the unlikely orange

"final" mixed media collage on book board gregory a. milinovich (buy it here) beginning and end, you said. i am. first page, last day. commencement, final. finally, unadulterated love. uncomprimised beauty. abundant life. as in the beginning, as in the always right now, love is in the end. final.

jazz this morning with the family, served alongside cereal and oatmeal. a little count basie with the mills brothers: the board of directors. good stuff. hope you're enjoying your tuesday, and remembering to start each day off right.

perhaps you've seen it at the end of the news broadcast: "follow us on twitter." or maybe you've seen it right here on the margin in this blog, or on someone else's. chances are that you've at least heard of twitter, as it has seemingly invaded not just social networking, but pop culture in general, having grown 700% in the last year, ballooning to over 10 million users in just 3 years. it is certainly a phenomenon, even if you don't know what it is! what it is, actually, is a vehicle for what is called "social networking," which is a fancy way of saying making/keeping relationships without the traditional geographic borders. if you know what facebook is, then twitter can be easily described as a place dedicated solely to status updates, with the main restriction being that they must be 140 characters or less. a quick perusal of twitter and many peoples "tweets" (updates) shows a tendency towards the inane, superfluous, and even narciss...

here are some pictures from both of cade's birthday parties. shannon made a different elmo cake for each celebration. the first one involved the elmo coconut face cake, a couple of weeks ago. the second one involved this little elmo on top of the yellow lemon cake. we went with yellow since that is one of the few words that cade can say. actually, it sounds more like oouulll-oo. still, it's worth celebrating.

dear caedmon, today you turn two. you've had two whole years to crawl around this little corner of the world, touching and tasting everything to experience it. i hope you would say its been a good two years. it certainly has been a busy two years. you went from baby food to big boy food; from crawling to walking (to running - everywhere); from onesies to sweater vests (well, at least on easter). my point is that you've had a crazy two years, but at least in my opinion, they've been awesome. i am so glad we've spent these two years together. don't get me wrong, i could have done without some of the late night shananigans, the constant pooping, and the long string of ear infections. i would have enjoyed it more if you could have sat quietly and read a novel or something when the steelers were playing. but despite those minor issues, i have-as ridiculous as it sounds -fallen even more in love with you over these two years. you, with your impossible blue eye...

i have recently discovered that my two sons have alter egos. that's right, i am living with the toddler equivalents of bruce wayne and peter parker. i have secretely recorded this video to prove it. in all seriousness, you'll likely get a laugh out of this one. enjoy it. and have a great weekend, safe and secure in your comfy homes, knowing that crime doesn't stand a chance as long as these two are on the scene.

so good, baby. swingin' in germany in 1960. this album was inducted into the rock and roll hall of fame for basically being that awesome. instant oatmeal has never been so enjoyable!