In Defense of Pinterest

As most of your know, this morning I joined Pinterest. I am aware that is generally thought of as a rather distaff medium. That fact is really neither here nor there for me. Most of my friends are women, and I'm kind of a fancy pants sissy boy. All that being said, I'm surprised by how much like it. I think I have figured out why I do.
1. I like that it is a visual milieu. Obviously I'm a pretty literary guy (love books, kind of write for a living, etc.) but there's something about just trafficking in the (for lack of a less cheesy word) language of pictures. My favorite movie day was when everyone listed their dreamboat actors. I liked seeing all of the pictures of them together. That day's post, in retrospect, was a Pinterest page.
2. I like the validation you get from strangers like stuffing you put on there. Obviously we all like it when our friends show appreciation for our stuff on Facebook, but it's a unique sensation to have someone you don't know from a can of paint approve of something you like.
3. I like that I now have something to do with the random stuff I find on StumbleUpon that I don't want to loose.

Of course all of this could be the excitement of something new. Maybe I'll get tired of it after I finish doing all the lists I want to do, but I thought it would be good to share some thoughts upon first blush.

Yours in social media,

Chuck

Blue Cheese Crusted Filet Mignon with Port Wine Sauce



Fancy Ass

This is what Chelsey and I are making for Valentines Day this year.  We are trying to save money by not going out and not spending money on each other.  Instead we are going to try and make this fancy recipe.  Of course it can't be that fancy.  It's off of allrecipes.com.  But look at that picture!
I can't wait to make little beds of mashed potatoes.  I wish all my foods had little beds of mashed potatoes under them.

This Valentines is going to kick so much ass.

The only hiccup here is that we need an oven-safe pan.  I don't know that we have one.  But Chelsey just sent me this, so we should be able to figure that out as well.  Now if she could just send me a link to make our kitchen big enough for two people.

A while back we decided to start using the station method.  Where we each have half of the kitchen.  It makes me feel like we are working at some fancy restaurant.  I act like I'm the sous chef, and Chelsey is my demanding but genius chef de cuisine. 

 

New Design!

My glasses seem to get bigger and bigger.

Look everybody!  It's a new design for my blog! I'm very excited about it.

The new stuff is all pretty self explanatory.  I finally added an RSS follow thingy, and I was able to put a cute border around all my pictures like Chelsey. It turns out there's a lot of options in blogger.  I had no idea.  I made the new header in indesign/photoshop.  It took forever to get the size right.  Mostly because I am an idiot.

Also, today I am home sick from work.  It could be that the new blog design has left me ill.

King Edith 4.0

As Edith gets bigger and figures more stuff out, I'm learning heaps about child development.  One thing that seems to happen every few weeks is that she becomes a brand new baby.

This baby is worth $400.

We went through this with Deuce too.  But only once.  It was more like for the first three weeks he didn't bark and wasn't an asshole.  Then he barked constantly and was a massive asshole.  And it was over.  He never progressed again. 

But with Edith, it's a never ending metamorphosis.  She goes to bed not smiling, and wakes up smiling.  She doesn't show the ability to grab things, and then she pulls down your water in a restaurant. Twice.  It's amazing. 

Her latest development is that she is laughing now.  Which has got to be the best development a baby can make.  But like everything else, it just showed up one day.  Then she would only do it when Chelsey tickled her.  And then last night she was just laughing away at me before she went to bed.  She would just look at me and laugh.  Which, admittedly, is an experience I am well acquainted with do to my squirrelly looks. 

The whole thing is without parallel for me.  It's so amazing to care about something so much and have it continue to grow and enhance before your very eyes.  This may be the only thing that's going to get me through Edith-as-toddler phase.  I have already told Chelsey, that I fully expect to propose selling Edith when she's about 2 1/2 and that she is not to do it.  Even if it seems like a really good idea. 

For now, I've got a laughing, grabbing, almost crawling baby.  But who knows what I'll have tomorrow.

Our Baby is a Fat Monkey

That's all there is to it.

Well this is darling...

New M. Ward.

Kosterpelding YouTube Channel!

Did anyone ask for this?  Who cares?  Now I can continue towards my plan of being that guy from the google commercial who uses all the google products to connect with his daughter as she grows up.  Now to become Asian...

http://www.youtube.com/user/kosterpelding?feature=watch

This one is my favorite...



There's also some nice Chelsey cleavage if you look close.

Va va va voom!