Why?

A few days ago, Orry became Mr Why. Everything is "Why?" And we are on our toes to come up with reasons for evrthing. 'Evrthing' is how little who'shernamecurlylocks says it, so that's how we cool family members say it as well.

Isaac has started signing more and communicating newer ideas in his 17 month old way. He really likes books and will always show up at your feet with a book in both hands. He's only so-so in getting read to; as long as the page turns and visual content match his short attention span, he's fine with it. He still likes animals a lot.

Lurking under the oversized torsos of her sisters-in-law, Bonnie is entering her last trimester. She is holding up pretty well functioning in half of a house being remodeled. I had been meaning to mention that Waldorf salads with their fruit make for a tasty and healthy dinner diet. It's a little pricey for fresh berries this time of year, but when you're not buying so much meat, it's all good. Tonight, though, we had fish in buttery bread crumbs with baked sweet potatoes and salad. Lemon wedges crank up the tastebuds' experience a notch.

I am finishing up a couple handyman jobs. we are also working more for the tree service that hires Trent and/or I occasionally, and these days about three days a week. Progress on our priority projects is slow. Rain slows our foundation work at the add-on. Busyness slows our remodeling at the house where we live. Thanks for all things good, the bills are getting paid, and we're all mostly healthy and happy.

Troy Galore

Wow, tonight is a beautiful clear night sky. We only get so many of these in town in Baton Rouge. My old friend Orion (aka the Butterfly) is back by midnight. It is a good time of year.

All you moms with magnificent middles look marvelous. It is the baby boom of this Becker branch. I love it.

My latest project is picking up nice used toilets. The plan is to craigslist them clean, with new innards, new hardware, and brand-new toilet seats still in the packaging, with all the help needed for installation, all for one low price. This could be lucrative side work. I will keep you posted.

Meanwhile, our plumbing seems to have a slow spot between the house and the street, so there goes my Sunday morning. I saw that I can rent at Home Depot the same big auger that the plumber uses, so if little snake doesn't do it, Big Snake will. After tomorrow, maybe that will be my new nickname.

One more touch-up once-over with the light blue color "Nurture" in the master bedroom, and we shall move into it and move on to the next room. There goes my Sunday evening.

October is a wonderful month.

another troy weblog entry

Last week, Oct 13th, to be precise, just after 10:30 am, I crossed over into the 10 digits. For the number of seconds I have depended on breathing my own air. I shall not ever get into the 11 digits. It is a new age, and I feel a little wiser for it.

I was wise when I zipped to the library to get something printed at the last second, and although the time was tight, got in when I had one minute left on the computers, logged on, opened my document, and printed it out with not 3 seconds to spare. Plan B was to go a few miles to the main library which was open for another hour. Instead, the entire outing was 10 minutes. Or 600 seconds.

I was not so wise last week when I drove the tree service truck for the first time and drove it over the Mississippi River Bridge with the emergency brake still engaged. I probably drove it for 600 seconds with its braking system fighting its driving system. That was not wise.

I lugged around a number of 80 lb concrete bags today. It made me feel glad I am not 80 lounbs overweight. A lounb is the new way we write pound. Today, Trent and I poured concrete, 2 bags at a time or so, for 4 hours and 6 minutes. That is, for 14760 seconds. We were a few bags short.

I was trying to meet a schedule I composed for the day, which was itself altered already a couple times. The discouragement with schedules is when they waste more time than they create. However, there were some good things about the busted schedule. For one, I mowed our lawn. And two, we got a new post put in for our mailbox and our neighbors', all of which fell over when termites ate away the wood that held them up, and I think phonebooks getting stuffed inside the boxes also contributed.

That's it for I paragraphs.

Louisiana's weather these days is much more bearable. Did you like reading another troy weblog entry?

P.S. Isaac started talking in the past three days since I wrote last. He started talking quite a bit, playing the repeat game with Daddy, Mommy, Ball, Baby, Diaper, No, Juice, Change.

little wren

Yikes, so much for being current.

We moved back from Korea, bought our first minivan, roadtripped across the US tracking Jupiter in the evening sky each night. We arrived in Baton Rouge and resumed our lives as if we never left for Korea.

We are living in our Kingcrest place and changing the windows, roof, and updating each room while we live here. We are also doing some work at our little Sparrow place. We plan on being around working on these projects for the next few months and selling maybe one or two places.

As soon as Trent rolled into town we got into a wasps nest, got bitten by fireants, and I promptly got into some poison ivy somewhere. I am pleased to report that I was able to beat it without a doctor's visit/prescription this time. It started mild to moderate and by the time it got really bad I was on top of it with rubbing alcohol (the wintergreen kind), calamine, and over-the-counter hydrocortizone cream. Finally, it was the Benadryl that did the trick.

We are just about finished with out master bedroom. Our master bathroom is next to be finished, unless we get to painting another room or two before I get all finished with installing the bathroom sink and toilet. We still need to grout the bathroom floor tile and I have a little prep work left on the walls as well. Meanwhile, there are many boxes around and we don't have the sort of space we would like. Having one room done will help, but not right away, as we'll have to move into that room from the next one while we do that room, which won't take too long.

I am establishing a pleasant natural order in the jungle wildlife preserve of our backyard. We have some wildlife friends. One of the friends is a little wren that sleeps in our carport. There is no nest, and she sleeps in one of two places, but she's there roosting most every evening. Also, she does not take of her toilet in that place--she just sleeps there. Quite untimidly, as we frequently are passing by her or approaching her. It is strange bird behavior that I don't really understand. Maybe a former tenant gave her little crumbs? I doubt that. Maybe more likely is that the carport was used only rarely for the past year plus, and even now, we don't go out much in the evening, so with our quiet neighborhood maybe the carport overhang is a nice quiet safe place in general.

Bonnie made cloth napkins and we have a good amount of furniture ready to realize its place in the Becker household. Bonnie also joined up in the handbell choir, and those ladies are playing their seasonal debut today.

We have been getting a gas out of the awkward family photos website, where a recent Becker submission is all the rage.

Orry is going on 3 1/2. He talks a lot and plays all sorts of games. Isaac is going on 1 1/2. He talks very little and plays the following games. Dog. This is when he barks to indicate there is a dog and other animals. The variation is Lion, where he growls. Chase. A favorite for kids and grown-ups alike. And most recently, Repeat. We finally got some enunciated words out and just the other day our little Gonzo started repeating some voiced sounds and finally said clearly Mama and Dada. Before, other than his barking, his only real word of frequent use was "ball". He also started dancing last week.

We went without home internet access for over a month. Now we're rolling.