Good-bye, little green.

It was going to be a hard morning, so I started it off with some extra awesome fuel.



So, little green, it has been great building you, knowing you, and working on your quirks together. Now it's time to make way for some more important things.



How about a little retrospective? Remember your crappy old motor and your transmission which blew up 3 weeks after I bought you? That was awesome.



Remember the wonderful sound of the straight cut gearbox DSG installed after that incident, and how you pulled me slowly around the track, and even more slowly up the hills?







Remember how I gave you a heart transplant and made you the bionic green car?







Good stuff. Your new heart beats strong, and we've had a lot of good times together.





Off to a better place! You will enjoy California, I know it.

So anyway, this morning a huge truck came to load little green up.



And up she went!



Here's video because I'm sappy.



An then the green monster was on a truck.



Fit right in amongst the cars.











And then, they drove away.





Good bye. I will miss you hugely.

Three cheers for the venerable car 47!





beep!

Cole loves swings. It's a fact.

We went to the park on Sunday because the weather was perfect for science experiments. We wanted to see wether or not Cole would enjoy swings. Like real swings, not those battery powered fisher price things (which are still awesome, but you know -- they're not SWINGS).

We did a couple tests and we can unequivocally state that Cole loves swings. We have a mathematical proof, but I think these photos will suffice, and be easier to understand.

It's a beautiful, rainy day.

This morning I swept the acorns off the driveway and patio. Ahh, the glamour of home-ownership.

On a less boring note, Stacy came and visited this past weekend! It was so great to see her. Remember Stacy? I am so glad that we're keeping in touch with our awesome NICU nurses -- they are such an important part of our extended family. Liz, you're next! Anyway, Cole remembered Stacy with a big smile:





Yay! It's still funny to me seeing Stacy, Grace, and Liz in "street clothes."

Cole is growing. Not just his big round belly, but he's getting longer too! Proof is that we've needed to pull out the box of "future" clothes, and put away some of his regular outfits cause he just doesn't fit into them anymore! It's nuts. It's sad to see some of our favorites get folded up and put into storage, but exciting to see some of the new threads he gets to strut around in. Check it out:









This is our new favorite family portrait:


How sassy is that kid? Wicked sassy.

You can't really see his classy collared shirt, but you can see that Kate's about to get drooled on, and that's funny.


Changing gears, my friend Andy came over and helped me start installing speaker cable into the walls of our house. This has been a lifelong dream for me, and I'm really excited to be doing it for real, in our very own house. I know it's a silly dream, but this home theater / stereo baloney is actually important to me. Here's one third of our progress so far.







We have done the front left, center and right speakers. Next we have to do the rear left and right speakers, and the main patch plate where they all route to. That'll be fun! I have to say; drilling through the basement floor into the wall between the hallway and living room was scary at first, and then incredibly satisfying. Fun!

Holy crap, it's September already?!

Nuts.
We've been paying attention to odds and ends around the house, and are continuing to explore the neighborhood with Cole. The other day we want on a walk with Grace ( remember Grace from the NICU? ) and her dog Rocky at this great little park nearby. The weather has been really nice lately, and we're trying to take advantage of it.

Here's Grace helping Cole navigate the treacherous terrain.


As you can see, Kate is wearing this totally awesome aluminum frame baby carrier thing. We got it from Kate's parents at a recent visit; a generational hand-me-down. Jane used to carry Kate around in it, and now it's Cole's turn to perch in its old-school pocket. The thing may look a little cumbersome, but let me tell you - it's from an age where products were designed to entice people into traveling in space. I don't know what that means, and I don't think it's true, but the point is - the aluminum tubing is light as hell, it's surprisingly comfortable to wear, and Cole sits comfortably up there with a good amount of freedom and security. It's awesome!









This is Grace's pup, Rocky. He's a sweetie and a sillyhead:


Overall, Cole really dug being out in the woods.


I just like these two pictures:




Sometimes Cole is very serious.

Anyway, another thing we've been playing with lately in Cole's playroom is some little plastic friends. Cole has been learning how to get along with others, and in these simulations, we think he is doing fantastically.









Cole isn't shy.

Doesn't this look fun?






On a less Cole-oriented note, we're making slow progress updating and improving the house. We've got fancy new door handles (all of the fixtures in the house are brass, and we're trying to eventually replace it all with brushed aluminum).



Those are sweet 'cause you don't have to remember your keys. And if the battery dies (they claim a 9V battery lasts 3 years) you can just use the key that you stash somewhere under a doormat or whatever. Seems groovy, and so far we're loving it. Also, you may notice we painted the front door black. I'm sure you didn't notice that, but it's a fact. It used to be an awful brown that didn't match anything. Black matches the "shutters."

We also put some much fancier numbers up out front.


And I pulled up those damn posts with their ridiculously heavy concrete anchors which used to hold the chainlink fence up.



The outside of the house is much cleaner now:


Except the "front yard" is now essentially a bunch of dirt. We'll figure something out.

That's it for now! Enjoy the end of summer!