Rambling Follower: Five Favorites: Our Boys, My Man, Weight Loss and Good Red Wine

1. This boy. Our new high-school student. We're spending the week together at home after we spent a few days traveling together. He said he likes hanging with me. Imagine. Doesn't feel like calling any friends right now. He's reading books, playing video games, playing his trumpet, shooting hoops, and swimming with me. Oh, and telling me lots of jokes - in his deadpan style. Here are the two latest.

Me: "Would you like me to make polenta some time?"
Him: "What's polenta?"
Me: "Well, it's kind of like grits, but with cornmeal."
Him: "Oh yeah, I know it. Polenta. For baby growing."

Me: "Your brother is back from Europe and he's asking to drink beer. He thinks he's a European."
Him: "Next, he'll be bankrupt."

2. This boy. Really, this young man, nearly 17. He just returned from his 10-day tour of Europe with Stretto Youth Orchestra.

Of all the places he visited, he loved Germany in particular. He was deeply inspired by the story of the Cologne Cathedral, how German civilians took the stained glass home to preserve them during WW2 bombings. He said Sofia is beautiful, but just to visit. He was moved by all the signs of war he witnessed in the Balkans.

Also, he plans to go to Manhattan tomorrow to march for Fourth Amendment rights. "I wouldn't feel good about celebrating the fourth unless I do," he says. Right now, he is doing laundry, lots of it.

3. This man. The one I married 20 years ago. He's my hero. His job is high stress and long hours and yet he manages to coach a summer basketball league as a volunteer, and grill awesome corn, and buy me flowers and invent goofy songs about our puggle and last night pick our son up at the Philadelphia airport and not get home until midnight and still wake up this morning and keep going. Oh, and he has shed 20 pounds since this photo was taken last summer.

4. My fitbit. It's changing my life, this fancy, expensive but not overpriced pedometer. I have walked more than 50 miles since I bought it two weeks ago and I have shed 5.5 pounds. Where have you been all my life, fitbit?