Victory Garden FTW!!

Wasn’t the weather fantastic this weekend? My yard called to me, begging to be cleared, to be made beautiful and fruitful this year. Last weekend, I met with Kelly and Brent to talk about preparing what is now a lawn for a metamorphosis into a vegetable garden. Brent is a master gardener and both Kelly and I are novices. I’m hoping to get regular updates from Brent & Kelly and we can enjoy our Victory Gardens together! This year I have some serious goals for the garden: (1) to grow vegetables (and flowers, for Rosie) from seed, (2) to prepare of an area in my yard that’s 6’x14’ for planting, (3) to stay on top of the weeds and watering. We're on our way with #1 already, touched on #2 & #3.

Earlier in the week, Monkeyrotica and I agreed to set aside Saturday mornings from 9 a.m. to Noon for family gardening time. I put Monkey in charge of the compost pile and the kids are going to help with planting, watering and weeding (Dash wants to Kill Some Weeds!). Fully aware that the kids will lose interest in all that within 5 minutes, I am putting myself in charge of planting, watering and weeding.

So what went on at the Strings' this weekend? Well, we:
• planted our seeds in mini-greenhouses

















• cleared the weeds in the garden bed (I enlisted some area boys to move the rocks, coming soon)
• weeded and mulched the raspberry beds
• generally cleared out a lot of dead and overgrown stuff
• raked some of the ignored leaves from last Fall

After some shopping at the local hardware store for some materials (mini-greenhouses, sprinkler, hose, wheelbarrow), we pretty much were in the yard all Saturday and Sunday. Rosie and I took a couple of bike rides around the neighborhood for breaks in the lovely weather, and there was a visit from Auntie M. on Sunday morning (Auntie M helped with bagging leaves, brought back some childhood leaf-bagging memories). The end result is what you see in the photo of my curb (at top, lots of bags and brush). I’m so excited about this! I want to get back in the garden right away.

Ms. Nylon: Superhero!

Go, make yourself a hero at Hero Factory!

I put up a different one on FB last night, but it was so crazy-fun, I had to make another for you, my blog readers!

I grabbed this idea from Melissa (on Facebook) at Unfit Mother! Thanks for passing on the entertainments. Other blogging pals have picked up their powers: go check out: Hey, Ho, KellyGO and Pink Asparagus!

Hm, what's with the short 'do on my alter ego? I've been thinking about haircuts...

Replicants

Dash has been talking about his brain a lot. 

If we ask him, "where'd you get that idea?" or "who told you that you could do that?" his answer is either "my clever brain" or "my evil brain." Sometimes he'll tell us it's his "Evil Robot Fododi brain."

He was talking to me about his "Robot Fododi" brain during dropoff at daycare. I forget exactly what he was saying, something about his brain telling him good things and he was happy that Robot Fododi was not evil today.

Right when his teacher walked up, he told her, "I hope Mr. Deckard doesn't kill me, because I'm not an evil robot!"

Sheepishly, I shrugged and muttered, "Heh. Blade Runner."

My shoveling crew

Wait, what? That's the grass! Amateurs.

Dash at the Dentist, with Shoggoth

No, I don't have any whacked out, drugged up vid of my boy, post dentist. Just a good report, xrays, cleaning, fluoride treatment, all the good stuff, minimal screaming. He must have his father's teeth. Mine have been drilled, filled, root canalled, scraped, and braced over the years in so many ways; I hope I don't pass much of that on.

Dash brought Shoggoth (per my suggestion), because he has soooo many teeth (36, in fact) and the dentist might want to look at them, too. I'm such a geek!

Dash told the dentist, "Shagga' is a sea monster! He's a Kraken! He's very scary!" (note: we've told Dash Shoggoth is a Kraken [as seen in Fellowship of the Ring] because that's easier to understand than protoplasmic hell-creature created by the Elder-Things)
The hygenist asked, "Oh, should I be afraid?"
Dash said, "No, he's only a toy."
The dentist asked, "He has so many eyes, too, does he watch over you?"
Dash said, "Yes, he keeps my nightmares away!"

Background on Shoggoth (originally from a tale by H.P. Lovecraft), according to Wikipedia:

"The shoggoths were created by the Elder Things as living bioengineered construction equipment. Being amorphous, they could take on any shape needed, making them very versatile within their aquatic environment. Though able to "understand" the Elder Things' language, they had no real consciousness and were controlled through hypnotic suggestion.

The shoggoths built the underwater cities of their masters. Over millions of years of existence, some shoggoths mutated and gained independent minds. Some time after this, they rebelled. Eventually, the Elder Things succeeded in quelling the insurrection, but thereafter watched them more carefully. By this point, exterminating them was not an option as the Elder Things were fully dependent on them for labor and could not replace them. It was during this time that, despite their masters' wishes, they demonstrated an ability to survive on land.

Within the Mythos, the existence of the shoggoths possibly led to the accidental creation of Ubbo-Sathla, a god-like entity supposedly responsible for the origin of all life on Earth, though At The Mountains of Madness brings up the possibility of the Elder Things being the creators, having made early life as discarded experiments in bioengineering."

Shoggoth, being a nightmare creature himself, must know the scene pretty well; I'm glad he's on Dash's side in the nightmare business. Woot to healthy teeth!

A flower family

Rosie sent this drawing of hers in to work with me today and it just makes me all warm and mushy inside every time I look at it. We all have little hearts flying next to our smiling flower faces (except Dash, who got more of a teeny blossom than a bloom). Weegee the "bard" is flying nearby, too. I'm sure he'd love to be able to fly, poor domesticated, clipped pet that he is. Her teachers at school are encouraging the kids to sound out their words and take a crack at
independent spelling before resorting to assistance. That's where we get "mam" and "bard," I'm gathering.

(Sorry about the awful lighting--d@mn fluorescents.)

Wanting to be more gracious

Broken flower
Originally uploaded by julius_cesar713

For Valentine's Day, this past weekend, Rosie gave her (our) dance teacher, Mrs. H, a valentine's card and a flower. The flower was a small purple and white flower Rosie chose from a larger bouquet at our house. I noticed as I was holding it after we arrived at ballet that the stem had broken in transit and started to apologize to Mrs. H. She replied, "Oh, no! It's gorgeous! I love it! Thank you so much!" with such conviction that I really believe that she meant it. I don't think I could pull that off, personally. Mrs. H works with all ages, from 3 years old through well-past retirement ages and must get all sorts of tokens from her students all year long. All I've ever seen her show is graciousness and appreciation for any gifts.

I find myself surprised by this! And shamed, slightly, that I am surprised and don't express how grateful I am for overtures people have made to me. I'm quick to think that a gift has strings or a hidden meaning and pause to grind gears in my head rather than just give plain and sincere thanks.

Something to reflect and work on. Give me a spindly, broken, cheap fragile, beautiful blossom, and I'll enjoy it for its moment in time and let the loveliness of nature and the gesture enrich my day. Really.

Something to meditate on.

A bubble bath? Sure!

The kids asked for a bubble bath; I pretended to misunderstand and blew bubbles at them during their bath.

They didn't mind at all. While popping bubbles, Rosie pointed out that I'd got it wrong, but didn't insist that I fix anything. ;-)

Getting excited about gardening!

seedlings.JPG
Originally uploaded by Purple Goddess

I really want to have a garden this year, a raised garden with several plants (within reason!) that we love to eat, and that the kids can help sow and care for.

I just found this blog on homesteading where Tiffany the Homesteader is starting her garden with folded newspaper pots! What a fabulous idea (I'm sure it's not new, just new to me). She has all sorts of ideas for her garden planned out and it's got me dreaming, on a smaller scale.

Here's a tutorial on the origami pots:
http://www.geocities.com/newspaperpots/

Weird weather in NoVA

It was 70 degrees yesterday. Kids were out in t-shirts and shorts, riding bikes.

Two weeks ago (around the time I skidded out on ice, hit another person's car and got mine put in the shop AND STILL DON'T HAVE BACK YET!!) it looked like this:





Before anyone goes off on "women drivers" or "snow sheep," I'll let you in on what happened. I learned to drive in the suburbs of Chicago and also lived in Michigan for a while. I can handle driving in snow. My car has new tires and is a well-known model for safe driving in poor weather. The morning of the collision (around 7:30 a.m.) it had started to snow, the first snow of the season. I drove to Dash's daycare, dropped him off, and by the time I left the building, the snow was sticking and it was getting colder. I saw a snow plow drive by with its plow up, heading somewhere more important. When I turned off on a side street, I was thinking about the coffee I was going to purchase before I met Rosie's kindergarten teacher for our conference. The speed limit on the road was 25 mph and there was a Jeep ahead of me by a few car lengths, stopped at a stop sign. I was decelerating and braked, but my car kept moving forward as if the brakes weren't there at all! It had already iced over! When I realized that my brakes weren't making any difference and I was going to hit the Jeep, I checked to see if there were any pedestrians on the sidewalk and pulled up onto the curb. I still grazed the Jeep and rammed the stop sign.

One saving grace? Since I haven't had a collision on my insurance policy in at least 10 years (probably more), I get amnesty and the premium won't be going up. Whew.

What Dash thinks of the Little Gym

Anyone for craft night?

Inventory of materials I have for craft projects:

Beads and findings GALORE!
Sewing materials/machine, ribbons, fabric scraps
Paints, watercolors, paintbrushes, paper, easels
Origami papers & books
Several colors/sheets of felt
Decoupage materials for 6 (for a failed craft night)
Embroidery floss, embroidery ring, needles
Yarn, knitting needles (knitting for dummies book)

I can teach the beading, embroidery, or origami and lead a decoupage craft, but I suck at knitting and could use some instruction. I am currently experimenting with felt and am wowed by all the fantastic felting work I've seen on Etsy (and coveted the felt ring Linda Hesh was wearing at her party 2 weeks ago!).

Email me and let's set something up!
(P.S. Sundays are good & our table seats 8.)

Foto Friday

Dash is "helping" me out at the office today. We are SO! leaving for
home imminently.

Food porn—Jan 31 BBQ

Monkeyrotica's back at the grill again! He just told me that the three slabs (pictured below) will be NC pulled pork, Memphis ribs, and TX brisket. Will be taking more pics as we go along. Stay tuned. Pics are here!

Backstory: A friend of ours has been teaching in Korea this past year. He came into town last week and mentioned that, even though Korean barbecue is fabulous, he's been craving the American variety. Monkeyrotica decided to step in and give the man a cross section of southern BBQ. All the recipes were pulled/modified from Raichlen's BBQ USA book, which is heartily recommended by the Strings. Our friend seemed to have brought his Korean weather to DC as the temps barely rose above 28°F and there was still a sheet of ice on the deck.

On the menu: Carolina pulled pork with Lexington vinegar pepper slaw, Memphis wet ribs, and Texas brisket. Sides were Mexican charros beans cooked with jalapenos and bacon, mac and cheese, and collard and turnip greens cooked in chardonnay.

Monkeyrotica's preparation narrative: The 8lb pork shoulder was seasoned only with salt and pepper. This went on the WSM at 6pm Friday over applewood and some generic Homelife briquettes from the local Target. Not much ash production, but it burns a little faster than Royal Oak briquettes but not as fast as Kingsford. This hit 190 internal around noon Saturday. Left to cool for an hour, pulled half, chopped the other half.

Twelve pounds of brisket went on at midnight, seasoned just with salt, fresh pepper, and cayenne. Since the applewood chunks had burned down, I threw some soaked hickory on, so the brisket would get full hickory, but the pork shoulder would get half hickory, half applewood. Wrapped at 9am, pulled at 1pm. Cooled and sliced.

The two full, untrimmed racks of ribs were seasoned with brown sugar, kosher salt, black and chipotle pepper, garlic powder, and half a cup of Old Bay. They hit WSM #2 around 9am over applewood chunks: 3 hours smoke, two hours wrapped. After five hours, I pulled the water pan, stoked some more coals, and sauced them for about an hour at 325 dome temp. Everything (barely) fit in a warming oven until guests arrived around 3ish. There were no survivors, by which I mean leftovers.

I've cooked in snow many times before, but it was a little unusual to have to crack open my soaking wood chunks with an icepick (it was cold!). Still, it was worth watching the inevitable meat coma feeding slowdown an hour after everyone started eating. We sent everyone waddling home with their own Ziploc bag packed with meat.

Photo gallery from the party:

Still life by Rosie

Rosie is in an after-school art class, sponsored by the PTA. Here's a
lovely floral arrangement she painted in yesterday's class, possibly
with Tempera paints? Those were always my elementary-school art
teacher's favorite...

Breakfast with Weegee

It just warms my heart the way the kids have taken to Weegee. On
Sunday night after baths (Weegee took his in the sink), the kids
insisted that Weegee come to their room & listen to books with them.
Rosie even became brave enough to let Weegee perch on her finger and
give him head scratches without me putting him in a headlock. By
today, she's been feeding him from her plate and kissing him directly
on his head. Dash is following her lead. See how Weegee is sitting in
between them? That's because they would both start to weep if he sat
too far from either of them. We got it all worked out and our flock
had a lovely breakfast together. BTW, you might be wondering why on a
Wednesday that we are eating breakfast together? The schools are
closed, so I have both kids (and a parrot) at home today.

Flashback: Baby Alive!

A recent post about childhood discoveries on Dee's blog got me reminiscing. When I was 7 or 8 years old, one of Auntie M's and my playmates was the daughter of a scientist couple who both worked at the same laboratory as our dad. Debbie also had two much older brothers that teased her (and my sister and I ) mercilessly. They also challenged her intellectually, introducing her to advanced concepts and special, ahem, academic tomes that were in her parents' voluminous library.

We loved hanging out at Debbie's house! I remember all sorts of food experiments that went on there (who chooses to drink "mineral water" or "rice cakes?"), I learned how to solder stained glass at her house and set the fire extinguisher off, too! Loved playing in the basement full of pinball machines, air hockey, and foosball tables. Great fun.

That is, except when Debbie's elderly, fundamentalist Christian babysitter was watching her.

I have never been kicked out of anybody's house so many times before or since. The first several times I was kicked out were for swearing. My mom's favorite swear words were "$hit!" and "juh-EEE-sus!!" and not really knowing any better, I used them like she did, you know, as "sentence enhancers." I learned from this babysitter that swear words were not universally acceptable. I got kicked to the curb. Pee, poop, boobies, butt, crap, all were kick-out words. If you had to relieve yourself, you asked to go to the "bathroom, please" not announce, "I gotta go pee!" Otherwise, don't let the door hit you in the um, "derriere." On subsequent visits I begged to stay and she gave me several second chances. The condition was that I had to keep my potty mouth clean. It was tough.

On one final occasion, Debbie was showing me her most treasured recent discovery. Her brothers had just introduced her to Grey's Anatomy. We tucked into it and found a carefully dog-eared, detailed diagram of the female reproductive system. I stored to memory the key vocabulary, especially since Debbie had recently been gifted a new semi-anatomically correct baby doll that would drink AND wet herself (the 1970's version of Baby Alive). This was cool!! I had, had, had! to tell the babysitter about it! I wanted to prove that I could be genteel. But, how? And without using those nasty, vulgar words, like pee-pee or poop? I vowed to clean up my act and impress this prudish sitter. I practiced what I would say and checked Grey's Anatomy one more time. I was ready.

"Mrs. Sitter?" I said, "Look at this! This baby doll drinks water, she really does! And then the water goes all the way through and comes out of her v@gin@! See?"

I was thereafter banned. Permanently banned. I'm just glad she didn't clean my mouth with soap. (She certainly threatened to do just that.) Heh.

My 500th Post!! Uncle John.

What better way to celebrate my 500th blog post than a lovely, warm photo of my family! Including surprise visitor, Uncle John!!

We were thrilled on Monday when we received an unexpected phone call from Monkeyrotica's brother, John. He was nearby and on his way over! Why so thrilled? Well, it's a long story, but essentially, we haven't seen John in four years. This was the first time that Dash met his Uncle John; having an uncle was only a theory, prior to four days ago.

Our visit was happy, the kids love him, and we all got caught up on what John's doing with himself. John's career has always been in dangerous security details, first traveling all over the U.S. to do private protection, then his work took him overseas to train security professionals in Afghanistan and other locations in the Middle East. We used to see him a few times a year, as work allowed, but he was injured four years ago. Ironically, he was not injured on his high-risk job, but slipped on some ice on a sidewalk outside his apartment building and out went his back. While he was recuperating from that injury, he was t-boned in a car accident, which exacerbated his bad back. Needless to say, sadly, long car trips to visit the family were out of the question for much too long. Now, he's back up, looks great, and is interviewing to get back into the thick of it!!

The Strings are looking forward to having Uncle John back in our circle. At least, as regularly as before. Growing up, I only saw my uncles, aunts, and cousins twice a year at most, and those visits meant a great deal to me. Family connections are important to children, sometimes even mysterious (that person is related to me?). I'm so glad that we are close to immediate family and have opportunities to visit our relatives in just a short car trip. Maybe soon, we can take the kids to visit their second-cousins and great aunts & uncles on a longer car ride? They would love it!!

Dash strung his own necklace!

Looking for ways to keep the kids busy while school is out today, I opened a grab bag of plastic beads for Dash so he could string them. I added the clasp and helped place the large raspberry bead in the center, and he did the rest! Look how proud he is of himself.

Painted my pet

Hey friends! The Os, the Ns, & the Js all came by for pet-portrait painting fun. Three of us painted our dogs, a cat, and a bird respectively. It was crazy fun to be painting with friends and as usual, Monkeyrotica cooked some excellent fare: steak-tartare-stuffed mushrooms, home-baked bread, fresh cheese pizza, roasted bone marrow, and duck cassoulet with champagne cocktails. Mmmmm. Here is my painting (background details in the style of Klimt) of Weegee the Senegal parrot—it probably needs more work, but that'll have to wait for another time. Kelly O painted her dogs a la Van Gogh with a little Wyeth and Wood thrown in for references. Don and I went for more of a cheesy exaggerated style, all of it with the rules of cuteness in mind via Cute Overload. (cheers to Kelly, I just cribbed most of that from her entry. heh.) D@mn, that was fun!

Shoggoth is my favorite friend!

I don't believe we'll be reading Dash any Lovecraft anytime soon. In the meantime, Shoggoth, with his many eyes, teeth, and tentacles, will be guarding Dash from the bad dreams and nightmares instead of creating them.

Portrait of Ernie

During arts & crafts time at Auntie M's with the kids, I took advantage of art supplies the kids weren't using and drew Ernie the parakeet with colored pencils and pastels. Rosie and Dash were occupied with painting Dash's wooden train tracks with various watercolor hues.

We intended to meet at a park and let the kids run around, but the weather didn't cooperate. About 10 minutes after we left, it started pouring rain! So, off to the crafts bin we went. Drawing Ernie was a bit of a warmup for the "painting-pet-portraits party" that we have planned for next weekend, except that it's the wrong style. We'll be using more of a waif-on-black-velvet look. Oh it'll be awesome! I can hardly wait!

My new nephews!

Auntie M has taken two parakeets into her home! They are named Ernie (yellow above his beak) and Finnegan (white above beak), after authors in her library. Adorable little things, aren't they?

Strings family portrait

Rosie painted our portrait in her favorite medium, watercolor. I am so proud of her! She included all of us, even Weegee, in pretty accurate scale. I like Monkeyrotica's green hair and Homer Simpson pants. I'm also finding it interesting that, like Kelly O's Thea, Rosie has me towering over the rest of the family; Moms Rule!

The ubiquitous "I have a new iPhone" photo

Not the post I wanted to write, but it'll pass for today

I've got all sorts of photos and ideas for posts in my head, I just can't seem to find the time to put them together up on the blog. It's close to a writer's cramp, but with responsibilities, work, and chores getting in the way. I'm even on borrowed time as I type!

Just a few thoughts: Rosie had a relapse at school this week and is back to her old tricks (or lack of them, the teacher's main complaint is that she's not participating, staring into space and the like.) We hope that she'll have an easier time of it, getting back into the rhythm, since this time she's got a few months of good reports before break! Rosie is such a sweetheart, and so smart, I know she'll figure it out again.

Just yesterday we had an incident that was a brilliant combination of scary, flaky, and negligent. We signed her up for an afterschool art class with the PTA. Because of the demand, they had to open up a second class for an alternate day, thursday. Because it was a late decision, the PTA didnt get a roster of students for the Thursday class. We reminded her of her class in the morning, sent her in with a painting smock and scheduled a pickup at 4:45 pm. At 4:08, I get a call from a neighborhood mom that nobody was at the busstop to pick her up. Aargh! She wasn't supposed to take the bus! And she was really looking forward to the class! Not to mention the steep lab fees that I probably won't get back. Thanks to the nice moms at the busstop who took Rosie under their wing, the situation could have been a lot worse. I had a long chat with Rosie about remembering schedules, and her teachers are now alerted, so I hope all goes more smoothly next week.

New Year's Eve pie

Dash & Rosie helped make a lovely pizza-pie this evening. This was
Dash's first foray into pizza-making and he loved it! Monkeyrotica made
the wonderful crust by hand, then they added sauce, olives, browned
sausage, mushrooms, pepperoni, and two kinds of cheese (provolone and
mozzarella). Soooo tasty!

Also, Dash is modeling his new haircut. He trimmed a few locks off the
top on his own, and it was necessary for me to give him a serious cut
to even it out. I managed to trim it dry, with shears! He freaked out at
the clipper--too noisy & hurty. I think he looks quite handsome.

I have a bird in my office!

Weegee the Senegal parrot was shrieking up a storm in his bedroom-cage upstairs. Once I brought him into the office with me, he became completely chill. He just wants to be near his flock (i.e. me), you know? Purely instinctual behavior.

I just made an appointment for him for a well-bird visit at a local avian vet. Unfortunately, the closest "local" vet is 45 minutes away, not far from my office. Maybe they would board him while I worked? Finding an avian vet or one that treats exotics is troublesome—we had a fabulous vet for years (since 1990) who relocated to Pennsylvania in 2005. Since then, Weegee's records have been shuffled to three different vets.

We haven't been to Dr. Stahl's office before, I'll let you know how it goes. From their website, http://www.seavs.com it looks like they have some pretty interesting and committed staff, all with bizarre exotic-animal collections of their own.

Everybody loves ice cream!

Rosie and Dash eat mint-chocolate-chip ice cream cones with the Os! Yummy.

Ballerina doll! Finished.

She's felt with some ribbon, beads & embroidery. Rosie has already claimed her. I was planning on making more and giving as gifts, but other handmade gifts (commissions) took precedence! I still hope to make more. She's sweet.

I published a how-to step by step series of photographs and commentary on my new craft blog. Go check it out!

Playing off our Xmas dinner

Again, Rosie and I are burning off energy at a park, all by ourselves. It's not even that cold out! Are people inside playing Wii virtual playground instead?

Feast of Lights: flashback

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:

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 but strong 

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


(There are more verses, but the Internets fail me for locating them. Update: third verse contributed by Anonymous! Thanks! 2nd Update: More verses added by additional anonymous readers! Again, many thanks.)

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

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

Office Christmas Parties Past

This past Sunday, Monkeyrotica and I took Rosie and Dash to a Christmas party at our friend Kathryn's apartment. She served Jul Glögg, a traditional Swedish Christmas punch, and the guests trimmed the tree. Or, to be more accurate, my kids (they were the only under-20 contingent) decorated the bottom half of the tree by themselves and several other guests added ornaments to the upper half. We had a lovely time, catching up with friends we haven't seen in forever, like Ed (been staying on the down-low), or Carri and William (down from NYC). The glögg was tasty, but I preferred the champagne cocktails; Monkey, can you get that recipe from Fritz?

Even though the setting was nothing like Christmas parties from my childhood, it nevertheless felt familiar. I remember holiday parties with my dad's coworkers, all researchers and scientists at Argonne National Labs, where my sister and I were virtually the only kids there. The parties would be very casual and open-ended. We would be mingling with intellectual adults, listening in and attempting to keep up with their conversations (my, aren't your children precocious, Jim!), playing pool (there was always a billiards table), sampling from the buffet, and there would always be the singing!

Back then, it was the '70s and folk music was king, but today I don't know anyone who brings a guitar to a party and gets everyone to sing along, do you? At those parties, a couple of those scientists would bring along lyric sheet copies (mimeographed?), start strumming away, and we would all carol our hearts out. M. and I were fair singers at the time (or at least our parents liked to volunteer us) and occasionally we would sing a duet of a favorite tune we'd learned in grade school for the group.

Ok, there wasn't any singing at Fritz and Kathryn's party, but just the same, the kids were the entertainment, with an audience of adults watching them, carefully, with focus and enthusiasm, perform a creative task well. They were complimented on what a good job they were doing, hanging those tiny, delicate ornaments, and how well behaved they were! I'll see if I can get some photos of K & F's tree and post later! It looked gorgeous!!

Dance video added!

Since my post about the Winter Dance performance is well below the fold now, here is a quick link so you can view the video that I (finally) posted! Enjoy!

Oh, and I'm in the back row, center.

Clemyjontri park

We have this whole park to ourselves today!

Rosie & I just got back from a mid-day boat ride in D.C. So we stopped at this fabulous park to burn some energy before she heads into my office with me. On to office party #3! This one should be nicer though, an intimate potluck with coworkers & a secret santa gift exchange.

UPDATE: Actually, if you were following my tweets from Thursday afternoon, you learned that we were not entirely alone! While Rosie was frolicking around the lovely, empty park, three teenaged boys (at least 16, as they drove themselves there and were all much taller than little-me) arrived. At first I thought they might have brought a younger friend, but no, they were jumping and swinging and whooping it up around the sized-for-elementary-schoolers equipment themselves.

All of us were leaving at the same time and as they were getting in their car (emblazoned with a Gonzaga HS sticker), I overheard one of them tell the other two, "This park is awesome! I'm totally coming back."

You know, I feel exactly the same way. Clemyjontri rocks!

How far does Santa need to go to get here?

I want my Friday evening date-night back.

So, last Friday. The kids had a great time! They spent the eventing at Auntie M's new house where she has set up an entire room for them. Their special room-at-auntie's is outfitted with sleeping bags, new toys, games, craft supplies, and books. I picked them up at around 11 p.m. Friday night and they were sweet and sleepy—Thank you Auntie M, for taking care of Rosie & Dash! I piled them in the car and headed home and all were abed before midnight.

Auntie M was babysitting so that Monkeyrotica and I could attend a party. Mr. Monkey's car battery was dead, so he spent his day thusly:
5:30 a.m. leave the house for dealership to beat Beltway traffic.
7:00 a.m. dealership opens, wait for hours on end, listening to gawdawful Xmas tunes
12:00 p.m. leave dealership and spend a few hrs grocery shopping among foul-smelling denizens of NoVA, head home to pack up car with kid-entertainment items
4:00 p.m. pick up son, pick up daughter, travel the Beltway for 90 minutes.
5:30 p.m. obtain food for offspring, drop them at Auntie M's, spend 45 mins in tollroad traffic
6:15 p.m. pickup wife, inform her that going to a party is the last thing he wants to do after driving around in traffic since 5:30 a.m.; wife ignores Mr. Monkey, she looks party-fabulous and ready for fun!

[UPDATE: I had to add here, that there are no photos of this event. It's my own fault, as I couldn't find our camera anywhere that morning. I texted Monkey before he left the house and asked him if he knew where the camera was. He replied yes, he did know. There you go.]

Here's where a series of weird, annoying things happen in which steam blows hard and heavy out of Mr. Monkey's ears. We get to the party at the appointed time, check in, but the bars don't open until 7. We check our coats. A fire alarm blares and we are directed to leave, so we uncheck our coats and go outside for 20 minutes. By the time we get back in and re-check the coats, the bar is not quite open and we really need drinks. waaaait...Bar Open! A friend orders a Southern Comfort from the hotel lobby bar. The bartender doesn't know what that is (or a few subsequent drink orders) so we all order vodka tonics, just because she knows that one (don't bartenders need to be licensed?). We sit for a while, because the ballroom doesn't open until 8, but boredom sinks in and we wander the lobby. Since Monkey and I arrived in separate cars, neither of us plan to drink heavily.

At 8 p.m. we are all allowed to enter the ballroom, a.k.a. the refrigerator. All the ladies promptly don their date's jackets. I find a seat, then reach for my condensation-beaded water glass which shoots out of my fingers and sprays water and ice all over the table. No servers in sight. There are a few speeches and lots of clapping. 9 p.m. comes and goes as some servers start mysteriously arranging and rearranging trays around the room. A D.J. starts spinning some holiday music. Monkey continues to clench until Dave Brubek's Take Five plays, which relaxes him a small bit.

At 9:30, a server comes to our table with a tureen of soup. Did I mention that our place settings have no bowls? No mind, she pours fishy-smelling soup into the charger plates. I ask, "Excuse me, what kind of soup is this? My husband has a shellfish allergy." The server answers, "Soup? Yes." Another server comes to take the soup-on-plates away, as others are bustling around with bowls. Monkey doesn't get to eat the lobster bisque. There's a mildly funny interlude in which Monkey gives her back his bowl several times and she keeps handing him fresh bowls of bisque. "I can't eat this!" and "Severe shellfish allergy!" are not in her vocabulary. There is no beverage service (if you need a drink of any kind, you must leave the ballroom and find the bar out in the lobby).

9:45, the salad course is served: mixed greens, with strawberries and candied walnuts (if you're lucky—one person at our table only got the greens). We wait, and wait, and make awkward conversation about how hungry everyone is and how nobody thought we had to wait until 10 p.m. to eat on a Friday. One tablemate threatens to leave and get food at McDonald's if the main course doesn't show up soon. At 10:10, covered platters are spotted, emerging from the catering area.

10:15 p.m. Our surf and turf plates arrive! The two jumbo prawns feature grandly atop every item underneath. Oh, wait. Monkey can't eat them either. Suxxorz!! Ignoring the flames pouring out of Monkey's ears, I sacrifice my mini-mignon filet, take his prawns and we scuttle out of the ballroom as soon as we are full.

Bust. At least we didn't pay for a sitter? Next time Monkeyrotica tells me that he really, really wants to go home and that going out will suck, I promise to be a better listener.

Studio holiday program, featuring Nylonthread!

This is my second year with the dance studio that I joined shortly after enrolling Rosie (and discovering that they had adult classes). Every year there are two performances: the main recital in June that is a grand 4-hour production (1.5 hrs for children's classes, 20 minute intermission, and 1.5 hrs for teen/adult classes) with participation from all of the 50+ classes in the studio, and the holiday program that shows just a select few dances (8, this year) from the advanced classes. (woot! I'm advanced!)



Dance video up! Enjoy!!

My class practices the modern style of dance, which is fluid, athletic, and has basis in ballet and jazz styles. I love it. The instructor is the solo owner and choreographer, but uses assistants from the advanced classes to help wrangle the youngest dancers. While there are many ballet, jazz, and tap classes throughout the week, there is only one modern, so I feel that I'm in an elite group (I don't like to be part of the horde). There are six students, Mary, Maddie, Gabi, Emma, Michelle, and myself, with only two teenagers in the group—the rest of us are 30–50-somethings with kids of our own.

Gabi was telling me just before our performance that a relative of hers was shaming her a bit for taking dance classes! She was hearing, "Aren't you a little old for that?" and, "It's a bit undignified to be dancing around at your age, don't you think?" Ugh. We are having so much fun! I fully support having fun. Pooh-pooh to all those pooh-poohers. I'll have to admit that I feel old going to DJ dance clubs these days, since they're populated by kids almost 20 years younger than me, but in a dance class for adults? I'm in my element. (I'm also having just as much fun in step aerobics.)

Our dance was to "Angels We Have Heard on High" by Mannheim Steamroller, cut to just 120 seconds. (no, I am not making that up and to his credit, Monkeyrotica knew what I was talking about when I referenced it the first time.) Here's the tune on YouTube, with someone's Xmas lights synched to it:

I borrowed an older costume from a dancer who wasn't participating and wound up having to repair it moderately. Costumes are only purchased for the June recital, so we scramble to find alternatives in December. My lovely garb was a black and red leotard with gold trim, a mandarin collar, and flared sleeves, and a side-split, full-length skirt.

So where's the video?!? I know you read the first few lines and have been scrolling around for it! As soon as I get it up, I will add an update with the video, hopefully before the end of the weekend. Truth be told, I haven't viewed it myself. I know I made one fumble near the beginning, but recovered fine and the rest of the dance went well!

Dish duty

I somehow let two full days of dishes accumulate in the kitchen. Horrors! Weegee and I are hanging out, enjoying each other's company while I get the dishes out of the way. Woo. Harold Budd is cycling on the iPod and the kids are downstairs with Monkeyrotica, watching Ren and Stimpy.

I actually get a kind of thrill when I come up with ways for Weegee and I to spend quality pet-owner time. He spends so much of his day alone and, quite honestly, comes fifth (including me) in the family hierarchy. Cheers, little bird-guy!

Fabulous Day, Rosie!

Bravo!

This is Rosie's daily behavior report. Her two columns are "Get my work done" and "Be nice to my friends." The rows are all the segments of her school day. Today, she had all "Yes" answers. Fabulous! Keep up the good work.