good morning starshine, the earth says "hello!"

henry watches the newly released charlie and the chocolate factory. hooray for quick releases! the special features teach you how to dance like an oompah loompah. hilarious. i need to video henry following along.

henry has been regularly waking up at 5 a.m. blasted time change! he gets up and the chatter begins. too bad this early rising does not make for an early bedtime -- of course not! he will be the world-record holding sleep withstander. he will accomplish much because he does not care for "a little sleep, a little slumber."



jude whines and cries and is a regular crab. he has had the worst time welcoming the teeth. he doesn't see the use of them, methinks, having not yet experienced teriyaki beef jerky and sunflower seeds on long road trips. things are looking up, though, as he's sleeping more and spends this morning entertaining himself watching the birds and squirrels in the front garden.

we took a windy walk to the park this morning. the ground is covered with acorns and their lost caps, pinecones, the crunchy remainder of leaves. jude is learning about the ample storage of pockets as we walked and gathered.

the park was abandoned to my relief ("where are the kids!" henry mourns) save for a few hooded walkers, one with an ugly poodle, another with an interesting fringed poncho over swishy exercise pants. they were all elderly, walking their hearts into youthfulness.

to whom does one complain about the narrowness of the swing seats? surely they have replaced the old seats with something in which only skinny little girls and boys can sit! i jumped from the swing and seriously (not really) injured my apparently wide bum. how horrific to be too wide to swing without injury! who would have thought after one glance at my duff? not me, and i'm my bum's biggest critic. sigh. one would think that with the growing sadness of childhood obesity there would be complaints and petitions regarding the width of the swing seats. although, since most of these neglected children are obese due to prolonged stints in front of the television, remote or controller in one hand, greasy bag of popcorn in the other, perhaps they don't make it to the park to try and shove their seats into the seats enough to warrant a complaint, perhaps they don't even know that they are so discriminated against!

"mend your ways, everyone, and take your philosophy with a grain of salt."