long weekend

our old drake friend, swarup, came to visit us from chicago this weekend. it was the first time he had ever met jack, and we had a good time catching up. mike and doops checked out a lot of new bars that have popped up in des moines in the past few years that we haven't been to (what? a bar? what's that?) while i stayed home with jack. not quite the same type of visit like we used to have, but such is the life with kids. unfortunately we didn't pull out the camera much while doopey was here, but we did capture a few shots of jack after going out to a local restaurant. the waitress was in love with this mohawk, and brought out her personal styling gel to vamp it up. it was very punk rocker.





it was a nice weekend of drinking wine on the patio and listening to npr, and eating out meal after meal after meal. doops, we love you but we could never keep up with your lifestyle on a regular basis. thanks for your gaydar assistance, though--you were a great help at outing some of our suspicions.

after doops left, we had a couple hours for jack to nap before heading off to the birthday party of his little friend, symone. symone was born 6 days after jack, and was 6 weeks premature. so she was his neighbor in the NICU. her parents, sandy and john, are friends of ours from drake and sandy was our realtor. here they are enjoying the party, and "playing" together (well, playing simultaneously):



we are looking forward to one more day off tomorrow, as a chance to relax a bit from our weekend of partying and to get some things done around here. i need to sort through jack's clothes and dig out all the 12 month outfits in order to see where we stand for 18-month clothing. i have a feeling we have come to the end of the gift horse in terms of baby clothing, and may actually (gasp) have to buy him some things as ne moves into the bigger size.

in crabby news, mike has decided to change his work schedule and begin working nights (1-9pm) so that i can have a consistent work schedule for my dissertation, 8-noon every morning. i knew the time would finally come when we'd have to make it work and i'd have to commit to it, but i'm still dragging my feet. this will be a guilt like no other though, with him working a shift he hates and with us never having dinner together just so i can get it done. that's motivation if nothing else. my funding just started, so the clock is really ticking. time to finish this damn thing!

in happy news, mike has FINALLY purchased his plasma screen t.v.. he's been coveting a flat screen for years, but it never made sense to spend the money. he finally hit the right Moment, and bought one (well, it's in the mail). this, of course, is never as easy as bringing it home and plugging it in, but rather requires a near doubling of the price to get it all set up: hiring an electrician to install an outlet on the wall above the fire place, having dish network come out and switch around our cables so we can wire the new t.v. to the new location, getting a bundle of HD cords to make it all work, buying mounting hardware for wall installation, and hiring an installation crew to hang this 99lb thing on the wall. sigh. i'll be happy when it's over. it will be nice, though, to get rid of our bulky entertainment stand upon which the old 27-inch sits, which is currently sitting in the middle of the room, in front of the fireplace. not convenient. we also took this opportunity to buy a new couch (with recliners on both ends), and are getting a couple rolling cube ottomans (with tops that can turn over and make end tables--wheee!) so the room will be coming together soon. the new t.v. is 50inches. i don't know what to do with that. really, people, last comic standing looks just fine to me on our 27inch sony triniton, but i guess i'm not a gadget person. and i don't REALLY need to feel like the hawkeyes are literally passing the ball in our living room during a game. but that's just me. he's giddy, so it's nice.

if we have any money left at all, i'm in need of a little black dress for a function we are going to next saturday. the American Diabetes Association, in conjunction with Camp Hertko Hollow (diabetes camp for kids), on both of which Mike is a board member, are holding a gala for fundraising purposes and it's a black tie event. all the local philanthropists will be there, as well as (gag me) tom arnold and some other "from iowa" celebs. tickets are $200 a piece, but hy-vee bought a table and then gave the tickets to mike to use. so we are going with his coworkers, but alas, i have nothing to wear. my first trip to the mall came up with dresses in one of 2 categories: 1) hideously ugly and utterly expensive, or 2) hideously expensive yet drab and boring. neither category was one i was willing to invest in. i was completely turned off by the store "white house, black market" that the largest size i found in most dresses on the rack was 6. grr. so hopefully i find something to wear, and figure out how to do my hair, and wear makeup again, but this next weekend. i'll take any tips you all are willing to give.