Have now made two loaves of zucchini bread and some carrot salad. Quinoa is in the pot, so I can add some to the black bean and corn salad I made yesterday, so it's a meal by itself. The zucchini bread is a Paula Deen recipe that makes two loaves -- usually I cut it in half and just make one. Making both at once is kind of horrifying, ingredient-wise: Three cups of sugar, four eggs... Paula Deen.

ION, several things about my father:

1. We set up this website to ask friends to hang out with him when my mom's at work and he's not at his day program, and their friends are so nice! I mean, even people they aren't that close to are signing up for repeat visits. And I like it when they hang out with my grandmother as well, because she likes company too, when she's feeling up to it. (But holy cow, she is now mentally where my father was a few years ago, having wildly different versions of the same conversation within five minutes of each other...)

2. Yesterday, we walked by a guy playing guitar and singing on the street, and my father made a beeline for him. I was worried something weird was about to happen! But no, the guy greeted my father by name and was happy to see him, asked if he was still working, etc. I really don't know how he knows everyone in the world.

3. He brings home his dessert from lunch for my mother, or at least some of it. He always comes home with a little packet of cake or something in his shirt pocket. Cute and nice!

Babies teeth on and off for a long time, ita, so you'll have drooling and gnawing more than once. Sitting up solidly is generally by six months, if I remember right, sometimes earlier (although they usually can't correct themselves at first -- you have to sit them down, and eventually they tilt).

That sounds pretty good, Jesse. I'm glad your family's friends are stepping up.

Aw, Jesse, the dessert thing kills me. So sweet!

I realized that I've had a Caribbean cookbook for about a year now and never cooked anything from it, so I decided to try some Caribbean recipes. I'm trying to figure out which recipes to make. I'm getting stymied by the lack of ingredients (there doesn't seem to be anywhere around here that sells breadfruit, and the one store that sells plantains only has them once in a while, among quite a few other things) and by the fact that half the recipes that look good say that they have to be served immediately or else they get ruined somehow, and I really need stuff that can make leftovers. Also, I don't want to turn on the oven when it's hot out.

Jesse, I love those snapshots of your dad's life (and yours); thanks for sharing.

It is so good to hear you have that extended support system, Jesse.

OK, I give up on Caribbean food for now. Too many things that either require ingredients I can't get or have to be cooked in the oven.

Love that, Jesse.