BACK IN AUSTIN

And since we've made it back to the capital, we have:






-learned how to climb up on the crib, inaugurating a fantastic new era of trying to wrangle the additional dimension of vertical safety, as if we had length and width just totally under control.















-eaten at Juan in a Million, home of the famous Don Juan, with a few new friends in town for the Republic of Texas Rally.

















-gone swinging and just loved it to pieces, a nice bit of continuity, as fast as everything seems to be moving and changing, though I guess she's got to grow out of that swing eventually. I can wait.

SALLY

All right, the previous post started life as SALSA & SALLY, but I just couldn't do that to poor ol Sally after the way the first half ended up. At any rate, back when Truman was fending off communists and godless McCarthy spies, Mom had this rubber doll she named Sally. She held onto her and I took a shine to her when I was a little guy, even pulled some (all?) of her teeth, though I don't think we ever managed to convert those into currency. Well, Her Majesty is crazy for Sally (pronounced "YaYa"), dragged her around most places and pushed her in the stroller everywhere else. Before NapTime on Tuesday, she was going pretty crazy, so I tried to ease her into it by having us tuck in Sally on the living couch. Of course, she had to jump right in and snuggle up.

And, by way of comparison, here's an old shot of me holding onto Brett & Sally just right before Jimmy turned it over to Reagan to get rid of those Reds, once and for all.

SALSA

We have lately developed the taste for chips and salsa, and this kid does not care how hot it is. This is at Durango's, one of the best Mexican food places in Lubbock, where the waitress was quite freaked out to see this kid just taking it down, maybe fifteen chips worth before I finally made her drink some water. Then, right back to it. This meal, combined with the five prunes I'd given her that morning after she'd about crapped a rock (it's the flying that does it) were directly responsible for probably the most disgusting thing I've ever been lucky enough to witness, not pictured (but that little pink outfit she was walking around the park in a few entries down spent Monday night in the toilet, if you want a hint).

PUTTING GREEN

Of course we weren't going to get away from the Club without her Pa (sometimes two Pa's, but the O has officially been dropped by Her Majesty, whose every syllable or lack thereof is of course Law) getting to show his granddaughter an actual functioning putting green. And she was primed for it, as soon as we drove up into the parking lot, she tried to rip herself out of her car-seat, pointing at the driving range and 18th hole, screaming, "Gah! Gah!" We had finally arrived at Golf, as seen on TV.We hit the putting green, and in just a very few minutes, she was setting the club head behind the ball and then hitting it down toward the hole.Of course, like frisbee-golf, the way she always wanted to end it was to pick the last shot up and then put it in the hole.

Followed by doing her best to cram Dad's really nice driver down into the hole after the ball, which of course he thought was wonderful.

LUBBOCK COUNTRY CLUB

We were back in the Hub City the first part of this last week and couldn't resist taking her out to the swimming pool where her uncle and I killed many a summer afternoon. I've certainly never had so much fun in the baby pool until now.
Sneaking up on some kid's unsuspecting floatation device.
And here she is drying off and sampling the quality french fries that have long been a staple.

WATER PARK

We took her out to this little section of the Domain where they've got blasts of water squirting out of these circles in timed bursts, and it is a fine way to beat the summer heat. The first time we went, she just wanted to watch, get the lay of the land, but this second time, she went for it.

THE PORTRAIT

Taken and named by Byrnie Bass, AKA Opapa.