"...because the world's a horrible place, because it didn't give us everything we cried for."*

He’s NOT hungry. He nursed for almost an hour, draining both boobs, just before we left.

He’s NOT poopy. In fact, that may be the problem as he’s having trouble pooping, and you know, pooping is sort of an important life skill to learn.

He’s NOT hot.

OR cold.

He HASN’T been in the car seat all that long.

I ALREADY cut the tags out of his clothes, and he isn’t wearing socks.

So, yes, to the grandmotherly woman behind me in the grocery store, and everyone else glaring at me because my baby is screaming at the top of his lungs – I ADMIT IT.

I PINCHED HIM.

Isn’t THAT what you wanted to hear?

Sheesh.

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*John Lennon

"He's calculating the right thing to say, believing that there is a right thing to say, not understanding that nothing he says will be right."*

Two weeks after Seg was born, H turned forty. I hosted a birthday party for 45 people, complete with food & cake and presents, in our teeny tiny house.

So a St. Pat’s party for 50ish (plus a couple dozen kids) in our monster house, with corned beef & cabbage & scads of Guinness & Jameson’s, a month & a half after Quarto’s birth, should be a relative piece of cake.

Shouldn’t it? I’ll let you know. Also, do you think chocolate cake & lemon cake are sufficiently Irish desserts?

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I am currently reading The Second Nine Months and Revolutionary Road; reviews to follow when finished. I also picked up, cheap, at the library book sale The Historian, Labyrinth, and A Lesson Before Dying. And a friend lent me A Thousand Splendid Suns. Plus library books: Devil in the White City and Lucinda Rosenfeld’s What She Saw. So I have plenty to read.

Whew.

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I recently reconnected with an old friend from college whose wife, it turns out, is publishing her first novel next spring. She has been writing all sorts of stuff and has developed an impressive career, including finalist for the Pushcart. I am enjoying reading through her stories on her website. Pretty exciting stuff, and you know how I am about knowing Real! Life! Authors! (Rebecca, you did know I worship you – in a non-stalkerish sort of way – didn’t you?)

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* Vicki Glembocki, The Second Nine Months: One Woman Tells the Truth about Becoming a Mom. Finally.

“Some of the worst mistakes of my life have been haircuts.”*

It’s a haircut night in Pittsburgh! Every couple months or so, we run an assembly-line haircut operation and buzz the boys. Yet another sign that it’s probably a good thing I did not give birth to a girl…

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Currently reading:

High Crimes: The Fate of Everest in an Age of Greed - Michael Kodas. A compelling read, if a tad scattered – although he may yet pull it all together – and hyperbolic (not that death on the world’s highest mountain isn’t deserving of drama, but his prose get a little purple sometimes...and sometimes I feel like the way people in the book remember events is a bit too…convenient...)

The Vanishing Act of Esme Lennox - Maggie O'Farrell. I believe there’s more to this slim little novel than meets the eye. I am halfway through, I’ll keep you posted.

Beware of God - Shalom Auslander. Ultimately disappointing (if you’ve read Foreskin’s Lament, you’ve read many of Auslander’s riffs before) but the hamster story is positively brilliant, should be required reading in any college religion course, and it alone is worth the price of the book.

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*Jim Morrison