Humdrum - noun. hum-drum, The quality of wearisome constancy, routine, and lack of variety.

Here's a neat youtube clip of this guy who can sing both parts to Aladin's 'A Whole New World', it's pretty entertaining. I think he sounds like both parts too. He has other clips on youtube, singing Whitney Houston and some other popular songs, but no where near as good as this one...

As I write this Xander is meticulously working on tearing down a road block I put in his path to keep him from going outside. It's raining here, again! I opened the door to hear the rain and feel the cool air, for once! And all he wants is to get out that door...

Nostalgia - noun. nos-tal-gia, A wistful desire to return in thought or in fact to a former time in one's life, to one's home or homeland.

This is a new picture of the house I grew up in. A friend of my mom's was in the town and my mom talked him through directions to the house, he snapped a couple pictures for her. It's sad because you can see the stump of an enormous oak tree that used to shade the entire house. I wonder why it was cut down. It was beautiful and it covered the house so well. I had a couple of rooms in the house but the last one I lived in was the one on the second floor on the right, with the air conditioner in the window. Misha's room was the main window on the second floor to the left of mine, though they were connected inside. It's so nice to see it again. I was planning on going to see it when we were in Minnesota last but we didn't get a chance, I'll plan on it over Christmas time. The attic was always fun too, if you didn't mind the bats...

Sappy - adj. sap-py, Excessively sentimental , mawkish.

One of my favorite movies by far and definitely one of the best movie endings ever written...I'm not the biggest fan of old 80's movies, just ask Caleb, usually his movie choices are followed by my eyes rolling, but there are some classics that can never be topped. One of them is 'When Harry Met Sally', call me a schmuck, I don't care, it's a sappy romance movie and I l.o.v.e. it. It's just one of those flicks you can watch over and over, especially the line where he says, 'when you realize you want to spend the rest of your life with someone you want the rest of your life to start as soon as possible.' Who wrote that?? It's so perfect, you must admit.

I'll also say, for Caleb's sake, that 'The Great Outdoors' is also a wonderful classic. Caleb bought it the other day, I think he saw it on-sale at the grocery store, and he brought it home and it reminded me of growing up, I think we watched it quite a bit at home because I knew the story really well but didn't know how. Anyway, some things are always funny, no matter how old you get.

Pastime - noun. pas-time, Something that serves to make time pass agreeably; a pleasant means of amusement, recreation, or sport.

Our friend, Mandi, got some tickets to the Braves game yesterday. I like going to baseball games, the smell of the beer and the sound of the crowd, it's very nostalgic, I mean, it's not the Twins, who are by far the best team by far, but, you know, far away. So, we take what we can get. The thing about southern teams who have outdoor parks...yikes, it's hot. I remember that about the Texas stadium too, when we went to see the Rangers play the Twins, you basically sweat through whatever you're wearing and down your legs. Try to sit in the shade, it's the only advice I can give.The funniest part of the whole deal is that I found out that my brother and sister-in-law and their family were there at the same game! I get her Twitter updates but didn't have my phone near me! I think we were far away anyway, but still, what are the odds!Poor little man was so sweaty, his baby nose gets sweat drops all over it, then he didn't like his hat anymore so I had to lube up his head with sunscreen...I guess that's what happens to cute babies.

Baseball games always remind me of my cousin Ike...This is him, the Legend! This was at a Twins game. My brother wrote a song about it that gives you the feeling that you were there...

Uptown - adj. up-town, Of, for, or characteristic of affluent people; elegant, stylish, or luxurious.

City life is good stuff. We had a great time in Charlotte looking for houses and found a couple of cute ones that we had to choose from, which is pretty nice! I think we've settled on one and we'll be moving around the 1st of September! Like I said before we're not looking forward to the actual move BUT the little house we have is going to be really great after we get our fingerprint on it. Hard wood floors, great walls, old doors and a really open floor plan. I'll be sure to post before and after pictures. One of my favorite things to do is paint and decorate. Caleb's a good partner to have when doing that because he's very creative and handy with an electric screw driver.

Here is the cutest baby alive in front of a great brick wall in the NODA area in Charlotte. I had to get a picture of it. I think I'll start working more on photography when we get to North Carolina, some great city walls and derelict areas, good for portrait shots, etc.

So, new things happening and we're pretty excited. Stay tuned for pictures of the house!

Update - verb. up-date, To bring (a person, organization, etc.) up to date on a particular subject.

A lot of things happening this month! We're looking for houses in Charlotte, NC and hopefully moving the end of the month. I have a very strong love/hate relationship with moving. It's in my blood, as a circus folk/vagabond/wanderer/traveling gypsy, to move about every year, not towns necessarily but definitely locations, so I like moving, and in a sense I have to, because I get very restless. On the other hand I do not like packing or unpacking for that matter. I need to pay someone who would do it exactly how I would...but, that's not going to happen!

Talladega Nights: I realize this is an old movie but for some reason I haven't watched it until recently and I can't believe how funny it is, or how funny I think it is. There are a couple scenes that I couldn't stop laughing and I just giggled so hard I had tears running down my face. Caleb says to be careful because that is pretty much where we're moving and those are the people he's working for, silly. It's such a stupid/silly movie, but if you haven't seen it, give it a chance. It's amazing to me that adult men get paid a lot of money to be stupid.

2008 Beijing Olympics: The opening ceremonies where beautiful, if you missed them try to figure a way to watch them. They used 15,000 people in them! So many colors and such amazing technology was used, and when you thought it was technology it ended up being people, or crazy stuff like that, anyway, we watched until the people started walking out and then got tired! I think the athletes took an hour and 50 minutes.

Mad Men: Go to blockbuster and rent season one. That's all you have to do to get addicted. We're big fans and it makes me want to smoke cigarettes inside and wear house dresses and pearls...