Declan takes the stage.

In homage to my dear friend Peter, I am posting some pics of Declan's theatre debut in Palm Springs. As so many things do, it started as a comedy and ended in tragedy.

The Breakers

I loved the hotel we stayed at in Palm Beach. It was built in 1896, in the classical style. Ordinarily that is not my thing, but they had lots of beautiful details that I really liked- pineapple finials and palm tree lamps in our room, that sort of thing. Here is a picture of the lobby, and a silver candleholder I liked.

More Florida Pics

Declan relaxing by the pool

After Dec's first dip in the Atlantic, with Dad and Pop. Shane's parents joined us for the holiday.

There's a whole lot of laying around going on.

Our Bungalow at the Breakers

This is a video of the bungalow where we have been spending our days in Palm Springs. I have really enjoyed just hangiing out in the pool and the ocean and having the bungalow right there has made it super easy wtih Declan. Who has a suntan. I have been judiciously applying sunscreen on him, and he hasn't ever gotten pink, but as of today he is rocking a farmer's tan where his rashguard ends.

Here's the news

Good news: We have safely arrived for our week holiday in Palm Beach

Bad news: I broke my camera which really interferes with my blogging. I guess I will have to post a thousand words each day for you to enjoy.



It might be better if I can't post photos as it looks pretty darn nice down here, and I don't want to be accused of gloating. So until I get a camera, I will tell you only the bad things about our holiday so that by the time I post photos it will all balance out.



Bad thing #1. On the flight down, I was sitting next to a 16 year old girl. She was sleeping soundly leaning forward with her head in her arms on the tray table. Until Declan dropped an ice cube right down the back of her pants. I have never seen someone go straight from sleeping to jumping three feet in the air before.



Bad thing #2- I broke my camera by flinging it onto the concrete to grab Declan as he reached up to try and grab some strang man's cigar. Literal cigar.



That's pretty much all I've got right now. It's pretty awesome here!

Declan is 14 months old today.

It doesn't seem like that long ago we were carefully celebrating every Thursday as he made it another week in utero. Now he's an unstoppable force of nature.

'Bout time he got a job.

Grandma and Grandpa Come to Town.

My mom and dad came to Little Rock for a visit from Canada while my immigration lockdown continues to hangout with their favourite grandson.

Mike and Gail aren't our only houseguests; we are also currently housing two rescue foster dogs - Abby and Nelly. This is the best picture I have because Abby is a force of nature that is impossible to photograph. She is a bad, bad dog. Nelly,however, is as good as gold. Together, they synergistically combine to form one big gong show.

Pub Trivia drives me to drink

Shane and I have been competing in a pub trivia tournament in Little Rock since February and clawed our way to the Tri-State finals in Memphis, with a first place prize of $5,000. We assembled our dream team, with our friend John from Little Rock, Catherine, the pop culture queen from Chicago and Steve the everything guru from Pittsburgh. There were 72 five person teams competing, but we were the only one with a uniform - matching terrycloth wristbands.

We look pretty unstoppable, eh? Going into the last question, we were in second place, and needed only to answer one more question right to bring home the bacon. We had to put these 4 events in chronological order - the Chicago Tylenol murders, the premiere of Growing Pains, the big screen debut of Stripes, and Bjorn Borg winning his last Single Men's Wimbledon title.

We had all the dates right, except we factored in the year of Borg's retirement, not his last Wimbledon win two years prior, which happened before Stripes. Brought down by the Borg. Sweded out of five grand. Seems ironic in light of the terrycloth wristbands.

Is it Just Me...

Or is Declan out of this world?