Likeness

I was scrolling through some photos taken during a recent outing at a local state park when Skip exclaimed, "Wait! Look at that one... that captures them perfectly." Then he explained that they both looked like a couple of bossy pants, talking non-stop and giving instruction/direction to someone (probably him).

Thanksgiving shout out

We are still recovering from too much food/too much fun to post an actual update. We had a great Thanksgiving weekend, visited with our families and indulged in all the good food.

On a productive note, we have the tree up and decorated, but I am humiliated to report that our exterior illumination has not come together yet. There are at least four houses in our neighborhood that have beaten us to the draw on outdoor decorations, but I still cannot seem to execute. Perhaps if I would stop eating cookies and string some lights instead?

Decorating for Christmas always reminds me of "Christmas Vacation," starring Chevy Chase and Randy Quaid, and that brings me to a pressing question. Do you think Randy Quaid's myriad legal (and psychological) woes enhance his portrayal of "Cousin Eddie," or do they render the movie unwatchable?

Hambones

Team spirit

Roll Tide! from Cathi Lindsey on Vimeo.

Friday's quote

"All, everything that I understand, I understand only because I love."

Leo Tolstoy

Thanksgiving Proclamation

George Washington's 1789 Thanksgiving Proclamation

Whereas it is the duty of all nations to acknowledge the providence of Almighty God, to obey His will, to be grateful for His benefits, and humbly to implore His protection and favor; and Whereas both Houses of Congress have, by their joint committee, requested me to "recommend to the people of the United States a day of public thanksgiving and prayer, to be observed by acknowledging with grateful hearts the many and signal favors of Almighty God, especially by affording them an opportunity peaceably to establish a form of government for their safety and happiness:"

Now, therefore, I do recommend and assign Thursday, the 26th day of November next, to be devoted by the people of these States to the service of that great and glorious Being who is the beneficent author of all the good that was, that is, or that will be; that we may then all unite in rendering unto Him our sincere and humble thanks for His kind care and protection of the people of this country previous to their becoming a nation; for the signal and manifold mercies and the favorable interpositions of His providence in the course and conclusion of the late war; for the great degree of tranquility, union, and plenty which we have since enjoyed; for the peaceable and rational manner in which we have been enable to establish constitutions of government for our safety and happiness, and particularly the national one now lately instituted for the civil and religious liberty with which we are blessed, and the means we have of acquiring and diffusing useful knowledge; and, in general, for all the great and various favors which He has been pleased to confer upon us.

And also that we may then unite in most humbly offering our prayers and supplications to the great Lord and Ruler of Nations and beseech Him to pardon our national and other transgressions; to enable us all, whether in public or private stations, to perform our several and relative duties properly and punctually; to render our National Government a blessing to all the people by constantly being a Government of wise, just, and constitutional laws, discreetly and faithfully executed and obeyed; to protect and guide all sovereigns and nations (especially such as have shown kindness to us), and to bless them with good governments, peace, and concord; to promote the knowledge and practice of true religion and virtue, and the increase of science among them and us; and, generally to grant unto all mankind such a degree of temporal prosperity as He alone knows to be best.

October 3, 1879

Happy Thanksgiving to all.

Joy to the world!

At the end of August, Gracie and Lauren joined the children's choir at our church. They have been practicing weekly for an upcoming Christmas program. Additionally, last night they had the honor of singing, along with a few other local church choirs, at our town's Christmas tree lighting ceremony.



The event was rained out last week, and we were worried that it would be again this week. However, the show went on, and the girls had a blast, as did all of their friends.

Attention Facebook users

Don't forget to support Small Business Saturday and your favorite small business. Whether it is a retailer in your home town, a favorite Ebay or Etsy seller, or some other venue you have discovered, remember your favorite small businesses during your holiday shopping.

Ladies who breakfast

These three ladies are enjoying Thanksgiving break by breakfasting at Cracker Barrel. Playing checkers is so much better than attending school/preschool.

Visiting the zoo (again)

We decided to enjoy the fantastic fall weather we had this weekend by taking a trip to the zoo. Once there, we took a special train ride and toured a new facility that is being erected for the anticipated four elephants that will be arriving there in the spring. Mostly, though, the girls were impressed with the inflatable turkey (above).

These little guys (below) were scene stealers as well. They were actively hopping around, and one feisty little monkey stood really close to where Gracie was standing, with glass separating them, of course.



They girls kept asking to see the rhinoceros. We had a lucky break because the girls got to brush them. This little lady weighs in at 5,000 pounds. (She says she's just big boned.)



Finally, we saw my favorite, the old lion.... so regal... so majestic.



How was your weekend?

Play room tour

This week the tour focuses on play rooms, and I have gone to the archives for pics of our play room because, admittedly, ours has gotten way out of hand. I have been less than diligent about removing toys that are no longer age appropriate. Instead, we have been steadily accumulating toys on top of toys since we created the play room in December of 2007. That is three years of toys, and it is not pretty.

We took our upstairs bonus room -- where the dormers are -- and created a play room. We created three separate areas within the dormers, and then there is the main space, the length of the room, for play. Unfortunately, I do not have a great shot of the entire room. If I took one now, you would think, "Oh, is it messy storage room week???" Oh, I kid (not really). Here are some older pics that are ok to show. From the entry way, this is a little reading/sitting area to the right.




By the way, the above area is almost completely consumed now by dress up paraphernalia. Next to the chair is our bookshelf. We have a little problem with books, also, and there are stacks and stacks on either side of this bookshelf now.



In the first dormer area, I have an armoire that I mentioned when we talked about home offices.



These pics were taken when the girls were between 14 and 18 months old. Reading was a favorite activity very early, and is still in their top three activity choices.



With the next shot, I will be completely shameless and use a photo taken when the room was devoid of toys. This is Lauren checking out the completed room for the first time.



We created a nice television nook -- except we do not watch television. I can count the number of times the girls have sat in their chairs to watch a video on two hands, and we have had this set up for almost three years. The entire room needs an update, and I am thinking of changing this area by replacing the TV area with a more practical workspace (table and chairs, desk, etc.).



The Lego table is immediately to the left from the doorway. To say that the Legos have gotten out of control would be a gross understatement. However, more is definitely more with Legos.



We have almost outgrown our original table and chairs, but we have gotten unbelievable use out of it. We have a larger table and chair on loan from cousin Sarah, and that may be relocated to this room.



The last dormer area is where the toy box is located. Because of where the only adult chair in the room is located, this is a blind spot in the room, and therefore, has been the site of many scuffles over the years.



Finally, to be fair, here is what it looks like today. There is a significant amount of toy clutter that I will address soon, although I am definitely not being bold enough to toss out a target completion date.



As always, thanks so much for stopping by, and have a great weekend.

Friday's quote

"Appreciation is the highest form of prayer, for it acknowledges the presence of good wherever you shine the light of your thankful thoughts."

Alan Cohen

Mount Cody

Earlier this week, Skip spotted Terrence Cody on one of his flights. He sent the following text:

"Mount Cody on the flight. What's odd is that he doesn't seem all that crazy big to me."

As an aside, the girls often tell Skip, "Daddy, you're tall! You're tall like a giraffe!!!"

Back to Cody, I offered that perhaps it was because they are the same height. "What about the 100 pound weight difference?" I asked. Skip was able to resist the urge to challenge young Cody to an impromptu game in the baggage claim area so we'll never know the full impact the weight difference, but I stand by my opinion that it would become readily apparent after the first play.

Ebay

Gabrielle Blair (genius!) chronicles her visit to Ebay headquarters here. I am beyond jealous.

Apple v. Apple

"One of the last major holdouts against selling its music via digital downloads, the Beatles are the ultimate prize for any music company. The group has held on to blockbuster sales four decades after breaking up — it has sold more than 177 million albums in the United States alone, according to the Recording Industry Association of America — and held on to untouchable cultural prestige."

Read the full article here.

Weekend

We took advantage of the fab weather this past weekend and spent all day Saturday outside playing. We even had a good visit with our friend, Charlie, the cat.

Although we now know Charlie's name is really "Blankey," Lauren and I still call him Charlie. Doing so prompts immediate correction from Gracie, and the conversation continues something like this.

Gracie: "His name is BLANKEY, not Charlie."
Lauren: "I know."
Gracie: "That's Mr. Sam's cat."
Lauren: "That's not momma's cat anymore."
Gracie: "Uh-huh. Blankey is Mr. Sam's cat."

Wow. Way to turn the knife.




Luckily the conversation gave way to play time. Gracie's favorite new game is to take her grocery cart and "go to Target," by walking to the end of the street. Needless to say, we strolled to the end of the street a few times.



A moment of kisses:



The girls also like to take their chairs and position them at the end of the drive so that they can watch the neighborhood. I think they are conflicted and undecided about whether to be ladies on the stoop or bag ladies with their carts. Either way, they pause for a break with Smarties.

Sunday lunch

Friday's quote

"I long to accomplish great and noble tasks, but it is my chief duty to accomplish humble tasks as though they were great and noble. The world is moved along, not only by the mighty shoves of its heroes, but also by the aggregate of the tiny pushes of each honest worker."

Helen Keller

Bathrooms

Truthfully, I never thought about posting pics of our bathrooms. However, since I started this tour, the "good sport" thing to do is to finish it, and so here we are in the restroom-type area.

We have three baths. Two are on the main level, and the girls' bath, Jack-and-Jill style, is upstairs.

This is the master bath. This shot is taken from the entryway and captures the shower (far left), vanity, and French doors.



Along the right wall of the above pic is the laundry closet and Skip's closet. A clothing closet in the bathroom? Why yes, we have one. The original owner made a couple of modifications to the original plan, and this is an example of one. Instead of a tub, they opted to create a closet. In my opinion, this is genius because I am able to have full use of the master closet. If you happen to be a bath person, this might not appeal to you at all.

I mentioned an earlier problem with the shower door and the louvered closet doors, but both have been restored.



The main downstairs restroom is a powder room. There was just no way to take a picture in that tiny little room.

Upstairs, there are two bedrooms and a play room. This is the second interesting modification the builders made. The upstairs was supposed to be three bedrooms and the extra space (where the dormers are), but changed the plans to have two larger bedrooms (versus three smaller bedrooms). They also created a Jack-and-Jill bath. I previously included both vanities but here they are again:

The girls' vanity area:




The guest vanity area:



The actual bath area is difficult to photograph, but here is the shower, housing an elaborate toy collection that is visible through the glass.



As always, thanks for stopping by, and have a great weekend!

Veteran's Day

Thanks to all veterans who have served or are currently serving our country. Thank you for preserving our freedom.

Scandalous

In times of scandal, the prudent course of action is to get in front of the story, to take control and set the record straight. Therefore, this post will serve as damage control for a fraud and misrepresentation that has been occurring within our family.

Charlie Brown is not our cat. And, it would seem he never was. Charlie -- or "Blankey," as his real owner calls him -- was brought to his residence as a small kitten, where he has lived, mostly comfortably (more in a minute), since. Owner "Sam" (not his real name) lives three or four houses down, catty cornered to our home. If you happen to be a cat, the distance from backyard-to-backyard is 50 feet, once you scale a six foot wooden fence.



We were playing outside this weekend with Charlie/Blankey in attendance when Sam drove through the neighborhood. He stopped, we discussed the cat briefly, and he rode off with his cat in his vehicle. Sam seems to have an open-door policy on sharing food provisions with a couple of extra cats. One much larger, unnamed cat presumably asserted himself as the alpha cat and drove Charlie from his residence. He sought refuge here. At least, that is my theory. It may be as simple as Sam is at work daily, whereas we are home, usually banging about loudly when we are not zipping from one event to another.



Skip's theory is that Charlie/Blankey is a con artist who has been working the entire neighborhood. Whatever the story is, I have not seen Charlie much this week. Perhaps he realizes the jig is up. Maybe Charlie (or Blankey, or whatever he is calling himself these days) has a conscience and is embarrassed. In the meantime, Skip has practically been giddy over the idea of a pet-less existence once more, and I am working to shake the "crazy cat lady" moniker.

Smith on Zuckerberg

Even though I am not a member of Facebook, I have, oddly, devoted some spare time lately reading and viewing chronicles of its origins. A few months ago, I read The Facebook Effect, a book detailing founder Zuckerberg's development and early years with thefacebook.com. The book also delved into the history of social networking at large, and provided a crash course in venture capitalism.

Next, we saw the movie. You know the one. The highly fictionalized "The Social Network," by none other than Aaron Sorkin. I realize there are mixed emotions about Sorkin, but I appreciate his work. It's witty, thoughtful and entertaining, and "The Social Network" is not a departure from his usual formula. While he presumably took many creative liberties, he tackled the issue of intellectual property ownership in a straightforward way.

Social networks have been evolving since the late 90's, and one very real hurdle was the inability to transmit photographs electronically. Can we even remember a time when that was a hurdle? When digital cameras were not thoroughly ubiquitous? When we did not have a camera, of some shape, form or fashion with us at all times? It reminds me of Zan McQuade's post entitled "You Couldn't Even E-mail Pictures Uphill Both Ways".

During this stalled period, when we were all still handling photographs (one early site actually contemplated having users mail photographs, which would be scanned by staff, to use as profile pictures), various formulae (i.e., code) were being developed, shared and likely, yes, stolen.

Anyrate, I ran across this NYT article a few weeks ago wherein another book (The Accidental Billionaires by Ben Mezrich)discusses the Zuckerberg crowd. I read the article but not the book, as I am Facebook fatigued. As compelling as the story is, and, as likely as it is that Zuckerberg is, indeed, the next Jobs or Gates, I couldn't read another word.

That is, until I saw Zadie Smith's discussion of "The Social Network" and the book, You Are Not a Gadget: a Manifesto by Jaron Lanier. I was compelled to read. Here's the article, in case you missed it.

Dance update

Everything is progressing nicely at dance. Honestly, I am amazed each week at how the instructor ushers a group of girls, ages 3 and 4, into a room, where they proceed to listen, follow instructions and dance for 30 minutes without major meltdowns or episodes. Granted, there was one child who was deemed "not ready" by the second class, and then we had a little snafu one week. But, overall, the operation is impressive.

"Princess Dreams"

Sometime in August, I received an e-mail promoting the pre-sale of Disney on Ice tickets. We attend a show every now and then, and, since it had been a while since the last production, tickets were purchased. This past Saturday was the big day, and it was a huge event, in the eyes of Lauren and Gracie. HUGE. It was almost as if they were going to live with Princess Aurora in the castle.

As an aside, we have been on quite the princess theme lately, what with Lauren having a Sleeping Beauty birthday party and Halloween costume. Gracie, as I have repeated so many times, chose Barney. Therefore, Saturday morning, when we revealed our destination, Gracie immediately asked if Barney would be there.

Us: "We're going to see the princesses!!!!"
Gracie: "And Barney."
Lauren: "No, Gracie. Barney isn't going to be there today, ok? It's just princesses. Not Barney. Barney won't be there."

The delivery was all nasal-y and very busybody. We really should get her some reading glasses to have perched on the end of her nose.

Gracie recovered from the momentary let-down and enjoyed the show.



Lauren wanted all the characters to visit her seat, but settled for a wave.



Admittedly, the production quality of the show was quite good. The duration, at an hour and a half, gave the audience value for the money. Well done, Disney!

Sunday lunch

Friday's quote

Though he brings grief, he will show compassion, so great is his unfailing love."

--Lamentations 3:32

Comments

Something recently tickled my funny bone, and I have been attempting to find a respectful way of discussing it here. For some levity, now seems like the time to share.

The back story is that many of our family members check in here for updates on their grandchildren/nieces/cousins, etc., on a regular basis. Then, we have wonderful friends and acquaintenances who stop by periodically. Certainly, glimpses of the girls are the big draw, and everyone is kind enough to tolerate my ramblings. Occasionally, as the map indicates, people we do not know pop by for a quick view, and that is incredibly awesome.

The reality is that this is a very small, do-it-yourself project. There's me, my computer and my camera. That's about it. So... a couple of weeks ago, I received a comment that made me giggle. It was this:

Anonymous said...

"Hey, I can't view your site properly within Opera, I actually hope you look into fixing this."

First, this viewer is grossly overestimating my ability to "fix" anything related to the site. Second, I had not heard of Opera until I Googled it. When contemplating the aforementioned, points one and two, I couldn't help giggling and thinking, "Yes, I have my IT department working round the clock on that, and we're hoping for delivery by mid-November. That sounds incredibly sarcastic, but not at all the way I intend. See why I have been struggling on a response? Think less mean-spirited and more Chrissy Snow from "Three's Company". Remember the defining giggle+snort combination? That's my exact response.

I am very lucky, on any given day, to have a PC that isn't crippled by a virus or a wireless internet connection that has not been interrupted by squirrels who like nothing better than to vandalize the cable wires connected to our home. Therefore, the idea of "fixing my site" so that it is compatible with a browser I did not know existed is cute, amusing and just plain funny.

Halloween update

We scaled our Halloween plans back considerably from what we had originally planned. The costumes were selected (Lauren) and purchased (Gracie's) many weeks ago so we were basically all set. Pre-Halloween, we were able to take the girls to our church's trunk or treat event. This year they had a carousel for the younger children. The degree to which my children, especially Gracie, love the carousel cannot be overstated. We rode this a few times.




Lauren wanted to be Princess Aurora, and she snagged her costume from the dress up supplies. I added a headband to make the outfit uniquely hers (ha). As the weeks ticked by, she kept dragging all sorts of Princess accoutrements to where I had the costumes hanging. I looked at her stack about a week before Halloween, and she had collected several tiaras; Princess shoes; purses; a Sleeping Beauty doll; a magic wand; and various other trinkets. I had to explain that she would not be able to schlep all of that with her on her trick or treat route.

Gracie, on the other hand, shunned the princess idea and carefully selected something on the opposite end of the spectrum, as she frequently does now. She found a Barney costume in a catalog. She tore the page out and kept it with her for days, until it finally was unrecognizable. We ordered the costume. The response that costume received was unbelievable. Barney rocked! It was so great. The entire night everyone kept calling out to her, "HEY BARNEY!!!" and she would turn and give a little wave. It was so much fun.

Eventually, her popularity sparked a little jealousy, and we had to confirm that everyone was cheering for both costumes.

We trick-or-treated the many trunks that were set up, had a snack, did the cake walk and then bid the event adieu.



On Halloween, the girls spent the day with Gran and Poppa (while we attended the funeral) and trick-or-treated in their neighborhood. I know they had a great time.

A goodbye

Sadly, we had a death in our family Friday afternoon. In times such as these, it is very difficult to find words.

A brief and totally inconclusive list of things we will miss:

1) Skip will miss your very distinct "Hello, Skip" that you greeted him with.
2) I will miss your making my mom happy (and aggravating her -- especially when the occasion called for just that).
3) Lauren will miss digging through your shirt pockets and confiscating your flashlight and other tools.
4) Gracie will miss being shy at first and then running to you with a breathless "Mis'er Bobby!".

We will miss you, and we salute you.