footnote

what started at grandma and papaw's this weekend more or less continued once we got home.

after sort of wobbily shifting weight from one foot to the other between sofa and adjacent easy chair at kris' parents' place, the boy took his first steps once we got home today.

i got home from the kroger store with some provisions and saw him standing at the couch sort of fooling around with the mail or the cushions on the seat and he just looked balanced and ready.

i set down the groceries, got on one knee, stretched out my arms and said, "come to papa."

he turned toward me, took a step, then had his next one thwarted by the stupid shoes i'd left next to the couch.

i caught him and was pissed at myself for not putting those clodhoppers into the closet like i should have as soon as i took them off.

he probably could have taken one or two more steps if he hadn't have tripped on the shoes.

i tried setting him up again, but noticed his right foot wasn't planted, and, of course, he dropped to his knees and crawled over.

about ten minutes later, he was standing again at the couch, this time with a whole wheat wafer in hand. but his balance looked good.

i cleared his path, waited for him to down the wafer, assumed the position and said the magic words.

he turned and took two good steps before he fell into my arms.

kris, who had been watching both times, clapped her hands to her mouth and welled up with tears.

"looks like we've got a biped," i said as i hugged him.

"oh my God ... and he was just in my belly!" she nearly sobbed.

and we knew then that our doom was at hand.

fab four

during our two-night stay at "america's resort", i found i did four things with either great frequency or great abandon or both: eat, sleep, pray and shower. it was wonderful.

funny aside: kris slept two nights in a row for at least eight hours straight. we figured she hadn't slept that well since her second trimester.

leisure time

tea time
Originally uploaded by grumpnet

kris had two genius ideas that brought us to the fabled greenbrier resort this weekend.

the first was choosing to take advantage of its "tribute to the virginias" deal that gave us two nights to enjoy the state's signature resort for a very attractive rate.

the second was finally deciding to take advantage of grandma's multiple offers to watch our boy for the day and a half we'd be there.

all i can say about this place now that i'm going on our dime and not part of the rush-rush with my parents and sibs, is that this is probably one of the last vacation spots that still recognizes the meaning of leisure and vacation -- as in the act of vacating.

away from the labor of love that is our little boy, kris and i have had time for both rest and relaxation at a pace unhurried by the vicissitudes of an almost toddler's temperament.

oddly, what we both looked forward to was eating. we talked, ate, drank and eavesdropped all we wanted, with no hurry at all.

we overlooked the casino as we lunched on fried green tomato sandwich and reuben. we listened to mozart chamber pieces at the afternoon high tea. we even had time to nap.

and once freed from the fiscal pressure of dinner at the main dining room -- eventually eased by the libation of well-made vodka martinis -- we enjoyed supper of salmon, veal and lobster to a fine jazz quartet.

as ever, the service here made the visit worthwhile, like the sweet young lady at the candy counter who was kind enough to give us samples of the strawberry cremes.

or the server who enthusiastically recommended the strangely named yet richly delectable chicken liver parfait.

or the wine steward who talked me out of a pinot noir for a malbec by offering samples of both to sit up against my nontraditional surf and turf entree.

seriously -- this is hospitality.

i even got to swim laps in the indoor pool built back in 1912 (?) and filled with water from the mineral springs. (it's olympic-sized, so i got in a hard half-mile swim -- the longest i've done in probably six years.)

so, yeah, with this last big bash before the one-income austerity kicks in, i'll have to say the experiences were worth it.

still, while we're enjoying these hours to ourselves, we're already looking forward to making the swing back up to collect our boy and returning to life as we know it -- refreshed and re-focused.

final edition

final edition
Originally uploaded by grumpnet

today's paper was the last one kris and i would collaborate on for the foreseeable future.

the list atop the paper in the photo is a copy of the day's budget -- the stories under consideration for page 1.

kris uses the budget when she makes her pitches to our editors.

i sit in on meetings as either the 1a designer or graphics consultant for images that can run with stories.

we've done this for about two years now, but i've worked with kris in her capacity as reporter and city desk editor for about nine.

thursday marked the end of that run as she transitions to her new life as full-time mom.

(it just now dawns on me that our time as a couple at the paper was about three times longer than it was before i broke my rule about dating colleagues and the two friends became involved with each other.)

while i've had my back to her for most of our working life, her personality is such that i was aware of her presence wherever she was in the room.

i only got to enjoy this deskside view of her on a daily basis in the last year after she got her promotion, even though our schedule overlap limited my enjoyment to barely an hour.

and while i'll now be with her at least 16 hours a day, i'm still going to miss looking up to see her as my little respite from the daily grind of putting out a paper.