Connor Rabun Kirchman
7/30/09
9:08 pm
8 lbs 2 oz
Baby and mommy are both doing great.
Welcome to the World!
C&M
M&C
Friday, July 31, 2009
Sunday, July 26, 2009
Homeward Bound
We spent yesterday mostly relaxing after waking up to find that our spell of good weather had finally ended on the day we had planned to go the beach for breakfast and visit the zoo. Oh well. We're now well rested and looking forward to getting home, getting started on packing for the house move and preparing for the fun we intend to have during Neil and Tracey's visit which is now only about 8 days away. Crikey!
UPDATE: In the interests of accuracy - it turns out that the plane we flew on was the one on the right.
Saturday, July 25, 2009
Lethargy Downunder
For the entire week here in Sydney I've struggled to get myself onto the local timezone, and so here I am hiding out in the bathroom since 6:45am doing my best not to disturb M (who has had no such trouble) from her slumber.
I've been doing this business travel gig for a good few years now and have figured out how to use jet lag to my advantage - keeping on top of things going on at head office by getting up early (3am) in the morning in Asia or Australia, entertaining journalists/customers until late in the evening in the UK/Europe - but it becomes a bit old when the outcome of that is that I'm dealing with it through the weekend also. And I'm not the quietest at getting out of bed, getting dressed and senaking out of the hotel room - I can't even do it that well at home, and particularly in the dark - so I invariably end up disturbing M anyway. Oh well. I think she appreciates the efforts I go to even if they generally fail.
Poor boy, I hear you say (tenuously) and as it happens that was the name of the play we went to see with Helen on Tuesday. It featured songs by Tim Finn (Split Enz, Crowded House, The Finn Brothers and, er Tim Finn) and a spooky Zebra mask and was very good. We booked the tickets at the last minute on Tuesday and ended up, quite self-consciously, being the only 3 people on the very front row - right in front of the retractable headstone and where they place the ship at the end of the play. It's about a boy who is inhabited by the ghost of a dead man and the play slowly reveals how their unravelling families are interconnected. Heady stuff indeed.
It was great to see Helen - she and M hung out during the afternoon on Tuesday while I was at the office - before she headed off to Canberra to work on a boxing event and then on to Melbourne to prepare for the V8 racing there this week.
Yesterday was a fairly low-key day - after breakfast we went out to The Rocks market, visited the friendly lady that does the 3D postage stamp art, walked around the shops in George St. for a bit and then wrapped up the afternoon by going to see Ice Age 3D. Not sure what's on the agenda for today but I'm sure we'll figure something out.
Tomorrow I have a breakfast meeting before a quick visit to the office and then we're heading home to prepare for Neil and Tracey's visit; and to jump right back into the whirlwind of moving house. It's all so exciting.
Tuesday, July 21, 2009
Becoming Landlords
In a first for UlloaSullivan Inc., we became landlords today.
That's right - after a bit of nail-biting on Friday afternoon as we finalized and signed all the documents with the Mortgage Company and Escrow agents, with everyone knowning that it had to get done that day due to our travel plans, the documents were submitted and we were notified earlier today that we are now officially the proud owners of the new house. And with that came our official role as landlords until August 1st - the day that the builder/seller will be vacating the property and we can begin moving in.
We'll do our best to take our new responsibilities seriously and be the best landlords we can be - which means not taking any advice from the one depicted here.
Anyway, that's it for now. As I told Michelle this morning - I have to get back to work in order to keep this nice new roof over our heads.
That's right - after a bit of nail-biting on Friday afternoon as we finalized and signed all the documents with the Mortgage Company and Escrow agents, with everyone knowning that it had to get done that day due to our travel plans, the documents were submitted and we were notified earlier today that we are now officially the proud owners of the new house. And with that came our official role as landlords until August 1st - the day that the builder/seller will be vacating the property and we can begin moving in.
We'll do our best to take our new responsibilities seriously and be the best landlords we can be - which means not taking any advice from the one depicted here.
Anyway, that's it for now. As I told Michelle this morning - I have to get back to work in order to keep this nice new roof over our heads.
Monday, July 20, 2009
Meleena On The Web
Meleena is beside herself having noticed that she appears fairly frequently in the video that was shot for the Luce Web site at the recent gig we attended in San Francisco. You can see her wearing the blue headband on the bottom right of the image that is currently appearing on their Home page (copied here).
Check out Meleena.com where she writes about the experience.
Check out Meleena.com where she writes about the experience.
Sunday, July 19, 2009
Sugar Thieves
G'Day Readers!
We're here in Sydney after our early arrival this morning and just getting to grips with the time zone. After having a nap when we checked in to the hotel at 7am we headed down to The Bakers Oven in The Rocks for a quick brunch before I head into the office for a few hours.
While there we encountered this pair of Larrakeets who, after biding their time and scouting out the tables, swooped down and grabbed a packet of sugar from an empty table and headed off to the fence to share it. After finishing off the first one they made a repeat visit and grabbed a second.
They were clearly smart as they chose not to try and wrestle any of M's breakfast from her - she was pretty ravenous after choosing to skip most of the plane and would have had none of those shenanigans!
More of our encounters with the local Australian wildlife soon...
We're here in Sydney after our early arrival this morning and just getting to grips with the time zone. After having a nap when we checked in to the hotel at 7am we headed down to The Bakers Oven in The Rocks for a quick brunch before I head into the office for a few hours.
While there we encountered this pair of Larrakeets who, after biding their time and scouting out the tables, swooped down and grabbed a packet of sugar from an empty table and headed off to the fence to share it. After finishing off the first one they made a repeat visit and grabbed a second.
They were clearly smart as they chose not to try and wrestle any of M's breakfast from her - she was pretty ravenous after choosing to skip most of the plane and would have had none of those shenanigans!
More of our encounters with the local Australian wildlife soon...
Open Letter to Fellow Passengers
Dear Sir/Madam,
If you are sitting next to us on a plane we have a couple of very simple requests:
1) please respect our personal space while eating - there's just not enough room in economy for you to stick your elbows out like you do at home; actually, that's just plain poor table manners wherever you may be, and
2) please refrain from (audibly) passing wind - particularly if you then intend to stand up and position your rear end next to our face(s).
Note: Photo was taken before both of the above requests were ignored on today's flight.
If you are sitting next to us on a plane we have a couple of very simple requests:
1) please respect our personal space while eating - there's just not enough room in economy for you to stick your elbows out like you do at home; actually, that's just plain poor table manners wherever you may be, and
2) please refrain from (audibly) passing wind - particularly if you then intend to stand up and position your rear end next to our face(s).
Note: Photo was taken before both of the above requests were ignored on today's flight.
Friday, July 17, 2009
Michelle & Marky on a Boat
A quick update to show you what Michelle got up to with Mark Anthony and Meleena on their two day trip to the Bay Area.
Here they are on the Bay Cruise boat that caused them to get a little sunburnt. Meleena was there too - she's just over Marky's left shoulder chilling out on the bench.
I'll ask Michelle to provide a little more detail on their two day adventure when I post a follow up tomorrow.
Here they are on the Bay Cruise boat that caused them to get a little sunburnt. Meleena was there too - she's just over Marky's left shoulder chilling out on the bench.
I'll ask Michelle to provide a little more detail on their two day adventure when I post a follow up tomorrow.
Monday, July 13, 2009
Meeting Tom Luce
Letty, Jim, M and I took Meleena with us to the Luce CD Release Gig at the Great American Music Hall in San Francisco on Saturday night.
There were two other local bands celebrating their CD releases on the same night: Pollux - a slightly boring but tight Jeff Buckley/Coldplay/Radiohead mixture - and Gun and Doll Show - a band that pretty much defies definition and whose stage 'show' blew us away with its ambition and tongue-in-cheekiness and who certainly weren't boring.
The big news was that Meleena got to meet and get autographs from Dylan Brock and Brian Zalewski (the lead guitar player and drummer, respectively) from Luce before the show. When the time came for their set we were able to get right up front and Meleena proudly took her place dead center right next to Tom Luce's monitor, bottle of Corona and Converse boots for the entire show. From there she was able to take an endless stream of photos and video of the band as they performed songs from all three of their albums. We were also able to get some shots of her doing so - see the Flickr site for those.
The piece de resistance came at the end of the show, though when the drummer reached down and handed Meleena the sticks he had been playing with all night and she was able to say Hi to Tom Luce himself, get her poster autographed and a photo taken with him.
I think she'll be on a high from all the excitement for quite a while - she might even manage to post about it on her blog too. I just wish I'd given her an extra poster and our ticket so that she could get an autograph for us too.
As her friend Ronni told her when she heard the news last night: "You're so lucky! Why do the cool things always happen to you!"
There were two other local bands celebrating their CD releases on the same night: Pollux - a slightly boring but tight Jeff Buckley/Coldplay/Radiohead mixture - and Gun and Doll Show - a band that pretty much defies definition and whose stage 'show' blew us away with its ambition and tongue-in-cheekiness and who certainly weren't boring.
The big news was that Meleena got to meet and get autographs from Dylan Brock and Brian Zalewski (the lead guitar player and drummer, respectively) from Luce before the show. When the time came for their set we were able to get right up front and Meleena proudly took her place dead center right next to Tom Luce's monitor, bottle of Corona and Converse boots for the entire show. From there she was able to take an endless stream of photos and video of the band as they performed songs from all three of their albums. We were also able to get some shots of her doing so - see the Flickr site for those.
The piece de resistance came at the end of the show, though when the drummer reached down and handed Meleena the sticks he had been playing with all night and she was able to say Hi to Tom Luce himself, get her poster autographed and a photo taken with him.
I think she'll be on a high from all the excitement for quite a while - she might even manage to post about it on her blog too. I just wish I'd given her an extra poster and our ticket so that she could get an autograph for us too.
As her friend Ronni told her when she heard the news last night: "You're so lucky! Why do the cool things always happen to you!"
Saturday, July 11, 2009
Thursday, July 9, 2009
We're Back
Well, we're back on US soil at least.
We're here at SFO waiting for our connecting flight back to Fresno so I figured I'd take the opportunity to upload a few more photos and draw your attention to this particular one that has been up on the Flickr site for a few days but which you might have missed.
This was taken as part of a highly orchestrated photo op after visiting The Louvre itself. The whole thing took about 10 seconds - J had just changed into the speedo in the toilets in the museum entrance and was wearing them under his shorts, The beret had been purchased a couple of days earlier as we had originally planned to take a similar picture at the Eiffel Tower also but there were just a few too many people.
Check out the full size pic on the Flickr site - we dare you not to start laughing once you get a full-on glimpse of the pose.
We're here at SFO waiting for our connecting flight back to Fresno so I figured I'd take the opportunity to upload a few more photos and draw your attention to this particular one that has been up on the Flickr site for a few days but which you might have missed.
This was taken as part of a highly orchestrated photo op after visiting The Louvre itself. The whole thing took about 10 seconds - J had just changed into the speedo in the toilets in the museum entrance and was wearing them under his shorts, The beret had been purchased a couple of days earlier as we had originally planned to take a similar picture at the Eiffel Tower also but there were just a few too many people.
Check out the full size pic on the Flickr site - we dare you not to start laughing once you get a full-on glimpse of the pose.
Saturday, July 4, 2009
Happy Birthday Toby
We know you can't read this yet but I'm sure that Mummy and Daddy will let you know that we sent you our wishes on your 2nd Birthday via the magical internet all the way from Spain.
Hope you have a fun party - we know Cornflake and Miko would have loved to have been there with you. :)
Love,
C&M
M&C
Hope you have a fun party - we know Cornflake and Miko would have loved to have been there with you. :)
Love,
C&M
M&C
Thursday, July 2, 2009
For more 'Updates From The Road'...
... check out UlloaSullivan Adventures as we'll be putting the majority of our updates over there.
I've also taken care of the technical difficulties and picked up an adaptor so that I can get photos from my camera onto the Flickr site via my laptop.
Before leaving Paris yesterday evening we stopped by Louvre to say 'Hi' to the Mona Lisa and the Venus de Milo - both of them were pretty busy with other visitors however, so we just gave them a quick wave before heading on our way. I did catch a glimpse of a smile from Mona Lisa; at least I think I did but I'm not entirely sure.
I've also taken care of the technical difficulties and picked up an adaptor so that I can get photos from my camera onto the Flickr site via my laptop.
Before leaving Paris yesterday evening we stopped by Louvre to say 'Hi' to the Mona Lisa and the Venus de Milo - both of them were pretty busy with other visitors however, so we just gave them a quick wave before heading on our way. I did catch a glimpse of a smile from Mona Lisa; at least I think I did but I'm not entirely sure.
Wanna Be Saving Something?
One thing I didn't expect to be doing while on the current UlloaSullivan Adventure was staying up to date the media circus surrounding Michael Jackson's death last week. However, it becomes clear just how global an icon he was when you see newsstands from Fresno to London to Paris and (as of this morning) Madrid each displaying dozens of publications that feature the latest news about his passing. And, of course, every time I log on to the internet there's some update or other around the autopsy, comments from one of his family members, photos from the last dress rehearsal performance and the latest on what the promoters of the London shows are doing.
I was particularly interested in the update on the tickets and how they are offering ticket holders the option of receiving them as souvenirs in lieu of a refund of the ticket price. Now, I'm usually dubious about anything that the big concert promoters and ticket companies do - their 'convenience' and other exorbitant fees that they charge for their services (particularly when they don't necessarily issue the best tickets to those that pay them) don't endear them to me - and, of course, this is a savvy cost-cutting move by them. In this particular case, however, I think it could actually be a good deal for everyone*.
The way I see it, this is a way for true fans to actually receive something tangible in return for their support for their idol - the 50 night sellout run was historic in and of itself but the tragedy that means the shows will never actually happen makes any memorabilia associated with it that much more sentimental in value. That it's also one of the safest ways getting something legitimate as a keep-sake in light of the boom of memorabilia being hawked on eBay and other venues is an added bonus.
And anyway, they're pretty darned cool too. I know what I would do. And yes, I will also be following the trend of the past week and topping up my music collection with a couple of those timeless CDs that everyone should have in their collections.
* - Everyone except those that paid over the odds for the tickets from eBay or, dare I say it, scalpers.
