Sure, He's Fallen on His Head, But It's Not That Far to Fall

I don't know exactly when the brain damage occurred, but Adam ain't right. Today, at the gym daycare, he went out to their little outside climbing toy, crawled underneath it, and stripped. Diaper too. When the staff asked him what he was doing, he replied, "It's okay."

This Is Why the Internet Was Invented

I know we've gone dark 'round here for a while. We've been busy... or something. I'll post a few things over the next week or so detailing some of our recent and semi-recent activities.

In the meantime, bask in the greatness that is RedLetterMedia's YouTube Channel. They specialize in epic reviews of sci-fi movies, especially Star Trek and the Star Wars prequels. Head on over some time and poke around. You'll need sound, of course. Also, they use naughty words, so do not watch them at work - unless you've got a sweet job where your boss and your co-workers are okay with that sort of thing, you know, like the local shipyard, the set of a Quentin Tarantino movie, or a Jesuit university.

In particular, I would like to recommend their 7-part review of Star Wars: The Phantom Menace and their 9-part (that's right, 9 parts - I told you they were epic) review of Star Wars: Attack of the Clones.

Here. I'll get you started:

(By Jean) Dirt,Snacks, and other things small boys Enjoy

For a while, Adam could care less about driving his toys in the dirt.... but that recently changed. We have had more time in the dirt playing in the last 3 weeks than in the previous 6 months combined. And more showers, baths, and clothes to wash, also! I had to weed the flower bed the other day to provide him with space to run his trucks - it had gotten too overgrown for them to really dig down in and get dirty and mucky!

It's all happening at the zoo - here is Adam wearing my hat on a recent expedition to our local zoo. We were watching the Lemurs and snacking. Snacking is a big part of any zoo trip. See the monkeys, get raisins. See the hippo, get a pickle. See the tiger, get cheese. And so on....

Adam's new favorite when we go to Sam's Club is the Caesar Salad - in part because it has croutons, and also because he can share with either Ted or me, and get salad dressing for dipping. He is willing to negotiate and eat some lettuce in exchange for croutons. Crazy boy!

Wise Beyond His Years

Adam recently has been enjoying Monsters, Inc. The adventures of Sully, Mike, and Boo amuse him greatly, and he's a sucker for a sight gag. We don't have a portable DVD player - not yet, anyway - so his movie watching is confined to the house, mostly right before his afternoon nap. But we have an iPod for music in the car.

Yesterday, on the way to the gym in the morning, Adam informed me, "If we had another iPod, we could bring the Monsters wiff us."

Now This Is Not the End. It Is Not Even the Beginning of the End. But It Is, Perhaps, the End of the Beginning

According to weather.com, August 5 is the day that West Monroe sees its first decrease in an average temperature since January. Today, the average low goes from 72 to 71 degrees. Brrr-freaking-rrr.

Also too, the average high plummets from 95 to 94 on August 13.

To give you some indication of how the recent heat wave has affected us, it was 100 today, and Adam and I were talking about how it felt so much better than the last few days. Sadly, it really was better today, even though the heat index this morning at 6 a.m. was, if I recall correctly, 92 (seriously). The last four days the highs have been 104, 106, 104, and 104, and the lows have been 79, 80, 82, and 84. Oh, and we haven't seen a temp in the 60s since May.

Hmm... Maybe I shouldn't put so much stock in those average temps...

Brain-melting Hellscape: Achieved

Current temperature in West Monroe, LA: approximately 173 degrees. Heat index: 203.

Motley Crew

I'll write more about our trip west soon (yeah, really), but, until then, here's a picture of pert'near the whole clan.

Scary. (Click on the picture to embiggen, if you dare)

Now That's Just Wrong

Adam and I were heading into a Subway restaurant for lunch yesterday, and we spotted a dead bug in the parking lot. It was a beetle, and it was, I kid you not, at least as big as Adam's fist.

Now, I'm not one to freak out at the sight of a bug, and I didn't yesterday, but... come on. This was one of those bugs that you're only supposed to encounter because some scientist trekked to far away lands and brought back a specimen tacked to a board. You know, one of those bugs you're happy is in far away lands, not at the freaking Subway.

We're learning to get by down here in the land of deep fried food and deep fried weather, but there is a limit to what I'm willing to tolerate in the normal course of my day, and a bug the size of a Sherman tank is pretty dang close to that limit.

Prep the Wide Angle Lens

We fly out of Little Rock early Wednesday morning for my sister Sharon's wedding. We'll be there about 10 days. Ten glorious days of highs in the 60s and 70s. Huzzah! Actually, we haven't been below 72 in June here, so it's probably going to feel cold, but I'm willing to take that chance.

And since there are lots of Joneses heading out for the wedding, it's going to be like a family reunion, and with our family, that's a lot of people. Adam's looking forward to seeing his cousins, aunts, uncles, and grandparents again (some for the first time), but first we've going to see Odin and Seth and Deb again. Adam likes Odin and Seth and Deb.

I Can't Read Your Crazy Moon Language

We've been using the classic "spell it if you don't want Adam to know what you're talking about" routine for quite a while now. I've long suspected he knew more than he was letting on. So today Jean spelled "P-O-O-L," and I decided to ask Adam if he knew what that spelled.

"Butterfly!" He replied, with characteristic enthusiasm.

"P-O-O-L." We sounded it out. He exclaimed, "Firetruck!"

We sounded it out again. He even muttered, "poo" under his breath. Twice.

"Adam, what does P-O-O-L spell?"

"Walmart!"