copy-cat parade

He's watching us.

*cue x-files music*

The other day... benjamin tried feeding me one of his cheerios. It makes perfect sense, he sees us stuffing his face with cheerios, so he should be trying to do the same to us.

In his head he is probably having a dark monologue "here, YOU eat these little O's over and over day in and day out... how do YOU like it?? Huh!!?? Get me some Cinamin Life in my life already!"

He demonstrates this ability to copy quite well in this video

He told me later that he wasn't offended by me telling him he looks like an elephant. ...He understood that it was because the paper towel tube looked like a trunk, not that he is a Dumbo replica.....

He even knew exactly what to do when he was given a red cup... drink! ...and then crush it. I am not sure where he learned the crush part, I think that is natural baby instinct. --if it isn't edible, DESTROY!!--

This past week(end) was what we call VEISHEA here at Iowa State University... and it is some massive event with a lot of mini events throughout the week.

What is VEISHEA you are thinking?

VEISHEA was named in 1922 by Professor Frank D. Paine, Department of General Engineering. He combined the first letters of the colleges at that time, and the name has stuck ever since. The word VEISHEA (pronounced "VEE-sha") stands for:

• Veterinary Medicine
• Engineering
• Industrial Science
• Home Economics
• Agriculture

When really it stands for Very Educated Inebriated Students Hanging out Everywhere All week. I substituted for a few classes this week - and the expectation that the students could just leave early to go to VEISHEA parties remains mind-boggling... even after being here now for however many years. Maybe I have just live in a vortext of NERDism and will never understand it. In this sense... I am happy to let Benjamin copy our actions as we showed up to the Saturday morning parade bright eyed and bushy tailed.

Speaking of bushy-tailed... Benjamin got his picture with Cy - who does not have a bushy tail.

The parade this year, I thought, was significantly better than previous years that I have seen. The floats were quality:

and even the non-float things were good

as opposed to previous years where it was just a bunch of people riding in convertibles. ...not even throwing candy!

It was good that it was good - as this year's weather (65 and sunny) brought swarms of people! This is one rather small section of the parade route...

Some early-arriving friends of ours scored some SAWEEET real-estate

And the Lauber's kept the benjamin entertained...

so jared and I could focus on more important things...like stealing candy from the surrounding little children.

Tip of the day: Give your eggs faces... they taste better that way. mmm.