More Asheville

Grandmother brought me some new toys. These are blocks made of paper. They're hollow and they stack and because they're so lightweight I can lift them myself. Also, they taste good.


If you're looking closely, you can see that the box in front reads, "2 Ants dance in checkered pants." Grandmother kept repeating that all weekend.

Grandfather and I hung out on the porch. As you can see, I am wearing my pajamas. Grandfather is wearing real clothes. Grownups. Who can figure them out? When I'm a grownup, I'm going to wear jammies all the time. Everywhere.

Happy Happy Joy Joy

Read at the New York Times, a dialogue at a North Carolina polling station:

"How long you been waiting?"

"About 200 years."

Family

I'm a much bigger boy than the last time Grandmother saw me. I can sit up, laugh, and grab earrings!


The last time Grandfather saw me, I was pretty much a lump. So this was way better. We played a lot of games - especially games based on making funny faces.

Here I am practicing my funny faces with Daddy and Grandmother. As you can see, Grandfather taught me well.

I like to hang out with Grandmother in our PJs. She doesn't like to have her picture taken first thing in the morning, though. Me, I figure I'm always gorgeous, so whatever.

You Bet I Did

7th in line (first baby voter) in my precinct, and back home in my bed at 6:17am.

Asheville

This was the view from the porch. Yes, it was awesome, even for a crappy year in leaf-peeping terms.

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The cottage we rented suited us perfectly. And it was amazingly rational. Yes, rational. Here are a couple of examples:

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1. There is a futon in the living room, so you can cram 2 more people into the house. There is also a master bedroom with a big bathroom en suite. So instead of building a powder room on the first floor, the owner built (and I mean he built - he told us he pounded every single nail) a full bath in the public area. So guests who sleep on the futon can have a full bath without going through anyone else's bedroom.

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2. In the master bath, there's a door out to the hot-tub. You can access the hot tub from the porch (ie, the public area and front door), but also from the master suite. Why is this rational? Because it means that you can dress and undress in the bathroom, step out and get right in the tub. It also means you need not drip your way through the house to find a place to change again, but can step straight into the bathroom, towel off, and get in your flannel pj's. Also, the hot tub area is partially fenced off so that children can be kept out but adults can get in, either from the public area or just from the master bedroom, depending on what you want.

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3. The closets are large and square. The genius of this is not obvious, but let me explain. Parents of babies often put them to sleep in the pack-n-play. This item is a rather large cube-ish shape. Ideally, you want babies nearby but not Right There with you. So if each bedroom has a large square closet (say, 7x8 or 6x5), you can put Baby in his pack-n-play, close the door (almost), turn out the light, and know that he's in there safe and sound. He's right next to you, but you can still turn on the bedside light, get up, etc. without disturbing him. We put Iain in the closet of Grandmother's room, so she could get up with him in the early morning, and she still got to enjoy her late-night reading. Parfait!

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4. There are two doors in the living area. The first opens to the porch, so you can easily go to and fro. The second opens in the kitchen and allows access to the driveway, grill, and trash closet. Why rational? Because they're perfectly placed for a cross-breeze. On a lovely day, about 68 degrees, you want to blow any stuffy air right out before the night closes in. And you want to smell that mountain air. No problem - smell away, and when it gets chilly just close the doors and turn on the fireplace (gas, the one disappointment).

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So. Very nice. More photos to come.

Smoochable

Since we're in Asheville without a card-reader, I can't (yet) post photos of Iain enjoying the fall leaves or hanging on the porch with the Deetervilles.

So instead here are a couple of pictures of the Deliciously Smoochable and Candy-Coated Crumpet that is Callie.

She's a ham. The minute my camera pointed in her direction, Callie started mugging. Her mom was just a prop.

Asheville

We're blogging on the road, from our nifty little cabin in Asheville. It's a really lovely place, up in the trees (kind of a heart attack of a driveway, up up up!), with all sorts of charm.

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Grandmother chose this picture from the file for your delectation. I was trying to clip Iain's nails, but he had other ideas. Note the hat. Must wear the hat because you can't get your manicure without fuzzy ears. That's a fact. Everyone knows that.

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Last night we ate dinner at a fabulous little restaurant that I think was constructed out of a trailer but has been made to look very fancy, with a covered porch (where we sat) and a more intimate inside area. I had benne-crusted seabass (hold your comments about sustainable fish, please) and Mother and Daddy had greek food (lamb gyro with pita and tsatsiki and a really nice salad plus this little zucchini fritter that was clearly a ball of culinary crack disguised as a vegetable). Yurm.

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You can tell that NC is a battleground state, though. At one table were two women covered in Obama stickers, at the other side a very grumpy looking man who had Republican written all over him. He seemed deeply irritated, while they seemed cheery as a chipmunk in springtime. I guess that's a sign of how much things have changed in NC.

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Later, we're heading into town to play in the art galleries and have lunch. Tonight, Charles returns from SC with his friend Devin, and we'll all hang out and listen to Devin talk about the economy (he's getting a PhD in Econ from Clemson, so he's our resident expert these days).