Double Fisted at Deny's

Sometimes a rough starting morning requires a little greazzy spoon therapy.

We woke up to realize that we forgot to set an alarm for the scheduled appointment with Homeland Security. So we scrambled like mad to get us and a cranky booger out of the house. And my little man does not like to be rushed.

Now, we're not trying to evade a visit from the Feds. Oh-contrare' No we were interested in meeting the feds.

And no we are not terrorists, ....nor do we know, or want to report any terrorists.

Rather, we want another kid. (Now that is truly terrorizing thought! Another screaming kid. Scream in 3D, yikes!).

So we mosey on down (or in this case triple time mosey down) to the Homeland Security office to get fingerprinted and checked for cooties. They squirt some kind of sticky lube on your hand and repeated smash your fingers on an optical scanner.

"No, thats no good, give me your finger again" "Now contort your body like this" "Ok, you need to relax your hand" "Now squat down, and put your foot behind your head, ....smile please" Ok, you need to relax your hand, let me do the pressing, rolling, squashing, smashing on the screen"

This, and meanwhile Alexi, completely sour from the lack of attention, is crying and pulling at the pant legs, begging to be picked up.

Finally, papers are handed to the dude at the desk.

"THUNK, THUNK, THUNK."

The official seal stamp is put on the papers .....in triplicate.

Now we wait. So far no larceny, felony, or any new baloney have crept into our official records since the last time we did this exact same thing two years ago. Why none of this repeat paperwork and hassle carries over from the first adoption, remains a mystery to me. Guess that government bureaucracy has got us where they want us, at their complete mercy and beckon call.

Yes, we wait, with a little disappointment as our adoption service has recently informed us the demand children from Ethiopia has greatly increased and the waiting list time has increased proportionately. We can only hope the second placement call comes some time before the beginning of next year.

Snack Break

Here we have a tired papa from lugging his package all day.

Self portrait is tricky from iphone since the click "button" is part of touch screen and cannot be seen. So, getting any self photo that has most of ones head in the frame I consider a good accomplishment.

Alexi still loves getting out. Starting to play with the snow now. Soon were gonna show him how to really play with it.

Ethopian lovesong

Lil' dude doing his best Elton John imitation.

Birthday turns

Woke up this morning to a beautiful site on the computer.....I like to call this the Desert Rose. Not to be confused with a Grateful Dead song. Nor a rare flower growing somewhere in the Great Basin. Instead, it is specific to local snow conditions in the salt lake mountains.

Its an indicator for the danger level assessment coming from the Avalanche Forecast center. When the flower blooms red or black, you might as well not even think about trying for a backcountry turns. When Orange, proceed with caution. But when it is yellow, it pretty mellow. And when green, you gotta get your smile and grin.

....Especially when there is 2+ feet of fresh out there.

So Twigalicous and Powderprincess (nom du piste' names for Wiffy and Christine) took Birthday Boy for a little tour.And oh what a beauty she was. Swirling mist of low clouds and a sun that occasionally illuminate the white gleaming glory surrounding us.

Then my beauty spied a beauty amongst the beauty.

And who was given the first dibs honor? ....why, that would be BirthdayBoy ....aka. Helmut, .....aka TwoTurns (and many other names that are not fit to be printed here!)

Drooling at the top of this line was thrilling.

Post turns was still full of drooling. We were first tracks on this run which is named Potato's But that name, today, is a bit of a misnomer. In stead of sticky, gooey stuff, it was much diffrent. She needs a new name. like Fluff Delicious Delight, or Face Shot Munch Munch I love U, (or something like that).

You know, now I can understand the feeling Alexi gets when he reaches the end of his bottle and he still wants more!

More! Daddy MORE! .....I WANT MOOOOORE!

So, neglecting work for a little while longer was in order. We grabbed the other side of the canyon for a home run. Suffice it to say, we were not disappointed.

Trip to Cozumel

"Who wants to go to Cozumel?"

"Ooo, me, dady me!"

"Well Alexi how do we get there?"
"Daddy, it is just over the woods .....

....and thru some tunnels."

"Then what do we do when we get there, Alexi?"
"Ummm, well we ....
....hum?

"Oh, I know....
"First, we PARTY, ......and eat lots of balloons.....

"Then Lizards.....
"not eat them, but hang with them, lots of big harry iguana lizards.....

"And monkeys....

"Lots of flying spider monkeys...

"oh yea, Temples.....
"Big, human sacrificial -altar temples.......

" Well, you know, ....the usual stuff Daddy!"

Twuz just before this trip that my second iphone came to demise. "Ugh, double fudge Ugh!" (with a few other non-printable explicative deleted). And it was the crescendo to a rocky and smelly vacation prelude.

You see, the day before we were set to get on the plane, I get a text from Christy. I got this text in the middle of a meeting. It was my turn to give lab meeting and I was up in front of the group. You see, I had spaced the lab meeting, so I was up there with very little preparation, and then I got my text message, but the reason I was poorly prepared, was because I was trying fiendishly to get the spiraling pile of papers read. I needed to get them read so that I could finish a paper I am determined to get out the door. And the reason I want to get this paper off to my co-authors, is I had this impending vacation. ......Ok, I am confused.....where was I?

Oh yea, text messages..... you see, I got this text message just after I stood up and was a few words into my "chalk talk." I normally don't answer the phone in meetings and certainly not when I am presenting, so I was just reaching down just to turn it off and the text message caught my eye:

"basement FLOODING, Ugh!"

Such information kind of throws off ones presentation timing. Left me a bit distracted. I mean, it was not dire emergency, because obviously Wiffy has things under control. No one drowning or she would not have taken the time to text me. ....but still, unnerving and distracting information. Never-the-less, since my presentation would only be a few minutes, I decided to press on and call Christy afterward.

I finished the presentation after a rocky start and made the call. Sewer backed up. Her "Ugh" is right! I got home and spent the rest of the evening cleaning the nasty mess. Christy had the "tough job" of keeping the kid away and entertained, lucky her. Luckily most of the basement is tile and only one area rug got wet and trampled by Roto-rooter guys. After multiple moppings and about 6 passes with a rug power-washer, the mess was in a manageable state for abandonment to dry.

Then Double Ugh hit.

I stripped down out of my nasty clothes and jumped into the shower. Drying off and into new clothes I went to go throw the nasties into the washer, but wiffy had beat me too it and got them in there already. I saw my wallet and key on the dresser, but no phone. With the hint of a Double-Ugh feeling sinking into my stomach, I stopped the washer, now in rinse cycle and found my recently purchased phone, now gleamingly clean and shinny.

Alas, it is dead. Kaput. Fini. el morto.

I am gonna be phsyced when they start designing phones capable of underwater submersion. I will be the first person to buy one.

..... or will I? I am sure there are countless others out there with similar phone-demise stories.