The Grouchy Ladybug....

Hi to anyone checking in on our blog. Admittedly, it's been quite a while since our last post. So what's changed, well, Brittiny is 2 months into her 1st year as a GMO (general medical officer) in Yuma, AZ. Having lived through July and August in the hottest city in the country, we're anxious for cooler weather this Fall and Winter. Yesterday was actually the first day since our July arrival that the temperature did NOT reach 100 degrees - it's been hot.

Not a whole lot to say, actually, life just goes on. Here are some pics:

Brittiny and I went to Cabo San Lucas for Shauntelle (Brittiny's good friend) and Micah's wedding. This pic is from a mildly disastrous yacht excursion we took. A lady next to me got seasick (for dinner she apparently ate something containing green beans), a 3 year old kid was almost swept overboard by a crashing wave and our crew kept Bogarting the karaoke microphone to remind us all how poorly tourists typically tip in Mexico. I didn't want to make liars out of the crew, so I left a really shoddy tip myself. The guacamole was good, however, assuming you manage to keep it down.

Somehow, someone got Elizabeth and Brooklyn to share a seat at Nonny and Poppa's. Turned out to be a cute pic. We wish they could see each other more often...

Here Brooklyn shakes "Panna's" hand... er, paw. Panda is thrilled, clearly.

This pic was taken the day that Dad and I arrived in Utah after 40 hrs on the road from Connecticut. Though I missed my cute baby and hot wife during the trek, Dad and I had a great road trip: we bonded over golf, dined on garbage, stopped for a night at Uncle Doug's and searched in every freaking podunk town from New Haven to Salt Lake for health food stores where Dad could get "good trail mix" and "non-sugary green tea". When did Dad cease being Dad? Lincoln without his stovepipe hat, OJ remiss the bloody glove or Andy Rooney sans a tube of Ben-Gay... more shocking, still, is Dad without junkfood. He's come a long way since the days when, driving a hostess fruit pie wrapper-laden Mitsubishi Mighty Max, he was routinely mistaken as being "sponsored" by the company itself.

Cavorting with Brooklyn and Elizabeth. Fun stuff...

For Brooklyn's 2nd Birthday Brittiny went all out, including hiring a clown: Biggles or Buggles or whatever. For the record, I hate clowns. They scare the hell out of me. I remember when I was a kid the TV series Stephen King's IT passed a couple of nights on Channel 5. The show had this scary clown that kept killing kids for some reason, or for no reason, I can't really remember, except the clown turned into a giant spider or something... Anyway, just ask Kevin Larson, he remembers how much that show freaked us both out.

The clown Brittiny carefully hired wasn't homidical, but she did charge $150/hr. Why did I bust my hump to get through college when the real money is in being a clown? Ms. Biggles actually asked me that same question. She came inside our living room, did a 15 minute magic show (I've seen better magic at the Farley Family Reunion) and packed up her stuff to leave. I told her that since we had paid for the whole half hour she could choose: option 1) entertain the kids a while longer, or option 2) there was a sponge and a bottle of Softscrub in the guest bathroom. She chose to flip me the bird and leave, which I suppose was option 3. I hate clowns.