The Marcottes

Because Leon has been being such a pain in the butt about getting photos of my family, we have tried to oblige him. But giving him just any old photo of Stella or Anya has not worked out. He needs it to be vertical, and he needs to complain that Stella’s head is chopped off in this photo:

From Stella Grace

This evidently ruins the entire picture. A fact that had somehow escaped the notice of everyone else who saw it.

So we went to Picture People in Arden Fair Mall and spent a bunch of money to get “professional” portraits taken by people who probably also turned in applications at Orange Julius and Hot Dog on a Stick.

We had a pretty good time and hammed it up a little. Our photographer was either a current or former “Miss Sacramento,” which was nice, I guess. Anya found friends to run around shrieking with while we waited. And, according to Patti, I told inappropriate jokes to the other families in the lobby.

So here are the results of the shoot, complete with watermark to prevent me from printing my own copies.

We got an 8″ x 10″ vertical for Leon of the whole family, and a few more for ourselves. If anybody else wants any of these, let me know and we’ll try to get some more prints made.

Patti, Anya Stella and I went to Monterey this past weekend. It wasn’t our original plan, but since the entire northern part of the state was on fire, we decided to go south.

We saw the aquarium, an IMAX movie and WALL-E, all in one action-packed weekend.

Here’s some photos from the trip.

It’s been a while since I’ve posted any photos of Anya and Stella. They’ve both changed so much, and I can’t believe Stella is 6 months old. She’s sitting up, playing with toys, talks and jabbers a ton, and grabs for John’s keyboard when he sits at the computer with her in his lap.

Here are a few photos from the past couple months.

Enjoy!

Patti, Anya, Stella and I went to the Sacramento Zoo on Saturday. It’s one of Anya’s favorite places. She loves the giraffes, lemurs, zebras and kookaburra — although she’s a little afraid of the chimps. (They have a tendency to shriek loudly.)

We ate lunch by the flamingos, and considered going on the little train, but decided the exercise was good for us. I took some photos, and here are the first few that I uploaded. More to follow.

Here are some self proclaimed Christmas pictures
 

I recently was interviewed for the Food Guy and Marcy syndicated radio show. The “Guy” in “Food Guy” is Guy Fieri, winner of the first “The Next Food Network Star” contest. He currently has three shows on the Food Network and a string of resturants dotting Northern California and beyond. His cohost (and producer) on the show is Marcy Smothers, vinter and wife of Tommy Smothers from the Smothers Brothers.

I was brought on the show to talk about the In-n-Out secret menu, which I do know quite a bit about. I had a pretty good time. Everyone at the show was very nice. Guy seemed like a pretty cool guy. Marcy was great. The producer and the engineer were both friendly.

In general, I think it went well, although I did have one minor gripe. Marcy introduced me as “a self-proclaimed expert on In-n-Out” at the top of the show and after every break. The phrase “self-proclaimed” makes it sound like I put it on my business cards and had t-shirts printed up. I really only know about the secret menu. I don’t really know a lot more about the company.

To prove I was an expert, Marcy peppered me with some trivia questions that had nothing to do with the food on the menu, secret or otherwise. “What do the two palm trees stand for on the wrapper?” (No idea.) “Who owns the company?” (I knew it was the Snyder family, but not the specific person’s name that manages the trust.)

I’m afraid the combination of hearing that I was a “self-proclaimed expert” then listening to me fumble for an answer to some relatively easy In-n-Out trivia questions might have made me come across like a bit of a douchebag. I guess I’ll find out when they air the piece.

Patti drove me up to the interview. It was in Santa Rosa, north of San Francisco and a two hour drive from Sacramento. She wanted to meet Guy, and I think we managed to accomplish that goal without making it seem like she had a Guy Fieri shrine in our basement and just wanted a lock of his hair.

Speaking of hair, Guy’s trademark spiked blond locks were nowhere to be seen. My guess is that they are a lot of work and wy bother when no one can see your head on the radio? I wanted to get a few pictures: one for Patti and I and one for Badmouth. When we were setting up the first shot, Marcy snuck out of the frame. I think she thought we wanted a only pic with the big star, Guy. I worry about her self-esteem issues.

I coaxed her back to take the picture for Badmouth. I plan to talk about the entire radio experience there, not just that I met Guy. It is only looking at the photo afterwards that I realize she may have avoided the picture because she feared for her life. Guy and I are big boys, and she looks like she might weigh 98 pounds wet.

Patti and I got some nice memories and a nice bottle of wine from Marcy’s vinyardthat we’re going to serve at Christmas and in general it was a pleasant experience. I hope I didn’t come across like a big doofus on the air, but we’ll find out soon enough.

The interview is scheduled for broadcast on February 23, 2008. I’ll try to put up a link when it airs.

Anya had her big third birthday party yesterday. It was pretty exciting.

We all had a great time visiting with Leon in Sacramento.  I think Anya enjoyed it the most; this is a nice change from the norm since she’s usually a bit stand-offish. Here are a few pictures from John’s birthday, Anya & Stella, and Grandpa with Stella. Steve has more pictures but he won’t send them to me. Maybe he will post them some day.

Enjoy!

It was a very punk rock Halloween with two very rockin’ chicks!

Enjoy!