My whereabouts

I haven't been writing. I have no excuse, I just haven't been putting my ass in the seat and typing about my mundane life. Here is a brief rundown on what I've been doing since we got back from Vermont:
My father arrived from France a few days after we returned from VT. He went straight to work building a new porch for us and fixing our basement to eliminate moisture and insulate it from the outdoor temperature.

When we pulled into our driveway our house was a different color than when we left. It was blue, now it's beige. The painters we hired had been working the whole week we were gone. They worked another 2.5 days to finish the job. We're very happy with outcome. I'll post before and after pictures when the porch is completely finished.

I have been spending baby Doodle's nap times sanding and painting the railings and spindles of the new porch -- I'm still not finished.

We switched from disposable diapers to cloth, and so far are very happy with the change.

We watched a lot of Olympics, including our good friend's sister, Sue Bird, win her second gold medal on the women's basketball team. What I've concluded from the games: the Chinese are exceptional at diving and playing ping pong, the Jamaicans are exceptional at running, the Americans are good at swimming, gymnastics, volleyball and basketball, and the Chinese have some obviously underage gymnasts on their team.

I took baby Doodle on the train to Long Island to visit my family and attend a bar-b-q my cousin was throwing. BD loved the trains (Amtrak and LIRR) and got to meet the engineer on the Amtrak train on the way to NY. He pointed out every time the conductor would walk past us, and loved handing over our tickets to have them hole punched and torn. He had a blast playing and dancing with our relatives none of whom he had seen in a while, except for my mother.

Mr. Doodlebug was attending his Goddaughter's birthday party in Maryland and picked us up at the train station on Sunday night. Baby Doodle was thrilled to see him.

My father will be staying with us for another week, but we're off to my in-laws' house on Friday so he'll have our house to himself. I'm looking forward to the weekend with three extra hands to help with BD (including Mr. D's).

I hope to write more frequently than I have been. . .