I recommend . . .

I recommend that when you want to have a mini celebration.



And spend $15 on cupcakes from the fabulous Cupcake Conspiracy.



That you don't let your teenage son carry them into the house:

Here's another view:

So, so sad.

~b~

The War of the Worlds

I've been reading in the evenings to my son in hopes of continuing his interest in reading.  We are reading The War of the Worlds by H.G Wells that is a short, inexpensive book that is filled with alien machines, fighting and destruction.  It seemed like a good first choice to start reading together.  In the evenings we all hang out on my bed, I read out loud while my son listens (I think) and lovingly bothers Max the dog.  

So far, we have read about the initial Martian arrival and have followed the panic filled flight from the ensuing destruction.  I have been stumbling over the pronounciations of the English towns such as Chobham, Woking, Horsell, and Chertsey, but we have now finally reached the easily pronounable city of London.

The latest chapter that we are reading has shown London's reaction to the impeding disaster: from a blissful, sleepy ignorance to increasing panic with church bells ring in the middle of the night and policemen banging on every door, waking up sleeping residents and urging flight.  I'm finding the style that the book is written in is hard to read out loud and towards the end of the chapters my throat is dry and my jaw is sore from speaking and I start hoping to get to the end of the chapter because I don't want to read out loud any more.


I was about to finish the chapter when I read this:

My brother heard footsteps running to and fro in the rooms, and up and down stairs behind him.  His landlady came to the door, loosely wrapped in dressing gown and shawl.  Her husband followed ejaculating.


?????

!!!!!

??!!!???!!

As much as I wanted to speed onto the next sentence, my mind prevented me.  What!!!  Did I just read what I think I read???  Could That Word possibly mean something else when it was written in 1898??  Could her husband have simply burst out the the room loudly yelling and gesticulating wildly???  What??!!!


Loosely wrapped dressing gown and shawl pretty much contextualized the whole scene in my mind and I just hoped my son was too busy bothering the dog to be paying any attention to what I was reading.  I thought I had gotten away without some sort of explanation and could continue reading, and then my son said:

What??


Thankfully there was only one last sentence left and I quickly concluded the evenings read.  The next book we read will definitely be a more well known book, like Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, Charlottes Web, or even Dr. Suess.   ANY book without the word ejaculating I will gladly read.  

~b~

Fall Photo Shoot

I spent a couple hours last Saturday enjoying the beautiful weather and taking pictures of one cute girl.  She just started saying my name and it kills me how cute it sounds:  Beh-Key.  I love it!

Taking pictures of a small child is tough.  It was a constant battle to be more interesting than everything else.  

I lost out to a bottle cap here:

I quickly learnt that children need lots and lots of time to play so they can be happy and smiling.  I took a lot of successive shots and could have easily make a flip book that shows one happy face turn into an annoyed face.  

We were lucky to find a sandbox at Innovation Place Park:  the Zen Garden was filled with mounds of gravel and it was about this time that the shoes and socks came off:

I think I took about 500 hundred pictures that day.  There were a whole lot of eyes closed - grumpy - not  looking at the camera pictures.

But taking all those pictures is worth it when you get one like this:

Success!

It was such a beautiful day to hang out and take pictures.  And all it took to procure my services that day was a trip to Homesteads for a Carrot Cake Ice Cream.

~b~

Thank you!

I love helping out and was happy to help work on house reno's again the other weekend   My prowess at using a cat's claw is nothing short of amazing.  I also learnt how to hang siding and how to insulate a wall.

Here are some before and afterish pictures:

I

I also love going to concerts.  Especially the last minute, spur of the moment, going to Arcade Fire kinda of concert.

Arcade Fire was awesome.

I think the beer fueled exuberance of the guys in front of us brought out a bit of my enthusiasm and I definitely had a lot of fun.  During this past week I have been listening to Arcade Fire and it makes me happy because it reminds me of the awesome concert that I ended up going to.

So thank you Aaron and Karla for asking me to help work on you house.  I always love to help out.  And thank you thank you thank you for the Arcade Fire ticket and the great memory.  The concert was amazing.

~b~