missy and rich met in a bar.

Missy and Rich met in a bar.

It was an inauspicious beginning, to be sure, but as neither of them were raging drunk that night they agreed, and remembered, to meet a second time. (Missy had to push the issue, though.)

Things progressed nicely. Missy brought Rich home to meet her parents and grandmother; Rich joked, on that first date, that he’d be taking her away from her beloved Houston to live in Iowa.

Everyone laughed at the ridiculousness of the idea.

Shortly thereafter, Missy took a job at a museum in Dallas. Rich visited from Houston on weekends and eventually moved in. He finished his writing his dissertation sitting at her kitchen table.

They left Dallas and traveled throughout Europe for several months. Rich bit the bullet and asked Missy to marry him; she bit the bullet and accepted. After their travels they moved back to Houston and got married. Missy finished her Master’s and worked in a bookstore while Rich finished Medical School.

They moved to Albuquerque for Rich’s Internship year; Missy worked in a museum. They biked and traveled a lot throughout New Mexico. At the end of Rich’s Internship year they bought a tandem bicycle, shipped it to Europe, and rode over 4000 miles in 4 ½ months. They were still married at the end of the trip, however…

…Rich made good on his joke and moved Missy to Iowa for his Residency and Fellowship number one. It was a bit of a shock to her, as she had never lived anywhere that required a heavy coat.

No one in Texas was laughing at that joke about Iowa anymore.

Missy started her Ph.D. and worked at two museums. Rich just worked, and worked, and worked. But they managed to produce Gus the Great so all was forgiven by Missy’s family in Texas—especially when they learned that Rich would take Job number one in Houston.

Thus, the three of them moved back to Houston for Rich’s Job number one.

It didn’t last.

Thus, the three of them then moved back to Albuquerque for Rich’s Job number two.

It didn’t last, either.

Rich wasn’t happy being a General Ophthalmologist; he wanted to be a Specific Ophthalmologist. So, he moved Missy and Gus back to Iowa for his Fellowship number two. Since they were back, Missy realized that she really should finish her dissertation…and she did. And in their very rare spare time, they managed to produce Sophie the Small (but Strong). It was a busy two years.

The four of them then moved back to Albuquerque, for the third time, for Richs’ Jobs number three and four. Missy’s family liked visiting New Mexico more than visiting Iowa, so they were appeased. However…

It also didn’t last.

Things did not work out exactly as planned, again, which opened the door for Job number five in

IOWA!

For the third time, the four of them will move to Iowa City, Iowa where Rich will begin Job number five this August. The joke has now been given new life and is retold ad nauseum. (As history seems to repeat, they are keeping their house in Albuquerque this time.)

Therefore here is yet another address for you to add to your ever-expanding list of addresses for Missy and Rich. As of August 1 (or so) they are:

Missy, Rich, Gus & Sophie Allen
(you’re going to have to ask me for this info…)

As if all of this weren’t odd enough, and as the Allen Family Bermuda Triangle is largely unexplained after all, they actually have the same exact phone number that they had the previous two times:
(and this, too)

Freaky.

what the hell just happened?

i was sitting here, minding my own business, wallowing in my sorrows, when my most beloved little sister called me out of the blue and said she was jumping on a plane in 12 hours and coming to stay with me! she did and she did, and i just put her back on a plane to houston. it was a wonderful surprise visit that was most generously facilitated by lauree, so THANK YOU SO VERY MUCH for that! i absolutely loved having her here.

but, before i could get too sad about her departure, i got a ring at my doorbell just after getting home from the airport to find that my movers had arrived a day early. welcome back to iowa, indeed. being me i was counting on these last 24 hours to get all the laundry done that i hadn't done for the past two weeks, going through the house and finding all my jewelry and packing it, and stuff like that...none of which has been done. none.

SO, i'm entertaining packers and i am not even close to ready to move myself. i guess i kinda have to be now, though! i'm posting something tomorrow that was to be our latest change-of-address card, but it got too wordy and i think it is better served here. look for it.

yay packing....woohoo....

driving through los ranchos, looking for everything and nothing

driving down my street, looking for roadrunners, cottontails, new mexico whiptails, and any other moving desert creature;

driving down dietz road, searching for quail families that don't cross rio grande boulevard;

driving down rio grande, announcing to the car "llamas!" (miniature llamas or alpacas and miniature donkeys, and some breed of goat);

driving down griegos, past the sheep farm with the supernatural trumpet vine that always blooms like crazy;

driving down matthew, watching out for errant chickens and guinea hens;

driving down chavez, looking for the grey gander that marches up and down her field and terrorizes the horses;

driving down dietz place, espying the emus;

driving down rio grande, looking for the pheasant family near the S turn, not far from the old treehouse and where the coyotes walk along the road;

driving down rio grande, seeking canadian geese, sandhill cranes and any other migratory birds;

driving down rio grande, admiring los poblanos farm and all the farmers farming;

driving down rio grande, watching fat cows eat long grass;

driving down rio grande, looking for horses, horses and more horses;

driving down rio grande, searching desperately for that enormous porcupine i know i saw one night about a year ago;

driving down rio grande, smelling but never actually seeing skunks;

driving down every street in the village, seeing fat labs and goldens laze in the sun behind invisible and not-so-invisible fences;

driving down every ditch in the village, watching new mexico brown dogs trot here and there and everywhere with their tongues hanging out and a happy step in their trot.



gigantic beloved ancient cottonwoods, reviled salt cedars, volunteer elms that need to be removed, pyrocantha/firethorn, desert willows, bird of paradise trees, two tons of purple plum, russian sage too numerous to count, chamisa, scrubby piñons, scrubby junipers, scrubby odd evergreens that i don't know the name of, cacti, lavender grosso and a little lavender provence, fields of sunflowers, goatheads that will pop your tires and stab the hell out of your fingers, silverleaf nightshade, bindweed that looks pretty in a field when it isn't choking a garden, the occasional tumbleweed, rectangular bales of freshly mowed blue grama grass, naturally-occurring green (in the desert!), hollyhocks, lilacs, crusher fine and pecan shelled yards, and acequias feeding flooded fields with ducks swimming in the newly-made lakes.

i hope it never changes.

more pictures: my birthday!

more belated, random pictures--this time from my birthday, which rich deemed the 12th anniversary of my 29th birthday. he's sweet like that. i had a lovely day with friends and family and lavender and alcohol and cakes by rose. it was glorious. seriously, if every birthday could be like my 41st i would be a very, very lucky and happy woman.

lavender festival at los poblanos, and i look like i am about to eat gus

then rich tried to eat gus later in the day

sweet sophie bunny!

rich and gus throwin' down some sweet moves before my party

three (of five) pretty ladies come to celebrate! (julia, cindy and tammie--missing erika and valerie, and john and doug who aren't ladies...)

rich trying to stand as far away as humanly possible from the flaming cake. uh, thanks...

nothing caught on fire, and the frosting only melted slightly

this was a couple of days earlier at an annual birthday dinner with valerie, who was born less than 48 hours before me--this year we went to la provence and it was phenomenal

same dinner--and note to self: close your mouth when valerie is taking a picture of you...

sophie is always good for a smile...

...but even on my birthday, gus makes sure i know where i am with him

still too many things going on at once...

sophie as the morton's salt girl

...but, alas, no more incidences of sexual harassment, unless you count the above photo (is that harassment?). we have packed mucho into our last month of living in new mexico (for now) and i am overwhelmed on a daily basis. the packers start a week from tomorrow and northamerican swears our stuff will be in iowa two weeks from today. i can't believe it--even though i have had months to prepare it all seems to be happening too fast now.

anyway, enough of that--on to PICTURES! these are random happenings in the triangle over the past couple of weeks.


ever load your dishwasher then realize you are out of automatic dishwasher detergent and then think, "well, i've got some liquid dishwasher soap--i'll just squirt some in the dispenser"?

this is what happens when thoughts lead to such folly. don't do it.

over this past month, gus has officially started his pre-teen years in earnest:

sk8r boi! gus saved a good amount of money for this board, and he loves it.

just learning how to balance...

...and ride

look at these cool wheels!

he has even figured out how to improve his old toys with the addition of a skateboard

when not in use, the board becomes a shrine to gus' pre-teen awesomeness

4th of july!

fireworks in the backyard and, amazingly, nothing ignited that wasn't supposed to burn

paco checking out the display; sophie is not impressed

we got a little rain in the evening--nothing too serious but just enough to make a lovely rainbow and bring the morton's salt girl out again

no rain, no rainbow...beautiful

gus grabs his trusty board and rushes out to find, once and for all, the end of the rainbow...

...while sophie watches on, realizing that this skateboard thing kinda sucks for her

too many things going on at once...

...for me to actually describe them all properly! it all started with lavender festival then my birthday last weekend and ended with me sexually harassing one of my best friends. however, i totally believe she was at least partially to blame, as she asked me a loaded question while i myself was loaded...so there. also, we bought another house, which means we now own two houses we can't afford. yay us!

pictures, hopefully, to come...eventually.

i am officially overwhelmed.

seriously. i am going under rapidly. this move is far more taxing and involved than any of the previous ones, and i have no idea why that is. maybe the addition of sophie is what is pushing me over the edge--i don't know. i do know that i have nothing clever or insightful or enlightening to say...because all i can think about is what i have to do in the next five minutes.

if anyone in albuquerque is reading this, i could so use an iced tea and a hug (but not from my stalker).

flag food!

happy 4th of july! this year we are taking it easy--i'm doing yardwork; rich is biking with gus and the bunny. last night there were TONS of fireworks going off in our neighborhood (at least i think they were fireworks--this is new mexico so one is never sure) so i'd imagine tonight will be even better. fireworks are legal here, which has always surprised me as we live in the desert...and the desert burns in the summer...but whatever. we've had lots of rain recently and we have our own private well that is chock full o' heavy metalfied water to put out whatever fires may catch.

so...flag food! i was looking for images of old glory to celebrate the 4th and i kept coming across food made to look like an american flag. most of them are cake, which is sweet (oooo, that's bad!), but there were also cookies, dog biscuits and even a toasted tuna sandwich. there was a pizza as well and i have no idea what they used for the blue (it's the last photo); i'm not sure i want to know. there are also a surprising number of undergarments made to cover our most american parts in flaggy goodness.

enjoy your fourth!

funny sight off the freeway

okay, a hardcore porn shop off an exit ramp isn't that funny; the juxtaposition of the mattress ad next door to such is a wee bit more humorous...but the fact that GUS' SECOND GRADE TEACHER is the woman featured on this mattress ad makes this freakin' hilarious. and we spent $40,000 sending gus where...to manzano day school!

super-duper classy, y'all!