Sunday final round ACE tourney on Senior tour.
Sarah and I watched Don Pooley via TIVO and therefore slightly delayed, but with no commercials of course. We start watching 90 minutes behind, but by skipping commercials and interviews, we catch up, usually right at the end. Don was playing well and had the lead alone part of Sat and Sunday. He was on the 18th green today, putting for a birdie that would give him back a share of the lead...and David called. David called and he seemed excited. It was all I could do to, at once A) talk so loud I could not hear David if he was trying to blurt out exciting news, and 2: stop the TIVO without stopping the recording. When I stopped the TIVO it went to live and it was a playoff so I had to keep yelling at David not to say a word, restart the recording downstairs, and get to another channel so I wouldn't find out what happened. Many of y'all know I am presently infirmed with bowel outrage. The above scenario is now proven NOT CURATIVE.
After a pleasant conversation with David about Other Things, we went back to the broadcast to watch Don's putt lip out, and another guy in the group behind birdie to win (theoretically Don's putt would not have meant first place.) No playoff, that turned out to be a replay.
That was 7 PM, latest. It is now 1AM. Sarah handled the whole thing relatively well--she is asleep. As it's 2AM if FL where the tournament was, I'll bet Don Pooley is asleep.
I am going to send a copy of this sad story to the New England Journal of Medicine and tell them to replace NOT CURATIVE with HARMFUL: Don't Take Phone Calls While TIVOing With Bowel Outrage! Or some such, they have professionals to handle delicate matters requiring emergent public notices.
Congratulations to Don in a good tournament; and especially to David in his budding, stimulating, dramatic career. BB

Jackson, eating breakfast at the kitchen table: Who made this table? Uncle Cody or Daddy?
Ruthie, trying to remember the table's history and realizing it's complicated, just says: Well, this table was bought.
Jackson, with a "what on earth!" look: How did you fit it in your cart!?

Foretaste of having a girl

God's giving me a chance to practice sharing my princesshood. Today we babysat our 2 1/2 yr.- old friend Naomi and this scene took place. . .

Jackson, after picking some wildflowers: For you, Mama.

Jackson, spying Naomi a few feet away, turns back to me: No, these are for Naomi. and he takes them out of my hands!

Little girl, you're going to have two big brothers ready to take care of you! They've done a great job with me.

P.S. After realizing the inequity of the situation, Jackson gave Naomi one and me one. Thanks, buddy.

Absolutely Incredible!

I don't know if any of you heard about this (because, quite frankly, it has not received proper media attention), but apparently the Steelers' coach, Mike Tomlin, dedicated his team's historic Super Bowl victory last night to David and Lynn, whom he called "two of Pittsburgh's finest residents". He went on to say, "David and Lynn Wright, who have shown incredible faith, resilience, and strength of character during such a difficult time, are the real champions here, and the entire team, as well as the City of Pittsburgh at large, wishes David a full and speedy recovery. Oh, and I hear their cousin Sus is pretty great, too."

Boy, am I glad to know those Pittsburghers (can that be right?) have so warmly welcomed David and Lynn into their fold! Those two must have made quite an impression up there!

P.S. If any of you ever decides to open a hamburger joint, please do not name it "Pittsburgers"..."pits" and "burgers" is just an unappetizing combination.

P.P.S. Hmmm...what do you bet a place with that name already exists?

Happy Simon

You know how kids can hear lyrics differently than they're actually written? (Hark, Harold the Angel Sings?) We've got one of those going on right now...Sophie's latest is "I Happy Simon to Follow Jesus." Her derivative of the second verse is "I Happy Whitney still I will follow." (We have a friend named Whitney, so that's what happened to "though none go with me..." She's been singing it so enthusiastically the last couple of days, and I'm enjoying it so much, I have yet to correct her. I figure she'll get it right eventually, and for now, whoever Simon is, he's very happy!

MONSTER BURGER!

Yes indeed. Jason's. Monster burger.
For the uninitiated among you: at Jason's Burgers and More, yearly winner of Best Hamburger (they were second in 2001, a decidedly dark year in the history of reader polls, as everyone is aware), the Monster Burger is 1.5 pounds of meat plus cheese & LTPOMM. If you eat the whole thing they shoot a polariod and write in your name and the date and post it on the wall. Now, there are some big boys in HS,AR and the pictures cover the walls. In fact, after I sat through this two-hour ordeal waiting for Mike DiGwhatever to finish one, I have never been able to find his picture.
Well tonight we pilgrammed down to Jason's and Jackson, Harry and I ate the whole thing. Furthermore, rather than becoming another face on the wall that I can't find when I really need to to win an argument, we came home and took our own picture.

The observant may be wondering about the strings in the boys faces (therefore two pictures were needed). Those are attached to helium balloons they got last night at Mom's birthday bash over at John and Karen's. They might have let loose in their sleep last night, but I have no pictures to prove it, so I don't think so.

A good time was had by all and I'll do it again when Will gets his act together. Sophie, you'll have to show me something--Jackson and Harry ate almost half of the 1.5 pounds.

Other things have happened:

(above) Benjamin and Jackson taking advantage of a Class 4 climbing area.

King of the Mattress practice and other educational endeavors.

A candid behind the scenes view showing how all the above was coordinated.

There are no pics of Matt during this important time as he was off "writing a paper".

It would really be hard to pass this up. BB

Them are sum darn* good grandparents, y'all

We're here enjoying our last few days in Hot Springs. Sarah cleaned out what used to be a storage/gift wrapping closet in the guest room to make what Jackson has christened "my secret hideout." Tonight he finagled Bill into reading him a book in there, and Bill, seeing a teaching opportunity (in true Big Bill form), read him a Value Tale about Determination starring Helen Keller:
I came downstairs today after catching up on email to find the amazing Sarah Wright conducting an in-house campout, complete with real fire over which they made grilled cheese sandwiches (with a cast iron contraption) and roasted marshmellows. This was after spending the previous hour making animal shadows in the new "secret hideout":

Every day that its been warm enough, Sarah's been riding bikes with the boys on the tennis court, which inevitably turns into a game of bumper cars:

Yep, them are sum darn* good grandparents.

* Darn doesn't seem quite fitting, but this is, after all, a family blog.