Thieves, Looters and Other Miscreants

 Shamefully stolen from a friend on Facebook to honor those who come here (cough, cough...CederQ) specifically to raid memes. 

Welcome New Follower

I'm finally getting around to writing a proper welcome for follower #74: Ariel from the blog Ricky el Vikingo (Ricky the Viking according to Google Translate...go figure). I have no idea what Ariel's blog is about as the blog is in Spanish and I'm not. I can tell you that you don't have to scroll down too far before getting to an ad (or post...I couldn't tell) for hot erotic massage music. That is where I stopped my reading and exited stage right.

So, Ariel, welcome. Feel free to say "hi" once in a while.

Annoucement - New Blogger

Hear ye, hear ye...be it known by all present that My Sister...The Devil has bowed to the pressure from numerous sources, including her none to humble brother and now blog father (that'd be me), and started her own blog wherein she can wax poetic and/or vent her spleen as she sees fit. Her brain drippings can be located at Texas N Sanity. She has even posted content. Go forth. Read. Comment. Be kind and encouraging...or not...as you see fit.

Welcome

Here ye, here ye...greetings and salutations one and all. Be it known that, on this day, The Redneck Engineer graced this humble blog with his patronage. Please make him feel welcome; and, if you are so inclined, go forth and visit his blog. TRE lives in my neck of the woods, likes to build guns and stuff and has recently filed the paperwork to become and FFL manufacturer. Give him some love. TRE thanks for stopping by. The first beer is on me. The second one is too if I can talk you into letting me play with your toys.

Congratulations

I'd like to take a moment to offer (again) my sincerest congratulations to my best male friend, known here as Number One Follower, and his new bride on their recent marriage. I have known NOF almost 24 years now (over half my life...yes, we are getting old), and I have known his lovely bride, henceforth known as K3 (her initials are KKK now and K3 sounds better than The Klanswoman), for more than half of that time.

NOF and I have known each other through at least a dozen moves (usually involving pouring rain or 100+ degree heat and including the time his ex-girlfriend/live-in brandished a gun at him and "his thug friends" while we moved his crap out of the house). We were friends through his first marriage to the raging alcoholic who I affectionately call his practice wife that both his dad and I warned him not to marry (though he claims differently). He was the best man at my wedding to The Queen. He was the one trying to tell me a little time with M&M was better than no time with her (something I REALLY didn't want to hear at the time) during some of the darkest times when it looked as if we weren't going to be allowed to keep her. We've been there for each other through family joys and losses. Needless to say, we know each other like brothers.

K3 is a sweet lady who has patiently waited for NOF to get his head screwed on straight enough to figure out that they were good for each other, and I was only too happy to stand up for them at the wedding and give the toast at the reception.

They called their wedding "The Inevitable". As I said during the toast, I wish them "The Expected": Long Life Together, Much Love and Lots of Laughter.

Congratulations my friends.

Welcome

It's been a while since I've been able to welcome a new follower here; however, I noted a few days ago the ticker showed the arrival of official follower number 72. Please welcome OldAFSarge of the blog Chant du Depart. If you like airplanes, history, stories of piloting bravery and other heart warming, patriotic stuff, check him out. OldAFSarge, I'm jealous that you got to play with one of my all time favorite jets up close. Sit a spell and holler when you can.

Welcome

In reviewing the comments today on another post, I noticed that Paladin at The Reluctant Paladin decided to pull up a pew here and listen for a spell. Paladin, welcome. I don't keep coffee around the place, but cookies and bourbon can usually be found in the pantry. I do my best to respond to all comments. To the rest of y'all, Paladin is already listed in the blogroll as I've been following him for a while (though his blog hadn't been downloading to my feed reader for some stupid [user error] reason which has since been fixed). Check him out if you are so inclined. He claims to be the father of the best daughter on the planet. The Cutest Baby in the World (TM) may give his girl a run for her money, but it will be a friendly contest for sure.

Notice Anything Different?

Assuming you click through to the blog as opposed to just reading the text in a feed reader, you might be scratching your head saying, "Hey, Daddy Hawk. What the funky music white boy? Where'd the 'Other Preachers and Members of the Choir' and 'Inactive and Deceased Bloggers' sections in the side bar go?

Have no fear, all our friends are still right there on the blog. They have just been moved from the side bar to a page of their very own.

The side bar was starting to get a wee bit congested thanks to the 140+ blogs listed there. So, I decided to get ambitious and create a BLOG ROLL as opposed to merely a blog roll. Not only will this blog roll have links, it will be an annotated blog roll with brief (or less brief as the case may be) descriptions of the bloggers and their content.

It is a work in progress. So, be patient. Everyone's links should be there. If you are so inclined, double check to make sure yours is correct. If it's missing, just give me a shout so I can correct the oversight. If you have anything in particular that you would like your fellow readers/followers to know about you, let me know that as well.

I Have The BEST Readers

No, really. It's true. I may not have a legion of followers do or get millions of pageviews like some bloggers; but, what I lack in volume, I make up for in quality.

Case in point. You guys and gals have been phenomenally supportive of The Queen, M&M and I throughout the whole fostering/adopting process. Your words of encouragement really meant a lot to me. Some people, though, were not satisfied with mere words.

First, there was the cute tote bag embroidered with M&M's name sent by one of my former high school classmates and blog readers, Tena (who is also a blogger...who really needs to put up some fresh content...just sayin'). I would show you a picture, but I don't have one that's edited to block out M&M's name. Trust me. It's awesome, and we get a lot of use out of it.

Then, yesterday, I arrived home to find a box on my doorstep. It was light weight, and it wasn't ticking. So, we were off to a good start. The return address indicated it was from Candance at Crazy Texas Mommy. Candance had given me the heads up that it was on its way. So, I sort of knew what to expect when I opened the box.

Okay. Not really. Candance DOES have a reputation for craziness.

What I found in the box was this (pardon the crappy cell phone photography...lack of sleep):

That there is two, count them, two hand made, crocheted purses for little Miss M&M. Let's untie that bundle and get a better look (more or less...crappy cell phones and lack of sleep...).

I'm telling you, these are the cutest little purses EVER!!! I promise to get photos of M&M using them as soon as possible.

To Tena and Candance, thank you so much. It's very sweet of you both to do that for my little girl.

Trifecta

Well, they say good things come in threes. I guess ego boosts do to. Mohave Rat of the blog Mohave Rat's Two Cents Worth (http://mohaveratstwocentsworth.blogspot.com) outed himself in the comments of the last post as someone willing to feed my already questionable ego by joining our happy congregation here. Kymber claims him as family (whether literally or spiritually I have yet to determine) for those who know her. At any rate, welcome to the party Mohave Rat. Content is somewhat erratic bowing to the needs of work and family, but I do make an honest effort to respond to all comments. Enjoy the show. 

A Joke and a New Follower

So, since the last post in which I welcomed the first new follower in a really long time, another person made the questionable decision to associate themselves with my little corner of the universe. According to Blogger (whose reliability in these matters is open to question), June M of the blog  Because of Match (http://becauseofmatch.com/) is the 67TH person to give me an ego boost. June, welcome. Say "hi" to everyone. There's some really nice folks who stop by here. Ignore GunDiva though...she has this "thing" with lamp shades. We don't talk about it. Much.

On with the joke. It's an old joke that some of you have probably heard before, and I certainly do not claim original authorship; BUT, it does have two things going for it: 1) it's clean, and 2) it makes me laugh.

So, a duck walks into a bar. The duck waddles up, hops on a barstool, looks the bartender straight in the eye and says "Got any grapes?" The bartender informs the duck that the bar does not serve any grapes. The ducks hops down and waddles out of the bar. 

The next night, the same duck waddles into the bar and proceeds to repeat the same request from the previous night to the same bartender. The bartender proceeds to politely inform the duck that nothing has changed since last night. The duck hops down of his stool and leaves. 

This goes on for several nights in a row with the bartender getting more and more frustrated each time until finally, one night, he yells at the duck, "Look!! If you ask for grapes one more time, I'm going to nail your bill to the bar."

The duck thinks the situation for a moment and then asks, "Okay then, do you have any nails?"

The bartender, completely deflated, says, "No."

The duck says, "Good. Got any grapes?"

THIS Hasn't Happened Recently

Looking back through the archives, it was November of last year the last time someone decided to click the follower button on the right. Not that life revolves around people clicking the ego button, but it IS nice once in a while. So, it was a nice surprise to see that Kellie of Delightfully Ludicrous decided to hang around my little corner of the 'net for a bit.

Welcome, Kellie. Feel free to poke around, say "hi" once in a while...have a cookie. Kellie appears to be from Australia, and she is a self described geek. I have not had a chance to spend much time perusing her site yet, but she appears to be a snarky generalist.

Now, back to your irregularly scheduled programming.

Welcome and A Brief Word From Our Sponsors

I'd like to take a moment out of my day to welcome a recent addition to the followers list, Little Lotta, of the blog Whitless Relocation Program. Little Lotta, we're glad to have you as a member of the congregation. I hope to hear you singing in the choir.

Now, I know I've been relatively quiet here lately. The fact of the matter is that I have been working on writing M&M's full story, by which I mean her story as I know it from my point of view. I started working on it in late October, and I'm already at 8 pages and 4100 words. It's a bit emotional for me, and it's pretty much consuming what little brain power and free time I have for writing. I promise to give you all fair warning before I post it so that you can have tissues and a few minutes set aside.

I will say that we have crossed one very major hurdle in the process. Earlier this week, the parental rights of M&M's birth parents were officially terminated by the court. They have 90 days to file an appeal. Even if they find an attorney willing to file the appeal, we do not anticipate the court accepting the appeal. If all goes well, that puts us in position to consummate an adoption in early to mid March assuming what we have been told is correct.

So, look for M&M's story sometime after that. Semi-regular content will resume once I have the majority of her story ready for final edit and can focus on other topics.

A Little Light in the Darkness...

I thought I would take a few minutes out of the day to post a brief update on life at Castle Erickson; but, first, we gots to welcome us a new follower. K (no relation) at Planning and Foresight found his way here and chose to stay a while. K's blog is focused on prepping and is jam packed with good info. I'm slowly digging through his archives when I have time. Good stuff. Check him out.

Now then, on with the show.

Mini Me and The Banshee are still with us. There were mumblings in the winds a couple of weeks ago that they might be going back to momma sometime around the first of November. There is a permanency conference set with the court then, and the caseworker was going to be recommending monitored return (kids go home while CPS keeps an eye on things for six months or so).

The key word there is "was".

Apparently, some medical records came in that were not kosher and some required classes and counseling have not been started much less completed. We don't get the details, just the outline of the story. Suffice it to say, the caseworker is backing off her earlier hints and is reverting back to square one which also involves trying to locate viable family member placements. That leaves us back to being in limbo with those two.

It's really a sad situation. While not parent of the year material, momma and daddy/step daddy really do genuinely love those kids from the interactions we've seen with them together. CPS has candidly told us that the kids never should have been removed in the first place (it was apparently the result of momma's child molester step father who called in a false report out of spite) and that they do not have grounds for termination of rights. But...they are in the system now which has its own set of rules and timelines.

The Queen and I really love those two kids despite The Banshee's tendency to scream at every opportunity, and we really want to see them reunited before we exit the system; however, we can't hang around forever waiting for CPS and the parents to sort this mess out. We need to get on with our lives as a family (hopefully with M&M in tow). The really frustrating thing for us is that the parents could have had their kids back by now if they had just done what CPS had asked them to do. Instead, they are wallowing in denial (his alcohol consumption..."it's not a problem") and co-dependence ("I'm going to leave him...I can't afford to be on my own."). Meanwhile, The Queen and I beat our heads against the wall and try to make the best of it.

M&M, on the other hand, is an entirely different story. We have received word that the trial on the bio parents' rights case is set for the last week of November. There is pretty much a 100% chance that their rights will be terminated at that trial. They have left the state, and CPS could pursue child abandonment charges if they were so inclined. That would add a six month delay to the whole thing, and CPS is taking the wiser course of just moving for termination on the existing evidence.

But wait, it gets better. The Queen and the CPS caseworker had a discussion last week. Almost everytime we've talked with the caseworker up to this point, she has been very careful to always remind us that she has to keep looking for family members, there's no guarantee we will get to keep M&M, yada yada yada. For the first time, the caseworker told us even if the momma's mom's home study is approved by her state, SHE has the power to deny it. She also started saying things like "it's looking like we are on track", etc.

[blink, blink] Who is this, and what has she done with our caseworker?

Ah, but there's more. Yesterday, I got a call from M&M's ad litem (the court appointed attorney to represent M&M's best interests). She called to let me know about the trial setting. She also said she would be coming by the house for one last visit so she can write her final report. She indicated she would be recommending to the court that The Queen and I be allowed to adopt M&M.

[blink, blink, blink] I promise I'm not gonna cry. I might be tearing up as I write this, but you can't see it. So, it's not happening.

So, what happens from there? After rights are terminated, the court has to physically serve them with notice of the termination. Since they are out of state with no known address, that may be difficult. Fortunately, the law allows alternative means of service. Most likely, they will be served via publication in a paper of record. Once that occurs, they will 60 days to file an appeal. The court does not have to accept the appeal, and the likelihood of an appeal being accepted under the circumstances are miniscule. The chances of an accepted appeal being successfully granted in the Tarrant County court of appeals...infinitesimal.

Once the time to file an appeal runs or an appeal is rejected/denied, we are free to adopt M&M as soon as a hearing can be scheduled which we hope will be the very next day.  So, unless a miracle happens, the earliest we will be able to adopt M&M is late January.

The Queen and I are beside ourselves. We can't wait for the end of November and end of January to get here. This has been a very emotional journey, and one that, frankly, we do not want to repeat. It has also been a miraculous journey in a lot of ways. I am working on writing the full story to post here. I believe those who are people of faith will see a series of miracles and God's influence leading to an inevitable conclusion. Those who are not religious may not see it that way, but I think they will find it an inspiring story nonetheless.

We have already made the decision that we will be getting out of the foster care system once the adoption is final. Staying in is not an option for either of us. There are too many restrictions. It is too frustrating. We want our freedom back. Whether or not that will impact Mini Me and The Banshee directly remains to be seen. We hope that they will have already moved on to where they need to be by then. If not...who's to say at this point?

In the meantime, don't start planning the party yet...but expect an invitation.

Welcome And Other Good News

Before I get on with my good news and after you get over your heart attack from the realization that, yes, I am still alive and remember how to work this keyboard thingie, I'd like to take a moment to welcome new follower Joey. Though his profile does not indicate so, I believe Joey is the mastermind behind a relatively new blog entitled Senior's Mess. Joey, if that is not correct, please let me know so I can edit accordingly. Otherwise, y'all feel free to check out Senior's Mess. I really enjoyed his intro post, and I look forward to seeing more of his writings. 

Now, for the good news. As many of you know, since it's about all I talk about here anymore, the M&M saga has been a real roller coaster ride. Well, we can finally see the end of the ride from here. We got a call from the caseworker yesterday, advising that it would not be necessary to bring M&M to her regularly scheduled visit with the bio parents. It seems that they recently decided to up and skip town for good and have relocated to another state out west. 

[Brief pause for the happy dance]

The Queen and I think they have actually been gone for closer to three weeks as there was a hearing at the end of last month the net result of which was that the court ordered them to complete the CPS services plan. Violating said order is one of the many grounds for termination of rights. After some last minute shenanigans by bio dad's attorney and a failed, last ditch effort by CPS to identify any potential family member viable enough to take M&M (did I mention that bio mom's mom was deemed non-viable due to health issues?), we think the bio parents finally saw the writing on the wall and decided they have nothing left holding them here (aside from bio dad's two kids from a prior relationship...has to make them feel good...but I digress).

We can't celebrate yet (and won't even plan a party until the ink is dry on the adoption papers), but it appears that it is no longer a question of "if" but is now one of "when" we will get to adopt her. Timing of said adoption remains up in the air. The bio parents could make everything easy for everyone by voluntarily relinquishing their rights which would allow us to proceed pretty much immediately. Thus far, they have not made anything easy. So, we are not holding our breathe for that outcome even though their doing so would be beneficial for them legally in the event of future children.

Door Number 2 would be to wait six months at which time the court would declare M&M abandoned, and we get to adopt her anyway.

So, to recap: no viable family members available to take custody of M&M, bio parents skipped town, hurry up and wait while doing the happy dance.

New Follower

Okay, so I wake up this morning to find egg on my face. Clueless me running on less than optimal sleep made a serious blogger faux pax yesterday. While trying to be efficient, I thoughtlessly linked a new follower to a post involving a particularly unsavory topic. So, in an effort to uncompound my error, I have edited yesterday's post to expunge my new followers information and am placing it here as a stand alone welcome.

So, without further adieu, I would like to extend a slightly embarrassed but very warm and much more appropriate welcome to follower number 61 (according to Blogger at least). Russell J. Collier, Jr. felt compelled to publicly shame himself by throwing his lot in with the rest of us here. Russell, thank you for your comment with your blog information. Russell writes the blog Ungrateful and Insolent and Exhausted. Go give him some love. He was very gracious in pointing out my error.
Russell, again, my humblest apologies.

Randomness

I'm hoping there are still folks out there in the ether seeing this. I've gotten used to the comments, and it'd be a shame to start over whistling in the wind to no one. The excuse/explanation is the same...kids, wife, life. 

Before proceeding with the post, I'd like to welcome the two newest members of the congregation. Maddog of Maddog's Farms and David from Musings Over a Pint decided to check their sanity at the door and swell my ego by hitting the follower button. Welcome both of you. I'd say help yourself to anything in the fridge, but pickin's are slim. I need to go shopping for groceries. 

First in the random, stream of unconsciousness mental musings, I have a question for my Colorado acquaintances: Just what the heck is up with Rich Wyatt at Gunsmoke in Denver? I've been watching American Guns for a while...'cause it's about guns. Duh. But, asking $3000 for a Springfield Armory 1911? Letting your teenage daughter out in public looking like a hooker? Seriously??? Someone needs to explain what he is thinking. More importantly, what are people who pay these prices thinking?

Next up, I present the following...

Here, let me help you get a closer look...

I'm not sure this falls into the crimes against humanity category, but it was definitely distinctive. Also, I didn't get a look at the owner, but I'd be willing to bet that her body had some work done to it as well. Oh, and it had metal flake in the paint. So, it SPARKLED in the sun. Like Edward Cullen. Or so I'm told. 

I saw a guy riding one of those Can Am Spyder's the other day in rush hour traffic with no protective gear whatsoever. Not really abnormal around here. What drew my attention in the first place was the pair of crutches strapped to the back. Okay. I can see that. Then, upon closer inspection, I noted the reason for the crutches....an above the knee leg amputation. Oh. Dear. Lord. You're missing half your leg, and you are going to ride around DFW in traffic with no helmet. Dude, there are easier ways to commit suicide. 

I had to take a day trip to Houston the other day. The client offered to pick me and my senior claims rep up in Dallas...in their corporate jet. I have a photo taken by the iLeash that really does not do it justice. There is a great photo on the net that I don't want to use as it belongs to someone else. Do a search on Cessna Citation CJ2+ on Google. That was my ride for the day. It beats flying commercial with an ugly stick any day. No TSA. No perv-o-scan. No taking shoes off. No cockpit door between me and the view out the front. Hated every minute of it. If you believe that, I have some lovely beach front property for sale that you might be interested in. 

So, the other night, The Queen and I were lounging around after a long, hard battle getting The Banshee to bed. A couple of hippies decided to invade the castle and start talking about how great New York is and other liberal twaddle. The Queen and I looked at them like they were the unwashed heathen that they were. There was an uncomfortable silence in the room. Then, The Banshee cried out in her sleep. The Queen and I snapped, and it was on like Donkey Kong. They needed killin' is a valid defense here. Of course, we had to eat the evidence anyway. 

They won't be coming around here anymore.

Mini Me has an adult tooth coming in surprisingly enough. Two weeks after surgery. Ain't that something?

The Banshee continues to be a living, breathing testament for birth control. She has her precious moments like last night when we were leaving the restaurant after dinner. She was dead tired. I stroked her cheek. She closed her eyes and looked positively angelic. I stopped stroking. Her eyes popped open. Lather, rinse, repeat a few times. Then, she leaned her head into my hand. It was priceless. In case you are wondering, no, it does not make up for the the screaming and shrieking. 

M&M remains as adorable as ever; however, the roller coaster ride continues. Birth momma's momma has now come out of the woodwork claiming she wants M&M and has wanted her since she was born. Uh huh. I'm buying that. It's REAL convenient that she just happens to surface a couple of weeks after the birth parents find out that their first choice is out of the picture. Where the heck has she been hiding the last eight months? God will have to handle this part too. If He leaves it up to me, things might get messy. I don't want that. It's kinda hard to explain to your daughter why her bio parents vanished from the face of the earth for no apparent reason and keep a straight face. Or so I've been told. 

Other than all that, life continues to treat me better than I deserve. I continue to wake up in the morning. People pay me good money to do what I do. I have a roof over my head and food on the table. I have a wife who loves me despite the fact that I'm a goob. I got blessings a plenty and not much really worth complaining about. 

Here's hoping your life is the same.

Followers and Other Stuff

I think I've beat my record for lack of posting. As of today, it's been 33 or 34 days since I posted (unless you count "The Ever Evolving Wishlist" page I added two days ago). I sincerely apologize. In my defense, things have been a bit busy in real life. In the past month, I've had two serious claims that required "drop everything and get there now" travel. The Queen managed to wrench a muscle in her back which has really hampered her child care taking abilities. When I'm done doing stuff at the end of the day, it's generally late and I'm too tired to look at a computer.

Bad me.

Before I go further, I'd like to welcome a couple of new followers. A Girl of A Girl And Her Gun has graced this humble space with her presence. I've been following her for a while now. She has an inspiring story for those who have not yet come into contact with her. I would encourage anyone with even a passing interest in self defense to check her out. She takes her training and personal protection seriously...as we all should. Also, someone blogging at Encourage One Another has decided to hang their hat here. Welcome. Feel free to let me hear from you.

I also received a message on Facebook from a girl I went to high school with who told me she's been reading the blog. It still amazes me when folks I know actually show up here and read my stuff. Welcome, Tracy. Not one word in the comments about my 80s mullet. Zip it. That goes for you too, Tena.

Now, in the midst of life swirling around me the last month or so, I had an email exchange with cyber friend Kymber who came up with an even BETTER name for Little Miss Cobra. Kymber called her the Banshee. So, I am shamelessly stealing her intellectual content while silently cursing myself for not thinking of it sooner. From now on, LMC will be forever known as The Banshee. With her brother, they are Mini Me and The Banshee. Sounds like an interesting name for a band if you ask me. Thanks, Kymber.

While on that subject, Mini Me and The Banshee are still with us. We are making some progress with The Banshee's noise making tendencies. She no longer howls and screams when getting her diaper changed. Huge plus at 7:00 AM when I am trying to get ready for work. Trust me. Car rides are more pleasant too. She still wails like a tornado siren when she is not being held and feels that she should be which is pretty much anytime she is awake and active. Those magical times when she has just eaten or is interested in something like the tassles on my dress shoes are wonderful though, she seems almost angelic...then she turns into Jack Jack at the end of The Incredibles.

We continue our efforts to instruct Mini Me in the fine art of honesty. Please allow me to share a brief scene with you from this past Sunday's Father's Day Dinner at The Cheesecake Factory.

The setting: Mini Me next to me. The Queen across from me with M&M sacked out on the bench cushion next to her. The Banshee plotting revenge in the high chair between The Queen and I. Dinner arrives. Mini Me was ordered grilled chicken, mashed taters and steamed carrots...all things he has eaten previously and liked but not what he wanted to order (hamburger and fries).

Mini Me (after poking at his food): I got a 'tomak ache.

Me: Are you sure? I think you just don't want to eat what you have in front of you.

Mini Me (nodding his head): My 'tomak hurts.

Me: Well, here's the deal. If you really don't feel well, you don't have to eat anymore. BUT, that will be your breakfast tomorrow.

Mini Me: Well, maybe I can eat some now.

Me: Mini Me, you know what you just did don't you.

Mini Me (nodding head): [mumble, mumble]

Me: What's that?

Mini Me: yes, sir.

Me: That's right. You lied. [The Queen], since Mini Me said he was sick, I think we should take him to the emergency room. What do you think?

The Queen: I think that's a great idea.

Mini Me (face draining of all color, water works beginning, sobbing): NO! Don't take me to the doctor. I'll never lie again. I promise.

I wish I could have taken a picture of the look on his face. It was priceless. He HATES going to the doctor. Despises it with a passion. The fear in his eyes was genuine. He wasn't sure we weren't going to take him to the ER until we pulled into the driveway at the house. Yes, it was evil, I know.

While I'm thinking about it, I received a genuine honor recently from fellow blogger, GunDiva. She invited me to be a contributor to a blog she runs called The GunDivas. I haven't had a chance to post anything there yet, but there will eventually be content cross posted here from there. Or vice versa. We'll figure it out. One of the contributors there is a real life, "I get paid to do this", published author by the name of Tara Jansen. So, I am in good company. Hopefully, I can live up to the honor.

There was apparently some confusion amongst the readership on the subject of M&M. She remains in our care. Prying her out of The Queen's hands for a little daddy time is becoming more of a challenge though. She is almost ready to crawl. She is up on all fours and rocking back and forth. She scoots around surprisingly well. She also has a couple of teeth breaking through, and she's started on baby foods. She has a "delightful" habit of "motorboating" while she is being fed resulting in all around her getting splattered with food. It's hysterical until it gets in your eye.

There is a court status hearing scheduled for next week. It is our understanding that a trial on the parents' rights will be set at that time. Such a trial is not likely to occur until the fall at the earliest and could be as late as December. We have some other news on that front as well that I, unfortunately, cannot talk about in detail here yet. The short of it is that the out of state cousin is no longer in the picture. The Queen and I were shocked to say the least. If I ever can post details here, you will see that it really was a miracle and answered prayer.

In the meantime, I am going to try and get back in the swing of posting here more regularly again. I have several ideas for posts. There's the Magellan Award to discuss, there's some thoughts about a political theory I've been kicking around, thoughts about the current state of goverment at all levels, thoughts on cars I've owned and pets that have owned me, and I still haven't gotten around to posting about learning to fly and other things from my murky past.

All in do time.

Wascally Wabbits and Other Mischief

Before I give you my lame excuse for not posting more info about the new foster kids, I need to take a moment to welcome DFW to the growing list of followers. Blogger does not show that DFW has a blog. DFW, if that is not correct, please let me know. In the meantime, welcome to the party. Feel free to join in the conversations, have a beer, and generally enjoy yourself. I don't have any lampshades for you to wear while dancing on the table though. Had to get rid of them after GunDiva shot them up last time she got in one of her "moods".

Now for the lame excuses: 1) The dogs ate my home work, 2) I've been really preoccuppied with the whole fighting for M&M thing, 3) two words: TWO INFANTS (also known as instant twins), 4) one infant screams bloody murder until held or she passes out...whichever comes first, 5) who has time to write anything?, 6) why didn't you tell me to get formula when I was at the store an hour ago?, 7) the dogs don't feed themselves, 8) FOUR YEAR OLD BOY with two speed settings - FULL THROTTLE and PASSED OUT, 9) have you seen the laundry pile?, 10) what's for dinner?....

So, in lieu of actual content, I present you with...

...cute bunny foo foo picture. Those are The Queen's hands by the way.

That picture was taken about a month ago after we discovered that Spanky McCloud...

...had inherited the title of bunny hunter extraordinaire from the dear departed Kiki.

The little turd has real talent though. The Queen and I heard the telltale squeak of a bunny in distress just in time to see Spanky carrying his first prize to the dining room for "playtime". While we were busy trying to chase the recently dropped bunny around the living room, Spanky went outside and caught bunny number two. The entire incident took less than five minutes. I know for a fact that there was a third bunny from the same nest that narrowly escaped his siblings fate as I saw him/her making a run for it as Spanky was bringing bunny number two in through the garage.

It's gonna be a long summer if the bunnies don't take the hint.

Pulse Check

Yes, I am still alive. No, I have not forgotten about you all.

I have been very busy at home and at work including a fair bit of travel, several minor to major personal dramas/traumas, and generally being in a funk.

kymber, I promise you will get your update as soon as I can deal with my feelings enough to put keyboard to pixel.

It's probably not the brightest welcome you will ever see here, but thank you to Red Woman and Mike for choosing to follow my humble blog. Hopefully, you will not regret that decision any time soon.

Please enjoy the hold music while I decide which direction I'm supposed to be headed. More to follow soon.