Morbid Curiosity

My apologies for being off the grid for a few weeks. I had some outpatient surgery late last week to ensure that we're not adding any new letters to TEB(OT), and spent time leading up to the procedure getting things done around the house, and have been laid up lame until recently.

I did, however, manage to drag my carcass off the couch on Saturday afternoon/evening to go with the family to the Desert Botantical Gardens in Phoenix. I've lived here for over ten years now and yet I've never been before, pretty insane considering how much we enjoy the Arboretum. Maybe the allure of cooler tempatures are what pull us to drive east instead of west?

Here's a horrible segue; they had these huge wooden insect sculptures all over the place. Here is one of them, pretty damn large, reminded me of War Of The Worlds for some reason. Emily took pictures of many more of these, some of which are pictured below.

Brenna is shown here flashing a new gang sign. I think it means take me to McDonalds (again). Can you believe the small child will be 5 in a week or so? Scary.

Here's another wooden bug of some sort. A shit weevil, I'm guessing. Ahem.

I elected to stay on my feet for the duration of our visit, until coerced into posing in this alcove with the rest of the family. Oof. Not pictured, Beth, who took the picture, and Rachel, who's simply too good for us (j/k). Ron was off shooting something, I'm guessing.



Here's another wooden bug. A dung beetle? I should read the signs; that's what Emily is for.

Hey look! Brenna posing next to a rock on a bridge!

No, wait, that's a desert tortoise eating some prickly pear cactus.

Ok, I know what this one is, a grasshopper.

Thank you all for your patience while I've been recovering. Posts may be pretty spotty for the next two months as we have trips to Birmingham, San Diego, and Kauai planned.

Five days removed from my procedure, and it only gets better from here. Good night!

Week (Or So) In Review

My last blog post was over on the Hoes site, so while it may appear to the casual observer that I've been slacking off, I have officially posted something in the last week. My goal used to be to post something every two to three days, but as the demands of our small child increase, my blogging frequency has decreased accordingly. And that's just fine with me, I wouldn't miss this time with my little girl for all the slot machines in Reno.

We've had a very busy weekend.

Not pictured, on Friday night we drove into downtown Mesa for a cool guitars and antique cars show at the local arts center, complete with live music, crafts, and I think they had dwarfs juggling ferrets as well. You name it, they had it.

On Saturday we took the small child to her weekly swim practice, and spent some time at Aunt Beth's while the two sisters worked out. And then, because we couldn't tear ourselves away from Beth's presence, we meet she, Grandma Becky, Rachel, and Lily at the dollar movies to see The Zookeeper, went to Ross together (where I finally found another pair of low cut Converse in a half size, apparently a rarity, or else I'm just not looking in the right places), and then spent the rest of the evening at her house eating dinner and watching it rain for hours on end.

Yes, it finally rained...at least at her house.

Here is Exhibit A through whatever:

That last picture is Beth and John's driveway underwater. Shame it missed our house, although admittedly we did get some. Maybe there's more to come, only the shadow knows.

On Sunday, after church, Brenna and I played pretend cafe, where I was served a wide assortment of breakfast fare, all very tasty indeed. What a wonderful hostess she is. She even cleaned up afterwards with a (toy) vacuum. The small child has quite the imagination.

Finally, before I go, I was advised that the missus wasn't terribly happy with a picture I posted in the last Hoes blog. So, in penance, I offer awkward Tom photo number one, this taken back in 1988 when I was 14 or so, at Glacier National Park in Montana. Yep, that's all 125 pounds of me, Kid N Play hair and all. Maybe I'll make this a regular installment of the blog, I have nothing to hide.