August-September

A disclaimer: as you know, we have had a lot of computer "issues" lately that my Indian IT friends have not ever been able to resolve. I think our desktop computer, the one with all the nice photo software, may have some sort of virus. Due to that, I am afraid to turn it on, and therefore, I'm not attempting to post pictures for the time being. I will do my best to catch up eventually, as we have some really good pictures to add!!

So, the creative theme for this post is August-September, because it covers the interesting (or interesting-ish) things we've been up to over my break from blogging, those being:

(1) THE OTHER FROG IS DEAD. He lasted almost a year in the dining room, which apparently is the killing field of African Clawed frogs. Billy/Gilly seems to have caught whatever took down Gilly/Billy, and basically stopped eating. Within a day, he was floating lethargically in his tank. Within two days, we pulled the plug (on his tank filter, that is). Within three days, Barry hurled him and his smelly tank water and net into the woods behind our house. I had just ordered the 3-pack of Frog Food, although I was still happy to throw it away. Now, just the net remains as a bizarre little gravemarker in the weeds, and the tank is still airing out on our deck. Yes, people envy our flair for outdoor decorating. I admit this story is less important than the others in the grand scale of things, but I had to throw it in first because people always ask me about the frogs.

(2) Beach trip. Last month, Barry, the kids, and I made our first trip down to the beach in a few years (and it was Audrey's first trip to the beach in her life). We stayed at Gulf Shores/Orange Beach in a beachfront condo. We got a great deal, as it was a last-minute reservation on a unit that had just been cancelled. Each kid had his/her own bedroom, and they had their own bathroom as well. The weather was perfect, and we narrowly missed the tropical storms/depressions/whatever that arrived a day or two after we left. We went straight to the beach each morning, where we took in the sun, played in the ocean, and - some of us, no names mentioned - fought over shells and beach toys. We'd head to the pool around noon, and then had lunch followed by Audrey's nap. Gabe and Barry found a go-kart track/arcade combo that I believe Gabe could have moved into, so they headed there almost every day while Audrey was napping. This gave me the rare opportunity to do whatever I wanted, meaning read my trashy celebrity gossip magazines and even a real book, play my Nintendo DS, and take a long time getting ready. After Audrey woke up, we'd head to dinner early enough to beat the crowd of younger diners. Yeah, we're now officially in the "family with young kids" category that eats rights at 5:00 on vacation. We would get back just in time to put the tired kids to bed and then - here's where it gets crazy - watch t.v. and go to bed at a reasonable time. On the way home, we stopped in Foley and did some shopping at the outlet mall and ate at Lambert's. (YUM! Cracker Barrel with better food, larger portions, and more noise.) Do I really have to say how great all of this was? We got back just before...

(3) Gabe started Preschool: The Sequel. He's now in the 4-year-old class, which meets 4 days a week. One of his teachers said that he "didn't miss a beat", so I think he is still enjoying it and did not regress over the summer. He ended up in class with his two "best friends" from last year's class. This year, there are some girls in his class, so we'll see if any of them will be friends with a self-professed Pirate Skeleton. He also really likes his teacher - he said she is the "goodest" one. Ms. Sheri, you have your work cut out for you.

(4) Backyard campout. Over Labor Day weekend, Barry got the idea to do a little camping with Gabe, who had never been. Although I personally am not a fan of camping, I think I could handle it, as "roughing it" for our family apparently includes: a hooded tent, a large extension cord, Chenille/fleece blankets, portable DVD players with Disney movies, a firepit, iron chairs from our deck, Perrier water and bottled root beer, Oreos, Pringles, ginger ale, a massive cooler, and a Blackberry (around 10:00 pm I got mysterious text messages from a certain camper wanting to know scores for college football). After the guys got the tent set up, and I got Audrey into her bed, we sat around the firepit to enjoy our extremely healthy treats. Then, I headed in to watch Jon & Kate Plus 8 (pre-divorce episodes), while the guys chopped wood, ate squirrel meat, and watched Cars. The next day, although Barry had had a harder time of it (sore back, sore neck, sore hips, sleep disturbances, etc.), Gabe was so excited about his camping "trip" that he didn't want to leave the tent.

Hopefully this will catch us up for a little while, and I will work closely with Brad, my favorite Hewlett-Packard ambiguously-Indian pal, on fixing the computer so I can add some pictures eventually.