Rich did not have a good weekend. He had a terrible migraine most of Saturday, and Sunday was spent typing, long into the night, as he struggled to make a deadline. But, you know, the rest of us had fun. Nick's soccer game was early on Saturday,

Here's hoping you all had a great Independence Day! We celebrated in proper style, by carbonizing chunks of meat over a fire, then setting off multiple explosives in the presence of small children. Good stuff. I tried to explain the proper meanin

Beth and Jonathan, and eventually Phillip, came over yesterday evening. We had a lovely time. Dinner turned out well, the kids played nicely, Zoe went to sleep smoothly, and there was much grownup conversation. Ah, bliss. I've decided that one of

We made last minute plans on Friday - dinner at Mellow Mushroom, then we met up with Beth and Philip, Kristy and Alan. We met at CC's for coffee and spent a lot of time riding herd on the kids; then we drove over to the mall, sat down in the play

Marjorie invited us to join her family in making gingerbread houses over the weekend. Well, "gingerbread" houses, because they were really graham cracker based. It was a lot of fun; getting the crackers to hold together long enough for the

Zoe slept most of the day. I presume she's coping with all those viruses suddenly injected into her body. I just hope she sleeps most of the night, too. I kinda skipped over it earlier, but Nick and Rich were camping all weekend; it was a Y Guide

Rich was away most of the weekend, so the kids and I had to amuse ourselves. On Saturday, we went shopping. This was better than it sounds. There were a few garage sales, where Nick and I bought odds and ends. Then WalMart, to buy a few things for Ni

John, Misty, and sons were in town this weekend. It was delightful - we haven't seen them in about three years. They spent Saturday night at our house, arriving quite late. They poured the kids into bed and we all sat up talking. Henry, incidenta

Nathan and I turned 31 yesterday. I understand he didn't do much to celebrate this momentous occasion. He called me via satellite phone for our annual birthday chat, but that was Monday morning for me, and Tuesday for him. On the plus side (from

We  memorialized two centuries of war dead by inviting friends over and grilling spiedie chicken in the backyard. Yeah, I think that's kinda unrelated too. At some point this weekend we sat down with Nick and had a chat about the meaning of

I finally got together with Leah today. We met at a coffee shop, with our respective progeny in tow. It was a much briefer visit than we had hoped for, because Mason decided to be cranky after about the first fifteen minutes, and eventually Leah deci

Nothing much exciting happened yesterday or today. Which is probably just as well, because I have a lot to write about the weekend, which was action-packed. Saturday morning we all left the house bright and early (by my standards, anyway) to go to Jo

Yesterday evening, Nick and I drove in to Baton Rouge, where we met up with Rich, Beth, Phillip, Jonathan, and Kristy and Ander. The location was supposed to be a coffee shop, but the first people to arrive all agreed that they were hungry, apparentl

Something important I forgot to mention yesterday - Nick insisted that we bring his pup tent along. He wanted to sleep in it by himself. I was dubious, but agreed to let him try. Sure enough, he lasted about five minutes that night before decided to

It had been far too long since our last trip to the zoo, so on Friday Nick and I headed on over. Nick had such a good time, he insisted on visiting the entire zoo. I would have preferred to husband my energy by leaving an hour or two earlier, but wha

Ander had a wonderful party to celebrate his first birthday. The guest of honor was a bit sleepy, but basically good natured throughout the afternoon. The crowds didn't phase him at all. And there were crowds: a bunch of his parents' friends with kid

Sunday went much better than Saturday. We moved to a nicer site and arranged things to our satisfaction. Then some of us took the kids over to visit the playground. After lunch, we all went for a hike. It was about two miles, all told, about as long

We went camping this weekend, at Chicot State Park, with the D's. We left Saturday morning, in good order. ETA: shortly after noon. As we were leaving, Rich noticed that one of his tires was low, so we stopped to fill it up. An hour or so later, we w

The Mardi Gras parade season kicked off with the Krewe of Jupiter parade on Saturday evening. I kinda didn't want to go - I thought it would be too cold - but Rich talked me into it. He was quite right. Nick, in particular, has reached that age where

Something happened to the cable that leads to our house. Our internet was wonky and slow on Friday, and by Saturday morning, we couldn't log on. Then we discovered that the TV was out. Then we learned that the landline phone (available through the ca

Happy Thanksgiving, everyone! Ours was lovely. Beth and Philip invited us to their house, so we had company, plus we didn't have to cook much. Beth's mom and sister were there too, and the other Beth with Christine. Dinner bore little relation to

Rich left for St. Louis early this morning; he'll be back late tomorrow evening. While I was showering this morning, Nick put on my glasses. Pretty funny - he looked cute, and had fun wandering around peering through fun-house vision. Then he took

Kristy and Beth came to our house with their kids. Hooray for casual visits! And Rich and Nick went to the Port Allen corn maze with the Y Guides. They had a fine time getting lost in the dark field and whatnot. I had a fine time at home alone. Every

I'm getting tired of talking about fungi. And anyway, I have no major updates to report. So instead, I will prove that my life is not totally revolving around unfortunate growths in my kitchen. As a special bonus, I'll include photos of things that a

Our next-door neighbors didn't spend long admiring their new roof before moving on to the next project. They wanted a bigger parking area in back, with room for both cars to park next to each other. Then they decided that the old driveway wouldn't li