We miss The M-O-M!

Lucy misses cuddling with her Dad! Moose and Raz also miss The M-O-M too: Raz wonders why no one is herding her around the yard and Moose doesn't really understand why Mama doesn't have the same routine as Dad. And NO ONE understands why Mama doesn't work from home so that she can take them out and about at any moment!

New to the Blogosphere

Jen has started a blog about her many critters. There are five in the photo above (2 dogs, 3 cats).

Memphis Love, Part 2: Old Friends

Okay. So Reese? She has parents, actually. We stayed with them-- Trey and Deborah. Trey and Eric went to "that college on the hill." We also got to visit with Wes and Mollie Parris (also Sewanee alums), Charles Mitchell (Eric's housemate when he lived in Memphis), Wanda, Dawn, Ann, Carole, and Suzanne (all from White Station High School where Eric taught). That quote about the college on the hill? That's from Carole, who went to Rhodes (Sewanee and Rhodes are big rivals...actually Rhodes gets referred to as Rho-Tech by Eric and Trey). Actually, Charles is a Rhodes alum. Daniela and Deborah share the distinction of being neither Sewanee nor Rhodes alums, thank you very much, but that's another story! We had a wonderful time catching up with all, eating barbeque, drinking beer, eating barbeque, drinking beer, eating barbeque....



It was St. Patrick's Day. Much Irish Stout was drunk. Trey and Eric feel the love.
Actually, Bosco's counts as an old friend too since this was the brewpub that Eric frequented, well, frequently. Read more about Bosco's at Eric's Beer Blog



Charles (looking suprisingly like a lawyer. Oh wait, he IS a lawyer) is blinded by the combination of the Memphis sunshine and Deborah's hair.


Eric, Wes, and Trey feeling rather on the full side after eating some excellent barbeque and ribs at the Rendezvous. Must have Rendezvous ribs... Eric has never eaten ribs other than at the Rendezvous, and frankly, there's no reason to do otherwise.



The friends on the dog side also rate mention here- after all this IS the Menagerie and we love our doggie friends too!


Daniela hangs with Allie, one of the Suddarth dogs. Eric met Allie when she was just a tiny little thing when she first came to live with Trey and Deborah. Not pictured is Buck (aka Nanny Buck because she loves to help take care of Reese) who is pretty shy, actually.



Eric and The Brown, aka Lily. She lives with Charles and formerly with Eric too. She loves her ball.

Memphis Love , Part 1: Reese

We went to Memphis this past weekend to visit one of our very favorite babies, Reese Suddarth. As we suspected she would, she stole our hearts with her red hair, pink cheeks, lovely blue eyes, incredibly happy disposition, cute two teeth, and sweet personality.



Eric and Reese share a smile.



Reese does her Dr. Evil impression.




OK, remember those teeth I mentioned? They are sharper than you would think. Here she decides my finger is good eatin'. ;)



Daniela and Reese play with one of her many nifty toys.



"Uncle E, can I take a nap?"


"OK, I'll settle for a bottle!"



But eventually sleep over-takes the Reese baby.

Daniela's Personality?

God knows I love on-line personality quizzes, from ones which figure out which Firefly character one is (I'm 80% Mal) to the one that created this nifty graphic



You can move the mouse over each color to see that I'm high feminity, very high empathy, etc. etc....

Signs of Spring

Despite the fact that it's currently fairly cold outside, there are plenty of signs that spring is not that far away. I snapped a few pictures in our front yard here on Circle Drive, though not all of them are well-centered (in bright sunshine, it's hard to see the viewfinder).

The daffodils have sprung up, and some of them look almost ready to bloom:


These little white flowers (can't remember the name... gee, if only there were any readers who know stuff about plants...) have been up and blooming for a while now.


And we've got several of these nice yellow crocuses (croci? crocus? croceroceroi?) which have opened up just in the past few days.

Peace in our time!

An historic breakthrough: Moose and Raz sharing the bed.

Daniela has been busy brokering peace talks between the Big White Dog and Queen Raz. She has tried repeatedly to convince them to share the bed, which is the favorite spot of both of them. Past attempts had met with rumbling growls from Moose and with snorts of disapproval from Raz. But last night, both sides gave a little ground, and the pact was sealed. Will there eventually be a Trilateral Agreement involving Moose, Raz, AND Lucy? Stay tuned...