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Casual Sundays with Mr Curry
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We had a terrific Memorial day.
Everyone slept in. Babydoll loves to take her mornings very slowly and if at all possible, she'll snooze the entire a.m. away. When her Daddy has the day off, he's more than willing to snuggle in bed with her until breakfast is ready.
We made blueberry muffins to go with our bacon, eggs and hashbrowns. I love breakfast! All the best food is breakfast food. The muffins were Texas size, so one was all I had yesterday.
The guys went off to play golf and Megan and I waited until Babydoll had finished her nap before we all went off to town to walk around the lake there. It's a gorgeous walk, actually more like walking down the creek parkway at home than one of our lakes; it's more secluded, shady and far from the road.
Babydoll counts her stroller as one of her top three favorite places, along with the corner of the couch and her changing table. She didn't make a peep for over an hour as we walked and although she never slept, she did close her eyes and just chill for awhile.
After we were done, we stopped at the grocery store to fill our larders with the stuff we needed to make another huge batch of ranger cookies and whatever we'll be having for dinner on our last few nights here.
We arrived home right on the heels of the guys and everyone started prep for dinner.
This included cheese and crackers as starters, since we'd walked off the brunch we'd had a long, long time ago and I for one, was so hungry I had to eat something before I could muster up the energy to help with dinner.
Ty had pulled some t-bones out of the freezer earlier so Jay cooked them up and we ate them on the deck along with spinach salad and a few other sides.
It as a perfect evening; not too hot, no bugs, no wind, a starry sky overhead and great food. We pulled the bassinet outside with us so Babydoll could join us. That worked for a little while but like most babies, even at two months, she knows she's a member of the family and if we're all sitting at the table, she wants to be included.
So Megan held her propped on her lap. She stared at me through most of the dinner; her tiny, cute little face focused on me like I was growing feathers, or something.
We had s'mores for desert.
Ty had brought out some speakers and hooked his Ipod up so we had music during dinner as well. Yes, there was some dancing.
After everything was cleaned up and the tired had gone off to bed, Ty and I played scrabble. He beat me again but at least I was in it this time. I'm a decent scrabble player but the other night, the tiles were against me. I never drew any letters worth more than a point and couldn't seem to capitalize on any of the premium squares. Ty jumped out to a huge lead and beat me by almost 100. It was a dull game. by the end, I was making up words and he didn't challenge because there was no point. Boo.
I lost by about ten.
Today, Megan had to go back to school for meetings, which strikes me as cruel. After graduation and the end of class, it just strikes me as poor planning to make the teachers return for one pointless day after labor day but I guess that's why I don't have a real job. I like mine; paint when I feel like it, make as much or as little as my orders permit. I hope I can keep doing it forever.
I have two colors left to put on the last of the orders I brought down with me. I'll have a nice little stack of canvases to bring in when I get back home.
I've enjoyed every minute of my time down here and I'm going to miss my grand daughter tremendously but I am looking forward to getting back to my own life. I miss Katie, Zack and Josie. I miss the lakes, my office, my routine and my bed.
At least I'm bringing about 100 photos of Babydoll home with me. Nowhere near as good as the real thing but better than nothing.
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Despite not getting a hold of Jay before he left Minnesota, he showed up here in Texas with both his computer and his Ipod charger and Katie told Ty that we could plug the kindle into his phone charger anyway so I'm back to being technologically compatible with modern life.
Ok, as compatible as I've ever been, anyway.
There was a time back in the seventies when I was quite the hand at taping top forty songs with my boom box but I don't want to brag, so...
I'm really excited to read the other books on the kindle; they're good ones. In the mean time, I've burned through a series of books that Megan had and I'd wanted to read so I suffered no hardship from the kindle's battery running down.
Friday night was graduation night at Megan's school and Ty dressed the baby up (I dressed her up) and took her to the school so Megan could show her off a little.
Jay and I took the opportunity to run into town and get us all some barbecue for dinner.
Thank goodness for GPS!
There's a lot of Texas to get lost in if you don't know where you're going. With Jay's handy dandy smart phone, we were able to plug in the name of a nearby barbecue joint and find it without much trouble.
At the very first turn, the gps voice said "You've taken a wrong turn. Calibrating new route."
That's pretty much how Jay drives when I'm navigating, too.
But in no time at all, we were at Milt's! It looks like an old garage with a cement slab in front, over which they'd built a screened in porch. Step up to the window, place your order and be on your way, your aromatic bag-o-dinner smelling so good you're not perfectly sure you can wait till you get back home to dig in.
There were picnic tables too, in case you don't want to wait to dig in.
Saturday morning, much time was wasted trying to put up Ty's new basketball hoop. We all learned the importance of following directions. Another attempt will be made to get that backboard and hoop skyborne, perhaps this afternoon.
In the meantime, father and son are out in the high ninety degree heat, trying to beat each other senseless on the golf course. It shouldn't be too hard; neither had much sense to begin with.
Megan, Babydoll and I had a great time yesterday; Half Price Books had a 20% off sale.
Next year, Megan's class will have free reading on Friday's so she wants to stock her room with good books. We put together a nice assortment of books that may appeal to kids who haven't read much and kids who've read a lot. We tried to choose books for both boys and girls, plus lots of books that are good for everyone. We picked up books by Louis L'Amour, James Patterson, Sophie Kinsella, Janet Evanovich, Steven King and Louis Sacher. We also found a copy of the Phantom Tollbooth, which everyone should read. In fact, that one is so good it should be reread every five or ten years as long as you live. They were sold out of the Hunger Games but I figured all the kids probably already have it. We also got a copy of Catch Me if You Can.
We got $200 worth of books for $80!
We love Half Price Books!
I bought Babydoll five or six books, including mini versions of several Dr. Suess classics and Go Dog Go and A Fly Went By. Slowly, we'll build her library. For Christmas, I intend to get her the Complete Winnie the Pooh. After that, Beatrix Potter. After that, the Betsy/Tacy series. And probably Louis L'Amour.
This baby loves cowboys. Megan put up a cowboy collage over her changing table and everytime Babydoll catches sight of it, she smiles. It doesn't matter if she has a full diaper she desperately wants out of, if she's starving and angry and letting us all know how unhappy she is, the second she sees her cowboy buddies, she stops, stares and breaks out in smiles.
I may have to get myself a stetson. |
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I came to Texas loaded for bear.
In addition to my cell phone, a laptop and a kindle which had been loaded up with no less than four books I've been wanting to read.
For over two weeks everything worked like a charm.
A kindle works great when you're giving an infant a bottle; you don't have to worry about holding it open, you won't loose your page and it's easy to hold. It's awesome!
That is, until the battery runs out of juice. I'd brought the cord but left the charger itself at home. We use our Ipod charger and I didn't want to leave Josie without one since I wasn't even bringing my Ipod. Besides, I knew Ty has an Ipod so I planned on using his charger.
He has upgraded to a charging dock so that idea was out. Then he searched around and found his old charger. Yay!
Oops. Not yay; his charger was too old. It's port isn't configured for a new Ipod or a kindle. Add that to the list of sentences no one would have said when I was in high school.
My sweet library machine is, for the time being, a paperweight.
At least I still have my laptop!
Then, two days after the kindle pooped out, the laptop died a sudden, peaceful death.
There's nothing wrong with it's battery, the laptop just up and died. One second I was reading Powerline, then the screen went blank. Just like that.
Dead as a door nail.
Dead as Jacob Marley.
heck, dead as Dickens himself.
It had been a nice little machine. Jay and I bought it on our way to the airport in the early spring of '10, so Jay could have a little laptop for traveling. It was only a few hundred bucks and had an eight or nine inch screen. The only annoying thing about it was a cursor that had a tendency to jump around the screen while you were writing.
That computer went to Vegas about six times, traveled to Colorado at least three times, it went to three different final fours, New Orleans, Austin, Sodak, all over the state of Minnesota and probably a whole lotta places I can't even remember.
It lived hard, died young and left me hanging with no connection to the internet.
So, I've been using the laptop here at the house. Megan and Ty both have really nice computers at work so they got a cheap one for the house. They paid about the same amount for their full sized laptop as we had paid for our mini.
That mini was ten times better than theirs. First of all, the one they have is slow.
I mean s l o w.
Imagine having a third grader read the Wall Street Journal to you, while sounding out the words phonetically. That slow. And irritating.
Slow's not so bad if that's the only problem. The lack of speed is actually the most charming aspect of that machine. It also has a slippery grip on the internet, can't seem to keep a web page from freezing up and the cursor doesn't just jump around while you try to write; Jumping around within the text is irritating. Jumping across the screen and hitting 'show desk top' and then refusing to move at all, so you can't get back to the page you were on is infuriating. Then, if the cursor can be coaxed into showing itself on the screen at all, it either won't move or it moves in ways that have no relation at all to how you're trying to move it.
Clearly, that cursor is possessed by an evil imp.
An imp that wants me to smash my son's laptop to pieces all over his beautiful hardwood floor.
I'm stronger than you, imp!!
The good news is Grampa Coach was coming down to join us on Wednesday, so all I had to do was call him and ask him to bring an ipod charger and his laptop. Then all would be well; I could fire up the kindle and consign that imp possessed cursor and incompetent laptop to the outer darkness.
I made the call.
And completely blew it.
I caught him on the golf course. He only took the call because it wasn't his shot and he was as excited to hear my voice as I was to hear his. I was so giddy just to talk to him (I haven't seen him in three weeks. Three weeks. In case you've ever wondered if a person can tell when they're going crazy, the answer is no, you can't tell) that I completely forgot to mention the technological catastrophes that had befallen me.
Then I got distracted by the cutest baby on earth. She was smiling at me.
When I remembered to try again, it was too late; he was at the airport. Fortunately, he'd brought along his own computer so all was not lost.
The kindle is still a mute slab (reminder to those of you who think actual books are obsolete; the pages of a book will never suddenly go blank while you're reading it because you forgot to plug it in.) Either I'll buy a new charger or wait till I get back home to read the fifth book in the game of thrones saga. I know; it's actually called 'Song of Ice and Fire' but how dorky is that? It should be called "In Which Everyone Dies but the Dwarf."
Now, if you'll excuse me; my grand daughter wants to play 'boodeboodeboop' some more.
She's so much fun! |
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My grand daughter is very smart.
At two months, she's already figured out a lot of things, like that her Mom is responsible for her whole universe but not to expect too much from grand Mom.
Grand mom is for playing and feeding and changing but there's no point in complaining about anything because Grand Mom isn't in charge of the world, like Mom is. The upshot is that our baby scolds and bullies her Mom (because Mom can make everything perfect, so why doesn't she??) but she's always sweet as pie with me because I have no such power.
It's like she's cutting me slack because she knows I'm an idiot.
I can live with that.
We have been having a terrific time together. Ty leaves for work around 7:30, I give Baby her bottle, we talk and play until she falls asleep. She likes to take all morning long to transition fully from sleep to wakefulness. I can identify with that.
Around noon, I get her dressed and we play for an hour or so. She's trying very hard to talk back to me. It seems like she can understand me. She smiles all the time but either she hasn't figured out how to laugh yet or she just doesn't think I'm all that funny. Amusing, yes. Funny, no.
In the afternoon, she takes a good long nap. Yesterday, I woke her up after three hours because I wanted to play. She obliged.
She's always happy and playful until her parents get home. Then, she gives them a little bit of trouble for daring to leave her. They make it up to her by taking her for a walk and giving her a bath.
it's quite hilarious to watch an infant try to maintain her pout while having her bath.
As temperaments go, she's got a very sweet, easy going one. But that doesn't mean she lets anyone off the hook if they don't give her what she wants. She only complains when she's poopy, hungry or sleepy, or to say "I missed you all day! how could you do that to me?"
Every morning when her Dad ducks out, she looks at me and smiles, as if to say "Oh, you're still here. I'm glad."
I'm glad, too. |
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I liked the movie Thor.
It kind of had a split personality; half the movie was a sci/fi/fantasy set on a distant planet and half was set in the southwest of present day America. But I enjoyed it.
I didn't like the Hulk, starring Edward Norton. He's always good and I liked the parts he was in but I've never been a fan of the Hulk as a 'super hero'. He's an idiot and idiots, even big, angry, green idiots, bore me.
I really liked Captain America. I thought it was fun, well done and had a really nice old fashioned WWII vibe to it.
I loved both Iron Man and Iron Man II. Robert Downey Jr. has so much charisma he's practically a freak of nature. It's hard to imagine anyone else playing Tony Stark and why would anyone even try?
The Avengers is as good as all five of those movies put together.
It was written and directed by Joss Whedon, so I expected a great script.
I was not disappointed; the script was hilarious. It was so dense that I know I missed a lot of good stuff because I was laughing too hard to hear everything.
The main characters are all kick ass super heroes, not a one of which is going to take orders from anyone else. In the hands of a lesser writer, it would have been understandable if Thor and Captain America had been overshadowed by Iron Man but that doesn't happen. We never forget that as cool as Tony Stark is, Thor is the god of thunder. And Captain America is CAPTAIN AMERICA!
Watching alpha males compete with each other is one of my favorite things.
I even liked the Hulk! Let's face it, as the main character, the Hulk is a bust. A big, angry, green moron should never be more than comic relief and that's what he is in The Avengers. And OMG, is he funny!
And Mark Rufalo, replacing Edward Norton as Bruce Banner is absolutely perfect. I've never been a fan of his but I can't imagine anyone else being as good in this role.
Ty and I went and saw The Avengers last Friday. We were going to see Battleship because Ty's already seen this one but he got talking about it and pretty soon I said "I can't see Battleship after all this; you need to see that again."
I warned him against overselling it but seriously, you can't.
If you like comic books, super heroes, action movies, surprisingly layered characters, a great script, Scarlett Johansen or special effects, you'll love the Avengers.
I loved 2009s Star Trek but J.J.Abrams should be kneeling at Joss Whedon's feet.
If you don't like the Avengers, there's nothing I can do for you because you're already dead inside. |
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I know, it seems impossible but it's true; every morning when I see her again, my grand daughter is even cuter than she was the night before.
At just under two months, she's still packing on the baby fat. I think babies don't really hit their apex of cute until three months. Newborns are wonderful but they're usually a bit scrawny. Bad skin is common as well.
This one has beautiful skin. She's also growing a delightful pair of fat, round cheeks. Her face is shaped just like my babies faces were; very round, fat cheeks and a pointed little chin.
Yeah, completely different from all other babies, I know.
Now that she knows how to smile, she does it all the time. We've spent the week pretty much just looking at each other, talking and smiling. I've done most of the talking and she does most of the smiling.
She had one tough day. Thursday, she wanted to be held all day long. I was perfectly willing but it was exhausting. When you're in your twenties and thirties, holding an eleven pound baby all day long is tiring. When you're in your fifties it's crippling. I was rather sore on Friday but she was back to her usual easy going, happy self so it was all worth it.
I'm reading my first book on Kindle. It's much much easier to read a Kindle while holding a baby and giving her a bottle than it would be with a paper back. Easier to hold, easier to turn the page, easier.
It's a really good book, too.
Last night, Ty and I went out for drinks, snacks and a movie so Megan could have a mommy's night.
We were going to see Battleship but Ty got talking about The Avengers, which he'd already seen. He talked it up to the point where we both decided to see that instead. It was a fun night. |
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Sunday was Mother's day and we could not have had a better time.
The sun was out, the temperature was mild and there was a slight breeze. It was a perfect spring day.
We started out getting all dolled up and going to church. Jaylen wore a black and white polka dot dress and a pair of hand painted shoes with polka dot ribbon for laces.
She was an angel in church.
Then we hit Sam's club and stocked up on groceries for the week. This included four bottles of wine and the fixin's for more ranger cookies.
Back at home, we decided to have our big meal of the day be lunch. Tyler was dying to use his juicy lucy machine and we figured big lunch, little dinner was a good plan so out to the deck he went and produced some enormous, delicious cheeseburgers for us.
We cleaned up and everyone took a nap while I read my book.
After Jaylen woke up, we drove to Gruene, the picturesque small town boasting Gruene Hall, where parts of the movie Pure Country was filmed. On Sundays, Gruene Hall hosts free music concerts. For Mother's day, they'd had a huge event in the morning but Ty and Megan were hoping by evening the place would have cleared out some and we'd be able to get in.
They were right. There were still a lot of folks around but we were able to do everything we wanted.
For starters, we ambled around the town. It's tiny and pretty and well presented; it reminded me of places like Nisswa MN and Golden CO; brick sidewalks and antique stores and lots of restaurants and bars. Being near Austin TX, of course there was live music everywhere. After deciding that the stroller was too big for the shops, we rolled on over to Gruene Hall, which looked just like it did in the movie, over 15 years ago. The walls of the the bar and entry were covered with photos of the performers who've played there. Right away, I recognized George Strait and Delbert McClinton.
George Strait is still very good looking but whoosh! was he a hottie when he was young! I can only imagine the excitement of the recording people when they realized he also had the best voice country music ever heard!
Yes, I'm a fan. So?
The dance hall part had all the walls up so it was very indoor/outdoor. We headed to the yard, which is full of trees and picnic tables and a hoop around which a half dozen little boys were playing ball. We sat at a picnic table and listened to the music and had a few beers. Jaylen was content to let all the dance hall patrons admire how pretty she is.
When the music was done, we rolled over to an eatery, the name of which I can't recall, which I LOVED.
We ordered appetizers (juicy lucy lunch, remember?) and the food was good but the place was Great! Built on a bluff above the river, it was mostly outdoors, in the tree tops, with deck levels down the cliff. The umbrellas on the outdoor tables were being removed when we arrived, since the sun had set, so we had the full experience of eating our snacks in the tree tops.
We were there for quite awhile and our perfect baby loved it. She seemed fascinated by the people, sights and sounds all around her. Megan finally took her back to the car for her dinner because Megan needed to, not because Jaylen was at all fussy.
We had a great time and got home to bed around 11:00, which is late for a work night but we had so much fun no one complained.
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Every morning, I drink a pot of coffee (yes, I am beyond the pretense that I only drink two cups. First, I got a bigger mug every year...now I just embrace the truth: I'm loud, I'm proud: I'm a coffee addict!) while reading the biased news online.
In one of the 21st century ironies, the only way to get the truth about the world is to read news by journalists who confess to being biased.
So, I read Powerline, Breitbart and Steynonline. It's very possible that the world isn't in quite such dire straits as these sources would have you believe. I hope that's the case. Perhaps California isn't really a full blown Idiocracy. Perhaps our politicians aren't all spiteful hatemongers. Perhaps the looming Islamization of Western Europe isn't as inevitable as it would seem...
And perhaps with a little fairy dust, my good thoughts will enable me to fly.
But you know what?
None of that matters when I look over and my grand daughter's eyes are open and looking at me. I go sit with her and she looks at me and with no provocation whatsoever...
She smiles.
And then she says, and I quote, "Ha ha."
A baby isn't just the embodiment of hope and a peek at the future, they are literally the cure for everything that ails us. |
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Mom and Dad stayed at the ranch with us until Thursday. Ty and Megan don't refer to their property as a ranch. I do because at 5+acres, it seems too big to call 'the yard'.
This weekend has been gorgeous. It's partly cloudy and 80 right now; could hardly be nicer. It rained a lot last week. Big, noisy thunderstorms at night but nice enough during the day for Dad and Ty to play some golf. The rain stopped long enough to take Jaylen for a nice long walk each evening right after dinner.
Ty took two days off but then he had to go back to work and Thursday and Friday, I got Jaylen all to myself all day long.
We got along great.
She's a very easy going baby; just figure out what she wants and do it and nobody gets hurt.
We're all learning what she likes; she loves to be held up on your shoulder, as though burping her. She'll fall asleep and lay up there as limp as a rag doll. She likes to take the occasional nap on her tummy. She likes evening. She loves her stroller. She loves her changing table and having her diapers and outfits switched out. She doesn't care for her swing.
All of this is subject to change without notice.
She was just learning to smile a week ago, now she does it all the time. she hasn't figured out how to laugh yet but she does this short, panting breathing that sounds like a precursor to giggling.
She takes long naps (over an hour) so I was able to get some work done. I didn't bring a ton of stuff with me, but I can get a few orders filled while I'm here.
Megan probably doesn't believe me, but spending my days in a quiet house with only a baby for company is better than a week at a spa for me. I can hear myself think, read my books, paint a little, write a little and play with the baby a lot.
Mom,Dad, Ty and I played some cards while they were here. We also played scrabble. Ty started us out with 'fear', to which I was able to add 'less' and take advantage of a triple word score. On my very next turn, I put 'iddlers' off the 'f' for a triple word score and the 50pt bonus for using all seven letters. 89 is the highest I've ever scored with a single word. I wonder if I should've insisted on tripling the 50? That would have put me at 189 for one word! That would have been pure gluttony. Oh well, no one caught me.
Different story a few nights later when Ty and I went one on one. We used the whole board, all the letters and almost every turn exploited a premium square. I thought I had him near the end when I threw 'quiz' on a double word. He retaliated with 'aqua' on a triple word. He won that game by four points. My mistake was not challenging him early in the game. I couldn't remember how to spell 'epoxy' so I let him get away with 'apoxy'. My mistake.
Today we went to Sam's Club and stocked up on groceries. Mom baked us some ranger cookies but they're almost gone. We needed more cornflakes and chocolate chips.
After church, Ty cooked us burgers for lunch. Now I'm surrounded by sleeping Pivecs. When the baby wakes up, we've got plans to go out again. It'll be fun.
I'm having a great time.
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Jaylen: "Nana, Nana, let's do something!"
Me: "Okay, what do you want to do?"
Jaylen: "Um...how about...You hold me in one arm and my bottle in the other and I drink a little and sleep a little and when your arm gets sore, I open my eyes and smile at you, to encourage you to keep going?"
Me: "That sounds like the best day EVER!"
And it was.
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