Red Light of Albuquerque

Anders, as you know, is really funny.

One of our intermittent struggles is to get him to eat regular amounts and proportions of food. Last week when Mom was here, we went to Miller's Chicken, which we now seem do to often since it's about a five minute walk down the hill. They have a lot of chicken paraphernalia on the walls, which interested Anders more than the chicken on his plate. Well, Anders knows many animal sounds, so Anna started doing the chicken sound, which for Anders is Anna saying "Bock!" nine times then "Chicken twice." This sequence led Anders to start eating his chicken, so I joined in. Anders would then mimic us under his breath by saying "bock, bock, bock..." Then a couple of days later we were at China Panda and Anders was unsure of his meal, which was chicken, so we started doing the chicken sound again. Once again, Anders started eating his chicken and said "bock, bock, bock" under his breath. It was magic. Then, a couple of days later Mom made a roast, which as you know is not chicken. Well, despite Mom's protests over the dietary incorrectness of it all, Anna and I started in on the "Chicken" sequence and wouldn't ya know, Anders ate his "chicken" (beef roast)! And bock, bock, bocked...

Anders also now randomly says people's names. He has said "Mamie" everyday since Mandy left. He says Roger's name, "JAW-juh" at random times and he is a twitter with excitement when we drop by to visit Paul. For Athens vets this will make sense, we turned off of Shannon St. onto Lincoln, which is a good four blocks from Paul's house near Bob Evan's and Anders started his joyful shouts of "Pau! Pau! Pau!" interspersed with growls to show he's still in charge of the situation.

Tonight we had our going away party. As our guest were leaving, Anders woke from a dead sleep, said "Bye, bye" and went back to sleep.

Anna decided that if Anders wrote a book it would be called "Red Light of Albuquerque" because he loves to say "red light" and "Querque." His memoir is already titled. He would have a lot to say if he could remember our time here in Athens...

Grandma's Visit

Mamie!

Aunt Mandy visited last weekend and Anders was very happy to see her. He called her "Mamie" since he couldn't say Mandy. And so Anna's love affair with the Eisenhowers continues... He went to Lui Lui for supper on Saturday night. Lui Lui is a Roger Pick where anything you want is on the menu. When our waitress came over, Anders introduced the table to her: "Mama...Mamie...Dada." We sat by a fish tank, which Anders loved. On Mother's Day, we went up to Columbus. Anders enjoyed the outdoor fountain at Easton, but he kept trying to jump in the fountain.

I am hoping that we have made it through the teeth of allergy season. Anders's late April cough is gone. I was laid low from Saturday through Tuesday of last week. Anna hasn't been hit yet and hopefully will not be. We only have 17 days left here. I booked a storage unit and a U-haul to take our stuff to the storage unit. That made our move feel more real. I know the "SOLD" sign in our yard should make it real, but it didn't feel real until I started making moving plans. We have lived in Athens so long that I can't picture not living here. Once I'm gone, I won't think about Athens much, but while I'm still here I can't imagine living elsewhere.

I still have a few Soviet history lectures to write, so I better start cracking.