jennanddave.com

- You get into arguments over which one of you is trashing your car's fuel economy. For the record, it's Dave. He always drops two miles per hour and I always gain them back. (Hark! Can't you already hear the steam coming out of his ears?) Also for the record, we have a 2004 Malibu from which we eke out ~25 MPG in town and ~40 MPG on the highway. Not too shabby.

- You're madly challenging each other to games of "Word Twist" on Facebook when one of you is in the study and should be working and the other one is in the next room on the couch with a laptop instead of going to bed. The upside is instead of talking smack via text boxes and email, you can just shout at each other. Now that's togetherness.

Posted by Jenn at 11:14 AM | Permalink | Comments (1)

I just got our first bill from the architect we hired. What should naturally follow that last sentence is a string of foul words strung together for the length of two entire lines, but I don't want to offend any sensitive readers. So, I will instead boil it down to the following: ! We were a little disappointed with what we were presented, which makes paying for it a little more painful. On the other hand, who knows what Phase 2 will bring. Hopefully blissful happiness, but since blissful happiness can sometimes be expensive, probably it will come with another big bill attached to it.

This puts a crimp on when we can start making the changes that are at the top of our list. I should also say, it's not a terrific surprise, it's just that seeing a set figure on a bill in black and white and with a dreaded due date has been rather heart-stopping. And eye-opening. On the other hand, maybe there's a long lost relative somewhere out there who has a trust fund set up and we're about to reap the benefits. What are the chances?

Posted by Jenn at 09:39 AM | Permalink | Comments (1)

We went to a pow-wow today. We followed some signs that started in the middle of a small town that's about twenty minutes away. After making a bunch of left turns that brought us further and further into seemingly nowhere, we finally took a right that landed us in a Sports Club parking lot. The sound of drums drifted over hamburger tents, buildings, and cars and landed itself smack in the middle of Henry's brain, who stopped in his tracks as soon as it registered exactly what that sound was. We watched some of the dancing, then wandered around the vendor booths, then settled down with some food to watch more dancing and to let Henry have a chance to play with his new calfskin/coffee tin drum, which will hopefully hold up better than the two other drums he's managed to completely destroy since last November.

If we had remembered to bring our camera, you might be regaled with pictures of yours truly stomping around the dance arena. Fortunately we forgot it. I did break my shoe right at the beginning so I ended up doing most of the dancing barefoot, which forced me to have at least some connection with the earth, which is only fitting for that type of dance.

Posted by Jenn at 04:04 PM | Permalink | Comments (2)

We're hitting the road today and heading up to Boston. My Grandma is there visiting with my parents so we're going to crash their party since we don't often get a chance to see her, what with her living the life of a Southern Belle and all.

I'm looking forward to the drive and the change of scenery and being jostled by the fifty million people who crowd the streets of the big city. Perhaps Dave and I will get a chance to sneak in a game of mini-golf, something that was high on our list of things to do at the beach until Dave came down with his cold.

In the meantime, I hope you all have a relaxing weekend!

Posted by Jenn at 08:14 AM | Permalink | Comments (3)

On Friday night, after deciding we were going to make an offer on the house we had been looking at, I came up with a game plan for getting our house ready to be put on the market. Thus the Great Purging of 2008 began, bright and early on Saturday morning, starting with our closets. Dave and I managed to fill two garbage bags full of clothes. Our house literally stretched, sighed, and settled itself back down into a more comfortable position on the foundation when those bags went out the kitchen door.

We've decided to carry on with our purging and painting as if we are still going to put our house on the market. When we had to sell our place in Salem, we madly finished all the painting and other half-finished projects we had going on and when it was all done, realized that our condo was not just awesome, but SUPER-AWESOME! and felt pretty bad that we hadn't just finished the projects when we started them so that we could really enjoy the place. When the moving trucks pulled up in front of current house we pledged we wouldn't make that mistake again. Then we started a bunch of projects. And guess what? It's been five years and we still haven't finished some of them. We're a sorry bunch over here.

But no more! A new leaf has been turned! And, Dave, you should be dreading this weekend because you're so going to be put to work.

Posted by Jenn at 03:29 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Seriously. Nails-being-pounded-into-my-skull kind of headache.

We went and looked at the house again on Friday and loved it, loved it, loved it. We were ready and willing to make an offer right then and there, but our realtor said she didn't have any time to do it until Monday, so we scheduled an appointment for today at 3. On Saturday we started fixing up our current place to get it ready to be put on the market. By Sunday we were having serious second thoughts. Looking at similar houses that have been sold recently in the same price range, we should be expecting a lot more than what this house would give us. Although it's bigger and way cooler on the inside (by the way, the pictures online don't do it justice) than our current place, both this house and the other would require approximately the same amount of refurbishing, just in completely different capacities. We ultimately decided we might as well just stay here and work on this place. So we cancelled our appointment.

And then had second thoughts.

Dave and I just had a long conversation on the phone. We've come to the conclusion that we're not particularly happy with either house, hence all the vacillating between the two. There aren't a lot of areas/towns around here that we would want to move to, and within the areas we would like to go, there aren't many houses that knock our socks off. We're feeling kind of stuck. I told Dave the only choice we have is for him to get a great job in Boston so we can move back to our beloved Salem and leave the nightmare of Central PA behind us, but after pausing a moment to chew wistfully on that thought, we decided that a better plan of action would be to start paying a lot more into the principal of our current place and next Spring (at which point Dave will hopefully have tenure) really start to look around.

Frankly if we don't find anything here next year, I'm going to start stumping for this place.

Posted by Jenn at 03:22 PM | Permalink | Comments (12)

Okay, not really a detox, but half of the blogs on the internet today were all about coming down off of sugar highs, which I find hilarious because I'm reading them while feasting on chocolates from the Whitman's Sampler Dave got me for Easter. No problems with sugar in this household. Nope.

Henry had a pretty great Easter as far as we can tell. When we ask him if he had fun he says "Yeah." Of course if we ask him if he had a really lousy day he says "Yeah." The Easter Bunny filled his basket with a penny whistle, a triangle, a bunny nerf-like dart shooter thingy (Which, because we're equally lousy parents in exactly the same way, both Dave and I instinctively took aim at our kid with when we finally got our hands on it. I got Henry in the neck and Dave missed completely. I WIN! Then we realized we probably weren't teaching Henry a very good lesson so we started aiming for the dining room instead.), and various chocolates, his favorite being the hollow SpongeBob Squarepants, a character he loves so deeply he just had to ingest him. So far our only regret is the Penny Whistle because Henry can get a frighteningly ear-splitting sound out of it. We only regret it a little though because he loves it so.

Yesterday evening we went over to Megan and Adrian's house for Easter dinner. Megan used a recipe for ham that calls for Coke as one of the main ingredients. It was the most amazing ham I've ever had. She said she boiled it for four hours before baking it to get a lot of the salt out. I'm definitely doing that next time we make ham; it made a huge difference in the flavor. She also made this amazing potato casserole that they make every year and which I start to look forward to again the day after Easter which makes for a very long wait. We brought Brussels Sprouts, dinner rolls, and Dave's Amazing Apple Pie which was truly amazing, as usual. Tonight after dinner he said that his latest batch of pies were much better than the batch he made a couple of months ago. I told him that whatever pie of his that I happen to be currently eating is always the best one.

By last night it became clear that Henry was getting a cold so we came home and wrestled him into bed. He started developing a little bit of a cough overnight and during his nap today so we're jumping on it straight away this time with his nebulizer in the hopes that it doesn't develop into anything else. So far so good.

Posted by Jenn at 08:35 PM | Permalink | Comments (3)

Last night after belly dance class I stopped by the local ice cream joint to buy a couple of treats for myself and Dave, knowing that after the previous night's failed attempt to watch "The Bourne Ultimatum" that he'd be raring to go for another try. Dave was still putting Henry to bed when I got back so I took Flash out for a walk. When we came home and opened the front door we were greeted by the roar of the popcorn maker going full blast, a sound which invariably sends Flash into ecstasy-filled fits of happiness (this is Flash we're talking about so, you know, she wags her tail a bit then sits and looks hopeful) which are only slightly tainted by the fear that maybe we won't give her any popcorn at all. (Which, for the record, hasn't ever happened, but she's a bit of a worrier.) I show Dave the ice cream I hid away in the freezer and we both had a hearty laugh over our mutually preparing snacks because we both knew we'd want to watch the movie tonight and aren't we perfect for each other, etc. etc. then we retired to the couch and turned on the DVD player.

tv: Goa, India *pan over to Franka Potente*
dave: *rowr* Franka...*rowr*
me: Sooooo...didn't she die at the beginning of the second Bourne movie?
dave: Ummmm...yeah?
me: And didn't the second one start off with them living in India?
dave: Uhhhhhh...I didn't get the wrong movie did I? There's no way I got the wrong movie.
me: Well, if they're living on the beach I'd say you got the wrong movie.
tv: Matt Damon opens a door and walks out onto a porch that overlooks the beach.
dave: NO! NONONONONONONONO! I WAS SO IN THE MOOD TO WATCH THIS TONIGHT! Why didn't they name them "Bourne's 1, 2, and 3"? WHY???

So we still haven't seen the third installment. Maybe one day...

Posted by Jenn at 03:57 PM | Permalink | Comments (4)

Dave left for California this morning so Henry and I are in Boston living the good life for a few days. Since we drove up Friday night and would be around all day Saturday, my mom and dad offered to watch Henry so Dave and I could go off and remember what life was like before we had to chase a two-year-old around wherever we go. It was raining out so Dave suggested the Museum of Fine Arts. I hadn't been since I had just found out I was pregnant with Henry and although that trip was fun I do recall spending at least three-quarters of that visit thinking about how I felt like I was going to throw up and wondering if eating the clementine that was rolling around in my bag would make me feel better or worse. Oh, and I also remember keeping track of where the closest bathrooms were. In short, I didn't pay much attention to anything hanging on the walls or sitting under glass cases. Yesterday, however, it was great to be able to take everything in at a leisurely pace, and it was even better watching other people chase their kids around while we were taking it all in at a leisurely pace.

After the museum, we drove into Chinatown and wandered around in the torrential rain in search of dumplings filled with black bean paste and coated with sesame seeds. Every bakery sold them so we did a few taste tests and settled on the last place we went into, not because they were the best, but because we were ready to load up on all sorts of the other pastries we had been seeing all afternoon. We purchased an assortment of goodies and headed back home to taste them all.

It was a perfect day.

Posted by Jenn at 05:21 PM | Permalink | Comments (6)

Today is our seventh anniversary. According to tradition, we should be getting the seven year itch any second now. We usually celebrate our anniversary by boiling up a couple of lobsters, having some champagne, and relaxing. Instead we're going to have ribs and sparkling apple cider. We would have had champagne except we forgot to get some and liquor stores around here aren't open on Sundays. It's official: we're lame.

This morning Dave cranked up the dishwasher. Half an hour later I went down to the basement to start some laundry and noticed we had a big puddle on the floor right below where the dishwasher is. Hmmm. Dave pulled it out to take a look and sure enough there was a lot of water under the left front part of the machine. While he was grumbling about the turn of events I mentioned something along the lines of this being a particularly appropriate day for the dishwasher to break considering it's second only to the stove as a symbol of domesticity, at least in my mind. 0.5 second later I bet he visualized kicking me in the pants.

If I had known seven years ago while I was walking down the aisle of MIT's chapel that one day in the not too distant future we would be celebrating our wedding by chasing a runny-nosed screeching kid down the dishwasher aisle at Sears, I would have been pretty excited about the prospect because despite the ups and downs and broken appliances, how could it not be worth it? I've got the best family in the world and without Dave, none of it would exist.

/mushiness

Posted by Jenn at 03:54 PM | Permalink | Comments (3)

Posted by Jenn at 11:25 AM | Permalink | Comments (1)

We got back from Virginia yesterday afternoon after spending five or six days hanging out with Dave's family ("hanging out" being code for "eating copious quantities of food"). When we opened the fridge to see if we had anything that could be considered dinner, Dave was utterly distressed at the state of uncleanliness that was found within. Thus, after tossing frozen Thanksgiving leftovers into the oven, he spent the next hour washing the inside of our fridge while I unpacked and Henry wreaked general havoc. You should see it. It's gleaming.

I married well.

Posted by Jenn at 01:50 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

We've been pretty busy gearing up for the holidays over here, hence the lack of posts. To make amends, here's a little something I hope you enjoy. My dad thinks it's creepy, Mel thinks Henry's got a nice rack in it, and Dave thinks it's hilarious.

Like I said, enjoy! And happy holidays!

Posted by Jenn at 10:24 PM | Permalink | Comments (2)

So, have any of you seen the show "The Big Bang Theory"? It's about a bunch of really, really, ridiculously smart guys (I'm not going to use the term geeks because of where I'm going with this post) and their hot blonde neighbor? It's very funny. While Henry and I were in Boston my mom mentioned she had seen the show, and there was one scene in particular that she found pretty funny that involved the hot neighbor wanting some help in assembling an entertainment unit she had purchased from Ikea or some such place. The really, really, ridiculously smart guys (not geeks!) looked at it and said they could improve upon the design, and then headed out the door to go to a scrap yard to get some materials for doing just that. When my mom finished describing the scene, she asked me if living with Dave was like that.

Last week we went out and bought our Christmas tree. We went to one of those chop-your-own places. It was the first time we'd ever done that, and it was so much fun. In the years before we moved to Central PA, the tree stand we used was the kind where you turn four screws until the tree is securely in place. Then we moved here and discovered the tree stand of choice is the kind that has the spike you insert into a pre-drilled hole in the tree trunk, so we bought one of those instead. The chop-your-own place didn't have a machine for drilling the hole in the trunk, so we brought our old tree stand out of storage.

We had invited some friends over to help decorate the tree, and they were due to arrive in approximately one hour. I asked Dave to take care of the tree and the stand while I cleaned up the kitchen and got some food ready. Half-an-hour later, I looked outside and saw our tree still bundled up and leaning against the side of our house. What was taking Dave so long? I headed out to the garage to see what was going on. There was Dave with our old tree stand which was now screwed to a big slab of wood. Attached to the underside of the big slab of wood were four smaller square pieces, each of which had been capped off with a square cut out from the leftover self-sticking linoleum we had used for our kitchen floor a few years ago. Dave looked up at me and said "Look! Isn't it awesome? And look, I even put some of the leftover linoleum on the bottom of the feet so they won't scratch up our floors!" All I could say was "You made a Christmas tree stand stand?!?"

So, to answer my mom's question: Yes, living with Dave is like that.

Posted by Jenn at 04:18 PM | Permalink | Comments (3)

We tossed down some dinner when Dave got home, hopped in the car, got some hot chocolate/coffee/donuts to go from DD's, then meandered around town looking at Christmas lights. Henry seemed to enjoy it. I think his favorite house was the one that had all blue lights. Flash wishes that Dave had taken the curves a little slower. She also wishes Henry had been a little messier with his donut. There's a rumor that our dentist has a leg lamp a la "A Christmas Story" in his front window. We drove by his house to scope it out but we didn't see it. Maybe his wife made him take it down. It's happened before.

Posted by Jenn at 09:11 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)

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)

We just got back yesterday from our annual Fall trip to Boston in search of caramel apples and other fun autumn in New England activities, like perusing the Halloween section of Target and taking naps. We had so much fun. My only complaint is that when you visit a place like Boston after spending many months in a place like where we live, you tend to go nuts the first few days trying to pack in as much excitement as possible, and then you crash a few days and really relax. Since we were there for only three full days, we did all the excitement-packing but none of the crashing, so we're all completely and utterly exhausted. It was worth it.

One of the big Fall traditions for us is going to Arena Farms to eat as many caramel apples as we can. (Well, I eat two and Dave eats as many as he can.) We remembered that the caramel is usually melted and ready for dipping around noon so we waited until then before heading over on Saturday. When we got there we were greeted with a big sign that said Arena Farms had been sold. (After snooping around online I found this article dated from last Spring which give an idea of what happened.) To rub salt into the wound, when we got to the caramel apple stand there were a bunch of people standing around a big unmelted vat of caramel looking confused. Apparently they were having some trouble. So no caramel apples were had. It was a very sad day indeed. Instead, we procured some apples, caramels, and peanuts at the grocery store and made them ourselves, which led to two questions: 1. Is it better to use a double-boiler to melt the caramel or put it over direct heat; and 2. Should you add something to the caramel like butter or apple cider? It was a decent substitute for Arena Farms except Dave only got two instead of his usual six. I enjoyed eat melted caramel with nuts in it and forgoing the apple altogether which is what I tend to want to do anyway.

Henry had a great time with his grandparents. He fell madly and completely in love with his Grammy. Since we got back, every other time I buckle him into his car seat he says, definitively, "Grammy's house." I explain that we're eight hours away from Grammy's house but I think he's perfectly willing to spend the day in the car driving back. Today when we stopped by the library he climbed up on a bench and patted the seat next to him and said "Grammy's chair." I asked him where my seat was and he leaned all the way over and indicated a teeny-tiny square inch of space that had a hole in it and said "Mommy's chair." I was offended until I realized it was better than what was set aside for Grandpa and Daddy, which would be nothing, so I crowded onto my square inch and thanked him for saving me a spot.

The other great thing about this weekend that I'd like to share with you all, mainly because I'm thinking about it right now and could really go for one, is a drink my dad made for me. It's a version of the Caipirinha cocktail:

1 lime cut into eight pieces
2 Tbsp sugar
1.75 oz cachaça

Muddle the lime with the sugar in a cocktail shaker. Add the cachaça and a couple of ice cubes. Shake, shake, shake, and pour everything into a rocks glass without straining. Yum!

Posted by Jenn at 09:27 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)

We had the floors in Henry's room and our upstairs hallway sanded last week. This meant we had to relocate everyone's sleeping quarters to the first floor. We set Henry's bed up in the back room where the computer is. This is where he spent his naps and his nights. This is also the room in which the magic happens, blogwise, usually during Henry's naps or after he's gone to bed. Since he was all up in my space during key blogging times, nothing happened. Perhaps you thought we were living such full lives I simply didn't have time to sit at the keyboard and open up Moveable Type. You would be wrong. Most likely we were reveling in the novel glory of being able to eat in bed and watch tv at the same time. I love our sofabed.

I wrote a lot of great entries in my head though, does that count?

Posted by Jenn at 08:45 PM | Permalink | Comments (4)

We had two bbq's on our dance card this weekend, one on Saturday and one on Sunday. I'm still not quite sure how this happened, because really, we have no friends, and yet...

The Saturday bbq was a lot of fun. Henry had a playmate named Thomas who is a few days shy of two. He's also as tall as Henry so when they play together they look perfectly sized for their age. Usually Henry looks like a giant compared to other kids. They got along smashingly. Thomas showed Henry how to use all of his toys and every once in a while I'd look up and see them squatting together, staring intently at a toy laptop or [insert some other toy here] and I'd feel quite the little surge of pride. I fully expected there would be lots of mini-tantrums on my kid's part because he's reached the "I don't share with nobody" stage of toddlerhood full force, but there wasn't even a hint of one. The only weird thing that happened was at the park. Thomas went running past me and because he's the same height as Henry and has the same hair color, I shifted into autopilot and reached out and scruffled his hair. I was slightly embarrassed when I realized it wasn't my kid. I thought that might weird out his mom because I really don't know them very well yet, but she said she can't resist doing it either, so there you go. Later Dave said he did the same thing.

The Sunday bbq was also a lot of fun. Some friends of ours smoked a pork tenderloin all afternoon. (For anyone who might be interested in such things, Dave now wants a smoker for his birthday *ahem*.) One of our hosts was a young lady named Kathy who has taken quite a shine to Henry. She showed him all of her toys, but only after giving me a tour of all of the Hello Kitty items she owns. I now have a small checklist of things I need to get. Apparently one of the things she learned upon starting second grade this year was that people have bbq's to celebrate labor day, so she insisted her parents have people over. I hope she does that more often. Henry got to eat lots of chips before sitting down to dinner, which was amazing. There was a potato salad so good I left with the recipe, green beans fresh from the garden, baked beans, and homemade apple pie for desert. We did not suffer.

Posted by Jenn at 09:39 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)

At the end of July, between traveling to the Wiggles concert and our trip to Virginia we spent a lot of time on the road in a 24 hour period. We also got cut off a lot in a 24 hour period. Getting cut off is pretty bad, but what really gets under my skin is how people will zoom out in front of you, then instead of maintaining their speed, they instead slow down. Why? To see if you're going to hit them? Every once in a while someone making a turn will jump in front of me and as they're slowing down I can see them in their rearview mirror watching my car to see what's going to happen. If you're going to be a poop and cut me off, at least do me the small courtesy of carrying on at the speed you started off at.

After getting cut off for the fifth time on the way down to Reading for the concert, I (once again) vocalized the five million reasons why I hate driving. To add salt to the wounds, for whatever reason people were cutting us off when there was nobody behind us. They couldn't wait the three seconds it would take for us to pass them. Because gas prices have been one of the main topics of news of late, and because I'm American and thus eager to find any reason whatsoever to sue my fellow Americans, I told Dave we should develop the idea of a microlawsuit that would allow you to recoup the cost of gas used up by unnecessary breaking whenever someone cuts you off. So you could sue somebody for, say, a nickel.

Pretty cool idea, right?

Right?

Hey, where did everybody go?

Posted by Jenn at 02:41 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Friday night the stress of Henry's impending party had gotten to us. We got into an argument over the leftover chicken in a bucket of KFC.

me (taking off a piece of crispy skin): Oh, I see you grabbed the piece I had started to pillage the night we got this.
dave (annoyed that I was once again pillaging a piece of chicken): Okay, are you going to eat that entire piece of chicken now or what? I heated it up for me, but if you're going to pillage it you'd better take the whole thing and eat it.
me(consciously deciding to make a big deal out of it all, because Henry's not the only one around here who's two.): You know what, I am going to take this piece of chicken, and I'm going to take the other piece of chicken you heated up because they're both extra crispy and you always make a big deal about ordering half extra crispy and half original because you don't like the extra crispy.
dave: Are you going to eat both of those pieces?
me: Maybe. Maybe I'll just throw them out. I can do whatever I want. THEY'RE MY PIECES OF CHICKEN!
dave: I can never tell the difference between the two...

We apologized later. Much later. Like, the next day. Then we laughed hysterically.

Posted by Jenn at 03:06 PM | Permalink | Comments (2)

There have been two major developments in our household of late, so hold on to your hats:

1) Henry now knows how to drink out of a straw. Because he's obviously a genius. After months of failed attempts, we were talking with a waitress at Perkins about it after she handed Henry a cup with a straw in it and then watched as Dave deftly whisked it away to transfer its contents to a sippy cup. She said her kid didn't use a straw until he was eight. Dave said hearing that made him feel a little better. Naturally, ten seconds after she walked away, we decided what the heck, let's try again for old time's sake, and after a few false starts Henry got the hang of it. I was clapping and jumping and high-fiving Dave like my kid had just discovered a way to reverse the effects of climate change using Pop Tarts, Cheez Whiz, and five billion used vinyl shower curtains. Henry looked pretty pleased with himself too. This opens up a whole new realm of fun to be had with his food. (Have I mentioned he likes to stick his face in his bowl of Cheerio's and eat however many happen to get stuck to his tongue? It's awesome!)

2) A few weeks ago I mentioned we were planning on buying a real bed for guests to sleep on when they come to visit. This may come as a shock to some, but we actually followed through and bought a mattress set on Saturday. It arrived half an hour ago. So we now officially have a guest bed. As an added bonus, Dave repaired the art deco headboard and footboard my parents got me as a graduation (from college) present so that they could be properly used for the first time ever. This means that not only are guests getting a proper mattress set to sleep on, but it's actually sitting on a bed frame, as opposed to the floor. Yep, things are getting pretty high class around here.

Posted by Jenn at 02:06 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

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)

Last Thursday, after enjoying some fine BBQ courtesy of Dave, Henry and I left the safety of our backyard and headed off to explore the cemetary down the street from us. Henry's a big fan of flags, and the day before, new flags had been installed at veterans' graves in time for Memorial Day. He ran from flag to flag, stopping and pointing at each one, impatiently waiting for me to say "Yeah, Henry, that's a FLAG!" before moving on to the next one.

On the way home, we stopped a chatted with a neighbor who was sweeping grass clippings off of her sidewalk and into the street. Dave caught up with us as she was herding Henry and me into the backyard. We spent the next fifteen minutes lounging in her patio swing, alternately watching her sweep her patio and keeping an eye on Henry who had his entire arm up to his shoulder in her watering can. Our neighbor was telling us about all of the things she had to do to get ready for some guests that were arriving on Saturday. As she finished sweeping and we got up to take Henry home for a bath, I told her she should relax, have some lemonade, and enjoy the evening. She laughed and said she didn't have time to, then said she should add lemonade to her grocery list because her guests would probably enjoy it. That's when I noticed a carpenter bee fly up underneath her porch. Then I noticed the big pile of sawdust on the ground. I pointed it out to her and she was obviously unhappy to have yet another thing to deal with. We both commiserated over how once you make any kind of headway with your house, something else falls apart. On the way home, I felt vaguely guilty about having added yet another item to her "To do" list.

There's a saying that most everyone's familiar with: "Payback's a bitch." The next evening I heard a buzz and looked up to see a carpenter bee flying up through a gap between our stone facade and the roofline. Then I saw a pile of sawdust on our gutters, directly beneath the gap. Nothing gives me the heebie-jeebies like the thought of bees drilling holes in our eaves. Then, after giving the dog a bath in the upstairs bathroom, I came downstairs, went into the garage, and stepped right into a puddle of water. We have a leak that appears to be running down from the second floor bathroom and leaching through the wood frame of the door that leads into our garage. Plumbing problems are the worst, although I think Dave's a little excited about the prospect of sleuthing out what's going on. Better him than me.

Both of these recent developments just make me want to take a nap.

Here's our updated to-do list:

1. Finish refinishing the hardwood floors.
2. Finish the living room.
3. Fix range.
4. Fix upstairs sink.
5. Find 2nd floor leak. (The one that happens when it rains.)
6. Paint back hallway.
7. Paint back room.
8. Paint hallway to upstairs.
9. New front door.
10. Bathroom ceiling.
11. Repaint trim in living room.
12. Recaulk around the fireplace.
13. Buy (and install!) a proper mailbox.
14. Find 2nd floor leak. (The one that happens when we use the tub.)
15. Call exterminator about carpenter bees.

Posted by Jenn at 02:23 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)

The only way to keep Dave from working is to physically remove him from temptation, so we decided to head down to Charlottesville to visit with his parents. Henry came down with a cold the Friday before we were supposed to leave. We briefly contemplated canceling the trip, but since his runny nose wasn't damping his spirits at all, we decided to go after all. Best decision we could have made because the three full days we were there, the temperatures were in the upper-70's. Of course, we drove into a snowstorm on the way home, but it was totally worth it.

We took Henry to a Japanese steak house for lunch on Tuesday. A chef came out and cooked at our table whatever it was Dave had ordered. Because Henry was overdue for his nap, he was a bit grumpy so we were worried the big bursts of flames from the grill would frighten him, but he was completely enthralled. Gape-mouthed enthralled. The chef also razzle-dazzled him by spinning and tossing around an egg which he eventually cracked and cooked for some fried rice. It was a lot of fun. Henry ate some miso-soaked tofu and two pieces of tamago. Next time we're in town, we're definitely going back.

Posted by Jenn at 04:11 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Since Dave's on spring break I think I'll take the rest of the week off too. You know, to make sure he doesn't sneak any work in. I may be posting pictures to our flickr site though. You'll have to check it out to see if I actually do. See you all next week...

Posted by Jenn at 03:57 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Saturday night was the best night. We didn't do anything special, but everything we did was totally off the cuff. While Henry was napping, Dave and I decided we would go visit Mr. L because we hadn't seen him since right before our three week stretch of stomach flus, head colds, and ear infections. Henry is getting less and less shy around Mr. L. This time he only spent a few minutes with his head tucked into his daddy's armpit as opposed to the ten minutes he spent there last time we visited. Also, after snacking on some cheese, he dug my water bottle out of his diaper bag and insisted on drinking from it, a sport which he enjoyed immensely but which made me and Dave break out in hives. (We both have lingering gagging/choking fears from the days when he would gag and choke on everything. You know, last week.) Every time he'd take a sip he'd stomp his feet a few times and smile real big because he was JUST SO PROUD OF HIMSELF (stomp! stomp! stomp!). He's been practicing every day since then, but not around Dave because his heart can't take it.

When we headed back to the car after our visit, I suggested we drive by a new cafe that just opened up because I was feeling a hankering for their Cobb salad, and since the words "salad" and "craving" very rarely come together, I thought it would good to indulge. The place was empty so we had a relaxed dinner of salad, sweet potato, grilled cheese, and a reuben. After that, we headed out to a huge local gift shop that also has an amazing bakery so we could get a couple of cookies and some cupcakes for dessert. Later that night, after we'd put Henry to bed, I mentioned to Dave how great it was that everything we had done after Mr. L's we did just because we felt like it.

The next day I was talking to Megan on the phone. She mentioned wishing they were at a point where they could get more of a schedule going for her kid, which I thought was ironic because I had just been waxing poetic to Dave about how great it is to not have to be on so much of a schedule. Which leads to the breakdown of the last stages of pregnancy through the first 18 months of a kids life, from the point of view of, well, me:

Late pregnancy: get this kid out of me already! I'll do anything! I just want to be able to get out of bed without having to ask my husband to give me a shove...

A couple of weeks after giving birth: I love you, kid, but do you think you could be a little more consistent?

18 months after giving birth: OMG! Do you realize we just went out to dinner and then shopping, not because we planned it all out this morning, but because we just decided we wanted to? How awesome is that? We have the best kid. EVER!

Posted by Jenn at 01:34 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

The Friday night knitting session was a big success. Lots of good conversation, lots of good food, lots of good knitting going on. In fact, I managed to finish my toilet paper sushi cover. Here's a before:

"Good grief, what an unattractive roll of toilet paper. Somebody should do something about that."

and here's the after:

"Big improvement. I wish I had one!"

It's good to finish a project, even a small one, and this one was a lot of fun, so that's a plus. I'd like to find one more color to fill in a little more of the top. I'll have to continue digging through my scrap yarn pile.

On Saturday we headed out to the mall in search of some new pants for Henry. He's outgrowing all of his current ones at an alarming rate. We went to Old Navy where Dave picked a few pairs out. He got a few in large-looking 2T's and a few in 3T. When we got them home it turned out that although there's lots of length for him to grow into with the 3T's, the waists are already a little tight. I put him into the 2T's yesterday and they fit perfectly. It's very odd. Anyway, one of the big attractions at the mall we went to is the indoor carousel. My dad and I took Henry on one when we went to Edaville last year and he seemed to enjoy it. This time around though, it was bad news. He was fine until Dave put him on one of the horses, at which point he started to sob. He had calmed down ever so slightly by the end of the ride, but he was still pretty unhappy. Poor kid.

Sunday morning Dave took Henry out to lunch. I loved it because not only did I get a few hours to myself, but I think it's great that they got to spend some time alone together without me breathing down their necks. When they got home, Dave said they had a great time, then he mentioned something about making it a regular thing, after which I started doing a happy dance then plotted out all the things *I* could then make a regular occurrence. Here's what I've got so far: nap, take a long bubble bath, nap some more.

Next week is Dave's spring break. We both want to get out of town but can't think of anywhere to go. We have so much we should be doing around the house that we should probably stay here, but we're both pretty burned out so a change of scenery would be great. Plus, if we stay around here, Dave'll just go into work, whereas if we physically remove him from temptation, Henry and I get him all to ourselves. Also we're broke. Anyone have any suggestions for interesting places to visit that are inexpensive and sort of close to Central PA?

Posted by Jenn at 01:22 PM | Permalink | Comments (2)

We're all sick. I got it yesterday evening and Dave got it at 1:30 this morning. For the very first time in four years, Dave actually cancelled his classes. He didn't even cancel classes for the birth of his kid, that's how dedicated he is. And, apparently, how sick he is. We didn't score any major parenting points today because Henry watched many hours of television, unless of course you're giving out points for hours of television watching in which case we definitely win. Megan brought us Gatorade and offered to take Henry off of our hands for a while but we didn't want her catching whatever it is we've got, especially since she's hopefully going to be going into labor any minute now.

I'm feeling better this evening but Dave's laying on our pull-out sofa bed looking very much like a truck is in the process of running him over. Poor guy.

Posted by Jenn at 08:36 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

I know that because I'm a Boston girl I should be rooting for the Pats, and normally I do (although recently I've been known to cheer on the Eagles, but since it embarrasses Dave, we won't talk about that). However, for the past two years, once we get to this point in the playoffs, I've switched my allegiance and rooted for the Colts because I think Peyton Manning is really cute. Having confessed that, I just have to ask, could tonight's game be any more exciting? The Colts just tied the game 21 to 21 and there was much cheering (me) and groaning (him). We're now at the point in the game where Dave's not sure he can stand to watch the rest of it. And since we're on the subject of Dave, when we first got married he said he didn't like football. At all. And now? The other night after the game he kept the remote hidden from me so he could watch the post-game press conference and commentary. What's up with that? What happened to the man I married?

Posted by Jenn at 09:03 PM | Permalink | Comments (2)

Saturday was my and Dave's sixth wedding anniversary. To celebrate, we ate out. Many times. Sandwiches, Italian, BBQ. It was all good too. So were the leftovers. While we were waiting for our italian takeout, we headed over to a local coffeeshop that just opened and briefly waxed poetic about the last six years. The conversation eventually settled on the little kid sitting at our table who was busy munching away on his first ever chocolate chip cookie. Still can't believe we have him. Still can't believe how totally cool he is. Still can't believe he still tries to get us out of bed before seven in the morning. Hah! Doesn't he know us better than that by now?

Yesterday morning when I came downstairs Dave told me Henry had finally managed to get hold of my glasses which I had left on the coffee table the night before. Bad Jenn. He grabbed one arm of the frames and bent it back until it broke. I only got them in September, after Dave stepped on and broke my last pair. I tried to get some superglue mojo going but declared defeat after a few minutes. There wasn't enough surface area to get a good glue on I guess. We ended up at LensCrafters an hour later to look at frames. Shopping for frames with me is something Dave absolutely hates to do, and I know this because he told me so. He told me in the car on the way to the mall. He told me while walking through the parking lot to the mall entrance. Also, he and Henry tried to make a run for it right when we got to the store entrance but I somehow managed to stop him. I told the salesperson I needed new glasses because my kid had broken mine earlier in the morning. There was another customer who was there because her dogs had broken hers. We were a sad lot. Because my last pair of glasses were still under some sort of warranty, I got the same style for only half the cost of the frame, and since I'm fickle and cheap when it comes to glasses, it wasn't terribly expensive.

Let's see, what else? We had some website woes which Dave managed to fix. Something about spam getting sent out with fake jennanddave.com email addresses. The ones that got bounced back ended up going to a top-secret folder that eventually got so big it used up tons of space which caused other areas of the site to not work.

Henry hasn't been sleeping well which means we haven't been sleeping well. Not sure what it is. Teething? Too cold in his room? Too hot? Ear infection? Then there's always the nagging thought that whatever the cause once was has passed and that now he's waking up because he's used to us rushing to tuck him back in and give him a kiss. Regardless, we're all pretty tired over here. I just went over what I've written so far and noticed that there were significantly more typo's,etc. than usual. I'm taking that as a sign I need to just go to bed already. I hope some of this post made some sense.

Posted by Jenn at 08:41 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Because I know you all are tremendously interested in what's on our house to-do list, and because "Men in Trees" will not be airing again until next Thursday thereby nixing tonight's plan of watching Anne Heche and feeling fat, I'll go ahead and post it here.

1. Finish refinishing the hardwood floors. We started with the dining room, which we did over Spring break last year. We figured we'd do the rest of the first floor over the summer, but we never did. Also, we're going to look into hiring someone to do this for us, although this means I won't get to see Dave use a floor buffer again (or should I say, watch the floor buffer use Dave), which was absolutely hilarious.

2. Finish the living room. No to-do list of ours would be complete without this one. It's been on every list we've made since 2003. When we actually do finish it, I might put it on all future to-do lists just for old time's sake.

3. Fix range. One of the large burners on our stovetop stopped working about a week after we moved in. Never fixed it.

4. Fix upstairs sink. Our upstairs sink drains really slowly. I'm glad Dave is the one who's going to solve that mystery. Yuck.

5. Find leak. Water gets in through the dormer on our second floor whenever the wind blows the rain a certain direction. It drips down and dampens the ceiling in our office on the first floor. It happens once a year but it's still not a good thing. Honestly, I'm trying not to think about this one.

6. Paint back hallway. I painted it an off-white that has too much yellow in it. It looks drab.

7. Paint back room. It's dark purple now. We're going to go with something more neutral.

8. Paint hallway to upstairs. Nothing wrong with it, it's just the one place in the house that I haven't managed to get around to painting since we moved in.

9. New front door. Our front door is terrible. No windows, it's old, it's foul, it's dark. Blech.

10. Bathroom ceiling. We've repainted the ceiling in our bathroom a few times now. After about a month, the bit over the shower starts to peel from all the moisture. Last effort: Killz primer with ceiling paint. Next up: Killz with ultra-high glossy paint.

11. Repaint trim in living room. The living room is a light greenish-blue, with one wall painted Linen White. The trim is dark brown. I'm going to repaint it high-gloss linen white because although I like the brown, esp. with the blue, I think it's too dark. We're north-facing which means we don't get much light which means we need to lighten things up with color which means every little bit helps.

12. Recaulk around the fireplace.

13. Buy (and install!) a proper mailbox. The previous owners used a basket for a mailbox. Or they pried off the old mailbox and took it with them when they moved, leaving us a gross basket in it's place. We used the basket til it fell apart. Then we replaced it with a bright blue wicker Easter basket that I got at Walmart. That faded and fell apart in a matter of months. We solved the ensuing mailbox conundrum by moving to Salem for the Fall. Now we have a galvanized steel tub that Dave uses to chill beer in the summer while he's barbequeing sitting on our front porch. The mailman must think we're hilarious. Or he wishes we'd put some beer out for him.

That's it. No problem.

Posted by Jenn at 10:08 PM | Permalink | Comments (2)

Dave and I went and looked at a house today. We've been feeling like we're at the bursting point in our current place, desperately in need of two more bedrooms so that we could dedicate one to the steady stream of grandparents that have been coming for visits ever since Henry arrived. Right now guests sleep on an aerobed in the downstairs bedroom we use as an office. This has been somewhat acceptable in the past, but probably won't be as well received now that the "bed" has a leak.

We like the part of town we're in, being close to the downtown, so we decided that if we do move, it would have to be in the same area. A house came up that's very close to our old neighbors who moved last summer (possibly to escape us; wouldn't the joke be on them?), so we went and took a look. It's a bit pricey and needs some work, but it's on a nice-sized lot. It's got the right number of bedrooms and a truly hideous but huge kitchen (which I loved). It's got a stairwell that doesn't dissect the house into two halves, something that drives me a bit crazy about our current location. Dry basement, nice attic, pocket doors. And yet neither Dave nor I got that feeling you get when you walk into a house that feels right. Nevertheless, we spent the day thinking very hard about it. We went from "Let's make an offer" to "Forget it let's stay here" and back again a few times. Ultimately we decided it would be a lateral move after considering all of the things we'd want to change if we bought it. It also helped us to appreciate the place we have. Sometimes we get hung up on grousing about the little things that bug us about our house to the point where they feel so problematic that we think there's no way we can live here much longer. Looking at the other house today nudged us out of that way of thinking. We've decided to focus on finishing all of the little projects we've started then pooped out on so that we can sit back and enjoy this place. At least until the next thing breaks. Or springs a leak.

Posted by Jenn at 10:45 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

The last day I remember with complete clarity would be December 23rd. My New Year's resolution is to somehow get back the seven days that came and went between then and now. Tonight Megan and Adrian are coming over to celebrate New Year's Eve. We'll be eating. A lot. As usual. And going to bed by 10, cuz we're squares, you dig?

Megan's pregnant. Have I mentioned that? She's due pretty soon. I'm very excited to meet this kid. We went over to their house last night to hang out and Dave and I took turns running around after Henry. On the ride home Dave said he tried to have a conversation with Adrian except he kept having to stop to chase after Henry. Then we realized that in a year or so, any time we all get together we'll be so busy chasing after our respective kids that we probably won't have had a chance to talk to each other at all other than me asking Megan if she wants another frosted sugar cookie and her saying "Duh!". Scary. Also, most likely it won't be as bad as that. Now that I think about it, sometimes when we watch Gilmore Girls together, all we do say to each other is "Do you want another frosted sugar cookie?". Maybe I should look at it from the perspective of nothing is really going to change at all. Now I feel better.

Dave and I are hitting the road again tomorrow, this time for a family wedding. I don't know if we'll have internet access so it may be a little while before I update again. If you see us on the interstate, be sure to wave hello!

Happy New Year!

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

I'm at the computer, and I'm typing something, but technically, I think I'm asleep. I have mad skillz. The drive yesterday was long. It took us about 10.5 hours to get home from Massachusetts. We crossed into CT where we hit a major traffic jam two miles into the state. Traffic jam + CT = what else is new? We decided to drive back up to the Mass Pike and take it out to the NY State Thruway, a route that adds at least an hour onto the trip under normal circumstances, but since I was following Dave who was operating the moving truck, the fastest we could go was around 65 MPH, usually less, so that also added to the travel time. You know what though? After all the packing and cleaning and general mayhem that went on during our last two days, 10.5 hours in the car was relaxing.

A couple of weeks ago I told Dave I figured we could have everything unpacked and in its place in a few hours. Hah! I talk the crazy talk. We were both so inspired by not having been surrounded by tons of junk for the last five months that we're packing up stuff we don't want anymore while also unpacking all the stuff we moved back here. Megan and Adrian had the house cleaned for us as a welcome home present because they're awesome. To thank them, we made them wait outside our house for twenty minutes this morning while we had breakfast at Perkins, because we're also awesome. They came to help us empty the truck and we all walked around and admired how amazing and non-stinky our house was. Finally. It only took three years and us leaving town and having someone else take care of it for us to get it clean and not smelling funky. Hmmm... Anyway, after six hours of Jenn and Dave madly trying to get organized, it no longer looks amazing. It looks tired. Just like I feel. It still smells good though.

Posted by Jenn at 10:28 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Excluding any moves related to undergraduate education, between the two of us Dave and I have packed up and moved approximately fourteen times. By this point we've become expert packers. We could start our own company, we're that good. We could call ourselves "Modest Movers" because we're modest about all other aspects of our lives, except for when it comes to describing how good we are at packing.

What we are not good at is cleaning, and that's exactly what we're doing right now. The hardest part about cleaning in an apartment building like this is we have no idea whose standards we're supposed to be cleaning up to. Our apartment was immaculate when we first arrived. I doubt that the previous tenants left it that way. But maybe they did. I have a feeling that management probably has someone come in and spot clean things up to sparkly when they have the