Tom Eppenberger Jr’s blog

Lane biffed it this morning on his way to pick some strawberries in Grandma Linda’s backyard. Oof, it just looks painful. He was his normal self by the time Shelly picked him up this afternoon, but it was (of course) the first thing out of his mouth when he saw her.

I’m actually on my way to bed as I type this, but first I have to sneak some Neosporin onto these scrapes…

I can’t get in the car these days without having Lane say “Daddy, where’s your Zune? I want to hear my songs!” (Actually, Shelly has the exact same thing happening, but since this is my blog I chose to include myself in the previous sentence… )

So, what are “Lane’s songs” you ask? While the order that he likes to hear them changes on a daily basis, below are the songs that Shelly and I both have included in a “Lane’s mix” playlist.

• Barry Louis Polisar - “All I Want Is You”
• Beastie Boys - “So What’cha Want”
• Beastie Boys - “Intergalactic”
• Beastie Boys - “Sabotage”
• The Clash - “Should I Stay Or Should I Go”
• Danny Elfman - “This Is Halloween”
• Danny Elfman - “What’s This?”
• Eels – “Flyswatter”
• Eels - “I Like Birds”
• The Ramones - “Blitzkrieg Bop”
• They Might Be Giants - “Birdhouse In Your Soul”

Shelly’s dad is at Kaiser SF preparing to have his bypass surgery, and so we headed across the Bay to see him this morning. After helping him hatch some escape plots, we decided to grab lunch before going home. Green’s Restaurant at Fort Mason has been at the top of Shelly’s restaurant wish list for a long time now, and we were only 3 miles away!

After I called the restaurant to get proper directions (Google Maps put me in “Upper Fort Mason” with no access to the place), we arrived just 45 minutes prior to the end of “brunch,” plenty of time I thought. I guess I should have taken their website seriously when it said “reservations are recommended,” because they were no longer seating parties greater than 2. At least we could still get food from their “Greens To Go” menu, and boy was it delicious…

Shelly and I each got a goat cheese, tomato and watercress sandwich that came on a (very sour) sourdough baguette and also split a bowl of Black Bean chili with peppers, cheese and creme fraiche. Lane got an Egg Salad sandwich that he mostly just ate the egg out of. We all ate some fruit salad that had strawberries, blueberries, raspberries, nectarines and apples. And, for dessert, we got a Vegan Date Bar!

Not far from the restaurant, we found a bench seated between two piers that looked out just West of Alcatraz. It was quite a view while we ate, and we even got a brief visit from a Sea Lion. Definitely a memorable meal.

After lunch, we walked down to the end of the pier on the right side of the photo, and got to see Alcatraz and the bottom half of the Golden Gate Bridge (the fog was heavy this afternoon). All that was fun, but the game of kick the can that we all played on the way back was likely Lane’s favorite part…

While Lane is totally obsessed with space, rockets, satellites, etc… he is deathly afraid of fireworks. I can’t explain it.

Friday night was awful. Once the sun started setting, and the explosions began, Lane was attached to either myself or Shelly until he passed out. I’m talking about uncontrollable crying, shaking, clutching, you name it. Even closing up all the windows and doors, turning the TV on to a show about space with the volume cranked didn’t relieve his fear.

Last night and tonight, the explosions have continued (although much fewer and further between). The same things have happened each night. We try and explain that there is no way the fireworks are going to hurt him or us, but nothing seems to work. I even tried the rocket angle, saying that some of the fireworks were like a mini rocket with lots of colorful stuff in them, but he didn’t buy it.

The issue is, I think, an audible one for him. We’ve long thought that he has had issues with loud noises, but this has definitely been the worst thing to date.

Lane’s first movie theater experience was seeing Wall-E on opening night at Bayfair. It was a bit rushed as I had to hurry home from work to make the show time, and Shelly had to rush home from errands with Lane to make our own popcorn, fix dinner, etc.

We showed up at the theater about 10 minutes before the show, and the line out front suggested that perhaps we were too late. Luckily for us, everyone was there to see Wanted and not Wall-E. Shelly snuck all of our homemade snacks into the show, and we also managed to get Lane past the arcade without him being too distracted…

The theater wasn’t too packed, but there weren’t many decent seats of three remaining. We found some on the aisle about half way up and got comfy. Lane was really excited, but I made the mistake of telling him that they would be turning all the lights out. He didn’t like this and instantly started saying he wanted to go home. He finally calmed down by sitting on Shelly’s lap, and shortly thereafter the previews started. They were all age appropriate, and featured some bad Disney movies, but they made Lane laugh which really calmed him down.

Finally, the movie. It’s a great one, and everyone should go see it. Even without a lot of dialogue, the story that is told has some amazing detail, even with all of the dark doomsday apocalyptic stuff going on. You fall in love with Wall-E and Eve, and it doesn’t take much for you to really get wrapped up in all the emotion. And, I have to say that the mop character on the space cruise ship was one of my favorites.

Lane laughed out loud several times, talked about the rockets repeatedly, and thoroughly annoyed the thirty-something couple seated in front of us. Especially when he spilled his Tupperware container full of popcorn about 3/4 of the way through the show. Oh well. We had to remind Lane to talk soften a bunch of times, but he was amazingly good throughout the 90 minutes.

Since seeing the movie, he’s talked about it nearly on a daily basis, and points out every piece of Wall-E advertising that he sees. He definitely enjoyed his first movie experience, even more so than all the other Pixar/Disney movies that he has seen prior.

Oh, and I can’t forget the Wall-E watch he got. As part of the opening night celebrations, all kids got a Wall-E watch that looks like a blue “Live Strong” bracelet that just happens to have a small digital time piece on it. There are pictures of Wall-E and Eve, and a big Wall-E logo. It’s impossible to actually set the correct time on the thing, but I somehow doubt this is of much concern to Lane.