tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-32987662007-07-03T10:46:11.821-05:00JohnBlogger917125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3298766.post-55774528258972049352007-07-03T09:05:00.000-05:002007-07-03T10:46:11.851-05:00

Springfield Takeover Early sunday morning I was rollin' large in the Vee-Dub. I had Hall Boulevard practically all to myself. Inside the car, Benny Goodman was Stompin' at the Savoy. I was on my way to Oregon Decorative Rock to pick up some lava (that's code for "lava rock" fool) that I would later use to fill in a trench off the side of our patio. In all aspects it was a glossy portrait of

Johntag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3298766.post-831261270799230962007-06-27T11:01:00.000-05:002007-06-27T21:38:31.992-05:00

Jack's Food Ratings Having experimented with solid foods over the last few weeks, I give you the results: Sweet potato: 5 stars Squash: 3 stars Peas: 1 star (actually more like - get that shit away from me - zero stars!) Rice cereal: 2 stars Rice cereal spiked with sweet potato: 5 stars!!

Johntag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3298766.post-77218673287100468252007-06-26T10:58:00.000-05:002007-06-27T11:11:02.696-05:00

Summer At The Pool Love this photo by d. yee. It was taken over the weekend at a Pool Party concert with Superchunk in NYC. I would love to have seen the show.

Johntag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3298766.post-92024971990486645092007-06-21T15:17:00.000-05:002007-06-21T15:21:36.329-05:00

Beardy Man Bakes a Beat This guy needs his own show on the Food Network. I'd like to see Beardy Man and Rachel Ray do battle. In this video Beardy Man mixes global climate change and Michael Jackson to chilling effect.

Johntag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3298766.post-58868972788933168892007-06-19T09:15:00.000-05:002007-06-19T10:48:08.381-05:00

Special Agent '67 The drop box is absolutely brimming with plant matter. It took all weekend. My lower back is petrified and my knees have just informed me they've gone on strike for the remainder of June. I'm lucky to be alive really. If someone was to make a safety film about how not to use a ladder, they would have found ample footage starring ME this past weekend. There's a fine line

Johntag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3298766.post-62127757790510125912007-06-15T16:01:00.000-05:002007-06-19T10:48:41.777-05:00

Lubricate Generously I've been sitting here trying to concoct a magnificent fairy tale of an excuse for my blogging silence. In my head, this blockbuster narrative would have started with rum-soaked, moody pirates in candy cane stripped thigh highs who time travel on unicorns the color of mint. They've chosen to lay siege to Portland using old analog synthesizers that they've managed to rig up

Johntag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3298766.post-1176307049901866942007-04-11T10:57:00.000-05:002007-06-19T10:49:07.676-05:00

The Golden Age of Rock N' Roll Even my 12-week old son doesn't believe me when I tell him that the guy on the right, the one who plays guitar for The Police, is actually a year older than the wrinkle farmer pictured on the left. Amazing.

Johntag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3298766.post-1175612842660183922007-04-03T10:07:00.000-05:002007-06-19T10:49:28.004-05:00

iTunes I'm really digging the new iTunes screen saver that uses the iTunes music library album art to build a wall of visual goodness. Brilliant stuff. I know a ton of folks who bemoan the jump from analog to digital music. From time to time, I myself speak like an old curmudgeon about vinyl vs. CD or MP3. But the new visualization UI of iTunes is intensely gratifying and addictive for the simple

Johntag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3298766.post-1174677653980163762007-03-23T15:20:00.000-05:002007-06-19T10:49:55.327-05:00

Seeing What He Sees What do you see when you look at this image? I can't make out a damn thing. To my eyes it looks like crappy track lighting that I should be updating. Oh, there's a heating vent and smoke alarm there too. This is what my son sees when he's lying on his back on the downstairs ottoman, and for him it's the greatest spectacle on earth. Seriously, he will stare up at this

Johntag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3298766.post-1173121571647187772007-03-05T13:06:00.000-06:002007-06-19T10:50:59.487-05:00

Rub-A-Dub-Dub The folks at Baby Einstein need to seriously rethink the electronic baby "music" that bleats out of their toys. We have his one play-tent thing that features a musical star that blinks lights and such. The music absolutely terrifies my kid. He hates it. It takes about one bar of a tune to turn my child from a fun loving baby into a pint-sized King Ghidorah. If I had my way all the

Johntag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3298766.post-1172158995901312042007-02-22T09:43:00.000-06:002007-06-19T10:51:25.048-05:00

Olde Tyme Walkabouts Let the record note: these ludicrous allegations being spread around the internet that Howard K. Stern might be the legitimate father of baby Jack Skelton are totally and completely false, and frankly WILL NOT STAND! My mother reminds me from time to time that when I was born it was during the time of the famous Watergate hearings. These hearings were on television and

Johntag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3298766.post-1171816768204972022007-02-18T10:39:00.000-06:002007-02-18T10:59:13.713-06:00

JMS is One-Month-Old TodayThings move along at a rapid pace here in babyland. Jack is already adventuring into his fifth week on planet Earth. As parents we are still in the fog that comes from round the clock newborn care. I've become a bit edgy from all the sleep deprivation. The other morning one of the neighbors began jack-hammering concrete at 8 AM just as I had got the boy to fall asleep.

Johntag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3298766.post-1170954812995638692007-02-08T11:13:00.000-06:002007-02-08T11:13:33.096-06:00

Neurosis & Nighmares Like some strange haunting, I've become fully inflicted with Phantom Crying Neurosis (PCN). I hear baby Jack crying even when he's blissfully under the spell of slumber. It's like a prerecorded MP3 tucked into the tiny folds of my brain that gets randomly inserted into the playlist of life. Or like a bad pop song that you just can't shake. Sometimes I hear the track

Johntag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3298766.post-1170783781707300002007-02-06T11:43:00.000-06:002007-02-06T12:38:28.343-06:00

The Portland Pill I have to say, I love the new Tram that's running here in Portland. I don't care if I never even ride the darn thing, I just like seeing it in action. The other morning I was driving down I-5 through some intense low lying fog. Just as I was driving under the tram cables, one of the pill cars burst through the fog with great majesty. Any Film Director would have given their

Johntag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3298766.post-1170690595300809352007-02-05T09:49:00.000-06:002007-02-05T10:05:11.086-06:00

The Best Of You If someone were to have told me yesterday that Prince was going to play a Foo Fighters cover during the Super Bowl halftime show, I would have slapped them and challenged them to a duel for spreading such lies. And yet, this did actually happen. What a cool world we live in sometimes. Funk Soul Brother from Minnesota making us proud. Bonus: Incredible Design - The Folding

Johntag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3298766.post-1170626044717305762007-02-04T15:54:00.000-06:002007-02-04T15:55:20.700-06:00

Margaritaville I can hear the boy beginning to squeak through the baby monitor so I'm not sure how much time he's going to allow me to write anything of consequence. Those wee little monitors control my life now and bark furious orders and bold proclamations. Things are definitely on his schedule and he's the big boss. This week the boy's been gaining strength. He's got little fists of fury and

Johntag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3298766.post-1170020081012560732007-01-28T15:34:00.000-06:002007-01-28T15:34:41.113-06:00

Dawn: When Men Of Reason Go To Bed. It's weird to think that at this point the cats are more self sufficient and smarter about cleaning up after their poop then baby Jack is. Basically, at this point, I feel like I've been reduced to an underpaid city Outflow Clean-up Engineer. If it's disgusting, smells terrible, and springs forth from a living orifice, then I'm there with my bag of cleaning

Johntag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3298766.post-1169500648063715592007-01-22T15:17:00.000-06:002007-01-22T15:17:28.126-06:00

The Delivery We just got Jack home a few hours ago. It's been a blurry couple of days. How do I even begin to write this post? How do I even keep my eyes open and my mind centered long enough to compose my thoughts? When I started this blog oh so many years ago, I never imagined that someday it's pages would hold the photos and stories of my son . . . our son . . . our son, Jack. So where to

Johntag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3298766.post-1169220505379705782007-01-19T09:28:00.000-06:002007-01-19T09:29:30.703-06:00

Day One: The New Jack Swing Jack Michael Skelton Born: January 18th, 2007 at 8:53 am. Nine pounds, one ounce. 21 inches. Everyone is doing well. Mom & Dad are exhausted. More to follow. Hopefully in the next couple of days.

Johntag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3298766.post-1169050026391428982007-01-17T10:07:00.000-06:002007-01-17T10:07:06.500-06:00

Slammin' The White Forest Whoa. Portland got all jacked up yesterday. We were sucker punched by a super sneaky snow storm that no one predicted. Like everyone else here in Portland, the news weather hooligans are completely high. Only they must have a direct pipeline to the super hairy purple buds, because they are consistently so incredibly off the mark. Last weeks predicted snow storm turned

Johntag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3298766.post-1168621429997670382007-01-12T11:03:00.000-06:002007-01-12T11:03:50.073-06:00

Thieving Goliath Thwarted by His Own Big Booty In a world ruled by bat-shit crazy, gun-toting, neo-con sea monkeys, will a persecuted and misunderstood cat rise to the task of uniting our nation and lead us to the promise of a better tomorrow? That's my pitch for the as-yet-to-be-realised movie: "Goliath Goes to Washington". It's based around the shenanigans of the fun loving yet seriously

Johntag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3298766.post-1168280043999604082007-01-08T12:14:00.000-06:002007-01-08T12:14:04.096-06:00

Happy & Pregnant When we crossed over the Columbia Gorge from the Oregon side to the Washington side Friday night, we were chasin' John Coltrane over the impossibly named 'Bridge of The Gods'. And wouldn't you know it, there's a one dollar God tax to get across the bridge! With a name like that, expectations were running high as we paid the toll and crossed over the bridge to Washington and onto

Johntag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3298766.post-1167932602273175332007-01-04T11:43:00.000-06:002007-01-04T11:44:05.070-06:00

Let's Get Started Happy belated new year one and all. Things are coming along at the Skelton Ranch. Took in the new year with the amazing new double drumming line-up of the Melvins at the Roseland. I was happy to see a mom at the show holding a 16-month old (I asked) in her arms. Baby's first Melvins show! We brought a vegetarian tatter tot hotdish over to Brian and Corinna the other night and

Johntag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3298766.post-1167499651570300362006-12-30T11:27:00.000-06:002006-12-30T11:27:31.653-06:00

The Raw Data: Baby Index Time: 36 weeks. Current Estimated Weight: 6 Pounds, 8 Ounces Current Dilation of Mom: 1.5cm Current Effacement of Mom: 80% Average Number of Potty Runs Mom Makes Per Night: 3 Number of 'Oh Craps' and 'Holy Shits' Uttered by the Expectant Father in the Last 48 Hours: 30+ Number of 16 ounce Pabst Blue Ribbon Beers Needed Last Night to Comprehend and Make Sense of These

Johntag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3298766.post-1167247334256805432006-12-27T13:22:00.000-06:002007-01-05T10:21:41.600-06:00

T-minus One Month It's getting to be go time here at the Skelton Ranch. Lots of nervous energy and giddy happiness as we anticipate His majesties arrival. It's like getting ready for a house guest that you've never met. The baby room has started to come together quite nicely. The cats christened the room this morning by barfing on the new rug, which is shag, and a bitch to get cat puke out of. I

John