Mr. Lobster and Shrimp

My brother Tom and his son came for a week long visit on the 14th of November. We met them at the airport with a sign that read: Mr. Lobster and Shrimp. It was Alex's idea so I made him hold the sign. We got some weird looks while waiting but it made for a really good laugh when Tom showed up. 'Tommy the Lobster' is the nickname Alex gave Tom awhile back given his natural inability to tan and since TJ is just like his Daddy, well, it seemed to fit. Oh! And I really wanted to have a picture of the boys with the sign but Alex left the camera at home. I was totally bummed out about that one.

We were a little concerned that the dog may be a little much for TJ so we brought out the kennel again. Turns out that TJ enjoyed playing in the cage more than anything. He would climb in and out every few minutes returning with another item that was necessary for cozy living. In the end he had 2 pillows, a blanket, a stuffed animal, and eventually some snacks. He would lock himself in and pretend he was safe from the "dragon". Of course, he wanted everyone else to join him too. Here were are: Aunt Mandy, TJ, and David snuggly hanging out in the kennel.

Apparently eating breakfast (and an occasional snack) in a dog kennel is the coolest thing.

David keeping watch. Interestingly enough, Davey never ate any of TJ's food, no matter how long it was hanging out unattended.

Story time! Stories are so much fun! I get to practice on Alex every so often when I come across another kids book he's never heard of like Where the Wild Things Are or The Velveteen Rabbit. If I remember correctly, this is Dr. Suess' Oh the Places You'll Go!. My favorite of the night was Children Make Terrible Pets by Peter Brown.

By the second day, Davey had become TJ's protector. He followed him around everywhere probably because he was waiting for some kind of scrap of food but mostly out of curiosity. One night when TJ and I were reading some books, Tom suddenly appeared in the doorway. In a flash of light, Davey was standing on top of the bed between us and the door growling at the sudden stranger. We all started laughing and Davey calmed down when he realized it was Tom. I think Davey liked having a "pet" in which to share his bed.

So we're all sitting around watching "The Last Airbender" at like 11 o'clock at night and Tommy starts taking pictures of the two of us. I'm sure it was a cute moment but TJ and I were less than amused. Not to mention that the kid was super tired to begin with.

There was lots of coloring of Dora, most of which we sent to Grandma Harris. Davey developed a particular "taste" for Crayola crayons which subsequently lead to an endless supply of new crayons and frequent dog scolding and carpet vacuuming.

Tommy and TJ waiting for everyone else to finish getting ready.

For my birthday we went to the Sedgwick County Zoo. We got really lucky that the weather was nice. I was pretty impressed with the zoo. There were all kinds of things to see like penguins that float around like ducks, Bengal Tigers that are as tall as me! (truly amazing!), buffalo, elephants, giraffes, black swans, lots of gorillas, and so much more. Here we are at the black bear area. It seemed like a good place for a family picture.

After the zoo we headed to the East side of town for dinner at P.F. Chang's and then for two games of bowling. Did you know that Alex and I have NEVER been bowling together. We're both so bad at it that we've never wanted to go, I guess. My first score was like 76 and Alex's was 51. Yikes! TJ did better than we did. The second game was much better. I almost broke 100 and had 3 strikes total while Alex suddenly looked like a Pro-Bowler. TJ held out as long as he could for so much activity without a nap. At one point he was making Bowling Angels with the little girl next to us. The angels picture didn't turn out but this is one of my favorites. 

It was so cute watching TJ learn how to bowl with his Daddy.

As soon as he'd throw the ball he'd run away and crouch down to see how many pins the ball would knock over. He'd always get a high-five, of course!

Well, that about wraps it all up. I hope everyone had a nice Thanksgiving and is looking forward to Christmas and New Year's.

Regatta on the Arkansas River

My overly-buff brother-in-law, Z, was down from Creighton for the weekend for a Regatta competition against WSU, KU, K-State, and a few other states. I've never seen a regatta race before so it was really nice to head down to the Riverside Park to watch individual, two-team, four-team and and eight-team races. Both the men and the women teams raced. We were lucky to have really great weather too. Here's the brothers after the first 4 man race. All I can say is Holy Biceps Batman!

It's not the clearest of pictures but Z is the first man in the boat facing you. The person with her back to us is the one who calls out all the motivating words of encouragement. I forget what her official title is but that's the kind of job I want. It pretty much sounds like this: "ALRIGHT! YOU'RE GOING TO GIVE ME A HARD 10 ON 3! (they stroke), 2! (the stoke), 1! ( strong stroke) MOVE IT! (stroke) HARDER! (stroke) QUIT BE A SISSY! (stroke) YOU HEARD ME! (stroke) 5 MORE TO GO! (stroke) COME ON! (stroke) THE DUCKS ARE PASSING US! (stroke, stroke, stroke)" or something like that. 

I'm not sure if they placed or not because the races are based on times. I guess I thought that they lined up on the river and raced back up it and whoever crossed the mark first won. They do race against other people but they all have different start times. I enjoyed it all the same and I'm looking forward to going next year if Z plans on competing again.

Dear ________,

You were right. Two years went by faster then I ever imagined. I don't miss him like I thought I would. Only when I want to know the answers to questions like:

• Why are the flowers on the tomato plants falling off?
• Should we wrap the A/C unit in the winter?
• How do I make Ham-a-la-King again?
• Where do I find that verse in the Bible that says...
• Or So-and-so is driving me crazy again! What do I say to him?

Fall came early this year. The wild turkey's that live in the hedge row by the house have been checking out the field making as much noise as a turkey possibly can. A month exactly to the day that he left, I saw a huge buck standing guard of the same hedge row. He stood and just watched me for a while before heading back to the creek. He was at least a 10 point buck.

Regardless of how much time has passed, I am never short on the number of reminders that he's gone. I miss you, Dad.

Motivation

Lately, I've been in need of a really good laugh. For whatever reason, I'm struggling to find the right mental motivation to do stuff (which isn't good because I have TONS of stuff to do) and I'm thinking its because I haven't had a good gut-splitting laugh in a long time. So, if you too are struggling to find the right mental mood to get your day going... take heart and scroll down. Hopefully, this will do the trick!

No More Baby Stuff

Once upon a time, I brought home a cute little black baby...

Who ate out of cute little baby bowls until he was fat and chubby...

And slept in a monster cage when he was barely the size of two tiny toys put together...

But today is the official end of all the baby stuff. Now the little baby is a massive 130 pound black beast (although a very well behaved one)...

Gone are the days of tiny dog bowls. In their place is an enormous 18" high stand that holds an ungodly amount of liquid and food....

Lately, Davey would much rather nap here instead of in his kennel...

About a month ago he decided that our guest bed suited his taste much more than the couch or the fluffy clean blankets in his cage when it came to napping or resting his head for the night. And, we've been leaving David out of his kennel for small periods of time since his first birthday. For probably the last month we haven't been putting him in it at all when we leave for work and he's behaved wonderfully.

So today, I decided that it was time to break down the kennel. For the briefest of moments, I teared up just like I did the day his sweet baby breath disappeared forever, or when he out-grew his first little collar, or the day he lost his first baby tooth, or on his first birthday when he was no longer considered a "puppy". It's all very silly, I know. He is, after all, just a dog. But I hugged him until he grew tired of being hugged, gave a mom-sigh, dismantled the cage, and dragged it out to the garage. I should be relieved that the baby stage is truly behind us now, right? I know... that's what I'll keep telling myself.

Cowbirds and Castle Path Paint

Fall is one of my favorite times of year, especially because of this little guy:

This is a Brown-headed cowbird and every year in the fall, massive flocks gather together to feast upon seeds, grubs, and little insects before they head on down to Mexico. (Oh, and just so you know, I am not holding the bird. I got this picture off the Internet.) Anyway, the other day, I was sitting in our library studying something when I realized I was surrounded by tons of little peeping things. I walked out to the living room and was absolutely amazed to find about 300 cowbirds hanging out in my front yard. As my gaze wandered I realized this was no small flock. Every house that I could see had either birds on their roof, in their yard, or both. Here is our next door neighbors house:

The Vietnamese family across the street had a few on the roof but a good couple of hundred in their side yard:

These home are kitty-corner to us and had them all over:

This is a picture of the empty lot by the back of our house. Without exaggeration, there is probably 10,000 birds photographed in this picture (and I think that number is a little low), not including the hundreds that were on the homes in the front yard. I watched massive flock after flock join this horde from the trees that line the creek by us. In a matter of minutes the ground by our pond was completely black. I have no doubt that the numbers of birds reached close to 40,000 birds. It was absolutely breath-taking! There is another empty lot a few houses down from this one and it was packed with cowbirds too. After about 30 minutes of hanging out with the extended family, someone gave the signal and they all took flight. I think it must have taken almost 10 minutes for them all to fly away. It was really one of the most amazing things I have ever seen.

Last summer I painted the kitchen and dining room to give it a more distinct feel since we have a pretty open floor plan. Before school started I decided it was time to give the living room and hallway a new coat of paint. Before the walls were a creamy classic taupe color. I found this paint color (called Castle Path) and really liked how it complemented everything else. It's an interesting color because when the sun is on it it looks like a soft creamy-beige color but on the opposite wall where the shadow is cast it looks silvery-grey like mortar bricks.

I left the bay window the old taupe color and the inside of the TV nook is still taupe too, along with the foyer and wall that leads down to the basement. I decided to go with an Eggshell paint instead of flat paint because it cleans up much better. Amazingly enough, I used one complete gallon of paint in the living room and one complete gallon of paint in the hallway. I thought for sure that I'd have some left over when I did the hallway, but instead I almost ran out before the job was done.

That's it for this years Home Improvement projects. Next year we're debating whether we want to put a wrought-iron fence in the back yard, replace the existing carpet with new carpet or hardwood floors in the living room and hallway, or do a little remodeling in the guest bathroom. Eventually we'll do it all but deciding what we want to do first is the challenge.

Summertime....

I'd like to say that life has been crazy here in Kansas, but that would be a stretch of the imagination. The garden has since given us the best that it could possibly give and is in the final throws of the growing season. Some time back in July I was going to say something creative and interesting about the next 3 pictures but must have been distracted and never got around to it. I happened to stumble across this in the Edit Posts section so I'll give it a shot.

So this beauty of a thunderhead was amazing to watch. It never came near our home and I'm pretty sure that it didn't drop a single ounce of rain anywhere near Kansas. I wish that the camera would have caught the exact color. The reds were so purple and the grays were so blue and then the tippy top was this beautiful bright creamy white. I took this while sitting on our back porch while Alex made dinner. It slowly grew bigger for about 45 minutes but never moved. I remember that there was barely a breeze that night. Another thing I really like about summer is how long the day light lasts. I took this picture at almost 9 PM.

While I was outside starring at clouds, Alex was inside making dinner. The summer squash, green onion, sweet cayenne pepper, green bell pepper, and thyme came from our garden. Alex sees these things and sees "potential". I look at these things and see "ingredients for a recipe". That pretty much sums up our culinary differences in creativity. Which is why I have a very hard time even imagining this without some necessary guidance:

I'm not sure exactly what he did. I think he grilled the squash and some other stuff and added olive oil and sprinkled love and fairy dust and wah-lah! our tasty dinner was born. All I really remember was that it was delicious and we've had grilled squash several times since then. I like it best with balsamic vinegar. 

...21 Days Later

Here's what the garden looked like on June 15th. I was so excited that the plants were starting to grow.

Here's what it looks like today. I am absolutely AMAZED at how much everything has grown in only 21 days! The squash has totally over-taken the sweet peas and has finally breached the wood container wall. We picked one of the onions yesterday to put in our salad. It was so very yummy.

Here's the 12 tomato plants that I was afraid wouldn't make it. 8 of the 12 have finally passed the top of the tomato cages and come up a little past my waist. Just this last week they finally bloomed tons of little yellow flowers. The bees have found a new place to hang out which is great because that means we'll have Roma, Big Boy (like Beefsteak tomatoes), and Jubilee (yellow) tomatoes growing in no time flat! Oh-and we have a brown cottontail bunny that likes to hang out in the garden. He doesn't eat anything but I think he likes the cool shade and the protection from being seen by the hawks that we have around here.

I wander through the garden several times a day checking out all the little bushes. Sometimes I talk to the plants and ask them when they're going to grow something other than leaves. They must have grown tired of hearing the same question over and over again because two days ago, I noticed that the Hot Portugal pepper plant had a bunch of tiny green peppers. Now they're longer than the span of my hand. They'll turn dark red when they're ready to be picked. This particular bush has about 8 peppers growing on it right now along with the other one.

The jalapeno bush has the most peppers of all. It takes about 88 days for the pepper to ripen. The pepper at the very bottom that is starting to turn black is the very first pepper that I took a picture of back in June. As you can see, lots of little sisters have joined since then.

Here's the second yellow bell pepper that has grown on this particular bush. The first one didn't make it because the plant was too immature. It's put on lots of leaves and doubled in size so now I feel a little better that it will be healthy enough to produce some fruit. I'm not sure how tall pepper plants actually get so I'm only guessing on the healthy part. :)

I can't forget the herbs. The one on the top is sweet basil. The one on the left hand side is cilantro, and the smaller one is mint. The oregano is still struggling a bit but the thyme has really sprouted and is growing marvelously. I'll have to take a picture of it next time. The only one that really didn't grow was the rosemary the second time around. I know what I did wrong so next year I'm pretty sure we'll have some rosemary to plant in the front.

Here is the first of the summer squash! They're huge! and I have 2 or 3 more on the vine that will be ready to be picked next week. I gave the very first one that I picked to Jana and Robert our most beloved neighbors that are moving this weekend. With 3 squash plants I'm sure I'll have more than enough to hand out to all the neighbors. I'm really looking forward to having fried squash with stuffed Portobello mushrooms for dinner tonight. Yum!

Summer Movies

Monday is our "Movie Day" and has been so since the semester ended. Some movies I really want to see, other's I just tag along. If you asked Alex he'd say the same thing.

Iron Man 2 was one of those tag-along ones for me. It was just okay. I wanted a little more action, a little more Iron Man suit stuff and less Robert Downey, Jr. rambling conversation stuff. To me- it wasn't worth the price paid at the movie theater at full price. Save yourself some dough and rent it or Redbox it.

I really, really liked Robin Hood. I liked how it seemed more real, and authentic with all the mud and stone castles, and unbathed people. The story was good and the action was pretty decent.

Prince of Persia was pretty good too. I'm always amazed at how far we have come when it comes to computer-generated creatures. Each movie gets better and better. I'm still not sure why Persians would have English accents, but whatever. I liked the story and I thought the ending was pretty good. It was worth seeing it for matinee price.

I really liked the A-Team too. Bradley Cooper is soooo cute! I think whoever did the casting did a wonderful job. I wouldn't mind seeing an A-Team 2 in the future. It had good action and a pretty decent story.

So the new Karate Kid is just like the old Karate Kid except instead of having a Japanese Sensei for a teacher, he had a Kung Fu Master and instead of being in California they're in China and instead of having a Karate kid you have a Kung Fu kid but the plot is exactly the same without some of the cheesy 80s background music. I was very impressed by little Jaden Smith's muscles but not in the same way I am impressed with Taylor Lautner's. Yum... Taylor Lautner- but that is for another day. Oh, and yes- I did cry during the movie as I had predicted in a previous post.

I LOVED Toy Story 3! Whoever professes that it is not a good movie should never be consulted ever again on what is. Yeah, I cried a tad at the end like I do with all Pixar movies. Bravo to Pixar for writing a brilliant trilogy! They did an amazing job wrapping it up.

So what I noticed about all these movies is that not only were they entertaining and well written but that they lacked sexual content, which would not have been appropriate at all in the last 2 movies but the first 4 could have slipped it in there some way but they didn't. And surprise, surprise- the movies still sold and the masses have been entertained. Imagine that.

Therefore I Cry...

I'm not sure what is going on with me but for the last 3 days now I can't stop crying. It's so bizarre because I feel perfectly fine. Yesterday I was even happy and energetic all day long. I'm starting to look like one of those Hindu gods, except instead of leaking milk or something- I'm leak tears. It's over the most random stuff that soon spirals out of control. Like just the other day, I was at work and 2 very over-weight women wearing outrageous clothes squeezed themselves into a booth. When my eyes were finally able to pull themselves away from the hats they were wearing I realized that some of the other servers and a manager were in hysterics. I guess it would have been less funny if they had sat at a table. I just looked at them and said- "You're laughing at human beings. You know, people with feelings!" I was more shocked at their behavior then anything else. But the tears came anyway. Then I find out from my sister that her cousin-in-law's husband died a day before his 36 birthday, a day before Father's Day leaving her and their 4 children behind. Tears. To make it worse, I go and read her blog. Hysterical tears (this time). And then yesterday was Father-less Day for me. Even more tears. I look at pictures of Davey a year ago. More tears. I drive down to the grocery store and see fresh raccoon road kill and here they come again (really? Road kill? At this point, I'm really starting to worry). I watch Pride & Prejudice for the hundredth time but this time I cry when Jane is proposed to. I've never cried at that part before. I talk to my neighbors who are moving at the end of this month and the seeping starts again. We're suppose to go see Karate Kid today. I'm thinking about forgoing the make-up just in case.

Animal Cruelty

I sometimes engage in animal cruelty by doing random experiments on the dog. Before, I put a backpack on David to see how he'd look and how he'd handle it. The other day I decided that he needed a hat to go with the 97 degree weather that feels like 107 with the 80% humidity. He's such a good sport! He played along nicely but was not in the least bit amused by my idea.

I have (sadly?) discovered a new dog treat for David. All I have to do is fill a bowl with ice cubes and he becomes the happiest pup alive. The down side is that he thinks that every time I open the freezer its specifically for his enjoyment. He'd also rather drink his water out of the spicket out side then out of his water bowl.

It's way to hot outside to take our normal daily walks. We usually go around 7 PM but I'm working at night so David has to wait until I get home to go on a walk. In the mean time, I've been watching tons of movies. This is Davey's usual position during the day. He's either watching birds out the back door or watching people out the front window. I'm not sure why he likes to be on top of the couch cushions like this but the Great Dane I had as a child liked to do the same thing.

Life is so tough.