b.rox

I couldn’t afford a genuine Punic Persephone coin but I did find a cool pewter pendant. The face of the goddess is surrounded by a sheaf of wheat, representing Demeter, her mother. The perfect gift for Persephone’s mother on her first Mother’s day.
Xy calls it an amulet.

Also, my Mom and Dad are visiting from Indiana. [...]

My parents are coming down for a visit, so we are frantically preparing the household for their arrival. Time to put away the illegal drugs and semi-automatic weapons, the seditious literature and satanic rock music — at least for a while.

photo by gurke
We also have to conceal the extensive subterranean dungeon we installed during our [...]

We took Persephone in to Xy’s school to visit some of Xy’s students. As she predicted, it was a mob scene.

I’ve posted the pix as a set on Flickr. I recommend viewing it as a slideshow.
Dwight D. Eisenhower Elementary School, 3700 Tall Pines Drive, New Orleans, Louisiana 70131

Workers of the World Unite!
You have nothing to lose but your chains!
On this May Day I salute my father-in-law Michael Paxson. He is retiring today after I don’t know how many years of bondage to the state as a civil servant.
Here’s the only picture of Mike I have handy:

Let me also add that in the [...]

Dear Persephone,
People kept telling me we should “enjoy this time” with you. I wasn’t quite sure what to make of this advice.
A couple weeks ago I said to Olivia: “She’s only six weeks old. All she does is sleep and eat and poop. Oh, and occasionally she cries. What moments are we suppose [...]

I don’t know if there’s a name for this style of infant apparel. We call them “ghosties.” Here’s Persephone in her favorite ghostie.

April 15th is shaping up to be one of my favorite days of the year. Taxes are due, which is a drag, but so what? I always file early.
Thirteen years ago today I was amongst the team that put the first TV show online. I’ve been bragging about it ever since. I have to. [...]

Satan should be her name
To me they’re bout the same

Ha! Just kidding, Susie.
Though I love to tease her with the lyrics to Ernie K-Doe’s big #1 hit, in fact my mother-in-law’s visit was very pleasant.
In fact, her timing was perfect. She arrived just when I was coming down with this nasty bacterial infection, and by [...]

When we tally up the list of people who’d helped us out or given us stuff recently, it’s quite impressive. More than sixty. I didn’t know we had so many well-wishers.

We’ve been trying to make sure everybody gets a card to express our gratitude. And slowly, slowly, we’re sending them out. I really hope we [...]

I’m sick as a dog. Barely able to think coherently. No snot, no congestion, just a fever, with attendant chills and sweats and borderline delirium. Every inch of my body aches. There’s a gland (lymph node?) on the right side of my neck that’s swollen and painful — painful only on the outside, not inside [...]

Whenever people see her, they invariable make two remarks:

She looks like me.
She’s cute.

It doesn’t take a logician to leap to the obvious conclusion, namely, that I must be kinda cute myself.

Persephone weighed in yesterday at 7 lbs, 5 oz. That means she gained 22 oz. in 12 days. The doctor congratulated Xy on getting off to a great start with the breastfeeding, which was a bit challenging at first.
Everything’s been pretty much optimal except she ’s had an outbreak of baby acne. Sometimes it looks [...]

Today’s my mom’s 70th birthday. I usually call her on the telephone but I can’t because right now she’s in Cambodia, part of a short-term mission team with the Lutheran Church - Missouri Synod. I’m somewhat envious, but hopeful that when I’m 70 I will have the means and health to visit faraway places. Many [...]

So you thought Story #28 was the final chapter in our renovation saga? Not quite. Check today’s Times-Picayune for installment #29, the final final chapter. Check the online version for cute pix by Kathy Anderson.

Xy has had a trio of weird dreams over the last couple nights.
In the first, she dropped our girl three times in a row, banging her little head on the floor. She was weak from the c-section and couldn’t hold her properly.
In the second dream, Xy was nursing a tiny baby (not our girl) and [...]

We got the receipt from Tulane University Hospital & Clinic’s Healthcare Payment System. For the record, we racked up $2,484.00 in room charges (two nights’ stay) and a whopping $16,499.28 in “ancillary” charges.
But we have group insurance through our employers. We actually paid $250 and just got billed for $170 more.
I can’t even begin [...]

Today her umbilical stump fell off. To celebrate, we made a pilgrimage to Bayou St. John.

She’s definitely growing. Her loose folds of skin are filling in with baby fat. Xy has been breastfeeding, and the results can be seen daily. Funny, by sheer coincidence we watched The Life of Mammals just before the birth. Mammals [...]

Keep N It Real Social & Pleasure Club was in our neighborhood today. It ended just two blocks from our house. Actually we missed the parade, but we caught these fabulous DIVAS (acronym for something but I forget what) just as things were breaking up.

Persephone had her first social outing today.

I didn’t even know there was a Louisiana Derby but apparently there is. So we went to a party at the home of Sue, Steve and Sebastian, who live near the track.
We didn’t go to the race itself, but the party was fun. There were lots of Bloody Marys [...]

From our friend MF in China comes the following awesome weirdness:

It’s a hand-embroidered bib with a gun that says “poop” on it.
No, I don’t know what it means either, but you’ve got to admit it’s cool.