Where did he get those pants?

A somewhat macabre picture of a red-tailed hawk feasting on a bunny (see the ear??) on the lawn of a church downtown. I've never seen one this close! It wasn't perturbed in the least by people trying to sneak up and snap pics.

Bipartisan Conciliation

No October would be complete without a visit to the local pumpkin farm, despite the fact that it is owned by a far-right former state rep who is running to be re-elected. Imagine our surprise when the "magic show" M3 was so keen to see ended with a lecture on how the only real magic is attained by inviting the Lord into your heart and going to church! They oughta put an MPAA warning on the in-door! I did feel kind of sucker-punched. But I trust that my admission dollars are going to the local economy, not to the Danny Carroll re-election campaign. (And don't give that magician any of my money, either!!) I'm willing to reach across the aisle for good, clean fun:

Say it ain't so!

It was snowing last night. We noticed on our way home from Dari Barn, which we visited despite the hurricane-force winds seein' as how it was the last day of the season and all! To quote Darth Vader right after he found out Padme was dead: NOOOOOOOOOOOOO!* That is regarding both the snow and the closing of Dari Barn. Oh yeah, you can laugh it up, Angelenos!! At least we don't have earthquakes!! Oh...um...yeah...that's right...we have floods and tornadoes. You have the ocean and green foliage year round. Oh, forget it...

*That should cement my membership in the geek squad.

Happy Birthday, Dad!!

Today is my dad's birthday, oh he of the first wave of baby boomers. On top of being a most awesome grandpa, my dad has always been there for me in too many ways to count, so here is one example: In a single day, he drove me and my stuff to Madison, WI (10 hours), unloaded said stuff to a second floor apartment (??? hours and surely some skinned knuckles), drove to Chicago (2 hours), flew back home and went to work the next day. What was that?? A 39 hour day??!! Thank you, Dad, for your big heart, your generosity, your good advice, and your scarred hands! Happy birthday and here's to logging many more miles on the bike and rockin' Social Security, all at the same time!

Train chasers

I don't know if you can live two blocks from the train tracks without becoming fascinated by them. Last Sunday, I heard a train horn that didn't sound like the usual horns (and I didn't even know I would notice the difference!). As the train came through, it had a distinctive chugging sound. M3 and I ran to our corner (which is definitely ours since we own both houses) and caught a glimpse of passenger cars! There are no passenger trains that come through our town. Our primary train buff (M4) was in the bathtub, which was a MAJOR bummer because M3 and I jumped in the car to see if we could catch up with the mystery train. Many other people had the same idea, so it was kinda cool (in a completely dorky way) to be part of this crowd following the smoke and the chugging. We missed it at a few crossovers, but several miles out of town this is what we saw:


A real steam engine!! There were guys sitting on the coal and waving at us...that was a little scary, because they were going fast! Don't know where it came from or where it was going, but I couldn't help but give an involuntary whoop when I saw it. Guess M4 has rubbed off on me a bit.

Look at this beautiful girl!!

I love that sweet, sort of blank look babies have when they are first born. You are beautiful, V! We can't wait to meet you in person!

Flash forward

Last Friday night we had an open house here in our new home. It turned into quite a party, not least because there were so many kids raising a ruckus! M3 and her friends were doing things like knocking their drink cups off the front porch, throwing ice off her balcony, trying to lock each other in the bathroom, etc. I had a sudden vision of these same activities only about eight years in the future. So naturally, I am locking her in her room until she is 25!! Then she can go off to college if she wants.

She's here!!

My new niece, V, born October 17 just before midnight. 7 lbs. 8 oz. and 21 in., I think proud daddy Nick said. Yay!! Picture soon...

I did it!!

Oh yeah...I used the "children are starving in Africa!!" line this morning. And "Because I said so!" you ask?? Been there. Done that.

Apparently...

...Rumpus wants to play, too. Did you know one game of Monopoly can provide days and days and days of entertainment?

11 years ago today...

...we had a rockin' party!

Pictures from that day are pre-computer age in our house, so here's a picture of us on a mountain. 11 years on the 11th!

I didn't know Obama could boogie!

One small parenting victory

M3 is reaching this age where girls are starting to be manipulative and mean (OMG...already!!!). It's hard for me to bite my tongue when she has a friend over and one of them does the "I don't want to play that" routine, causing the other to break down into a blubbering mass. Or when they fixate so stubbornly on an imagined slight (Real life example: "You stepped on that bug." "No, I stepped NEXT to it." "No, you stepped ON it." "No, I didn't!!" "Yes, you did!!") that one or both of them is reduced to a blubbering mass. (My less-than-exemplary reaction, turned up to 11: "It doesn't matter AT ALL!! SO DROP IT!!" Nice, huh?)

Anyway, the other night M3 told me a best friend (I'll call her R) called something M3 said "stupid." M3 didn't argue because she didn't want R not to want to play with her anymore. (Mommy, why are your ears steaming?) My advice for this and other situations has been to just ignore it and try to make your own fun. (And of course, to believe in yourself enough to know that what you said was NOT stupid. Can I throttle R now??!!) When your friends can't make you angry, they lose that power over you. Well, this is a hard concept for an 8-year-old to grasp, let alone execute.

But yesterday she did it!! And saw for herself how well it worked. She said to me, "R wouldn't listen to me, so I just looked out the window and started singing Pop Fly. And it was just, like, 30 seconds later that she asked me if I wanted to play Concentration!!" I wanted to dance with joy!! I was so proud that she actually kept her cool and tried this tactic. I'm just hoping that this real-life success will convince her to try it again in the future. Cuz I know things are just gonna get worse! We haven't even hit middle school yet! Guess I'm gonna have to read Queen Bees and Wannabes sooner than I thought.

Meanwhile, M4 just wants me to watch how fast he can get into and out of his "fire suit." (It's Fire Prevention week. Check your smoke alarm.)

Born Again Floozie Alert!

Just to spread the word, Mark's high school pal, Joe Welch (formerly of Johnny Socko; sang at our wedding, remember?) and his tuba and tap dancing band, the Born Again Floozies, will be on BBC radio 5 this Thursday! Sometime between 9 - 11am EST (http://www.bbc.co.uk/fivelive/programmes/mayo.shtml).

Not so great...

Well, we did receive an offer, but it was a lowball offer. I don't think we'll accept. It may be stupid; I don't know. Where's a Magic 8 Ball when you need one?