Marks

Our little kids love coloring with markers and Claire calls them "marks." This week when I got home from traveling Carter had filled the fridge door with pages he had colored. Check out Carter's intense concentration-face.

Carter Turns Five

Carter officially started Kindergarten as a four-year-old, but his fifth birthday came the next week in.

We have the friend birthday party agenda down cold from raising the older kids: Dino-Toss™ (throwing beanbags into a box I painted like a dinosaur — long ago), musical pillows, pin the tail [Squarepants] on the donkey [SpongeBob], pass the present where someone unwraps a layer when the music stops for them, with a cake and ice cream chaser. Carter added some Nerf sword swashbuckling to the mix. And two hours later everyone's gone.

This year Carter asked for a cake in the shape of his favorite Huggy Bear he takes to bed, and don't you know Joanie pulled it off.

Argyle Farm

Here's a scene from the Brayton Farm up in Argyle, New York, about an hour north of home. We had great clouds that evening.

Suddenly Susans

More perennial flowers that just pop up out of the ground without any intervention from me. These Black-Eyed Susans come out under my office window in late summer. This is my kind of gardening.

Peach Pie

Joanie branched out from blueberry pie the other day and tried making peach. Twelve thumbs up!

Fleeting Summer, Ha-chah!

The Price Chopper grocery store in our town plants these massive sunflowers out front every year. I keep track of them every day on the way home from work because they are starting to wither as the New York fall brings cooler weather. I'll do what I can here to keep them going ... before long they'll be piling snow from the parking lot on top of where they now stand.

By the way, you are obliged to use the onomatopoeic chopping noise, Ha-chah! whenever you say Price Chopper. As in, "Honey, I'm going to Price Chopper, Ha-chah." It's something we do.

Summer went Ha-chah! today as the kids went back to school. Madeleine is now a freshman in high school, Malcolm started 7th grade, and Carter is beginning Kindergarten. That makes this blog 3! See baby pictures of Claire and this blog.

Claire Turns Three

Claire had a big, busy day today with two parties for her third birthday.

At lunchtime she had a few friends over for some cake, presents, and games (including musical pillows). Joanie caught her with the camera passed out on the sofa in between the festivities.

At dinner she had another family party with one of her favorite dinners, cheese and potato soup, and again more cake. End it all with a present of play dishes for a tea party and it was a really great day.

Pandemonium

Continuing evidence that old people are cool: the Pet Shop Boys (two guys in their 50s) are out on their Pandemonium tour and I saw them in Boston Saturday night.

Though their thing is to mostly stand still when they perform, there's a lot happening on stage. It's set up with a bunch of corrugated white boxes that in the course of the show start off as a wall, then get knocked over, strewn about, rebuilt into other shapes, then support dancers, and ultimately float to the ceiling. All the while they're serving as screens being projected with graphics. Fantastic to watch, and everything folds flat at the end of the night. Carrying the theme, at different points of the show all performers get to wear a box on their heads.

My highlight of the evening was "Do I Have To," an obscure 1987 b-side (backing "Always On My Mind") with Neil in a tuxedo, quiet piano and ballroom dancing. Great counterpoint to the electro-disco featured the rest of the show. And I liked Chris' mirrorball hoodie.

Goodbye, Dog River

For this, my 400th blog post, I have good news and bad news. The good news is we just got the Season 6 DVDs of Corner Gas, our favorite Canadian TV show. I've seen a couple already and they're funny as ever. The bad news is Season 6 is the last season — this is the end of the line! I'm going to have to find new meaning in my life. At least after I watch this set.

Interesting semi-fact: Corner Gas may have made up (or at least helped popularize) the modern made-up word staycation. It's now in the dictionary, thanks to our friends in Dog River, SK.

If you're not close enough to borrow our copy, I noticed Netflix now offers Corner Gas.