HFM

A very merry Christmas was had on Mars this year. In addition to the stockings, mobile, & festive branch and paper cutouts, we had our many Christmas cards on display: Holiday cheer from friends, family, the newspaper delivery person, Jimmy Carter's foundation (asking for money), & Budget Rent-A-Car We also put a new lamp sent by Papa & Step-momma Desrosiers for Christmas in a place of honor in our very dark dining room. As you can see, it's a 2-foot-tall replica of "Dad's Major Award" from The Christmas Story: I thought we should put it in the front window, like in the movie, but it casts the perfect amount of light in the dining room in the evenings, so there it will stay. And, of course, it adds a touch of class to our home, along with our Dogs Playing Poker picture in the kitchen. On Christmas morning, we opened up our bounty of presents: Zoey got in on the fun, too. Here she is opening a squeaky critter toy Mama & Step-papa O'Brien sent h

Christmas Is Merrier With A Pit Bull Terrier!

Last Sunday, I dug a very large hole in the yard. A couple weeks ago, Adrienne cut back the jungle of grass & clover. Instead of throwing the little pile of clippings into the compost bin for the city to take, I thought that it couldn't hurt to dig them into the vegetable garden beds, in hopes that it might improve the dense clay soil a little. I told Adrienne what I was going to do at that time, waving my hands around in what I thought was a very descriptive sweeping manner. This is apparently what she thought I meant: Much to her shock & dismay, when she brought the dog out midway through & saw what I was doing, this is what I actually meant: Admittedly, once I got out there & found out how easy it was to work the soil after all the rain we've had, I did get a little carried away. After struggling to dig even six inches down over the spring & summer, I thought, here's my chance to loosen this clay up & finally maybe get some beds I can grow full si

Monday, December 17, is one year to the day from when we moved out of the cozy 600 square foot apartment to the palatial 1000 square feet that is Mars. Our Christmas tree in the apartment was a 4-inch-tall plastic Playmobil tree, borrowed from what I used to call the "Cruelty to Animals Play Set" -- a bear with a harness & chain, along with a family carrying musical instruments who I assume are supposed to be "gypsies" -- which I got at a toy store years ago in college, in a town so liberal, that its very presence in the store was remarkable & bizarre. I couldn't resist buying it, just for its sheer weirdness. Anyway, a tree that is 4 inches tall makes a lot of sense in a small apartment. We used to stack the presents up, stick the tree on top of the stack, & have a good chuckle at the joke that the presents were still, technically, under  the tree. Last year, as we prepared to make the move to Mars, we found a discarded branch from a real Christmas

Last weekend, we hosted a brunch to thank some of the people who have helped us out with dog-sitting in September & October, while I was out of town. Zoey was very eager to do her part & dress up for the guests: Adrienne made a delicious meal of johnnycakes (cornmeal pancakes), scrambled eggs, & bacon. I was responsible for keeping the champagne flowing. Here we are, bellies full of bubbly & Adrienne's home cooking, checking out pictures of puggles: Thank you Robin & Amanda, for your help with the dog, & for coming over to let us thank you with breakfast food! Jon, Susie, & Paul, you couldn't make it, but we have other plans for thanking you in the works... A good time was had by all, & Zoey, for her part, was exhausted by her duties as host, and as usual, settled in for a long afternoon nap on the couch: