Momma and her Boyees

A little before her Christmas galavant to St. George (minus dragons), Wendy was feeling enormous parental guilt at abandoning her spawn, and leaving her husband to work, babysit, feed, clothe, clean, and change the diapers (oh, wait: no diapers), and so she decided to treat them to a day at the zoo, followed by steamers at Starbucks, which has evolved into something of a personal coping strategy, and thus it is a great honour to share in the ritual.

Ahem. Back on track. Number 1 elected to stay home, being far too old for zoos, and far too cool for anything not deep-fried. He stayed in his room, silent (but deadly), mooning over some girl, no doubt, far away in Castelnuovo di Farfa, who was no doubt mooning over him, but probably in Italian.

I, on the other hand, was not mooning anybody, but was hard at work earning a living in my office, and maybe watching an episode of Prison Break online. Maybe.

Here's what Wenders got up to. I've posted this under her account so she can edit at will, with the proviso she not remove any mooning jokes or the stuff about steamers.

"Oh that ain't the half of it! Oh no, sistah! She was all like, 'oh no you ditint!' And I was like, "Oh yes I ditit!' And she was all like, "Get ouch mah face!" And I was like, "That's yo face? I thought it was yo momma's toupee!' Hee-hee! Girl, I was all up in her bizness, uh-huh!"

"Tyger, tyger, burning bright

"In the forests of the night,

"What immortal hand or eye 

"Could frame thy fearful symmetry?"

"Kgkgkgkgkgkgkguh-kuh-kuh-ngaw. Huh? Sorry. What? You say something? Geez, I musta dozed off for a minute there."

". . . and we have a message we'd like to share with you: 'Nanananabooboo! Plllssllsplspllst!'"

"Hey Doris!"

"Yeah, Merv?"

"You got any uh dat cream left ovah?"

"I dunno, why?"

"My keistah is faschliggudah! That's why!"

"Oh my goodness. Honey, I don't think the cream's gonna cut it this time. Maybe you should go and see my son, the doctah!"

More monkeys, fairly evolved. Makes one almost believe old Chucky D. Well, wholesale, that is.

Nice work on these next two. Look out, ec. Wendy's gonna be all up in yo bizness!

"Ziss precociouss 'jungstehr'--ha ha, zat'ss a liddle choke I made zere (oh, zat's anuzzehr vun: tee-hee, zese are my pesst chokess, all epic-glottiss, you cood ssay!)--vass performing vhut vee call in medicine ein 'autotracheotomy.' Ass you can ssee, he missus zuh sroat, und inssted punckchuhrs hiss left chick. Now all zat happens iss vhen he breazs, he vhistles like a liddle faun viss a pan floot!"

"And then the alien plant thingy says, 'Feed me, Seymour!'"

Today in Arabia (and in Roma in 12!)

Nice for the last few days--41/41 tops, and a little overcast (read: high altitude dust storm, though there were a few teasing clouds as well), so it actually feels quite pleasant. The direct sunlight is a substantial factor, obviously, except for mobile phones, as noted earlier.

In the news: here, complimenti al nostro grande amico e agente di viaggio volontiere (compliments of our good friend and volunteer travel agent) Emanuele Guidara, are some shots of where we'll be staying while in Italy:









Double-click to magnify. The "casale" is more or less central in every shot. Impressive views on all sides, as you can see. It will be lovely to be "in campagna" (een cahm-pah'-nyah) because of a reduced humidity and heat dispersion. In the city at night the stone and concrete release heat all night long, making sleeping in an a/c-averse culture nearly impossible.

It is apparently subdivided into a handful of apartments: ours is ground floor with private entrance. 2 bedrooms, kitchen, living room, and single bathroom, so that will be an adjustment after our palatial villa here in Al Ain. We'll be taking the Wii for moral support (and rainy days).

We will also be joined by our good friends from Raymond for a couple of weeks. Plan to head up to Pisa, Florence, and Venice with them. Also down to the hall of sunbaked horrors that is Pompeii. I wish I could remember which rooms had the dirty pictures in them so our kids can avoid them: nudity is one thing, porn quite another, frescoed or no.

And yes, we do expect the boys' heads to explode at some point during our trip. Should be interesting.

Interior shots next week. Our objective is to make you as jealous as possible!

Pace vade vocum,

Us.