Tom Tom's true love, I'll give you a hint... It cost us $49.99

All-

Well here are two more videos of little Tom Tom enjoying his activity center. What I would like you to pay attention to is the amount of laughter and enjoyment his face shows. Yes, no amount of attention and love from his mother and father have brought such joyful emotion from him.....

You have to listen to this one first, listen closely to the sound he makes (about 6 seconds in)....



Here is the second one we took in a room with better lighting.



I would at this time, like to thank the Disney Toy Company for taking our son and making him a slave to "the system". I had always hoped he would turn out like Lloyd Dobbler from Say Anything (one of your Uncle Tom's favorite films) and not "make anything sold, bought, or processed". The other side to these incidents is that they make two hella great videos that we all hope you enjoy. Take care my happy readers. We hope you are all well.

Uncle Tom, Tom tom, and Tom Petty

Evening folks!! Well here is another upload of a video with your dear Uncle Tom and his Tom Tom. Today's adventure has us rocking back and forth listening to Tom Petty sing "Don't come around here no more"



Now now, before any of you make any comments, let me address the following issues

1. Yes, I know that it is dark in my house, I would like to have brighter lights but the boy needs to sleep so give it a rest okay
2. Yes, I know you can't see his face. He wants to put his hand in front... leave him alone.
3. Yes, we are dancing and moving, so what.... it calms him and you should be happy to see how adorable he is.

I would like to post a video every couple of days depending on what we listen to. Todays selection was "Don't Come Around Here No More" He really did like to hear Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers Greatest Hits
Thanks for stopping by, he loves to hear from all of you. Maybe Sugarduck will dance tomorrow, I hear she likes to listen to Squeeze.

Baby Tom Tom Learning about music and colors

Hey folks! Your Uncle Tom wanted to share the following video you all. It's little Tom Tom kicking it on his Baby Einstein Seek & Discover Activity Gym. He loves to lay there and listen to the music. He is going to be a genius one day.



You can hear me taking picture after picture in the background. I was trying to capture his different faces. He is just so amazing that Sugarduck and I could just stare at the perfection of him for hours....

Uncle Tom has another traveller to join him!!

So after 9 months of waiting, your Uncle Tom has some exciting news!! The picture you see above is that of his new son. Yes Thomas Castillo or Tom Tom was born on 31 Aug 09. Sugarduck and I brought him home and are looking forward to bringing him on our adventures. We were able to take him on a walk with the result below:




So far, little Tom Tom seems to love to eat, poop, and listen to Cat Stevens while his father walks him around the living room. It is amazing to see his eyes light up when Sugarduck and I sing to him (granted his look is that of bewilderment). He also loves to hear Uncle Tom read to him, right now we are reading: "Birds, Beasts and Relatives" by Gerald Durrell. He really seems to enjoy hearing the stories about the animals and Greece. Can't wait to take him there! Well my happy readers, it has been almost 1 year and obviously a lot has changed, Sugarduck and I hope to post more as Tom Tom grows, we can't wait to share with our travels with all of you..

Uncle Tom and Sugarduck are cold and loving it!!

The picture you all see is the Inner Harbor area of Oslo. Of course it is also a picture from Spring time. Now it's winter, the high is about 30 and it gets dark at 3 pm. It's cold but wonderful at the same time. We arrived yesterday after an early morning flight of 630 am. That means we were up at 2 and at the airport by 4 am. It was a long day so our first order of business was to take a short nap after we checked in at the airport. We woke up in time to walk into the downtown area and went to a Julemarked seen below:



After walking around and sampling the cheese and reindeer soup (yup cancel Christmas everyone, Rudolph and his cohorts dead) Sugarduck and I went to find a place to have dinner. We found a restaurant called Biff Restaurant and went in to have a bite to eat. Although we did not have reservations, they were able to seat us. Your Uncle Tom decided that one reindeer was not enough so he ordered the Reindeer Medallions in a gravy. Sugarduck ordered some lamb in a mint gravy. Both meals were amazing and we finished dinner by sharing some walnut ice cream in a blackberry sauce. The meal ended up costing 700.00 Kroner which roughly translates into 90 dollars. Not too bad considering we thought each person's plate was going to be 70. After dinner, we went home, slept and are now getting ready for day number two.....Day at the Museum (No Ben Stiller in this one though....)

Uncle Tom and Sugarduck are back from the really really Old World

Yasas my happy readers!!!

Yasas is hello in Greek. Yes, your Uncle Tom and his Sugarduck have just returned from a trip to Athens Greece. We took the above picture at the Temple of Zeus. The link is to an Athens guide site taken is a few years old. When we were there, the field was grassy and some of the columns have collapsed. This is the 4th trip outside of the UK that we have taken, and it really was one of the best. The winters here are cold and dreary and to be able to get away to another country where the weather was a comfortable 56 degrees was wonderful. For this trip, we used EasyJet airlines (another no frills but economic airline). We set out with our carryon luggage (you have to pay more if you check bags), and left Friday afternoon. Upon landing we found the Athens Metro Station. Having been recently renovated the rail system was inexpensive, amazingly clean and the easiest rail system that I have used to date. It cost us 10 Euro for the both of us to ride from the airport to the closest stop next to our hotel, the whole ride lasted about 50 minutes!!! We departed the train and made our way to our lodging.... Hotel Candia Okay so we knew going in that our hotel was a budget hotel and that we shouldn't expect too much, just a bed, a bathroom and a hot breakfast every morning. Well, after checking in and making our way to our door, we and by we I mean Sugarduck were pleasantly surprised to see that we actually had 2 beds in our room!!!

I know that the photo may be a bit out of focus, but you are seeing right, it's 1953 in our room. I just hope that Sugarduck remembers to serve me my martini, make my tv dinner and watches "Leave it to Beaver" with me! Okay, in order for this to be an informative travel blog and not some goofy ramblings by the village idiot, let me be honest. The room may have had two beds and the shower may have been just the shower head handle (it wasn't mounted on the wall), having a balcony and being on the sixth floor gave us an amazing view of the city and mountains in the distance:

Whenever Sugarduck and I travel, we rely heavily on The Lonely Planet guidebooks. We have found them to be the most informative and helpful out there. Most of the restaurants on this trip were recommended in there. Have a happy read my 4 readers, Uncle Tom thanks you for stopping by.

How to eat escargot by Uncle Tom

So my happy readers, your Uncle Tom's travels took both him and Sugarduck to Paris for Christmas. While there, I was able to try escargot in its original form/home, it's shell. Sugarduck being the highly supportive spouse that she is, shot the video. I would like to dedicate this post to Canowine, we used to try so many different foods and I really miss that. Anyways, a few years back, we had our office Christmas party at Normandie Farm in Potomoc MD and for lunch, we both tried some the escargot. It was served already out of the shell in a butter and garlic sauce and they were really good. This time, however I had to use a pair of pliers and fork to get at the meat. See for yourselves below....