Thursday, March 31, 2011

Two of Three


Damn. Now that Meatloaf song is going to be stuck in my head all day.

Chez Stoll, we decided it was time to hear the pitter patter of little paws once again, and went to adopt 2 kitties from a rescue. When we happened upon this cat family - a mama and 2 almost-grown kittens, we decided that 3 cats was purrfect. They had been surrendered by a family with kids whose apartment building has a no pets policy. We can't, however, seem to have all 3 cats out at the same time. So, here's 2:
This is Chica. Yes, she does look a lot like Shannon. Chica, however, is a frenetic little snuggler who follows everyone all over the house. Chica is the Mama, so she spends her time interacting with the teenagers by growling at them. I get this.
This is Chelsea. It was very hard to get Chels to stay still for a picture. She kept trying to nuzzle my face with the camera. She is a gray tabby. Chels spent her first day Chez Stoll playing basement cat. She's my new bestie since I rescued her from the basement.
This is the boykitty, Yoda. He is extremely shy and has been hiding in our closet amongst Alec's dress shirts since he arrived. He has a tiny kitten mew even though he is probably the size of the two other kitties combined.

Friday, March 25, 2011

Our very own tree sculpture

One of the trees between the sidewalk and street died last year. It was a maple tree. The borough planted them, so they're obliged to take them down when they die. Since our borough is out of funds, this is what they've been doing when trees die. We call this treatment making a tree sculpture.

I'd told Lindsay on the way home that the men from the borough came and made the dead tree into a tree sculpture. I didn't know if this was going to be upsetting. When we got home, she walked up to it and said, "Well, it would be fine if it didn't have a cow's vagina."

Seriously. That's what she said. And I said, "Huh." Because I couldn't think of anything else to say.


Wednesday, March 23, 2011

Tiny vampires

"My foot would be afraid [without a sock] because it is very dark inside my boots. And there are probably very tiny vampires just waiting in there for a little foot to find itself alone and scared."

A PSA from Lindsay.

Thursday, March 17, 2011

Amazing photography

Lindsay really takes some amazing pictures. This one she took on my camera phone last night, which I think captures the end of winter perfectly. You can even get the impression of buds on the trees, whispering that spring is coming.

Memories

I don't know who drew these at Lindsay's school...
...or even if I've shared this story before. I don't even know that my parents are aware of this story since it didn't impact me directly.

At the high school I went to, there was the tradition of the senior prank. One year, the senior class checked out all the books from the library. Another year, they turned all the desks upside down. My class drew chalk outlines. The concept had started out as Simon from the Land of Chalk Drawings, which was being parodied at the time on SNL by Mike Myers, but ended up more like some sort of grisly crime had taken place at Conard High. The group of girls responsible were friends, though not people I hung out with by the time we got to senior year. All 8 of them were in the top of the class...all of them were suspended because of the "violent nature" of the prank...it was rumored anyway that they might not be able to walk at graduation.

Still, when I see chalk outlines, that's all I can think about - this zero-tolerance policy. And these girls who were smart, funny people who did a silly prank that became darker than they'd intended.

Wednesday, March 16, 2011

Auntie Jules visits


So, of course, there was a dance party.
Auntie with the tunes...
Linds is tired.
I'm really rockin' out here.
Lauren raisin' the roof
Even Auntie started getting tired...
More singing and rockin' out.
Like a G6, like a G6...

Linds, self portrait.
So cute.
Linds finds a use for the frisbee.
A girl's gotta have her purse, even on the playground.
Auntie Jules pushes the swings.
Alec, Jules, and Lo, as Jules gets ready to leave.
Fishy kisses.
Ohh, someone's gonna miss her Auntie. Come back soon, Jules!

Friday, March 11, 2011

Eek!

"Why are you afraid of sleeping in your room, Lindsay?"

"Because there are spiders."

"Ah."

"And they have chop saws."

"That is scary."