Oh, Wait! Is That the Sun?

It is sunny here. Actual sunshine! The weather man says it won't last long, so I have a few things around the house that need doing.

~Prune the rhododendron before it sets new buds.
~Prune the azaleas before they set new buds.
~Tie back the rose before it eats the mailman.
~Weed my perennial beds.
~Kill the burdock that's choking the driveway perimeter. (This may involve tools larger than a garden spade.)

Along with the outdoorsy stuff:

~Shop for the Father's Day dinner I'm hosting tonight.
~Dust & vacuum.
~Make said Father's Day dinner.
~Host said Father's Day dinner.
~Clean the bathrooms. (long suffering sigh)
~Keep the Monkey out of his Dada's way while he gets trim and more lighting fixtures up in the remodel!
~Seam up the knitting project that's been languishing these many months.

Who Would Have Guessed He's Ours?

Taken in a span of an hour, from Mark's cell phone.

Mama's little reader:

Daddy's little helper:

First Popsicle

He's had chunks of ice cream sandwiches, but never before his very own popsicle. So, after a great lunch this past Saturday, he was rewarded with a grape Edy's Whole Fruit bar. He turned out to be fairly coordinated with it, especially since it was a full-sized frozen treat...

Sure he needed his bib, but I, too need a bib when eating a melty grape popsicle.

Out Tonight!

Actually, we went out last Saturday night, for a belated anniversary. We had a date night, and Memere stayed over to take care of the monkey.

We got a little dressed up, drove into Boston and left the car at the Landmark Center. We bought tickets for the 10:35 showing of Star Trek, and headed to the nearby Fenway T stop. We took the subway into the Back Bay and walked over to Grill 23, where we proceeded to have cocktails and oysters, steak tartare and tuna sashimi, steaks, truffle tots, mushroom pate en croute, a nice bottle of zinfandel, chocolate cake and bread pudding with port and icewine... we were gluttonous!

We walked off the food and wine as far as the Hynes T stop, and the took the train back to Fenway/the Landmark. We saw the movie, and drove home, pleased to find a sleeping boy and a sleeping Memere, and mostly well-behaved dogs. Happy night all around!

Want my advice? I'll assume you said, "yes." Go out with your sweetheart sometime soon, especially if you have little kids. It's kind of crucial. It's romantic, even if you don't go far, because you're alone together. It's nice to be reminded of the more carefree, new-in-love versions of yourselves, right?

Renovation Updation. Bathroom: Part 2

I know, it doesn't look like a bathroom, does it? It's not. It's the view from the bathroom. In the foreground is the door to the basement, with latch, awaiting a new doorknob, and cat hole. All of the doors in the house are five panel like this with the brushed nickel knobs and plates. Nice, right?
Now, here's the bathroom. If you look closely, you can see that the cabinets don't have doors yet, so you can see what we're storing, but this is a pretty faithful rendering of the color scheme. Since I took the photos, I stabilized my bamboo stalk with black polished rover rocks from the craft store. Very zen... or something.

The front parlor got it's first dose of color today. Mark painted while Felix was sleeping, and I was helping my Mom recover the seat cushions on our dining room chairs. Totally home-improvementastic!

M.I.C.K.E.Y.M.O.U.S.E.

Guess who loves his ears?

Decemberists: BOA Pavilion, 9 June, 2009

OK, I'm not going to blog-critique the show. Just so's we're clear.

I'm going to gush!

I've only been a Decemberists fan for a few years now. Once upon a time I got a homemade compilation of their stuff from a friend, and then a while later, The Crane Wife came out. I saw them back in November, and it made the top 5 shows I've ever seen. Obama had just won the election and Colin Meloy turned it into a victory rally, and the encore performace of Sons & Daughters changed my life a little.

Background established. Of this definitely polarizing band, I am a completely biased, unabashed fan.

This summer the band is promoting their latest album, Hazards of Love, which is a one-sitting, epic concept, alt-folk-rock opera, banquet for the soul kind of album, featuring a shape-shifting fawn, a jealous magical forest queen, a morally bankrupt abductor of maidens, and a maiden, who has no trouble falling in love with fawn-men she meets in a primeval forest. Excellent! With somehelp from guest artists, they're playing the whole thing, start to finish, and you bet your whatsis I was going to be there!

I was. It was delicious. Repaid was worth the price of admission, if you ask me.

After a break, they came back and rocked some older tunes, and then blew the Pavilion away with a cover of Heart's Crazy on You, featuring the ladies from Hazards, Becky Sharp & Shara Worden, on lead vocals. Holy crap!

I'm still running on the lingering buzz from the show. It was that good.

Yum!

Anticipating...

I'm going to see the Decemberists again tonight, performing their album The Hazards of Love in its entirety. I am, to put it mildly, excited.

When will it be 7:00?

Pig Pile!

A few days ago, Miss E was off at a playdate, so it was just me and the boys here at home. Boys amuse me.

Big Brother J was being very tolerant of the littler guys, and this is what ensued:

An Evening at Wedding Camp

Guess who got to bust out the stand mixer and whip up ten dozen cupcakes for wedding camp? No. It's not Felix. And yes, those are Lego people and a Lego dog on top of the cupcake of honor.
A dear friend got married to a great woman this weekend, at a gorgeous camp in southwestern New Hampshire, and I got to spend some quality (though far too short) time with a few other good friends while I was there. I was sad to have to go home before the end of camp, but I had much fun while I was there.

The Happiest Place On Earth

About a month ago now, La Famille MoMP was at Disney World for a six day family trip with Gramma, Grampa, Uncle Jamie, Aunty Dy, Rylee & Ayden. We stayed at the Disney Vacation CLub Villas at the Beach and Yacht Club Resort. It was pretty nice... especially the sand bottomed pool - complete with faux beach!

Our first morning out, we had breakfast with Pooh and friends at the Crystal Palace. Pooh and Tigger were a big hit!
Felix liked the teacups, and he liked them fast and twirly! Mark took him on a half dozen times. I took a few rides off to take pictures:


During the Pangani Forest Trail, the little monkey stole my glasses and put them on all by himself!

Our last night there, we went to the Spirit of Aloha dinner show at (Mark's favorite) the Polynesian Resort. Felix was a fan of leiis.

Renovation Updation. Bathroom: Part 1

I know, not a word. I've been watching DIY Channel, it's making me think in cheesier than normal titles...

So, here's what we've been working on (and when I say "we" I mean Mark). The built-in cabinets that differentiate the laundry from the bath are in, and Mark's working on the face frames and doors, in hopes he'll be able to prime the walls, ceilings, and cabinets before too long.


In the soon-to-be office, the tin ceiling is up, also in preparation for priming.


Next up, pictures of the beginnings of the new front entry!