New pictures

The Missus has started putting Tessa's hair in double ponytails. My little cutie always models for me. Adam, on the other hand, never wants me to take his picture, even with his new baseball cap on. I had to catch him while he was eating his waffle. With his hat on his mother and I agree that he's well on his way to becoming a redneck. Enjoy.

Wild Animals

When we went to the circus, I saw some people out in front of the show protesting the fact that the animals, elephants and tigers, were being held captive. Needless to say, they didn't stop us from seeing the show, but I guess they have some point. The tigers, elephants, horses, clowns and other wild animals looked like, to my admittedly untrained eyes, to be well-cared for. They must have easier lives than their wild cousins.

We may all get our chance to encounter wild animals sooner rather than later. Recently a wild cougar was shot dead in downtown Chicago, reminding me of a great book I read called The Beast in the Garden: A Modern Parable of Man and Nature by David Baron. The book tells the story of a mountain lion's killing of a jogger in suburban Colorado and the interaction of wild animals and society. Even after the teenage jogger was killed, people still pleaded with the authorities not to hurt the cat, just like in Chicago, where some people were protesting the police's correct decision to kill the animal.

I guess I do feel a little bad that a beautiful animal was killed, but if a wild predator like that is anywhere near my children, I want it dead, dead, dead. I bet those protesters in front of the circus wouldn't feel the same way. Maybe they should take up jogging in Colorado.

Send in the Clowns

Last week we took the twins to the Ringling Brothers Circus down at the Patriot Center. The twins enjoyed the show and the food. Tessa is a big fan of hot dogs, and Adam enjoyed some potato chips.

It was a fun afternoon. Adam couldn't stop talking about one of the clowns who did some tricks on his mountain bike. Tessa's favorite was the performing horses. I enjoyed the elephants the best. Who doesn't like elephants?

The show revolved around a main character, a clown/acrobat named Bello. It seemed to me that the circus had been influenced by the Cirque du Soleil, which usually has a theme or story that the acts revolve around. It was a great show, with incredibly impressive stunts, like the high-wire act.

Here's a picture of the kids at the show, and a picture of the elephants.

Scratcher

For the second day in a row, I came home to find that Tessa has scratched her brother's face. The Missus and I are at wit's end trying to figure out what to do. (An aside: is anyone ever at wit's beginning?) The Missus smacked her hand when she did it but that didn't work as a deterrent. I am now sitting with the boy upstairs and letting him watch Noggin. Tessa cried when I didn't let her come upstairs too. Maybe this will work? Who knows?

Girls can be mean!

(The picture above of the boy and I was taken on my MacBook's camera. Adam decided he didn't want to wear a shirt today.)

Once

The Missus and I finally had a chance to watch a DVD this weekend. Netflix certainly makes some money from us, since this movie, like others in the past, sat around for a couple of weeks before we had the time to watch it.

I picked this movie based on some reviews I'd read on the internet, but I wasn't sure that we were going to like it. Turns out the reviews were right, Once is a great little movie. Set in Dublin, it is a boy-meets-girl story highlighted by some great music. In fact, it is a musical, and we liked the score so much that I bought the album off of iTunes right after we finished watching.

Highly recommended as a rental. It's rated R for language--the 'f' word which, in this movie, rhymes with 'duke.'

Catching up

My dad says he can tell when I've been really busy because my blog isn't updated. Truer words have never been spoken. I've been incredibly busy during the week and on the weekends too. Let's catch up a little.

The twins had a very nice Easter. They went to an Easter Egg Hunt at a nearby public school. Tessa was an incredible gatherer. Adam was more interested in eating the candy, but they both had fun. At their grandparents' house they did another Easter Egg hunt and ate a lot of candy there too. They apparently inherited their father's sweet tooth. Or teeth, in the case of twins.

The Missus completed her project of getting a fence built in our backyard. They say that good fences make good neighbors, but in this case we aren't trying to keep our neighbors out, but our little monsters in. We look forward to letting them run around, safely locked in our backyard. I hope they don't hurt anything.

Thanks to my brother, I got to go to the first game at Nationals Park downtown. Though it was a little chilly, we had a great time. My brother highly recommends the Five Guys burger stand behind the big scoreboard in center field. Ryan Zimmerman's walk-off homer in the bottom of the ninth was unforgettable.

Here are a couple of pictures of the twins at my parents' house on Easter. And one of me with Honest Abe at the ballpark.