I'm just sayin'.

If this is "the greatest conversation piece you ever own", then you've led a pretty sad life.

You know what sucks?

Cancer. That's what.

Today is the anniversary of my cousin's toddler son dying of cancer.

One of my good friends is burying his father--who just died of cancer--today.

My uncle is fighting like hell against an aggressive type of cancer that has attacked (among other things) his spine, upon which he endured a 10 hr. surgery at M.D. Anderson yesterday.

And Saturday will be the seven year anniversary of my father losing his battle with stomach cancer.

What the FUCK, y'all? Who out there reading this hasn't been touched in some way--either personally or through a friend or family member--by this horrible, HORRIBLE disease. It just infuriates me--and breaks my heart--to think about it.

This holiday season, be thankful for every healthy day you have and don't ever, ever take that health for granted.

The Geej's Christmas List, Verbatim

Dear Santa Claus,

For Christmas I would like:

• A Barbie house with three Barbies and kids and stuff in it—a couch, and a potty and a sink, and a bed for a mom and kids, a backyard, a balcony, and a baby room
• A bell for my bike
• Some real gum—a whole stack of it in all different flavors
• My own real iPod with Hannah Montana music on it and night-night music you can put on there · Earphones for my iPod
• A little thing that you can strap on to a table so that my babydoll can sit in it and eat dinner
• I would also like my own bakery (Real)
• A movie called “PowerPuff Girls and Christmas”
• A whole new earring box with new earrings in it
• A get-ready thing with everything in it that my mommy uses to get ready
• Lipstick
• Stuff to make my room and bathroom smell good (spray)
• My own real computer like my mom’s
• A t.v. in my room to watch
• An ambulance with a hospital and a fire truck that I can play with with my toys (I already have a police car, so you don’t have to get me one). I want stuff that goes in them like a nurse, a doctor, and a little wheelchair that you can push people in that has wheels.
• A school house with a bell
• A 100-piece puzzle because I already know all of mine
• A doctor and nurse for cats and little cats that can fit in there and a place that it waits with its mom
• A mop to mop stuff
• A pretend hamster wheel for my pretend hamster and a little bed and it has its own comb and spray and its own little bath and its own cage and a little thing that they drink some water
• A pretend playground like my plaground at school for my Little People to play on

And for Dah: I want something purple that when you walk in it makes her smell and it smells super good everywhere and a purple candle

Karla May's Philosophy Nugget

This is the first, in what I hope, will be come a series of "nuggets".

One is not BORN a megalomaniac. Instead, one BECOMES a megalomaniac when he a) assumes he is 100% right 100% of the time, b) thinks that his way is the one and true way, c) refuses to listen to dissent and assumes peope are idiots when they actually question his way, and d) think that he is doing people a favor--nay, saving them--by sharing all of his wisdom.

Feel free to discuss. And to disagree with me. Because you see I am NOT a megalomaniac, and can therefore endure and respond to dissenting opinons.

Martha Stewart in Training.

The Geej spent Saturday night with my mother. One of the things The Geej loves about my mom's house--besides the fact that she has her OWN room with her OWN toys including a huge and fully-furnished dollhouse and a play kitchen and her OWN computer--is the fact that it has stairs. I too was fascinated with stairs when I was little--always wanting to climb any staircase I saw so that I could discover what was "up there". The Geej has requested, in fact, that our next house have not only a swimming pool and a playground, but also a flight of stairs.

So, when you marry her love of stairs with her excitement about Christmas getting ever nearer, I guess I shouldn't be too suprised with the decorating project she undertook while out at my mother's this weekend.

BEHOLD!! The Most Festive Stair Rail of All Time!!

And yes, it goes all the way to the top. (Here, The Most Festive Stair Rail of All Time is pictured with the artist.)

Feel free to adorn any stair rails you might have in YOUR house with multi-colored, sparkly pipe cleaners if you'd like. As you can see, it adds class and a splash of color, just in time for the holidays.

The best salad ever. I promise.

There's a joint here in Austin called House Pizzeria. It's up on Airport Boulevard. If you haven't been there, go. Like, now. The pizzas are imaginative and very, very good. But the thing that made me fall in love with this place is a damn spinach salad they serve. And it's the simplest thing in the world to make, which is good since I'm currently OBSESSED with it and make it at least a couple of times a week.

First, put your baby spinach leaves in a bowl. Get the pre-washed, baby spinach because it makes the prep time so much easier and faster, which means that the salad gets into your mouf mo' faster.

Second, drizzle just a little bit of olive oil on the leaves and put a little bit of sea salt. Gently toss. Don't put too much olive oil or toss to crazily b/c you'll bruise the leaves. Next, squeeze the juice of 1/2 a lemon on the leaves.

Last bit, add some freshly shaved Parmesean.

And you're done*.

Serve (or eat) right away or the leaves will get wilty.

*House Pizzeria puts dried, crumbled salami on it if you order off the menu. But I don't eat salami, so this is the only way I've ever had it. It's the simplicity that makes it so amazing.

You're welcome.

Overheard conversation between BH and The Geej:

BH: You need to finish up your bath, or you're going to turn into a prune.
Geej: What's a prune?
BH: It's a dried plum, and it will give you a diarrhea.
Geej: What's diarrhea.
BH: I'll draw you a picture.

Immediately after this conversation, she went back to signing, "I wanna rock and roll all night, and party ev-uh-ree day" in the bathtub and he went back to watching soccer on t.v. like this was the most normal conversation in the world.

The two of them kill me.

Caution: Extreme Beauty Ahead

This is what most of our drive from Chattanooga, TN to Asheville, NC looked like--curvy roads, gorgeous, tree-covered mountains, and the Ocoee River to our right.

And the posting about the rest of the trip...

...is yet to come.

I promise I'll write about the highlights and post photos and whatnot sometime this week. But right now, I'm seated outside at Opal Divine's on W. Sixth, having a Maker's on the rocks and waiting for Thelma to join me prior to walking over to La Zona Rosa to see The Tragically Hip.

I've been in a FUNKY mood since we got back. I guess it was just flaming re-entry back into real life (mail including bills! laundry! the grocery store! twice!) after spending so many days with no schedules and no real "duties". I will say that I was way happy to see The Geej. Of course she'd grown 7 feet in the 6 days since I'd seen her. Like a weed, that one.

It's gorgeous outside right now. I've never been to Opal's all alone, and it's a bit of a weird feeling. Happily I've got my laptop and several mosquitoes to keep me company.

Oh wait, I think I just spotted a table of obnoxious Canadian Tragically Hip fans. They were just talking about The Maple Leafs and high-fiving, so... I'm not surprised. This is the way it goes with Hip shows: there are always a bunch of Canadian expats (or tourists) who come to the shows here because in Canada, The Tragically Hip sells out stadiums, so getting to see them in a small venue--for these super fans--is pretty fookin' awesome, ay? The thing that pisses me off is that they always just get so into the "HEY LOOK AT ME!! I'm CANADIAN...JUST LIKE YOU GUYS IN THE BAND!!! WHOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOT!" There are always several douchebags sporting Maple Leaf hockey jerseys and drinking Molsens at the show, you know, just to drive the point home. I've been going to see this band for 20 years, and it just comes with the territory. But I will put up with it and I will have a great time because DAMN I love these guys. I have no idea why they haven't hit superstardom in the U.S., but it's fine with me b/c it allows me to see them play in little venues and experience the wonder that is Gordon Downie up close and personal-like. I am a superfan as well, let me assure you. I'm just a little less spaztastic about it. I hope.

So my sammich and fries are here, and I'm going to sign off so I can mack down on this shiz. I will finish up my anniversary-trip-posting tomorrow. But for now, here's some good, old Tragically Hip for you, from one of my favorite albums.



Smooches, fools.

Happy Anniversary to Me!

Today, October 18th, is my 5 year blogiversary. It's also my 10 year anniversary of working where I work. And I just happen to be writing this entry during the first full day of my (early) anniversary road trip through the southeast with BH. In other words, life is good.

We started out yesterday by leaving Austin and flying to my old stomping grounds of Birmingham, Alabama. Yes, I accidentally planned our trip to take place during the Texas/O.U. football game, but luckily I had asked rabid Longhorn Fan Lee to text me at the end of every quarter with the score, and he politely obliged. And we also managed to watch the latter half of the 2nd quarter at the sports bar in the Nashville airport. Luckily, by the time we landed in Alabama, Texas had won it. Barely.

We got our rent car and then turned around and returned it almost immediately because before we'd even left the airport, the "check engine" light was coming on. So after we'd switched from a Toyota Matrix (yay!) to a red Dodge Avenger (boo!), we headed into town and checked into our hotel.

It was cloudy, cool and breezy. After we got checked in, I drove BH and I around, checking out my old city. I was amazed by how melacholy the whole thing made me. I only lived there for a few years, but I really, really loved Birmingham. It's a surprising jewel of a city--sort of like Austin, believe it or not--and this time of year is simply spectacular there. The leaves haven't started to change yet because of the unusual amount of rain they got late this summer, but they're right on the cusp.

Saturday evening, we hooked up with a friend of mine from my days working at Southern Progress. We had drinks and dinner and lots of good conversation.

This morning, we woke up to glorious blue skies and crisp fall temperatures. We drove through my old Southside neighborhood (beautiful!), visited Vulcan Park, of course went here, and then went and hooked up in Crestline with another old friend of mine (who I hadn't seen in ten years) and her husband for brunch. After chowing down and catching up, I drove BH through the winding, hilly streets of Mountain Brook to look at the amazing homes. Finally we visited the Birmingham Civil Rights Institute before leaving town. It is a powerful and humbling reminder of how fragile and important human rights can be. I highly recommend it.

This is the 16th Street Baptist Church as seen from the Civil Rights Museum.

For only being in Birmingham for 24 hours, we did a lot. But still, I was sad to leave and hope it's not another 10 years before I return.

We drove north and east on the backroads, heading through small towns like Oneonta, Geraldine, and Fyffe, Alabama. We went throught the northwest corner of Georgia, and then reached our current location: Chattanooga, TN around supper time. Tomorrow we'll spend the day exploring this adorable little city on the banks of the Tennessee river before we head out toward the Appalachians and Great Smoky Mountains.

More to come.

This explains a lot.

This is a picture of my favorite doll from childhood.

No, she's not wicked baked; she's sleepy. Her name was Drowsy, and when you pulled her string, and she said things like, "I'm so sleepy," and "Night, night," and "Can I have a glass of water?" I hauled her around with me through most of my toddler- and young childhood. I'm not sure what happened to her, but no matter really. Even though the doll went away, her impression she made on me certainly did not.

I fucking LOVE to sleep. I mean, I can drop and give you a nap at the snap of a finger. And for as long as I can remember, I've been this way. It was really bad in junior high and high school when sleeping 14-16 hour stretches on the weekends was pretty average, and my friends all knew that I was a sleep glutton. Hell, I even had a poster of a kitten sleeping under a pink blanket that read, "Wake me up in time for the weekend!" in my room. So not only was I a sleep-lover, I was also an enormous dork. It's a wonder I had any friends at all...

In my dorm my freshman year, the room that my roommate Bonnie (thankfully, a fellow superfan of sleep) and I shared was known as "The Cave." We tacked black bath towels up over the window to block out daylight and cranked the A/C down to like 40 degrees--optimal for under cover snoozing.

I realized later that a great deal of my desire for more sleep than was probably necessary was due, in no small part, to the fact that I was a very depressed person. Not depressed as in "man, I'm bummed about that," but clinically depressed. I finally got on some meds (yay drugs!) and it helped, but I am still madly in love with the act of sleeping. And for this? I blame Drowsy coupled with the fact that I'm old and lazy and sleep has become increasingly precious as my life has gotten more complicated and filled with distractions like work, and kids, and stress, and housework, and pets and husbands and whatnot.

So as I finish this post, at 9:32pm, I will proudly go to bed about three hours earlier than I used to when I could sleep in in the mornings, and will enjoy every moment of whatever sleep I'm luck enough to snag tonight.

Night Night!

Just another wildly exciting night at Casa Karla May.

And now, for something completely different.

Several months ago, I was leaving work and waiting to turn at the busy 6th Street/Lamar intersection when I noticed a bicyclist to my left, waiting to cross the intersection. That in and of itself is not the least bit interesting. However, this particular bicycle enthusiast was 40-something white (but well-tanned), very manscaped dude who just happened to be butt ass nekkid except for a red thong. When the traffic allowed, he mounted his bike and took off, north on the Lamar sidewalk. Speechless and laughing like a total lunatic, I picked up my phone to call someone--anyone--and tell them what I'd just seen.

Fast forward a few weeks. Me, BH and his youngest son were headed downtown for some Mexican food early on a Saturday evening. As we sat at the light at 5th/Congress, guess who casually peddaled by, right in front of us with a HUGE smile on his face. You got it: Thongie McCycler. Next to our car was a big ol' pick-em-up truck with a couple of big ol' fellers in the cab. They were both pissing themselves laughing, and one had his camera out trying to hurriedly snap a photo of Billy Buttfloss. Their windows were down, so I lowered mine and inquired, "Did you get a good one?" And the guy with the camera--through HARDY laughter--said, "I'm from Minnesota and I've never been to Texas, and I did NOT expect to see anything like that." Yeah well, who DOES really?

Other friends reported sightings of the smiling self-propelled naturalist every now and again, but until this afternoon, I hadn't seen him again. But today, while sitting in HORRIBLE southbound traffic on Lamar, I saw him coming down the sidewalk and had just enough time to grab my Flipcam out of my purse and record this--4 seconds of pure gold.



Leslie? You're SO 2001. THIS guy is the new freak about town.

Diagnosis: I am nuts

Not really, but she's sending me to a therapist. And giving me Xanax. So yeah, maybe I'm a leeeeetle bit nuts.

All I'm hoping is that I somehow make it through the rest of this year without having to be checked into Shoal Creek.

We'll see...

Like any great trainwreck, I recommend you watch this space for further developments.

The Whackness

Have you ever just not felt quite right? Like you're about 75% yourself, and the other 25% is sort of, out of whack? Well that's how I've been feeling for a while now, and tomorrow I'm finally going to go see my doctor about said-whackness. Basically, here's my list of issues:

• WEIGHT GAIN! Been going to the gym regularly since February, and haven't shed a pound. In fact, I've GAINED 5 lbs., so WTF?!
• INSOMNIA!! I'm not sleeping for shit. I tend to fall asleep, no problemo, but then I wake up--ZING!--at about 2:30am and can't get back to sleep. This happens at least three times a week, which leads me to my next issue...
• FATIGUE! Like utter exhaustion type fatigue. And not just physically, mentally as well.
• IRRATIONAL ANGER AND FRUSTRATION! You know how sometimes people describe their tempers as having "a short fuse"? Well, I'd describe mine these days as having NO fuse. At all. And I don't even want to describe how this lovely issue manifests itself in my day-to-day because it ain't purty.
• INSANELY DRY/ASHY SKIN AND HAIR LOSS! I don't think I need to really go into detail about this.
• HIGHLY IRRITABLE DIGESTIVE SYSTEM! Again, no details about this one. You're welcome.
• AND THE CRYING!! That's right: I'll just be sitting at my desk at work, and all of the sudden, I've got tears streaming down my face. Reason? You tell me and we'll both know.

Appealing, no?

If I hadn't already had all my girly parts yanked a couple of years ago, I would suspect I was beginning the fun process of going through The Change. But I've been there and done that. Twice. (Long story.) So I'm suspecting it's my meds that I'm on--the hormones, the antidepressant/anti-anxiety meds, and the high blood pressure meds. All I know is I don't feel like Karla May, and I haven't in a month of Sundays. In fact, I've felt like I've been teetering on the edge of some kind of major implosion for a while now. And it's not because I'm unhappy. I'm pretty damn happy, actually. Things are great at home and getting better at work (after a fairly rough year). So what the HELL is up, people?! Anyone have any theories?

Sunset over (the very low) Canyon Lake.

Saturday night. September 19, 2009.

More to come.

Sunday drives are good for the soul.

After what felt like an eternity, Austin finally FINALLY got a couple of days of good, solid, soaking rain at the end of last week. It didn't do much to put a dent in our nearly 2-year long drought, but it did momentarily cool things down and dampen things up. However, by Sunday, BH, the Geej and I were all a little stir crazy from too much time being held captive indoors by the weather.

My bird-loving, wildlife biologist husband had told me a few days before that the lovely little hamlet of Johnson City had been having quite a problem with wild turkeys recently--lots of birds bugging the hell out of residents. At that time I informed him that, aside from a pet turkey named Elvira that had wandered around Camp Huawni one summer in the mid-1980s, I'd never seen wild turkeys, you know, doing their thing in the wild. Well this, coupled with the cabin fever, was reason enough for the three of us to pile in the Honda for a little road trip yesterday morning.

The skies were cloudy and it was in the low 70s. The landscape had already greened up a bit in a few short days, and the drive out of town and through the hills to the west was lovely.

Once we got there, we slowly drove around in some of the neighborhoods until--BINGO--a hen and three juvenile turkeys (called "poults"), hanging out in someone's front yard. Awesome. We continued driving around looking for more turkeys, and we encountered this little fella. He was just hanging out, staring at some goats in someone's side yard, and his cuteness nearly killed me. He's like a cross between a schnauzer and a dachsund. What a sweetie! A short while later we encountered an ass ton of turkeys in the common area of a little post-war apartment complex near a creek bottom lined with old oaks (which is apparently where turkeys like to hang out). Seriously, people! There were even more than this that I couldn't get in my shot. I'm not sure why I was so fascinated and delighted by this sight. I guess it's because when all you really see in your yard are mockingbirds, white wing dove, billions of stupid grackles and the occasional blue jay or cardinal, the thought of having a whole flock of this huge, strange birds on my lawn is sort of mind blowing.

We kept on driving around this adorable little town, where soon, I found my dream house.

And we marveled at the gorgeous grey skies with the occasional patch of bright blue peeking through. We wondered what it would be like to live on an old farm and be surrounded by nothing but nature for miles around.

And finally, before leaving town, we braved the after-church crowds to eat lunch at the local diner that specializes in good old home cookin' and features menus made of Xeroxed sheets of paper glued on to grocery bags.

All in all, a very nice way to spend a Sunday.

Four things:

1. I'm assuming, but not 100% sure, that there was no toddler sitting in this seat.

2. It's raining! Which is great. But OMFG, people. My mold allergies are making me feel like I consumed 10 gallons of King Cobra last night, but alas, I did not.

3. I think Diane has one of the oddest kitteh coats I've ever seen. She's mostly grey tabby, but then she's got these pieces of her that look like were stolen from an orange tabby (the two toes on her left front paw; her belleh; the stripe on her left back leg and her front right arm). It's like she was assembled from the remnants at the kitten factory. But MAN does she ever know how to stretch out and relax. Sometimes it's like she's boneless.

I mean LOOK at her back legs. What cat lays like this?!

4. This photo does NOT do the weirdness of this lady's outfit justice:

Note the boots; ankle-high, black, fringed. And her hair is braided w/beads. And then there's the "pants." And she was wearing a leopard print bandana/scarf thing on her face with HUGE sunglasses on. And then there's all the Betty Boop--on her back bumper, on her helmet, and (you can't see it from here, but trust me) on her handlebars. I'm guessing that there's a couple of Betty Boop tattoos involved in this story as well, but I really don't want to know where they are.

That is all. For now...

Lunchtime Bullets

• Today is "Presidential Indoctrination of The Youth of America" day. I expect to see all of the tween and teens who witnessed today's indoctrination (what with its subliminal messages and hardcore "Socialism will clear up your acne and get you dates!" theme) roaming the streets, zombielike and drooling, while demanding government funded abortions and a seat on Meemaw's upcoming death panel. You've been warned, America!
• Seriously, people are ridiculous.
• I think the main thing a lot of people were afraid of (but would never admit to) about this whole thing is that their children would be asked to sit down and respectfully listen to a black man of authority.
• Again, completely absurd.
• I am ready for summer to end. Like now. So damn sick of it.
• I'm enjoying some new (at least to me) music I've recently downloaded: Lightning Dust, Yeasayer, Yo La Tengo's latest, The Clientele, and Carly Simon. Yes, I meant to type the words "Carly Simon."
• Shut up.
• I'm trying to get BH to decide on an anniversary trip--either to Tennessee to drive around the Smoky Mountains and see the leaves or to The Grand Canyon. I want to get something on the calendar!
• I am currently reading "The Reader." No, I haven't seen the movie. And normally, I don't like fiction too much. But this, I'm really enjoying.
• My kitties, Doug and Diane, are now a year old. But they still wrestle and play like kittens, which is equal parts adorable and annoying.
• I'm excited about the new fall TV season starting back up. Especially about a few new shows: Glee, Community, Bored to Death, and the resurrection of Curb Your Enthusiasm.
• I'm also excited because there's an Indian restaurant coming to my zipcode. Most of the decent Indian food is located north of the river, so it'll be nice to have some closer to home. (My stomach just growled when I typed those last two sentences, by the way.)
• I am getting sick of watching "My First Place" and "Property Virgins" on HGTV and seeing these couples in their late 20s/early 30s with downpayments of $100k in the bank and budgets of $400k or $900k looking for houses. It makes me want to vomit.
• Saw "500 Days of Summer" this past weekend. I liked it a lot, however they could've eased up on the super close ups of Zooey Daschenel's eyes. WE GET IT!! SHE HAS GORGEOUS BLUE EYES! AND HER "SIGNATURE COLOR" IS BLUE!! ENOUGH ALREADY!
• BH fixed some sort of water pressure regulator thing that's been broken since I moved in to my house and, as a result, we now have normal water pressure. Hooray!!
• Got my hair color taken down a notch--not quite as light blonde. It was just too drastically different from my roots and made my hair look dirty all the time. Now it's more natural.
• I have two new sites that I check every day in order to fill my life with the cute and the bizarre--Zooborns and People Of Walmart (which is currently down, probably because Walmart slapped them with some sort of cease and desist order or something stupid like that).
• Which reminds me: If you ever want to feel like a real supermodel, go to one of our nation's theme parks. When I went to Sea World last month, I felt positively waifish amid all of the seriously, terrifyingly obese men, women and children there. It was alarming, to say the least.
• And I'll leave you with a photo of Doug chillaxing:

Saturday Night Soccer in Austin

BH is a big soccer fan. Not only does he enjoy watching it, he plays as well. So all summer, we've been talking about checking out an Austin Aztex game. And this past Saturday, we finally did.

This season's games are being played at Nelson Field in NE Austin, but next season, they'll be moving downtown to House Park.
The attendance was 2,611, so there was plenty of room to sit pretty much wherever you wanted to.
We were all treated to a beautiful sunset and cooler-than-it-has-been-in-a-long-time temperatures.
The Geej got an Aztex tattoo, and BH talked to her about what was going on on the field. She actually sort of got into it. But when her attention DID wane, they had a handy bouncy house set up in which to bounce yourself silly. They also had a place where you their corporate sponsor, AMD, had set up two back-to-back big screen TVs so kids could play a soccer video game in case, you know, real life just wasn't doing it for them.And for some reason that I'm still not quite clear about, the Aztex mascot is a chili pepper named, wait for it, Sgt. Pepper. Um, okay.


One thing I was VERY impressed by was this group of SUPERfans located in the southwest corner of the stadium. They had horns and drums and basically went freakin' NUTS for the entire length of the game. Very entertaining.

By the way, the Aztex won--for the first time in 2 months!!


We had a really good time. I recommend the Aztex games for a good dose of easily accessible, inexpensive, small-town fun. However, unless you eat hot dogs or like those "nachos" with the canned "cheese" poured on them, then you're going to need to make other plans for dinner.

We went to Magnolia.

The Aztex--who are ranked last in their league--will play their final game of this season next Monday (Labor Day). They'll be playing a team from Portland, OR--the best team in the league. It's going to be a blood bath, but it should be entertaining!!

Scenes from the summer

Punk/New Wave Karaoke Night with the girls.

Watching the Geej perform her role as a Turtle of Barton Creek in "Bella the Bat."

A minor leauge baseball game in Frisco, TX.

Sibling kitteh lurve.

The view and a salad from a WONDERFUL dinner at the Southwest Bistro in the Hyatt.

My utterly futile daily battle against bedhead.

Some horse lips flapping in the breeze while traveling down IH-35.

Staying cool by any means necessary.

Trying like Hell to keep the plants in our beds alive.

More salad. (This one's an heirloom tomato salad with olive vinagrette that I made.)

Keeping cool at the Hill Country Hyatt, in San Antonio.

Sporting a tattoo and braids because that's what you do when you're on vacation.

Going to Sea World on a day when there were no crowds or lines, which meant you got to ride this thing three times in a row with your fearless five year old.

Seeing the shows at Sea World. (Check out my mom's sweet purple hat with sequins on it! And is it just me, or does she look like she's about 40 rather than her real age?)

Eating more salad. (This one was a sumer squash, corn and shrimp salad, once again made by moi.)

And meeting this guy.

There. I feel sort of caught up. The Geej is now back in school (Kindergarten), and I am praying temperatures below 90 and rain on a daily basis. And so it goes.