Survival of the pictures *EDIT*

I was scrolling through some old entries today, and was surprised to see all my pictures firmly in place. According to what I knew, Ringo shut down its service as of yesterday. And if you go to ringo.com, there's nothing there but a message telling you they've ended their service and recommending other photo-sharing websites. And OK, I know, it's only July 1, one day later than their shut-down date, but for now, I'm pleased as punch to see all my pictures alive and well. Maybe, through some fluke in the system, they will stay that way? Time will tell, I suppose.

I finished Persepolis 2 yesterday. It was good--a bit darker than the first one, but that kind of makes sense, since it was about her teenage/young adult years. Anyway, I highly recommend both books. Tony was making fun of me for reading "comic books" but I corrected him and told him they were "graphic novels." Silly Tony.

I made a quick trip to Kohl's last night because they were having a good sale on hooded towels. We already have a couple of this brand of hooded towels, and we love them--they are thick and large, and Ari loves the animal faces. So we added these 2 to her collection...





But of course, I couldn't go to Kohl's and not check out clothes. I ended up with a pair of capris (which I might return, because they have that infamous gap in the back, and I'm not sure if washing them will fix it) and a pair of Bermuda shorts. But the best part is... the shorts are a size 4. No, that's not a typo--they really are a size FOUR. And even better, they have a slight gap in the back--which means not only do they fit me, but they fit me comfortably.

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*** Just edited to add a couple Ari stories... ***

I took Ari to Target with me last night, which is always an adventure, since simply riding in the cart is not as exciting as it used to be to her. To keep her occupied, I taught her to reply "Two" to the question "How old is Ari?" She says it so clearly and sweetly. I also showed her how to hold up 2 fingers, but that seemed to baffle her. She would hold up both hands, with all her fingers sticking out in all directions, looking at me as though she was in awe of my skills.

Later, she decided that screaming at the top of her lungs would be fun. No, she wasn't upset--she just wanted to scream to hear herself scream. She belted out a loud, high-pitched shriek that I'm sure was quite easily heard throughout the entire store--and held it almost to the point where it made my ears hurt. And, being the great mom that I am, I laughed. Which only made her do it again, which only made me laugh more--and, you can see how this quickly spiraled out of control. Finally, I happened upon the bright idea of asking her to sing, which made her quickly forget about her scream-fest. She sang loudly too, but at least it was a much more pleasant sound. She chose the alphabet song, which she doesn't quite know all the lyrics to yet, so it comes out as, "Ayyy, Bee... Coo, Are, Ess... Eee, Eff, Geeeeee" or something similar (it's never the same way twice).