b.rox

This photo just turned over 10,000 views on Flickr. This is the fourth such photo of mine to achieve such popularity — and thus far all of them feature Xy. Only two are sort of vaguely cheesecakey. One you can’t even tell if it’s a man or a woman or what. And in none of [...]

In case you missed it, a photo by yours truly featuring the infamous Xy is gracing an article on Lifehacker right now.

Instead of strengthening into a named storm, Tropical Depression #5 petered out and dissipated into nothing but a bunch of rainy weather. If it had played out differently, school might have been cancelled, but as it was today was the first day of classes at Xy’s new school. Yes, she’s teaching again, as I mentioned [...]

We’ve taken Persephone out of daycare for the summer. Xy’s finally having some time to bond with her, which is a refreshing change after this last school year. Xy found a new job about a month ago. The bad news is it’s still classroom teaching. She’ll be teaching fourth-grade science and social studies at a [...]

It’s not quite official. Xy made the first cut and has been going to practice sessions. The rules are strict and harsh — you have to pass through many circles of hell before you can be considered a Big Easy Roller Girl. And it will be even longer before she sees any action in a [...]

I wasn’t feeling quite right. When Xy offered to take our daughter with her on a shopping expedition I assented. It was just starting to rain so I urged her to drive carefully. Off she went. We’d heard the weather reports the night before talking about a possibly severe “rain event” but I thought that [...]

Xy and I are celebrating our 16th anniversary today. This might be a good time to revisit our infamous puppet-show wedding. Or if you’re in the mood for music rather than video, here’s sixteen tracks for sixteen years together — mixed with a minimum of saccharine because, like the song says, true love is not [...]

Xy’s job hunt is in full force. She had a interview at a nearby elementary school last week. Yesterday I came home for lunch to look after the girl for an hour while she did a phone interview with another school. And this morning she went in to teach a sample lesson at the first [...]

Xy is officially looking for work. She’s been teaching over in Algiers for six years, pretty much continuously, with a little interruption for that storm we had a few years ago. However, the principal that inspired her so much retired a while ago, and she’s decided she’d like to work on this side of the [...]

Yesterday Xy’s school informed her that she would be attending a workshop today, rather than teaching, so she had to stay late making plans for a substitute. This morning she felt so poorly she decided to stay home. She almost never takes a sick day. Actually she’s been sick all month, but she keeps working, [...]

Xy’s 40th birthday present finally arrived.

Forty tracks to rock her fortieth birthday (which is today): (Starts off mellow and ramps up. Contains plenty of my favorite songs by Xy’s favorite bands, and cover versions of her favorite songs, as well as a few topical selections. And buried deep in there is a bit of standup by Patton Oswalt that is [...]

Classes begin today at Xy’s school. So soon? Well, yes. There’s no longer a single big “back to school” day in our fractured system. All the schools are on different schedules now. Xy’s school year starts earlier than most. They also end earlier, unlike the Recovery School District, where they’re going for a longer school [...]

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 [...]

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 [...]

A causal chain: c-section => constipation => clogged commode Good thing we have our second toilet running. Very happy that Xy’s plumbing is working though. Update: After letting the clog soak in the water for a few hours, I was able to successfully plunge and clear the line.

Trying to bring this journal up to date… We spent two nights in the hospital and were discharged on Saturday just after noon. We got home less than 48 hours after the birth. As I was running errands to the pharmacy, Xy of course overexerted herself. She was excited to be home and started trying [...]

Xy woke up around 3:30 Thursday morning and discovered her water had broken sometime during the night. This took us by surprise just a bit, because we expected to have a couple more weeks.. Xy racked her brain and remembered what the doctor said: “Three reasons to come straight to the hospital: 1) blood, 2) [...]

This morning, Xy was sitting in our car, waiting to give a ride to some co-workers. A short time later, I got a text message: “u have the car.” I looked out the window and saw, sure enough, Xy was gone but the car was still there. Must have been a mix-up about who was [...]

Xy’s in the ninth month of her pregnancy now. She’s tired of carrying the extra weight and all the other many attendant discomforts. Pregnancy is quite a physical chore, and it’s all on her, with very little I can do except try to be helpful and supportive. She’s more than ready for it to end. [...]