tied to my apron strings

Feast of Lights: flashback

2011-12-21T06:18:00.000-05:00

[I'm reposting one of my most popular blog articles, originally posted in December 2008, in celebration of Hanukkah. Thanks to my wonderful commenters, I have the composer's name, correct lyrics and a YouTube video now! Happy Holidays to all.]

Back when my dad worked at the National Labs, many of his coworkers came from all over the globe. Highly educated engineers, physicists, and scientists from Germany, Poland, China, India, or Russia all found important work to do in their fields alongside Americans from across the country. No matter their religion, when December came around in the '70s, there was an office Christmas Party, complete with Santas everywhere, angels and reindeer, and songs about glorifying the savior's birth. Christianity was assumed, but if you were Jewish, Hindu, Buddhist, or Muslim you came to the party anyway, because you were expected to or just to celebrate the spirit of the season (and there was free food!). In the time before political correctness, expecting a nod toward any non-Christian religion at a mainstream office party was too much to hope for.

As I mentioned in yesterday's post, my sister M. and I featured regularly in the singing at the ANL Xmas parties. We dutifully learned our songs in elementary school chorus class to prepare for the annual Christmas choral program. We were pretty good! Our little eight- and six-year-old voices were sweet and earnest. One year at his office party, my dad asked us to sing our favorite Christmas carol. After a brief conference (in which I argued for my favorite, a beautiful song in a haunting minor key), we sang this lovely song, Feast of Lights, composed by Frederick Silver:

Video credit: The Primes Girl Choir of South Florida performs "A Feast of Lights" by Fredrick Silver live during the 2010 Winter Concert "Timbrel and Harp" on December 11, 2010, at Second Presbyterian Church of Fort Lauderdale, Florida. Associate Director: Gretchen Fasulo.

I remember Mama lighting the Menorah,
Then covering her head she'd start to pray.
When Papa finished reading from the Torah,

Mama, smiling down on me, would say:

May your days and nights
Be a feast of lights
The eternal flame, may it glow in you,
And the Holy One
May He know in you only love

May the light of peace
Shine and never cease
And the glow of wisdom illumine in you
May you never hate, though it's human to;
May you know love.

May you go through life
With your head up to the sky
May you never walk in shame
In sight of the light of the One
Who has no name

This I wish for you.

May your days and nights
Be a feast of lights
Have a warmth for all of humanity
For without it, life is but vanity
May you have love.

May you have faith, and
May you have strength, and
May the Lord grant
Your life will have length
May it be sweet yet strong

May your days and nights
be a feast of lights
Your whole life long.

Of all the many unsuspecting, long-suffering Jewish coworkers at the Christmas party? There was not a dry eye.

Happy Belated Hanukkah, Merry Christmas, or whichever holiday you celebrate this season. May you know love.

My Dance Resume

2011-12-20T10:25:00.000-05:00

I've got a new hobby in the works. It's one that I've already fit into my schedule for five hours a week and I look forward to every day, but I'm ready to take it to the next level. It's not knitting or jewelry or doll-making; although I love all those hobbies, I'm not making time for them and they aren't working naturally into my activities right now. They're all once-in-a-while hobbies. What am I loving and doing all the time, whenever I can outside of work? Dancing.

I was just laying out my dance experience for this new hobby, to justify my credentials (a resume I've never outlined before). So far, I have trained (at least once a week and up to four times/week for each time period):

18 years step aerobics/group aerobic dance
7 years jazz dance
5 years modern dance
5 years ballet
5 years yoga
4 years body pump
2 years Jazzercise
2 years hip-hop dance
2 years karate
1 year Pilates
1 year kick-boxing
1/2 year Zumba

My new adventure? Jazzercise Instructor. Over the next six months I will be auditioned, trained, and hopefully certified to teach my own classes by the end of the year. So what if I'm in my 40s? Most of the other instructors are as well. I'm in the best shape I've ever been in my life. I love the classes I'm taking and think it would be the perfect part-time adventure.

If it weren't for some of my Jazzercise classmates who've been telling me that I should be an instructor a few times a month for the past year (Jessie, Tom, Anne, Jennifer), I wouldn't have considered it. I have to put a few other hobbies on hold for a while, but they'll be there for me to pick up again. Hobbies are patient. I'm just really excited about this one right now and need to act on the thrill!

Stay clear of me today

2011-12-02T08:48:00.001-05:00

Minor things going wrong are part of every morning, and I typically solve them and move on. I barely notice them. Once minor annoyances start piling on and I find myself keeping track of them, it looks like the beginning of a bad day. On a day like today, when this many little things go wrong, I might snap at any teeny issue, so I'm just going to quietly hunker down at work and hope nobody pokes me.

My list so far, all normal things by themselves:

My back-up alarm (my watch) didn't wake me up (I left it in the bathroom last night).
My shirt had a hole in it (I had to change).
My nylons have a run in them (I covered them with pants).
I left my lunch bag at work (I had to scrounge for a paper bag).
Rosie needed nebulizer meds that take 20 minutes and I was already late, so I roused her out of bed too quickly, which sets her off (it's better for everyone to let her come out of her room in her own time).
Dash made Rosie cry by threatening to watch a TV show that she dislikes (I intervened and relocated Dash to watch something on my laptop while she was on the nebulizer).
I forgot that both kids have spelling tests today (I had to quiz them).
I have a smashing headache (have I taken pills for it yet? no.).
My car was covered with frost for the first time this season (I had to scrape it).
While I was scraping the car, I noticed that somebody had hit it and the side-view mirror was dangling and couldn't be reattached (the mechanic in my neighborhood is ordering the part, but for now, I'm driving without a driver's side mirror).

Solving the first five issues would have been a normal day. To keep having them pile on, one after another, is a little too much even for me. On the way to the office, I caught myself about to yell at a guy who was walking two paces ahead of me for not holding a door for me — he let it go and almost hit me in the face. I'm feeling edgy.

Knitting "two-hour" fingerless gloves. Yeah, right.

2011-12-01T14:50:00.001-05:00

I was home from work yesterday after succumbing to the dreaded strep throat that Rosie had caught almost two weeks ago. With all kinds of choices for how I should spend my day — cleaning the collapsing kitchen cabinets? washing the fetid floor? laundering the bed-linens? — I chose to knit. I was getting tired of the hat I've been working on for about two hours a week through November (I missed a stitch or two and the pattern is all screwed up), so, I looked up a project that Kelly had posted on Pinterest, the one-hour fingerless gloves. I did my own search, not thinking about Pinterest yesterday, and found a two-hour fingerless gloves pattern on Allfreeknitting.com. It looked pretty and not too hard, with three inches of ribbing, then gradual increases while you worked in the thumb.

What happened, however, was not a two-hour result. I had a set of bamboo double-pointed needles, perfect for this pattern, but have never used them before—they're sticky. I used acrylic yarn that I have in abundance (free!) from my MIL. It might not be as easy to use as wool, I have no idea. I also knit pretty tightly, especially when I'm trying something new. About four hours into knitting one glove, I was about half-way finished. It's beautiful, but I really, really want to get faster at this stuff! I took my first knitting class exactly a year ago and I've made about five scarves, two and a half hats, and now this half a glove. I was getting faster when I was working on the scarves, but that was mostly because it was all knitting. This, knit one row, purl one row, count 18, knit in front and behind — it's all slowing me down even more.

It's primarily the tension thing, right, experienced knitters? If I can just loosen my stitches up, I can go faster? Arrggh! I'd love this to be the solution to Xmas gifts this year, but not if it's going to take me a day per glove. Rosie said she just liked the wristlet, without the finger-warming part, like a bracelet? I can totally do that. That might even take me two hours.

Dash got his Blue Belt in Karate!!!

2011-11-30T18:20:00.000-05:00

I'm so proud of Dash for passing his promotion test and getting his blue belt in Karate today!! All the other parents kept telling me that Sensei almost never passed kids on their first test and many of the students taking the test at the same time failed it, so I really didn't say anything to get Dash's hopes up at all. But he did it!!

I'm so proud of him!!

What a great way to end NaBloPoMo. Peace out, November!

I'm so lucky...

2011-11-29T20:47:00.000-05:00

That my kids love each other so much!

Rosa Parks tissue box: a 3rd grade assignment

2011-11-28T21:41:00.001-05:00

Rosie's classmates were each assigned a historical figure to research, write about, and then put the facts up on the four panels of a tissue box. Panel one was to be an original drawing of the historical figure. I was impressed that Rosie just drew the illustration of Rosa Parks in the photo above, with no reference whatsoever. Probably helped that she was assigned Rosa Parks before, by her first grade teacher. She drew the bus, then I suggested that she draw the Presidential Medal of Freedom that Mrs. Parks received from President Clinton, and I helped her (only a little, with basic outlining) draw from a photo on Wikipedia.

Panel two was a four-point timeline, panel three was five important facts about Rosa Parks, and panel four was a two-paragraph essay, compiling everything she'd learned into prose form. We had a note from her teacher that THREE paragraphs would get you an outstanding grade, so Rosie went for three.

I was just congratulating Rosie on turning the project in a day ahead of time, when I read an email from another parent in Rosie's class. Their teacher sent them home with a biography study guide today (Rosie forgot her folder at school). It is over two pages of biographical details on 20 historical figures! AND, their test is next Tuesday!?! Thanks for no advance notice. Wouldn't it have been nice to have been able to leisurely go over different factoids during the lazy hours of the Thanksgiving break? Tossing in a story about Thomas Jefferson or Cesar Chavez at bedtime would have been nice. But now, we have to cram it all in over the next week along with all her other homework AND Dash's (he has a fractions test on Friday). The teacher is hoping that all the tissue boxes all over the classroom will help the kids absorb the stories.

How do parents with more than two kids manage all the homework? Hats off to you, I mean it.

You left something behind...

2011-11-27T21:28:00.001-05:00

Almost every time I go to visit my BFF Kelly, who lives 28 miles and 40 minutes away, I leave something behind. I usually bring a bunch of things with me, like crafting supplies, or hand-me-down clothes for Thea, or food for a potluck. I also forget to bring other things, like today, I forgot the thank you cards that Rosie wrote for Thea and Liam's birthday gifts, and copies of the kids' school portraits.

This time, I left my knitting tools bag and some extra yarn.

I retrieved the umbrella that I left over there in October.

In October, I was reunited with the pair of sunglasses that I left at Kelly's in August. And so on.

There have been so many other times that I've left a sweater or a kid's toy or some random thing that I should expect it by now! I'm typically running out of there way too late (enjoying the company!), carrying five things and trying to wrangle kids at the same time.

They say that when you accidentally leave something behind, it means that you subconsciously want to return to that place. That is most certainly true here!! I and my kids all love visiting Kelly and family.

Kelly said it best when she texted me to let me know my knitting bag was still there: "We really should live in the same neighborhood." Agreed. Or start heavily investing in matter transporters. We have the Internet, video phones, instant movies, digital books, and jet packs (sort of)—where's my transporter?

It's not a big deal for now, we have plans to hang out at my place next Sunday and can exchange all the things. Maybe Kelly will leave something behind over here...

Making the best of a long weekend

2011-11-26T22:10:00.001-05:00

We've all been in the house together since Thursday morning, except for kids' playdates on Friday. Rosie had been asking to play with a new friend, Paige, and Finn had been asking about Dash. Dash rarely requests playdates and prefers playing on his own, which is okay by me, generally, but they needed to get out of the house! We were all getting on each other's nerves and were more than a little stir-crazy.

On Friday, Dash went to Finn's and I tried to take the girls to River Farm, but I swear, every time I try to get in there, it's closed for a private event. Same thing yesterday. I ended up taking Rosie and Paige to their elementary school's playground and believe that they enjoyed having it to themselves instead of sharing it with everyone in their grade for a change. We stuck around there until lunch and returned for Nutella sandwiches, fruit, and carrots before I set them up to play Just Dance 2 on the Wii. Two o'clock snuck up on us, and it was time to take Paige home. The girls weren't at all ready to part and were begging for an extension, so I accepted a bargain to drop them at Paige's until I returned from Finn's with Dash.

Dash and Finn had been peacefully playing Legos the entire time. Finn's mom expressed to me that for two boys that are so disruptive while in class, they played like quiet little mice. We exchanged several observations about their first-grade teacher and the negative comments on interim reports before Dash and I were on our way. Back at Paige's, we met her little brother, Chase, who is also six like Dash, but a year behind in school. True to their names, they were running circles around each other in the front yard, fast friends. I couldn't help commenting on it a few times—go, action verbs! We promised to schedule more play time for them all together soon, as it was such a great success.

Saturday morning, I left the house to make the first Jazzercise class since Wednesday afternoon, as they'd cancelled all the in-between ones for the holiday. It was PACKED. I managed to squeeze into a spot in the front corner and had a blast as usual! Harmony (today's instructor) is so easy to follow and doesn't crank her tunes too high. I wear earplugs a lot and wind up missing cues in other classes. Still fun!

When I got back and showered, we had already worked out that we would all take advantage of the lovely weather and walk to the library. Rosie has a biography project due next week and needed to pick up some books for research. To sweeten the deal for the kids, Monkeyrotica had found a walking path on Google Maps that cut through the neighborhoods and made the trip less than a mile one-way (by car, it's 1.5 miles). Rosie found her books and we each picked up another book or two; all the books ended up in my bag to carry home. It was close to lunch, so we walked another half-mile out of our way to get sandwiches at one of the few local delis (read Monkey's Yelp review). I don't think Rosie and Dash even noticed that they walked about 2.5 miles today, with all the exploring, leaf-kicking, and bird/squirrel/deer spotting.

It was such a beautiful, warm day—really a gorgeous weekend! I'm so glad we didn't just stay indoors, which is what might have happened if it had been colder.

Buy handmade this season, a pledge

2011-11-25T21:17:00.001-05:00

I know it's "black Friday" and many people went out at midnight, camped out and already purchased hugely discounted, large-scale electronics made in China and shipped to big box stores. I hope you all got some great deals on things you needed or gifts you intend for deserving loved ones.

From here forward, I have a suggestion. Rather than ordering another crate of miscellaneous, anonymous, ubiquitous items to be shipped from Amazon.com's largest warehouse, consider these other, more sustainable choices:

Buying from a local artist or craftsperson

Shopping at a small business, and getting to know the owner — you'll know exactly where your money is going.

Making gifts yourself — the most beloved and unique gifts are DIY from the heart; whether it's a painting, a knit scarf, or baked goods, a gift made with love with the recipient in mind is most welcome.

badge courtesy of buyhandmade.org

If buying online is the best option for you, these websites support artists who hand-make their goods (list compiled by re-nest):

Online Handmade Marketplaces
There is no shortage of handmade items, nor marketplaces. Here are some top choices from around the globe:

Artfire: Not just for paintings and original art pieces, this marketplace is now open to all sorts of handmade goods.
Best of Handmade - This site searches multiple handmade sites at once.
DaWanda: This is Europe's version of Etsy.
Etsy: This is easily the largest global online community of handmade goods.
Folksy: This is the UK's online shop for handmade items.
iCraft: This is Canada's own Etsy-esque online community.
MadeitMyself: This site is similar to Etsy as an online community of handmade buyers and sellers.
Shop Handmade: This has a slight eco twist to the traditional craft store listings with carbon mitigation and rainforest conservation donations.
Ten Thousand Villages: This is both an online store and a brick and mortar shop that features fair trade items from around the World.
Try Handmade: This site highlights and shares handmade finds and shops.

Take the pledge this season to buy handmade. It's easy, just a shift of perspective. Many people have already chosen for years to only buy handmade goods as gifts. I ask you to do the same for yourselves and for me.

So very thankful...

2011-11-24T21:11:00.001-05:00

I'm thankful that I slept in today, but was woken up gently by a 6-year-old bouncing on the mattress near my feet.

I'm thankful that Monkeyrotica brought me delicious coffee in bed and made the four of us a lovely breakfast.

I'm thankful that my family helped me to maintain order in the house this week so that it wasn't too difficult to prepare for our dinner guests.

I'm incredibly thankful for a quick-thinking husband who, when given an obstacle like, say, A POWER OUTAGE ON THANKSGIVING right after the turkey went into the oven, has a plan B ready to go and put the turkey in the smoker without missing a beat. He was planning to cook the beans and peas on the camp stove, but thankfully (!) the power came back on.

I'm thankful that my sister and parents live so close to us and can visit regularly without hardship. I'm incredibly thankful that they let my children know that they love them in so many ways, all the time.

I'm thankful that we were able to have such plenty on our table this Thanksgiving, all healthy food made from scratch with love.

Monkeyrotica cooked the turkey using a Julia Child recipe that reduces the cook-time by deboning and stuffing the turkey thighs.

My plate: slices of turkey meat, stuffing, sauteed green beans, Brussels sprout slaw, roasted red potato, and a little homemade gravy.

Dash: always moving, always playful and so sweet. He's the most imaginative little guy; I'm never sure what is going to come out of his mouth next. He's so very much his own wonderful six-year-old boy and I'm glad he's my son.

Rosie: adorable, affectionate, and inquisitive. She's becoming such a wonderful person, caring deeply about her friends, helping around the house, doing her schoolwork without too much prodding. She does the "I'm-the-cutest-kitten-in-the-world-with-sad-eyes-how-could-you-deny-me" look so well! I'm so thankful for her hugs and her love. I feel lucky every day to have a daughter like Rosie.

I'm thankful for all my friends, who are out there having their own Thanksgivings. I send you love, warmth, and hope, and a wish to see you all soon. I have thanks and an embrace to give you in person.

XOXOX, Nylonthread

What are you thankful for? Kids answers:

2011-11-23T21:04:00.001-05:00

Rosie: I'm thankful for my nice family.

Dash: I'm thankful for Christmas, because you get a whole lot of great presents. And it's lots of fun.

Dash's 6th birthday, Party people

2011-11-22T21:33:00.001-05:00

Along with yesterday's photos of the food, here are some fabulously well-framed and lit photos taken by our friend Mark Zimin at Dash's birthday party back in July. Someone ought to hire him to photograph and/or DJ their wedding. He's that good.

Gina, her son Brian, and me in the kitchen

Monkeyrotica, Dash (Let me tell you something...), and Finn in the backyard

Janna, ready to conquer any comers

Brent found Dash's raygun!

Me, adding candles to Dash's birthday donut tower

Singing "Happy Birthday," a lesson in delayed gratification

Finally, the donuts!

Andrei and other children in the foreground, Ken, Kelly & I in the middle ground

Elizabeth and Weegee make friends.

Seeing our guests on their way, party's over! Bye, Geoff, see you soon.

Summer Party: The calm before the BBQ storm

2011-11-21T22:34:00.001-05:00

Monkeyrotica really enjoys barbecuing for friends and when he sets his mind to cooking for a group, he does it right and full out. These images are from right before we called "soup's on" to our guests, a wonderful, unsullied spread of summer barbecue deliciousness.

Monkey smoked ribs and pulled pork shoulder; in front of Dash is a tray of vinegar slaw and to his right are a couple of Ledo pizzas for the kids (or adults) who didn't want smoked meats.

I sliced a watermelon to use as a bowl for fruit salad (notice the monkey-shaped salad tongs!).

Red beans and rice were a vegetarian side for friends who weren't eating meat altogether.

Mmmm, pulled pork. Bags of Martin's potato rolls were waiting to be filled with this lovely stuff.

And, not to be forgotten, the brisket. Man, that party was wonderful! All the kids had fun splashing with sprinklers in the backyard, and all the adults ate till we were uncomfortable and washed it down with a selection of beverages, all cool and refreshing. What was for dessert? Krispy Kreme doughnuts, of course!

Dash blowing out birthday candles. Photo courtesy Mark Zimin

It was Dash's choice for his birthday after all! Dash turned six back in June and I didn't post any of the photos from his party back then. I'll post more of them tomorrow. My photographer friend, Mark Zimin, took the pics and they all turned out beautifully!

Best laid plans...

2011-11-20T20:12:00.001-05:00

This weekend was going to be a whirlwind of fun! Or, a whirlwind, anyway. We had plans to go out to a friend's housewarming party Saturday night and I was having a handful of girlfriends over Sunday afternoon for crafting. However, at dinner Friday night, Rosie was having trouble swallowing her food — her throat was hurting badly, and she's not much of a complainer so I told her we'd see a doctor in the morning if it still hurt.

The next day, Monkeyrotica went to visit Grandma I. with Dash, and I got ready for my aerobics class at 8:15 a.m. I had my gear on, Rosie dressed and in the car at 8 on the dot when the phones open at the pediatrician. The receptionist had put me on hold by the time I got to the parking lot outside the Jazzercise studio. At 8:18, the nurse picked up and gave us an appointment of 11:45. I was late for the warm-up, but got my workout in (while Rosie sat alone in a corner with my phone — must sanitize phone...) and was home and did several chores before the appointment. Just in case the diagnosis was negative, I cleaned up the house as if guests were coming and set up a playdate for Rosie that afternoon. But, nope, she was positive for strep throat. Bummer.

I cancelled the babysitter (turns out the hostess for the housewarming party was sick, too, and cancelled as well) for Saturday, cancelled the playdate, picked up antibiotics at the pharmacy, and then let all the crafting party friends know that Rosie was sick but will have been on antibiotics for 24 hours by the time the crafting would begin. All but one friend backed out. It's the week before Thanksgiving! Nobody was taking chances.

Joan Arkham, a pal I met through DCist.com came with a gift for Dash! She bought herself this Uglydoll hat, not realizing that "one size fits all" meant "all children under 6 years." Check it out, it's barely fitting Dash (who is holding a Willy Wonka's Everlasting Gobstopper in his mouth, therefore the funny expression). We had a lovely time chatting over wine while I knitted another hat for Rosie (the last one was cute but much too large) and she organized negatives from recent vacations, which she is planning to scan over the next week.

I'm still planning to reschedule the larger crafting party, but it won't be this month! Perhaps the first week of December?

Dash pays respects at his Grandpa Tom's grave

2011-11-19T18:27:00.001-05:00

In this very sweet video, Grandma I. gently shows Dash how to properly pay respects to his departed grandfather.

Monkeyrotica and Dash made a special trip to the cemetery while I took Rosie to the pediatrician to get a (positive :-(!) strep culture. All activities for the evening were cancelled. Still planning to have a crafting party at our place tomorrow, but I'm warning friends that there's a chance of contagion.

How NaBloPoMo is affecting my life, and a list.

2011-11-18T14:00:00.001-05:00

I'm more than halfway through NaBloPoMo, and there have been some result from all these posts in my daily life, or at the very least, discussions.

Nov. 1: I wrote about why I blog. All that writing and digging for images really got me digging around on in our photo drive. I found stuff I'd never seen before.

Nov. 2: I wrote about a Philly vacation. Monkeyrotica sent me photos that I'd forgotten about or had never seen from that trip and it started a discussion about places that we'd go next time we visit.

Nov. 3: I wrote about Dash's reading skills. I think I was deluding myself on how well he was doing with the reading here, because at the Parent-Teacher conference, his teacher painted me a different picture.

Nov. 4: I wrote about upcoming events. This sort of calendar list really helps Monkey. I know what's coming up, but he's not in my head, so putting it all out in an email or *a blog post* gives him a clearer idea of what I've got planned.

Nov. 5: I wrote about The Vices that Made Virginia. I linked to this post on Twitter and got a bunch of good feedback from friends.

Nov. 6: I compiled a photo essay featuring Rosie and Thea. While digging for other photos, I noticed we had dozens of Rosie with her friends, especially Thea, who Rosie has known since Thea's birth and posted one for each year. Thea's parents both thanked me for putting up all the sweet photos of our girls!

Nov. 7: I posted about Parent-Teacher meetings. My mom has been suggesting for a while now that Dash might be dyslexic, because his reading skills have been so slow to progress. After I posted a photo of his writing work, she showed it to some former teachers that she knows and declared him dyslexia-free. But, he may need a tutor.

Nov 8: I wrote about Dash's karate class. Writing about it helped me become better prepared for his promotion test, I'm not sure about Dash, however...

Nov 9: I compiled photos of the family pet. Nothing significant here.

Nov. 10: I wrote about an amazing rework of a small space: Monkey and I had a serious conversation about getting rid of the old desk and moving a drafting table into the office! We have one in the shed that may be in some disrepair, but I'm psyched! Let's get this one going.

Nov. 11: I started baking the rainbow cake for Rosie's birthday. I got tons of cheers and comments offline on this one (I was live-tweeting and posting on Facebook, too).

Nov. 12: I posted about Rosie's birthday party. I also tons of cheers and comments offline on this one.

Nov. 13: I posted another through-the-years photo compilation on Rosie's birthdays. I got some great feedback on the adorable photos, as well as became elated at finding the images for...

Nov. 14: My post on locating images from a long-lost photo shoot. I've since gone back and found other images in strange places that I thought were long gone. My next task: organizing all the photos! Ach, who am I kidding?

Nov. 15: I posted photos of Monkey's parents and added details about his dad's ancestors. The result? Monkey has started calling me the "Starter Wife." Greeaaat.

Nov. 16: I posted a photo from Dash's promotion test. I'm pretty dubious about whether he passed. He looks good in the photo, though!

Nov. 17: I posted a photo of Rosie reading to Dash. As sweet as it gets. No discussion or feedback necessary.

Rosie reads Dash "The Pencil"

2011-11-17T18:29:00.000-05:00

"The Pencil" was a late birthday gift
from Monkeyrotica that just arrived.
She wanted to read it immediately
and had a very interested audience!
So adorable, taking care of her little brother.

Dash took his promotion test today!

2011-11-16T20:49:00.000-05:00

Did he pass and get his blue belt?

Did he fail and stay a white belt until the next test?

Wait and see, dear readers!!

(I don't actually know yet, so
I'll post an update here when I do.)

Japan, late 1950s: family photos

2011-11-15T21:26:00.001-05:00

Monkeyrotica's mom was born in Japan — isn't she incredibly lovely in the photograph below? She was an only child, born to parents who had her late in life. Her mother had a strong family name and was the last of her line, so when they married, her father renounced his own surname and took his wife's. I imagine that was a pretty serious undertaking in patriarchal Japan in the early part of the 20th century? Her mother's family were the last of a samurai line and there were swords and scrolls to pass on, so it was just practical. When Monkey and I were planning our wedding, there was talk about taking her Japanese surname and making it ours, but he really didn't feel attached enough to it, having been born and raised in Washington D.C. and much more known history with his dad's family. We kept his given name.

I.S., circa 1958. That one raised eyebrow says chapters about her sense of humor (that she passed on to her son).

Monkeyrotica has two siblings, but he was the only one who was born in the U.S.; his sister and brother were born in Japan. His dad, Tom, was stationed in Japan during the Korean War, and I. S. was his translator. She told us that Tom's first wife (who was still married to him at the time) introduced them to each other.

I.S. and Lisa, in the garden of the house in Japan.

Tom is the sharp-looking bald guy in the photo below, boldly sporting a white suit and holding Monkey's older sister. We're not sure who the girl is. A cousin, perhaps.

I've done a great deal of genealogy research on Tom's family, who came over from England in 1680. One interesting tidbit that came to light when I was discussing the family history with friends was this:

Monkey's Dad, Tom divorced and remarried, c. 1960. (Monkeyrotica was from the 2nd marriage)
His Grandfather, William divorced and remarried, c. 1930. (Tom was from the 1st marriage)
His Great-grandfather, Hal divorced and remarried c. 1900. (William was from the 1st marriage)
His Great-great-grandfather, W.C. divorced and remarried, c. 1865. (Hal was from the 1st marriage)
A juicy tidbit here: W.C. divorced his wife, Anne, because she cheated on him while he was off fighting for the Confederacy in the American Civil War.

I'm not so sure about marriages prior to W.C., but four solid generations of men with broken marriages? My girlfriend asked, "How does it feel to be a starter wife?"

The case of the missing jewelry photos

2011-11-14T20:36:00.001-05:00

In January of 2010, I was going to revive my Etsy shop. I had a bunch of inventory that I'd made over the holidays for friends and family and new fresh ideas for more items to add. I really am horrible at taking photos of my work (or most things, but I don't usually fret about quality for family pictures), so I needed to get some help. At a local Etsy "Street Team" workshop, I learned how to set up a light box, got great tips on how to arrange the lighting properly and adjust my digital camera's settings for the best effect.

Doesn't this photo of my origami cicada earrings look great?! I might have taken it, or the pro might have been taking a test shot with my camera. Whichever. After the session, I packed up my new light box, brought all my gear home and planned to put the photos up on my Etsy site soon. Any day now, I'd have some time. Yep. Tick tock.

Time did pass (days? weeks?) and finally, after who knows exactly how long, I found an afternoon to set aside and put my photos up already. They were going to look AWESOME on my page! I was going to start selling stuff and the momentum would come. I grabbed the camera, hooked it up to my laptop and went to download the photos.

The memory card was empty.

A sick sinking feeling, killing my creative energy set in. I asked Monkeyrotica what happened to the photos. He downloaded them, of course! He needed the camera. Where? How the heck should he know? The usual place. I spent hours and hours doing searches in the usual places. I searched by .jpg, by date, by DSC, I browsed, I used Adobe Bridge. NOTHING.

My Etsy shop languished with no new images of work for sale. Every time I thought of taking new photos of my work, that sinking feeling came back, reminding me that I ALREADY HAVE some fabulous photos, somewhere, if only I could find them! I gave up, figuring that they had been deleted.

Then, in mid-2011, we bought an Apple TV. Monkeyrotica had the genius idea of using our shared photo directory as a screen saver, randomly cycling our photos-from-all-time that exist on the hard drive. It's actually mesmerizing, seeing a photo of Dash running on the beach last summer next to Rosie at two months old wrapped up in layers for a stroller ride in the snow. I think a few weeks or more than a month went by when I saw one of the photos from the workshop!!! I think I screamed, "How can I find that!!??" Monkey shrugged. "It's a randomizer. It's in the photo directory somewhere."

At least they hadn't been deleted.

Anyone who's been reading my blog lately knows that I've been digging through the archives, looking for old photos of Rosie and Weegee. It wasn't until last night, when I couldn't find one of her birthday images that I was really excavating. Our photo drive is organized by year, based loosely on the size of the images, and the amounts of photos we were taking at the time. For example, Bundle #1 has years 2002 through 2006 on it, Bundles #2-3 have 2007, #4-6 have 2008, and so forth; we are currently at Bundle #13 for 2011. Where were the jewelry images? OUTSIDE all of the "Bundle" folders in a folder marked "DCIM"! Inside DCIM (WTF does that stand for?), there's a folder labeled "100SANYO" with 274 loose images in it. My photos were at the bottom of the directory.

I'm glad that I have them now, but more than a little upset that they were missing for close to two years. Anyone want to buy some origami earrings for a holiday gift? I take commissions...

And I've totally got to get them up to sell online. I was thinking about an Artfire.com shop this time. I'll post links when they're up.

Birthday Girl Rosie, 2003–2011

2011-11-13T22:06:00.001-05:00

From the photo archives:
Rosalie's birthday parties from 1st to 9th

Rosie's 1st birthday, 2003

Rosie's party this year was a combination birthday for her and Monkeyrotica, as well as a housewarming for us. We bought our home in late August of 2003. Three celebrations at once were very confusing for our guests!

Rosie's 2nd birthday, 2004

A house party birthday celebration for Rosie and Monkeyrotica with lots of friends and family. Actually, all of Rosie's birthday parties were shared with her dad until she turned seven.

Rosie's 3rd birthday, 2005

A house party with friends and neighbors.

Rosie's 4th birthday, 2006

Another large house party with lots of birthday sharing: Rosalie, Monkeyrotica, Liam O., and Jim S. were all represented. Sorry, couldn't find a birthday cake photo, this one will have to do, from a bowling alley party a few days before the party.

Rosie's 5th birthday, 2007

A large house party with 75 guests, 2 cakes and tons of fun!

Rosie's 6th birthday, 2008

A large house party, lots of guests and a home-made chocolate cake.

Rosie's 7th birthday, 2009

A family birthday event at Medieval Times, then a small sleepover party with a select group of girlfriends (and cupcakes).

Rosie's 8th birthday, 2010

An ice skating party with friends and a special strawberry-flavored maneki neko cake.

Rosie's 9th birthday, 2011

Rosie had a bowling party with friends and a rainbow cake the day before her birthday, then a birthday lunch with family at El Paso restaurant today. The ice cream was compliments of the staff! They sang to her and let her wear this special hat.

Happiest birthday, sweetheart! I love you so much; more every year. XOXOXO, Mommy

Rosie's Rainbow Birthday Cake (part 2 of 2)

2011-11-12T17:39:00.001-05:00

Rosie told me that she wanted a "rainbow cake" for her birthday months ago, and I had it all planned out, I did my research and was ready. But really, you can only know what you got yourself into once you've done it yourself. The ultimate result was a lovely (if a bit fragile) cake that looked almost exactly like I thought it would. See, the birthday girl was happy with the results and that's all that matters.

Happy birthday, Rosie!

To make the cake, it required two boxes of mix, oil, egg whites and water as directed. I bought special "food paste" at Williams and Sonoma to get the vibrant colors. Keep in mind if you use these to color your food: a little red goes a looooong way. My red and orange look pretty similar, but that's not for lack of yellow in the orange!

There was about 1.5 cups of mix per layer. The indigo/violet looked a lot more violet in real life instead of the gray it looks on camera.

A few of the layers stuck to the pans after cooling and I was a little inaccurate getting the layers to line up as you can see in the photo of unfrosted cake above, but after two entire tubs of frosting were applied, it all smoothed out!

The happy birthday song was sung, the candles blown out... (oh, hey, there was bowling, too)

and we cut open the cake!

Much fun was had by all.

Baking a rainbow cake, part 1 of 2

2011-11-11T23:43:00.001-05:00

Rosie's bowling party is tomorrow (as is Dash's karate promotion test) so I needed to get the cake started tonight. It's closing in on midnight and I just got the layers in the fridge a few minutes ago!The red, orange, and yellow layers are looking nice!

Green and blue layers turned out great, but indigo's looking pretty gray. The red food coloring must have had some orange in it... Oh well, it'll be on the bottom and nobody will pay it much attention. Wish me luck with the icing tomorrow! Rosie wants sky-blue icing with clouds drawn in.

A multipurpose room: dreaming

2011-11-10T22:12:00.001-05:00

A link to this article about an "origami apartment" featured in the NYT was posted on Laughing Squid today, and really activated my imagination. By creating a single cabinet with moving panels, hinges, folding surfaces, and storage spaces, a tiny room has been made liveable. From the architect:

"A single oversized custom cabinetry piece is inserted along one wall. The cabinet is packed with all of the functional components of a larger apartment including a bed, a nightstand, a closet, a home office, a library, kitchen storage, and most of the lighting for the room. An endlessly reconfigurable series of doors and panels can be opened and closed to create the spaces of the apartment."

This got me thinking about my ideal office/work space. I have an office and never use it because it's just got a big, immobile, uncomfortable, heavy desk in the middle of it. I want to chuck the desk and have multiple tables to set up an art space instead. I am so ADD when it comes to creating; I can't decide what craft or media to stick with because I want to do them all! Call me a multi-media artist, if you will. I want a sewing table and cabinet for sewing, a drafting table for drawing, a large flat surface for screenprinting (or stringing beads or setting up a lightbox to photograph work), a comfy chair to sit in to knit, a surface to set down my laptop to design/blog/surf for ideas, and tons of storage nooks, crannies, and containers to store all the supplies. On top of that, I want to be able to roll, fold, tuck, angle or flatten all of the surfaces to fit my needs OR best case scenario, be able to shove them all to the side in case I need floor space.

On top of that, I want to be able to cover all the stored items with curtains as needed, so there's no visual clutter from other projects when I'm focusing on one in particular.

A pipe dream? Of course! But, I can imagine it, so I know it's possible, even modified.

A furniture flashback: when I was a child, my room had this one awesome piece of furniture. The bed, dresser, and side table changed, but my "hutch" was always there. It was a large, shiny, white rectangle, possibly six feet high, with a seam horizontally splitting it at the center by a hinge. If I grabbed and yanked a nested, hinged piece that was attached at the top, a table would swing down and the piece I grabbed would become a table leg, with the table originating from the horizontal hinge. Once the table was down, the hutch revealed its nooks and crannies inside where I stored all sorts of stuff. I have tons of memories of opening that hinge when I was much too small to really be opening it, then praying that I caught the edge or jumped out of the way in time, so the table didn't crash down on me!

I want all my tables to be like that, to fold down from the wall, then tuck back in when I don't need them.

The article also made me think of a science fiction story written by Robert Heinlein, Citizen of the Galaxy, where a poor soul, Thorby, finds himself on a spaceship. He's spent all his life as a slave, then is freed and rescued to find himself in a small prison: a room with no windows, no door, just four white walls. After hours of frustration, a member of the ship's crew comes through a sliding panel (a door!) to check on him. By just waving his hand over a space near the door, drawers pop out of the walls and close, a small bunk raises up out of the floor, a sink is revealed, as is a table and chair that slide out of the wall. It wasn't a prison at all, it was a palace compared to what he was used to. Waving the hand again stowed all of these items away, leaving Thorby with just four walls again; but, he was now empowered to bring them out whenever he wanted and leave the room at will.

Can I have sci-fi now? That is the room I want. The origami apartment from above is getting closer to Heinlein's vision, but his visions of the future were so far ahead of reality, it's stunning. I need to read that story again! And dream of furniture shopping.

Wordless Wednesday: Weegee

2011-11-09T21:51:00.000-05:00

Wax on... wax off. Wax on... wax off.

2011-11-08T22:38:00.000-05:00

Dash started taking karate lessons in July 2010 (over a year and a half ago) but I only put him in one class a week, was inconsistent about making it to all the classes, and then I took him out for the summer. Not the best way to learn something as complex and skill-building as karate, but necessary. With summer camp eating up most of our discretionary funds, it was a budget thing. When he went back to classes in September—twice a week this time!—most of his buddies from the previous class were already blue belts and he was still a white belt. Not a big deal, except occasionally when he saw that he had better form than the blue belts. Then it rubbed a bit.

HIZA GERI! (knee kick, to you and me)

Fast forward to this past week, when he told me that yes, absolutely beyond a doubt, he did want to take the promotion test for blue belt. I was dubious, because while he does have good form and can punch and kick with the best of the blue and white belt students in class (yellow belts, not even close yet, sorry), he has absolutely no recall for the Japanese terms that Sensei uses or the patterns in the kata. He watches the other students and faithfully does exactly what they are doing. I'm concerned that he won't be able to perform solo or be able to answer questions that are directed at him. He'll be required to announce the kata that he's performing, "tai kyoku sono ichi!" and to perform it solo without error, which he hasn't done yet. I decided that it was a good idea for him to go for the promotion, if for nothing else but to have the experience of taking the test under his belt (a hopefully blue belt, sometime soon enough). Sensei will let him try again and correct mistakes that he makes until he gets it right at a later time.

Dash has got the right feet and hands up, the blue belt doesn't.

He may have had a breakthrough today, though. I've been trying to figure out the best way to activate his memorization skills, and realizing that we are utterly failing with the flash-card method. The blocks, punches, turns, and steps in the kata have been confusing, and I floundered to give him something to visualize: "Imagine the shape you're following is like a capital I!" I told him. But the rest didn't make any sense.

Working on fighting stance (Dash has the right foot forward)

In the car ride on the way home from class today, I'd been really trying to figure out a way to break down the kata in a way that Dash could practice it in his head, anywhere. A pattern came to me and I got him to repeat it with me. There are 20 steps in the tai kyoku sono ichi and three stages with hands and feet working in unison.

The arm movements are:
1. block, punch, block, punch, block, punch, punch, punch (ki-yai!)
2. block, punch, block, punch, block, punch, punch, punch (ki-yai!)
3. block, punch, block, punch, block (end)

The leg movements are:
1. turn, step, turn, step, turn, step, step, step (ki-yai!)
2. turn, step, turn, step, turn, step, step, step (ki-yai!)
3. turn, step, turn, step (end)

See the pattern? So easy to repeat once you get into the rhythm of it. Dash got so good at the repetition that once we were home, I pretended like I was a puppet and had him call out the moves while I performed them! I'll get him to practice himself a few more times every day before Saturday as well as get one more class in before then, and here's hoping he does well on his test!

Hey do you all remember what else is going on for Saturday? Rosie's bowling party! I've also got a cake to bake, goody bags to pack, and balloons to obtain. Can I have a clone for Saturday? I will definitely need two of me, for sure.

Parent-Teacher conferences were today

2011-11-07T22:08:00.000-05:00

Rosie is in third grade and about to turn nine; Dash is in first grade and just six years old. When Rosie was six, she was in kindergarten and was having all sorts of issues adjusting to public school. She wasn't paying attention in class, she was pestering her classmates, she wasn't finishing her in-class work, and overall was having trouble focusing or making bad decisions and was very hard to motivate, so her teacher put her on a behavior contract. So, it's three years later and apparently, she's an ideal student! She's adjusted well, is polite, keeps to herself, works independently, gets her work done, is testing well, and the only complaint that the teacher could manage was that she wasn't keeping her desk tidy. I'm totally okay with that.

The conference with Dash's teacher was another experience altogether. The teacher started out with, "I'm really concerned about our little guy." Never the greatest opening, but I'd prepared myself given all the extra reading stuff he's been coming home with. The reading, or lack of progress in reading skills was really of most concern to her. She expressed that Dash is a very hard worker, super polite, well-liked by all the other kids and plays well with them. He's more of a people-pleaser than Rosie ever was and wants to finish his assignments and get the answers right. He seems to be having a retention problem? Or a recall problem? He has difficulty answering back facts you throw at him, or memorizing lists, data, or naming words. Flash cards are not getting him anywhere.

I was noticing this when I was trying to help him study for his karate test. I'd tell him, "Dash, 'hiza geri' means knee kick and 'mae geri' means front kick, okay? Now, can you tell me what 'hiza geri' means?" And he'd answer, "Side kick?" This would be after practicing these words for half an hour with him, at least once a week for the past four months. I was pulling my hair out. It could be that he's just a young first grader, with a June birthday — some of the kids in his class are as much as nine months older than him and most have surpassed him. Or, it could be an actual learning disability. What's amazing, though, is that if you read him a book or a short story, he'll have perfect recall on all the details in the narrative. He's also incredible with his recall for details —names, vocabulary, colors — in certain TV shows and movies, down to if you hear a random song playing in a grocery store, he can tell you what movie soundtrack that he'd heard it played on.

He's not just having trouble with reading, he's struggling with writing as well. Here's an example of the writing he's been doing in class. I'm sure there's an elaborate story here with incredible amounts of detail, because that's the sort of story he tells, but I can't decipher the strings of letters. After a quick scan, I think he's talking about going shopping with me at Target for all the toys he wants for Christmas, but that's a shot in the dark. Mrs. S told me that her heart went out to him on this one! He was working incredibly hard to express himself.

He's so charming, sweet, and obviously intelligent that the teacher and I are at a loss. We'll just keep doubling up with intensive reading and writing work at home and at school and hope that it sinks in. Maybe he just needs time and attention, like his sister. If he does need some outside help, we'll find it for him. Anyone out there reading this, does what he's experiencing sound normal? common? treatable with therapy?

What I'm actually hoping for is that things work out for Dash they way they did for Rosie. We struggle for a bit, let him know that he needs to work at this(skating along is not okay anymore) and when he's nine, this issue will be long gone. Exciting new issues will arise to replace them, no doubt!

Rosie and Thea, BFFs

2011-11-06T23:46:00.001-05:00

KellyGo's Thea and my Rosie have known each other since they were infants. Rosie, Monkeyrotica, and I visited the hospital on the day Thea was born to Kelly and Todd in December 2003 and the two girls have been the sweetest friends ever since. I just rummaged through our vast photo archive and, while I'm not the greatest at documenting everything, I found an image of our two girls together represented for every year.

2004

2005

2006

2007

2008

2009

2010

2011

I wish they'll still be "BFFs" when they are old ladies together! Cheers to our girls. They rule.

The Vices that Made Virginia, Celebrating

2011-11-05T23:27:00.000-04:00

Monkeyrotica and I went to the second annual The Vices That Made Virginia, a sold-out annual event supporting sustainable food and agriculture for our second year. We had really enjoyed last year's experience, with great food, amazing wine and spirits, and fantastic people, so when we found out they were repeating the event, signed up immediately. The cherry on top to the soirée was the event's date: Monkey's birthday. We headed out, ready to enjoy ourselves. Taking a lesson learned from last year's cold and muddy experience at Woodlawn Plantation, I layered up my clothes, sported my galoshes, and managed to be perfectly, appropriately dressed.

An Arcadia t-shirt for sale at VTMV

When we arrived, we were a little early and the main tent hadn't opened yet, but the space was already thronging with people. What was the deal? I overheard someone talking about getting their tickets through Living Social, an online site for crowdsourced discounts, and understood immediately how and why the overall scene was much different from last year. Last year's group of people were primarily associated with the food industry, or the sustainable ag community, or just really into the restaurants/wineries/distilleries that were being featured. The overall effect for the previous event was a group of afficionados who felt privileged to be at an "Event Celebrating the Cause." This year, it was more like being at a tourist attraction. The Living Social ticket included an early arrival with a pre-event, cut-the-line bus pass for an additional fee. That explained that.

We got in line for drinks, then walked over to check out the handrolled-cigar area with my cranberry champagne in hand to catch a glimpse of the artisans at work. I think Monkey was able to see what was going on, but there were too many people blocking the low table, and I couldn't see a darned thing, so I hung in back until he showed up with his treasured new cigar in hand. We tried to head back outside, but were stuck. There were a clump of morons who were standing around, lighting their cigars right in front of THE FREAKING DOORWAY, oblivious to all the people on either side of them who were either trying to enter or leave the building. We pushed through, but I couldn't help ranting to Monkey about what idiots they were, and how despite getting shoved, they were all still in the same clump, being idiots, and I started feeling a lot better. Maybe it was the champagne or just that I let off some steam, but this is when I started to have a good time.

Portrait of Nylonthread and Monkeyrotica at Woodlawn Plantation

We skulked over to the main tent as the clock was closing in on 4 p.m., when the event was scheduled to open. Monkey knew (and the Living Social crowd likely did not) that the most scrumptiously delicious, large, and fresh (local, sustainable) oysters would be waiting at the back of the tent. We made a beeline for it. I scarfed down about a half dozen of the lovely oysters while he put away close to three dozen of the plump and briny delicacies. Nearby, there was a table set with Oysters Bienville, a salad of julienned brussels sprouts with maple-roasted pecans, and a selection of roasted root vegetables, all of which I sampled. All were wonderful and I couldn't help but think how lucky I was to be surrounded my so many fabulously prepared foods. The tent was filling with people as I squeezed my way past tables of food: pork shoulder, cheese ravioli, thinly sliced cured hams, and stopped at the shrimp and grits. The cook from Tallula was wonderful to watch — an artist with his presentations and adorably smiley and sweet to boot. As soon as he brought out a tray of small bowls each with shrimp lovingly arranged on a grit cake, cream sauce, then dressed it with basil oil and micro-greens, all the bowls were gone within 15 seconds. Monkey and I were squeezed next to his table and became entranced by this, so we timed it.

Tallula Eat Bar's shrimp and grits, just plated

I love this photo. I was waiting for just the right moment, after the cook finished plating all the dishes and before they were gone and almost missed it! See the grabbing fingers?

Sipping butternut squash bisque

We left the crowded tent to catch some air (read: Monkey got his cigar on) and the remaining shafts of sunlight for the day. We estimated the crowd count totals: 800? 1,000 people? A waiter handed me a small cup of butternut squash bisque and I savored every creamy drop. There was a photo booth, stocked with period costumes and wigs for silly people have record of themselves being silly. The staff were putting out space heaters around the tables where every third guest was smoking a cigar. Replenished, we headed back in to brave the longest line: pulled pork with apple-herbed coleslaw. People were queued up from the front of the tent to the back. We were feeling patient, so found the tail-end and stood. After finally making our way to the table, we enjoyed our servings. The pork was nice, but lacking in smoke flavor (however, there were smoked pig heads adjacently displayed — bait and switch?). Perhaps because of the large crowd, they weren't able to prepare for the large quantities with a smoker the way they did last year and went for oven roasting instead. Still tasty, and the slaw was a perfect accompaniment.

As we made our way to the front of the tent, we introduced ourselves to and joined a trio of friends at a small table and began making small talk with them when someone nearby yelped, "pies!" A swarm of diners advanced on the dessert table, and like a seething mass, dove in and out with multiple pie slices. The adventurous types at our table (not me! I watched and laughed from the sidelines) arrived with arms full of doubles of each selection for the group: chocolate-bourbon pecan pie, pumpkin pie, and key lime pie. I had one slice each of the key lime and pumpkin. Those sweet and creamy desserts called an end to our outing. We said our goodbyes and headed off to get the kids.

Happy birthday, Monkeyrotica, I hope you enjoyed our evening out! I wouldn't have missed any of its flavors, sour or sweet. Much love to you.

November is always nuts

2011-11-04T09:41:00.000-04:00

There's always plenty to write about in November, so there will be plenty of content fodder here this month, no worries! Whether I'll run out of momentum after putting up a post every day (for NaBloPoMo) is another matter.

Monkeyrotica's Birthday, 11/5

This weekend is Monkeyrotica's birthday — same day as Guy Fawkes' Night — and we're celebrating in style. We have tickets to "The Vices that Made Virginia" a sold-out event at Woodlawn Plantation tomorrow night. From their website:

"The Vices That Made Virginia is a rollicking outdoor celebration of the region’s finest farmers and food artisans ... a lively evening of bourbon, bluegrass, oysters, beer, wine and so much more – all designed to showcase the very best of Virginia."

We are going to have a blast!! We went last year and had such a wonderful time, talking, drinking, and eating with a great crowd of people—lots of real characters, too. I'm glad we can make it again. I doubt they'll be burning a Guy Fawkes effigy, but who knows? That would be a spectacle. Note to self: wear warm clothes and shoes I don't care about; it's outdoors and there's mud. Happy Birthday, Monk E.! Also big thanks to my parents who will be watching the kids while we're out.

Rosie's Birthday, 11/13
Right after we have Monkey's birthday, Rosie's is just a week away. She has invited a few close friends to join her at the bowling alley, to bowl in her 9th birthday. The party package includes pizza and soda, which makes me sigh—Rosie won't consume either, and they don't allow outside food in the alley. We'll have to find something else off their menu for her and hope the other kids don't notice. The challenge for me: Rosie wants a rainbow cake. Have you seen these? It's a six-layer cake with ROYGBV in the individual layers, she wants sky-blue icing and rainbow sprinkles. I haven't made one before and I'm planning to bake this one myself. Maybe I should do a trial run before next Saturday... Oh, and I talked my close buddy Staci into throwing her son's party at the same time and place! Since there are usually two parties rented in every slot, at least we'll be next to friends. And our sons can party in the Donovan's lanes while our daughters party in Rosalie's.

Craft night, 11/20
Other things going on? I have a craft night planned for November 20, which friends and I were chatting about on Google Reader before Google killed it (man, I'm bitter, I can't stop talking about it!). I'll have to check in with the interested parties and coordinate via email, invite, or G+. Heck, maybe I'll use the phone, who knows? We were going to knit, as a few of us took a knitting class last year and I might be the only one keeping up with it. We were all going to work on projects and help each other start/finish/fix what we couldn't figure out. The last time I was at my mother-in-law's, she destashed a huge bag of yarn on me, so I can offer some skeins to my friends. The kids were interested, too, so if we are all working, maybe they'll join in and learn something!

A big incentive to having a get-together at my house is that it'll make me clean up, which the place dearly needs. It's just clutter-heaven right now and we need to put crap away, donate, recycle, toss, anything.

Winter dance performance, 12/18 (coming right up!)
I'll also be practicing for the Winter Dance performance for the next month. I take a modern dance class on Thursday nights and we have a much larger group this year, with about nine teenagers and three adults. There's a holiday party every year and the Director, Mrs. H, invites several classes to perform in the studio with a packed audience of parents, siblings and family all sitting on the floor and standing room only. Our class is dancing to a Mannheim Steamroller song again, but this time we have props: a wand with very long streamers attached. They are incredibly fun to dance with. Really, I'm having way too much fun with them in class and Mrs. H has called me out for playing with them too much. Hee! I leave you with a photo of Monkey and me waiting for the dance recital to start from this past summer (I've got my stage makeup on and my costume's hairband).

Dash is reading, finally.

2011-11-03T10:55:00.000-04:00

Dash, reading on his own, in bed. (Totoro photobomb!)

Dash is in first grade. At the end of Kindergarten, he still wasn't reading many words, despite having an amazing vocabulary, an incredible imagination, lots of work with flash cards, and a very book-friendly home. I tried to engage his imagination by telling him reading was like being a spy and solving secret messages, but he just wasn't interested. He loves to be read to, but reading the words himself just took too long and seemed to consider actually sounding out each word to get to the message in the story to be a chore. His generation wants immediacy! Heck, I can find a particular episode of Voltron (a cartoon series from 1984 that only lasted two seasons) on Netflix streaming within a minute, what's the point of slogging through a book?

Since he started first grade, his teacher told me initially that he would catch right up with the other kids, not a problem. That's what they do in first grade! A few weeks later, a message was sent home that he was being put in an intensive reading group to bring him up to grade-level. I'm not sure what intensive activities they're doing at school, but they've been sending home a pouch with a series of easy-reader books and we sign off every night that he's reading them to us. We are also doing our best to read 2 to 3 books of his choice to him a night. It doesn't seem like much, but since we have to wrestle books away from Rosie and she's been reading since she was four years old, I just figured that Dash would come around and pick up reading at some point. We hadn't been pushing him.

It's been over a month since Dash started coming home with that special book pouch in his backpack, but the extra work has finally paid off. Yesterday, after driving home, rushing to get Dash to karate class, rushing home to take Rosie to art class, I finally got to eat a delicious dinner (prepared with love by Monkeyrotica) around 7:30. While I was eating, I had Dash do his spelling homework next to me (homework just started this week). When he finished, I got out his book pouch and asked him to read me a few of the books. He still wanted to be read a book, but I was busy clearing the dinner dishes and putting away food before I needed to leave and pick up Rosie from art class at 8:30. I paused to put him in his pajamas and got him ready for bed. I handed him one of his favorite new books "Earth to Clunk," and suggested that he read it to himself. I returned to the kitchen and the dishes.

The door to Dash's room is right off the kitchen and his voice carries. I could easily hear him reading aloud. He's had "Earth to Clunk" read to him so many times that he may have some of it memorized, but he slowly (with a few shouted requests for help) read it all the way through! I was so thrilled that I was late picking up Rosie from class because I wanted to get a good photo of him with his book! Cheers, Dash, may you enjoy many more increasingly challenging books in years to come.

Vacations are awesome.

2011-11-02T10:36:00.000-04:00

Photos from a trip I never blogged about:

For spring break 2011 the Strings went to Philadelphia, much like we did the year before. We stayed in the same fabulous hotel room (with the gigantic jacuzzi bath, perfect for entertaining chilled children after a long day of walking in the rain), at the cozy, historic inn in the Jewelry District. The kids loved the dining areas, which have continental breakfast in the morning and warm cookies after 3 p.m. The back dining room also had a floor-to-ceiling library with an eclectic collection of books. Dash pulled encyclopedias while Rosie perused the art books, and both of them generally acted like goofballs.

One fortuitous difference between this trip and the last one was that Kelly, Mike, Liam and Thea just happened to be in Philly at the same time we were! I had caught a tweet of Kelly's the afternoon that we were headed there; they had gone to New Jersey on a day trip, but decided to take a spur-of-the-moment side trip and had no idea we would be there too. How often does that sort of coincidence happen?

We met up for breakfast the next morning at Reading Market, and the Strings and the O's headed straight from there to the Philadelphia Museum of Art. [Kelly, if you have any pics of your family from that trip, send them my way and I'll add them in!] Featured works from the museum: Duchamp's Fountain and The Bride Stripped Bare by Her Bachelors, Even. Rosie and Dash are on the far side of the room in The Bride's photo, near the window, and if you look closely, you can see Liam's reflection in the glass, lower right.

Dash with Marcel Duchamp's Fountain


Duchamp's The Bride Stripped Bare by Her Bachelors, Even

We split up from our friends after the museum to see different sights, but had such a fun time as a group, much more so than if we had gone solo. All the kids love goofing around with each other so much. We visited the Franklin Institute again—Rosie and Dash were clamoring to climb through the giant heart once more, Rosie wanted to visit the Mutter Museum (Dash thought it was too scary last time, so he and I went to a yarn shop instead), and Monkeyrotica wanted to try the Famous 4th Street Delicatessen, a historic Jewish deli in Queen Village. We also spent some time poking around an old-school second-hand book store, complete with an in-store cat. One of the highlights of the trip for me was sneaking away from the fam to the 12th Street Gym for the best step aerobics class EVAR! Not kidding. DC doesn't do it like that anymore.

We ended up at our favorite restaurant from last time, Jones, where Rosie and Dash split the fried chicken and waffles dinner (waffles for Rosie, chicken for Dash), and Monkey and I enjoyed some delicious cocktails with our comfort food.

Photobombing at Jones

Rosie and Dash are already asking to go back! I know there are many other wonderful, educational vacation spots out there, but Philly is just far enough away to feel slightly exotic and just close enough for a day trip. There are still plenty of spots there that we haven't seen yet, so until the kids insist they've had too much of Philly, it's an awesome destination for us.

Blogging for the sake of blogging

2011-11-01T12:08:00.000-04:00

Why I Blog: For the Photos.
I love my family's photos. I love that they are patient, sitting and waiting on the hard-drive until I come by to browse and discover them. I just saw the ones below for the first time while going through archived photos last night and adore every little slice of life recorded in them, from back in March of this year. I didn't photograph them, Monkeyrotica or Rosie did, so I'm really seeing them fresh. I'm not even sure where we were or what we were doing back in March. It doesn't matter. They're mine and they're full of love.

Why I Blog: For Friends and Future Me.
The reason I started blogging in the first place was because of changes that were happening so fast in my life. I was pregnant and internalizing, not communicating well with family and friends about changes. This venue was perfect to get a dialog going with important people in my life, near and far. Years later, I am amazed and grateful to the former me, who thought to document my hopes, thoughts, dreams, good and bad. Looking back and re-reading posts from when my kids were infants, re-experiencing the joy of first steps, or reliving the horror of a missing child, makes me more whole, more me. These things are so easy to forget in a busy life. My kids are just-shy-of-nine years old and six-and-a-half now, and full of personality. Now that they've been a part of my life for so long, their every moves and things they say are no longer quirky novelties. They are known to me, adored and sweet.

Why I Blog: For People I'll Find along the Way.

The community I found while blogging was also an added bonus to the writing. I found friends that I've now known for years who live in Oregon, Alabama, Canada, Ohio, whom I've never met. I read their blogs, they read mine; for a while, anyway. A couple of years ago, everyone moved over to Facebook or Google Reader and we commented over there. But now, since Facebook sucks and Reader is gone (SOB! so sad, I hate the people who took it away :-(!!!), we need to come back to the blog as a community. Let's move our conversation back over here.

Why I Blog: I Need Challenges.

I'm looking forward to NaBloPoMo 2001! I just fell out of the blogging habit when there were so many other social venue options. Twitter/Facebook/Google+/Diaspora/Reader/Buzz? Where to connect? Who is there? How can I get in touch with my favorite people best? Bob knows I can't do them all. It's mind-boggling and my head hurts just thinking about thinking about it. Bring on the blog!

So, I'm committed, for a month. I've got my make-up on, let's do this!

Rosie's Fairy Garden

2011-10-07T10:22:00.000-04:00

A friend of mine who also has a young daughter suggested this fairy garden project as after seeing a post about it over here. We have corresponded about how her Katie and my Rosie love little things, like Littlest Pet Shop pets, Pixie Hollow, and other pretty, tiny things, so when she saw this project, she immediately thought of us. Just as expected, Rosie immediately wanted to make one, so she and I went to our wonderful local variety store to purchase a cheap plastic pot and a ceramic fairy figurine. We used craft/floral filler (reindeer moss?) that was around the house from an earlier project, rather than real dirt, to give a garden-like appearance. To finish the look she wanted, Rosie found a collection of tiny shells from our last beach trip, and voilà, a garden for a fairy!

She plans to add flowers later, but this was quite a success considering how impromptu our craft time was and how much she really wanted to finish her garden. She managed her time well enough, considering that she had five (5) homework assignments that she needed to complete before she could start it. Third grade homework, especially the terseness of the "dumbed-down" instructions, is already kicking all our butts.

More of the weird and random...

2011-09-23T13:40:00.003-04:00

A few years ago, I blogged about how some of my friends are connected to each other in bizarre, coincidental ways. I had a similar experience last night that made my head spin. I've written about how I met my husband, Monkeyrotica, through a personals ad, but not about why I was looking at personals ads in the first place. That's a tale that I was reminded of last night while I found myself face-to-face with the wife of my ex-boyfriend. Here's that story, from the very beginning.

I first met Andy when I was home for the summer after my freshman year of college. I was in a new place, didn't know anyone, so I was hanging out with my sister and her high school pals. He was nearby with a group of friends not in their clique; I have no memory of why we started talking, but we did and exchanged phone numbers. We had similar taste in music and in movies, but that's as far as it went. He was crazy for antique cars, performed in karate competitions, and talked up his experiences as the star of his HS distance cycling team. He was charming, charismatic, and came from new money; his father had built a local empire and his son got the spoils. There were certain personality issues that made it a summer romance and not a long-term one, in my mind: he was extremely anti-social, for one thing. He discouraged hanging out with his friends (bunch of "jerks") and had no interest in meeting the few I had—didn't want to "share me" on our dates. He never introduced me to his parents (we entered through his "wing" of his house without disturbing anyone) and when he came to take me on a date, he would honk from the driveway rather than make small talk with mine. This drove my parents to dislike him intensely.

Anyway, when I left for college after break I'd forget about him while busy with academics; when I returned for the summer he would start phoning again. I'd ignore his calls for a while, but once the boredom set in, I'd call back and we'd start up again. After I graduated from college and came home to stay, he was elated at first. He excitedly talked about having more time with me and started planning for a relationship. I played along for a little while, but really knew it was going nowhere—we had too little in common. My dad started taking an interest, negatively, and I found pages of personals ads left on the dining table after I came home from dates, with red circles drawn on good prospects. After a "disagreement" between Andy and me, I picked up the personals and seriously considered them. I chose Monkeyrotica's ad—not one that my dad had circled. I listened to the message on his phone box (pre-Internet in 1992) phoned and left my own.

Back to today: twenty years later, Monkey and I are about to celebrate our 14th wedding anniversary and have two lovely children. Yesterday, I was out with Dash, the adorable six-year-old, at his karate practice. There was one other mom also watching her son and between poking on our iPhones, we started chatting. Her son was one of the two Jacks—the light-haired one, not the dark-haired one—an eight-year-old with a yellow belt. We'd smile at each other when one of our kids screwed up and got yelled at by the sensei. I learned Jack was an only child, but was born in the same year/month as Rosie, my gorgeous and talented older child. She lived nearby and had been in the DC area for a while, but was from Connecticut (where my family is originally from).

Our sons were paired up to spar together and I heard the sensei call out Jack's last name. Same as Andy's. I hadn't thought of him in forever, but my brain made the connection anyway. I asked, "Is there an Andrew in your family?"

"My husband," she answered. I followed up with questions about his family in case there was more than one person with that name in town, got affirmatives to all. I must have been noticeably freaking out, because she asked me, "Are you having a 'moment'?" I looked at her more closely, noticing her brown hair, brown eyes and that she was the same height and complexion as me.

I can't keep my mouth shut sometimes. I told her I used to date her husband. I asked when they first met and found that it was about 6 months after Andy and I broke up. She was my rebound? They married five years later, in the same month and year that Monkey and I were married.

Okay, so for those who are keeping track of coincidences here:
1. we both met our spouses within 6 months of breaking it off.
2. we were married the same month and year.
3. our oldest children were born the same month and year.
4. she is the same height, and has the same complexion, hair and eye color as me.
5. she and I are both originally from Connecticut, but settled in the DC area after living in other cities.

Inevitably, Andy and I are bound to cross paths at the karate studio. Perhaps we have already and I had no clue, without any context. I'm not looking forward to it, to tell the truth. I have no idea what I'd say as we didn't split on friendly terms. I needed to document this story, though—coincidences are very intriguing to me. Is there a reason that our paths are crossing again after all this time?

Happy post-first-day-of-school haircut Dash!

2011-09-02T18:28:00.000-04:00

Pre-first-day-of-school haircut

2011-09-02T17:35:00.000-04:00

Portrait of sixth cousins! (I'm a geneology nerd)

2011-08-17T15:38:00.001-04:00

Our family had dinner with some distant cousins last night. I originally discovered these cousins while I was doing some serious geneology research on Monkeyrotica's family a few years ago and we've kept in touch through email, blogging, and Facebook. When they scheduled a vacation in DC, Dees (Monkey's cousin) emailed me to let me know. I was so happy to hear from them and schedule a meet up!

Rosie and Ann are only two months apart in age and became fast friends. Don't they look like first cousins and not sixth cousins, once removed? I introduced the idea of "pen pals" (very foreign concept) and am encouraging Rosie to write to her cousin. I lurved writing pen pals when I was her age and might still have some of their letters. They were often fast friends I made while I was on vacation with my family, too.

I'm looking forward to a Chicago vacation in the near future with my family so the cousins can meet up again!

Dave & Busters

2011-07-30T15:19:00.000-04:00

It's Brian's birthday, and we're celebrating by virtually exploding lots of electronics!

Rosie and Me on the St. Charles Streetcar

2011-07-22T09:35:00.000-04:00

We took a ride on the streetcar from the French quarter to a wonderful consignment store called "On the Other Hand" in the Uptown neighborhood of New Orleans. I remember the lovely and elegant proprietor, Kay Danné, from my last visit over eight years ago. I was three months pregnant with Rosie and was shopping for comfortable clothes. At the time, Kay had offered me advice on my pregnancy that I remembered took to heart.

Kay expressed delight that she was able to meet my daughter who was "just a twinkle" when we last met. I bought a purse, gloves, and shirt for Rosie and a few dresses, skirts, a shirt, a suit, and shoes for me. With Kay's amazing discounts, the total was still under $100.

After a week's vacation together

2011-07-21T19:48:00.001-04:00

Sleeping in the same hotel bed, attached at the hip, and they are still happy as can be!

Outside Antoine's Restaurant in New Orleans

2011-07-19T22:13:00.001-04:00

We had dinner tonight at Antoine's in the French Quarter. The kids looked so adorable, dressed so fancy! The dinner was lovely--we arrived early and had an entire room to ourselves. Our waitstaff was incredibly professional, so polite and following our every cue. The food was delicious!

Nothing's as vain as a peacock

2011-07-19T11:51:00.000-04:00

There was this peacock wandering at the Audubon Zoo in New Orleans and it let me get really close with my camera. It even looked like it was posing for me! I turned to Monkeyrotica and said, "wouldn't it be cool if it displayed its feathers?"

Just then, like it understood me, it did just that! So gorgeous!

On the road

2011-07-16T08:59:00.000-04:00

We packed lots of activity books for the kids to complete in the car--mazes, brainteasers, school workbooks--hoping they'll stay entertained. This is the first all-day roadtrip we've taken them on! I'm sure they'll get bored, or giddy, or maybe even fight. This is a test of our collective patience.

The New Orleans guide book we're using is from our very first trip to NOLA, in 1994. We brought it more for nostalgic purposes than utility; it has all our handwritten notes, highlighting, and crossouts from prior trips. I know a great deal has changed in New Orleans over the years, especially after hurricane Katrina, but many of the old institutions, historic flagship restaurants of the French Quarter, are still running. We have another, more recent guidebook as well, but the 1994 one is a clear favorite.

I've been asked a few times, what is there to do with kids in New Orleans? Isn't it enough for them to experience a little history, see a different way people live, ride streetcars, visit aboveground graveyards, spooky shops and museums? Must all things children experience for entertainment be Disneyfied and cater to them alone? I think they will have fun on this trip, but not necessarily in ways that we expect. I'll keep you all updated.

The most adorable game of soccer, evar!

2011-06-26T21:24:00.015-04:00

Rosie's been playing soccer this season (see a previous post) with a local soccer club. When they were issued red jerseys, their coach asked them to choose a name based on the color. They picked "Bloodsuckers!" Um... well, that lasted about a day until the coach thought better of it and insisted they vote again. The "Red Dragons" have played two games every Saturday, against two different teams in the club. A few weeks ago, she played another team in the club that her BFF Ava was on, as well as several of her 2nd-grade classmates. Mary Fowler, a professional sports photographer*, was there taking fantastic images of the girls in action. Below are just a few of many that featured Rosie (click on the images to see a larger size).

Ashley, Rosie, Ava (all three girls have been in ballet and tap class together since they were 4)

Janna, Savannah, Rosie (all in 2nd-grade class together)

When Savannah (on the opposing team) saw that Rosie was playing on their field, an amazing thing happened. She started cheering, "Let's Go, Rosie, Let's GO!"

Is Rosie waving at me? Her grandma maybe?

Nope, she's waving at her friend Elizabeth, on the opposing team.

It looks like Rosie's about to score here, but Ava defended her goal admirably.

In fact, after the goalie tossed the ball back into play (and Rosie ducked!), I saw Rosie go over to her friend to shake her hand, as if to say, "Great job, sweetie!" instead of following the ball with her teammates, that is. !

Rosie, Emily, and Ruth celebrating a goal.

Emily scored a goal during the game, but I'm pretty sure the overall score was a tie. They all had a great time and played very well against each other, with little or no competitiveness. I love that about recreational leagues.

*Mary Fowler mentioned to me that her fabulous photos are for sale at her smugmug site. She has a "Special Offers" category, wherein if you choose several sports images, she can print them all together, arranged as a collage, on one 11" x 17" sheet for one fixed fee.

Dash Is Six Today!!!

2011-06-22T07:36:00.019-04:00

Happy sixth birthday, Dash!!

Things you love right now: robots, Science!, running, mazes, jumping, making up amazing stories, daifuku mochi, sausages, ice cream sandwiches, watching movies, dressing up as a superhero or a ninja, all of your silly-named stuffed animals (especially Flippy, Puffy-shubby, Totoro, Coochie-duck, *Happy-duck, and Squirmy), anything Lego, Wii games, Star Wars, Bakugan, frisbee, books, waking me up first thing in the morning and asking for TV and breakfast, kisses, hugs, and "family love" (group hug with lots of kisses).

*Happy-duck, a 2nd-birthday gift from Kellygo, long-beloved by Dash!

You're the sweetest little guy, happy to spread your affection to everyone while humming a tune (in fact, you're always humming or keeping some kind of dialog going, so it's super easy to find you!). One of your favorite games to play with Rosie is one where you make lots of baby-noises (hoo-hoo, coo-coo, hee-hee) and she plays your mommy—super cute. You still like to root for the evil guy in movies, like the Sith Lords, so we'll be keeping an eye on that.

In this past year, you left pre-K, started and finished Kindergarten, took after-school soccer, Spanish language classes, practiced karate, continued ballet lessons, and participated in the dance studio recital for the second year. You've expressed to us that you like running and jumping the best, so we'll be sure to sign you up for the track club during the next school year.

For now, you've got the entire summer ahead of you! You're looking forward to your summer camp, our family vacation, and many trips to the pool. You'll be starting First Grade before we know it.

I love you, little man!!

Last day of school!!!

2011-06-21T17:52:00.000-04:00

Hello Summer!

Pre-recital portrait

2011-06-18T14:03:00.000-04:00

In "The Wild Kingdom" performance, Dash is a cardinal and Rosie is a frog. (I'm a zebra.)

End of Year Party

2011-06-17T10:41:00.000-04:00

Goals for the summer: biking and swimming

2011-06-15T07:29:00.018-04:00

School will be out for my kids in just one week and we are putting them in full-time summer day camp. Additionally, we are cancelling all extra activities (with their associated fees) that the kids have been involved in throughout the year, such as soccer, karate, Junior Jazzercise, Spanish language, art studio*, calligraphy, ballet, and tap.


Rosie's new bike, bought via Craigslist. A side note: the seller (picked for proximity only) KNEW me! I had met her and kids at a work party. How random is that?

What I would like to do for the kids this summer is two-fold: teach them to swim and ride bikes. I've been so busy shuttling them to activities and focusing on signing them up for stuff that actually getting out there and teaching them these skills has gone by the wayside.

Part of the block, I think, is that each of these skills is not something that they can do on a Tuesday and pick up the next Tuesday (which is typically how I schedule things). They need to practice for a little while every day for a week or two. I just watched a YouTube video that gave some great tips on how to prepare your child for bicycling, and it made so much sense! TAKE THE PEDALS OFF. Get your kid to practice pushing with their feet, balancing, and stopping (the new bike has a hand brake) all before the pedals get in the way. The video wasn't embeddable, but check it out here.

Rosie actually told me that she wanted to learn to ride a bike and to swim this summer, which is great! She really hadn't expressed much interest before. I think I can train them to ride bikes myself, but the swimming? Not so sure. I'll probably need to get private lessons or something, despite my training as a YMCA aquatics instructor 25 years ago. They are stubborn little creatures that refuse to put their heads in the water.

* Rosie told me that she will be very disappointed if she's not in an art class this summer...

Nymphs and other unnecessary things I know way too much about...

2011-06-06T12:44:00.002-04:00

This weekend, in the midst of struggling to juggle so many activities I had a few brief moments of clarity, wherein I am a savant. They were very brief.

Friday night, I saw X-Men: First Class at a local theater with my friend Staci who dearly needed a break from reality. I had such a blast watching the film, connecting with the ~~prequel~~ history of the X-Men ~~franchise~~ characters, as well as actors that I'd loved in other movies. Our evening wound down with a walk through Old Town and a mint julep-fueled movie discussion at The Majestic. The weather was gorgeous and the soft, cool summer breezes made me wish I could stay out all night.

Saturday was Rosie's last soccer game of the season, the earliest in the day—so at the very least, we got it out of the way first thing! Got changed out of soccer gear, and rushed Rosie over to Staci's to play with her BFF MEO and a whole mess of second-grade-classroom-raised chicks (see photo!) that Staci was keeping for the weekend. I barely remember lunch and getting Dash to ballet, but I'm so glad my brain clicked on enough to recall that I needed to buy Rosie new tights for her recital costume while I was at the studio. I had forgotten the third activity of the day: Dance Studio Photo Day. I remembered it about two hours before our first photo session, which gave me enough time to shower, put myself and Rosie in stage make-up, do her ballet bun, dig up the kids' costumes and mine out of various bags, closets and car trunks, and warn Dash over and over that he was wearing white pants, do not jump, kneel, or brush up against anything. All photos were done by 6:45. Whew. I had enough down-time left over to commune with my new ~~guilty pleasure~~ addiction: Netflix's five seasons of Ghost Whisperer.

Sunday, I fit in an aerobics workout, and we all went to the pool for a delicious picnic lunch. Highlights of the pool: the West Potomac Crew was having a party there, and many of the high school students were swinging on swings and playing on the playground equipment (intended for the 5 to 12 age set). *Snicker.* Rosie and Dash socialized with a couple of pool friends.

When was I a savant? My brief moments of non-floundering parental glory were when Rosie asked me what a Nymph was. I was able to educate her on my semi-exhaustive knowledge of dryads, oreiads, hamadryads, naiads, and their respective residences and anti-social habits. Also, while I was talking with a friend about seeing X-Men, I dazzled her with my ridiculous knowledge of the actors in the movie, all their previous roles in other movies, and the backgrounds of the various X-Men characters and how they relate to each other. Actually, strike savant. I think I can solidly be labeled a GEEK.

Portrait of Nylonthread

2011-05-13T15:01:00.000-04:00

An executive at my office was coming in to have her portrait taken, so my boss was setting up the photo shoot and needed a model to test his lighting. He sent me this image, out of all the test shots, because he liked it and thought I'd appreciate the image. I played around with levels and curves because the original was very dark and red-toned, but didn't try to clone out anything or smooth wrinkles.

So, that's me, with minimal make-up, photographed with professional equipment and lighting, by a guy with some training.

Mother's Day gifts

2011-05-11T11:22:00.003-04:00

This impatiens plant was worse for wear after spending the weekend in my little guy's backpack, but shortly after the Sunday morning delivery, I repotted it, watered it, and put it in the sun.
Dash didn't want to spoil my Mother's Day surprise by delivering it early!

My second Mother's Day gift was this lovely painting, with Dash's little hand outlined, holding gorgeously colorful flowers! I also got a card from Rosie.

One more thing, does anyone remember this post? Well Dash does. We camped out in the backyard in August of 2008, almost three years ago. So, what makes the cut when he draws a picture of dear mommy? Him and me in sleeping bags, in a tent. I think his caption was meant to read: "I love my Mom because she slept with me in a tent." Honestly, he's been a bit nutty about sleeping bags lately! He was weeping and cranky on the way to school last week and the only way I was able to distract him was to talk about how if you have two sleeping bags, you can zip them together to make a HUGE sleeping bag and the considering the possibilities got him out of his funk. Cutie.

First Soccer Club Practice!

2011-04-07T14:11:00.000-04:00

Rosie attended her first practice with the soccer club! She's been participating in an after-school soccer program for a few years now, but I have had no indication that they actually play games; it's more about gaining skill with the ball and agility as a player.

Her first two practices were rained out (and the temps were in the 40s—brrrr!), so in desperation, the coach scheduled an extra practice this past Sunday. They had beautiful weather and the girls had such a fun time.

One part Rosie didn't like so much: in their scrimmage, there was an odd number of girls, so the coach asked her to be a "floater," meaning she was on the team of whomever held the ball. Practically, this meant the other girls didn't know which team she was on and nobody passed the ball to her. That's a tough position to play, but someone has to do it!

The next practice is tonight and her first game will be this Saturday. Cross your fingers for good weather!

The Egg Hunt

2011-04-06T15:12:00.000-04:00

I knew my darling readers are thirsting for more art, so quench yourselves on this lovely pen and ink drawing, composed by Rosie, titled "The Egg Hunt."

If you are having trouble with the penmanship or the narrative, I believe this is her characters' dialog:

Rosie: Hey, mom I found one!

Mom: Dear, there's some more up there. (pointing to impossible-to-reach-spot)

Rosie: Okay.

The Easter bunny, pictured amazingly close to our dear protagonist, is very nicely drawn, don't you think?

Portrait of the Artist

2011-04-02T20:21:00.002-04:00

Rosie portrayed Georgia O'Keeffe at
her 2nd grade "living wax museum"
(complete with blue sticker "buttons" to
activate their speeches) on Friday.
Based on facts from an O'Keeffe
biography, I coached her to say,
"I burnt my early works because they
were derivative," and "I wear all black
so the critics will take me seriously."
She was excellent! Looking very
serious in this photo... She painted her
O'Keeffe-esque prop all on her own.

Dash lost his first tooth!

2011-04-02T10:45:00.000-04:00

It was at the dentist, because it's been wiggling for weeks & not coming out on its own. The permanent tooth behind it wasn't doing its job, coming in without moving the baby tooth first.

Overbooked, Overscheduled, Oh!

2011-03-25T15:09:00.000-04:00

Dash's karate kick!

Months ago, back at the beginning of the school year, I made a personal decision. Now that I had two kids in public school, which comes complete with the shorter days that make a working parent's nerves twang, I had to make a concession. Either my kids would come home from school and watch TV until 6:30 when I arrived, then quickly shovel dinner in and finish homework before they dropped; OR, I would shorten my hours so that I could be home when they got home. I shortened my hours.

When I first envisioned the extra two whole hours balancing away in my work-life scenario, they seemed like golden, glittering minutes, full of promise. I could choose after-school activities for the kids. I could go to the gym. I could get all those to-do lists of home-chores done. We could gambol in the yard, go for hikes, schedule playdates! So, you smart people, you already know the reality, don't you?

What really happened at first is that when I got home earlier, the chores started immediately, dinner happened much sooner, and then TV and homework and collapsing. No gamboling, no walks, no hazy crisp fall afterschool playdates. Perhaps what was wrong here was a lack of structure, I thought. I started to schedule activities.

Rosie and Dash were already taking tap and ballet classes on Wednesday and Saturday, respectively. Last summer, we added Saturday karate for Dash, while Rosie did Japanese calligraphy. They were also taking afterschool soccer on half-day Mondays, but that ended at 2pm and Grandma S picked them up (thanks, mom!!). Of course, I have my modern dance class too, on Thursdays. This winter, we added art classes for both Rosie and me on Saturdays and Mondays; soccer had ended, Rosie dropped calligraphy and I took a break from dance just for home-life balance with the art class. For Dash, we added a language class on Wednesdays, Spanish, and for Rosie we added Junior Jazzercise on Thursdays, which just ended. The Winter-term art classes just ended, as well. Have you lost track yet?

Here's how things look at the moment:

Monday: nothing
Tuesday: nothing
Wednesday: Spanish, tap
Thursday: modern dance
Friday: nothing
Saturday: karate, tap
Sunday: nothing

Only three days booked? My brain fired: must schedule MORE!!! What did I do? I signed the kids up for Gunston Soccer Club, a local competitive league. I sure had my rose-colored glasses on, because I thought that since some close friends who have kids (the same ages and genders as mine) were also registered, that all I had to do was request that we have the same teams for our kids and it would happen! I imagined carpooling and sideline flask-sipping with adult friends while our kids frolicked happily around the soccer fields.

Reality hit when I got their coach assignments and details about the league. A gut-punch to the stomach: neither child was on our friends' team rosters. Carpooling? Out the window. I only recognized one parent's email address from either list. But the freak-out really happened when I saw the scheduling... Thursday practices for Rosie starting at 5:30 (with an optional Tuesday clinic), and game day Saturdays; Friday practices for Dash (at a different location) at 5:30, game day Saturdays—each child would have two games back-to-back, with times scheduled by luck of the draw. With two kids, you could potentially be at the soccer field for most of Saturday, worst case scenario.

What was I thinking? Dash already had two Saturday activities! And while Rosie likes soccer well enough, she wanted to continue with art or Jr. Jazzercise, which are scheduled on Saturday and Thursday, overlapping. This is a very popular soccer club! How do all the other parents do it?

In tears, I emailed Dash's coach and told him that I wished to withdraw Dash, sight unseen. He was very nice about it, even trying to offer scenarios for me to keep Dash in the club. I stuck to my message and said no, again and again. He finally got it and took Dash off the roster. Instead, I put Dash back into the Monday afterschool soccer, where there were no conflicts. Rosie will stay with Gunston for now—I'm curious to see how the club works and whether it's manageable for future seasons.

A quick recap of schedule to be (four days scheduled):

Monday: Dash, soccer
Tuesday: nothing
Wednesday: Dash, Spanish; Rosie, tap
Thursday: Rosie, soccer club practice; me, dance
Friday: nothing
Saturday: Rosie, soccer club games (starting 4/9); Dash, karate & ballet
Sunday: nothing

I've still got ideas bouncing around in my head. I want Dash to try the track team and Rosie to get back in art. I'm not sure this soccer thing is going to work, but if she likes it, that's what counts (I know Dash loves it). I'm here to give my kids opportunities to try different things and see what they're good at, learn to use their bodies and minds, practice and develop. I'm helping them become well-rounded little people.

But, y'know, I still need to be able to schedule a haircut for myself now and then.

While the Fox Eats his Dinner, the Siren Tempts the Kraken

2011-03-01T20:10:00.007-05:00

Rosie and I are both taking classes at The Art League for the first time this semester (okay, the second time for me, but the first for both of us). My silkscreen instructor told us a few classes ago that there would be a student show open to all current Art League students; we could each enter one piece, no charge. Heck, I thought, why not enter? It would be a mild ego boost for me and a big feather in Rosie's cap. Decision made, I filled out the forms and we each picked one piece from our class portfolios.

Rosie chose an oil pastel drawing she made of a reclining fox, ready to eat his dinner. We have at least one family of wild foxes in our neighborhood and Fantastic Mr. Fox is a favorite movie, so she is familiar with her vulpine subject.

Mine was the second design I made for the term, a five-edition print of a kraken and a siren, completed in three passes with four ink colors. The design was transferred to the screen using a photo-emulsion technique that I'll need to experiment with more at home. The underwater scene is composed from antique renderings of a giant squid, Edmund Dulac's 1911 illustration of the mermaid from Hans Christian Anderson's A Little Mermaid (a favorite book illustration from my youth), and my own drawings of fish and coral/sea plants.

Monkeyrotica and I made plans to meet BFFs Kelly and Mike at the Art League gallery to see the student show along with all the kids after having a wonderful lunch at Atlantis. So consistently tasty, is Atlantis! After we arrived at the Torpedo Factory Art Center and while I was waiting on everyone to finish taking potty breaks, I got a call from the gallery (just one floor below us). My Kraken piece had sold!! I was elated! Luckily for us, the buyer had agreed to let the gallery keep the piece until the show closed and we could still visit it. Monkeyrotica wanted to take a photo of me with my artwork and the kids insisted that they be a part of this moment:

I had gifted an edition of The Kraken to Kelly, who told me later "You should have seen Thea's (pictured far right) face when she realized that the piece hanging in the gallery was also hanging in our house. So impressed in her own 7-year-old-way."

This whole experience has left me wondering why I never followed this route professionally or even as a hobby. The last time I entered a gallery show was in my senior year of college, too many years ago to count. Okay, honestly, I've never thought I could make a living as a fine artist, and I'm still not sure I have the marketing stamina to make a go of not working for the man. Having artwork in a gallery—and selling it too—has been a great experience!

P.S. The "We will miss the bees" t-shirt I'm wearing was created by Tina Seamonster.

Picky eaters and creeping outside comfort zones

2011-02-10T11:09:00.001-05:00

In our household, Rosie continues to limit her food choices the most. The only two meats she'll eat are white-meat chicken (no skin) and bacon. While she eats several vegetables, for some reason lately she's been eliminating fruits (won't eat bananas and says the canteloupe doesn't taste right—could be an out-of-season thing)? If we let her make the decisions, she would be eating starches all day, every day; her favorites are cereal, pasta, rice, chips, and breads. Thankfully, she will eat several kinds of easy-to-pack nuts and beans. I'm still struggling to assemble lunches for her that she will finish.

I'm counting this as a small victory: the two foods she's added to her favorites list in the past month are sugar snap peas and yaki-nori. While the nori has been reserved as a dinner-only treat, the pea pods are very easy to pack into her lunches. A newly beloved toy purchase (courtesy Monkeyrotica) may have been an inspiration behind the fascination with peapods:

Dash, on the other hand, has developed a taste for daifuku mochi, and wants to eat the tasty Japanese treats with every meal. I'm *not* NOT encouraging this at all, but those darned things are pretty hard to locate in this area. There aren't any Japanese groceries nearby and the ethnically Asian (mostly Korean-run) markets that we do have appear to have biases against Japanese goods and don't carry them. Monkeyrotica and Grandma Ikiko have found the treats in the outskirts of Prince George's County somewhere, and bless them.

Overall, we are still at parenting-fail mode in terms of cooking one main course at dinner that everyone will eat. It seems to work for some families, but it's not happening here. Dinner last night was delicious lamb-burgers for Monkeyrotica and me, breakfast sausages for Dash, and chicken breast for Rosie. Everyone ate the broccoli, carrots, and french fries, so that was a winner, right?

Tell me about the food struggles you have with your kids in the comments!

WTF are CogAT and NNAT2 tests?

2011-01-21T11:54:00.003-05:00

Back in October or perhaps November, a note came home in Rosie's school folder among many other papers, homework, books, etc. I recall scanning it and without paying any attention to the context, read this statement, "WEDNESDAY: Be sure your child gets a full night's sleep and a good breakfast Thursday morning!!" Thinking it was good advice in any situation, I made arrangements for thorough sleeping and eating to happen. Later on, I learned that her second-grade class was being tested for academic abilities, with results to be compiled and distributed in months to come.

Months later, Rosie's results are in. And they are just that, numbers, percentages, bar charts, with no context. The way they are completely devoid of context appears most carefully contrived, in fact. Even the online information about CogAT and NNAT2 is vague, from Wikipedia:

The Cognitive Abilities Test (CogAT, CAT) is a K–12 assessment designed to measure students’ learned reasoning abilities in the three areas most linked to academic success in school: Verbal, Quantitative and Nonverbal. Although its primary goal is to assess students’ reasoning abilities, CogAT can also provide predicted achievement scores when administered with the Iowa Tests of Basic Skills.

CogAT is also often used to help educators make student placement decisions, especially when selecting students for Gifted and Talented programs. [<--- my italics—aha, a clue!]

Soooo, as a parent, do I need to do anything? While I'm not going to report Rosie's numbers on this post, I will say that she was rated "high-average." Is this just a test for educators to discuss with other educators? There's a note in 6-point type (read: fine print) at the bottom that states, "If you need assistance with score interpretation, please contact your child's teacher." Given a recent communication from the school's vice principal, the school is being contacted by many confused parents! From Mr. F:

Due to an overwhelming number of emails and phone calls regarding the screening process for the Full-Time Level IV Advanced Academics Program, Ms. S and I will be hosting two information sessions next Tuesday afternoon, 1/25/11 from 4:15–4:45 & 5:00–5:30.

Another clue: "Level IV AAP" is the new, more-PC term for "gifted & talented" program. I may find my answer at this meeting, I guess. I'm going and will find out WTF they're talking about.

Getting my hands dirty, at long last

2011-01-12T07:53:00.000-05:00

Graphic designers use computers all day long at work, which is a reality that I wouldn't have easily anticipated when coming out of school oh so many years ago. When I chose the graphic design field, it was because it promised a desirable balance of tech and traditional art/illustration. Even in the first decade of my career, there were still light tables, drafting tables and markers within our offices. Not so anymore. Along the way, illustrating by hand became more or less economically unfeasible—on the computer it's so much faster and accurate, easier to make revisions, and much less messy. Customers these days have no idea what to think if presented with a preliminary sketch (I learned the hard way a few years ago), they expect to see a "final" illustration and still be able to easily and quickly make major revisions to it.

I miss traditional drawing media and the hand-eye precision it requires, the happy accidents and discoveries you make along the way. I'm resolving to not eliminate creating original works of art from my personal work, at the very least; and, I'm trying something new, a technique outside my comfort zone. I'm taking a semester-long, studio art class to learn screenprinting. Thinking back, the last art class I'd taken that was more than a day-or-two-long workshop was back in 1997. Yikes.

After attending one of those workshops a while back, a hands-on screenprinting demo, I was excited by how easy it seemed to create a lovely product from a simple stencil. Revved with enthusiasm, I asked for a screenprinting kit as a birthday gift. I gave it a try at home and was quickly intimidated by the kit. It came with too few instructions and several mysterious solvents and chemicals. There were too many opportunities to fail without any knowledge base to troubleshoot from. Even though I tried to invite some printing-experienced friends over to help me get over my hang-ups, the craft-dates didn't materialize; I had screenprinting paralysis. The kit started to gather dust.

My first class was this past Monday night. The instructor gave us some history of screenprinting, having herself learned the technique in its American heyday back in the late '60s, early '70s. We started out with cutting a simple design out of freezer paper, attaching the freezer paper to a screen, and printing our stencil using a mix of three or more colors across the screen. We got to the business of creating our designs rather late in the class, but thankfully, I'd brought a sketchbook that had some drawings in it from when I was designing Dash's raccoon doll and was able to get something down on paper quickly. Wrapping my head around making a stencil with the appropriate negative and positive cutouts for my sketch was a little tough that late at night (the class is from 7 to 10 p.m.), but I managed it. I finished seven raccoon prints and cleaned everything up just after class officially ended. (Photos to come—sorry, we were so pressed for time, I wasn't able to get my camera-phone out with paint-splattered fingers.)

I have homework for next week's class—coming up with a high-contrast grayscale (or straight black and white) design to print out on a transparency. Looking forward to it!

Somehow, in NOLA...

2011-01-09T16:44:00.000-05:00

In my dream, it was like I was just waking up, except I was driving. It was morning, but still dark; the car clock said 2:25. Strange, brightly colored lights and signage were all around me, was I at an airport? I tried to recall the last thing I could from the night before... I was leaving Philadelphia for home, but was I alone then? I was alone now.

While I navigated the airport exits—departures, arrivals, parking decks—I looked at the interior of car I was driving. Unfamiliar. In, fact, there was nothing in the car except me and what I was wearing. No purse, no luggage, just clean new car smell. A rental? Then the fact that I had no wallet hit me and with the realization, as always, a wall of panic. No ID, no access; no credit cards, no money. And where am I? The airport signage didn't give location data.

I hastily parked the car somewhere on a side street and got out. There were many pedestrians, heading swiftly to their destinations. I stopped a couple, asked them, where are we? Louisiana, they said, near New Orleans. I reeled. I want to go to New Orleans! But, with my family, not like this. Where were they? What day is it? Was someone waiting for me somewhere? Where is my wallet, my cell phone? I need to make a call.

And just like that, my dream ended. I awakened to the sound of a child opening his door, feet padding the hallway, heading for the bathroom.
........

The night before, I was dining with friends and the subject of vacations had come up. We discussed a springtime trip to Philadelphia and a summer trip to New Orleans. See how those destinations featured above? We haven't worked out the plans yet, though Monkeyrotica has been bugging me to book travel and hotels for weeks.

Rather than trepidation about the destinations, I think this dream is about my feelings on the unsettled logistics of the trip. How will we get there? Driving? Flying? Will we have enough funds to support a single vacation, let alone two?

My Totoro Plush Is Done!

2010-12-20T08:09:00.005-05:00

Almost three months ago, Rosie and Dash enjoyed watching Toy Story 3 on video. The one thing in the movie that stuck with Dash more than all else was that little Bonnie had a Totoro doll in her toy collection. Having never seen Totoro in doll-form before, but immensely adoring him from the fantastic Hayao Miyazaki film, My Neighbor Totoro, Dash wanted one. Badly. He knew I was capable of making dolls, and started asking me to make him a Totoro doll—and continued asking persistently, for weeks. I finally sketched it out, bought fabric and started at the beginning of November. Here's the initial sketch:

I cut out the parts, got a little burnt-out on the hand-sewing/embroidery necessary for the boomerangs on the belly and the smile, and put it aside for a few weeks after getting a little more than this far:

At the beginning of December, I'd sewn on and stuffed the belly circle, stitched the arms up and painted the pupils (with black & white nail polish) onto the buttons. All that was left was making the claws, the ears, stitching it all together and stuffing, so this weekend, I decided to finish it. Here's the final result:

And this is the happiest boy ever.

This movie is kakashka.

2010-12-06T07:21:00.008-05:00

"Kakashka!" from Dash's review of Inception.

We were watching Inception at home, with the kids, knowing that they would in all likelihood not be able to understand what on earth was going on. To be clear, we weren't planning for this to be a family feature, but once the film started, our movie-loving kids just gravitated to the rec room. If you haven't seen Inception, you may have at least heard that it's a DENSE, multilayered movie. It takes brainpower to follow the plot, necessary to recall all the prior twists as the next ones occur, to know which dream or non-reality the players are experiencing.

From Roger Ebert's blog review:

"...the viewer of "Inception" is adrift in time and experience. We can never even be quite sure what the relationship between dream time and real time is. The hero explains that you can never remember the beginning of a dream, and that dreams that seem to cover hours may only last a short time. Yes, but you don't know that when you're dreaming. And what if you're inside another man's dream? How does your dream time-sync with his? What do you really know?"

While Rosie quietly took the movie in, maybe or perhaps not understanding the plot's obtuse angles, Dash had an opinion part-way through the film:

"Mommy, this movie is kakashka."

I could have taken the word as imaginative, as Dash makes up words all the time, but there was something definite about his tone. So I asked, "Kakashka? What does that mean, Dash?"

"It's Russian for poop."

Before I even went to the place where I wondered how he knew this, I boggled. Inception was so unfollowable and impenetrable for five-year-old Dash that he had to describe how awful it was IN ANOTHER LANGUAGE.

(Back story on the Russian: Dash's table-mate at school, Katya, had just returned from a 3-week family trip to Russia. Katya's older brother, Andrei, had been sharing some slang he picked up, passing it on to Dash through Katya.)

We all sat through to the end—Monkeyrotica and I thoroughly enjoying the mental workouts in the screenplay, the excellent special effects, and the wonderful actors—but Dash didn't waver from his first impression: pure murky poop.

The importance of being cozy

2010-11-11T09:20:00.000-05:00

Dash's favorite word, above all others at the moment, is COZY. He likes to be cozy, wear cozy clothes, and have fluffy, cozy stuffed animals with names like "puffy," "furry," and "fuzzy" around him. When he's "cozy," he becomes an adorable caricature of a happy little boy. He curls up into a ball, a sweet smile shows up on his face (pictured above), he might start bouncing around a bit, and emits giggles or what seems to him to be happy-baby noises, i.e., "hoo-hoo, hee-hee, aaaaah!"

If his big sister Rosie is nearby, this cozy activity will jump-start her maternal and dramatic instincts. She rushes over, announces, "Oh, what a cute little baby!" and gives him hugs or pretends to rock him to sleep; she might stage a baby-feeding session or cover him with more blankets or toys. Clearly, this is the type of attention he's looking for! They both soak it up and symbiotically enjoy the baby-play.

At five years old and a few days scant of eight, this is all pretend play, of course. Rosie has quite the flair for improvisational drama while Dash loves to channel memories of being a baby. Some days, I'll find him in a melancholy, nostalgic mood, pining for his "baby things." When I try to pin him down on what baby thing he misses, he won't really be able to specifically say. He just knows that he had "baby things" and that we gave them away. I'm pretty sure what he's missing is the Nuk. He was awfully attached to it, and while we weaned him off two years ago, he probably has retained faded memories of something he once had that made him feel comforted.

For now, he'll just have to stick with cozy.

I dreamt about a puppy last night

2010-11-11T08:32:00.001-05:00

Courtesy www.dailypuppy.com

In my dream, I was already in a pet store (or the breeder's home?) and had the puppy in my arms. The puppy had soft ginger and white fur with a freckled nose, and the breed name "Springer Spaniel" popped into my head. I was having a conversation with the owner that, in my memory of it, was a little muddled—probably about the health and personality of the dog—but in my dream-heart, I was already in love and was bringing it home.

For some reason, while I was standing there still holding the puppy and thinking about how much fun it would have in my fenced back yard and with my kids, someone started closing up shop, turning the lights out on me. I started yelling out questions like, "Wait! Do I need a crate for this dog? Can I get some puppy food?" and was answered, "No, this breed doesn't need to be crated. And, we're closed. Go to PetSmart for your supplies."

As I was walking out the door (and becoming more awake) reality was striking me. I owned a dog! I was going to put a dog in my car! I was going to take a dog home to Monkeyrotica, who doesn't want a dog. Where was the dog going to sleep? Would the dog get along with my parrot? Would it try to eat my parrot? Around this time, I woke up.

But the memory of a soft, warm, lovely, playful puppy remained with me through the morning.

Portrait of Weegee

2010-11-06T21:42:00.001-04:00

I just found this photo of our pet parrot floating in my camera's photo archive. Rosie must have taken it, as Weegee looks totally comfortable; he has the opposite reaction with the boys. Nice lighting and expression!

I think I'll need a clone come November 13th.

2010-11-04T15:30:00.002-04:00

(Stricken text taken from Leonard's tattoos in the 2000 movie Memento.)

~~Never answer the phone.~~ How will I keep track of all this?

Fact 1. ~~Male.~~ November 13th is Rosie's 8th birthday. She has invited a select group of her friends, mostly from her 2nd-grade classroom, to go ice skating (thankfully, outside the home).

Fact 2. ~~White.~~ The ice skating party falls squarely over the lunch hour, so I'll be catering lunch as well as cake for the party. Solution: Pizza delivery services will help with this one, and I've asked a party guest's parent to make the cake.

Fact 3. ~~First Name: John or James.~~ Dash's karate class and his dance class will both be overlapped by the birthday party. Solution: We will do a make-up class later on for karate and a parent of one of Dash's playmates will deliver him to dance; Monkeyrotica will pick Dash up.

Fact 4. ~~Last Name G___.~~ Monkeyrotica has a dental appointment that overlaps Dash's karate and the beginning of Rosalie's party. Um, yep. And I scheduled it, I sure did.

Fact 5. ~~Drug Dealer.~~ Monkeyrotica's birthday is tomorrow (if you read my blog and you feel like it, wish him a happy day on 11/5!) and we are ALSO having a party for him (with his select guests) later in the afternoon on November 13th (yeah! two parties on the same day!!). Monkey will be prepping barbecue for it starting the night before, before and after the dental appointment, and all the way up till his party. I'll drop Dash off at his playmate's house and head to Rosie's party after he leaves for the dentist and will be back to help two hours before it starts.

Fact 6. ~~Car License Number SG137IU.~~ Um, I think I need to take Friday, Nov. 12th off! I'll be delivering birthday cupcakes to Rosie's classroom that afternoon and will very likely need the whole day to get the house ready and obtain supplies for the weekend.

~~I'm disciplined and organized. I use habit and routine to make my life possible.~~ Between now and then, I'm planning to unpack the basement, make Rosie and Dash each a Totoro doll (already started), and maintain the entire house in a presentable state for guests. I keep telling myself:

"I can fit it all in! Of course, it'll all work out in the end and everyone will have a great time."

I'll be repeating that mantra in my head all the way until 11/14.

On my way to the polling place...

2010-11-03T08:26:00.000-04:00

I voted yesterday afternoon, at the third polling place I'd visited in the day. No, I wasn't confused or lost, but it was a little irritating that you can't vote at the place that's closest or most convenient to you. We must vote at the polling place that has been arbitrarily assigned to residents based on some arcane boundary system. Whatever.

When I dropped the kids off at SACC (which was all-day, due to the school closures for teacher conferences and voting), I hit the first polling place. I actually asked the elections officials there if I could get my vote in while I was there and was denied (irk!). A few hours later, I had a mid-morning teacher conference concerning Rosie's progress at the second polling place. As I entered, a couple of cheerful leafleters attempted to press their documents into my hands, but I had to convince them that I was not there to vote. Although the conferences were running behind schedule and I had about 45 minutes to kill, I didn't bother checking if I could get my vote at this location—those elections people are pretty hardcore.

The conference itself was glowing as always with Mrs. Clark (she LURVES Rosie with all her heart). Mrs. Clark told me things I'd heard before, such as Rosie is a unique thinker, not cookie-cutter, takes projects in directions none of the other kids think of; she blew all the other kids out of the way on her spelling placement test at the beginning of the year, placing into 3rd or 4th grade level words (e.g., she spelled alliteration correctly!); and is one of the best class artists along with her friend Janna. The only negatives she received were with math and organization skills along with a negative-positive comment that Rosie has really blossomed socially with her peers to the point that she's too chummy and chatty, getting distracted by the socializing.

That afternoon, I almost considered not voting just out of irritation with being thwarted twice, but then couched going to vote a different way in my mind. I hadn't had any exercise yet, so I would bike to the polling place! It was really just three miles round trip, so nothing much really, but upon arrival at the middle school's polling place (third of the day!), I was surprised by something. There were absolutely no, none, zilch, nada bike racks there. I circumnavigated the entire school grounds and baseball field and found not a one. When I asked the group standing outside the voting entrance where the racks were, they were confused. One girl who attended the school informed me that there were no racks because the middle schoolers WERE NOT ALLOWED TO WALK OR RIDE THEIR BIKES TO SCHOOL.

I was astounded. This just went to another level of annoyance with me. The reason for this, I was told, was that the wide-but-only two lane road outside the school was deemed "too busy." There were sidewalks and bike paths leading up to the school—I had just ridden on or by them. The road itself was very wide, plenty of room for cyclists. What on earth? Are they concerned that the buses would run the biking children down? I'm sorry, but no wonder our kids are so unhealthy. They must be driven everywhere, have so much homework that they can't do after school activities, and probably have trouble with maintaining endurance during the activities they do choose. I've googled information for this school and can't find anything prohibiting walking/biking online. Thankfully, my kids won't be attending this school (and I am planning to allow them to walk or bike), but I'm hoping that someone is willing to be an activist to do something to get the school to change this policy. There should be a way to make the area "safer" if that is the concern? Crazy.

And also, I voted.

Ouija boards: paranormal or group-think?

2010-11-02T09:54:00.008-04:00

Okay, this isn't really going to be a philosophical/academic discussion of Ouija boards complete with expert references, bibliography, or any such thing. Just personal anecdotes, and my usual half-assed conclusions (feel free to add your own thoughts/links/stories in the comments!). I hadn't thought about the Ouija game in a very long time, honestly; but the Halloween spirit and friends' recent tweets about "soulmates" got me remembering playing it as a youngster.

In case you avoided the entire Ouija experience, here is how Wikipedia describes the game:

A Ouija board (possibly from the French and German words for "yes", oui and ja,^[1] and usually pronounced /ˈwiːdʒiː/ in English), also known as a spirit board or talking board, is a flat board marked with letters, numbers, and other symbols, supposedly used to communicate with any spirits. It uses a planchette (small heart-shaped piece of wood) or movable indicator to indicate the spirit's message by spelling it out on the board during a séance. The fingers of the séance participants are placed on the planchette, which then moves about the board to spell out words or become physically manifest.

It was the 70s, and against her better judgment, I'm certain, my mom bought my sister and me a Ouija board. I recall relentless begging leading up to the purchase as well as personally logging many hours in the "occult" area of the Young Adult section of our local library. I wanted to know if ghosts could talk to me. I'd dutifully try to clear my mind before playing and will the spirits to come, to tell us what they knew from beyond. We'd play with friends down in our low-lit basement, asking questions of the "spirits" such as how they died, what their names were, and where they were buried. We would ask about our own futures to see if they knew what might happen in our own lives. I recall getting very creeped out, with thrilling goosebumps and chills if one of us was told that she would die young or some such thing. Sometimes, I was convinced that the spirits were pretty self-centered, only wanted to talk about themselves, refusing to answer our queries. At a family gathering, we mentioned to an extremely superstitious aunt (or very in tune with ghosts—family legend is that her house was terrifyingly haunted) that we had the game, she told us to "Never, ever touch it again! Take it and burn it when you get home! It will bring the devil to find you."

Over time, however, it seemed more likely that my strong-willed buddies were just moving the "planchette" (I never called it that, but see above) to wherever they wanted it to go, fulfilling their questions with answers they wanted. During one later game when my friends and I were getting boy-crazy, we were all asking questions about the name of who we would eventually marry. My friends were coming up with nice sounding, common guys' names, like Steve or Mark or Michael. I was hoping for a similar fortune when my turn came. Instead, the planchette kept hitting letters that didn't make any sense together, all kinds of vowels and just one consonant. It didn't look like any name I'd heard before! I gave up on the Ouija board after that. Stupid thing. Couldn't even give me a straight answer, like it had given my friends. The game languished in a closet after that, probably sold in a yard sale.

On to the soulmates part: What was the name that the spirits had come up with for my husband to be? I don't recall clearly, as a few decades have passed, but I think the letters went something like:

(Y) (A) (K) (Y) (I) (U) (O)

Damned ghosts couldn't spell. My darling husband's name is Akio.

Rosie's Self Portrait

2010-10-20T12:39:00.003-04:00

I'm so impressed with this self portrait that Rosie drew in her 2nd-grade art class! Mrs. N, the art teacher, was telling me how wonderful it was before I had a chance to see it, and now that I've had a peek, I agree wholeheartedly. With just a felt-tip pen and crayons, she drew a beautiful scene of herself and our family pet parrot, Weegee. I love her beatific expression with a slight smile. She's set herself in her (imaginarily pink) room, holding Weegee next to his cage (that *does* have yellow, purple, and brown toys in it). In her right hand, she's holding his pelleted food, since she's now in charge of feeding him. Around her neck is a bow, tied with her purple cape's strings, and the magenta dress with a red heart she's wearing is adorable. These articles of clothing are imaginary, although she does have vinyl butterfly decals on the walls of her room!

Her school has been kind enough to offer to reproduce this drawing on mugs, t-shirts, or journals. Hard to resist—I'll be purchasing several items as gifts!

What's Rosie's favorite school subject?

2010-10-17T17:48:00.000-04:00

Art!

Just like me, I adored my grade-school art teacher, Mrs. Sereno.

Li'l Pumpkinhead

2010-10-17T17:46:00.000-04:00

At the pumpkin patch today we bought two of the wartiest pumpkins we could find. Warty old witches (or similar variant) to come!

Who's Going to the Inaugural Science & Engineering Expo? Oct 23-24, Nat'l Mall

2010-10-13T12:09:00.002-04:00

After talking with Rosie's 2nd grade teacher yesterday about how Rosie is academically soaring right now, absorbing everything, blossoming incredibly, and should be enrolled in extracurricular learning opportunities like foreign languages, music, etc., I was poking around online looking for lesson plans for piano (yes, I'm finally attempting this at home with Rosie, who seems interested and enthusiastic).

Instead, I stumbled on details for the first ever Science & Engineering Festival on the Mall, just two weekends away. I am entranced by the feats of science and engineering and highly encourage my kids to develop wonder and inquisitiveness about how things work in the physical world. Exposure to these exhibits might create some sparks with Rosie and Dash (who will be interested in the weapons and aircraft components)—just the thing!

I pulled these details from the USA Science & Engineering Festival's blog:

Date: Saturday, October 23, 2010 through Sunday, October 24, 2010
Location: National Mall, Tent #102 (in front of the Capitol Reflecting Pool)
Time: 10:00 AM to 5:30 PM
Cost: Free and open to all
Age Range: Open to all

Saturday, October 23
10:00 The Mouse that Roared (Roain Egnor)
10:30 Reverse Engineer Your Brain (Louis Scheffner)
11:00 Nobel Purpose: NPR's Joe Palca Interviews John Mather (Nobel Prize Physics)
11:30 The Scoop on CSI: Separating Fact From Fiction (Marvin Schecter and CSI Miami)
12:15 Be a Bone Detective (Diane France)
1:00 Nobel Purpose: NPR's Joe Palca Interviews John Mather (Nobel Prize Physics)
2:00 The Engineering Behind Disney's Magic (Lanny Smoot)
2:30 Bon Appétit: Better Eating through Chemistry
3:00 Be a Bone Detective (Diane France)
3:30 The Scoop on CSI: Separating Fact From Fiction (Marvin Schecter and CSI Miami)
4:00 A: It's a Jeopardy-Playing Supercomputer. Q: What is IBM's "Watson?"

Sunday, October 24
10:00 Disney's TRON: Legacy Captured Live on Stage
11:00 Nobel Purpose: Joe Palca interviews Vincent Cerf (Draper Prize)
11:30 The Scoop on CSI: Separating Fact From Fiction (Marvin Schecter and CSI Miami)
12:15 Be a Bone Detective (Diane France)
1:00 Nobel Purpose: Joe Palca interviews Peter Agre (Nobel Prize Chemistry)
2:00 What's the Buzz?: The Status of Pollinators in North America (May Berenbaum)
2:30 A: It's a Jeopardy-Playing Supercomputer. Q: What is IBM's "Watson?"
3:00 Be a Bone Detective (Diane France)
3:30 The Scoop on CSI: Separating Fact From Fiction (Marvin Schecter and CSI Miami)
4:00 The Engineering Behind Disney's Magic (Lanny Smoot)

I know Rosie and Dash will love some of this stuff! Anyone planning to go?

Secretariat Review

2010-10-11T21:55:00.002-04:00

Lately, Monkeyrotica and I have been digging through the recesses of our brains, recalling some of our favorite childhood movies to share with our kids. While I watched Secretariat at a screening last week, I was transported back to the 1970s, when I was growing up, and viewed a familiar time packed with feminist issues I can recall clearly, as well as a world I never knew—the world of horse breeding and racing. The authentic feel (awesomely bad 70s wardrobes, among many other great details) of this movie and the inspiring story that unfolds brought today and forty years ago together for me, and I want to share with you and my kids.

Penny Chenery Tweedy (Diane Lane) was a highly educated woman, in a time when many women were in the first generation in their families to go to college. And, as did many women of her time, she found that along with marriage and children, having her own career outside the home was fraught with barriers. My own mother joined the National Organization of Women and AAUW to vent her frustrations with having a career thwarted by family life (she was told to quit as she became visibly pregnant). Penny Tweedy may not have sought out those support groups in 1969—she had an outwardly comfortable life as a stay at home mother of four and wife to a successful lawyer husband. What became apparent was that after the death of her mother, her father's decline into dementia would quickly take their family's horse farm. Unless she drew upon her education—from learning the ropes as a child as well as her university degree—and saved her father's empire, the family horse farm and the many generations of husbandry, care, and prestige built upon it would fail. The horses were of no interest to the men in her life (her university professor brother or her husband); they just wanted her home, in her place, caring for the kids.

She was raised to run that business. She wanted it, she knew how to do it, and she could make all the right decisions. If only someone she loved believed in her. Well, nope, that wasn't going to happen; see ya, bro & hubby! If only she could hire people to believe in her. YES! Her father's house manager, a crusty horse trainer (John Malkovich), and a gentle stable hand would take that on. And history was made.

Secretariat. Penny Tweedy's only non-fair-weather friend. Everyone else in her life abandoned her when the going got rough.

I will take my kids to this movie. I want to see it again and add it to our collection of movies, I enjoyed it so much. What I want to see more than anything else, beyond the edge-of-my-seat, heart-thumpingly exciting horse racing, beyond watching Penny rock on with her bad self, telling off her competitors and creditors (all high-powered men), is John Malkovich. I want to see pink-suited, plaid-hatted, crusty old horse trainer Malkovich swearing in Disney-curses and in stilted French, dancing while celebrating the horse that he helped train to victory beyond belief.

School year scheduling

2010-10-05T07:25:00.008-04:00

We've made several new scheduling transitions for the 2010 school year thus far, to move toward balancing the rocky mountain/valley that is our work-life, especially now that both kids are in public school. The changes all arose from my need to adjust my work hours, because getting home after 6:30 p.m. every night just was draining me, with only 90 minutes to spend with my family before they were all in bed for the night.

What we had been doing:
When Rosie started Kindergarten two years ago we made some big changes to make the timing work, first with Monkeyrotica changing his work schedule, arriving super-early and leaving super-early (and as a result, exhausted and going to bed the same time as the kids). Grandma S came to our house every morning for the past two school years to help Rosie get ready for school while I took Dash to daycare. The first year and a half, Grandma S also came after school to pick up Rosie from the bus stop, but when we moved Dash to a pre-K closer to home this past January, Monkey was able to make the bus in time.

What's the latest twist?
Monkey still has his early-early workday, but I'm dropping both kids off at morning-care (a.k.a. school-age child-care or SACC). At work, I've shortened my days slightly to arrive home in time for the bus because I've decided that the after-school time between 4-6 pm are golden hours of family engagement time. Even this early in the school year, the kids are bringing home homework, which is best done while they have enough energy to complete it, not after dinner when they're starting to get bleary and surly. Also, many age-specific after-school activities, like sports clubs, scouts, art classes and the like are scheduled right when school ends, so if I want to get them to an activity, I need to be around. Monkey's already said that due to his complete disdain for all things sport-related, he's not schlepping kids to sports training. And the other activity that the kids were missing out on? Playing with the neighborhood kids. Today, after school, Rosalie will have her 2nd ever playdate with one of the little girls who lives one block over. Why weren't these happening earlier? Let's just say, out of sight, out of mind——by not being home earlier and visibly available, my kids just weren't socializing with the neighborhood kids (even though there are a dozens of them in their age groups). Starting this week, I'll be home every afternoon at 4! Yay!

Results: More family time and kids activities (and homework).
The activities are already racking up. Monday is after-school soccer for both and Wednesday is tap class (just Rosie). I want to get them both into an art class when it comes available, and maybe into track club. Neither of them have shown any interest in scouting, which is fine—that's a major time-suck what with all of the parent-volunteer work. On Saturdays we also have back-to-back Japanese calligraphy (Rosie) and karate (Dash), then Dash takes ballet in the afternoon. For each, that's currently 3 activities. Not totally overscheduled yet, right? There are still four free days in the week for family walks, bike rides, and outdoor fun! And, then just maybe I can fit in some crafting or personal activities, huh?

Back to the homework, however. Dash was out of school with a fever for three days last week, and I was completely blindsided by the nine make-up assignments that were sent home with him on Friday. I didn't even notice they were in his backpack until Sunday night after they were in bed! I'm becoming aware that we haven't really established our home as a place of learning, because the children truly struggle with the assignments. Groaning, flopping, distractions, sidetrips, stalling—Dash has been trying the works. This morning, I realized that I had a trick in my back pocket: their morning care. The kids are supervised by licensed childcare professionals for 1.5 hours before their bus arrives and they have a homework table. SCORE! I had no idea that I'd be calling on them so soon, but we were getting nowhere at home. Out of nine assignments, Dash scribbled out one yesterday, fighting it the whole time. Today, sitting down with the staff at SACC, Dash was working away on his homework even before I'd left the room. Warms my stressed-out, stretched-thin-mom's heart.

I'm feeling really good about all these schedule decisions! Which helps a great deal, because our basement flooded AGAIN last week and we have to replace the flooring, with three to four expensive days of repairs and installation ahead of us.

Happy Anniversary to Us!

2010-09-28T18:05:00.006-04:00

It's Monkeyrotica's and my 13th anniversary today (or yesterday, because I got distracted by sick boy and forgot to hit the publish button), and true to style, we didn't really plan to do anything on the day of to celebrate. To help keep the romance away, Dash has a fever and I stayed home to take care of him, so we are really putting things off until our anniversary date night this coming Saturday night at Restaurant Eve, where we have spent several anniversaries in past years.

We are terrible at getting each other special-occasion gifts. Seriously, neither of us likes surprises and wasting savings on frivolities, so we typically get practical items and check with each other several times before purchasing. This year (our gifts are rarely "must have, evening-of-calendar-date") we are looking at chandeliers. The requirements, including no dangling jewels or fussy beaded curtains:

1. replace this despised chandelier:

2. no obvious chains/brass
3. no dustcatching glass cups
4. an artistic/modern look
5. warm & inviting
6. nothing too Victorian or busy
7. just kooky enough

Some chandeliers that have caught my eye on the web so far:

The minimalist George Kovacs chandelier
(chains: +10/dustcatching: +8/artistic:+5/inviting:-2/kooky:0=21)::

The champagne bottle chandelier
(chains:+3/dustcatching: +3/artistic:+3/inviting:+8/kooky:+3=20):

The popular IKEA MASKROS chandelier
(chains: +8/dustcatching: -5/artistic:+5/inviting:+10/kooky:+8=26):

The wine bottle chandelier
(chains:-3/dustcatching: +2/artistic:+3/inviting:+5/kooky:+5=12):

The Cthulhu (Medusa?) chandelier (by Murano Imports)
(chains: +8/dustcatching: -5/artistic:+5/inviting:0/kooky:+8=16):

According to my scale ratings, the IKEA MASKROS lighting is the winner, but I'll have to let Monkey weigh in. I'm expecting he'll pick an item from the George Kovacs line. Kovacs is quite the prolific lighting designer.

UPDATE:

I almost forgot about one of the most awesome wine-jug chandeliers EVAR! The Carlo Rossi wine jug chandelier! From The World's Best Ever blog:

Flash Cards for Kid's Lunches

2010-09-16T09:34:00.007-04:00

I was reading an article on Asha Dornfest's Parent Hacks blog asking parents to discuss a topic dear to my heart: How to get your child to eat more of her school lunch?

Dash just started Kindergarten and while we don't yet know if he will be too busy socializing to eat his lunch (likely!), we do know that Rosie has brought home many an uneaten lunch. We have taken some steps to keep this from happening, but it's just frustrating as a parent to find that your lovingly packed lunches get ignored or discarded. I was reading through the insightful comments and saw some parents were recommending that your child pack his own lunch. My first reaction was, forget that! My kids are too young/irresponsible/unmotivated and then I stopped myself.

While they might not yet be able to physically pack their lunches, they can certainly get involved! Since Rosie eats about 50 foods total (not including variations on chocolate), we have already been to a nutritionist. I have detailed lists [OCD-alert] of her foods broken down by their nutrient content. I decided that my best option would be to make flash cards with delicious-looking images of the foods on them (because Dash is not reading—yet)!

I took my lists, my graphic design skillz (practically applied—I'm just making usable items here), and made some decisions on how to structure the cards for the kids' use. Then, I stayed late at work to print them out. Pictured is one of three pages from my layout. While the food pyramid at USDA's website is helpful, the group-breakdowns weren't set up for balancing a lunch for kids. There is a lot of information there, go look if you want.

Here's my structure. I set up five categories for the kids to pick one or two each (with guidance that they needed to have at least one from EACH number group), color-coded them, and added where they fell in the USDA Groups set up:

main course items, purple; my main course foods have the most protein, come from the USDA's meat/beans/nuts/seeds group and will help to keep my kids' energy levels high.
fruits and veggies high in vitamins, red for fruit and green for vegetables; many of these foods are raw, just how my kids like them.
side items, orange; are often from the grains group, but might also be a vegetable with a lower vitamin count.
snack foods, white; treat items with higher sugar, mostly chocolate-flavored for my kids (#4 will be first to get eliminated if a previous lunch has #1-3 come home uneaten!).
drinks, blue; my kids drink white or chocolate milk or water, no juices, so easy pickins here.

The kids were super-excited about the cards last night and wanted everything, but remember where this post started? They weren't finishing what they were getting. In fact, Rosie hadn't eaten her main course from the prior day (edamame, which is a favorite), so she didn't get a #4 today. Here's what they picked for today's lunches, with a quick addition of pizza for Dash:

**DISCLAIMER** These cards are for my personal use; I am not selling them and many of the images I used are FPO and not licensed. Were I to sell them, I would either shoot new images or legitimately purchase the photo licenses from the image owners.

First day of school!

2010-09-07T21:26:00.003-04:00

Today was the very first day of the 2010-11 school year for Rosie, in second grade, and for Dash, our little kindergartener. Rosie picked out her outfit for school days ahead, a pretty red-orange dress that Auntie M bought her. I dressed Dash in a bowling shirt (why not, eh?) and brand-new shorts, both purchased while on our beach vacation.

We changed up some things on the kids this year, like instead of a bus ride from the neighborhood, they're riding a short bus from morning care. However, they're still riding the neighborhood bus home. I'm pretty sure we told the kids about this. And I know for sure that I wrote it down for the teachers, along with the ten million other things they collected last Thursday. Anyway, you can see where this is going, right?

Grandma Sheila and Monkeyrotica waited to pick up the kids at the 'hood stop and they weren't on the bus! Both kids had decided to take the short bus to the after-school care. Whoops!! At least their location was relatively easy to figure out, in hindsight.

Otherwise, it was a good but uneventful day, meeting old and new friends, getting back into a school-day routine. Dash has at least 6 or 7 kids he knew beforehand in his class & he's such an easygoing boy, he'll be fine.

Have a wonderful school year, everyone!

Elementary School Open House Today!

2010-09-02T12:33:00.006-04:00

Five days and counting until the first day of school for both of my kids!!

We went to the open house this morning, where the class assignment lists were posted for all the students in this coming year. Since Rosie had been in a 1-2 multi-age class with Mrs. Clark, we knew that she would be continuing with her beloved teacher, despite restructuring. In this school year, the administration eliminated all multi-age classes. I have mixed feelings about this change, but I'm pretty sure the decision had a lot to with budgetary restrictions and limited overall County support for multi-age. We were all delighted to see Mrs. Clark and reunite with Rosie's old classmates and meet some new ones (there are two Rosie's in her class this year—unheard of!).

In the parking lot before the open house started, we ran into a friendly teacher named Mr. M. He told us that he was a Kindergarten teacher, so I pointed out that Dash (standing at my side) was a Kinder, while my guy volunteered, "I'm five years old!" Mr. M. didn't recognize Dash's name from his class list, but told us that he hoped Dash would be in his class. I was hoping, too, because he seemed like a kind and open person who would be a good match for our little man. Lo and behold, we arrived at Dash's assigned classroom with Mrs. Smith and found that Mr. M. was the teacher's assistant! The class looked awesome, with toys strewn everywhere, learning materials on every surface, and fun, creative opportunities everywhere.

I believe that 2010 is going to be a remarkable year for my kids.

Deadlines looming...

2010-08-31T14:21:00.005-04:00

"Deadlines looming" has been my life as of late. I'm racing to keep up with everything and falling behind. Since it's exactly one week until the First Day of School for Dash, who is starting Kindergarten, and Rosie, who will be starting Second Grade, I hereby owe you, my dear blog readers, the following blog posts with photos:

Dash's superhero costume party
Birthday events for my fortieth
Our Rehoboth beach trip
Dancing/Art/Karate updates

Let's just see if I can get up three out of those four before next Tuesday. A betting person would put money on this not happening, so let's put a challenge on. The first reader who calls me out next Tuesday as not actually having three posts up wins a prize! What shall it be...? I think I have an extra DVD set of "Buffy the Vampire Slayer: Season 3" that I'll mail free to you. And, well, if that's taken, we'll work something out; maybe a felt flower pin, similar to this white one I made, pictured here? (This post needed at least one photo in it...)

However, between now and next Tuesday, I'll be (and here comes another list, because lists are a busy person's best friend):

working full-time
attending the elementary school's Thursday "Open House" (where we find out which teachers the kids will have this year)
taking kids to calligraphy & karate classes
baking 72 cupcakes for our friends' Saturday wedding (Rosie is frosting them)
delivering cupcakes to the wedding
attending said wedding
helping cook (in the loosest sense of the word) for the groom's Sunday block party (the following day)
attending said block party, and then
working a full day on Labor Day Monday (sorry, Monkey).

So, lucky winner, you may still get your prize!

Monkeyrotica has Tuesday off, so I'm expecting him to take lots of adorable photos of the kids getting ready for their first day! Since we are using morning SACC, it would be fabulous to get pics of the kids getting off the bus, right? Please?

What do you mean you don't have a newspaper?

2010-07-28T08:53:00.004-04:00

Some situations really strike hard to reveal how quickly our world is changing, like during my septuagenarian, non-driver mother-in-law's unexpected stay.

There have been massive power outages in the DC Metro area since Sunday when temperatures were upwards of 100 degrees and we had a sudden and violent thunderstorm. Many places around the Beltway are still without power, including my mother-in-law's neighborhood. On Monday, Monkeyrotica got a phone call from his mom that she needed to be picked up and stay with us until her power came back on.

Monday, this was fine, since Monkey had the day off and was able to get his mom, take her out to lunch and run a bunch of errands with her. When the kids came home from summer camp and preschool, they had a great time with Grandma I, showing her school projects and enjoying her company. They even watched a couple of Japanese movies with her. Tuesday morning we had a dilemma, as her power still wasn't on and Monkey and I were both going in to work. She was trying to figure out how she would spend her day in the scant minutes before I had to whisk the kids off to school and head to work.

Suggestions from Grandma I:

"I could read the newspaper or some magazines?"
Nope, we don't get a newspaper and have no magazine subscriptions, we get all our information from news websites.

"I could call my friends on the phone?"
Nope, we don't have a landline and use our cell phones at work.

"I could watch TV?"
Nope, we don't have TV, just laptops with Internet connections."

My suggestion:

"Why don't I show you how to view www.washingtonpost.com on this laptop?"
Oh, no, the text is too small, I can't read it or see the keyboard to type.

"Here's my Kindle, I could upload a few books onto it for you?"
No thank you.

I wound up buying her a paper and some magazines at the local 7-11 and dropping them off before I headed to work so she wouldn't be hopelessly bored. We might as well have been in Amish country for the amount of acceptable entertainments that we could have offered! Maybe we could get her one of those pay-as-you-use cell phones, so at least she could make some phone calls next time? Our home is unfortunately totally not set up for technologically unadapted houseguests.

Lucky for her, she'll be heading back to her house today. The power's finally back on, her newspapers are waiting, the TV's just an on-switch away, and unlimited local phone calls are within arm's reach.

The 2010 Dance Recital Videos! Now with more Dash!

2010-07-23T22:29:00.000-04:00

The Dance Studio's recital theme this year was "Written Works," with our four dances referencing Eric Carle's "Hungry, Hungry Caterpillar," Marcus Pfister's "The Rainbow Fish," Roald Dahl's "Charlie and the Chocolate Factory", and Gregory Maguire's "Wicked." Apologies in advance for the focus issues in the 1st two; we are getting used to a new camera...

Dash's Dance, Pre-Ballet (adorable little preschoolers!): "Fuzzy Wuzzy Caterpillar"

Rosie's Dance, Introductory Ballet (1st graders) "The Rainbow Connection"

Rosie's 2nd Dance, Introductory Tap (1st graders): "The Candyman"

Nylonthread's Dance, Modern (teen & adult): "Defying Gravity," Glee

Dash & friends at the Park

2010-07-20T13:25:00.000-04:00

Dash is in the back, 4th from the right!

Rosie & the Os

2010-07-20T13:24:00.001-04:00

Todd, Thea & Liam are posing with Rosie in the background. They joined
me for my birthday breakfast! Thanks, friends!!

How my brain ties events together

2010-07-08T08:42:00.007-04:00

I missed the very last final exam of my college career.

Isn't that every college student's nightmare? You cram all night, then arrive at the exam hall at the testing hour to find it deserted? But, I didn't wake up in a sweat, screaming; it actually happened.

The fact that I missed the event has everything to do with how I schedule things, with my particular way of stringing my plans to each other. I might loosely pin an event to a Thursday, but it also is stuck to other events, like "after I pick up the dry cleaning" or "before my dance class." Sometimes I might say "tomorrow" to someone, actually meaning "the next time I see you."

What happened on the day of my "Literature of the 1600s, The Awesome and the Sublime" (a class that I adored!) exam was several weeks in the making. I knew the day and time of the exam, of course, and along the way, my parents told me that they were arriving that same morning to pack up and drive me home after graduation. So, in my head, I roped those two events together tightly: i.e. my-exam-is-on-the-same-day-my-parents-arrive. However, in the weeks before said day, while I was in the midst of the other exams and projects and papers leading up to the final days of my senior year, my parents switched their arrival date. To the next day.

Can you understand what happened? I didn't see the repercussions, I just stormed ahead, with my little threads of planned events all strung together, bobbing along ahead of me, without looking at a calendar. My parents arrived. At 3 p.m. that day, I went to the exam hall. All that late afternoon, I attempted to get in touch with my professor and finally found her home number in the white pages. She and I were both distraught about my absence at the final until I remembered that I had taken her class—which was far, far outside my major—pass/fail. Her response, "Pass/Fail? Oh, OH! OF COURSE you passed!!" If I had taken the class and exam with standard grading, I would have had an A. I graduated, with one credit to spare.

This anecdote is an illustration of how I process schedules to this day. Yesterday, for example. I had a full schedule at work, and was planning to meet friends at the end of the day. The happy hour was cancelled, but I had strung the rest of my day to that event. Forging ahead, I decided to cut that thread, and tie on my usual Wednesday plan: go to the gym. I also had to collect Rosie and take her to a recently rescheduled swim lesson immediately after my gym session. Knot.

What did I forget? I had invited my dear husband, Monkeyrotica, to the happy hour and had arranged for my mom to watch the kids while we socialized. He and my mom bumped into each other at kid-pickup, while I was at a secure gov't customer meeting with my phone off. Hilarity (and many apologies) ensued.

Is this peculiar to anyone else? Is it a symptom of a right-brain thinker? Or am I unique?

Dash's 5-Year Checkup & Am I in denial?

2010-06-30T08:20:00.002-04:00

Yesterday was such a beautiful day. I requested that I telework, since I had Dash's midday doctor's appointment, and that just opened up all sort of possibilities.

After I got the kids up for breakfast, I announced that we were walking to school this morning! Since Rosie is in summer camp at the same location as Dash's preschool, this was an ideal way to start the day. The weather was perfect: 75° and overcast and the preschool/camp is just a 1/2 mile from our house. The preschool is housed in what used to be the neighborhood elementary school, but was converted to a senior center in the 80s due to the baby bust at the time—I often feel like my kids' generation was robbed of walking to school due to this type of event and other things, like heightened safety concerns and regulations that prohibit kids' autonomy. Rosie's elementary school (that Dash will be going to in the Fall) is 2 miles away. If I can get more telework days or a alternate schedule next school year, I would love to walk them to this preschool, where I'm enrolling them both for morning SACC (school-age childcare); they'll bus to their ES from there.

At Dash's appointment, he was being very Dash. He was waving and charming all the nurses, complimenting random things (I like your shirt!), and being a cheerful little guy. He weighed in at 42 inches and just about 42 pounds, so he's a cube (shorter than his younger friend Liam)! The doctor arrived within several minutes and after recovering from Dash's disarming compliment (I like your glasses!), Dr. R checked up on normal things, like whether he knew colors and numbers, if he had chores, or could ride a bike, regular eliminations, and his balancing skills. All this time, Dash volunteered a great deal of random information and showed off a bit, keeping a running dialog, humming and making other noises. As an aside to me, Dr. R said, "Well, this boy will always have his own fun!" Set for life, Dash is, able to be his own entertainment! Dr. R did a bunch of calculating and suggested that we need to watch Dash's weight. Whaaaa?!? Really? Dash looks like such an average, healthy kid. Why? Dr. R quoted Dash's BMI (82nd percentile) at me and said that while he is not (whisper it...) F. A. T. , he isn't LEAN either. We need to up his activity levels and keep him eating healthily.

In doctor-speak, Dr. R let me know that Dash would need one shot, so I tried last year's approach. I asked, "Dash, last year you had 5 shots, how many would you like this year?" Dash answered, "Ohhhh, only just one." Dr. R said, "You're in luck, there's only one this time!" and went on his way. After several minutes of waiting for the nurse to come back and letting this sink in, Dash changed his response. "Aaactuuually, how about zero? Can I have zero shots?" Please?"

After dinner (grilled chicken breast and roasted potatoes), Dash and I spent an hour at the pool while Rosie had a swim lesson, splashing and goofing around. So, we were plenty active today, walking, playing, swimming. I was thinking about the BMI business on my commute this morning when I heard a report on WTOP about parents agreeing that obesity is an issue for kids today, but are in denial that it's a problem in their own child/children. Am I in denial? What do you all think of BMI calculating for 5 year-olds?

HAPPY 5TH BIRTHDAY, DASH!

2010-06-23T00:54:00.001-04:00

2005

2006

2007

2008

2009

Birthday Boy!
I can't believe time has passed this quickly. Cheers to my sweet, imaginative, easy-going, playful, curious, and gorgeous little man.

June 22, 2010 If your birthday is today:
You're passionately emotional, regardless of how calm you appear. You love to explore the unusual because you're an adventurer. You appreciate fanciful whimsy in people and situations around you. What you build or construct this year will help you in the future. Other people's resources play a part in your search for household comfort this year. Instead of depending on them too much, you will want to inspire your own work by using all your talents, not just the ones that make obvious sense. Think outside the box and you win! There's a financial bonus in September. Love inspires you to travel in November and December.

My two ballet dancers

2010-06-22T15:17:00.000-04:00

Rosie and Dash, in costume, right before the 2010 dance recital. Video
to come!

Constructions

2010-06-17T10:20:00.003-04:00

Dash made this for me out of Tinkertoys this morning. He explained to his Grandma and me, "it's the drill that the Romulans made in Star Trek to drill a hole in planet Vulcan before they dropped the red matter in and imploded it."

Yep, I'll go with that!

Future Secret Service Special Agent

2010-06-16T15:34:00.001-04:00

When Dash grows up, he wants to be... "part of the Secret Service!"

Looks like jet packs with rocket launchers will be standard issue for
U.S. Secret Service Special Agents! (Or that's what Dash says he drew,
anyway.) Aim for the stars, Dash!

Dance Studio Photo Day!

2010-06-07T08:34:00.001-04:00

(Sorry in advance for this long, long blog entry!)

Hey, I don't see any dance photos here! What gives?

Let me explain. If I had a split second, or perhaps a clone of myself with me who could wield a camera on Saturday, I would have taken a few photos. I didn't.

This was my day, June 5, 2010:

10 a.m. After breakfast and getting everyone dressed (Dash in dance clothes) & ready to head out the door, Rosie's calligraphy kit in hand, Dash's dance bag ready to go, we were off!

10:30: Arrived at Seichou Karate, where they teach Japanese calligraphy and Karate! There was a Karate class at the same time as calligraphy, did Dash want to try? Nope, he'll just watch. However, after the stretching and warm-ups were done and the Sensei was teaching punches, Dash announced, "I think I'll try now!" This is my only photo from the entire day. I swear, he had just been kicking like a champ!

11:30: We rushed off from Seichou, to get Dash to ballet by Noon.

Noon: My 1st trip of the day to the Dance Studio, to drop off Dash. Rosie and I headed home so she could get lunch, then I arranged her ballet bun with many pins and hairnet (thank goodness I had a bit of foresight!), then on with her leotard and back to the Studio for her class.

12:45 pm: 2nd trip to the Studio. Rosie's back-to-back ballet and tap classes started, then I got Dash home to eat his lunch. Now was the time I decided to try his dance costume on and see how it fits. I knew it was way too big, but did I alter it ahead of time? Nah, why not procrastinate instead! I measured and pinned his clothes, then set up the sewing machine. It fought with me, I adjusted settings, then had to leave the house again.

2:30: 3rd trip to the Studio to pick up Rosie. One other student hadn't been picked up on time and the photographers were setting up their equipment. Mrs. H was anxious that the parent wasn't coming in time. I offered to take Rosie's friend and get in touch with his mom via her cell, but was turned down. We headed to RiteAid to pick up some hair accessories, then took a side trip to pick up my costume from a classmate who had offered to do my alterations, then sped home. There, I got back to work on Dash's costume. It needed the pant legs taken up about 8 inches and the sleeves about 3 inches. I got the legs done, and Monkeyrotica came to warn me that "it's now 3:15, aren't Dash's photos at 3:45?" I finished the sleeves by hand-stitching with a loose baste, then threw the entire costume on the boy (white and baby-blue!) and arranged his hair with some hairspray. We left.

3:40: 4th trip to the Studio, for Dash's photos. It was a madhouse. The room was full to the brim with costumed ballet dancers, parents and siblings. Mrs. H popped her head out of the curtained studio to make announcements every few minutes. I put Dash's black socks on and slid his black ballet slippers over them. Somehow, I missed the call for his class but shoved him through the curtain just in time. I peeked in on him now and then, but parents are prohibited behind the curtain. At a few minutes past 4, I realized that Rosie's photo session is at 4:15 and Dash was nowhere near done!! I asked another parent to keep an eye on Dash until I'm back as I rushed home to gather Rosie's two costumes, all their accessories and get her dressed, all with no time to spare.

4:10: 5th trip to the Studio, with Rosie, her two costumes, and my dance bag. What? We needed her dance bag, with her ballet slippers inside! I phoned Monkeyrotica's cell, guided him around the house to try to locate her bag. He found it and agreed to drive it to the Studio. I went inside with Rosie, gave her a bit of lip gloss, tossed her tap costume in the dressing room, and asked her to stand with her classmates. I grabbed Dash, got his street shoes back on and took him outside with me. Monkey pulled up (the parking lot was also a madhouse), I grabbed Rosie's bag from him, and informed Monkey that he was taking Dash. I buckled Dash in, tossed his dance bag in the front seat and they were on their way. I pushed my way through the press of people to where Rosie was, jammed her slippers on, and shoved her through the curtain with her class. Whew! I found Rosie's friend Margaret in the dressing room, changing by herself, with a full ponytail, not a bun. "Margaret, sweetie, do you need help? Where's your mom?" I asked. "My dad dropped me off," She answered. I popped back in to the waiting room and Steve waved at me. "Would you like me to help with Margaret's ballet bun?" I asked. "Please!" he answered. Stepping back into the dressing room, I set eyes on Rosie's tap costume and realized that there were pieces missing. OMG-crap-crap-crap, I thought! Her tap photos were in 20 minutes. I ran out, apologizing to Steve.

4:35: 6th trip to Studio, with costume accessories in hand. I had completely forgotten that Rosie's tap costume had little wrist bands and a long ribbon that needed to be shoelaced through little slots all down the back. I started lacing like a madwoman. I finished just in time to get the costume on Rosie, then remembered that she didn't have standard tap shoes (needed to match in the photos). We borrowed a pair from Mrs. H's stash. 4:55. Kids' photos, done! Rosie and I went back home.

My class' photos were next, but at 6:45, so there was a little time to spare. However, it dawned on me that we were going out that evening and had hired a babysitter, my neighbor's kid. The house was a scandal. Dishes were everywhere on all the tables, stacks of them in the sink, food left out, soiled socks and clothes abandoned in the hallways and bathrooms (quick changes necessitated this), scraps of random debris all over the floors! I worked up a sweat unloading, loading, and running the dishwasher, bagging laundry, sweeping, stashing food away, etc. By the time it was all acceptably picked up (not cleaned, who has time for cleaning?), I had 3o minutes to fix my hair properly, do my makeup, remove all nail/toe polish, get costumed and head out the door. Oh, and with the kids in full costume. See, I had my heart set on having a portrait of the three of us together, all in our recital togs. Who knew if or when this might happen again? One or more of us might opt out of participating in coming years.

6:40: 7th trip to Dance Studio. My class had our group photo taken. I was irrationally angry at a teenager in my class for having chipped black polish on her nails and toes. There were strict guidelines sent out weeks ago about no jewelry or polish. I'm sure she had all the carefree-teenager-time in the world to remove it—unlike me—but I managed to anyway. Oi, listen to me, I'm being a freak. I beckoned the kids to join me and I realized that I didn't have Dash's bag with his ballet shoes in it. Remember where I put it? Monkey's car. Thankfully, Mrs. H had a spare pair that fit perfectly. We gathered with the photographers and they posed us. I was instructed to kneel on one knee (on hard-wood floors! ow-ow-ow!) while Dash sat on my bent leg and Rosie stood behind him.

We posed for three photos as a trio and I'm crossing my fingers that they turn out fabulous!! I'll post them when they are shipped, in 4 to 6 weeks, I'm guessing.

B, the sitter, arrived and we went out for the evening, off to wish our lovely friend Liz a wonderful birthday at a bar downtown. Wheee! I sure needed to celebrate after such a long day.

The highest highs and lowest lows of last Friday

2010-05-27T09:23:00.012-04:00

Now that I'm distanced a bit from last Friday, I'm recording it here for posterity, in all its glory and infuriatingness.

First the good bits:
Monkeyrotica and I had a lovely evening out. Our sitter arrived on time and was received with a seamless transition—Rosie and Dash adore him (B., our babysitter is a 17-year-old boy who lives two doors over; he's geeky, brilliant, slightly awkward, and great with the kids. We [heart] B.) While Monkey waited for me to appear, the kids were already engaged and not concerned about their parents.

We had last-minute reservations for dinner at The Majestic. Our table wasn't ready when we arrived, so we found seats at the bar and ordered drinks. Somehow, the cocktails that we ordered were the most fantastically perfect mixes of their types — they were über-cocktails!! I had a Pimm's Cup (a cocktail I have blogged about before), a lovely and simple concoction of Pimm's No. 1 (a gin-based beverage), ginger ale, and a long cucumber strip over ice cubes. Its delicious, intoxicating, and refreshing flavors turned the corner on my evening and I started warming up to the idea of just enjoying a night out with my husband.

Monkey ordered The Majestic's Mint Julep. Oh my, that drink was excellent! Perfectly prepared, muddled, mixed with freshly crushed ice, and served in a pewter cup, THIS was a damn good drink. I liked my Pimm's, but his Julep was stunning. [A moment of reverence here, in the memory of all beautiful and long-consumed cocktails...]

We had fried green tomatoes and fried oysters for appetizers, Monkey ordered the calves' liver (very good even in my judgment, and I don't ordinarily appreciate organ meats), and I went out of my comfort zone, ordering a whole (yes, whole!) grilled orata (a whitefish). My fish was served over a salad of fennel, olives, orange wedges and toasted almonds. Our waitress must have thought we were high, unbalanced, or eccentric, because Monkey kept telling her our food was fu¢&ing awesome! And it was. It was a great, glowing, triumph of a dinner out with my man.

Now for the bad:
Leading up to this was three hours of crossed signals, missed connections, poor assumptions, obstacles, and calamity — all mine. I left my office around 4:30, with plans to meet friends at a happy hours later Friday evening. We typically meet for mid-week drinks around 8, because there are children and parenting issues involved, and it didn't occur to me that this meet-up would have a different schedule. I replied to a Google invite, but really didn't look at it. I was on the on-ramp for the Beltway 20 minutes later (! — it's only one mile!) when the 10-minute calendar alarm went off. The happy hour was for 5 PM! Crap! I called friends to let them know I'd be late, maybe arriving by 6. Then, I checked traffic on my Google maps app — the Beltway was RED (code for slow as heck) on much of my route and I was already on the highway. I quickly exited and circled back to where I started, in order to take a different route that showed green (code for moving at speed) on the map. Despite the green, it crawled. Stop-and-go, stop-and-go, never getting above 35MPH for the twenty-five miles to home. My 45-minute commute dragged into an hour, then an hour and a half, and kept ticking away.

By the time I got home to pick up Monkey, the sitter had been there for 20 minutes, I had to pee! and it was well past 6. The roads looked better, so I promised my friends that we'd arrive by 6:45, in time to catch them before they left to make their dinner reservations. With Monkey behind the wheel, in familiar territory, we sped into town. At 6:45, we were just a block from the bar! I rejoyced! We made it, the goal was in sight! But, calamity: our right turn lane, without any signs or warnings, turned into an on-ramp for the Southeast Freeway. WTF? Typical DC.

On the G.D. fracking freeway now, we merged into traffic and took the very next exit, to circle back. The off-ramp fed into streets surrounding the Marine Barracks, where there was some sort of ceremony in the works. Graduation? Whatever. Young Marines in full-dress uniform were marching here and there, crossing-guards were directing absolutely unmoving traffic, and we were stuck, STUCK.

After a short discussion on whether we'd attempt to meet our friends just to hug goodbye, or just turn around and do our own thing, we bailed. So, at exactly three hours after I left my office, I was sitting down at The Majestic, ordering my Pimm's Cup, determined to purge the stress and just enjoy an evening out. I sincerely hope my friends had just as wonderful (eventually) a time without us.

Arlington National Cemetery: Memorials

2010-05-20T13:30:00.005-04:00

Rosie has a research project this month on "Historical Locations." There are so many in DC, she had her pick from a long list. After a short discussion on all the options, she changed her pick from the Lincoln Memorial to the much richer mine of the Arlington National Cemetery. Of course, now she needs to narrow down her options to which part of that vast area (624 acres!!) she'll do her project on. It's a mixed-media project, with a model-building part as well as a written part, and of course an oral presentation.

We took a family trip over to Arlington last Saturday with the ultimate goal of giving Rosie fodder for her project, but a smaller goal of visiting her great-grandfather's grave out in Section 17. We all got up early that morning, had a light breakfast and headed out. I didn't realize just how lightly Dash ate (he only had a 1/2 cup of milk and 3 apple wedges) until he started saying he was tired during our walk from the car to the visitors' center! We had another 3 miles of walking to do and used this opportunity to teach a lesson about the consequences of not finishing your meals.

On our walk, we passed the Tomb of the Unknowns, the Nurses Memorial, the USS Maine Memorial, the Space Shuttle Challenger and Columbia memorials (Rosie is pictured at the Columbia Shuttle Memorial, expressly because her teacher is related to the late Dr. Laurel Clark, one of Columbia's astronauts who perished in the 2003 disaster), and we ended our trek with a gambol through the grounds and gardens at the Custis-Lee Mansion/Arlington House. We didn't visit the burial site of Dash's namesake, Samuel Dashiell Hammett; maybe another time, as it was well off our path.

After all these experiences, I'm pretty sure she's planning to work on the Tomb of the Unknowns. We had the luck to arrive right at 9 a.m., when the changing of the guard was happening. I'll admit I knew next to nothing about the honor guard for the Unknowns, but we noticed the air of quiet reverence as we approached, so watched in kind. It was a mysterious bit of ceremony and I left somewhat confused as we moved on. When I next had a chance, I checked the good ol' Internet for details and am now astonished at the Honor Guard's rigors. Here are some facts that I was completely in the dark about (from TombGuard.org) :

The tomb is guarded 24 hours a day, year-round and has been, every minute since 1937.
Guard selectees must be between 5'11" and 6'4" in height and have a 30-inch waist.
80% of the soldier-applicants for this duty are not accepted.
Guards must spend 8 hours of every day preparing their uniform, which is 100% wool.
Once selected, Tomb Guards must serve at least 1 year at the Tomb
At the Tomb, the Sentinel walks 21 steps, stops, faces the Tomb for 21 seconds, turns, changes his/her weapon to the outside shoulder, walks 21 steps back, faces the Tomb for 21 seconds, and repeats until his/her relief comes, every 30 minutes (or hr, or 2 hrs, depending).
I read that Guards make a commitment to not drink alcohol ever again in their lifetime, but was very relieved for them when I learned that this was a myth.
Only three Sentinels have ever been female.
Only 578 Tomb Guard badges have ever been awarded.

Finally, the Sentinel's Creed:

The Sentinel's Creed

My dedication to this sacred duty
is total and whole-hearted.
In the responsibility bestowed on me
never will I falter.
And with dignity and perseverance
my standard will remain perfection.
Through the years of diligence and praise
and the discomfort of the elements,
I will walk my tour in humble reverence
to the best of my ability.
It is he who commands the respect I protect,
his bravery that made us so proud.
Surrounded by well meaning crowds by day,
alone in the thoughtful peace of night,
this soldier will in honored glory rest
under my eternal vigilance.

These Guards do most certainly deserve our respect as they protect and honor our country's Unknown Soldiers who died while in service.

Dash's School Portraits

2010-05-19T09:19:00.005-04:00

My little guy! His pre-school graduation is next month.

I'm a track meet parent

2010-05-19T08:59:00.002-04:00

Rosie had her very first mini-meet for her K-1 track club last night. She was thrilled about it and such a champ. Despite gray, rainy weather that seemed to drop as low as 55 degrees, she was upbeat, goofing with her friends and ran her little heart out. (sorry about the digit in her photo!) After the meet was over (it lasted at least an hour and a half), I told her, "Rosie, you ran so fast!" Her answer was definitive: "Uh-huh!"

Rosie competed in four events, the 100-meter dash, the long jump, the shot-put (using a softball), and 4 X 100-meter relay. We won't know her standings until later. It was a great first effort!

Since I'm not one to often attend outdoor sporting events, I'll pass on these tips.

Bring a blanket. Even if you're not cold, your butt will need cushioning on the hard, metal bleachers.
Bring snacks, or cash if there's a concession stand.
Don't forget water for your little athlete! (I did.)
There's a lot of waiting around. A lot. The coach is pretty good at wrangling the kids, but it gets dull for spectators.
If you have a younger sibling with you, hope to Bob that there are friends of his there. A little girl named Katya saved us hours of Dash's whining.
Don't forget a flask for yourself, with enough to share!
Invite or make friends with other parents to stay entertained.

Thanks to Monkeyrotica and my parents for coming out to support Rosie and her team!

***UPDATE*** The school just posted photos from the track meet! Here's my girl (#5), powering up for the 100-yard dash.

I look freaking COOL!

2010-05-10T17:02:00.002-04:00

So you do, little Dash, in your fabulous new suit.

Dash's faux-seersucker suit and tie were on sale at a consignment store for a ridiculously small amount. I snapped them up without him around and was amazed how perfectly they fit!

We went out with Grandma Ikiko for mothers day dinner at Kushi Izakaya in downtown DC and Monkeyrotica didn't want Dash wearing his usual "hobo" clothes. He and Rosie both behaved like little gentlefolk. Cuties!