Sean loves his mama. Not much more to say than that. He loves to come up to her during the day just to grab a hug. After we have our evening run together (he holds my hand and we run down a big hill), Sean always abandons Daddy to sit with Mom in her lap. Sometimes she even gets a kiss...

Sean is so sprinkler crazy he even needed a sprinkler fix at Riverbanks Zoo. Some zoos have specially constructed misters that spritz water on guests in the summer. This is a straight up garden sprinkler that is supposed to be watering shrubbery. It was re-purposed for Sean's enjoyment and Mom even let him run around barefooted in the stagnant zoo puddles. Against my better judgment. He seems free of monkey pox, at least for the time being.

There was a time Sean would freak out about the tiniest speck of dirt on his hands. He hated getting dirty, to the point he developed the core strength to propel himself back to his feet if he fell WITHOUT HIS HANDS EVER TOUCHING THE GROUND!

Now look at him. Straight up wallowing in the mud. The sprinkler is where its at, but the aftermath is almost as much fun. When we visited Columbia, he didn't want to walk down the hill in the Kendall's backyard. He rolled down it. At the playground he wants to do the same, but every square inch of Southeast Alabama is covered in ants. So that is a no-no. Still, the change is remarkable. As the song says: What a difference a day (or 365) makes!

Chadwicks in Old Town Alexandria advertises the best burger in town. It's a good burger, and since Alexandria doesn't have a Five Guys, it might even be the best burger in Old Town. But Chadwicks has much more than burgers. Nothing beats a nice fruit tray, although like the tea drinking incident, ordering this has left me with a reputation around the office as a bit of an outsider. Apparently in Alabama, a fruit tray with a nice yogurt dip is a bit of a feminine dish. I assured everyone that these were the only fruits and/or vegetables I ate the entire trip. So hopefully I'm still skating by with a reputation as a man's man. Or at least, more realistically, as a high falutin' weirdo heterosexual Yankee from up north in South Carolina. Which is probably a fair assessment.

New Content on Crafty Lady

Kristina is now updating her scrapbook blog. Check it out here.

Roll Tide

Sure, the USS Alabama saw combat in World War II. Engaged in both the Atlantic and Pacific, it brought down 22 enemy airplanes and never lost a man to enemy action. It survived two typhoons that saw other ships lost forever. The sailors and marines of the USS Alabama were some of the first Americans onshore in Japan after the war was over.

It sounds exciting, but can anyone doubt the ship's best moments occurred when one Steven Seagal occupied her for the filming of his classic motion picture Under Siege? The ship itself is deadly, but I am firmly of the belief that the war could have been over much quicker if the Alabama had a man like Seagal on board during WWII. Could he have snuck into mainland Japan and aikidoed the Emperor into submission before the tragedies of Hiroshima and Nagasaki? Alas...

The USS Alabama has been put out to pasture in Mobile, Alabama. It's an interesting monument to a simpler time and a great opportunity to see how sailors lived at sea and just how big a 9X16 inch gun is (hint: big). There's so much to see on the Gulf Coast and if you have an hour to kill when you're passing through, there are worse ways to spend it than touring the Alabama.

So, apparently there is a television show where a bunch of dudes who look like they just left behind their Aryan buddies in prison make custom motorcycles. The Orange County Choppers (actually located in New York!) were commissioned to make a special motorcycle for the Army. And here it is. The Sergeant Major of the Army rode it at Rolling Thunder this year. I sat on it, and even though our friend Zandria Michaud insists that your testicles stop growing at 30, I think mine grew a little that day.

And yes, the bike is just as hideous as it looks from afar, custom-made with an M-16 and grenades and love.