Trans-Pacific Family

First Half of December Catch-Up

2009-12-21T23:00:00.001-08:00

Yay! We have made it to December.

So, as mentioned previously we picked out and paid for our Christmas Tree back during the weekend before Thanksgiving. Well we finally got it cut down and into our lounge room on the 2nd. So we strung some lights on it and then proceeded to teach Callum a valuable lesson about the chore that is decorating a tree. Is it just me or does it seem like a great idea, a wonderful Christmas traditional full of warmth and joy, and then when you actually go to do it, you start trying to remember the last time you went to the dentist, and whether you should duck out for a quick check up? Being perfectly honest though, watching Callum do the decorating this year and trying to explain to him what he needed to do, did make it a little more entertaining this year.

On the 4th I went to the Strong Ale Festival down in Carlsbad (about an hour south towards San Diego). All of the beers on the menu were 8% alcohol or above, with the highest being around 15% (my memory is a little fuzzy). Here is an 'artistic' photo from late in the evening that will give you an idea of the thought processes I had going on at the time.

The next night was my company's Christmas party. Over the previous weekend (Thanksgiving) I picked up a little flu bug of some kind and I was still a little under the weather and combine that with the Strong Ale Festival the night before and you can understand I was not in my finest form for the party. Luckily we had booked a room in the hotel where the party was being held and so I was able to bail out around 10:30pm and go upstairs and go to bed. Jen stayed at the party and danced/drank etc. with my work friends for a couple more hours.

The weather in southern California deteriorated dramatically on the Sunday and Monday following the Christmas party and it rained nearly all day Monday. And rain down by the ocean where we live means snow up in the mountains nearby. On Tuesday the weather had cleared and we could see the mountains again. This photo is from my office window. The photo doesn't really do it justice, the snow was actually quite visible and obvious and there was a lot of it.

Fast forward to the next weekend and it rained all day again on the Saturday. Basically two big storms back to back, which is really the first winter weather we have had so far this season. BTW, as I write this on the 21st, all the snow on the mountains is gone again. Anyway, since Callum was stuck inside all day Saturday I took him down to the park on Sunday morning to let him work out some of his 2 year old energy.

Later on the Sunday we attended Jen's company's Christmas party. The company was founded and is still owned by a Chinese family and so the party was at a very traditional Chinese seafood restaurant. The dinner was 10 courses and I think between Jen and I we did try every course, but there were definitely some we didn't try much of. Each time a new plate was put in the center of the table, there was this unspoken look between all the non-asian folks of the table that said "you first!". Santa did make an appearance though which was very exciting for Callum as this is the first year he knows who Santa is and what he is all about (ie. he is the present giving guy). Each of the kids at the party got to sit on Santa's lap and received a present.

The following Friday (the 18th) my department at work had our annual Festivus celebration. For those who don't know what Festivus is (and care), you can read about it here on Wikipedia. Basically it is a made up holiday celebration made famous on an episode of Seinfeld many years ago. Anyway we have casually adopted it in my department as our annual holiday celebration. Below is a photo of our Festivus Pole (the Festivus equivalent of a Christmas Tree) with all of the presents below.

Basically you get a choice, you can either unwrap a random present from the pile, or you can steal a present from somebody that has already unwrapped it, and then that person has to unwrap another one, or steal one from someone else. It takes about 2 hours for everyone to end up with a present and the stealing to stop. I walked away with a bottle of Chivas Regal and some scotch glasses, so I did pretty well this year. Also as part of the party we do a bring-a-plate lunch, this year I brought Maple Bacon Chocolate Fudge.

The weather this last weekend was much better than the previous 2, it was bright and sunny and warm, 80°F(27°C) on the Saturday afternoon when we were at the park.

So that gets the blog up to date, as today is the 21st. So the next post will probably cover the Christmas week.

Callum's 2nd Birthday - Bonus Post

2009-12-21T22:00:00.000-08:00

The day he was born ...

Six months old ...

1 year old ...

18 months old ...

2 years old ...

Callum's 2nd Birthday

2009-12-21T21:00:00.000-08:00

Callum's actual birthday (the 26th) fell right on Thanksgiving Day this year, which it is apt to do every 7 years or so for the rest of his life I suppose. I suspect he will be arguing strongly for us to move to Australia when he is old enough to figure this out so he doesn't risk his birthday ever getting overshadowed.

The flood of gifts started the day before on the 25th when we let him open a present from his day care lady. She had bought him a few small toys to keep him entertained on the plane ride to Sacramento later that night. She also threw a few sweets in the bag as well, and here is Callum's face when he realizes this and pulls out a lollipop.

As mentioned, later that night we traveled up to Jen's parent's house in Lincoln (40 minutes northeast of Sacramento) to spend the Thanksgiving weekend and Callum's birthday with them. This is the pile of presents we had to pack to take with us that included presents from us and folks in Australia that we brought back with us in October.

So on the 26th we celebrated both Thanksgiving and Callum's birthday. The present opening started early and was done in a few shifts during the day because there were so many for him to open.

In the middle of the day we sat down and had a traditional Thanksgiving meal of roast turkey with all the trimmings thanks to Jen's Mum and Dad and Jen's sister Vonda. We also get to thank Jen's dad for these turkey hats.

For dessert we picked up a small single serve cake for Callum (since we knew there was a full cake coming on Saturday).

Which of course, he quite happily ate and even used a spoon to good affect for most of it.

Here he is opening more presents later in the day. This one is a bag full of giant bugs and other creepy-crawlies courtesy of my Mum.

So that was on the Thursday. On the Friday we did some errands to prepare for the party and Jen and I were able to go out on a date courtesy of free babysitting by Grandma and Grandpa.

On the Saturday, Jen's parents had organized a proper birthday party for Callum and invited family and friends from around the Sacramento area. The theme of the party was Thomas The Tank Engine, so Jen's cousin Josh put together an excellent cake to match.

We played a few kids games including Pass The Parcel which is a staple at Australian kids parties, but I discovered is not known to American kids (or their parents).

This is Jen supervising the present opening.

And here is Callum enjoying the Thomas cake.

On the Sunday of the weekend we came home without too much incident, which is always a concern when traveling on Thanksgiving weekend. When we got home, Jen and I built Callum's present from his Grandma and Grandpa, which Callum took too very quickly.

November Catch-Up

2009-12-21T20:00:00.000-08:00

As you can appreciate after our hectic October, our November was a much more laid-back affair, minus of course the Thanksgiving/Callum's 2nd Birthday weekend which I will put in a separate entry. Really just a few photos to share.

A nice one of Callum enjoying some cow juice on the 8th.

We have managed to find some kid's music that is not totally nauseating, including a whole kid's album by the Barenaked Ladies. On it is a song called Popcorn that Callum is crazy about. So we decided to film it and show you the uncontrollable head movements that this song brings on.

On the 14th I was in San Diego for the last day of San Diego Beer Week. There were lots of great beers available, including this flight of sour beers (yes, beers that are purposely made to be sour).

For those who care, from left to right the beers were Gueze Fond Tradition, Echt Kriek, Rodenbach Grand Cru, Ballast Point Hout Cherry and New Belgium La Folie.

What Callum does when he is bored at a restaurant ...

On the 21st we went to the Christmas Tree Farm to find a tree because we knew we were going to be out of town over the Thanksgiving weekend (the following weekend) so we wanted to make sure the crop wasn't too picked over. This is Jen and Callum in front of the one we picked, which turned out to be much larger when we did get it in the lounge room.

At the farm they had pony rides and a petting zoo, so we indulged Callum in his first ever ride on a real horse after we picked our tree.

Callum then went into the petting zoo where there were chickens, sheep, rabbits and 1 Llama. The Llama must have been at least 5 feet tall, so it towered over Callum, and yet Callum proceeded to try and tickle the Llama's belly. Jen and I have no explanation as to where he got the idea from, but we were in hysterics watching it happen. The most surprising part is we didn't get a photo of it. Gasp!

October Catch Up, Part 4

2009-12-07T19:38:00.000-08:00

Certainly feels like there was more than 31 days in October this year ...

Fortunately the rest of October was mercifully quiet without a whole lot going on.

We did have tickets for the baseball playoffs for the Thursday night of the week we returned home however. For those that don't follow the American baseball too closely, all of the playoff match-ups are decided by either a best-of-5 or a best-of-7 scenario. Which means the last couple of games in that scenario may or may not be played if one of the teams sweeps the other for example. As it turns out, the baseball gods smiled on us and the Angels and the Yankees won the right number of games each to force a Game 5, which is the one we had tickets for. The upside was that it was a pretty good game, probably the game that the Angels played their best in, and the Angels did win in the end. However, they then went back to New York and lost the series and were knocked out of the playoffs.

Here's a random photo of Callum from the 25th. I only include it because the box he is playing in is a beer carton, Lagunitas Maximus to be precise, and it is a very good beer! :)

And here is the sunset from our house from the 27th which had some great colors.

For Halloween this year, we took Callum to Main Street in Huntington Beach where they were having a family friendly festival so the younger kids could do the trick-or-treat thing without hitting stranger's houses etc. Callum was too young last year to tackle trick-or-treating and we didn't really prep him for it this year, we just kind of set him loose and waited for him to figure it out. As you could probably have predicted, after we visited the first couple of stores and people dropped candy in his bag, he was already holding his bag up in the air in expectation by the 3rd or 4th store, but he did mostly maintain his manners and said Thankyou for each piece he received. We had to empty his bag a couple of times as it got too full, which we will attribute to the insane cuteness of his costume.

One of the displays at the festival was by the Huntington Beach Police Department, so Callum got to sit in the back of one of their cruisers. Hopefully this is the last time we see him in the back of a police car!

And that, thankfully, is October all wrapped up!

October Catch Up, Part 3

2009-12-01T23:35:00.000-08:00

OK, the last 4 days in Australia ...

On the 15th Jen, Callum, Shari and I went on a bus tour of Brisbane. Callum was very excited to ride on the big bus and we (not surprisingly) got a lot of great photos. I think Jen and I might be finally getting a feel for Brisbane.

After the bus tour, we had lunch at Mt Coot-tha which has a nice view over the city, although it was quite hot at the top.

When we got home, we played water fights in the back yard to cool off.

On the 17th we went to the kids water park at South Bank near the city. This was a great spot to spend a hot day with plenty of interesting water things for the kids to play with and best of all, it was totally free!

On the 18th (our last day in Australia) in the morning Shari and Leon took the kids to the mall for a little shopping and Callum and Alison had a ride on the kids ride.

In the afternoon of the 18th we all went to the Roma Street Parklands to hit the playground and let the kids run around. As a coincidence there was a huge multi-cultural festival being held that day, so parking was a bit of a problem, but there was lots more to see and do than we were originally expecting. Plus there was a great selection of interesting food from all over the world to choose from, including some hand made ice-cream that nobody was able to resist, especially the kids.

That night we had a very nice lamb roast made by Shari.

The next morning we were up and away to the airport bright and early. This time the flight departed basically on time and we even had a spare seat so Callum could sit on his own and have his own TV. He made the most of the endless cartoons since he never gets to watch that much TV normally. His eyes were so red by the end of the flight! But, he was quiet! :)

Once we got back to LA we landed and got through immigration and customs without incident, and that (finally) concluded our trip. Now all we had to deal with was a not-quite 2 year old with wicked jet lag. The first night he had a lot of trouble settling down and going to sleep at his regular time. In the end he came into our bed and we got him off to sleep, but as you can see in the photo below he was sprawled over half the bed - my half to be precise. So I ended up sleeping the guest room the first nigh, because neither of us was brave enough to try and move him back to his crib!

I will catch up the last part of October in the next post, including Halloween.

October Catch Up, Part 2

2009-11-23T21:16:00.001-08:00

During our trip there were plenty of visits to playgrounds around Brisbane to keep the kids happy. This day we were at the playground at Springfield Lakes where Callum got to pilot a spaceship of some kind.

On the 2nd to last day that my Mum and Nanna were in Brisbane we went for a drive to the coast to Manly Beach (yes! there is a Manly Beach in Brisbane, as well as the more famous one in Sydney, who knew??). There is a large playground at the beach that the kids had a good time on.

As a coincidence there was a small fair at Manly on the day we were there. Mum bought both kids pinwheels to play with, which were a spectacular success, and both kids had their first rides on a full sized merry-go-round.

On Mum and Nanna's last night in Brisbane there was time for some last minute present swapping. Callum unwrapped an early birthday present from his Aunty Shari and Alison unwrapped her birthday present from her Nandi (ie. my Mum).

Before Mum and Nanna left, there was one last opportunity for a visit to a playground (I told you there was a lot of playground action during this trip!). Ali's very dirty face is as a result of playing in the chip bark that covers the ground at many Australian playgrounds (don't ask, I have no idea why either).

Guess what we did the day after Mum and Nanna left? Yes! A playground trip!

The next day we went for a drive up to Mt Tamborine, where there just happened to be a brewery and a cheese factory - I was excited about one of these and Jen was excited about the other, can you guess which was which? We had a very nice lunch and I can highly recommend a stop if you are in the area and like good craft beer or locally made cheese!

After our big day exploring Mt Tamborine, we had a quieter day and hit Lollipops Play Cafe, which is essentially a giant indoor playground for kids with a cafe that serves drinks and food built in.

Later in the day, Shari was nice enough to babysit Callum so Jen and I could take the tour at the XXXX Brewery (that's pronounced 'four-ex' for those non-Australian's reading this). I have never been a big fan of these guys' beer, but the tour was actually pretty good and I even found a couple of beers during the tasting that were not too bad.

During the tour the guide asked the question "Does anyone know why it is called XXXX?", to which I quickly responded with "Because Queenslanders don't know how to spell beer!" which of course is the absolute correct response if you grew up in any state apart from Queensland. Apparently I was not the first smart-ass to give that response based on the "Oh please" look on his face. I still stand by it though.

OK, that's enough for this post. Believe it or not, we have almost 5 more days to cover in Australia.

October Catch Up, Part 1

2009-11-08T21:18:00.000-08:00

The start of October had us landing in Brisbane bright and early on the 2nd. We were a little later arriving than planned as there was a problem with the airplane at the airport in Los Angeles so we were almost 90 minutes late taking off, of which they only made up about 20 minutes of during the whole flight.

We spent the first day unpacking and getting settled and watching with great interest as Callum and his younger cousin Alison figured out how to play nicely with each other. My Mum and Nanna had also flown up from Adelaide to stay with my sister, so it was a very full house. To be truthful, my Mum and Nanna booked their trip first and Jen and I just decided that that created a good opportunity to catch up with family, so that's when we booked our tickets.

The next day was Alison's 1st birthday party (the original reason for the trip up from Adelaide for my Mum and Nanna). There was quite a crowd in attendance, many of which were kids, so it was quite a busy day. The Princess theme of the party was heartily embraced by the host family.

My Mum stepped up again and made Alison's cake, which was in line with the Princess theme of the party.

Which Alison enjoyed eating later in the day.

Here is a good example of Callum and Alison playing together the day after the party.

Here is Callum having fun on a kids ride at the mall near Shari and Leon's house

And here is Uncle/Daddy Craig practicing the 2-kid balance, perhaps it is a skill that will come in handy in the future.

A couple of pics of us all playing at a nearby playground.

The next day we hit Australia Zoo, which is the zoo that Steve "The Crocodile Hunter" Irwin setup. So as you would expect there is a preponderance of crocodiles at the zoo, including this trained one that you can have your photo taken with.

And here is my Mum and Callum taking a break from looking at the animals.

Callum riding a turtle.

We had a quiet day the next day after our day with the crocodiles.

But the day after that we were back at it for some more Australian animal fun. This time myself, Jen, Callum and my Nanna visited Lone Pine Koala Sanctuary.

A peacock joined us for lunch while we were there.

And Callum got to pet a Wallaby (that's roughly a small Kanagaroo for those who don't know), and then both Callum and Jen fed a Kangaroo.

And that will do for this post. More to follow.

September Catch Up

2009-11-02T23:21:00.000-08:00

The first weekend in September had us attending the (usually) annual Bennett Family Reunion, this year in sunny Lodi, California. So we spent some time at Jen's parents place and a day in Lodi catching up with everyone and of course, playing the mandatory bocce tournament. While up there, Callum did get to ride on Grandpa's tractor.

In the following week, Jen and I saw the Dave Matthews Band at The Greek Theatre up in LA. Surprisingly, this was my first concert at The Greek, which as it turns out is a fantastic place to watch a concert - the too and from the concert is a hassle though, parking and traffic etc. is horrible. After the concert, we decided to be adults and find a bar and have an after-concert drink. Which shouldn't be that hard when you think the road up to The Greek basically dumps you out into the Hollywood area. As it turns out, Hollywood is mostly an endless stream of grimy streets, prostitutes and crack dealers at that time on a Wednesday night. So we ended up buying a six-pack and taking it home to drink. Party animals!

On the 10th was my niece Alison's official 1st birthday.

On the 15th we had to rush up to the Australian Consulate to get Callum's Australian passport finally sorted out, because we booked tickets for a trip to Australia in October. I took this photo on the lawns outside the consulate. The composition of small little Callum and the giant lawn and building is cool (in my humble opinion!). Click on the photo to see it in full size.

We discovered that on the 3rd Sunday of the month there are free train rides at the OC Model Engineers park. And with Callum's current infatuation with Thomas the Tank Engine, it is was a no brainer to go and check it out. I took Callum by myself this first time and taking photos while actually riding on one of these trains was verboten, so I didn't actually manage to get a photo with either Callum or myself in it, but this photo should give you an idea. On each ride you do two loops of the park and it takes a good 10 minutes or so to get around as the park is quite large. Callum of course was physically bouncing and wiggling the entire time with sheer delight, I thought his head was going to pop right off.

Here is a gratuitous shot of Callum.

And one more for good measure, this time peeking in from the backyard.

The last week of September was basically consumed by getting ready to leave for Australia - you would think we would be well practiced at this by now, but apparently not. We took off on the night of the 30th and landed in Brisbane in the morning of the 2nd of October (because of the time difference, oh and the incredible length of the flight of course). This photo of Shari (my sister) and my niece Alison was literally taken while Jen, Callum and I were on the flight on the way to visit them.

The October update will be mostly consumed by the details of our trip, so stay tuned!

August Catch Up

2009-09-22T21:56:00.000-07:00

August started (literally on the 1st) with our friend Jacque's 40th Birthday Party. Here is Callum and Jen taking advantage of the pool on a hot afternoon at Wayne and Jacque's.

And the next day, Callum was burning off some energy showing us how he can dance.

Callum had such a good time when we took him to the aquarium back in February, that Jen purchased an annual pass. Here is Callum at the aquarium on the 5th.

By the way, Callum is getting better at driving.

If you were wondering what we do with the empty diaper boxes in our house, then the answer is we turn them into toys - which sounds creepier than it really it is. One of Jen and favorite games is "Clubhouse" where they both wear a single diaper box on their heads at the same time - which is exactly as odd as it sounds, trust me.

On the 14th was my team's beach picnic. We decided to bring Maple Bacon Fudge as our dish to share - yes, you read correctly, that is chocolate fudge that has (a lot of) bacon included in the recipe. On the surface it looks pretty normal, except the white stuff on top is not coconut, it is sea salt.

And Callum and I testing out the waves at the beach.

This is Callum molesting the toy monkey from his first birthday that was a present from his Nandi (my Mum).

On the 20th we received a care package from Australia from my Mum. Here is Callum getting ready to tear the hell out of the package.

And this is him working on the secondary layer of wrapping paper separating him from his presents.

From the 22nd through the 29th I was in Chicago for a super nerdy conference and I won't bore you with the details of that. However, I did get some time to do a bit of sight seeing, including catching a Bears (football) and a Cubs (baseball) game.

This is a picture of the new "The Ledge" at Sears Tower - basically a glass ledge you can step out on too on the 103rd floor which is 1,353 feet (412 meters) from the road below.

On the 30th, the day after I got back from Chicago we caught the last day of the Sour Beer Festival at Beechwood BBQ in Seal Beach. During lunch I asked Jen to make a face that represented how she feels about all her friends and family and this is what I got.

I then asked Callum the same question and this was his response.

July Catch Up

2009-09-21T21:10:00.000-07:00

We spent 4th of July in northern California in tiny nowhere town called Quincy which is up in the mountains to attend the High Sierra Music Festival. Basically a four day dirty hippie get together of camping and music and surprisingly decent beer. We mainly went to catch John Butler on his solo tour (which was crazy good), but there were a bunch of other good bands that we had the chance to see as well.

We left Callum with his Grandma and Grandpa (Jen's parents) and picked him up on the way back south, although we spent just enough time in Lincoln to watch the lowest exploding fireworks display in history with Brian and Nikki.

On the 10th my buddy Trent from Australia made the long trek to LA where I picked him up and we drove straight to Las Vegas. We spent the weekend in Vegas and I drove back late Sunday while Trent stayed on for the conference (which of course he claims was the real reason for his trip). He then flew from Las Vegas back to LA on the Thursday and spent the weekend with us before finally flying out to New York to continue his trip.

That same weekend we also had Jen's friend Alicia visiting, so we had a full house. Here is all of us at the Orange County Fair on the Saturday.

And a view from the Huntington Beach Pier on the Sunday.

Here's a gratuitous goofy Callum photo.

And a bonus naked butt shot.

And one of my wild-eyed niece Alison who is the spitting image of my sister at the same age.

Alright already!

2009-09-21T21:06:00.001-07:00

Yeah OK we have totally slacked off on updating this blog. We will post some quick updates to catch everyone up on the last couple of months and then hopefully get back on track.

the lunatics are running the asylum...

2009-07-13T13:12:00.000-07:00

Learning to share...

2009-07-12T12:50:00.000-07:00

Cowboy Up!

2009-06-29T22:47:00.000-07:00

Callum's Aunty Natalie gave him a rocking horse a while back, but Callum has been a little intimidated by it up until now.

And after a hard ride, a good cowboy always gives his horse a drink.

Back Seat Driving

2009-06-28T22:46:00.000-07:00

On our way down to San Diego today to meet up with my Uncle David and Aunty Pam (visiting from Australia) this is Callum chillin' in the back seat.

And this is him on the way back wearing his Canadian hockey jersey (a present from his Great Uncle and Aunty).

Can you spot the difference?

Wading Pool Popsicle

2009-06-27T22:44:00.000-07:00

It was finally warm enough to use Callum's wading pool this afternoon. We bought it last November in Australia but it hasn't been warm enough since we have been back in the US.

We had to eventually force Callum out of the pool when he started turning blue and his teeth were chattering as the sun was setting.

Early Morning

2009-06-25T22:43:00.000-07:00

Some photos by Jen as she was playing with her new iPhone.

Is it just me or does it look like Callum is genuinely posing in some of these?

Relaxing In The Backyard

2009-06-22T22:42:00.000-07:00

Father's Day

2009-06-21T22:41:00.000-07:00

Opening a card from Callum.

Sharing a beer with Callum (sort of).

Callum laughing at an incredibly funny joke I just told.

Barney On A BlackBerry

2009-06-20T22:40:00.000-07:00

... try saying that 3 times fast.

This is a quick photo of the kid watching Barney streaming live from YouTube on a BlackBerry. Yeah, that is the world my kid is growing up in ...

Australian Style

2009-06-17T22:36:00.000-07:00

Playing around with a new way of publishing photos. Let me know if you have trouble seeing the slideshow.

it's a zoo around here...

2009-06-13T19:21:00.000-07:00

Mom and Dad made it down for a visit this month to see everyone (Callum). Rather than keep them locked in the house this trip we made a few plans to get out and about.

Thursday found us at the Santa Ana Zoo. It's a nice small zoo, close enough to the house, and just the right speed for Callum. They have a nice little farm area and a good collection of monkeys (or animals that we can recognize as monkey-like). We had a lot of fun walking around and playing the 'what's that' game. Callum got quite spoiled spending a bit of the day on Grandpa's shoulders.

On friday Grandma and Grandpa took Callum on a walk up to the local coffee shop while i got to sleep off some of the cold germs i'd managed to pick up. Callum got treated to a chocolate milk - living the high life.

Now, what you're really here for... the photos.

American Tourist Fail

2009-06-08T18:00:00.000-07:00

Jen and I saw this story reported on the local news here in Los Angeles last night. I found some more information about it on the website of The Advertiser website (the main daily newspaper in Adelaide).

http://www.news.com.au/adelaidenow/story/0,22606,25597843-5006301,00.html

Stayin' In Touch

2009-06-07T21:43:00.000-07:00

So while I was in San Francisco Jen sent me a couple of photos of the kid to help pass the week.

This one is of the kid enjoying his evening bath.

And here is Callum multi-tasking - he is eating dinner and talking to his Dad on the phone at the same time. He has quite the flamboyant phone style as you can see.

And here is a bonus one. We stopped for some lunch on the way home from the airport yesterday at El Torito (a chain of Mexican restaurants, the name means "The Little Bull"). Anyway, Callum looked particularly stylish in his little bull ears.