Busy Busy Bowers

Oh my goodness, we've been busy.  But happily busy so it's okay.

Things are getting 'real' regarding our move away from Davis.  The only thing I've actually moved to the Coast House so far are some potted plants but the list-making and preparations here in Davis are starting up.  Dave's tasks are starting and completing projects while mine center more around all the paperwork and logistics of moving and renting a house (writing a lease, posting the rent ad, hiring a landscape company to blow leaves/clean gutters/fix irrigation a couple times a month).  It's a good thing I like lists!

I have a whiteboard in my home office that I update every few days with my tasks.  The top is my dissertation chapter list, the bottom left is today's list (yeah right am I getting all that done!), and the bottom right is the two-month-plan list.  

Dave made a sketch of the back wall of the soon-to-be downstairs Coast House kitchen to ask me where I wanted electrical outlets and light switches.  

On the other side of the card he made a loooooooooooong list of all the plumbing/electrical stuff he'd need.  It took him 3.5 hours at Home Depot to get everything. Can  you imagine how long it'd have taken if I were there asking questions or if Eddie were there with us?  OY VEY.

Meanwhile, he made major progress with the hall bathroom here at home.  He replaced the window and we hauled the old tub out of the house on Monday before I left for school.  The new tub is in a box in the living room, currently acting as a play structure for Eddie.

Bye bye sheetrock and tub.

 As busy as we are, there's been plenty of time for fun, too.  On Sunday Eddie and I went to Renee's third birthday party.  It was rainbow theme and Kelly did an AMAZING job making sure every last detail of the party was as rainbowed-out as possible.  The kids got to play in some dyed rice she made, which was a huge hit.  And the kids surprised us by keeping 98% of the rice in the tub.  Yay!

Eddie's in the blue party hat.  There were rainbow wood cut outs to play with, along with little Waldorf people toys, egg cups, wooden eggs, tools, and little mushrooms.  Super fun!

Since I'm not adding anymore stuff to our compost pile, I've started feeding all our kitchen scraps exclusively to the worm bin (before it was about half and half).  Now that the temperatures are increasing and I'm feeding them more, they're going through their shredded paper bedding a lot faster.  Eddie and I spent some time shredding some old office paper on Sunday.

For the last two years, I've told my spring quarter students to give me all their final exam notes (it's open note) if they don't want them and that I'd use them in the worm bin.  And see?  I actually am!   As my dad always says, "paper is cheap but answers are expensive."  I got a lot of eye rolls from the students about making them have hardcopy notes instead of using their computers but I didn't want them to Google all the answers (getting yourself organized with your class notes is a skill they should learn).

Eddie was pretty excited to help with the shredder since this was the first time I ever let him use it.  

I'm done with my chai milk tea break so I'll hop back on the grading wagon.

This and That

Things have been going on, yet I don't seem to have the motivation to write about them.  But I do take pictures so that's what you'll get.

Note: there is one dead animal picture in the middle...so don't look if you're squeamish.  You've been warned.

I made a double batch of granola to go with my homemade yogurt.  Mmmm, good.

Eddie loves gymnastics...once he decides to participate.

Last Saturday Eddie went with me to a friend-of-a-friend's house to learn about butchering a pig.  Dave was supposed to be home to hang out with Eddie, but when his plans changed, Eddie came along.  When he got bored with the meat, he busied himself with digging for worms in the garden and feeding them to the chickens.  (His recent hobby.)

Later on Saturday: Eddie continued his worm-seeking in the neighbor's compost pile.  He put the worms into a beer bottle he found in the neighbor's yard (uhhhh...) and had me feed them to the chickens afterward.  

I made a video of me feeding the chickens all the worms Eddie collected in the beer bottle.  Dave thinks I'm crazy for it, but I seriously don't think I could ever live without chickens again.  They are such a delight to have in the yard--so much personality!  

Eddie found this dress/nightgown and some books in a "free" pile in front of someone's house on the way home from the pig butchering class.  He wore it to bed that night, after spending an hour dancing around the house like a ballerina.  When Dave got home that night, Eddie greeted him in the living room and I heard Dave exclaim, "Oh!  My pretty, pretty princess!"  Haha, I loved Dave's reaction.

Sunday we were supposed to have Zennie over to play but she was barfing all morning so she didn't come.  So......we demolished the hall bathroom shower/tub surround instead!  Dave even managed to take the old tub out the next day. I'm not sure how we'll get the new one in since he had to use a Sawzall to get the old one out...but I'm sure we'll figure something out.  Dave took my picture here because I was using the biggest nonsledge hammer we have with the smallest chisel we have...that's what I was left with after Eddie rummaged through the tool bag.  But it worked.  

Because the hall bathroom is being renovated, Eddie now bathes in a galvanized tub in the kitchen. So far, he thinks it's fun.  I think it's cute because--well, what's not cute about Eddie in a bucket?  But also it's cute because Dave and I bought those tubs to hold ice and drinks for our wedding reception.

Eddie and Callen busied themselves allllllll day Monday by digging a huge hole in the front yard (in a place pre-approved for digging by me since it has no plants).  They were quite industrious: the soil went into a 33 gallon garbage can, then they dragged the hose to it and soaked it to make mud, then  asked Callen's dad to dump it out so they could play in it.  The can o' mud was so heavy that Rob had to come ask Dave to help him move it.  I think those kiddos were out there for a good 4 hours playing in that mud, making volcanoes, roads, and tunnels.

While Eddie was outside playing and Dave was sawing away at the tub, I made some kid-sized aprons and pot holders. Renee is having her birthday party this coming weekend and I know she's getting a play kitchen from her parents.  So I thought I'd make her a few things to go with it.  I made two aprons so Eddie has one, too.  I used some old fabric from my Grandma's old stash and made ruffles for the first time ever.  I was delirious with pride that I actually made ruffles--I felt like I'd discovered how to make fire or something.  

On our Tuesday afternoon off, Eddie was outside playing with the neighbors when it suddenly got really cold and windy.  They came inside for a snack and we realized it was hailing something fierce.  I got excited and went out onto the patio to check it out.  Seeing my excitement, they came outside with me.  And then we realized we were being pummeled and it HURT our faces so we came inside and just stared out the window for the next 5 minutes until it passed.  

I wore gold earrings and a 3/4 sleeved sweater to school the other day. Not wanting naked wrists, I rummaged through my jewelry box in search of a gold bracelet.  This is the only one I have.  It was a wedding gift from Dave's mom on our wedding day.  And yes, that's a picture of newborn Dave.  Weird?  Yes.  Sort of creepy?  Maybe.  But do I love it? Definitely.  

Eddie insisted on cooking our eggs yesterday morning, just so he could wear his new apron.  Scrambled eggs was the first dish I was ever allowed to cook alone on the stove, too.  I sent this video to Edward right after uploading it and he told me he actually burned his OWN breakfast because he was busy watching Eddie cook.  Haha.

Dave is home this week for water treatment class he's taking in Sacramento.  Obviously, this makes this week one of the best of the year because he's here every morning and is home in time for dinner every night.  I loooooooooooove it.  Eddie does, too.  Tonight he and Dave played 'struction workers on excavators while I threw dinner together.  He's always pretended that the upside down stools are heavy equipment because when he stands inside the legs, it puts the legs in the right position to be the levers controlling the machines.   

So that's what we've been up to!  I'm off to Mountain View/Livermore tomorrow to spend a couple of days away for some (hopefully) focused writing time.  It's possible I'll find some time to write up a few much-neglected blog posts while I'm gone...but I think I'll be too busy biking, eating Cajun chicken pasta at Strizzi's, sitting in Edward's hot tub, picking greens in my dad's garden...oh, and writing the results and discussion sections of this first dissertation chapter.  Boo.  

Levie Christmas 2012

Like every year, us Levies celebrated Christmas late...this year, all the way into 2013.  Edward and Jennifer were gone over the holidays and rather than celebrate twice, we all waited until we could be together. And since we were going to celebrate near my dad's birthday, we just combined the two events.

We celebrated at the Levie-Whitney household this year.  Us Bowers just went down for the day.  When not cooking, we each took turns biking on their road bikes while watching tv (they were on trainers so they were like stationary bikes). This is how Edward and Jennifer exercise on nights when they don't want to go on a real ride because there's a game on tv or if it's too cold outside.  I really want something like this for Gualala, but hooked up to power the tv!

Dave and Edward watched Jennifer and me do some "runner's knee" exercises on YouTube.

Edward and I watched an episode of How It's Made.

Heehee! 

Us women also kicked the guys out of the apartment at one point.  I can't remember why, but I think it was because Eddie was getting antsy being inside all day and I didn't want him watching too many shows.  So they all hopped on bikes and rode over to Safeway.  My dad entertained Eddie inside the store by looking at the live crab tank.  When Eddie got back he told me that he was snow crabs. I asked him what color they were and he said "brown with a little bit of while snow, too."  Too cute.

Jennifer, Edward, and I schemed to make a special dish for my parents: pheasant under glass.  Growing up, my parents often joked that they made this fancy meal when in reality they usually just made something simple.  My mom haaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaated cooking and as she was usually stuck with the chore of feeding her family, she often made something from one of those (gross) 1970s cookbooks titled something like Easy Microwave Meals for Two!  I remember countless times sitting down to a dinner of tuna and crackers with sliced tomatoes on hot summer nights and my parents would sigh with workweek exhaustion and say, "Ah, pheasant under glass, my favorite."

So of course we decided we actually needed to make this famed dish.  Jennifer and I haunted the web for recipes (she settled on a great one) and Edward was sent to the store to buy the frozen birds.  Initially I was going to go to our bee-friend's aunt's house in Sacramento to slaughter some pheasants since she sells them for 1/4 the cost of store-bought.  But there wasn't time...but maybe we'll do that next time.

Pheasant chefs.

Mommy and Daddy Levie

I brought my glass cake stand and we told my dad to stay out of the kitchen that afternoon while we cooked. It turned out pretty delicious!

Blurry dinner: pheasant, wild rice, greens, and gluten free olive bread made with truffle oil.  That bread was so good you couldn't tell it was glutenless!

After dinner we opened gifts.  Edward wanted to keep the hockey game on the tv but I suggested he put it on the computer instead and so he pulled up a gif of a fireplace on the tv instead.  With Christmas music on Pandora it was very festive inside!

They didn't decorate for real Christmas but wanted something fun for the Levie celebration. So...Edward took a redwood branch from the Google parking lot when he was there for lunch with a friend.  Haha.  Jennifer decorated it with oodles of little bows; it was darling.

We all got some great stuff--the highlights for me included a Lebanese cookbook from Edward and a 15 L fermentation crock from my dad!  It was actually a gift for all of us Bowers...but you know, it's really for me.  My dad gifted Dave his entire collection of Fine Homebuilding magazines.  I don't know about Dave but I'm super excited about this.  I loved looking at these magazines when I was a kid (mostly the back highlight projects but also the stuff inside).  Eddie got a cool blue pirate helmet from Auntie and Uncle--it has built in rear lights and the model is called "Tater."

Unfortunately I wasn't feeling well after presents so Jennifer and my dad made dessert for everyone while I tried to nap in the guest room.  Eddie was crawling all over me so as soon as they finished eating I decided we should leave instead of staying to open stockings.  I think I'd just overdone it that day, what with having a head cold and everything.  On the car ride home Eddie and I both fell asleep.  Dave was able to successfully transfer him into his bed without waking him up--a rarity and I love it when it works.  

Dave, Eddie, and I opened our "stockings" yesterday morning.  My mom stuffed all sorts of wrapped treats inside old paper lunch sacks.  Gotta love my mom's resourcefulness!  We each got some candies, Trader Joe's gift cards, almonds, cans of smoked oysters, and the like.  I know it's weird that we wait to celebrate the holidays in our family...but I kind of like spreading the goodness out. 

Eddie at 3.5

Next Wednesday Eddie will be 3.5 years old.  My oh my how time flies.

I still still remember him turning that magical 6 months old, when the doctor informed me that he didn't need to nurse in the middle of the night anymore.  From that day on he was cut off from the nocturnal dairy and he also began eating solid foods.  I remember we took a picture of him right before he tasted solid food and I remarked to my dad, "Isn't it crazy that all the growing he's done since birth is because of me?!" Of course I meant because of my milk since I was proud of him never having ingested a drop of formula (and actually, unless he stole some from another kiddo's bottle at daycare, he never ever had anything but boob juice).  My dad was quick to point out that ALL of Eddie growth was because of me--as in, fetal development through now.  Well, duh.  But somehow that didn't seem as astonishing to me as the breastfeeding part, maybe because I didn't really have to work all that hard to make sure he grew in my belly.  I mean, I ate well (but I usually do).  He just grew in my belly without much thought on my part.  But with breastfeeding I really did have to work hard--I got mastitis several times, once so bad I had to get a shot in the butt of strong antibiotics, I had to pump 3 times a day at school, I had to shuttle all those bottles to and from school and daycare, and I had to wash all those bottles/nipples/caps/pump parts.  But dangit, it was so worth it.  I really do think breastfed babies are the cutest.

But...I digress.  Half birthdays.  Right.  So Eddie is in the throws of being a three year old, which means there are some annoying and exhausting aspects of being his mama but so many more wonderfully delightful and amusing aspects, too.

The bad:

• When he goes through growth spurts lately, it is marked by an increased level of whining and not listening.  Of course, he also eats more but that doesn't bother me so much.  The whiny tone DRIVES ME BONKERS.  I know all the parenting wisdom in the world will tell you to just ignore it and only respond to the child when he speaks normally.  BUT I CAN'T.  Gah, I wish I could.  I should just make an auto-looped recording of myself saying, "Eddie, please try again without whining" to save myself the breath.  I say it all the dang time.  At school, the refer to Eddie during these bouts of whining as Eddie the Whinosaurus Rex or Eddie the Whinoceros.  The good news is that these periods only last about 3 weeks and then he's back to his normal less-whiny self who is wearing slightly tighter fitting clothes (he seems to grow taller more than wider, which is great).
• He doesn't nap consistently anymore.  This is normal at this age, I realize.  For about the last year or two he's not really napped at home for us.  But now it's also at school--he'll just lie quietly on his mat and look around or look at books for 2 hours.  And it doesn't bother us so much, it just means that on no-nap days we have to work harder to get him through the bedtime routine (and we move it up a little bit). 
• He only seems to have a certain amount of "good" in him for each day.  Often, Miss Amanda will tell me that Eddie was GREAT! at school and then he's a terror at home--not listening, refusing to eat all (or even some) of his dinner, demanding things like snacks and treats, pitching a fit when he doesn't get to watch as many shows as he wants, etc. The days when she reports that he had a hard time listening or was a Whinoceros at school, he's usually a perfect angel for me at home--being helpful with clearing the dinner table, eating all his food, sitting on his chair for the whole meal and making conversation with me, not pitching a fit when I shut off the tv or announce that it is bath time.  It's like he has x units of angel in him and it's only enough for school or home, but not both.
• When he wants something but can't have it (like a lollipop from his Halloween candy bucket...yes, we still have candy in there), he'll just repeat over and over and OVER again, "But I want a piece of caaaaaaaaaaaaaandy from my bucket!"  Nothing you can say will change the duration of this complaint nor the quality.  I guess it's like having a tantrum but with non-forceful words rather than physical outrage.  It seems to be something he has to mentally work through before he can move on.  
• He can't or won't sit still to watch a show.  Maybe this is a boy thing, maybe this is an Eddie thing.  But it drives me bonkers.  I've enacted a 'no jumping, climbing, walking, or standing on the couch' rule...but he rarely follows it.  I'm sure he'll oblige when he's a teenager.

The good:

• He's becoming more and more empathetic.  I remember just a couple of months ago when he'd tell me that someone at school got sick.  He'd tell me what happened and I'd say something like, "Oh, isn't it sad that Naomi is sick today?  It makes me sad that she's sick and I hope she feels better soon." He'd be so confused, not understanding at all why I was sad about it.  But now he gets it and it's so lovely and cute.  This month at school they're focusing on empathy and learning what it means to be a good friend so his understanding (or actions about it) have really amped up.
• He sleeps really, really well at night and doesn't get sick often.  I'm super thankful for these traits because my sanity depends on a solid night's sleep for myself and for the pre-bed alone time I get (to veg out and watch shows or read).  Last night he had a deep cough that kept waking him up (and me, too). I was up at 12, 1, and 3:45 am checking on/comforting him. Hyland's homeopathic cough syrup, a vaporizer, and a cloth rubbed with Vick's vaporub didn't ease his coughing much...poor kid.  I kept in mind that he's not often sick and at least he's able to breathe and everything.  He's such a trooper, he was very happy to be awake at 6:45 am (an hour earlier than usual) and he even let me get a nap for 1.5 hours after we ate breakfast (thanks, PBS kid shows!).
• Every day he recounts all the people he loves--and when he gets tired of listing specific people he just sighs and says, "I just wuve everyone, Mama."  Ahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh!
• He's so much fun to hang out with.  His role playing games are easy to understand now (hunting for bad guys or bears, having a tea party, etc.), his concentration is up to 10-20 minutes so we can play a few easy board games or work on an actual project rather than just coloring madly on the paper, he can bike pretty far for someone his age so we can actually go places (we've only gone a mile each way to a destination but I'm sure he could go further), he can plan things out (instead of just building a tower with blocks, he'll tell the story of what we're building and why--like, we're building a thing to help daddy hold his coffee cup in the garage so it won't spill and break the mug on the floor or something).

The rest (neither good or bad):

• He's back to picking out his own clothes. For a while he insisted on it and then he stopped caring.  But now it's back.  I really need to sort though his hand-me-downs and remove all the ugly or should-wear-while-at-home-only items so he doesn't pick them out.  Normally I don't give a hoot about what he wears--matched or unmatched, boots with shorts, whatever floats your independent little boat is fine with me.  Except when the clothes are crappy.  We went to the library on Tuesday afternoon, as we often do on those "free" afternoons.  I picked him up from daycare and he was wearing his "extra" pants from his cubby because his Pull Up leaked during nap (gotta make sure that penis is pointed in the right direction!).  Ug.  They were dark blue synthetic fabric athletic pants, covered in pills, and with a stupid Elmo patch on the rear pocket.  He had on a Halloween shirt with two giant holes on the belly (must have happened at school) and light blue boots that have pen marks on the toes and were all dusty.  I was actually embarrassed--at least I would have been had I not just given him a much-needed hair cut the previous weekend.  (I need to remember that even "extra" clothes in his cubby and diaper bag in the car end up getting worn sometimes, and it'll always be when we're away from home.)
• He likes to read the same books every night for about a week and then he'll select a new stack of 4-5 and get hooked on those for the next week.  Too bad he sticks with only one show at a time rather than a selection.  For a long time it was Blue's Clues but for the last 2 months it's been Richard Scarry's Busytown Mysteries (he calls it Busy Street).  
• He takes 1/4 of a Trader Joe's vitamin C tablet every morning (175 mg or about 11 mg/kg) along with one princess gummy vitamin.
• He knows we're moving to the Coast House and that another family will move into our Davis house.  Almost everyday he'll identify an item in our house and ask if we will move it: "Mama, will we move my bed to the Coast House?  And Dadda's hammers?  And your hair brush?  Oh, good."
• He wants to play with his friends all the time.  Usually that means Isaac at school (too bad for Eddie Isaac is only there two days a week with him) and the neighbor kids at home (too bad for Eddie they go inside by 5:15 pm each evening so he usually can't play with them during the week).  We worry about moving to the Coast House since there are NO kids in the neighborhood at all.  I foresee a lot of driving up/down the coast to take him to friends' houses.  Ug.  
• He really wants a sibling.  A human sibling.  He used to tell us he wanted a brother or a sister and we'd laugh and say, "The doggies!  You have Brother and Sister!"  But then he specified a human sibling: "Mama, I want a sister or a brother, not like the doggies.  A sister or brother with hands like me, and feet like me, and a belly like me, and a bottom like me."  Oh.  And now he's just started telling us that we should take home the cute little baby girl from daycare, Imogen.  (Which I would totally do if her folks didn't want her anymore.  She's freaking adorable.)  Poor lonely kid.  If I didn't mind being a single working mother of two or weren't so close to losing funding and finishing (starting?) my dissertation I might bite the bullet and have another baby now.  But it just doesn't make sense yet, time or money wise.  Maybe we'll get him a cat when we move...think that'll tide him over?
• He thinks I am saying "Dadda" when I tell him about my "data."  This usually comes up during our dinner conversations of him asking me what I did at school today.  I know he has no clue what I'm talking about but I tell him the details anyway: I met with my friend Felipe and we tried to get the FTIR-TGA working so we had to fill up the detector chambers with liquid nitrogen...but it didn't work because the laser is dead so we have to buy a new one.  And then I met with Lucas and he reviewed my data with me and helped me understand that it isn't normally distributed so we talked about how to transform it..." and he'll cut me off and say, "YOU GOT TO SEE DADDA AT YOUR SCHOOL?"  Hahaha, poor kid.  So now I try to say "numbers" instead of "data."
• He comes home from school asking me if the pregnancy-related ailments Cassie has were also problems for me when he was in my belly.  Like: nose bleeds, not being able to lift heavy things, having to go potty all the time, needing to buy bigger shirts, etc.  It's so cute that he engages with her about the pregnancy like that...not to mention how amazing it is that a 3.5 year old can understand that what's happening to her also happened to me (growing a baby).
• He gets up at about 7:30-7:45 am, takes a nap from around 12:30-2 pm at school, and goes to bed around 8 pm (probably falls asleep 30-45 minutes later). 

I often jump up during a meal and tell him, "Hang on, I'm going to put that on my shopping/to-do list so we don't forget it!"  (A veeeeeeeeeeeeeeeery Jane Leve thing to do, I might add.)  Yesterday he did the same thing and even brought a notepad and pen to the table to "write" a note.

He thinks sitting "next" to someone means sitting so your chairs are touching.  Adorable, yes.  Compatible with eating?  Not so much.  Especially when you have to use both hands to cut something and your elbow jabs that person sitting NEXT to you.

Eddie eating his cheese snack at the library (see the I love my mummy Halloween shirt?)...and infected sinus me looking as tired and sick as I felt.

Okay!  That was long enough and I'm sure there's so much more to say.  But that's 3.5 year old Eddie in a giant nutshell.

A Meat-Tastic Weekend

Goodness, this past Saturday was very meaty.

That morning, my friend and labmate, Hannah, came over with her rooster.  She and her housemates had been in denial that their super-sized chicken, Fig, was in fact a rooster rather than a hen.  When he started crowing at dawn last week, her household quickly decided that he had to go (so did their neighbors).

I got a panicked text from her last Tuesday while Eddie and I were at the train museum.  She needed to know if I could assist her in dispatching him.  Of course!

Back in December, I took a chicken harvesting class in Sacramento...and while I don't fancy myself an expert, I knew we could figure it out.

So one night last week, Eddie and I went to the hardware store to pick up some aluminum flashing and made ourselves a 'killing cone.' I sharpened a knife, gathered some pots of hot and iced water, found a suitable gut bucket, and tied some rope on the fence.

Hannah and her roommate, Chris, a law student, came over around 11 am.  By 2 pm we each had a chicken carcass ready to cook and had washed/sterilized all the materials used in the slaughter.  (I figured if we were going to harvest one chicken, why not two?  Mine will all turn into food at some point before we move anyway.  Eddie chose Vindaloo.)

I debated letting Eddie watch me kill our chicken and after discussing it with Dave we figured he'll see it eventually so why not start now?  Dave held Eddie in his arms while we did it, just in case he needed some comfort.  While the birds were draining on the fence, the neighbor kids and their grandmother came over to see what we were doing (we were in the front yard).  It turns out they were super interested, and the grandmother explained to us that her family used to harvest chickens when she was a girl.

Overall, it went just fine.  I'm not sure we killed mine as swiftly as I would have liked since her neck feathers were quite dense.  But after a second swipe of the knife ensured her passing.  Practice makes perfect, I guess, and I do want to get it right so my birds can "go" as humanely and painlessly as possible.

Killing cone.

Hen and rooster.  Thanks for your sacrifice.

Our set up.

Mary Jane came to watch Hannah clean her rooster.

My first home-harvested bird.

It was a fun science experiment to harvest a male and a female at the same time.  We got to explore their insides, comparing the testes to the collection of eggs inside the hen.  Vinny had a series of eggs inside her, of various sizes so that was interesting.  Chris definitely winced when we cut open a testicle to see what was inside...nothing, in particular, as it turns out.  They were just solid white organs.  I figured we'd see tubes or something.  Either way, it was neat experience.

L to R: Ovaries with lots of eggs attached, a series of four yolk sacks, and a small calcified egg.  The orange "eggs" were just yolk sacks and the small blue egg was only egg whites inside.  Interesting.  Vinny was a nearly 3 years old so I'm not surprised that her ovulation got messed up.

Testes on the left, Vinny's largest yolk sack on the right.

After Hannah left, I had time to jump into the shower to scrub off the dead chicken stink, gulp down some coffee and a granola bar, go to the store to buy 35 pounds of pork shoulder, and then bolt over to my professor's house for our annual sausage making party (which lasted until 9:30 pm...).  Whew.  But that'll be in another post.

Construction Workers

I've always loved construction workers.

And lucky me, now I have two of my very own: Dave and mini Dave.

Like father, like son. 

As Edward just pointed out: the one on the left is a construction worker but the one on the right is more like a destruction worker.  Heehee!