Zach's Follow up

Weeellll.....it doesn't APPEAR to be getting better, but i am justa nurse, and he is the ORTHOPOD..so....i will yield to his expertice(~se??)
here it is, then, for you to see. not as good as the last films, because this shot was taken from the computer screen, rather than from our living room window.
reminder that it is reversed.

VINS field trip (09/14/07)

Today i was fortunate to be able to chaperone Zach's class trip to VINS Vermont Institute of Natural Science. It was pretty cool. We walked along the nature trail, saw different trees, plants, and habitats. Took a good look at a tree that had been struck by lightening many years ago, and looked down on a vernal pool.
We ate lunch after watching a presentation about wetlands, and then got to see some raptors fly around before we walked through the gorge on our way to Marshland Pond.
Very cool. Fantastic weather for it.
Pix....

New Plates

wow...must be sleep dep combined with inspiration and the bubbling sounds coming from Freddy's tank.

We, of course, got new plates for the vehicles. Took us a while, but here they are!

Sally Struthers

Remember her? Sit-Com fame, then went on to peddle classes late at night during the birth of the info-mercial?
I musta dozed off in front of them one too many times, becuase I just fixed our TV/VCR last night. Well...FIXED, if you consider that it now functions as a TV, but the VCR component is non-funtional. S'ok, though, right? Maybe I only dozed off during PART of the commercial. The whole thing started like this:

As I was getting ready to leave the hospital last night http://www.alicepeckday.org/, the med-surge nurse who I'd just been talking to told me that I had a phone call, and "it sounds like a kid." hmmmmm...
"Hello?"
"Hi, Gene. I wanted to call you to tell you that the tv downstairs is broken."
"Broken? How did that happen? Is everyone ok?" (you can NEVER be sure.....)
"It turns itself off right after you turn it on. The screen says 'eject', but there is no tape in there, and then it shuts off."
"Ok, well, I will take a look at it. Can you tell mom that I am leaving now?"
"yep."
"Ok, thanks! Love you, sleep tight!"
"K'bye."
::click::

HUH? it was working just fine 4 hours ago. When it rains......

So i got home to find T in a mood. She was getting another headache, her belly was bothering her again, and she had JUST managed to put her shadow (Z) to bed. Oh, and the tv/vcr was dead. Just like the computer monitor. Two items in one day. What, pray tell, will be the third??

Armed with my left-over bowl of salad (I got paged just as I was turning the steak on the grill), I went to see what the damage was. T showed me a piece of clear plastic that Z had found INSIDE the slot where the vcr tape usually goes. Great. Well, looks like we may have solved the problem. Now how do we fix it?????
Sally? Need a little help here!
Against my better judgement, I took the back off of the unit. I don't know what it is that I expected to find. Or more to the point, I had an idea, but NOT what I would do once I saw the guts of this thing. Ok, the back is off, screws are counted and in a pile off to the side. Let's dig deeper. Surprisingly, the VCR part comes out VERY easily. And so did another piece. Fell out right into my lap.

At this point, T came down stairs, muttered, "oh my goodness" as she walked by, and then disappeared back upstairs.

Ten minutes, some SUPER GLUE, and 4 pieces of duct-tape later, I put it all back together, and turned it on.

Sally would be proud. Or at least smiling. The TV works, as do video games. The VCR, however....well...get the jelly, cause the VCR is TOAST.

For future reference, here is what the innerds look like....

Abu and Iago

These two have come to live with us, I have found out. Abu, formerly known as B, has taken to becoming a monkey. As in monkey-see-monkey-do. Z, on the other hand, has taken to repeating what other people have just said.
So the other night, Thurs, T was on the couch reading about some kid who goes to a special school, wears a hoodie that makes him invisible, has strange friends, and fights all manner of make believe creatures. I was on the floor in the living room playing with B (our own real life creature), who was, as we were about to find out, beginning his transformation into Abu. I said to B, "where's your belly?". He lifted up his shirt and patted his belly. (COOL!) So then i gave him a zerbert or raspberry on his belly. He found this to be wonderfully entertaining, and ran around the island in the kitchen, squealing with delight the whole way. T looked over the top of her book to see what all the rukus was about.
So I asked again, got the same results, did the same zerbert, and ZOOM!, off he went, around the island.
T said, "what is he doing?"
"victory lap", i replied.
laughter all around.
so i snuggled B, and said, "where's daddy's belly?"
::::insert sound of crickets::::
hmmm....
"B, where is MOMMY's belly" (the book was hiding it....)
so off he scampers and climbs up onto the couch. T lifts the book, B slides in underneath, lifts T's shirt, and pats her belly! So i went over and gave T a zerbert. (No victory lap. :( ) So then B/Abu tried to give Mom a zerbert....except that he hasn't QUITE gotten the concept....so she got covered in slobber. Abu thinks that this is WILDY hysterical, laughs, gets off of the couch, and runs over to me where we laugh and roll around on the floor.
Not wanting to take away from all of this learning, I asked B where Mommy's belly was again.
Same performance. Sweeeeeeeeet.
This time, thought, T says that she is going to need a bath now. So i grabbed a tissue and went over and wiped her belly while B held up the shirt. He thought this, too, was funny, and grabbed the tissue from me and finished the job. Then he blew his nose in the tissue before he dropped it onto the floor. Laughter all around again as we realized that B has become Abu.