Going on Safari

Imagine my surprise when I was informed last night that my presence was requested on a safari.

To see bears.

And Swiper the fox.

At least we have a map.

Story Time

The Kid loves story time. Every night before bed, we read a story or two.

We recently picked up "Going on a Bear Hunt", which at first glance seems like an odd title for a two year old. I mean, how many two year olds are out hunting bears?

One of the fun things we like to do is let The Kid finish each phrase or sentence in the book. For some reason, she really took to this one. It has a repeating chorus which was fairly easy to remember.



I mean seriously. How cute is that?

Am I the luckiest guy in the world or what?

Every day is a beautiful day.

Going Home and Coming Home

We took The Kid on her first airplane ride last weekend up to the old family farm in Rhode Island. The Farmhouse itself was built in the 1820's, and has been in my father's family for a few generations. When I was born, my great-grandmother was living there, along with some of her siblings and their children. My grandparents moved there in the mid 80's.

My father spent a chunk of his childhood living there, and it was, in his adulthood, the home of his grandparents as it is now for me. Alas, it appears that the last generation of my clan is living there now. It is improbable that either my father or his brother will move into the house. What will become of the property after that is anyone's guess.

The Kid loved the plane ride, as the next 2 pictures will attest. She was an absolute delight and thought that zipping through the air was the neatest thing ever.

The majority of my father's family lives within an hour or so drive from the Farm, to include aunts, uncles, cousins, nieces, nephews, and assorted other relatives whose relational definition is best left to genealogists. What the heck am I to my great-uncle's children's children? What is their relation to The Kid? Why do I care? In any case, a good deal of them came over one or both days. I think there were 16 for dinner on Saturday.

The youngest in attendance was 4 months (my cousin's newborn) and the oldest was 89, my grandfather. He'll be 90 in January. Speaking of my grandfather, he's been farming (you can't call what he does gardening) since Noah was a midshipman. He plants a plethora of veggies every year. Peas, corn, carrots, potatoes, peppers, tomatoes, cabbage, squash, and everything else. He's had to cut back in recent years due to advancing age. He only had about 1/2 acre this year. Yeah. I have a 2 foot by 3 foot "garden" in my back yard that's too much for me sometimes. We should all be as lucky as him.

The Kid enjoyed corn-on-the-cob for the first time, grown by the same person who grew the first ear of corn I ever ate.

There were a lot of moments like that this weekend. My great uncle and I swapped stories about pubs we visited in the UK. I was there as a reservist. He was there during the war. B-24 Liberators. Silver Star and the DFC. That's a lot to live up to. And a debt we all owe.

We arrived on a picture-perfect New England autumn afternoon. If you close your eyes and imagine your most idyllic scene, that's probably pretty close. I took a short walk down the road from the Farm to the old mill pond and this is what I found:

Pictures just can't do justice to the scene.

We went to a local apple orchard's pumpkin festival for hot cider, pies, donuts, and a hay ride.



Sunday morning was cold. First frost I'd seen this season.

That's one of my grandfather's gardens. There is another one the same size behind the house. Impressive, no? When I got back inside after taking the picture, I was glad to see the woodstove going.



We flew home on Sunday. It was bittersweet to leave, but to stay would have been to tempt the fates for delivering us such a perfect weekend. My grandmother got to see 6 of her 9 great-grandchildren at once. That doesn't happen very often.

It's hard to find the right words to describe what the whole weekend was like. All around us were scenes that were so idealized that had I not been there in person, I wouldn't have believed it. Like driving on the kind of leaf-covered back road that you only see in car commercials. Colonial houses that don't look a bit out of place, mostly because they date to the actual colonial era. A den of Cub Scouts learning how cider gets made. Leaves that were changing color almost by the hour. My wife and daughter walking through a pumpkin patch looking for the perfect one. The only restriction being that it was small enough for The Kid to carry. She didn't want it to be one that we picked out. It was hers. She ended up giving it to her great-grandmother, who loved it.

Anyway, I'll post some more of the pics (sans commentary) later.

A Day in Haiku

Dunno what struck me, but I was feeling poetically asian today.

Deep in my backyard

There are some purple flowers

They grow on the ground

The leaves are brown now

Soon they are falling softly

lots of work to do

Off to Baltimore

Port Discovery was fun

Now we need a nap

Spongebob on TV

The Kid is smiling broadly

Patrick makes me laugh

Caffery is fun

He likes to be in windows

Good thing they are open

Football, beer, and chips

Saturday in the autumn

I hope my team wins

Flank steak on the grill

Soy sauce, garlic and ginger

Yummy for us all

Film we haven't seen

Lucas dissapoints again

Hiding in a fridge?

Still Here

Rest assured, I'm still here. Just busy.

First, Caffrey is still hangin with us, and we're loving it. He's getting more affectionate every day, and now sleeps at the head of the bed, usually on my side. The Kid asks about him every day when I pick her up from daycare. "Go home and see Caf-fur-ry? He's a good boy."

On the personal side, I got promoted last weekend. Don't clap too much, the promotion was automatic. Every O-2 gets promoted to O-3 after 2 years if you don't get in trouble. Or get caught. Either way...

My folks came up on Saturday morning, along with The Wife, The Kid, our Midshipman, and an old family friend. My CO administered the oath, and The Wife and The Mid pinned on my shoulder boards.

Repeat after me: "I promise to not pick up women by singing 'You've Lost that Lovin' Feeling' while wearing this uniform."

After the ceremony, The Kid went back to spend the weekend with my folks. A good time was had by all.

If there's one thing that little children love, it's spending time with grandparents. Below we see The Kid taking her grandpa by the hand to take him somewhere. I can just here her now:

"C'mon Grampa. I need to show you something over here."

Settling In

Caffery is acclimating nicely to his temporary digs. He's finding all kinds of places to snuggle and sleep, including where the sun falls in the afternoon.





He's found the high ground.






He has a new friend, who loves giving him kisses.





He's also found out where we sleep, and plants his considerable mass at the foot of the bed (usually my foot) for the duration of the night. I won't lie to you, it's nice to wake up to.



Lastly, because everyone needs a gratuitous picture of The Kid, I present:





Yeah, I am actually that lucky. Who knew?

The View from the Other Side of the Street

Hello humans. I found this computing thing logged on and thought I would check in.

My name is Caffrey. I am a felis catus and have found myself residing in a really nice hotel run by 2 humans I remember from my distant past, as well as one of their offspring. They seem nice enough, although their child insists on pronouncing my name with three syllables; Caf-Fer-Ry. Not really sure what that's all about, but the small one pets me and seems to like me, so I'll overlook it.

These new humans have yet to learn that my vertical leap can exceed 6 feet. Until that time, I fully expect to find more nom-noms on the table like the McNugget I saw earlier today. Unfortunately, the woman that runs the hotel espied my stealthy approach and swipped my potential prey before I could strike. Too bad. It looked teh yummeh.

jhsadhasdosadoughuasdbjhakdfuhhdfbjb --- CAT-LIKE TYPING DETECTED ---

Hello all. Jeopardy here. Sorry about that. As you may have guessed, we are cat-sitting, for our dear friends the Stuttses, while they take care of their newborn son. Remember him? No, they didn't name him Bubba, but Mason is pretty cool too.

I know what you're thinking: What's with the cat?

The Stutts 4 are in Jacksonville, FL for a few months, and during that time, their cat was here with Caroline's folks, Nee Nee and Pop Pop. When we heard that Nee Nee and Pop Pop were headed down to JAX, we volunteered to take care of the cat while they were gone. Ergo, a new, but temporary cat.

He's fitting in nicely, finding spots to hang out (mostly by windows) and figuring out the best ways onto the counters, tables, and any other horizontal surface other than the floor.

It's nice to have a 4-legged pal in the house again. Still too soon for a new one of our own, but anything we can do to help a friend.