this morning was that fateful day when as parents you ship off your oldest child to school on the bus. We know that Kylie is going to have a blast and that she’ll excel in kindergarten, but it’s still hard to let go. We’re basically giving her up for 8 hour chunks 5 days a week. Of course, i do that every day when i head to work, so this might be harder on Erica, but i used to leave her knowing that she’d be with Erica all day.

Anyway, it was an exciting morning, and i was able to snap a few pictures to share.

this one is actually from yesterday at Kylie’s orientation

Here’s Erica getting Kylie’s hair ready this morning while the kids eat pancakes.

Kylie and parker ready to head up to the bus stop.

Daddy and his kiddos waiting for the bus.

There’s the bus. It’s go time.

Kylie’s sitting on the bus with her friend who lives across the street. Ready or not, there she goes!

i took a 15 second video of Kylie gettting on the bus as well. Erica and i are trying to get her attention but she’s pretty focused on getting on board. you can watch that here, but it might take a bit to load.

another milestone come and gone…wow.

bry

seems like most of my posts are a collection of the random things happening in my world. this one will be no different…

• i spoke at Catalyst last night. No not that Catalyst, this Catalyst. I thought it went well. Much better than the last time i spoke, both in content and delivery. But it’s so hard to tell with these types of things because you’re basically just glaring into bright lights while you speak so you cant really garner any feedback from the listening (or not listening) faces. If only one person benefitted from it then it was definitely worth it.

• (if you don’t watch LOST, this post might be of no interest to you) I havent really been following along to the LOST Experience Game like i thought i would. Some folks are pretty involved. I’m just planning on reading a good synopsis when it’s finished. Apparently this game is going to give us insight into the LOST numbers (4,8,15,16,23,42) and into the DHARMA initiative (which we now know stands for Department of Heuristics And Research on Material Applications Initiative). Currently folks have been collecting glyph codes that unlock small bits of another orientation video. when they are all assembled, we’ll have more info on Hanso and DHARMA. I do know that the game has 5 phases. right now it’s in the 3rd or 4th. The cool thing is, they are doing a wonka-esque promotion right now, handing out Apollo Candy Bars at various places. Some have a “golden oracle” on them. This is all being tracked at whereisalvar.com somehow. I would love to get a candy bar, just for the nostalgia aspect of it, and they are giving them away in Harrisburg on 9/2 at the Kipona Festival. Unfortunately i will be at the Beach with Catalyst that weekend. Someone go to the festival and grab me one, eh?

• I’ve got Photoshop CS finally installed on my iMac and i finally got my new printer to work, so things are progressing in my MacWorld. Today I’ll probably purchase Windows XP and Parallels so that we can run some software on the Mac that Erica needs to use for her business. (This same software will help us track business expenses, including XP and Parallels). Speaking of which, her first show is tonight and I’m pretty excited about it. I won’t be there, of course, but I’m excited for her. I just designed some business cards for her that i’ll be ordering through Overnightprints.com this week. I think they look alot better than the business card choices she was offered through the company. Her cards will be pink. That’s all you need to know.

• so i have this mole on my stomach that apparently needs to be removed according to one of erica’s aunts. it’s not raised or assymetrical or anything, but it’s slightly bigger than a pencil eraser which is a red flag. I’m told it could easily develop into a malignant melonoma, so better to have it removed. Guess i should schedule that.

• So many CDs i want to buy: Sleeping At Last’s “Keep No Score”, Anathallo’s “Floating World”, Sandra McCracken’s “Gravity | Love”, Matthew Perryman Jones’ “Throwing Punches in the Dark”, and there’s proabbaly more i can’t think of right now. if only music was free…

• Speaking of free music, my boy Derek Webb is releasing his most recent album, Mockingbird, online for FREE. Not just streaming it, but literally letting you download the entire thing for free. Why? Because he’s crazy i guess. Actually he’ll tell you why on the site he set up for it, freederekwebb.com. It will be available for you at midnight on September 1.

• one final thing, singer/songwriting phenom Andy O pointed out this article in his blog a few weeks ago and i thought I’d share. This mom is apparently completely bored with her kids and isn’t afraid to say it. It’s definitely a polarizing article, as you can see in the comments folks have left. Either you think she’s a self-centered jerk who never should have had kids to begin with, or you think she’s just an honest mom saying things that other moms are too afraid to say. Either way, it’s worth 10 minutes.

a few things i learned this week that might help you out as you walk through life:

1. Never eat taco bell after 7:30pm if the only thing you’ve eaten all day was a breakfast sandwich and some snack mix.

2. Never bet on the Red Sox winning a game when Julian Tavarez is prominently involved.

3. Never, EVER, try to book a hotel at the beach the day before. Especially not in August.

4. Never drink coffee at 8pm when you know it will keep you up.

5. Never think it will take you 30 minutes to get somewhere when construction traffic is involved.

6. Never drive 90 mph in a 35 mph zone (that lesson courtesy of jordan’s new roommate).

7. Never promise your wife a 2-room suite by the beach and then wait until the day before and only deliver a 2-double bed room. (i thought it was worth repeating).

so yeah, we’re off to the beach tonight for 2 nights. It should be fun. First true family vacation with just the four of us. Weather should be fantastic. I’ll be carting along my XM headset to listen to the sox-yanks while sitting in the sand (thanks geof).

next week should be a busy week, so the timing on this vacay couldn’t be better.

peace, love, and salt water taffy…bryan

someone from the Rumor Forum found this video for me. it’s a 3-minute clip of Caedmon’s Call performing Hands of the Potter a few months ago, featuring yours truly on the cowbell. The sound appears to be about 5 seconds behind the video, which is kind of annoying. But still, pretty cool that this is on YouTube. I’m obviously the guy in the Red Sox sweatshirt stage left behind Andy Osenga.

check it out -> Bryan’s prescription for your fever