Introducing Sophie!

So we all get up this morning and are on our way to Wholefoods downtown for some breakfast. I turn the corner on Lamar, and get up to about 40mph right behind a tan Ford pickup truck. All of the sudden I see the passenger door of this pickup truck open and out flies a small kitten, rolls about 15 times and lands on the sidewalk. The kitten instantly starts running and hides under some U-Hauls (at a U-Haul parking lot). My first reaction was to chase down the people in that truck and head butt them in the nose as hard as I could, but common sense quickly took over and Nikki and I realized we needed to help the kitten. We pulled over and Nikki finally caught this very fast calico kitten after about 15 minutes. It first looked as if her front leg was dislocated or broken, so we went down Lamar to the first veterinarian we came to (photo of Nikki and Sophie at the vets waiting room to the right). Nikki and I instantly wanted to keep this wonderful little kitten, so I asked Zoe what we should name the kitten. Zoe thought about it, smiled and whispered, "Sophie". The very nice and gentle vet took a look at her, said she was perfectly healthy, joked that she used up about 4 of her 9 lives this morning, no broken legs.

Sophie was covered in fleas and dirt. She is also bone skinny. We took her home, gave her some recommended kitten food, which she devoured. It made me so happy and sad at the same time to see her eat so vigorously. You could tell she had not eaten in days. We are going to keep her separated from our other 2 cats until the fleas are gone. I know Miro and Napoleon (Miro especially) will love being mommies to Sophie. We are happy to have her in the family!

Paige holding her head up

One Month

This is my letter to my two girls one month after they had been sisters. I meant to post this when Paige turned one month old. We've been a bit busy and sleep deprived since then :) I'm still working on posting Paige's birth story. Stay tuned and please excuse the typos...

Paige - you're 4 weeks old! You're doing a great job adjusting to this strange and wonderful world. I wanted to write a few words down about your first month on the outside before my memory melts everything together into one big blob. When you were a day old Daddy and I were amazed by how alert you were. You made direct eye contact with us. Your eyes are intense. You're look seemed to ask "Where am I and what the hell is going on?" I think that you must have come from some place this is very different from this world. You nursed like a pro right off the start, and about every hour until my milk came in. Then you got the "milk drunk" baby thing. 

You've had some problems with gas and maybe some other tummy troubles. Your cry is quite strong and intense. It breaks my heart when you cry and I don't know how to make you feel better. The crying seems to be getting better especially at night. I'm hoping that your digestive system is maturing and won't bother you as much any more. I also suspect that you're sensitive to cow's milk like I am, so I'm cutting it out of my diet for awhile to see if that helps you (Update - it's made a world of difference. At this point, I'm making it official that you're allergic or at least sensitive to cow's milk).

The past couple of weeks I've been watching you discover that you can control your hands. I'm sure this must be quite the wondrous find, similar to if I'd discovered that I could levitate. While I'm changing your diaper you try to grab hold of the stuffed animal duck that Zoe bought you before you were born and the ring toy. You've hit them a couple of times but today (5/5/09) while you were in the bassinet you grabbed the rings and didn't let go. I'm very proud of you little one.

Big sister Zoe, I'm so proud of you, too. You have adapted to life with a newborn faster than I had expected. After Paige was born you were very sensitive to her cries, and understandably so. All of the sudden our quiet house was filled with what seemed like nonstop screaming. After a week or so of getting used to the sound and with the help of Daddy and I explaining that Paige's crying is her way of communicating, you aren't as upset by it anymore. I think you're having the hardest time with Paige not being able to interact. You want to play with her and all she does is eat, sleep and cry. I think you thought that she would be able to do more. Well, soon enough she'll be laughing and smiling and playing peek-a-boo with you (although I'm sure it's forever to you right now). You've also been a big help and doing more things on your own. 

I think you're enjoying having more "Zoe time". Of course, I'm sure its been difficult that Daddy and I are spending so much time with Paige. You're doing a great job. Daddy and I both love you very much.

Spider

Zoe caught her 2nd spider today all by herself .  We put them outside.  Im sooooo proud of her. ~Skip

The changing US population

Interesting article on the top 10 cities in the US that people are relocating to.  All but 1 (Denver) are in the South and Southwest. Austin is #2.  A lot of people in Austin really don’t want it to grow anymore, I can actually understand that.  Austin has a certain charm about it that it might lose if it became too big. I heard (I think on NPR) that Texas is projected to be the state with the largest population, larger than NY or CA, by the year 2040.  The funny part is I remember in college I had a professor that predicted 2 things about the future of the US (this was in the early 90s), that people would mostly telecommute for their jobs and the South/Southwest would be the new large population centers of the country by the middle of the 21 century. When I read this article (and heard the same day on the radio that Houston is getting ready to overtake Chicago as the nation’s 3rd largest city)  it resurfaced to my memory what one of my professors had said so many years ago in college.

Here is a funny story on The Onion about this also.

My sports days

For those of you who know me now, it may be a surprise to know that I used to be really into sports (I know nothing of whats going on now in sports).  Football, baseball and karate were my favorites.  Below are 2 photos, one of me on my pee-wee football team in Ocean Springs, Mississippi called the Dolphins.  I love playing defence.  The other is of me playing baseball on a little leauge team in Honolulu, Hawaii.  I forget the name of the team.  I always played catcher. I spent several yeas in Karate and earned my black belt by the time I was 10 yeas old. Something happened around middle school and I just lost all interests in sports, (also cars, trucks, planes and other boy related things). Nikki says we beginning to develop our own individual personalities around that time, that makes sense to me.

Paige and Zoe

My 6th grade class photo

This is my 6th grade class photo from Mokulele Elementry in Honolulu, Hawaii

Some of Skip's favorite quotes

Be careful when you fight the monsters, lest you become one.

Friedrich Nietzsche

Every generation imagines itself to be more intelligent than the one that went before it, and wiser than the one that comes after it.

George Orwell

If we don't believe in freedom of expression for people we despise, we don't believe in it at all. 

Noam Chomsky 

All children are artist. The problem is how to remain an artist once he grows up.

Pablo Picasso

The real truth of the matter is that a financial element in the large centers has owned the government since the days of andrew jackson

Fanklin D Roosevelt 1933

There are three social classes in America: upper middle class, middle class, and lower middle class.

Judith Martin

Any fool can make a rule, and any fool will mind it.

Henry David Thoreau

Advice is what we ask for when we already know the answer but wish we didn't.

Erica Jong

Insanity in individuals is something rare - but in groups, parties, nations and epochs, it is the rule.

Friedrich Nietzsche

It is hard enough to remember my opinions, without also remembering my reasons for them!

Friedrich Nietzsche

The moral progress of a nation and its greatness should be judged by the way it treats its animals.

Mahatma Gandhi

Respect yourself and others will respect you.

Confucius

I never thought there would ever be a movie about this place

My parents and all my grandparents come from this tiny county in the Appalachian mountains of West Virginia called Boone County. I strongly associate this part of West Virginia with my childhood. I try to visit this little hideaway once a year, Nikki has been with me about 4 times I think, and we will be taking the whole family again this fall. One of the things I really like about my grandparents place is that it’s right beside a mountain creek, with 2 small waterfalls within earshot. If you get up really early in the morning and go outside, there is usually fog, and about ten thousand birds signing. At night sometimes you can hear bears rustling in the woods. Wild turkeys and deer are common.

The whole community relies on coal production for its economy. They have places back in the mountains called "hollers", which I still don’t fully understand. Some of the hollers you don’t even want to drive up because it can be dangerous with the type of people who live there, people who deal a lot with moonshine, drugs, guns, ect.

This little section of WV was kind of like my secret, no one knew that it even really existed.

So I get this email from my mom. The guys who made the movie Jackass teamed up with MTV to make a documentary on a crazy family who lives in a holler in Boone County. I couldn’t believe it.

The family is called the Whites, and I have met one of them, a guy named Bob White who use to work for my grandfather.

Here is a link to see a preview of the movie.

Photos of spring

Here are some photos from this spring so far.