Butterfly bush

Notes and Observations:

- Butterfly bushes are everything they're cracked up to be

- Butterflies move rapidly and often

# of attempts to get an in-focus/decently-framed shot: about 30

While finally succeeding at an in-focus shot in itself was somewhat gratifying, I realized that this looked like the dumb test picture on the printer paper boxes, except with a broken-winged specimen, poor thing. Oh well.

Sarah takes on cream chesse

Mm. Cream cheese.

Silverware in Concrete

Seen on Rt. 60 in Medford, in the entrance to a closed restaurant. No other explanation.

F'chicken + beak

Succulent and chicken-y, but completely boneless, despited the molded-on beak and cockscomb (ok, yeah, I had to look that up to figure out what it's called - it's the jiggly flap of skin on top of a rooster's head). But 100% chicken-free. What will they think of next?

Surprisingly, it tasted pretty good, after sitting up on the top rack of the grill for about 30 minutes, with peanut sauce.

Shorty Goes Public

Yes, these pictures are what they appear to be, and are of my own innards. I'm not sure which exactly is stranger - the formation of a new person in there, or the fact that they can photograph it. Anyhow, Shorty should be joining us in person in late February, when (s)he will be given a real name. Wish us luck...!

This is the fancy 3-d pic, at about 8 weeks. The head is the smaller sphere up top, and the long thing is the start of an umbilical cord.

Comment from my mom: "I can't tell if (s)he looks more like you or like Josh"

Also at 8 weeks, the normal alien view.

And this is a lower-fidelity view, at 11 weeks. The head is slightly visible on top, along with a small and hard-to-see hand. I bit reassured to see the slightly more humanoid form in just those 3 weeks.

Campfire heat

Spent the last few days in upstate NY with my in-laws. Aside from the excitement of tossing my glasses into lake water that resembled pea soup (they were not recovered, no), it was a relaxing few days.

The owners of the house had brilliantly decided to build a fire pit out on the back lawn. Sydney had her first s'more - though seemed to prefer the items unmelted.


And, when the fire became overly warm, Justin devised this fashionable heat shield. Perhaps everyone will be wearing them soon.

Jeni turns 4

Her actual birthday was yesterday, but I was there on the weekend. Saturday involved copious quantities of cake, which must be eaten with ice cream, if you're under 10 (why is that??). Jeni likes her cake.

...with the added bonus of getting to "help" Grandma with the baking:

And, what better follows cake than some Chinese food? Too bad nobody was hungry. Mom takes the opportunity to demonstrate how to make noodle fangs.

Purple Lily

Once again, I've gotten a bit intimate with the flora of my front yard.

Pilings

In an inlet in Annapolis.

Gyro-tini

And now, for something truly disgusting - or is it a tasty Greek-inspired cocktail?



Featuring: 1 slice gyro meat, a dash of ketchup, 1 finger any leftover hard alcohol and a lemon chaser, served in a Splenda-rimmed shot glass. Mmmm.