Friday
I met up for lunch with a couple of friends at Feast, in Charlottesville’s Main Street Market. Before I headed back to work, I stopped off at a stall to buy a couple of things.
I gasped involuntarily when I saw that my two items added up to 6.66 on the cash register.
“666!” I exclaimed in horror.
“I don’t like that number either,” the kind angel behind the counter said. He voided the transaction and rang it up again so that it would add up to $6.65.
*Incidentally, cast your eyes over to the right…I’ve been at 666 followers of this blog for a couple weeks now and it’s giving me the creeps! Here’s hoping that another kind soul takes pity on me again and changes that number soon!*
In the evening I took the kids to see Black Panther. My son and I discussed the Utopian and Dystopian aspects of Wakanda and the moral ambiguity of Killmonger all the way home. The younger two in the backseat plugged their ears with their fingers and rolled their eyes all the way home.
Saturday
We helped set up for the PACEM homeless shelter…
“Do not forget to show hospitality to strangers, for by so doing some people have shown hospitality to angels without knowing it.” Hebrews 13:2
A wicked game of Two Square that left one of these little angels with a throbbing, purple pinky…
We finished watching the first season of Stranger Things…sooo good/sooo creepy!!!
Sunday
Goats are traditionally associated with Satan, but for a group of five parents and seven girls ranging in age from 12 to 13, spending the afternoon playing with baby goats at A Better Way Farm was heavenly.
As we were leaving the house to head to the farm, I found my daughter in the garage staring pensively at an old guinea pig cage leaning up against the wall.
“Should we bring the cage…just in case?” she asked.
No. No, we shouldn’t.
Take me home, human!
Ethical Question of the Day: Your beloved little angel is being attacked by a hair-eating goat. Do you: a) save her or do you b) continue snapping photos while cackling like a demon?
Clearly, I’m going straight to hell.
Seventeen years passed like a dream. Recently, I got together again with a couple of those friends and our babies for another photo shoot. This time it was for senior pictures! Our babies are in their last year of high school now and are applying to colleges.
I visited these twins just days after they were born. They were impossibly tiny and their little legs were still scrunched up tight…They’ve grown into handsome young men who are a credit to their parents.
We managed to snap a few photos of this baby before he had to leave to get to his piano lesson…
…thereby missing Couch Babies Photo Shoot 2.0:
The kids had a day off school on Friday and I took a day off work so we could loaf with the animals at the Metro Richmond Zoo in Chesterfield, Virginia…
They eat right out of your hand…
…with their enormous blue tongues.
…bird accessory!
Lately, I’ve been spending my lunch hour at the Dell, which is a short stroll from my office.
An old archway is all that’s left of what were once Italianate gardens…
Orderly geometry has given way to an overgrown, naturalistic landscape. The Dell has been transformed into a pond that is used for stormwater management. Its wild beauty makes it easy to forget its utilitarian purpose.
From time to time I have to push aside long grasses that have fallen into the path. I feel them tickle my legs and hope I’m not brushing up against poison ivy. In this landscape, unexpected things sprout up by themselves…
Dragonflies chase each other all over the pond. Every now and then they take a break…
As for the industrious bees, they never have time to play.
At least they are appreciating the flowers as they toil away…
