Bits&Pieces

Puffle Christ Superstar

It's no secret that Jesus Christ Superstar is in heavy rotation at the Zielske abode—both on CD and YouTube—and we are planning to take the kids see the show all the way over in Minneapolis next month.

It's also no secret that certain Zielske children are quite fond of the MySpace for the under-10 set, Club Penguin. And if you know anything about said "club," then you're familiar with Puffles, yes? (They are the virtual pets of the penguins.)

And as we go deeper into the Everyone Already Knows This category, we see that Coleman is way into tiny drawings, including, but not limited to, comic strips.

With all that, I present Coleman's interpretation of Jesus Christ Superstar, using Puffles.

(click to see it bigger)

My favorite parts? The bus that shows up in the first frame, and "You'll find him in the Garden of Pufflemene."

You can't make this stuff up.

No, I'm serious, you can't.

Because Cole already did.

You know what? I'm going to try to start out more of what I write just like he does

{click for a larger image}

Seriously. I love this. Just stating the obvious facts before telling the story, so everyone KNOWS why you're clearly qualified to relay the forthcoming information.

So don't be surprised to see a good MANY blog posts that will now start like this:

I have a PERSONAL connection to this story because I am an EXCELLENT scrapbooker!

And to prove just HOW good I am, the March 10 tagger, where just a sweet tinge of the inevitable mid-section self-loathing makes it's tag book debut. YES! Go my stomach!

pageantry

Nothing like a church Christmas Pageant to get you in a better mood for the Christmas, right?

The kids' Christmas play was on Sunday. Aidan was in the role of the Hollywood-lovin' mayor of Angel Town who had to be convinced to bring Christmas back to Southern California.

Cole played the part of both a furniture mover and a surfer dude. I was a little shocked when he was the first kid out of the gate to sing by himself. And perhaps even more shocked at the length, or lack thereof, of his pants.

I'm not trying to be a Scrooge, but i'm curious about something… some of my friends and myself find Christmas to be, how to put this… not as fun as it could be? or, maybe a little stressful? or maybe between work and life, hard to fit in?

Do you know of what I speak? and if yes, how do you get around it?

I guess I'm trying to figure out how to deal with the fact that we don't even have our tree up yet, and part of me is already looking forward to taking it down.

ending the season with a bang

And two nights ago…Cole's life-changing Saints season as Mini Super Fan came to a close.

Dan took the camera and did his best to capture the magic that is Super Fan, and Mini Super Fan. Now he'll have to wait a whole 'nother year to do push ups for the fans. I hope he doesn't grow too much. I don't know if the crowd will respond as well to Medium Fan.

Have a great weekend.

happy day

November 28, 1998

Pro-create in '98, indeed!

At 3:30 p.m. today, the results came in: positive.

We are having another baby.

Damn! We are good at conceiving. I pray this baby is healthy more than anything in the world. That's the only thing that matters.

So…I ran downstairs, test hidden behind my back, tried to come up with a creative way to tell Dan, and instead, kneeled by the couch, giggled and blurted it out.

He was very happy. I'm very happy. Hopefully, Aidan will be  happy. And hopefully, our new baby will be happy and healthy.

Because he or she will be loved beyond reason.

—from my pregnancy journal, just three months shy of nine years ago

I set the post time to the very minute he arrived, 8 short years ago.

Happy birthday, Coleman Asher. How lucky are we?

in honor of Friday, and the Saints, and Cole

Cole's first public appearance as Mini Super Fan, outside of Midway Stadium, as seen on the Log Ride at the Park at Mall of America. Also his first time EVER on a big ride.

It's not easy being famous. True that.

Happy weekends, blog readers.

figuring out his future

Cole announced he's giving up his aspirations for a career in rock and roll for something much more attainable, and possibly, even more lucrative: he wants to be an "ushertainer" for the Saint Paul Saints.

Long story short? We have season tickets to the Saints. Have for like, 9 years. Dan and the kids spend many a summer's evening sitting in the front row, next to the visitor's dugout, enjoying baseball as it's meant to be: outside, and with really goofy sideshows. These sideshows are provided by the Saints' talented crew of "ushertainers."

Long a fan of each ushertainer, this year Cole has taken to dressing like his favorites. In the picture above, Cole is dressed as "Mini Super Fan" modeled after, of course, regular sized "Super Fan," who took Cole under his wing on this particular night, where the evening culminated in chants for Mini Fan, singing autographs, and posing with hot teen-aged chicks:

Last night, Cole went to the game dressed as the ushertainer known as "The Nerd." It must have been convincing enough, because, yet again, the full-sized Nerd took Cole under his wing and they made their way around the stadium, geeking out and entertaining the crowd. Next thing i know, Dan is calling, telling me to turn on the TV because Cole and the Nerd are "bringing the next inning in."

Surely enough, five minutes later, there's my boy, with glasses and an assortment of pens in the pocket of his plaid shirt, being interviewed, and mouthing the words, "HI MOM" to me, on regional cable access.

I don't deserve this kid sometimes.

Now keep in mind, I wasn't there at the game. I rarely go. Not a big baseball fan. I don't even know who sent Dan these pictures. But I think i need to check it out in person soon. Cole informed me last night he may just get a "gig" with the Saints, for real.

When I picked Dan and Cole up from last night's game, Cole says, "Mom, my voice hurts SO much from all the yelling I did [as the mini geek]... I feel like John Lennon after he recorded 'Twist and Shout'."

Suffice to say, you never know when you're possibly mothering the next big thing.

Right about now…the contractions had just started

…eleven years ago, that is.

Yes. 11 years ago…I was feeling the surprising effects of a pitocin drip, at a hospital in St. Louis Park, Minnesota. And so began my parenting journey.

I'd like to write something eloquent about the transformation from selfish, non-parent person to benevolent, loving parent person, but I'm not going to. What I can say is that becoming a parent has been one big suprise after another. And a lot of them were good ones that I never expected.

Happy Birthday, Aidan. Thanks for all the surprises. You know how we both love surprises.

You get that from me.

Crazy…but that's how it goes

So Cole has started writing a series of "books" at school, and has been talking about it a lot over the past few weeks. Finally, on Friday, he brought one of them home:

Very good collection of stories about how bad you can get messed up if you do things like: a) try to outrun a train in your car, and b) try to outrun a train by foot and c) find yourself unexpectedly in a massive explosion…on a train.

But my favorite is definitely Chapter 7:

Because we all know how really messed up you get when you're "riding up" the rails on a crazy train.

The kid is brilliant.