Le Monde De Hulk & Baby

Hulk & Baby & baby

2011-10-27T16:08:00.003-05:00

Can you dust off a blog the way you dust off a book?

I'm blowing on the keyboard, running my palm across the screen.

It's been too long.

Hulk&Baby now have their very own baby (tm). That's one of the many reasons they haven't written in a while.

But hold on to your seats. Now they have a whole new series of things to write about. From parenthood to the very best diapers.

Upstreet/Downstreet

2010-04-28T23:00:00.002-05:00

For a couple of years, Baby has lived up-and-over from Hulk's house. Because of the 2-block distance, lots of things get lost in the shuffle: Hulk leaves a favourite hat at Baby's, Baby leaves her glasses at Hulk's.

This living arrangement has a name: Upstreet/Downstreet (for all the times we trot back and forth between places).

But last weekend, Baby closed up shop and ended the game. Most of her stuff is piled into Hulk's house, and as soon as that was done she went out west for a while. Poor Hulk is being gobbled up by moving boxes, while Baby gets gobbled by mountains. Talk about feeling overpowered!

So....with Hulk in the east and Baby in the west, it seems like Upstreet/Downstreet on a much bigger scale...

Old habits are hard to break!

Back from our Travels

2009-01-20T16:12:00.005-05:00

San Francisco, Ontario, the BVI, and now back to Albany again, finally settled.

The more things change, the more they stay the same: Hulk & Baby found love and happiness on vacation, and it looked like this:

Plus they added a new critter to their menagerie, so now Bunny ( a bunny with an axe), Skirrel (a Squirrel with a slingshot), Mmffamyo (a tie-dyed monkey from VT), and the bats have a new friend named Rory, a pygmy dragon who lives in a mobile cave and loves marshmallows. Oh boy...

Now it's time for making preparations for an anniversary rumpus on 2/2, which is a special elevenzie sort of day, for sure. Until then, many cold bike rides, job hunts, book hours, gym days, gray skies and winter happies.

-n&c-

Cyclocross Nationals

2008-12-14T21:21:00.003-05:00

Hulk has been in KC for a few days, riding his bike in muddy circles. Career high for him. He's on his way home now, a twenty hour drive.

Baby stays put and works. She motivates herself with popcorn breaks, inventing new toppings like, "Butter that makes magical fairies roost in the sink and wash your dishes." Come on, guys!

HulknBaby have been playing a relay game that's not very fun. It goes something like this: Baby has a writing deadline, so she hides behind her desk to finish it. When she's done, Hulk has a writing deadline and can't come out to play. Hulk goes to Kansas, comes home. Baby goes up North (no, Hulk, she's not an elf with special work to do. Leave her ears out of your hypotheses).

But soon they'll be together for the holiday, and then traveling together for a few days. Relay is over. Lesson learned: tandem bikes are better.

October Country, Hulk Is Old, Baby Published Again: More News at 11:11

2008-10-09T14:19:00.008-05:00

Well, as advertised, Baby is on The Very Serious And Most Professionally Important Academic Job Market (TM). She is rocking the house. She also just had her most recent manuscript of poems, a li'l chipbook (mini chapbook) accepted for publication some time late this year. It's a sextet of sestinas called "The Kissing Number". Hulk is reminded of jazzercizes that really good musicians do, setting challenges for themselves when the art form itself is not enough; like playing Coltrane's "Giant Steps" in 7/4, transposing tunes into funny keys, like A, stuff like that. The poems are great, Hulk is proud.

Piggie is 10, which is ancient, and she is extraordinarily tall. She loves school, and at the moment, it is loving her right back. Today she is asking questions about cells and molecules and what everything is made out of and where it all came from.

Hulk is down to just one class and a stack of books for his tutorial exam, which will occur some time in the spring. At least he thinks he is. Baby is always quick to remind him about a pesky incomplete that looms... but in any event, the tutorial exam seems (according to Hulk's wise and distinguished academic advisors) like a better route to simply demonstrating what he has learned, without pretense. The thing about that is, then he'll need to start thinking about what one does with an MA in English lit. One might make a paper airplane, I suppose, or work in a bookstore, perfecting the art of looking as though one had something better to do. Or one might be just lucky enough to eke out another season of racing bikes full time before the cold realities of grown up life come smashing-crashing down on one's poor, wittle head.

And on the subject of bikes, Hulk is in the midst of what looks to be his finest cyclocross season yet. Same team plus a new sponsor and the addition of a new teammate who is one of the top 10 'cross racers int he country are all making for a good Fall. Finally Hulk has realized that lots of rest and showing up to races feeling fresh and ready to go really hard is a better recipe for fitness than dragging himself through really hard intervals workouts on Wednesday, from which he rarely recovers in time for Saturday's race. Bike racing form is a funny thing, and the recipe is highly individualized and hard to perfect.

Oh, also, on 9/12/08 Hulk got old. 31 times old. He feels old. Old. Like gray-hairs-in-the-beard, I-listen-to-Jackson-Browne-because-I-want-to, my-kid-is-in-the-5th-grade kind of old.

Perhaps most importantly, there was the aforementioned canoe trip. Which looked like this:

On this abbreviated weekend in late August, up in the St. Regis wilderness of the Adirondacks, Hulk and Baby rediscovered what being in love, and being friends, and breathing air, and living slowly are all about. Really, they discovered a portal into a parallel, clock-free universe of clear-water ponds, blueberry bushes, firelight, and incomprehensibly sound tent-sleep. Plus Hulk splooshed spectacularly overboard and landed up to his neck in quick-mud, much to Baby's delight, and they learned what portaging a canoe for 3k feels like, and they saw a bald eagle, many loons, and just enough bear poop to make them cautious.

Now it is October, Hulk heads to beautiful Gloucester harbor once again for his annual pilgrimage, and another weekend of rediscovering himself through hypoxia and high speed. Baby is locked in her tower, with occasional forays out into the world for suguar and exercise. The job market doesn't know what hit it, and the other creative writing scholar kiddies on the block haven't got a chance.

Until next time, and the flying snow,

-n&c-

Changes, Crisp Air, a New Nest, and Other Adventures

2008-08-19T20:54:00.008-05:00

Baby has a new nest. Pictures to follow. She moved on out of the ol' one that she shared with whatsherface, and found a li'l spot right in Hulk's neighborhood. And right around the corner from the new Suguar store (aka Crisan bakery, aka Heaven).

She's all settled in with her books and her candles and she is so happy. This makes Hulk happy. Plus when his own nest is filthy and he doesn't want to clean it, he goes to her house! That is what you call a short term solution to a long term problem, but anyway...

Piggie is back from camp and school will start soon. Baby will be on the Very Serious And Most Professionally Important Academic Job Market (TM) and her poems are all bouncing along nicely. Hulk is getting ready to commit to a thesis for his MA. He is hoping it remains a MA and does not become a WAAA because he does not want a degree in weeping. Oh no.

And, there was a canoe trip. Hulk, Baby, a canoe, some mud monsters. Pictures to follow.

-n&c-

Uh oh...Late, late, Hulk Updates!

2008-07-01T00:15:00.002-05:00

Baby says Hulk doesn't feed Bloggie enough.

Prolly true.

So Hulk starts with a blog-snack and promises more to come.

Recently Hulk-n-Baby packed Piggie off to Super-Fun-Summer-Camp in Vermont. Then they rode their bikes up the east side of App Gap in the pouring rain. Baby is tough. Hulk overcooked a turn on the way down and went around the bend with one foot unclipped and almost hugged a dumptruck. Nice truckie.

Before that Hulk was in Ohio and Pennsylvania and Connecticut and everywhere racing his bike. Baby was in Maine having snacks with famous poemsters. Baby is a super-fantastic famous poemster herself. Today she entered a poeming contest and Hulk has his fingers crossed that she wins. After this fun (which was, of course, preceded by ice cream, but not crrfee because everything in Waitsfield, VT closes at 2:00 on a Saturday. Uh...ok) H&B had a lovely dinner date in Middlebury at a restaurant in an old mill building down by a waterfall. Baby wanted to swim up under the kitchen and see if we could find any suguar-lobsters or cake-fish there. Hulkie said no cuz no dry towels and lots of spectators.

And good news! A brandie-new sugursnackshop in Albany. "Crisan" bakery on Lark St. Hulk-n-Baby need a grown up to limit their bakery visits. Oh sugersnackshop how we love you.

So that's all for now. Details and pictures to follow. Baby is raising of her eyebrows at me like I still don't feed skinny Bloggie enough, so I will have to be consistent for awhile. That or maybe cut my hair bad like Kevin Bacon in the bad vigilante movie we just watched. Oy...

This week it's back to Fitchburg, tending the garden, and learning about being grown-ups in love for the summer with Piggie away. But Hulk does miss his Piggie, for sure.

Good night world.

-n&c-

High Art

2008-05-21T21:26:00.002-05:00

Something a little spooky, a little funny. I think Baby misses gardening with Hulk.

12 Days of Missmas

2008-05-20T19:06:00.002-05:00

Baby is housesitting. Hulk is doing his usual thing. The problem is that they're in separate cities, different countries even: for the next 12 days starting tomorrow, they won't see each other.

This state of the union makes Baby think about Christmas: she's going to gift Hulk (creatively, since UPS couldn't keep up) every day they're apart. 'Tis the season, after all. Allergies, long weekends, and thinking about how to be together when apart.

Spring

2008-04-22T20:48:00.003-05:00

The bulbs are up. Here's a picture of one of our daffodils from Captain.

Dandelions are roaring awake now, too. Sad to spend time on Earth Day weeding, but such is life. More went in the ground than came out of it in our small patch, so we're ahead of the game.

Planted: windowboxes with edible flowers.

Gardening, Take Two

2008-04-14T08:38:00.005-05:00

HulknBaby are gardening again. This year, we started E-A-R-L-Y.

Lessons learned:

1. Plant tomato, herb, and pepper seeds early. Some flowers, too. (Here's a pic of our little guys about a week into the world).

2. Water frequently. Separate the plants when they get their secondary leafs and begin to be a little crowded. And, ugh....Kill the weak or damaged ones...

3. Weed early. Seen here: Baby lookin' like Elmer Fudd on the hunt for a rabbit...
Things seen on Saturday: a grub with little tiny legs, lots of worms, the garden boat, dandelions beginning to flower (already?!), old pumpkin vines, flutterbys.

Filthy

2008-04-14T08:34:00.003-05:00

Although at first glance this sprinkle of salt looks like a mess...

viewed from another angle, it looks an awful lot like a heart.

(And if you pay attention, old gum on the sidewalk often ends up looking like love, too).

This 'n' that

2008-04-03T17:42:00.002-05:00

Hulk and Baby have been too busy with ThisNThat to keep their blog updated, but we're back after many, many conversations that go like this:

This One: "We should update our blog."
That One: "You're right, we should. I'm going to. Tonight."
This One: "Me too."
That One: "Do we have any ice cream?"

Today, we're happily springing in Albany. Hulk's kitchen is brimming with peat pots bursting with green sprouts (so there's hardly room to eat at the table until we turn over the garden), and Baby's books are overflowing with poems (some of them hers).

(When her poetry is happy, Hulk calls them prrrms...not like what '80s aerobic instructors did to their hair, but more like happy creatures that make the cat Ampersand a little jealous).

Hulk hasn't been making enough music, but he's racing his bike again.
Baby hasn't been wasting enough time, but she's caught up on reading again.

That's basically where we're at these days. But prepare yourself for some flashbacks, some daydreams, and some gimmicks.

Much love to all.

Finis

2007-11-26T16:34:00.001-05:00

As in, done. Complete-d. Spent. Expended. Signed, sealed, delivered.

Baby just submitted her second candidacy exam question.

Yes. Done.

Orals on 12/3, and Mighty Miss C is now Mighty Miss Candy-date.

Wooooooooohooooooo!!!!!!!

Hulk, on the other hand, is a middlin' student, but an ever-improving Cyclocross racer. Best ride ever this past weekend in Sterling, MA. The form is good, the motivation is high, and CX National Championships are only three weeks away. Freezing cold Kansas, here I come.

Chapeau, Baby. Hulk is proud of you.

-n&c-

11

2007-11-11T23:16:00.000-05:00

Today is a special day: It's the 11th day of the 11th month of the year, and Hulk and Baby just gave each other a big hug at 11:11PM. Why? Because it's still their favorite number.

Hulk eats jelly beans (about 11 of them), Baby writes her candidacy exams (with the realization that she's just started her 12th year of postsecondary studies), and all of this adds up to the fact that the DVD Number 23 is on the coffee table still unwatched. Why unwatched? They work. Hulk races his bike. Baby races to meet her deadline. And the weekend ends in a sort of nondescript blur, next to a pile of Kant books, and about 1100 words left to write by tomorrow.

Adventures to come...in about three weeks when my exams are done, and the Christmas season pounces on us.

Sugar Demons

2007-11-03T23:34:00.000-05:00

On Hallowe'en night, Hulk, Baby, and Piggie haunted the streets.

Seen: too many princesses and would-be beauty queens, lots of spooky snaggle-toothed jackolanterns, a child who got teary when Hulk said 'boo', crunchy leaves, inflatable lawn ornaments, the white moon, the dark streets, the happy kids.

We Miss Our Blog

2007-10-31T08:41:00.000-05:00

Hulk reads, Baby reads, Hulk makes papers, Baby makes notes for her exams. Hulk races his bike, Baby doesn't have time to go outside.

They watch movies, they watch Piggie, they watch each other. They watch leaves turn, and fall, and they watch Baby's folks make the long trip down from Ontario for a visit that was lovely, but too short.

Busy kids are Hulk&Baby.

It is time to turn over the garden and sleep while the world does. Another month or so of hectic and then a nice long break. Up to Canada, down to the Bahamas. December and January will find Hulk, Baby and Piggie having all sorts of adventures with both of their families.

Until then, they read, and they write.... but tonight is Halloween night. Yahoooooo!!!!!

Spooky boo. Boo! Ha.... Candy.

-n&c-

Almost October

2007-09-30T17:58:00.001-05:00

Yes, it is almost October. Hulk & Baby are settled into the new semester at The Big Scary Schoolhouse and all is well. They read, they write, they sleep less than they should, they pedal bikes and are happy most of the time.

At the moment they are hunkered in the library at the BSS. Baby works and climbs up, and then jumps off of her great big quick-trick-book-stack. She shouldn't do that in here, it's the library. Shhh!!!! Probably she is wound up from all of the M&M's.

Hulk is not wound up.

He wound down after he wound up 11th in his Cyclocross race today. Off to a good start, riding with fast fellas for the first two laps, then he got a flat tire and had to run/slow-roll most of a lap until he could grab his spare bike. The Hulk, he has been training pretty well these last few weeks, though, and he had good sensations, as the Euro's say.

So H&B get ready to start their week and will end it either with a visit to Baby's folks or a visit from Baby's folks. Either way they will get to see Ma and Pa C, which is too rare of an event and they look forward to it, happily.

The sunsets sneak up earlier and try to catch H&B in the dark on their evening rides these days. The bunnies aren't so thick on the ground for company as they were a few months ago, and the sun has that defiant intensity it gets in this part of the world every autumn, as it squares its sunny shoulders and readies itself for the coming indignity of winter. Hulk & Baby love the Fall. And each other.

Until next time, we wish you all doings of good deeds, and silly things, just because.

-n&c-

Hulk's Blog Race

2007-09-17T22:43:00.001-05:00

Hulk & Baby are having a blog race right now. Hulk can't type so well and as he hears the tipppy-tappy from Baby's paws, he fears his defeat is imminent.

H&B have been homeworking, Baby on her prrrrrrms (poems for those of you unfamiliar with our language) and Hulk on the peculiarities of clinical thought, the spleen and well....Filosophical Foolishness From Frenchies (TM). Baby got distracted and started listening to poet man used to be a Fraggle dude from Canada making silly voice noises. This was incompatible with Hulk's reading....and here we are. Drag racing through the blogosphere. Woowoo!!!!!

Baby has pointed out that it is time for tea and a ghost story from the library book H&B got tonight with Piggie.

Hulk hopes he can fall asleep better tonight than last night. The robot beckons at all hours and is a loyal but troublesome companion. Hulk drinks a remarkable amount of espresso....

Tomorrow Hulk pedals his bike and goes to his sleepy class up at the BigScarySchoolhouse. Baby has to drive the Big Blue Box up to the airport (Scareport!) to pick up a Very Important Famous Special Writer Lady (TM) as part of her fancy University job. She worries over the American highways, Hulk reassures her and gives her sneaky directions. No problem, Baby is uncommonly good at being sneaky.

Now Hulk wants to read what Baby wrote so off he goes. Sleep and tea are calling anyhow.

Good night, moon.

-n&c-

And did you know that H&B like the hip-hop?

Whatcha gon' do wit' all dem words?
All dem words inside yo' blog.
I'ma git-git-git git you.... well, anyway. You get the idea.

....(Whumpa, whumpa)...Whatcha gon' do wit' all dat mess?.....(whumpa...)

Baby's Blog Race

2007-09-17T22:43:00.000-05:00

Tonight Baby is listening to poetry because her sleepy eyes have given up on reading for the day. Hulk is reading about the body, Baby is enjoying bpnichol's "What is a poem is inside of your body body body body." Full circle.

As always, the days are brimming in HulknBaby's world: she works, he studies, she studies, he parents. It's a bit of a tango. Or a tangle, depending on the day.

One of the best parts of today was getting to see the moon, a humble crescent.

The worst was knowing that the moon meant the closing of another day that seems to have passed far too quickly.

Fall days are like that, and the dark winter steadily approaches. Baby thinks she needs brighter lamps at her desk.

For now, Hulk and Baby hibernate with their oversized sweaters and hot drinks and delicious food they make from their autumn harvest: orchard fresh apples, squash, pickles, and maybe a pumpkin pie or two.

They continue painting the trees for each other: orange and red, mostly. Baby painted one especially bright for her brother as today is his birthday.

The migrating flocks of geese have been carrying letters and songs from back home to Baby as they pass overhead. Time for HulknBaby to go north again, they say.

And they will. Soon enough.

For now, they'll sit and enjoy the things that fall from the sky. After all, the world isn't ending. It's only reminding us to flutter.

The Machinery Of Life

2007-09-16T15:21:00.000-05:00

No whales, no beach. Hulk&Baby got a cold....probably from Piggie. So the weekend has been indoors, for the most part, with the exception of Hulk helping out at the local cyclocross clinic. 40 riders new to 'cross, including 15+ junior riders all came out in the drizzle to discover the wonders of hopping off your bike and running and jumping over stuff at high speed. Neat!! Hulk likes teachifying to the little kids in giant helmets. Cute.

So the week has been largely defined by the Coffee Robot (TM) and, more broadly, by love. Of course love!!!! This is Hulk&Baby's blog, remember? Right, so, love. Love gets made on two wheels and in spring-form pans, in robots and boxy little cars.

We have been reminded and reminding each other how grateful we are to have one another all week. And this has spilled over into the gratitude for friends and family coming to visit us in the cave and share our espresso and happiness.

Today we feel less sick so we put aside our books for awhile and head out on a glorious fall afternoon for a bike ride.

Some images to leave you with:

Robot (awww, ain't he cute?)

The Very Happy Cheesecake of Hearts that Baby made Hulk for his 30th.
Thanks, Baby!

-n&c-

Turns

2007-09-14T11:54:00.001-05:00

Hulk and Baby have been preoccupied with turning: the trees becoming orange and red, turning 'round and 'round and twirling around the living room, apple turnovers, and pushing their pedals fast to spin the wheels around on their bikes.

Hulk also decided it was a good week to turn 30. Happy Birthday, Hulk.

Baby hasn't taken a turn to blog in a while, so she will at the end of the weekend. First, H&B have to go visit a whale or two, wade in the ocean, and try not to get too turned around in a New England town on the coast.

Happy weekending,
h&b

Ooh, Ooh a Robot!!!!!!

2007-09-10T11:29:00.000-05:00

Yeah, Um Baby bought Hulk a robot for his birthday. Wow. A shiny, silver espresso making robot with a handle and everything. It's beautiful. It is the best birthday gift ever.

Hulk swoons...and twitches a little from all of the espresso. But mostly he feels loved.

-n&c-

Around the world in 90 days: Hulk & Baby Earth, Sea and Sky tour '07: The Continuation

2007-09-10T10:58:00.000-05:00

What a summer! It has been too long since we updated and so many things have happened. Piggie turned 9 years old, Hulk will turn 30 in 2 days (so Baby won't be older than him anymore), we made a batch of pickles from our cukes we grew with Piggie, we have been to the beach, to the mountains, to many bike races and, most particularly to Vermont for the Green Mountain Stage Race over labor day weekend. We are sun-soaked and learned and back to school. Long days in the library for Hulk, hours and hours of assistantship for Baby.

We promise to be more consistent with our updates in the near future but for now, here is a recent history in pictures of what we have been up to for the last several weeks.

Here is Piggie in Hulk's racin' suit. Serious.

Baby at Piggie's birthday party. Kids on horses?! What could
Be more fun than that? Oh, grown-ups on horses, too. Hulk'm Skulk'mPiggie on a horseBaby comforts Hulk after the frustrating stage two circus (circuit) race at GMSRHulk & Baby atop Appalachian Gap in Vermont.
Hulk explains how he got chased by bears and dragons
and that was why he was so slow
in the 104 mile road race of GMSR. Baby at the Green Mountain National Forest Robert Frost roadside tourist-happy-picnic-spot. This is right near the Breadloaf campus of Middlebury College where Hulk's parents met in 1962. Aww. Frost's map.
Somewhere in there is Hulk, making the best of the finish

of the Burlington Criterium, stage 4 GMSR. And that, friends is what we have been up to. There are so many details and stories to tell, but now we have to run and get on with our day. Bikes to ride, errands to be run, Piggie to be picked up and all of that sort of thing.

More to come on our new semester, Birthday doings and the beginnings of cyclocross season. If Hulk is sneaky, he might manage to get one of Baby's recent poems up here.

Happy to all.

-n&c-

Hulk's Away, Baby Stays

2007-07-31T12:09:00.000-05:00

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

2007-07-23T16:59:00.000-05:00

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

2007-07-23T16:33:00.000-05:00

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

2007-07-10T08:53:00.000-05:00

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

2007-07-02T13:51:00.000-05:00

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

2007-07-02T09:39:00.000-05:00

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

2007-07-02T09:18:00.000-05:00

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

2007-07-02T09:13:00.001-05:00

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

2007-07-02T09:03:00.000-05:00

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-

The Day We Met

2007-06-26T07:52:00.000-05:00

Hulk & Baby met one year ago, today.

Baby was dressed up as a teacher. Hulk was dressed up as a coffee-swillin' student.

At the end of class, Hulk tried to talk to Baby. She looked at her shoes.

Today, Hulk&Baby got up early. Hulk picked up Baby in the Big Blue Box (TM), and they went back to school. Together.

They even went to the room they met in. The room hasn't changed. Hulk&Baby haven't changed. Only now, they're in love.

So today we encourage you to return to important meeting places; places of chance encounters, places where you have met people you felt a zing in your heart about, but didn't respond to at the time. You never know: a non-descript classroom with brown chalkboards and fluorescent lighting just might turn out to be the birthplace of your favorite memories, and the finding-spot of your favorite person.

-n&c-

These Days: Images

2007-06-22T12:11:00.000-05:00

Probably the coolest and most quintessential Hulk&Baby moment of recent history was this past Sunday night when, dressed to kill, both of them in black from head to toe, they unloaded their bikes from The Big Blue Box and rode around town at midnight, ending up pedaling right into the grocery store for ice cream.

Other than that they have been digging and laughing in the dirt a lot. They built a boat in their garden and stuffed it with flowers. Floatin' flowers.

Here are some shots of what they have been looking like in Edmonton and since:

Hulk&Baby charge the bison on their bicycles. Look out!

Aww. Just...Aww. Hulk&Baby in their dorm room.

Garden of Weedin', before.

Garden of seedin', after. Note boat. (Unfinished boat, final version to follow)

Happy Gardeners.

Critters On Wheels: A bi-National update (AKA Buffalo, Bunnies and Bike Rides)

2007-06-18T19:08:00.000-05:00

Phew!! Hulk & Baby are tired. Today was an ice-cream-for-breakfast sort of day that also included some quality gardening and a loooong nap.

Since they have been a little off the map for the last couple of weeks, Hulk & Baby thought it would be a nice idea to catch y'all up on Baby's return from Poet Camp (TM), Hulk's introduction to Tim Horton's, Baby's detention by the Mean Ol' Dumbhead U.S. Border Guard (TM), recent progress in--and pictures of--the Hulk & Baby garden, and some bike pedaling news, to boot.

Ready? Good.

On 6/5, Hulk arrived in Ed-mon-ton an hour earlier than expected. The nice folks at Westjet were so on the ball that the flight was early and all was well. But, sadly, Baby did not know this. Sadderly (TM) and more funnily, too, Baby encountered a string of logistical oopsies, surly airport shuttle drivers and general skulduggery and was thusly a bit late to her Hulk.

No matter, though, as Hulk had some Tim Horton's jo, a donut, and his giant-and-apparently very-interesting-to-passersby-suitcase (aka bike bag) with him. And more to the point, when Baby did show up she was a sight for sore eyes. Yowzah. Hulk swoons...
So back on the shuttle and of to the rented dorm room in the conference center of the University of Alberta at Edmonton. Pretty basic digs but more than enough for a couple of dreamy, poet-souled low maintenance kids like Hulk & Baby.

Thus began a week that included eating, walking, more eating, more walking, more eating, Coire's Crazy Cool Canadian Convocation (TM), a groovy visit to a nature park full of Buffalo, a couple of bike rides (with Buffalo), magpies, jackrabbits, and smores. S'mores.

And then it was time to head home. A not so bad flight and a long, slow doofy border crossing. Nothing could disturb the bliss of Hulk&Baby re-entering Albany, though. The drive down through the Adirondacks was beautiful and interrupted by a gas and ice cream stop on the shores of Schroon Lake where Hulk&Baby were chased away by mosquitoes. Ouch.

And now Hulk&Baby have been home for two weeks, planting their garden, riding bikes, managing a not always well-behaved (but always loveable and good-natured) Piggy, and then planting their garden some more.

All is well.

-n&c-

The Magpie (Ed-Mon-Ton)

2007-06-13T09:19:00.002-05:00

Hulk & Baby are back from Ed-mon-ton and a lovely week of visiting with Baby's family, chasing Jackrabbits and Buffalo around the Big Ol' Oil City.

With thanks to Edgar Allen Poe, Hulk & Baby offer this brief recount, to be followed by a more detailed one, after Hulk has had a chance to brush up on Poe's "Philosophy Of Composition".

Ahem:
____________________________________________________________________

Once upon a midday, skeery
Baby wandered, weak and weary,
Past the bust of Milosz, to the airport she did run.

Hulk is coming, Shuttles late,
Drivers surly, Baby runs
Runs shadowed by the Magpie circling, hopping, to and fro.

Phone box, done. Clock ticks,
Second shuttle, come and gone,
Baby tenses, sees the bird. Quoth the Magpie: Ed-mon-ton.

-n&c-

All the time in the world

2007-06-05T11:31:00.000-05:00

Hulk is not famous for being early. It is perhaps fair to say that Hulk's reputation for tardiness is not quite on par with that of his beloved Pop, Cap'n, but Hulk tends to experience time as a fluid sort of a thing; difficult to tie-down and best left to its own devices.

That said, it also bears mentioning that Hulk is, you might say, wrapped a little tight. Yes it's true, he tends toward hyper-vigilance and worries over things. Things like Baby getting eaten by bears on her Very Yellow Velo (TM), or squished by Elks, or lost and disappeared into the Spooky Town Of No Telephones. Yes, Hulk worries.

So on this particular day, as Hulk planned to head north to Canada, Baby's native land, he wanted to make belt-and-suspenders sure that we was not late. Not even a little. Not even if the Quebecois border guards decided to strip the carpets and seats out of the Big Blue Box car, no, not even then would Hulk miss his plane to get to Baby. So Hulk left Albany at 6:30 am to catch a 3:30 flight from Montreal.

Hulk made his flight on time.

Actually, Hulk made it from home to parking garage at the airport in exactly four hours, including a gas stop and a 30 second chat with a very friendly Quebecois border guard.

So having parked the car--twice, because the first time the automated parking lot machines outsmarted him--Hulk has been exploring the airport for hours now, and has a few more to go. He is well fed, crrrfeed, Oon-ter-webbed, has a stack of books to make towers out of for ant&mouse hide& seek, and even got a phone call from Baby.

Hulk is certain that there are elves in the airport who keep things running smoothly. He has not seen them yet but intends to keep a weather eye out and will report back later.

But mostly, Hulk is delighted and ecstatic to be seeing Baby in just a few hours. It has been weeks and weeks and Hulk figures that, sleepy ol' oil town or no, Edmonton might just get to be one of his favorite places if only by virtue of the fact that it is the city that will give him back his baby. Hulk is also really looking forward to meeting Baby's family for the first time.

Tales of the wild, wild, West to follow.

-n&c-

Nouvelle Voiture

2007-05-29T21:44:00.000-05:00

Oooh, ooh!!!! Hulk forgot.

New wagon to roll to the airport for trip to Baby.

Yay big blue box-mobile!!!!!

Terra Differentia

2007-05-29T21:19:00.000-05:00

Hulk is tired today. Trrrrd. This past weekend was a big race weekend and there was a great deal of the pedaling of the bicycles. In general, actually, since TheBigScarySchoolhouse let out, Hulk has been on his bike for hours and hours, watching his legs grow, his torso shrink and his tan lines become ever more ridiculous.

Yesterday Hulk and his teammate Kosher Matt From Boston won a race together (KMFB 1st, Hulk 2nd) with perfect teamwork. It was Hulk's funnest day on his bike in awhile. See picture for fun evidence. The masked man in front is Hulk, winning the field sprint for second place ahead of his charging breakaway companions.

Today, Baby went on one of her grand adventures, up hill and down dale on her very yellow bicycle. Then she parked, and hiked, and dodged bears and Elk, chatted up a genuinely wiley coyote, gave the slip to a gaggle of Japanese tourists and all in all covered about 100k on her bike and a dozen or so on foot. Hulk marvels.... when he is on his bike all day he calls it training and performs all manner of silly ritualistic bits if neurotic athlete self-care. Baby, on the other hand, doesn't seem aware that there is anything unusual about being in a more or less constant state of aerobic activity and therefore just gets on with here day, sans fanfare. Kind of like the way she approaches her gift as a writer.

Hulk and Piggie had earthbound adventures of a different sort today. They began weeding and preparing the community garden plot that Baby signed us up for. Dirt and rakes and plans of Future Family Fun (TM). A happy Piggie and a sleepy Hulk.

And a bit of a rambling post, but that's the way when one hasn't kept up in awhile.

-n&c-

8 Days A Week

2007-05-28T00:49:00.000-05:00

Baby is writing tonight simply to express her appreciation for Hulk. The countdown is on; in a long week (8 more days), she'll be waiting by the Arrivals gate in Alberta. ("Alberta, let your hair hang low"...Poor Baby is bald, so someone has to).

Hulk has been very supportive of Baby's summer camp experience, which has looked like listening to her work woes, coaching her through awkward social situations, and being her No. 1 Fan.

Thanks, Hulk. Baby loves you.

{Eww! Gross!} {Gak!}

Yeah, well. She does.

& comes to Banff

2007-05-21T00:41:00.000-05:00

& missed Baby. Missed Baby so hard and so much that he bid adieu to Sophisto Cat, and rode the rails all the way to the Rockies.

There are advantages to being an invisible (imaginary) cat, like not having to be kennelled. Sitting in first class. Cuddling up with whoever you want. Not paying for meals.

There are disadvantages, too. Baby gets that being invisible (imaginary) makes it hard to make new friends, but & did thanks to his fantastic purr and warm demeanor.

I'll turn over the keyboard to him, and let him write his story:

lajdjdf jsdjfd dslkjaf;;ffjfjkdlf;afeiw0g73480jgvkm jfda'skkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkk

&! Well, so much for that.

It's good he's here. The mountain air is cold, and it's nice having a friend around.

Illness, aspiration and completion

2007-05-18T08:34:00.000-05:00

Things Hulk can write "done" on this week:

School (sort of) - The could-have -been semester from hell ended peacefully. It now only remains to be seen how well Hulk is loved by the BigScarySchoolhouse and whether or not he will be invited to play the game of Master's Degree after graduating in December.

Nasty Sinus Cold - All gone.

Bear Mountain Road Race - Hulk got lost, Hulk was late, Hulk was sick. They gave Hulk's race number away to someone else at registration, so Hulk spent 4 hours in the feed zone handing bottles to his teammate, Mr. Serious. This was all for the best as it turned out that Hulk was deathly ill and had no business racing 100 miles (160k for you folks up north-Ed.) anyhow.

Baby's Reading - Baby revised and revised, and said unkind things about herself, and made little Origami dragons out of her poems. She made the dragons fight each other and the ones that prevailed were the ones she read at BigMountainFantasyPoetCamp(TM) on Thursday night. Hulk is so proud of Baby, she really has no idea.

(Almost) The Wagon - Today Hulk goes car shopping. More to come.

-n&c-

Hulk ails

2007-05-15T19:37:00.000-05:00

Clogged Sinuses, stuffy ears, funny voice, poufy eyes. Hulk ails.
Probably Hulk is allergic to Baby's absence.

-n&c-

Mothers

2007-05-13T13:06:00.000-05:00

On Friday at the gym, one of the Psycho sequels was playing on the T.V. I happened to catch the moment where the heroine hallucinates: Norman Bates enters her bathroom dressed as his long dead mother[picture the gray wig and floppy dress], and in her stupor, she 'reads' him as Mary, the Mother of God.

Here's the thing. We believe in bad mothering, like Lady Macbeths and wicked stepmoms. We even believe they're worse than dark dowagers, and heartless spinsters like Ms. Hanigan because compassion for your children is a matter of biology, if nothing else. Portrayals of really bad mothers, though, are still pretty rare.

Just as rare as the good ones, who we don't believe in as easily. We resent or mistrust the Mrs. Cleavers in our neighborhoods. We think Katie Nowlan in A Tree Grows in Brooklyn is lovely, but one-dimensional.

If primetime is any indication, what we're most comfortable with is the well-meaning woman who marries a man who needs (s)mothering. She bears his children, and manages to (barely and at the cost of R&R, education, beauty, and/or solitude) keep things afloat. Home Improvement. The Flintstones. The Cosby Show. Roseanne. The Simpsons. The list is long...

Today, being Mother's Day, I think it's worth figuring out what exactly I'm honoring. Here's my question to you: why do you celebrate Mother's Day?

I'm lucky to have one of the elusive great mothers; today, I spent a great deal of my afternoon appreciating that she's given me the gift of letting me find my way and my place in the world, even when she probably saw some shortcuts, lost sleep over the mistakes I made and, knowing that love and success are scarcities, taught me volumes about what both these things mean.

I celebrate her, but I also celebrate what 'motherhood' broadly suggests: nurturing, teaching, caring, aiding, giving, listening, healing, loving, insisting, supporting, guiding, and mentoring. I know fathers who 'wear the aprons', and I celebrate them, too. I know childless women who are positive role models for girls, and I celebrate them. I celebrate women in general today because it doesn't hurt.

Happy Mother's Day, all.

Telephone

2007-05-09T08:28:00.000-05:00

If love could be measured by telephone bills and jellybean stacks, Hulk&Baby would win the relationship Olympics.

Laurel crowns and National anthems. Yes, dear, the Canadian national anthem.

Things we have learned this week:

1) Shortcuts work.

Deconstruction pursues intimacy, even as it shoos it away, scowling from its turrets and towers of reason. The direct expression of need, of care, of simple love and immediacy will take us where we want to go much more quickly.

2) Clever criticism clouds credibility.

Tip: When offering suggestion/coaching/critique, if your words rhyme or are particularly poetic, imagistic or quotable in and of themselves, this means that you are not invested in the art/idea/human to whom you are addressing the speechification. Honest, generative feedback doesn't sting, it loves and makes the listener feel understood and invested in. Maybe bashful, maybe misguided, maybe raw, but seen.

3) Sending Baby mold in the mail maybe not such a good idea.

Mold began life as tree-flowers with the baby branch tip wrapped in damp paper towel in a li'l baggie. Hulk built a mold farm and mailed it to his Baby, but in his mind they are still pretty yellow flowers from the kitchen table. The ones Baby sneaky-picked from the tree across the street the day before she went away.

4) Squirrels are creatures of immense faith and they are harbingers of possibility.

Remember this, more about it later. Ravens not to be trusted quite so much.

-n&c-

Baby Steps

2007-05-06T18:04:00.000-05:00

Baby went for a walk yesterday with a raven she met in the mountains. If you've never been very close to one, you might not know how large they are. Or how bright.

Or that they have a sense of humor.

Raven thought it would be funny to walk like Baby (who has a distinctive gait). So he did.

They walked and squawked and talked for a good ten minutes before Raven made use of his wings.

Baby had faith in Raven, enough faith to think they were on friendly terms. She could have been wrong.

As it turns out, ravens lead unassuming folks, like Baby, to hungry folks, like grizzlies, so they can pick at their bones once all is said and done.

But Baby's still intact. And she has some good bear stories she'll share with you down the line.

An Actual Letter From Hulk To Baby (Delivered by Happen The Owl earlier this evening)

2007-05-03T21:51:00.000-05:00

Like your blogging today.

I want a picture of you in a headscarf. I don't know why but it sounds awfully pretty.

Interesting sometimes how garments find us in times of transition, times away from our loves. I have a new hat I have been wearing. It's just a tan ball cap, the sort I never used to think I could ever wear but seem to wear all the time now. It came free with my new bike helmet. You have never seen it, and I don't know your scarf.

Little mysteries to unfold from each other, little incidental delights. These are what I look forward to: Wondering where you sat to get a sunburned cheek or when a new pair of sunglasses slipped onto your pretty head. Sharing life, sharing minutia; these details are missed even as they go unnoticed. (missed as they're missed...)

I look forward to sharing our days again; to participating in our respective minutia; to the things we take for granted because you have to, really: It's only a hat after all.

xo

-Hulk

The Blues

2007-05-03T17:35:00.000-05:00

I'm in blue jeans, wearing Hulk's blue shirt, and a headwrap that I bought from the Giant Tiger (Note: Paisley is the new pinstripe).

Nothing much is blue in the mountains today. I'm surrounded by green and grey, mostly. Even the river is taking a break from the blues.

I'm not feeling very broken up, but there is an absence of blues in the people here so I find myself needing to slip into the rainbow between green and indigo today.

Tomorrow, maybe I'll get a case of the yellows. And what will that look like? Beamy, I hope. Where are photophores when you need them?

Hulk, give my love to &. I'm sending him an invisible Columbian squirrel to chase around. The squirrel seems to have been abandoned by his mother, probably because she can't see him.

Too Much

2007-05-02T08:37:00.000-05:00

Gratitude can overwhelm
as anything else;

nothing happier than Ice cream
but sticky to be covered in it from head to toe.
And hard to wash out of hair.

Sipping love, hopes and dreams through a straw,
rather than upending the bucket over our heads;
this is a reasonable idea:

Leaves enough (always more so always enough and then some) in the bucket
to save, to refill, to dive into, headlong.
Toes pointed, eyes closed, wind squeezing cheek to jawbone,
swallowed, immersed, in love.

In ice cream soup, on purpose.

-n&c-

____________________________________________________________________

Up top o' the mountain is where we fly the rocket from, sometimes.

Histoire récente dans les images

2007-05-01T08:15:00.000-05:00

The night before she left, Baby brought Hulk flowers. They were for the nest she was building:

When Baby got on the BigSilverSlowBus, Hulk was sad (dig the sneaky Hulk disguise):
After Baby had been gone for a few days, Hulk found a hair in the sink in the shape of an &. Those of you who read regularly will understand that in our world this is a lot like Elvis in the refrigerator mold or a Blessed Virgin shaped pancake. Hulk now believes that all is right with the world (look closely, it's there):

-n&c-

Cowboys

2007-04-30T22:10:00.000-05:00

Bang.

America misunderstands herself. She is founded on many things but some of the important and difficult ones--like scalps and slavery--are often left off the list of building blocks of liberty and opportunity.

Liberty and Justice. That's all. Here you are free and the scales will be balanced. There is no conscience to this system of law and there never has been.

When Hulk was little he dug eating in Chinese restaurants with Cap'n, Pete and Momma who, sadly, has since passed on. The thing about Chinese restaurants (the good ones with tablecloths, no take-out joints, here) that was so cool was the Pu-Pu platter. Apart from being a great deal of fun to say, what could be better for a little kid in a pair of cowboy boots than a li'l ol' fire of his own to play with and a rack of various meat things to munch on? (Hulk is now a Vegetarian who eats fish...because he needs protein and the fish, they are dim-witted - Ed.) Plus being given permission to play with the fire and roast said snacks right there at the table. Life is good when you're a kid with a Pu-Pu platter. And as Hulk's mother used to remind him, the other thing he used to say he dug about eating this way was that it was how he imagined the cowboys ate. At the time Li'l Hulk didn't know anything about oppression, indentured servitude or how the railroads were built across the American west. Maybe Pu-Pu platters around the campfire while the dogies snooze to the tune of a heartbroken harmonica wasn't so far off the mark. Starvation wages and armed crew bosses change the picture a little bit, though. But, lucky for Hulk, there is no tragic reality and no bitter moment of injustice unmasked that is quite large enough to outwit the imagination of a precocious eight-year-old with a license to play with fire.

Cowboys have always been important to Hulk. Maybe this is a function of having a mother from the Southwest. Maybe it is a function of being born with a bit of a chip on his shoulder. Hard to say.

For a long time Hulk forgot about cowboys but then he got the opportunity to take a class at TheBigScarySchoolhouse all about cowboy movies!! They call this "College".

But America, she misunderstands herself. I suppose that's however much forgivable owing simply to scale. This country imagines itself to be unbounded, which (apart from being an odd conclusion to reach considering an Ocean on each side. And what could possibly be more grand and limiting to humans than a bloody ocean?) has a lot to do with the difficulty its inhabitants have sharing and respecting space around the globe, generally. But it makes it hard for the land to know herself, as well. Alaska and suburban New Jersey are not on speaking terms. Kind of like having an elbow and a pancreas that refuse to get along.

Romantics cling to westerns. American Romantics became intimidated at the prospect of writing about the sea after Melville gave us Moby Dick. On finishing the manuscript he pushed back his chair, raised his eyebrows, threw his arms open wide and, like a gangster said to the world at large "now whassup?" "Y'all g'head and write somethin' about the ocean now....punks" And so we haven't. Instead we have the mountains and the mountain men, the desert and the desperado.

The land has forgotten to locate its own limits and mistakes grandeur for absolutism. Cowboy movies forget to recognize the limits of the masculine (mountains, phallic symbols, no oceans in sight) and err further in generally only including the feminine to the extent to which it more clearly defines the dudes.

Make some popcorn and watch some Cowboy movies. Top of the list: Unforgiven, Shane, The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance and Brokeback Mountain. Yes, I mean it. Buggery disclosed doesn't change all that much. And Jake Gyllenhall and Heath Ledger aren't so many turns of the knob off of Butch and Sundance. But they seem to know a little bit about their own limitations, as they sit there holding hands under the shadow of that bloody great mountain that is so very much larger than they are.

If Clint Eastwood was a chick there would have been no war in Vietnam.
What that means to Jane Fonda I am not sure.

That's what's up.

If Baby wrote this post it would be more cogent. But she gave me a title and some sweet words on the phone across miles and miles and miles, and she scooted off into those same Western Mountains (North of the border but not so different) to swim in a big ol' pool. So tonight it's just Hulk and the Cowboys.

Cheers to our limitations. They are where we find ourselves.

-n&c-

Being Together, Apart

2007-04-28T22:51:00.000-05:00

Tonight Hulk&Baby made use of just about every means of communication imaginable to say "I love you". Pigeons, Owls, smoke signals, skywriting, and even telephones, email and Yahoo! Chat.

In a very few hours Baby begins her journey West. In a few more hours, Hulk will have a giant breakfast and then prepare to race his Velo again. Baby will fly and Hulk will pedal and they will be connected by home, which is inside and which they share.

Baby will have the rocket, of course, for getting to the mountains quickly. Hulk will be getting bottles passed to him during his race by Happen, the owl (ably assisted by Pete, of the exceptionally long arms and dutiful disposition). Happen makes a useful guardian critter for a bike racer. She's flyable and bold and able to scare away bad guys and sometimes create the perfect opening in the bunch for Hulk to start his sprint. Let's hope tomorrow is one of those days.

-n&c-

Those Patio Lanterns

2007-04-28T18:40:00.000-05:00

This is Baby plinkplunkplonking to you tonight.

I hitched to Peterborough, Ontario this afternoon: a town I'll always associate with the infamous song about patio lanterns because of the summers I spent there, Kim Mitchell's voice broadcasting from every porch.Earlier today, I visited a good friend I've managed to keep for over a decade, despite our years of living in different cities/countries/continents. He got married a couple of months ago in a spontaneous sort of way...so I figured I needed to bring him a string of cans to tie to the back of his future car...or maybe to his belt loop so that he could ceremoniously piggy-back his wife around the town.

Tokens exchanged, formalities over with very quickly, we caught up at an old haunt in the city we first met in however long ago.

The thing about catching up--or thinking that you'll catch up--is that it always raises more questions than it answers. We've put the friendship in a trunk for a while, both doing our things, and go to shake it out today only to notice that while it's still there, it's a little moth-eaten. There are holes. Like: I don't know what his favourite color is, where he's liked living the most, the details about the day he met his now-wife. Lots of mysteries.

The good thing about catching up, though, is we sort of patched up the old friendship: stitched on newer, mismatched bits of ourselves to the ol' thing. Made it different. Brighter, almost. Stronger.

Population

2007-04-27T09:00:00.000-05:00

Hulk&Baby want to tell you a little more about the folks that come up from time to time in their blog. A sort of...reference guide. Index. Handy list.

We are all cast and crew, really. And you can think of this as a family tree, but it's more like a tumbleweed. As you know, we're all tangled up.

Piggie: The Child. 8 years old, daughter of Hulk. Witty, silly, irreverent, artsy, not hung up on hygiene.

Cap'n: Hulk's Dad. Maker of adventures, reassurer, shower-up-when-it-counts, maker of music, storyteller extraordinaire, and championship-caliber granddad and babysitter.

Pete: Hulk's brother. The real hulk. Unreasonably large, faithful, super coach and athlete, entrepreneur and mental rockstar.

Lyssa (AKA Sissa): Pete's Wife, Hulk's Sis-n-law, magical talker to animals, super athlete, pancake maker extraordinaire.

The Bears: Baby's 'rents. Keepers of pies, hugs, birdseed, a rootin'-tootin' high fallutin' rickety car, stories, home. Makers of holidays and restful stays.

Bro: Baby's only and older brother. Attentive, caring, thoughtful giver of gifts and writer of postcards, knows things about space and numbers.

The Pickles: Baby's friends. Baby lived with Mrs. Pickle once-upon-a-time. She is an outstanding writer of letters, and cooker of wholesome foods that are hard to pronounce. Big of heart and of smile, mistakable for a 19th century heroine (especially when she's parloring on a piano and singing away).

Rob&Zenu: Hulk's buddy and companion in all things related to emotionally-available manhood. Bicycles, big ideas, loafing and--perhaps most importantly--Hulk's companion on the quest for the perfect espresso. Zenu, Zenu database Queen. South Asian mama, unreasonably bright, companion to Rob.

Mr. Fish: Baby's pal. Can make a mean cup of coffee out of cigar butts and loam (if need be), best host this side of the equator thanks to his generosity. Understands the blues, and sees the funny side of just about everything.

D is for______: Baby's roommate. D is for many things, like delightful, dallying, and darting around in sneaks and spandex.

Ms. Wendi: Hulk's downstairs neighbor and a teacher of the literary studies to the unappreciative engineering students at the SuperSpookySchoolOfScience. Maker of Huuumus, good at laughing.

Jamie: Ancient friend of Hulk. Hulk and Jamie got into bikes together back when Hulk was fat. Super drummer, handyman, and soon to be Dad.

Edwin Oliver: Hulk's old pal. Of the beatniks and the Dewey decimal system. Peculiar and loveable in all the right ways.

Mr. Pal: Hulk's friend and mentor at the BigScarySchoolhouse. A true teacher and a good friend.

The Department (aka BigScarySchoolhouse): Where Hulk&Baby make of the Literary Studies. Home of beautiful people and scary mountain book-trolls.

Sledgehammer: Hulk's kitchen mouse.

&: Hulk&Baby's imaginary cat. Hulk had a moment of knowing for certain he was big-n-always in love with Baby when, about two weeks into their relationship, she asked if they could have an imaginary cat named &. Because "&" is better than "but".

Sophisto Cat: &'s imaginary friend, bespeckled and often found looking into the Dove and Hudson bookstore window. Has read Anna Karenina only four times.

Happen: Hulk&Baby's owl.

Thank you all for being part of our lives. We love you. (Edits, comments, complaints and additional biographical information welcome.)

-n&c-

Mystery #492, Docket 16AL-V SOLVED

2007-04-27T08:53:00.000-05:00

A pack rat had been taking the ant baits, and was living in a lovely nest in my roommate's dresser.

Adventures in Baby Sitting (on buses and in depots)

2007-04-27T01:02:00.000-05:00

Baby spent 11 ½ hours in transit today, love-rocketing up the Northway, enjoying the beautiful&historic Montreal (or at least the bus terminal), and rest-stopping in Kingston, Ontario, where a Boy Named Sue served her a cup of Tim Horton's joe. (That's what his name badge said, anyway).

She managed to barter 1 crunchy chippy thing she bought in Montreal for 1 red delicious apple, sit beside 2 girls for 3 hours who were rewriting Abba lyrics en Francais et avec chagrin, make all 2 of her connections, read 193 pages, edit 19 pages of writing, and sleep for an undisclosed number of minutes, probably mouth agape since she largely had an aisle seat. That's today's math.

The other stuff that isn't so easily quantifiable, and so you may choose to argue with me: she is certain the molecules of her body feel different when she crosses the border and an at-homeness takes over her. She loves seeing Canadian license plates, funny money, 401 signage. She loves hearing French, and practicing her own.

Best of all, she loves her family. She gets to spend a couple of days with her parents doing the usual sort of things: drinking tea, crossword puzzling, country driving, bargain hunting, and, best of all, catching up. And at the end of it all, she gets to see her brother, in his neck of the woods, and she's never made it down before.

She thinks of all the houses she's lived in (at least 11), and misses Hulk and The Hub, grateful that more than one place feels like home.

Scooters

2007-04-26T08:20:00.000-05:00

We wanna moped... (with wheels, not past tense of walk around lookin' sad - Ed.)

Zooooommmmm!!!!!!!!

-n&c-

Disappearances

2007-04-25T23:42:00.000-05:00

Today, in a few hours, Baby will disappear onto a bus bounding for the border. She's looking forward to people who make familiar vowel sounds, to seeing her home at the bottom of the hill and pressed into the river. The hard part is that Hulk isn't coming. This morning, Baby rooted around for something to leave him: a pile of just the right words, a pancake in the likeness of the Virgin Mary, a drawing, a something. Something to make her still around after she goes away. But then Hulk&Baby remembered that they'll have a whole bunch of ways of being present for each other in their month apart; here's how they remember even through disappearance:

-Baby leaves a trail of hair bands everywhere from when she used to have a ponytail, and the ponytail used to go SPROING! Hulk will find these, and remember Baby tiptoeing around Albany.

-Hulk gave Baby a rocket that she's taken with her (along with some bits of clothing, an angel, and twine).

-Hulk will walk by places he's been with Baby and think ahhhhhh. Baby will walk by places she's never been and wish she was sharing them with Hulk. Ahhhhhh.

-Baby built a nest for Hulk out of cozy, soft bits of things, and seeds which will soon turn into flowers...or at least sprouts.

-Hulk gave Baby a sack of jellies, but knowing her she'll gobble them up before even getting off the bus!

-They will write letters to each other, and play tag through the post.

- What Hulk&Baby have amassed mountains of, though, and what they have with them as they sit here typing, and will carry on their respective journeys over the course of the next several weeks, is memories.

-Memories of a girl in the snow, coming late to visit a boy of uncertain moral fiber; tiptoeing in his hallway, trying to decide whether to find the right door or run away home. Boy, inside, worked all day, cooked all evening, hoping...not sure for what, mostly just to listen to her laugh and watch her runaway bangs tell secrets to her dimples.
-Memories of road trips and campus errands, good coffee and bad sleep, crrrfee shop dates and misty-evening walks. Chasing Piggie in the mud and pedaling bikes in the cold.

- Baby wonders if her geographic center--her binnacle of the dirt and soul--may have shifted. Hulk says maybe so, and that's a happy thing, but he had to make her put back a baseball she was trying to buy the other day and make her buy a hockey puck instead. It was only going to be used for a doorstop, anyway, but still: roots is roots.

That's the best thing about being accidentally, entirely in love: One doesn't ask any change of one's intended or attempt some misguided plan of partner-improvement. Arrival--being for each other--is enough, and all.

-n&c-

Investment

2007-04-24T12:44:00.000-05:00

Hulk&Baby are a bit tangled up in each other. That's what comes with being lanky folks. What they are learning to be, however, is woven rather than tangled. Weaving is deliberate and creative.

Today Hulk&Baby went to the bank, where some investments happen. Neither of them wore vests, but both had vested interests.

The banker was kind, and gave Hulk Mickey Mouse checks. No, really. He did.

Arabic:	إسْتِثْمار، تَوظيف مال


Czech:	investování
Danish:	investering
Dutch:	het investeren
Estonian:	investeerimine
Finnish:	sijoittaminen
French:	investissement, placement
German:	die Investierung
Greek:	επένδυση
Hungarian:	beruházás
Icelandic:	fjárfesting
Indonesian:	penanaman modal
Italian:	investimento

Japanese:	投資
Korean:	투자
Latvian:	investēšana, ieguldīšana
Lithuanian:	įdėjimas, investavimas
Norwegian:	investering, (penge)plassering
Polish:	inwestowanie
Portuguese (Brazil):	investimento
Portuguese (Portugal):	investimento
Romanian:	investiţie, plasament
Russian:	инвестирование
Slovak:	investovanie
Slovenian:	vlaganje, naložba
Spanish:	inversión
Swedish:	investering
Turkish:	yatırım yapma

-n&c-

Hrrrrrpy Day Weekend

2007-04-23T13:08:00.000-05:00

Baby started talking funny this weekend. Lots of vowels (Canadians have trouble with those, anyway) turned into R's. So we had a hrrpy weekend drinking lots of Crrrfee and eating entirely to many jrrrly beans. So many jrrrly beans.

She talked funny about how happy she is, too and Hulk talked back.

How to build a perfect weekend (We have very, very full days):

- Fight on Friday. Had to happen so we could properly appreciate Saturday when it came. Baby is going away, away, away soon so we were a bit fussy and sat in opposite caves being estranged for an hour until we got bored. Late night with ice cream after.

- Super Saturday: Slept late, had tea downstairs with Ms. Wendi, our very best neighbor friend, packed the wagon with many toys and bikes and books and music makers and headed east toward fun. Baby wore a little red travellin' dress. Hulk spent the day feeling like he had won the lottery.

Quality time at The Best Little Bike Shop In The East in Haydenville, MA where Baby was properly fitted to her unusually yellow bicycle. Then we headed up into the hills and enjoyed the perfect spring evening bike ride.

Dinner with Hulk's sister-n-law, Sissa, and her friend who likes to complain. After dinner the very best store ever was located and jrrrrrly beans were purchased and consumed. Along with a copy of Lou Reed's New York. To bed and cuddles, a quiet end to an idyllic day. The sort of day that made us feel privileged to have each other.

- Sunday was in the car. Except when Hulk played a gig at a folk festival for a bunch of happy dancers. Baby's knee hurt so no dancing for her. Lunch, car, car, car, car.... Car. Home. Work. Hulk went for a longish bicycle ride and Baby had dinner and candles on when he got home. Life is good, good, good.

And that's our weekend. Full days, happiness and harmlessly inadequate impulse control. Hope yours was beautiful, too.

-n&c-

Nothing but blue skies

2007-04-20T08:12:00.000-05:00

It's officially shirtsleeves weather, and Hulk&Baby have been enjoying the great outdoors, mostly from inside where they're working on various things: poetry and bike repair, reading and editing, and washing dishes and music-making.

This weekend, Baby will be curled up in a fort of books. Hulk will ride for many, many hours on his bike and play music.

In other words, it's the same sort of weekend they have (or plan to have) all of the time. Only this time, the backdrop is a sunny, warm sky, and bits of things (like grass and crocuses) finding the colors they forgot they had over the winter.

Baby finds herself to be rather orange and leafy today: a heliotrope, looking up at the sky rather than down at the book on her desk.

Hard to believe, but true

2007-04-17T20:58:00.000-05:00

Hulk&Baby are unusually skinny people.

Hard to believe because they eat SO MUCH ICE CREAM AND JELLYBEANS..... like a couple of six year olds at a birthday party that never ended. Poorly supervised adults with no bedtimes and access to credit cards and automobiles can be easily mistaken for wee folk. Faeries, too. Giggles, magical glint in the eye, that sort of thing.

It's a good thing Hulk&Baby are endurance athletes because otherwise they would be huge.

There are a few things about Hulk&Baby that are hard to believe, yet true all the same:
Hard to believe they were (are) :

- So easily entertained by each other. They chortle to the point of teary-eyed-ness an awful lot.
- Preoccupied with one another for some months across a spacial-temporal divide that never seemed to grow or shrink. Same thoughts, same hopes, same doubts, same wondering if it was crazy...Knowledge is different from fantasy. Fantasy worries and wonders but knowledge sleeps soundly until its moment arrives.
- Dressed like grown-ups for a whole weekend once for almost no reason.
- Able to get any work done at all during the past week between the perpetual alternate intensities of tweetle-beetle battling and appreciating the hell out of each other.
- Equally excited about Westerns and high art, Hip-Hop and Stan Rogers.
- Able to share clothes.
- Going to be apart for 6 whole weeks starting next Tuesday. Yes, it's true. Baby has to go to Poet Camp away across the great divide in the faraway land of rock and thin air to finish her Big Important Book (TM) (no pictures...Hulk protests and offers to color some...).

But that's another post.

And man, they eat a whole heap of Ice Cream and Jellybeans. That's the main thing.

-n&c-

Falling head-over-heels

2007-04-15T12:02:00.000-05:00

Yesterday, Hulk raced his bicycle. Papa and Baby clapped at the start, watching him speed away in a pack of spandexed, sunglassed men. (Actually, Baby only clapped in her mind. Her body's got no rhythm 'specially when there ain't no beat).

Once in a blue moon, Baby sees Hulk ride his bike quickly. Mostly, she's seen him ride alongside her: not quickly, but adoringly.

On Saturday, he was fast. And strong. She was proud.

But then something went horribly wrong. A banshee grabbed a hold of Hulk's wheel and started wailing. The sound she made: worse than fingernails on a chalkboard, worse than visceral responses to Steve Urkel's voice. Worse than the garbage truck rolling down the street on a morning you want to sleep in. An awful, awful sound.

Hulk stopped racing for a few minutes to investigate his wheel, but being who he is, he didn't quit. He got back in the race, only for something else to go wrong.

He got taken out by another rider, and F
...........................E

.......................................................L

...................................................................L

A sprawling mess. A broken bike. A smashed helmet. Rips and tears in skin and clothes.

Don't worry. All is well. Hulk is fine now. He'll be busy fixing up his bike for a couple of days, but other than that, he's in good spirits. It's good he has a few dedicated fans, like Baby and Papa and his brother.

The lessons (because sometimes these stories are didactic, and it's Sunday so Baby says I can put my preachin' voice on):

1. Don't pick up a comb off the street. It may belong to a banshee. And she may look for revenge when it's not convenient for you.
2. Don't give up part way through a race. Be like Hulk: a good sport. (Part of this means cheering on the people that do finish the race because they weren't hindered by banshees or Friday the 13th mojo).
3. Learn how to fall. In love. Headlong into things that matter to you. Falling is a cousin of Risk and Letting Loose, and sometimes is misread as failure. It's not.

-n&c-

Mortal Combat Love, Snowfall & Jellybeans

2007-04-15T12:01:00.000-05:00

Some day we might write a how-to manual on how to have a nice, slow, creeping, swallow-an-evening, mini relationship meltdown sort of a fight. Not a real furniture throwin', oath takin' barn-burner of a fight; those are dull and self explanatory. No, we profess the slow and non-specific variety where at the end we realize we just needed hugs and ice cream.

Speaking of ice cream, today, in the snow, Hulk&Baby encourage everyone to think of jellybeans as power food.

-n&c-

Mystery #492, Docket 16AL-V

2007-04-13T09:39:00.000-05:00

I'm confused, I admit it.

My cave is a little out of control. I love critters, love sharing, love easy-livin'...but this week I'm failing at reclaiming my space.

See, Hulk has roaches. [Hulk's building is old, scary and poorly tended by the Queen Mother of the Russian Mafia. - Ed.] They're curious, crunchy, and committed to sticking around.
I have ants. They've stopped spelling love letters, and have started bellowing war songs (their favourite is the tune from Peter Brook's "Lord of the Flies").

Hulk's mouse, Sledgehammer, hasn't dashed across my foot lately on his way to better things, like, say, the pantry.
My mouse, Harem, recently moved out of her hiding place under my sink.

Here's where the mystery begins: the ants were getting out of control to the point where my roommate set out some baits. 4 of them. Every day this week, another bait has 'gone missing'.

There are three possibilities:
1. Harem is taking the baits and putting them somewhere.
2. The dog is eating them. (Peanut butter is often used in ant baits).
3. The unusual suspects: spontaneous combustion, UFOs, and/or evolution in the form of growing limbs and walking away.

Piggie's Groovy Little Mind

2007-04-12T17:47:00.000-05:00

Hulk got rid of the television quite some time ago.

At first, Piggie was annoyed about this. One morning not too long ago, Hulk woke up and found that Piggie had been out in the world gathering bits of wood and bark and filth to play with. She had taken over the front part of the eastern cave and had made a little hieroglyph to share.

The folks in the picture are Piggie and Hulk, and Piggie says that the "H" on the flag is for Honesty but Hulk likes to think his little darling Piggie is flying his standard and that the H is for him, King Hulk.

Fatherhood involves no small amount of managing grandiosity. In both directions...

-n&c-

Hearts Of Clay

2007-04-12T17:32:00.000-05:00

From Us, to Us. Hulk paints swimming suns for Baby, Baby paints doodles for Hulk.

We love you, paint-your-own-pottery studio! And we love coffee. And tea. Mostly, we love breaks.

-n&c-

A Slushy Day In The Wagon

2007-04-12T17:26:00.000-05:00

Hulk, Baby & Piggie: Rolling the wagon along the river to Troy for furniture. Collecting furniture and then heading up to the Great Big Store Of Things To Build That Doesn't Smell Good for more house-fixin's.

Washing the furniture with stinkuh-stinkuh bleachy water. Oi....

Watching Piggie hunkered down at her new Kitchen Table/Fort/Command center, a-scribblin' on the cool washable white board = all worth it.

-n&c-

Why Hulk & Baby feel tired

2007-04-10T22:48:00.000-05:00

(& plays cat 'n' mouse with their hearts when they weren't looking.)

All better now. Phew!

Hulk Can't Draw So Well

2007-04-10T21:30:00.000-05:00

So, well, Hulk talks.

It's like his duct tape and bailing wire, his band-aids and crutches, his quill and ink, his fiddle and bow. Mostly that's good, certainly isn't bad.

But just now Hulk is awfully tired, see. The bike pedaling contest practice was good and Hulk even roared and gritted his teeth some and had a Machismo Moment (TM). This resulted in considerable shrinking of the number of bike pedalers pedaling their bikes in the front group of the bike pedaling contest practice. Hulk is sort of relieved because there is a big-n-scary fer serious bike pedaling contest on Saturday and sometimes that sort of thing is a little nervous making.

And Hulk has recently come to appreciate the value of fewer words, at times.

So tonight, Hulk wants to draw a picture. Baby suggested this but she isn't sharing crayons just now. Well to be fair, she isn't here just now either. If she was, Hulk would make her do it. He would also make her a sandwich. That's how we 11, see? No, tonight Baby is at the Southwest cave and Hulk and Piggie are downtown keeping the Eastern borders of our world secure.

Anyway (or anyways, as the kiddies like to say it) Baby says picture tonight and fewer words. So, here goes: (Invisible Harold And The Purple Crayon style)

Imagine a place you love and a person you would love to share it with. Now slap a sunset on that sucker, and make it still and quiet. Maybe a lake in a pine forest, maybe a special boulder on a remote beach somewhere. Got it? OK, now just dig it for a minute. Good.

Now look at your special person, poke them once softly on the nose, giggle, do it again.
Look at each other and say "1, 2, 3!! why?! why not?!" stand up, run around in a lollipop loop, sit down, hold hands and figure out what to have for supper.

It's just like that. That's what we do, all of us. When tensions run high and we forget to love like we ought to, then sometimes we find ourselves poking too hard, maybe poking in the eye if it gets real bad. Tonight we'll keep it right-sized and chuckle ourselves to sleep at the sort of silly animals we are. Silly and privileged to have joy in our lives and folks to share it with. Local and worldwide.

I draw this picture for y'all in purple crayon. Big ups to Harold.

Northeasters among you get out and appreciate your day tomorrow. Snow and slop is a-comin'. Baby&Hulk will be snuggled in front of the laptop watching a documentary, eating popcorn and greasing the bearings of the Li'l Red Wagon for errands on Thursday. Flower pots and a kitchen table are to arrive in the eastern cave this week. Surely there will be stories to tell.

Be the happy kid you wish to see in the world tonight.

-n&c-

Average Joes: Choose Our Woes

2007-04-10T13:23:00.000-05:00

Baby tells me she knows at least one Joe who isn't average.

And she often tries to convince Hulk that an average cup o' joe ain't so bad (especially if it's Tim Horton's, or, okay, Stewart's, or flavored somethingorother for that matter).

But today's entry is a bit of a tribute to average joes, since Hulk&Baby are average folks like me, and maybe like you, too.

Hulk&Baby struggle with deadlines, and lifelines, grocery store lines, phone lines, and when to toe the line or draw the line. On that last one, Hulk&Baby fight sometimes. In fact, they fought a couple of days ago...

I suspect they're not fighting about anything important, and it will all blow over soon. Good thing it's a windy day.

-n&c-

Boring Waiting & Barefoot Love

2007-04-07T10:02:00.000-05:00

Most of the time, waiting is boring.

Waiting to find out where this entry will take you is not boring. It is like a day and it's about a day. Come in and have a day that only takes a few minutes. By the end, you'll remember things you had forgotten about yourself and the people you love.

1. Waiting is anticipation

All week, I was looking forward to going into the BIG CITY with Hulk. "Looking forward to" can be a twitchy, restless sort of waiting we do that makes the present moment a little less interesting. This is not an endorsement, more of an admission. (Most of the time I'm pretty patient).

There are a lot of things worth waiting for. Some things we wait for happen, sometimes quickly, and then we figure out if that's what we wanted after all. Some other things we wait for never happen, and this, too, can be delightful or icky.

A lot of the time, it seems, people who are in Love, Love, Beautiful Love (TM), spend chunks of their time waiting for the other shoe to drop. Someone in the world is in charge of dropping shoes. This is not usually happy news; the news from these shoes, that are known as not whose. Hulk drops his telephone and often books; I have been known to drop dishes in the soapy, soapy sink (Hulk, too...) but neither of us has heard the other shoe dropping, and we are too Dreaminated and Angelsonged most of the time to listen for it.

2. Waiting is a family activity

Waiting for Hulk to clean himself up, and pack the wagon's sidecar on Friday is another sort of waiting. I twiddled and smiled and thought about mornings while Hulk ran around feeling like he had fallen behind (which is waiting in reverse). Hulk's Papa waited with me, which made it all the more pleasant.

3. Waiting is not our fault

Hulk was eventually ready, and we took turns pulling each other in the wagon up the highway until we found traffic, so were able to rest our arms. We waited it out by talking about ideas: what is friendship? what have you outgrown recently? why road rage? We mulled, chewing it all over.

One wrong-turn later, we both fell behind schedule. We had plans to meet Baby's friends, Mr. and Mrs. Pickles, but instead waited and waited and waited on steps of an church in the cold, BIG CITY. To pass the time and stay warm, we waltzed and spun around, raising the eyebrows of nuns and businessmen on their way home. We were late, so in fact the Pickles had left and we were waiting for nothing but the sense to move along.

4. The reunion is stalled, and so...

Hulk took me to a bad hotel, a coffee shop, a second hotel. We discovered that the Pickles had made reservations for dinner (so we wouldn't have to wait for a table) and we had two hours to kill (killing hours is a violent way of waiting for the next best thing).

To pass the time, Hulk and I went to a hair salon. Well, we went to three hair salons. The first one was too hot. The second one was too cold. The third one was just right, even though it was run by a pirate with spurs and a mustache.

We don't really like salons that much.

I waited for Hulk while he was tamed, and then we went off to meet the Pickles for the second time.

5. Waiting areas

At the restaurant, we asked to be seated (to be waited on because by now had quite rumbly stomachs), but were told to wait by the doors until our party arrived. Eventually, we were allowed to wait for the Pickles in the dining room.

They came. We ate. We walked around the park and the BIG CITY together, waiting for our dinners to digest so we could munch on sweet things.

Leaving the Pickles is hard, especially because I feel like I can't wait to see them again. But wait we will. Good thing it's so easy to pick up where we leave off.

6. Mr. Fish waits with baited breath

We had to start pulling the wagon north to visit Mr. Fish for the night. Of course lost, of course nearly out of gas...

Mr. Fish is patient, has a sense of humor, and is familiar with my tangled, messy (but well-meaning) plans. I was sorry to keep him waiting, but glad to catch up.

Once situated, clothes changed (Hulk&Baby wore church clothes ALL DAY) and settled, we realized we were all done waiting and that freed us up for the much better act of being.

Scooted back into the moment of now, it started to seem like there had been a lot of being all along: in the car, with Hulk's poor hair, with the Pickles, with each other in the cold.

This is the sort of love that is barefoot, where no shoe can drop because there are no shoes; no covering and no hiding. The now is fluid and slides from one moment to the next and we are awfully, awfully good at the now. We live and love in it, barefoot. Always.

We hope you can, too.

Peace and Happy Easter.

-n&c-

April Showers

2007-04-04T13:08:00.000-05:00

Oh dear...

Hulk & Baby slept till noon.

The world, she is rainy today.

The grand gift of bad weather is that it relieves us all of the burden of having to align our emotional state, and motivation with the outside world.

Today was for noon sleeping. Not a bad day for a spontaneous, imaginary vacation to neverland, or Iceland, or the Faulklands or...somewhere. Baby wants to hitchhike to somewhere across the ocean. Hulk is trying to figure out how.

In the meantime, both of them have to shuffle papers and make familiar with Good Grand Ideas (TM) for making educated the brains and making satisfied the professoriate.

Oh no..Baby just got stuck in her sweater and had a fight with it. Sweater is in time out now, thinking about what it did. Hulk makes lunch.

-n&c-

Hunting

2007-04-03T21:57:00.000-05:00

Hulk&Baby are looking forward to the holiday weekend.

Both have objections to the Easter Bunny, mostly because they don't agree on the important facts (where he lives, how to julienne a carrot, if he should wear his fur up or down), AND both claim to have insider's information.

I don't know who to believe.

What I do know is that Hulk takes great joy in finding things, like a plum parking space for the Love Rocket (TM), a forgotten-about old dollar bill in his pocket, and accouterments on trash night for the secret office he's building for Baby.

Baby, on the other hand, loves eggs. She likes them scrambled, she likes the shape, she likes the colors, she likes how they spin/crack/vandalize on Hallowe'en. She likes watching songbirds slyly clear their nests of bits of shell this time of year as their chicks hatch. She even likes things that look vaguely like eggs, like purple jellybeans. (I can't give too much away, though).

This year, Baby takes notes from Hulk. She is less interested in eggs, and more interested in Discovery. On that, Baby offers up an Easter challenge: this year, it's not about hiding things and finding things that usually aren't there. It's about finding things that are always present but tend not to be seen. Like Opportunity. Like Fresh Starts. Like someone who needs help. Like the stuff that's easy to overlook because it's just under your nose: the moustaches of our lives. (She made me type that).

Hulk, for his part, intends to find, among other things, the bow that Baby tied to her tail this morning. She has a tail, yes, it's true. It is only visible some of the time, usually when her upper lip purses in that Cheshire Cat sort of way. Both of these kids are rather critterish, you see. And Baby well, she has a tail.

This weekend, Hulk&Baby will scavenge, mooch, and glean. They'll find newold / oldnew things to appreciate, and hope that you do, too.

On a wing and a prayer

2007-04-03T18:57:00.000-05:00

One of the things Hulk&Baby had in common before they met is an interest in owls. Hulk's mother loved owls. Baby wears an angry owl tee (when she wishes she had talons of her own), or sometimes a blue&white one around her neck that belonged to her Grandmaman.

It's probably fair to say that Hulk's mother more than loved owls; she knew them. She was a knower, generally, and one of the things she knew was owls. Her sense of humor was sly, like the owl, and her sight was far reaching and broad. A lifetime of spiritual practice, talking to angels and seeing ghosts likely gave her respect and a feeling of kinship for these magical, winged beasts with 360 degree rotational sight. The implications of the limitless capacities of the eye (to say nothing of the capacities of the I) would surely have made Hulk's Momma smile. Why, exactly they became her guides, though, Hulk isn't sure. Cap'n probably knows...

Today's story is about what "Operation: Freedom" should look like in the papers, according to Hulk&Baby and their comrades on the city bus.

Today, Hulk&Baby freed an owl from a dusty, ol' bookstore. Then they took the owl to lunch in a vegetarian restaurant. Hulk wasn't sure, but he thought he saw the owl rolling its eyes, looking a bit peeved. Baby tried to feed the owl some seaweed salad but, no go. Hulk fed the owl a can of tuna when they all got home and that seemed to be an improvement. Hulk&Baby's kitchen mouse, Sledgehammer, ought to be worried right about now

This all began when Hulk&Baby accidentally-on-purpose visited the owl about a month ago, and the owl had something to say. It cooed--didn't hoot--it cooed "Take me with you."

The problem was the keeper of the store had designs of his own. He wasn't there at first visit but store-lady said it was not likely he would release Owl to others. Hulk mentioned all of this to Cap'n one time and Cap'n reminded him that Momma had known the book keeper folks and this fact might prove persuasive. It did.

Today, the owl was waiting, wearing its Sunday feathers, as though it knew today was The Day.
Owl had been perched in the bookstore since immigrating from Thailand, and the owner was almost as attached as Hulk&Baby. After big smiles and a Momma story that was genuinely disarming, Bookman had to let go. He teared up a bit, though, and Hulk&Baby promised to be good owl keepers and to send pictures and keep Owl in touch.

But what to do with an owl? After lunch, that is. Well, name it, of course. The owl cooed "Call me Happen." They will, knowing that when Happen becomes a teenager (which in owl years will come who-knows-when) , she may want to change her name. But for now, she's Happen.

Happen, because she does, see. And things do, generally, happen, when we all keep our eyes open to the miracles. Right now the miracles look like a might-as-well-be-full, yellow moon looming low over the skyline, speaking possibility, change and wonder to everyone paying attention.

Today was a good day, the only day, for a magic owl named Happen to wander into Hulk&Baby's life and remind them to keep one eye upturned toward heaven. Momma was always good for that reminder, she would be a happy lady tonight.

-n&c-

Passing notes

2007-04-03T09:17:00.000-05:00

Baby understands that to 11 Hulk, she must write pretty things about him. These things are written in sidewalk chalk, scratched into spring mud on the shore of some sort of marsh that's springing back to life, and spelled out in trains of picnic ants. (Baby now shares her home with ants that seem to be good sports, and even better spellers than bees).

She does this today, the drawing, the scratching, the anting. The ants added the word 'scruffy' to her description as a joke, and Baby laughed because it's kind of true. Just goes to show that even small things are sometimes observant.

The rest of it says: watchful, fervent, rare. Also true.

Today's secret: Baby has been eyeing the wagon, and is thinking of taking it for a joyride.

Instead, she works, turning pages. Hulk works, too. PlinktaptapPlink.

c&n

2 Month Anniversary Partay

2007-04-02T22:26:00.000-05:00

Important take-away: love doesn't lie. If you find it, keep it. That is, if you're the sort who is after it to begin with. If not, well...our blog will be confusing.

Old souls congregate around new beginnings; it's just where we can find each other. So new from used-to can be understood more deeply as permanent from ever-was, see?

We took turns pulling each other in our wagon today on our way to celebrate and we went to our favorite coffeeshop to get some groovy, warm, complicated drinks. Lucky for Hulk&Baby there were no trolls (AKA professoriate) in there today. There are pretty things and birds and books and smilers that dwell on university campuses. But the frowner trolls are saddening and for kids with squishy hearts it can just be too much sometimes. But not today. Today we had a wagon ride and shared chocolate and sometimes we were crazy and didn't know why.

Later Hulk's Pop, Cap'n, came over and everybody took Piggie out for a walk. Piggie rollerskates 'most everywhere. Good times. Then Baby played a game for awhile where she laughs and cries at the same time. Now she's gone and Hulk misses her. He is going to watch a cowboy movie and fall asleep, which is fine because it makes him happy to think that Baby is getting lots of writing done. Tomorrow, they'll go for a long wagon ride and rescue a MagicOwlGhost so there should be good reporting to come on that one.

The day is over so the explanation about the tractor beams in Baby's eyes will wait for another day. And Hulk's eyes just itch. This time of year he has to fill the wagon with berries and acorns and stuff and the dust and mold and soon-coming pollen get him all itchy. Sometimes when his eyes get puffy he bumps into stuff and falls down on the way home. Other times, he is surprisingly graceful...all depends on how low the clouds are flying and whether his head is stuck in them or not.

The thing to remember about magical people--people like us who talk to angels and hear them talking back--is that we're grow- ups, kids and ghosts of a sort, all at once.

Happy short anniversary, Baby. Tomorrow I am going to make you some jewelry out of rust and bones.

-n&c-

Sometimes Love...

2007-04-02T22:05:00.000-05:00

...is just getting a piece of chocolate or listening.

Sometimes it's gritty and animal and sweaty, sometimes it laughs, sometimes it rolls its eyes. It always shows up, that's the main thing.

Baby had a bit of a hard night last night. Hulk and Baby have two caves, see, but one gets shared with D-is-for Difficult and she's messy. Yup. So Baby has a lot of gear and a lot of bags and sometimes the cave where Hulk and Piggie are all the time is hard to work in so Baby, well....Baby has a hard time.

See, Baby has been trying to write a book. She does this. Writing two now, really, but one gets poked at by the trolls from the spooky tribe in the big paved circle we don't like. The other one is going to be grand and mostly born in big, snowy mountains. The trolls, though, they pick on Baby something awful sometimes so one family project right now is to make Baby an office. Hulk tried once but he was using old tires and rubber cement and he got a series of really bad headaches. Plus he ran out of tires and then he realized Baby didn't want a tire office anyway. Duh...So now Hulk has several old skateboards and some filing cabinets and he is thinking man, it sure would be good if Baby's office could be mobile. And it needs a freezer for Ice Cream.

-n&c-

Welcome To Our Funny Little World

2007-04-02T15:01:00.000-05:00

Well the first thing to say, right up front, is that Hulk (that's me) and Baby (that's her) don't really get in that much trouble. Nope, good kids.

Welcome To Our Blog

The thing is we're both a bit soft hearted and the world is hard. So, we might steal a flower from the coffeeshop table to bring to Hulk's daughter, Piggie, after school. But only because there is so much love all around us that we sniff and share and have. Just have to share. So the important take-away from the beginning of Hulk and Baby's delightful story of love and happiness and circumnavigating the world in our Love Rocket (TM)--yes we actually have a Love Rocket--is that we are super nice folks. A bit fragile, maybe, but full of love. We both possess a rather caustic wit as well as goofy senses of humor. That's just how we roll.

So where to start? Statistics I suppose.

Eleven Facts about Hulk & Baby:

1) Hulk & Baby are 29.
2) Baby is Canadian. This is important.
3) Hulk is American. This is not important.
4) Baby & Hulk have been acquainted since around June 26th, 2006.
5) Baby & Hulk have been ludicrously, enormously, sloppily, ecstatically, stars-in-our-eyes, flying our Love Rocket around the world in love with each other since February 2nd, 2007.
6) Our favorite number is eleven (11) because it reproduces itself and creates balance and symmetry everywhere it goes. Like when we fell in love on 2/2.
7) Hulk has a daughter. She is eight years old and joyful, she loves Baby. Her name is Piggie.
8) Hulk & Baby are of Literature. We study it. Baby is particularly adept in this capacity. She has written books. Hulk marvels...
9) Baby & Hulk are also of the bicycles and the bicycle racing. Hulk does not suck at this.
10) Hulk & Baby have an imaginary cat named & (Ampersand).
11) Baby & Hulk love, love, LOVE ice cream.

Ancillary facts that don't get numbered because numbering them would flub the 11ing.
- We make up our own verbs.
- Baby is an uncommonly good Poet. She also flutes.
- Hulk plays stringed instruments (Guitar and Mando) rather well. He plays well with words, too, but doesn't always behave himself.

Today Hulk & Baby made friends with a little bird on the hood of Hulk's crumbly van. Then the bird took off. It didn't really want to be pals, it seems, it just wanted a morsel tucked in down by the windshield wipers. The funny thing is that both Baby and Hulk each took this a bit personally though neither said anything.

Now we are at our favorite Coffeeshop up near our University. Baby is working while Hulk is blogging. Baby is wearing one of Hulk's baseball caps and to Hulk she looks like some dream creation combination of Lara Croft, Scout Finch, a Kitten, and a mysterious Parisian girl who might be found wandering alone down by the Seine looking for a magic word to make her fly or to create a potion out of.

It's time to pick up Piggie now so off we go.

Many more stories to come. Adventures, laughs, tears, bike races and Lenny Bruce cartoons.

So whatever you're up to today, be conscious of the love you bring into the world. This is what Hulk & Baby do.

-n&c-