There's a hint of Autumn in the air!

I can tell by how my skin and toes feel. My toes get cold and my skin takes on this flaky, alligator, appearance. It could also be the fact that yesterday I awoke to temps in the 50's and this morning, a chilly 46. Tell me that won't reach out and bite you after having 101 and 102 temps just a few, short days ago.

Yesterday the chicklets came for a visit and, as always, we were totally entertained for the duration. The Chick has come up with a new name for her favorite scents, although I'm quite sure you won't be seeing this at the perfume counter at Dillards. It may give you a delightful thrill to inquire about it though, so next time you're shopping, shop in and ask for some "porkfume". (Miz Leslie?)


I told Jillian all day that she looked just like her daddy but in this photo she favors her mommy so much!


The Chick, in fine form. She was wearing clothes when she arrived today,,that didn't last long.

I bought Paint Shop Pro 9 a few weeks ago and have been playing around with it. I really, really, REALLY, like blinkies so I've been learning to make some. I hope to get better at it some day. I'll post some of them later for folks to grab if they'd like to.

I love stuff like this,,,,,

Thank you Taz and Piggy for leading the way to my Quacker.

adopt your own virtual pet!

In Order of Importance.

Two of the things that I consider of major importance in my life are Attitude and Humor. It makes me very happy that my friends know this and send me all this neat stuff in my email.

Miz Barb sent this,,,


Maxine is the Queen of Attitude!



Garfield has to be the King!

I was also the recipient of some valuable insight today. My sister sends me this sort of stuff all the time because she has this idea in her head that I believe myself to be old.

---There is good news even as we get older,
guys still look at our
boobs. The bad news is they have to squat down
first.

I reckon she could be right.

And last but not least, a few facts that secure my knowledge in regard to my place in the Kingdom of Redneckdom.

How To Tell If You're A
HIGH-TECH REDNECK!

You take your net connected cell phone
to the outhouse to read your email.

Your email address ends in ".over.yonder.com."
Your computer is worth more than all
of your cars combined.

You ever refer to your computer as "Old Bessie."

You start all of your emails with the word "Howdy."
(this one cinched it)

You can fix a trolling motor with a set
of PC tools.

You've ever used a CD-Rom as a coaster to
sit your beer can on.

Your screen saver is a bitmap image of your
favorite tractor.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY JAYLEN!!

How does it feel to be a big 4 years old today?


(I was hoping to have a little more time to work on this graphic since Jaylen won't be home to view it until some time after 5 today but sadly, it wasn't to be.)

I don't know much but,,,,

Natural disasters have been occurring for much, much, longer than I've been around on this old earth but are they worse now than before? I'm not qualified to answer this question so I don't really know. I do know what I believe, and that is that the natural disasters such as have occurred from the landfall of Katrina and Rita were made much worse by today's statistics than they would have been had they happened(and probably did) ,,,oh say,,,150 years go in the same areas.

150 years ago what was then the city of New Orleans was located on a ridge of land that was 10 to 15 ft above sea level. The influx of people moving to the area, making it the city that it was before Katrina brought them to their knees, is the reason it spread out and took over what was once marshland. Just ask the Dutch about those dikes,,you can't stop working on them and sometimes it takes a finger, or a government that's on the ball, to keep the water out when you're sitting on a spot that was never meant to be dry land to start with.

150 years ago the gulf coast wasn't overrun with developers looking to make a pocketful of money by building condos, vacation homes, and hotels,,,one on top of the other,,for people with more money than sense to buy them up for their 2 weeks or 2 months of tropical getaways. Of course other folks moved down there to live in order to serve those who could afford to have those vacation homes. I saw on the news where one family had a home out from Gulf Port that was built on an island that wasn't even there 150 years ago. How can they foresee that the damned island would be hanging around for more than a few years,,it's a danged sandbar in the gulf for shits sake.

150 years ago when there were hurricanes, or tornados, or earthquakes there were no satellites, or massive news broadcasts to tell the world what was happening or had happened. Usually it was days or even weeks before anyone, other than the ones the disaster effected, knew about it and even then nowhere close to the information we receive today. Today we are a NOW society, we rarely look ahead past the moment, and lately, we damn sure don't look back enough.

In my opinion the folks down there are lucky as hell that even more lives weren't lost when Katrina came rumbling in. Mother Earth is going to keep on doing what she's been doing for as long as she can do it and we'd better get out of her way or be prepared to handle her wrath when she gets riled.

I wonder how much government compensation those developers will get to rebuild in the path of the next hurricane?

Ok, I'm done now.

Blowing and A'Going

The rainy view from my front door this morning.

We've still got rain in the forecast through tomorrow but it appears that ole Rita didn't dump quite as much rain as we were fearing during her first wave. I think we're under a flash flood watch/warning until 6 a.m. tomorrow though. James is down on the farm this morning chasing module tarps that have blown off of more than a few modules of cotton. Yesterday the blustery winds caused more than a few problems with those cotton tarps because a wind will pick them up,,and anyone holding on to them,, and flap you around like a flying kite. He was also pretty upset to lose a bole buggy full of cotton (about 10 bales) that caught fire from a wayward spark fanned by the high winds. It started raining around 5 yesterday so a spark won't be a worry for quite a few days now.

I was awakened at 3 a.m. this morning by cypress balls from my little cypress tree peppering the side of the house like pellet blasts from a shotgun. It appeared that the roof was still on so I soon rolled over and went back to sleep.

Rita is just a little inconvenience for us so we're so very thankful that we are just seeing her leftovers and not her full power as those south of us have.


Jami and the girls came by yesterday and we had a little discussion about rules for the art set that we bought Krysten for her birthday. It seems that since MeriKate has learned to write her name she has the need to write it on every available surface,,,the couch,,pillow cases. Jami said when she asked her why she was signing her name to things that don't belong to her she told her she writes her name because she doesn't know how to spell Abie's yet. I mentioned that it might be a good idea to learn to spell someone else's name so they wouldn't know it was her doing all the signing.

Dang it Wanda

I reckon I'll do this but it's not fair cause cause I have too many idiosyncrasies to mention.


id-i-o·syn-cra-sy

1. A structural or behavioral characteristic peculiar to an individual or group.
2. A physiological or temperamental peculiarity.
3. An unusual individual reaction to food or a drug.

List five of your own idiosyncrasies and then tag five friends to do the same.

1. I can't stand to sleep in a room with the door closed. I really don't like closed doors at all, at any time.

2. Although I go around with bare feet a lot, I can't stand having dirty feet.

3. I hate sticky spot on the floor,,if there's something dropped my bare foot will find it and it makes me CRAZY.

4. I need a window open in my truck when I'm driving. I hate blowing, rainy days when I can't have it open if rain is coming in.

5. I worry about things that will probably never happen. I worry to the point that it makes me sick sometimes.

Okay, now I get to tag five folks to carry on the meme.

Taz and Piggy

Cassie-b

Tine

Holly

Jerri (my DIL, maybe this'll get her to post something!)

Rumbling Rita

She hasn't wrecked as much havoc as Katrina did 3 weeks ago but she's doing her part of damage and destruction. My heart goes out to those along the gulf coast who are being blasted with high winds and from 10 to 20 inches of rain this morning.

We were very lucky here in Arkansas because Katrina's path took her just east of us. We live in eastern Arkansas so we held our breaths as she rampaged her way past us heading north and dropped 4 to 6 inches of rain and knocked down a few trees and power lines about 15 to 20 miles across the Mississippi River from here. We only had a little blowing rain and not a lot of that.

However, we're again holding our breath as Rita meanders her way north since her track could bring us the threat of higher winds and much more rain. Since Rita is moving much slower she will have time to dump much more rain, and rain and wind is what is most dangerous for us since we're about a third of the way through harvest season here in the mid-south. Too much rain and wind will put the cotton and rice crops on the ground making it impossible to harvest.

As for life and limb, we're safe unless Rita breeds a tornado or two when she strolls through here over the next few days. I can't imagine what the folks down south in Lousiana and NW Texas are going through but my prayers are with them as Mother Nature takes another stab at making their lives miserable.


9:08 a.m. 9/24/05. The blue dot on the map is where we live. We have cloud cover and breezy conditions right now. You can see Rita is really busy dumping her rain and blowing to the south of us.

Happy Birthday Krysten!!

Happy Birthday Krysten!! Krysten is 7 today!!

Aging With A Grin.

My cousin, Hop, sent me these. He's such a smartass!

Just tired.

I'll get rested up here soon.

And then there is Tuesday.

They say some days it doesn't pay to get outta the bed and I think today might have been one of those (and it's only half over). I believe my nerves are still strung out from that 3 and 1/2 hour homework marathon yesterday and they're getting all wound up in anticipation for what might be in store for today when the bus runs. It wasn't soothing after sitting on top of the terrorist for all that time for him to ask me if WE were all done with homework either.

I had to make a run into town this morning to pick up a few things so I took a quick bath, ran my fingers through my hair, went on bare feet to the truck (cause I'd left my danged sandals in there the other day), and was off to do the dreaded chore. When I backed out of the drive I noticed that I had forgotten to get the mail out of the box yesterday so I stopped and jumped out of the truck to get it, and watched my truck go past me. Yep, I'm sure there was a 1/2 second look of confusion on my face then I realized I hadn't put it in park when I stopped. I had to run a little to catch it but it's a damn good thing it doesn't go fast without me being behind the wheel or it could have wandered off to who knows where.

My first stop was supposed to be at Sears for laundry detergent but I forgot, so my first stop was at the dreaded Wal Mart where I went in for the few things that ended up costing almost as much as our mortgage payment. I finally got the few items crammed into the back seat and the bed of my truck, looked around to see where the closest cart thingy was and it was too danged far, so I parked the cart, out of the way, in front of my parking spot. There was noone parked in the spot in front of my truck so after I'd gotten in the truck I pulled forward,,,and ran into the damned shopping cart that I'd just parked there. I remembered to put the truck in park before I climbed out to see if I'd damaged anything. There were no dents or scratches on truck or cart so I moved the cart in front of the next car over to let them run over the damned thing.

On the way I home I remembered to stop at Sears to get the laundry detergent. A nice man asked me if he could help as soon as I walked in the door and I told him what I needed and politely asked him if he could put it in my truck.
He told me he sure could so while he went to put the detergent in my truck, I went to pay Dana for it so's they wouldn't put anything else on my overloaded Sears card.

I have never, ever, checked behind these Sears folks to see if my purchases have been loaded, I know the folks, it's just a tiny store, and they know me, but today something made me look in the back of the truck to make sure the detergent was in there. It wasn't. I opened the doors on the truck to see if he'd put it inside. He hadn't. I looked around the parking lot to see if he'd been confused as to which truck I was driving. He wasn't, because mine was the only danged truck parked out there. So I went back inside to ask the guy just where the truck was that he'd loaded my detergent into. He'd put it into the car sitting next to my truck.

I'm finally home now, back in my pjs, and not looking forward to seeing what sort of homework WE will have today. Good thing it's not Monday huh?

It would be Monday.

My theory on housework is, if the item doesn't multiply, smell, catch fire, or block the refrigerator door, let it be. No one else cares. Why should you?,,,, Erma Bombeck

I really loved that lady. Martha just doesn't put it out there like that.

I was really, really, sleepy this morning when my gruff-voiced alarm clock announced the 6 a.m. hour so after I wrestled the terrorist through breakfast, teeth brushing, getting dressed, and bus boarding, I went back to bed for another couple of hours of sleep. It didn't help much, I still feel like the north end of a south bound mule.
Could be just because it's Monday although Monday's shouldn't be that much different for me than the other days of the week.

I did have a sweet note in my email this morning that made me laugh with delight, mainly cause I've been there and done that and without nearly so much patience.

Jerri to me:

I went to the bathroom today and while I was in there
I cleaned it and gathered up dirty laundry. When I
walked into the kitchen Alexis had covered herself and
the floor in baby powder. I was so mad, but had to laugh.
She looked at me like to see what my reaction was
gonna be and when I laughed she was relieved I think.
She said, "boo moma I am a ghost" and then she
started taking off her shorts and said, "I have to get
my butt white too." The kid is crazy!
After mopping up the powder cause it doesn't sweep well,
we made fudge. I told her don't lick the spoon til we are
finished cause no one wants to eat something that has
your slobber in it! I hate when people eat off of a
spoon and puts it back in the mix! yuck! Anyway I went
to put the box in the trash and when I turned around
she was casualy stirring the chocolate, and I said, "did
you lick the spoon?" and she replied with an oh so
serious, "no" but the chocolate smeared across her face
told a different story! I will send that pic later! I
have not put it on the puter yet!

Hugs, Jerri Alexis and Jillian

I have a headache.

And the bright, Fallish, background I had in here before wasn't helping it much so I decided to change things up a bit,,again. This one's easier on the eyes, don'cha think? I intend to spiff things up with some graphics someday too but I haven't been of a mind to try to figure out how to do that in this format yet. The differences in this template and the other one, that I'd had for a couple of years, is enough that it's like a new foreign language to me and I ain't never been good at no "furrin" languages.

Sometimes I reckon I've got a bit of the racoon or raven in me that causes the occasional, spontaneous urges I get for bright colors and "flowerdy" britches. (I have 1 pair of those britches and my kids just hate em.) And sometimes I have this yearning for a friend who'd wear red and purple with me so I could become an honest member of the Red Hat Society and not have to go at in solo. I know, in my heart, I'da been one of those saloon floozies if I'da been born back in the days of the wild west.

Red and Purple

Grandma's getting older and her eyes are getting dim
Her random access memory, is half of what its been.
When Saint Peter comes to call someday, She'll say I cant go yet.
He'll have to wait for Grandma, cause she's surfing on the net.

Pumkin in my closet.

The Chick (doing the "holding my pee-pee shuffle")

Nanaw: Do you need to go pee-pee on the pottie?

Chick: No.

Nanaw: You're holding yourself Alexis, you need to go potty.

Chick: Nooooo, there's a pumpkin in there.

Nanaw: There's no pumpkin in my bathroom, you need to go potty.

Chick: There's a scary pumkin in you closet!

Nanaw: Come on, Nannie will help you and I'll scare away the pumpkin if he's there.

The Chick goes potty, Nanaw looks in the closet and finds a pumpkin!!

It seems the Chick had taken a look in the closet the last time she'd gone to my bathroom and I have my little Halloween imp stored in there who has a pumpkin pocket on his cape. Every time you touch him he says stuff like "Happy Halloween" or "Boo! I scared you!". It's a wonder the child didn't pee all over herself!!

So Nanaw is now the Scary Pumpkin killing hero.



I'm going to write my letter to Santa soon to see if he'll bring me a camera that'll do justice to these beautiful moments.


At sunrise


At sunset


Dew kissed morning glory.

Jerri's been updating her site.

Thought I'd post the links to the new postings over at Jerri's site. There are new photos on the Chick's page, and Jillian's page and the holidays page.
She has also been sewing up some new kiddy clothes and has some great new stories about what the Chick has been up to.

If ya'll are of a mind to, you can go by here and give her your vote for her site.

I should give up.

I tend to get distracted when I'm doing most anything so it takes me 3 times as long to do distracting stuff like housework. This morning I was going to take some clothes out of the laundry room to hang them in the closet. I noticed the load of towels I'd folded earlier on the loveseat so I grabbed them in my spare arm. On the way through our bedroom I noticed there was about half an acre of dust on the ceiling fan in there, so I laid down the towels and went back to the kitchen for that nifty little swifter duster thingy. Going back into the bedroom I think,,"I'd better get an old sheet to put down so I won't have to vacuum all this stuff up and strip the bed", and I noticed the towels stacked on the edge of the dresser. I was still toting the clothes on hangers so I put down the duster thingy and grabbed the towels and went to put them away in closet and bathroom. I went to the hall and got an old sheet to catch the dust and then I couldn't find the duster thingy.

It was under the sheet that I'd spread out.

After I cleaned the 1/2 acre of topsoil off the fan blades it came to me, if this fan was ready for planting then the fan in the living room was probably ready to harvest, so I gathered up my sheet and headed for the outdoors to shake the dust out before going to dust the living room fan. On the way I put in a load of towels to wash, answered the phone (didn't want any handicapped lightbulbs), and finally make it to the door to see that it's raining cats and kittens out there. I have a dilemma cause I'm still holding a sheet full of 1/2 acre of soil and a swifter duster thingy.

What's there to do but shake the sheet out in the kitchen floor and sweep it up? So I did. Then I cleaned the fan in the living room and,, did it again.

Now I need to take out the bag of trash that weighs a ton but I think I'll wait till it stops raining because I could get pretty wet by getting distracted out there.

404 (haven't a clue)

When I got my first online capable computer back in 1997 the only thing I knew about the internet was that there were chat rooms where you could have conversations with people around the world by typing what you had to say. This sounded wayyyyyy cool to me so soon enough I was plugged in, plugged up, and made my first attempt at communication, Chat Style.

It only took me about 15 minutes (what can I say, I'm slow) to realize that, in order to carry on a conversation in this way, I was going to have to learn the language of Chat Abbreviations. I would see LOL, and BRB a lot and was wondering WTF was going on. I quickly learned the best way for me to reply to the question
a/s/l? was to respond with "old as dirt/sometimes/LA" since I figured this was a polite way of letting them know that not all of my business was to be shared. This also gave those folks that were always sending these requests for PMs to back off.

Back in those days there were only a few abbreviations to learn in order to be able to carry on a half-assed intelligent conversation (although sometimes I had my doubts there too). It's not so these days, the abbreviation list grows and my memory shortens so I rarely venture into a chat room anymore.

ADN chat abbreviations could be declared a new language, right along with Ebonics and redneckese. It would be a short-hand language for communication where you'd just have to know your ABCs and be able to memorize a list of abbreviations to replace whole sentences of the English language. Long gone would be the days when you not only had to learn how to read, but learn how to spell. Dick and Jane would never be the same.

CDR (See Dick run.)

CJR (See Jane run.)

CSRw/D&J (See Spot run with Dick and Jane.)

BWTHDIK? (But what the hell do I know?)

CUL8ER!!!!

"Babies and Gentlemen" and those of you who like braggin Nanaw photos,

Presenting,,,,,,The Chick and the Terrorist.

Bits and Bytes

No Debit Cards For Evacuees Outside Texas. Whoa! There was some misunderstanding going on with that deal from the beginning because the debit card thing was only for quick relief for the evacuees who were staying in Texas. Evacuees elsewhere will have to go through the correct channels to be given checks or debits to bank accounts.

My questions are, What banks? What bank accounts? And who's going to print all those checks for those without bank accounts? Are the New Orleans evacuees being aided with the millions contributed by the the rest of America or are the funds going into a "general account"?


Even amid the panic and destruction you'll find the sad, but sweet, humor of some situations.

Potbellied Pig Resists Evacuation.

It's another morning.

5:45 a.m.: Nanaw drags her tired, old, butt outta the bed and goes directly to the coffee pot, by feel, cause her eyes aren't open yet, grabs pancakes out of the freezer and tosses them into the microwave, sips coffee for the 2 minutes it takes to zap em then puts them on a plate and squirts some syrup on.

5:50 a.m.: Feels way to the laundry room and grabs shorts and shirt off of hangers and lays them out.

5:55 a.m.: Takes coffee to tiny puter room and connects to Internet by dial-up to read Headlines but it takes 10 more minutes for eyes to focus.

6:15 a.m.: Goes to wake theTerrorist from his boyish dreams.

6:16 a.m.: Goes again to wake Terrorist who's lagging in the bed.

6:17 a.m.: Goes, with threats of withholding Friday pep rally funds, to wake Terrorist. Terrorist awakens.

6:18 a.m.: Reminds Terrorist for the 3,450th time of the morning routine expectations,,,,,, Eat breakfast, brush teeth, wash face, get fully dressed.

6:40 a.m.: Goes to bathroom to get snoozing Terrorist outta the floor. Remind him about brushing teeth.

6:42 a.m.: Goes back to bathroom to find Terrorist dipping toothpastefree toothbrush into stream of water, make him actually put toothpaste ON toothbrush and insert into mouth and brush.

6:50 a.m.: Instructs Terrorist to get dressed.

6:52 a.m.: Instructs Terrorist to get dressed.

6:54 a.m.: Grabs belt and instructs Terrorist to get dressed.

6:59 a.m.: Terrorist dressed.

7:00 a.m.: Reminds Terrorist to watch for school bus.

7:05 a.m.: Pries Terrorist away from cartoons and out the door to wait for the bus.

Thank God there is school. Thank God there are teachers. Thank God for the school bus. Thank God for coffee.

Just one of those times.

What could go wrong, did, at the pageant last evening. Both my son and I bought the wrong tapes for the video recorder but we're hoping to get a copy from someone. The photo opts were not easy to come by because they wouldn't let us near the stage and then I had a horde of folks standing in front who wouldn't get their big heads out of the way. The lighting in there was HORRIBLE. I need a camera with a great zoom lens (Santa, are you listening to me?) Better micro capabilities would be nice too!

Our Chick didn't win but she sure did look cute up there on the stage. The only problem she had is that she wanted to sing and dance and wasn't too interested and the "just looking pretty" part. One of the ladies there told Jerri to put her in the talent show where her light could shine. The Chick loves to dance and she loves to be naked so her Daddy says, "We've just gotta keep her off the poles".

Anyway, here's the Chick.



I hope Jerri got some close-ups of her in that cute little dress. I'll post some later if she did.

Photo Alert

Abie, in the woods, in deep thought.


The Chick on stage with one of the local bands yesterday.

Feels like Monday

I had a weekend full of visits from little girls which ended with a mostly lazy day yesterday. I did stir a little around noon to answer the phone and talked to Trish for a few minutes. She'd enjoyed the holiday weekend without the girls and was trying to get herself geared up to head back to work today. I could hear the girls arguing in the background as we talked and it reminded me that I had "been there". But she's lucky for the most part since Jordan and Jaylen are very polite, and mostly well behaved, little imps (grin).

Jerri called around late afternoon to tell me of the Chick's latest antic. She took her to the Tri-County fair to look around a little and ride a few of the kiddy rides because the pageant is tonight and there won't be time for her to ride then.

Anyhow, Jilly was wanting a bottle so they sat at a table under one of the tents to feed her and there was a band playing on a little stage there. Chick kept trying to get on the stage and Jerri kept dragging her back so the lead band singer motioned for Jerri to let her go to see what she would do. Music is all it takes for that gal to put on her dancing shoes and she put on a show for the audience. When she got tired, she told the audience, "Thank-you ladies and gentlemen" and climbed off the stage cause she was thirsty. Jerri took some photos of her performance but hasn't sent them to me yet.

I've got my video camera charging now so I can tape the pageant for Jerri and I hope to get a hand free so I can take a few still shots. There's no telling what she'll entertain them with cause that child is a little clown.



I'd best go get my bath now so I can make a fast trip to town to go to the bank and try to remember to buy some video tapes.

Happy Tuesday everyone!

Words of a Wise Man

There is a class of colored people who make a business of keeping the troubles, the wrongs, and the hardships of the Negro race before the public. Having learned that they can make a living out of their troubles, they have grown into the settled habit of advertising their wrongs-- partly because they want sympathy and partly because it pays. Some of these people do not want the Negro to lose his grievances, because they do not want to lose their jobs. And there is a certain class of race problem-solvers who don't want the patient to get well, because as long as the disease holds out they have not only an easy means of making a living, but also an easy medium through which to make themselves prominent before the public.

,,,Booker T. Washington, 1911.

Many of these people such as Mr. Washington spoke of are spouting their diseased words as one of the most horrible tradgedies continues to unfold. They must be so proud. Many of the citizens of New Orleans have put their hard-to-come-by funds into the pockets of the same.
I wonder how much money the Rainbow/PUSH Coalition has donated to the Hurrican Katrina victims or how many Rev. Jackson gave rides to, in his car, when he left New Orleans the other day?

New Fuel Sign

I reckon these will be up all over the country pretty soon.
(I hope this danged thing shows up this time!)

We're a little slow down here but finally,,,,,

Memphis is finally waking up and beginning to do their part although Memphis Mayor Willie Herenton states that the Pyramid (known locally as the Tomb of Doom), which until recently, sat empty, can't be used to house evacuees due to the fact that Hollywood, to the tune of 6 million bucks, has leased it to make a movie. The old Mid-South Coliseum, where they plan to house them for a short time, is booked for shows later this month. They can't miss out on making a buck ya know.

And I'm proud as punch that our little county is doing what it can to help the folks that have wandered across the river here. I am much relieved that our southern hospitality isn't a failure after all.

Help Unite People

My DIL, Jerri, just sent me this link. It will take you to a bullentin board which was set up to help people find out news about loved ones and friends who were caught up in Hurricane Katrina.

Guard Bird

Ok, so he's not going to jump on someone and take a hunk outta their leg for messing with my property, but he does let me know when someone has pulled up in the drive, or is out in the yard. He can hear the school bus coming a mile away and lets me know that our Zach coming home. He's also a good teacher cause as soon as all the grandkids figure out that what he's doing to his perch and toy is not "playing", he'll save us that talk about the birds and the bees.

And he's also a damned good alarm clock!