News in brief

1. The biggest news of the week: Baby Boone rolled over! The milestone way, from back to stomach. He did this about a month and a half earlier than expected. I put him in his crib, and he rolled onto his side and began wriggling around, frantically trying for some reason to eat the crib sheet. I walked into the other room, and said to Dragon, "Poor kid, it looks like he's trying to roll over! It will probably be a while, though." Then I walked back into the boys' room to check on him, and said, "Or, not. Hey, he rolled over! Come and see!" We praised him for being clever, and I rescued him from the crib, whereupon he frantically began trying to eat my shirt.

2. We went to visit Nanny and the raspberry bushes again, and Baby Boone was awake this time, so Nanny held him while Boy Wonder and I headed out with our little plastic containers. We filled them with raspberries and headed back indoors, and Boy Wonder once again scarfed down a bunch of raspberries. Later, on the way home, he fell asleep, and I deposited him in the living room recliner for his nap. He kept turning over, and after a while I noticed his hands moving: one of them was moving across the chair, grabbing at something, and the other was reaching for something in the air. I think he was still picking raspberries.

3. The Wild Hunt is on: Dragon and I have begun house-hunting in earnest. We went to several open houses on Sunday. That was fun.

House #1 lacked a basement, which meant that the laundry facilities and water heater were behind a curtain in the kitchen. (Gong noise.) This is how our current place is laid out, so we're sort of trying to ditch that. Also, the listing mentioned "beautiful murals," one of which was of a unicorn flying over a rainbow. Er, no. (Whack that gong.)

House #2 had a fabulous basement, but was rather cramped otherwise, with two tiny bedrooms. (Gong noise.) However, if there had been THREE tiny bedrooms, we might have considered it. Also, the realtor was fairly pleasant.

House #3 was quite attractive, with a stained-glass window and a built-in china cabinet, but had about three feet of counter space in the entire kitchen. (Gong noise.) And, we think the homeowners were watching us on a webcam somewhere; there were tiny cameras stationed all over the house, and a large server in the basement. The realtor claimed to have no knowledge of such a thing. We did not believe him.

House #4 was an impromptu stop; we saw an open-house sign, decided to go check it out, and were rewarded by being shown a very attractive home. Another fabulous basement, along with four reasonably sized bedrooms, a kitchen with more than two feet of counter space, and enough storage for all of the table linens my mother keeps passing along to us. Sadly, this was all accompanied by a high property tax and an even higher price. (Bang the gong slowly.)

4. Baby Boone has amazingly long eyelashes. They brush the tops of his cheeks.

5. Boy Wonder has amazingly loud tantrums, although it didn't stop him from falling asleep in the middle of one tonight. I suspect he did not take a nap today.

6. Quoth the spam filter:

Hi, opera cloak!
Your health, melba grass
Order status, peacock ore
Order status, flower blaster
Your cash, nerve-trying

I have to argue with that last one, there; in fact, my LACK of cash is what's nerve-trying!