More Birthday Fun

And a new family member to announce...

No, it isn't another kid.

Now that the grandparents are breathing again, We went to another second birthday party today. A wonderful couple we met at our birth classes. Their kid was born a week after ours, so there's always back-to-back festivities.

The Kid had fun, too. A sand table filled with rice was pretty cool. A lot less clean-up for everyone.



Lastly (because I know you're dying to see what I'm talking about), the hosts had a raffle. The object was to guess the number of goldfish crackers in a jar. I guessed 502, since the date was 05/02. Figured the hosts were being clever and making it a fun game with a twist. Turns out the actual number was 600. The number itself didn't mean anything. I have a tendency to overthink things on occasion.

Anywhoo,

The actual prize was Dorothy.



So Lily, Toolbox, Grandma and Grandpa, meet your new Grandfish.

The Kid likes her, and The Cat seems mildly intrigued by the new addition.

As we were leaving the party, the birthday girl's grandparents offered us a little advice.

"It's a lot easier to replace it than explain what happened to it."

Lots of wisdom there. Probably based on experience.

Birthday Fun

As I noted last week, The Kid's birthday party was on Saturday, and what a day it was. The Wife went with a ladybug theme this year, including ladybug and flower cupcakes.





So the children played in the sandbox.



While the menfolk talked of manly things.



Remember those cupcakes with the bright red frosting? Yeah, that may have been, in retrospect, a dangerous move. Ever seen a toddler eat a cupcake?



The first thing I thought of when I saw this was "the first rule of Toddler Fight Club is you don't talk about Toddler Fight Club."

As for The Kid, I think she really enjoyed spending time with her "boyfriend" from daycare, Johnnie. I dunno. Take a look at this and tell me they're not smitten with each other



Or this one



Methinks it's going to be a rough couple of decades.

Just Tryin' to Help

Our good friends, the Stutts family, is getting ready to have another baby. I've written about Julianna before, and now she's going to have a baby brother.

Unfortunately, the Elder Stuttses are apparently having difficulty coming up with a name. I feel that I may be of some assistance in this matter.

You see, Dad Stutts comes from good Alabama stock. Heart of Dixie, and all that. Lots of tradition there.

There is one very traditional southern name that I believe would fit very nicely for the soon-to-be young Stutts.

I very humbly submit the name Bubba.

Bubba Stutts. Seriously, how cool is that name? With a name like that, you can do anything.

Sheriff Bubba Stutts is one law enforcement officer whose authoratay you would have to respect.
Bubba Stutts is quite simply the best linebacker Auburn has seen in the past 25 years.
When you get in a spot of trouble with the law, Bubba Stutts is the lawyer for you.
Bubba Stutts is the only fighter pilot in the Navy whose callsign is his real name.
If there's anyone who looks good in a seersucker suit, it's Bubba Stutts.
Bubba Stutts' Barbeque is the best in the county. Most folks say it's the best in the state.

It's a great name. You'll thank me later. Trust me.

2 Years

24 months, 104 weeks, 731* days.

At 6:35 pm on April 23, 2007, a little person was brought into our lives, and we haven't looked back since.

A lot changes when you have a kid. Most of which we expected, but there are plenty of things that you simply cannot fathom until it happens to you. It reminds me of the conversation between McCoy and Spock at the beginning of Star Trek IV. McCoy wants to know what it was like to be dead, but Spock says such a conversation would be meaningless since they lacked a "common frame of reference" when discussing it. I suppose the same thing can be said about parenting. You really can't fully know what it's like until you do it.

To me, the most fascinating thing about a child is watching them learn things. At first, they are little more than input/output devices that make noise for (seemingly) no reason. Over time, they gradually being doing actual things in response to the world around them.

The Kid smiled at me for the first time on June 23, 2007. I remember that like it was yesterday. She was sitting with The Wife, and when I walked into the room, she smiled.

She became more mobile, crawling, and eventually walking by her first birthday. And, of course, talking.

In the past year, she's become a little person, with moods other than "crying" and "not crying". She knows how to ask for things (by saying please) and engaging in what is, for her, conversation. Gone are the days where her world consisted exclusively of nouns, and now has verbs, adverbs and adjectives.

She's no longer afraid of things like grass and dirt. In fact, she's now entered the "dirty" phase, which makes getting pictures of her not encrusted in either food or mud a bit of a challenge. I love it.

We've got a big party planned for Saturday, so I'll have pictures to post after that.

* Leap year...

Planting Season

Spring has arrived in force here at Paradise on the Severn. There should be a picture of today in the illustrated dictionary next to the entry for "ludicrously beautiful day". 75 degrees and perfectly clear sky can only mean one thing: Planting Season has begun.

The Wife went to the local purveyor of botanical bounty whilst The Kid tried to take her morning nap, to return with a metric butt-load* of mulch and some stuff to put in the ground so as to beautify and aromafy our little slice of heaven. I donned my work duds to make sure I was properly protected from the elements both floral and meteorological, and we began.

The two of us did some grunt work in the front of the house and then moved to the back in order to get some more pre-planting prep work done.

I got to use one of my super powers** to clean up the woods in the back, but with great power comes great responsibility. Once my task was complete, I was as untouchable as Rogue until I cleaned myself up.

Once The Kid joined us, the planting was enjoined in earnest. We planted an assortment of flowers, along with herbs for to cook with. Fresh is always better when it comes to such things, and it's even better when you have to work for it. Despite her not-so-advanced age, The Kid was most helpful. She helped dig holes for Mommy and had a ball with the mulch spreading. The three of us were quite a team indeed.



The day was not without injuries, as yours truly suffered literally hundreds of small wounds from the several holly bushes in the front of the house. Despite the long sleeves, I was rather beat up once I was done.



Don't worry, tho. I'm trained to withstand this kind of pain. Your tax dollars at work and all.

I know what you're thinking; where are the pictures of this beautiful work you did? Well, plants are not really into the whole gotta-have-it-now thing. It will take some time before we can enjoy the basil, parsley, tarragon. All in good thyme. Get it?!?

*Unit of measurement. Take an imperial butt-load, double it, and add 32.
** I'm not allergic to Poison Ivy. That and $3.50 will get me a latte.

Weapons Release is Authorized

Those who know me know that I'm a bit of an aviation buff. Never flown anything, but I have read just about everything written about both military and civilian aviation.

From everything I've read, there is a special point in the career of a military combat pilot. Namely, the first time a pilot gets to release actual, no-kidding, live ordinance onto a target.

A pull of the trigger and there's a THUNK, WHOOSH, or BRAAAAAP, depending on what you're trying to do. Weaponeering can be amazingly tedious, so I won't bore you with that.

Anyway, it is not a simulation, but a real actual weapon homing in and (hopefully) hitting the target with the desired effect. Assuming you've taken all of the variables into account. There's a lot to do to get to that point.

You: Ahem. I don't come here to read this type of thing. That's what Lex is for.

Me: I know. I'm getting to it.

Last night I was playing with The Kid and she (being almost 2) did something she knew was wrong and had been warned about previously.

Master Arm; on. The pickle is hot.

"OK. That's it. Go to your room." Bombs away!

Sounded just like a Dad.

For the record, she was not happy about the my decision. She spent the next few minutes telling The Wife and me that she was "In trouble [with] Daddy."

BDA is tonight to see if she does the same thing again. I'm hoping a re-strike won't be necessary. I want to do that as little as possible while still achieving all our strategic (and tactical) objectives.

How much is enough?

For those of you expecting an essay on corporate greed, the merits of executive compensation and bonuses funded by you, the taxpayer, I regret to inform you that this will not be the place.

Hurts my brain to think about such things.

I'm-a gonna talk about fish. The raw kind. You know, sushi.

6 people for dinner. How much to get?


All of it, apparently. For those of you thinking that you might want to go fishing this weekend, we sincerely apologize for eating all of the fish in the Atlantic Ocean.

A good time was had by all. A rousing game of Cranium followed dinner, along with an impromptu discussion of non-Keplarian motion facilitaed by yours truly. That in turn led to a debate on the economic merits and pitfalls of fusion power. Free electricity? Maybe.

Gotta run, the Spinach and Gruyere strata is ready to come out of the oven. Mmmmmm.