In which I whinge and our hero encounters several of his relations.

Again, all apologies, I know some of you people are very eager to see pictures from our visit. It has honestly been a LOT harder than I expected to get back to our normal routine down here in Georgia. The hardest bit has been Noah's sleep schedule, really. He goes back to work in a couple days, so he needs to be back on his third-shift sleep pattern for that, and it has been a complete pain in the ass getting back to that. It took exactly one day when his leave started for him to get used to sleeping at night like a normal person. Going back to sleeping days, however, has been a bit of a trial. We've been trying for about four days now, and the poor guy is currently a zombie with no sleep rhythm. Damned human biological tendency toward diurnal habits.

Our other trial, significantly less bothersome but still a bit tricky, has been adjusting to having a new member of the household. We brought back an extremely adorable kitty from Pennsylvania, and Bruce (our existing cat, for those of you just joining us) has not really been delighted with the idea of sharing his abode with a new cat. Some progress has been made: he no longer spends his entire day sitting outside her room screaming (like a wildcat, it was scary). He just pauses there once or twice a day to sniff and meow hopefully. Tomorrow I may try putting her in the computer room while he goes in her room to get a good smell, and if neither of them freak out about that, I'll try introducing them face-to-face (with one in a carrier) on Saturday. So, that whole situation is coming along, just a little more slowly than I expected.

Anyway! Rambling complete, on to the pictures (after the break, in the interests of faster page loading). Some of them anyway. I apologize for the quality of some of them - winter in Pennsylvania does not lend itself to great indoor lighting, so a lot of these are blurry or dim.



Jim meets his great grandmother on Noah's side.


Jim steals a delicious chocolate-covered pretzel from his Aunt Mae.


Jim recovers from a tragic head injury, with the help of his Oma.


Jim hangs out with Pap and his very interesting furry creature.


Jim is apparently shell-shocked by meeting his great-grandfather on my side.


Jim assesses the wares at the toy store with the assistance of his Ma.


Jim's head is apparently addled by smooches from his Aunt Emmy.


Jim contemplates his presents from the vantage-point of his Aunt Brenna's lap.


Jim steals his Grandpa's hat for a classic Hibbler Men picture.


Jim carefully blinds his Uncle Charlie to memorialize their first meeting.


Jim demonstrates his very stylish elf hat for his Uncle Jim.
Okay, that is a LOT of pictures, so I am going to stop now. There are more, of course, and they will eventually be posted, but my poor fingers are aching and need the solace of something sugary from the freezer, so I'm stopping now. Coming soon: 7 month update (so late...), more family pictures, story and pictures of Jim's first Christmas, pictures of the new kitty, and many more interesting things.