The Adseros

There's a covered balcony area on the 18th floor of our highrise. It's quite big... takes up about half of the buidling footprint. I like to take Lucy and Lincoln up there to run around and play. Lucy never gets let off her leash here cause there are no fenced-in fields, so that's really the only place I can let her go wild. Last week, I took them up there and discovered that the door was locked. I was kinda bummed. Just as I was going to get in the elevator to go back downstairs, a security gaurd came out of the elevator. We played charades and I asked him why the door was locked. He charaded back to me that some kid had thrown something off the balcony. I thought that that was ridiculous cause there are planters all the way around the area so you'd have to climb up in the planters (which are quite high) to throw anything off. I was annoyed that we couldn't go out there anymore. Anyway, I mentioned this to a friend, and she informed me that you can go through the gym that is also on the 18th floor to get out there, and the door in the gym is never locked.

So, a couple of days ago, I did just that, went through the gym and out to the balcony area . I noticed that there were actually a couple of places  that don't have planters where something could easily be dropped off the balcony. I brought a tennis ball for Lincoln and Lucy to play with and just thought I'd keep a close watch and make sure Lincoln didn't throw it overboard.

As you might have guessed, there was a moment where I was kind of staring off, admiring the view. I saw in my peripheral vision that Lincoln was walking up in front me toward the edge of the balcony. I didn't worry cause I knew that the tennis ball was on the little astroturf putting green that's on the balcony and thought that Lincoln wouldn't have had enough time to get from where he was just a moment earlier, to the putting green and then over to where I was near the edge of the balcony. Lincoln was kind of looking out at the view as well, and then he turned and looked up and me, and sweetly said, "Uh-oh". Sometimes he says 'uh-oh' for no reason at all, but this time, I think it was a BIG 'uh-oh' because I turned around to verify that the tennis ball was still in its place on the putting green, and to my horror, it was no where to be found. I raced around searching frantically for the ball. No where! There was nothing else to do but to quickly flee the scene of the crime.

I went back to our place, got the double stroller and then we headed out in search for the ball. The parking attendant was near where the ball would have fallen, so I tried to look for it without being too obvious or guilty looking. I couldn't find it anywhere. Luckily, there wasn't anyone laying dead on the road from being struck by a tennis ball dropped from 18 stories up. Oh man. I felt like such an idiot. I did some quick calcs and discoverd that if each floor is about 13 feet tall, then the ball would have been travelling around 83 mph by the time it hit the ground. The average Major League Baseball pitcher throws a fastball between 88 and 97 mph. It wasn't quite in the fastball range, but made it in the curveball range of 74-88 mph. Curveball to the head... no thank you. Maybe next time I'll keep the rules.

BUT I just wanna say one last thing: If a tree falls in a forest and no one is there to hear or see it, did it really fall? Just sayin'.

Instead of letting the pumpkins I had as our centerpeice rot like I usually do, I decided that I oughta use them, so I made pumpkin soup. It was kind of a pain to chop up the pumpkin, boil and puree it, but it was so worth it. The pumpkin was SO sweet. I was eating it plain by the spoonful before I had even started the soup. Lincoln was too. He kept coming back for more. It made our house feel so warm and cozy. Here is the recipe:

Ingredients

     3 tablespoons margarine, softened

Instead of doing the croutons according the recipe, I used a baguette that we had let dry out. I melted the butter and brown sugar together and drizzled it over the top of the baguette I had chopped in pieces. I didn't use any salt at all in the soup cause the chicken broth was salty enough and I added a little brown sugar. I used Lincoln's whole milk instead of whipping cream and added a little nutmeg and it turned out fabulously.

YUM!!!

James WAS going to be a shark for Halloween, but he learned how to climb out of his crib the day before. Unfortuneately, he hasn't learned how to land yet, so the shiner is REAL. Poor guy landed right on his face on the hardwood floor. Lincoln is getting pretty close to escaping as well. Good thing we're getting a toddler rail for his bed soon. I love this pic, though. Such a boy. He's also got spaghetti sauce on his right cheek.