Fireballs and Breadsticks

Yesterday was Brynn and my 3rd wedding anniversary.  We stayed at home with Hattie and ate some delicious Indian food that some friends had made for us and dropped off.  It's been a busy week and I haven't updated the Baby Hamkauf blog.

Last week started off with FIREBALLS!  We were sitting at home, packing boxes.  I think at the moment we were putting some drops in Hattie's eyes, actually, and there was a loud explosion and a fireball out the window, not so far away.  Then, a few minutes later, another one!  My first thought was of the movie "Red Dawn." Also of this car that had driven past earlier that night when I was walking Rumpus.  They'd driven TOO FAST down the street and yelled something.  "Teenage Troublemakers!" I thought at the time.  But after the fireballs, I thought maybe they were real enemies.

"Get Hattie and Rumpus downstairs!" I said.  Brynn was freaking out, too, although I don't think she was aware of the movie "Red Dawn" with Patrick Swayze.  (And perhaps a young C. Thomas Howell? [And yet, if he didn't really have any movies beyond his youth, need we specify a "young" C. Thomas Howell?])  I turned off the lights in the house so I could see OUT, but the bad guys couldn't see IN.  Then... Another FIREBALL!

Brynn called up from the basement: "Johnny, that one was right outside the window!  I don't feel safe down here!"  I escorted Brynn, barefoot, and holding Rumpus in one arm and Hattie in the other, out through the backyard and onto the neighbor's back porch, where they were also puzzling over the commotion.  Meanwhile, 2 firetrucks and 3 police cars were parked and spinning lights right in front of our house.

Neighbors and gawkers were walking about.  I learned that it was a powerline that got hit by a tree branch which triggered a transformer to blow, which daisy chained down the line.  No bad guys or C. Thomas Howells involved.

Over the next few days we had family in town helping us to pack up boxes and watch Hattie.  Rumpus went to doggie day care one morning and returned to find an empty house.  That must have been so unsettling for him!  On father's day, I got up early and drove a 22 foot Penske truck to Beloit, unpacked it (with some "local muscle") and drove home.  Meanwhile Brynn was cleaning and clearing the Iowa City house.  That night we slept at our neighbors house.

Hattie is doing fine.  She's swaddled next to me, the "sleep sheep" burbling in her ears, while Brynn gets her morning sleep.   Sometimes her poop is green, sometimes it's yellow.  But she only eats one thing.  And I'm pretty sure it's always milky-colored.  So go figure.  Her belly button nub is close to coming off.  The dr. said that it just "rots off."  Any body part that "rots off" is bound to be stinky, and her belly button nub is stinky.  I can't wait until it comes off!