Hov Never Slackin Mang, Zippin In the Black Range, Faster Than the Red Ghost, Gettin Ghosts Like Pac Mang.....

Now, there's lots of buzz going on about the upcoming Jay-Z album the BluePrint3.

AUGH.
I haven't heard the whole album front to back just yet, but I will say that from what I have heard, I really hope that JiggaMan comes through with some gems to save his soul. The "leaked" tracks have been lackluster to say the least. They are definitely not impressing me. Sure, there is artistic immunity, HECK I gave Kanye the 808's and Autotunes as erased from my memory that he even was part of that project. I guess when Jay "retired" and took his hiatus, it gave him the hunger that he needed to start getting creative with the game, he started innovating and bringing newness to the table again. NOW, with BluePrint3 on the horizon of being released, I almost wish that NONE of these "leaked" tracks would appear on the album and he would surprise the whole world and the internets and say, "AH HAA! I GOT YOU!" Like a surprise chess move, or a death trap in Connect Four. Please.
AUGH.
Or at least let the "leaked" tracks be the least favorite tracks on the album? Let the haters hate and then come out with the REAL real tracks! That would even be a great chess move!
But then why even have the weak, least favorite tracks on the album at all then?
AUGH.
But alas, such is not the case.
I really would NOT want to be a music artist these days. "Leaked tracks", pressure from the public, the lack of surprise, the non-anticipation, BOOO. Whatever happened to buying records on release day and listening to them front to back about 20 times until you memorized the order of the tracks?? Whatever happened to actually reading the album credits, or looking at the pictures in the pamphlet? Whatever happened to the good ole days? Yes, I'm an ole fart. Yes, I'm ole school. Yes I'm a traditionalist of sorts.
Yes I've been a Jay fan since day one. Since Reasonable Doubt. Thru 22 Twos. Since 44 Fours. from Jerseys to button ups. Fitteds to Cigars and back again. C'mon Jay, let's go.
AUGH.
Dear Jay,
I hope you come through in the clutch on this one. I really really do.

Jay-Z's first ever live performance:

Jay-Z - MTV Shows

Via Marcus Troy via Kwasi.

Song of the Day: What We Do - Freeway ft Jay-Z, Beanie Sigel
AUGH.

And I Done Had Pretty Chicks With All the Right Features, And Hood Rat Chicks That Only Rock Sneakers.....

Today was pretty much spent in hangover recovery from the Goose beating last night.
Oh and I picked up my moms from the airport.
In the meantime, here's some Henryk Lobaczewski pics:









Song of the Day: I Need a Girl - P.Diddy ft Usher

Baby Don't Cry, You Got To Keep Your Head Up, Even When the Road Is Hard, Never Give Up.....

Busy Busy Busy Cherish The Weekends Saturday! Had some errands to run, made a run to Canadian Crappy Tire for some house things, had to go to Sick Kids Hospital to pick up yet another breast pump (not for me silly), grabbed some Salad King for Lunch, headed home, dusted, vaccuumed, windexed all the windows, and even cleaned out the bathroom. All that cleaning could mean only one thing... My mother is coming.
At least with my mother here, I can tell her the ground rules and she would respect that. And Baby BK is too small that my mom won't be able to bribe her with candy, or Coke, or treats. At least I hope not. Either way, I have no issues keeping my mom in check, where as with my mother in law, we just don't have the same relationship like that.

The evening festivities came courtesy of @ReadBeanpie and his gracious family hosting a Tweet Up. All went well, and I got the chance to meet some new Twitterers: @GeeNote, @TheSplit and some old good friends @BennyBing, @Herlilblackbook, and @DarlingNicky999. Other highlights of the night included:
- The complex usage of the letter "Zee" vs "Zed".
- Drake's torn ACL vs Michael McRary's torn ACL.
- Developping a Clapper App for iPhones.
- People who teach your kids how to use the words "Mutha Fcuka" and even though it's cute as heck, it's still so so so so so wrong!
- I fought the Goose, and I lost this one! Amazingly enough, the Goose got the best of me on this night! I'll get you next time Grey Goose, next time!!
Special thanks to Benny for accompanying me on the ride home and making sure I got home in one piece!

Song of the Day: Baby Don't Cry - Tupac

I Don't Care If Monday's Blue, Tuesday's Grey and Wednesday Too, Thursday I Don't Care About You, It's Friday I'm In Love.....

Friday and Hell Week part one is finally over! I managed to get to each and every single one of my deadlines for work, and incredibly there's still so much more! Insanity. No worries though, the worst of the storm is over, and all that's remaining for me is just work-work semantics. The life of a buyer.
Enough shop talk, onwards to the weekend and some Grey Goose Bombing!!
Happy Hour is good to me!

This is pretty much how I feel about Friday's these days.

Capital M had this whacky idea to spend $200 on a mechanical Swing for Baby Brooklyn.

Of course, Daddy had to put it all together, and two hours later after the first test run.... Baby Brooklyn disapproves!!

UPDATE!! After about 3 tries, a few hours, and flipping the settings for the swing, Baby BK finally got the hang of the swing!

So it's not a total fail! Now we just have to figure out where to fit all this new baby furniture that's clogging up Homee's Joint!

Song of the Day: Friday I'm In Love - The Cure

Pourquoi Ci, Pourquoi Ca, Pourquoi C'est Comme Ci, Pourquoi Ci, Pourquoi Ca, Pourquoi C'est Comme Ca.....

It's almost Friday. Almost. Augh.
I'm losing my mind. I've had too much of MS Excel. Too much of writing orders. Too much analysis. Too much fighting fires. Too much trying to make sure that what I do is what I do best.

I decided to reward myself for all the hard work I've been doing with a trip to The Cupcake Shoppe.

Even though it's a tiny lil shop, I really do think I could live inside here!

These aren't my favorite, but they WERE the victims of today.

Frost me: Marbled cupcake Vanilla/Chocolate with Tiffany Blue Butter Cream Icing. GET IN MY BELLY!

Blatant Free Advertising Alert:

I don't mind that you readers all go ballistic and flood this place. It's lined up every Friday anyways!

Behold, the helpless little victim.....

And yes, I did the "Twist off the top half, spread the icing over both halves, eat the bottom in three bites and eat the top in three bites" method!

Carnage. Total Carnage.

No, I didn't lick the paper, but I was really tempted!

Then I took a trip after an appointment at work to my favoritest store in the city right now.

It was a great weather day to be spending some loot.

The folks at the New Era Flagship store on Queen St are starting to get some really hot HOT HAWT stuff in these days.

Some leftover Caribana hats that I'm sure they'll have around until next year's Caribana.

The "cool guy" brand collabo hats. Mishka, Kid Robot, Fresh Jive, etc etc.

Nothing here really tickled my fancy, IMAGINE THAT! SO, I left empty handed!! YIKES! When's the last time THAT HAPPENED? Retail Fail.

So then I decided to take out my Retail Fail agony over a couple of Grey Goose's!

This was the sunset view of from the Patio that I was on. Sometimes in life, it's all about the Sunsets.

Oh yah, and guess who's 6lbs and 3ozs??

Really tough work being a Baby Brooklyn. I can just imagine her sleeping in class in this exact pose. Dammit.

Song of the Day: Dur Dur D'etre Un Bebe - Jordy
It's So Tough To Be a Baby Brooklyn!

They Played Our Song, We Hit the Floor, I Held Her Strong, And We Danced the Night Away.....

Still busy at work. Not much time to think deep thoughts. Not much time to even answer the phone really. So goes the life.
In the meantime, here's my homegirl Devon Aoki:









*ROWR!*

Song of the Day: Million Dollar Bill - Whitney Houston

Just Like the Birds That Whistle In the Trees, and In the Leaves So Happily, You're My Tree and Through the Storms, You've Stood Strong For Me.....

Still busy like a beaver at work. Writing and writing and writing orders for next Spring. I guess this is what I do. I guess this is what I signed up for. But not really. Not quite this way.
I leave you with the latest installment of Peter Chao:

Today is the death anniversary of one of my favorite artists/people in the whole wide universe. Aaliyah Dana Haughton (January 16, 1979 – August 25, 2001). And guess what? She was born in Brooklyn! :)

Song of the Day: It's Whatever - Aaliyah
Bonus Song of the Day: The One I Gave My Heart To - Aaliyah
Bonus BONUS Song of the Day: Come Over - Aaliyah
TRIPLE BONUS Song of the Day: Are You Feeling Me? - Aaliyah

Then You Came In and Knocked Me On My Face, Feels Like I'm In a Race, But I Already Won First Place.....

Busy writing orders for next Spring 2010. Hectic. Frenetic. I'm not even answering my phone.
In the meantime, here's Rosie Huntington Whitely photography:










Song of the Day: Knock You Down - Keri Hilson ft Kanye West

Happiness Is When I, I Think of You, And We'll Be Gettin Together For A Rendezvous.....

This is pretty much how I felt when I woke up this morning:

Gotta Love the LOLCats!!
So I woke up with a killer hangover (haven't had one of THOSE in a while!). I had a pretty good battle with a Grey Goose and a Belvedere bottle last night on C's rooftop soiree. In the end, the Burger King Drive Thru had the last word. TOTALLY brought back some memories of Sonar Wed's back in YVR at 3am with the 'crew'. Them's were the days!! I can still remember the orders like they were clockwork: "#1 with cheese and a rootbeer, Chicken Sammich combo with coke, Whopper Jr with no pickles, no onions, no cheese, and no mayo, with onion rings, and a Sprite, and mine still hasn't changed, Whopper Jr with cheese, onion rings, and iced tea." Cot daym boys, we gotta reunite for one last tour. Or maybe not. Bahahahaha!

When the day finally got up and running, I finally got some quality time with Baby Brooklyn for the first time in two weeks! So we did what we do best, GO SHOPPING! Toys R Us, Winners, H & M, Children's Place, and Loblaws, all in a day's work!
Then we headed for some quality dinner at The Stockyards!

Baby BK says "THAT'S WUZZUP DADDY!" We had the regular Pulled Pork Sandwich, fries, and lemonade, and if that didn't put a murmur in my heart we added a half rack of ribs also! GET IN MY BELLY!!
If you're thinking of heading over there, gimme a shout! I need to try the Fried Chicken and Waffles still!

Overall a great day with Baby Brooklyn! We got so many comments on "how cute she is", and I'm slowly getting used to it all. At first I was like, "Of COURSE She's cute! She's BROOKLYN!" But now, I take it all in gracefulness.

Baby Brooklyn sayz, "Peace Out Yall!" (I swear to you, she's a natural poser for the Papa-Razzi!)

Song of the Day: Secret Rendezvous - Karyn White

Mazel Tov, It's A Celebration B*tches! Le Chiem, I Wish For You A Hundred Years of Success, But It's My Time.....

I really have to thank each and every one of you who comes across this page. It's an honor really to have you read my words, my thoughts, my rants, and even my insane blabber! I do thank you, and it's because of YOU that I keep writing, despite the sleepless nights with a 5 week old baby, a job that I loathe, and all the adventures that come my way! Whether you tune in each and every day, or just once in a while to keep up with the Jones's, each visit and especially each comment is taken with grace and sincere thanks.

That being said, a wonderous joyful event took place today!
THE INLAWS WENT HOME!!
WHOO HOOO!
Not that I don't love my inlaws as if they were my real family, I really do accept them. It's just that when people do their utmost to live up to negative expectations, it really makes me wanna smack somebody! You've heard all about the Mooch Brother In Law, and I really couldn't pick on my moms in law because she's going through what I like to call "First Time Grandma Syndrome". It's true, it's a real affliction! First time Grandma's want to hold the baby every waking second, they think that what worked for THEIR kids MUST work for their grandkids, and for whatever reason, she talks REALLY LOUD to a baby with ears the size of a quarter! It's not that we don't appreciate the advice, and the different views on parenting and problem solving, but when we're doing something that WORKS for this particular baby, LEAVE IT ALONE! It's WORKING!
I did give my mother in law the time and space that she deserved, and I didn't meddle in her wanting to impress upon Baby BK at all. I did make sure that Capital M and her mom had some quality time, and even Baby BK knew that her mom's mom was present. Meh, the two weeks is over and done with. I still have my sanity (or what I think is left of it). Next up, my own dear mother comes in next weekend! Yikes.

When asked how her first visit with her Grandma and Uncle went, Baby Brooklyn had the following to say:

*Super Killer Dragon Side Eye!*

Song of the Day: Roc Boys - Jay-Z

One Night In Bangkok Makes a Hard Man Humble, Not Much Between Despair and Ecstacy.....

I know I haven't said any more much about the MOOCH Brother in law. Someone told me that it would be bad Karma to keep ranting and raving about him. I agreed. Not to say that he's still up to his MOOCH antics though. He's eaten all the Ibuprofen in the house because he blew out his knee. Yes, he's a dancer by trade, and not too many dancers I know can perform on a blown knee. Add to that, he drank a bottle of white wine.....and didn't replace it as we agreed he would. He's been dippin into the Couvoisier XO. I know this because I don't touch the stuff, and the volume has been dipping lower and lower lately. He's eaten countless empanadas, which I really don't care anymore. I've been so desensitized that he's such a mooch already.
At any rate, being the last night that the inlaws are in town, I decided to be nice and cook dinner for them!
Tonight's Dinner, one of my go-to specialties:

Baked Salmon with lemon-dill butter and capers!

The whole spread:

L-R: Cucumber and Mixed Tomato Salad, Baked Salmon, Sauteed Squash in white wine, Roasted Potatoes in Thyme and Rosemary. GET IN MY BELLY!!!

This was sent to me by Mark Tone:

ABSOLUTELY HILARIOUS!! The funny thing is that I used to go to school with a Peter Chow!! Once I get the Homee Show up and running, this guy is going to be on my Show for SURE!!

Song of the Day: One Night in Bangkok - Murray Head

Standing There Alone, The Ship Is Waiting, All Systems Are Go, Are You Sure?.....

I've said it before, but with Baby BK, work, and home life, I don't get much time to read my favorite blogs much anymore. One of my favorites that I FINALLY caught up with is the LOLCats. Here are some of my favorites that I'd like to share with y'alls:














Song of the Day: Major Tom - Peter Schilling