4 June 2008
I'm still alive, and am still doing stuff. I've just been a little busy raising kids over the past two and a half years to make many updates here... they're elsewhere, believe me, and you can always contact me if you need to see the latest pictures and such. New updates on the Armand Schaubroeck page, as there is some new excitement there having talked with a dude about a possible documentary film on the musician. More on that later, one hopes...

26 October 2005
The cat is out of the bag. At precisely 8:13 this evening, young Mr. Eliot uttered the phrase "god dammit." The oddsmakers in Vegas were stunned to learn that young Mr. Eliot was not repeating a phrase that he heard from his foul-mouthed father. In fact, the elder Mr. Hall has been quite good over the past three-plus years in holding his tounge, while the more innocent Ms. Rose seems very quick to let the curse words fly when things go astray.

Amelia, on the other hand, is working very hard at mastering speech. The word that she seems to be using most these days is "mobby." It's kind of a cross between "mommy" and "puppy," and in that sense she uses the word correctly most of the time. The word has also come to mean "pick me up now," "I want what is on the countertop," and "put me down now so that I can pick up my pacifier from the floor, but be ready to pick me right back up again." Her favorite phrase today: "mobby, mobby, mobby!"

In other news, the file folks at Apple Computer have given us another fine way to waste our time. They call it PhotoBooth, and as the name implies, it's an easy little app to record photographs not unlike those little photobooths that you see in the theme parks and airports and such. The "twist" here is the many silly ways in which we can distort ourselves. Hours and hours of wasted time distorting the way you look. I'm not alone. There are lots of other people out there trying to make themselves look weird. Click here and see.

3 September 2005
What a week. Amelia had her first birthday on the 31st of August, and we had a celebration last Saturday in her honor. I am beginning to recover from that — a week later. Thanks, Uncle Pete. We had a little hoo-ha for her on the 31st, and she continues to be cute and all that.

In the sad news department, the hurricane thing has consumed me over the past week... truly amazing stuff. In my way of thinking, this event far surpasses 9/11 in terms of my level of compassion if for no other reason than the sheer number of people affected. I understand that lots of people in NYC, DC and PA lost lots of people that they really cared about... it was bad news... but here, we're talking about hundreds of thousands of people that lost EVERYTHING. EVERYTHING. This includes the loss of life for many. So I've been watching the TV; I've made my donation to the Red Cross. I watched the little concert thing on NBC. And then I laughed. Eliot asks me why I'm laughing. It's because live TV is so great... Kanye West hops up on his own soapbox, and lets GWB have it. It was gorgeous. Click here and read all about it.

9 August 2005
So over the weekend, there was this little downtown gathering. It's called "Ribfest," and the idea is that a bunch of people get together and drink beer while the smell of charring flesh fills the air. I had a stack of meat as big as my arm, and I could taste it in my mouth for two days. It was crazy. Crazier still was the fact that the musical entertainment was none other than Micky Dolenz, from the famed TV show "The Monkees." Anyhow, I was able to get close to him... but he didn't seem to love me the way that I loved him. Maybe next time, eh? This gets me that much closer in my degrees of separation from John Lennon... crazy.

6 July 2005
Working on getting a gathering going on. The little bar in my basement has been screaming at me to get some live music in there. So it's going to happen on July 16. Maybe you'd like to join me.

17 June 2005
Okay, so the Ebay thing has come and gone... the housewarming date is July 30. Talk to me if you think you should be invited.

Life is hectic here, but there is still time to enjoy the little things... Amelia is cruising around (for non-parents, or non-current parents this means that she's walking around from place to place with the help of furniture, legs and such). We've seen her try to take a couple steps... this kid can't wait to walk.

The swimming pool is a little chilly today at 79 degrees; but when things warm up, the pool is delightful. Things are supposed to do just that this weekend, so perhaps we'll get some swimming in.

13 June 2005
We think that Amelia has said her first word... and that word is... "Cracker." Perhaps we eat a lot of crackers around here... or perhaps it is just coincidence that Eliot's first word was "Cracker."

6 June 2005
Okay... so we're having a fun time in the new house. The pool is open, and we've had some fun swimming in that. Now we're planning for our housewarming party... but some folks have second thoughts about the date that we had picked. So I decided to put the thing on Ebay.

Now you can pick the date. Happy Bidding!

15 May 2005
So, in case you hadn't heard, we're in the new house. We're still unpacking, and keeping very busy these days. I'd love to report more to you, but I can't. Still alive; still have the same phone number. Call me... if you WANT to.

17 April 2005
Okay, okay... I've been busy. As you can read below, our house has been on the market for a little while... actually, a very little while. The house sold after just 3 weeks on the market. We should be closing soon and moving to our new house in Comstock very shortly. Actually, we'll be moving in just over a week. Very exciting stuff. So, we're packing like crazy and life goes on every day. Amelia is growing like crazy, and getting very close to crawling. She will certainly be taking off very soon when we get into the new house with carpeting rather than hardwood floors. As for Eliot... well... here are a couple quotes:

Eliot's Quote of the day:
"Hunka Hunka Burnin' Love, how I wonder what you are..."

15 April 2005
Eliot's Quote of the Day: A Dialogue
(Eliot, Isabella & Tess have just finished spinning around in a hula hoop, singing the ABC song)
Isabella: What song should we sing next?
Eliot: Hunka Hunka Burnin' Love.
Isabella: (Pause. Perplexed look on face) I don't think I know that song.

9 March 2005
Guess who pooped on the potty today??!!! That's right... after much coaxing, and many tears, Little E finally made a dooty on the potty... in unrelated news...

Eliot's Quote of the Day: A Dialogue
Eliot: I'm Elvis Presley! Sometimes they call me a letter.
Dad: The Big "E"??
Eliot: Yeah!

25 February 2005
A poem for you:

22 February 2005
My house is for sale. Would you like to buy it? Please?

Eliot's Quote of the Day: "Are your eyebrows mad?"

17 February 2005
George Michael has announced that he is leaving the world of pop music. Uhm... wasn't that pretty much decided FOR you, George? I didn't realize that you were still around unti just now.

16 February 2005
Eliot's Quote of the Day: "I'm Elvis. I'm not a very good guitar player... but I'm really nice."

15 February 2005
Okay, I know... I'm off to a slow start for the year. "Did nothing happen in your life in January, Jason??" Well, maybe a whole ton happened... and yet, of course, not much happened either. I've been taking care of the kids... and that's what we do. There was a little bit of sickness, but mostly good health. And, as you can see in the picture taken on Valentine's Day (yesterday), the kids appear to be doing well. It's been Beatlemania at our house over the past few weeks, as Eliot The Music Freak has been almost non-stop listening to Beatles music. Sure, I introduced him, but he's run with it. And run he has... literally... from one side of the house to the other... "I'm Paul McCartney!" "I'm Ringo!" Who he is changes from moment to moment. We've also been looking at some Elvis movies on the web, and he's become quite a little Elvis freak. I've got some footage of him singing "Burning Love" while playing the accordian. Priceless stuff.

Also worth noting if you find this in a timely manner... It's WIDR Week. Please consider supporting the radio station that I love so dearly.

From the "lord how I love this" department... According to a CNN/Money article, the fine folks at Microsoft are going to begin planning web browser that is going to help prevent viruses, spyware, etc... Man, that is SO NICE of them to think about PLANNING that. If you have any sense whatsoever... I'm begging you to switch.