A sign that you live in the South

You go to several grocery stores on New Year's Eve and are not surprised in the least (but still disappointed) to find that they are all out of the very thing you are looking for - ham hocks.

Post-Christmas Stroll

We took the kids on a nice long walk downtown yesterday to see the new palm trees the city planted. It turned into such a fun adventure. Here's a sweet pic of mom and dad and all of their much-loved grandchildren.

How much is Bram breaking your heart in this photo?

Gus meets Santa. And loves him!

He looks a little skeptical, but I know he loved him. Santa even gave him a kiss on the top of the head!

Fun with wagons

Best cover of the year

Taken by Trees covering Animal Collective

Hillbilly Entrepreneur

Wish you could see the sign to the right of his truck a little better. "Hot Fresh Boield P-Nuts" with the N orientated backwards. But all the other Ns were written correctly, so I don't know if he was trying to be cute or what. I so wish I had some cash on me at the time. Next time I pass his way, I'll be sure to have some on hand so I can stop and buy some, and maybe get some better pictures.

Sublime

Just heard "Santeria" on the radio and suddenly I really was 18 again, wearing Meg Cooney's borrowed clothes, at a dorm party, dancing on a sticky floor with black lights and trashcans nearby full of ice and Keystone light. Then a second later, I was hungover from wine coolers, trying to write a 10-page paper in an hour. And then, the next moment, I was 30, in a station wagon, picking up diaper cream from the CVS. True story.

'Tis the season to be silly

I feel a little sorry for you if you don't have someone like this in your life. This image was used without permission, stolen from Rich's facebook page. He took this while doing laundry.

Road Rage

Say you are driving along a 3-lane highway. You come upon a sign warning that the left lane will be closed in 1/2 mile. You see that people are already merging. You, a good citizen of the road, also merge. Then, you see a car ZOOM by in the left lane, passings dozens of cars for the full 1/2 mile, proceeding all the way up to the point of the merge, and then cutting over at the last minute, probably rushing off on very important business, shaving off a few minutes of their daily trip to Whataburger to beat the lunch crowd.

Rage isn't the word.

Do you think inconsiderate, selfish drivers can simultaneously be good, decent, kind people? I am really torn on this. I think that, likely, this behavior carries over into other aspects of life. I know it is not right for me to curse a complete stranger, someone I know nothing about except that they have just been an ass-hat at this one moment in time. But I can't help myself. I curse them. I curse them for behaving as though their time is more important than mine. Despicable!

The Family Unit

I am pleased to report that we are spending Thanksgiving this year up in Vermont. Adam took Gus up there early Saturday. They were on a plane by the time I was wrapping up my shift at work. I was worried to death about how Gus would do, feeling a little bad that Adam would be dealing with a potentially squirmy 1-year old without any help. But, as usual, my worries were completely without merit and Gus was a total champ. To Adam's credit, he wasn't even remotely concerned about how the trip would go. (Daddies. Different than Mommies.)

So, I've had the last 3 days to myself. It was pretty glorious, but every moment of enjoyment was coupled with the thought, "I wonder what Gus and Adam are up to!" I can't help but think that I just missed 3 days of his life. Depending on how you look at it (I look at it from an every-day-is-precious standpoint), that's a lot of missed time. But don't think I moped around pining after my baby. I did enjoy the quiet and the ability to lounge and read and eat in peace.

This little baby holiday just reinforced to me how much we really are a family unit now. Even though Adam and I have retained a healthy amount of our independent selves since having Gus, the 3 of us are one functional being, and something just feels incomplete when we are separated.

So you can imagine I'm pretty excited to be getting on a plane in a few hours to rejoin them. Going to Vermont is always such a special thing. I love seeing Adam on his home turf. In case I don't blog again this week, hope y'all have a wonderful Thanksgiving!

A year ago...

this splotchy red alien creature was born

I'll pen a more sentimental post later today, but we have a crazy busy day ahead of us. Just didn't want the morning to pass without a mention.
We love you baby Gus!

Have you ever.....

weaned a baby? If so, help!

So, the one year birthday is coming up, and my kid WON'T EAT! I am still nursing him 4-5 times a day, and I think my supply is dwindling because he stays totally restless during these nursing sessions. I have been trying to push the solids and it is just not taking. The only things he will eat consistently are yogurt, guacamole, and bananas. I try to give him everything that we are eating, and he just ends up playing with it and throwing it on the floor. If I try to spoon-feed him anything other than yogurt, he puckers his lips out and turns his head away.

Also, he resists the sippy cup. Won't drink juice. Will barely drink milk.

How am I supposed to wean him? I feel like he's not getting enough calories as it is. If I quit nursing altogether, will he just eventually get so hungry that he'll start experimenting and eating new things?

I really don't know what to do! Any advice is greatly appreciated. I need him weaned by November 21st.

Tang Pie

I can't really explain the role Tang Pie has had in the Wolfe family. It wasn't a featured item at every holiday or anything like that, but we had it enough that I felt like it was a pretty normal thing to eat. You know how you don't really question these things until it comes up in conversation one day in your twenties and your friend is like "Wha????? Tang Pie???"

Or, maybe you are 22 and at a company meeting in Ireland and one of the icebreaker conversations was to name the weirdest thing you've ever eaten. You lean over to your boss and whisper "Is squirrel a weird thing to eat?" and she looks back at you with horror, and then you are definitely the person in the room who has eaten the weirdest thing.

Anyway, the point is that sometimes it takes a 3rd party to point out the culinary oddities of your life. Now back to Tang Pie.

The recipe is just as easy and redneck as you might imagine: 1 can Sweetened Condensed milk, 1/2 c tang, 1/2 pint sour cream, 1 1/2 cups cool whip. Mix all together, spoon into prepared graham cracker crust, and chill or freeze.

Please please please, make this for your loved ones and report back.

R

.. is the most menacing sound. That's why they call it "murder" and not "muk-duk."

I love Dwight.

It's time again.....

....for the latest installment of the Lornitzo household Google search history.

pass performance
how to pick the right plantain
"one of these days alice"
bitch is back
insipid
I.com
stephen king beard
glycerin suppositories
does the eardrum stretch
roomba
mechanical pecan cracker

My favorite is "I.com." Why wouldn't we just have typed that into the URL space and gone straight to the site if we were so curious?

In case you were wondering, I.com is available for purchase. But the kind folks at Yahoo suggested that maybe I was really looking for "Withnail and I" or "I Ching." That makes a lot of sense if you think about it.