i'm setting aside the PANDAS rant for a happier subject: art. specifically, art created by my former roommate, kristin--and it's a lovely piece at that.
does it look familiar?
it's based on my photo!
merry merry...
PANDAS. fucking PANDAS. FUCKING PANDAS. not as in copulating bicolor asian bears but as in the inherently evil form of the word, PANDAS: pediatric autoimmune neuropsychiatric disorder associated with streptococcal infection. i think gus has it again; rich thinks gus has it again. gus isn't sure, but he's not always the most reliable source. he certainly isn't himself but he isn't as bad as he has been before. at this point we're not even bothering with the strep tests anymore (for a multitude of reasons), rather rich just started him on a course of antibiotics and we're hoping for an improvement soon.
he isn't in the throes of utter paranoia and fear of contagion and needing to be reassured every waking moment that he isn't sick/harmed/damaged/poisoned/crazy, but he is compulsively finishing whatever random task or repetitive action his brain tells him to do. and no amount of telling him to "stop it. please stop it. please stop it, gus. gus, can you hear me? look at my face--STOP IT!" works. it is completely baffling, frustrating, and infuriating. so, antibiotics here we come.
i guess i should be relieved that he isn't in school and getting in trouble for these symptoms, as that has happened before (at the inexcusably poor manzano day school--big surprise), but at the same time i am really regretting the move to a much-smaller house right now. and further, at least he has a decent school to go back to if he is going to have problems rather than that expensive pile of pretentious crap school we were sending him to in albuquerque. i should also add that manzano left my child woefully unprepared for fourth grade in iowa public schools...but he's finally catching up and is even excelling thanks to the tremendous abilities of his teachers here in iowa city (THANK YOU!). i'm grateful for that, too. i should probably write about that as a separate blog post in the future...
fucking PANDAS.
TWENTY-FIVE bald eagles! in the wild! fishing! how very, very cool. before this year i had never seen more than four or five at a time, and i would risk a car + river accident staring at them while driving down rocky shore. i am thrilled to see just one--in fact, in previous years, i would feel seriously cheated if i had to drag my ass outside in the freezing weather and there wasn't even a damn eagle on the river to entertain me! i don't know what changed--maybe there is going to be a big snow storm and the eagles are gorging themselves in preparation? in any event, here are some extremely poor photos i tried to take of them--i'm determined to get one decent shot per winter spent here.
(detail of above)
(detail of above)
(detail of above) 10 eagles!
oooh, that's bad! sorry. we've been stuck inside for a couple of days owing to the lovely iowa winter weather and i think my mind may have snapped...bad puns abound.
these are pictures from our grand apple picking adventure at wilson's orchard just before halloween. i love wilson's--they have something like 140 varieties of apple, including the grand dame of heirloom apples, calville blanc d' hiver. the first time i tried one i knew i had finally eaten an apple--it resonated perfectly with me. they are french, of course, and are traditionally used to make spectacular tartes and other baked yummies. pictures at the end are of rich's half marathon here in iowa city. enjoy!
rich and sophie after the iowa city half marathon, also just before halloween
sophie and daddy
sophie eyes those beads...
and gets them!
i would love some comments about this photo--should i use it? is the complete lack of a focussed spot too distracting? i personally love the color, love the composition, but i am sometimes not the best judge...thank you!
i don't care how long you cooked the turkey, i am not eating it with those feathers on it.
*or*
"...psst...kid...when the farmer turns his back, run away. NOW. don't eat the free food, don't take anything with you, just fly south and live on a beach somewhere. send me a postcard."
thanksgiving in texas! too much food, lots of fun farm things, and, of course, "the nutcracker." enjoy!
there is a very good reason we don't take our children out to nice restaurants
lindsay supervises jake in the post-turkey fry-oil drain (it was a mess, but the turkey was fabulous)
gus driving a very full mule o' friends and relatives!
triple A: ashley, abigail and astrid (actually a quad: augustus is driving)
one of the bajillion black dogs that populate the farm
happy rich!
aunt lindsay forcing affection on gus (he loves it)
all that niece and nephew love made her craaaaazy
mom and ashley
gus making friends for life with zilla and madux
sophie showing ashley and gus the proper way to feed a horse (she almost lost a finger doing this over easter)
ingrid!
pretty, pretty ingrid
augustus, who you might remember from six months ago as the horse who got attacked by aforementioned black dogs
his hide has healed beautifully, but he's a bit skittish
cowgirl sophie
independence, thy name is john deere battery-powered tractor
but when the battery dies, it becomes a daddy-powered tractor
sophie quickly figured out the best use for her new toy
uncle jake shows sophie the grown-up version
at the wortham center in houston for "the nutcracker"!
daddy and silly sophie
gus looks so lovely and so NOT like a girl
sophie in her snow princess dress
checkin' out all the people sitting below us
intermission with one of the mice!
sophie didn't want to leave it, but once we did...
...we had our infamous meeting with the bushes!
barbara bush kindly trying to cajole sophie into speaking (without success) at the houston ballet
we're just back from our most beloved texas; we all had a fabulous time that was capped off by a tremendous visit to the houston ballet. we bought tickets to "the nutcracker" months ago and totally splurged for the most-central, front-row, founder's box seats we could get. i had already bought sophie a snow princess dress, which she looked absolutely adorable in, and even gus was excited to see the ballet and the orchestra. rich and i always love the houston ballet...it is just absolutely the best in the world. anyway, our seats turned out to be almost as good as a former u.s. president's and his wife's--george and barbara bush were two boxes away from us. it was announced before the start of the ballet that they were in the audience and we were shocked to see how close they were.
after the intermission, we were headed back to our seats when the secret service approached us in the narrow hallway before our box. the guy barked "nice dress" at sophie then a more forceful "move aside" to us all. we did. george bush came around the corner with a few people, and before he got to his box he slowed down, looked at sophie, and said, "are you one of the ballerinas? what a beautiful dress!" sophie smiled a little and then, of course, hid behind me. we were thrilled--a former president spoke to our family! then, a few moments later, barbara bush rounded the corner and stopped, made a big surprised face, and said, "what a lovely little girl!"...and walked over to us! she gushed about sophie (who was still trying to hide behind me) and kept trying her best to get her to talk to her...but then she diverted her attention to gus.
"who is this even more lovely girl standing behind you?"
oh no. she didn't. she didn't just mistake gus for a girl.
i looked at rich who appeared to be frozen in shock and obviously incapable of speech (he likes his social interactions one hundred percent in his control, after all, usually with the assistance of anesthesia), sophie was still hiding behind my skirt, gus was standing there completely non-affected by the comment (as this is probably the 100th time he has heard it), and mrs. bush was still patiently waiting for an answer...so it became painfully obvious that i was going to have to be the one to speak to this. after momentarily considering introducing gus as my eldest daughter, julia, i very calmly told her that, "this is sophie's older brother, gus."
"well OF COURSE it is! if i had looked closer i could have seen that! gus, gus, GUS are you listening to me? gus, we need to talk about that hair...you could be one of my grandsons! hair down to here! and CURLY! ugh. you could be one of mine. i try to tell them to cut it, but they won't. they don't understand what it does to a grandmother!" i tried to explain that gus had been living in new mexico for a time (i was so rattled that i momentarily forgot what state i lived in) so he was a bit rougher than usual...but all was well. all was more than well--all was glorious. thank god for houston social graces.
the ballet itself was absolutely note-perfect, spot-on, excellence-embodied...and every other extreme positive comparison imaginable. all in all a completely phenomenal evening. sophie fell asleep during the last five minutes of the performance; george bush acknowledged her again ("oh, sleepy girl.") before he left. it was quite an experience!
more thanksgiving pictures to come later...
gus titled this post. these images are of gus with a souvenir from the bamboo forest at los poblanos. it might be kind of repetitive, but i think i like all four of them together. maybe just three. not sure.
juliet, sophie and gus after a wonderful dinner at valerie and doug's house
these are just a few images from our trip back to albuquerque--i shot maybe a tenth of both what i normally shoot and what i should have shot; i'm regretting it very much now. i was using a different camera part of the time and hoping to get some good stuff from it...sadly, i don't think i did. anyway, these are the point-and-shoot pictures. the fall along the rio grande is so much more colorful than most people realize--i think there was better fall color in los ranchos than there was here in iowa. enjoy!
danger girl
safety gus
rich flew alone (of course)
los poblanos inn and peacocks
i love this decoration on the front door--i wanted to recreate it here in iowa, but we're already having a bit of a rodent problem...
detail of the indian corn--i adore these colors
the front courtyard
sophie's room (gus spent the night with with cole and randy)
this is what our bed faced--dozens of little mexican folk art figurines
i think they are fabulous
my favorite breakfast companion--rich missed all but one breakfast at los poblanos because he had to work...and he has absolutely no idea how unbelievably delicious everything they made for us was!
peacock
turkeys (thanksgiving is just around the corner)
duck landing in the lotus pond
the purple plums were at their purpliest
rich is totally keeping an eye on that peacock
even in the fall when nothing is in bloom, even on a cloudy day when you can't see the sandia mountains, even though it snowed a tiny, tiny bit on this morning, i still think this is one of the most beautiful places on earth
yeah, it's overexposed and there is no clear point of reference, but i just love a bunny here.
more to come...
we are back from a far-too-short trip to albuquerque, and i'm sad all over again. i absolutely love los ranchos de albuquerque, and i love love love where we stayed--los poblanos inn and experimental farm and cultural center and phenomenal gourmet cuisine and a pink pony with rainbows...they do it all. i have decided that when i die and go to heaven it will look exactly like los poblanos and i'll get to be the gardener of the perennials and shrubs. anyway, while we were gone, paco hit the jackpot and stayed at lucky pawz...and i think it is fair to say he had a seriously fabulous time. human and plant pictures to come later.
two deer mice, found INSIDE the house, now squished flat and in the trash...one guess who had to do it. critters, be warned!
***update: after two hours at the toyota place, the odd smell and terrible gas mileage problem with my prius was solved--mouse nest in the air vent. amazing construction of found cheese goldfish, plastic beads, dryer lint, glitter and chewed air filter made by what i hope was just one little mouse and not the whole mouse community. not feelin' bad about those dead things at all now...
you'd think sophie might relate to fay wray in this image...
...but, no. she related to king kong instead. about a month ago, she saw the 1933 version of king kong and she became completely obsessed with him. she has seen it at least 25 times since then--she loves it. and, she has determined all of our roles--gus is ann darrow, rich is the tyrannosaurus rex that king kong fights in the jungle, i am ann darrow's love interest, and paco is the crazy chief that orders ann darrow to be kidnapped and given to kong. it is hilarious--when she watches the movie she calls out whose part is coming up, when paco's men are going to kidnap gus, etc. it's wonderful. however i think most three-year olds are probably terrified of king kong...so maybe there is something to worry about in there. in any event, she loved it so much she decided, on that first viewing, that she was going to be king kong for halloween and gus was going to be ann darrow. being the best human being in the world, gus cheerfully acquiesced:
and here they are!
i love this--ann darrow holding king kong. i just wish it were in focus...
parade number one: sophie's school. i am room mom for both gus and sophies' classes and, mercifully, her parade and party were scheduled for the morning while gus' started just after lunch. so, kong flew solo in this parade.
off to parade around the neighborhood with sophie's class
parades are thrilling for a king kong bunny!
sophie's class trick-or-treating at a nearby bank
sophie finally realizes there is chocolate in that bag
sweeeeeeet
parade number two: gus' school. gus' teachers are wonderful and let sophie parade with the class, which i appreciate more than i can say. so now sophie is two for two on gus' school halloween parades since she could walk! and, again, gus is the kindest big brother in the world to let her go with him and do it happily. that is lovely.
sophie running to get to gus' school in time for his parade
we managed to get gus dressed (he decided to forego the dress at school--probably a wise choice) and he became a doctor/kong hostage instead
gus and sophie getting excited about the parade!
king kong, doctor ann darrow and zeus parading through the classrooms...
...then out into the neighborhood!
gus is like the best big brother evah. period.
i have no idea whose kid this is, but i will say this was one good michael jackson costume
a mass o' sweaty, becostumed kiddos trundling back to their classrooms for halloween parties
the big night itself! halloween. gus and sophie went out trick-or-treating with friends before i got back from ames (i spent the day at ISU) so i have no pictures of them leaving, damnit! gus decided not to wear the dress that night, either (again, that's fine) and just added a healthy dose of fake blood (which was actually edible--yuck) all over his scrubs to make him reallllllly scarrrrrrrry. so...just these pics of sophie coming home exhausted but happy.
rich, gus and sophie spent the afternoon carving the pumpkins 
scary, scary pumpkins!
king kong and mommy
kong, at the end of the night, having a banana before bed
a very scary happy halloween birthday to you, miss cindy! i wish so much that i were there in ABQ, decorating my house with all kinds of frightening things for a birthday party for you!!! please let me take you to dinner on the saturday night we are in town, and please write the date in ink. i hope you had a lovely time trick-or-treating with the boys and that you eat lots and lots of things that are terrible for you.
happy birthday!!!
i could not agree with this more if i tried:
curator.
and they forgot to mention that it usually requires a soul-sucking PhD, the loans for which you will never be able to repay on a curator's salary. ouch!
(i could have gone with this one as well, but frankly i don't know a single photographer who makes anywhere near this kind of money per year--i think if they factored in people actually trying to work as a photographer and included their yearly earnings, it would average a low 4-figure number annually. and it'd still be stressful.)
these lovely women are margarita, anoko, favour and julia--my kiva ladies. please send positive thoughts their way as they endeavor to build better lives for themselves!
a bunny in the headlights
sophie bunny took a class trip to the petting zoo/pumpkin patch at the sass family farm in riverside...and she loved it! we heard about patch pumpkin patch pumpkin patch pumpkin every waking minute of every single day until we were worn down and agreed to take her back there--but it was a lot of fun for all of us (especially seeing how much she loved it). the haunted house was a little too scary for her, but she made it through. it was a little too scary for gus, too, but he insisted on going through it again to get over it. rich even won a pumpkin while we were there (though since we've been beswined i haven't gone back to get it yet); he guessed its weight correctly. it's feelin' mighty halloweeny!
sophie definitely not convinced this place is safe (it certainly smelled evil)
sophie looking mischevious in the hay bale maze
then she decided to hell with this and did the hay bale maze the way she thought it should be done
and then taught the rest of the class how to do it right
on to the petting zoo! sophie loved the chickens
and feeding the goats
and petting a quail
and petting a bunny named chocolate
and trying to be a dino
sophie and her friends on a hayride
it was pretty cute
sophie almost gets left behind...
...for snacktime!
hooray for sophie pumpkinhead...the field trip is over and sophie garnered a sweet souvenir
72 hours later: back to the farm with gus and daddy! sophie on the horsie swing
and see-saw with gus
and swing, again, with gus
too many things to do on the farm!
rich, who is too tall for his casket
sophie was really trying to play dead...
...but gus was the most convincing
sophie realizing she is back in the scary haunted house
both she and gus were pretty happy to have dad in there with them
taking the easy way through the hay bale maze
gus of the flowing locks
sophie revisiting the chickens
the bunny feeding the goat
and feeding other goats
sophie playing house
gus and his calabacita
rich, in his usual on-call outing pose
this is lindsay, my most beloved little sister, who will always be cooler than me
i completely pilfered these images from my brother-in-law's facebook page, and i must apologize to those who shot them: i'm sorry! i'm using these without your permission, i know, but there was such an obvious subtext in your 80 or so pictures that i couldn't resist duplicating them here. the theme is, of course, the undeniable wondrousness of my lovely sister, lindsay.
lindsay the magnificent and her party bus of friends: during the week they are engineers, architects, nurses, maybe a lawyer or two...professionals of many varieties
and a well-behaved party bus it was at that--amy is using two hands (i think) to drink her beer! and jake looks mighty respectable next to the guy with crazy eyebrows
lindsay and jake...just too cute for words...mainly because they match...i wonder if that was a planned decision? will they be the matching tracksuit couple powerwalking the malls in thirty years? you know what the disgusting truth is: even if they are that couple, they'll still look better than everyone else doing it. and probably me and rich on a good day.
this is the reason they were on the party bus in the first place: an allman brothers/widespread panic concert
completely respectable partying at the concert--absolutely nothing to note here...
...but, once the concert was over, and they got back to the bus, lindsay's party mode fully kicked into overdrive...
i'd like to imagine that guy on the orange cell phone calling some mutual friend of theirs and saying, "oh my god lindsay is rocking the shit on the party bus back home...i wonder if this thing shoots video?" i'm totally going to scout youtube after i finish this post.
continuing to rock the shit
i love amy's face at this gesture! is this party bus surfing? wait, should i be imitating this? oh crap, i have no idea--i am so out of the loop. maybe gus knows.
jake decides it is time for an intervention; party mode lindsay considers the sleep function
jake is contemplating the antics of party mode lindsay and how much he loves her...but hates that he spilled beer on his longhorn shirt. damn bus.
i loooooove you....!
i think it was only a matter of time--living in a college town, bugs running rampant, virulent young adults practicing bad hygiene--that the swine flu hit home. sophie has been sick for a while, got better, but has now gone downhill; i just feel moderately crappy and tired. gus, thankfully, is fine; rich, of course, is out of town and pissed that we may not join him.
anyone have any chicken tortilla soup they'd like to bring by? maybe with some fresh avocado slices? mmm, avocado...
