Welcome Home, Jack!

Here's our first view of Jack. He's the one smiling behind the guy who looks confused. He came back with about 4 inches of height and 35 pounds of muscle.

Here's a great sign that Jaq's friends John and Brittany made.

This is one of the signs we made. We hung it right on the 2nd LAR sign at their headquarters.

We were especially proud of our representation of the 2nd LAR patch.

Gabriel loved the water and wanted to walk right into the ocean. This was taken at Onslow Beach, the beach on base where we stayed.

Here's Jack next to the other sign we made him. This one was on a fence outside the base, and they drove past it on their way in, but he didn't see it because it was too dark (they'd been delayed a few hours due to bad weather).

We all went to Shogun for dinner on our last night there. We had teppanyaki and sushi, and Gabriel was fascinated by our chef. He even used his fork to flip his rice when the chef used his spatula to flip some shrimp tails!

Chip loved the koi at the entrance and petted them when they came to say hello.

Here we all are after dinner.

This shows how frustrating mealtime can be - sometimes the food ends up everywhere but between his teeth. Look how frustrated Daddy looks!

And then sometimes, mealtimes are very nice, especially when he falls asleep in our arms...

How Much Comcast Sucks

We just got off the phone with Comcast. Here's a summary of our experience with them today:

• Channel 455 (Michigan game) blacked out. Tried to call local Comcast office. Got cut off 5 times.
• On 6th try, it went to hold.
• In the meantime, tried online live chat. Their responses stopped coming through, so session ended.
• Read transcript and discovered they were responding and we weren't seeing it, so tried again.
• Same thing happened. We were talking and then stopped getting responses. Still on hold.
• Tried a 3rd time. Got a snotty "analyst" while still waiting on the phone for a "customer service executive" (the titles change every time we call, but the sh&*%ty service does not). Here's the transcript - notice how the responses have nothing to do with what we type. I'm "Mrs." because I have a problem with these turds calling me by my first name...

  chat id : 79a933a0-535c-4cae-924e-44feb7f86271 Problem : Billing/General Inquiry Terry.5151 > Thank you for choosing Comcast. My name is Terry. How may I help you today?
  Terry.5151 > Can you please acknowledge that you are still at your computer? If I do not receive a response from you, I may have to close this conversation to assist another customer.
  Mrs. > We are having trouble contacting any live person - we have a few issues - our gameplan channel 455 isn't working, and we have billing questions, as well. We were cut off on the phone 5 times and have been on hol{cut off, message too long}
  Mrs. > yes still here...
  Terry.5151 > You will have to contact us directly at 1-800-COMCAST for further information/trouble shooting regarding this issue. We are open 24 hours a day, 7 days a week.
  Mrs. > at mpgangle@gmail.com in case your answers stop coming through?
  Terry.5151 > This number will get you someone live.
  Mrs. > Wait, hold on, I've been on hold for 2 hours though...
  Terry.5151 > Follow the prompts for cable tv as this is the internet technical site.
  Terry.5151 > I do not have cable tv access actually.
  Mrs. > I'm aware of that, but the last time I was transferred to someone. Also, the option I chose was billing.
  Mrs. > Certainly since there's a billing option (there was cable tv an hour ago but not now?!), you could at least help with that?
  Terry.5151 > One moment please.
  Terry.5151 > Please wait, while the problem is escalated to another analyst

• Called the 1-800 number while waiting for the next analyst (escalated???) and was on hold for 10 minutes but got through
• "Executive" not helpful at all except to say that the channel wasn't working and that we somehow have an additional month tacked on to our bill that we are somehow responsible for. In the meantime, went online to discover that our bill is not available online until next month, for some reason, and the executive didn't know why.
• The "executive" ordered a paper bill, since we aren't receiving our statements, and has no idea when the channel will be available. She will make a note in our account so we can call back and go through this all again to fight for credit for the day of missed gameplan service. We're looking forward to that.
• Tony calls, but since we have Comcast on both lines, we can't click over to him.
• Hang up on first Comcast call after over 2 1/2 hours. Still on hold. Also still on hold for the next "analyst", who never showed up.

That is how much Comcast sucks.

In Honor Of Our Anniversary

10 Things I Love About My Husband:

1. His smile, which was the first thing I ever saw him wearing. It seems that his soul shines through that smile
2. His adventurousness, which makes for great vacations
3. His talkativeness. He can talk about anything. We just had a 45-minute conversation about Hitler with interruptions here and there to talk about orthodonture
4. His brilliant mind, which possesses knowledge about everything from thread count to historical debates to the names of 50 shades of brown to how to design and build an airplane
5. His sometimes blond, sometimes brown hair, which is so fun to toussle
6. His connection with nature, which makes us feel like we're making breakthrough discoveries each time we walk through our yard
7. His singing voice. Nothing sounds better than hearing him sing to Gabriel
8. His balance between childish enjoyment of life and adult wisdom and responsibility. We may do the New York Times crossword puzzle in the morning and then play a video game at night
9. His patience, which he needs with me as a wife
10. His generosity. Pregnancy was so easy because he made breakfast, lunch, and dinner just about every day, as well as almost all of the housework, so I could get my rest. And I never even asked.
11. +1: The way he inspires by example. He teaches me about being a good spouse and a good parent every day

10 Things I Love About My Wife

1. Her freckles, which stole my heart
2. Her dedication to her task, whatever it may be, that makes it impossible for her to give up until the job is done (and done right)
3. Her brilliant mind, which seems to know something about everything on Earth and well beyond.
4. The way she always seems to know exactly what I need, when I need it, without me having to say a single word or make a single gesture.
5. The way she can switch from mother to wife in an instant, and is always eager to be a wife first.
6. Her amazingly inquisitive nature and the way she asks questions about everything
7. That she loves baseball, puts up with my rants about Michigan football (mostly), and most importantly keeps my perspective on what is really important.
8. Her musical talent, which she greatly downplays.
9. That she never, ever, needs make-up to look gorgeous and that she is so uncomplicated.
10. Her absolute and never ending patience with me and my quirks.
11. +1: Her adventurousness, which can turn even a routine trip to the store into an exploration of places we've never seen before.

p.s. Neither of us knew the other had actually listed 11 things. Guess that's #12: we think alike.

p.p.s. Amazing parallel between our #1s and #3s. Huh.

Nice Weather

While our family up north is suffering through the beginning of winter, we're enjoying a nice extended summer down south. It was so nice today that we sat out on the back deck with the newspaper and spent a lot of time watering the lawn and spraying the outside of the house. Gabriel had a great morning. He loves being outside, and he especially loves playing in the leaves. We saw a hummingbird, a cardinal, a lizard, and some really interesting butterflies today, as well as a creepy variety of spiders.

The inside of the house looks like a tornado came through. Or, more accurately, Hurricane Gabriel. But it would be unfair to blame it all on the little guy, because he didn't pile the dishes in the sink or allow newspapers to pile up in the kitchen, and he certainly didn't throw dirty laundry all over our bedroom or neglect to unpack many boxes that still sit around making us anxious. We will blame the potatoes all over the floor, the toys and books all over the living room, and the credit cards strewn about the kitchen floor on him.

Tooth Report

We noticed Chip's upper right premolar today and his lower left premolar on Wednesday. His new tooth total is 11!

Bird Watching

Well, we must have gotten the mix right this time. We refilled the hummingbird feeder yesterday and joked that all we had to do is stand there and watch them come to the feeder. We weren't far off; this morning, there are two hummingbirds fighting over it! First, one of them ate a lot more than usual, and then he sat on a nearby branch, which you can see in the photo. He sat there for a while, cleaning his beak on the branch like he was sharpening a knife, and preening his feathers. All of a sudden, he saw another one and chased it away. A few minutes later, the second guy came back and drank a lot of nectar, and then he sat on the same branch as the other one had, watching for crows or hawks every time he heard one. They have been drinking and fighting for a while now. Hmmm... sounds like college. Anyway, they like to fly up to our window and look at us face to face, so we have a couple of photos of that, too.

Hummingbird #1 sitting on a branch

Hummingbird #2 taking a drink

Flying in to see the giant human

Posing for the camera

Web sites say that these should be ruby-throated hummingbirds, but if they're female or young males, they don't have any red in their feathers, so it's difficult to tell. These don't. The other way to tell is to look at their wing shape and size, which we will do the next time one alights near the window.