Bring it on, mailman, bring it on.

Here we are, barely a week after Labor Day, and we are already crushed under the weight of Christmas catalogs. Although even I have to admit that the cool weather that we had today go me thinking about pumpkins, Halloween and if Trader Joe's would sell turkeys for Thanksgiving.

But a of course, it wasn't so cold today that we couldn't play outside. While I was pushing Lauren on the swing, I was running through all her favorite things: elephants, the color green, dinosaurs. I asked her what else she liked. She replied:

"I like trees."
"I like flowers."
"I like swinging."
"I like climbing the ladder."

I then asked her what her favorite food is. She then said, simply,

"Meatloaf."



Does it get any hotter than two chicks with balloon animals? Here's Mel C and me at the office picnic which was held in the parking lot of our building last month. This year we had a carnival theme, and if you look real closely in the top right corner of this photo, you can see the pink hair of the entertainment, Winkers the Clown. Just to be sure there are no misunderstandings, Mel C is holding a dinosaur while I am holding an elephant.

In addition to fraternizing with balloon making clowns, Mel C and I have been very busy. Last Thursday, we watched Purple Rain with Lauren. There are a lot of lessons to be learned from that movie, most importantly, if a boy asks you if you would be willing to "purify yourself in the waters of Lake Minnetonka," you do not strip down and jump in the water, but rather, you run away. Teach your children well, people.

Then on Friday night, we went out for drinks after work because one of my staff got a new job (Drinking helps numb the pain of filling his position). There were no A list celebrity sightings, but we did hang out with Malibu Ken and several former Kaufmann's department store models.

To Mel C. - See how my eye on the left is squintier than the other one? That's my wonky eye. However, where in this photo my eye is only slightly wonky, trust me, it is capable of much more extreme wonkiness.