The late great Robert Shaw

As far as character actors go, if you remember more about them than the leads in the movie, you've found a great one.  Robert Shaw has been a favorite of mine even before I realized it.  Of course his most famous role was in Jaws as Quint, the salty sea dog hired to help Roy Scheider and Richard Dreyfuss track down and kill the Great White.  He's also well remembered for his role in The Sting as a ruthless gangster, and the target of one of the most well-orchestrated snow jobs in the history of film.  I first loved him in The Deep, as yet another salty dog, this one a diving treasure hunter who helps Nick Nolte and Jacqueline Bisset dig up a Spanish treasure and blow up thousands of bottles of morphine so the evil drug lord can't get to them.  Jav and I happened to catch this movie one night last week, and got hooked all over again, even though it had been about 20 years since either of us had seen it (although Jav pouted the entire movie because we missed the beginning with Bisset diving in only her very see-through white tee shirt and bikini bottoms.  God-get over it!).  Shaw was the glue that held the movie together, and not only that but he made it classier and much more interesting to watch.

I think the word I'm looking for to describe what he had is "charisma".  He had a turbulent personal life - married three times and had twelve kids between the three of them.  He seemed to be cut from the same cloth as other great English actors initially trained in the theater like Peter O'Toole and Richard Harris.  They were all so talented but drank way, way too much their entire lives.  He died at the relatively young age of 51 of a heart attack.  

I'm not sure why Shaw doesn't get the same props for his acting as some of those other English actors.  I just know I want to try to see everything he's been in, because at least the scenes he's in will be good.  I did have the pleasure of seeing his Academy Award nominated performance as Henry the 8th in A Man For All Seasons, which is a wonderful movie if you're in a historical mood.  And now Jav tells me that Shaw is in the original The Taking of Pelham One Two Three as the orchestrator of the kidnappings.  So it will be going on our Netflix list!

 

Movie cravings

Do you ever have a craving to watch a certain movie?  I've had one for about a month now to watch Rear Window.  It's like I need a fix or something.  Every day I've been checking Turner Movie Classics in the hopes that they were doing an Alfred Hitchcock night, but to no avail.  Today I finally decided to do a search on it, and lo and behold they are doing an entire Alfred Hitchcock day on June 27th!!!!  They are also showing Notorious, North by Northwest and The Man Who Knew Too Much.  I think I may ship Gabriel off to a grandparent or two and have myself a marathon!!!  (Jav can join me, I know he really likes them too.  As long as he provides me with food all day long).

Why hasn't anyone invented a service where you can go to some channel on your TV, find the movie you are craving to watch, and pull it up right then and there?  (For a small fee, of course).  You'd think someone would have come up with a way to do that by now.

Sunday Picnic

We decided this morning to pack up some lunch and take Gabriel for a picnic.  We haven't done this since he was very small (9 months old, I think), so this will be the first one he remembers.  We went to a park pretty close to our house (brave of us, but it turned out well), that has some shady spots and a small lake with ducks to walk around.  Gabriel wanted to play on the playground, but we explained that we were there to have lunch and then take a walk, and it was too hot to play on the playground, which wasn't shaded at all.  

He finally understood the concept and happily ate his PB & J and barbecue chips.  Then he and Jav kicked the ball around that we brought, knowing that he is all of sudden REALLY into kicking the ball.  We walked around the path down towards the water, but it was too muddy to get very close, and the turtle that had been sunning on a stump jumped in the water when he heard us coming.  I was hoping Gabriel could look at some ducks or a turtle up close with his homemade binoculars, but he had to settle for a far away view.  

We were starting to get really hot so we headed back to the car.  That's when the miracle occurred!  The distinct chimes of an ice cream truck.  Gabriel had his crazy arms going he got so excited.  We all shared one cone and decided our spontaneous picnic had been an enormous success!

Nostalgia: Fredericksburg, part 2

Enchanted Rock (I have no idea who's in the picture, it was the biggest one I could find).

Part two of my stroll back down memory lane in Fredericksburg is the fun stuff we did around town.

Enchanted Rock (now a State Park) is a 425 foot high granite batholith, the largest in the United States.  A batholith, for my geographically-challenged friends, is an underground rock formation left uncovered by erosion.  (OK-I admit I had to look that up.  I thought it was just a huge chunk of granite).  The Tonkowa Indians believed the rock to be haunted due to fires that appeared at night and strange sounds heard at all hours.  (Scientists guess this was the noise of the big rock expanding and contracting from being heated during the day and cooled at night).  We used to take day trips, sometimes with picnics, and hike to the top.  I highly recommend this to families because it's an easy climb for youngsters with all the smooth rocks to grab onto, and it's not very steep.  But the view from the top is beautiful, and truly enchanting.  Some years ago they started limiting the number of people who get to enter the park each day, so plan to go early if you go.  Gabriel is almost big enough to try a climb, and I can't wait to take him.

Another hike we would make often on our trips was to Balanced Rock.  It was a big round boulder that was balanced on a small triangular rock point.  Here's a postcard I found while searching around for its history.  I'm having trouble finding history, but I guess it was supposed to be another geological wonder.  I have a great picture somewhere of my Dad, with full 70's sideburns, pretending to hold the rock on the pedestal with one arm and showing off his biceps with the other.  I'm sure this pose was repeated countless times by countless families.  But sadly today the rock no longer exists.  There are several different theories as to the cause.  One theory is that a bunch drunk teenagers shoved it off the pedestal and it broke into pieces.  Another is that the quarry who owned the land it was located on actually blew it up in order to avoid having the state protect the land and turn it into a State Park, or that they were afraid of lawsuits from tourists injuring themselves climbing up to see it.  Either way, it's another little cool piece of my history that's gone now.

And finally, there was the charm of strolling around the town of Fredericksburg itself.  Back then it was just starting to become a tourist destination, but even then we tended to avoid the touristy spots on Main Street for the locally-owned and local-frequented stores.  We would visit Knopp-Metzger department store, Birck's Butcher Shop and Barbecue Restaurant, and the Dietz Bakery, which somehow has survived the onslaught of Wal-Mart and many other new bakeries.  These were the merchants who made German small-town living so special.  These days, the streets and shops are all very crowded, everything for sale is overpriced, and the shops are owned by people who relocated to Fredericksburg to cash in on the tourism.  It's still fun to browse all the shops, eat a Reuben at the deli, and drink a homebrewed beer as you walk down the street and people watch, but once again, just not the same.  There are still a few spots to catch the charm - breakfast at Andy's Diner on Sunday morning, where many of the old school Germans gather either before or after church, and walking or driving along the neighborhood streets to see the beautiful houses and flower gardens. or attending Mass at the old Catholic church with it's beautiful masonry and stained glass.  

I have made many visits with Jav, but he has yet to see some of the things that made Fredericksburg so special because we choose to spend time with our relatives rather than sightsee during our time there.  But someday I hope to show him some of the things I loved as a child, if they don't all disappear before then.

Nostalgia: Fredericksburg, part 1

I haven't felt much like posting lately.  Our life is a little crazy right now and so I am going to talk about the past instead of the present.  I've been having these flashes of nostalgia for certain things, with strong sensory memories of smell and taste, and just the joyous times my Mom, Dad, brother and I used to share.  

We had two places we traveled in the summers when we were kids, Fredericksburg and Ingelside (a tiny town just outside of Corpus).  Both places were full of relatives.  Fredericksburg was the home of my grandmother and her brothers and sisters, and we would always stay with Uncle Robert and Aunt Lou.   Uncle Robert is my grandmother's youngest brother, and the only sibling still alive today.  He was very tall, 6'5" (before old-age shrinkage started settling in), very German, was a carpenter by trade, could be found at all hours in his smokehouse making venison sausage and other wonderful meats, loved to bow hunt, was a fantastic cook and gardener (and still is, I might add), and had one of best senses of humor ever.  He still makes me belly laugh at least a couple of times every time we visit.  Oh, and he also played tennis at least once a week, until his knees and back finally gave out on him in his eighties!  What a renaissance man!

My Aunt Lou is also still alive.  She is also a wonderful cook and bakes, and one of the things I've been EXTREMELY nostalgic about lately is her homemade brown bread.  I remember waking up and going into the dining room with the smell of slab bacon cooking and Aunt Lou's toast in my nose, immediately rendering me starving!  They would pass around big platters of both, and a big bowl of scrambled eggs.  But that bread!   All you needed was a big slab of butter and you had died and gone to heaven, my friend.  It was a little sweet just on its own, so honey or jam added was just icing on the cake.  I'm not sure if she still makes it these days, so I will just have to live with the memory of the smell and taste.  

It's funny the things you remember as a kid, the things that stand out in my mind from those trips.  I remember how I loved sleeping in the huge beds that were waaaaayyyy up off the floor.  It made me feel like a princess.  I remember hanging out in the backyard with Uncle Robert with the smokehouse smell always nearby, and loving the big stepping stones they had going from the house out to the back of their property.  But the thing I remember most is the laughter.  Not only did they have three kids (two of which had families of their own by then), but usually for our visits my grandparents and another of my grandmother's brothers and his wife, Uncle Jack and Aunt Gina, would all be sitting around either in the house or in the backyard catching up and telling stories.  Eventually someone would say something funny, or misunderstand something, or get the story wrong and start arguing.  But we would all end up laughing and laughing until tears were running down our faces and our stomachs hurt.  At least four or five times a day!  There is nothing more comforting to a kid than being surrounded by people you love, and that you know love you, and having all that happiness flowing over you.  

This is one thing I fret about, that I won't be able to give Gabriel quite the same experience.  Things are so different now, so many people from my past are gone.  It was a different era, and things seemed to move alot slower back then.  Families were bigger and talked more.  But I SOOOOO want him to have those happy memories once he's grown.  At least he has met Uncle Robert and Aunt Lou, and we are definitely overdue for another visit.  But it's not the same due to their age (I think they are both in their 90's now) and the fact that their kids and their families are spread out.  But at least I call tell him about that other time and hope some of it seeps into his conscience.  

My dream man

I am one of those lucky women who actually got to marry her dream man.  Now, I'm not talking about the actual Desi Arnaz, who was a cigar-smoking, skirt-chasing snake who made his wife (Lucille Ball) miserable throughout their turbulent years together.  I'm talking about the TV character he played, Ricky Ricardo.  When you grow up loving a show, sometimes it takes years to figure these things out.  But over all the years I watched "I Love Lucy",  somewhere along the way I fell in love with Ricky.  His Cuban charm, his faltering English, but most of all the way he stuck by Lucy no matter what kind of crazy trouble she caused. 

It's crazy to admit, but we ARE that TV couple.   Well, maybe not to the extreme in the show.  I have never locked myself in a freezer, or glued a fake beard on my face, or flubbed up a screen test for my husband.  But I continually do pretty goofy things and have that red-headed impulsiveness.  And Jav doesn't get so mad at me that he starts screaming at me in Spanish, but he has the qualities that made Ricky the perfect husband:  He's handsome, patient, loyal and full of that Latino passion.  Not to mention the faltering English, just every now and then.   It just adds to his overall charm.

Happy 5th Anniversary Javi.  I'm the luckiest woman in the whole wide world!

Trampoline

Jumping....

Thinking...  and looking mighty tired.

Resting...

...and finally sleeping.

The what flu?

This is getting out of hand.  Just about a week ago, we start reading about Swine Flu basically shutting down Mexico City, and within a week Texans (especially Fort Worthians, apparently), are going into full-blown panic.  I knew the school district had shut down the four schools where specific cases were found.  But I was really blown away last night when my Mom called to tell me that classes are canceled for students until May 8th!  All UIL sporting events have also been canceled.  And city officials are urging those with toddlers in day care or Mother's Day Out to also keep the kiddos at home.  

We sent Gabriel yesterday after a short 2 minute talk about how safe we feel he is there.  But last night I had to reluctantly agree with Jav that it just doesn't hurt to play it safe and keep him at home.  Other than the fact that every time he misses he has trouble saying goodbye to me the next time.  There's only three more weeks of class left, but I sure would hate to keep him out all next week too.  But we are part of the lucky parents who are able to take care of our child at home.  What about all of those working parents, especially single parents?  What are they going to do with their kids for a week and a half?  Take them to work?  Hope that their boss is understanding about having to miss that much work?  That just isn't realistic in the real world.  I really feel for those parents.

For the most part I am thinking that city and school officials are playing it safe, but a little part of me wonders if there isn't something to start really panicking about.  We have decided to avoid certain public places, like the mall.  But next week when I go grocery shopping, should I wear a mask?  I had already stocked up on little antibacterial lotions, and we are using those like crazy along with all the hand washing (for 20 seconds, according to NPR, which is a REALLY long time).  But should we avoid restaurants and take-out food?  We're supposed to go eat at Nonna Tata's, my very favorite restaurant in the whole world, next week for our anniversary.  So we're playing it by ear.  I feel like we're back to settler times, when you kept to your own family and had to be suspicious of anyone else who happened to ride up to your homestead.  

This is something I never imagined having to deal with in my lifetime.  It's truly bizarre.  

Goodnight what?

Ever since Gabriel was about nine months old I've been reading Goodnight Moon to him at bedtime.  It used to make an appearance about every 3 or 4 nights.  Now we try to read it at least twice a month. 

Well, once he started understanding words (somewhere around his first birthday), he started pointing to things in the book as I read along.  When we got towards the end, to the two pages that say, "Goodnight stars.....Goodnight air", he would point to the stars, and then tap the top of his head.  It took me a few times to realize he thought I was saying,  "Goodnight hair", since he had no concept of what "air" was.  

And so, the tradition continues (of course, we started actually saying, "Goodnight hair" after that).  I don't really want to clue him in on the truth just yet.   The day I have to explain it will be a pretty sad day for me.

Favorite shows

Jav and I have a short list of dramatic TV that we like.  Three shows, and one of them has been cancelled.  The funny thing is, all three started with pretty crazy concepts. 

Life on Mars was about a police detective living in our present time who gets hit by a car while chasing a suspect and wakes up in the 70's.  Every episode he gets little clues about why this might be happening.  It had great acting, pretty realistic story lines, and awesome 70's music (some really deep cuts, some mainstream, but always fitting to the story line).  I can't believe more people didn't watch it and it got sacked.  We still have 3 episodes to go, and are happy that the producers at least saw this coming and wrapped up all the questions in the final episode.  (Which I hear from a little bird is fantastic!)

Saving Grace is about another police detective (this time the miniscule Holly Hunter-in a role so suited for her it's spooky sometimes), who has been living life in the fast lane for long time, and has many demons chasing her around.  So God decides to send her an angel to try and help her see the error of her ways.  Before it's too late.  But this isn't your typical all-white-clad glowing heavenly angel.  His name is Earl, he looks like a truck driver, and he loves to get wonderful things to eat and drink wherever in the world he happens to be visiting.  And he also is starting to admire (and be a bit jealous of?) Grace for her humanity and passion for life.  There's a mystery connection between Grace and a death-row inmate that we are trying to figure out (Earl is also his angel), but the acting, writing and directing is top-notch in this one too.  I especially like the female characters, including Laura San Giacomo as Grace's best (and good-girl Catholic) friend and medical examiner.

But Big Love would have to be my top choice for best drama this year.  We watched the final episode of this season last week, and now have to wait a year and a half (or some ridiculously long time for HBO shows), to continue this saga of a polygamist family living in Utah suburbia.  Who would have thought a show with this subject matter would be the most riveting and suspenseful I've seen in years?  I can't figure out why no cast member as of yet has been nominated for an Emmy, but I better see some names next time.  Everyone on the show is great, but Jeanne Tripplehorn (the First Wife of Bill Paxton) rose above this year, in my opinion.  The episode when she is facing excommunication from the Mormon church after her sister exposes her to the Bishop is still haunting me because of her desperate acting.

You have to look hard, but you can still find some good stuff on TV.  Just not on the major networks.  There they cancel anything good before giving it a real chance.  

Books, books, books!

My son has turned into a Reading Machine.  He always has a book in his hands.  He browses them while watching TV.  He takes them outside to sit on the sidewalk in the sun and read.  He gets upset when we make him put the book down to get into the bathtub or go to bed.  Really upset.   He sits and reads ten books or more before switching to his cars and trucks.  He looked at me last Thursday morning and said, "Tita's house?" and I said, "No, it's a school day".  So he thought about that for awhile and then said, "Library, Mama?"  I couldn't believe he was asking me to go to the library.  I told him we couldn't go that day, but we'd go the next day.  Well, he got up saying, "Library today Mama?" and I said yes, and then remembered they recently had to cut back hours and are closed on Fridays.  This did not go over very well, but I took him to PetSmart to look at birds and fish which kind of made up for it.  When Saturday arrived, he was running around the house shouting, "Library.  Hooray!!!"  We took home 15 books this time, and he loves all of them.  

I think it's all wonderful.

Pets

Molly does not like getting her picture taken.  Or perhaps she wants to eat the camera.

Best friends.

Crazy, crazy dog.

Bones talking to us.
Zoe is in absolute heaven now that she gets to go outside with us.

Me Want Meat!

OK, so I gave up all meat except fish for Lent this year, thinking it would be easier than giving up sweets.  I'd done pretty well up until last week.  I've been trying out some new recipes and have been trying to mix it up for dinners between fish, beans, eggs, and cheese or some combination.  Peanut butter has been a big player too.  But last week, I think I hit some kind of plateau.  I have been trying to work out more, and have been working hard in the yard, and am finding myself hungry ALL THE TIME.  Of course, Jav would say, "but aren't you always hungry all the time anyway?"  And yes, on some level I have a never-ending appetite.  But this is worse because I'm getting headaches and all the things that happen when you have low-blood sugar.  And apparently a lack of iron in my diet.  My cavewoman roots are starting to show and everything I look at eventually turns into a pork chop.  

I had thought maybe an extra side benefit would be some weight loss, but I'm eating so often in between meals that the opposite is taking place.  My poor husband gave up sweets, but has basically given up meat too since he eats what I fix, and we only eat out once a week.  But I'm determined to finish out the next three weeks.  Serves me right for thinking it would easy.

Spring break

Perusing his favorite book.

St. Patricks Day.  He has his Irish t-shirt on we got at the Irish Festival.  

This is probably the reaction to our offering him some of our fish and chips.

Cade, just being Cade.  I told him he looked like a deranged monk.

Good buddies.  Gabriel worships the ground he walks on.

Get up, stand up!   Stand up for your rights!

Gabriel has had a heck of a Spring break week!  

Monday was our first visit with the speech therapist in the morning, then our regular afternoon backyard time.  Tuesday he went to the park with his Tia Sandie and Jav's parents.  They were there for over two hours, then went to Chick-Fil-A for lunch.  He was so tired by the time they brought him back home to me he couldn't walk or talk.  He was zonked for the rest of the day.  Wednesday they took him to a different park to feed the ducks, and that's where the miracle occurred.  There were firemen there working on training exercises.  With the fire truck.  Sandra said he started doing his crazy happy arms and little jumps that he does when he's so excited he doesn't have anywhere for all the energy to go.  He got to sit in it, and the firemen all high-fived him afterwards.  I'm supposed to be getting pictures soon.  Then once again, he was zonked all afternoon and seemed to only have energy for Wow Wow Wubzy episodes.

Thursday we drove over to pick up Cade to spend the night.  We went to the Farmers Market and did some grocery shopping (and I spoiled my nephew rotten, of course!).  Then we ate lunch and hung out while Gabriel napped.  We all went to the park, but I noticed Gabriel was dragging a little, and chalked it up to the fact that he was still tired from the previous two days.  We played even more in the backyard before I camped them in front of the TV while I made dinner.  When Jav got home, we ate outside (something we've done 4 times this week - a new record!), and the boys played even more as it was getting dark.  It was such a special day I didn't want it to end.  Cade is a wonderful boy.  He's always willing to help and curious about everything.  He's just a joy to have around.  

Unfortunately, our good week took a bit of a turn when Gabriel woke up at 3 in the morning with 103 degree fever.  He's never had fever that high before, so Jav and I were the typical panicky parents about whether to call the doctor.  After starting him on Tylenol, I decided to wait an hour and check on him to see if he felt cooler, and he did.  But he was really fussy and woke up every hour or so, which eventually woke up Cade (and Molly), so we all had a pretty early morning.  I decided to ask my parents to take Cade for the day, which really disappointed me.  But I knew Gabriel needed to go to the doctor, and I didn't want Cade to have to tag along with us - no fun at all!  It turns out he just had a 24-hour virus, and was feeling better by the time he went to bed last night.  But because he was still so sad and droopy yesterday afternoon, I took him to Target and purchased our first full-length kid movie:  Cars.  I picked this because he has some of the Cars and and a Cars book, so I figured he'd be familiar with the characters.  Jav was with work buddies last night watching the basketball, so Gabriel and I ate pizza and watched the movie.  He only made it through about half of it before he got bored.  We turned it back on this morning, but after about 15 minutes he left to go play in his room and Jav and I watched almost the rest of it.  Pretty cute movie.  Love Doc (voiced by Paul Newman, which made me cry when I figured out who it was).

And today, he's spent almost every waking second with his Daddy.  He's starting to really miss him during the week, and clings to him like crazy on the weekends now.  It gave me some time to work on my flower beds and walk Molly.  We went to Mass this afternoon and Gabriel ran up to our priest (Father Paul, who's been with us since August) and gave him a huge hug, which was just so sweet.  We ate dinner outside again tonight (the weather just dictates that you CAN'T eat inside!), and I haven't decided what adventures await us tomorrow before things get back to normal.  

Helping Daddy

Jav was hanging a shelf in the kitchen for me to put my cookbooks (and free up some counter space).  Gabriel got his tools out and decided to help.   So sweet!

A complement and a complaint

In the March issue of Reader's Digest, there is an article written by Reese Witherspoon, actress and Mom, about her rules regarding manners and morals for her children.  I like the whole article, but my favorite part is when she's talking about the sense of community she received growing up the South:  "I take my children to church in Los Angeles.  It takes you out of your personal experience and universalizes it.  You understand that whatever you're dealing with, someone in that room has either dealt with the same thing or will in the future."  That's how I feel about going to church.  This is a woman who has stayed grounded within her roots, and has not let Hollywood or stardom get in the way of raising her children the same way.  How refreshing! 

To see the whole article, go here.

My complaint is with network television.  Is it any wonder that they are in the sad state they find themselves when a smart, creative, and well-acted and -directed show like Life On Mars gets canceled before it finishes even one season?  Apparently not only will we get to see the remaining finished episodes, but the producers were preparing for this bad news and scrambled to have the last episode answer all the questions.   I'm glas that we'll be able to find out the mystery of why Sam was hurtled back the 70's and if he will find his way back, but why can't they give shows at least in to the second season before giving them the ax?  Network execs must be IDIOTS!

Modern troubadour with an edge

I've only been a fan of Richard Thompson for about 5 years.  I had heard his classic "1952 Vincent Black Lightning" song on one of the radio stations periodically (probably KERA before they stopped playing music all day).  Then I heard him interviewed on Glenn Mitchell and heard both recorded and live songs in studio.  I thought he was brilliant on the guitar, and found his voice one of those I could listen to all day and never get tired of it.  Jav heard the same interview and thought he was talented too.  I went out and found a Greatest Hits CD.  I was shocked but pleased to hear some rocking songs, some alt country-sounding songs, some cajun, and some pop.  In other words, not just acoustic folk, and I fell in love even more and knew I had to see him live one day.

That day came last Tuesday at the Lakewood Theater in Dallas.  The man strolled out on stage at exactly 8 pm, just holding his guitar.   The only other things on stage were a stool holding a glass of water and I think a towel.  Talk about downsized!  But he proceeded to charm, dazzle, hypnotize at times, and totally entertain us for the next two hours.  It seemed at times like there had to be other instruments up there with him somewhere, but no.  It was just his amazing talent on that guitar.  And that voice!  How does it still sound so perfect after all these years?  It makes me think of sipping on some warmed whiskey with lemon and honey when you've had a sore throat - just so soothing.  I only knew 4 songs out of the 15 or so he sang, but it just didn't matter.  It left me wanting more than just a Greatest Hits CD!  And although I loved hearing the classic 1952 song, my favorite was one someone just shouted out from the audience when he asked for requests - Bees Wing, a song about fond memories and lost love, that just makes you want to cry it's so poignant and full of melancholy.  What a talent for telling a story through song this man has.

Thanks honey for the best Valentine's gift I could have asked for! 

What a week!

I haven't had time to stop and breath this week.  It's almost like we had Spring Break early, and we've been blowing and going nonstop all week.

Monday morning I started my new workout routine, which involves getting up just before 6 every morning but Sunday.  It sounds crazy, but I'm pretty determined.  At least I was until sore and highly underused muscles kept me from doing anything the last two mornings.  And I'm sure the time change Sunday will NOT be helping my determination next week.  

Tuesday night was Richard Thompson.  This really deserves a post by itself, so that's what I'll do.  

Wednesday morning I worked on my article for our newsletter all morning because I had a deadline.  (I love writing that.  It makes me feel like I'm an actual writer).  I've decided to get a little more hard-hitting, but at the same time wanted to make sure I got all my facts straight.  I figure that while I've actually got a platform to get my thoughts on the environment and conservation out there, I might as well use it to its fullest advantage.  Wednesday night was Book Club, and was just so much fun even though I was tired from staying up later than normal Tuesday night.  I've decided everyone in our book club has such a knack for making their homes comfortable.  Every month I can't wait to get there and relax with a glass of wine and talk about whatever multiple subjects get thrown on the table.  Oh yeah, and there's also a great book discussion somewhere in there too.

Thursday I worked all morning on a do-it-yourself project, which I have decided I'm not very good at.  I was covering a bulletin board with fabric and a ribbon border to hang in the hallway to post Gabriel's latest artwork and family pics.  If my Mom hadn't helped me I'd probably still be working on it.  (Stop giggling about me, you sewing types.  You know who you are).   But it made me mentally tired the rest of the day.

Today we went to Weatherford and had a play date and lunch with April and Macy (my Mom got to come too).  We had a great time, even though Gabriel and Macy aren't quite to the point where they're playing together.  But they'll get there.  Gabriel fell asleep 10 minutes from home, and I tried to sneak him in and put him down so he'd keep sleeping.  But he decided that's all the nap he needed.  He's about to fall over he's so tired.  Actually so am I!

Tomorrow we have a possible basketball game of Jav's Godson, Andrew, in the morning, and then our week will culminate in the thing I've been looking forward to all month - the Irish Festival in Fair Park.   We're going with Jav's sister and boyfriend, who we always have fun with.  And we get to see an ex-classmate (and son of book club member Joyce) play in his new band, Jiggernaut, while we're there.  It should be good times multiplied!

Sunday, we are doing nothing.  We've earned it.

Hearing - OK

Gabriel had a full-blown hearing test today.  His speech therapist recommended a hearing test mostly to rule it out as the problem for his delayed speech, and because he's now had several sinus infections in a row.  She wanted to make sure there wasn't fluid built up in his ears that might be causing an "underwater" effect to his hearing.  

I was concerned about people sticking things in his ears, which never goes over very well at the pediatrician's office.  But lo and behold, he did great.  He tried a couple of times to take the little tubes out, but I held onto his hands.  Then he shook his head like he was trying to get rid of either the tubes or the mysterious voice that had appeared in his head.  But he never cried or even fussed through the whole thing.  I was so proud of him!  And he even though he did have a little fluid in one ear, his hearing was completely normal.  YAY!

Which means now we focus on his motor skills of his mouth.  The therapist had another possible theory that because his cheeks are so big it's harder for him to make certain sounds.  So we're supposed to be trying to get him to drink out of straws as much as possible, and to eat chewy and crunchy foods that will make him use his mouth more.  He's basically exercising the muscles of his mouth.  She also suggested trying to get him to blow bubbles, or getting a toy horn for him to blow.   I was not looking forward to hearing an annoying toy horn sound over and over, so I found these really cool wooden whistles today for him to try.  There's a penny whistle, a train whistle and a slide whistle.  He loves them, and was so proud tonight when he finally blew hard enough to make the slide whistle make a sound.  

I've noticed a slight improvement in his speech over the last few days, so we will keep up all of this hard work that seems to be paying off!

3 out of 5 just doesn't work

I have discovered over the past week that I need all five of my senses to life a sane and happy life.  While battling my 3rd sinus infection this allergy season, I have lost both my sense of smell and my sense of taste.  And I mean lost them.  Completely.  For about a week I haven't known what I'm putting on the table for dinner.  I knew I used my sense of smell to keep track of the things I'm cooking, and I've burned several things (almonds, bread) because I couldn't rely on my nose to remind me I had things browning in the oven.  

And the taste loss is really weird.  I can taste textures and cold versus hot, but that's it.  I can just barely taste acidity if I'm eating something with citrus or tomato.  It's taking all the fun out of eating!  I was so proud to throw together a new pita sandwich last night of homemade hummus with roasted red peppers, roasted eggplant, and Kalamata olives.  I couldn't taste a thing except for a tiny bit of acidity from the lemon juice in the hummus.  Jav said they were great, though.  And I really got the short end of the stick for Mardi Gras, when I was supposed to enjoy a lovely, grease-dripping Sonic cheeseburger before my 40 days with no meat.  I couldn't taste a thing.  

I think this happened to me once before, and eventually everything returned to normal.  But it would really be sad if this was a permanent affliction.  I love to eat WAAAAAAAAYYYYYYYY too much to ever get used to it.