Are they serious?

I've ridden by this mobile home park a.k.a. trailer park several times and wanted to take a picture of the sign. Today I had the camera. My question is: Did they do this on purpose or did they just not think it through?



Posted by Andrew

May 18-24, 2008

We've had a hectic week. Mindy spent the first half of the week getting ready to go to Utah. She flew up with Cole and Parker on Wednesday. I worked a lot of hours and tried to sleep. On Tuesday it was 104. On Thursday it was 70 and windy. The change was welcome but bizarre. I took some pictures of the clouds on Friday morning. On Saturday afternoon I went for a ride. I went north to Florence, east to Superior and then headed south through Kearny and back home. Below are some pictures from this week. There aren't many, life with the cats isn't something worth documenting as all they've done since Wednesday is sleep.

1. 5-18-08 - A mother quail with her babies. There are baby versions of all the animals running around right now.
2. 5-18-08 - A dove sitting on her egg in the tree just off our patio. She's the second dove to use the nest this spring. She's still sitting on it.
3. 05-18-08 - Jack getting comfortable on the patio. There are some birds that regularly sit on the railing and torment and yell at Jack. They make quite the racket.
4. 05-18-08 - Cole getting ready to climb off the chair. There isn't much that he's afraid of. He has recently developed a fear of cars which is a good thing. He'll now run back to me and cling to my leg when a car drives past us in the parking lot when we're headed down to play on the golf course.
5. 05-23-08 - Sun rising through the clouds on Friday morning.

Posted by Andrew

This Week in Pictures

Here's our week in photos. Maybe next week I'll attach the photo that made it from my computer to the email of the Sr. Operations Manager in eight hours on Friday.



1. Parker with his eyes open. This is occuring more frequently now. He's talking and smiling, and also crying less. While the quantity has decreased, the intensity has more than made up for the reduction in quantity.




2. Cole in the bathtub. He's now found that the bathwater is also good for drinking, and that he is sufficiently flexible to sit and put his face in the water. Notice the rubber scraper in his right hand. He's not too particular about which one it is, as long as he has one. He'll often walk into the kitchen and point to the tins on the counter with the rubber scrapers, letting us know he wants one.

3. Two more photos of Cole enjoying his bath.

4. Cole taking a nap on the sofa. He'll often grab his pillow and a blanket out of the basket next to the sofa, climb up on the sofa, wiggle around until he's got everything situated to his liking and go to sleep. He requires a full 2/3 of the sofa. If you're any closer he'll kick like a mule until your leg is bruised and you give him the space he feel he deserves.




5. Jack taking a nap in Cole's booster seat.




6. Jack yawning. We don't know which is more intimidating, his teeth or his breath!




Other items of note from this week that are not included in any photos:

1. Maya has now figured out that she can jump high enough to make it to the counter, the fridge and the top of the cabinets.
2. Cole has started to jabber constantly. It is really cute, and he gets quite excited and amused by some of the things he tells us about, but we have no idea what he is saying.
3. Mindy is officially permanently tired.
4. When folding up the stroller after picking up some items yesterday we found a shoe in the bottom. I had to take it back to the shoe store and tell them our 18-month-old stuffed one of their display shoes in the bottom of the stroller when we weren't looking. The funny thing is that I saw him put one in, and we took it out, but apparently he stuffed another one in when we were distracted. If you look at the Pima Air & Space Museum post you'll see that the storage area under the stroller is the same size as the trunk of a Toyota Tercel or Prius. No offense to anyone driving one of those, but our stroller is the same size as your car.
5. Cole's new favorite movie is "101 Dalmations"
6. The new motorcycle is all put together now (bags back on and functioning and mirror bracket replaced). Yesterday morning I rode from Tucson to halfway to Florence, AZ. I met some bugs along the way, but it was a beautiful morning (not too hot), I left at 6:30 and was home by 8:00. I also got past the 100 mile mark (a milestone in the break-in period) and can now have the RPMs high enough to drive faster than 55mph in top gear. Too bad the old one tipped over this week when the kickstand punched through an asphalt patch at work. I talked the paving guy into paying for it.
7. Mindy is looking forward to getting to Utah this week. It would be incorrect to say she is looking forward to going to Utah, as the thought of traveling with the boys alone is a bit frightening. She's also worried about me starving to death while she's gone.

Posted by Andrew

Mornings in Tucson

The sun is now up before I leave for work at 5:30-6:15. Last Monday the sprinklers on the golf course were on so I grabbed the camera and took some photos. How we wish we had the same view in Vegas.

The Family Artist at Work

Last Sunday evening we decided to let Cole draw for a while after his bath. He sat on the chair for a half-hour alternating between drawing and choosing a new pencil. One of the cutest things he does is cross his ankles. He'll do this when sitting on the sofa reading a book, sitting in his car seat, or sitting in his booster seat at the table.


Posted by Andrew

Parker at Two Months

Here are some cute pictures of Parker that we took this last week. Parker just turned two months.

The Result

After seeing that Cole was too formidable a foe to battle separately, the critters decided to put their differences behind them (Jack literally put his differences behind him) and be friends. What really happened is that they both found that the changing table was above Cole's line of sight and was exposed to the ceiling fan, and was therefore a place they could sleep in peace and be cool.

Breakfast with Cole

I often have the pleasure of eating breakfast with Cole on Saturday morning while Mindy tries to get some sleep. It is ususally a messy affair. Below is Cole after eating toast with jam.

The meal is usually followed by a shower since that is easier than trying to get the jam out of his ears and hair with a washcloth.

Posted by Andrew

Andrew's new ride

On Friday 05-9-08 Andrew's new motorcycle arrived. After the drive down from Las Vegas, he decided it was time for a more comforatable/practical ride. This was shipped from San Jose. The luggage fits the work laptop and the seat is made for long rides. Part of the bracket that attaches the mirror and brake lever was broken during shipping. A ziptie and a bungee cord did the job of holding it together well enough to ride home and even ride around a little on Saturday morning.

Pima Air & Space Museum

5-3-08 Today we went to the Pima Air & Space Museum. It is across the street from the AFB and the "airplane graveyard". Cole tried to fly several planes and we tried to keep him from eating any paint chips. There were a lot of neat planes, and a lot of history. Cole's favorite part was when he got to fly a commercial airplane. Parker enjoyed the stroller. There were several of the old Presidential Fleet and one was open for viewing.

More of Parker