coffee and tempeh

We had a nice weekend, even if we’ve ended it a little bit sick. Yesterday we went to a park in an area where I hadn’t been with j for a year and a half. It’s a great park, full of many things to climb on. And j was so great--such a huge change from last year, when we were on pins and needles taking him to a park for fear he would grab another kid. He’s just awesome. He runs around the place and peers around the equipment, like You see me, Daddy?

I got a new coffeemaker for the holidays and though I'm still not sure what I think about it, it’s very easy to use. Now that j knows how to use it, he insists on making me coffee, even more than he did before. Mama, you want some coffee? Ok! You want coffee! It’s the first thing he asks when I wake up, when we enter the house, and at night when he’s bored. I’ve been trying to crack my coffee addiction, but j is an enabler. He likes to push the button to turn on the machine, watch it come out (There’s the coffee! Mama, I did it! Yea!), spoon sugar into the cup, and stir in the soy milk. Then there is the inevitable spilling (we’re still working on gentle stirring), but he loves to pull out a towel and wipe up afterwards. He is definitely in training for a life in the kitchen.

Speaking of (my own self-imposed, half-hearted) kitchen training, I made a soy-lime tempeh stir-fry on Saturday. We discovered that P is not too hip on tempeh--or at least when I make it--but I can’t really blame him. I liked it a lot, but I can see how not everyone would. However, we both liked the cauliflower and potato curry I made earlier in the week, so I’ll have to keep going with the Indian recipes.

valentine’s day

We spent the week sloooooowly working on Valentine’s Day cards for his pre-school class. j helped affix the stickers, but he wasn’t terribly interested the whole ordeal, except for the tape. Also, he was distracted this week by the easel he got for Christmas from his aunt and uncle (thanks--it is fantastic!) but we hadn’t had a chance to put up until this week. We just got new carpet in the basement playroom and painted the ceiling, so we’ve spent the last month rearranging things and finally it is done.

j loves, loves, loves his easel, especially the whiteboard part. He likes to draw pictures of our family, especially when I draw the circles for faces and he gets to add hair, Daddy’s beard, and “extraordinary long arms” to our bodies, just like Mr. Tickle has. Since he doesn’t like to sit down much to draw (this was confirmed when we spoke to his teacher last week), I wonder why the easel is so appealing. I think it has to do with the fact that he can erase on the whiteboard. He loves to erase and start over again. I can understand this urge.

But my favorite part is when he switches up what the eyes and mouths in his pictures look like. No, Mama, you gotta be tired. And he gives me dark lines for my eyes. Mama, I gotta be happy. And he erases the horizontal line he’s drawn for his mouth and draws a grin in its place.

I’ve also been trying to spell words for him to see. He’ll shout out letters and I write them on the whiteboard. He’s starting to understand how to spell his name, I think, though he insists that there is both an N and an M in it.

25 random things

On Facebook, where I’ve been spending far too much recreational time lately, there’s this whole “list 25 random things about yourself” thing going on. After having been “tagged,” I started to compose my 25 things, only to realize that I have too many Facebook friends and co-workers on there to feel comfortable sharing the 25 random things actually on Facebook. So I’m posting it here, where fewer people read. I’m sure that I will re-read this in a few years and be horrified, but it was an interesting exercise. Here goes.

1. Until recently, I wore the same pair of black boots to work every day. Now I alternate between two different pairs of black boots.
2. I sang in an all-women a cappella group for a few years (2003-2005), and though it was stressful at times, I really miss it.
3. I hate talking on the telephone. I prefer to communicate in person, but if I can’t do that, I would much rather email--I’m more confident writing.
4. I dislike shopping. I don’t have anything against people who love shopping, but I do get really annoyed by people who assume that all women love shopping and therefore, I must love it too.
5. I take back what I said above if the store is Staples.
6. My favorite alcoholic drink is a vodka tonic with lemon. Or lime. I’m just liking lemon right now.
7. Most of my close friends when I was younger were men. Now most of my close friends are brilliant, talented women who inspire me to improve myself.
8. It took me ten years to finish my doctorate, and I'm glad it took that long. I needed the time.
9. Generational generalizations, especially about students (e.g., “Millennial students these days...”) piss me off.
10. Generalizations about people in general piss me off. I generalize myself but try to avoid doing so as much as I can. Maybe I just want to be more conscious of it.
11. My husband, son, and I were all born in different states (Michigan, Pennsylvania, and New Jersey, respectively).
12. One of my degrees as an undergrad was Musical Theatre and I did a lot of performing when I was younger. This sometimes surprises many people who know me now. The fact that I teach English sometimes surprises people who knew me then.
13. I think and talk about de-cluttering and simplifying a lot, but never get to purge as much crap from my house as I’d like.
14. I’m somewhat opposed to the idea of having a pet, but am willing to work on getting over this.
15. I am not willing to work on getting over my irrational fear of clowns.
16. I have a hard time understanding being absolutely convinced. This becomes an issue mostly when conversations turn towards organized religion, atheism, some kinds of feminism, and certain kinds of pedagogy.
17. I met my husband when I was 11 and he was 14, but we didn’t start dating until he randomly spotted me on the street when we were both in grad school.
18. I consider myself to be a pretty shy person.
19. I don’t like when people take themselves too seriously. I don’t like myself when I take myself too seriously. Unfortunately, this happens often.
20. I am a workaholic. My job sometimes drive me nuts, but I overall I love it.
21. I am a feminist who recognizes that there are many kinds of feminism.
22. I dig Ian McEwan, David Foster Wallace, Jonathan Safran Foer, Nancy Franklin, Jack Black, Tenacious D, and of course, P and j.
23. I had dyed-blonde hair until 7 years ago, and am thrilled that my natural brown hair is “back.” I imagine that I will have long gray hair as I get older. My hair is cooperating with this prophecy.
24. I agree with our President that The Wire is the best show on television. I also believe that Season 4 should be required viewing for educators and politicians.
25. If I believed in hell, I would also believe that there is a place in it reserved for the creator(s) of Bratz dolls.

new year

We got back from our wonderful Michigan trip on Saturday, and I was back at work today, where I was greeted by scheduling nightmares, faculty problems, and student complaints (complete with parents in tow).

God, I miss vacation already.

So here is my favorite video from our trip. It’s totally crazy, but it always makes me smile. Warning: you may want to turn down the volume on this before playing, especially if you’re at work or some other kind of public place.



Though you can’t tell from this video, j’s language is coming along really well. We think we’re experiencing a sort of a language explosion these past few weeks. We’ve got the nouns, the pronouns, the verbs, the adjectives, the adverbs, the conjunctions, the prepositions, the interjections, and best of all--the sentences! He’s also getting adept at negotiation. (You want this one? Or that one? This one? Or that one? This one? OK!) Of course, all negotiations hinge upon one’s wanting “this one,” not “that one.”

snow-eating

School has ended for me and for P; j has school until tomorrow, the 23rd. These are some pictures from this weekend, when we were pretty much snowed in for three days. As in years past, there was much snow-eating. Snow-eating, I’ve found, is the outdoor equivalent of paper-eating, which is j’s indoor fascination. He’s even found himself a corner of the room, behind the living room curtain, in which he crumbles, munches, and then disposes of spitballs in one of my many plants. Yes, this is my amazing, spectacular child.


The snowflakes have been my project with j, who has learned to use scissors quite well at school. Scissor-wrangling was not even on my radar screen (What do you mean, scissors? He’s only 3!), so I’m glad that he’s been learning at school. So the snowflakes you see on the window are my creation; however, j will do quite a bit of cutting on his own (mostly ribbon). He’s also been helping me tape as I wrap presents--since I recycle catalogs for wrapping paper, this usually means putting tape over the models’ eyes--and he’s also been monitoring the Christmas lights that are taped to the windows. They inevitably fall off (loudly, too--as a family we’re just starting to learn not to jump when they unexpectedly drop), so it’s good to have someone eager to tape them back onto the windows.

We’re headed to Michigan this weekend just after Christmas, and are very excited (yet completely unprepared, as usual) for the trip.

holiday decorating

We just pulled out the holiday decorations, which we haven’t seen since December 2006. Last year we closed on the house in December and moved here in early January, so we didn’t bother decorating our apartment. Honestly, I’m not a huge fan of holiday decorating, but even an old Scrooge like me can appreciate making holiday decorations part of a home. We have not spent two Christmases in a row anywhere since we lived in the Bronx (1999, 2000, 2001, 2002, 2003). When we lived in the house in Easton, I remember being very excited while putting up the decorations, imagining that each holiday the tree would be where I had placed it for years--nay, decades--to come. And then we moved 5 months later.

Since P likes his job, I (mostly) like mine, j is doing well, and the economy is going down the drain, we plan never to move again, so I got that same feeling when opening up the box of decorations this year: I will always put the tree here. We only have a baby tree (given to P by a students a few years ago); we also don’t have many decorations, which is just fine by me as I try to simplify and declutter. Two years ago I made the commitment that if the decorations can’t fit into the designated box, we have too many. P is more than fine with this. :)

I haven’t been blogging this semester mostly because my commitment to work has taken over my entire life, and this week I became chair of my department, which is a commitment which will last until June 30, 2010 when I hope to pass off the responsibility to someone else. I’ve sort of been doing the chair responsibilities this semester but getting paid much less, so the pay bump starting next month will give us some more money in the bank--or rather, the student loan coffers. Also, now that I have a better sense of what the job requires, I hope that things will calm down next semester as I settle into a routine.

And with that, I leave you with an interesting picture of j. Discuss.

happy weekend, happy tuesday

Last weekend was a good one, and it was followed by an even better week. Tuesday night... I can't tell you how ecstatic I was to hear the words "President Elect Obama." And you know what? It Still Feels Good. (This Judith Warner piece, especially the picture, is really fantastic too.)

I really should be in bed right now--just 20 more minutes while I wait for the laundry to finish. Here are some pictures of last weekend. On Saturday we raked leaves (still far too many left, though) and our boy danced among them wearing many stripes.


Then, on Sunday, we headed back to PA to visit our old neighbors L and S, who will be moving themselves next month to South Carolina to be with their sons. Friday was S's birthday, so j helped me bake some pumpkin bread with cream cheese frosting. There was a lot of pouring water to and from measuring cups, and he insisted that I put powdered sugar on his face.


Then it was off to PA. As we neared the end of Jersey, we saw some beautiful hot air balloons, and I was able to grab a few shots while racing along the highway.


(Click on the images to make them larger.)

halloween

This week I got to see Cornel West on campus--what a fantastic speaker. It was more than his referring to private conversations with “Brother Barack.” He puts things into perspective and despite all of his excitement and preacher-like cadences (or perhaps because of them?), he's a very calming presence... actually, I need to finish this blog entry soon because he’ll be on Bill Maher in a few minutes.

We had a great Halloween this year. In the afternoon my mom and I headed over to j’s school, where they had a Halloween “parade” with the kids in their costumes. j wore the same spider costume he had last year (glad I listened to P’s advice about getting the larger size!), and it was fun to see all the little ones dressed up. My favorite was the kid dressed as a slice of mushroom pizza.

Our presence having completely distracted j from any hope of a normal day, we took him home about 45 minutes early. Though we planned to have dinner before trick-or-treating, kids began at around 4:30, so P and j headed out early. The trick-or-treaters kept coming on and off until about 8.

I know it’s not everyone’s thing, but I like Halloween quite a bit, and am ecstatic that we finally live somewhere where a fair amount of kids come trick-or-treating. I’m already planning for changes I’ll make next year. The first is that I should buy some kind of luminaries to light the way to our door since it’s somewhat dark. Kids had to travel up two flights of stairs to get to our kitchen door, and the luminaries would make it safer. Also, I want to start collecting some more decorations, and get j in on the act sooner. (Over the last few weeks in school, he made the few things I put on the window here.) Oh, and more creepy stuff--we have some funky spaces in the front of the house that could lend themselves well to more Halloween decorating.

I took some fun pictures tonight... if you’d like to see them and I haven’t already sent them to you, send me an email. I’m not sure if j is getting too old for me to keep sending tons of unrequested photos. :)

playing catch-up

This may have been the longest blog hiatus I’ve had. It’s been a crazy month, what with all this administrative work, P being in rehearsal, and my mom moving a mere 10 minutes away from us. As of yesterday, however, P’s show is over, my mom is moved, and the administrative work is at least slowing down a bit. Lately work, especially this extra job, has been incredibly stressful and kind of depressing and I’m not sure how it will--or even should--fit into the rest of my life, but I’m trying to do my best for now.

School is going well for j. Because of the bus, he has long days, leaving at 8 and not getting home until 4:30, but we’ve definitely seen an improvement in his communication skills and behavior. According to his teacher, he’s an enthusiastic participant in all the activities--especially the singing. He still has trouble focusing on one thing at a time. All this isn’t a surprise, but it is nice to hear overall positive things right now.

And the election! Only one more week to go and I cannot tell you how much I long for next Wednesday when it’s all over. We’ve been talking politics in this house every day for over a year. j can immediately identify the candidates by sight:

“Barack Obama—-yea! John McCain—-ugh”
...though he sometimes, much to his parents’ chagrin, gets the commentary reversed.

He can also identify Michelle Obama and “Joey Biden!” and McCain’s running mate, “Tina Fey.” (I’m desperately hoping that come next week, he won’t need to ever know the actual name of the Republican VP nominee.)

It's funny, this writing thing. Getting down just the few above thoughts was a little rough since I haven't been doing it for a while. Must. write. more. often.

chopsticks!

Let me preface this video by explaining that today was the first day j used chopsticks. It was not intentional. There’s a new restaurant in town that serves Chinese food and sushi, and P decided to get some sushi for lunch.

I knew that there was a brief mention of chopsticks on a Sesame Street video that j watches, but I had no idea how well he had it memorized until he saw P’s chopsticks.

“Chopsticks!” j grabbed the chopsticks from his dad, forcing P to wander the kitchen in search of a new pair and ending up with some fancy ones I purchased a few years back. Then, while trying to spear a piece of avocado, j said (I am not making this up), “This is how I eat chopsticks. I hold it like a pencil, then you take it, and eat it!” And for his first attempt, he didn’t do half bad.

Then he got a bit more adventurous, and, well, this happened...

ahoy

Did you all know that today is International Talk Like a Pirate Day?

Seriously, it is. And there's an event going on at a local bar here in celebration. Really.

school (seems to be) way cool

Well, we’re near the end of the week and the bus is going well. j rides in the morning with one aide and a driver, and in the afternoon with another aide and driver. He loves the aide who rides with him on the way home--her name is Aggie, and this week has been All. About. Aggie. (The wheels on the bus go Aggie, Aggie, Aggie... etc.) I think his reluctance to get on the bus in the morning has been more about the fact that Aggie isn’t there rather than general dislike of the bus.

And school seems to be going well, too. He brings home tons of artwork each day, including this masterpiece, which cracked me up. I can imagine him leafing through a toy catalogue with someone at daycare, pointing to things excitedly. Ball! Letter! Baby!

fey as palin

In case you haven't seen it, here is Tina Fey as Sarah Palin and Amy Poehler as Hillary Clinton on SNL last night.



Best line? Poehler/Clinton saying she doesn't "want to hear you compare your road to the White House to my road to the White House. I scratched and clawed through mud and barbed wire and you just glided in on a dog sled wearing your pageant sash and your Tina Fey glasses."

palin is crap

Yeah, I said it. There are so many reasons that this woman gives me agita, sometimes I just freeze when I hear her name. It’s like 10 times worse than thinking about Bratz.

My agita is not all about her (though I find her policies atrocious); it’s because her VP candidacy has once again focused this election on personality rather than the issues. Not to mention the fact that reactions to and defenses of her--from both the Left and the Right--reek of sexism.

Since my Palin-agita typically renders me incoherent, I'm going to need to use bullets. Here are just some of the many reasons I despise her candidacy:

• Her policy on the environment (This one is a must-read.)


• Her views on abortion (If you feel like laughing while being pissed off at Republican hypocrisy, see Samantha Bee's take on Bristol Palin's "choice.")


• Her policy on sex education


• Her stance on same sex marriage


• Her take on civil liberties in general


• Her lack of knowledge about issues (see Bush Doctrine, etc.)... not to mention how insulting it is that it is this woman we're discussing over intelligent, accomplished politicians like Hillary Clinton. Oh, and while we’re on the topic...


• The difference in treatment between Palin and Clinton (I hope to read more commentary on this, because I haven't seen a whole lot yet. For now, there’s Warner’s "Mirrored Ceiling" piece that gestures towards what I would call Palin’s “palatable feminism” in relation to Clinton’s. There’s also Collins’s commentary here in which she argues that in comparison to Clinton’s achievement, Palin’s nomination “feels like a step back.” Uh, yeah. More like a mile back.)


• The sexist treatment of Palin by some Obama supporters! Come on now, people! Set aside the fact that it’s offensive: there’s no way to win using that strategy now that conservatives have discovered sexism. I’ve had a hard time with NOW this year (there was, you know, the whole primary season), but I think that their recent statement on the treatment of Palin is spot-on: “...we should defeat anti-women's rights candidates like Sarah Palin based on their merits and their positions, not their gender.”

In “The Mirrored Ceiling,” Judith Warner states that “real people” find Palin

acceptably “real,” because Palin’s not intimidating, and makes it clear that she’s subordinate to a great man.

That’s the worst thing a woman can be in this world, isn’t it? Intimidating, which appears to be synonymous with competent. It’s the kiss of death, personally and politically.

But shouldn’t a woman who is prepared to be commander in chief be intimidating? Because of the intelligence, experience, talent and drive that got her there? If she isn’t, at least on some level, off-putting, if her presence inspires national commentary on breast-pumping and babysitting rather than health care reform and social security, then something is seriously wrong. If she doesn’t elicit at least some degree of awe, then something is missing.

Yes, yes, and yes.

school is cool

j started school today. It’s a school that specializes in kids with special needs--according to his IEP, he’ll get speech therapy and occupational therapy several times a week there. The “school” part only lasts from 1-3:30, but they have a daycare there as well, so we decided to have him in the daycare in the morning so he can have more daily interaction with other kids, which he really needs. The daycare is an integrated program, but the classroom is right across the hall from his afternoon class.

He seemed to have a really good time. j’s been having a very tough time with transitions lately, but he has always seemed to adapt pretty easily to other people. The place--playground, teachers, classroom, services--is wonderful, and P and I feel very comfortable with it. Between all our moving around, we’ve seen many daycares/preschools and this is one of the nicest.

So he’ll be there 5 days a week, and I am excited for him to (1) be on a regular schedule and (2) be playing with other kids regularly. And they won’t kick him out if there’s an incident.

The immediate concern, though, is the bus. j’s services include transportation to and from school. He hasn’t gone on the bus yet, since P and I decided to take him for these few two days so he knows where he’s going. The ride takes 45 minutes, and he’ll start Monday. I’m terrified that he’ll scream for the entire bus ride and that it will take 3 people to strap him into the car seat. I think he’ll be fine once he actually gets to school (since there's that transitions-are-bad-but-new-people-are-fine thing).

I’m back to school too, doing a bunch of administrative work in addition to teaching. P is directing a play at his college that goes up in October; he’ll been gone a lot in the next month. So we’re all pretty darn busy, and truth be told, I love it. I feel better overall when I can focus on work and we have a schedule going.

getting ready

I’ve been organizing and getting ready for school. I just donated a bunch of clothes that I don’t wear, which means that my closet is virtually empty. (Peter Walsh claims that the average person only wears about 20% of what s/he owns--or something like that--and I have found that to be true in my own closet. So I have purged, though I’m still not satisfied that I will indeed wear all that I’ve kept.) This purge has made me realize I need some more work clothes, especially since I will likely be going in much more than I previously thought. The administrative work that was supposed to happen, but then didn’t, is now once again happening.

Other things... since we don’t yet have money to fully renovate the bathroom (nor the stomach for it--kitchen renovations were pretty tough earlier this year), P did great work painting the woodwork and cabinets white and it looks much cleaner and more open in there.

Our next house improvement is to get a bed. As some of you know, we’ve been sleeping on a mattress on the floor since we moved into our house in PA over two years ago. On move-in day, we realized that the boxspring wouldn’t fit up the stairs, so out to the curb it went. (I tried to Freecycle it for a while, but no one seemed to want a boxspring with no mattress.) Anyway, we’ve been sleeping on the floor since. I don’t really mind it, but I do miss being able to, say, sit on the bed to put on my socks. I think it would also cut down on the abrupt wake-ups from j, who just this morning ran and jumped on me, saying, “I made some coffee.” Though I was hopeful, this was unfortunately not true. However, j *has* been “helping” make coffee with me lately, which used to involve just pushing the button on the coffeemaker and shouting “Here it comes!” as the coffee began to drip. Lately, though, he wants to actually scoop the coffee into the maker, and this experience has become more and more harrowing since he doesn’t want me to touch him as he wields an overflowing scoop of ground coffee, some of which lands in the intended filter, while some gets sprinkled all over the counter, the floor, and the chair on which he stands. I try to help, but he admonishes me to “go see Daddy,” which is--as I should know--code for “I need some space, dude.”

j and I went to a lovely playdate yesterday hosted by a mom in our village who has access to a private beach on the lake. All the kids were younger than j, but he had a great time, focusing on all the sand toys. This is somewhat unusual for him, but I have seen some more focus in the last few weeks, even in the art room.
These are a few pictures of his obsession with putting eyes on bagels. I think I did this once to make him laugh and then he insisted all clay bagels must have eyes.

phelps returns

Only a few more days of the Olympics left: you can tell because Michael Phelps is on his way home.

birthday boy

The Olympics are exhausting me. Others get injuries from participating in sports; I get injured from watching them. Today I woke up with the worst kink in my neck from falling asleep on the couch trying to get my Olympics fix.

j has been making me play his birthday video over and over. It’s the one where we’re all in Northern MI and everyone sings “Happy Birthday” to him and then he blows out the candles on his birthday pie--which, as you can see, he does quite nicely. This picture was taken before the candles were even lit, so this was essentially taken during a trial run, but I assure you that he blew out the candles like a pro. I credit the training provided by aunts and cousins during extreme bubble sessions. :)

That Michigan cherry one was his first of two birthday pies. The second one was an apple one I made using a Bittman recipe I hadn’t tried before. It was nice: really subtle and not too sugary. For j, it was pie, so it was good. The next day I reminded p and my mom (visiting for a few days) that we “have some leftover P.I.E.” j perked up and said, “Mama, I love P.I.E.” I’m going to need to bake desserts with longer names.


We’re giving in to his musical side. For a while there I had banned j’s “dance playlist” because he was growling “Good Morning Starshine” over and over. However, we’re realizing that the music can calm him, too. It’s a hard balance, but essentially if music is not playing, he’ll make it play himself, growling and stomping whatever his favorite song happens to be. In the last few days he’s done this wearing a new winter hat he got for his birthday. He seems to love this hat, which is strange since he usually hates wearing hats... but he actually napped wearing it the other day. I took this picture just after he woke up; he's wearing the hat and holding a new bat he also got for his birthday.

No official word on where he’ll be for preschool this September. I would love it if he could go back to the child development center at my work, but I just don’t think he’s ready--ok, I don’t think the other kids are ready--for that yet. I am hopefully that after he’s in this early intervention program for a bit (maybe a semester? Maybe a year?), he can return to the other school. I’d like to write more about all the hand-wringing and inconsistent evaluations that have gone into this process, but I’m a little too fragile right now. More later...

laptops, books, bubbles

Hooray! After a few days, the wonderful techie-dudes at work located my lost files and pictures and hooked me up with a new laptop. I like this new PC is nice, which is good since I don’t have a choice anyway. Going Mac isn’t an option unless we buy one for personal use once our home desktop finally dies... but I have to admit feeling a bit of computer-envy when I look over at P’s Mac from work.

Over vacation I only got to 3 books this year: The Yiddish Policemen’s Union (good), Bel Canto (good), and Saturday (great). I’m updating my Shelfari now, but M’s post and my conversation with N last month are making me think I should also check out Goodreads. Is the interface better than Shelfari?

We’ve had a pretty good week over here. j and I have been playing with the birthday presents. From Grandma and Grandpa: a fantastic dollhouse with people who, according to j, like to eat a red flower for every sit-down meal. From the cousins and aunts: a birthday bubble set, complete with food coloring, soap, glycerin, and mixer. Those neon colors are sweet, guys. Thanks--j and his mama love them.

s'mores club

My laptop has exploded. After our return from two great weeks in Michigan, I attempted to turn on my laptop Sunday night only to find that it refuses to load Windows. Screens in DOS never looked scary when I used them to type college papers, but now they are most unwelcome.

The good news is that I'll finally be getting the much-needed new laptop I've been requesting for months. However, I am now at the mercy of the great guys in our IT department, who have given only vague promises that they can reclaim the 15+ hours worth of course prep I did and about half of the pictures I took in Northern Michigan (sob!). As most of you know, I love taking and sorting pictures, so the possibility that I've lost many of them is pretty devastating to me. We'll see what kind of magic they can work this week.

It may therefore be a while before I can post a vacation picture. In the meantime, I encourage anyone reading this to go and vote for the first caption for this cartoon in The New Yorker's weekly contest. How can that first one not win?


"The first rule of s'mores club is you do not talk about s'mores club."