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!