Watch at your own risk.

This is completely addicting.

I swear, I think it might be better on acid, but it's still pretty entertaining....

Joey Buttafuoco, eat your heart out...

...I think Gropius needs this lounge wear for driving around town in his car:

I wish I could've been there...

...to see the taping of this show.

Iran so far away...

So, back in 1996 when Israel launched their strike against Hezbollah in Lebanon, we couldn't hear news stories about it without putting "Hezbollah" to Depeche Mode lyrics (specifically, "Master and Servant"). But, I wasn't demented enough to come up with this:



I think the Maroon 5 singer kinda looks like Stephan Weiler with dark hair...Stephan, do you have something you need to confess??

Furlough Day

Gropius took off yesterday from work so we could both be there to tell Elisabeth good-bye at the airport. Then we went to drown our mutual sorrow in wine. I think he knew that I would be mopey and upset to see her go, so he thought that a wine-tasting would cheer me up/distract me.



We drove out to RH Philips winery in Yolo County. It's a wonderful place that's not very far from Sacramento. Gropius says that it reminds him of Napa 20 years ago, back before the giant tour buses and having to pay to even sniff the wine!





We stopped at Safeway and picked up some crackers, cheese, and peppered salami to enjoy our wine country picnic. Lulu enjoyed her corn puffs and some of our WheatThins.





Afterwards, we walked around the grounds a bit and enjoyed the sunshine and flowers (including an artichoke in bloom). Lulu especially enjoyed the lavender that her daddy picked for her.




On our drive back home, we had to stop and take a picture of the yellow star thistle growing in a field. The dry native grasses in the bar-ditch were beautiful in their own way, too.

Bathtime

Louisa really enjoys her baths.



Baths are part of our bedtime routine--she has a good dinner of solids, a nice bath, and then it's time for nursing and bed. Daddy always likes to help give her a bath, I think in part because she's always so excited and happy:




She has several duck toys to play with (although her favorite toy right now is the cup) and a fish that squirts water at her. She loves to watch us fill the cup and then pour the water out in front of her while she tries to "catch" it.





She's actually holding the yellow cup in her hands in those pictures (get your minds out of the gutter, people!).

I can haz cheesburger?

Lulu discovered the perils of eating with her daddy this evening at the Rubicon. Walter was holding her in his lap and attempting to eat his bacon-cheeseburger at the same time (foolish, I know!). It was all going (relatively) well until...he got about halfway through and then the grease that had accumulated in the wrapping paper started to pour on to poor Lulu's head! D'oh! We got her all cleaned-up and she sported an, um, interesting hair-do (very "There's Something About Mary") until we got her home and gave her a bath.

Man, did she smell good though!