No Words

Okay here is the situation...

1. The computer with most of the pictures is at the apple hospital.
2. The cord for the camera is still MIA
3. The battery on the camera is dead.
4. WE ARE ON VACATION.

We will get back to pictures and videos and postings soon. We swear.

While we fully realize that most of these posts just fly out into the ether we also know that there are some loyal followers out there that have been patiently waiting for another post.

We left the cable for downloading at home so all I can tell you, dear readers, is this.

Saturday morning I climbed Buck Mountain with Amelia in the backpack.

• There were lots of bugs.
• It was muddy.
• At the top there were blue berries and Amelia ate them right off the bush.

Love you all.

New Car

http://picasaweb.google.com/crumlives/NewCar?authkey=Gv1sRgCMjy7vKolOOYhQE#

If you think about it buying a car for someone is one of the coolest things you can do for a person. Jewelry is nice but second to that the car is pretty cool. I had never bought a car for someone until today and it is a great feeling.

Heidi will be helping with the payments because she makes more than me but I think I deserve some credit for trading in a car that I liked quite a bit for a car that makes more sense for the family. I just love my wife so much for not being a fan of mini-vans. Although I would go for a Honda Odyssey.

While I was sad to see the FJ Cruiser go I found that I was more sad about the memories that went with it than the actuall car. A short list:

• My Dad drove us away from our wedding in that car--filled with packages from our dearest friends.
• It is the first brand new car that either of us bought and we bought it together.
• We went to Bar Harbor on our honeymoon in that car.
• We carried our first canoe around in that car--taking little day trips to a small nearby pond and to the river near our house.
• We towed our first boat with that car. The little Penn Yan that Tucker sold us.
• I did my last solo road trip to Ohio in that car. Listening to Bryson's In a Sunburned Country.
• We brought Amelia home in that car. That day in March when the sun was shining but it was snowing.

But as everyone knows, it is, in the end, just a car and I couldn't be happier with our decision.

This note is saccharine enough that you won't need sugar in your coffee tomorrow. I know it is childish to be attached to a car but if you haven't noticed yet--I'm sort of childish.

Yoda and the window

All of our animals can escape the house--even the 90 pound one.

Happy Monday!

Three cuties!

"I love Badger; I wish she would love me back..."

"I love the snuggie..."

"Can I just sleep here tonight?"

Animal Day

We encountered a bunch of animals today--maybe they come out on Saturday.

Mouse: When I went to take the old shop vac to the dump I disconnected the hose and went to put it in the body of the vac. I unsnapped the three hooks holding it on and when I pulled it off there were two little bug eyes looking up at me. I always forget how bug eyed Eastern mice are. They are almost like they are on stalks and give the dirty creatures an even grosser look. The lab mice that I worked with in college had more inset eyes--much less icky. Not realizing that Yoda was behind me I dumped out the vac so the little mouse could get away. Yoda pounced and missed--because he is a little dull--and the mouse darted for a nearby hemlock. And the mouse climbed and climbed and climbed. He finally got to the first branch about 40 feet off the ground and stopped for a rest. I never knew mice could climb trees like that.

Toad: I was cleaning out the shed and noticed an oily rag in the pocket of an old kid sized lacrosse stick. I bent to pick it up and as I reached it moved. It was a very dark green toad. Most I have seen have a little more brown. Toads don't do much. It hasn't moved in about an hour.

Small Human Girl: Our friend and neighbor Caroline came over with her mom Katie. Caroline is 4 or 5 and weighs 43 pounds. She has a lot of energy and is very polite. She always says excuse me when she interrupts two adults who are talking about something that I'm sure is intolerably boring to a 4/5 year old. Today she said, "Excuse me, can I take this popper outside." She wanted to take the lawn mower style popper thing that had balls in it that pop around when you push it. We have all had one--you know what I mean. (This one I actually don't like too much because the balls are pastel in color and I really prefer the old fashioned reds, blues and yellows. All in all I wish pastels did not exist.) Anyway Caroline was running around pushing the popper and she noticed...

Cat: Our outdoor cat Toonces who sometimes exhibits dog like tendencies and goes on walks with us. Toonces was carrying something that looked like an old gray glove but it was really a...

Chipmunk: Toonces is currently leading all neighborhood cats with kills of 3 Chipmunks, 2 mice and 2 moles. And today she got her biggest one yet. This thing was massive for a chipmunk and she was very proud and protective of her kill. Caroline was shocked and impressed and grossed out by the Chipmunk kill.

Dog: Yoda did more swimming than he has ever done today. We were throwing a ball with a launcher and he was swimming great distances to grab the ball. Alas he still is not tired.

Small Human Baby: Amelia started the day by dialing random numbers on the portable phone and she, at 6pm, is dialing random numbers again.

A full Lake George day.

Some Cute Pictures of Amelia

This is what it was like to be with Amelia today. Experience these 14 seconds and then multiply by several seconds and you will see what much of our day was like.



Just so you don't think I'm too terrible...I did get her some waffle fries after the video and she calmed down for a bit.




Great-Grandmother Perkins upon seeing this breakfast scene said, "Doesn't she want a diaper?" The true answer was no but we put one on anyway.

Thraniversary

Not sure what the term for a 3rd anniversary is. I found online that we are supposed to gift each other with leather. Umm...we did not do that. Instead we went on a dinner cruise of Lake George on the Lac du Saint Sacrement. The ship was the French name for the lake and was the name until the English Captain Oliver Cromwell defeated French Admiral Antoine LaVoisier in the battle of 1387. Since that time the lake has been called Lake George in honor of Oliver's father Keith (who happened to go by George.)

Enough history. Heidi was really excited for this trip. She has wanted to take the cruise since she was a little girl. She showed her extreme excitement by making me take pictures of her in line even though the background wasn't so great.


We were on board at 5:30, ordered a bottle of wine and had a bit on the top decks until the ship sailed at 6:30. When the boat was moving we went to the buffet. There was a very tasty haddock smothered in a tasty glaze of some sort. The new potatoes were well seasoned and excellent. And the roast beef was pretty good for a buffet. For dessert we had cheese cake. My favorite part of cheese cake is the graham cracker crust. This cheese cake had no crust.

For the last 2 hours of the cruise we sat on the top decks and watched the beautiful scenery go by. The sun was out and there was a warm wind from the south making it very pleasant outside. We sat at the very back of the ship and this afforded us good views of the rampant PDA on board.

Three couples in particular were frequent offenders of showing too much of their admiration for one another in public. Strangely all of them included girls that were dressed up and very in to the cruise and the night, and guys that were wearing t-shirts and cargo shorts. I have many good friends that wear cargo shorts but I think it is pretty important to make sure that they are not affecting your decision making.

All in all it was a great anniversary dinner. I have to work on our actual anniversary which is next week but we will have another celebration when I return to the lake. And I know this is cheesy but the cruise was only fun because Heidi was along. She is a great wife and I'm glad she found me.

PS--Thanks to Great Grandmother Perkins and Grammie Perkins for watching Amelia.

Safety first!

We bought a helmet for Amelia to wear in the tow-behind today - she actually picked it out. It's not really that effective because when she sits in it and leans her head back it covers her face...but we're trying. She LOVES to wear it around the house, in the driveway, and while sitting in the tow-behind, which is her current favorite driveway activity.



She also enjoys some business time. She likes to sit on chairs and pretend to "work."

fortunately we have a lot of friends who are English teachers...

Much thanks to our friend Kaileen for pointing out our misplaced modifier in the previous post.

Tom did not catch the bass WITH the shop vac. He merely bought a shop vac, came home, went fishing, and happened to catch a bass.

;)

Sunset and Hiking

This was the from the dock at Lake George last night. This is a good vacation.



Today Amelia and I hiked up a small ridge behind the house. It gives a nice view of the Lake from the very southern end where we are.
I rounded out the day by buying a shop vac and catching a one pound bass. Probably actually about 2/3 pounds but why not round up?

RI with Rosie and Gelman II

No idea what happened there. We had a fun time in Narragansett with our friends Rosie, Andrew, Nesbitt, Lesley, Seth, Christine and all of Rosie's parents friends. Mike and Betty were incredibly generous and kind hosts. Tim and Susan took great pictures of all of us. Alice was her always fun cooking self (and was really helpful with Amelia--she clearly has the grandmother bug :) and Laurie shared great stories of kids growing up in Concord.











So we had a great time and are sad to see our friends Rosie and Andrew leave for another year. It will be a great experience but we will really miss them.

RI with Rosie and Gelman

We just enjoyed a great weekend in Narragansett. Sadly I can't get the underline to go away so I will stop telling you about it here and just show some pictures.

Queen Amelia

Aunt Becky's videos

Video 1: Amelia plays with her Aunt Becky.
Video 2: We try to keep Amelia awake in the car so she can nap at home...

We're baaaack.

We returned last night from a weekend in Denver for our friends Liz & Tucker's wedding. It was a lot of fun and.....our first weekend away from Amelia - my first time being away from her for more than one night. She had a wonderful time with her Grammie, Aunt Becky, Aunt Liz, and Grandmother Perkins. She was unenthused when I returned and wanted to play with Aunt Becky. We missed her like crazy, though, and are so excited to be back and playing with her.

Here are some pictures from our trip!

The last picture of Tom and his glasses... see below for more information :)

Also, it wouldn't be a vacation without a ridiculous travel story. On Saturday night, Tom lost his wallet... and we were set to leave at 4am the next day. So, we head to the airport not knowing how he would board a plane without identification. Turns out, you CAN fly without an i.d... they took him into a room and looked up his name on an FBI file or something and asked him very freaky questions such as: who lives in your house? What is a cross street near your house? Fortunately, he was let on the plane, he made it home and got a message that the wallet was found and is on its way home via the post office...

To make the story even better, however, was the fact that Tom was so angry he lost his wallet that he threw his glasses across the room, broke them, and when he woke up to put on his contacts the next morning he only had one contact...so he was a little dizzy all day... That's what I call a logical consequence for throwing your glasses.