greetings friends and loyal readers. i am sorry for the neglect. on wednesday evening i decided to take advantage of a ridiculously low jetblue fare and jet down to tampa/st. pete for the weekend. so i left the infinite march of massachusetts behind for the beauty of the tropics. good times...

after a few short days of respite, i don't have anything really significant to say, but thought i could at least throw you the following frickin' bone.

life lessons from tampa st. pete

1. occasionally, two year olds can tell a great joke. they then proceed to run it into the ground.

gillian bennett, the eldest daughter of rick and kristi bennett--my gracious hosts, has been running around the house saying 'i'm john kerry and i approve this message.' that was hilarious the first three times i heard it, and has been diminishing in humor ever since.

2. note to self regarding future offspring. when the two year old's attempt to say 'car' comes out 'ca ca,' don't encourage her to connect the unwitting curse to the word 'head.' she's been repeating that phrase, which is the only i've truly 'coined' to date, quite regulary as well.

3. potty training is hell.

4. everyone shares one love language: listening. through prayer and motivational self-talk i tried to remind myself that the best way i could love rick and kristi was to listen to them. of course, i've been offering advice on a wide variety of subjects (not related to child rearing or potty training) for the past 36 hours. Lord, fill me with your Spirit so that I might listen to people, and so love them well.