhaps tradition is a cliche. It is an often misused word to mask the status quo.
But maybe tradition is about finding common ground across generations. It is the one major thing that I have in common with these men in my family whose lifetime of experience contrast mine dramatically.
...just lamenting... sorry about that. It won't happen again, I promise.

the sneaky finger

2007-09-21T23:09:00.000-04:00

I felt like trying to explain my propensity for making ridiculous faces in pictures or offering the "sneaky finger" but I realized that its best left to a photo narrative of sorts. My uncle Joel introduced me to the concept a very long time ago, inadvertently I might add. Someone was taking a picture of he and another person. He was holding a beverage at the "party height" and posing with another fellow. Just before the picture was snapped, he slightly extended his middle finger, making for an extremely funny photo and giving birth to the phenomenon known as the "sneaky finger".
It seems the sneaky finger is best accomplished with a beverage.
Or with friends...
...or when the finger just won't do, make a ridiculous face:

...just wait until March

2007-09-09T15:36:00.000-04:00

Well, since we're past the 12 week mark (not like we've really been quiet about it), we would like to formally announce that the Super G has a bun in the oven!!

We have an appointment tomorrow to hear the heartbeat and dispell (or maybe confirm) the rumors that we're having twins.

the Harley "thing"

2007-09-09T15:20:00.000-04:00

As a pretty avid motorcyclist, it's nearly impossible to avoid the whole Harley-Davidson subculture. When I began riding, it was much smarter and certainly more cost effective to stick with Asian offerings. I frequently took day-long rides with groups of guys that were not Harley riders. When we would stop, the conversation was always about your bike, their bikes and the bikes we have seen over the course of the day. Not being introduced to riding through Harley dudes had kept me a little perplexed about the whole thing. They were very expensive, and if you asked most of the dudes I rode with, overrated and unreliable.
Yet I couldn't escape this strange visceral wanting for such an irrational thing. A very expensive vehicle that I would be lucky to ride 4 months out of the year up here in northern New England; "garage jewelry" is what a cab driver in Maui once called such a thing.
So what's the big deal? Apart from renting a Heritage Softail with stock (read:too quiet) pipes in Maui, I had never ridden one of those badass, really loud, somewhat chopperlike Harleys I see here in NH all too much.
I met a gentleman by the name of Dave this weekend, who offered up his gorgeous bike for a "quick" trip to the store. I believe I get it now. Note the ridiculous grin on my face; that was just from starting it.

new happenings

2007-09-02T20:52:00.000-04:00

Well... this is the new blog space. It is much easier to post here, so this is where they will be from now on.
We spent most of the weekend at my parents' place in Winthrop, Maine. Signaling the end of the Summer, my Father and I brought in the dock. It has become something of a rite of passage, putting in or taking out the dock (http://www.ginellascott.com/Maine0907.html). In May, we dip our warm skeletons in this frigid pond in Maine. By late August, the water is cold again and we have to take it out. Even though we don't dig the heat, the Summers just seem to get shorter & shorter... On to the Fall, though, my favorite time of year.
I will have some very super awesome news for all (probably very few) readers next week. Trust me. It will be worth checking back for.
--Scott