Happy Birthday, Selena!

It was almost as if Mother Nature wanted to specially thank all those who labor in the Atlanta area today. The weather today was absolutely perfect: sunny, a very slight breeze, and a temperature that was most agreeable (around 80 degrees). We managed to stick to our Labor Day resolution that we’d get a few chores done around the house for as long as we could. We started doing some cleaning and, of course, more wallpaper scraping. Finally around 1:30 we couldn’t stand it anymore and headed for the door.

Our first stop was a new eatery that we’d noticed from the road several times but hadn’t yet had the opportunity to visit. It’s called Metro Market, and it turned out to be fantastic! Since Chip was asleep in his car seat, it was decided that Patricia would be our envoy to the food. Even though one woman kept saying hi over and over again, every one else was super friendly (and not weird). The food was great, a good selection of various types of sandwiches and salads and soups and all manner of deli goodness. The ingredients seemed to be really fresh and they used a lot of them. Patty got a four cheese grilled cheese sandwich, which had gouda, swiss, dill havarti, and provolone (or something like that). Matt created his own sandwich, with turkey, sprouts, and cheddar on an onion focaccia roll. They were tasty and consumed rapidly in the car.

Then we were off to the Marietta Square. This weekend was Art in the Park, Marietta’s small art fair. There were probably 60 booths with the usual mix of types of media. There were also a number of kids’ crafts booths, including a booth from the Veterinary Clinic whose two dogs really liked Gabriel. Our favorite artist was Robert Griffis, but we didn’t buy anything. If we had $400 burning a hole in our pockets, though, this would have been a great way to use it.

We went through all of the booths pretty quickly, and got down to the important business of ice cream and coffee. Sarah Jean’s Ice Cream was a cute place that looked like the outside of a building and had a train going around a track near the ceiling that Gabriel loved. Other people were watching him watch the train. Cool Beans was the find of the day, with the best espresso PA’s had in a loooong time. They roast their own coffee and sell beans of lots of varieties and roasts. The girl behind the counter was very nice, even if she did say "expresso," and they even have free internet access. When Patty gets her own car, she and Gabriel will be spending lots of time there, unless we open our cafe first (we’re hoping to do that next year). We sat at a table out back in the shade of a big tree and enjoyed the nicest weather we’ve had in a long, long time. It was very calming.

On the way home, we stopped at the liquor sto' to buy some Erath Pinot Noir and some Aquinas Chardonnay. Erath is our all-time favorite, and Aquinas was something that looked interesting and is pretty good and definitely unique (we tasted apples and grapes and smelled popcorn!). We also stocked up on tonic water, because our gin’s been getting lonely.

We have a couple of photos today from the weekend. One is of Gabriel, who sat down in a chair when he wanted to watch TV in Selena’s room yesterday. The other is of Matthew’s new bonsai tree. Keep this one in your memory; in 5 years, you’ll see that it is... well, the exact same size, hopefully, but a really cool shape.

Date Night

We had a "date" today to celebrate Matt's birthday, ending our traditional week of birthday celebration, while Gabriel stayed with Chris and Yolanda. We went to the High Museum of Art, the Montreaux Jazz Festival (where the band was definitely not jazz, rather blues, so we left), Borders (where Matt picked up "The Quiet American" by Graham Greene), Laredo Mexican Grille, and Publix (for groceries). We found that it wasn't much different without Gabriel, because he really doesn't make it difficult to do any of the things we normally do. We realized that we really don't go places where kids aren't welcome, and at dinner, there were lots of noisy kids, so we might as well have brought him along.

It was still a big treat to get out together alone, though. We were able to talk without interruption, and we were able to shut up and relax when we wanted to. We didn't have to change a diaper all evening, and we got to hold hands walking down the street, rather than push a stroller. It was also nice to be able to walk around the museum without a fussy little one to hurry us.

Gabriel had a great time, too. He played with Selena all afternoon, and when he was sleepy, Yolanda held him while she, Tristan, and Selena sang him to sleep. He loved it.

Tomorrow is Selena's sixth birthday, and the entire school system is celebrating by taking the day off! What a lucky girl!

A Big Week

Since it's been a while since our last post, we have a lot to write. First of all, we have had two very important birthdays, on the 27th of August. That same weekend, we babysat for Chris and Yolanda while they cruised to Cozumel and never did return to port. And of course, Gabriel's been up to lots of stuff.

For Matt's 32nd birthday, we took the kids to Oregon Park, where he and Corbin threw around the football and the rest of us played on the playground. When we go back home, we ordered pizza from Domino’s to support the Ann Arbor-based company (we also do all of our book shopping at Borders and stop at the Espresso Royale when in Athens), opened presents, and ate cake. Corbin, Tristan, and Selena chose one of Matt’s favorite magazines, Architectural Digest, and his loving wife and son gave him a mini mouse for the notebook computer that works on the left side. His big present wasn’t given until today, though, since he had to pick it out himself. More on that later. Cake was a delicious sweet cream ice cream with chocolate chips mixed in on chocolate devil’s food cake with a chocolate ganache icing. It read “Happy Birthday Matty/Daddy.” It had the tallest candles we’ve ever seen!

We wish that we had some embarrassing photos of Laura as a child, but they are unfortunately still packed somewhere in the basement. Oh well, she’ll just have to settle for a big HAPPY BIRTHDAY and lots of love from us.

We had a great time with C, T, and S all weekend. Patty enjoyed doing their homework with them, and Matt liked the forced change to his biological clock. He is now getting to work earlier and has a much easier commute in the morning. Chris and Yolanda were delayed due to the hurricane, but the cruise ship at least got them to land, even if it was a different state than the location of their car... They have since driven their rental car back to Mobile to pick up the minivan, which was luckily parked on the 3rd floor of a four-floor parking deck. The first 2 levels were under water, and the top one had no roof.

While the kids were at school on Friday, we slipped away for Ru-San's fabulous sushi buffet. We have vowed to go there every other Friday for the rest of time because we definitely eat our money's worth, and we can try things we wouldn't ordinarily buy. We found that the cream cheese banana roll was surprisingly good but whatever that super slimy sashimi thing was, was not. Gabriel actually tried the calamari, but when we gave him a second piece, we found that he'd somehow eaten the breading and left the squid in his cheek, maybe to spit into his napkin when we weren't looking. It was a step in the right direction though; we haven't gotten him to eat a sushi roll (don't worry, not all sushi is raw) yet.

Today, we went to the Monastery of the Holy Spirit to pick up Matt's bonsai tree. He had to pick it out himself because A) he couldn't ever be left out of a trip to the monastery, and 2) he's going to put a lot of love and effort into this tree, so he had to choose one that "spoke to him." We came home with a beautiful little juniper, about 10 years old, and a little clay turtle, to remind us of the one we saw in our yard, as a decoration. Matthew-san is planning on shaping the juniper in the Kengaï or Han-Kengaï style.

Chipdip is starting to choose walking over crawling. He did not sit down between 8:30 and 11:30 tonight. When he got tired, he crashed, as the photo above shows. He had been pulling clothes out of his hamper, when he laid down and started fussing. Before he had the chance to put the clothes back in (which he does, believe it or not), Daddy rubbed his back and he was out.

The Chipster has a new favorite toy. He carries his baseball with him all over the house, and we play catch with it constantly. On Thursday, he made his first catch on his own, and it was one-handed!!! That's our little first-baseman!

The only other big Gabriel news is that he's feeding himself, even if it is still baby-type food. We did have to divert some of the Red Cross volunteers from hurricane relief to clean up our kitchen, but on the positive side, Mommy was able to read Harry Potter while Chip ate dinner...

Don't Touch the Wildlife

On a walk down through the neighborhood today, we found a red velvet ant, which is a flightless female wasp known for its aggressiveness and painful sting. It is also known as the cow killer, because it has been rumored that its sting is so painful that it could kill a cow. It isn't actually lethal, and it is a pretty insect. We watched it cross the street, and it didn't seem to notice us.

The hummingbird also made an appearance today, but decided not to dine at Chez Angle when it heard someone on the other side of the window yelling for her son to come and see it. As if he would understand and come running, duh...

Happy Birthday, Dad!

Today marks the 53rd anniversary of the day that West Virginia gained a native son and the world gained - well, we're not quite sure, but we'll let you know when we have it figured out! Happy birthday, Dad! In honor of his birthday, here are a few photos we managed to get together:

Dad's the sketchy-looking one on the right, Melvin on the left always looked the same, and Joe Joe in the middle doesn't look so scary now

Dad looks a little more clean-cut here with his big brother and best friend, Melvin

Joe Joe and Dad practicing their cheer for homecoming

We thought you'd enjoy this look back at the many faces of JWK.

In other news, Gabriel fed himself with a spoon and a fork today with a little help. Also, and this is huge, he ate pad thai! We had a spicy and limey chicken pad thai for dinner, and Chip couldn't get enough. Forget the walking, our little boy is eating Thai food! We are so proud, sniff sniff...

We saw a luna moth tonight. We'd read about them, not only in our favorite book, The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier and Clay, but also on the internet while researching the big moths that have been visiting us. We knew that we are in their range, but they've always sounded like they are almost mythically rare and we never expected to actually see one. After reading so much about their beauty and seeing many photos of them, we still weren't prepared for the amazing creature we saw dancing before our eyes tonight. Its wings were a vivid green, and its body was a brilliant white. It was flying a little clumsily, but when it briefly landed on the window sill near the kitchen sink, it held its wings out and literally took our breath away. We can't believe that we find moths interesting, but there is such a large variety on our kitchen windows at night that we can't help but notice them. We're even starting to record the varieties we can identify, along with the frogs, turtles, etc. that we find on our property.

Anyway, Happy Birthday Dad! Your presents will be in the mail soon, even though you have us - isn't that present enough? Ha ha ha!!!