Gotcha Day '08

Another year has passed.

And not soon enough.

Why would I say such a horrible thing? Am I unhappy with my life? Do I not like my kids or something? No, no. It's nothing like that.

It's the unaccountable Federal Agencies I'm not too fond of. We got a letter this week from a three-letter government agency that told us Harry has had his application for US citizenship DENIED. It seems that they recently decided, perhaps on a whim, that parents who have adopted children from abroad have to wait until said child has been in their custody for 2 years before they can legally become citizens. This rule is used for married couples to try to weed out those "green card weddings" that American dupes are so fond of.

I'm pretty sure Harry isn't putting us on.

Oh and that DENIED letter cost us $300. But I'm sure for some nominal fee (say, another $300), they'll look into it again.

Anyway, Gotcha Day #2 is just around the corner and we decided to celebrate today with a trip to Brookside Gardens. Harry enjoyed the place a lot more this year, mostly because he can now say "butterfly."



He spent a lot of time pointing and saying "Butterfly!" He spent a little time running when a particularly aggressive and vibrant swallowtail fluttered at him.

The rest of the pictures can be found at the link below.

gotcha day 08

Camping in Virginia

Not sure what happened to April. I guess we were busy.

I got to go camping with Jake the last weekend in April somewhere in the lawless border region between Virginia and West Virginia. This was real backpack and tent camping. The only running water was in the streams. It was going downhill.

In fact, running water represented our primary adversary during the outing. We parked the pick-up and immediately had to ford a swiftly moving stream. The water came to my waist. It was cold.



Fortunately the weather was mild so we didn't end up with hypothermia or anything. We hiked down some old logging road along a stream inappropriately named "Dry Run." It terminated in the little reservoir shown below.



That's my birthday gun, the Soviet M44 carbine in 7.62 x 54. This was my first time camping with firearms and I liked it. Especially after seeing all the bear crap littering the woods. Being heavily armed also gave me the confidence I needed to wear a hat that silly.

We camped in the hills in the background of the photo. My fire making skills had not diminished any since my scouting days and I even got the chance to get one going after a brief but soaking downpour.

We ate spam...

But not on the first day.

Needless to say I didn't catch any fish.