Chub

Poetry Thursday

Tariff

It takes time to appreciate how I once
made a friend so unhappy the next night
on the road from Chauncey to Amesville, Ohio,
she steered her Fiat Spider head on
into an on-coming truck. Her boyfriend
identified her waitress uniform.
She's been dead now for more than twenty years.
What I did to hurt her I won't tell you -
so you're free to imagine any vicious,
self-indulgent, hapless blunder or crime

while I go about turning this into a poem again,
turning over heavy marl, the garden
in spring, and the wind picks up, flinging soil
against my neck, behind my ears, into my teeth.
You have to get dirty: what appreciate
means is to price. After living a while
you understand the ways you have to pay.

-Michelle Boisseau

5 months old

Happy birthday, little man.

Important announcement

Last night, at Carmelo's, after much prodding from my table neighbors, I ate escargot.

And it was good.

Really good.

Chewy, delicious, garlicky, buttery mollusk. Yum.

Nursery pictures

If you look very closely at the dresser, you can see the coolest lamp ever. It's all 50s mod, like something out of the Jetson's. We are currently looking for the perfect shade.

Who me?

Finished

I finally (mostly) finished Saul's nursery this weekend by hanging up the last two pictures on the wall, making B remove the tool boxes that have been sitting on the floor forever, and finally wadding up folding the extra crib sheets on the floor and stuffing them putting them away neatly on a shelf in his closet. I'm only five months late. So I guess that means it took me an ENTIRE YEAR to finish one room. Once again, I marvel at the incredible self-deception that caused B and I to think a fixer-upper was a good idea.

I took pictures, but I left my camera cable on my desk at home. Maybe I'll put this up this evening before we leave Saul with a baby sitter for the first time ever. More on that tomorrow, maybe.

Uh oh

He moves. Time to start baby-proofing.

New experience

After B's Grandpa's funeral, the local Baptist church had a luncheon for the family. Having grown up in a somewhat progressive, somewhat urban Methodist church, this was my first taste of real Southern Baptist church-lady cooking and I was totally fascinated.

Among other casserole dishes, I ate one that was mostly made up of corn, Fritos, and mayonnaise. Just stop to wrap your mind around that for a minute. Corn. Fritos. And mayonnaise.

There were also potato casseroles, spaghetti casseroles and green-bean casseroles. And ham and yeast rolls and salad made with iceberg lettuce. And lemonade and coffee.

For dessert, there was lemon meringue pie, two chocolate cakes, brownies, a strawberry Jello mold, and cherry cobbler.

Fabulous.

Quick

Maybe someday soon I will have time to post more than a sentence or two. For now, here is a video on some seriously seventies carpet in Missouri. He's not even doing anything, he's just being adorable.

Although the look on his face when he falls over at the end is pretty funny.

Picture

On my mother-in-law's wedding day:

Sad news

I'm sorry to say that B's grandpa died this morning. I only met him a few times, but everything I have heard and seen leads me to the conclusion that B inherited quite a few personality traits from him.

We will be leaving for Missouri tomorrow morning and I'm not entirely sure when we'll be back. Posting will probably be sporadic.

Although the occasion is a sad one, Saul will get to meet many of his relatives for the first time. I also hope he will help to comfort people. I only wish B's grandpa could have met him.

Kiss

MSN has released what they think are the top ten sexiest movie kisses, but they are missing the sexiest kiss ever: Katherine Hepburn and Spencer Tracy in the airport scene in Woman of the Year. I remember the first time I saw it, I rewound it a few times and thought "wow."

I tried to find a clip on YouTube and I couldn't, but I did find someone who had uploaded the entire movie in small parts. The kiss is at 8:35.

Poetry Thursday

After a God

The man I love most says one day
he will take a ballpoint pen and connect
the stars across this freckled
scoop of chest and milky way.
We’ll cross the slope
of pale belly and name
the new constellation after a god
who shows people
all the places they might shine.

-Jenny Browne

Proud

"Austin Among Top Ten Greenest Cities"

I've been meaning to write about mine and B's recent issues with environmentalism and consumer culture. We've both been moving farther and farther from the mainstream, and we're now dealing with issues of morality versus convenience, etc. But instead of properly dealing with such serious issues, I'm stressing over a constipated baby and a still-missing band-aid.

But he can be awfully cute.

Growing up

The band-aid

On Sunday morning, Saul cut his finger. It was bleeding a lot, so I slapped some Neosporin and a band-aid on it. B said "that's dangerous, he could choke on it." I said "no he won't, and anyway, I'll put a mitten on his hand so he can't get to it."

I bet you can see where this is going.

It took him approximately 5 seconds to get the mitten off and eat the band-aid. Luckily, he got it down after coughing and choking for only about 15 seconds.

We called poison control and his pediatrician. We were told to just wait for it to come out the other end.

We're still waiting.

There's nothing more humiliating then dropping your kid off at daycare and having to ask them to keep an eye out.

Lyrics

Some lyrics that I liked in the new Eagles album:

And we pray to our Lord
Who we know is American
He reigns from on high
He speaks to us through middlemen
And he shepherds his flock
We sing out and we praise His name
He supports us in war
He presides over football games
And the right will prevail
All our troubles shall be resolved
We have faith in the Lord
Unless there's money or sex involved

Exersaucer Revisited

An older and wiser Saul takes maximum advantage of the exersaucer's amenities:

Melt

Saul is sleeping in his crib all by himself now, but it kills me when he turns over and hugs the boppy. I think he misses me. I know it's better for him to sleep in his own room and bed, but I miss him too. The first night B and I slept in our room all by ourselves this weekend, we were both lonely and B finally brought him up at around 3:30 in the morning.

Creepy

Most of my YouTube videos have between 50 and 100 views. But the video of Saul rolling over on the bed while naked had a couple thousand views. I hope I'm just being paranoid, but I went ahead and deleted it. I already worry enough about people breaking in to my house to steal him; I don't need to be stressing out about internet creeps on top of that.

Can someone tell me whether I'm being crazy? I don't even know anymore.

One more video

We had probably better let B teach Saul his animals:

Art

I bought two new prints for Saul's room from Bee's Knees Studios:

Skillz

Saul has learned how to turn over from his back to his belly. He can roll both ways now. That means he is mobile. Uh oh.

So much for not posting this week

You know what works as an immediate cure for tiredness (besides the cups of coffee that I've been holding my nose and swallowing)?

A big, fat, juicy raise.

It's like a big, wonderful present.

Except one that I worked my heiny off for.

And one that I have to pay taxes on.

But still.

We've been scrimping lately, but we're going out for Thai food tonight. No more watery Amy's Tom Kha, tonight I get the real thing!

Hitting a little close to home

Modern, hip parenting.

Yay for cheap, plentiful hair dye

3 asleep and 3 awake

Last time on the swing

Closed down

I will be on break from posting for at least a week. I will try to continue to put up a few pictures here and there (Hi, Grandpa!)

I'm just so very tired.

Zizzer zazzer zuzz

I just love this picture - doesn't he look like a villain out of a Dr. Seuss story?