cocoon

It's Friday, and we all know what that means - Illustration Friday time!!

I have this picture that was taken maybe about an hour after Wolfgang was born. He's all bathed and freshly fed. I'm all showered and comfy, and the two of us are snuggled together all cozy. A far cry from the mayhem and slime of just a short while earlier.

So when I saw this week's IF prompt "cocoon", I thought of that photo. Wolfgang, all comfy cozy, wrapped up in a little hospital issued cotton cocoon.

It should be noted, that while I sketched this, Wolfgang sat a couple of feet away from me. He was blowing things up on some XBOX game, and probably wishing I wasn't around so he could appropriately swear at the thing.

I showed him the sketch, and he was at peace.

Okay... I made that last part up.
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finito!

Run With Lumber. It came, they ran, they drank, we scooped, we counted, it's done.

The weather cooperated for the most part, and there were no serious injuries, so I'm calling it good.

This year, Lumber looked a bit different from class to class. He seemed to shrink a few inches, but then would come out later and be taller again. Oh, the mystery!

Well, not that much of a mystery. Wolfgang and Chaco were tag-team Lumber this year. Wolfgang wanted to do it last year, but I told him he was too short. So, he set to work on growing, and managed to fit the suit this year. That's him in the first pic up there.


Chaco, the veteran Lumber, is there on the right, with the taller kids. They both enjoyed being King of the Day. Sheesh, each time I would bring old Lumber out for the start of a run, it was like a freaking Justin Beiber concert.

Meego made a good showing too, setting a new PR of 19 laps. I ran with him, and he figured out how to pace himself.

So.... 60 liters of root beer, 10+ gallons of ice cream, a bunch of little flashy light things, and a slight sunburn later, I'm ready for some sloth time now.

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Silver Liningness Sunday

Happy Sunday, and a real sun day it is! Well, after our cold, wet spring storm, I'm revelling in any sunshine and warmth we can get. The snow is all gone now, such is springtime in Colorado.

This past week saw a nice balance of productivity and sloth. Run With Timber preparations are right on schedule.

I think.

In movie news, we watched The Fifth Element, which we found very fun. It's got something for everyone: Sci-fi, action, adventure, drama, humor, a love story... Plus, it's just one of those movies that can laugh at itself, which I appreciate. Really, go see! I'd never heard of it before. Magnum selected it as he has a thing for is a big fan of Milla Jovovich, and will watch anything she's in.

Despite the sloppiness of Friday, I enjoyed a fair amount of running around on the bicycle, while wearing shorts and short sleeves, even. Road bike even.






Between work work and volunteering work, I'm pretty busy, but still found time to indulge in therapeautic artsy time. I seem to be drawn to drawing boats lately. I managed to keep this junk boat on the page after last week's Viking fail.

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let it go, let it go, let it go

Okay, I'm officially tired of snow now.

Chaco took this picture yesterday... YESTERDAY. April freaking 23rd! I went out to shovel SNOW off of the deck, and Chaco was home because there was NO SCHOOL on account of SNOW.

But I'm optimistic. Run With Lumber is scheduled for Tuesday. I've got a closet full of root beer and cups and flashy light things that are just dying to be off-loaded. It will be a beautiful spring day.

Still, I don't think I'll switch out the snow tires on the van just yet...

In other news, I haven't seen either of the the duffle bag duo this week. Watch, they're probably finished with whatever mysterious activity they were up to, and I'll never know what it was!

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ahead

It is supposedly spring, but we're having us a snowday today. And this time, it really is snowing! Oh well, so a good day to stay in an putz and partake in Illustration Friday!

This week's prompt is "ahead", and it brought to me thoughts of racing. Ever win a race? It's all about getting ahead, being ahead, and staying ahead.

I enjoy watching horse races, although I don't care to gamble. So much power and grace and speed displayed for about 2 minutes. The winner of the Belmont Stakes last year was a horse named "Summer Bird".

It just seemed appropriate for getting "ahead" on this late April snowday.
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he, himself, and me

Kids have the day off of school today. It's the anniversary of the Columbine shootings, plus it's pot smoking day, so the district just decided to call it. To my surprise 2/3 of the brood are up and out of bed already.

Speaking of being up and about, recall a while ago when I blogged of my return to early morning outdoor running after the long cold winter. Recall the crazy man I encountered? The crazy man with the duffle bags?

Turned out he was actually a very friendly person just waiting for his carpool. Weeks have passed, and he and I have continued to greet each other on these dark mornings as I pass by in my myopic haze and he and the duffle bags wait on the corner. I don't know his name. I don't know where he goes after the car picks him up, I don't know what's in the duffle bags. I just learned that he is a very cheerful person.

Sometimes.

Sometimes, his greetings are much like that first encounter - very friendly and animated, including a spritied "happy running!" or some such. Other times, not so much. Other times, it seems almost burdensome for him to acknowledge me. Like he's got a split personality or something.

Well... lo and behold! Last week, I finally got a clue. It's not a split personality, it's actually two different guys!

All this time, I've been passing by and greeting this person, receiving mixed greetings in return, and just last week I realized the explanation. Okay, as I mentioned, I don't wear my glasses when I run, PLUS, it's still dark out when I see "him", PLUS, it's pretty chilly that time in the morning. Chilly enough for people waiting for a carpool to be covered in jackets and hats.

Well, it's started to warm up a little and one morning last week, when I passed "Mr. Friendly", he was just wearing a light coat and a baseball cap. Same duffle bags. A couple of days later, I passed "Mr. Disinterested". It was then that I finally noticed that he's a totally different person from Mr. Friendly! Who knew?!

But now I'm really curious. Just who are those guys? Where do they go? WHAT'S IN THE DUFFLE BAGS?? I think I'll ask.

I'll ask Mr. Friendly.
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what not to wear

A local radio station asks trivia questions on weekday afternoons. Listeners who call in with correct answers to the questions win things like movie tickets or passes to local funcenters and whatnot.

The questions usually involve something that a percentage of some population does, like "7 percent of people have done this before marriage!" Vague stuff like that.

So the other evening, I was driving home when the trivia was, "73 percent of women say they will not date a man who wears this!"

Calls were coming in with answers like, "suspenders", "speedos", "socks with sandals", etc. Eventually, someone called in with the correct answer and scored some minor league baseball tickets or something.

I, in turn, was feeling quite triumphant myself. I got home and asked the fashion challenged Magnum if he'd heard the radio trivia. He hadn't, so I repeated it for him. He began guessing, "suspenders?", "speedos?", "socks and sandals?". I was rather proud of him for at least knowing that much...

But no, none of those were the answer.

"Pleated pants!", I revealed.

See, just recently we had a conversation about just this thing. It was my assertion that men (women too, for that matter) should NOT wear pleats. He was puzzled. He owned some pleated pants. Pleated pants that I had probably purchased. A loooooooong time ago!

Back then it was fine. Things change.

One thing about people with Asperger's is that they don't notice when things change. They often have to be told. Once things are defined for them, the things stay neatly defined that way forever. Hence, the fashion disasters that can ensue.

So, I'd told him about the pleats, but it was the radio trivia that got him to discard the pleats. Seventy-three percent of women is powerful.

Now... about that 20-year-old rugby shirt...
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