Latest Pix + Vonage Schmonage

Our neighborhood playgroup visited Gardner Village recently. It was all decked out in its Halloween glory. Here is Emma with her friend Jackson.


Emma and pals surveying the stream below


L to R: Witch, Mom, Em

Gardner Village has a cool petting zoo. Emma took full advantage of the petting privileges.


These baby pigs were darling. Their tails were waving a mile a minute.


Emma is just beginning to fit into many of the darling outfits we got as shower gifts a year ago. Here is a sporty denim look.


And a chic green and white ensemble.


Emma in a beautiful coat her Aunt Boo Boo brought her from Disneyland (it has ladybug spots on the back).


And in keeping with that theme, a ladybug is what Emma will be for Halloween (we got the costume online from Old Navy).

On a different subject: Joe and I have Vonage telephone service, which comes through our computer. When we get voicemails we get them as e-mails with the voice message sent as an attachment (that we listen to). Lately Vonage has been pushing a new service whereby somebody (a human being presumably, but I'm not so sure) will transcribe the message so you can simply read the text of the message in an e-mail ("for only 25 cents a call!"). We've been getting free trial transcriptions of our voice messages and they are an absolute SCREAM. I think they must have non-native speakers, or robots, or aliens transcribing them. Or maybe it's just a machine. Anyway, check out the transcription of a message I got yesterday:

"I. Know. This is granted to me if. Dictator called me this morning and 1 good need to see if we could have been opening song. So. Could you please just choose 1 and then. I can eat anything so it doesn't happen to me but. Central not home and i have to go get the grandkids in a couple of hours. But different you would like to call me back it's 569. 1 c route 79. Thank you. Life state."

After listening to the actual recording, I discerned this is what the caller really said:

"Hello. This is Grethe, Denise. Birgitte called me this morning and wanted me to see if we could have an opening song. So could you please just choose one and then, I can lead anything so it doesn't matter to me, but since you're not home and I have to go get the grandkids in a couple of hours, but if you'd like to call me back, it's 569-1079. Thank you. Bye."

And then at the end of the transcription you read the following:

"Isn't Vonage Visual Voicemail Great! You could be reading this voicemail message even if you were stuck in a meeting. No more waiting until the meeting is over to listen to your messages."

Joe and I won't be signing up for the service, but we've had some great laughs over the nutty transcriptions.

That's all for now!

A Great Time of Year

Here are my two gals sharing a large bowl of Sunday-night popcorn

Spring training is a great time of year. It means that the worst part of winter is behind us, and rich dudes are running around on green grass playing ball. The Giants aren't in last place (yet), and there are many summer nights on the horizon when baseball can be enjoyed. October is the cumulation of all of the above, with some great games being played. Too bad about the Cubbies, I would have liked to see them give the D-backs more of a battle. I think the Rockies will do just that.

Enough about baseball, for now anyway. On to Emma, and her progress. She is talking more each week, and seems more grown up all the time. She is having a rough go of it these last few days, we think due to her last four molars finally poking through. A spoonful of orange medicine and she calms down enough to fall asleep.

We were eating out for breakfast the other day, and I was reminded of a scene from The Godfather (I). The food had just arrived, and due to Emma's wanting to leave immediately, we had to "Tom Hagen" our food. This is in reference to the dinner Tom Hagen had with the movie producer. Just after he started eating, old Woltz started in on why Johnny wasn't going to get the part in his next movie. Ol' Tom knew he wasn't in for a leisurely meal, and was going to have to get on a plane in a hurry, so he starts stuffing the food in. Anyway, that is what we had to do. Oh well. it doesn't happen all that often, and a little "speed eating" once in a while won't kill you. Kinda funny if you think about it, I think.

Another reason October is great, is that we now have "Emma Day" to celebrate. Every October 30th we will celebrate the day we met Emma. We plan on giving her a special Chinese gift and doing something special. It has been a fast (almost) year. Emma is growing up fast, and her mother is doing a wonderful job in smothering her with love and attention! OK then.