3 parts Comedy -- 1 part Tragedy

When I publish a blog post I think that the posting more times than not should definitely have a high ratio of things funny/silly to things serious or abstract. Life is way too short to not laugh a whole lot. However, my mood greatly affects my ability to objectively assess the ratio, sometimes. This time I am going to track it.

1) Tuesday morning madness: Stacked on top of the usual morning obstacles was Max leaving for Raleigh, NC to attend a brain trust meeting later that afternoon and dun, dun, dun (dramatic look) a pet related incidence. Dog bed sprinkled with Mona poop? No. Did Nero puke on another one of Max's beloved Wetland Playa books? No. (But that did happen last Thursday). Did I step in a giant puddle of urine with newly donned socks? Yes, yes I did. Of course being a little annoyed, I groaned and started muttering to myself. Max upon hearing, called downstairs to ask what had happened. I exclaimed that I had stepped in a urine puddle in the downstairs bathroom. Max, immediately trying to peg it on one of the cats, asked, "when did you last clean out the catboxes?" I yell back even with greater annoyance as I am cleaning up the mess, "It is a giant puddle! There is no way it was one of the cats, it would of have to been a herd of cats to leave that much behind." But thankfully the rest of the morning was nice.

2) When Max goes away, I usually take the opportunity to watch a movie that Max would never watch. I picked "Date Night," last night with Tina Fey. I am so glad Max wasn't here. I thought is was wonderful, not the best movie, but fun. I laughed really hard when the cars were stuck together. I even cried when the Steve Carrell's character was making a plea to Mark Walberg's character, he was so sweet.

3) Henry is in love with watching Caillou, a Canadian cartoon. Max and I like Caillou because it is all about sharing and learning. However, we have only been able to find two DVDs to rent and so watching the same episodes over and over is testing my sanity. I find myself singing, "I'm growing up, I'm growing up." We may even take on Canadian accents if we keep up with this newest development.

4) The fountain of things funny and silly is still flowing...for example I just found Melissa&Joey on Hulu, it is like Clarissa Explains it All/Sabrina the teenage witch/Blossom/Who's the Boss all in one show. Love it. Ethics lessons in 1/2 hour sessions is so refreshing.

However, I do have some more serious things to mention:

1) Finished reading "Mockingjay" by Suzanne Collins. Phenomenal is all I can say without giving away too much. It was so well written and now I keep thinking of Katniss and this Neko Case song, I wish I was the Moon, which has this stanza:

God blessed me, I'm a free man
With no place free to go
I'm paralyzed and collared-tight
No pills for what I fear

This is crazy
I wish I was the moon tonight

And I do have another serious thingy I want to tackle, but for now I think I will just put in my pocket until it burns a hole...
Peace.
I mean that.

Monkey See, Monkey Do: Twitter.

When I started this blog, I had this idea I would share Alabama experiences which have been limited due in part to the confining heat. However, this last week was like a hot week in Iowa or Nebraska, you do not immediately start sweating once going outdoors but jeans are still not a good idea; it is tolerable in shorts and t-shirt. Additionally, school started here and so now we are suddenly living in a city with 25,000 hip, college kiddos. Since the invasion, I have noticed the college student vehicle of choice is a JEEP, the real kind with the roof that detaches. There has also been a growing number of Hummer sightings (H2's mostly). Nike shorts galore, every girl wears them in all colors of the rainbow, they are the Uggs of the south. I just want to take a moment to complain (I know, big surprise) about the drivers here. They are terrible. They drive too quickly, text, cut into lanes when making left hand turns and now with the college students here the problem has grown by nearly 25k times.

We are waiting for our first game day in town, which is the 4th of Sept. What will become of us? There are tiger signs everywhere, directing "game day" traffic this way and that. No RV parking signs. I am not sure I mentioned this before but I have seen churches with tiger mascots...I find that a little alarming. Could this be a crazier place than Lincoln, NE on a game day?

I am sure many of you are aware of the deep love I have for NPR. Well, my cup runneth over...NPR has a Pop culture blog called Monkey See. The writers and contributors on the blog are witty and intelligent. I recommend you check out their weekly podcast, Pop Culture Happy Hour. Hilarious yet informative. It is like having Jason and Tamara Hancock over to play scrabble, eat chocolate molten cakes and drink blood orange martinis. In fact, I joined Twitter so I could follow "my friends" from the PCHH on twitter which turned out to be a really serendipitous act of stalking because I found my friend Hedda on twitter. I then discovered Hedda's blog which I think has to be one of the most beautiful blogs that occasionally is tatooed with vet school photos of (insert latin word with gential or cyto or something with only a half a jaw). Could I write another sentence with twitter mentioned three times? Sure, but I will spare you.

I do however want to share this cosmic like wish that someday my brother will meet Linda Holmes, NPR's entertainment blog editor, he will dazzle her with his vast knowledge of all tv shows and movies ever made. (Remember my Adamisms?) They both love "How I met your Mother." I think they are solemates. She even likes football; Vikings football (sorry Dan).

And because I only have one brother, I am going to be extremely picky about who I pick to be my sister in law. :)

Found: Lost Harmonica and Husker Pride

I know that everyone's Mondays are manic. But today was a super, special Manic Monday for us.
This morning, I found Henry's harmonica which Henry would definitely put in his plus column, while I might put in the glad for Henry/possible migraine trigger column (just kidding, I love Henry's music). I have been looking for this harmonica for a long time, since before we moved to Auburn from Ames. When we packed up Henry's room I tried to keep an eye out for it but never had any luck finding it.
I figured it had gone the way of my old GEM and the Rocker's Doll; it was swallowed by the vortex that swallows only the best/beloved toys and are never seen again.

That is not the case for this lucky Harmonica. What follows is truthful description of Operation Harmonica Recovery:

"Dear!" Hollers Max from the upstairs to me downstairs.

"Yes" I reply, internally processing what I could have done/not done that Max would break his own rule of yelling between floors. Did I remember to flush? Did not put my floss in the bin? Did Isabelle eat the bar of soap in the tub again?

"Did you remember to clean out the cat box?" Max yells.

"Yes, I did it yesterday!" I yell back, feeling a bit more relaxed, as this morning is garbage pick-up and Max is just checking...

"Are you sure?" Max calls.

"Yes." I yell back.

"Well, Mona is taking a dump on Isabelle's bed." Max yells. I hear Max trying to find the words to communicate to Mona that pooping on Isabelle's bed is not okay.

My reply, "Well, it is probably because Isabelle will not let Mona into the kitchen to get to the cat box." I go and retrieve the clean up materials and go upstairs and clean up the mess, which required that I remove Isabelle's bed cover. It is when I removed the cover that Henry's Harmonica fell to the floor, almost at Henry's feet, who is particularly interested in all things poop. Henry of course picks up with this pure look of joy and begins to play...the blues. I am fairly certain that most Mondays you will not find a cat pooping on a dog bed that results in the recovery of a most beloved toy. In the car ride to Henry's daycare, Max shared a hypothesis that Mona may be a repeat offender and Isabelle has been taking care of cleaning up the tootsie rolls; she has come to think it is like when housekeeping leaves a mint on a pillow at a hotel. I still have not figured out how the harmonica got inside Isabelle's bed, perhaps she does not care for Henry's music...

NCAA Football and Volleyball season is here! Yeah! I received an alumni ad from UNL's bookstore with this hoodie in it on Saturday. I liked it so much I sent text pictures of it to Wendy, my sister for her opinion and Leslie. Max thinks is not attractive. The more Max espouses his distaste for all things Scarlett and Cream the more I like it. GO HUSKERS! (you can find one like it at: http://www.bkstr.com/ProductDisplay/10001-10041-10287-39814107-1?demoKey=d)

The Real Housewives of Auburn, AL

Last weekend was a lot of fun. On Friday night we went out to eat with a bunch of people from Max's lab group/department at this place called Niffers. Henry really liked the restaurant for four reasons. One, they served breaded and fried cream corn and fried pickles. Two, they decorated the joint with antique toys and hung fish art from the ceiling-so he was able to point and identify a season of antiques roadshow objects for quite awhile. Three, they have a little kids area with legos (the bigger ones), a kitchen set, and a collection of toy cars. Four, Max's labmate, Phil, who shares Henry's excitement does about cars and trucks, was there and he listened and showed at least an equal level of excitement when Henry brought out his toy cars and his giant sticker book with only transportation stickers.

On Saturday, we, along with Wildlife Faculty member and his family, were invited over to the home of Max's labmate, Connor and his wife Cate, for North Carolina BBQ. Henry was loving it because there were "new" toys to play with. The food was great, Cate made this awesome vegan cornbread of which I had at least four pieces and Kelley made chocolate chip raisin bran bars of which I had at least three . I kind of felt a little embarrassed when Cate's daughter asked for more cornbread and Cate had to tell her there wasn't any let as I had just eaten the last piece.

(warning: this may be boring and ends a little cheesy)

And then on Sunday, we went to the UU in the morning and a Humanist Dinner that night. The UU service was lay lead and the topic was your hero, the individual leading the service had picked/thought of Richard Bach as their hero, who redefined hero to be someone who channels human energy. I have never read Richard Bach and do not think I will. (Max called him a Christian apologist and put right down there with CS Lewis-that is not a good standing in Max's view) I found the quotes of his that were shared to be mostly platitudes. The speaker also made a reference to the magical physical principles that allow planes to fly, as an engineer I cannot help but think of that being ridiculous.

The discussion following the lay leader's talk was interesting. Richard Bach apparently married a woman, had six, yes six, children with her and said you know, marriage is not for me and let her with the six kids. Then he married again, this time his soul mate, and they were married for 20 yrs during which he wrote about this woman being is soul mate a lot. Then, you guessed it, they divorced because he wanted to keep wandering and she wanted to retire but they were still soul mates. And then, even though Mr. Bach was against marriage and had already found his soul mate, he married a third time. So, Richard Bach's is kind of one of dead beat dad that fleas commitments but that image was washed away with being a free thinking, wandering soul writer/pilot. Someone in the audience pointed out that we should not judge Mr. Bach based on what we consider a normal, nuclear family and tried to justify Mr. Bach's path, by noting how much they love their family that had been created under nontraditional means. For myself, I cannot be so objective. I think he is a hypocrite (which CS Lewis was not) and would not meet my requirements for being a hero.

A hero to me would be someone who acts in a selfless manner, maybe someone like my dad, who gets up every morning before the sun to go work as a laborer, a job he enjoys but is intensely, physically demanding. It is not fancy, or glamorous, and my dad doesn't have a youtube video dedicated to nifty things he has said (I would like to point out my dad is quite clever, if you call and ask, "What are you up to?" his reply will be, "About six feet."), but damn his worked really hard along with my mother to give me and my siblings opportunities and find happiness. Maybe not a hero in the way of Martin Luther King, Jr...but a respectable degree of hero-ness can be assigned to hardworking, present fathers/mothers.

3 month incubation update

We have been in Alabama for three months! All of which have been incredibly hot and humid.

I guess we got of Ames at the right time; I hope for a speedy return to the status quo for my friends there.

I wanted to just write a quick update because my little man has been doing crazy cute things this last week. Yesterday, I made Martha Stewart's recipe for Hand Tomato Pies, I was transferring the baked pie from the muffin tin to a rack to cool and I saw Henry chewing something. At first I thought it was dog food or something I should have swept up, then I saw he was standing on his tiptoes and picking off pieces of the pie crust and eating it-totally ruining his dinner-but so cute. We took the tomato pies to a picnic at the park we like in Opelika. At the end of the picnic Max opened the sour cream we had brought to go with our grilled peaches. Henry, like my father, has tastes for wonderfully fatty things like mayonnaise, butter, cream, and more cream. Max was stirring the sour cream with a spoon, Henry grabbed the spoon and took a big, bite-probably thinking it is white and creamy looking-must be good. He was surprised and disappointed it wasn't a little sweet or like the Brown Cow Plain yogurt with the cream on top...Not a minute later, he tried to eat more white stuff, Miracle Whip (I am the lone MW lover in this house) that I was trying to apply to my sandwich (if you are a mom-you totally get why everyone else is ready for dessert and you are still working on making your sandwich) and was again disappointed.

Henry still wakes up a few times a night, requesting me by calling me to his room, "Mama! Mama!" Early Monday morning, I came into his room and lay down by him and said it was okay to go back to sleep, he snuggled up to me and said with an angelic voice, "Thank you, Mama." I am tearing up typing that...my boy can be so sweet. And, when we leave his room at daycare, he waves good-bye and calls out, "Bye, Friends."

I want a new phone, I am currently limping along with A's old phone. I also want an ipod, not to increase my level of coolness but I want to listen to podcasts and not use Max's ipod. But I have this incredibly tendency to lose my phone...

I also have the tendency to say the wrong thing, alot. This last weekend, I was complaining about not really being able to socialize with anyone other Max. I kind of feel like I am on Gilligan's island. Anyway, I might have said something about how I can't talk to him about everything or maybe I said that I do not tell him everything...big mistake. Of course, he was offended. He said he tells me everything. I tried to explain that I can't talk to him about clothes and he replied that he did not understand why anyone would need to talk about clothes. My point exactly...

Post Birthday Bliss

Our baby, Henry had a great 2nd Birthday. I guess we really should advance and call him little Henry since he walks on his own now and speaks with improving coherency. Little Henry now has a Dutch Windmill to operate on his Thomas the Tank Engine and Friends wooden track and two more engines to run on the line. He also has a new Matchbox garbage truck in which he can stuff small pieces of fuzz and paper-which is very cool. He was showered with gifts and well wishes-thanks to all.

Max's birthday was on Thursday following Henry's, so we had more cupcakes (choc. chip with choc chip buttercream). We also went out to eat at this place in Auburn, Amsterdam Cafe. It seems a lot like the Cafe in Ames, but has better lighting. The menu is a little more like the Dish in Lincoln (yes!). Henry did really well there and fell in love with Gorgonzola dressing and scallops (not eaten together).

For the first time in a very long time, neither Max or I gearing up for classes this fall. It feels odd, but welcomed. This weekend we thought we would try to break free of the social isolation brought on by the heat and supported by the ac and attend another UU service. We arrived at the UU building to find that there was a pool party instead of a service. Serendipitously we met another couple, a philosopher and computer programmer (just moved here from San Diego) with a little girl, 2.5 yrs, named Laura Mae, that were also unaware of the pool party...so we were able to socialize.

I am reading "The Cookbook Collector," by Allegra Goodman for a new, virtual book club. The book is touted as being a modern day Sense and Sensibility. I cannot say I am in agreement. I have found the first two chapters to be rich and so well written that I kept reading...only to find the middle chapters more like a spider web of mini plots and with an multitude of characters I care nothing for. I continue to read in hopes of finding antiquated words used in a conversation and little nuggets of exceptional writing and originality.

There is this great line in P&P in which Mr. Bennet retorts to Mrs. Bennet when she exclaims, " Have you no compassion for my poor nerves?!" with, " I have a high respect for your nerves, they have been my old friends these twenty years at least."...I think that might be saying that about Hulu while I am in Al. I have just found the Remington Steele episodes. So awesomely eighties and still good, maybe even great. Part of me wishes I could be as daring as Laura Holt.