The Elysian Fields

"My sleep fu is great!" Goes into guard position, rolls backwards, snoring before he hits the ground

"I'll get you with hug fu!" jumps on Rachel with a huge hug "That's another word for fall down tackle hug!"

Mr. B: "Nuggie fu! Now that's preposterous!"
Deb: "Who taught you that word?"
Mr. B: "Me!"

Disclaimer: We spent the previous half hour using "preposterous" over and over in hopes he would use it in front of Deb. That's what she gets for not reading this! =P

The other day, Deb and I were out on the porch to discuss some things without distraction (yeah, you could pronounce "distraction" as "Mr. B" =), and we watched our young neighborhood red tailed hawk soar low across the front yard with mouse (or maybe chipmunk) in hand. Or foot. Or talon.

I may not have been able to catch the booger on film, but he was most definitely a red tail.

~ ~ ~

This morning, Deb was out on the porch, sipping her coffee, and noticed Tika stop eating. The cat turned, looked out under the hosta, and leaped through the railing. She came back with a mouthful of green feathers that had, a few moments ago, been a sparrow.

Mr. B: "Mom says she wants to watch the Spider McChronicles tonight."

Me: "The Spiderwick Chronicles?"

Mr. B: "No, the Spider McChronicles."

Me: "The Spider McChronicles?"

Mr. B: "Yeah."

There's a clump of stuff in the middle that Deb needs to sort through. She had said it was all mine, and to just throw it out, but her hammock isn't mine... her hiking boots aren't mine... so I think she needs to take a look and make some judgements. There's a dead Mac monitor that we need to get to the proper recycling type folks.

We took the PVC pipes up to the attic, spread around the boards that were up there, failed to get the large plywood sheet up there, cut it in half, and then put it up there... and then we put the ladder hooks up, got the ladder up on the wall and out of the way, and cleaned up the rest.

We've been here five years, and we're finally going to get a car in the garage! =)

(There's no hope on getting the other one in, not until the company gets it's own place to live, and, even then, possibly not until we also get a shed.)

Me: "Do you think it's going to rain?"
Mr. B: "No. I'm taking a bath, not a shower. I'm just a little kid. I'm just 3, you know."
Me: "No... I meant rain, outside, not a shower in the tub!" (which is where Mr. B was located during this)
Mr. B: "Oh. I don't want it to rain outside either."
Me: "I want it to rain. Good for the yard."
Mr. B: "If it rains I'll be angry and mommy will be angry so naaaa..." (sticks out his tongue)

Justin and I are making fajitas. The pico de gallo is chilling. Yum, for the scents of roasted peppers, garlic, and onion! We're watching the Deadliest Catch on Discovery (Deadliest Catch weekend!)

Earlier today, we went to Flow for some delicious local food - I'll do a full review, but in the meantime, go there and eat. It's good. If you're not near Jim Thorpe, PA, you need to come and visit and eat. I suppose distance might negate some of the eating-locally-grown-&-raised thing, but if you're in the area to visit, you should definitely stop by.

Deb, Rachel, Mr. B, and patrixa left for NC yesterday morning, and are now at my dad's mom's place.

And I think that's most of the news! =)

The Oy Bit: Teh Intarwebs disrepeered on me! We've been down and out from, well, since my last post until now.

The Good Bit: Deb is off with dragonflypug watching the Rangers and Penguins freeze their tails off on the ice. This is extra good because it's not the Bruins, just the team that plays against them. Anywho, we've been having fun here: Mr. B created a whole slew of new Brandonisms I have to attempt to remember; he played in his sandbox with Rachel, and they were blowing bubbles and doing other such things. Then we went to the Boulevard Drive-In - one of two diners in close proximity on 443.

This place is miles and oodles more of miles from the nearest ocean, in a land where Red Lobster is considered seafood and even the upscale places serve something that looks an awful lot like a Gorton's product, a pressed popsicle of fish-like stuff. Somehow, this diner manages to have the best fish & chips I've had when I couldn't see the ocean from the place. It's not fine-dining fish & chips, which are no where near as good as The Real Thing, which is best found in tiny little roadside stands where the locals congregate - you know, the kind of place that has a few spaces in the parking lot and a dock where the fisherman can pull up and give them the best of the catch. I really can't figure it, how this place ranks, but I'm not going to complain - they serve a fish & chips that actually consists of pieces of fish, fried.

After a great meal, we headed over to the playground at the neighborhood state park and lake. Brandon will tell you some of that story when I post his speechification in a little bit, but he had fun on the slides and all. There was also some see-sawing, and it took a couple of kids - the older ones - to move the thing when I stood on the other side. Go figure, eh? There was also a game of tag, a game of cops and robbers, and a red squirrel on the covered bridge. Brandon decided he wanted to play with the rental boats, and he was a little miffed we wouldn't let him. As a consolation, we went back, hit the playground one more time, and then headed home.

The bug is in the throat. This is kind of like Jaws 3-D, where "the shark is in the park" becomes a catch phrase, except it's really more annoying than that... umm... paragon of movie making art.

Deb is even worse off, which is a shame, because last night she was taken out for her Kissmas gift from 1jadedhart. She was able to enjoy the Jeffrey Gaines show, but afterwards, she went with 1jadedhart and dragonflypug for a few drinks and that venue allowed smoking. As I took some sick days earlier last week (and worked from home for some others), we gave Deb a sick day today. Of course, the real shame last night was that Deb looked great, but the smooching scene just wasn't happening with both of us sick. =(

On another tangent in the health-related department, blood pressure is a royal pain. First, it's high enough to give a hard-boiled admissions nurse a coronary when she measured it (assisted by the fact that while she was rallying the forces to save me from imminent explosion, I heard a call of nature and she thought I had wandered off and died), and now it's low enough that standing up meets with some challenges.

After a bit of dizziness as I stood up from picking out a CD or three to listen to, I experienced yet more dizziness walking from one end of the house to the other, and thus decided to measure it. 90/52. From a personal (measured) high of 205/164 a few years ago, and an average unmedicated value of 160/104. Oy. That makes the annoyances of a cold that much more annoying.

As of today I've been married for 15 years. Conveniently, I arranged to have the wedding on two year anniversary of our having met, so I always remember that date as well.

We opened the gift from patrixa this morning - some soy beads and a warmer. The beads we have are: Vanilla Coffee, Earthly Embrace, Beach Walk, Ocean Mist, and, I think, one other... Harmony? Serenity? They smell great, and we're looking forward to melting some this evening!

Deb is working on a puzzle. Earlier, she had to repeatedly warn Mr. B away from getting his hands on the pieces.

Justin picked up a piece and tried to fit it in.

Deb: Hey!

Mr. B: Justin, don't do dat!

Mr. B turns to Deb: Justin has to do dat 'cause he's cazy.

Mr. B turns back to Justin: Don't do dat ever again and don't touch mom's puzzle 'cause you can't touch mom's puzzle and I gon' to pank your bummy.

Mr. B walks over to where Justin is sitting on the chair and can't get at his intended target.

Mr. B: I gonna pank your back instead and I am panking your back and don't ever do that again and you can't touch mom's puzzle and I am panking you and... etc., in various orders...