Cadence's Navy

Cadence, our sweet, seemingly innocent little child, is carefully plotting her world takeover. Sure, you say, right, the baby...and what army?

Well, maybe no army.  BUT!  She does have...A Navy!!

A navy of...

[dun dun dun!]

Rubber. Duckies.

Yes, that's right.  You heard me. A navy, made up entirely of cute little rubber duckies.

The photographer risked life and limb to bring you these images from the high security training ground located in the master bathroom.  As you can see, young though she may be, she's industrious, and has spent the last year or so slowly recruiting the finest specimens.  We can only imagine what top secret plans she's got in place right under our noses.  Only time will tell!

Our only hope is to study the intelligence we have on the known recruits, that we may know their many powers!

Duck #1: The Admiral

Cathy the Duck.  Belonged to Mama when she was itty bitty, and as far as we know, she is the only duck with a definitive name. {or gender, for that matter.}  20 years of experience behind this Awesome, very loved duck.

Duck #2:  Captain

This duck belonged to aunt Kelly when she was young, also a very experienced, capable duckie.  

Duck #3: Lieutenant Junior Class

A gift from aunt Kelly when she was born, this duck had an early career as a lifeguard, astutely warning Mama and Baba if the baby's bath water was too hot.  Has since retired from this particular career, but we suspect that this experience is informing Duck #3's current assignments.

Duck #4:  Ensign

Part 1 of a Duckie Duo with Duck #5, Duck #4 is an accomplished spritzer, frequently working on distance and accuracy in water squirting.  Is a trick swimmer and can float upside down better than most.

Duck#5: Ensign

Part 2 of a Duckie Duo with Duck #4, Duck #5 is an accomplished spritzer, frequently working on distance and accuracy in water squirting.  Always carries a bit of back up amo which doubles as a ballast, and thus this suck rides lower in the water than your average duck.

Duck #6:  Ensign
Mama bought duck #6 back in NY as a reward for a great behavior after a really rough day out.  Good floater, exceptional high diving experience.

Duck #6a: Ensign

Sordid history here...Nanna Marianna initially purchased Duck #6a at the same time that Mama got Duck #6, though this fact was entirely unbeknownst to either party.  We can only assume that it was all part of Cadence's secret master plan.  
Perhaps Pepper has been recruited into Cadence's Navy as well, or perhaps it was a coincidence, we simply don't know at this point, all we do know is that Pepper stole this duck, which resulted in Nanna Marianna purchasing Duck #7 as a replacement.  However, there is some speculation that ducks 6 and 6a sometimes switch places in secret, perhaps as a form of deception or as a method of smuggling secrets.  They have on occasion been seen together in the presence of the mighty Cadie Ladie.  We must not discount the threat that ducks 6 and 6a pose in their unique position to imitate one another.

Duck #7:  Ensign

A gift to Cadence after the supposed loss of Duck #6a, though this duck has been seen with a certain big black dog on occasion, we suspect this duck may be in on the supposed 'ducknapping' of duck #6a.  Though pink, this is a very dangerous duck.

Duck #8: Ensign

A gift from Aunt Kelly's friend Joe and his mom for her first birthday.  Their knowledge of her need for skilled ducks is suspect.  This duck seems to excel in the "I'm just a decoy" category, spinning into a side float at a moment's notice.

Duck #9:  Ensign

An unplanned Gift from Mama and Baba, Duck #9 raises suspicion that Cadence may have ties that allow her to manipulate the flow of coupons and special offers from Bath & Body works.  See also:  the fluffy sheep that Duck #9 arrived with.

Duck #Octopus:  Status unknown.  Threat level vibrantly red.

Octopus.  'Nuff said.

Clearly, this is a highly trained group of floating, fortitudinous fowl.  Please remain alert.  We wish you the best of luck.

ow. ow. Ow. OW. OW.

So, here's a little James Yu trivia fact many may not know... I've had 8,576 consecutive days without getting stung by a bee. Well, the counter has been restarted. We got this hub from Gamestop which lets us manage all the video game systems we have accumulated. Anyway, I was fiddling with the name plates, and I managed to get one lost in the thing itself. I thought I'd seen a set of little screwdrivers in the garage so down I went with Cadence in my arms. Since I've moved down to Kentucky, I've gotten into the habit of walking around barefoot, which got me into trouble the other day when I stepped in dog poop. Right, so I took a scan of the workbench in the garage and didn't see any screwdriver. I turned around and felt the horrible sharp pain in my foot. It felt sort of like I'd stepped on a piece of glass so I looked down and noticed a bee writhing on the ground. Still holding the baby I hobbled up the stairs yelling for Kate. Kate got the stinger out, and Mary Ann brought me a bag of ice and I spent the next hour or so feeling the pain sort of come and go, each time like I was getting stung again. In any case, there's a little bit of a bruise but otherwise my foot's fine now.

So, what else? We're still looking for jobs, and haven't really had any success so far. I've expanded my search from paralegal jobs now, to a much wider range of jobs. I've put in a bunch of applications for jobs with the state of Kentucky, put in for a bank teller job, got caught by a few fake craigslist ads, and even a bartending job at a billiards club. Plus, Kate's dad put in a word for me with the conductor of the area orchestra, so tonight I started what will hopefully a practice regimen to get myself back into the game.

Also, the Olympics have been sucking up our attention lately.

I know you're strong

So Ian made us a couple of CD's as gifts before we left and Kate and I have had one of the songs stuck in our heads for the last two days...

Honestly, it's not such a big surprise that the song appeals to us so much. We are, if anything, cat people. Speaking of which, our cats have begun "getting to know" the country cats here. So far, there hasn't been anything to serious, some howling at each other from across the room, some running and chasing, hissing and growling but no physical confrontations so it's got me optimistic about how things will go.

So, what's new? Unfortunately, I've gotten nothing on the job search front. So far, I haven't seen any paralegal positions advertised so I've been sending out cover letters and résumés cold to law firms in the area which appeal, but none of them have had openings. A few have written back saying they'll keep my stuff on file but no one has asked me in for an interview. Disappointing.

In the meantime, Kate and I have decided to make a more serious go at learning some web stuff - html, css, javascript blah blah blah - and turn that into some possible freelance stuff. At the very least, it's giving me something to do so I don't freak out as much that we've been unemployed for almost two months. Ben gave me some pointers as to books, and I've been working on it a bit every day - with Pepper's help.

We've finally gotten ourselves unpacked and packed away... almost everything is now up in the attic and the rest has places to live throughout our room. There's only one box with a bunch of CDs and other media which is waiting to be unpacked. Otherwise, some order has been exerted on our room, so that's one less stressor to deal with.

Cadence is, as always, amazing - and in a way that is not diminished by the fact that she is constantly so. She has, among other things, taken to stepping into boxes (that's her in Puy's box) and plastic bins. I guess she's made efforts to get in in the past, but now her legs have finally gotten big enough so that she can actually get in.

Sad news is that we just found out today that Cadence has ear infections in both ears. She had been acting especially fussy once in a while and hasn't been sleeping well the past few days. Then, we were at the water park this weekend and Kate noticed there was some foul smelling discharge from one of her ears. Despite having an ear infection, which is her first real medical issue, she spends most of her time as though nothing is wrong. She's our little trooper.