Patriots on Parade

Unbeknowst to us, the Undisclosed Location to which we have moved does the Fourth of July in a big way, with events in town beginning on the Third and including free concerts, activities for the kids, a beer garden for adults who can tolerate Budweiser, and vintage aircraft flyovers. Even better, Travels with Tessie World Headquarters is located a scant 50 yards from the parade route. Better still, that portion of the parade route is in the designated "Splash Zone," meaning water balloons, super soakers and all manner of other water-flinging apparati are fair game. And to top it all off, the guy who lives two houses up from us is a local Fire Chief. That guy has access to serious water pressure. Trust me.

July Fourth is also, by a freakishly awful coincidence, the birthday of one George Steinbrenner. Tessie dressed appropriately:

The parade draws people from miles around. Here in the bluest of Blue States it's a bit surprising to see so much unabashed patriotism. Even the cars are patriotic:
Vintage military vehicles were popular: As was good ol' American fiberglass:
That's a local city Council Member in a 1953 Corvette:

And what parade would be complete without these guys?: And bringing up the rear, The Unknown Band:

Tessie had a great time watching all the participants, and none of us got too badly soaked. Next year, we'll be better prepared!

Earthquake #2!

Just what we needed to get me out of my procrastinating malaise and start posting again!

And by the way, we're all fine.

Tessie's second earthquake (the first was back in September) was a 5.4, centered approximately 20 miles southeast of the Undisclosed Location. Tessie is at her day care, probably delighted by the rocking and rolling but otherwise heedless of the nature of the event.

Travels with Tessie World Headquarters is also fine, despite that fact that yours truly has yet to actually fasten the furniture to the walls. (And now that this earthquake is over, and it will likely be years before the next one [knock wood], I may not get to it for a while. [Just kidding.])

UPDATE: Tessie did indeed make it through the quake unscathed, as did her entire daycare facility. Staff there informed us that all of the kids Tessie's age were completely oblivious to the shaking, but some of the older kids got scared. In any case, everyone was evacuated and they held nap time outside while the facility was inspected for damage. So Tessie got an afternoon al fresco snooze out of the whole thing. Not bad.

Reality Tessie

Tessie doesn't show a lot of interest in television, and I have to say we like it that way. She still has a favorite show, however. She asks for it almost every time she enters the media room, even though she is well outside of the show's target demographic. We've even got an episode recorded on the DVR in the event she asks for it and it's not on. This isn't a habit she picked up from her parents, either; we don't watch the show. I think she spotted it once while we were channel surfing, and she's been hooked since.

It's Deadliest Catch, or, as Tessie calls it, "Crabby Show," on the Discovery Channel. Really. This particular entry in the reality genre is about the crab harvest in Alaska and follows the captains and crews of several fishing boats as they try to outdo each other and bring home the most bacon, er, crustacean. She seems to enjoy watching the boats and the waves, but from Tessie's point of view the real stars are the crabs themselves, as they spill out of the pots and skitter across the decks of the boats before being confined in holds below. Squeals of delight accompany images of "crabbies" dashing this way and that, or when a crewman gets conked on the head by a flying crab pot, or when big waves make everyone slip and slide around the deck.

Fortunately, Tessie shows no conflict at the thought of eating crab. Or fish, or pig, or chicken, or any of the other animals she sees in her picture books and on her plates. Her day care has enormous fish tanks for the amusement of the kiddies, and she gleefully watches them swim and dart around, but she just as gleefully asks for seconds when we have fish for dinner. She's a good, well-rounded carnivore, just like her parents. Wonder how long that will last.

Will return soon...

The move to Travels With Tessie World Headquarters has been dragging on a bit, hasn't it? Just yesterday, we (finally) got a new desk delivered and (mostly) set up the computer, so blogging activities will resume shortly.

When they do, we'll have plenty of material to post, as the last month and a half have been exceptionally busy. For now, though, I present the above photograph, taken after the Dodgers' 1-0 victory over the Angels on June 29th, in which the Dodgers prevailed despite the combined no-hitter hurled by Anaheim's (or is that Los Angeles of Anaheim's?) Jered Weaver and Jose Arredondo.

So Tessie gets all the breaks: on her very short baseball fan resume, she's already got a Red Sox World Series Championship and a live, in-person no-hitter. I hope she appreciates that her father took much longer to witness the same feats.

Hiatus continues...

A quick post to let you all (and Google) know that I haven't abandoned this blog. I have a few items to post, but we are still dealing with setting up after our move to the new house (which Tessie refers to as "new house"). Among the things that we still need to do is set up the computer; one of the things keeping us from doing so is lack of a desk, one of the things keeping us from getting a desk is the apparent lack of a desk that satisfies our needs in dimensions, style and price. The hunt continues.

Meanwhile, I spent most of the last weekend engaged in the clearing out and reorganization of our garage. (It seems the previous owner left behind quite a mess. He also left behind A LOT of paint.) I've tackled a few other projects already, like fixing the dripping kitchen faucet, but there's lots left to do. We'll probably end up replacing that same kitchen faucet, the floors need work, the bathrooms need cabinets, the list goes on... I'll post about the various home improvement tasks as we take them on, so this blog will incorporate those updates as well as the usual info about Tessie.