Changes. Probably Permanent.

I now have one more follower. Oh, you One More Follower, you! You didn't realize it, but you're just making me feel guilty for not writing more often.

Xander was away for over a week on this last "business" trip. I put that in quotes because this last one was a conference in Barbados, and I think the proper word for such a thing is really "vacation." Who gets to go to a conference in Barbados immediately after getting a job in Hawaii?! I really did pick the wrong major. Anyway, I nearly killed myself while he was gone. You people who raise children by yourselves or are military spouses or who have three or more little ones running around your houses are crazy. If this last single-parent stint taught me anything it's that the number of children should never exceed the number of grown-ups. Having the twins to myself for so many days just about did me in. If you think a two-year-old is too young to know when he/she has the upper hand, you are mistaken. Those toddlers are some clever little people.

Anyway, it's been a crazy spring, and it's about to be followed by a crazy summer. I suspect I will be writing here even less, not more. Knowing this was probably going to be the case, I set up a lazy person's blog awhile back. I like it because the layout looks nice without demanding much in the way of content. I can post a photo or an anecdote or a quote in about 60 seconds. I expect we'll move over there permanently in the near future. But you can check it out in the meantime and let me know what you think.

My 2nd Mother's Day

This time last year, we were about to leave for Ethiopia. Xander was running a conference in Barbados, and I was still in Montreal, so we both flew to New York to meet up at my cousin Anna's place before the flight over to Addis Ababa. My sweet, sweet cousin threw us a baby shower the day we left. It was Mother's Day, I think. Or the next day was. I can't remember exactly. But what I do remember is that no one wished me a Happy Mother's Day. I was kind of down about it, actually. When I got around to opening Anna & Ben's shower gift to us, I pulled out the card. It was a Mother's Day card. I cried. It turns out my heart is only partly made of stone.

This year, I have two screaming toddlers. They kicked off Mother's Day by taking off their underpants and peeing all over their bedroom floor when I wasn't looking. It was awful. And also? It was kind of great. We worked hard to bring these two little people to the point that they could take off their own pants and willfully pee all over their very own bedroom. When I was done crying because I was so mad--again, not entirely emotionless--I was proud of them. Little fuckers.

You Gotta Have Standards

When perusing Craigslist for furnished sublets, it is expected that one will come across a variety of stringent demands made by posters. Some limit the number of occupants. Some prefer females. Some prefer students. Some don't want pets. And other posters have...different requirements:

NON SMOKERS ONLY please and NO Patchouli Oil!!!

I mean, couldn't they just come out and say, "No weed, please." I'm surprised they didn't also add "No flannel shirts!" Or "No Marley!" Or "No Birkenstocks!" They know it's 2011, right, and not, say, 1967-1997? Kurt Cobain is dead, y'all.

My Brother Is So Cool

Some people in this family get to be Internet (and newspaper) famous for doing things that actually matter. Not for having some silly photos taken with a beach ball.

From the AP, via NPR:

Questions, confusion in classrooms over bin Laden

NORCROSS, Ga. (AP) - It was a day of infamy they don't remember.

Sixth-graders in Jacob Cole's social studies class relived the terror of the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks this week in a lesson intended to help them understand what the death of Osama bin Laden means.

We Knew It Was Coming...

Before:



After: