Author: midder

Step away from the facecrack

I have noticed a disturbing correlation between the last time that Julie posted on this blog and her being sucked into what can only be described as Facecrack. Unfortunately some of Julie’s friends from a bygone era found me on Facebook, in my profile that hadn’t been accessed or updated in a very long time. This was right in the thick of having a baby and all that, so she couldn’t be bothered. But once she was bothered enough, she was hooked.

For those of you experiencing similar concerns about the amount of time your significant other spends on the pipe, please know that you have a sympathetic (or is it just pathetic?) friend in me (cue the Toy Story music) should you need me.

I. Understand.

In other news, Henry is getting bigger.

holy bright eyes

dapper little man

We went to Pedro’s

Pedros in Glendale

Gwenyth wasn’t too excited at first

tantrum before we were seated

But ended up drinking the salsa (the hot one!)

good mexican food

We’re getting excited for Christmas

The boys enjoying the lights

ohh lights

We’ve had some great winter-like weather recently. Lots of rain. And cool enough that I think the heater has come on during the day once or twice. I was beginning to think that it might be a White Christmas. No such luck.

It’s a mad world

A few observations in the past week or so

1. This enterprising person has probably *the* best slogan I’ve seen in a while:

DON'T ASK

2. The Iranians are busy keeping their loyal subjects safe from fowl espionage: “Iran busts ‘spy pigeons’ near nuclear site”

Security forces in Natanz have arrested two suspected “spy pigeons” near Iran’s controversial uranium enrichment facility, the reformist Etemad Melli newspaper reported on Monday.One of the pigeons was caught near a rose water production plant in the city of Kashan in Isfahan province, the report cited an unnamed informed source as saying, adding that some metal rings and invisible strings were attached to the bird.

“Early this month, a black pigeon was caught bearing a blue-coated metal ring, with invisible strings,” the source was quoted as saying of the second pigeon.

The source gave no further description of the pigeons, neither their current status nor what their fate will be.

Natanz is home to Iran’s heavily-bunkered underground uranium enrichment plant, which is not far from Kashan.

The activity is the focus of Iran’s five-year standoff with the West, which that fears it aims to develop nuclear weapons.

Tehran vehemently denies the charge.

Last year, Iran issued a formal protest over the use of espionage by the United States to produce a key intelligence report on the country’s controversial nuclear programme.

You\'ve been had!

This comes after last July’s squirrel crackdown:

Iranian intelligence operatives recently detained over a dozen squirrels found within the nation’s borders, claiming the rodents were serving as spies for Western powers determined to undermine the Islamic Republic.

“In recent weeks, intelligence operatives have arrested 14 squirrels within Iran’s borders,” state-sponsored news agency IRNA reported. “The squirrels were carrying spy gear of foreign agencies, and were stopped before they could act, thanks to the alertness of our intelligence services.”

Iranian police commander Esmaeil Ahmadi-Moqadam confirmed the report, saying that a number of squirrels had been caught bearing foreign spy gear within Iran’s borders.

Oh Henry!

Some of you may have heard that we were expecting a little boy.

Henry Charles was born on 15 OCT at 7:37 PM, after a short (but intense) labor. It was hard on Julie as well. He weighed 7 lbs 12 oz and was 21 inches long. So pretty much the same size as Lucy at birth. Poor kid even looks like Lucy! Henry is my grandfather’s name. Charles is my middle name, my dad’s middle name, and my great-grandfather’s name. So we definitely kept it in the family this time around.

Needless to say, his sisters were very excited and have been so cute in welcoming him home. Even Gwenyth has shown an interest.

Here are some pictures:

HENRY WITH HIS EYES OPEN

MR. HANDSOME

GIRLS HOLDING HIM

GRACE AND HENRY

SLEEPING SOUNDLY

Everyone has been so wonderful. Thank you. My momma tolerated the girls for 48 hours and left us with a great meal. Thank you so much. We came home from the hospital on Friday (which was Julie’s birthday) to find that Tausha (well, Brian, I guess) had decorated our house with balloons and a big “It’s a boy!” sign.

More pictures here: http://www.flickr.com/photos/midder/

Autumn, Drapes, etc

Somewhere I missed the note that autumn had arrived. I still spend some of my afternoons watching Lucy and Gwenyth swimming, even now in late September. It’s currently 12:01, so it’s officially the last day of September. Wow!

Catherine, I’ll post some pictures soon. Not as fancy as the ones currently on your blog, though. Just to set expectations. Julie’s been going like a crazy woman. I’ve hung more drapes in the last few weeks than I care to admit. And unfortunately that means Julie has bought more curtains in the last few weeks than she cares to admit to me. But the bill doesn’t lie.

The doctor says that the action might come next week. Julie went to see him today and he hopes that we’ll be able to get things going, perhaps as early as next Monday. I think that the new little man is just so excited to come see his polka-dotted blankets that he wants to come quickly.