the case for naming your child "apple" (or "moon unit," for that matter)

pictures are on hiatus just for the day--i kinda need to address this...

many people laughed at chris martin and gwyneth paltrow (and frank zappa, RIP) for giving their kids less-than-common names, but i guarantee those kids will never be mistaken for some idiot who doesn't pay a lien-happy court reporter (see "apparently the year of the bully isn't over yet")...or a chemical-happy dude in gallup who was recently arrested for a DUI/DWI.

in december, richard c. allen of gallup, NM, birthdate 5/4/1970, was arrested for a DWI (or DUI, if you please). it was neither his first arrest nor his first conviction for alcohol or drug-related issues (search "richard allen" on the court site for more info). he was sentenced in the beginning of april; this information was made publicly available shortly thereafter. yesterday a patient's husband spoke to my/our richard c. allen's technician to ask if this DUI conviction is why my/our rich is leaving new mexico...and needless to say it freaked everyone out a bit to hear.

let me make this perfectly clear: richard c. allen, m.d., ph.d., birthdate 6/16/1965, currently residing in los ranchos de albuquerque and working in albuquerque and santa fe, did NOT get a DWI or DUI or whatever and has never had anything more than a speeding ticket ever in his life (and that was like over 15 years ago). he is NOT leaving the state to escape any form of embarrassment; he is leaving the state to accept a far better position in iowa. my/our rich is not the richard c. allen in question for this DWI/DUI conviction. and, to reiterate, he also did not NOT pay kendra tellez court reporting, either--that was yet another richard allen. he also isn't the physics professor at UNM, even another richard c. allen, who is most likely a perfectly decent guy.

i am certain apple martin will not have these problems later in life.

10 pictures a day for 10 days, day seven

these are pictures from houston, our vacation within a vacation spot. we went to the zoo, ate at chuy's, saw uncle jake and aunt lindsay, and visited the black swans. enjoy!

gus and sophie at the reflecting pool at the houston zoo--i remember this space so well from when i was little

lions!

meerkats!

cheetahs!

giraffes!

sophie wondering if gus will ever move away from his elephant...

...as gus had a hard time letting go

lunch at chuy's! this was fun.

sophie and her favorite uncle jake

uncle jake, aunt lindsay and gus behaving as well as could possibly be expected

sophie bunny!

nanno!

sophie stretches to the swans

bye bye swans

10 pictures a day for 10 days, day six

sophie, eating a tasty late-night snack, while gus gorges on cartoon network in the background

this task is more difficult than i anticipated...perhaps i don't have as many pictures to post as i thought? these are a collection of random pictures from the farm (not quite two weeks ago).

i know this is terribly politically incorrect, but i love this image anyway

chief sophie bunny

beautiful texas bluebonnets

sophie tramping through the bluebonnets

check out the red bluebonnet!

as blasphemous as this is, i personally prefer indian paintbrushes...

gus driving his tractor around the property--he is so big!

gus driving me and sophie bunny around (she looks so much like rich here)

evil maremmas--they live on the adjoining property and are meant to protect a fancy herd of goats...however last year they were killing the babies so i'm not really sure what their purpose is now (they are terrible pets--don't even try it. and, they look very much like great pyrennees dogs, which are wonderful pets, so go figure.)

this is ingrid, one of two new babies...and who is having a much better start in life than the following little colt (DON'T scroll down if you are injured-animal squeamish)...












this poor little colt, who is as yet unnamed, was attacked by my dad's pack of eight half-lab, half-feral dogs. pack behavior is scary but somewhat predictable--they attack the weakest or the youngest--and they went after this poor little guy not once but twice. i'm not sure what is going to happen to him. poor baby. i hate those goddamned dogs.

10 pictures a day for 10 days, day five

more laura george; i believe the mushroom monster, too

in the spirit of being nice to myself i took a day off from the picture thing (but i think i get a little credit for the crude aggie joke). these pictures are from my, gus', cindy's and cole's trip to cliff's amusement park last weekend--it was technically a spring fiesta for gus' school, but we forewent the fundraising side of it and just did the rides with his friends. i think gus liked it. enjoy!

miss cindy drove us all to cliff's

the scrambler! this is gus' favorite ride

scrambled boys--gus and cole rescrambled themselves right after this picture was taken

creepy clown! why on earth is this thing installed at an amusement park?

gus, after proving his mightiness at the hammer, picked out some bitchin' prizes

hammer time (ooooh, that was bad)

cole, andres and gus on the spinny thing (the nauseator?)

the nauseator, in full swing

i feel so bad that i made gus ride the teacups by himself--how sad is this?!

(gus wasn't feeling too well himself after those teacups...) tired boys, post-cliff's, tramping to the car at the end of the day

i haven't heard a good aggie joke in a long time...

...but this is definitely one of the best. yesterday rich was in surgery all day and his last patient was an aging queen, with full-on manicured french tips and everything, who was getting his lids done. by all accounts he was one of the most entertaining patients the ASC has had in a looooong time. as he was going under, he started telling really dirty texas jokes. this was rich's favorite:

a blonde a&m girl gets pulled over for speeding on a desolate texas highway. the officer demands license and registration; the girl hands over her license, leans over, and fumbles around in her glove compartment for the registration. when she turns around she sees the officer has whipped out his penis and has stuck it through her window. "oh shit," she says, "not another breathalyzer."

sorry, i couldn't resist.

10 pictures a day for 10 days, day four

with all the talk of texas secession, i was almost distracted from my duty of posting at least 10 images...almost. i am, however, posting pictures from easter at my parent's place in washington, texas. and, of course, washington couldn't represent texas more if it tried--it was the birthplace of texas, after all. enjoy the easter egg hunt!

sophie focusing her energies on the upcoming hunt; gus decided nanno drove too slow so he took over

"mom, if you hold my basket i can find them faster..."

the easter bunny in texas is mean and hides things in the prickly pear (ask me to show you my prickly pear scar someday)

sophie found something!

and something else!

bill tries to cramp sophie's style by deigning to speak to her

gus teaches sophie the fine art of the swap; mommy supervised

sophie finds yet another something else!

gus, checking out the front pasture, making sure he isn't missing anything (that boy has excellent vision for egg hunting)

gus' cache is enough...

...that he let nanno drive home (and tyler)...

...and while sophie checked out her own cache...

...gus made his easter bunny properly headless.