Franklin Institute & Brauhaus: Okay, there were more photos

Philly, Day 2: Museums We Loved (but didn't photograph)!

On Monday, we got up bright and early to enjoy the hotel's complimentary breakfast, where we found that all the other guests were foreign (well, one couple was from Montana, does that count?). Thankfully, all the items they served were foods that both Rosie and Dash would eat. After we filled up on cereal, bagels, muffins, fruit and coffee, we bundled up in extra layers, raincoats, hats, scarves, and gloves. With umbrellas at the ready, we headed out for the one-and-a-half-mile walk to the Franklin Institute.

At the Frankin Institute, I waited in the long lines to get tickets for everyone. The basic tickets included just enough of the exhibits to engage the kids—the "Body Worlds and the Brain," IMAX theatre and all the extras would be too much. As we walked in, we were just in time to line up for the Planetarium, where they were showing a special presentation, "Black Holes: The Other Side of Infinity," narrated by a particularly classy voice-over actor, Liam Neeson! Rrowr. The animation for the visualizations were spectacular. They were showing planetary phenomena that no-one has actually seen, all speculation, but it was so well-executed (and well-narrated!) that heck, I believed it! When Red Giant stars go super-nova, they implode, and the energy plus the gigantic force caused by that implosion feeds on itself, sucking everything around the star inside, causing the black hole. Then, there was a bit about Einstein's theory of relativity and some really cool grid-line simulations that I though I understood at the time, but, um, *shrug*.

Then there was a bit about big locomotives, then some fancy aerodynamics hand-on exhibits where Dash sat in the cockpit of some stinky old shabby aircraft DASH GOT TO RIDE A PLANE! Now, Monkeyrotica had been playing up the "climbing through the giant heart" that he recalled from his grade-school field trip. The kids loved it—we went through twice, when many other claustrophobic souls dropped out shrieking early on. Sure, it was some painted fiberglass that has seen better days, but it's a great teaching tool. Squeezing through the tight "ventricles" while a throbbing "lub-dub" surrounds you and simulated red and white blood cells speed past overhead was pretty exciting.

From there, we hit the gift shop and headed just a 1/2-mile away for lunch at Oh! Shea's, which served acceptably decent pub food with a nice house-brand root beer. Just three blocks away was our next destination, the Mutter Museum Of College Of Physicians Of Philadelphia. This oddity actively prohibited photographs, with burly security attentive docents ready to give you the smackdown if you attempted a cameraphone pic. If you can hunt down the Discovery Channel's special on the Mutter Museum, you'll pretty much see everything we did, jugged guts, dessicated foetal mutations, eye and skin diseases, genetic disorders. Needless to say, our kids were the only ones in there under 14.

We schlepped it back the 1.5 miles in the rain to the hotel, with one stop for me to replace my hobo-umbrella, which was turning inside-out with every other gust of wind. We stayed in for a breather, let the kids splash in a hot bath, then headed out to the Brauhaus Schmitz, an authentic German restaurant about 5 blocks away. The kids were getting kind of loopy at this point, crawling under the table, playing with our phones (photo of Dash doing exactly that!) and such. We ended our day with cookies and tea back at the hotel.

Next up, Day 3: Damn, it's cold!

Philly, Day 1: Road Trip!

After departing for Philly, handing the kids an iPhone and a gameboy micro so they could be perfectly distracted and play games while we drove, we planned a stop at Maryland's Havre De Grace vintage prefab, Bridge Diner.

Dash patiently waited for his order (a hotdog, of course) while leaning on the vintage formica tabletop. Rosie cheerfully watched all the locals playing Keno. She was unsuccessful at figuring out the game (as were we all).

I started out our trip with sunglasses on, but somewhere between DC and Philly, the sun disappeared, the shades came off, and I didn't need them until Mr. Sun reappeared about four days later. We dropped our bags at the lovely Morris House Hotel and immediately set off for somewhere to get a drink. Despite Philadelphia's Blue Laws we managed to find a bar in the Jewelry District that had its Sunday sales permit, Coco's. The kids were in a great mood, munching potato chips and watching the easiest to follow of television sports, BOWLING, playing on all the big screens.

With umbrellas in tow, we stopped back at Morris House to have tea, check in, and unpack. We really enjoyed our room, which had a master bedroom (with its own door!) and a fold-out couch for the kids in the living area. The one item that we all looked forward to at the end of a cold, wet, Philadelphia day was the bath. It was large enough to fit both kids (and a couple of friends) AND had jacuzzi jets! Heaven for itchy-fingered four-year-olds.


After changing out of our hobo-traveler duds, we walked the five city blocks to City Tavern, an 18th century tavern with too much Flash on its website. The kids tromped wistfully past darkening, moist gardens that beckoned them to scamper through, but we had reservations to make. Monkeyrotica enjoyed the historic microbrews very much, with Yards Brewing Company's General Washington's Tavern Porter as a favorite. He picked up a 6-pack of the selection before we left town. For appetizers, Monkey had fried oysters and I tried out the duck sausage. I ordered the Braised Rabbit, which was lovely (but waaay too much food for little me—I finished half), and Monkey had the Rack of Lamb, and for some reason, we ordered Dash $18 worth of sausages. Rosie picked at an item from the "Award Winning Children's Menu."

We allowed the kids to scamper through one garden that was still open as the wind picked up, and the drizzle really got annoying. We were fairly blown back across Washington Square as we headed back to Morris House and its promise of hot tea, a roaring fireplace, and freshly baked cookies in the lobby. I sipped green tea and pretended interest in W Magazine; Dash and Rosie scarfed several chocolate chip cookies before we hit that delicious bath and turned in for the night. Next episode: Day 2: Museums that we loved, but didn't photograph! (Have you noticed that for some reason, the Strings family only takes photos while we're at meals?)

Dancing in my fabulous dress!

I loved, loved, LOVED dancing with Monkeyrotica and other dear friends at Karen & Bryce's wedding. Mark Zimin DJ'ed, and I just had the best time ever, dancing to Mousetrap music. I'm wearing the dress that Monkey bought me for our wedding anniversary last month. Isn't it gorgeous?

Oh, heck, I was just beside myself at how awesome it was to be out in downtown DC, in the evening, dining and dancing with my beloved peeps. Monkey had to drag me out of there; I wanted to dance all night.

How not to celebrate an anniversary

This past September, Monkeyrotica and I celebrated our eleventh anniversary. And by celebrated, I really just mean acknowledged (on my part, mostly). He bought me a gorgeous dress that I was surprised and thrilled about (and he got... [crickets chirping...] get back to you later). But man, this September and October? It was such a total bust. For various reasons (related to the economy, maybe? maybe???) I was absolutely freaked out and cancelled many plans. The anniversary dinner was just one of many things that I promised to reschedule.

We did dress up and go out on October 11 for a black tie wedding and I got to wear the dress!! It was so fabulous, I forgot that going to somebody else's wedding doesn't really count as celebrating your own anniversary.

So (this list assumes you're in charge of your family budget), here are some notes, so you don't screw up like me for your anniversaries to come:

1. Months ahead, put some $$ aside just for your spouse's gift and dinner.
2. Set a date for your dinner, & if you have kids, book a sitter at least four weeks ahead (and put some $$ aside for that too).
3. Make a reservation at least two weeks ahead at a restaurant you both like or are wanting to try.
4. Set a fabulous outfit aside a couple of days ahead, with accessories (if, like me, you are hiding in the bathroom 15 minutes before you're supposed to be leaving while you are making custom jewelry for our outfit, your spouse will not appreciate it).
5. Check with the sitter the night before to confirm; confirm with the restaurant too, while you're at it. Couldn't hurt.
6. Leave enough time to get to the restaurant at a leisurely pace.
7. If you can view the restaurant's menu ahead of time, get an idea of what you'd like to order.
8. Whatever your meal tastes like, DON'T COMPLAIN! If your spouse is anything like Monkeyrotica, any complaining will ruin, RUIN the entire experience, done, game over, try again next time. If it's easily fixed, catch the waiter on your way to powder your nose. If it's really just not right, make up your calories with a fabulous dessert.
9. ABOVE ALL, enjoy being out with each other! If you don't have kids yet, savor your time alone and linger. If you do have kids, try to talk about other things. It's tough, I know. Imagine that you have other personal pursuits, life dreams and goals and focus on them. Listen to your spouse.
10. Pretend you're on a first date. Play footsie! Sit next to each other and neck a bit like teenagers. You deserve it and it's fun!

I'm thinking I'll be able to make this up to him in December, possibly January. I'm working on #1 and #2.

Monkeyrotica has other plans for our garden...

DCist Gun Law Aftermath Rant
Originally uploaded by nylonthread

The DCist.com post "D.C. Gun Law Faces Supreme Test Today" inspired my husband's distopian predictive rant, which included future plans for "subterranean sex bunkers, fueled by tons of liquid PCP, bathtub absinthe, and Ledo's pizza, ... the vegetable garden, the squirrel smokehouse, and the animal hide tanning beds." All in our suburban backyard.

Umm, cool, where's the shovel?

OMG, that thing's HUGE!!!

AJS realized a dream this week.

His dream was to have a projector TV in our rec room.

I understood the concept, but really only had the vaguest visual impressions of what he was talking about. I think I was imagining that it would kind of send out a wide-screen image, like on a flat-screen TV, you know? The screens on those types are, oh, I don't know, 3 feet by 6 feet? Big, right?

Not like this, oh no. We are talking about building a screen for the projector that is...

wait for it...

ONE HUNDRED AND FOUR INCHES BY SIXTY INCHES!!!!

I'm only 62 inches tall!! This projector sends an image out that is as tall as me and almost twice as wide! We have a movie theatre in our basement.

WOOOOOO-HOOOOOOO!!

Here is a shot of Mulan II playing on the projector. I've marked-in the tape-corners on the wall showing the final dimensions that AJS wants for the screen.  And for scale, our ceiling is about 7.5 feet high. Yow.

What to do with our old television? The Sony Wega Trinitron? Maybe there's space in our bedroom... After 15-plus years of only having one TV in our household, we now have two.

I have a bad feeling about this...

(My 300th post! Woot!)

My decision to order high-speed internet through Cox Cable was just plain practical. Straightforward. I wanted internet service, I did the research, Cox was the ONLY provider in our neighborhood (WTF is up with that?), so what else to do? They were our only hope. I ordered away. I kept the guy on the phone for waaaay longer than he seemed to think he should be, while I tried to ask him every question that AJS might come up with. I did okay, some hits, some misses.

What didn't occur for me to ask was whether setting up cable Internet would knock out our satellite and simultaneously fail to work because they would be running on the same wiring. What? That was your first question? Well, you're more of a smartie than me.

So, yikes! Was AJS pissed off when he tried to watch some morning news yesterday and discovered, WHAM, NO TV. Then, the modem arrived, and WHAM, NO INTERNET. (And for those of you who don't know AJS, he can be a very loud, angry dark cloud when riled.)

AJS's next prediction was that the cable people would blame the satellite people and vice-versa. BINGO! I called DirecTV first. It went more or less like this:

Me (to DirecTV): my satellite's out, & btw, we just had cable activated.
DTV: the cable must be running on the same wiring as the satellite. Call your cable people & tell them to install their own wiring.

Me (to Cox): you're running the cable on the satellite wiring, you need to install separate wiring.
Cox: that is OUR wiring that WE installed for your house's previous owner. DTV has no right to use it. They need to run their own wires.

Me (to DirecTV): um, hey, you know that wiring we/you've been using for 4.5 years? Well, you can't use it anymore.
DTV: you should have filed a complaint within the first 90 days, but we'll be there tomorrow to see what's going on between 1 and 5.
Me: how much will it cost? Hello?
DTV: that's not my department. I hope we've been able to provide you excellent service today! Thank you. [Click]

Bear with me while we have no internet or television. I heart my Sidekick! and TiVo! and DVDs! in the meantime.

The Boys

Nighttime rituals at the Strings' usually begin with Dash running into our bedroom to play in mommydaddybed. This tiny video of Dash inside the duvet is from AJS's Helio Ocean phone, and sorry, no sound. Just imagine wild shrieking.


AJS plays along, climbing into the blanket with him and helping him "hide."




















These are Dash's favorite pajamas: the super-Dash-jammas. I don't know what he'll agree on wearing after he grows out of these. Any other pajama and we just have to distract him after I wrestle it on while he kicks and screams and begs for Dash-jammas.



















Bonus video! Here's a little clip (with sound) from after our trip to the Natural History Museum, entitied, "Dash, Try to Get Me!" In it you'll see Dash looking slightly evil while brandishing a stick, Rosie in a too-short dress (leggings included), and me casually sporting Dash's sling as if it were some sort of cross-chest banner. At the end, you can catch sight of the Washington Monument in the distance, mid-screen.

NEW FIRETRUCK! & Xmas pics

Here are Dash & AJS testing out the new firetruck, a gift from Granddaddy Jim. 

I know, I know, Christmas was weeks ago! Close your eyes, and imagine it's Christmas morning: then open them and click the play button.

YAY-HOOO!

Rosie, the pink blur, speeds past a mountain of wrapped gifts! 

Dash is entranced by the card that Grandma Sheila picked out:

new phone!

Hey everybody! I'm posting to Blogger from my new Sidekick LX! I don't mean I'm emailing a post, but actually logged in through the browser!

I'm even more psyched that I can comment on my blogspot friends' blogs when they're blocked at work. Such a relief!

Thanks, AJS, for the xlnt xmas gift. :-*

Monkeyrotica's haikus

AJS wrote these in the Winter of 2001, when we were still living in DC. Northern Virginia hasn't moved him to poetry as yet...

Grey, icy snow drifts
over a pile of garbage
An empty forty

Snow shovels on cement
Down, Push, Over the shoulder
My back is, like, fucked

Smoke rings on the breeze
nicotine stink on fingers
my last cigarette

Crazy Bitch shovels
Morning traffic drifts downtown
her prescription works

Moonlight through treetops
ice cracks, falls, smashes on porch
a car alarm wails

Happy Birthday AJS!!

Today, AJS turns 40.

During our courtship, which lasted about 5 years, we really had no pressure to have a wedding; things were going well, we were happy, why mess with it? But at the five-year mark, there was a bit of a clock ticking: 10 years ago, AJS had set a goal get married before he turned 30. So, we did it, with a few months to spare!

Two years after, we went on a vacation to England and Ireland, where I took this photo of AJS drinking Guiness in a Dublin pub. It's one of my favorite photos of him. Doesn't he look happy and well rested?

So at 40, after 10 years of marriage, 4 different jobs, 3 cars, 2 houses, 2 gorgeous & wonderful children, 2 pet birds, a handful of vacations, and countless loving friends and family,

What's next?

Whatever it is, I'm there with you. As we toasted while at your birthday dinner on Saturday, "Here's to another 40!"

I love you, my snarky, clever, hilarious, sensitive, frank, this-is-what-you-get, cook-extraordinaire, silly-bath-daddy, mr. smoove, fiction-writing, audit-editing, monkeyrotica, man-o-mine!

AJS can still fit in his leather pants

This weekend is AJS's 40th birthday, and he told me that all he really wanted to do is hang out with me at a decent restaurant and have a few drinks. He's all dressed up right now, polishing his black leather motorcycle boots while we wait for the babysitter. When he's not polishing his boots, he has been wooing me all evening, but we won't go there.

Usually, when we have impending plans that require a sitter, I invoke my limited resources, put out a net, and have a person on the line well in advance. This time, it all kind of snuck up on me. I have been planning Rosie's party and initially, AJS said he wanted to do something completely different that involved lots of friends and renting a room out in a lovely local cocktail bar. When he nixed that a couple weeks ago, my planning train went off track.

So, I finally booked a sitter, Ms. M., on Thursday. Whew, I thought, that's a relief. Only, she didn't give me her cell number and then didn't confirm that she got my email with directions. Yikes! I sent another email hoping that she'd follow up, but I started wondering if I even had the right address. Did she even get the directions? Worse yet, would she be one of those flaky people that would just show up without confirming or calling?

I needed a back up plan and I needed to keep AJS in the dark about the situation as long as possible.

On Friday, I called another sitter, Ms. T. and told her frankly what was going on. She said she could come, but it would be 2 hours later. That was fine, we don't have reservations.

So, this afternoon, Ms. M. phoned, only to tell us that she would be running late and she didn't know how late; she'd phone back in 2 hours. 2.5 hrs later, no call, so I phoned her. She was still in the midst of her earlier plans and would be too late. Thank goodness that we had a back up!! Ms. T. should be here in about 15 minutes. Whew!

I'll let you know how the dinner went later. AJS looks pretty smooth in his leather pants and boots!

Our boys

Like father, like son.

They luuuuvs them a good sit!

















Kelly and Liam.
Sue and Daniel.

Feel the love...

It just pulsates from the screen, doesn't it?

Yep, you're very welcome.

Ten Whole Years!

Today is the tenth anniversary of my wedding with AJS. Back in 1997, I had long, dyed red hair and had lost 20 lbs so's I'd look fabulously glamorous in my wedding fotos! Ten years later, many short hairstyles, and two kids later, my hair is long again and I have those 20 lbs back. (I'm okay with 10 of them.)

Less than a year after we were married, we bought our first house, in a "gentrifying" area of Washington DC. We loved our house, but it was pretty uncertain there at night; lots of drug-dealing, mugging, and break-ins went on. After dark, AJS would meet me at the Metro, rather than let me walk home alone. We made some really good friends in that neighborhood, many whom we still are in touch with today.

Our life back then centered around bars, clubs, restaurants and going out with our friends. We loved that we were walking distance to most of our favorite night spots, The Black Cat, Metro Cafe (which has been gone for YEARS, yet still has a website?), Polly's Cafe, Fox & Hounds, The Big Hunt, Townhouse Tavern, Velvet Lounge, 9:30 Club, Common Share, Lucky Bar, and later, Saint-Ex. For years, we religiously went to Mousetrap, a monthly DJ night at the Black Cat, because our friend Mark was the DJ, we knew our friends would be there, and best of all, AJS would dance with me. Before Mousetrap, AJS never danced, but when we were there, he'd be dragging me onto the dance floor! I love you, AJS, for always dancing with me at the Black Cat.

Our friends got together for a weekly "game night" that started in 1999 and went on for a year or more. Different people came and went, but there was a core group that was always there. After the weekly died out, Molly picked it up and made it monthly. A few of our friends were in bands (The Meat Joy, Squatweiler, Rose) that played local venues and we did our darndest to make every show. We always had lots of house parties and were invited to our friends' parties, so we felt busy, and loved. We went on a few vacations to the U.K. (photo in Dublin at left), New Orleans, Mackinaw Island in Michigan, and Phoenix (Tempe, AZ, really); I loved our early married life.

When we had Rosie in 2002, we were the first in our group of friends to have a child, or as Ed put it, "you're the first people I know that had a planned pregnancy!" Our life started to change. While I was pregnant, AJS became a regular at the Black Cat's Red Room. His nickname with Billy (the homeless doorman outside, "Change for the homeless, Black Cat, Black Cat") was Mr. Smooth, the bartenders would have his drink ready on the bar before he sat down. Not able to drink, I was rarely joining him.

After she was a few months old, Rosie was an easy baby to take to parties! We'd bring her along, everyone would coo over her, then she'd fall asleep in her car seat no matter how loud the party was. So, we'd just tuck her away in a bedroom and spend a few more hours out. She went to so many parties!!! For Mousetrap, we'd drop Rosie off at my parents' house, head into DC for some dancing, then bring her home. As she grew, our outings became more limited and mostly because AJS was paying attention to the housing market, he decided it was time to leave the city (our noisy, careless, renter-neighbors helped the decision). Pure genius, AJS!

Rosie celebrated her first birthday in our new house, Dash was born about two years later, and we've lived there for four years now. AJS set up our own bar in the basement, and we have a perfect house-party house, with an excellent deck out back. Our trips to bars, clubs, and restaurants are pretty infrequent these days, but we are staying entertained by the goofy antics of our kids and regularly visiting friends (especially Kelly O! BFF!) and family on the weekends. Just this past weekend, we had dinner parties on Saturday and Sunday.

I'm so glad I'm married to you, AJS! You are loving, caring, clever, creative, entertaining, and a wonderful husband and father.

More deliciousness

I don't know how AJS did it (I'm sure he could tell you) but somehow he cooked chicken wings so wonderfully that they tasted like you were eating chicken that, instead of skin, had potato chips. But, there were no potatoes involved! Just careful grilling and only salt and pepper for seasoning. I ate waaaay too many of them (kind of like I do with potato chips). Good Eats!

Here are the pics:

Mmmm, lunch...

Two-thirds of my delightful lunch today came from my backyard! It was a tomato (yes), basil (yes), and mozzarella (no, we don't have a dairy) salad that AJS lovingly prepared for me. He even went out in the rain this morning to clip basil for the salad. What a trooper; he must love me.

[<--not an actual photo of MY lunch, but an awfully close approximation]

It was delightful! I think he added a bit of olive oil and cracked pepper.

BBQ-o-RAMA

AJS was on it this past Wednesday! The office picnic was a grand success! Rather than 150 or 170 people that were expected, the actual count was closer to 220, and to AJS's credit, there was just enough food for all. Between 11 a.m. and Noon anyway. Anyone who showed up after Noon was SOL.


Dash liked the watermelon best.






Here's what he documented that got him there:
Our three (3) smokers









1 of 4 briskets









25 pounds of chicken wings










1 of 6 racks o' ribs









2 of 8 pork shoulders

Parenting, AJS Style

A quote from AJS:

"Children should be taught to treasure their nightmares, to keep them in a soft quiet place and warm their hands by the glowing embers. We tell Rosie that, if she has monsters in her dreams, she needs to tell the monster's mommy that baby monster is being mean. Baby monster won't get cookies if it's mean.

And I think Samuel L. Jackson made the best parenthood speech ever in Pulp Fiction: 'The truth is, you are the Weak, and I am the Tyrrany of Evil Men. But I'm trying, I'm trying REAL HARD to be the shepherd.'"