This is not Going to Help

Halloween party

Night night.

One word

It would be sad how I live and die by this man, except that he seems to live to make me happy.  At least that is how it feels. 

Tomorrow is his 33rd birthday...33rd of 133, I hope.

Go Redsox!

   

Growing older

Riley has been in the hospital this week with pancreatitis.  It seems to have been a mild case, though he is still not quite himself.  I thought he should have his picture made today.

And Matilda is huge, but she won't sit still for a portrait.  Here is Franny attempting to hold her still.

The great flood (we mean floods) of 2007.

Stamford got several inches of rain all at once last week, and we got, uh, lots of water in our basement.  It came through the windows.  All four windows.  It destroyed everything down there and somehow released all the oil from our oil tank.  Most of the oil seemed to find its way into my car, which is now completely, irretrievably dead.

It has been just awful, but we are fine.  The kids are fine.  The dogs are fine.  Tonight is our first night back in our house, and things are getting back to normal.

I'll write more later about the things we lost and the unbelievable generosity of our friends and neighbors, but for now I'll just post some photos.

Good thing we don't live in the playhouse:

Dad, here are the playset's wood chips.  And our firewood.  They just relocated.

You can see how the Acura got killed:

Why we've decided to spring for flood insurance:

You had me at "suppository"

I got to see my high-school friend Jesse this evening.  It isn't often enough that we're in town at the same moment, but I've lucked out with this visit.  Well, he was also here for my grandfather's funeral, but obviously that wasn't the same.

Tonight we just got to visit and stuff, and he was cracking me up.

chez Doo-Dad, en Arkansas

Franny was the flower girl at a wedding in Tulsa this past weekend, so I've got the kids in Arkansas for the entire week.  I just can't make that safari-like trip to XNA and not have at least a week of Arkansas to recuperate, so we're here catching our breath before the next marathon voyage back to New England.  Yeah, poor me on the regional jet.  I would not have fared well on the wagon train. 

So, this was Franny's 3rd stint as a flower girl, and she has become quite methodical about it.  She planted her rubber caterpillar and rubber alligator in the pew where we'd agreed I'd be sitting.  Then she went by herself to the stairwell where she knew the bride was hiding and waited there with the bride for her cue. 

She stood primly in her little spot until the father had given away the bride.  The only time she broke character was when she saw her little brother sitting on my lap and she waved and stage-whispered "HI HENRY!"  I could not have been happier about this excited utterance, and I think I now understand more fully the hearsay exception of the same name. 

A photo of the beautiful flower girl would go nicely here, wouldn't it?  I'll try to get one soon.  You've also got to see a photo of Henry, because I really think he was the handsomest gentleman at the shindig. 

Reality check

I've taken an adorable photo of Henry, which I sat down here to post.  Then I began reading recent posts and, well, most just sound smug.  So, here is a dose of anti-smugness as an antidote to the photo of Henry I'll post at the end.  These first three photos were all taken within the past two hours.

First, here is Henry crying like his arm is being torn off because his sister is standing in just the place he feels he should be standing.

And here, on my lovely dining table, is the detritus of several unfinished and ultimately mediocre projects gathered around some jade plants I'm trying to kill.  And, let me tell you, jade is very hardy.

Here is the contents of my refrigerator.  I went grocery shopping today.  It appears I bought mostly pudding. 

Finally, here is handsome Henry.  It makes my teeth hurt just to look at him.