First Concert

My Dad and his girlfriend Jill are in town this week and they took us to a Loudon Wainwright III concert. This was Alice's first concert. It went pretty well. The venue was the Cactus Cafe in the UT student union building. It is a smoke-free small room and the music and crowd were pretty low-key. I had Alice in the baby carrier for the first half of the show and she just fell asleep. She would have made it through the whole show (which started at 6:30 pm to jive with her bedtime) but the opening act went way over...also it was horrible.
It was a lady who basically sung her diary. It was all about love being a gun, which she used to hunt her love, who rejected her love, like a dove, etc. Not a hint of self awareness in the whole set. It was pretty brutal. I skipped out into the lobby with the kid and saw another audience member on her cell phone telling a friend how bad the music was killing her. We caught eyes and she hung up to commiserate with me. The lady said that she ran a program for kids with behavioral problems and was constantly barraged with folks who wanted to "work with the kids" when in reality what they wanted was to "get lots of attention". She assured me that the songstress warbling inside the cafe was just the type.

Loudon was great. He is a very funny guy. Here is the best part of the evening. He finished his sixth or seventh song (it was about drinking with his Mom) and Alice let out a little cry. It was the first noise she made all evening and Tony hustled Alice outside right away. Louden said that he had seen her earlier in the evening, that she was a very good baby, and that he wanted to dedicate his next song to her! This is what he sang: Be Careful There's A Baby In The House
This track happens to be on his new album, so I'm sure he keeps an eye out for kids at most shows, but it was really sweet.

New Skill

Now that she can self-pacify I can go on vacation.

Happy Halloween!

Alice helps Daddy with his costume.



Alice herself was a puppy. We used ears that my Mom made for my sister Jesse back in our Elementary School days. I added the bows. Alice added the drool.




We also had elements of a ballerina costume and a Rastafarian hat (which is beautiful and will be used as a beret when Alice's head is bigger). The hat was crafted by our great friend Deacon Gloria and we love her for making Alice such a beautiful chapeau.
Ultimately Alice was a Ballerina-Rasta-Puppy:

Daddy's Girl

Everybody asks who Alice looks like and invariably we say she looks like me, because she does, but Alice's Great-Grandmother Bette was the first to point out, using these two photos, that Alice definitely has Tony's mouth...and possibly nose.

Can Lutherans protect us from Vampires?

Last Saturday night Tony and I were driving on a lonely back road. We were lost, it was completely dark, and the baby was dressed up like a puppy dog.

We were trying to find the Austin Zoo, which is really an animal preserve way out in the middle of nowhere in particular. The reason we were headed towards the Zoo at night was for the annual "Boo at the Zoo" celebration. It sounded like fun. Look at the animals at night. Stroll around with other costumed parents and babies in the early evening. Maybe enjoy a little adult conversation after the kid falls asleep.
Little did we know that the turn-off to our destination was going to be completely obscured by total darkness. As a family unit we were getting freaked out. Well, Alice was sleeping, but Tony and I had a strong feeling there might be zombies in our immediate future. We were stupid lost and I was trying to help Tony out by pointing out landmarks using the insufficient illumination of our headlights.

"There is a trailer that says 'Massage by Wendy' on the side."
"There is a sleeping horse."
"There is a creepy abandoned shack."
"Oh wait! I see a sign. It says, 'Holy Cross Lutheran Church'..."

At which point Tony muttered the title of this post.
Being Catholic he really would prefer a good solid Father Something or Other to handle repelling the undead. I totally agree.

We abandoned our search, picked up Indian Food, and went home to play with the baby. We will try for the Zoo again next year...in the daylight.

Tony and Alice saw "The 40 year old Virgin" last night.

The song is "Aquarius / Let the Sun Shine in" and it is now Alice's favorite song. But just the chorus, no other part of the song interests her.

Voting

Alice and I voted last week. I never considered the logistics of taking a baby (plus stroller) into a voting booth. It's a tight fit, but the volunteers were tremendously helpful and even entertained Alice with shiny government forms while I did my duty.

In the past I have been guilty of just voting for members of my party or for women without knowing a thing about them. Shameful. This was due to a lack of preparation on my part. But this year I was energized by the national elections and did my research. I even researched the judges by their records. Yeah. You know it. I found that my choices were much more varied in gender and party than I could have imagined last year.

The picture was taken near the huge sign on our neighbor's back fence. There are more campaign posters (for Obama, McCain, Nader, and even Ron Paul) out than Halloween decorations. I'm glad that everybody in our community seems to be shaking off apathy and declaring their intention to participate together in the democratic process.