youtube

It's driving me crazy. Everything is a copyright infringement. I just had my anniversary video taken down for using a Rivers Cuomo song. I don't understand.

Is Weezer complaining? Is it just a general thing they are regulating right now? Is it cause I used the whole song? I have other songs that I used just parts of, and they were not taken down.

The funny thing about it is I had a friend who saw the video. He likes Weezer and had never heard of Rivers' solo album. He went out and bought it. You're welcome for the free advertising. I had the same video loaded on facebook, and they took it down. My blog is the last known location. Please don't take it down. Please.

Oh, by the way. I didn't blog about the Weezer concert yet, but it was awesome.

Second Trip to NYC

Well, Mel and I were fortunate enough to get a free trip to NYC this last week. My company did a seminar there in Manhattan and we went out a few days early and spent them all with Rake, Jeagan, and Piper.

We had fun hanging out in Times Square. We went to a Knicks game as well. I wasn't too impressed with Madison Square Garden. It's kind of a dump. We had a 6:15 am flight Sunday morning so Reagan and Mel stayed up all night talking. Jake and I both got an hour or two in. Reagan and Mel were having a wild time. I kept on waking up to their giggles. Reminded me of Reagan/Deanna days growing up.

Piper is amazing. I can't believe how much progress she has made. When we first walked into her room she puked all over the place (which was especially funny to me, 'cause I am reading a book by Hamburger where he talks about puking every time he gets super excited). She is pretty strong and her personality is so cute. She has this little DVD player that showcases a low-budget Sleeping Beauty animated movie. Piper is obsessed with it. Her nurse turned it on and she freaked out, rolled over and grabbed the DVD player and pulled it in close. She has a chair that she sits in at school and just bangs stuff together. She can't get enough of that noise.

We ate like crazy. My stomach felt so heavy. Pizza, burgers, fries, falaffle (sp?), Dunkin' Donuts, etc. Mel and I rode the subway ourselves. Not too bad. Reagan had stories of other friends that have visited them and couldn't follow directions or find their way around. I rode the subway in DC by myself when I was 10 so I guess this wasn't too big of a deal. You really get harassed by bums in the train cars though, and people don't talk. I tried to talk to my neighbor and he completely ignored me. I guess it's because most people that talk to strangers on the trains are nuts. I am crazy, but not the scary kind.

We had lots of fun and once again wish we could have stayed longer.

First Anniversary!!!

The Show Must Go On

Great song by Queen, although I don't know if it has anything to do with my blog. Melanie keeps bugging me, "You never blog anymore." [Marge Simpson voice] so here I go with possibly my worst blog ever since I have nothing interesting to say [sarcasm, everything I say is interesting], but am striving to satisfy the powers that be.

I got my first birdie of my life, yesterday. I was playing with Bret Allen at Cedar Hills. It was a par 4. I crushed my tee shot and was on the green in 2 about 30 feet from the pin. I had a good line, but not enough distance and left it about 6 feet short, but sunk it for par. "But Nate, you said you got a birdie?!!", you may be saying. Well I thought it was a par 4, cause that's what the sign said, but they had recently made it a par 5 as the scorecard indicated. I didn't even know until about 30 seconds after I sunk my putt. Pretty exciting. Please don't ask what my final score was.

Mel quit her job as a personal assistant and is now working as a secretary for a collections agency. She is still looking. She is interested in working for a private school as a receptionist, or once again being a nanny. Cross your fingers.

We spent the 4th of July in Pocatello, Idaho for Jon Lowry's wedding and a night of fireworks with cousin Jeff. That's all I have to say about that.

We have spent a lot of time with Mel's sister's family. They are gracious enough to treat us to dinners and RSL soccer games (also Jeff Dodge ends up with spare tickets and has invited us a few times). We have a lot of fun with them, and of course enjoy every minute of Ella who has recently discovered how funny tantrums are.

We are excited for the upcoming Palmer Reunion. All my sisters will be in town with their spouses. I think this is the most complete a Baker family gathering will be since Christmas 2005 (pre-Melanie, Jake, Pyper, and baby Kate). The whole family will be there, minus precious little Pippy who will most likely spend the week relaxing and kicking her feet.

An Accident and a Mouse Hunt

So, I am trying to catch up on my blogging. Both of these events happened last week, but I couldn't find time to write about them with Mel's parents in town, and me busy at work.So we were traveling about 70 mph when this 10 lb piece of metal was kicked up by a diesel truck and flew into our windshield. It seems to be one of those stands that trailers rest on, when they aren't hooked up to a truck. Anyways, the base of it penetrated through our windshield and got stuck in the dash, while the shaft crashed into the windshield kind of flatly, so it didn't poke through. I wonder if it had hit another way, would it have penetrated right through and jacked me up? We are lucky/unlucky, depending on how you look at it.

So we had a mouse, which we sadly killed since Wal-Mart's humane traps were out of stock. So we thought we were done with mice. Melanie was cleaning up and found another, much to her distaste. She was almost in tears. We brought Danny the wonderpet in, who sniffed the mouse out and chased it into the bathroom. Me and Danny cornered it, and did tag-team like on the poor rodent. Danny snatched it up in her mouth, but lost control. I followed up by dropping a box on it, with it's poor little legs sticking out like the Wicked Witch from the East. I picked up the box and Danny put it out of his misery. Kind of sad, but very exciting.

Mel's parents are in town, and we've had a righteous time. We went to see Indiana Jones yesterday, which was embarrassing, but we still had a lot of fun laughing at it. Reminded me of the Temple of Doom video game we had as kids on our Apple IIC.

New York

Well, it was cool trip, but not really what I expected from NYC. For instance:

We didn't any Ninja Turtles
We didn't see a Troll in Central Park
I didn't even see a Rat!

But we did see a lot of Pippy, and a Yankees Game. It was a lot of fun chumming it up with Rake and Jeagan, as Mel accidentally calls them from time to time.

Melanie's First Race

Melanie ran in the SLC 5K last Saturday. She decided she really liked running about 2 months ago. She ran it in 31:18. It was a good experience for her and she was nervous. This d-bag really ran the whole race with the Spider-Man costume on, mask and all. Eventually she wants to run a half-marathon. Can't wait for the next one.