Piper had her fancy pants on, and was dancing around pretty much all weekend. It was really fun being able to see Piper for so many days, this week. It is really amazing how quickly standing has become one of her favorite things to do. She would probably sleep standing up, if she could figure out how to do it. It is so cute to watch her dance and wiggle around, while tapping and grabbing everything in reach. It is a lot easier to get her to take little steps now, too. She is clearly becoming a lot more sure of her little legs and feet.

Sunday, our intention was to head straight up to Westchester after church and spend all day there. But the long weekend caught up to us, and we ended up taking some serious naps. So, we didn’t get to Blythedale until after the sun had gone down. It was nice, though to get in a little rest. It is really mellow in the hospital at night. Piper had just dozed off and was out cold when we arrived. We got her out anyway and took turns holding her. She must have had a pretty great weekend too, judging by how deeply she was sleeping.

This is the first year, since Piper has been around, that we have been in town for Thanksgiving  weekend. In the past we have spent it in New England with our Boston friends. It was kind of nice, not to be traveling, this year. It was extra nice to be able to see Piper on Thanksgiving. Of course, Reagan whipped up a festive turkey headband for Piper, at the last minute. Piper wasn’t too keen on having it around her head. But she was a good sport for the photo. We had a lot of fun teaching her about why we celebrate the first day that people ate turkey.

Something happened during our visit that was extra fun for me. I finally figured out something that makes Piper laugh. Normally Reagan is the only one that can crack Piper up. But yesterday, when I was holding her. She started tapping me on the mouth, like she does quite often. As she was doing this, I started pretending to eat her fingers. Apparently she thought that was pretty funny, because she started cracking up. Then I started cracking up. Good times had by all.

BTW, Reagan is now officially obsessed with her iPhone, which is where this photo came from. She has an application that renders photos to look like old Polaroids.

Ok, for the year anniversary (at least the first LMC post since the 1 year mark, Hehe.), here is Beck. I have been a little bit lackadaisical with the music writing lately because of the whole Brazil thing. Back in the saddle, though. So I figured that I would make it a good one.

Beck is a pretty amazing musician. It seems like most people have an opinion of his work. It is one of those hate it, or love it situations. I personally love it. I was first exposed to Beck, when the singles from “Mellow Gold” were in rotation. So, songs like “Beer Can” and “Loser” were my introduction. At first, I was really confused about the seeming lack of continuity in the ideas expressed by his lyrics. It took a little bit of digging deeper for me to finally understand that the stream of conscious-style-flow was one of earmarks of Beck’s M.O..

One great thing I really like about Beck, is that he has been a very prolific artist, over the years. I have a lot of respect for musicians who work hard. I can’t say that I have loved all of his records, with equal enthusiasm. Just the same, I appreciate that he is getting it done. The song that I’m sharing is from Midnight Vultures. To me, this is one of those albums that I could start from track No. 1 and just let it play the entire way through without skipping a song. Even though a lot of the songs are kind of experimental sounding, I’m sure that I’m not alone in my opinion on this one. Anyway, the song is “Nicotine and Gravy.” I really like the title for a couple of reasons. First, my friend Joel, who I used to play music with in high school, had a song called “Nicotine and Caffeine.”  I feel like this song is probably Beck’s version of that same song. Here it is: Press Play.

Reagan has been threatening to get an iPhone for a while now. I have been threatening to leave out network, all together. My contract was about to be up in Feb., but Reagan carried through, on her threat today and bought herself a new iPhone. Since that kind of wrecked my plans to leave the network, I decided to exercise my upgrade discount as well. The only phone that I wanted, from our current network was listed at $300 online, so I decided to take a walk down to the kiosk in the next building over and check out some of the new phones in person. It turns out that they had the phone I had been eying, for only $50. Solid. Reagan said that November 24 is now officially “buy a new phone-day.” Totally.

In equally boring news, I went to this party last night, hoping that 50 Cent would show up after his album release show that he was playing, down the street at the Highline Ballroom. He never did show (at lease while I was there).

But DJ Kayslay was on the 1s and 2s, so at least the music was hot. The venue was pretty cool, as well. If I could do it over. I would have preferred sleep.

Every time someone bought a bottle of Goose, they delivered it with sparklers, which was kind of cool.

We have been trying, for the last 2 days, to get a decent family pic for our Christmas cards. This has involved dressing up nice, dressing Piper up nice, and lugging numerous props etc. to and from the hospital. Piper has been an extremely good sport about all of it. I really hope that we were able to get something we can work with, Christmas card-wise. But these are some of my favorites (hopefully I won’t get in trouble for posting them. I don’t think that they away any of Reagan’s surprises). These shots are just a few that we took when we were goofing around, after attempting to get a good family shot.

For Piper, one thing has been established since the get-go: Mom=best friend in the world/party time. Dad=Mellow out, relax. Piper can’t help but crack a smile when Reagan starts doing any of the following: Singing, carrying-on, saying just about anything in a cute high pitched voice, dancing around, any combination of the aforementioned items.

There was a little soiree last night at La Pomme, in Chelsea for the release of a new Magazine called JM. I was able to break in the 7D at that event.

Tyson Beckford made it out.

Coco was hosting the event, since she is on the cover of the upcoming issue. The person that I was excited to see, though, was Ice T. I have been a fan, ever since Breakin’. He is the MC at the club, where all of the break dance battles go down.

Good times, good times.

Pretty stoked about this new bad boy. My homey Zach, the CEO of V&F Enterprises, pre-ordered two 7Ds (planning to cancel his order on which ever one did not arrive first) that arrived the same day. He was looking for someone to take the superfluous unit off of his hands. I was more than happy to oblige. I will be christening it tomorrow night at an event I’m shooting for SoJones. I’m thinking that this thing should tide me over until the the 5D mkIII comes out (or until I win the lottery [or both]).

It was bitter-sweet, to leave Brazil yesterday. We really had a great time there. We were initially planning on just having a casual Sunday and gearing up for the flight home, while lounging around the hotel, or something. Instead, we ended up having an action packed last day. We initially set out to photograph some of the more historical parts of the center of Rio. But when we arrived there, it was pretty apparent that it was a sketchy time to be out. Even thought it was daylight, it was Sunday morning, and there weren’t a lot of people around, except for the really seedy ones. So we got back in the cab, and decided to checkout Sugarloaf, instead. It was very cool. I’m glad that we did it. Even the the second peak was totally covered by a cloud, when we were up there, the tram ride had some superb views.

^— Descending from the highest point.

^— Looking up, from the lower peak (timer shot).

^— Reagan, on the way up to the first peak. PS, I love this shot.

After Sugarloaf, we headed back over to the Lagoa, to kill some time. We did another bike ride, rode the paddle boats, and even did a little bit of skating. Hahahah. We were watching these kids skate this bowl, at the lagoa. I decided to ask them, if they minded if I borrowed a board and took a turn. The kid was totally cool about it. Reagan snapped a couple of pics. It was a lot of fun.

^— Me, in a 5.0 grind at RJ.

Follow this link for a few more shots from our last day in Rio.

We stared out the day with a bike ride around the lagoa, that sits about 6 blocks inland from Ipanema. It was a really fun ride. The outside perimeter of the lake is about 8 kilometers. It is great to see how many fitness minded Cariocas were out running and biking. Nike plus had a tent set up to stretch people out and distribute Gatorade. After the ride, we took a hike to the Rio Botanical Garden (which is the photo above, btw).

The Botanical Garden is right across the street from the stables of the horse track. There is a huge wall around the stables that is completely tagged up. It is amazing. I was ogling it, the whole way to the garden entrance. I almost tripped a few times, because I was staring across the street, instead of where I was walking. Below is a shot looking across the street from the front of the garden.

The garden itself was incredible. There was every type of tropical plant that you could imagine. It was also full of tropical birds and reptiles.

This little area with the columns, below, is the reason that Reagan wanted to see the gardens. There was a photo of it, in one of the little information books that she bought when we were planning the trip. It is pretty cool in real life, too.

Here for more photos from the bike ride and Botanical Garden.

Reagan and I were both kind of sad to leave Buzios. We are now back in Rio, this time staying on Ipanema Beach. It is really nice here. It is a good spot to wind down and get ready to go home. It is going to be tough to go back to the grind, after we have had such a good time here. We are both pretty anxious to see Piper again, though.

Here are a few shots from our last day in Buzios. It rained like crazy all night, Thursday night. It was actually still kind of sprinkling Friday morning. We took a trip to Praia Brava, which has a pretty good break. Reagan found this crab in one of the tide pools.

As we were walking on a path around the bay, we saw this place where the shore break was shooting into the air, when it hit the rocks. Reagan said that she wanted a shot, like Arial, from The Little Mermaid, where the water is shooting up behind her. Hahahaha. Of course I obliged.

After Praia Brava, we went back to Ferradura, a very chill beach that we discovered earlier this week. Reagan made this little sand sculpture of Piper’s name.

Below is the finished product

This one is of Reagan wading around looking at the sea turtles, in front of our apt.

Here is one final shot of Buzios.

Click here for more shots from Buzios.