jennanddave.com

Yesterday Dave decided to take a break from all of the grant writing, NMR wrangling, and fretting over papers he has to write in order to spend some quality time with the family. The family being me and Henry. Before Henry, we would have spent yesterday sitting around the living room asking each other "What do you want to do?" until it was time to order pizza for dinner. Since I now do that everyday, except with a different dance partner, Dave's days off are like little vacations from the day-to-day routine. So Wednesday night I unearthed a guide to what's going on in the Valley this summer.

Did you know there's a safari in the middle of central PA? There is. Naturally we went.

It's called Lake Tobias and it's located just north of Harrisburg. They have a small zoo-type setting that has a number of different animals, like bears and ostriches and zebra. There's a petting zoo that Dave and I agreed was one of the best petting zoos either of us had ever seen. You could buy crackers to feed to the animals and Henry couldn't figure out why we were giving his crackers away to animals. ANIMALS! I mean come on! I think his favorite were the deer. At least they were what inspired him to hit the pause button on his cracker-induced crying jag.

We didn't go on the safari tour because we weren't sure if Henry would able to handle a 45 minute ride, but apparently they have 150 acres of land upon which roam buffalo, yak, elk, and other wild and crazy animals.

It was a lot of fun and totally worth the trip down to see it. Next year we're totally going on the safari.

Posted by Jenn at 01:46 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)

Henry's latest youtube obsession:

We've already watched this a million times today and it's only 9:17 in the morning.

Posted by Jenn at 09:17 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

When my grandma was here the weekend before last, we were at a local mall when we were inspired to indulge in a little nail beautification. My grandma got a manicure and pedicure, and I got tips put on. I can't speak for my grandma, but I walked out of the salon feeling very glamorous. My fingernails haven't had so much clearance past my fingertip since I was five or six, which is when I picked up the habit of biting my nails. (I wanted to be like my mom's friend's oldest son, who was a few years older than me and thus was the epitome of cool. If nail biting was good enough for him, then it was good enough for me.)

The problem is, I'm entirely unused to having fingernails which means I'm a complete menace not only to myself but to everyone else. After a few days of weilding these bad boys, I had had enough bad experiences to make me completely afraid of handling either of the two babies I see on a regular basis. Also, after loading Henry into the car one day after the park, I nearly ripped an entire nail off when I got it caught on something. It was terrible. I cursed. A lot.

Henry's been the recipient of enough scratches that I think by this morning he'd decided he'd had enough. It's about time for me to clip his toenails, and he must have sensed this because he wasted no time this morning in using me for leverage, "slipping", and giving me quite the little gash down the front of my lower leg. I'm convinced he did it on purpose. I'm also convinced I probably deserved it.

Posted by Jenn at 08:46 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Today we went to the pool for the first time this season. I wasn't sure what Henry would think of all of that water splashing around all over the place, but as it turns out, he was instantly enamored.

This was also the first time he's been to the pool since learning how to walk. He slowly waded in, inching further and further into the water, unable to just jump in and face the cold all at once, but instead suffering with each footstep. Just like me. Once he had worked himself up to his belly, he reached out and grabbed my hand and let me guide him further in until he was uncomfortable with the depth and wanted me to hold him. His confidence in the water grew each time we waded out and back in, but each time as soon as he got up to his belly, he would grab my hand then push it away then grab my hand again. He desperately wanted to be on his own, but just couldn't muster the courage.

I couldn't help remembering how last summer, halfway down the length of the kiddie pool was as far as he could've gone without submerging. Now he can make it almost all the way down to the other end. It blows my mind. I may have even become a little sentimental there for a second this afternoon.

There was a huge group of kids running around, splashing, and raising a ruckus while we were there. One of them kept yelling out to his friends as he was chasing them "I'm want to dine on your flesh!" How gross is that? What's video games has he been playing.

Posted by Jenn at 09:01 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

We bought a six pack of chocolate frosted chocolate cupcakes last Friday night and we still have two left. Ripley's Believe It or Not is showing up any minute now.

We had a big weekend, the details of which I'll divulge a little later. I'll give you a few sneak peeks. There were grandparents and a great grandma for Henry to run ragged, manicures and pedicures, and lots of bbq'ing.

Right now Dave needs the computer because he can't stop working long enough to watch a romantic comedy with his wife. Pout.

Posted by Jenn at 09:01 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

The latest season of Top Chef started last night, which means the first two seasons have been on heavy rotation on Bravo over the last week. I haven't really watched much of the repeats, but the snippets that I have caught did reaffirm for me the fact that Marcel really puts on a good show in the kitchen. And that he's pretty cute. I'd like to put him in my pocket so that he can make foams and encapsulated vinaigrettes for me wherever I go.

To change topics completely, after much thought and consideration, I have decided I'm no longer going to be attaching titles to any of my posts. I've always been absolutely miserable at coming up with compelling titles. It's something I've struggled with since I was a kid, and you know what? I'm tired of the pressure. So I'm done. I think this is mutually beneficial: I don't have to deal with the stress of trying to come up with something cute and clever and ultimately failing, and you won't get any kind of clue as to what the post is about. I'm just bringing a little mystery into your life. Makes it all kind of exciting doesn't it?

I was also really bad at writing concluding paragraphs. Maybe I'll stop doing that too.

Posted by Jenn at 01:57 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)

There was an ant uprising in our kitchen yesterday. Ants are one notch above cockroaches. I hate that swarming thing they do where they all jump into one big pile like they're at a Rancid show or something and run all over each other. Have they never been introduced to the concept of personal space?

So after spending a little quality time with the internet, I walked into the kitchen and there were about forty or fifty tiny ants running gleefully toward and on top of something that probably fell out of Henry's mouth during snacktime. I'm surprised he doesn't have a constant line of ants following him around everywhere with little hearts buzzing around their heads. I had to resist the urge to jump up on a chair and commence shrieking. Then I had to resist the urge to call Dave and commence shrieking.

I grabbed a couple of paper napkins and frantically tried to goosh them, but had only moderate success. I thought about my possible options, and finally settled on squirting them with 409. And it worked. And I now feel incredibly guilty. I mean, what a way to go. Poor ants.

Really, incredibly, enormously guilty.

Sigh.

Posted by Jenn at 08:39 AM | Permalink

Henry's in a pretty lousy mood today. He was all right until about 10:30 this morning, when he decided the world (specificly, everything that was going on in our house) was against him so in response he started to cry. And he carried on crying: while I put his shoes on; while we walked down our front path; while we crossed the street; while he picked a dandelion; for the entire three block walk to the park. It reminded me of that scene in "There's Something About Mary" where Ben Stiller thinks he's lost the woman he loves, and he's walking down the street sobbing hysterically. Miraculously, as soon as we got to the park, he became rather chipper an spent the next hour and fifteen minutes happily running around the place in circles. One of his favorite rituals at the park is picking up the wood chips (The areas around the playsets are filled with mulch/wood chips.) that have migrated onto the sidewalk and throwing them back where they belong. I think he gets that from me because whenever we go to this particular park I'm overwhelmed with the desire to sweep the sidewalks. Sometime soon I'm going to sneak over there with a broom and work a little magic under the cover of darkness.

The crying began again as soon as we got back to our house. Henry mashed his face against my legs and bawled on the front porch for a while, then he cried inside while I washed his hands and face, then he cried over a pear. He stopped crying for lunch, then started back up again while he plucked what was undoubtedly the "Toddler Blues" on Dave's banjo. Now he's upstairs, tucked away in bed for a nap that's taking place ~ an hour and a half earlier than usual. Is it too early for a mint julep?

Posted by Jenn at 12:44 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

...specifically Galway two weeks from now, and you're a runner, my friend Paul has organized a 10K race you should definitely consider taking a part in. As added incentive, the first 200 runners get a free t-shirt!

Once, a long time ago, I asked him if he'd train me for a race. It was the worst week of my life. Actually, that's not entirely true because up to that point I'd had 21 years of experience to prepare for the amount of crabbing that was going to come out of my mouth over the course of those few days. Paul, however, hadn't, so it was probably way less fun for him than for me.

Posted by Jenn at 05:38 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Henry's gotten very into Elmo lately; Elmo's the greatest. I personally don't think Elmo's the greatest. In fact, I may find him just a smidge annoying, just like every other parent of a toddler probably does. The show's only saving grace is Bill Irwin (aka. Mr. Noodles). Sometimes when I'm watching it with Henry, I wonder what it must be like to live in a world composed entirely of crayon scribbles and I've come to the conclusion that it would be insane, and that it's no wonder Elmo is the way he is.

Last week Dave gave me a bob. Sounds kind of dirty, but I'm referring to the hairstyle. I'd been thinking for a few weeks that I needed to get some of the length trimmed off, and was reaching the point of desperation where I was entertaining the thought of going to a hairstylist who hasn't done a very good job in the past, just for the instant gratification. While Dave and I were watching the season finale of Shear Genius, mention was made of the Vidal Sassoon bob, so I asked Dave if he didn't maybe feel like cutting my hair. And since he'd already had two beers in him, he said "Sure!" And he did a great job. I asked him to leave it long in the front and short in the back for the swing factor, and he did. He did such a good job, I'm getting tons of compliments. And you should see the look in women's eyes when I tell them my husband did it. The general consensus is if the whole Chemistry Professor thing doesn't work out, he's got other career options to fall back on.

Posted by Jenn at 02:19 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)

I was just flipping through the "Knitting with Balls: A hands on guide to knitting for the modern man" book. It's got some pretty cool patterns. (I initially wrote "pretty cute" instead of "pretty cool", but "cute" doesn't exactly scream "manly", does it? Okay, enough with all the quotation marks, and back to the book.) In the introduction there's a synopsis of other knitting books (all five of them) that have been geared specifically towards men. One of them apparently has a pattern for a hammock that's knit using billiard cues. How cool is that? It's too bad they didn't take that idea and reincarnate it somehow. I wonder if I can find the original pattern; I've always wanted a hammock.

Posted by Jenn at 01:42 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

I'm holding down the fort today at Mad About Ewes. I get to spend all day surrounded by yarn and patterns. Dave should be very afraid. I've already found a great vest pattern that I'm thinking of getting with him in mind. I've cast a few sidelong glances at the yarn I'd probably use to make it, but I haven't made any direct eye contact with it yet. I'll save that for later.

I worked retail the majority of my pre-Henry working girl life, but never really had to use a cash register. Lack of register experience is causing some anxiety but I keep reminding myself that it's just a glorified calculator, how much havoc can I actually wreak on it, but then the image of some poor cashier standing in front of a register that's won't stop beeping at her pops into my head and I break into a cold sweat. I have had one cash sale so far and it went pretty smoothly so that's a good start.

The first store I worked at (Wilderness House) didn't have any cash registers at all. We would write everything up in those cash books you can buy at Staples and if someone was buying a lot of items, we would total the items on a calculator that printed up a ticker tape. Sometimes, especially around Christmas, we would fill up several pages of a cash book for one sale. Every once in a while, I have an anxiety dream where I'm working at Wilderness House, it's Christmas, there's a long line of people waiting to check out, and they all have a lot of stocking stuffers in their basket. I'm trying to add up someone's purchase on the aforementioned calculator except I keep hitting a wrong number and having to start all over again. Meanwhile the checkout line keeps getting longer and longer. Usually the day after having one of those dreams, I can't even look at a calculator without getting a little panicky.

I hope none of that happens today. What if I'm semi-clairvoyant and that dream was actually a vision of my future, except my subconscious got the zip code wrong? Sobering thought...

Posted by Jenn at 10:47 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)