Thursday Update

While my homemade (office made, more like it) blend of coffee - one half year old stale store ground Dunkin' Donuts and one half even older Christmas coffee - is boiling in the corner I thought I'd update the old blog some.

Had a visit from the Old Country last week. It was really awesome. Of course there is never enough time to do everything you have planned, but i feel we got as much out of the week as we could.

The only picture from the visit that I took with my phone is the one below - my older brother who is now scientifically proven to be Decadent and Sweet.

October!

I am really busy at work, but thought I should post something so I'm not assumed MIA.
Here is my morning so far:

• Woke up by Hungry Baby Cries
• Fed Sean and got him ready
• Got myself ready
• Helped get the wife ready (she has a sprained arm, can't do much by herself)
• Dropped the baby off at the sitter
• Arrived in the office (slightly behind schedule)
• Got today's load of cancer charts ready
• Shaved
• Had a cup of coffee while going through a couple of consents

Now I'm going to have a couple of apples for breakfast.

WalMart Parking Lot

Where Charleston's finest and brightest shop

Part 3

The second day out of town we kept up the hiking:

Outdoorsy Weekend, part 2

More pictures from NC:

Back From the Edge

The Family spent last weekend in Morganton, North Carolina. We did so to visit the Wife's dad and get away from the Charleston humidity that slowly but surely will drive you mad.

This is our story in pictures:

Sean and I sleeping in

Eggs & Bacon for breakfast

Off to admire the scenery

Happy 90210 Day

Sucky show but the date thing only happens once in our lifetime! (Once in a all time to be specific).

Alone again

Alone in the office again today, which means that I can shut the door and rock out while working. Today's play list consist of:

• Meat Puppets
• Pixies
• The Dead Weather
• Dinosaur Jr
• The Raveonettes
• The Jesus and Mary Chain

I love my taste in music!

Self Portrait

Office View

It is thundering and raining like mad here in Chucktown right now.

Almost Near Death Experience

So yesterday afternoon I somehow managed to acquire two free bottles of red. Of course I then did the only right thing and drank one of them.

What really made last night memorable though was when I, half way through the Pinot, decided to step out on the patio to smoke my pipe.

Under the Sherlock Holmes-like pipe was a cricket hiding, who apparently didn't like it when I wanted to use his roof as a smoking device. This may not sound very terrifying, but it was! Crickets are evil creatures with Death in their eyes who like nothing more than to mess people up.

Spider Friday

Baby Sean only woke up twice last night so I am actually quite rested for once. Now I am working while rocking out to Echo & The Bunnymen and My Bloody Valentine before my office mate comes in.

The Spider below is about the size of my palm, and half his back is yellow and orange and the other half has a marking that looks like a skull!

And oh yeah - he lives at our house.

Sneak Out

Not much to report over here. My biggest achievement so far today is drinking my weight in coffee. As it is now I am thinking of heading out a bit earlier than I should and go home to the family.

Also - Congratulations to Lisa Simpson who, according to the 1995 episode Lisa's Wedding got married yesterday.

Sucker Punch

First on in the office, which mean I get to do my thing while blasting The Stone Roses and The Vaselines - Awesome.

Speaking of awesome, the trailer for Sucker Punch is out:

I've Been Robbed

Of seven centimeters that is.
I measured myself in the children's clinic today (because that's the sort of things I do!) only to realise that their wall mounted measuring instrument is way off when it comes to the old Metric scale. I have always (well not always, but at least the last ten years) sported a proud 177 cents. According to the hospital's piece of crap body ruler I am barely a measly 169. Not cool!
I tried to tell the nurses and get them as excited about the gross miscalculating situation as I was, but since they only wanted to ask me about Baby Sean and even gave me one of those squiggly wristbands in the shape of Wonder Woman I found it hard to stay on topic.
But then again, how can you not want to talk about anything but this:

Vivadixiesubmarinetransmissionplot

I am at the moment getting myself acquainted with Sparklehorse, the American rock band. I am kicking myself a bit for not discovering them earlier, especially since the major member in the band produced albums for both A Camp and Dan Johnston.
For those of you that haven't heard Sparklehorse - It sounds like a mix of The Raveonettes and Sonic Youth with the Cheeriness of Magnetic Fields.

Working Stiff

Quarter past five and I am still in the office. I have initiated my plan to work 10-hour days four days a week, so I can have three whole day at home with the wife and son.
Revelation of the day: 4 hours of sleep and 10 hours of work makes Matt tired.

Welcome, Sean Padraig

This Monday Nikki and I had our son, Sean Padraig.

He is probably the cutest baby ever!

Fête du Canada!!

Today I thought it be appropriate to congratulate our neighbours in the North for being England's lapdogs for 143 years.

I did so by making my own sign to put on the office door.

Getting Closer

Midsummer's Eve tomorrow. Wish I could do like my fellow Northerners and take half day off today and spend tomorrow doing nothing but getting pissed. Although that obviously isn't going to happen, I am thinking about trying this new recipe for Jamaican Beef Patties tomorrow...
Also - there is now 2-3 weeks till Nikki and I have our baby!

Anyone But England

Been doing little but working and watching the footie in the past weeks. Since day one I have been rooting for the All Whites (New Zealand), simply because they are the massive underdogs and they kick ass as a nation. It is a constant struggle not to get any of the coworkers to blab about the scores, since I am recording them and spend my night going through the games and statistics.

My office wall

Lets Start This Cup

I have pretty much managed to stay away from footie related news all day, so I can watch the opening day games when I come home. I love my DVR!

Four Years is a Long Time To Wait

It is Friday and the World Cup opening is only hours away. I am at work having the first cup of coffee of the day, skimming through the news of the world.

I Say Onion - You Say Cebolla

Good thing about having a rather impressive foreign accent:
People know just by talking to you that you have been to different places in your life, and you are more likely to own a multifaceted perspective on things.

Bad things about having the very same foreign accent:
You try to tell the Hispanic check out girl at Harris Teeter the machine didn't scan your green onion correctly, and realising after a while she has no idea what you are saying.

Running and Movieing

Realised it has been a week since I blogged last. So here it is, the latest post.
The most exciting thing to have happened since last is probably that I am back to 10 K per run. It took some time after the move and all to find its way back to where you boast the old "10 kilometers under the hour" as being your fitness staple, but it always feels good when you re-join the club.
Off to see "Get him to the Greek" tonight. I have got high expectations!

New Experience

I think I just introduced my coworker to Sonic Youth!

So Close...

You can listen to music for free at grooveshark.com.
Right I am trying to get the weekend started with some Joy Division!

Seriously?

Update: Taylor Swift is Alternative Indie as well.
What does that make bands like Village Green?

Tigermilk

Apparently,according to Internet Radio and office lore, Evanescence passes for Alternative Indie.
I feel that my tries to exemplify proper Indie by highlighting bands such as Belle & Sebastian and The Vaselines has fallen on deaf ears.

Rained In

I haven't gone running since Sunday. There are two reasons for this new slacker attitude;

• It has been raining since Sunday night
• I left my running shoes on the back patio, ergo - they now hold two days worth of rainwater.

JuJu Java

I am trying to cut down on the coffee only to prove to myself that the temporary involuntary shakes I sometimes get in arms and legs are not related to the 10+ cups of coffee i drink a day. I am not sure how to come out as a winner from this experiment...

Matt the Baptist

Just checked in the US Social Security database for popular baby names.
No matter what sex the baby is we know what we are going to name it. We have got two very cool names for planned for each possible option. The funny thing is that apparently both alternatives has one name in them the US SS office doesn't even recognise. Out of all the four names one rank in the 90's and one is in the upper 500's.
If there is an unconventional way of doing things - that's where you'll find the Eriksons

Celebrate This!!

Today is Confederate Memorial Day.

How to get your point across.

If you feel that someone at your workplace just isn't pulling their weight when it comes to recycling and such, here's what you can do:
Cut out images of cockroaches and put in and around said person's office.

Subtle while keeping it classy!

Mice!!

I just found this video online. It is an all time favourite of mine.
I have been looking for it for years, and today I found it in seconds, makes me wonder what I was doing wrong earlier.

Greens!!

Update:
One of the sweet ladies at work just came in to my office to give me some homegrown radishes and lettuce.
End Update.

Weekly Update

Here is some of what has happened in the past week.

Mister is liking his new digs.

I got myself a haircut.

Not the most exciting of weeks, maybe...

Baby Ahoy

This is not my baby, I only borrowed him to see what would happen and what it would be like to have a midget sized drool machine around. It went alright, 'til his mother discovered I had snatched her kid...

Quality TV Reaches a Milestone

Woke up today and realised that I had nothing to eat for breakfast and a half ready lunch in the fridge. So I spent my morning drinking coffee and making pasta, while the noodles was cooking I also swept the floor and cleaned the kitchen. Last thing before I left for work was to catch the beginning of Despierta America's 13 year anniversary episode.

Myself at work

Yeah - How about that Friday Spirit!!

Free Greens

I got flowers for Administrative Professionals Day yesterday.

A new highlight in my career!

Pics of the Bat Cave

Front

Back

Moved

Haven't done much blogging lately - I have been busy moving the Erikson household to our new digs. We have now got a slightly larger house than before with a patio that looks out on a pee wee baseball pitch, that's a first.
The main move was Saturday so the whole house is still a huge mess made up of boxes and randomly placed pieces of furniture.

Rockin' Trainers

Apparently my new obsession is the limited edition Kurt Cobain Chucks from Converse.

According to the wife I unknowingly brought them up in conversation three times yesterday.

People of Walmart

While grocery shopping at Walmart yesterday I discovered they are now selling Gangsta apparel.

Fresh

Morning

After a proper healthy breakfast I have now moved myself to work where I am having foreign coffee.

Proper healthy breakfast

Foreign coffee

New Pictures of Mr Mustard

Chav Writings

Tulisa Contostavlos, who is in the group "N-Dubz", likes to write a column in The Sun. Today she deviated from her usual topics of hair and clothes to try to figure out why British youngsters aren't interested in national politics. Too bad she misspelled Politicians.

Analyzing the News

As I was going through the regular online tabloids today I came across this article in The Sun about a pair of sibling who without knowing it had a Romanian man living in their garden shed. I found the story quite fascinating and interesting, I especially liked how the fella was keen on recycling and apparently thought there was nothing weird about offering statues of Jesus to his unknowing hosts.

I found the picture of the brother and sister to be a cause for questions though. Why is Tilly, the girl, so proudly holding up a can of Coca Cola? There is no mention in the article about said beverage. The house guest was apparently big on orange juice, but Coke? After reading the scoop a couple of times I realise there is not an inkling of information to justify the scene stealing placement of the fizzy drink. Maybe the girl was thirsty and the overtly rude photographer did not wait for her to put her drink down...

This had probably been the end of it, had I not taken a gander at the old Daily Mail - where this composition caught my eye. Again it is the Newmans showing off their backyard and previously occupied shed. This time we have an additional picture, maybe now Tilly has finished her pop and can pose for a more normal picture.

Alas! She stubbornly keeps her can, making it the obvious focal point of every picture she is in.

Could it be that the lass has struck a deal with the soft drink giant, agreeing to always carry a can of their tonic whenever a camera is near? Is the can somehow unfortunately attached to her hand? Or is the young woman just the biggest Coke Head in Bromley? As it stands today we simply do not know, but I for one eagerly await contnuing updates of this report. We need to learn the truth about The Mysterious Coca Cola Can.