Dog Days of Summer

I understand that the pretty much everywhere in the US it is summer and hot. Today it feels like 107 F. We have been told that August is the worst, so we are about to enter the toughest spot. I guess if Wikipedia has the correct history, we are to blame, Sirius, also called the Dog Star, ancient Romans thought, he was somehow responsible for the hot weather (another rare time a degree or minor in Classics would come in handy).

For the last two weeks, one member of our family has been sick for a couple days here and there. Max started it, fever, chills, etc. Then Henry caught and vomited at daycare and had a fever and stuff. Then four days later, I actually was sick with a sore throat and fever. I recovered in time to take care of Henry in all night fuss session-I think he had a sore throat. I think we have all finally returned to a near healthy state. Thanks to vitamin C via Tropicana OJ with Lots of Pulp (that right we pass up no pulp and some pulp and go out of our way to have lots of it.)

Next week is Henry's second birthday. We were going to make train cupcakes to take to daycare but have to take "store bought" ones...so we may just make up a few train cupcakes for our house birthday party. I think I will use DimDim for the family that want to watch and sing...details will follow in an email.

I had a couple of failure runs this past weekend in the heat at our favorite outdoor spot-Kiesel Park. I joined the Auburn Fitness Club for Women yesterday-which offers a number of benefits. Running in a environmentally control room, yoga classes, people, an excuse to watch General Hospital (surprising- I do not know what is going on...too many new faces, babies that are now teenagers, and the old Lucky is back...etc).

If you are friends with us on FB you may be aware that we are not going to live out our lives in Alabama. But we are going to try to start exploring more (by way of increasing our carbon foot print of course) once Sirius has let up on the heat...

three day weekend anyone?

Hooting Good Times.

We have been super busy the last week and half. We attended this very cool Owl Release Party at Kiesel Park. It is kind of like a CD release party without the glamor and fashion but with rehabilitated birds of prey. Henry was pretty impressed by the smallness of the bard owls and two red tailed hawks that are permanent tenants at the raptor recovery center.

We also invested in some insect repellent and have been able to take Henry to parks in the evening to play ball or just walk. Last night we went to Town Creek Park which has a small pond filled with turtles and sun fish and blue gills. Henry really likes the turtles. We also met this huge, Great Dane named Page there. Isabelle thought Page was a bit of a bully. Henry thought Page was a horse.

This last Saturday, we were invited to a young parent party-the people in attendance were either the parents of offspring <5 or were the offspring. Henry was totally impressed by Liam, a 22 month old boy. Liam has the complete Fisher Price Animal Train and a kitchen set in his room. Liam is also a daring climber-which I believe is correlated with Liam being the F2.

We might try to go pick blueberries this weekend. And have definite plans to go to the Municipal Park in Opelika so that Henry can ride the train. This park has a lot of shade and different play sets for different age groups. It is a nice park. When we drove through Opelika to get to the Park, we noticed there were sidewalks-the neighborhood around the park reminded me of our old one in Lincoln.

Atlanta-venture

Not the best pun, but this blog is a WIP...Today we stepped out of our comfort zone and took a family trip (minus Isabelle and the cats) to Atlanta. This morning was the Peachtree Road Race, the largest race in the US, 55K people run it. We did not know those statistics before planning to attend, we just wanted to see our good friend Tamara from Ames finish the 10k race and hang out with her. Max and I used our combined 53 years of education to plan how to use the MARTA system to travel from just north of the airport to Midtown where the race finished-we did a pretty good job as the most tense moment we had was trying to find a parking spot at the park &ride College Park Station.

We were a little overwhelmed when we got to Midtown with the number of people and route we had to walk to find Tamara. Nearly an hour late from the agreed upon time we found Tamara and her friends under the H ballon (I thought she had picked for Henry but this morning realized it might be H for Hancock (her last name)). It was a beautiful, cool for GA day and we were able to walk and talk and just enjoy the Midtown neighborhood...we took MARTA to Little Five Points and ate lunch at this cool corner pub. Henry was loving it. He hadn't seen Tamara in ages and just kept smiling at her. I had a fanstatic IPA that was high gravity and chocolate from a dish held by a Buddha outside the ladies room. It was fantastic to hang out with Tamara and her soon-to-be lawyer friend, Haley, who is moving to Little Five points soon.

If you were unaware, Atlanta has a some water resource issues-there is just not enough of it to keep up with demand and growth. I now understand why there is such growth-because Atlanta is cool, beautiful, and unique. I was again surprised (my prejudices are many) by how much I like Atlanta. I can understand why the Olympic Committee said yes. Plenty of cool neighborhoods, clean streets and parks. I would have to give Atlanta an A+ based on that experience (to give you a baseline, other large cities I have visited and graded Boston-A-, Pittsburgh was a B+, San Francisco C-, Seattle-A) We are definitely going back soon, only wish Tamara was going to be there.

Lady K's Southern Emporium

"Lady K's Southern Emporium," -that is the name of my blog if Max were in charge. He suggested the name last night when we were eating dinner. I had made crepes for the first time since coming to AL on an electric range. A challenge, but they turned out nicely. It really is hard to screw up something with such a high butter content which of course Henry loved. Crepes seem to bring out Max's creative side.

We have had a few nice, clouldy below 90 days here. We might even go for a walk this evening, I think there is the potential that I might not even sweat but more likely I will sweat but just not enough that I will have to change my outfit.

I finished by first Sookie Stackhouse mystery. I should have know the television show is different from the books, Sookie is smarter in the books and Mrs. Harris ( I would put her somewhere between Jennifer Meyer (low end) and Octavia Butler (high end) does a fine job writing about small town dynamics not really mentioned in the tv series. Sadly, Godric in the book was a disgusting, horrible vampire. Hmm.

On Thursdays there is a farmers' market that is held near the Auburn University Animal Studies building. We have gone a few times. Henry is particularly fond of a goat cheese sold there. And last week we bought some delicious eggs and signed up for boiler chickens that will be ready in August, which we will have to drive to pick up. Max told me they will be dead and cleaned when we pick them, I have this small fear they will not be and what will we do with three chickens? We bought tomatoes grown in the "Alabama dirt" yesterday. We had unknowingly purchased a pint of tomatoes from another grower that were disappointingly hydroponic. As I work from home, these kinds of outings are both a high point and a low point, the former because I get a chance to talk to people in the flesh, and the latter because I will inevitably make a fool of myself. Grrr. We happened to run into the new co-op unit co-leader and his wife and their children. Immediately, I thought, could this be possible- a couple with kids, that watches the Daily Show (code for liberal?) , just moved to Auburn a week ago, doesn't know anybody either...I feel like I screwed up the opportunity to make friends, I am not sure if it was the hot sun or my genuine ability to screw up first encounters, but I think I should have said the things I said differently or not said them. Mmm.

I guess there is John John and Herry on Hulu to watch with Henry...having adult friends in Auburn might be a low probability event.