my first "you tube video" featuring my mom and little nephews

The parents, Eric and Kim, and ... little ole Me, Auntie Ann Marie

Since I have been busy uploading sonograms of my little nephew, Jackson, all the while commenting on WHO thinks WHOM the baby looks like... I decided to post two of my favorite pictures of my brother and his wife as references. The first picture of my brother, Eric, was taken when he was running in a pretty big triathalon down in Florida last month, in November 2006.

The shot of Kim was taken a couple of years back, before she met my brother, when she trecked the Camino de Compostela in Spain (something I'd love to do myself someday).

Now, you be the judge! Do you see more of a resemblance in the baby with Eric or with Kim? What do you think - do you also see that strong forehead and jawline in the sonograms that Kim and Mom are talking about? Or do you happen to see Kim's lovely Polynesian smile in the diagram of the little tyke's first grin? I'd love to hear your opinions and impressions.

....Or perhaps you just might just see that the baby bears the biggest resemblance to me, beautiful Auntie Ann Marie! I couldn't help but just throw this picture of the three of us in too - also as a reference - and also one of my favorites - taken right when Eric and Kim first started dating, back around Christmas 2002.

my baby nephew, Jackson

About four months ago I uploaded a picture of my little nephew as a newly conceived embryo. Now, I have just gained access to the latest pictures of the little guy via my brother and his wife's flickr site.

Now some people might not be used to seeing such intimate pictures - so I apologize to you if this goes against your sensibilities.
To tell you the truth, I'm not used to seeing these types of pictures either, and well, it does feel a little unorthodox to publish them all over the net. BUT, considering that my brother and his wife had them up first, well, I guess I'm not transgressing any of their boundaries. As for me, I think they are right, we need to celebrate the new life of any baby - especially that of my own nephew, who is due this May.

So for now, I have three comments about these pics. First, I think it is funny that based on these pictures alone, my mom is convinced that the little guy looks just like my brother. I don't see it, but apparently Kim, my sister-in-law, sees it too. Mom says it is because the baby has a big head - as does my brother. Eric says, that, while the latter might be true, the kid is, after all, only a fetus... So the little tyke is bound to sport a giant noggin. Even if his parents were pinheands (which they are not), the little baby would be nothing but head at this early stage in his life...

I don't know what to believe. And I haven't had a chance to ask Kim yet why she thinks the little thing resembles my big bro either... I am curious though, so I'll do that tomorrow. [Note from the next day: I asked Kim today why, and she said that the baby in the pictures seems to have sharper features - a stronger forehead and jaw line - similar to my brothers.]

But on to comment number two: I'm not sure WHO added those wierd notes, detailing where the baby's arms, head, and actual smile are ... I think it's a little creepy (forgive me), but anyway... I'll try to get more details on this artistic license tomorrow too - and then I'll report back to you. [Note: It was Kim who added the diagrams -which makes me feel bad for saying it was "creepy". I had just assumed my brother had done that...]

In the meantime, here is comment number three: if you haven't already cross-referenced these images on Eric and Kim's flickr site, I think it should be pointed out that the darker, undiagrammed pictures above are of the baby's 2-month ultrasounds. The two pictures below, which are a little more crimson in tone, are ultrasounds at 16 weeks (so... uh... I guess at 4 months?)... Cool cool. cool.

Rocking with K T Tunstall and James Denton

What an amazing evening I had tonight. I went with a friend, Andrew, a post-doc at UCLA, to a concert by K T Tunstall at the Key Club down on Sunset, and it was AWESOME. What a talented artist!

Then, when the concert ended - I ran into James Denton from Desperate Housewives. I couldn't believe that - I watch DHW religiously, so when I saw him, it was like looking at an old friend! James Denton looks EXACTLY in real life like he does on the show. I had just gone to the restroom at the end of the show, and so I was coming back up the stairs into the main room where the crowd was thinning out and people were milling around. When I got to the top of the stairs, there I was: standing face to face with James Denton. I could have had a conversation with him.
I was just a little in shock, so all I could do was look at him straight in the eyes. He looked at me staring at him for about 5 seconds and then turned to go about his business. I stood there, continuing to (discretely?) stare and walk towards my friend, Andrew, when I almost fell over another small set of stairs leading down to the main floor. Dang!!!

Then I came home and found out about the funny web site, hornymanatee.com, while hanging out watching Conan with my roomie Darin. Conan is indeed very strange and very funny!

I was nothing but 'White Trash':Halloween Pictures 2006

OKay okay, it is already December, and I am only now getting around to posting my pictures from Halloween on line. It took me forever - but in my defense, I have to say that it's Time Warner's fault. That company SUX! They are awful. It took them two months to NEVER come around to install wireless at our apartment, despite our repetetive phone calls to them - where we were transferred, put on hold for 15 minutes at a time, and finally told that there was nothing that they could do.

To make a long story short, they really irked me (to put it mildly - I HATE THEM really), we finally dropped them and went for DSL, and now that I've gotten that off my chest, I will finally describe how my buddies and I spent Halloween this year.

This year I decided to dress up as "White Trash". As my brother explained to me, my costume theme was a double entendre: I just dressed up in a lot of white trash, and with a couple of decorations made references to the poor stereotype of "white trash" - hicks, unrefined rednecks, etc - in this country. Wow, this costume really made me aware how much trash out there is actually white. There is a ton of it - paper cups, napkins, styrofoam, plastic utensils, plastic bags... the list goes on and on.

More later about the costume and my friend Sammy's amazing and ab-fab assistance in helping me put the trash together in an actually fashionable way (?!)... for now I will just write that my party buddies Sam and Darin, were a woopie cushion and a little doggie (?), respectively. We went downtown to an awesome party in a loft. One of these pictures has Sam dancing with his friend and our link to the host, the host's friend, Borchin (a cave man). Another picture has this random wearwolf named Pete sitting on the woopie cusion Sam for a photo op.

As for some of the other people in the pictures - there is Gustavo and Carolyn. Gustavo is a classmate of ours - I met him through Sam - who studies history of science and is dressed up like the mean wolf disguised as an old grannie in the Red Riding Hood story. Carolyn, his lovely wife, is ummm... a devil/slash angel? Uh... i think someone called her Ego and Super Ego - ha! (that's kind of clever). I guess that that is what gives her the perogative to feel up her hubby's buxom baloons in the picture... (trust me, they were enticing, but ayway...)

The guy in the picture with me at the bottom claimed that he was "black gold" -a good combo for "white trash" we thought, so we decided to capitalize on another photo op here. We met him for the first time that night, but found out that he is a bartender at the sushi restaurant "En" which happens to be just down the street from Darin's and my new apartment. Cool...

Mike Recommends the Truth

my buddy mike rocco, the one liberal and informed progressive person i know from orange county, recommends this web site:
http://www.truthout.org/
(granted, i don't know hardly anyone from orange county...)