Sloppy Joe

Anders can now have short conversations with people. He mentions a word and then waits for your response, sort of like Larry King. So, he might say dark, hot, Down! and then add a "no" or "Doodee" (Trudy). He seems to understand most of what we say to him, which is scary. He winds Anna up by calling her "Anna" rather than Mama. He also calls me Jon, but I don't give the same satisfying reaction to Anders.

Anders follows his grandpa's lead and scolds Trudy, "No! No! No!" as he wags his finger at her. Anders will stop in the middle of anything he's doing even a letter puzzle, which he loves, if that gives him a chance to scold Trudy.

Anders also swears a lot, unwittingly. He can't quite pronounce frog or fork. He says "shit" for the reaction. I laugh and Anna tries to correct the behavior.

He has a big vocabulary that is growing as he adds words together as he did with "Sloppy Joe" last night.

We flew to Denver for the wedding of our friend Marie in Ft. Collins last weekend. It was a lovely wedding at a beautiful sight with the mountains in the background. We loved how it was totally flat on one side and then there were mountains on the other side of the car. We spent our first night in Estes Park where we saw snow and I drove above the tree line on the highest continuous road in the USA. The effects of altitude are no joke. I'm surprised the Colorado Buffaloes are not a better home basketball team.

One of the interesting things about Estes Park and Colorado generally is how the political extremes live side by side. It's been my experience that usually a place is one way or the other. Athens, for example, was full of clever lefty bumper stickers while Junction City, KS has bill boards touting Obama as a Kenyan Communist, but you expect those things in those places. Estes had novelty secular humanist and bikers for Christ t-shirts in the same store, repeatedly. I guess money, not ideology rules the day in Estes Park. That and refugees from Nebraska. Paris in the 1920s was to American writers as Estes Park in the 2010s is to Nebraskans. They have an entire store devoted to Big Red. I mean there is not a piece of CU or Colorado State or Broncos gear in the entire store. I guess until Nebraska grows mountains, Cornhuskers will continue to flee to the purple mountain majesty of the Front Range.

Nebraskans really know how to take over a place. When we lived in Minneapolis, some friends and I went a few times to Joe Sensor's sports bar to watch the Hawkeyes. Well, the Husker Club had a deal with Sensor's whereby the wait staff had to wear a white pin in the same of the state of Nebraska with a flashing red dot where NU is located in Lincoln. They also had a pep band that brought in instruments. The band played the Husker fight song when they scored. That's dedication.

Regardless, I'm happy we did not take Anders as we had a 4.5 weather related flight delay on Friday and the altitude might have messed with him too. It all worked out and was a great weekend.