Last night, we were at a friend’s house in downtown. He lives on the 14th floor.  It was a great evening. We were out on the balcony enjoying the cooler breeze when some VERY loud popping and flashing lights started.  He faces away from the river and Wingfield park. A friend said, “Oh, it’s fireworks!”  Nope.  I was sure that it wasn’t.  It was so loud. I quickly grabbed the arm of this friend and took myself inside. The others of our party moved onto the balcony, where I was sure that they were going to die. I headed for the middle of the rooms thinking that I had a better chance of survival if the building went down.  Meanwhile there is still flashing and loud booms, which I am sure is gunfire and a bomb.  I was terrified.  So if the building didn’t go down, then I was going to have to face carnage when it was over. Bodies were going to be strewn about the park. There would be total chaos in the streets below. Who is bombing Downtown Reno? Why would someone bomb downtown Reno?

I think the the one thing that made this all worse was that I had convinced my friend (the one that said they were fireworks) that it was indeed a bad situation and she had moved right inside with me.  I will keep her identity hidden.  But Genoveve was right there with me, cowering in the apartment.

So after a few moments, after visualizing the complete destruction and planning my escape from the building – both if it kept standing or if I had to unbury myself from the rubble, everything became quiet. The FIREWORKS were over. I was no longer a target for a terrorist attack, but now a mark for the other guests and the hard laughter that soon followed all at my expense.

Tasty is fitting right in. She and Cina have become fast friends. Okay, Cina is a bit annoyed.  Tasty wants to play all the time and loves to crawl, claw and bite Cina.  She is most intrigued by her wagging tail.  It is great that they are getting along so well and that Tasty has fit in like a perfect piece of our perfect family puzzle.

Sid is battling the stomach flu again.  It is so hard to watch someone so little be sick and not be able to tell you what is hurting.  His little personality still shines through at moments and gives us hope that he is on the mend.

Congratulations to our VERY good friends, Tina and Bart, on the arrival of their daughter, Matilda Adriana.  she weighed in at 7lbs 10oz and 21.5″ long.  We can’t wait to meet her.  We have had to hold off due to illness around here.  Here is a picture of the new family!!

Another quick…kinda gross story, but one for all parents.  We were in Kohl’s shopping with Nana last weekend.  Lola had just trotted off with Marc to the bathroom, as she loves to check out all public bathrooms and they have a family bathroom with a toilet just her size.  I was wandering around with Sid in the backpack looking for great deals when I suddenly was taken aback by a horrible smell.  Yep, Sid.  Ugh.  I caught Marc as he came out of the bathroom and asked him to take Sid out to the van and change him.  We took him out of the backpack and noticed that he had leaked just a bit.  As Marc turned him over to see for himself, two large pieces of fecal matter….okay, shit, fell out. They plopped onto Marc’s shoe before rolling off and finally halting on the carpet of Kohl’s.  For a split second, I wanted to walk away and pretend that nothing had happened.  Instead, I went to the bathroom, grabbed some paper towels, and picked it up as if Sid was my pet in the park.  Gross.  It was an awful feeling.  Marc left with Sid, we grabbed Nana and left. Lola was kind enough to let Nana know that we had to leave because there was poop on the floor. The horror that Nana’s face took on was priceless as well as the comment, “Well, I hope not.”  Yep, there had been poop on the floor and we needed to leave.  The lesson that I hope Marc learned was to trust my words, treat this type of situation more delicately, and accept the assignment as directed.  For me, the lesson is that, truly, you can see anything as a parent.  There is no way to be prepared.

Happy Father’s Day to all of you fathers out there.  Especially Grandpa Dave, Marc, and Pop.  A special shout out to the new daddy, Bart.  I can’t wait to see how the father-daughter relationship will change your life!!

Lola with her veggies.

Lola with our new napkins!

Me with my new wristlet!

See – No hands needed.

Maggie with the new prototype. (I LOVE this, Christie!)

I also have a diaper bag that I bought before Sid was born. She does fantastic work. Take a minute to check out her website wwww.trixerdesigns.com and fill your cart!

I acquired Daisy in the Summer of 2003 after I met Marc. I was called by a lady who rescues small dogs. I had to decline to come and see her as were going on vacation in a few days. I called the woman back within 5 minutes just to set up a time to come and see her. She barked at me when she met me and I knew that I wanted to take her home. I remember her sitting on the front seat of the car like it was where she belonged and had done it all along. She took to our life very easily and found her cozy spots that she spent most of her time in.

It was a very difficult decision. But with the guidance of our vet, we decided that this was the best thing for her.

Mostly here to announce a new album in the gallery, photos taken by Lola’s camera.  They weren’t all taken by Lola (obviously, she’s in several of them), and I’ve sort of lost track of which ones were taken by her and which weren’t.  Some of them pretty obviously are hers, but occasionally she takes a really good one.  Pretty low quality, but some of them have a certain low-rez appeal to them.  Sort of.  We’ll keep adding things as her photography skills develop.

Best wishes for the new year.

We got a Wii.

Sid apparently has pinkeye.

Maggie’s here for the holidays.

That’s all for now.

No wait, got a couple pics from that trip to SF a while back to share:

OK, now I’m done.

Lola is just getting over a cold, and Sidney has gotten his second cold already! Poor boy. Can’t be easy to be that little and sick.

I cooked Thanksgiving dinner. Highlights has to be the pumpkin gooey cake and the date bars which I intend to perfect. They weren’t quite right. But, if you have ever had and liked my gooey cake and like pumpkin – I have got a bite of heaven for you. Lola, Paige and I also made placemats from grocery bags and turkeys with pipe cleaners. It was a funky little table. After Lola ripped off the eyes of the turkeys, it looked more like a massacre on the table.

Lola at the table

My little elves are hard at work trying to get all the Christmas goodies together – okay, I am the only elf. I am dragging out the vintage aluminum Christmas tree again this year and am going with a blue/green decor for Sid. I decorated it all pink after Lola was born. We will be attempting to take the family Christmas photo today or tomorrow.

Wanted to throw in a couple more photos:

Lola in her Princess dress – bday present from Gen and Chris.

Lola and her artwork

Sid and Dada on Thanksgiving Day

Terry and Lola on Thanksgiving

Priscilla and Sid on Thanksgiving

Since I last wrote here, we: had a nice visit from Nana, had (sorta) two visits from Maggie, celebrated both my birthday (sushi dinner one night, brewed beer, dinner at Silver Peak the actual night) and Lola’s (big party in which the birthday -brewed beer was consumed, Morgan already wrote about it), went in for the big V, trick-or-treated several times (Raley’s, our neighborhood, Riverwalk District), got a new windshield for the van, had the kids’ pictures taken, flew to California and back in a day for work and visited Ray at the same time, and visited an aunt in Vacaville and a friend in Fernley.  Whew.  And I wonder why I never have time to write.  Of course, now that the holidays are virtually upon us, it may be a while again.

Speaking of beer, I had a great shopping trip to BevMo while in Vacaville, picked up a bunch of micros and imports that I can’t get around here.   Also on the horizon, a bottle of Utopias with my name on it, probably this week.

Now, about those pictures…you’ll find new Lola pics in her album, including a couple from when we met up with visiting friends of the family from France in SF, and a couple from her birthday party.  Also a number of new Sidney pictures in his album.  And finally, amazingly, a couple Sidney videos so his page actually has some content.

Until I write again, and really, I’ll try to get out little posts more frequently, this is Dada, signing off.