we put the dude and porschea in the car and headed south until we hit water.  the day was wonderful if a little warm for me.  the breeze at the beach made it perfect.  there was a big old doberman for porschea to play with in the fenced in section of the yard and we set the dude up on a sleeping bag in the shade.  there was a parade that was much larger than last year's.  the only downside was that the crawfish were hard to eat whilst passing a baby around.  not that we had much trouble getting people to hold him.  that family?  they're all about the babies.  i was told on more than one occasion that my son is cute.  i gave all credit to his mother.

there is one funny puppy story from the weekend.  after a while, i decided that porschea could come out of the fenced in zone and hang with us (and more importantly the dude) in the shade.  she plopped down next to her baby and generally chilled out.  she had no interest in taking a walk with stacky's aunt and uncle so she sat with us.  about then, the doberman, who until that moment had been her buddy, passed by us and looked in the direction of the dude.  just looked.  no movement that i saw.  porschea lunged at the dog who was quickly shocked into the realization that in this particular cage match, she was out gunned.  i barely got hold of the leash and the dobie's owner pulled the offending pup away just in time.  we agreed that it was all about the baby and once the other dog was gone, porschea resumed her slacking next to the dude.

my son: insured by 100 pounds of incredibly protective and obedient rottweiler.  it does give one a false sense of security, doesn't it?  long story short, don't fuck with the dude.

sunday i hung up some pegboard in the garage.  little things like that make a house a home people, remember that.  i got all of my geetar makin' tools hung up within easy reach in the hopes that i will actually finish a project someday.  all the while i had the dude in his highchair in the garage.  he likes watching people work and having what's being done explained to him.  i told him that one can tell a lot about how a person views the world by pegboard.  those guys that have their tools outlined on the board?  they have a horribly external locus of control in their lives.  i've seen other hang their tools by function or even alphabetically.  both of those are silly.  me?  i hang mine based on ease of injury.  if it stabs or cuts, it's up high.  if it hits or smashes or pinches, it's in the middle.  and if it measures or is lightweight, it goes down low.  i told him that all of this is basically due to the presence of little people in my workspace.  he took all of this in and then made a sleestack noise of approval.  i think he learned quite a bit.

there was no napping on either day, so we had a very tired dude.  last night he was falling asleep while i did the dishes and was out cold by 7:40 pm.  i, of course, was out by 10-ish.  that's what happens when i don't get a nap.

in non-family news, i need to get my small thermos out again and start bringing coffee to work.  the quality has taken quite a dive of late and i must stem the tide of craptastic coffee if i am to stick to my 2 cup a day limit.  it's all about quality here, people!

i've been thinking quite a bit about how we've pared down the way we live.  the worse the financial climate gets, the better i feel about it.  we've already cut out the luxuries that most folks consider necessities and are well on our way to living less like our parents and more like our grandparents.  seen the cost of a loaf of bread at the supermarket lately?  how much flour and yeast can you buy for that?  i'm still waiting to see the SUV crowd give up, but given my locale, that's not likely.

speaking of locales, we're both pretty much done with this town.  but we need to do the smart thing.  and the smart thing is to stay put for a bit.  we'll entertain ourselves as we always have, but i know i could use a change of scenery.  maybe we'll head out to austin in early may and take a long weekend.  sounds like fun to me!