jennanddave.com

I can't believe it's been a month already. Last November when I was doing this I remember being halfway through and struggling to find something to say. This year, I either have a lot more going on, or I'm finding the minute details of my life fascinating beyond belief.

Megan's picking us up around 7:30. I'm feeling a little anxious about the trip, partly because of the two kids thing, and also partly because I've made the trip four thousand times and am ready to start passing the usual landmarks and making some progress. Once we get in the car and the talking begins, time will fly.

Right now I should be in the shower getting ready for our road trip but I got caught up in email and catching up on my Blogroll. Everyone's either posting really late on the 29th or really early on the 30th, so there was a lot of reading to do. I'm sad to see NaBloPoMo end, and yet, it'll be nice to not have an hour of Henry's nap sucked away into the internet ether everyday.

Posted by Jenn at 06:47 AM | Permalink | Comments (1)

Megan's coming over here this evening so we can install Henry's carseat into her car, and load up most of the stuff we're taking with us to Boston so she can fit all of Leo's stuff in around it. This should be interesting because Henry's two and still requires a fair amount of luggage, but not nearly as much as what a nine month old requires. Add into that equation the amount of luggage two women cart around so that they can have as many wardrobe and eye shadow options as they'll need to get through five days away from home, and you have one seriously packed car. So I'm spending the afternoon piling together everything I think we'll need, weeding stuff out, and attempting to contain it in as small a space as possible. And for the record, I'm taking Mel's experience to heart and making sure I don't pack like a man.

Right now I've got our clothes in one small suitcase and I have one large bag for miscellaneous junk that isn't even filled up. The things that take up the most space are the three blankets and four stuffed animals Henry sleeps with, but since we need those tonight, they'll have to go in tomorrow. So far, though, it's looking pretty good. Hopefully it won't get too out of control by the time we leave. I'm very bad about last minute panicking over what we'll need which leads to the throwing of tons of random stuff into bags which are then squished into every available space in the trunk and back seat.

This is going to be an interesting car ride.

Posted by Jenn at 02:24 PM | Permalink | Comments (2)

It's day 28 of NaBloPoMo, apparently the one in which I don't really have anything to say. So I'll just tell you some random, pointless, completely uninteresting stuff.

Today I raked. I'm hoping today's the last day I'll have to rake until next Fall because although I greeted the raking season with much pent up, giddy anticipation, I'm now completely over it. Tomorrow I may just get up early enough to sit by the window with a cup of coffee piled high with Redi-Wip so I can watch the giant leaf-sucking contraption they use on street cleaning days come through and suck up all of our leaves.

This morning Dave took Henry to tumbling. I went downtown and ran an errand and did a little shopping without having to appease a thundering toddler with Cheddar Bunnies and promises of some fun activity which will take place sometime but don't ask me specifics because I'm making it all up as we go along but you don't know that because you're two. Since Henry's stove has been sitting in the living room begging to be played with but without any of the proper play-stove accouterments, I stopped by the local toy store and picked up these. Would you believe, not only are they not plastic, but they're food safe? I'm very pleased with myself and with the toy store for carrying them. When Henry spotted them he stuffed the felt cookies I made into two of the pots and then hammered them in with the spatula, put the lids on, and commenced looking very pleased with himself until he realized he'd shoved the lollipop he got after tumbling in with the cookies, then he was all "Pop go? Pop go?" I had to rinse it off because it was fuzzy.

Tonight, it's back to belly dancing. Thanks to all of the pies and turkey and other stuff that goes along with the days leading up to and away from Thanksgiving (including the big day itself) I will be arriving with more belly than I had the last time I was there.

I had a salad for lunch.

The end.

Posted by Jenn at 02:52 PM | Permalink | Comments (2)

Yesterday at approximately 11:30AM:

me: Henry, would you like a V8?
Henry: B8! B8! B8! Okay B8!
me: Oh boy! V8!

I rinse out his cup, pour some V8 into it, put the lid back on, put the straw back in, and then hand it to Henry.

Henry: Sob! Wail! (Falls to the floor, tears streaming.)
me: What? What did I do? Oh, right...

I take the straw out and hand the cup and straw to Henry. He hands them back to me.

Henry: Mommy do it.

I reinsert the straw into the lid of the cup and hand it back to Henry.

Henry: Sob! Wail! Trauma!
me: Gah! NOW what did I wrong?...oh...wait...

Open refrigerator, put cup on bottom shelf, close door. Henry walks over and taps the refrigerator door.

Henry: Mommy do it.

I open the refrigerator, Henry reaches in, take his cup of V8, and walks off into the living room, happily sipping away. Meanwhile, I have a nervous breakdown.

Posted by Jenn at 02:44 PM | Permalink | Comments (4)

It's rainy and gloomy out here, so we've been doing rainy and gloomy day things, like watching a little Elmo, drinking coffee and/or milk, vacuuming, playing our banjo and guitar, laundry, dismantling stuff and getting other things back to their proper places, taking turns tucking each other in and pretending to snore, reading a book, turning out the lights, rocking, having a chat, taking a real nap. Well, one of us is. The other one of us is paying bills.

The one of us who is paying bills is pretty much done. She's also thinking about retiring to the couch with an Archie comic and some cheese and crackers. She may also be wondering if instead of making chili tonight for dinner, perhaps a pizza is in order. Because now she's tired.

Posted by Jenn at 03:03 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)

While we were all out shopping this afternoon, my dad called and left the following message on our answering machine:

"Two antenna's meet on a rooftop, fall in love and decide to get married. The wedding was okay, but the reception was amazing."

Ba-doom-boom!

Posted by Jenn at 02:57 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)

Look! It's a stove!

Dave's dad worked and worked and worked on this over the course of the last three days. At one point I told him I felt like he was Cinderella, stuck in the garage. After watching the process from the sidelines, I can confidently say neither Dave nor myself would have had the patience to do a good job. His dad on the other hand, had the patience to do a spectacular job, because it came out beautifully.

Want to see a picture of Henry pretending the sink is a drum?

I need to find something to put on the stove top to act as burners, as well as find a handle for the oven door. Aside from those two things, all it needs is some kitchen supplies, like food and pots and pans, and it'll be ready to get some serious cooking done.

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

Henry's sick again. Double ear infection. Wheezing. It's a good thing he likes taking medicine through a syringe because he's been doing it a lot lately. Also, we've been to the doctor's so often lately, that he now starts to cry in the parking lot as opposed to in the hallway that leads to the examination rooms. Despite his unhappiness at being there, he's always very polite, sobbing out a "bye-bye" as nurses and doctors come and go.

No one got much sleep last night, least of all Dave because he got up early to try and make a doctor's appointment for Henry. I think we'll be looking at an early nap time for a lot of people today. Henry especially needs the rest. One look at him and you can immediately tell how exhausted he is. He was up and down every half hour to hour starting around 1AM, and finally at 4:30 he was so frustrated and exhausted that neither Dave nor I was any kind of comfort to him. Dave suggested perhaps it would be best to let him cry out his frustration a bit, and sure enough after two minutes of crying and general moaning and groaning he was fast asleep. It was difficult to do that because I desperately wanted to help him feel better, so I'm grateful that Dave was thinking clearly enough to suggest that.

Anyway, here's hoping he sleeps well this afternoon and starts feeling better soon.

Posted by Jenn at 01:52 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)

The turkey's stuffed and in the oven, the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade is over, leaves have been raked, the house smells amazing, and across town Megan's busy making ravioli and stuffed mushrooms to bring to the table this evening. Celebrating the holiday with family and friends, in person and in spirit, is what it's all about.

Posted by Jenn at 01:58 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)

We've been really busy today. Everyone's been running around doing things. Dave's dad and I went to Phoebe's house this morning to scope out and pillage her husband's formidable collection of cardboard boxes (Now she doesn't have to shove the door to that particular room to open it!) so that he can make this for Henry, but not before I slammed my finger between our front door and the door jamb. Pain! Meanwhile, Dave rushed home from work so he could get a pork loin started in the smoker. I worked on making some potato salad. While all of this other stuff was going on, Henry and his Grandma were playing in the living room, putting together puzzles, setting up trains, and getting a mini-band going.

The rest of the day was a blur of cooking, eating, cleaning, and a trip to the store, during which Dave and I sat at McDonalds with cotton candy and an Icee for ten minutes, enjoying the downtime and the fact that our kid wasn't there asking us if he could watch Cars (which, for the record, he's currently watching with his Grandma).

I was on the verge of forgetting to post today, there was so much going on. If I had a camera, I'd regale you with pictures of the felt cookies I started sewing yesterday, Dave's dad working on Henry's stove, a gorgeous centerpiece my parents had sent to our house, and all of us noshing on an amazing pork roast. You'll just have to use your imagination.

Posted by Jenn at 07:04 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)

Henry's watching Elmo and I'm rushing around trying to remember all of the little things I wanted to get done before Dave's parents arrive later this afternoon, like MOVE DAVE'S RIDICULOUSLY HUGE HOCKEY BAG FROM THE GUEST ROOM SIDE TABLE! Oh wait, Dave was supposed to do that.

Really all I have left to do is vacuum and continue on my quest to shift random stuff to more convenient places, like deep, dark recesses of closets. Otto and Phoebe are coming by later for lunch, and now that Otto's crawling, he'll probably be my toughest vacuuming critic today. Hopefully I'll pass inspection.

Suddenly I'm overwhelmed with the desire to commit to sitting on the couch and watching all five hours of Pride and Prejudice, with maybe a few cocoa breaks tossed in there for variety. That wouldn't be a terrible thing would it?

Oh wait, I have a two-year old. Never gonna happen.

Posted by Jenn at 09:50 AM | Permalink | Comments (4)

So I broke the camera. I mean, who cares, really. No one actually has any use for a functioning camera around the holidays. I've never seen pictures of kids gleefully ripping open presents, or stuffing their faces full of turkey, or trimming trees, or anything like that. That's not the kind of preservation of family memories people generally go for, right?

Can you tell I'm giving myself one heck of a kick in the pants right now?

Yesterday, I happened to drop the camera right after the battery died, so we had to wait for it to charge before checking to see if it was working or not. It wasn't. Okay, technically it was, but first you had to take it out to dinner, ply it full of an expensive french wine, buy it some flowers from the little old lady selling them on the corner, and then, if you held it just right, maybe it would think about turning itself on. I managed to download the last set of pictures I'd taken, and then I left it alone.

This morning Henry and I took it back to Best Buy where they said they didn't have much hope for resurrecting it, until I showed them how you could turn it back on. Then they decided to go ahead and ship it back to the manufacturer to see if it could be repaired. We're still under parts warranty, but not under labor, so we'll find out later this week how much it's going to cost us to fix it. And as it turns out, I really want it fixed. I love this camera. It makes me a little misty thinking about it being out there in the world, far from home, sad and broken.

Meanwhile, Henry and I took care of some holiday shopping. Don't tell him but he's getting a Magnadoodle. And a pop-up tent if I can find one I like. We also picked up a couple of items for other people on our list, as well as some fabric to make our own version of this, and some felt to make our own versions of these. After two hours of kicking around stores, we were both pretty hungry so we headed over to the mall chinese restaurant and had some fried rice, bourbon chicken, and black pepper chicken.

We were happy campers after that.

Posted by Jenn at 03:18 PM | Permalink | Comments (4)

It's snowing out! We woke up this morning to a nice heavy snowfall, and within five minutes I had both me and Henry bundled up and booted. When I opened up the kitchen door, Henry stood staring out, in complete awe. Then he watched me kick around outside, yelling at him to join me. Instead of bounding outside, a place he loves to be, he turned around and started to help his dad empty out the dishwasher. Yes, he'd rather be doing that than running around outside. I still can't quite believe it. All in due time.

Instead of heading back inside, I went for a walk around the cemetery that's at the end of our street. It was beautiful out. I took some pictures, but whilst in the throes of chopping vegetables for omelets later in the morning, I accidentally knocked our camera off the counter. Keep your fingers crossed it still works because seriously, Dave will kill me if it doesn't.

Last night's dinner was absolutely amazing. Everything was great. Plus we came home with a loaf of homemade bread. Henry and Thomas had a good time playing with each other and dismantling things. It was a nice way to kick off the week.

Posted by Jenn at 02:50 PM | Permalink | Comments (4)

Tonight we're going to a friend's house for what's essentially a pre-Thanksgiving Thanksgiving. Dave made his famous apple pie and I made my family's traditional sausage stuffing. I can't tell you how amazing our house smells right now. What's even more exciting is across town a turkey is sitting on a hot grill, dripping a pesto rub. We're *so* looking forward to dinner tonight.

Henry gets to hang with his best buddy Thomas this evening, which means I get to watch one of my all time favorite interactions go down before me: usually Thomas and Henry don't really notice each other until they've been in the same room for about five minutes, and this despite Henry repeatedly saying "Oh boy Thomas, oh boy Thomas", all the way to his house. Then, suddenly, they'll look up from their respective toys, see each other, smile and point, and make gleeful squeaky-type sounds. It's the cutest thing ever.

Hope all of you have as good a Saturday night as we will be!

Posted by Jenn at 03:35 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)

...it was the late 90's. 1999 to be exact. After a few months of innocent flirtation and a few attempts at getting me to go out on a date with him, I finally agreed to go. When taking into consideration a guy as amazing as Dave is, you may be wondering why it took me so long to accept one of his invitations. To put it into perspective, one of the dates he suggested was to go see "Annie", which, if you know me, you know I have a mild to medium obsession with all things related to "Annie", so it was a pretty good bet on his part. Until he said his ex-girlfriend and her grandmother would also be going. Oops. After that I thought "What kind of guy is this," and stepped back a bit (proverbially) to take a better look at him. He was still cute though, so finally we made a date to go see Elizabeth which we followed up with bread-pudding, which is disgusting, but whatever.

Shortly after we started dating we were having dinner at one of the local diner's in Somerville, not the awesome one they featured on foodtv a few weeks ago, but another one which we later boycotted for being profoundly rude to my mom and grandmother. Since he's the Southern Gentleman, Dave paid for dinner, and because at the time I had two jobs and he was a grad student, I offered to at least cover the tip. As we were walking out of the diner Dave asked what I had left for a tip, and when I told him he got all wide-eyed and surprised, telling me I'd left way too much. When I said that I'd left 20%, he was all "No way, that was *way* more than 20%." Then he thought about it. And thought about it some more. Then he looked really embarrassed and said "Oh...yeah...right. That is 20%."

This wouldn't seem like a big deal, except that Dave's really good with numbers. He gets it from his parents, both of whom are mathematicians. When the three of them get together, sometimes they work on and talk about equations. For fun! No really! It's very intimidating. Thus, not being able to figure out 20% for a tip is kind of embarrassing, especially when your future wife, Little Miss English Major, now has something to lord over you for the rest of your life.

And I do.

Posted by Jenn at 02:49 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)

dave: So, I know this is a stupid question, but Thanksgiving is on a Thursday this year, right?
me: Ummmm, yeah, Thursday, just like every other year you've been on this planet.
dave: Go easy on me, I've had a rough time of it lately.
me: *blink blink*
henry: Watch Cars?

It's not the first time he's asked me that either.

Posted by Jenn at 02:14 PM | Permalink | Comments (11)

Dave's at the doctor's right now. He's been sick for, ummm, let's see...about a month now. Last night when he came home from his conference I suggested it might be time to make an appointment with our doctor. He grudgingly agreed. This morning he tried to forget to call, but I've been living with him long enough to know how he operates. I hope he starts feeling better soon.

I've been spending too much time on Facebook.

I've also been eating too many oatmeal raisin cookies.

I just remembered I forgot to switch the laundry over to the drier, which means I also forgot to start a new load.

We had tumbling today. I didn't want to go. I really didn't want to go when we got to the car and discovered that the car seat wasn't in it. We had taken it out before Dave left in case I wanted to strap it into someone else's car. As if there's anywhere interesting to go around here. I contemplated staying home, but at the end of every class each kid gets a sticker to put on a card that has his/her name on it, and the thought of getting a card back at the end of the session that has even one empty, sad, stickerless box on it makes me twitchy. Plus, I was thinking that not going someplace because you have to walk there instead of drive probably isn't the greatest message to be sending to my kid. So we went by stroller.

Henry has a friend in our class named Thomas. When I told him this morning we were going to be going to tumbling, he said "Thomas tumbling oh boy!"

Last Friday I saw "The Darjeeling Limited". It was so good. I wish I could erase the memory of it so I could go see it for the first time again.

Henry's currently taking a nap wearing the hat I made him. He doesn't know it's the new one because I'm extra super stealthy. Ha! Take that!

Posted by Jenn at 03:13 PM | Permalink | Comments (2)

Since wrapping up Dave's sweater, I've been working on Mavis from the Naturally Noro book. I finished the back last week and the front last night. Because I was jacked up on homemade oatmeal raisin cookies and feeling plucky, I decided to go ahead and cast on the sleeves, work a few rows to set the pattern, and then head off to bed buoyed by a sense of accomplishment.

The chevron pattern for the sleeves is exactly the same as it was for the front and back of the sweater. Except for some reason it wasn't working. I was ending up with five extra stitches at the end of the row instead of just one. So I frogged and tried again. And again. Still, it wasn't working. I headed back to the computer to see if there were any pattern errata for Mavis. Alas, there was nothing. I sent an email to the local knitting guru giving her the exact instructions to see what she came up with. Her reply arrived not too long ago, and in it she said it was working out fine for her, and to stop over-thinking it already. Frankly, I just don't know how to live in this world if I can't overthink things.

So I pondered. And I thought. And I looked at pictures of other people Mavis's online. And I thought some more.

Then, out of the blue, it suddenly occurred to me that I've been knitting the chevron pattern wrong the whole time, and that through some stroke of dumb luck, the wrong way I'd been working it before happened to work with the number of stitches I had to cast on for the front and back of the sweater.

Thus, I am faced with the following conundrum: 1. do I rip out the front and back and do them over, or 2. do I knit the sleeves the proper way while leaving the back and front alone. I should confess that the first option simultaneously makes me want to laugh and cry.

Number two it is.

Posted by Jenn at 02:53 PM | Permalink | Comments (5)

At least I got sleep last night. Glorious, glorious sleep. Plus, I watched "My Big, Fat, Greek Wedding" on TV last night so I had big, fat, greek dreams, which, honestly, it could be worse.

Henry is definitely on the up. Poor kid, stuck inside, sick for three days, and just as he's getting better and showing signs of serious cabin fever, his mom gets sick and can't find the energy to go beyond the kitchen. Last night we watched Cars because I felt so badly for him.

Meanwhile, lately he's been doing this funny thing where he tricks you into asking him to do things he really wants to do. For instance, he'll say: "Henry outside," and Dave or I will say "What, you want to go outside?" and he'll say "OKAY!!!", like it was your brilliant idea. Saturday Henry said: "Henry banjo Cars," so Dave said "Do you want to watch Cars while playing your banjo?" and Henry said "OOKKKKAAAAAAYYYYY!!!" Our little manipulator.

Also, you should know that he has a freckle on his inner thigh that he refers to as his moon.

Posted by Jenn at 09:29 AM | Permalink | Comments (2)

I'm sick. I have a cold. Last night I didn't get much sleep, probably because of the ice cream I ate to soothe my throat. Also, it was really hot. At five I finally went downstairs where it was nice and cool, stretched out on the couch, and fell asleep ten seconds later.

Around 7:30 Dave and Henry made their way downstairs. Because I'm the world's most awesome mom, while Henry was distracted by the prospect of a cup of milk in the kitchen, I snuck upstairs and went to bed. I came down an hour and a half later and guess what? There was a bowlful of popovers sitting on the stove, just waiting to be slathered in butter and jam and then eaten! It's been a while since I've had them. It turns out they're even better when you haven't made them yourself.

After breakfast I spent a little time on the front stoop, drinking coffee and letting the cold air clear the clouds out of my head. I think a little Tylenol would help too. I hate being sick.

Posted by Jenn at 10:16 AM | Permalink | Comments (1)

The February before Henry was born, Megan gave us our first baby present. It was a newborn-sized romper with a matching hat. You can see them both in the picture below. We chose it as his "going-home from the hospital" outfit.

No one knew what an important item this hat would become in Henry's life. It essentially became his security blanket. There are two knots on top that he chewed on to get some relief from teething pain. As a result of almost two years worth of hardcore noshing, the hat's looking a little beat up.

Beat up is pretty generous. When you take away the glamour that the camera naturally adds, it's pretty disgusting. As you can tell from the picture, the seams at the ends of the knots are the only things that have survived, the fabric itself having surrendered ages ago. Also, the knots are kind of yellow. And brownish. And he still chews on them, so after a couple of nights, it smells pretty bad too. But he loves it, so what can I do?

I can make him a newer, better one that he'll love just as much! So I went over to Wal-mart (the only store that sells fabric within a forty minute drive), except they didn't have knitted cottons for sale by the yard. So instead I bought two 5T turtlenecks. I came up with some measurements based on his old hat, which still fits pretty well because it stretches out, and then I added a little room to grow. I even made a pattern with black contruction paper, so it would feel official.

I cut the pattern out and sewed the two sides together. I almost sewed it with the two wrong sides facing, but caught myself at the last minute. Boy, would that have been embarassing. After sewing it together using a straight seam, I decided I should probably reinforce it with a stronger stitch, so I went over the straight seam with a really tight zig-zag.

The final result, modeled by Henry himself:

Cute, right? He only wears it when he doesn't realize the hat I've put on him isn't his old one. Which I take as a compliment. However, there's no replacing an old friend, no matter how hard your mother tries to.

Posted by Jenn at 05:56 PM | Permalink | Comments (2)

Henry and I got up bright and early this morning to make our 8:00 AM Dr's appointment. Man, it was hard getting out of bed. There was much coughing during the night keeping everyone up, so when the alarm went off, it felt like it was buzzing two minutes after I'd finally fallen asleep. It was worth it though; the doctor checked Henry out and said he thought he had a sinus infection. Good to know. We now have 10 days worth of antibiotics sitting pretty in our fridge, the first dose of which is coursing through Henry's system, hopefully taking care of business. I should have also asked the Dr. about Henry's addiction to Cars and if there are any twelve step programs we could take him to in order to help him get over it. I have a feeling though that if I had asked he would have suggested we simply stop putting it into the DVD player and I'm not sure I'm capable of that. It turns out Owen Wilson is ridiculously cute, even when he's an animated red car.

Posted by Jenn at 12:58 PM | Permalink | Comments (2)

Henry's had a cough for the last two weeks. Just as it seemed to be getting better, he went and caught a cold on top of it. He was up a lot of last night coughing, which was a bummer, but I have to admit I was happy to see this morning that his nose was runny because his mystery cough with no other symptoms was making me a little nervous. Just to be on the safe side, I'm taking him to the pediatrician tomorrow morning for a checkup to make sure his lungs sound okay. He went down for a nap about twenty minutes ago; I can hear him coughing away. He really needs to get some rest. We got one of those Vicks waterless vaporizers so with luck that'll help calm his throat and nose down enough for him to get a little shut-eye.

You know who else needs to take a little nap? Me. And Dave. And probably lots of other people too.

The next session of belly dancing started yesterday evening. There was a two week break between the last class and this one, long enough, apparently, for me to forget how much I enjoy it, because last night I could bearly drag myself there. Happily, once we got started I was all over it. This time, instead of Egyptian style belly dance, we'll be doing Turkish style. It's a lot more aerobic and a lot less restrained. It uses a 9/8 rhythm which I personally think is nuts, but our teacher assures us we'll be totally used to it by the end of the class. Yeaaahhhh...

Posted by Jenn at 02:09 PM | Permalink | Comments (2)

When I was in elementary school, back when people used to dress like this on purpose, every day after I ate my bagged lunch I would buy a push-up. No, I'm not speaking of women's undergarments because for starters, I didn't have much of anything to push up until I was well into high school, and 2) what kind of elementary school do you think I went to anyway? I'm talking about an ice cream treat that was so amazing, I'm still thinking about it ten, fifteen, twenty-two years later. Wow. Note to self: stop realizing how old you are.

The push-up was vanilla ice cream with a gooey chocolate center that was served in a cardboard tube. You'd have to push up on a plastic piece of straw to get it to come out (after first warming it up a little in the palms of your hands so the ice cream on the sides would melt enough for it to be more easily pushed up). The bonus was after we were done enjoying our ice creams, me and my friends would hold onto the straws so that we could later stick them around our top teeth and pretend they were braces because for some reason, we all desperately wanted braces. Possibly because the older kids all had them and we wanted to be old too. Oh, if I only knew then what I know now, now that I'm standing on the other side of endless orthodontist appointments, still traumatized.

Every time I go to a grocery or convenience store I haven't been to before, I check to see if they sell them, but I've never had any luck. Someone makes a sherbet variety, but where's the fun in that? One day I'll find them. I can feel it.

Posted by Jenn at 02:14 PM | Permalink | Comments (3)

Remember way back in mid-September I posted pictures of all the cool stuff I was knitting, then promptly dropped in favor of a non-Christmassy Christmas stocking I was working on? Well, I have since dropped the non-Christmassy stocking and have actually managed to finish something. I don't even want to think about all of the other knitted works in progress that are floating around this site in perennial non-finishedness. To appease the gods, I present you with proof that I have in fact completed something, and that all things considered, I think it came out pretty darned good:

He's on the phone talking field hockey with his new best friend, Megan. I'm behind the camera working myself up into a fit of jealous rage. Here's an action shot of him with his hockey stick before it was snatched away by the future member of the ladies field hockey team, Henry:

I put up all of the details (pattern, yarn) for this sweater over here. It was fun to do, but I'm glad to be done with the miles and miles of stockinette stitch. I think it's slightly too big, although closer examination of the picture with the pattern shows that it's meant to be a little roomy. It still needs to be blocked so you can see the contrast edge around the armholes, but all in all I really like it. I think Dave does too.

Posted by Jenn at 02:44 PM | Permalink | Comments (9)

You get a weekend recap because it was so excellent I thought it would be nice to relive it by posting about it.

This was the 1st weekend in what seems like months that we all spent lots of time just hanging out and playing together. When Dave got back from field hockey Saturday morning, Henry and I got out of bed and made him pumpkin pancakes. My parents got me Penzeys' Baker's Crate for my birthday, which is what I used in the pancakes and I swear you could taste a difference. They tasted amazing.

After breakfast we went to the mall to get a Christmas present for my Grandmother. (If you knew how close we are to finishing all of our holiday shopping, you'd call us up and curse us out.) While we were there, Henry took the opportunity to run in and out of every store, point at all of the Christmas lights ("Stars! Lots, lots stars!"), check each machine that dispenses candy to see if perhaps some had been left behind, and generally wear himself out.

That evening we went to an event hosted by the South Asian Student's Association at the University. It's a very popular event and usually tickets are hard to come by. It's catered by a fantastic indian restaurant located in State College and and also features lots of dance demonstrations and music. Henry was enthralled. He sat in his chair for close to two hours with nary a fuss. Each time a song, dance, or slideshow ended he said "Again!" or "Nice song!" We were so impressed (and grateful) with how good he was for sitting and behaving for such a long time we took him out for donuts afterward, despite the close proximity to his bedtime.

Sunday was a day of waking up late, omelettes, raking, playing at the park, napping, Cincinnati Empress Chili, and cookie baking. It was beautiful to not have anything planned and to just go with the flow. We need to find a way to do that more often.

Posted by Jenn at 04:15 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)

While talking about all the things we'd like to change about our kitchen:

me: I wish you were Tom Silva.
Dave: Me too, 'cause then I'd be rich, living in Massachusetts, and I'd have a great home.
me: Yep...

Posted by Jenn at 11:10 AM | Permalink | Comments (5)

Dave got up at 6AM today to go play field hockey with a bunch of ladies. I'm guessing it was the "bunch of ladies" part that inspired him enough to get out of bed so inhumanly early, on a Saturday of all days.

Back when I first met Dave he was big into ice hockey. He may trip up stairs, but on the ice, he's smooth, like, ummm, ice? After we had lived in Central PA long enough to get the lay of the land, Dave started looking for a team to join. Unfortunately he had a minor stroke of bad luck in terms of timing. He happend to find a potential team the year the NHL went on strike, which meant all of the professional players were dropping down into the minor leagues, and the minor league players were dropping into the local teams, thus, the local team Dave found took itself very seriously and they played really hard. And Dave wasn't so much looking to win as he was looking to have a good time playing hockey. He never went back.

Enter Megan, stage left. Last month she joined a field hockey team that had just started up and although it's mostly women, apparently a few rival teams had recruited at least one guy for the intimidation factor and Megan, remembering Dave's love of ice hockey, told him he should come out and play sometime to see if he likes it. After giving it a lot of thought, Dave decided to give it a try. He has noted on more than one occassion how funny he thinks it is that Megan thought of him when they decided they needed someone intimidating on the field. He is the Southern Gentleman after all.

So far he's liking it. He was up late last night boiling his mouth guard and practicing how to manipulate the hockey stick. Next week's game is at a slightly more humane hour, so Henry and I may tag along to cheer him on. Although everyone wears sweatpants, I think they should make Dave wear a skirt for a more authentic field hockey experience.

Posted by Jenn at 03:30 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)

I didn't really say much about Henry's Halloween experiences did I? Allow me to rectify that situation poste haste.

On Tuesday we took Henry to the mall for their trick-or-treating night. This is a mall that I've been to many times, at many different times of the year, many different times of the week and day, and never have I seen more than twenty shoppers wandering around, each of them no doubt wondering how a mall with so many stores in it could possibly not have any shops worth going into (with the exception of Victoria's Secret and Old Navy, but Old Navy is less than a year old so we were entirely without for a really long time.) Naturally I assumed that no one would be there for tricks-or-treats either, but wow, was I wrong. There were throngs of kids and families, all lined up single file, waiting for six o'clock to hit, at which point everyone started to shuffle in a big slow-moving circle around the mall, getting candy from employees who were stationed outside each store. It was the strangest thing I'd ever seen. It also didn't seem like the ideal way to spend the next twelve hours because that's how long I calculated it would take us to make the circuit considering how slowly the line was moving. We had decided to give it five more minutes when a girl in costume came careening through Sears with a shopping cart full of candy and started dishing out heaping handfuls into kids' eagerly awaiting treat bags. Dave took Henry over and on the way back, Henry peered into his pumpkin, stuck his hand in, pulled out a mini-Hershey bar, and then decisively said "This one!" Dave and I declared the evening a success, and immediately headed over to Wok Express for some delicious mall Chinese food. (No, really, it's pretty good!) We got some interesting looks from the families who overheard us decide to leave. I don't think they could believe we were throwing in the towel when there were people at the mall willing to give us candy! for free! whereas Dave and I felt like this was the last year before Henry gets caught up in trying to get as much candy as possible. We decided to take advantage of it.

On the actual evening of Halloween, Megan, Megan's mom, and Leo came over so we could go to a couple of neighbor's houses, ostensibly for candy, but mainly to show off how cute our kids were. Henry really didn't seem to care much about the candy after the first house. He was of the opinion that since he already had some, why bother knocking on anyone else's door? By far his favorite house was our neighbor Howard down the street whose wife is out of town. He was blasting the blues and cooking up indian food. While we chatted outside, Henry kept peering around the front door trying to figure out where the drum set was; he could hear it, he just couldn't see it. Howard doesn't know it, but Henry would have gladly sat on the couch to chat about music with him over some Chicken Tikka Masala. He may have even been willing to share the juice box Howard gave him, which is saying a lot for a two year old.

Posted by Jenn at 03:29 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)

I'm supposed to be taking a shower while Dave has the troops out for a walk, but instead I decided to go online, join nablopomo, and then stick a button for it on my sidebar proudly announcing my intentions of posting everyday this month, except it wasn't showing up because I didn't close quotes on the link for the button and it took me fifteen minutes to figure out that's what the problem was.

I think I have post-Halloween depression. Halloween is totally my holiday. I love it. Love the costumes, the decorations, the candy. Except this year, probably because it was so hot I sweated through most of the 31 days, it felt more like the end of summer instead of October. Halloween just kind of snuck up and then poof it was gone. As Sally says "I want restitution!"

And so, although I decided a few weeks ago I wasn't going to do nablopomo again this year, earlier today I changed my mind, figuring that focusing on the prospect of having to come up with something interesting to say every day of November would help lift me out of my funk. You know what else is going to help? A conference on the couch with the bag of fun size Butterfingers I wouldn't let Dave bring in to work today. Hel-loooo golden wrappers full of goodness!

Posted by Jenn at 08:12 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)