Hey Y'all

Me and my pops went down to North Carolina to stay with John, Bean, Loch and Seanie in their gigantic mansion.

Johnny picked us up, and we waited at the house for the rest of the family to come home.

Lochlain was a little shy at first

but Seanie was all over the place, especially taking long rides around the estate with Peepah.

Seanie, for some reason, calls me " Buddy" but calls Dad "Peepah" like Lochlain. Seanie is pretty cuddly, and giggly. And also he'll grab your hand and say "Come on!" and what you don't know is he is luring you towards the T.V. and saying "Diego, please."

Lochlain was pretty funny every night at dinner, entertaining me with some great stories. One night, while having pizza, he wanted me to give him a high five (some song was on where you have to high five) and I had a piece of pizza in my hand. I also had some sauce on my hand I guess, and got a little on him. "Aunt Feather, you made a mess on me!" Offended, aghast. I don't know how to explain it. But he is a good boy. Pretty sensitive to other people. He told his mom a secret that involved rocket ships, guitars, and the biggest apple. I don't know what it was, but it was cute.

On Wed., Bean's office had tickets to their local ball park, The Greensboro Grasshoppers--skybox seats! Joe and Gail had taken me to see the Ducks on Mother's Day, then I get to see the Grasshoppers...more baseball than I have had in a long time! (Well, actually more baseball than I have ever had!)

Yeah, I was knitting. But it was really nice. And the skybox seats! Sweet.

And we had hotdogs and fries and ballpark-y goodness.

Pop and me got pretty lost making our way back to John and Bean's, so we stopped at the fairly big Greensboro Public Library, and asked for directions. (Yay Libraries! Joe asked "Did you whip out your librarian identification card?" To which I replied "We don't have those. We just carry our library cards...")

When everybody got home, Loch and Peepah went out to get the mail:

John carries them:

(Camera trickery, people!)

We had some hat time

we Danced

(Is Loch moonwalking?)

We had more hat time:

We went to Sonic for the first time (well, my first time) and had the super awesome Strawberry Limeaid

We played Yahtzee ( a family favorite)

John wins 2, Feather wins 1, Dad gets a couple of Yahtzees, Bean did not do so well ( but you're always a winner with me, Beanie!)

And, though I'm skipping some stuff (mostly me and Dad eating our way through the south), on Saturday we went to the zoo! It was my very first time at the zoo--at any zoo, anywhere. We went to the North Carolina State zoo, and it was pretty exciting.

Loch went on the carousel a bunch of times. I must say, when I was with him, he and the girl on the animal next to him could not stop looking at their reflections in the mirror.

Then, Loch and Seanie were ready for a rest (and so was I, and I'm sure Mommy and Daddy and Peepah too)

(Arty Lochlain)

Sleepy Sean

That night, the grownups went to Mimi's Cafe and to see Iron Man, which was totally good!

And then we left our friends to come home.

And, in the airport, we saw an owl on the tarmac:

And I spilled a pretty full coffee directly into my bag. And down my leg and on my shirt and into my shoe.

But I'm going to forget about that. As soon as I get the stains out.

I leave you with two cute pictures:

Me and Liam

IMG_6794, originally uploaded by feathermar.

To remind me that deep down, I really do like children.

Even though I am probably the loudest person you will ever meet, sometimes things get a little too loud for me. I don't like it. Eight computers with children's games competing to be heard is, in fact, too much for me. It's days like today that remind me while people in civil service jobs go postal. It's the constant dealing with people. People are crazy, and when you can't escape them...you go crazy too.

Know thyself (or, I am totally bored at work)


Take the 100 Acre Personality Quiz!


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discover what candy you are @ quiz me

Spring and Spring and Spring

IMG_6705, originally uploaded by feathermar.

Happy Spring! Gail's tulips came up!

As our thumbs are somewhat black, it's always a surprise when something beautiful comes out of a bulb.

Rolling With the Homies
Got to hang out with my Carter last week

when her Grandpa was being honored.

Got to hang out with my Lochlain this week

when he came with his mom, Beanie, for his cousin's first communion.

Got to meet new babies, Kassandra and Sabrina

at their baptism party.

And hanging out with Mr. Liam

who is just too big to be called a baby anymore. Plus, he is superfunny.
So, been busy with the babies and kiddens.

Just have to get some QT with my buddy Sean--in May.

Weekend of the Cupcakes

So, cupcakes are one of my favorite things in the whole world. We were talking about how the kids with the cool moms used to bring in cupcakes in a cone when it was their birthday at school. My friend Cat said she had never witnessed this phenomenon. So, of course, I made them for her birthday.
I have never made cupcakes in an ice cream cone. I assumed you just put the batter in the cone and baked it. On the box of rainbow funfetti cake mix I bought (bringing in the funfetti--I know) the directions said to put the cake batter into the muffin/cupcake paper cups and then put the cones on top.

So, I tried it both ways. Heh heh.
And, interestingly, the box did not tell me that the result of the ones placed on top would be:

MORE THAN A LITTLE LOPSIDED!

It is like a hat...or a tumor. Terrible.
The ones that I poured the batter into standing up faired much better and were decorated beautifully with blue and green icing. I used my favorite icing tip, good ol' number 22.

The other thing is, you only fill the cones halfway, so instead of making 24 cupcakes, you can make a zillion cupcake cones! Or 24 cupcake cones and 8 regular cupcakes (which is what I did).
And since the birthday girl is fairly shy, I am submitting a picture of her super wonderful dog, Tara, who allowed me to take tons of photos of her (for the price of one pretzel):

Then, Sunday, I made some cupcakes for my friend Theresa's birthday. Theresa turned four years old, and loves pink. So, I made pink (vanilla) and brown (chocolate) cupcakes which were beautiful! I toot my own horn aplenty! And they totally tasted great, and I took a ton of pictures because I think all cupcakes are beautiful.

Up close:

Oh, yeah, and a Happy Birthday to my little Bones:

She's so old!

Jackie at My House

Jack the Greyhound., originally uploaded by feathermar.

Jack came to spend some days with me this week. When he is not suckering me into taking him for a walk at 6:45 in the morning or whining about why he has to be at MY house, he lays. Anywhere he feels like it.

I love this dog. Seriously.

So, what it comes down to is this:
I'm disappointed.

I thought more of you.

And, you padded again, this time in Gail's favor. I know for a fact that 270 people did not vote in the past two days.
Hang down your heads, Card Sharks.
You are a fly-by-night game show. (Aside to Mark Goodson-thanks for dumbing down America--you should've had a disclaimer about your play-on-words that everyone took seriously).
A sad, misheard repetition that keeps going and going and going,
perpetuated by people like my sister.
I have written to those foolish idiots at Dictionary.com (the only "dictionary" to back up Flail's crazy claim), and asked them just what kind of cheap labor they get to write their fake dictionary--twelve chickens? Twelve monkeys? An industrious four year old with decent hunt-and-peck skills?
I cannot help but wonder about the education of the Gen X kids...what happened to you?
So, with a ridiculous vote of 188 out of 270 votes, Cardshark wins the poll.
But America loses.
Hopefully, for those of you who voted for the WRONG word, you look smarter than you are.
You may think I'm being harsh.
But I'm just being right.

Ceiling Pictures



Well, the second one is very blurry.
Taking pictures in a mirrored ceiling is not easy. But, as I told Flail, it is the essence of us.

Also, because I do not want to express bias in either way, please take the following poll (closes Tuesday at 8PM EST.

Jackarooney

Jackarooney, originally uploaded by feathermar.

This is Jack. This is an old picture of Jack, really. He is my sister and brother-in-law's dog. And sometimes, he is my dog. He is gi-normous! Also, he is one of those beings that cheers me up when I am at my saddest.
I am a mopey-mo. I'm sick again, even though I was just sick, and it stinks. I'm a Stinky McLoserpants, and cannot help but mopey-mo all over the place. Bad fake allergies. Bad back. Bad saddies. It's the worst (except, really, in the scheme of the world, it's not so bad).

In the words of Sean Meagher: "Gar!"

Chicks

Chicks, originally uploaded by feathermar.

Happy Easter

Miss Mady is Here!

and I've got a brand new baby to love!

Oh, babies! They are superfun when they are other peoples! And, they are superfun when they belong to Annmarie and Roly Boyon, two wonderful people who have already become wonderful parents. Gail and I met this munchkin today. She's bigger than she was, but she's still pretty tiny. Seven pounds and change...let me tell you, no one ever remembers how tiny babies start out...but they are tiny!

Here's Mady and her mama getting the gas out:

(I, of course, mean the baby's gas)

Here is proud papa:

Gail with that baby:

Hey, does that baby look bored? Hmm, give her to me! She'll perk right up!

Just kidding, Gail! well, sort of...

Anyhoo, this little Mady has already got a slew of people wrapped around her tiny fingers. Some of you may know that I called her White Chocolate in the womb, so I made her a superhero onesie with the infamous:

Gail also took this wonderful picture of Mady squishing up her face:

I will leave you with that bit of adorableness! Congrats, Ams and Rol! You did it! She's beautiful! And already very smart!