We’ve been going around the house considering buying a shed and considering buying a dog run. I worked in the yard for two weekends getting the yard ready, and I tried to call a landscaper. I posted about how he wasn’t getting back to me, and guess what? He never did. Forget it. I have another guy coming to work next weekend, and when we woke up this morning I dragged my girls out to the store. There’s a place called Tuff Shed up along the highway where people alway drive by, so we tried them. They’re not open on Sundays! Why wouldn’t you be open on Sundays? I mean working people buy sheds, and they work during the weeks. Who knows…

A friend of mine bought one of these Tuff Sheds a few weeks ago, and said they sell them at Home Depot, so after grabbing some lunch we drove to the local Home Depot. We typically hate that store and buy everything at Lowe’s, but Lowe’s only has these Rubbermaid sheds. When we got to Home Depot we saw they had several Tuff Shed sheds, in which we climbed, measured, played, talked. We finally decided on a relatively stanard 8′X12′ with two skylights. We went inside to pay and that took forever, but we were pretty happy.

Next we wanted to check out the fencing to make a dog run. I really wanted a metal fencing like they put around pools, rather some rickety wood picket fence, but it’s so damn expensive. It’s usually about $80 per panel for the metal fencing, but I dragged Donna and Claire back to look at it again. We found some guy to help us in lumber, and when we told him what we wanted he said "well, why don’t you just buy our clearance fencing?" We kind of shrugged and said something about not wanting old scratched and bent fencing. He told us it was just discontinued and they were s$150.00 if we bought it now, which we proceeded to do immediately.

We’re pretty damn excited to get the dog run installed, and to get our shed installed!!!

2008_Feb_MahoneyAirport11.JPG, originally uploaded by nooccar.

My student teacher is doing a lesson on the Expatriates today about those people who leave the United States and move abroad for a period of time. He is focusing on the 1920s literary movement, but I am think about Dan & Madeline. Dan is my best friend who I followed to Arizona in 1999. He  met his wife, Madeline, here in the desert. In late fall Dan announced that he was moving his family to Amsterdam for two years. I eagerly congratulated him, and I think he was relieved since the grandparents were a little more apprehensive about being an ocean away from Dan’s two daughters. I just thought it was cool that they get to go over there for two years.

Their house is rented, their trucks are sold, and we took them to the airport Sunday morning. It was sort of funny because if you can imagine this family trying to check into the airport in the early morning dawn with a toddler, a baby, two cats, and about 15 bags and boxes of luggage. Believe me, no matter how jealous I am that I too did not fly off to Europe for 2 years, I am thrilled I didn’t need to pack up an entire house. The movers took care of a lot of it, but they still needed to make piles of taking on the plane, shipping, donating, selling, storing, and giving away. Donna and I had a dining room table of trinkets of food, booze, etc… by the time they left. We stood at the airport for an hour while they checked in, and I will honestly say the tears did come to my eyes as Dan pushed his family off through security.

Just this morning I remembered meeting Dan at a fraternity rush where I went with my gay neighbors. I had on a pink shirt and they thought I was gay, too. Dan asked me about a website and we got talking. Our friendship began in 1995 and I could tell story after story of our lives together so far, but you, dear reader, don’t want to hear them all. I will touch on just a few… How about Groundhog’s Day in Punxsutawney, PA sleeping out in the icy snow. Or a couple days tramping around San Francisco, CA in the rain, living in youth hostels. Or driving to San Diego, CA across the Sonoran desert with Donna. Or going to Nogales, Mexico with Nicki & Madeline. Or staying at the ranch in Tucson. Or my bachelor party in Pittsburgh, PA. Or living outside Phoenix for a year with our future wives in one way or another. Or driving to Philadelphia, PA on a whim to see Red Hot Chili Peppers in concert one night.

Dan’s daughters are world travelers, and mine will become one when we fly to Holland later this year. I miss my bestfriend, but I am eager to see what adventures we can add to the above list.

mradams.jpg, originally uploaded by nooccar.

A former student of mine took this picture of mine when she was a sophomore in high school. She’s now in my college compostion course. How odd… I look like a flip-haired, anorexic troll.

March07_SanFranscisco183, originally uploaded by nooccar.

I just love this picture of Donna and Claire at the Japanese Tea Gardens in Golden Gate Park. I had not been here since I went with Dan a decade ago, and I love sharing this with my family now. If someone told me then that I’d be back in a decade with my wife and two year old daughter I would’ve wanted to hurry up and get there so I could meet Claire. (Donna I had already met by then.)

A while back I wrote about how the tragedy of James Kim’s death affected Donna and I, and every time I hear about it or think about it, I tear up. Still. As I am sure Kati Kim will do for years. We donated money on PayPal to Kati in November, and now there’s an auction. There are handmade crafts and artwork on Ebay for auction to raise money for the James Kim Memorial Fund. Please click on this link and bid on something, please. For Kati, for the girls, and for James’ memory.

101_0372, originally uploaded by nooccar.

Claire at my parent’s house Christmas morning. My dad has been an avid skiier for almost a half a century, and I was almost surprised not to see the skis beneath the tree. Next time, perhaps.

Meghan and Jon are still here visiting and they’re headed to the Grand Canyon and off through Utah tomorrow. Yesterday, after taking Mum to the airport, we were sitting in the living room and Claire was running around playing. I cannot believe how stable she is on her own two feet now, and I was just amazed at everything she was doing. Then she climbed up on top of the "Little Tikes" picnic table near the sliding doors, and I remembered Laura commenting when Claire was on the picnic table Saturday.

"Aren’t you worried she will fall off?" …
"Nope, she does this all the time. Then when she’s done, she climbs down."
"Are you sure you’re not worried?"
"Yep."

So while we sat there last night playing Continental, Claire climbed up on the picnic table in her new hand-me-down purple Stride rite shoes, and I mentioned the conversation I had with Laura. Donna said, "as long as she doesn’t try to go forward off the table"… and as if in slow motion, all four of our heads and all eight of our eyes turned to focus on Claire who had proceeded to lean forward as far as she could to reach the blinds with her pudgy little hands to grasp the long white pieces of plastic. As I felt the word "Noooooooooooooooooooooo" echo up through my larynx and between my teeth, Claire toppled forward, headfirst, onto the picnic table bench, and onto the window.

She screamed and cried until we gave her a pacifier and a teddy bear ice pack before she fell asleep after having one of the most traumatic experiences of her 366 1/3 days of life. We shrugged our shoulders and finished our card game before rushing the sleeping baby into the car to go bowling. We didn’t have time to change her diaper or remove the pacifier, but I sure did take a moment to admire the nice new shiner on her right eye.