*sound of trumpets*

THIS IS MY 1000TH POST! what the eff?!? that's 1000 ruminations, revelations, reflections, and general wind-baggery. what started as a begrudging, mocking fulfillment of an assignment for library school that i regarded with a high degree of disdain has produced this...this...well, i don't know what this is. but i know some people read it (some actual, non troll bot flesh-people at that!) and for that i'm grateful. although truth be told, this regular outlet for my opinions and observations, and archive for the general chicanery that is my life, has come to be pretty valuable and i'd probably continue even if my readership was non-existent (right now it's a hair above non existent).

you'd think i'd try to make this 1000th post count with some kind of introspective talk about how blogging has dragged me up from the doldrums and provided a guiding light in my darkest hours. but no. you'd think i'd maybe have a super-fantastic giveaway with which to reward my loyal readers. but no. this blog gets zero sponsors (i'm not gonna lie: i'm a little surprised about that.)

nope. you're going to get more of the same. the usual mixed bag of what i did on the weekend/random ephemera that usual heralds a monday round-up post in these here parts.

the weekend in geneseo was a blast. buffalo was hit with about 2 feet of snow and our usual exit onto the interstate was closed as a result...so all of thursday was spent with me feverishly refreshing the new york state thruway website, to see if they had cleared the snow and if our exit was open. no dice. so i had to find an alternate route. this was somewhat high stress, made all the more so because of the fact that our printer was refusing to print the entirety of the google map showing the alternate route. so i had to resort to the hand drawn map. it was a little fraught. it was our first long drive with the boobla and the conditions, while not dire, were less than ideal, and the only thing we had to guide us was my hand-drawn map. well, i have to say, i really earned my spot as chief ensign navigator on thursday night. hand-drawn map was THE BOMB and we totally rocked the alternate route AND managed to drive through amherst, which is the nicest, prettiest, cutest, most old-timey part of buffalo you've ever done seen. as the dotytron said, driving around and looking at all the beautiful, old houses dolled up for the holidays, "i'm getting a christmas boner right now." i can't even describe how beautiful it was. every house was bedecked with wreathes, with twinkling candles centered in every window, and swags of lights softly illuminating the snow-hushed night. so pretty.

little big cuz turned out to be little little cuz. he's lost a lot of weight - but he is very cute and has a baby pterodactyl voice that's kind of hoarse and raspy and charming. i kind of think he looks like a teenager already...he's got a mild case of the baby acne and that with his general oversized features makes him look like he's going through adolescent awkwardness.> he's also SO PALE compared to the boobla. it's insane. i'm always thinking that the boobla is looking more and more like a white baby and then you do a side by side and it's shocking how asian the boobla looks:

and how GINORMOUS he is by comparison...he's only 1 month older!!! i'm sure the size differential will plane out eventually, but master T looks like a 1 year old compared to little big cuz's scrawniness. so now master T for the time being is known as big big cuz...but something tells me it won't last for long.

here's another shot of little big cuz - sdawg dubbed him kreacher:

and here's a shot of the cousins holding each other in various permutations:



the last one was from our failed attempt to round up all the kids in their xmas gear for a group photo. photographing groups of children means that you have to accept that one or all of them will be in tears or looking cray-cray. it's too hard to wrangle them otherwise!

i also completed a new chapeau for the little boobla - it's called the "aviatrix" hat and it serves the double purpose of highlighting his chubbo cheeks AND making him look hilarious:

i bequeathed the old gnome hat to little big cuz and knit a new gnome hat for the boobla, to accommodate his rapidly expanding noggin.

finally, this is a pretty hilarious series from brian's usa diner:



it's pretty reflective of a person's journey at brian's. first you're like, "what's the big deal about this place anyway? why are people lined up?" and then you see the portions and you're like, "i get 2 eggs, toast, 2 kinds of meat, and 2 GIANT pancakes for $5.99?!?" and then you eat the food and you're like, "this place effin' rocks!"

it was a lovely weekend, but way too short...although i'm glad to be back in my hometown...where i can recalibrate my insides with some healthy (or healthier) eating.

i'm supposed to be doing a 15 minute research paper presentation on wednesday, with my powerpoint slide deck due in by tomorrow. gulp.

tonight for dinner i'm making us a lentil curry with apples and raisins, with steamed brown rice and maybe some chard mixed in.

fin.