Showing posts with label birthday. Show all posts
Showing posts with label birthday. Show all posts

Monday, March 25, 2013

Jamie's B-Day. I made a cake.




This is the Duncan Hines cake I made for Jamie for her birthday.  It was basic yellow cake with frosting out of a can.  I'm not a baker and I don't play one on TV.  This was what I could do with the know-how I've got.  Also, I didn't destroy the kitchen, which I think Jamie appreciated, as I'm also bad at cleaning up the kitchen.

Your Daily Dose of Good Cheer (Jamie's Birthday Edition): Kaitlin Olson


In honor Jamie's birthday, today we post the lovely Kaitlin Olson, who plays Deandra "Sweet Dee" Reynolds on It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia.

Jamie knows why.

Sunday, March 24, 2013

Happy Birthday to Jamie

Monday (the 25th) is Jamie's birthday.

To celebrate, Saturday we went out to Lucy's Friend Chicken on South Congress and then to Midnight Cowboy Modeling, a former 6th street, uh... modeling location, now a speakeasy bar.

Y'all, I ate so much chicken...  It comes in aluminum buckets.  It's not even fair.

oh, the carnage
A lovely evening out, and kudos to Nicole for driving and organizing.

Jamie isn't getting a present to open on her b-day as we've got tickets to a show later this spring and she's flying out to see Rebecca in a few weeks for some fun in TN.

So, here's some things she likes, all here in a blog post:

Monday, March 18, 2013

Wreck-It-Ralph, Birthday, Quiet Man, Pam Grier is well liked

I should probably have something smarter to say, as I haven't really posted much on the usual topics the past several days.

On Saturday evening I wasn't feeling up to snuff, so we watched the Disney film Wreck-It-Ralph, which turned out to be a pretty good flick.  While the themes and story are going to hold up, I am concerned that the trappings of the nostalgia and with the concept of a modern game (or kids paying to play games at an arcade at all) it'll fall into Oliver and Co. territory for Disney, a sort of dated product of its time.  Still, at this time, it was a really fun movie that, even if the kids don't quite get all the gags, they can stick with what's offered up on a story and emotional level.  The "over their heads" bits seemed mostly winky stuff towards 80's video games, much as the Toy Story movies might reference a toy from a Gen X'er's youth.  Heck, one of the credit songs is performed by Pac-Man Fever maestros Buckner and Garcia.

Today was my brother's 40th, and we spent most of the day out at my folks' place with a wide variety of characters.  I saw people I hadn't seen in years, including the children I had never met of several of Jason's pals.  Some of those kids are kind of not so little anymore.  Time flies, man.

Sunday, March 17, 2013

My Brother Turns 40

Today is my brother's 40th birthday.

This is a bit of a milestone for the family, I think.  The elder son hits that magical four-oh number.  Odd when I think on his birthday and can recall the elementary school birthdays with some clarity.  I even remember him getting a Beach Boys album when he was 6 or 7.  I guess as long as you keep showing up, they keep giving you birthdays, and that means cake, and who can argue with that incentive?

Still, 40 gives me a moment of pause as I also recall my mother turning 40 and what a to-do that was around the house.  I don't think we think of 40 in the same terms today - 40 is the new 30 or whatever - and it's all what you make of it.  And I think he's done okay for himself.  Especially since he got his hair cut in 1995.

Here's to my brother, who has blazed the birthday trail for the Steans Bros.  No matter how hard I try to catch up, he's always a couple years ahead of me, and watching him degenerate let's me know what's coming.

You can't ask for a better brother.  Well, short of getting, like, an awesome robot who shoots lasers out of his face, but I'll take this one.

He's a hell of a guy, and, as it turns out, is not afraid to take the same picture with Amy in multiple locations.




Really, if they don't make this a thing, I'll be disappointed.

And here's a more recent photo of the man rocking the house back in January with his bandmates of the past 14 years, The Mono Ensemble.

oh, Carousel Lounge, don't ever change...
And , of course, here's a pic from the pages of the Statesman as my bro works with a client of the Veteran's Court from our own Travis County.

You can really see the magnificence of the beard.


Happy birthday, man.  You're doing good.

Monday, March 4, 2013

Happy Birthday, KareBear

Today is my mother's birthday.

In her honor, here is Neil Diamond singing "America".  I welcome you to clap along slightly off beat with the song, knowing that, wherever she is, The KareBear will be doing the same.



and, because, it's her b-day, let us all enjoy the 1973 Hawaii performance of "Suspicious Minds" by King Elvis.



Dang, yo. There is nobody else like The King, is there?

Happy birthday, Ma!  We love you.

Tuesday, February 19, 2013

Happy Birthday, Lee Marvin

Happy birthday to actor and US Marine Lee Marvin.

I believe today marks his 89th birthday.

I hear you, Lee

Marvin passed in 1989.

Monday, February 4, 2013

Friday, January 25, 2013

Friday, December 28, 2012

Happy Birthday, Stan Lee!


When I was a wee League, I was all about the Saturday Morning Cartoons.  If you're one of my fellow Gen X'ers, you might recall some of the Marvel cartoons that were on during the era, like Spider-Man and His Amazing Friends.  What I recall is that episodes of The Incredible Hulk and other shows would start with Stan Lee breathlessly welcoming us "True Believers!" with a hearty "THIS IS STAN LEE!".  So, for a long, long time (like, since 1981) I've associated the thrilling adventures of Marvel characters with Stan.

And, I'll tell you what else, I read all of Stan's Spider-Man, and it's really good, y'all.  Not to mention how good I used to find the daily newspaper strip by him and Larry Lieber.

Monday, December 24, 2012

Happy Birthday, Little Lu

Lucy has her Alamo Bowl pick

Christmas Eve is the birthday of my favorite runt, Lucy the Little Black Lab.

Today Lucy turns 8 years old.  She was born in a backyard in Mesa, Arizona and was adopted/ purchased in February of the 2005.

As my brother says "she's very smart about things that she wants to do", which many people mistake for being a dumb dog.  Nope.  As inbred and tiny as she may be, she's all Lab with all the stubbornness that comes with the breed and all the need for attention that comes with that, too.

Most evenings I spend my time on the sofa with Lucy leaning against my side.  Oh, certainly, she can be a real pain, but in the end I know she wants a few things in the world: walkies, cookies and love.  Most days we can provide two out of three.

Happy Birthday, Little Lu.

Friday, December 7, 2012

Wednesday, November 28, 2012

Happy Birthday, Gloria Grahame

Actress Gloria Grahame would have been 89 today.  Unfortunately, Grahame passed in the early 1980's, well before her time.




We've profiled Ms. Grahame here before, and it's likely she'll get mentioned here again in the future.

Ms. Grahame is a bright point in the constellation of lady-actors from a certain era whose work I go out of my way to find.  It's hard not to love the work she does in movies like Crossfire and The Big Heat.

A little digging will turn up a lot of evidence that Ms. Grahame led a deeply complicated life, but its hard not to love what she did on the screen.

Here's to Ms. Grahame.


Sunday, November 25, 2012

Signal Watch wishes Noel Neill a Very Happy Birthday!


Born November 25th, 1920, Noel Neill played Lois Lane in the original Superman movie serials with Kirky Alyn, and then in all but the first season of the 1950's TV series, The Adventures of Superman alongside George Reeves and Jack Larson.  She went on to appear as Lois' mother on the train in Superman: The Movie and appeared briefly as Gertrude Vanderworth in Superman Returns.

She is one of our favorite performers in any Superman media, and we want to extend a big birthday howdy to our Lois of choice.

Sunday, October 28, 2012

Octoberama! Sundays with The Bride - Happy Birthday, Elsa

Last week, JimD emailed me and asked if I planned on posting about Elsa Lanchester's 110th Birthday, which happens to fall on today, the day I'd planned the finale post for Sundays with The Bride.  Honestly, I had no idea the birthday was coming, so, everybuddy, take a moment and thank JimD and then take another moment and appreciate cosmic happenstance.

I had another post ready, and so you'll still see that today, later, but as it's Elsa's birthday, we need to give the lady her due.



We all grew up seeing clips from The Bride of Frankenstein, or saw the role of The Bride parodied in other films, in cartoons, or pop art.  The role passed into western iconography as much as the rest of the Universal Horror pack of monsters, but - oddly - The Bride appears for a total of one scene in this single film.  The Bride has no speaking lines, and, of all the Universal Horror "monsters", she is the only one which hurts nobody.

But that's only if you don't count breaking hearts.

Saturday, October 27, 2012

Happy Birthday Theodore Roosevelt!

Jake's blog informs me that today is the birthday of Theodore Roosevelt, the most interesting president in the world.

Born this day, 1858, in New York City.

Who WOULDN'T vote for this guy?
Rather than sum up the man and his achievements I shall start by recommending some light reading:

  • The Rise of Theodore Roosevelt
  • Theodore Rex
  • Colonel Roosevelt all by Edmund Morris.


The River of Doubt by Candice Millard
The Presidency of Theodore Roosevelt and Theodore Roosevelt by a former professor I had at UT, Lewis L. Gould (he was awesome.)

Thursday, October 25, 2012

Happy Birthday, Pablo Picasso!


The artist was born this day in 1881.  He lived to the age of 93.  He is famed for his bullheaded nature.

Saturday, October 20, 2012

Happy Birthday, Bela Lugosi

Today is Bela Lugosi's 130th Birthday.

Born Béla Ferenc Dezső Blaskó in Hungary, Lugosi arrived in America in the early 1920s. By 1927 he was cast as Count Dracula in a Broadway show.

Most famous for his role as Dracula in the 1931 film, Lugosi found himself typecast and caught in a strange whirlwind of the Hollywood system which kept him in spook pictures, more or less, his entire career.


It's the Halloween season.  Go out and get yourself a copy of Dracula if you've never seen the original movie.  He's pretty darn good.