Ethan and Owen

Just because I'm posting some cute pictures doesn't mean I'm back from blog vacation. It just means that you shouldn't miss out on adorable baby pictures.

Ethan, with a cross between his crinkly smile and mild irritationA bit too serious

Ethan, surrounded by more gadgets than he knows what to do with!

Another serious look.

Lucky head rub

Gma and Owen looking at pictures on the computer

Owen, feeling poorly but being sweet

Owen posing with Gpa

Owen, snoozing

Pause...hiatus...time-out

I'm taking a vacation from blogging for a bit. The Muse of the Blogosphere isn't doing much to inspire me, so I'll entertain myself by reading other people's blogs, and you can do the same.

In the meantime, Happy Belated Birthday to Angie, Happy Birthday (tomorrow) to Miles, Happy Thanksgiving to All, and Happy Upcoming Birthday to Annie.

Come and get it!

Mr. Wolf's Eye-talian meatloaf was on the menu for supper tonight. Dad/Paco/Larry/Mr. Wolf created his signature dish years ago, but rarely prepares it anymore. It's a dang shame because he makes a mean meatloaf.

Whenever I ask Mr. Wolf what's in the meatloaf he says it's a secret--which is exactly what he said tonight. I'm all for recipes that are so special the creator won't share the ingredients, but when I hear "It's a secret," I think back to Bessie Jacobs, our neighbor on Chatham Street (may she rest in peace). Bessie often made kolakys (pronounced "ko LACH kees), a Czech pastry filled with cooked apricots or prunes or poppy seeds (poppa seeds, in Bessie's words). Sometimes when I asked Bessie what was in a particular batch of kolackys, she'd respond, "It's a secret. I cleaned out the refrigerator today," implying all sorts of disgusting possibilities.

Mr. Wolf assured me that his secret ingredients were herbs that we have in the cupboard, that I use myself in cooking. What a relief! If you're interested in enjoying Mr. Wolf's Eye-talian Meatloaf, make a reservation and he'll be happy to serve you!

Happy Birthday Grandpa Charlie

A good-sized contingent of Reps relatives joined forces today to wish CReps a happy 86th birthday. We're fortunate to have such a terrific dad/grandpa/great-grandpa who doesn't mind the craziness when a mob descends on him to celebrate.

Present at the birthday festivities were Mark ; Karla & Paul; Aunt Marguerite; Charlie, Angie, Ethan, & Owen; Annie, Tanner, & Miles, and also Larry/Paco/Dad/Grandpappy and yours truly. Missing and missed were Mary Jo (who called this afternoon); Elisabeth, Evan, & Hannah (who called this morning and sang "Happy Birthday" to GGpa Charlie); Kathy, Jamie, Oksana, Max & Yana (who are together in Washington, DC); and Mike & Margot (whose toilet woes prevented them from traveling).

I expected everyone else to take pictures so I only managed to take these few today. If anyone else has pics to share, please send.

Great Uncle Mark playing with Ethan

GGpa Charlie and Owen share an inside joke

Ethan showing GGpa Charlie how to stretch out and relax

GGpa Charlie, Owen, Miles & Annie

Grandpa Larry telling a worried Owen
about the financial complexities of retirement

Hello, Jerry

Dad/Larry/Paco/Grandpappy and I spent the evening at the Orpheum theater in Mpls laughing at Jerry Seinfeld. The Orpheum is a smaller venue than Northrup Auditorium, which is where we saw him previously. I suppose I could be lying about that, but we were in the balcony at the Orpheum and viewed Jerry and his props--a stool, a bottle of water, and a glass--perfectly fine.

I wish I could re-create Seinfeld's humor for you to enjoy, but really, you had to be there. A few of his bits were similar to the show we saw before, but since we hadn't heard the jokes in five years, they were equally funny. He opened by remarking on how amazing it was that in spite of everyone having busy lives, doing a variety of things all day long, we all managed to get to this place at this time to sit in these seats to watch him perform. I'm guessing at least half of the audience was stuck on 394 in 10mph traffic like we were, which made getting there even more astounding!

As anyone reading this who appreciates Seinfeldian humor knows, he's all about the ordinary and the mundane. Last night he painted a picture of himself as a guy who disdains fancy restaurants that get rave reviews from people who tell him, "You should go. You'd love it," and where the snooty wait-staff flaunts cooking terms like walnut-encrusted and infusion. He prefers to go to places that are deemed to have "pretty good food" instead. Just what you'd expect from a guy who used to eat here:

Other topics that made us laugh were Seinfeld's insights on commercials, Home Depot, cell phones, and being a husband and dad. Seinfeld came out on stage for a brief encore to answer questions from the audience, and of course did his great "Hello, Newman" sneer.

We sized up the audience as being mostly people between 35 and 50, with some younger and some old like us. One couple sitting in the row in front of us thought they were at a love-in, so that was somewhat distracting.

I've checked around for reviews of the performance, but since there are two more shows tonight I imagine the Sunday Trib will be the place to look. Anyone who watched/watches the Seinfeld sitcom would have to love seeing him on stage. We sure did!

A little video from the weekend...

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A November Saturday

Three little boys came to visit today. We managed to get pictures of two of them, but Miles was too speedy to be captured digitally this afternoon. Sorry Miles!

Ethan shared hugs and kisses with Auntie Annie.

The babies recently had their six month healthy baby visit and supposedly are nearly the same height. Charlie and Angie were skeptical, so the boys stood front-to-front and back-to-back to get a second opinion.

The test results were inconclusive, since there was some knee-buckling and wiggle-worming going on during the comparisons, but Owen seems to have the height advantage still. On the cuteness scale, both boys scored 10 out of 10.

Miles sang some songs to entertain us today, including "I'm Bringing Home a Baby Bumblebee," and "Hello, How Are You?" He also got to say hi to Auntie Beesie and Cousin Hannah on the phone late in the afternoon, but we couldn't get in a Skype session, doggone it. Hannah, we miss you!

Hillcrest Drive is haunted!

Here's a Grandpa Charlie story from a conversation I had with him today.

Gpa Charlie: "I've discovered that my house is haunted."

Me: "Haunted? What do you mean by that?"

Gpa: "Well, on Halloween night I went to bed as usual, and a little after midnight I woke up from a deep sleep. I could hear what sounded like an alarm clock beeping. It wasn't the alarm in my bedroom, so I got up and went downstairs to try to find the noise. That's hard to do in the middle of the night, you know!

It turned out to be the alarm on the clock radio that Mark and Kathy gave me for the family room. Damn clock! I didn't set the alarm, so it must have been a ghost. I turned it off and went back to bed.

The next night a little after midnight I heard the alarm again! I got up, went downstairs, and turned off the alarm again, then went back to bed. Ghosts again, I guess.

The next night before I went upstairs to bed, I unplugged the clock so I wouldn't be awakened again. But...a little after midnight, there it was again! So I went downstairs and turned it off."

By then Gpa had figured out the clock had a battery, so he didn't blame ghosts anymore. Only I'm not so sure. Three nights: October 31 is Halloween. November 1 is All Saints' Day. November 2 is All Souls' Day. Pagans + Catholics = ghostly happenings!

Gpa Charlie's house

A more logical explanation is that Gpa Charlie reset the time on Halloween night because of the return to Central Standard Time and accidentally pushed a button that set the alarm. I'd buy that, except the ghost idea is more fun. The best part of the whole thing is that Gpa Charlie was peeved by the alarm clock/clock radio because the gigantic LED numbers on it for telling time are skinny blue threads and aren't readable from any distance, and not because of Gpa Charlie's age--they're just hard to read! So, he's now got a new small LED digital clock with readable numbers and NO BATTERY.