Fish Themes

Finally, some local excitement. (Oh, and if you've missed the most recent pictures: www.picasaweb.google.com/tempppo)

We, unfortunately, missed the Sardine festival last weekend. That would have been exciting. From what I understand, town residents get together on Friday evening to eat sardines and crackers. Then, if you can stomach it, there are Moonpies for dessert. I'm actually kinda sad that I missed it.

Now that the temperatures have cooled off and the mosquitoes have left us, we see children in the park almost every day. That could be exciting -- for Adara. I need to recover from my disillusionment before I can look at the parks with excitement again.

And Jon -- he went fishing this morning. Broke his fishing pole. I'll let you draw your own conclusions about whether that was exciting.

But today was truly exciting. Dinner. Dinner today was exciting.

Our dining choices in the vicinity, assuming that we will be eating dinner after 3:30 p.m. (because that's when most of the local shops close on Saturdays), are national chains, a smattering of local places in the neighboring town, and 2 restaurants in our own historic downtown. We've already been to the Mexican restaurant here -- excellent salsa and yummy food. But the cafe was never a real option. Until tonight.

Their special tonight was an all-you-can-eat fish fry. It could have been a disaster. Fried food at a local restaurant in a tiny, mostly-dead Southern town. Risky. I steeled my belly and determinedly made my way to a potentially wonderful culinary adventure, and an assuredly rememberable dining experience.

It was delicious. I could have eaten for hours. My 2-year-old liked it. She liked it so much she ate 4 pieces. My husband liked it. The wait staff was friendly but not overbearing. There were Halloween decorations to occupy our toddler's attention while we waited for the food. My joy at finding something that I truly liked, without having to invent it or make it in my own home, was unsurpassed in this season of my life.

Yes indeed. The small pleasures are truly the greatest ones.

Walking After Midnight

Life in our small southern town continues to be creatively interesting. Last night I went for a walk. It was late, the weather was beautiful, and I had some things on my mind. So my walk lasted a bit longer than it may have under different circumstances. I was almost back home when I saw a police vehicle behind me. The car slowed, pulled over, and still I kept walking until the officer asked to speak with me.

Yes, indeed, ladies and gentlemen, I, a pedestrian, was being "pulled over" for taking a walk. God bless America! And God bless small towns where police officers have nothing better to do than investigate suspicious housewives taking a breather at 11:00 p.m. I'm not sure if I should feel safer with this knowledge? Or perhaps I can work up some conspiracy theory about small town law enforcement . . .

Curious

?

From 2009 Summer

This is a hydrant in a forest. Maybe the squirrels had it installed to counter the forestry department's new "controlled burn" practices.

I think I need to look harder for something real to blog about. If we don't start meeting people and doing things soon, I might be driven to actually decorate my blog.

Baby Videos

For those of you who like this sorta thing . . . (I have to admit, I did not used to like this sort of thing. But now that it's my kid . . .)

I guess we'll go in chronological order. This first video is actually mostly of Jon. It was July 4th and we were near the Cradle of Forestry in America, hiking in a place called The Pink Beds. Given the nature of our video, it's a rather serendipitous name.



Now for the cute stuff -- Naomi started cooing and laughing in the last few weeks. She shows a bit of personality in the first video. The second one is just plain cute.

Heaven

Our new home is so perfect that it is bizarrely un-perfect. What I mean is that it is perfect for us, so of course it has some . . . let's call them unique characteristics. Don't get me wrong. I really do love it. There were plenty of other choices -- but this one suited me and my family's current situation.



Notice the iron railing separating the dining room from the kitchen. And, oh yeah, the lovely shade of mustard brown for the carpet. (I don't think the camera does it justice. There's much more yellow in it than you can see here.)


The neighborhood is really great, too, but it's the same story as the house. It's kid-friendly, but I haven't actually seen a kid (besides mine) here. There are sidewalks and playgrounds. A walk around the neighborhood is beautiful, interesting, and relatively free of dangerous traffic. It's like the setting for a Ray Bradbury novel; there are swing sets and clubhouses, baby swings and water slides, but no actual children. Anywhere. Freaky.

For the moment, at least, I'm living under the impression that summer time is the quiet time for this place. Maybe the kids are all at summer camp. All of them -- in the whole city, at the same time. Or maybe they're hibernating indoors because of the heat, humidity, mosquitoes, severe thunderstorms, etc. (Writer, if you're looking for a quieter neighborhood, this is the right place.) And anyway, I know people are out walking, because there's litter on the side of the road. Of course that could come from people in cars, but I'm being optimistic.

Here are some pictures of the park that is nearest our home. Maybe, instead of thinking that there really aren't children here, perhaps we don't see other kids at the park because it's too close to the railroad. (See the wheels on the box cars in the background?) I guess it makes sense if the town is 90% retired -- they had the park built out of nostalgia, not because they expected any children to play in it. The other neighborhood kids must be playing somewhere else, farther away from the train tracks. I just wish they'd invite us to come along!


So, to summarize, I really think this is what heaven will be like for me. Beautiful. Lots of trees and green things. Peaceful, warm, seemingly inviting. But with an unexpected twist.

Bull-headed

This is Naomi. She was born May 6, 2009 - a Taurus. Strong neck and all. In this picture she's about 6 weeks old. Today we went to the pediatrician. She passed the physical tests for a 4 month old. What have I gotten myself into?

Just some cute pictures. I know some of you have been waiting for this. If you want more, just browse through our picasaweb album: www.picasaweb.google.com/tempppo/2009Naomi#

Waiting

Thanks to everyone for their sympathy on the last post -- which I now realize was almost 2 months ago! I wonder what happened to keep me from blogging?

Well, this post is just a warm-up. Our #2 child is expected on or around 8 May 2009. I'm driving myself crazy with waiting. So tonight I've decided just to get everything all ready, put it in the trunk of the car, and just go about my life as if the baby was going to stay there for another 9 months.

If I have some spare time in the near future, I'll take a picture of my beach-ball belly and post it.
Love to all.