Category: family

On Christmas morning my family stood looking out onto the deck where my father, in full personal protective regalia, opened a gift for my mother. After shedding the wrapping, he held two beautifully woven wreathes up at arms length and smiled proudly.

These wreaths were handcrafted by Dad D. When out at Cape Cod this fall he picked some vines from the yard and skillfully wove them into two ~14inch (~350mm) diameter wreaths. Shortly thereafter, he learned that there was something special about this present. Those vines were poison ivy vines.

Dad D’s hands and wrists broke into hives shortly after constructing the wreaths. At first, he didn’t suspect anything bad but after his second instance of handling, and the accompanying itchy rashes, he suspected the worst.

And now the wreaths hang, beautifully dangerous, far enough from the path to prevent accidental touching. Twas a Christmas to remember!

For blogging in the year 2012, I award upon myself an insignificant 2 stars.

I shamelessly blame this unfortunate performance on a huge upswing of fun things in my life that have pushed blogging into the deep bowels of my priority list. Still, there are musings that wish to be shared and adventure stories craving public release, so I find myself here again. Hopefully you weathered the drought.

First and foremost, I am proud to announce with great jubilee that my sister Alicia is expecting a child (trumpet flares! fireworks! parades! ewok celebration!). The schedule, which I’m told is fairly refined, suggests the arrival of our new family member in late May or early June.

While the child will likely be named something mostly normal like Amber or William or Stacy or Christopher… my sister and I have been going back and forth with more exciting names just for kicks.

The best two so far have been:

Darth Idaho
Jupiter Telemundo

Which do you prefer?

Obviously, if you have recommendations of your own you are welcome to suggest them. I hold hope that if we come up with a name that perfectly blends comedy and sophistication, my sister and her husband will have no choice but to adopt it. And the child will be destined for success from the onset.

Congratulations Alicia and Dwane!