the other side of things

So Mercer blogged about rejection and I guess I'm here to fill in the rest of our activities. Mercer may not have scored big with the editors of Orange Brains and the Writing Bunch (or whatever they're called), but he has been cooking up a storm. Mmmm! Food never really translates well onto camera nless you got a bunch of nice filters for your camera and spray-on shellac for your food, but the dumplings and broc combo below really was a taste sensation. Okay, so I feel like half the photos of Ro these days are of him in his high chair, but that's where he stays stillest (not that he'll sit still for very long even in the captivity of the high chair).These days, he enjoys brocolli, cheese, sweet potatoes, and yogurt. And he loooooves waffles! He's a regular Aunite Gromads. The other day this fetching insect appeared on our doorstep. He was a holiday gift from Nick & Ann, but Ro (okay, Mercer & I) couldn't wait. Ever since Senor Bumble's appearance, Rowan has been entranced. Thanks Nick & Ann! Rowan can scoot Bumbles along, or sit on him like a tricycle while Merc or I push him. No wonder parents get back backs. We had a really fun weekend this past weekend. We hadn't been in Farmville in quite a while, so we headed up to see Grandma and Grandpa and Aunt Hannah. On Sunday morning, pre-waffles, Grandma and Ro spotted each other while they built up an appetite pumping iron.
Afterward we headed to a nearby lake to feed the ducks. Rowan excited all present by making very distinctive noises after being told the monikers of duck (duh) and goose (ooh). We tried to create an idyllic childhood scene by feeding some stale bread to the waterfowl, but said fowl were not really having it. Snobs! So we amused ourselves by observing some skaters at a new skatepark section of the park (okay, so it's probably several years old, but in Farmville time any structure under a quarter of a century old is brand new). Rowan was very taken with the big kids& their noisy skateboards. You can see the wheels turning. He's pondering all the tricks he can do on his wheelybug back at home.
Before we left, Vanessa, who has been my friend for 25 years to so, stopped by. She's expecting a baby in a month and a half. I think she decided it was time for another because her other baby is now practically in middle school! It was great to see her.

Rejecter Set

Well, I finished with my final exams this morning and now I have some time off before Spring semester. I've been sending poems out again, so the Christmastime is already seasoned with invective and rejection. Here's a recent rejection email. I sent this place FIVE poems four days ago:

Thanks for your interest in The Orange Room Review. We read the first THREE poems (as we accept 1 to 3 at a time) and are going to pass on them...We wish you luck placing them elsewhere...Thanks again and take care... (my emphasis)

Here's the retort email that, after counting to ten, I did not send:

I only read half your email...but I think I get...it...good luck...reading really...fast...

Anyway, that's what you get with most editors. This week, biggie will be getting a flu vaccine and I will be buying near-belated Christmas presents and, eventually, posting pics of babies rather than poetry world complaints.

Thanksgiving & the door bink

Yo, yo, yo!

Since half this blog is a desperate attempt to get up to speed (I feel like we're constantly going 37mph in a 45 on this thing), below please find, in no particular order, photos of our Thanksgivingstravaganza. Below, Ann grins like a tourist posing in front of the Empire State Building. Man were those potatoes good. Sadly, none of the leftovers lasted long.
More excitement, no doubt food-related:And below, the first of what will hopefully become an ongoing installment in the Pillow Fort: "cute when you do it, crazy when I do it." Mercer and I sometimes talk about this phenomena--Rowan gets social approval for performing actions that would be considered . . . well, a little wacky if one of us got to behaving that way. Grabbing a pair of socks and using them to bang on a department store display whilst singing a string of consonants? Cute when you do it, crazy when I do it. Obsessively staring at another person's toothbrush and attempting to pull it out of his mouth? Cute when you do it, crazy when I do it. So without further ado, cute when you do it:
Crazy when I do it:See how that works?

So yeah, Thanksgiving ruled. The piece de resistance occurred when Ro, Buddha-bellied from all those 'taters, crawled right out of his pants & diaper:We were so happy to have Nick & Ann here. We miss them tons!

So, in a very un-slick transition, here's today's scoop. We ran some errands and did some semi-successful Christmas shopping. Ro chilled for a short while with his cute little buddy Henry, who lives down the street. He's getting really interactive with other kids and tries to engage with them in play (okay, so often engaging means sticking a finger into the other kid's nose and crying when said other kid pulls his hair, but still).

Ro also spent some quality time with door bink. Door bink was a decoration at a fun baby shower that my mom's friends threw for me. I tied him to Ro's bedroom door and lately Ro has been obsessed. He crawls up and gets a fix whenever possible:

The other major event of today was that Ro stood unassisted for a good 6 or 7 seconds! He remains completely unaware that this has happened, but I was sitting with a little bauble in my hands. He came over, grabbed the bauble, and stood there with it in his hands, then resumed leaning on my knee. Wow, we're gettin' vertical!

a ro by any other name

So here are some pictures from Maryland! Yeah, this trip was totally two weeks ago, but ehhh, nothing worth noting happened today anyhow. Above, Ro rides in his new wagon. He took a headfirst tumble about two minutes after this photo was taken. Nonetheless, the wagon was a hit.He met another baby who's about his age. Babies always love other babies. Ro is completely in awe of toddlers and their ilk--small people who can run, albeit unsteadily. When Mercer went to pick Ro up at daycare today, he was being squeeeezed by a three-year-old girl. I'm sure he was enchanted.Above, Ro dances with his great grandma. Also, above, the baby he was chatting up earlier plays coy in the arms of Mercer's cousin Lauren, who organized the shindig. Ooooh, and big props to Mercer's cousin Ashley, 'cause she had a baby this morning! 9 pounds 11 ounces. Christ almighty, what a whopper! We are super-psyched to meet baby Clark.

Hmmm, what else, what else? I saw Ro for like half an hour today. It sucked bad. I had to work late, and he didn't nap all day, so by the time I got home he was half asleep. In other news, he slept through the night last night! My first thought when I awoke was "damn, sleep feels great." Then I got scared something was wrong.

I was talking baby names with my friend at work today. I really can't imagine Ro having any other name, though so very many were bandied about--the name Rowan popped into my head as I sat at work a couple days before going into labor, and we didn't pick a name til Ro was born. I like how it's unisex. Hopefully it won't be one of those names that has a brief and shining phase as a male name but then morphs into a female name, a la Courtney or Gail or Ashley. I mean, I'm all for raising him pretty gender neutral, but it's a tough road for a boy named Sue.

pre-thanksgiving tailgate

There has been a dearth of postage as of late, mostly because Nick and Ann have landed in Greensboro and we have been otherwise occupied with fun-having. They came into town Friday night. I had to work that night, so off we all went to a local gay bar. It was pretty fun, but I always forget you can smoke indoors here, as I never go out here and I got really used to smoke-free bars in New York and New England.

Anyhow, so yes, the fun-having commenced Friday night. Saturday we chilled and ate a giant cupcake.Sunday and Monday we trucked on over to Asheville, which lies over in them thar hills to the west of us. Mercer stayed at home to keep the cats company. I just remember having a lot of fun, so I asked Ann for a recap of our Asheville soujourn. She says that we ate a lot and walked around and ate cheesy poofs while watching crap tv. So there you have it. Saturday night, we went out to eat. Ro chowed down on catfish, root veggies, mashed potatoes, yams, and a bunch of other stuff. Shortly thereafter he went to sleep and the three of us snuck several hours of trash tv. None of us have had cable in a really long time. Monday morning we ate a veggie brunch (Ro helped me polish off my seitan stew) before driving home in the rain. I have had to work the past few days, so Nick and Ann ventured alone into the wilds of Greensboro to complete the Thanksgiving grocery shopping. Right now we have a turkey brining, cheesecake in the over, and stuffing in the works. We ran out of cornmeal, so I substituted a mix of whole wheat flour, flaxseed oat cereal, and crushed cheesy curls. We'll see how it turns out. Ro has really enjoyed having visitors around. He's quite the crazy driver these days (okay, the video is over a month old and I am just getting around to downloading, but you get the gist of it). I also need to update back posts with pictures from Maryland and stuff!

to Maryland & back again

Okay, another boring post. The pix are a ncd (no can do) due to my inability to find my camera charger and my camera battery's inability to hold a charge for more than 3 minutes. Sucky. So for those who occasionally frequent this slice of the blogosphere and may be planning on purchasing a Christmas gift for the S-B household (Mama & Dad, here's lookin at you), a new camera would be pretty sweet. Ahem.

We spent a really fun weekend in Maryland, bookended by two lengthy drives. Mercer and I got to catch up on said 6.5 hour drives, seeing as how most of our communication as of late has been something along the lines of:
M, handing off baby and swerving around L and out door: "Late for class. Howwuzwork? Ro's hungry."
L, dropping seven work bags on floor and grabbing baby: "Workwuzokay. Clean diaper? Have fun."
M, sprinting towards truck: "Yeah, bye!"

The occasion for all the travel was Mercer's grandma's big 8-0! Mercer's family--spearheaded by several of his cousins--threw a most surprising surprise party, complete with a photo-life retrospective that left many eyes misty. It was a really sweet shindig. Rowan loved gabbing with the honoree and the remainder of the guests there. Grandma and Grandpa B. got him a rad red wagon that he cruised around in--until his rubber ducky fell out and he lunged after him and fell headfirst on the driveway. Sad times ensued. Actually, he didn't fuss too much, and I think it fazed me more than it did him--it was his first dramatic mishap. He continues to be nonstop action, pulling heating vents up and standing up in the tub and lunging at everything. He is also getting quite conversational--he makes these little grunts after I say certain words (more, tub) that get me thinkin' he's really communicating.

So anyhow, Maryland was way fun. We returned to find a chilly house, dishes to be washed, and one tabby kitten putting the finishing touches on the slaying of a wee mouse. Lovely. I think I am headed to bed now, after an enchanting day of working til 7, rushing home to feed, bathe, and soothe Ro, cleaning the bathroom, and inhaling a platter of chocolate chip cookies for dinner. Mercer soldiers on, sighing over a heavy tome of Herbert's collected works and a heavily-footnoted document on his laptop.

that's my dj

Halloween has given way to what I'm sure will be a busy-busy November. I was indeed a zombie ghoul at the Gwood Halloween Scary-Walk. I jumped from bushes, wielded a severed head and chased screaming children. Groups were led through the park by "guides," who would try to slow the kids down and set them up for their final fright--a ghoul (called Barry) dressed as a bush, who jumped up and hollered.

I've been reading my students' work this weekend, and they have done some good writing. My own coursework is also going well, but as Liz mentioned, we've both been too busy to do stuff like double-entry accounting.

I just got to say one thing, though. English majors across the nation are breathing easier these days. Here's how's come.

we suck.

Mercer and I are failing at this whole being a grown up thing. We just sat down to have our first big budget talk (our spending is more than our incomes, what do we do?). The best solutions we could come up with involved me eating less prepared snack food at work and Mercer eating less Chik-Fil-A en route to pick up Ro at daycare. The whole conversation went down while we were eating the most adult dinner of all time--mini pizzas. I even had a nutty buddy, chocolate chip, peanut butter, banana, cookie dough sundae for dessert. Sigh.

Another way in which we suck at adulthood? Somehow, we both thought that the mortgage was being automatically drafted each month and thus failed to pay for our house for the months of September and October. Ooops. My credit rating has suffered as a result. When I went online to pay up, I found that you have to fill in an explanation of lateness using a drop-down menu. There was no response that said "After working a 12 hour day testing jail inmates for syphilis, coming home, feeding, bathing, tickling, kissing, and playing with my eight-month-old infant, and occasionally managing to do such household tasks as scrape 6 day old banana-cheerio mash off the floor before falling in bed, I barely have time to bathe, let alone open boring-looking notices about a mortgage that I thought was all set and paid for." Nope, I just had to select "oversight."

In less defeating news, it has been a really fun weekend so far. Mercer, Ro and I went to the arboretum and the international grocery store last night. Then Grandma and Grandpa S and Aunt Hannah came down from Virginny for the afternoon today. They came bearing lunch for all and sweaters for me, both of which were awesome. Ro looooved the attention. We raked some leaves (okay, grandma raked some leaves--the yard suffers til we get visits from either set of grandparents) and took a fun fall walk. Ro showed his skillz at crawling through the tunnel and up the slide at the park. It was so fun he forgot to nap. Easiest bedtime ever tonight!

I know this blog has gotten awfully boring without pix. I really will post new ones soon. Reallyreally!

frightmare

It has been a long, tough week here in the S-B household, thus the whole no bloggage thing. Ro and I came down with the plague. Mercer was harried as ever. I had long work hours.

But we're back with a bang! We celebrated Halloween in style (if by style you mean sweatpants) last night. I was tempted to take Ro trick or treating, but I figured such a blatant maternal ploy for candy would be too transparent. So instead we lay low and awaited trick-or-treaters, which we got in abundance. It's pretty fun being part of a trick-or-treat neighborhood again. We got lots o rascals pounding down the door, and somehow, between us and them, the six plus bags of candy I purchased for the occasion got eaten.

Tonight there was a little shindig in the hood. Glenwood celebrated its first annual Halloween festival, and it was pretty fun. There were old-school carnival games and a cakewalk and face painting and the like. I baked a cake and haphazardly attempted to garner corporate donations. Ro seemed to enjoy it all. He sneezed a lot and kicked his legs energetically, which is always a sign of stimulation. The night's festivities ended with a super-spooky haunted trail for big kids and grown-ups. That's where Mercer is now. The park next door is all decked out with a chainsaw killer, a coffined-up dead bride, a severed head rolling down a slide, heads on stakes, hanged ladies, a living tree, and a zombie (Mercer). I can hear the screams emanating from next door and want to take a spin-through, but can't leave slumbering babies. For his part, Ro seemed pretty pleased with it all. He grinned at the undead folk and giggled at all the blood. It's funny how a loud "Boo" can scare him but he's completely unfazed by gore.

Also, a sign he's getting a sense of humor: today, he barfed, caught it in his hand, and giggled as he rubbed it in my shirt. Haha. I feel like blog posts lately have been either text or pix, but I'll post again soon. With pix!

who's posting?! who!??

well, i realize i'm basically only an honorary kitten now--liz busted me down to private, i've lost my stripes, there's no room in the pillow fort for me--a non-blogging roustabout barnacle who couldn't upload a picture to save his screen-name!!!!

oh well, it should be evident to viewers that i've become a heinous caricature of the typical english graduate student. right now it's "fall break" and i'm the only person in shouting distance of the teaching assistant office without a floor-polisher or a mop. However, I do try to occasionally play hide-&-seek behind ro's highchair.
Here's R looking like Jack Nicholson. You can see the bags under the poor guy's eyes. This morning he was ready to rawk at 5:30, and by the time I put him in his car seat, he was wiped.


He's got two little corn-kernel sized teeth now, and we think he's about the cut the top two teeth as well. It's going to be weird to see the little guy with teeth...but I guess Halloween is a good time to get some fangs.
















Here's a real kitten, laying seige to an imaginary pillow fort.

And here's what I'll be going for as a Halloween zombie! The son has taught the father!!!!

Mercer's computer is pretty ornery about moving pix around in Blogger, so they'll remain tacked to the heading of the page, sans explanations.

The S-B family just returned from a pumpkin-carving party. It was pretty cool--there was chili to be had, pumpkin carving apparati to be conquered, ex-neighbors to reminisce with. I for one am coasting along on a major sugar high, fueled by the deadly trifecta of candy corn, cupcakes, and brownies. Merc was more tempted by the mummies (hot dogs wrapped in croissant dough). I'm pretty sure we all exceeded our daily allowance of garbage. I let Ro try a tiny bite of chili--big mistake. He spent the rest of the time lunging and whining. I'm pretty sure he is my id, all spiffed up in cuteness.

So yup, we have pretty much abandoned the uber-careful, administer new foods one at a time and wait and see if they cause any untoward reactions. We have kinda relented and let him guide the process now--within reason.

In other news, Ro has decided not to sleep, really. And when Ro ain't sleeping, nobody's sleeping. I think it may be a combo of teething and a new daycare, but it has been a little tough.

We're all swept up in Halloween frenzy over here. Our neighborhood is home to swarms of young'uns, so we're prepping for trick-or-treaters already (and by that I mean have purchased drawerfuls of candy that will likely experience major depletion before the first grubby paw raps on the door on Halloween night). There's also gonna be a carnival down the block, complete with a haunted trail that'll wind through the park next door. I volunteered Mercer to be a zombie.

I am going to take this rare naptime oppertunity to (grudgingly) attempt to mop the crusted squash and cereal off the kitchen floor. More later!

pretty good

So yeah, it was a pretty good week. Ro is teething something fierce, which has caused him to get up to all kinds of shenanigans, shenanigans like waking up at 3am thinking it is time for fun and play. He crashed a few minutes ago, but I already hear cranky stirrings emanating from his direction. Uh-oh. Mercer and I are seriously sleep deprived, and Ro goes about his day looking like he's wearing eyeliner he's so sleepy.

This was also Ro's first week in his new daycare. The arrangement seems to be working out well so far. His new provider has a three year old daughter, who has really taken to Ro (and I think the feeling is mutual. He loves pulling her hair.). It's kind of a downer that their first week together has been marred by the specter of budding teeth-induced crankiness, but she seems to have taken it in stride.

For my part, I am waiting on Mercer to come home from class so we can eat slash updating my music collection for the first time in a long, long time. I am not too hip to what the kids are listening to these days (though there is some pretty good college radio in GSO), so I just downloaded some albums from bands I liked back in the day. After all that music-procurin' I am too sleepy to download pictures as well, but more are in the works.

And I don't know about y'all but my obsession with the news has gotten a tad bit unhealthy. It's time for this election to go ahead and be over. NC has early voting, so I'll probably hit the polls before too long.

PS: T, you oughta go see GirlTalk: Urbana, 11.5!

housemold

Coming atcha live from the S-B household. Mercer, who has dropped off the face of planet blogosphere, is diligently underlining stuff. He's reading a section called . . . ummm . . . "Vygotsky, Tutoring, and Learning." Since I don't have much to say about that, I'll move along to a status report on other residents of this abode.

In the world of kittens, you're either in . . . or you're out. Earlier, Lemmy was in, which meant that Audie was out. Right now, Audie is in, so that means Lemmy is out. This whole paragraph won't make much sense if you have never seen Project Runway. It probably doesn't make much sense if you have, either. But the kittens have been enjoying a little newfound freedom as we have let them wander outside a little more. In part, we felt safer doing this due to a larger yard and microchipping technology . . . and we just got tired of policing the door and chasing them down, only to get scratched whilst carting them back in.
Que mas, you ask? Well, Ro is officially seven months old today. He marked the occasion by cutting his first tooth! Two pearly swellings have been visible just below the gumline for weeks, and one has finally busted out. I'm trying to introduce him to other foods in an attempt to find one he like as much as pickles. I know all that salt can't be good for him--he just really loves 'em!
Rowan has been sleeping better at night, taking more regular naps during the day (well, sometimes). A pal from the hood told me her baby is doing well on the 2-3-4 schedule (two hours between waking and first nap, three hours between waking from first nap and second nap, four hours between waking from second nap and bedtime). I have been absorbing lots of guidance from across the world from my friend Taisuke and his adorable family!

I worked a twelve hour day today, and the weekend seems like a distant memory. I never get over feeling sad when I leave in the morning. I suppose by the time he's 11 or so, I will have gotten over it (he'll be screaming at me about how lame I am because I won't buy Fruity Frosted Sugar Bombs for breakfast). In any case, starting work at 7 is rough, but having Friday off is totally worth it. Oh! And we (hopefully, fingers crossed) seem to have found a new daycare situation for Ro.

Some household stuff:
That rad lamp my mama and bro made from an old oil drum (thanx for the correction, T).
The hawsometron sewing table Grandpa B made (I bought some new fabric for a project--hopefully I'll be able to use it soon!).And this behemoth is the subtle, tasteful litter box screen I made for the cats' waste area (the litter box and its accouterments inspire endless fascination from Ro. I have had to intercept many a mission). Yeah, we couldn't find olive green or even cameo-colored tarps. It looks like a traffic cone threw up. Actually, on second thought, it kinda resembles a giant play fort (Mercer: "Wow, that new box looks really fun. I wish I could use the bathroom in there."). Uh-oh.

rowan picked a peck of pickled pickles

Tonight's menu featured sweet potatoes, acorn squash, rice cereal, and pickles. Ahhh, the pickles. Much footage was taken. Excuse the cripplingly depressing NPR footage in the background (why can't anything good happen to Haiti?).
Okay, time to hunker down with my frozen pizza and focus on the VP debates. Yes, frozen pizza. Politics. Alone. Sad combo. At lease Gwen Ifill rulez!

wheze is awake.

The S-Bs have once again enjoyed a busy week, and I figured I'd catch up on bloggage whilst the wee one slumbers. In preparation, I went to pour myself a nice mug of coffee. I added my sugar and poured the milk . . . straight into my water glass. Below, Merc asks, and I quote, "what the hell is that?"Much has been afoot on the Rowan front. In top news, his daycare provider can no longer provide services due to a family matter, so we got the boot. I was pretty bummed, as it was a good situation and I feel nervous about the prospect of entrusting my baby with someone else, but we just returned from interviewing someone. It seems like her parenting/childcare philosophies are pretty similar to ours, so we'll see. Child care is rough to navigate . . . you have to decide on the type of situation you want (in-home, either yours or the provider's, day care center, etc), negotiate the money issue, and then, most difficult of all, assess the safety and quality of the situation. This particular provider is asking for a monthly amount that's about the same as our mortgage payment . . . and that seems pretty reasonable. If you're gonna pay for anything in this world, it oughta be to ensure your kid is well cared for. But still, it's a reminder that babies ain't cheap.

Ro also is battling the terrible trifecta of a cold/teething/diaper rash. Ugh. He still manages to be pretty jolly when he wakes us up at 5:30 every morning (see evidence above, below).And he's enjoying solids. Some. Usually. We had a pretty enjoyable day yesterday. After some yellin & screamin during Friday night's debtes, we headed to an Obama rally right here in Greensboro. It was a pretty rad--and well-attended (~20,000 folks) speach. And what a demographically-mixed crowd! I might even have seen Obama. I mean, I definitely heard him, but at the distance of a couple blocks, it was hard to tell anyone apart. The guy I watched gesticulating on stage could've been Obama. Could've been Biden. Could've been the Secretary of Agriculture or a security guard. Anyhow, at risk of sounding cheesy, we left feeling pretty good about this country.

But . . . then we went to WalMart. We were in that part of town and needed some groceries. The parking lot was a nightmare. We decided to just park whereever and turned up a lane. And here's what went down:
Humongoid white SUV in front of us sees some activity eminating from a car three spaces in. The SUV's driver decides to park there, turns on blinker to signify this. There are plenty of available spaces about 30 feet further up, but that's okay, we'll wait--the SUV is totally blocking the lane. About two minutes pass. The driver of the parked car has now opened every door of her car and is taking out several small bags. The white SUV ain't going nowhere. Mercer, getting slightly frustrated, taps the horn. A few more minutes pass. The driver of the parked car is standing there applying lip gloss. The white SUV still refuses to budge. After a couple more minutes, I can see smoke eminating from Mercer's ears and Ro has started to fuss. Mercer finally manages to squeeeeze by the SUV on the left and shoots the driver a dirty look. We park a few spaces up. I mean, how can anyone be that lazy? HOW? And then somehow WalMart is set up to make me frantically purchase as much zero-nutritional-value crap as possible. When I lived in Farmville, we relied on WalMart to get basics you couldn't buy anyplace else in town. Now that big city living has transformed me into a liberal elitist, I say never again. Plus, who wants to be surrounded by McCain supporters? I need to stick to my liberal roots and support urban farmer's markets and overpriced, quasi-hip food chains like Panera and Starbucks and read the New York Times.

Anyways, enough being a huge, fussy jerk for one day. Let's!!!!!!!!!!

shroom zoom

I'm very tired, so this may be a sho'ty. Or better yet, a photo essay. Yesssssiree, a photo essay.

As per usual, we have been doing a lot of running around lately. We have also had some guest appearances by some pretty rad individuals. Last last weekend, Jane and her friend Erin stopped by on their way back from gallivanting in Georgia. Below, she and Ro-baby, clearly zombies, conspire to feast on the flesh of their victims. J/k. Zombies are dumb! They can't conspire to do anything. Speaking of fake stuff, I'm kinda surprised at how many people genuinely believe Obama is the Antichrist. Oh crap, now if some whackjob googles "obama antichrist," will they stumble across this blog? If so, um, welcome. Thanks for reading, whackjob! You're nuts! After Jane's too-short visit, I didn't do the best job of documenting the past week. In fact, this is the first time I have seen all the pictures below, so I'm probably not the best interpreter of what's going down.Below, Ro perfects his nineteenth century newspaper-hawking waif-shipped off to the coal mines look. Know why he was shipped off? Because the authorities saw this picture and figured the foppish lout holding him must be drunk. J/k, Merc! He only looks foppish because we're all functioning on very little sleep here.
Friday night, I was out at the gay bar til 2 or so (I was working. For real!). Merc was sweet enough to let me sleep in on Saturday morning. When I awoke, I heard tell of some fungus amongus photo shoot that the boys had cooked up during my slumbers. Alls I know is now there are about 54 pictures of backyard mushrooms on the camera now. I think Mercer may discuss this in more detail, but some are pretty grotesque. Though the ones below are appealing! This past weekend, we enjoyed seeing Grandma and Grandpa B. They weren't able to stay long, but it was great seeing them and of course Ro relished the attention. Below, they eat pancakes (I was off at yet another work event--sniff, sniff). Besides bringing copious amounts of meat, they also brought a beautiful sewing table that was used by the T.A. Edison (probably maybe)! I bought some fabric today for a project. I eat your brains!