thisevilempire.com

The Boys Rock!!

Mikhail — Mon, 22 Feb 2010 04:05:37 +0000

In keeping with the music theme of late . . .

And what are they rocking? Well, none other than Babyland’s classic “Worst Case Scenario,” naturally.

Just kidding. (Much love to the bava.)

Jonah Sings Pink Floyd

Mikhail — Thu, 07 May 2009 03:54:29 +0000

Having debuted on Facebook to much acclaim, here is a video of young Jonah singing along to a familiar Pink Floyd song. Eli can be heard tormenting his mother in the second half. You can see comments to this video on Facebook here (but only if you are my friend). Enjoy.

Click here to view the embedded video.

School Daze 2009

Mikhail — Sat, 21 Mar 2009 17:27:17 +0000

From the Vaults: Oscar Winner Edition

Mikhail — Tue, 24 Feb 2009 04:12:24 +0000

I realize that Jonah has been getting a lot of blog time lately and that his little brother may develop a complex of some sort. This, though, we had to post because, well, we’ve been sitting on these pics for a long while (I honestly wasn’t planning to post them) and this is all of a sudden an appropriate occasion to share — what with the very unsurprising Oscar win last night and all.

Here are two pics I snapped on my cell phone while waiting for a plane to LA at Newark in the Summer of 2007. The person pictured here with Jonah (name omitted so as to avoid unwanted search engine hits) was, it should be added, very pleasant and friendly. Seemed like a really nice person judging from the brief conversation Jonah and I had with him. Enjoy.

Bob from Sesame Street is a Person on Your Airplane

Mikhail — Sun, 04 Jan 2009 03:52:58 +0000

Jonah has been known to hob-nob with celebrities while jet-setting from the East coast to the West and back again, but today’s encounter takes the cake (certainly as much as meeting Dolph Lundgren and Star Trek’s Mr. Checkhov). Jonah recognized Sesame Street’s Bob McGrath (who flies coach, btw) while standing behind him on line to use the airplane lavatory. Jonah being Jonah, a conversation ensued. Just as you’d expect, the one and only “Triangle Bob Triangle Pants” (who has been on Sesame Street for its entire 40 year run) was extraordinarily friendly and nice and talked with Jonah for a good while. He even posed with Jonah for this awesome picture at the baggage claim.

Here’s a famous picture of Bob in his typical milieu:

Fireside Story Time with Jonah

Mikhail — Sat, 27 Dec 2008 07:12:45 +0000

Nothing warms your tired old bones like a roaring fire on a cold, snowy winter’s day. And there’s nothing like Jonah freestyling a story to keep you in stitches. Enjoy.

Click here to view the embedded video.

Eli Turns One

Mikhail — Thu, 13 Nov 2008 23:59:50 +0000

Can you believe it? Of course you can’t. Our little Eli turned one year old last week! Holy smokes. Here’s how the party went. Enjoy.

Happy Birthday, little guy!

Eli Walks: “That Was Awesome! I Loved That! Do It Again!”

Mikhail — Mon, 13 Oct 2008 01:18:08 +0000

Yes, you saw it here first. Young Eli took his first steps today. Enjoy.

Click here to view the embedded video.

Did You Lose a Laptop?

Mikhail — Mon, 08 Sep 2008 23:28:44 +0000

So did any of you, our loyal subjects, lose a Fujitsu laptop in an interior design store in Newport Beach, CA? See, a good Samaritan who works at StudioChameleon in sunny Newport Beach found the said laptop (which won’t boot up, btw) whose case also contained a CD with photos of Jonah’s birth we posted back on the original Thisevilempire.com. With a bit of sleuthing, she traced it to me. Now I figure that this is a CD I must have made for one of you back in the salad days of 2004, so memory fails. If you lost this computer, please let me know.

For your trouble, here’s a picture of a sign Jonah and I saw in front of a diner in lovely Newark, NJ.

I Can Has Whole Smoked Alligator?

Mikhail — Thu, 14 Aug 2008 15:35:29 +0000

So I couldn’t bring myself to make a bona fide LOLCAT for this — not that we don’t love a good internet meme around here — but I was tempted. The title will suffice.

A funny thing happened today on the way to the Internet. Those of you who have been keeping up with the adventures of Jonah and Eli since before there was even an Eli, may remember this post from January of 2006. Well, we got this in thiseviinbox today from an inquiring gourmand from Glendale, CA:

Hello,

I have been browsing the web for about a week looking for a place in California that sells whole smoked alligator. I found your website (cute lil guy btw) and I saw the photo you took in a Los Angeles store. Do you remember the name or address of the store by any chance? Thank you for your time.

Looks like this culinary daredevil came upon our post which, as you can see includes a brief note on how we saw a very impressive looking smoked alligator at a Russian store in the San Fernando valley on New Year’s Eve and included the scary photo at the top of this post. So I emailed this very nice guy (who asked that he remain annonymous) with the name and address of the store (Rasputin International Food, 17159 Ventura Blvd, Encino, CA 91316, for you hungry Russophiles) and asked:

Why, if I may ask, would you want a whole smoked alligator? Is smoked alligator meat tasty? Is it specific to a particular region? I have never tried it, but am curious.

In a few minutes I got this response:

Thank you for your help! I have not tried alligator myself yet but I have heard that alligator meat is supposed to taste kind of like chicken and frog legs. I am going to use it as the centerpiece for a seafood buffet, it is actually kind of hard to find these guys because the USDA does not really approve of people eating them. Thanks again for the information and I hope you and your family keep bloggin!

More proof that you can find anything on the internet, including reliable intel on the whereabouts of a scrumptious smoked aligator. That has got to be some seafood buffet this guy is planning — I’m a little jealous and, for the record, I would love to bite that alligator regardless of what the USDA would say about it. Everybody knows that smoked = delicious.