South Park etc.

So here's the family portrait from our visit to South Park:



It seems the witty photographer kept the shutter open a whit too long, so we also got a candid shot:



(I found this at Paper Napkin. Click here to make your own.)

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You know how mothers are supposed to be able to tell why the baby is crying by the way it sounds? (Personally I think that generalization is a little broad. Sure, you learn the language after a while, but it's not like it kicks in at birth.) Anyway, I've noticed a similar thing with the dogs. You can tell the "Hey, think I'll be obnoxiously loud at 2:00 a.m." from the "You'reAStrangerGetOutOfHereNOW."

So in the early evening the other day Scruffy was doing the "something's-weird-and-I'm-not-sure-I-like-it." He kept focusing on this one dark spot on the step, so I went out and found a really big beetle kind of thing. I got a piece of paper and moved it over to the fence then, after it was too late, I thought I should have taken a picture of it to share with you.

It apparently agreed, because it sent its slightly smaller sibling in with the recycling that my neighbor dropped off yesterday. Unfortunately my closeup came out blurry, so all I have is this one with Fifí, and the bug just looks like a cockroach. But it's not. I don't photograph cockroaches, so this is clearly not one. But now I'm thinking, why is this beetle so impressive, if Costa Rican cockroaches are pretty much the same size? It must be the added bulk. And NOW I'm thinking, why even bother posting the picture...this whole segment has gotten a little anticlimactic. Oh well, judge for yourself.



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That tooth of Robin's is still hanging on. She's mostly okay with it, most of the time. It's number seven, and the eighth is pretty loose too. The adult teeth are pretty well in for the ones that fell out first, but she's still got about three spaces, plus the two loose ones. If this keeps up she's gonna look like she's wearing those Hillbilly teeth they sell at...where DO they sell those things? I know I've seen them but I can't think where.

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Today is Wednesday and I still have a few sheets of Friday's newspaper left. Haven't even touched the Monday one I bought. Tina has kept herself under control--day and night--since Sunday, and the last time the cat decided it was too dangerous to do her thing outside, she climbed into the bathroom trash and peed there. On trash day. So that's a little weird but, frankly, convenient.

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Where else but in motherhood do you get to hear conversations like this:

"Garbage! I see garbage!"
"Where?"
"You missed it."