John

My good friend lost her step father last Monday. It is such a painful loss because he wasn’t old enough to die, and his illness—cancer—seemed to play an unfairly significant part of the last years of his life.

My favorite memories of John were when his step-daughter and I were teenagers. She would throw very lovely dinner parties—a precocious diversion for a teen and one of the things I have always admired about her—and John and her mother would chat a bit with us early in the evening but then leave us to our thing. I remember talking with him about science and computers mostly. I also remember feeling very adult while conversing with him. In retrospect it might be because he was a professor and accustomed to young interlocutors, but also, he is such a warm, friendly guy.

Hearing about John’s death and some other really dreadful news about a friend’s health have really made this last week tough. Coming back to Austin has been quite wonderful for me in that I am back in touch with some very dear friends. It has also made me realize how much it hurts when your community hurts.

I knew John through his wife’s child. How many people will I know through Tillie?

John M. Slatin

[Image from: http://blog.fawny.org/2005/03/06/portraits/]

Twice the Cute

This post is long overdue—I’ve had a hell of a week. All the more reason to post this toute suite!

Cousin Writer came to town again. What’s cuter than a baby? A pile of babies! Okay, well two is not really a pile, but it is certainly a lot of cute.

Aunt Karen's pics:

Pay-per-View Baby Boxing?

Baby Gourmand

Baby foods Tillie has eaten: rice, apples, pears, bananas, sweet potatoes, carrots, and peaches.

Next week it will be: oats, peas, and prunes.

There are really only a limited number of items that come prepared as baby food. And, let me tell you, the strained, jarred stuff does not taste as good as the real thing. I kind of want to mush up some fresh stuff myself for her. What could I make? I think it would be pretty easy to whip some avocados (like naked guacamole). And, I bet I could make pureed raspberries. That seems like it would go well with oat cereal. As long as I have the food processor and strainer out, I might as well make her some asparagus mash, strained blueberries, and mashed potatoes.

Oh when oh when will she be old enough for some real Texas barbecue? She probably needs some teeth first. As soon as she gets that first little pearly white, I’ll take her to Ruby’s. Then she’ll really know how wonderful food is!

Pretty Eyes

Sham Shamrock

Tillie inspects greenness of felt Trifolium dubium specimen.

Clam It Chickie!

Everything must go in the mouf:

Squeaky Clean

Here's Tillie fresh out of the bath and into her froggy towel. I'm not sure what she is thinking. Perhaps it's "Hmmm, I think I could have been a little bit slipperier and more difficult to wash. Next time, more wiggles."

Stupor Tuesday

What an exciting race in Texas! The Texas Democratic Party has a crazy way of running their primaries. They mete out two thirds of their delegates through the results of the popular vote and one third of their delegates through the results of the caucuses. I went to the caucus in my precinct last night. It was a madhouse! At least 500 people were crammed into a tiny elementary school cafeteria with crowds oozing out into the hallways and lines of people outside for at least a block. It’s looking like possibly Clinton might win the vote while Obama might win the caucus, which is pretty exciting—so close!

I’m not really that into one over the other, so I have no complaints over the outcome. However, this process is highly UN-democratic. People with jobs, with kids, with disabilities, or with lacking transportation would have found it incredibly difficult to get their caucus vote counted. It took me an hour to do it, and I was one of the first people out of there. That complaint aside, the dream of my daughter growing up with a woman or person of color as president is closer to possible. The anticipation and fear of it not happening are almost physically painful!

Tillie is confused by the delegate/caucus process:

Oh yeah, and Tillie started eating solid foods this week!
Before:

During:

After:

And a bonus pic after a week of no posts:

Live action footage: