Hulk's Away, Baby Stays

This week, Hulk took Piggie to the coast for their annual camping trip.

Baby's scratching her head trying to figure out how to be both here and there at the same time. Here's her engineering design for a SuperHighPowerVisitingMachine.

She also wants to let you know that yesterday Hulk was almost struck by a blast from the sky:

Thank goodness he's alright. As always, she daydreams about being a PurpleJellyBeanPowered Superhero.

Baby is 30, wordy, and sometimes fights dirty

Baby's birthday was on Friday. To celebrate, Hulk cooked up a storm, gave Baby wrapped surprises, took her on a bike ride, experienced some midnight madness at a plaza, and hiked up a mountain on Saturday.

She's happy, taken care of, and [..... and???]

Ha!!! Hulk here, I stole the post. Woohoo!!!! I am so happy to have shared Baby's 30th with her. And man oh man do we ever have full days.

After a week that contained some ups and downs, Friday, aka Baby Day, dawned like a complete blessing and just got better:

- Crepes with Benji and Piggie, many hours on bikes, super best-he-could-muster dinner from Hulk (recipe for grilled stuffed tofu steaks to follow), and the day was capped off by waiting in line (jellybean hangovers and all) for our shiny, thick copy of Harry Potter And The Deathly Hallows.
- Saturday we slept in a bit, had cheesecake with strawberries and fudge for breakfast, and then availed ourselves of the really groovy bits about living where we do. It is easy to get down on Albany for being...well, Albany. But sleep until nine, dither a bit, read Potter a bit, have some strong crrfeeee, decide to hike after all, head north, dither some more, Potter in the car, lunch in Keene Valley and poof!! What do you know? On the trail headed up Mt. Algonquin by 1:45. Up, down and back to the car before sunset. And do you know what? Master and mistress of serendipity (TM) that we are, we were the last car allowed in to park at the Adirondack Loj. We love being us. Except for the jellybean hangovers...

What a beautiful hike, and what a beautiful day, Flashlight batteries, more Potter in the car on the way home and on Sunday, a much needed Day-In-Bed (TM) to have more cheesecake breakfast, devour more Potter, drink more crrfee, eat leftovers, shuffle around, prepare for Baby's class that she started teaching today, and just generally dig each other.

Photos from Algonquin and pre-Harry Potter adventure. Hulk went dressed as a Muggle, Baby dressed for some reason as the Cookie Crook...or maybe it was the Fitchburglar. Ain't she cute?

Until next time when Baby re-appropriates her post, that's all from me, Hulk'm-Skulk'm.

And happy birthday, Baby. Hulk loves you.

-n&c-

To Ontario We Go

Hulk, Baby, and Piggie drove to Ontario for a Five-Day Weekend Bonanza (TM) to visit Baby's sweet parents in their bit of green-grassed country. It was Hulk's first visit to Baby's home, and Piggie's first experience as an International Traveler. Long hours in the car, border guards, staying in a new place: opportunities for monkey wrenches to be tossed in the works, and yet they managed to avoid any pitfalls.

It's a little hard to record and write about all they got up to because they have very full days, but there are some things worth mentioning: they blew bubbles, watched birds, ate cake, rode bikes, caught critters (and let them go, of course), went to a free zoo and played with an otter, learned about butterflies, lunched with one of Baby's friends, fireworked, saw the new Harry Potter movie, met a snail, swam in a Great Lake and built a turtle out of sand on its shores.


The pictures below: both slow-moving, sandy creatures.

On The Road Again

This past weekend Hulk&Baby kept it mostly close to home. Highlights included a couple of Bunny-Countin' Sunset Bike Rides (TM), some movie time on Friday night, a graduation party for friend mini-Rob and mass consumption of Jelly Beans on Saturday. The purchase of matching jeans fromt he Gap, also on Saturday (yes, it's true). Then on Sunday Hulk rolled the Big Blue Box (TM) down to Connecticut to race a criterium. His first race was a success and he was in a breakaway from the gun, finishing second to his very strong break companion. Grumpily, poor Hulka got crashed out of his second race that day with only half a lap to go. But as they say, that's bike racing.

So this coming weekend (which starts tomorrow because our world is like that) Hulk, Baby and Piggie will be rolling North to visit Baby's folks in Ontario. Hulk is excited, having never been to ON before. Baby is excited to be going home, Baby's folks are looking forward to finally meeting li'l Piggie, and Piggie, well, she is just excited to be going somewhere far away. At least she will be for the first three hours of the car trip...

More to come on training by the Bunnies.

-n&c-

Notes on Notes and growth

As promised awhile ago, here is a better picture of the magic flower boat in Hulk & Baby's garden.

Hulk wrote a tune on the mandolin awhile ago called "Down The Garden Path". Baby was snrrrgled up on his shoulder one Sunday morning on the couch and a slow, marchy sort of a tune just popped out of the air. It was cold, then, and H&B didn't even know they would have a garden come warmth season. Here is warmth season, and everywhere Hulk & Baby look they see stuff that grows: Trees, flowers, bean sprouts, love, Piggie...the mold in the bathroom....Le bien, le mal.

-n&c-

Walden Pond

Hulk and Baby are interested in American Literary Land/Scapes & Marks, so yesterday, they went to keep Henry David Thoreau company in his 3-seated replica cottage, and splash around in the pond on the way back from Hulk's race. Fun, fun.
Other highlights: cycling together to the foot of the mountain after breakfast, eating a "Happy Couple" at Herrells (http://www.herrells.com), and admiring a large moon on the drive home.

Fitchburglar

Baby, cleverly disguised in a balaclava, gloves, and striped shirt posed as the Fitchburg Burglar this weekend. She wasn't apprehended...because there is no such person (yet)...but she did manage to see Hulk riding his bike triumphantly at his Big Race Weekend in between moments of giving the race officials the slip and skulking about on Main Street.

Hulk took Baby to the time trial course before the race, and they rode it together and back again, gladly beating (most of) the rain. Pedal pedal pedal. On Day One, Hulk did the time trial race [Boh! Baby tells me she has nothing to report because she was studying]. On Day Two, Hulk did a circuit race. Baby saw him whoosh by a few times, but sadly, she was still buried in her books.

Later that day, Hulk and Baby went to Mount Wachusett for Hulk to ride the final climb of Day Three's race, and for Baby to run up and down the mountain. This is all small potatoes. Here's the exciting part.

Wait for it....Wait for it....

Okay, good. On Day Three, Hulk competed in the road race while Baby waited in the feedzone doing her best to ignore ambulance sirens and give Hulk his bottles each time he passed. She'll write about the zones one day, but right now the important bit is that Hulk was in a breakaway from the first lap through to the last with a lead of 7 minutes on the field. Hulk is fast. FAST. FAAAAASSSSSSSTTTT. And a great sprinter. (The best part is that he has a really positive attitude about racing and sports, and never loses sight of that...not even during a race). Hulk got a little tired near the end of the race, but managed to get a good number of sprint points. Yay!

While Hulk recovered, Baby ran down the mountain, up the mountain, down the mountain. Baby! Where are you going?

On Day Four, Hulk held his position in the criterium. The bike racers spun around and around downtown Fitchburg over 30 times. Hulk finished 11th, which is lucky since it's H&B's favourite number.

Where's Hulk?

Scrambled Names and Bacon

Something's happening in Hulk and Baby's world. They've been struggling with names, and employing the definite article.

Hulk calls Baby "Brrrby", Baby continues to add syllables, and now most of the people in their world have names preceded by 'The.'

They thank The Ben for watering their garden, The Jan for tending the tomatoes, and The Georgia for the Big Blue Box on wheels (TM) for making the weekend getaway possible.

Bling Rings

Hulk & Baby took a trip to Northampton, MA some time ago.

Here's what they discovered: http://www.artomat.org/guidelines.html

The converted cigarette-machine-that-now-sells-art was a little overwhelming: choose a mini-mask, beaded jewelry, painted wood blocks, a mystery piece...What to do? (Especially difficult because Baby is drawn to the mysteries, even in the form of corner store grab bags, loot bags, and surprises).

In the end, they both chose felt rings by PenFelt, "A fabulous way to hug your finger!"


Baby got a ring style dubbed 'single candy' by the artist; Hulk's is a double ballie. They've taken to calling each other after their ring styles, and Hulk delights in how filthy Baby's ring is already.

So, Single Candy and Double Ballie are out in the world today, probably reading books, fingers tightly hugged and snugged away.

-n&c-