Is he destined for Camp Lejeune, Sing Sing, or McClean?

Yeah, I look like a goober. I know .

I’m a bit of a neat-freak, as my friends and family will attest. My desks at home and work are usually quite organized and laid out with their requisite ‘stuff’ in its requisite places. When we moved into our home in mid-2000, before the kids were born, I had the house quite well organized, with everything stored in its requisite, rational places. I knew kids were going to be an amusing assault on my organizational skills and borderline-neatness-OCD .

I do get occasionally annoyed with extensive messes when it literally looks like bombs went off and you can’t even walk from point A to point B in the house. But luckily, that’s not that common.

The everyday splatter of toys, books, clothing, blankets, computers, iPods, footwear, schoolwork, food – and who the hell knows what else – is comforting to me. It’s kids being kids. It tells me they’re having fun, they’re almost always learning something in their play (legos, books, math and writing workbooks, creative endeavors, etc.), and even if it’s annoying that the living room floor is 30% covered in lego constructs of various flavors, I’m proud of their ability to build cool stuff and enjoy the heck out of that exercise. Each little mess reminds me that they’re kids; that kids play; and that play is good.

This morning I was sitting in the living room, working on my laptop, surveying a crudload of legos, a pile of books, a mess of piano sheet music, and two laptops on one of the couches and on the ottoman. Nothing had been put away. I smiled though – instead of cursing. I love their messes! They signal what they’re up to, what they’re learning, and what’s making them happy. And all that makes me happy!

Besides, how can you get angry at a little monkey this damn cute – even if she is making a mess?!?!

We lost one of our cats yesterday

Leroy – the old lug, big galoot, golden kitty – called it a day. He had developed a very unpleasant tumor in his throat.

He was a great kitty. We referred to him as the “insta-purr” cat since the second you started showing him any sort of affection, he revved up the purr engine. Although he wasn’t with us long enough, we’re happy we had him in our home for the time we did, and we’re happy we were able to rescue him from the shelter. The kids spent last night and a chunk of this morning making “I miss Leroy” pictures of him.

He will certainly be missed.

… but it’s just a matter of time.

Stephen was wildly ecstatic to have passed his test this evening to graduate to his Yellow belt. Daddy was double-extra proud of him!

As threatened, here are some oh-so-cute snaps of the 10 week old kittens!

Yesterday we had a lot to be thankful for at chez Broderick-Ruggieri.

Our home was blessed with a 23 lb turkey, two fantastic stuffings, my best cranberry sauce yet, and more deserts than you could shake a stick at.

More importantly, the house was blessed with 16 adults (term used loosely) and 9 crazy-giddy kids!

As tired as I am this morning, I can’t imagine being more thankful. Hope you and yours had a stupendously happy Thanksgiving.

Against her better judgement, the boss caved today and let us adopt two more cats, bringing the total to four.

A little over a year ago, we adopted two cats from the local shelter. Sadly, Kitty/Magenta didn’t make it – she passed away a couple weeks later due to fatty liver disease – not uncommon among stressed-out cats. Scarlet got through her first two years of life with other cats around, so we didn’t think it was optimal to have her be an only cat.

We kept monitoring the shelter and soon adopted Leroy, a 6-8 year old, big-lug, lovey-dovey, insta-purr gentleman cat to keep Scarlet (and us!) company. Somehow he managed to not get blogged about – shame on daddy! Here are some phone pics from a drive back from the kitty doc this summer. He really doesn’t like his carrier – it’s easier to just let him sit on your lap.

I’ve been bothering the boss for nigh a year now about getting two more cats (we had four cats for a long time until a few years ago). I was pushing to adopt two more older cats (sorry Siam and Molly!), but since Scarlet is an uber-alpha and since Leroy has some issues with his territory, the consensus was that female kittens were probably a much better idea.

This afternoon we brought home two 9-10 week old sisters who we’ve named Scooter and Emma. They’re still in the early stages of acclimating, so no super-cute pics of them yet – just a couple I took last week when they were still in the shelter. More snaps soon!

Emma

Scooter

While daddy was diligently working in his office this morning, the monsters decided they’d paint their nails. Highly amusing but for the nail polish all over the table . School starts Tuesday. I think I can make it ’til then…

Three years ago, our family suffered tragedy when a drunk driver crossed a highway median and ran head-on into my cousin Brian and his wife Heidi’s car. In Brian’s words:

The reality is that the accident is just the beginning of the story. The drunk driver who hit us not only killed our daughter, Holly, but he changed my wife and I as people forever.

Brian and Heidi have been working tirelessly to keep drunk drivers from causing others such horrible pain and loss. Today they participated in a press conference of law enforcement officials urging people to be careful and thoughtful about driving this Labor Day weekend.

WCVB ran this piece on the 5:30 news tonight, and the Boston Globe posted this article and video online today. NECN and The Boston Herald also have news items up about the event.

Kudos to Brian and Heidi for bravely speaking out. I’m certain I can’t imagine how painful it is to revisit it all again. Hopefully their experience can save others from intoxicated drivers.

Please folks, don’t drink and drive. Not this weekend or any other. Please, just don’t do it.

Vacation is wrapping up.

We packed up the Über-Slëd on Thursday night the 17th and motored off on Friday morning to the great state of Maine.

We spent Friday, Saturday, and Sunday engaged in much reverie celebrating a dear friend’s wedding in Portland, South Portland, Scarborough, Cape Elizabeth, and beyond. The kids had a blast. We had a blast. The bride and groom had a blast. Although the weather wasn’t always cooperative, the crew barely noticed.

We ran around Mid-Coast Maine for four days, entertaining the monsters and ourselves. A few stops of interest included:

• A few years ago, our friend Lisa visited Boston from San Diego and in a single visit to the MFA with the kids, instilled in them a wonderful curiosity of art. We decided to try to extend that interest by hitting the Bowdoin Art Museum. The Renaissance exhibit was fascinating for all, and I was particularly impressed with Michael Mazur‘s huge triptych; though I did not grok Lewis deSoto‘s installation (methinks it might be soup).
• We all dug the Maine Maritime Museum. I was concerned the kids might be bored with it, but my fears were unfounded, as the place is huge (many acres) and has lots of cool stuff to see and touch and play with. There are a zillion different exhibits, so even the most attention-impaired child always has something new to explore.
• Our friend Nord was kind enough to have us by for dinner in Freeport and whipped up a wildly tasty Zucchini and Blueberry Crisp for dessert – way to go, dude!
• Of course, no visit to Maine would be complete without some time at the beach! We highly recommend Popham Beach State Park. Center beach has some really fun surf when the tide is coming in, and West beach has some stupendous tidal pools, sand bars, coves, and more when the tide is low. We’ll definitely get back there someday!

We got home Wednesday, and on Thursday we took the T to visit the Museum of Science. While the kids have been on the train (commuter rail) before, they wanted to experience the subway underground. At the MoS, I was completely blown away by the butterfly exhibit and can’t recommend it highly enough. I could have spent hours and hours sitting in there enjoying the little beasties. Unfortunately, the boss dragged me away after about 45 minutes. I’m thinking of going back before it closes.

So this beautiful, sunny, lovely Saturday morning I got to the Charles River Coffee House early to spend a few quiet hours caffeinating while getting my emails, twitters, to-dos, and whatnot sorted out.

It’s fun to go away, but it’s always nice to get back home.