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.

A Lost Art

The conventional wisdom is that canning is a lost art. There has been a resurgence of late, what with the recession and all. Of course, some people have been canning all along. My sister-in-law (The Kid's aunt Shannie) is one of those people. Of course, it helps that they have a rather extensive garden. When I say extensive, I mean extensive...

While I was defending the country this weekend, The Wife took the Kid down to the farm and came back with lots of canned goodies. What was The Kid's favorite? That would be the green beans. She couldn't even wait for us to get them out of the jar. Don't believe me?

Yeah. It was like that.

The Kid also learned an important lesson this past weekend. When a Southern Lady visits a garden, one must dress...appropriately.

That isn't to say that a Southern Lady (hereinafter referred to as a Magnolia) is not capable of a little hard work. If you have a yard that needs to me mowed and a tractor with which to mow, Magnolias will always help.

LOLCat

Anyone who knows me knows why this teh funneh.

This Will Do

For now, anyway.

I decided on Sunday that we needed to get out of the house with The Kid for a little bit and did a little shopping.

Among other things, we bought an infrared video baby monitor. Fascinating stuff. Turns out she doesn't actually go to sleep when we put her to bed. She tosses and turns, talks, walks around in her crib (!), and re-arranges her stuffed animals.

Until she falls asleep about an hour after we put her down, it's the best show on. Bar none.

Speaking of stuffed animals, The Kid is still asking where Prynnie is. I tell her that she's gone and won't be coming back, but she doesn't get it.

So we dropped by a few toy stores to see if we could find a stuffed animal that at least resembled Prynnie.

Lo and behold, we did.

The Kid loves her. Calls her Prynnie and gives her hugs.

Now when she asks, I tell her "She's over there." and point to her new favorite toy.

Makes me happy.