jennanddave.com

We're really tired. All of us. Including the dog. Somehow, by the end of the weekend, I was even more exhausted than I was at the start, which I initially found surprising because you'd think with two of us handling Henry we'd get some rest. As it turns out, when there are two of us, there's a penchant for running around trying to get all the stuff you'd like to get done, well, done. Last week we ate the second to last frozen dinner that we had from the dinners we had stockpiled from the Thanksgiving turkey and the Xmas ham. I decided that we should make another turkey this weekend to replenish the supply, so that's what we did. Although we feel like turkey pros, it was hard work.

Henry was very good to us, getting up only twice Friday and Saturday nights, once around 11pm, and again between 2 and 3. What was more surprising was he was sleeping til 8 or 8:30. What a good kid. But then the dog got sick. She tip-tapped up the stairs Sunday night around midnight, tapped around the room, sat and stared at us for a while, walked around again, then went back down to the couch. I asked Dave if he thought she was trying to tell us something was wrong downstairs and he said he didn't think so. Henry woke up shortly after for his 2am nosh. Then at 4 Flash came back upstairs and tapped around the room, hopped in bed with us, hopped off, and tapped around again. Dave decided to take her out back to let her go to the bathroom, but after doing that, she made it clear she wanted to go for a walk so Dave got dressed and took her for a walk. I tended to Henry, who had started to cry because of all the activity, and then waited for Dave to get back. Turns out Flash had diarrhea and then threw up. She spent the rest of the night curled up in bed with us. This would have been fine if it wasn't for the fact that she promptly fell asleep whereas Dave and I were awake until at least five listening to her heavy, contented breathing. By Monday, we were all wrecked. At least I didn't have to stand in front of a group of people and try to teach them something.

Posted by Jenn at 11:34 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)

Because I know you've often stayed awake at nights wondering about this...

The Black Angel People Iced: Eighteen Car Bombs Planted: Three Favorite Weapon Garden Hoe Arms Broken: Fifteen Eyes Gouged: Two Tongues Cut Off: Three Biggest Enemy: Joe Diamonds Get Your HITMAN Name

Lock up your garden hoes.

Posted by Jenn at 01:54 PM | Permalink | Comments (4)

The Institute of Museum and Library Services at UCSL has created a digital collection of thousands of Edison cylinder recordings. And they're online! Check them out here. Lots of marches, lots of speeches, lots of cool stuff to hear, such as "Peaceful Henry".

Posted by Jenn at 04:08 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

In December I decided that since I had eight projects in the works, I wasn't going to allow myself to start anything new until I had scratched some of them off the list. Some got checked off quickly, but others I expended quite a bit of time and energy procrastinating over. One of those projects was the pair of socks I finished knitting on the car ride home. I would share a picture of them with you now, but they're upstairs where Henry is napping and if I went up and got them the creaking of the floorboards would probably wake him up and then I'd spend the next three hours bouncing him on my knee, talking to him through his gorilla, and generally trying to make his life absolutely fantastic and fun until either I collapsed or he fell asleep and I don't want to go there just yet. What I do have a picture of is another project I started off with gusto then put aside for a year. This was one of the few projects Dave would periodically ask about the status of because he was so curious about the end result. Last night, he finally got to see it in all its finished, felted glory:

I wish I had taken a "before" shot so you could see how large it was before felting. It was huge. Perhaps needless to say, I really dig it. I'm thinking about what kind of eyes to add. I could needle felt some black wool on. or I could sew some buttons on. Maybe I could glue googly eyes on. Blue ones. Or orange ones. That would be cool. Anyway, Dave was suitably impressed, then asked the million dollar question, "What are we going to do with it?" I told him that it's going on the fireplace mantle. Duh.

Posted by Jenn at 12:50 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)

Henry and I are back in Lewisburg. We had a great trip, saw lots of people and sights, and ate lots of good food. As a belated Valentine's Day present Dave decided to drive up to Boston to pick us up, with the ulterior motive of taking me out for a romantic dinner on Saturday night. We decided to go to Roka, a great little sushi restaurant on Mass Ave where Dave and I spent many a night gnoshing on gyoza when we were first dating. We put Henry to bed at 7:15, waved good-bye to my parents, and ran out the door. After circling around for half an hour looking for a parking space, we walked up the to the balcony that overlooks Roka (which is below street level) and saw that it was closed. Not just closed, but empty. It's gone. The only thing left is their still lit-up sign. Now, if we were in Lewisburg and this had happened, we wouldn't have had any problem deciding where else we could go to dinner because there are only, like, four other restaurants. However, being in the big city, we both panicked a bit at the number of options and thus could make no decision at all. We drove through Inman Square, then through Kendall, then finally I suggested we go to the Grand Canal. Good idea: North Station area + tons of restaurants and bars = no empty street parking spaces on a Saturday night for miles around. But we gave it a shot. For forty-five minutes we drove around and around, with no luck. So back to Cambridge we drove. We tried another place, but they had a half-hour wait and by this point I was really grumpy and so hungry I could've eaten the maitre-d's hand so we left and got take-out thai food from the place we happened to park in front of. It turned out to be really good. It's strange to be back in the quiet of Lewisburg. This was the first time I wasn't really looking forward to coming back (don't freak out, Bobo) but once we pulled into the driveway it was great to be home.

Posted by Jenn at 10:53 AM | Permalink

Yesterday, because my mom and I were absolutely starving, we decided to bring Henry to Pizzeria Uno's for a late lunch. This had the potential for disaster because he'd had a big day up to that point, having met lots of new people at the Magnet Lab and MIT in general, which, coupled with his tendency to be slightly grumpy in the afternoon, could have led to another St. Valentine's Day massacre. However, I obviously don't give my kid much credit because he was a total angel throughout the meal, passing his time sucking on the table, watching my mom and I eat, and dropping his toys onto the floor. Thus, it's safe to say his first visit to a chain restaurant was a rousing success.

Posted by Jenn at 02:05 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Yesterday morning we turned on the television and sure enough, Boston was getting hit with one hell of a snowstorm. Blizzard actually. And my parents had arrived the day before with the intention of packing yours truly and Henry into their car rental and head back in the direction from whence they came. Except the direction from whence they came was quickly turning into a wintry nightmare. All right, I'll stop being so dramatic. After hemming and hawing and wondering what everyone else wanted to do, we decided we should just pack up the car and go for it. It looked like the storm was staying to the south of where we eventually wanted to end up, so instead of heading through Connecticut, we drove up the New York State Thruway. This was a very good call because apparently CT got hit pretty hard whereas up-state NY got snow, but not tons. And their roads were in pretty good condition. It got dicey on the Pike as we got closer to Boston. However, towards the end we stopped at a rest stop so that I could feed Henry his dinner and so by the time we got home, it wasn't snowing anymore. I can't believe that after griping all season about the complete lack of snow, we spent all day yesterday trying to avoid it. Ironic, ain't it? It took us ten hours to make a six and a half hour trip. I don't know how my dad did it, especially with not one, but two backseat drivers.

Some exciting things that happened en route:

1. We saw an SUV that had driven off the road and flipped onto its side on the NY State Thruway. There was much discussion over how this could have possibly happened, which killed half an hour.

2. We saw a truck/SUV vehicle skid out in front of us. There was much discussion over how this could have possibly happened, which killed only about fifteen minutes because who wants to discuss something that has a high potentiality of happening to yourself. I'm assuming potentiality is a word and that I've used it properly.

3. I finished the pair of socks I started knitting in November of 2004.

When we got home, I unpacked Henry's stuff ASAP then plopped him into the kitchen sink for a bath where we proceeded to splash water absolutely everywhere. Actually, Henry did most of splashing while I freaked out about the copious amounts of water exiting the sink basin, all the while thinking that my mom was going to kill me because we were all slightly grumpy after the trip. Except my dad wasn't grumpy which is strange because he did all the driving. Anyway, after Henry was asleep, they surprised me with my very own coffee maker with which I can make my precious decaf. Dave should be very afraid...

Right now, I'm chilling out listening to WFNX while the kid is napping. Life is good.

Posted by Jenn at 04:50 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)

Poor Henry went on a major crying jag around 6:15 this morning. It sounded like the world was ending. He was vitually inconsolable. I gave him his pacifier and patted him on the back and he seemed like he was settling back into sleep, but then I think he realized that he had allowed himself to be settled down so he started back up again, full throttle. I decided to feed him and put him back down. As soon as he hit his mattress he rolled over and conked right out. I climbed back into bed but couldn't get back to sleep, partly because it was almost 7AM anyway, and partly because the dog kept smacking her lips, so here I am. I just saw a preview on E! for "Silent Hill". It looks really creepy.

There's talk of a Nor'easter heading our way, just in time for the trip to Boston. Should make car travel interesting. On the bright side, there's nothing like a little snow to justify the purchase of one of those really thick hot chocolate's you can buy at the rest stops on the Mass Pike. I have a lot of laundry and packing to do. I think I'll psyche myself up for it over some maple syrup and brown sugar oatmeal...

Posted by Jenn at 08:31 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

A care package from my parents just arrived, and it was chock full of amazing (and pink!) goodies. I have to show off the contents:

I love the Hello Kitty cell phone cover. Plus, everyone's getting a valentine this year! Sorry Dave.

Posted by Jenn at 03:35 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

My lower back got worse throughout the day yesterday. Last night's feeding sessions with Henry were terrible because I could barely lift him out of his crib. I feel slightly better today but it's still really bad. If there's not much improvement, I'm going to go to the doctor's tomorrow. Sigh. It's mostly on the left-side of my lower back, which isn't too surprising since I tend to carry Henry around on my left hip. I guess his being four-ounces-shy-of-21-pounds is finally taking its toll. Maybe later I can convince Dave to get some heating pads for me. And some chocolate. *pout*

Posted by Jenn at 12:04 PM | Permalink | Comments (3)

Today my lower back is absolutely killing me. By noon I could barely carry Henry up the stairs to his room. I've been a little tense lately. I notice I've been clenching my teeth all the time. When I notice myself doing it, I tell myself to relax, but then half an hour later I notice I'm doing it again. Sigh. What I need is a vacation, which is ironic, because as it turns out, me and the kid are vacating and heading to Boston for a week. A change of scene will do me good, and the endless amount of smooches Henry will receive from his Grammy will do him good too. He's got chapped cheeks from the copious amount of drool emanating from his mouth region; I wonder if we could kill two birds with one stone by getting my mom to wear chapstick when she gets in all of her smooch time. Something to think about. Now begins the days long task of trying to figure out (and collect) everything I'm going to need to bring with me to keep a certain person happy. I guess I should figure out what to bring for Henry as well. Har har.

Posted by Jenn at 03:11 PM | Permalink | Comments (2)

You decide for yourself:

Posted by Jenn at 02:06 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)

Last night Megan and I headed to the Campus Theatre to see Brokeback Mountain. This was a very good movie-going experience for many reasons:

1. We live in a fairly conservative area so we were worried that it wouldn't be released around here at all.
2. The audience was great! The theatre was packed. Two people even brought babies, one of whom Megan and I sat directly in front of. Now, if you've ever gone to the movies with me, you know that babies + packed theater = lots of cell phones going off, people having loud conversations, kids screaming, and someone jingling their keys. However, none of the preceding happened. It was amazing.
3. Heath Ledger and Jake Gyllenhaal jumping off of a cliff into a river. In the buff. Maybe this should be number one.
4. The movie was all about the story (a *good* story), and not at all about cgi.

The movie was really amazing. I was crying by the end of it.

Posted by Jenn at 10:53 AM | Permalink | Comments (3)