We went out to Home Depot today and what do you know, they had the part I needed. On top of that the welder showed up with my header face plate that he drilled and tapped for a fitting and when I asked how much he waved me off. This little job was on the house. Nice. So hopefully tomorrow I’ll have the engine back together and the hot water hooked up. Oh how I hope it is that easy. Then we can get the fridge guy out to fix that up and we’ll be back in business.

At dinner last night Ali confidently answered the question of how long we’ve been married with, “Thirteen years in May.” It’s actually fifteen years, but I guess it’s better to have her say thirteen than to say thirty.

Lowe continues to melt hearts wherever we go. I’ve never seen a baby who is so easy to coax a smile out of. On the bus I can just sense the ladies behind us smiling at him and seconds later I hear, “Ooooooohhhh.” And after Home Depot today we went and had lunch at a local Torta place where the waitress had him in her arms before we’d even ordered food. Pretty soon she was prancing him around the restaurant for all the ladies to fawn over. And he has no problem with the attention whatsoever.

Funny thing, at the restaurant the waitress came back with a small bag of chocolate wafers and asked Ali if it was alright for him to have them. Ummm, that would be a no. Ali said, “Oh no, he’s only seven months old,” which didn’t seem like any sort of a reason not to feed him chocolate candy, but she acquiesced anyway.

Lowe is still a bit of a pain when it comes to sleeping and we haven’t really been able to get him on a helpful daytime nap schedule, which leaves Ouest and I on our own quite a bit these days. Today we spent the morning on the beach digging holes and burying her and Molly the doll. We then moved on to the pool where not a day goes by that some parent doesn’t ask how old she is and then turn to their four or five-year-old and say, “See Billy, this little girl is only two and she can swim.” Or “Come on Sally, look, this girl is only two and she doesn’t mind getting water in her eyes.” Then I strut around the pool with a self-satisfied smirk on my face.