Birthday Largesse

Today is my 46 birthday.  I find that I miss my parents the most on my birthday...this is the second one without them.  Gifts I have received and am thankful for include: money, a garden stepping stone, a frying pan, a bird feeder and plant seeds, a gift certificate to Johnny's, chocolate,  a gift certificate for a car detailing, a watch fixed,  a delicious turkey dinner with cake and ice cream, many cards, notes, and calls.  I went on a yurt trip last weekend to kick off the week.  And of course, the best gift of all is every day that I get to spend with this little dubber.

I wonder if I should have been more concerned

Today on the turnpike, I passed a car with the vanity plate MINYAN.  I mean the guy  looked older, but not THAT old.

Oops, never mind...I read it minion-like "devil's minions" unaware of the Hebrew translation.

Now, I really am worried.  I wonder what Freud would do with this?

New Spring Collection

This bold ensemble is not for the faint of heart.  

The cap is handmade by LaHolly (an exclusive), the briefs are Seventh Generation, footwear by Western Chief, and baby Orca by Discovery.

It's what all the kids will be wearing this season, et pourquoi pas?

All In A Days Work

These photos are of various rodent skeletons. You might ask "Where did they come from?" .  A legitimate question.  I dissected them out of a barn owl pellet.  Another legitimate question might be...why?  I am teaching a Senior College class at University of Maine Augusta, so I get to take a class, too.  I am taking Introduction to Natural History, believing it will give me material to add to my Ecology of Loss workshop.  So there you have the "six degrees of Kevin Bacon" version of why this is all in a days work for me.

There is a skull, a jawbone, a shoulder blade and a sundry collection of more of the same plus hips, ribs, vertebra, phillanges,etc.  They are most likely mice and shrew parts.

Who knew computers were SO much fun?

Just wait until we actually turn the darn thing on.

Scenes from life with a toddler

Pulling back the shower curtain at our house has become a bit of an adventure...you never know what you may find.  The same holds true for walking into a room and what may be laying on the floor.  I imagine it is somewhat similar to living with someone with dementia who is doing the odd "misplacing" of things.  Maisie seems very deliberate in her "sorting", as I am certain those with dementia are. I wonder if the process is the same for choosing the ideal locations for these objects?

Sometimes I will stumble upon sweet exchanges between a staff member in a facility and a "confused" elder or hear the banter, often nonsensical (to me, anyhow) between folks and my heart breaks a little more...at the tenderness, the vulnerability, and even more than that, at knowing these people are (most likely) someone's parent and they were once someone's child.

I pray there will there be somebody who will love and protect my child when she is an old woman.

And yet another Saturday

Flask and hammer in hand...Mighty Thor is on a bender!

Wait, it's Maisie  gearing up for another Maine winter Saturday night.