Because I totally forgot to do this for Father's Day...

This is a photo of a snapshot, so forgive the poor quality, but it's one of my favorites. That's me and my dad when I was 11 mos. old. I've got on my Christmas p.j.'s, and he doesn't have a moustache. Which is rare. I have a few pictures of him without one, but all of my memories are him in his full Burt Reynolds 70s era glory. He was eleven years younger than I am now when this photo was taken, and in this profile view, he and I look so much alike it's freaky.

Anyway, I promise that next year I'll do a photo dad retrospective (because God knows, I've got some AWESOME shots...the 80s home perm era anyone?), but for now, I'll just say I miss him terribly. Especially seeing the Geej wrapping BH's dad Gramps around her little finger, it made me realize how bummed I am that he never got to meet this challenging, amazing, beautiful, spirited, funny little creature. He would've melted completely.

You KNOW you want it

A bullet-pointed update from moi:

• The trip to the Pine Curtain went fine.
• Except that on the way out of Austin we got stuck in an hour's worth of traffic and somewhere between Temple and Waco we got stuck in traffic--again--due to an accident
• So the entire trip--which without a bunch of stops and traffic takes about 4.5 hours--took about 6.5 hours.
• And The Geej never fell alseep or stopped talking. Not even once.
• It was muggy and green in east Texas--the opposite of what it's like here. Except for the muggy part.
• We stayed with BH's dad, Gramps, who lives on a lake.
• Saturday was BH's brother's birthday.
• And we got to go out on the boat.

Chloe (BH's niece), Geej and of course Sally

• But that wasn't until after I went to the Super Wal-Mart. Y'all know how I feel about Wal-Mart, right? Like, I'd rather have a tooth filled while listening to a Toby Keith album than go to Wal-Mart.
• But I'd forgotten my toothbrush, Geej's toothbrush, cotton face pads and q-tips, and Wal-Mart was the closest and pretty much only thing near the lake.
• I somehow survived this ordeal.
• The lake was fun. We parked the boat and the Geej got to play in the water.

• And now her swimsuit is pretty much ruined because the lake water up there is sort of brown.
• Saturday night, it rained and thundered and everything. It was awesome.
• It rained more on Sunday morning. (Did I mention that everything up there was green and lush?)
• We packed up and left Gramps's house, only to realize about 25 miles down the road that--GASP--Geej had left Sally (the Alpha Baby, pictured above) behind.
• Much crying and sobbing ensued.
• We called Gramps and asked if he could mail Sally to us. He said yes. Thank God...
• We stopped and had lunch in Kilgore with my elderly Aunt Mary Lois and Uncle Ray.
• They are really sweet, but really getting up there.
• They were each other's first date (in 1940), and have been married since 1941.
• We ate at a post-church hotspot that had a buffet.
• Everything on the buffet was from the same color family--chicken fingers, fried chicken, chicken fried steaks, beef tips and rice, sweet potatoes, mashed potatoes, black eyed peas, green beens (more brown than green, really), and carrots.
• The Geej slept some on the way back to Austin. Not much, but some.
• I had to pull the car over--twice--because she was acting like a jerk.
• God, I hope 4 is easier than 3 has been.
• Which reminds me: her birthday is in 28 days, and I have no idea what to do party-wise.
• And she's expecting something cool.
• Speaking of cool, we got REALLY good gas mileage on our road trip. But now my car is FILTHY with about 1 billion dead bugs on the windshield.
• Another cool thing? Sally arrived in the mail yesterday, safe and sound.
• And we're going to watch Dah march in a 4th of July parade on Friday. I may pee my pants.
• Then Saturday, we're going over to a friend's house to watch their neighborhood fireworks show which, if it's anything like last year's, will be super cool.

File Under: Upbeat Pop Songs With Horrifyingly Sad Lyrics

I heard this on the radio the other day for the first time in years and was singing along to it's cheerful tune when I realized for the first time how fucking SAD the lyrics are. I mean open-a-vein sad. Check it out:

Note: A good way to start your average Tuesday

• Drink an 8 oz. Coke on the rocks whilst getting ready
• Pretend to be "the teacher" whilst your little girl pretends to be the mommy of 4 babies going on a field trip on her tricycle
• Discover a baby bird in its nest that's right behind the school's mailbox while you deposit your $1025 check for the remainder of summer care for the girl (made it sting a wee bit less)
• Rock OUT to Rush's "Free Will" on XM on the way to work

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Where we'll be this weekend.

Geej, BH and I are hitting the road to NE Texas tomorrow afternoon for a long-overdue trip to see family relations. BH's two sons were supposed to be coming with us, but the nearly-fourteen-year-old is acting like...well, a teenager...and boycotted the trip. Sigh.

I'm sure I'll have many tales and photos upon my return. In the meantime, please enjoy these puppies:

This happens pretty much every morning.

She wanders into our room and crawls in bed. Sometimes she doesn't fall back asleep (usually on Saturdays and Sundays, of course), most days she does. When it comes time to actually wake up and get out of bed, she stalls by snuggling with him. He purrs LOUDLY and loves it. I love it too. One of these days, she will dwarf him. Right now, they're still pretty even in size.

In her left hand? Her baby bath toy "Elephant" that she's slept with since Russia. She's getting so damn big (did I tell y'all she's insisting on taking showers now?! SHOWERS!!), so I love these little remnants of her babyhood.

This:

Is a thing of beauty.

We only got a 10th of an inch, but the rainbarrel is now a little more than half full. More please!!

They looked so promising as they rolled in from the east.

And gorgeous.

And the wind picked up. And the temperature fell.

But after about 25 big, fat raindrops fell, it was done.

Damnit.

If you live in Central Texas, click this and watch it.

Maybe if enough of us do, it will help those clouds that have been hanging around all day get together and actually do something.



I mean, it couldn't hurt. Right?