Since you haven’t had enough of Cute Eli, let’s talk about him playing his guitar. On Sunday he saw several of us playing Guitar Hero for the first time. Before then he carried his guitar around by the neck, putting it on the floor to play it. But after he saw us rocking out with the strap around our neck? He has the rock star moves down. Watch him spin around, then smash the guitar when his song is done.

When I was preparing this video tonight for posting, Eli saw it and demanded, “You go get your guitar and we play Guitar Hero!” I dutifully pulled out my Guitar Hero controller. “No, we play Guitar Hero,” he informed me. “You plug in your guitar and we play.”

So I did and we did. Pay special attention to what Eli does when we reach the bridge.

Eli has music class at school. This is good since he has taken over my sister- in-law’s nickname of “Jukebox Joy” and we call him “Jukebox Eli” because sometimes when he starts singing, he doesn’t stop.

Tonight at the dinner table he decided to entertain us with a new song he’s learned in music class. “10 Little Ducks.” I’m sure that I’ve heard this song before but didn’t remember how it ended. It’s easy enough to follow:

10 little ducks went out to play,
Over the hills and far away.
When Momma duck said, “Quack, quack, quack!”
9 little ducks came waddling back.

Repeat until you get to zero. It comes complete with cute hand gestures and appropriate faces. However, the best part is the punchline and Eli delivered it fabulously this evening.

No little ducks went out to play,
Over the hills and far away.
When Daddy duck said, “Quack, quack, quack!”
10 little ducks came waddling back.

Daddy Duck had a very deep, gruff voice and he paused nicely for the last line to make maximum impact. Stephen and I fell out of our chairs laughing.

Next time you see him, ask him to sing it for you. It’s worth the first 11 verses to hear the punchline.

This came up in one of my art/crafting blogs and since I know that tons of you are book collectors I thought you might also like to see a collection of bookplates. There are lots of really beautiful things on this site. When I showed it to Stephen he said, “Hmmm, we need one with a chinchilla on in.”

Just what I was thinking!

Book Plate Junkie

Misty and I have been grooving on Veronica Mars since right after the first season. The combination of a noir outlook and a spunky-yet-troubled teenage heroine has proven irresistible. Each of the first two seasons started with a mystery that was solved by the end of the season. This year, since they weren’t picked up for a full season to begin with, they did a shorter mystery arc that ended last night.

And what an ending! I am about to spoil like milk left out overnight, so avert your eyes if you have yet to see the most recent episode.

Right, here we go. I wanted to point out a few things that you might have overlooked. Did you catch why Moe the R.A. was involved, and how it tied to the seemingly-random B plot from an earlier episode? Students taking psychology at Hearst take part in a repeat of the Zimbardo experiment, also known as the Stanford prison experiment — and let’s just glide past how that would never, ever, ever be allowed at a college. Moe overhears Wallace talking about the experiments and says that it changed his life. And indeed, as shown in the picture on Moe’s wall, Moe was the prisoner to Mercer’s janitor. And during the episode, Mercer several times calls Moe “prisoner” to underscore the point.

Got that? Now think back to the episode prior to this one. In a bit of stunt-casting, Patty Hearst played the flaky rich trustee of Hearst College. I thought the Hearst/Hearst bit was the joke, but it wasn’t — it’s that Patty Hearst is the most famous example of Stockholm Syndrome. Trust this show to use extra-textual information about a guest star to reinforce the theme of the mystery’s solution.

One thing I missed until this morning: Tim the T.A. had a “current member” headshot sheet for the Pi Sigs up on his bulletin board of mystery and had circled several of the pictures. I belatedly realized that they were the Pi Sigs his girlfriend had slept with.

Finally, how awesome will it be when it turns out Dean O’Dell’s killer followed the directions given in Veronica’s paper on how to commit a perfect murder?

I now turn the discussion over to you. Talk amongst yourselves.

We’ve been without the Internet at home for nearly two days now. If you’ve tried to reach us via email, now you know why we haven’t answered. Good thing we didn’t sign up for VoiP!

Sorry we’ve been absent, Internet. It’s not that we don’t love you. It’s that you don’t love us.

I’ve started taking photos of people playing Guitar Hero. There’s something about seeing all the regular people I know rocking out!

Why yes, that is Eli sticking his tongue out at a seagull.

After a great visit with the Granade clan we’re back at home and happy to be sleeping in our own bed tonight. I’ll post photos and stories later. Boy, do I have a story to tell about a mouse!

Aqua: Cartoon Heroes (2000)

If you know Aqua, it’s probably because of the lawsuit between them and Mattel over Aqua’s song “Barbie Girl”. But if you haven’t seen this video…. There is no part of this it that isn’t like a foam-covered steel bat to the head. Lene’s hair? René’s growling lyrics? Aqua as cartoon heroes that have to stop off at an intergalactic Gas ‘n Sip while Earth’s cities are being destroyed? The band swimming around in “zero-g”? Lene’s sexy sexy zipping up of her futuristic speedsuit? The entire song?

Britney Spears: Toxic (2004)

How do you follow up something as goofily over-the-top as “Cartoon Heroes”? Why, with Britney Spears as an internationaly super-spy/cat-burglar/whatever, that’s how! You’d better thank your lucky stars: I was tempted to hit you with the Spice Girls’ “Spice Up Your Life”.

Eli has informed us that the word “Smickle” is actually “Shiggle”. We apologize for the confusion.