When Mama's Hungry

When mama's hungry, she'll run up on the curb to get some good food. Notice how I didn't even make it all the way in the parking spot. When I felt the front tires hit something, I thought it was the parking tile, not the curb - ha ha!

Nice rims

Seriously, this sweet ride is for sale? Oh Santa, please be good to me this year...

Holiday Traffic In Raleigh

I thought moving back to NC would mean less traffic and less traffic dummies. It turns out that I was right about one of those - guess which one:





I'll try to clean up the windshield on the Pilot soon.

Birthday Boy

It's official - the boy is now 2 years old. It's so hard to believe that it's been 2 years now - the time has flown by too fast. And he keeps getting more handsome every day - I can hardly stand it, he's so cute!

A Day In The Life...

Being a kid is tough these days - especially if you're Sam. You've got to feed the beast


and make faces

before you can sleep it off

New Addition

It took over a year, but we are proud to announce the newest addition to the Brown household.

Now Sam has something else to stab besides our dining room table.

Rip Van Sam

Sam hasn't been moved to his toddler bed yet. We tried a few months ago when he climbed out of his crib - but quickly moved him back when he kept rolling out of bed at night. Hopefully his tossing and turning will settle down soon and we'll get to the toddler bed again.

In the meantime, he's found creative ways to sleep at school.

Apologies for the blurry pic - it was taken with his teacher's phone and then sent to my phone before being downloaded. Notice that the bottom half of his body is off the side. Evidently the teacher moved his legs back on, but he just looked at her - moved them back and fell back asleep. It's all about comfort.

Too Much Is Sometimes Just Too Much

Everything in excess is opposed to nature - Hippocrates. Someone needs to remind the old man driving this car:


I know it's hard to see because this was taken with my phone at night - but the entire back and passenger side of this car was overflowing with magazines, book, clothes and other random crap.


Even the dashboard was piled up with papers and magazines. Not only was this man creepy but I saw a Ranger Rick magazine in his window. I won't be letting my child near this hoarder. I can only imagine what his home must look like.

Jesus Van II

On our way home from DC, we ran into a little traffic getting out of town. It was far less traffic than what we experienced on a daily basis when we lived there - so that was very nice. I discovered that traffic can also be a learning experience.

For example, it wasn't until I saw this minivan

that I learned that
Jesus can deliver you from the following:

• drugs
• alcohol
• porn
• lying
• cursing
• anger
• guilty thoughts
• depression

That's a tall order, but what about murder and coveting thy neighbor?

Love Is

Do you remember those old Love Is cartoons they would print in the newspapers? They were strictly black and white, in the main paper sections and included a naked, cherubic boy and girl. Well this is 'Jenny's Love Is.'

Love Is....

Peeing on the side of the George Washington Parkway because your son couldn't wait to get out of the car. What a good daddy!

Sideswipe

Saw another accident on the way to work today - this one was what the locals call a 'doozie'. I was only able to take a picture of one of the cars - but you'll get the idea.


The white car in the distance is also a Toyota Corolla - it appears to have been a Corolla Smash It Derby.

Pimped Out Mini

I take walks at work now - it's the only real exercise I get. While I'm out and about, I sometimes see some interesting cars in the parking lots of buildings nearby. Here is a mini cooper that caught my eye.





I didn't realize you could pimp out a mini - but I'm not surprised that someone has.

Baby No More

Sam is the cutest baby you will ever see. He's got beautiful blue eyes, chubby cheeks, pouty lips and nice curly hair. Since he's turned 22 months old now, we've decided that it was time for his first haircut. Not first professional haircut - first haircut ever. This is my cute little baby before:


And this is my cute little BOY now. Who knew that he'd go from the cutest little baby to the cutest little boy? Well, who besides his mommy and daddy?

We took him to a salon that specializes in kid's cuts. He got to sit in a fire engine seat and watch a Thomas movie. He did really well until they brought out the clippers - he didn't seem to like them that much. He started crying and saying 'help me'. But once he got in his mommy's arms, he was fine again. Here's where he went from baby to boy - http://www.jjskidscuts.com/

Jesus Freaks

Living in the bible belt, you are able to come in contact with people who have very strong religious beliefs. It amazes me at how literal people will take the words that were written in a book like the bible. Some people will believe so strongly in those words that anyone else who believes otherwise is doomed to an afterlife of torture.


Here is a picture of a Jesus Van that I saw on my way to work last week. Not sure where they were going - but some of the messages on the side read - Jesus Is The Right Way, Don't Kill Babies, etc.

And here is a story of a woman suing the devil and a pastor because she claims she was sexually assaulted by the devil.

Now don't get me wrong - I do admire the fact that someone would be so strong in their beliefs. Just imagine if the book of stories that so many people were so devoted to was Canterbury Tales or Dr. Seuss.

Sweet Rides

I'm sure most of you see the typical pimped out or rice boy cars where you live. I like to see the other end of the spectrum - where folks don't have enough cash or motivation to keep their autos up to par with state inspection standards. Maybe I just notice it more now that I'm back in NC - but it's amusing. Here's what I'm talking about:



But seriously, is a window really that important? Duct tape is great, don't cha think?

Crash

Traffic in Raleigh is nothing compared to DC. But there are still a good share of bad drivers that continue to amaze and frustrate me. I've been cutoff numerous times and was even forced up onto the sidewalk of Capital Blvd by a woman driver that was on the phone, fixing her makeup and dancing while attempting to drive. She really tee'd me off because she didn't even give me the 'I'm sorry' wave after I laid on my horn at her. But I believe in karma, so one day she'll get hers.

On my way to work this week, I saw this beauty:

I'm sure a trailer full of lawn tractors is hard to see when you aren't paying attention. Hopefully this driver will refrain from talking on the phone from now on.

More Raleigh Carnage:

Note to Raleigh drivers: You shouldn't try to make a turn in the median - you could bottom out. And rolling your SUV in the middle of Capital Blvd isn't a good idea either.

I'm Back

Looks like work is slowing down enough for me to update my personal blog. It's been less than a year - get off my back already. A lot has happened since I last posted - here's a short list so you can catch up:

• Sam has 16 teeth, talks in short sentences, runs all over the place and has grown more adorable every day. You can get the specifics on him (and the family) at our other blog - http://barrowbrown.blogspot.com/


• Our feelings toward the previous owners of our house has turned from friendly ambivalence to unfriendly loathing. The hot water heater crapped out 2 days after we moved in - which just happened to be Thanksgiving weekend - guess how many plumbers want to work on that weekend. The upstairs a/c unit crapped out in August - during one of our 100 degree heat weeks. The kicker on this one is that the previous owners knew - there were notes from other repairmen in the a/c unit - and yet they refused to fix this or even disclose this at the sale - jack-holes!


• David bought a new car - the new Nissan Altima


• We went on our annual beach vacation in August - to Ocean Isle Beach, NC. It's a shorter drive than heading to the Outer Banks and it's just as nice. We had a great time and can't wait to go back next year!


• And, my mom got married last week. Nope, she didn't get 'knocked up' - ha ha. Things just worked out that now was the time. So they went to the courthouse and got their papers, then had a nice ceremony in their backyard - on the boat dock. Very nice - check out the pic:

Anyway, I hope to do better about keeping this updated again. So check back when you get some free time.