toby of the day, 3.9.2008

Today we went to our local unfinished furniture store looking for a low table, and maybe a bookshelf and some non-toxic wood stain. As usually happens, we bought none of these things. I got the feeling that the nice man at the store spends much of his time helping non-buyers like us. the kind of people who arrive with their tape measure, browse around measuring things for 45 minutes and then leave empty handed. I think he thought he had clinched the deal when they didn’t have any low tables so he offered to take a table out back and trim down the legs. But we’re pretty wily at talking ourselves out of purchases and managed to not only decline the table but to put back the jars of non-toxic wood stain we picked up and slink out. Victory is ours unfinished furniture man! Until we meet again… We have some unfinished business.

toby of the day, 3.2.2008

Today we had kevin, jess, isaac, and mai over for Japanese brunch. Like other Japanese meals, brunch involves lots of small plates. This is fortunate because it gives us the chance to use some of the many of small dishes we own so that we don't feel quite as grumpy when it comes time to move again and we have to carefully wrap each tiny dish in paper while complaining that we never use them. After brunch we spent the day in the park, watching people play baseball and filling in the Sunday crossword. Don’t tell anyone, but if there were a religion that required warm Sundays be spent with friends, drinking beer and doing puzzles (or, better yet, boggle) in the park, I might almost be tempted. Almost.

toby of the day, 2.28.2008

We’re not sure exactly when this happened, but toby is definitely crawling now. I suppose we kind of missed the transition because we had imagined crawling to involve using ones hands and knees. But toby clearly believes that to be a shoddy form of transport, not nearly as good as hands and feet. He's keen on chasing this rhino beetle toy our friends karl and bethany gave to us (see video). And as if that wasn’t enough, he’s also standing up, using whatever sharp cornered object he can find to help himself up. I wonder if the cats really watch him with ominous dread, or if I’m reading too much of my own feelings into that.

toby of the day, 2.22-26.2008

toby of the day special edition: live from Austin texas. Well, at least it was live when we were there. Now it’s like when they replay radio call in shows and they have to keep repeating that you shouldn’t call in because it’s prerecorded. Anyway, we had a great time. We ate migas, drank lone star, had our former adviser yell at us over lunch, just like old times! For a moment we thought we could move back there. Until we walked back to our car one afternoon and jealously stripped the clothes off our overheated baby while we stood there sweating and cursing because we couldn’t do the same and realized that it was only February. Plus, UT hasn’t offered us any jobs. Toby had a great time too, hanging out with mary, james, and their dogs, hanging out in the backyard baby corral at christine and tyler’s house, hanging out in our bright yellow chevy cobalt with the wind blowing thru his hair. We even got to go out for some beers all by ourselves while toby followed james around at the house. For more pictures, take a look at the link to the right.

toby of the day, 2.14.2008

in celebration of valentine’s day, we headed downtown to watch the annual valentine’s day pillow fight. Toby had a cold, but seemed to be improving and we thought the air would do him good. During our muni ride, we vaguely regretted our plan as we surveyed the crowd of pillow carriers, most barely more than half our age, drinking secret stashes of alcohol, giggling. And we are very much opposed to giggling. As we approached the fight arena, the sky was a beautiful deep blue and hundreds of white feathers floated down on us. That’s about it, the fight was big, but not much of a spectacle. We ate at the ferry building, and had a long, congested train ride home. Toward the end, toby was crying and a woman came to cheer him up. In the process she praised us for not beating him for crying in public. I’m not sure that’s something I need to pat myself on the back for, it’s kind of like complimenting us for having put clothes on him or for not juggling knives with him on our lap, but maybe my standards are too high.