Thermocuclear Explosions

This week's title is courtesy of Dan's most recent foray into audio books: Jasper Fforde's The Fourth Bear, in which one of the hero's nemeses designs a particularly dire form of cucumber that, well, explodes (apparently you can recognize these by the fall-out). For those of you who like your literature funny, quirky, and full of random references--pop culture and literary--Jasper Fforde is generally an entertaining read. You can try either his Nursery Crime series, including The Fourth Bear and The Big Over-Easy, or his Thursday Next series, including the Eyre Affair, etc. And appropriately, this has been a week of minor explosions--although the fallout hasn't been particularly cucumberish, it's contained just about everything else! Andrew had a minor bout of the stomach flu midweek, and today, just before we left Huntington after a potluck at church, Andrew had a blow-out of monumental proportions. (It nearly decimated the entire bathroom, and his father, who had to deal with the aftermath, was left standing shaken and weeping).



Andrew, of course, remains undaunted and unrepentant. (And of course, it's hard to stay upset with him too long--how can anyone maintain a hard-heart in the face of such obvious charm? We also like this picture because it proves that, at long last, Andrew is getting measurable amounts of hair on his head).

This week started out fairly promising, with news of my award (see post from April 23). I was invited to go to some kind of faculty forum luncheon the next day and sit at the head table. However, the professors who invited me had neglected to tell me that I would need a ticket to get in (apparently the faculty have to pay to attend). Luckily, they showed up soon after I did and were able to convince the ticket-taker at the door that I was with them. However, I continued to feel like an interloper for some time after that. (I was also mildly disturbed by the fact that, though I was ravenous, all the women at my table seemed to partake rather sparingly of salad, so I felt rather gluttonous when I contrasted my loaded plate with theirs. The public face of female eating still baffles me sometimes). Andrew visited his dad at lab while I was at the luncheon, and got to enjoy berries from a birthday cake.

In the afternoon, after Andrew's nap, I took him to the park (aside from today, Monday was the only nice day all week. The rest of the week it rained). Andrew loved it, as usual. He spent a full ten minutes chasing around a poor squirrel who only wanted to eat his nut in peace (Andrew followed him from tree to tree to tree). Eventually the squirrel learned that the only way to evade Andrew's persistent attention was to go in a direction Andrew couldn't follow: up the tree. I think Andrew seemed to be under a misapprehension as well--he seemed to think the squirrel was a fascinating subspecies of dog, as he kept pointing at it and saying "dee, dee."

I don't remember much about Tuesday; Dan went to Huntington in the evening as usual, this time to go bowling with the youth. As it was seventies themed, Dan showed up in a true late-seventies neon green t-shirt. (Actually, something is coming back to me about Tuesday--I must have blocked it out. Coming back from the babysitter's in the early afternoon, I gave Andrew a cracker. He proceeded to try and swallow it whole--with predictable results. Pretty much his whole lunch went all over the car-seat. Poor kid. He had to wait till we got home to get cleaned up. And then I had to clean up everything else. Not fun.)

Aside from being feverish and therefore rather clingy (he must get this from his mother) on Wednesday, Andrew was pretty good about being sick. He continued his regular activities--reading books, emptying out cupboards, trying to climb on furniture, etc. This week we also practiced fishing with part of his Christmas present from Bubby and Poppy. Andrew was fascinated by the magnet that allows the fishing pole to "hook" the fish--he made me attach the fish over, and over, and real the fish in so that he could push the button that released the line and made the fish fall off. And then we'd start up again.





After a marathon night on Thursday (Andrew didn't really settle down for the night until 10 p.m.--a full 3+ hours after his usual bedtime), he seemed to be feeling much better on Friday. In the middle of the day, we went to the YMCA and played in the open gym. There were two other little boys there, both a little over two. Andrew couldn't quite keep up with them, but he sure enjoyed following them around the gym and watching their every move with a fascinated eye. Miraculously (given his parents), he seems so far like a happy, well-adjusted, social little boy. (Of course, we still have years to cure him of that).

Dan has spent most of the week valiantly working on his project as he nears his May deadline (he has to get his material to Andy in a week if he's going to defend in June). Saturday, he went into lab early with the intention of staying late, if necessary, to conduct some important experiments. Unfortunately, the fates seemed to have conspired against him--shortly into his experiments that morning his equipment broke. C'est la vie. Andrew and I attempted to console ourselves in his absent by going to that giant of consumerism: Sam's club. Andrew particularly likes Sam's Club because they often offer food samples, which he joyfully devours. (He liked the french fry, meatball, petite quiche, rasperry Crystal Light, etc.)

And so we come to the end of the week, and with it, our blog.


(What aspiring Harry Potter fan doesn't want his own broomstick?)