Picking the Raspberries

A couple weeks ago, I visited COSI with my friend, B. Ignoring the fantastical playgrounds inside, I headed for the John Deere showroom by the river and happily spent the next few hours. Notice my choice of footwear for the event. I thought to myself---this John Deere would make raspberry picking a breeze.





Alas, the raspberry farm did not allow this efficient machine to be used. It would have made picking and then smashing the raspberries for jam quite easy. Rules are rules, however, and other plans were made. Below my trusty companion B and I are setting out to pick raspberries by hand.

No, I didn't leave the younger generation at home to raise themselves on video games and Fla-Vor-Ice.

And, yes, I did take the older generation out with me because outdoor exercise reduces the chances of dementia.

After arriving home, I leaf through the Farmer's Almanac hoping to show my brother their latest predictions on the raspberry crop. It took a while for me to find, and, in the mean time, my brother puts on his best impatient face as I mutter to myself, "where is it?"

"A-ha! Here it is." The raspberry crop will fail next year. That means we need to store up extra jam to make it until 2010. I guess the Aunt J's can't have any of our jam this year! JC looks on not fully realizing the magnitude of this revelation.

Visit from Grandpa J

Not too long ago, Grandpa J came to visit us. The entire time he tried to convince me that he had two sets of eyes, one of which he hid under his sunglasses all the time. I don't believe him. My sister, M, looked fooled.

Our story, however, focuses on the night that Grandpa J left. Sleeping fitfully from missing Grandpa J, I heard some strange noises coming from downstairs in the kitchen. Crawling silently, I grabbed the camera ready to surprise and catch the midnight snacker in the dark. I fully expected to catch my dad in the midst of sleep-eating (sleepwalking + eating), a condition so far only known to affect him. Lo and behold! My sister M, however, was there instead eating what appeared to be fruity pebbles!

What?! After recovering from the shock of seeing my sister and not my dad, I approached my sister and found not fruity pebbles but...chilled vegetables? I said somewhat incredulously, "You snuck out of your crib, opened the refrigerator, removed the vegetables, removed the Tupperware top, and found some silverware to eat cold vegetables at 2 in the morning?"

Yes...yes she did. And she did not go back to bed until they were gone.

I am three months old!

Hi there fair friends! Although Thursday night might have meant different things to all of you---it was a special day for me. I turned three months old. Once again, my parents showed my preferred child status by photographing me with a harmless, shrinking stuffed lamb. No scary Uncle R for me!

My age has brought on many new skills---this is a smile!

Whoops! Too much exertion.

Indianapolis is not the Central Time Zone

My brilliant dad decided that Indianapolis was in the central time zone. Early in the morning we left Ohio, with the intent of getting to the zoo in Indiana at the opening bell. Indiana is not in the central time zone as evidenced by this shot below of us waiting for the zoo to open.

We saw penguins...

We saw polar bears....

We saw dolphins. The picture quality of the past few shots is due to the obscene hour the photographer was made to wake up in order to reach the zoo at it's "opening time".

We saw zebras....(obligatory little brother shot)

We saw goats....

We even videotaped the goats. Here I touch the goat and make a terrible discovery!

At the end of the day, the take-home moral is that if you see this arch, it doesn't mean you are passing into the Central Time Zone.

A Fair to Remember

Top of the morning to you chappies! Lately, I've been going through a three month phase where I like to eat every couple of hours. Sometimes regular baby food and sometimes not regular baby food as seen below.

I think my new phase has been brought on by my environment. Notice that I'm receiving liminal (they are not subliminal because they are written in an obvious fashion) messages from my sister's outerwear.

Knowing that I will never be successful in life if fully 50% of my wakeful hours are spent eating, I decided to seek help in ending my food obsession. After telling my older sister of my goals she decided to help me out. She said that taking me to the fair would be the best way to help me forget about food for longer than 3 hours. Here she took me to a racetrack at the Ohio State Fair. Racing! The perfect antidote!

Crikey! It was a pig race! Not the way to keep my mind off of food. Snoop Hoggy Hog beat out Britney Spare-Ribs to take the checkered flag. Mmm...spare ribs.

Next, my unaware mother purchased a funnel cake and proceeded to eat it right in front of me. The sky was thick with powdered sugar as she blew on the cake to cool it down. My sister, knowing my plight, ponders what she can do to help the situation.

"A-ha!" she thought. No food is ever allowed in the art museum. She told my dad that she wanted to see some artsy sculptures in order to become more cultured. My dad's version of cultured art, however, involved a gigantic butter sculpture of the eight US presidents who hailed from Ohio. Dad sure is urbane.

Well, the fair might not be the best place to keep your mind off of food. I am still obsessed and eating every 2.5 to 3 hours during the day despite my sister's best efforts. But my boundless optimism does not permit me to end my post in a negative fashion. Therefore, I include a fun quiz for the readers. Although I include this picture mainly for Uncle R, who has just accepted an assistant professor job in American History (Congrats!), anyone can try and guess the identity of three presidents facing the camera.