Picture Day At Target

We took Shannon to Target the other day to get her picture taken. We had to wait an hour past out appointment to get in. The studio is tiny and all these people were packed into this small space waiting.

I took Shannon for a walk round the store twice and the second time she came back to mommy with a Dora cup and plate set that she picked out.

The pictures came out pretty good considering she wanted to get out of there as soon as we got in there.

We ordered copies of the first picture but the other ones came out cute as well.

She doesn't go anywhere without her puppy.

Laying on me. This was the first picture we took. She wouldn't sit up so we improvised.

That's me wearing the Santa sleeve and white gloves.

Nothing in the box.

Erin's hand guest stars in this one holding the book up.

Went To See Santa

Last week the family went to see Santa. Shannon doesn't quite get Santa yet so he is still a bit scary to her. This year was her 3rd picture with him. She was very curious about why we were waiting in line but as soon as we saw the big man she wanted nothing to do with him.

So we all had to get into the picture in order to get the picture taken. I wasn't expecting much cause you can't get a 2 year old to do anything you actually want them to do. So a series of pictures were taken and this was the only one of her not struggling to get the hell out of there.

We got our picture taken and paid the 26 bucks to get the file on a CD. That's right. 26 bucks and we didn't even get a printed picture. We did get a .jpg file and a copyright release. So we can print out as many as we want.

Maybe next year Shannon will be more excited to visit Santa and I won't have to get her in a leg lock to get her picture taken.

Potty Training

On November 23rd we started to potty train Shannon. It was very stressful at first but things are getting much, much better.

The first few days she would fight us and not sit down. She would arch her back and lock up her legs and scream. Not fun.

We would try to sit her on the toilet every 20 minutes and see if she went. We would usually get her to do it once or twice a day and have a few accidents in between.

Fast forward to this week and she is doing great. She knows when she has to go and lets us know ahead of time. We still have to take her into the bathroom and get her all set up. But as soon as she sits down we have success.

After she goes she yells out, "I Did It" and we all clap. We also sing a song that goes:

Pee pee on the pot tee

Pee pee on the pot tee

Pee pee on the pot tee

We also move our arms the way you would think you would to a song like that and she loves it.

As a reward she gets M and Ms which she really enjoys and doesn't get too often.

So going forward we are getting on the right track. The accidents are going down and the potty use is going up.

The Police

Finally I got to see The Police. Saturday November 17th was the date. My father and brother flew in from Buffalo to go to the show with Erin and I. My father was under feeling the weather

and almost didn't make it to the show. After a power nap he was ready to go.

Our seats were on the floor towards the back and stage left. Fiction Plane opened and sound pretty good from what we saw. We were late getting to the show so we only saw 3 or 4 songs.

The Police opened with Message In A Bottle and rocked the rest of the way. I'm really only familiar with the greatest hits stuff so I was shocked to experience how well Andy Summers plays guitar. He played really, really well.

I also enjoyed the wall of cymbals and other percussion tools that Andy Summers used. This was especially enjoyable during Wrapped Around Your Finger.

Sting was great as expected. His bass seemed to be out of tune the first two songs and the look of his face echoed it.

The sound was great. We all noticed that Fiction Plane sounded too loud, but The Police sounded great and very tight. I had heard a lot about how they changed the timing of some of the songs and what not but you really didn't notice it. Maybe during 1 or 2 songs but otherwise the songs sounded spot on.

The stage had 3 video screens above it and then another set piece that they used for putting different video elements in. The also had lights that raised up from the stage and lights that came down from the ceiling during different parts of the show. Picture below taken from my seat using my cell phone.

The set list:

Message in a Bottle
Synchronicity II
Walking On The Moon
Voices Inside My Head
When The World Is Running Down
Don't Stand So Close To Me
Driven To Tears
Truth Hits Everybody
Hole In My Life
Every Little Thing She Does Is Magic
Wrapped Around Your Finger
De Do Do Do De Da Da Da
Invisible Sun
Walking In Your Footsteps
Can't Stand Losing You
Roxanne
King Of Pain
So Lonely
Every Breath You Take
Next To You