Front Seat Gymnastics

Finally Legal

We should be in prison

All Things Good Is A Pittman Girl

(from October 2nd)

What a way to start off October, and to start off our ad campaigning for the new biz. With a busted axel, in the middle of nowhere at 11PM with two kids in the back of the van. Luckily the vagrant who lives behind Hahn's Dairy Farm kept us creepy company til our insurance could send us a tow truck and our guardian angel Ashley Pittman left her date to rescue us and save us a $400 taxi fare.

Peace indeed Ashley. And also with you.

Ballerina Spares Tragedy

So I'm trying to remember back to highlights from the past few months to write about... I remember there was a day where I bought this sweet lawnmower...

$25. Can't beat it. I was pretty stoked. That is until 2 minutes later when thee sliding door to the van decided to break in the parking lot...

Yeah. That was less exciting. Had to take the door off the hinges and hope no one opened it.... you've all heard the story by now so I'll spare you the rerun.

Then a few moments later in another parking lot where my mother ran in to buy flowers I busted open the window trying to open the other door. That was a hoot alright. Good times. Good times.

Oh yeah. And Yuula had her dance recital. She was amazing. I cried. And there are the flowers my mother bought.

And we made my father sit in broken glass. :)

Learning About Gravity

Daddy, why's there a tree on our car?

I do not know Son.

Water Where Water Don't Belong

Just two days into the new roof, and we get tested. And we failed. Pretty good leak, that seemed to get less as the day(s) went on, but a leak is a leak all the same.

It was a pretty bad storm. Hail and thunder sent the girl into our room for bed, but no matter because we lost all power a few minutes later.

I went out to survey the damage but did not expect this...

Tree right thru the back window

Luckily the trees fell right in between the wood shed, tool shed and Mambo's hutch to hit the only thing we have insured, so.... silver linings.

With water in the hose and water in the car, we should just move out onto the lawn.

Too Cool For Tickles

The Shape Of Yard To Come

I worked my shorts to death this past weekend.

Worked on my Popeye arms and finally got all this rock raked out into a new parking area. A crooked one, but we'll figure that out later.

Kind of hard to see but I laid many more flat rocks in the new walkway, started our arbor, and Laura yet again transplanted a ton of stuff. It will be a miracle if we get any flowers and vegetables this summer.

Having our own personal cooling station made the heat much more tolerable.

And any day with a rhubarb pie in it is a good day.

demon bouncer

Friday Night's Alright!

I don't know when Friday nights lost their luster. Maybe 7th grade. Maybe they never had any. But I do that last night, after once again purging the house of temporary undesirables and making a late night run to the storage facility, we sat down for a scintillating meal of leftovers. Laura had day old mac & cheese, I ate a golden goat salad that may have been a day or six past its prime, and Yuula picked at an avocado and a tortilla shell. She ate all the way to the storage facility and back so... maybe she wasn't too hungry.

I'm getting pretty bored with this Strawberry Shortcake DVD. Time to switch it out.

But I guess any evening, as dull as it's been, can be salvaged. A little playtime dancing always seems to to the trick. No new moves tonight, but at least she has on a new tutu.

She was feeling orange.

And then we mixed in a little slide time, which lately is more about her tossing her toys down instead of going down herself.

To each her own.

She got in a few, don't worry.

She went to bed around 8:30, at which point Laura and I flipped around the magnificent television a Friday night has to offer, a little Kirk Cameron on Piers Morgan, a studio performance by Andrew Bird, and finally ending up where most nights nowadays do... watching Arrested Development.

It's even better the 8th time around.

Eyes: dirtgirlworld
Ears: Keith Fullerton Whitman - Generators

The Heighth Of Love

Aye.

As in Aye Aye Aye.

Today was rough. I feel like I drank all the poison.

I did more wrong than good. I had more bad than right.

The list of body parts that hurt outnumber the number of cats sleeping on the front porch but not the number of things wrong with the van which is still less than the number of times I picked up the blocks today.

I had much mousing around to do for work, along with all the snafus and fubars along the way.

Yuula just insisted on being held most the day and when she wasn't she was simply trashing the place. Hitting those terrible twos ahead of schedule.

500 pieces means 500 float, 1000 people means 500 don't.

This was the Valentine's Day that wasn't.

maybe not.....

Eyes: Around the Horn (or at least it's about to be)
Ears: Sunset Rubdown - All Fires (via A-List Playlist)

24 Hours / 7 States / 192 Oz. Of Tea

We made it down in one piece and in one shot. No stopovers for this guy. I soldiered on into the night and hit The Krupps around 4:15am. Just shy of the 24 hour mark since waking up at 4:30 that morning, driving Laura to work, running a few errands, packing the car, picking Laura back up at work and hitting the road. Tea helped. So did the A-list, which I'm proud to say topped out at 184 without a single skipped track, except for Van Morrison's Caravan, which just didn't seem as much the proper 4am arrival tune as did Belle & Sebastian.


This here is Laura & Yuula sleeping. Laura is under the white comforter.

Some things we learned on the road:

• gas station employees will tell you their life story if you give them the time of day
• adding a papasan cushion to anything makes instantly cozy
• it's disturbing to get yourself into a They Might Be Giants/Deerhoof loop
• gas station attendants will kidnap your child if you ask them to
• Yuula likes Fraggles
• people in Kentucky have issues identifying male versus female
• there's no need for the southern third of Virginia
• the realistic ramifications of teleportation would be devastating to not only our economy but society as a whole

That's all for now. More later.

Kickin' It At The Stroud

Had to get new rear brakes on the Quest today. Where else can I go but the Stroud. Oh the glorious Stroud. The only one story mall in this hemisphere and no toy store to boot. The hand driers in the restroom sound like jet engines which is horrifying for a baby with no knickers on. The seating areas outside the dept. stores are always full of the elderly, the homeless or both. Even the massage chairs. The most popular restaurant is Orange Julius. The best store for women's apparel is Deb. There is a Bonton. It reminds me why I avoid this place eleven out of twelve months a year. Yuula seems to like it tho. Girls...

Packed & Full, Belly & Trunk

Shower and bed now. Early up & out. First stop is a doozy! Road trip////

Early Morning Maintenance

This isn't so bad. Got a banana, some tea. In a comfy seat watching a little Law & Order. It's a tad bright in here for 7:30 on Saturday morning but I'm not gonna let that get me down. The Quest is in the shop for routine maintenance. Oil change, tire rotation, a few paint touchups to the back bumper and above the front passenger wheel. Hopefully they can figure out why the other cigarette lighter doesn't work. That would be nice of them. Laura is at home doing the taxes. She loves this time of year. Our family is being productive this weekend. I betcha Yuula already sullied three diapers. It's going to be a busy one tho. Car maintenance, file taxes, birthday party, winterguard show on Jersey, my parents, Estler family breakfast tomorrow morning. We haven't all been together in the same place since Laura's baby shower last summer. We were only eight strong then. We've since broke into double digits.

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Carwash Gives Whiplash

On a whim, we made the futile effort to wash the van Sunday, it being new and salt being so abundant and all. Plus who doesn't love going thru those giant bristle brushes and getting squeaky clean.



I'll tell ya who. Yuula. She was asleep when we hit the conveyor, and the slapping of wet fabric woke her up rather rudely I'm guessing. We're such bad parents.



She was fine actually and if anything it drew her attention to the two sunroofs directly above her head of which she frantically shifted focus between for the remainder of the ride. Girl gonna give herself whiplash.

I Had Company

I was in the car a lot yesterday...



...but at least I wasn't alone.