We Are From France

One of the most interesting aspects about having chickens is learning about eggs. Yes, they're incredible. Yes, they're edible. But they're also very different from the perfectly symmetrical, blinding white eggs or the matte brown ones you find in your local  grocery store. They come in a variety of shapes, sizes and colors.

Our chickens are Americauna and Maran breeds. That means their eggs are bluish green and brownish read respectively.

And even within our girls there's a variety of colors and shapes on a daily basis. Look at the assortment we got this last Sunday:

Some dark, some light, some speckled, some plain. But all pretty similar. Unlike the egg we got a couple of weeks ago, leading us to ponder whether our chickens were really from Remulak. The egg was a conehead like Beldar, Prymaat, and their daughter Connie.

And yes, it is freakishly large:

Compare it to a "normal" sized egg:

I don't know what's going on out there, but come to think of it, Beldar and Prymaat did give out six packs and fried eggs on Halloween!

Who knows, maybe all that cluck cluck clucking in the backyard translates to four simple words:
WE ARE FROM FRANCE.

"French" chicken?

Niko, the New Man

A couple of weeks ago, I was minding my own business reading when Niko emerged from the bathroom where he had been getting ready for bed. There was  an air about him, a swagger - maybe even a strut in his walk.

Proudly he told me that while he was brushing his teeth, he felt a quick jab of pain, and voila! His first loose tooth came flying out! He'd been working that tooth for quite some time. Frankly, it was probably ready to drop a few days earlier, but he wanted nothing to do with the more traditional methods of extraction: strings, fingers, you get the picture.

The best part of losing his first tooth wasn't the $2 left by the Tooth Fairy (or even the additional buck that s/he left for him at Papou's), it's the fact the tooth right next to it is ready to drop any day now.

The Faces of the Story

Television reporters strive to put a face to their stories. A reporter can stand there and tell the viewers about a dog saving a little kid, and we'll get the gist of what happened. However, if that reporter interviews the kid and her parents, we are drawn in and are more engaged.

Many of the followers of Who's Your Daddy are already aware that Gus and I were recently interviewed by Carole Mikita of KSL - our local NBC affiliate - as the "faces" of her story regarding the Boy Scouts of America potentially removing the ban on gay scouts and leaders.

After the piece ran on the 5:00 o'clock news - it also aired at 6:00 and 10:00 - I read the online comments associated with the print story on KSL's website. Most of them were pretty vile and hate-filled. I think the comments support the statement I made during the interview that the existing policy is based on fear and ignorance. I hope they responders took the time to watch Carole's TV story. If they did, I hope they were able to put faces to it - faces not of a threat, but pretty much of a typical American family.

To see the story click here

Mr. Perfect

Gus has been experiencing a really successful academic year so far.  Everything seems to finally be clicking for him, and with that has come hard-earned achievement and even greater self confidence.

Thus far he's had back-to-back perfect-score book reports, he's aced every social studies quiz, and of 20 weekly spelling tests, he's had 100% on 19...missing one word a couple of weeks ago.

Now whereas we're very proud of him, and delighted with his progress, I'm becoming concerned that by achieving all this perfection he  is setting himself up for failure. He was incredibly disappointed when he missed that one spelling word. 

Parents spend so much time trying to teach our kids to do well, I think sometimes we don't teach them how to fail (not that getting 9 out of 10 right on a spelling test is failure.)

I suppose I should just be thankful that Gus takes my advice to "just do your best" seriously. And he knows what he's capable of achieving. But odds are that one day he's not going to do so well. I just need to ensure he knows we'll still be proud of him.