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The Office

Tonight's episode is a rerun. What the heck?

Dangit.

Another LRHS Flashback

On this date last year, I made a list of goals for the fall and winter: goals-for-fallwinter
I almost did everything on the list, but not quite. But hey, I was pregnant, so there you go. Anyway, I guess this means it's time to make a new list for this fall/winter:

• Go to the Make store and make something once and for all!
• Make a decision about yoga and start going regularly
• Make a "Pie of the Month" each month.
• Keep my bird feeders full.
• Take a walk with the Peanut every day, weather permitting
• Get my Christmas cards made before Thanksgiving
• Sew some more stuff
• Practice my instruments
• Find time to read things other than baby operations manuals
• Try to be a better blogger

I may add to this list, but now I must go and intervene, as the Peanut and the Gymini seem to be at odds about something.

This Day in History...

On October 23, 2004, this is what was happening on the LRHS: hey-pancho

Poor Pancho. His spirit lives on in song. http://www.soundclick.com/bands/songInfo.cfm?bandID=320738&songID=2280896 (featuring the great Rob and Julie). Alas, it doesn't look like there will be a PPHPHB Vol.4 this year, but perhaps next year we'll get some recording done. Kev has tons of songs, and he got his accordion fixed, and I am ready for a big melodica solo whenever he needs one, but it's just too hard with the Peanut right now. She's been working on her ukulele skills though, so who knows.

BTW: Kev has added a link to the Peanut Gallery over there in the Links area on the side.

Sorry this post is a give-up. I tried to think of something to blog about that wasn't related to poop or meltdowns or the perils of parenting, but I got nuthin. Maybe something interesting will happen tomorrow.

Owl

Today, there was an owl spotted (not to be confused with a spotted owl) in the tree in my front yard.

Poor Daphne. Her owl-obsessed mother makes her wear brown owl suits so she looks like a little boy, and her father makes her sit in a tree and pose for about 30 pictures. Someday we'll pay.

Tri-Pod

Daphne's tri-pod sitting skills are emerging. Three seconds later she fell over. It will be such a good day when she can sit up on her own. I wish I had a cool orange bird shirt like hers.

The Zillerator

click here: http://www.rollercoastersofthepacificnw.com/evergreen1.html

State Fair 2006

Over the weekend, Kev and I went to the Great State Fair of Texas. We go every year, and it is pretty much the same. Fun, but at the same time, kind of a beating. This year it was really crowded. Good thing we left the Peanut at home. When we got there, we had corn dogs, as usual. But this year, we did a few different things. We rode rides. Two to be exact: the Sparklets log flume ( I think it was new), and a small roller coaster called The Zillerator. The log flume was gentle and pleasant, but the Zillerator was pretty whippy. Thrill rides are really not for me. I prefer things like the Fun Slide or the Merry-Go-Round, so it will be fun when the Peanut can ride kiddie rides and I can go with her. When she's ready for roller coasters, her daddy will have to be in charge.
The State Fair, while generally pretty cool, is starting to slip in to the realm of silly. Every year, they fry more and more things. This year's big thing was Fried Coke. I am not making this up. They should take a lesson from the Dutchess County Fair and concentrate on good foods like milk shakes and mushrooms, and stop with all the novelty fried junk food. We got a milk shake at the Texas State Fair this year, and it wasn't good at all. It took forever for the guy to make it, and then he forgot the malt powder, and it was just disappointing.
You may not know this, but LarryFeathers entered and was accepted as one of the 15 contestants in the 2006 State Fair Corn-dog Eating Contest. But he chose not to participate because he doesn't like corn-dogs. In fact, I'm pretty sure he's never had one. So, there were only 14 contestants. To add interest, the State Fair people got that Bo Bice to be in the contest. I think Bo Bice ate one token corn-dog and spent the rest of the time thrilling the crowd, probably by doing things like raising his fists and shouting, "Skynard Forever, Man!" and whipping his ridiculous Bob Seger hair all around and thanking his fans (aka "people of questionable taste"). But I wasn't there, so I can't say if any of that really happened for sure. I think LarryFeathers would have probably been much more entertaining.

So, if you go to the state fair this year, try the Sparklets log flume, but don't bother with a milk shake and don't support silly fried things.

The Peanut Gallery

Since we have so many out-of-town family and friends, I decided to make a new blog that's just for photos, mostly of the Peanut, but of other stuff too from time to time. It is called The Peanut Gallery, because what else would such a blog be called? Since I am not good at computers, I will ask Kev to put it over in the links area later, but for now, if you want to go there, you can use this:

http://d-claire.blogspot.com/

I can't promise there won't be bird photos now and then. And maybe food ones too.

My Pickle Price

If there are three things I can't stand, they are pickles, mustard, and saurkraut. The other night, Kev had all three for dinner, and the smell was about to knock me out, and to make matters worse, I accidentally got some saurkraut (am I spelling that right? It doesn't look right to me) on my hand. Kev is lucky I will prepare him a dinner that includes these things. I know others who won't even touch the mustard jar. I don't blame them...I avoid it whenever possible. Anyway, "I will give you five dollars to eat a pickle," said Kev as we headed to the table with our plates, mine full of a good club sandwich, his full of kryptonite. Maybe it was ten dollars. Whatever amount, it was pitiful. "No way," I replied, grimacing. "How much would I have to pay you, then?" asked Kev. "Three hundred dollars," I replied without hesitation. Then Kev told me that if someone came along offering me $50 to eat a pickle, I'd better take it and I said no way, and that it would cost even more to get me to eat mustard. The aftermath of such an eating exhibition would not be worth it. Then Kev announced that he'd eat eel if someone came along with some and offered to pay him fifty bucks.

There used to be a shaved ice shop down the street that had pickle flavor shaved ice. I won't even tell you about the pickle smoothie, made by someone who may or may not read this blog. The worst is when you get a sandwich at a shop and they put a pickle in the basket and the pickle stuff gets all over your bread and chips. Pickles. Bleh.

Revolution!

Monday was Columbus Day. Tuesday I had to do some errands. So I went shopping. Keep in mind it was October 10th, and incidently it was also 80 degrees, and guess what was happening. All the shops I went into were putting up their CHRISTMAS displays. Ornaments everywhere. Holiday candies. Stockings. For crying out loud. It was almost enough to make me say some swear words. (I didn't!). Do we really need 3 months of Christmas being shoved down our throats? No wonder everyone hates Christmas. Now is the time to rise up against the Evil Retail Machine and put a stop to the Over-Christmasing of America. Who's with me?

Read My Pumpkin

Hope you have a great day!!!

Gimme Gimme Gimme

Now that Daphne has the whole spoon thing figured out, we can't shovel it in fast enough for her. We're really in trouble when she gets to start eating stuff that actually tastes good.

Let's Have Fun!

The title of this blog is a quote from my nephew Ryan. He is always ready for fun. I like my fair share of fun too, but I am starting to realize there is such a thing as too much fun, especially when you are old like me. It is Sunday night, and I have had so much fun this weekend that I am ready for bed and it isn't even 8:00. So, I decided to blog.
Friday night, things got off to a rocky start. Kev got home from work, and we put Daphne to bed, and we were just about to enjoy Segment Five (which is peace and quiet, dinner, and Star Trek or something like that). Kev was quietly playing his guitar and I was contemplating dinner, when all of a sudden, "diddly-diddly-diddly-diddly..." the Rush music began. And it was LOUD. If you are new around the LRHS, I will tell you that there is this knucklehead across the street who opens his door and plugs in his electric guitar and plays three or four of the same Rush songs over and over for the entire neighborhood to enjoy. It is absolutely ridiculous. He had stopped for a while, but I think since the weather is nice in the evenings now, he's able to open his door again. Anyway, few things are as defeating as really bad really loud Tom Sawyer guitar licks assaulting you from beyond when you are trying to have some peace and quiet. Not to mention, as I told Kev, even if it didn't wake up the baby, it was seeping into her subconsious while she slept. And we can't have that. So I called 311 - non-emergency and tried to report the dude. I was given the number of the police substation for my area, so I called them. I was told I had to call 911. Now, even though 311 and the substation lady assured me it was OK, I felt funny about calling 911 to gripe about noise, so I hesitated for about 30 seconds until I could take no more diddly diddly diddlying. Long story short: cops came, no more Limelight. At least for the rest of this weekend. We'll see how long it lasts. Anyway, none of that was fun.

But on Saturday things got better. We went for a walk in the morning. It was cool and sunny. Then in the evening we took another walk, down to the Tipperery Inn for cheeseburgers on the patio. The baby was good the whole time. She loves being outside.

Today, we took her to the Arboretum to see the pumpkin patch. We stayed a long time, and had a little picnic on the big lawn while listening to the fake James Taylor perform on the concrete stage. It was great to be outside, and the Daphne loved it until she just got too tired to take any more fun. Then she cried, and we had to stroll her around until she went to sleep. But mostly she was good.

Anyway, that may not seem like much to you, but for us, it was a lot of outings and a lot of walking, and a lot of meltdown control and I am exhausted.

Note to Darlene: Things are going well with "solid foods" (if you can call rice cereal solid). The first night we tried it, the Peanut didn't get it, and most of it ended up on her bib. The second night, she was too tired when I tried to feed her, so she cried. It wasn't her normal mad cry, either. It was more like a sad little wimpery cry, as if I had somehow hurt her feelings trying to make her eat from a spoon. Yesterday, however, I think a light went on somewhere inside her little Peanut head, and she is getting the hang of it. Now she tries to grab the spoon, though, so it's a pretty messy endeavor. We haven't taken any snapshots, but we did video-tape the first try. It's pretty funny. Kev actually ate some of the cereal as a demonstration for the baby.

Well, I think I am going to look for something to read, if I can keep my eyes open. It will be fun!

A Peanut in the Pumpkin Patch

Big Kid

Today the Peanut is 4 months old. She is getting big. She likes to play in this ExerSaucer and spin herself around and grab the toys. Today she had to go get shots, which was no fun. Tonight, she will get cereal and eat from a spoon for the first time.

Vacation

So, we just got back from New York. We went up there to surprise Kev's mom for her birthday. It is probably a good thing for readers of this blog that this trip was a surprise, or beforehand you'd have had to read all about the fretting I did about travelling with the Peanut on the airplane and having to adjust her segments and so forth. But after all that fretting, she did pretty well. She was mostly good on the plane, and only slightly less good in the car. She had some trouble with napping, but not too much. We had a lot of fun with Kev's family, and I got to meet our new neice and play with our nephew and all the good dogs. We saw deer and a heron and a woodchuck and a hawk. Alas, no owls, except one in captivity at a bird show during Farm Day at the Roosevelt estate. I got not one but TWO barbecue chicken wraps from Coco's not to mention several pieces of homemade apple pie and a fabulous meal on Sunday prepared by Kev's sisters including, among other things, delicious pumpkin bisque and, get this, chocolate gazpacho! The weather was rainy at times, but mostly nice and cool. I wore my orange shoes every day...they are perfect for fall. Anyway, I now have confidence that travelling with a baby is not that hard, and I won't fret about it so much when we go back at Christmas. At least I'll try not to. Below are some photos from the fun.

Wilderness

We loaded the Peanut in the Bjork and took her for a walk around the neighborhood. Here she is, several feet into the wilderness for the first time. We'd have gone deeper into the woods, but I didn't want to get my orange shoes muddy. I know. I'm lame.

Not Hot

In New York, they have this thing called "fall" where the trees change colors and it is cool and pleasant outside. This picture is from over at FDR's place. The leaves will be peaking soon.

Poor Monkey

Daphne and Katie enthralled by The Kev Show. Ralph in the background, getting no attention.

Babies Babies Everywhere

Daphne with her cousin Katie and her friends Elizabeth and Gabriel.

Pope Penguin I

Thanks to Auntie Kim for the cool penguin hat! New York stories coming soon...

Postcard

Greetings from beautiful historic Hyde Park, New York. Having a great time with family and dogs. The weather is delightfully cool, and I have been wearing sweaters! We have seen deer and a Great Blue Heron in the yard, as well as Canada geese and other birds around town. The Peanut segments are a little off, but we are still getting to sleep through the night. Yesterday we went to FDR's house for "Farm Day." A guy was there with an owl! Pictures coming soon....