Cars

I-man is a car guy. This started a few weeks ago and now he'll demand for one of us to push cars around with him on the floor or on the ottoman. Here's a photo of a few of them the other day. I was thinking of getting him a doll and tea set to balance him out a little bit.

1st photo request

A tougher assignment than one might think

Photo Requests?

Just looking for photo requests.........what would you like to see? Subjects? Scenes? Actions?

They have arrived.............

Ramblings

Maggs and I scared up a GBH (Great Blue Heron) on our walk this morning. Also saw a hawk in the woods. It was thick with humidity this morning and wet from the rain last night. Maggs was pokey and I got annoyed because I walked through a bunch of spiderwebs. Phew.

The nanny (AAPH) stopped over last night and hung out with I-man and I this morning before she went to Chicago for a flight to London. Last minute vacation for her. She deserves it. She called from the plane saying "I hate Chicago traffic". Guess she JUST made the flight.

Photos....took about 184 today. Do you think I have a problem?
Baked some zucchini muffins today. They didn't rise. Why didn't they rise?

Why you should look down before heading out the door to work

...because if you don't you might accidentally slip on one brown shoe and one black shoe and not even notice it because they are shoved under the bench in the dark hallway. And it might not be until noon before someone else points it out to you...

Surely you've all done something silly like this....tell us your story! I know there are some creative writers out there!

Why you should wear two pairs of shorts on the dog walk

So yesterday morning we all went for the dogwalk together. I-man, THe Husband, Maggs, and myself. After we had made one circle around the woods it was clear that Maggs needed less commotion in order to get her business done. So, The Husband and The Boy went back home. When Maggs was ready she and I made our way across the bridge and up the stairs. Then I felt a very sharp stinging pain in my right thumb. Then I felt it on my right leg..in at least two place. OUCH. Then I looked down and noticed about 10 bees (or hornets?) IN STINGING POSITION on my shorts! Yikes! I acted VERY quickly and pulled the shorts off, left them on the trail, and ran home! Good thing I was wearing another pair of shorts underneath! Another reason to keep that silly 80's (or was it 90's) style going....
All in all I came out of that incident with 4 bee stings. Maggs was untouched and fortunately I-man didn't get stung either as they had gone home another way. I sent The Husband back over to retrieve my shorts awhile later. He didn't find a nest. I really must have looked pretty funny yanking those shorts off and running home!

Our new neighbors

VERY tired.....

First trip to the zoo and I forgot my camera!!!!!!!!

I can't believe that I forgot my camera! We took I-man to the zoo for the first time. Well, he's been there twice before but this is the first time he's gone where he GETS IT. Did I mention that I forgot my camera? His highlight list: 1) THE PRAIRIE DOGS (got him laughing when they dug in their holes) 2) The young bobcat (splashed us when he was going after some toys in the pool) 3) The goats in the petting farm (DOOOGGGGIIIIEEESSS).

We also took him for his first trip to Bonnie Doon. No camera AGAIN. And they don't even have a website. It's an ice cream place that hasn't changed since it opened. They still have drive-in. We went inside and I-man REALLY wanted to use his spoon to dish out some of his dad's banana shake. He is still a bit sloppy with the spoon, so there was a lot of banana shake on his face and on the table.

Garden Help

Dogwalk Wednesday

Boy in the front pack, Dog on the leash. We went the other direction today. There was a group of kids gathering for what seemed like a day camp day. As I walked down the stairs I note stuffed animals scattered in trees, paths, fences, etc. They must have been organizing some kind of game. The boy had to climb around the cabin stairs and that was fun. On our way back we noticed a stuffed white owl smack dab in the middle of a poison ivy patch on the side of the trail! Is it mean that I chuckled...just a little bit?

Weekend

Had a thrilling trip to Kokomo and back on Friday. The Boy threw up. So we stopped at Discount Tires, cleaned up and turned around to go back home. Six hours in the car. He fell asleep 2 miles from home. Fun was had by all.

Tuesday DOGWALK

Brought to you by I-man:
As you can see by the drawing, he rode the whole way in the backpack! It was a fairly quick walk and we didn't even get bothered by mosquitoes. It was cool today, so we both had sweatshirts on. Maggs said she didn't need one.

Broom for the boy

Had to get a broom for the boy. He likes to help when we sweep. This was the only one I could find. Phew...thank goodness the broom advertised "Little boys like to sweep too" or I might not have bought it.

Trouble with the hired help

Turns out the nanny doesn't change diapers and doesn't do 2am call.

And the nanny job goes to.......

AAPH!!!!!!!! (OTA...Aunty Hovis). Ok, so the excuse to come here is to look for bike helmets, but The Husband convinced her that instead of going to Indy for the helmet today she should come here instead! With the promise of good whiskey, hanging with I-man, AND going along to get his first ice cream cone certainly helped seal the deal.

Friday DOGWALK

Maggs dressed up today for the walk, as you can see. She is sporting her ND bandana! The neighbor dogs are saying "HI" in the 2nd picture. It might be hard to see, but they are sporting their summer haircuts!
I-man rode in the front pack most of the walk today. Here we are covering him up to protect from any mosquitoes! It was a pretty quick walk. Once around and not too much pokiness by anyone! After we got home I noticed I had put I-man's shoes on the wrong feet! Good thing he didn't want to walk too much today!

Dog Walk: Itchy & Scratchy Edition

by Guest Contributor: The Dad.

This may be my last fill-in post given the chilly reaction to my efforts on the dog walk.

The dog walk today was a challenge. We went to our standard spot -- The Res -- at the appointed time, and Maggie did her thing as one would hope. However, the mosquitoes are starting to come out in force. Ike and I spent a lot of the walk discussing the relative itchiness of Poison Ivy v. Mosq. Bites. Given evidence collected on the walk, I argued that the bug bites were worse for the first 20 minutes, but the PI had staying power.

One of the big differences between when Moose and I take Ike for a dog walk is that he generally likes to just hang out and ride in my arms the whole time. He doesn't even feel the need to have hold of the leash most of the time. I'm not sure why that is. Today, as you can see from the picture, he had to take a short little walk, but he quickly wanted back up in my arms. (Note, too, that Dad didn't even dress him funny today.)

When we got back to the house, Ike had to do a bit of yard work. You can see how nicely Moose's gardening is coming together in the front of the house. We recently reclaimed the part on the far right, converting it from the omnipresent vinca to grass. Moose says she's surprised she's advocating planting grass anywhere, but that's how pervasive the darned vinca/perriwinkle is.



In the course of Ike's yardwork we came across a moose. This one comes via Aunt S and has settled into the garden well.

After that we had to take a ride in the wagon, which got a smile from the boy....

Tuesday and Wednesday dogwalk

....done by The Husband. No pictures, no story....he took The Boy on Tuesday and said it was uneventful. Today he only took Maggs. How can I be married to such a boring guy?