next step, her own iphone

put molly in a "big girl bed" this weekend. it's been in the basement for months, but she's had no desire to leave the crib so we hadn't pursued the transition at all. still had no desire to give up the crib, but we finished a room makeover for her this weekend, complete with purple ceiling, pink walls, new chair rail, new mini-chandelier, and felt it was the right time to bring out the bed.

so far, she seems to like it- we'll see how things go next week when the boys are back in school and we're all in more of a routine.

save jeffy!

unsettling report in the delaware news journal today...it seems they've pulled the family circus from their daily comics page! a call to arms has been raised by none other than tom keane, wilmington resident and brother to bill.

so do your part to support family humor in delaware. call the number listed in the above link (last letter on the page), or e-mail betsy price, features editor of the news journal at beprice@delawareonline.com. tell them the finks need the family circus, for their sanity and for blog material.

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here's my family circus moment from this past weekend- walking out of church yesterday, the kids give the priest hi-fives. molly says, "you know what? i smacked god's hand!" always knew she was strong-willed, but rebuking the hand of god is a whole new level.

the music man

went out today and bought a guitar, bringing the total number of instruments i own but can't really play to 7 (2 harmonicas, 1 acoustic guitar, 1 acoustic/electric guitar [the new one], 1 bass guitar, 1 keyboard and 1 saxophone).

the whole bass guitar thing (and subsequent dads-as-rock-stars band thing) started when my friend wyatt tried to teach me to play guitar. too many strings, so i downgraded from 6 to 4 and picked up the bass. been playing around with the old guitar lately, and felt it was time to try again at 6 strings.

so beware- someday you may see a dilf acoustic show with 3 guitars. "patience", anyone?

first ever finkipedia contest!!!

hey kids- here's something fun to show your creative sides. inspired by uncle googs' comment on the post about maine, and his and my love-hate relationship with "the family circus" (see christmas letter, 2006), i propose to you a challenge:

come up with a great family circus-esque tag line for any entry or part of an entry over the next few weeks. while the world of fink is your material to work with, "the family circus" is your canvas, so their characters should be used. (use googs' post from the 8/19 entry as your example)

post your submissions in the comments section of the applicable post; i'll cull through them all and post as many as i can in a poll at the bottom of the blog in a few weeks.

who posted this entry? NOT ME!

on tap next week- granny's colonoscopy!

kids are off to jersey for a few days with my folks while erin's in DC. during the school year, my mom will come down here to stay with them while erin works, but in the summer, they often go to NJ. fun for them all, because they do a lot of day trips to parks, lakes, the crayola factory- tons of fun stuff.

my mom called yesterday to confirm the pickup time for today. she was on the cell in the car (which, even when not driving, she feels awkward doing), and left a message with owen. she told him that they (she and my dad) were going to a wake at a funeral parlor (my parents are long islanders through and through, and still refer to funeral homes as "parlors"...well, maybe "pauluhs"), and wanted to be sure they were still picking the kids up at the decided-upon time. she then hung up because, of course, it's unsafe to be on a cell phone in a car.

owen passed on the message as "nana and grandpa eddie are picking us up tomorrow and taking us to a funeral". took several hours for us to get through to them again to figure out the real story.

back on track again

just back from a week on the maine coast- great time. weather was terrific, kids had a blast, and we took advantage of several opportunities to throw back to days of fink past. stopped in fairfield on the way up and back, driving around campus and grabbing lunch at the firehouse deli on the way to maine, then dinner at penny's II on the way home. saw an old friend of the kent family in stratford, CT, had dinner in brunswick, ME with cindy, raj and their kids, and spent most of the week at the beach with stacey, irish and their kids. pics on the way later in the week.

quick tale of taking things for granted. never occurred to me that molly had never really seen the ocean. sunday night we took the kids out to the beach as soon as we reached the condo. had to hold molly because she wasn't too keen on the sand at first. she pointed forward and said, "what's that?". "that's the ocean!", i replied. she pointed and asked again "what's that?", as the waves crashed onto the beach. "those are waves", i said. she paused, stared at the waves for a second or two, then waved back.

back on track

not much going on last week, hence the lack of updates.

the kids and i hauled out to LI saturday for a BBQ with some old high school friends. great time, dampened a bit by the sudden passing a few days before of our friend jen's dad. nice to catch up with those who were there though. the ridiculous traffic getting there and back always serves to remind me why i don't live there anymore (as if i needed much reminding anyway).