Chez Boyer

Mary's garden and grandchildren

2011-11-28T04:00:00.000-08:00

Molly and Freddie give a tour of Nana Mary's garden:

Nana Mary describes her garden:

This is Josh writing. In October, I wanted to get Mom on video. I gave her the chance to talk on camera about her childhood, about Peace Corps, about teaching, whatever she wanted. As you can imagine, she wasn't thrilled by the prospect. This video about her garden is the most I was able to get. I'm glad I got it. Oh, and I got one more video, this one of her and Jack:

Videos of Alex, age 1

2011-07-17T17:42:00.000-07:00

We've had 2 VHS tapes of Alex in a cabinet for years now. I recently converted them to digital files and made clips from them. Those of you on Facebook have seen many, but not all of these. I now offer them on Youtube for those of you who didn't catch them on Facebook.

Videos are here. There are lots of them. This isn't a guilt trip to watch them all. Enjoy.

One of the VHS tapes was made by Uncle Dennis McCabe at the Stinehelfers' house and at our Durham house on Alex's first birthday, in August 2oo2.

The other tape was made by Jen on our first week-long trip to Topsail with friends, earlier in August 2002. We're about to go on that same trip, year 10.

Most of the videos are self explanatory; they show Alex being cute. Some of you may need an explanation for the last two, the ones of a play set. Papa Dennis brought the play set from Alabama to our house in Durham, tied to the roof of his Honda Accord.

Sledding Adventures

2010-01-31T15:49:00.001-08:00

Well, it finally happened. They predicted snow for Raleigh, and it actually snowed. I focused on getting the kids some boots and enough groceries in the house, and did not join in the mad pre-snow rush to find a sled -- which I probably should have. Saturday we went out with our boogie board; and Sunday we went out with the boogie board again and a nice man who lives at the top of the "sledding hill" loaned us an orange plastic sled. The kids went down a total of, oh, ninety times or so. No school tomorrow, so I'm guessing we'll be back out there again. Josh sadly had to report to work on Sunday, but he wrote the following about our trek out on Saturday: After a boogie board ride down the hill, Molly said "That was awesome, dude." Of the boogie board, she said, "That's the best skateboard in the whole world -- the whole city."

We watched a couple drive by on a 4X4 Gator, towing their kids on sleds up the hill. Alex said, "That's a good idea." Molly pointed to kids being towed and said, "That is a good idea because, look!"

Alex exercises his 2nd amendment rights

2009-09-14T17:14:00.000-07:00

We sent Alex to the Purple House for his lefty indoctrination. What happened?

Memorial Day Weekend, Part Two

2009-05-25T19:16:00.001-07:00

At Hyco Lake, Freddie's first trip out. He was a real sweetie.

Memorial Day Weekend, Part One

2009-05-25T19:07:00.001-07:00

May

2009-05-25T18:53:00.000-07:00

Zucchini plants, seem to be doing well so far.

Raised bed with sugar snap peas. Alex and I made a "seed tape" with the sugar snap peas. We cut out strips of newspaper and glued the peas along it 2 inches apart, then later he helped me plant them. They came up nice and even. I jerryrigged this very sorry netting myself.

Other raised beds, we'll see how this turns out. There are beets, carrots, and broccoli that probably went in the ground too late. There are tomatoes of various varieties, including some heirloom brandywines that are small so far, but look ok. These have just started to blossom. There are also some peppers that are not looking tall enough yet, and some lettuce that's looking o.k., that you can't see here because they're behind the tomatoes. I have my concerns that this bed won't get enough sun, so this inaugural year will be the test.

Alex and Molly after we spent Mother's Day at a strawberry farm.

We went to a party a few weeks ago, and it really was not swimming season yet, but boy did the kiddos want to give it that old college try.

Puerto Rico

2009-05-04T18:29:00.000-07:00

A month ago Jen and I went to Puerto Rico. NPR voice: "This trip was made possible with generous support from the nanas and the papas." We highly recommend Puerto Rico to one and all.

First stop, San Juan

where we stayed in a groovy hotel.

Next stop, Vieques, an island off the east coast of Puerto Rico. Esperanza is one of two towns on Vieques. Above is the the malecon, the beach side of Esperanza's main street, Calle Flamboyán. You can cross the street from here (watch out for cars going 5 mph and teenagers riding bareback on horses going much faster) to find little shops, restaurants, and open air bars where you order rum drinks and watch the sun set over the mountains in the background of this picture. It's literally paradise.

View from the malecon out to sea, where you'll see Jen (on a good day), sailboats, and an island called Cayo de Afuera. We snorkled around the island.

Vieques has lots of beaches. This one is called Navio. We were told they filmed a movie version of the Lord of the Flies here. We did not find a society of tyrannical children. We found paradise.

Even the local business people know they're in paradise.

Jen's final thoughts on Vieques: we need to go back, take the kids, and she wants you, all of you, to come along.

Final stop, El Yunque rainforest back on the main island

where we stayed at a place with an outdoor kitchen, which turns out to be a great idea. The highlights of the rainforest included loud frogs, terrific jungly flora, and waterfalls.

Even more pictures

Assorted pictures + video

2009-04-29T16:55:00.000-07:00

Sorry it's been so long, everyone. Here's a few visuals from the past couple of months. Josh reports that he will do a separate blog post on the Puerto Rico trip we took a few weeks ago.

Easter egg hunt at St. Luke's, Boone. Nice service, and plentiful eggs!

Getting ready to watch the Heels play.

Alex at Douglas' Carnival. That's orange spray paint in his hair if anyone was starting to worry about the color as well as the shape...

Visiting baby Freddie. In pictures of him with our kids, for some reason he always looks ever so slightly anxious.

Side by side videos of the piano recital, and an informance depicting a tornado.

American Heart Association fundraiser

2009-02-28T11:05:00.001-08:00

Quick solicitation --

Alex is raising money through Jump Rope for Heart at Douglas, donations go to the American Heart Association. The minimum online donation is $25, but you can also donate smaller amounts by mailing him a check made out to the American Heart Association. If you'd like to donate, his profile is here. Thanks.

If you'd like to make a different kind of donation, next month Douglas has their annual carnival fundraiser. One of their very popular events is the "Bottle Shop", where they accept donations of things that come in bottles, with commonsense exceptions like no alcohol and nothing homemade. Sodas, hot sauce, nail polish, bubble bath, stuff like that. Then they number all the bottles and sell tickets for $1 that match up with those numbers, and you get to take your random bottle home. I donate several bottles every year, but they always have more demand to buy the tickets than they have bottles. So if -- and I am thinking of my brother's beloved trips to Big Lots here -- you'll see us in the next couple of weeks and would like to donate a random bottle, we'll pass it along.

From the Mixed-Up Files of Mr. Alexander M. Boyer

2009-02-27T10:35:00.000-08:00

Freddie

2009-02-07T13:25:00.001-08:00

Well, you can see this yourselves, but obviously our new nephew is just perfect. Welcome to the world, Freddie.

New Year's in Honduras

2009-01-15T07:02:00.000-08:00

Josh writing today. Alex and I spent the week around New Year’s in Honduras with my parents. My parents, Jeff and Mary, met in Honduras as Peace Corps volunteers over 40 years ago. They have been back many times, my dad nearly every year of the last 20. One of their return trips was for nearly two years in the 70s when I was about a year younger than Alex is now. Papa Jeff decided it was time to introduce his grandson to our friends there. Jen and Molly did not come with us because, uh, Molly is a very fun girl, but our guess is probably not the most fun international travel companion, yet.

First we stayed in the capital city, Tegucigalpa, with our friend Melba Zuniga. Above, Alex is checking out the hilly city from Melba’s 4th floor porch.

Nana Mary and Papa Jeff on Melba’s terrace.

At the Museo de Identidad Nacional with Melba’s daughter Jimena. Jimena works for the board of elections and for TV news, and does belly dancing in her spare time. We can vouch for the latter after receiving a special show. Alex hardly knew what to think.

Then we left Tegucigalpa for a small town of about 1,000 people in southern Honduras, El Corpus. A friend of my dad’s is a congressman, and he lent us his chauffeur to get us there. The chauffeur made the 3-4 hour trip in 2 ½ hours. As he turned the highways into racetracks, I kept telling myself “He does this for a living, he knows what he’s doing.” That turned out to be true.

Bievenidos a El Corpus. The town looks like this:

The streets are cobblestone. The speed limit is between really slow and mucho damage to your truck.

We stayed in the casa de Juana and Pedro, friends from back when Juana was 12 and fascinated by my sister Chelcy, the only blonde 2-year-old in the neighborhood. Back then, we lived in what is now her house.

Juana on the far right, Pedro in the back, family and friends all ‘round. For those of you who know our friend Omar Lainez here in NC, Juana is Omar's sister.

Pedro’s and Juana’s daughters, Andrea, 13, and Samantha, 5, were the best hosts Alex could ask for.

So were Iris and Angel (far right). Angel, who lives across the street, is a good friend of Andrea’s and Samantha’s, and now of Alex’s.

If you’re ever looking for a fun place to celebrate New Year’s, allow me to recommend El Corpus.

Samantha starts with a sparkler, the moves on to a glass of wine.

Or maybe it's banana soda. Either way, it’s a party.

Mauricio, cousin of Andrea and Samantha, poses here as the head of the año viejo (the old year). The body is stuffed with newspapers, and the tie is firecrackers, which leads at the stroke of midnight to…

Imagine the sound of lots of these all over town, plus more fireworks, and you’ve got yourself un feliz año nuevo.

Then the 1 am piñata. Alex and I went to bed after that. When did the other kids go to bed? Who can say?

Alex likes to say he lost his first tooth on the first day of the new year. I don’t think “lost” is accurate. Papa Jeff felt challenged by Jen’s text message asking whether the tooth had come out yet. A dentist in another life, Papa Jeff worked on it until the job was done. I told Alex he could put the tooth under his pillow that night. He then asked me about the exchange rate between Lempiras and dollars -- 20 to 1 -- and decided to wait until we got home.

When it was time to leave El Corpus, Andrea explained that she was keeping Alex.

A note here to Andrea: Thank you so much for being a great host to Alex. I hope we can return your warmth and kindness when you visit us in North Carolina.

A brief flashback to when Andrea and Samantha visited North Carolina some years ago:

Now let us return to the present, and to Tegucigalpa.

Melba’s daughter, Melissa, and her husband Nelson, gave us a great tour of Valle de Angeles, a cute little town outside Teguc. Melissa and Nelson are from Tegucigalpa and now live near New York City. They give exceptional tours of both. Valle de Angeles is a great place to buy souvenirs, like say…

… a Honduran fútbol uniform.

Thanks to Papa Jeff and Nana Mary for taking Alex and I on a great trip. Thanks to our friends in Tegucigalpa and El Corpus, whose graciousness and good cheer warm my heart.

Time to go home.

Even more pictures

Some not too recent pictures

2008-12-03T20:52:00.000-08:00

The regular reader(s?) of this blog know that semi-annual camera drama is par for the course, and the short version of the current story is that I left it at the beach, but it is safely with my dad. But until I see my dad again, I can't get the most recent pictures up. So, here's some older ones! These are all from the State Fair, except at the bottom is obviously Alex playing flag football.

2008-11-05T19:42:00.000-08:00

Yes yes yes yes yes yes yes yes yes yes yes yes yes yes yes yes yes yes yes yes yes yes yes yes yes yes yes yes c'mon, gay marriage can't even catch a break in CALIFORNIA? yes yes yes yes yes yes yes yes yes yes yes yes.

Mom's Recipes

2008-10-19T18:27:00.000-07:00

Jen: "Molly, this a book of recipes."

Molly: "Recipes for disaster?"

Judicial endorsements

2008-10-19T18:19:00.000-07:00

By semi-popular request!

For Supreme Court: Suzanne Reynolds

For Court of Appeals: Jim Wynn
Kristin Ruth
Cheri Beasley
Linda Stephens
John Arrowood

Your district court judgeships are going to be different from mine, probably, from there on out. But hopefully that helps.

More pictures, DC & Ashburn

2008-10-13T17:00:00.000-07:00

At the National Zoo. Unfortunately I don't know which panda this is.

The elephants are getting some fancy renovations to their area, which seems like a good idea. They don't have a whole lot of room to roam.

Everyone except me got to see this tiger chasing the ball into the moat. Weird.

Kids & kids

2008-10-09T19:46:00.001-07:00

Molly sings

2008-10-05T14:34:00.000-07:00

Molly learned this at preschool. You have one guess as to her teacher's home team.

Updates, pictures

2008-09-25T19:10:00.000-07:00

Since the readership of this blog is pretty small, some of you have probably heard that I recently got biopsy of my thyroid, which came back with a diagnosis of "suspicious" for papillary carcinoma, the most common type of thyroid cancer. I was referred to an ENT surgeon, who said that because the diagnosis was somewhat equivocal, he's going to have a pathologist look at the slides for his opinion, but the upshot is that I will be getting either a total thyroidectomy or just a removal of this lesion on my thyroid (and if that turned out to be cancerous after removal, a subsequent total thyroidectomy.)

Although it is something of a shock to be diagnosed with cancer at 33, this is a very treatable form of a cancer with a pretty much 100% survival rate with total thyroidectomy. The ENT surgeon has performed over 700 and says that he hasn't damaged any vocal cord nerves yet, which is the primary risk of the surgery itself. So, I'm just going to try to take care of myself & take one day at a time and continue to focus on other things. Fortunately (?) there's always plenty of work, a messy house, two kids, and an election season that just will not stop being weirder than all get out. I, for one, am not suspending anything.

So, anyway, some pictures.

Josh and I went to see Murry Hammond of the Old 97's at the invitation of our friend Brian. (Wide-eyed guy pictured below.) It was a small crowd, and we got to talk to him afterwards, and he was very funny and laid-back and friendly. He did lovely, old-fashioned songs, heavy on trains and gospel influence. You can listen here to some samples if you're interested.

We kind of hit the Krispy Kreme on the way back. C'mon, the "Hot Doughnuts Now" sign was lit. We're only human.

A few pictures recovered from our once-lost camera. These are from the Cove Creek festival up in the mountains this summer. We liked the Carolina Chocolate Drops and the Kruger Brothers, the kids liked the ice cream and playground.

Alex, still a great older brother. We also just found out tonight that Alex will be able to play on a flag football team organized by the Salvation Army. His team will be the Panthers. We were told when we signed up that there might not be any availability, but they did cash the check so I've been hoping that meant they'd have a space for him. So, we'll see how that goes. Piano lessons + organized sports, it's a suburban kinda life.

Think, people, think

2008-09-20T20:16:00.000-07:00

Well, I really would like this blog to be primarily a place where people can come to follow the travails of our family and read our cute stories and find our pictures and other things like that. I don't want to scare people away from that with 20,000 words on Sarah Palin, not that I've gotten any complaints as such. Yet it is September of an election year, and every day the news is more bizarre than the day before, and I have a hard time holding that in check. So I'm going to do a trial launch of a parallel blog to focus on politics. I can pretty much guarantee that it will not be very original, seeing as how "good grief, look what's become of us" is not really an original thought right now. A lot of times it will probably be just links to things I like, but that's frequently true of blogs with very high readerships, too. It will not be updated any more frequently than this one, either. So don't expect much, is what I'm saying, but it will make me feel good to have an outlet, and I hope that some of you will appreciate it, too.

So, for right now, it is just a repost of the Sarah Palin Diatribe And Screed, but I'll add to it. Check it out here.

Okay, so I'm totally lying about the pictures

2008-09-07T14:55:00.000-07:00

Some day, some day.

It’s taken me a little bit of time to come to terms with this Sarah Palin announcement. I’ve kind of been going through my own version of the Kubler-Ross stages, although they aren’t stages of grief, unless grief can be accurately portrayed by the sentiment: Am I in some kind of parallel universe? What in the name of all that's holy are these people thinking? This is our COUNTRY we're talking about. Paul Krugman is a sharp guy and I have a feeling he is probably a lot more right in his analysis than my rather emotional response here, but, my friends, it was either this or pharmaceuticals, very soon. My Facebook page has also been going through kind of “whoa, Jen’s obsessed with Sarah Palin”, so I’m going to try to put an end to that with this here Diatribe and Screed and keep Facebook for what it is good at, namely SuperPoking!, inscrutable status updates, and finding people from high school you had pretty much completely forgotten about. So anyway, Heaven knows I think the Republicans are going to be a footnote in the history books this year (and in 2012), but taking the pick seriously, there’s no other way to put it besides: it makes my blood boil.

I want to note that it is Sarah Palin’s right to run for vice president if she so chooses, even if she has a five-month old special needs child and a teenage daughter with her own problems to deal with. Newsweek reports that she went back to work the very next day after her fourth pregnancy and after three days with her last child. Mine is not to judge her choices, and hell will freeze over before I will participate in the so-called “mommy wars.” But when she and her surrogates appear on TV and talk about how moms all over the country are going to relate to her, I’m afraid I have to respond to that. I went back to work when Molly was 11 weeks old, which was less time than I took after Alex, and I cried every day at home because I didn’t want to do it. But we were out of money, and I had to, and that’s fine. My kids are pretty fantastic so far, don’t seem to be hurting for love, and plenty of moms can’t even take that long. But do I relate to her decision to accept the nomination at that point in her life and thrust her family into the national spotlight so she can spend the next two+ months on a plane with John McCain? No, I don’t especially identify with that choice, no. (I wouldn’t do it for Barack Obama, either.) So, sure, it’s her right – just don’t ask me to “relate” to it, and don’t ask me to vote for her based on that because you can’t think of anything to say about her record that would convince me.

I also want to note that this is not a question of disagreeing with someone on an issue, or even on an entire political philosophy. Any argument that is grounded in reality, argued with intelligence and in good faith, rarely upsets me on a personal level. I might argue with you until you beg just to be allowed to go to the restroom without being followed, and I might get animated, but I won’t get mad and I won’t hold it against you at the end of the day. I LIKE a good discussion.

This makes me mad on a personal level because I am being told, and we are all being told, that we are stupid. It’s hard to say what I agree and disagree with John McCain on since he’s taken multiple sides of any given issue (most comprehensive list on the intertoobz, for my money, is here ), but I have always considered him to be a good man of personal integrity. I have never been angry with John McCain. And when John McCain said he would pick the person best qualified to run the country for his vice president, I took him at his word.

And instead, we get this. We get the most craven, cynical, calculating choice for a VP pick I could possibly imagine. (To be fair, I don’t think she was McCain’s first, second, or even necessarily third, choice.) The Republican primary voters do the party the favor of picking the least “Republican” guy running and the only one, for that precise reason, with George Bush’s chance at Jeopardy! of winning the general election. They are repaid with a pick only the far right wing of the party could like. A pick designed to shore up the crazy wingers of the party that has never liked McCain, a man who never did quite get on board with torture for some strange reason and who just couldn’t picture that border fence complete with moat stocked with piranha. A man who opposed tax cuts for the richest of the rich, until he became the Republican nominee. A pick designed to lure disaffected Hillary Clinton supporters with the ludicrous proposition -- Check it out, ladies, we’ve got a girl, too! Instead of doing what sensible people would do, namely threaten to hold their breath until McCain picked someone else, the base embraced this choice. A couple of conservatives came up with responses at least somewhat lacking in breathtaking hypocrisy, but mostly the base seemed pleased. Often the same people who for a year have been repeating like a broken record, "Barack Obama is unqualified and inexperienced", have wholeheartedly embraced a woman who, by any halfway sincere evaluation of the truth, has far fewer qualifications and experience. Notwithstanding this essential reality, they have responded with either laughably ludicrous fluffing of her resume, or simply ignoring the issue as irrelevant altogether. Confronting one's sudden and stunning hypocrisy on the importance of "experience" does not appear to be part of the equation, except for the precious few public conservatives linked above.

For days, I laughed at loud and wondered when the “real” nominee would be unveiled. I am pleased to say that the strategy of thinking women, in particular Hillary supporters, are dumber than salt shakers has not worked. The fact that I think this particular strategy is moronic -- we don’t need any new voters, thanks, just happier ones -- does not stop it from making my blood boil.

So why DOES it make my blood boil that such obvious political considerations became such an overwhelming part of a politician’s choice of another politician for running mate for a political office? We’ve had eight years of fat government contracts handed out on the basis of cronyism and corruption from the party of “fiscal restraint” and “small government”, should I really continue to be so naïve? Shouldn't all hope for any semblance of effective, competent, ethical government have been crushed a long time ago, inhabiting as I do the reality-based community? The reason it makes me mad is because they think I, and all of us, are dumber than a bag of hammers inside a box of rocks in the crawlspace under Dan Quayle’s house. In the selection of Sarah Palin, the media frenzy that followed, and the Republican National Convention, here are the things we were evidently expected to believe.

Sarah Palin and her fellow Republicans have great respect for Hillary Clinton, and really admire her courageous and historic run for the presidency.
If Barack Obama had a seventeen-year-old pregnant daughter named Shaniqua, Republicans would praise her for keeping her baby, for her strong moral values, and for being a role model in the culture of life. They would angrily insist that the media respect Shaniqua’s privacy after she appears in numerous photo ops with her father.
Sarah Palin, by virtue of governing Alaska for 19 months, has foreign policy experience due to its proximity to Russia. This foreign policy experience includes both Russia, and, I am not making this up, North Korea. The processes by which she would have learned such valuable experience include “osmosis”.
Sarah Palin has commander-in-chief experience due to her command of the Alaska National Guard. If you ask for an example of her command of the Alaska National Guard, you are “belittling” her. (If Campbell weren’t a woman, she would undoubtedly also have been called sexist.)
Among the significant things we as voters should be considering in our decision-making are how well a person shoots animals, appreciates hockey, and looks.
Other important things to consider is that being the mayor of a town with a four-digit population is extremely similar to running a country, and she mayored really awesomely, thanks! She even, at no extra charge, tried to help libraries figure out what's safe to read.
The guys who think it’s awesome to have a VP nominee who could be in one of those “chicks in bikinis with guns” calendars are not sexist. I, for thinking that the word “unqualified” does not begin to capture the universe of problems with this woman, am sexist.
It is funny when people with cancer are called "a cancer".
Among her legislative achievements to be heralded is fighting the roll-back of bar closing times. It took tremendous political courage, in a state full of oil workers and fishermen, to stand on the principle that last call should stay at 5 a.m., and this courage and resolve will be reflected in everything she does as vice president.
Sarah Palin loves her some ethics, and is very committed to getting to the bottom of Troopergate.
Abstinence-only sex education is effective, and the gay can be “prayed away”.
That it is possible to sell used aeronautics equipment “for a profit” on eBay, and that one can make this declaration in public without anyone bothering to fact check it.
That “I said thanks but no thanks to the bridge to Nowhere” is an accurate portrayal of “I said ‘yes, please’ until the project would require that the state kick in a little bit, in which case I cancelled the bridge and kept the money.”
Creationism should be taught in science class, alongside actual science, and people got nothin' to do with global warming. Oh, hey, totally changing the subject, do you guys need any oil? We've got oil!
She won’t be doing any interviews for a while because she needs to “spend time with the voters”.
The economy is pretty good, isn’t it?
National conventions are no place for discussing policy proposals.
This country needs reform, a real change from the Democrats who’ve been leading this country for eight years. Sarah Palin is a real reformer and absolutely hates pork in any form.
That's not the same black couple we showed you before at the RNC. No, it's not. They may look a little bit similar, but no, that is TOTALLY a different black couple.
What, where, and how we drill is far less important than our need to DRILL. NOW. The Department of Energy, which says that we can expect increased supply from Arctic drilling by 2018, is staffed by known Communists.
909 is more than 76,165.
Torture against John McCain is very, very bad, and should be brought up at every opportunity, including in explaining why he doesn’t know how many houses he has. Torture committed by the United States is o.k., and Barack Obama should be mocked for not condoning it.

Can I just say, if you're going to pull jet-selling-at-auction political stunts, Craigslist doesn't charge a commission and eBay does. Everyone really trying to pinch their pennies knows this. Somewhat important when you're talking about $2.1 million dollars.

Let me just elaborate here a bit, because the sarcasm is pretty thick but some of this is important. Sarah Palin, when you complain that being asked tough questions is sexist and say that you're not giving any interviews until journalists learn a little "deference", you are demonstrating your gobsmackingly profound lack of preparedness for what is in store for you. For heaven's sakes, I personally stared down far greater sexism just reading the parental guide to Spider Man-2 on Netflix. (Hint: it's in the warnings section.) When you interview for the job of vice president through prepared remarks and speeches courtesy of Bush speechwriters, to favorable crowds without any opportunity to be questioned by voters, journalists, or anyone else, you are mocking women who got their jobs on their own steam and without a teleprompter, answering questions they were not given ahead of time to the best of their ability. When you mock community organizers, you are mocking people who make a difference where they live, and doing it without a budget and without a staff. You are mocking the vocation of Jesus of Nazareth. When you mock legal protections for the accused, you are mocking the Constitution of the United States of America. And when you make statements that in any reasonable version of objective reality are out and out lies, you are mocking the intelligence of every voter in this country.

For seven and a half years our current president has thought of us all as stupid. To be fair, 28% of us are. These folks would support him if he bit the head off of a live kitten on national television. (Hint: it would somehow be justified because of terrorism.) And now, the same people in the same party, continue to believe that I am stupid. Day after day, they deploy their troops to the press to say things that no one with an intact brain stem could possibly believe, I guess to “catapult the propaganda”. Mitt Romney, worth a quarter of a billion dollars, tells us about "liberal Washington" and warns us about elites. And on and on and on. And they are gambling that in November, there will be people who will make this election go their way.

Well, Sarah Palin, it’s going to take more than ugly words, untruths, and holing up in Dick Cheney's man/woman-sized safe to sell yourself to the voters. It's going to take more than pronouncing “nuclear” correctly to distance you from this administration, from whom you seem to have taken quite a bit of inspiration. I’m not stupid. Joe Biden’s not stupid. And Barack Obama’s campaign isn’t stupid. Do you know what those community organizers you mocked actually do, Governor Palin? They do this.

And they do this.

So just in closing, I’m not stupid, and I’m not drunk, either.

And there will absolutely be updates as the insults to my intelligence roll in like federal money to Alaska.

I'm voting on November 4 for the man who assumes I'm a grown person, and addresses me accordingly. It's time to stop this party from its perpetual manipulation and misunderestimation of the country I love.

Update: Eerily similar to another very prominent Republican...

Alternative analysis: Are we stupid?

Good grief, I probably know even less about economics than John McCain and even I knew this much about Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae.

Barack Obama has been reading my blog. Weird. :)

Awwww, he likes her! He really likes her!

UPDATE 9/10/08: The website Sadly, No! came up with this concept of "shorter". They take opinion pieces, and shorten them to a sentence or two that they feel captures the essential element of it. They are snarky and sarcastic and not always fair, and very, very funny.

Here's my "shorter" of the Republican strategist, Mr. Feehery, featured in this article:

"Of COURSE we're LYING. People are MORONS."

And of course, the polling since I drafted this blog post is bearing that out.

Much, much, shorter me.

So, anyway,

2008-08-12T18:58:00.000-07:00

I seem to have lost the camera again to the space-time continuum. So I haven't had much to add here. I think for the Time Being (which I picture as a monster ever since a conversation with Josh many years ago) the checked-out cameras from NCSU will suffice and I'll just entertain you all with my wit, and maybe juggling or something. Either that or the blog readership will plummet, from 12 to 2.

So, anyway, I'm sure I'll think of something cute they've done, or pretty soon I'll make up something plausible. Don't go. There will be pictures soon.

Topsail Beach photos

2008-07-27T16:30:00.000-07:00

We had another wonderful too-short year at Topsail. Highlights included Alex getting to launch a rocket, several times, Alex surfing, several times, and Molly doing some sort of avant garde German dance in the surf and generally having a blast running around on the beach.

Mommy, did you buy them?

2008-07-07T21:32:00.000-07:00

Josh and Alex went with Fred and Chelcy to see a movie at Southpoint, so Molly and I killed time in the mall. I ducked into Gymboree, a store whose prices normally make me avoid it like the plague, because they had a display of hats on sale, which Molecule will need for the beach. So in the store, I found a few things at a good discount that the kids could use, including the hat, and Molly found a pair of flip-flops, which she really does not need. I took them from her, but put them back when she was in front of the Gymboree TV, hoping she'd forget about them. But she didn't, and I had to go back to the store to get them or face a meltdown. For $6, I picked the easy way out. On the way home she fell asleep in the car, and was carried in to the couch, where she stayed asleep. Some time later, she roused from the nap just long enough to say, "Mommy, did you buy them?" When I reassured her that I had, she went back to sleep, nightmares of wearing the same old flip-flops from last week abated.

I hope you guys like them as much as she does.

Pearl anklets courtesy of Aunt Chelcy.

Second swim meet video

2008-06-24T18:02:00.000-07:00

I wasn't able to go, I hung out with Molly, but Josh took some video. It's hard to tell at the meets and you're watching your own kid, what place they take, so we don't know. They give you the ribbons a few days later. But I thought Alex's form, at least, for the breaststroke was pretty good.

Incidentally, I took Molly with me after work to vote in a runoff election for Commissioner of Labor. Yes, I take voting somewhat seriously. Josh voted with her this morning. Some interesting results were that 1) the Boyers constituted approximately 5% of the voting population at our polling location, (the former Commissioner of Labor and his wife, I believe live in our voting precinct. They were presumably another 5%.) and 2) the volunteer poll worker recognized Molly from the morning, saying, "that young lady has already voted today!". Loooooow turnout.

Postscript

2008-06-22T19:00:00.000-07:00

Daughter in the Water is now a 5-star YouTube video with over 20,000 views. I am definitely co-opting the name of the song again, if and when I ever get Alex's video montage up.

Pictures

2008-06-22T15:53:00.001-07:00

Alex and I had a lemonade stand today. Turns out you can make minimum wage doing this, and avert the tax man, too. W00t!

The shirt Alex is wearing is his "Camper of the Week" shirt from Camp Ranoca, his day camp last week and next. The shirt is almost big enough to fit Alex's dad. Alex was "Camper of the Week," he said, because he showed the most spirit. "I sing the camp songs all the time, even when I'm swimming," he explained.

Alex's first swim meet of the season, he's second from the right, preparing to do the backstroke. He swam in the first, competitive, heat in two out of three events, and won a fourth and a fifth place ribbon. Go Alex!

We went to see Bee Movie at the Movies by Moonlight in Cary. It was surprisingly good, actually.

Bailey celebrated her fifth birthday in this dress that I'd really like in my size. Alex read her his card.

Molly's party face.

Changing the subject, our friends James, Emily, Pippa and Rowan Jackson Sanborn are moving to Maine, their homeland. James went up this week to shop for a house. Josh asked James to buy us one while he was at it, and are we thrilled with our new vacation home or what?!

End of the Adja era

2008-06-22T15:10:00.000-07:00

Molly now says Alex instead of Adja. She first said it a week or so ago as a novel way of delaying her bedtime. It caused me (this is Josh) to pull her out of her crib, gather Alex and Jen and let Molly show off. For a day or so I thought she was going to use both names, but it's starting to seem like Alex will be called Alex. It's a bit sad.

Two more bits on Molly.

1. Molly uses "for" as her favorite preposition, usually in place of "with." Just now:
"Daddy, please you come here and talk for me."

2. A conversation this afternoon:

"Daddy, get my pink blanket."

"Molly, how do you get things from me?" I was angling either for "please" or a kiss.

"Taking."

Few new pictures

2008-06-19T19:06:00.000-07:00

I just really like this picture.

Uncle Dan entertained everyone with this balloon launch toy. I found one for our friend Bailey for her birthday, it was so much fun.

The rocks skipped very, very well in this creek.

These are llamas who live near the purple house.

Molly posing, completely un-self-consciously, as she gets ready to go to Splash Day at Bright Horizons.

We had a rather failed camping trip this past weekend to Julian Price Park, wherein we made several trips to the wilds of downtown Blowing Rock, and decamped to the purple house in the face of moderate rain. Lewis & Clark we are not. But a few good pictures all the same.

Videos!

2008-06-03T20:23:00.000-07:00

Alex had another "informance" (performance that informs!), this one was dance set to the book Earth Dance. He had an earlier informance that I don't think I ever got the video up for. Something else for the to-do list. Anyway, in this one he represented a waterfall, and then "Leader of the Plants". He's in the Carolina-blue-and-white striped polo shirt. Interpretive dance has not proven to be his number one favorite school activity, but they were pretty adorable anyway.

Public Service Announcement

2008-06-02T19:43:00.000-07:00

If anyone owns a copy of Rick Bayless' Mexican Kitchen, there is a recipe for "Essential Sweet-and-Smoky Chipotle Seasoning Salsa."

Do not, under any circumstances, attempt this recipe.

Boyers Index, summer edition

2008-05-27T17:45:00.000-07:00

Number of pairs of shorts Alex has: 7
Number of summer 2008 dresses Molly has: 36
Number of cents a hot dog at the pool costs on Wednesdays: 50
Number of days of school Alex has left: 10
Number of days of camp Alex will have: 35
Number of miles one way to get Alex to horseback camp and then to work: 37
Time at which swim team practice starts: 5
Time at which I would have to leave the house in order to get him to camp, work a full day, and get him to swim team on time: 6:00 a.m.
Chances of this happening, in percent: 0
Chances that Molly will still not sleep through the night: 99
Number of days they will still be 2 and 6, respectively: 89 and 90
Number of hours of daylight: I don't know, but I want them all.

Josh blogs Alex, Jen blogs Molly

2008-05-19T20:10:00.001-07:00

Poseur.
This is my attempt to capture a close-up of Molly's hair. It doesn't really work. Anyway, she has one fuzzy frizzy patch that attracts knots as if it were Velcro, but the rest of her hair is these beautiful ringlets. At least, I keep trying to convince Josh that they're beautiful ringlets. I'm sure someday I will be trying to convince her that they're beautiful ringlets.

So Josh and his bum foot took Alex to Vertical Edge, I took Molly to her friend Lauren's party at My Gym. She had such a fantastic time there, and ate every bite of her cake and Goldfish. One story from my transporting Molly to and from Bright Horizons due to Josh moving at .05 mph: I was saying good-bye to her as she had already started her (second) breakfast at school. She pretty much ignored me and wouldn't look up from her cereal with bananas. Her teacher, Ms. Kelly, said, "oh, when Molly's eating, she's done with you. She'd eat all day if we let her." This has not exactly filled me with confidence about my cooking, but oh well. At least she's eating somewhere. And, once, just once, the phrase, "Mommy, I wan more cawwots and broccowi" has been uttered at our table."

This is in the ball pit at My Gym. This functioned very much like traffic in developing nations, i.e. "Oh my God those people are going to hit each other --- whew they missed by a quarter inch..."

Molly and her Bright Horizons peeps at Lauren's birthday. Lauren is third from the right, the right being represented by Molly wearing a dress from her Nana Mary. I tried to tell her that a dress, lovely though it is, might not be the best choice for a gymnastic party, but she really wanted to wear it. She loves it, and she happens to have a coordinating necklace too. And really, it didn't slow her down at all. Thanks Nana Mary!

Alex the rock climber

2008-05-19T19:36:00.000-07:00

You may remember from Alex's Merlefest adventures that he climbed halfway up the climbing wall there. On Sunday, Alex and his Y Guides buddies met at a place called Vertical Edge climbing center, an indoor climbing facility. Alex started climbing.

Several times he made it about as far as in the picture below. The blue line is about 6 feet off the ground. He would get tired and scared to go any farther. Alex has his dad's fear of heights, but he climbs on.

At the end of the afternoon, I told him "one more climb." Check out where he ended up on that one. He's got no hand holds above him, and no rope left. That's the ceiling, at about about 20 feet.

Watch out in 2009, Merlefest climbing wall!

Jen Skips a Groove Again

2008-05-15T13:21:00.001-07:00

Okay, Josh broke his fifth metatarsal and sprained his ankle, and there are cute new pictures. But I want you, just for today, to indulge me in a little rant with no pictures and no cute stories. Here goes:

The Republican National Congressional Committee recently spent $3 million dollars to try to win special elections in 3 districts. They lost in Louisiana’s 6^th district by 3% (which voted 59% for Bush in 2004), in Illinois’ 14^th district by 6% (56% for Bush) and most recently in Mississippi by 8% (62% for Bush). Needless to say, these are not considered good omens by the RNCC.

What’s more, that $3 million was 42% of their cash on hand as of the last reporting cycle.

So anyway, if my public education serves, the RNCC should still have around $4 million left. They spent $1 million per district on some of the reddest districts in the country, and got their hats handed to them. There are 199 Republican representatives left. Clearly, some are more vulnerable than others, but DailyKos estimates more than half of those districts are less safe than the ones that already lost.

Wait, there’s more. In Mississippi, they tried to tie Democratic candidate (and winner) Travis Childers, a former realtor with no legislative experience higher than county clerk, to Barack Obama and Nancy Pelosi. Needless to say, the voters’ IQ was above 12, and this approach failed miserably. Plus, turns out, that district? It’s one-third African-American. Who could have possibly predicted that the “smear Obama” strategy would backfire?

So naturally, drawing on years of experience in Iraq, they plan to stick with the same strategy in November.

Doesn’t this seem like good money after bad? Can’t you think of some better uses for that cash?

In central China, there may be 50,000 people dead. The devastation and loss are horrifying. There may be 26,000 people still alive, whose recovery is hampered by the rubble and destruction.

NPR reports that the U.S. plans to donate $500,000 to China for their relief efforts. No, there aren’t any zeroes missing from that figure.

Unlike the Republicans, China did not bring its devastation on itself. More importantly, unlike the Republicans, with assistance the Chinese could dig themselves out.

My message to the RNCC: forget about campaigning this year. Sure, you could spend your money airing ads of some hapless Texas county commissioner PhotoShopped next to Barack Obama and a hammer and sickle, or next to Nancy Pelosi superimposed over a Gay Pride parade, but you only have about $20,000 per district, and the more you spend, the worse you lose. I realize there are probably potential legal complications with how you direct your campaign expenditures, but hear me out. Most of you will be in prison for something or other soon enough anyway. I say: send that money to China. Send it to Burma. Send it to New Orleans. Heck, send it to Tajikistan. But send it somewhere, anywhere, where someone might actually use to build themselves UP rather than on continued efforts to drag us all DOWN.

Thank you.

There will be pictures soon.

Wild, wonderful (and wet) Merlefest

2008-04-28T19:23:00.000-07:00

Nana Jean wanted a picture with all four great-grandkids. That didn't really happen, but we did get one great picture with one great-grandkid.

Claudia was a big walkin', talkin', rootin' tootin' boogeyin' toddler this year.

Alex finally climbed the rock wall, despite being a little shy of the requisite 50 pounds. The man reckoned he was just about there, with the harness.

Molly is such a ham these days, you could serve her on rye with a little brown mustard in a Jewish deli for fourteen bucks.

So we spent a long weekend in North Wilkesboro and Purlear, North Carolina, enjoying Merlefest yet again. There was one rainy day that we were pretty unprepared for, but we got to hear lots of great music and the kids got out a lot of ya-yas. Henry got out so many ya-yas I didn't capture any decent pictures of him, only blurs.

Two more Alex bon mots from the weekend: he found a four-leaf clover as we were in the R & R tent avoiding the rain. He told us all about how it was his first four leaf clover. "How long did it take you to find?" someone asks, a sly grin, and, you guessed it: "Six and a half years."

As we were packing up to leave, the kids were playing in Nana's van. Molly commenced throwing various things she found in the van at Alex and trying to push him over the rear bench seat into the cargo space, which Alex endured with his usual tolerance. "The only thing I've said since I got into this van, is 'OW.'"

Nothin' to see here, folks

2008-04-23T18:47:00.000-07:00

Susan came to visit for Merlefest and I got some cute pictures of her with the kids in a pizza restaurant, but blogger is not letting me upload them right now. But a couple of stories anyway...

Me: Alex, do you want alligator pj's with dinosaur underpants?
Alex: Cool! All meat-eating clothes!

Alex's homework was to track his eating for a day over the weekend and categorize his servings in the food pyramid groups. "This piece of gum I have, I put that down as a vegetable."

Molly's blessing: "God bless choco milk, and cawwots, and sawad, and choco milk. Sanks! Amen."

Pittsboro Weekend

2008-04-17T17:43:00.000-07:00

Molly was ready to go to Pittsboro. She packed herself a bag full of stuff, put on her frog boots, and pants be damned, it's Pittsboro or bust!

We got lunch and ice cream with our friends, very nice, even if the conversations were punctuated by 7 or 8 I.P.M. (interruptions per minute).

The ice cream was followed by much mud puddle splashing and merriment all around.

The Boyer Witch Project

2008-04-06T18:10:00.000-07:00

...or Why NCSU Will No Longer Loan Us Their Stuff.

Josh checked out a MacBook Air (very cool) for the weekend, and a Flip video camera, a low-cost, user-friendly simple little camcorder that I have been interested in, from NCSU. I got some good videos of the kids, as well as the Second Set of Steps Ever Taken by the 11-month-old son of an old friend that I ran into at the mall.

But Alex was really the one who enjoyed it. Since it is the size of a deck of cards and requires no instruction, and a 6 year old can figure out the limited controls, he took it and had a blast. Here are a few of our results.

Molly on Molly violence

2008-04-05T15:04:00.000-07:00

We spent a nice Wednesday evening at aunt Dottie's house. All was going well until Molly Boyer took an interest in Molly the cat. That lasted for a good ten minutes before Molly scratched Molly's face.

Don't worry, Molly Boyer did not suffer in silence. She let us know what happened.

Uncle Fred took these photos with his phone and showed them to Molly. She became interested in how the pictures made it look like the ice pack was on the other side of her face, the mirror effect. Soon she was cracking up again, the whole business with the cat forgotten about.

The other Molly "in a more pacific state," as Dottie puts it:

Chelcy & Molly before "the incident"

In an unrelated incident, the night before Jen had taken Molly to an Obama fundraiser at restaurant in downtown Raleigh. A man played the sax and people danced. Molly danced and twirled the night away for "Rockabama!" Later that night, I (this is Josh) happened to catch a few minutes of local ABC News (which I never do) and saw a 1-second clip of my girls dancing on TV.

Alex's Spring Break

2008-04-05T14:51:00.001-07:00

Alex spent the first part of his spring break with his Nana Mary and Papa Jeff. First, they went to Abingdon, VA, to the Barter Theater, to see a production of Peter Pan. The play combined a good story plus the mechanics of flying actors around on wires. Alex gave it two thumbs up. Back at the Purple House, Alex staked his claim as king of the hill, er, boulder.

Then it was off to work. He hauled mulch, carried sapling logs, and helped Nana Mary reset the big stepping stones from the driveway to the house (see picture below).

Alex has a much better attitude about yard work than I do (this is Josh writing). Indeed, Alex loves a good project.

Then it was off to Burlington to spend a few days with his other grandparents. He played with Henry and Claudia. Nana Kathy took him to see a local theater musical production of The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe. After two plays in one week, Alex is now an expert on the theatre.

One of these days, Alex will have to return to school, but not yet.

Happy Day After April Fool's!

2008-04-02T06:28:00.000-07:00

Funny, in a tragic kinda way.

One lil politics link

2008-03-25T10:07:00.001-07:00

I don't put up a whole lot of politics stuff on my kiddo-oriented blog, but I thought this was a top-notch article on Obama's foreign policy ideas. Welcome, welcome, foreign policy ideas.

Easter etc.

2008-03-24T18:59:00.000-07:00

The indefatigable Nana Kathy and Papa Dennis and Nana Jean took the kiddos from Friday night through Easter, when we came to reclaim them. In the meantime, Josh turned 36 listening to Tift Merritt, and we got to eat a meal in which everyone involved was actually eating, and no chocolate milk was spilled. Nana Kathy bought Molly a lovely pink ankle-length Easter dress, but also bought her a cute top-and-skirt set (pictured), and the lovely dress was ditched for the new outfit before we could get a picture of the pinkitude. These are my pictures above, and when the grands send me theirs, I'll add them here.

Nana Kathy had this funny story from Easter Sunday's churchgoing preparations.
(Nana's in her Easter dress.)
Molly: "Oooooh, Nana, you wook so pwetty!"

(Nana's home cooking now, in pants.)
Molly: "You not so pwetty now, Nana."

Alex has been collecting state quarters and the Westward Journey nickels. His Nana bought him a portfolio to keep them in, and Papa Dennis brought out a coin collection from his father, which is extensive and features some great old coins, like an 1859 Indian head penny. It's very hard to tell what it's worth as it's based heavily on condition, but it's an impressive collection.

Also, it is Day One of Underpants Time at Bright Horizons. She also made it through the whole evening until bedtime with no accidents. Hail Mary!

Healthy and silly again

2008-03-11T18:15:00.000-07:00

Molly likes to pick out her own clothes now. This was her selection when the assignment was: "PJs."
Self-consciously cute cuddling. "Take a picture of us, Mama!"

A conversation with Alex:

A: Why does that tape say "invisible tape"? I can see it. It should say "visible tape."

(We're laughing.)

A: What? (perfect comedic pause, points to tape) Can you see that tape?!

Sicko Ward

2008-02-27T18:51:00.001-08:00

There's not much to report here, as the kids are laid up with pneumonia. In Alex's case, pneumonia + extra vomiting. We returned to the pediatrician's office today, and vomited on it for good measure. We got a prescription for nausea which he called a "miracle drug". Take it and wait an hour, he said, he should want to eat then. Alex took it and about a minute later asked about ice cream. It really was like that scene in the Princess Bride after Westley gets Miracle Max to make him a pill. He also ate some rice krispy treat, macaroni and cheese, and yogurt, making his mama very happy. Molly has a fever that hovers around 102, making her miserable and whiny and not sure what to do with herself.

Hooray for sofabeds in front of TVs.

Alex's periscope

2008-02-22T18:05:00.000-08:00

Alex and I made a periscope out of milk cartons and craft mirrors. Here he is putting it to good use by checking out which DVDs are in the DVD player. You can hear Molly in the background, worried that I might be taping someone else besides Her Majesty, saying "Barack Obama"...

Obamania

2008-02-21T10:49:00.000-08:00

Josh and I are Obama fanboys these days, ordering bumper stickers, giving him extremely tiny amounts of money, and even indoctrinating our young, impressionable kids. Cute, though, huh?

If you're in central NC and would like to get ready for the primary due to arrive here May 6, head over to this eerily familiar website which I did not design.

Aunt Chelcy's guest blog

2008-02-15T11:08:00.000-08:00

Before we get to that, two bits o' cuteness I keep meaning to write...

Molly got a minor, not-breaking-the-skin bite at preschool from one of her little colleagues. When I asked her about it she said, "my fwend twied to eat me."

Alex requested, and watched, the first Star Wars movie, the Phantom Menace. His thoughts on Jar Jar Binks, completely unprompted and unsuggested -- "that guy's kind of annoying."

And now, for Aunt Chelcy:

Alex and Molly stayed over a couple weekends ago. Aside from Molly rubbing chocolate frosting into our couch with her face, the evening was pretty pleasant.

At one point, Molly found the bike pump and started pumping up her cheeks with old bike air, and then running around with the energy that killing a few brain cells will give you.

Being the good aunt I am, I did stop her...but not before we got a picture. If you are a Harvard admissions officer and you are reading this 15 years from now, don't judge her too harshly, she really is a smart kid. Just a little nutty. Aunt Chelcy

Win me some $, Carolina!

2008-02-04T19:25:00.000-08:00

This is Josh. Carolina plays Duke Wednesday night. May righteousness and all that is holy prevail over the Blue Devils -- and win me some more money! Check out the $5 I won last year from my library co-worker Jim Ruth. Jim is a good guy despite his alma mater and his scribblings on our legal tender.

Lazy weekend

2008-01-13T18:02:00.000-08:00

I took the kids to the park for a while on Saturday morning while Josh tackled a few dozen of the 40 google leaves in the backyard. The kids were having fun playing, when something caught Alex's attention...

It was a family playing tennis. With a tennis machine. He watched this machine for 45 minutes. From two angles.

Holiday pictures

2008-01-02T19:15:00.000-08:00

A few pictures from the holidays. The one above is us waiting to go on the Santa Train at the NC Museum of Life & Science.

And a silly video:

Adventures at the Purple House

2007-12-12T18:49:00.000-08:00

First, let me point out that I have finally added some of my friends' blogs to my blogroll. Sorry it took so long, guys. I also added a satirical political blog I found, Jon Swift, and (s?)he actually kindly added my blog to his. If the writers' strike is giving you Colbert withdrawal, I suggest checking it out. I am sure I will get all kinds of traffic from that site until folks figure out it's just pictures of my kids up in here. (But not today! Today we have a helicopter also! I'm talking to you, Pippa!)

So anyway, we went to the purple house this past weekend, and also Alex made a fortune teller along these lines:

"Do you want to play, Mom? Pick a color. But not purple, because I don't know how to spell that."

So anyway, at the purple house we saw, although not in action as it was the weekend, an unusual timbering procedure. Instead of building a road up the mountain, as well as a bridge over some water, in order to bring down the timber, it's brought down via a giant helicopter. I couldn't say the type for sure, but it sure looks like a repurposed Chinook to me. The crew is from Oregon, and there's a fuel tanker onsite to refuel. None of these figures are independently verified, but supposedly it costs about $5,000 per hour (half of that for fuel) to run this operation. Jeff and Mary sent pictures from when the operation got back into swing:

Unfortunately, my attempts to upload more pictures just keep failing tonight. I promise there will be more pictures, cute ones! Little boys and Christmas trees, little girls and kittens, it's gonna be awesome.

Josh and Molly are funny, too

2007-12-10T06:36:00.000-08:00

Soon, pictures from the purple house weekend...

Me, looking at Walgreens 48-page Sunday circular: "wow, you could get all your Christmas shopping done at Walgreens if you wanted to."
Josh: "if you wanted to kill the spirit of Christmas, sure."

On the way back from the purple house Fred and Chelcy and Alex played 20 questions. Molly kind of got into the spirit of it too. She would "think" of something, and they would guess what it was, she would say "no" until she heard something she liked and then she would say "yes". Sample game:
"Is it Daddy?" -- no --
"Is it the purple house?" -- no --
"Is it Lilly?" -- no --
"Is it the world?" -- YES!

Alex was the best at "guessing" her answers.

Fun Thanksgiving, funny kids

2007-12-03T16:43:00.000-08:00

This year we spent our Thanksgiving in Corolla, on the Outer Banks, with family, in a lovely house with a hot tub. Thanksgiving Day was lovely and warm. Exhibit A is Molly channeling her inner Bo Derek (Henry channeled his inner (?) nudist, but this is marginally more appropriate:)

The other days were rather cooler, but still fun. Did I mention the hot tub? A big hit.
The night we arrived, Molly was in the hot tub at 1:30 a.m. Mama went to bed.

There have been a number of cute/not so very cute Boyer antics we've been trying to remember. The last night in Corolla, Saturday, we tried to go out to eat to a Mexican restaurant my dad and grandma had enjoyed earlier in the week. They were closing when we got there, which was strange because it was like 7:48. Did they close at 7:30? No. 8:00? No. 7:48 was evidently their closing time. Anyway, they had a specials board advertising their fish tacos. As we got back in the car, I said, "dang, I was looking forward to those fish tacos." And Molly said, "I wan fish choco!" (This would be fish chocolate, if you're not fluent in Molly.)

One evening after Thanksgiving, Alex started playing with these foam insect-construction toys that the kids got for their birthdays. Josh asked him if he was ready to read the Chronic (what -- cle of Narnia) before bed, and Alex said, "Well, I didn't know I was going to catch my interesting on this, Daddy."

Another Alex cute moment was when I took him to school on Monday, and he was less than enthusiastic about the return to school. The prior week he smashed the dickens out of his big toe, and spent two days out of school with his swollen purple foot propped up on pillows, so he'd had a week off. I tried to explain to him that we appreciate vacations more because of the time we spend doing things that aren't as nice and relaxing, like going to work or school. I told him if we spent all of our time on vacation at the beach, that we'd be bored and wouldn't realize how nice it was, so we had to go to work and school to make those times more meaningful. "What do you think of that idea?", I ask. "I think it's a dumb idea." Alex says. I told Josh this story; he agrees with Alex.

Upon our return from the beach, we tried to unpack the car while the kids played in the driveway and Molly's favorite, in the car. In the space of perhaps 90 seconds, Alex had a baseball bat going in full swing at my taillight (lowest cost estimate to date, $90, and it's overdue for an inspection), and Molly had stuck coins into my CD player. The factory stereo radio buttons have also frozen. So my stereo is currently a quite large receiver for NPR.

All part of the job. All part of them catching your interesting. If they didn't break your stereo and taillights occasionally, you wouldn't appreciate the fish choco so much, right? Okay, it's a dumb idea.

Random pictures

2007-11-16T17:06:00.000-08:00

Last weekend we walked around Umstead Park , near RTP, on a lovely fall day.

Then we met our friends for lunch at the airport, and got to watch small planes and helicopters taking off from a cafe that is in the airport, but not in the terminal. A neat place to go. Pippa is a big fan of airplanes.

The four of us went bowling two weekends ago, at Alex's request. It was a good time, but did you know that a couple of games of bowling, with shoe rental, a pitcher of beer and nachos, is, uh, $60? Craziness. We'll save up and go again sometime.

Bringing us around to the present day, Molly has an ear infection and pink eye, those perennial childhood favorites. I have a nasty hacking cough, so it was a perfect day to not go to work. We went to the Dr., got the prescription filled, and did some shopping while we were waiting for the prescription. We were given a WIDE berth while shopping, Typhoid Molly and her mama. Molly does not like the Dr., even though many advisories in the form of "no owwies" were given before going in. We talked a little bit about her being sick, but if you say that, she corrects you that she is TWO. ALEX is six.

A couple of pictures

2007-11-05T16:25:00.001-08:00

I think these pictures of Alex and Molly kind of capture their respective natures:

Here's a cute one of the Stinehelfer clan:

Alex is still funny

2007-11-05T08:43:00.001-08:00

From, the "uh, okay" department:

"This morning I put a little toothpaste on my cheek so that whenever I wanted to I could have a little toothpaste snack. I LOVE dried toothpaste!"

I bought Alex some jeans from Old Navy in a size 5 slim and a size 6 slim, with adjustable waists, from the boy's department. Both of them looked as if he had put on Shaq's pants. So I went back to the store with him in tow to try some on and to see just how short the legs would be on the pants that fit him in the waist. Nothing in the boy's section, so we crossed over to the "Old Navy Baby" section. It turns out that an adjustable-waist 5T, set several holes in on each side of the adjustable waist, fit him pretty nicely. I bought five pairs. They have tags on them that say "5T / Old Navy Baby". Alex moaned and fussed about how he was not a toddler and he just couldn't believe his pants were 5Ts. I am just thankful to whoever came up with this idea of adjustable waist pants, sparing me the trouble of custom-ordering some extra-extra-slim 5s.

In Molly news, she can pretty much say whatever she wants now, although we don't understand everything. She has so many new words and copies so often I can't keep track of it all. This weekend when I didn't understand her asking for yogurt, she pushed a bar stool to the flatware drawer, climbed up, opened the drawer, took out a spoon, closed the drawer, put the bar stool back, went to the refrigerator, got a yogurt, and gave it to me. Resourceful child.

The Tinfoil Strikes Back

2007-10-31T17:57:00.000-07:00

It was an unwieldy costume. He couldn't sit, eat, bring his hands together in it. He had a very hard time going up and down stairs or balancing the helmet on his head. But it is what he wanted to be, and he had a blue light, and he got many, many, compliments, Skittles, and Reese's cups. I give you... R2D2.

Molly didn't mind being Princess Leia, sans honeybun hair, and was very psyched at the whole go-up-to-a-house-and-they-give-you-candy thing.

But she couldn't understand why they wouldn't let her into the POOL!

New Molly video montage

2007-10-25T19:01:00.000-07:00

I will make one for Alex, I promise, I'm not trying to show favoritism. It's just that they take more time than I have in an evening, especially when I still have to make a papier-mache R2D2 head. I hope you guys like it.

Gift cards

2007-10-19T06:49:00.000-07:00

It's the season of selling gift cards to raise money for Alex's school again...many of the major chains are represented. Let me know if you'd like any for gifts or personal use.

Kidveos

2007-10-17T18:50:00.000-07:00

We captured Molly's "donut" moments:

And Alex built a cool domino run:

Love is...

2007-10-10T16:15:00.000-07:00

... donuts, according to Molly. This is Josh writing. When one of us says, "I love you Molly," and then asks her to tell us she loves us, she says "donuts." I'm sure she's not actually trying to say "donuts." She doesn't know what donuts are. So what is she saying? Don't know. It sounds like "donuts."

...slamming on the brakes when your grandson wrecks his bike right in front of you on the Virginia Creeper Trail. Papa Jeff did that a couple Saturdays ago and paid for it by flipping over his bike's handlebars and breaking his wrist. Since then he's had a cast put on and surgery -- the finest health care available in eastern Tennessee. We hope.

...coming home after a law conference in RTP, dog tired, and listening to Molly scream about "biscuits" and "houuuse!" while your husband flees the room to go post on a blog.

Bring your family to work

2007-09-28T06:52:00.000-07:00

This is Josh writing. Recently the NC State library decided to let staff invite their kids to an ice cream party. Someone took pictures. Most library employees could not use the occasion to sneak in an extended family portrait, but Rachel and I can make that happen. Missing from the photo are Chelcy and Molly. At first, Chelcy was glad to take a break from her work to visit with Molly. Then Molly clung to her for an extra hour or so, including during picture time.

Without comment

2007-09-27T08:05:00.001-07:00

Because it is not nice to make fun of the mentally challenged, I pass along a couple of items from the Washington Post without comment.

As a candidate, George W. Bush once asked, "Is our children learning?" Now he has an answer. "Childrens do learn," he said Wednesday.

**************
Al Kamen writes in his Washington Post column: "Bit of a slip-up at the United Nations yesterday. Someone posted a copy of President Bush's underwhelming address on the U.N. Web site, but turns out it was a draft, complete with helpful phonetic pronunciations for various countries and people.

"'The United States, salutes the nations that have recently taken strides toward liberty,' the draft said, 'including Ukraine, Georgia, Kyrgyzstan [KEYR-geez-stan], Mauritania [moor-EH-tain-ee-a], Liberia, Sierra Leone, and Morocco.'

"'In Zimbabwe,' the draft said, 'the behavior of the Mugabe [moo-GAH-bee] regime is an assault on its people,' and the U.N. 'must insist on change in Harare [hah-RAR-ray].'

"There was a tip of the hat to 'French President Sarkozy [sar-KO-see].'

*********************************

The camera is supposed to be delivered today.

Unknown Boyers

2007-09-22T18:25:00.000-07:00

Nana Kathy and Papa Dennis kindly offered to take Alex and Molly overnight this past Friday, and there was nothing out in the movie theaters. So Josh and I went to see this character, about whom we knew nothing. I don't know if it comes through in the pictures, but he looked fully 60 to 65 years old. Anyway, because of the angle of our seats or something, we had kind of a hard time making out the lyrics to his songs, but he really could play the guitar. We saw him at the Hideaway BBQ, a cool country-themed restaurant/music club. We want to go back next month to see The Duhks. The crowd was kind of an odd mix of folks who looked like they enjoyed country music, and these women with black hair, bangs, red lipstick, black dresses, tattoos, and a few extra pounds. There were at least five of them and I kept thinking they were the same person, but I guess it's just the type of chick who likes to see Unknown Hinson. There was also a guy in a cowboy hat and a t-shirt saying "Viagra Test Dummy", hunting video games, fried pickles the size of small hamburgers (with ranch dressing -- yummy) and antler chandeliers. An eclectic place, but fun and a good night out.

In other news, the R2D2 costume is coming along, and while it will happen this year, the results will be pretty amateurish. But we're getting there. Pictures, hopefully, will happen -- camera still enjoying the fall scenery in Elk Grove Village, Illinois.

Oh, I started a Facebook page at the invitation of my husband. Since my brother-in-law is a nationally known, Newsweek-quoted authority on Facebook, it was about time, no?

The Guerrilla Gardener and other meanderings

2007-09-10T18:01:00.000-07:00

Our next door neighbor, Tom, is a Gardener. He is growing an honest-to-goodness banana plant in his back yard sanctuary (which has a koi pond and first-rate tree house). He frequently gardens in complete darkness with flashlights because there are not enough hours in the day for him to get in all the gardening he wants to do. Lately there has been a sort of "mission creep" into our, neglected and atrocious property. After he pruned back some trees of ours last weekend, he discovered squirreled away back there a lonely dogwood and told me about it. "Whaddaya know", I say, "I did not know we had a dogwood." So the other night, I was taking the compost out to the compost bin after dark and I notice our hose is running tightly across the yard, across the playground and into the corner of the property. I pull on it to put it away, and it won't come. I go and check it out, and it has been stalled by the introduction of a soaker-hose noose attached to its end, encircling the poor dogwood. I start talking to Josh about it: "Honey, I think Tom attached a soaker hose to this dogwood." Over the fence, I hear a "oh, yep, that was me." In a related development, I am seriously considering converting most of my front yard to drought-tolerant native plants and grasses next spring. The hope is that while this would be a lot of work on the front end, it 1) cannot possibly look any worse than our dead yard of 95% weeds, and 2) possibly might not require very much work once it is established, which is absolutely necessary for any garden of mine. If anyone has undertaken such a thing, I'd love to hear how it went.

In other news, our family is undertaking an Asthma Walk next month. I spammed a bunch of people about it, but I attempted to spam myself and never got the email so it might not have gone through to some of you. In summary, it's a fundraiser for the American Lung Association, and personally meaningful to us as Alex has had asthma since infancy. If you'd like to sponsor us on the walk, go here and search for us under "sponsor participant". Many thanks to those of us who already have pledged their help.

In camera news, for the third time in my ten-month ownership of this camera, it has broken. To be fair, it is only the second time it has broken absent a traumatic event. Anyway, I have to send it back to Elk Grove Village, Illinois, for repair again. They have assured me that if it cannot be fixed again it will be replaced. I am hoping for replacement at this point. I have taken four disposable cameras to be developed and will be getting the photo CDs, so it is possible there will be some o.k. pictures to post soon. Mitigating that possibility is the fact that Alex frequently uses the disposable cameras.

Finally for something a little bit funny. Alex got a remote controlled vehicle for his birthday which was ordered online for him. The packaging for this thing is hilarious. If the camera weren't in Elk Grove Village, Illinois, I would take pictures. But it is called the "Happy Light Dancing Car" and here are a few of its blurbs. I have been very careful to preserve the original spelling and punctuation.

"THE VILENCE REVOLVES.
STRANGE FORM.
STRANGE.
Light!"

"SIDE-SPLITTIN' STUNTS!"

"Go forward.
Revolve.
Vacillating.
CENT SET ACTION!!"

"STUNT!
EDDY!
SHUTTLE!
REBELLION!"

This product was, wait for it, made in China. Please be on the lookout for the "Happy Light Dancing Car" the next time you read a recall for toys made from lead and tiny magnets and contaminated seafood. Cheers.

Alex and Click 'n' Clack

2007-08-26T18:29:00.000-07:00

Alex and I were listening to an old Car Talk call. The gist of the question was that a guy had called in saying that he kept his car pretty messy -- Dunkin Donuts bags, newspapers, "2 or 3 pounds of sand", etc. And that he had a date with a new woman who was "kinda classy" and his question was whether or not he should clean out his car first, since he saw that as a sort of misrepresentation.

I said, "I think he should clean out the car, Alex, what do you think?"

Alex: "I don't know why he doesn't already know that. He's old enough to drive a car..."

Just further confirmation that, yes, our son really will be a ladykiller. He will have the common sense to clean out the 2005 Ford Freestyle he will no doubt be driving in 2017...

Harris Teeter and Alex's School

2007-08-24T09:08:00.001-07:00

If you are so inclined, you can link your Harris Teeter VIC card to Alex's school. This must be done anew every year, so if you've done it before you'll need to do it again. His school code is 2294. Click here. Thanks!

Topsail Beach 2007 (Part I)

2007-08-19T16:49:00.000-07:00

It's Part One because we are headed back in September with my in-laws for a long weekend; I'm looking forward to the vacation already. So, just a few pictures and a video from one long, nice week of goofing off.

Mas S'Mores (a Molly video)

2007-08-06T20:17:00.001-07:00

Mas S'mores (accompaniment by Henry)

More pictures

2007-08-06T19:25:00.001-07:00

Watermelon at the lake, watermelon dress at the lake...

Dance Dance Revolution

Molly's vocabulary

2007-06-20T07:11:00.000-07:00

This is Josh. Here's an update to April's list of Molly's words. I have finally made it onto her list of names. She spent a week or two saying Josh, which is much harder to say than Dada, but now I'm Dada. She often makes speeches that repeat "Mama-Dada." She doesn't say Alex's name much, but when she does it comes out Ala. Her name for herself is Mono, or maybe Mano. She likes to say "Go!" as in, I walk into the room and she points the direction from which I just came and yells, "Go!" Okay, fine, I know my place. She loves our neighborhood swimming pool and can talk about it a bit, saying something between poo and pool, soft L. Mono loves to say "Bye bye" and as loudly as she can.

The cutest thing is when she "reads" a story called How Do Dinosaurs Say Good Night? It has human mom and dad trying to put various dinos to bed. Molly tells it like this: "Mama, nigh nigh, roar!"

Second swim meet, second heat winner ribbon

2007-06-19T19:20:00.001-07:00

This time he won in breaststroke. We are really proud of our little guy. I spent the swim meet being a "kid pusher", which is mostly sitting around and waiting, then sometimes leading the kids where they're supposed to be. Here are some things that 6-and-under girls do while waiting for their turn in the pool:
play go fish
play with dollhouses
play with My Little Ponies
sit criss-cross on their towels
color in coloring books
build tiny civilizations out of Legos

Here are some things that 6-and-under boys do while waiting for their turn in the pool:
Heckle teenagers trying to play basketball, telling them when to shoot and trying to get them to pull their pants down. Loudly.
Try to climb and jump off of picnic tables that have been turned on their sides
Try to build forts out of picnic tables that have been turned on their sides
Try to climb and jump off of lounges that have been turned on their sides
Try to build forts out of lounges that have been turned on their sides
Try to kiss 6-and-under girls against their will
Play Star Wars
Play Pokemon
Shoot guns at people
Run, chase, and hit each other
Yell. Loudly. Constantly. For no discernible reason.

We're just as surprised as you are...

2007-06-12T18:28:00.000-07:00

But Alex won his heat in the backstroke. If you're not familiar with swim meets, the first heat is the competitive one aka "the main event". Those kids get place ribbons, times, and it's the only heat that counts for competitive purposes. Alex didn't swim in any first heats. They are followed by about four noncompetitive heats, in his age group anyway. But the first place finisher in the noncompetitive heat does get a lovely green ribbon. Oddly, these ribbons say "Summerfield North Swim Team" which was the opposing team, we are Quail Hollow, but who am I to quibble? When I say Quail, you say Hollow! When I say Alex, you say YAY!! We are very tickled with his great progress, and we must get a picture up soon of him going to town in his little uniform suit. He's a good kid, is what he is.

Pool Times

2007-06-10T18:00:00.000-07:00

This is Josh. I just want to say that I'm so proud of Alex for his swimming and bike riding, which are, you might be surprised to learn, linked. Alex rides his bike to the pool where he swims. It's about a quarter mile from our house, if that. We walk and push Molly in her stroller. For Alex, every trip to the pool makes him better at biking and swimming. It's a duathalon. A month or two ago, Alex was not fully comfortable putting his face in the water. Today I found him retrieving objects off the 3' -4' deep bottom of the pool. What brought this about? Peer pressure from the cool kids who swim well -- Greear, Meg, Illana, et. al. Also, he's on the 6-and-under Quail Hollow swim team, and that practices 7 or more times a day, so that doesn't hurt. Weeks ago, Illana's dad asked us if Alex would be joining the swim team. I replied that Alex doesn't swim. Illana's dad explained that the ability to swim was not a prerequisite for swim team (a good policy for 6-and-under activities, but worrisome elsewhere). Anyway, Alex has become a different boy in just a few weeks. If you see a wet 5-year-old ride by you and skid to a halt on his silver and green Diamond Back BMX, check to see if it's Alex.

Okay, it's Jen now. No pictures of Alex right now -- he's too fast! But check out Molly, who hung out for about half an hour in a group of girls in which she was the youngest, by about six years.

Random Funniness

2007-06-05T19:54:00.000-07:00

I'm going to lead with a story about Alex's classmate (and former Spanish For Fun! classmate) Ilana. I was chatting with her dad at the baby pool -- Molly, by the way, is tearing up the baby pool -- but the point is that he was explaining how Ilana is just as skinny as Alex but she adores food. She will call home from playdates to ask her parents to bring her food. And this was the line that just killed me, he claims she often says things like, "Daddy, while I'm waiting for you to make my breakfast, can I just have a cheesesteak?" Needless to say, Alex doesn't even know what a cheesesteak is, and found no humor at all in this...

But he did explain the plot of the Wizard of Oz to me, saying that the Tin Man got a heart...."you know, that has all your blood, and niceness, in it."

And from Molly, basically she's just improving on the words that she's got, but last night we read a book called "How Do Dinosaurs Say Good Night?" that involves human parents trying to put these giant dinosaurs to bed. She retold and retold the story to me on every page, using the words "night-night", "mama" and a roar for the dinosaur. It is hard to duplicate here, but astonishingly cute to hear a tiny little dialogue punctuated by roars. Must get new videocamera...

Italy pictures

2007-06-04T09:08:00.000-07:00

We put pictures of our trip to Italy on Snapfish. Try this link. Let us know if it doesn't work. One day I may get around to putting them in Flickr so you don't have to have an account to see them.

Josh

We are a people of many moods

2007-06-03T18:03:00.000-07:00

Celebrate good times, come on! Our friend Pippa's birthday party was a smashing success, notwithstanding these pictures...

Here is a happy one of the birthday girl + mom:
And here are some shots pre- and post- strawberry picking:

We Can Stay All Day

2007-05-24T19:21:00.000-07:00

Last weekend we went to the Asheboro Zoo with the family. Cuteness abounded. No, there aren't actually pictures of animals butcept our little animals, but trust me, it was the zoo.

Super tough snake tattoo.

We're working on the Italy pictures, I promise

2007-05-22T18:07:00.000-07:00

Josh scored us the very best table in the house at this little restaurant on the Grand Canal in, yep, Venice. It was a beautiful day in a beautiful city with my beautiful husband, and his weird-o drink, Campari with soda. Ciao, baby.

Along the Grand Canal, shot from a boat tour we took.

A little town called Gualdo Cattaneo, somewhat less touristed than Venice. Okay, it was an absolute ghost town. We wandered around completely empty streets during siesta time. I don't think we found a single establishment open. We did see a cat or two. All this was near our "agriturismo", an organic olive oil farm called Le Case Gialle.

We got a little lost, okay, I got us right much lost, trying to find Le Case Gialle (which we deduced, after leaving there, meant The Yellow Houses). But one, we didn't get cell phone reception to call the English-speaking hosts, and two, I don't speak Italian. We gamely asked a couple of people for directions, which I came away with phrases like "third town", "turn right", "after Bruna", and "it's easy". Turns out this degree of language skill is insufficient to find a rural country house in Umbria. Also not helping us were locally posted maps such as this one:

Josh says, "Note: blue lines not rivers." We don't know what the blue lines are. We don't know what the white lines or the red lines or the dotted lines are either. We did figure out we had to go through the unfortunately named "Bastardo" to get to the place, but these singularly unhelpful maps did not get us there. Eventually the two of us and our rented Fiat Panda arrived, and it was worth the trouble. Heads up if you go to Italy, middle of nowhere Umbria is just spectacular.

Since obviously we have tons of pictures, we want to caption them before we forget what and where they are all, and put them up on Snapfish for those who'd like to check them out.

Other news: I was "recommended" to fill a position at the N.C. Industrial Commission, which I guess is not a formal job offer but will be a formal job offer pending approval by the personnel department. It will probably start fairly soon, like 3 weeks or so. This was a job I wanted and I think I will like, so I'm very pleased. You may or may not remember that I applied for this job in something like November, heard nothing and nothing and nothing, got my interview rescheduled from tomorrow afternoon to this morning with about an hour's notice, and got the phone call about the recommendation several hours later. A very strange sequence of events, but anyway. The job title is "Special Deputy Commissioner", where Special = The Very Lowest. If you're interested, the IC is sort of the equivalent of the court for adjudicating workers' compensation cases. There are commissioners on top, then deputy commissioners, then special deputy commissioners. Basically I would be making 3 different types of administrative decisions, and I would be making them quite frequently as the IC juggles tens of thousands of cases per year. The setup, decor, technology, and lighting of the office could best be described as "Soviet" and I probably wouldn't even have an office at first but would be sort of a lurker in the law library. Doesn't that sound fabulous? Seriously, I am excited to have a real lawyer job with real responsibilities and boy, I sure do hope nothing changes. Thanks to all of you who wished me well!

Merlefest 2007 (Alex's Sixth)

2007-05-16T12:07:00.000-07:00

Okay, Josh and I just got back from Italy, but one post at a time. Let's pretend for now that we just got back from Merlefest.
We went once again to Merlefest in North Wilkesboro, N.C., with extended family and saw our friends Sarah & David & Grace & Johnny there too. The kids had a great time, dancing and listening to the music, and except for Saturday having twenty kazillion people, we had a great time as always. Although Alex is only 5 1/2, this is his 6th Merlefest and we are hoping someday he'll be able to get a trophy or something for perfect attendance.

Alex in the canoe at Merchants Mill Pond

2007-04-22T19:01:00.000-07:00

Merchants Mill Pond

2007-04-22T18:47:00.000-07:00

This weekend Nana Mary, our hero, came to stay with Molly (the antihero?) for the weekend while Josh and Alex and I, as well as our friend Matt & his cousin Pat, camped at Merchants Mill Pond in northeastern NC. The weather was great, the wildlife abundant, the campfire food yummy. If I hadn't gotten a raging caffeine-withdrawal headache on Saturday necessitating the canoe trip back to the dock for a raid on the vending machine, it would've been idyllic. Good to know that if I'm ever lost on a desert island the first frustration I will face will be migraine-quality headaches due to lack of access to diet Coke. Guess I won't be auditioning for Survivor.

It was fun to dedicate some time to Alex and he really enjoyed the trip, despite not having the proper appreciation for a truly perfectly roasted campfire marshmallow. I mean, if you just prefer them RAW, out of the bag, what in the world kind of taste do you have, anyway? And if you won't even try a s'more because you "don't like chocolate", then you're just a little freak. But we love our little freak, and in homage to him we post a few words he still trips over. There are more that I am racking my brain to remember, but the decaffeination effects must still be with me....

callapitter for caterpillar (which he painstakingly sounded out in a writing assignment to spell, logically, "calupitr"
qweshkin for question -- I don't understand this one as it seems harder than the real word
and new from our camping trip:
allergy for algae
and booty for buoy

A Random Link

2007-04-16T18:00:00.000-07:00

Despite my parents' best efforts to haul me to the symphony every year for my annual dose of culture and send us to piano lessons, I remain a person with a tin ear for classical music. But this was a really interesting article about a sort of psychological experiment involving classical music, by one of my favorite guys at the WaPo, Gene Weingarten. No one ever stages psychological experiments along Six Forks Road, so I never know how typically or atypically I would have behaved. But I like to think I would have stopped.

Molly's vocabulary

2007-04-11T10:07:00.000-07:00

Hi, this is Josh posting today. We often say that Molly doesn't talk. That's mostly true, but to give her some credit, here is a list of words she says, or at least the ones we could remember this weekend:

Ma - more
Uh oh - something fell. Does not convey that it was an accident.
Mama - Jen. Also Josh, Alex and lots of other people. She's determined not to say Dada.
Ama - not sure. Perhaps it means the same as Mama?
No - she's very good at this one
Nigh nigh -- night night without the Ts
All gone
Juish - juice
Wow
Was dat? - What's that. I have not heard this one much.

And long lectures of baby talk, often delivered into a telephone she's carrying around. Exception: If anyone is on the other end of the line hoping Molly will say something, she gets very quiet.

Christ is risen and the camera is back

2007-04-08T19:54:00.000-07:00

What a handsome boy. It is getting increasingly hard to get good pictures of him without him ducking. This weekend he got his first "semi-pro" haircut (no offense, Great Clips). It looks a lot better than the Mama Specials.

A rare daytime sighting of the Easter bunny.

Here is what I bought for Molly to wear for Easter.

Here is what she actually wore for Easter.

Despite the chilly temperatures, we had fun. Here is part of Papa Dennis' coaching of Alex on baseball: "See, when you hear the bat hit the grass like that, you're not swinging right."

There might also be pictures of a couple of folks that I didn't give birth to... I'll post those someday too. :)

What to Expect the Toddler Years' opinion of Molly

2007-04-05T07:10:00.000-07:00

So I am consulting this book as part of my investigation into whether Molly is a typically crazy toddler, or an atypically crazy toddler. The book repeatedly says that it can be very difficult to determine, and is probably a matter of opinion, whether a toddler is "unusually difficult" or "typically difficult."

Here is another passage: "Sometimes toddlers who are physically precocious -- the early walkers, climbers, jumpers, ball-throwers -- are later talkers; they put so much of their energy and concentration into physical exploits that they have little left over for verbal exploration."

Here is Molly's vocabulary to date: Mama (applied indiscriminately to all people, including her dad, brother, grandmother, and herself); no; something resembling hello and night-night; mas (more); and some animal sounds.

Here are Molly's skills, to date: running, jumping, walking up and down steps holding the wall, climbing onto tables, opening, running, and climbing on top of the dishwasher, opening the refrigerator and removing yogurts, freeing herself from any sort of buckle such as the kind on booster seats and shopping carts, climbing the ladder on her playground, going down slides, balancing as she walks along walls, climbing onto sofas, and running full tilt into the street.

The camera is on its way, guys. Not for much longer will there be this boringness.

Of digital cameras and disposability

2007-04-03T17:20:00.000-07:00

So my digital camcorder (video) has also been on the fritz for a while, it's about 2 to 3 years old now. I finally got in touch with Panasonic troubleshooting who told me I would have to send it in for service -- to the same town full of electronics wizards that I send my Canon regular digital camera to, Elk Grove Village, IL. I guess they killed all the elk up there and had to find a new line of work.

So anyway, for a camcorder no longer under warranty, the standard repair charge is $261.50. As far as I can tell, that is also the approximate midpoint for new camcorders....which would presumably be sold by Panasonic.

Maybe there will be pictures in a week or two

2007-04-02T12:09:00.000-07:00

I finally got the camera shipped off and it has been received and promised to be back to me in 7 business days. Also, I got a new cell phone to replace my 2001 model (although the novelty of a grayscreen phone with absolutely no features save a little penlight was kind of retro), and it of course has a camera...but I have no way to currently get those pictures off my camera. I have to get either a cable to connect it to my PC, or a new computer with Bluetooth, or most likely -- they remain permanently on my phone. Oh well. The good thing about the new phone, aside from the camera, is that it is supposedly able, at exorbitant cost, to make and receive calls from the U.S. ($1 a minute). Text messages overseas, however, much cheaper -- $.10 to receive and $.50 to send, so text away. I guess the weird thing is my phone will probably be ringing all the time with calls not worth a $1 a minute to me to accept. I also have to figure out if a Fiat has sufficient power to recharge a cell phone. In case you haven't figured this out, I am really looking forward to going to ITALY next month...but I will miss my littluns tremendously.

Pending further pictures, please accept these Boyer Bon Mots.

Alex, listening to Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band: This song is so good I can't even SEE.

Alex, while we are selectively reading a long book about space and I have picked a page about "the universe": What's the universe? Does that mean the whole entire world?
Me: Yes.
Alex: Yeah, I don't want to learn about that.

Josh: Molly, sometimes I want to save the bathwater and throw you away. Sometimes I think, that's good bathwater! [Aww. Please note, this thought occurs to pretty much everyone who spends consecutive hours with Molly, pulling her off of tables, out of cabinets, out of the street, out of the dishwasher...]

Me: Molly, your PJ's say "precious". That is some kinda typo. [See, I told you. I think this was following one of her favorite games -- putting something tiny and inedible off the floor into her mouth, showing Mom that she has contraband in her mouth, then taking off running and squealing in the other direction. When caught, twisting violently from side to side with the contraband clenched in her teeth or under her tongue.]

Molly: NO!

Self portrait + Susan, by Alex

2007-03-30T17:28:00.001-07:00

DC pictures, courtesy of Aunt Susan

2007-03-30T17:16:00.000-07:00

The real R2D2 and C-3P0, at the Air & Space Museum, in an exhibit called American Treasures or something like that. They also had Lincoln's top hat, Mary Todd Lincoln's ball gown, Sandra Day O'Connor's robe, the signpost from M*A*S*H, and Jerry Seinfeld's "puffy shirt". There were other random things, too, that kind of made you think "treasure? really?"

Molly with Grandpa on the Mall. If she looks vaguely unhappy, it's because she isn't running at full tilt down the Mall...

The stroller was useful for carrying bags, jackets, and umbrellas. I noticed many, many strollers out in D.C. which contained toddlers. Must ask them where they got theirs.

With Aunt Susan. This is a display in front of the National Museum of Art which to me looks kind of ripped off of the Louvre, but what do I know from art. If you look down into the pyramids, you can see folks in the cafeteria. The cafeteria at that museum will set you back a bit, but the food options are great. Highly recommended over the new and also overpriced fast food available in the Air and Space Museum's food court.

IS THERE FOUR???? NO, THERE IS TWO. That is sort of an inside joke.

Nah, no pictures

2007-03-16T17:23:00.000-07:00

But I am having a change of job status, that I'll tell y'all all about now. My current job I like well enough, and isn't particularly difficult, and is flexible, but isn't really a dream lawyer job...hmmm...please forgive the oxymoron inherent in that sentence. I have kept my eyes open for other work for some time now to no avail. Anyway, the economics of the workers' comp business is so weird -- the amount of work and the number of cases one is handling bears no real relationship to the amount of money the business is making, because the cases that are making money are closing and were signed many months or years ago. Essentially the business is feast or famine. So, anyway, lately we're having a bit of a famine in our tiny little office, and it looks like if I continue to work there I would have to go a total of probably 10 to 12 weeks from my last paycheck to my next, all the while paying my nanny every week, at which point I could probably get mostly caught up to being a couple of weeks behind, at which point I would probably then wait again an indeterminate period of time to be paid. I have been behind before at work, but never more than a week or two. My boss was hoping that I'd be able to suck it up and hang around, she is confident that the long-term picture for the business is very good and I don't necessarily disagree, I just can't get through the next few months without another dime very easily. On a completely different note, we are following through with our plans to go to Italy at the beginning of May -- some things are worth going into debt for, like properly celebrating one's tenth anniversary.

So anyway, I have asked my boss to lay me off, at least temporarily. So I am working my last week next week and then will apply for unemployment, staying on her payroll and planning on going back when the next check comes in, if I don't have anything else by then. So, folks, if you're looking to hang out with a mom and a bonkers 18 month old kid, it looks like I might have some time.

Alex spends the night with Chelcy & Fred

2007-03-10T18:08:00.000-08:00

Aunt Chelcy took pictures of Fred & Alex on Friday night....

And then again on Saturday morning.

I'm pretty sure Al crashed for at least an hour or two.
Sorry it took me a while to post these, Chel.

Molly's stats

2007-03-08T19:01:00.000-08:00

Molly had her 18 month checkup today, she's a little over 24 lbs, in the 55% weight percentile, 65% head circumference percentile, and 70% percentile for height. We've never had a tall child before so the novelty is kind of neat. As is her wont, she did not exactly go with the flow for the evaluation and just stared blankly as the doctor asked her where her hair was and where her nose was. But she did demonstrate her ability to jump, holding on to me, which got the approving notice that it was a 2 year old skill and duly noted on her chart. When it came for vaccine time, the nurse pronounced her to have the strength of a kindergartner and suggested a little a red flag for her next visit. That's my kid, all brawn, no brains. (Just kidding, Moll.) And our neighbor Kirsten has a cute nickname for her: Mol-ecule.

On a completely unrelated note, now that March madness is in swing, I am going to keep a list of "Sports announcer English". Tonight's additions, and be advised I only watched 6 minutes of the NC State-Duke game: "trustable" and "paceability".

More pictures, and a list

2007-02-19T18:09:00.000-08:00

I found a legal pad the other day with the following list on it. I can only guess that I wrote it in November. It reads:

Alex is thankful for
towels
ribbons
food
drinks
stuff you eat out of, like bowls
cups
baby sisters

Pretty funny.
And now, skiing pictures from the bunny slope. Alex also braved the big-people slope with his dad. He was a champ.

And this is a cute sequence of pictures of Molly with Henry and a cute little girl named Millie. The last one of Molly just slays me.

2007-02-19T14:30:00.000-08:00

Strike a pose, there's nothing to it -- vogue.

Henry and Claudia and parents came over to visit and got everybody all riled up. That Claudia is a party gal!

Hmmm....Alex's Valentine's Day chocolate....very interesting...

Hooray, pictures off Nana's camera

2007-02-18T18:02:00.000-08:00

I'm pretty sure these are from an October birthday celebration at Mellow Mushroom...

Self-portrait by Alex.

From Henry's second birthday party.