Mondays Missives

• While letting the baby play outside one day I leaned up against the wall of the porch to watch. He noticed how I was standing, smiled and ran over and began imitating my pose and didn't stop until he had it just right and then just beamed the most satisfied smile.



• That at once made me happy and terrified me.



• Everyone I've spoken to that knows a little history has liked Tom Cruises movie Valkrie though strangely, it was getting terrible reviews early on by people who could not have seen it. The same thing happened to Oliver Stones Alexander with Internet speculation on it's homoeroticism and historicity being blamed for it losing money in the US.



• On my desk I have a mummified toad and orange.



• A buzzard swooped just a few feet over my two year old sons head the other day on its way to dine on some unfortunate animal in the pasture. He watched it fly over and said,"Wow!"



• I entered a contest the other day that the grand prize was 15 guns of different types. I text a friend and said, Imagine the standoff I could have with that arsenal!



• His response? You worry me sometimes.
• Should that have been text, texted or something else?


• The building pictured above was Uday Husseins lake house on Lake Habbaniyah. Very pleasing, interesting, simple architecture I always thought. I'm unsure if it was designed by the British firms that worked for the Iraqi government or an architect in an Iraqi ministry.