jennanddave.com

Holly is currently on her third nap of the day. She was up for her usual hour and a half this morning, slept for an hour, was up for about an hour, then took a two hour nap. An hour and fifteen minutes later and she was rubbing her eyes against my shoulder so I took her back up. And I just realized I forgot to change her diaper. Ah well. Such is life.

Henry came down with a cold on Sunday, stayed home from school Monday and Tuesday, then had a double-whammy of a day, where he went on a field trip in the morning, then to his afternoon pre-school shortly after getting back home. It really took it out of him because he slept for fourteen hours that night. It was pretty amazing. He did something similar again last night.

Yesterday morning, I woke up, fed Holly and put her down for a nap, then madly dashed around when she woke up at 10:30 so that we could go to playgroup, called a friend en route and became sorely depressed when I found out she was going away on vacation for the weekend and I was going to be stuck in the 'burg. Briefly thought about impromptu trip to somewhere else. However, things looked up when I got to playgroup. There were only three of us there, so we got to have an actual conversation! For, like, an hour and a half! It was great.

Yesterday Dave woke up with Henry's cold, puttered around the internet until 10:30 when he joined me for the mad dash around the house so that we could go to playgroup, then he worked hard all day, came home, ate a little bit, then collapsed while I hustled the kids into bed. Then he took Flash out for a walk and went back to work. I don't know when he came home, but it was after 11 because that's when I went to bed and he was still out. The man's a machine during the semester.

Right now, I'd be willing to bed that both Dave and I wish we were Holly: on our third nap of the day.

Posted by Jenn at 02:44 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Dave and I have been making good on the resolution where I grandly declared we'd make our own desserts and bread. We haven't purchased bread since 2009 (speaking of grand declarations). The first two weekends Dave made bread, first using the recipe on the back of the King Arthur's Bread flour bag, then using a recipe from The Fannie Farmer Cookbook (specifically the 11th edition; it's our go-to cookbook). This past Sunday I tried out the famous 5-minute boule bread recipe that showed up in last year's Dec '08/Jan '09 issue of Mother Earth News. It lived up to all of the hype, despite a slight hitch involving me losing my temper (I tend to do that with dough).

I also made Cream of Asparagus soup from scratch. I perused the recipe on Friday while Henry and I were sipping hot cocoa and coming up with the week's menus. Never shall I make that mistake again. After I completed the first few steps, I sat down and read the rest and nearly had a heart attack. Then I spent the next three hours boiling, shocking, chopping, simmering, pureeing, sieving, stirring, and salting. Henry came in during the sieving and asked what I was doing. I told him I was taking out the asparagus and onion bits because I knew he didn't like them. He said "Good!" and then wandered off. When I set a bowl full of gorgeous Cream of Asparagus soup (filled to the brim with love, I might add) in front of him, his face crumpled and he said "WHY IS IT STILL GREEN?!?!?" I cannot emphasize or italicize the "green" enough. At least I appreciated all of my effort. Also, I will probably not be making that recipe for another nine years, which is how long it had been since I had made it the first time. Not surprising.

Today Henry and I made cinnamon ice cream. It was crazy good. I asked Henry what flavor we should try making next and he said "A flavor that's green." Then I kicked him in the butt. Not really, but I kind of wanted to. Do you think he does it on purpose?

Posted by Jenn at 09:22 PM | Permalink | Comments (2)

Christmas was great. We stayed in Virginia a day longer than we had planned to because why bother leaving when you're having so much fun? Yesterday, about a half an hour after we left to come home, I said "Who's excited about going home?" Crickets chirping. So I said "Who wishes we could stay here longer?" I raised my hand, Henry piped up from the back "I wish we could stay!", then Dave said "Me too." Later on in the trip, Henry said "Grammy and Grandpa live in Massachusetts, and Grandma and Grandpa live in Virginia, right?" "Right." *long pause* "Why do we *still* live in Pennsylvania?" He said "Pennsylvania" with a healthy dose of utter distaste. Dave and I laughed heartily. So we're back home, and darned happy to be here, as you can tell. I think Holly is the only one who heaved a sigh of relief over being back in her own bed. Babies. What do they know?

Posted by Jenn at 10:33 PM | Permalink | Comments (2)

me: I have the absolute worst hand-writing.
Dave (reflexively): No you don--uuuh, wait. Yeah, you do. I'm not going to sugar-coat it.

It must be pretty bad if he's not even attempting to convince me otherwise.

Posted by Jenn at 04:49 PM | Permalink | Comments (2)

On Saturday we trekked up a steep hill, chopped down a tree, and drove it back to our house where Dave put the lights on for a change because I was annoyed with him. Know how to take it out on your man when you're feeling grumpy? Make him put the lights on the tree. It's a thankless job, and everyone else is a critic.

This year we thought we'd go to a parking lot filled with cut trees as far as the eye could see, but it turns out Henry remembered what we did last year and wanted a repeat, so we obliged. Our house has been feeling a bit cluttered this year, so I was stumping for a Fraser Fir, something tall and narrow, as opposed to our usual penchant for trees that are living-room-sized. I pointed a few out, and Dave nixed them. Then Henry declared his love for a Blue Spruce, which is what we got last year and which we vowed never to buy again because their needles are so painful. Apparently there's a statute of limitations on how far Bambi eyes will get a kid on Christmas Tree Picking Day. Also, the longer you wander around aimlessly in the cold and snow, the more your kid starts to say things like "I don't think we'll EVER find a tree," and the less he cares what it looks like. (He gets his sense of the dramatic from me.) So we settled on a Douglas Fir. Tall, sorta full, but not too full, and it smells great!

We stopped by a grocery store on the way home to pick up our traditional tree-trimming dinner of cocktail wieners in BBQ sauce, cheese and crackers, and sparkling grape juice. I also got a platter of chocolate-dipped Spritz cookies. Later that evening, after the kids were in bed, Dave and I settled on the couch for our annual viewing of "White Christmas". The brie was flowing. At one point Dave turned to me and asked "What does it mean that we're stuffing ourselves with cheese instead of those cookies over there?" I told him "It means we're going to get fat one way or the other." He said there wasn't much else he could say to that.

All in all, it was a pretty nice day.

Posted by Jenn at 08:39 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

The Leonid meteor shower is reaching its peak tonight. When we lived in Salem, Dave and I would get up in the middle of the night during the Leonids, fill a couple of go-cups with hot chocolate, then walk over to Derby Wharf where we'd lay in the grass, bundled up against the cold weather to watch the show. We also had a tradition of not going home after walking Flash each night until one of us spotted a satellite going by. Usually we'd hang out on the Wharf until we'd seen three or four. I really miss living there.

Another fun fact about today: it's my Dad's birthday! Happy Birthday!!!

Posted by Jenn at 04:09 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

HOORAY! As Dave said on Wednesday: Saturday can't get here fast enough.

Also, at school yesterday Henry kept saying to me and one of his teachers: "But I really want to play with the memory game!" It took us five minutes before we figured out he meant "boomerang". Still pretty impressed that it got figured out at all.

Posted by Jenn at 07:37 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)

A crazy storm just swept through the area. I told a friend of mine I was surprised we still had power. Dave and Henry were out at the grocery store when it happened. They saw a tree snap in half and blow across the parking lot. When they came home, Dave came upstairs and told me to look out of our bathroom window. Our fence is in pieces. From the angle I saw the damage from, it's seemed like it was a good thing the car wasn't in the driveway. We had to do some repairs to the fence this past Spring, knowing that they were patch jobs, but hoping that they would help keep it together through one last winter. Looks like we'll be replacing it sooner than we thought. Anyone know a good fence person?

Posted by Jenn at 04:53 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)

We had pizza for dinner last night. We ordered from a new place that offers regular pizza and deep dish. Dave called in the order and when he asked for a large deep dish, the woman on the other end of the line said "they don't come small, medium, or large, they come 9, 18, or 27 *muffled*" so Dave said "Ummm, 18?" It turns out she wasn't talking about circumference, she was talking the number of slices. That's a lot of pizza. We made it through six. It was good.

Every once in a while, Dave becomes obsessed with keeping food warm even though ten minutes after we start dinner it's officially over, so he decided to put the pizza boxes in the oven. That was yesterday evening at approximately 6:30. It's now 3:12 the next day. Guess where the pizza is still sitting, waiting to be put in the refrigerator? We didn't realize we forgot about putting it away until we were in the car heading out for lunch. While discussing where to go, we both proclaimed how much we were looking forward to having the pizza for dinner tonight, which is when the realization hit us like a ton of bricks. We went through the usual stages of mourning, which ultimately ended in a loud argument where Dave proclaimed I was at least 50% to blame since I pulled a couple of pieces out for us, an act which involved opening the oven door and therefore gaining the knowledge that that's where the pizza boxes were being stored. Naturally I said he was 100% to blame because I've never stuck food in the oven to stay warm like that ever in my life, I would've put them on the counter or the stovetop or, most likely, in the middle of the table so I wouldn't have to waste precious energy getting out of my chair to get seconds. After we'd gotten it all out of our systems, Henry piped up from the backseat and said "Wow..." like we were the biggest idiots on the planet, which is a point I don't think either Dave or myself would contest. Also, we have to stop arguing over fast food. It's getting sad.

Posted by Jenn at 02:54 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

The last thing Dave did last week Wednesday right before the floor sanders showed up was cut our internet cable, literally. The way it was installed when we moved in resulted in us not being able to pull it down through the floor and back into the basement, so, snip snip. While we were vacationing at Megan's house we decided to go wireless and ordered an AirPort from Apple which took a while to arrive, then it took Dave a while to find a chunk of time he could devote to repairing the cable and hook everything up. However, the stars have aligned and now we're back in action. It was a nice break away from the internet for me. I had all of this extra free time during my day and evening to do things such as: read, ponder the meaning of life, unpack, stare blankly at the ceiling from the comfort of our recliner, admire our new floors, rearrange Henry's room, bake cookies.

The Tuesday before the floor sanders showed up Dave had his tonsils taken out. A week and a half later and he's still trying to work up to a regular diet, the big prize at the end of the tunnel being a pizza night, a celebration he's been having to put off every couple of days because he's not healing as quickly as he had hoped. A word of advice to those who are thinking of getting their tonsils out as adults: don't do it a few days before you have to physically work hard at something, such as moving all of your furniture back into your house, especially if your wife is 37 weeks pregnant and utterly useless when it comes to lifting things. It'll really set back your recovery time. Especially again, if you later realize you haven't had much water, and then have a beer. Then again, I guess a little dehydration after major surgery never hurt anyone. Oh, wait, that can be bad, can't it?

Meanwhile, the important facts are:

- we're all moved back in, although still half-heartedly unpacking some boxes full of things I think we'd rather stuff in the attic and forget about, regardless of how useful the items contained therein are;
- the house looks great;
- Dave is still alive.

We're *so* ready for this baby.

(Hah!)

Posted by Jenn at 09:40 AM | Permalink | Comments (2)

Our first floor is all packed up and has been temporarily deposited in either the garage or the basement. I'm somewhat surprised we ("we" being mostly Dave) managed to get it done. As a couple, we have come to terms with our mutual tendency to procrastinate and have figured out ways to trick ourselves into action. Both Saturday and Sunday at 5PM we had dinner plans which gave us all the incentive we needed to get things done during the day. If we hadn't had those deadlines, we'd still be screwing around trying to pack stuff up. Fortunately Saturday's was at someone's else's house because it was the day we did most of the actual packing and man were we desperate for a change of scene, especially a scene that involved a house that wasn't in complete disarray. Not only were we treated to a lovely dinner, but we got to enjoy the company of a very cool little girl and her equally cool parents.

Early on Sunday we hit the point in packing where you think you're not ever going to finish unless some of the stuff starts disappearing from your view. Dave called up a friend whose family came over and helped to move most of the heavy furniture out. It perked us up considerably. At 5PM a couple of other friends came over with their kids and helped with both the final push and with mac and cheese and hamburger/hot dog/kielbasa (and cupcake, can't forget the cupcakes) consumption. Henry was thrilled to see his friends because with the exception of those three hours yesterday evening, Sunday can probably be chocked up as one of the most boring days of his life thus far. Things will be looking up for him this week though because we're moving into Megan's house as soon as the sanders hit the floor. I mentioned to Henry yesterday that we were going to be spending a few nights with her and so when we arrived at her house today to hang out and beg lunch off of her, Henry asked if we were going to be staying for a "very long visit starting right now". She should be very afraid.

Also, because I'm an awesome parent and the one who reigns me in isn't home right now, I'm pretty sure Henry and I just had snickerdoodles for dinner. Perfect fare for one who has gestational diabetes. Not feeling guilty in the least.

Posted by Jenn at 05:07 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

On Wednesday we're having the wood floors on the first floor of our house refinished. I shouldn't say Wednesday. I should say Wed-Fri. Really, Wed-Sun., Sunday being the day we can move all of our furniture back in. It's a drag having to pack everything up and cram it into the garage, especially when there's no moving truck coming to take all of our stuff away to brighter horizons, horizons that would ideally involve quahogs, the distinctive smell of low-tide in a shallow harbor, and a boat or two. I feel particularly bad for Dave because I'm running on extremely low stamina and can only manage a couple of trips up and down the stairs before I'm ready for a five hour nap. The living room and dining room are pretty much all done, all that's left is the dreaded back room, the room where things go to die, or at least where they get stuffed into dark corners to be dealt with at a later date. Unfortunately later is now, and Dave has been chipping away at it all day. He doesn't feel like he's made much progress, but it's definitely getting close. A few years ago we decided to put most of our books into storage until we could figure out a way to get them out again without having them take up all of the living space in our tiny house that they were taking up. In that time we've managed to amass yet another impressive collection which has spilled out of our bookcase and onto the floor where it is stacked in two precarious piles plus a couple of large paper bags. I'm complaining about the books because I'm glaring at them right now and am dreading packing them all up. Although I originally eschewed the notion of the Kindle because there's nothing like curling up in bed and relaxing at the end of a long day while juggling an awkwardly-sized book that almost broke your nose last time you fell asleep mid-sentence, it would be nice to have a lot of books contained within 8"X5.3" worth of space. There. I said it. I am ashamed. So anyway, we have a lot of books to pack. And bills. And other silly stuff. And we're not even moving. It's a drag. But it'll also be worth it. The floors are going to look spectacular.

Meanwhile, I was on Loobylu and she has a link to a totally cute video that I thought I'd also share because it made me happy. Happy, that is, until I looked up and saw all of the books again.

Posted by Jenn at 08:49 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)

Dave called and canceled our land line today. We are now, for better or for worse, reliant on our cell phones. I say worse because Dave's having a little trouble figuring his out. So far me and one of his students have helped him set it up, including his voice mail which I'm still not sure he knows how to check. A couple of weeks ago I sent him a text message. He didn't know that I had, and when I mentioned it to him later his voice got all panicky and high-pitched while he asked why in the world would I send him a text message; he has no idea how to retrieve it and what on earth was I thinking? etc., etc. It's funny when technology makes a scientist sweat.

After his field hockey game on Tuesday, he called my phone to let me know he was heading home. I was putting Henry to bed so I didn't have time to get to the phone before it went to voicemail. I called him right back and when he finally picked up he said he had a little trouble with the call waiting. Here's a transcript of the voice message he left me: "Heya, it's me. I'm just calling to let you know that I'm on my way home and to see if you want me to pick anything up-oh wait, I'm getting another call...I think it's you.....*beep*....Hello?....what the....hold on....*beep*....Hello?....wait...*huff*....d****t!"

Getting Dave a cell phone could be the best thing we've ever done. I'm certainly enjoying it.

Posted by Jenn at 01:36 PM | Permalink | Comments (4)

I don't really remember going through a nesting phase when I was pregnant with Henry. This time around, however, there is little doubt that something out of the ordinary is afoot. I'm managing compelled to keep the house somewhat clean and clutter-free (with the exception of the bathroom; I'm nesting, not insane) because lately the sight of something out of place makes me twitchy. Unfortunately for Dave, he's also been put to work, doing some of the things that have been on my personal "to do" list, the latest being finishing painting the three doors at the end of our 1st floor hallway. One of them I did a while ago, the other two had problems I just didn't want to deal with. After two weekends spent getting reacquainted with his palm sander and a paint roller, Dave finished the job and frankly, the level of satisfaction I feel when I look at them now is almost equal to what I'd feel if I'd done the work myself. Which, fortunately, I didn't.

Yesterday we hired a guy to refinish the wood floors in our living room, back hallway, and study. He also offered to buff and put another coat of urethane on the dining room floor that Dave and I refinished ourselves a couple of years ago so it will blend in better with the living room. The best part was he said he'd do it for free. His quote came in about $500 less than a quote we got for the same work from someone else two years ago, so that was an unexpected surprise. Fifteen minutes after he left, our heat pump/electrician guy came by with the contract for the work he's going to do for us. We're having to get our box upgraded to 200 amps before the heat pump can go in. He'll be here Thursday to do that, then on the 30th he'll be back to install the heat pump. We've decided to go with natural gas because it's a lot more efficient than oil, and it's cleaner burning. The bonus of hooking up to gas now means that our dreams of a gas fireplace insert and a gas stove will be much easier to realize.

Although these are fairly minor (albeit sort of expensive) changes that we're making to the house, I'm completely giddy with excitement. I've grown really attached to this place in the six years that we've lived here. When we almost bought a house in the Spring of '08, one of the factors that made me change my mind was being completely unable to imagine anyone else living here, and it's still true. I love driving up to it when we come home, I love how Henry refers to it as "the yellow house", and I love our yard, including the insane not-necessarily-in-a-good-way flower garden. Hopefully the house loves us just as much.

Posted by Jenn at 04:34 PM | Permalink | Comments (3)

Friday morning we closed on our HELOC. Since there's been a huge downturn in the economy, which I'm sure you've heard about by now, we didn't get as much as the bank initially was hoping to loan us because the value of our house has decreased since our last appraisal in Spring '08, but we did get what I had originally asked for. It's good for ten years and here are our short- and long-term goals.

Before the arrival of Chocolat:

1. Heat-pump so we can have some humidity-reducing, life-saving A/C pumping through the veins of our little house, with the added bonus of not having to spend another winter worrying whether our dinosaur of an oil furnace will poop out. In January. In the middle of a deep freeze. I hear old furnaces have a history of doing that.
2. Having the rest of the wood floors on our first floor sanded and refinished.

Sometime in the next year or so:

1. New fence around our backyard with actual gates.

Sometime, somewhere, over the rainbow:

1. Pergola over our patio.
2. Front porch
3. Additional bedroom over the front porch.
4. Small kitchen remodel, the brunt of which is opening up the wall between kitchen and dining room.
5. Some other stuff we haven't thought of yet. Consume consume consume!

Of course, now that we have the HELOC, what I'd really like to do is buy a new, smaller, neutrally-colored sofa that isn't a behemoth sectional that looks like it's eating our living room, as well as some lovely Flor carpet tiles. But I won't. I promise to be a good girl.

Posted by Jenn at 11:26 AM | Permalink | Comments (5)

...of things that broke down while we were on vacation and after we got back home.

1. Our cell phone. We're not entirely sure what happened, but one morning while we were at the beach it decided it was moving on to the Great Cell Phone Pasture in the sky. What was really tragic was Dave had spent the previous two weeks going back and forth with the University's Verizon rep, trying to pick out a family plan that would work for us. Were we not two indecisive Libra's, we probably would have been the proud owners of two new phones by the time we went to the beach. It was weird not having a phone, mostly weird in a good, disconnected way. We do now have two lovely new phones, plus Dave is the proud owner of his own phone number. Our plan is to nix our land line and our long distance thereby whittling our number of monthly phone bills down from three to just one. I'm really looking forward to that.

2. Our washer. The night we got back, I washed the sheets that were on our bed so they'd be nice and clean and dust-free for those of us who have allergies (ahem), then I threw in a nice big load of vacation laundry. The washer pooped out in the middle of the agitation cycle. We tried a couple of different things to get it going again, but ended up wringing out the wet clothes and bailing out the water. Dave instrument of choice for doing this: an 8oz. cup. I suggested perhaps something bigger might get the job done quicker, but when he's made his choice, he's made his choice. (Which is why, in the end, he went through with marrying me despite possible better judgement.) We've been itching for a new washer since we moved in six years ago because the current washer just didn't seem quite up to the challenge of cleaning our clothes. We headed off to Sears the next night and picked out a lovely new energy efficient model. We also purchased a small chest freezer which we have high hopes of filling with all sorts of frozen dinners that we can pillage and reheat once Chocolat arrives. It's something we've been talking about purchasing since we found out we were expecting and this seemed like as good a time as any. So our new appliances will be arriving June 9th. Perhaps needless to say, we spent some serious quality time at the local laundromat on Sunday.

3. Kitchen ceiling fan. I was vacuuming the fan blades when I managed to shatter the glass light cover. We talked about replacing the glass bit, but then I suggested it wouldn't be horrible to get a new ceiling fan altogether, perhaps one that gave off more light. Which is what we did. Now when you turn on our kitchen light, you're practically blinded. It makes me very happy that I decided to go ahead and paint the walls a few years ago because I can only imagine how dingy the room would look if I hadn't.

Now we're sitting around waiting with baited breath to see what the next thing to go will be. I think Dave's hoping either the fridge or the dishwasher. I'm hoping it's the wall between the kitchen and dining room, but the likelihood of that giving up the ghost is probably pretty slim.

Posted by Jenn at 11:44 AM | Permalink | Comments (3)

me: Hey, is this a bad time?
Dave: Nope, what's up?
me: Is your afternoon totally booked up?
Dave: Nope, why?
me: Do you think you can sneak out to get some ice cream with me and Henry?
Dave: I'm running out to the front of the building right now!

That was yesterday, and it was glorious. A week ago his response to each of those questions would have been "AUUUUUGGGGHHHH!" The bonus was that I had to explain to Henry exactly what I meant by "sneaking out of work to get some ice cream." Glad he's got that concept down at such a young age.

Today we pulled out our wading pool, had lunch outside, came inside to cool off, worked on filling out tax forms for Henry's school (me), tortured the dog (Henry), got sent to bed for torturing the dog and not fessing up to what exactly he did to make her bark (Henry), cleaned the kitchen when she should have been napping (me). Looking forward to an evening spent wading-pool-side while Dave bbq's, if he's up for it.

Posted by Jenn at 05:18 PM | Permalink | Comments (5)

...we loved the farmhouse. Our realtor thought that the current owners (who are now living out of state) are asking too much and that we could probably get them down to a more reasonable number. So we asked her to stop by our house to see what she thought we could get for ours. We had a number in our heads based on what she had told us last year, but this year the number came in lower. So low it pretty much put us out of the running for the farmhouse. She also said she wasn't actually sure what we could get because the prices for houses like ours are all over the place. There's a possibility we could get what we're after, she just wasn't 100% certain. My personal feeling is I don't want to put our house on the market and risk the possibility of getting a lower number than we need, which would put us in the position of having to find another, less expensive house in a market where there's really nothing else that wows us. Our realtor also told us that in the year the farmhouse has been on the market, we're the first people to walk in and not be completely turned off by the kitchen. In fact, we liked the kitchen. So, perhaps the price will drop even more and we'll maybe once again be in the running. We're going to wait a couple of weeks to see if anything happens to increase our odds of getting that house, and if nothing turns up, then we'll most likely take out a HELOC and start making some improvements around here. It was sort of a dramatic week. I'm also tired of thinking about it all.

So we're moving on to the next big excitement which would be next week we're finding out if we're having a boy or a girl. Any guesses?

Posted by Jenn at 11:58 AM | Permalink | Comments (8)

We went and looked at two houses on Friday. They were not so great. In fact, they were so not even halfway decent that we renewed our vow to figure out a way to make our current house work better for us. We're happy in our house, but now that we're expecting Thing #2 and have more of an idea of what kind of home equity loan we can get, we're looking at having to reconvert our first floor office into a bedroom (it was the original "master bedroom") until we can better afford the addition of a third bedroom upstairs, although I have to admit I don't love the idea of being on a different floor from my kids. (Remember back when we hired an architect to reconfigure our upstairs to add a third bedroom? That was a less than stellar experience and after waiting five months to hear from them about their progress with "Phase 2"; ie. making the exterior not look like a giant box fell from space and landed on the back of our house, we terminated the contract.) Although moving downstairs reduces the amount of shared living space and also, unfortunately, relegates guests to the pull-out couch (again), we could definitely make it work. After coming to that decision, I slept very soundly. Then I happened across a listing for a farmhouse that had been seriously beautified and brought up to a standard that Dave and I could only dream of in a house for it's age and everything went out the window. Again. The problem is it's ever so slightly out of our price range. On the other hand, it's been on the market for a year or so. On the other hand, our area hasn't experienced the real estate bubble burst that other places have. In fact, it feels like it's just the opposite, things are getting more expensive. Darned universities and prisons and hospitals and all of the job security that goes along with them. (Not really. Never bite the hand that steadily feeds you.) We drove by the place a bunch of times over the weekend hoping the charm would wear off, but it hasn't. So we're going to look at it this evening in the hopes that there will be something we really don't like about it so we can move on. I have a bad feeling though...

Posted by Jenn at 02:34 PM | Permalink | Comments (5)

Those of you with little kids know how hard it is to get a toddler/preschooler to go at the speed (or focus) of adult time. There is no getting out of the house in a matter of minutes. The simplest things, such as getting a coat on, can take forever, and can often be very frustrating, sometimes resulting in all parties being a wee bit peeved with one another. Plus, no matter how early you start on trying to get things to happen in a timely manner, you're inevitably ten to fifteen minutes late.

Sometimes it's nice to kick back and go out into the world with absolutely no plans whatsoever. It's much easier to go with the flow of preschooler time than the other way around. This afternoon we set out for downtown, the only goal being getting lunch somewhere. We stopped at the park for ten minutes, stepped on burrs, stopped by the yarn shop, had lunch at a restaurant that Henry chose, purchased a candy cane, popped by the jeweler for a new watchband and battery, bought milk for a certain someone, then stopped at the toy store for an extended visit with our favorite salesperson. It was a great afternoon. We need to do that sort of thing more often.

Posted by Jenn at 05:53 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)

Dave and I are about to head out to do our part to ensure that the second book in the Twilight series is made into a movie. Well, that's why I'm going. Dave's going strictly for the popcorn. I can't wait to see this movie.

Posted by Jenn at 04:07 PM | Permalink | Comments (3)

- 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 carpet cleaned, but then again, maybe they don't. I guess we'll clean until we can't be bothered to care anymore. I give us fifteen more minutes, tops.

Posted by Jenn at 08:36 PM | Permalink

Christmas was great. Relaxing and hectic all at the same time. How is that even possible? And yet, there it is. Everyone got lots of great stuff, including Flash, who not only got presents, but also ate her own weight in food. I was so exhausted by the time we got home last night, I was curled up in bed with an Archie comic within half an hour of walking through the door.

What's the best way to spend the 26th of December? How about spending it packing up all of the fabulous stuff you unwrapped a mere 24 hours earlier. All of you suckers out there eating turkey sandwiches and playing with your new toys are really missing out. Seriously. Dave and I have spent the entire day packing up everything in our apartment in preparation for the upcoming migration back home. A couple of weeks ago people would ask if I was looking forward to going back to PA and I'd say "I dunno...maybe...I dunno...". Looking back on it though, I think the lackluster responses I was doling out were related more to wanting to get to the stage where we were proactively getting things together for the move so we could just get on with it. Limbo doesn't suit me. Unless it was pink and sparkly. Then I'd be all about limbo. It's never pink though, it's always gray and drab and stressful.

All we have left to pack is the bathroom and some minor kitchen-y things and that's it. Oh, and we have to buy a lightbulb for the hallway. And clean. And load the truck. But first, we have to watch "V is for Vendetta", which is what Dave got me for Christmas because he loves me.

Posted by Jenn at 07:33 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Remember that gorgeous tree that we decorated only two weekends ago? Guess where it is now? If you guessed in the dumpster behind our building, give youself a big hug, because you'd be right. Ten days ago, as soon as we set the tree up we filled the stand with water. Before we went to bed, Dave checked the water level, assuming it would need a refill, but it didn't. It didn't the next day either. Or the day after that. Repeat that last sentence until you've made it to today, because two hours ago, it was still sitting in the water that we'd put in the stand when we first got the tree. It didn't drink anything. I've never had that experience with a tree before. Yesterday I noticed that you could snap the ends off of the branches pretty easily. That's also when I noticed how some of the branches had started to curl under themselves.

Last night I had a hard time sleeping (too much Chicken Tikka Masala) so instead I stared into the dark and worried about all the packing we have to do. Then, suddenly I remembered a video I'd seen on the 5 o'clock news of a Christmas tree going up in flames in three seconds, so naturally I started worrying that our tree was going to catch fire and that our entire building would burn down and it would be all our fault. Since I have enough things to feel guilty about, this evening after Henry went to bed, the tree came down. I'm very happy with this decision, but I have a feeling Henry's going to be less than thrilled when he wakes up tomorrow morning and finds his raison d'etre is gone. This afternoon Henry woke up from his nap and ran into the living room. After running around for fifteen minutes he finally stopped long enough to notice the lights on the tree weren't on. He waved his hand in front of it, said "uh-uh!" and looked at me. I asked him what he wanted and he did the hand-wave, "uh-uh" thing again, and after the third attempt at communication, it dawned on me that maybe he was trying to tell me to plug in the lights, so I did. He stared at the tree for a minute, then went back to running around the living room. Like I said, he's going to be one dissappointed little kid tomorrow morning. Or it's not going to register at all.

Posted by Jenn at 10:44 PM | Permalink | Comments (2)

Last night we drove down to Edaville in Carver, MA. Every year they have a Christmas Festival of Lights during the months of November and December. We went a few times when I was a kid and it was always a lot of fun. I remember my mom saying that she didn't want to go unless there was snow on the ground, and we never went again after that. I assumed the lack of snow was the main reason why, but as it turns out, Edaville was shut down for many years.

Henry was completely enthralled by all of the lights. There's a train ride through a cranberry bog which features various Christmas scenes that are strung up along the route. Henry stood on my mom's lap for most of the ride, not taking his eyes away from the windows for a second.

It was odd going back 20 + years after the last time we were there. It's a vaguely surreal experience, almost like you're living a dream you had once upon a time. There was some discussion over what we remembered from that last visit compared with how it's set up today and I was surprised by how much we did remember. If you're in the area, you should definitely check it out.

Posted by Jenn at 10:35 AM | Permalink | Comments (1)

Today was a very quiet day. I pulled open the blinds and was greeted with an expanse of gray sky that looked like it held the promise of snow. Instead it just drizzled rain. When I was a kid we lived next door to a house whose roof was the exact color of the sky right before it snows. From October through April, every morning I'd look out the kitchen window; if I couldn't see the roofline, then I knew it was going to snow.

I ran out of decaf last night and instead of settling for high octane this morning, we all bundled up and headed for Dunkin' Donuts. The town has put up Christmas decorations all around the Salem Common and it looks, well, lovely. We got back home at 11, an hour past Henry's naptime so I decided to keep him up until after lunch. He was fussy until I gave him food (surprise, surprise) and then he slept for three glorious hours in the afternoon. I spent that time reading a book my dad got me, taking a long shower, and watching part of Coffee and Cigarettes.

I've been fighting off a headache the last few days so I wasn't in any mood to prepare any kind of dinner. We headed back out into the wilds of Salem to scare up some sushi. We went to the restaurant via a side road that goes by a house that used to put up all sorts of holiday lights, complete with electronic Christmas music. They haven't put anything up yet, but it's still early in the season. I'm keeping my fingers crossed.

Posted by Jenn at 08:39 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

On Friday we bought a tv. A big one. And expensive. We also got a home security system. And a vicious dog. With big fangs from which blood drips occasionally from all the raw meat she consumes. Anyway, we financed one on a department store credit card so we now have two years to pay it all off or get hit with back interest. As fate would have it, we're also financing an eight pack of vacuum bags. I don't even want to think about what the interest on those would be if we weren't able to pay them off in 24 months. I probably should have purchased a life-time supply of them because they're the ever-elusive v-series. I've been using the same stuffed vacuum bag since we moved here because I haven't been able to find any. This has been a minor source of anxiety. I'd begun to think I had discovered the one thing Central Pennsylvania has that the big city doesn't. To mercifully end a needlessly long story, Dave and I left Major Department Store very happy for two very different reasons.

They didn't have the tv in stock so we have to wait until Monday. From the moment the words "We'll call you when it comes in" left the salesperson's lips, Dave has been acutely aware of the location of the cell phone, just in case the truck delivers it two days early. On a weekend no less. I think that hope is the only thing helping him get through the long wait.

All this buildup leads to the very important question that faces all new television owners, especially ones who don't have cable and probably also have really bad local reception: what movie do we watch first? When the question first saw the light of day, the gravity of the situation hit us like a ton of bricks and ushered in a moment of reverential silence that was broken a moment later when Dave said The Matrix. Meanwhile, I'm leaning towards Zorro the Gay Blade. Since it's the holiday season, maybe it should be White Christmas which we just purchased on DVD, widescreen no less. It's quite the conundrum.

Posted by Jenn at 04:12 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

My mom gave me permission to post this conversation. It was inspired by the Foster's Home for Imaginary Friends float in the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade.

Mom- What is that thing? It looks like a blue condom.
Jenn- Yeah, or a blue thumb.
Grandma E- How do you know what a blue condom looks like? Jenn and I don't know.
Mom- Jenn and I know, we got some free in a magazine once.
Grandma E- Really? What were they like?
Mom- Gooey.
Grandma E- Gooey?!
Mom- Well, you know, they were lubricated...
Grandma E- Oh. *long pause* They are packaged nicely aren't they?

Posted by Jenn at 04:50 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

We're about to pile into the car and head over the river and through the woods, which is a much better place to go than, say, down the rabbit hole. Some of the things I'm looking forward to: pumpkin pancakes, the Rockettes (even if they're maybe just a little soggy and grumpy), a viewing of Home for the Holidays, the Big Meal, Dave's home-made apple pie, Buffalo Girls and Donna Reed. Also, hanging out with my family, always a good time.

Hope you have a great Thanksgiving!

Posted by Jenn at 07:30 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

We all just got back from having dinner at my parents' house. The meal consisted of cornish hens, stuffing, squash, fruit salad, and apple crisp. It was delicious. Perhaps needless to say, we're all really full. Henry was in his element, surrounded by the doting attention of two sets of grandparents and one great-grandmother. He had the charm turned up as high as it could go, making any destructive forays into the napkin tray and dvd collection completely forgivable. Right now he's tucked in and asleep in his crib, no doubt dreaming of future meals that feature my mom's famous stuffing. Behind me on the couch are: Dave, his mom, his dad, and Flash, in that order. They're talking about math and computers. I think I'll go hide in the bathroom with the latest Archie Pals n' Gals.

Posted by Jenn at 09:52 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

I saw a sound bite on the evening news Friday evening that led me to believe that the entire weekend would be rainy and gross. Imagine my surprise when Saturday turned out to be sunny and unseasonably warm, enough so that Dave and I were inspired to venture out with the troops to Bradley-Palmer State Park near Wenham and go for a walk. There's a paved road (closed to car traffic this time of year) that runs a circuit around the park, with hiking trails that snake through the middle of it. On the ride out, we passed a place called the Cupcake Cafe and Bakery. It took a lot of willpower not to slam on the brakes and come to a screeching halt on the sidewalk outside the Cafe but we somehow managed not to. After much discussion we decided that a cupcake after a nice walk would be a great treat.

When we got to the park, we let Henry loose to run around as he saw fit. He naturally gravitated towards crashing through the piles of leaves on the side of the road and would have gleefully waded into a stream that runs along the path if we hadn't stopped him. Meanwhile, Flash was busy marking all sorts of territory, so much so that the place actually belongs to her now and might as well be named Bradley-Palmer-Flash State Park as far as she's concerned. We had the idea that we'd walk around for about 30-45 minutes then get in the car and head home in time to put Henry down for an afternoon nap. Then we got lost. We usually walk the road for a while until we get to a trail that takes you through the meadows to another trail that takes you back to the parking lot. Dave was feeling adventurous and suggested when we got to the parking lot trail that we just carry on the way we were going and explore some new territory. By this time Henry was a little pooped from all the walking and had been transferred to the baby backpack. I said all right and off we went. To say this was the long way back to where we had started is a complete understatement. Everytime we'd round a corner, the trail stretched ahead of us again until finally we turned a sharp right corner basically heading back in the direction we'd come. I was a little annoyed by this point because it's really not a big park and yet we couldn't seem to find our way back to anything. Just as I was entertaining thoughts of being stuck out there forever like Charlie was stuck beneath the streets of Boston, we caught sight of a row of cars in the distance. Hallelujiah. By this time Henry was pretty pissed because we had seriously cut into his naptime with all of the exercise and fresh air and was probably mentally screaming at us to do him a favor and just sit on the couch the next time we get the urge to take a quick walk in the woods. Dave and I were worried the cupcake place would be closed when we got there.

It was. We all got out of the car and tugged on the door and it was locked tight, despite all the lights being on. Just beyond the door was a case full of beautiful cupcakes, begging to be purchased and eaten by yours truly. I was ready to kill Dave. Some how it was his fault. But then, miracle of miracles, the proprietor saw us and came around and let us in. We thanked her profusely while purchasing six cupcakes. We asked her what time she closed on Saturdays and she said 1 o'clock, so she had been closed already the first time we drove by her.

Four hours later Henry was fast asleep for the night, and Dave and I were settled on the couch watching a movie, me with smears of red frosting on my face and him enjoying the warm after-glow of an italian rum cupcake. It was a good way to end the day.

Posted by Jenn at 10:54 AM | Permalink | Comments (2)

6:40: Munching last bites of crab rangoon and digging bits of pork-fried rice from between our teeth after dinner of chinese take-out at my mom's house.

6:45: I'm surfing the web, Dave's washing dishes, and my mom's reading a book with Henry.

6:47: mom: "Ummm, I think Henry just pooped. He stinks."
Dave: *sniff-sniff* "Yeah, he smells pretty ripe." See's me coming from the dining room and sprints for the computer, letting us all know he'll be checking his email until we're done with the diaper.
me: *sniff-sniff* "That's doesn't smell normal. Let me go change him." I pull him out of his chair and sure enough, it's a case of diarhhea. He's soaked his pants on one side, right where I happened to put my hand.

6:49: Dave comes in to help change "The Diaper". I pull off Henry's pants and socks and run out of the room to put them somewhere, anywhere. My mom offers to rinse them so I hand them off to her, then go to the kitchen sink to wash my hands.

6:49:30: I hear Dave yelling from the bedroom: "I'VE BEEN ABANDONDED! I'VE BEEN ABANDONED!" so I run back and see him hoisting up Henry's entire lower body by his ankles with one hand and holding a sodden diaper in the other. He's frantically asking "Where are the wipes? I can't find them! Where are the wipes?"

6:53: Henry's clean. It was such a big, stinky mess that Dave and I make the executive decision to just throw him in the bath. I head to the bathroom to start filling up the tub.

6:55: Henry's naked and standing next to the tub, ready to jump in. We look towards the general area of the tub drain and see a cloud of black stuff. I turn off the water and open the drain. The water doesn't go anywhere. I close the drain back up and lot more black stuff poofs out from under the drain stopper. Uh-oh.

6:57: Henry's running around the condo, throroughly enjoying himself. My mom says: "Boy, he sure does like running around naked doesn't he?" I pray he doesn't make like a fountain.

7:05: Dave's trying to unclog the drain with a snake. I overhear my mom saying she had told my dad to do something about this a while ago because they had been noticing that the drain was really slow. I think with glee about just how much trouble my dad is in.

7:10: Henry is installed in the kitchen sink, sitting in three inches of water. He splashes and splashes and splashes. My mom comes in, takes one look and says "I'll go get a towel."

7:10:30: She comes back with a towel and mops up around the sink. Henry splashes. My mom leaves the room saying "I'll go get another towel."

7:14: I'm almost done with Henry's bath. In comes my mom who steps in a big puddle, looks at me and says "oh dear", then turns and goes down into the basement to make sure there isn't a leak in the pipes somewhere. Dave and I get Henry dressed and I mop up kitchen floor. And backsplash. And counter. And cabinets.

7:18-7:40: Me and my mom entertain Henry and watch "Welcome Back Kotter" while Dave continues to mess around with the drain. My parents have a blood pressure cuff so I take mine and it comes back reading 120/80. I'm feeling very smug. All that excitement and I'm totally chill.

7:41: Dave yells that he's unclogged the drain. There is much celebrating.

7:41:30: I lament the fact that my dad is no longer in big trouble.

Posted by Jenn at 06:54 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

After 14 months of having Henry around, our ability to get out of the house in an organized and timely manner is still practically non-existent. We made two trips with arms- and strollers-full of stuff to bring to Cambridge for Halloween, and once Henry, Flash, and myself were buckled in, Dave made two more trips for stuff we forgot but remembered once we were in the car.

Halloween was a lot of fun. We stuffed Henry into his spider outfit and then spent two hours chasing after him as he ran up and down all of the streets. Lots of people ooh-ed and aah-ed over him, one person chastised me for not having my camera with which to document every moment of cuteness for posterity (To do that I'd have to have a camcorder constantly running because he's cute *all* the time. No really, he is. I'm not the only person who thinks that. My mom does too, and she's not biased at all.), and one little girl came up and gave him a big hug. I think she wanted to take him home with her. At one point Henry got down on his hands and knees to haul himself up over the curb and onto the sidewalk. He looked very much like a spider while he was doing that, and a small group of people stopped to watch him. When he finally stood up (as chance would have it, right in the middle of a wash of light from a nearby flood light), everbody started cheering and clapping. He looked vaguely shocked and confused, and then he just started smiling. It was like "A Star is Born". If he decides to try and make it on Broadway, I'll look back on that moment and won't be surprised at all.

The other member of our family who was a huge hit was Flash, who was dressed up as a lobster. All the kids loved her. Unfortunately (and not surprisingly), Flash was unimpressed with all of the scary monsters who were trying to pet her so we took her upstairs after about twenty minutes.

Perhaps the highlight of the evening was the thirteen or fourteen year old girl who looked at Dave's pi pumpkin and said "Hey, that's pi..." after which my mom and I freaked out because no one else had picked up on it. We both shouted "She got it! She got it! It's "pumpkin pi"!" The group of kids she was with started laughing. Her father stared at the pumpkin for a while and as the kids started drifting towards the next house he asked "Math joke?", looked at it again, nodded, then smiled and said "Happy Halloween".

I'll post pictures as soon as I get back up to Salem later this evening.

Posted by Jenn at 11:12 AM | Permalink | Comments (1)

This afternoon while most of the Boston area is making their way towards Salem's Halloween celebrations, we will be driving south on 128, laughing and pointing at all the people heading north who are stuck in traffic. We decided to forgo Salem's big night so we could spend the evening handing out candy at my parent's house. They live on a street that has lots of kids, and where pretty much everyone knows each other, so I thought we could take Henry to a few houses then just let him walk up and down the street, killing everyone with his cuteness.

We carved five pumpkins last night. It was quite the little marathon. Dave had been looking forward to carving pi into his pumpkin (Pumpkin pi, get it? Ha! He's so clever.) so that was the first thing he did. After that he suffered from a mild case of pumpkin-carver's block and had to take a break. We tried getting Henry to sit still for "It's the Great Pupmkin, Charlie Brown" but he was so not interested. The little bit we watched inspired me to try and attempt a Charlie Brown pumpkin. Year after year poor Chuck is done wrong by Lucy and Violet when they use his head to design their pumpkin that I thought perhaps a little redemption was in order.

I'm a little bummed about not being in Lewisburg for Halloween. I love getting our house decked out with candles in the yard and ghosts in the trees and all of that fun stuff. All of the trees we've taken out over the last three years really made us a lot more visible and a lot less spooky-looking (the bad kind of spooky) and last year we had more kids stop by than in previous years. I'm thinking of going to the Halloween store tomorrow or Thursday to see if we can't get a fog machine on sale for next year. Yes, the planning and day-dreaming does start one year in advance. Sad, isn't it?

Happy Halloween!

Posted by Jenn at 09:19 AM | Permalink | Comments (1)

For some reason, Dave and I have been completely wiped out the last few weeks. Personally, all I want to do is pull the covers over my head and not come out for at least a couple of days. If given the opportunity, I could probably fall asleep any time, anywhere. Sadly, this is not the case for Dave who, despite his exhaustion, doesn't seem to be able to get to sleep at night, and when he does, still manages to. wake up a few times. You know who else isn't sleeping (during the day anyway)? Henry. Once again his naps are all over the place. Once again I'm worried he's transitioning to one nap a day. Yesterday took the cake; he didn't nap at all. Both times we put him down he chattered and fussed the entire time. I just put him down for his morning nap and haven't heard a peep yet, so fingers crossed.

On the days that Dave works from home I head out to the Salem Common for a walk. I always manage to somehow time it so that I'm there when the Common is overrun by loud fifth and sixth graders in town for a field trip. Yesterday I noticed that all the girls in one class were dressed in long flowery dresses and cardigans, which I thought was odd because it seemed the antithesis of sixth grade girl attire. At first I thought maybe it was a private school dress code thing, but then I noticed some of the boys were wearing blousy white shirts with vests, short pants, and black socks pulled up to their knees. I wonder if they were given extra credit for trying to dress "colonial". Anyway, the girls were all huddled to one side talking and giggling, and the boys were running around with a football. Suddenly there was a loud commotion with lots of shouts of "Eli! Eli!" I looked to see what was going on and there was Eli, holding the ball, standing in front of the other boys who were all shouting for him to throw the ball to them. Up from the chorus of "Eli, I'm open"'s and "Eli, over here"'s, a voice rose above the others, piercing the cool October air: "Eli! ELI.....I'M YOUR BEST FRIEND!!!" I couldn't stop laughing. Anything to get an edge.

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

Last night (as in "all night") they were doing road work outside of our apartment building. Okay, technically they were working a little further up the road, however, the piles of asphalt and other muck they were using to pave the aforementioned road were right outside our window, so all night long there were trucks coming and going. It felt like every few minutes I was eased into a wakeful state by the soothing sound of trucks backing up, beeping the entire time. Needless to say, by the time I got out of bed this morning I was feeling a bit fussy.

Tomorrow we're heading down to PA for a few days, which means I won't have internet access until we get back. Things I am looking forward to about this trip to Lewisburg:

1. Seeing Megan and Adrian.
2. Watching Gilmore Girls. Every Tuesday at 8 I get the shakes and start thinking we should just buy another tv already.
3. Not having to listen to someone stomp around on top of us all day long.
4. Not having to wonder if tomorrow morning at 5am our neighbor's alarm clock will go off. This wouldn't be a problem if it didn't continue to go off every seven minutes for the next hour and a half. Sometimes they just let the alarm go off for five or ten minutes at a time. Also, they conveniently don't answer their door. Sorry. Remember how I said I woke up fussy?
5. Not having to wake up to the sound of construction at seven in the morning.
6. Carving some pumpkins and eating some cake in honor of my and Megan's upcoming birthdays.

I suppose now I should go clean and pack and think about all the things I'd like to get done before we leave but probably won't manage to do because it feels like I'm moving through molasses. See you in a few days...

Posted by Jenn at 09:31 AM | Permalink | Comments (3)

Dave took Columbus Day off which is a major coup. Usually he works through holiday's because, you know, he's a Scrooge. We got up to all sorts of excitement over the course of the three days, and by last evening, it felt like we'd gone away for a mini-vacation, except without all the traveling.

Saturday my parents came up and spent the day with us. Henry was so happy to see them. Salem is officially in full Halloween swing so after getting hot dogs from the Boston Hot Dog Co. on Washington Street, we made our way down the pedestrian mall and over to Pickering Wharf by way of the following: the roasted nut stand, the fried dough stand, the sausage stand, and the hot cider stand. Henry ran around Derby Wharf for a bit and then we headed home. My parents were looking to give us a break so they brought up dinner for us, which they then cooked (bbq'd steak tips, mashed potato, salad, apple crisp). It was all great.

On Sunday we drove down to Arena Farms in search of caramel apples. Dave waited in the apple line forever while Henry and I wandered around the pumpkin piles and the animal pens. Approximately thirty seconds after Dave got his hands on his caramel apple, the stick broke and the whole thing hit the ground. It was sad and hilarious all at the same time. He had the crowd's sympathy because the tell-tale thump of apple meeting ground was followed quickly by a chorus of groans and "oh no!"'s. I gave Dave mine and went back and got a new one. After Arena Farms we drove out to the Minuteman Trail in Concord. All the trees are changing color and there were lots of acorns to crunch on the ground. There was a guy firing off a musket while we were there. Flash nearly had a heart attack. She tucked tail and ran in the opposite direction.

Yesterday we drove up to Plum Island. It was Henry's first trip to an actual beach. Initially he wasn't a big fan of walking on the sand. He held onto Dave's hands for the first five or ten minutes, which is something he's never done before, until he got used to it. Then he was all over the place. He didn't get too close to the water, possibly because it was a very loud surf. On the return trip up the beach he caught sight of a young woman sunbathing. Henry stopped and stared at her for a very long time. She started waving and making eyes at him and that was pretty much all the encouragement he needed. He made a beeline for her and when we finally picked him up and carried him further towards the car, any time we'd put him down he'd do an about face and head back towards her. Smart kid. We stopped at Bob Lobster on the way out of town and got a fried fish sandwich and a lobster roll. Then we stopped at Dairy Queen, ostensibly for milk for Henry, but since we were there, we also walked away with a Peanut Buster Parfait and a chocolate dipped.

Posted by Jenn at 08:27 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

1. We're so broke. I paid bills the other day. I'm loving the sabbatical and being back in Salem and I hope it lasts forever and ever amen. However, paying two sets of bills, a mortgage, and rent is pretty depressing.

2. Is there any way to nicely ask the people who live in the apartment above us to tread a little lighter? It sounds like they're trying to bust through to the earth's inner core with each foot step. Seriously. Light fixtures rattle. We're thinking of trying to bribe Megan into visiting (four thousand Horrible Cookies? twelve quarts of cake batter ice cream?) because she has no problem telling people to knock it off.

3. Just when I think I've beaten the exhaustion into submission, I'm suddenly unable to get to sleep for a few nights, and thus the vicious cycle continues...

Posted by Jenn at 09:35 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

was crazy. We had a leisurely drive to Middlebury on Thursday, stopping along the way to see some sights (waterfalls, country stores). After checking into the hotel Henry protested his afternoon nap for approximately an hour before Dave and I gave up. After scoping out the pool, we headed over to TJ Maxx to see if we could find an inexpensive swimsuit for yours truly, who had managed to pack a suit for Henry, but not for anyone else (no luck). We went out to dinner at a great restaurant that overlooks Otter Creek. Since it wasn't overly cold out we sat out on the deck and alternately stared out at the water and tried to keep the kid entertained. Afterwards we headed back to the hotel where Henry went to bed, I soaked in the whirlpool, and Dave worked on his talk.

Then it was Friday. Henry and I were on our own all day while Dave was busy at Middlebury. It would have been an exceptionally fine day if we hadn't had to check out of our hotel room at noon. This left us stranded with no home base to return to for naps, which means I was running around all day trying to think of things to do, but unable to take much of a break. During the course of the day we: played and had lunch at a local park, ogled some cows, befriended an alpaca, visited Middlebury College's art museum, scoped out downtown, stared at the waterfall on Otter Creek, munched on goldfish in the town square which is home to the most mesmerizing fountain Henry's ever seen, had dinner at McDonald's, picked up Dave, drove like mad for the next three and a half hours until we got home at 10:15PM. All the driving I did on winding country roads developed into quite the case of motion-sickness by the time we got home. Henry and I went straight to bed.

The next time we go on a quick trip like that, we're definitely going to have to stay for two nights. Oh, and remember how I promised lots of pictures? I brought the camera but forgot to put the battery in. Stop laughing.

Posted by Jenn at 09:03 AM | Permalink | Comments (1)

Dave is giving a talk at Middlebury College on Friday. We decided that it's a great chance to get out of dodge for a couple of days so we're all going. Except for Flash. She'll be living the good life in Cambridge, getting lots of ear rubs and treats from the doting grandparents. My guess is she won't be happy to see us when we get back. I wouldn't blame her either.

We'll be leaving tomorrow which means today I'm madly cleaning. Whenever we go on a trip I always have to clean everything because who wants to come home to a dirty, gross house. Also, there's the fact that I haven't cleaned in two weeks.

Henry and I will be on our own on Friday, which will be interesting. We have to check out of the hotel around noon (at least he'll get a morning nap) so after that we'll be looking for stuff to do. I'm looking forward to it. I've found a pick your own place nearby that also has a petting zoo, so that's a possibility, not to mention all of the hiking trails that are around if we're feeling sporty. It looks like the college has a nice art gallery as well, and lets face it, what one-year old wouldn't love a nice stroll through a place where they're not allowed to make a lot of noise and they can't touch anything?

When we come back, hopefully we'll have lots of pictures to share.

Posted by Jenn at 12:01 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

We went to the Stone Zoo today. We were supposed to go tomorrow but today was such a decent-looking day that we decided we just couldn't wait an extra 24 hours before heading out into the wilds of Stoneham to see us some animals.

Henry and Dave checking out the Black-necked Crane.

One of those big rodents they have in South America. It was cute, especially since it was two fences and a moat away.

Checking out the flamingoes.

Henry naturally gravitated towards all of the puddles on the grounds of the zoo. Here he is wet and about to be unceremoniously handed over to his dad.

Henry's favorite exhibit was the "Spinning Wheel of Metamorphosis". To get the full effect, say "Spinning Wheel of Metamorphosis" out loud in a deep voice and be sure to echo the last syllable.

Posted by Jenn at 03:59 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

We have DSL. Finally. And a whole day early. However, Verizon made it difficult until the bitter end. I pulled out the DSL kit, put the installation cd in, got as far as the section on filters, then got stuck. Verizon uses flash illustrations to show you what you need to do and how to do it. We kept getting flash errors, but when we clicked on the settings button to rectify the situation, a blank screen would come up and nothing would happen. This wouldn't be a problem since we knew how to set up the hardware, the problem was you couldn't move beyond the spot on the cd where we had encountered the error. Our options were, according to Verizon literature, to go online to Verizon's help page, or give them a call and, no doubt, wait five thousand hours to speak to an actual person. Fortunately, Dave is some sort of computer genius and managed to circumvent the whole issue by poking around online and doing all sorts of fancy computer stuff. If Paris Hilton had been here, she'd have said "That's hot..."

Now that we have a superfast, extra-awesome internet connection that can only mean one thing: a Henry picture!

On August 4th, Henry starting standing all on his own. A week later he was taking one or two steps. Yesterday he took four whole steps. Is he not the most brilliant baby on the face of the earth?

Posted by Jenn at 08:31 AM | Permalink | Comments (1)

We got a call this evening from Verizon saying they wouldn't be able to set us up with DSL until the 15th. It was an automated message, with the option of pressing a button so we could speak to a live person, should we so desire. Dave pressed the button and was then informed that the current wait time was over half an hour.

This new development could mean one of two things:
1. Someone from Verizon read my previous post, got annoyed, and with one click of the button pushed useven further down the "to be hooked up with DSL" list.
2. They want to make sure that we have dial-up for 30 days so they don't have to credit us for a free month.

I have to confess that I'm leaving off a potential third option because I don't want to offend any family members that read this site. Trying to keep it polite over here. It's my sense of southern propriety kicking in. Y'all know.

Posted by Jenn at 07:55 PM | Permalink | Comments (2)

In early July, Dave and I took turns calling various utilities so that everything would be turned on when we got to Salem. In order to save money, we were very conscious of trying to keep our monthly bills here down to a minimum. We left the tv behind so we wouldn't be tempted by cable. Since we wouldn't be able to get cable internet without taking out a second mortgage on our house, we decided to go the DSL route. We chose Verizon. That was a big mistake.

Dave called them to have phone service and internet activated on the 21st of July. The 21st came and went. We had phone service but no internet. Dave called on the 22nd to ask what was up. After working his way through electronic menu after menu and then spending an unbelievable (at least for those who haven't had the enjoyable experience of spending hours on hold with Verizon) amount of time on hold, Dave finally talked to an actual person. They had a lengthy conversation during which Dave was asked repeatedly if he was sure he wasn't a woman named Kathy (or Sue or Shirley) because that's the name that was assigned to our account. Finally the representative got everything squared away and told Dave that Verizon's m.o. is to wait for a phone signal before sending someone out to hook up the DSL connection and that it's usually scheduled within 10 days, information that would've been nice to know when we first called; we could've scheduled to have phone service turned on earlier than the 21st. Later that day we got an automated message saying that our DSL was scheduled to be turned on the 4th of August. Dave's head nearly exploded. He called Verizon the next day and said the 4th of August is not within 10 days, and was then told that it is, however, within 10 business days. Verizon apparently has a knack for leaving out useful information in their conversations with customers. He managed to get us moved up to the 2nd, but that was the best they could do. They told us if we wanted to, we could do the one month free dial-up trial so we'd have some kind of access to the internet, but they would need our credit card number so they could charge us the monthly fee; all we would have to do is remember to call and cancel the service before the 30 days are up or else they wouldn't credit the amount back to us. Some free month. Just ahead of the 2nd, Dave got an email saying they were having problems and that they wouldn't be able to get us hooked up until the 11th. At that point I was super-duper-ridiculously annoyed and started calling around to other places. No one would give us a decent rate because we can't commit to a year's worth of service. Comcast told us we could sign up for a year then pay the $200 early termination fee if we wanted, but we wouldn't get a good monthly rate anyway because we wouldn't be buying a cable package with it since we don't have a tv. There seems to be no good route to take around Verizon.

The point of this story is, for those who look forward to Henry pictures, there haven't been any because even though we located a new cable with which to download them from the camera to the computer, it takes four thousand years to upload them to the web. On the 26th I noticed that iTunes has Jetsons episodes for sale. I decided to buy the one where Judy tries to win a date with Jet Screamer and after three hours, only about 5 percent of it had downloaded. If we actually get DSL on the 11th, there will be much dancing and singing and watching of cartoons. Oh yeah, and uploading of pictures.

If you made it this far, thanks for listening (reading?) to me kvetch.

Posted by Jenn at 09:48 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Henry and I will be hitting the road tomorrow morning, heading for the wilds of western Massachusetts. We'll be stopping there for the night, then carrying on to Salem Friday morning. I'll be offline until Saturday or Sunday. I know you'll miss me terribly, and if you won't, say you will anyway.

Posted by Jenn at 05:01 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

On Saturday Dave's mom came up for a visit, the idea being we could pack while she got in quality Henry time. Not much packing was done, mainly because there really isn't a lot to pack, and most of the stuff we have to pack, we use everyday so we'll be throwing it all in boxes at the last minute. What did we do instead?

Saturday night: After dinner Dave's mom suggested we go to a movie. Sounds suspiciously spontaneous, doesn't it? But you know what? Ten minutes later we were in the car driving to the nearest cineplex. We played air hockey, bought popcorn and a coke slurpee, then watched The Lakehouse. The movie was all right, but the being out was great. On the way home we rolled the windows down because it was such a gorgeous night. As we were waiting at a stop sign, listening to the crickets, it suddenly hit me that I hadn't had the experience of driving around on a warm summer night since last August. It was so nice to be out.

Sunday: We went out to R.B. Winter State Park where we spent the day lounging, swimming, eating, and fishing. Well, I fished anyway. The water was absolutely frigid. I could only manage to go in up to my waist. I dipped Henry in a few times and much giggling ensued, but when I plopped him down in an inch of water near the beach, after a few seconds he burst into tears. He spent the rest of the day playing on his blanket and not bothering to nap. I can't blame him; there were lots of bikini clad girls to look at. I taught our friends' daughter how to fish. She's 5 or 6. She caught on to spin casting very quickly. I was impressed. No fish were caught, but she and I did manage to dream up the perfect lake (pink water, no mud, fish w/Hello Kitty bows, trees w/Hello Kitty bows for leaves, Hello Kitty rocks, Hello Kitty waders; I think you get the idea).

Monday: Leisurely breakfast. Lunch at the Fence. Naps. Swimming at the pool. BBQ.

It's ridiculously hot right now. Perfect packing weather. Not really. I forsee a trip to Walmart in the afternoon. You know, for packing supplies. The a/c will just be a bonus.

Posted by Jenn at 11:05 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Yesterday was a profoundly humid day, even for the normally humid Susquehanna Valley. It was also hot and breezes were rare. Earlier in the day I read the forecast for our region and there was a possible threat of thunderstorms for later in the evening. Thunderstorms around here are like thunderstorms in Louisiana: they blow through fast and furious, but they don't break the humidty to any satisfactory degree. Last night around 8:30 Dave and I were watching "That 70's Show". The station interrupted programming with a special weather statement that ran across the top of the screen, accompanied by the usual screeching sound to get your attention. I hear them so often around here that they barely cause a blip on my radar, so instead of reading the warning, I leaned in closer to see if I could read the actors lips. When the sound came back on, Dave asked if I had seen the warning. When I told him I hadn't he said "Good". I asked what was going on and when he wouldn't say I looked to see if any other stations had any weather related statements they were dispatching. As it turns out, there was a tornado warning for our county, and worse than that, the worst bit of the storm was heading straight for Lewisburg. Naturally I freaked out. I tried to go back to that day in one of my high school science classes where the teacher talked about what to do during a tornado, then proceeded to frantically open all the windows, turn off and unplug all the appliances, turn out all the lights, and then I commenced worrying about Henry. After debating with Dave about what to do, I went upstairs, woke him up, brought him down to the first floor, and settled him down in his "pack and play". The winds and rain were amazing. The system was traveling through at 60 mph so it went by us fast, but it certainly was around long enough to make a girl frantic. Meanwhile, Dave was outside on the front porch watching all of it while I was inside trying to hear the tell-tale "train" sound. Fortunately, there was no tornado (although there were some in my dreams last night). It scared the hell out of me, I'm not ashamed to say. It had better not happen again.

Posted by Jenn at 12:07 PM | Permalink | Comments (2)

Dave, Henry, Flash, and yours truly just got back yesterday from a vacation during which we loaded and unloaded the car at least four times over the course of seven days. We went up to New Hampshire by way of my Grandmother's house, kicked around North Conway for a few days with Megan and Adrian, headed down to Boston by way of Salem, spent Tuesday doing the Boston thing, then drove home yesterday. That the expurgated version. If you're good, perhaps you'll get the full version a little later, replete with spray cheese, peeing babies, cactuses, and a hot tub. I'm currently doing lots of laundry, procrastinating about paying bills, thinking about how much I'm using commas in this post, sipping iced coffee, and pondering a doctor's appointment I have at 1PM. I also have tons of vacation-related pictures that I will be posting on flickr at some point in the near future.

Posted by Jenn at 11:15 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

We have many things to celebrate here. Dave and I both had our annual physicals today and both of us escaped without having to get stuck with any needles. You know you're getting older when you actually have a list of things you'd like to have checked out when the doctor asks if you have any concerns. Anyway, Dave has to go back next week to have his cholesterol checked, so I suggested we head to the Fence for dinner because nothing says good cholesterol like a fried fish dinner. I brought my camera. Check out the pictures here.

Posted by Jenn at 09:44 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)

Yesterday we all returned home from a trip to Virginia, where we spent the weekend visiting Dave's parents. There are four big reasons to love going to VA, besides the obvious one of getting to see family, and those reasons are (in no particular order):

1. All of the ethnic food we get to eat. Over the course of two and a half days, we had Indian, Thai, and Japanese. It was all amazing.

2. Not having to pick up the dog's poop. Dave's parents have a huge plot of land, part of which is referred to as the Meadow. Along one side of the meadow runs a fence, and on the other side of the fence, a nearby farmer's cows can often be seen grazing. Along this fence is Flash's favorite spot to "use the bathroom". She loves going for a crowd, even if the crowd is made up of cows.

3. The view. They have an amazing view of the Blue Ridge mountains. Amazing.

4. The pond. Dave's dad built a pond in their front yard. From scratch. It has a frog fountain. There's nothing more relaxing than sitting on the patio and listening to the water. When we were about halfway to VA, I told Dave I couldn't wait to settle down for the duration on the patio, which is basically what I did.

Besides all of the eating and relaxing, we did a lot of shopping. I picked up a couple of cute skirts and shirts, and Henry got lots of great summer clothes from Target. We bought fireworks which we set off Saturday night, plus some goodies for Flash. Dave got a shirt. That I picked out. I think he'd still be wearing his 1996 wardrobe if I hadn't come along. Henry had a very good time playing with his grandparents. He also had a good time terrorizing their cat. There was one good tail grabbing incident, and after that, Sophie smartly kept her distance.

The big excitement in the area is the giant ark that's being built down the road for the movie "Evan Almighty". We drove by it. It's truly giant. I was bemoaning the fact that I'd left our camera at home despite the fact I thought I'd packed it because the ark was definitely something worth documenting. In true Jenn fashion, I discovered it under the passenger seat three minutes after we got home. I guess you'll just have to see the movie.

Posted by Jenn at 07:47 PM | Permalink | Comments (2)

Can you believe even more amazing and fantastic things have happened since I wrote yesterdays post? Let me fill you in:

We're going to be moving back to the Boston area soon so that Dave can spend his sabbatical doing hard-core research stuff at MIT, although most likely he'll be spending most of his time hanging out and talking to John, the guy who owns the lunch truck that stops in front of the lab a few times each day. This is also, by the way, where Dave and I spent lots of time falling in love over a shared cup of macaroni and cheese. Anyway, we decided that since we love Salem so much we would try and find a place to rent there, and we just got final confirmation today that we have succeeded. Not only did we find a place, we found a place that's got a heated pool, is right next to the commuter rail, is across the street from historic downtown Salem, and has a mini theater that you can "rent" for three hour time increments. I sense many private viewings of Brokeback. And probably Ghostbusters.

This morning, because I really like to kick myself when I'm feeling down (actually, I wasn't really feeling down; I just wrote that because I liked the way it sounded), I decided to try on my pre-pregnancy, size 10 jeans. And guess what? They fit. I didn't even have to lay on my bed and wiggle into them, that's how much they fit. Sadly, the ending of the story that was today involves two pieces of KFC original crispy chicken, lots of mac and cheese, three biscuits, some mashed potato and gravy, and a chocolate parfait. Methinks they won't be fitting again tomorrow.

And finally, this afternoon, after rooting around in the contents of Henry's diaper, I found this:

That little piece of history is getting taped into Henry's scrapbook.

Posted by Jenn at 10:21 PM | Permalink | Comments (3)

Yesterday, Dave woke up bright and early, attended day three of the conference he was in California for, caught a red-eye back to Boston which landed at 7:02 this morning, took the T to my parents house, kissed Henry, jumped in the shower, checked his email and then by 10AM was sitting in the passenger seat facing a seven hour journey with his wife at the helm and a "the-worst-kind-of-poopy" kid in the backseat.

Yesterday, I woke up to face another fun-filled day of changing endlessly gross diapers, a task which was made much less sad because Henry didn't have a fever anymore and he was in a particularly good mood. We played a lot and generally had a good time except by the end of the day I had a sore throat. Henry was rudely awakened a few times during the night by me unceremoniously thrusting my finger into the back end of his diaper to see if he had pooped. I was convinced that every "oof" coming from the pack n' play was him working to expel the days solids in a decidedly un-solid form. I wish I had known then that the sound I was looking for would be more of a "squirt"; we both would have gotten a lot more sleep. Around 1:30 he woke up and did his thang, so I changed him and gave him a bottle, then five minutes later he did his thang again, so I changed him again. Over the course of the next hour we managed to keep each other up, him moving around his pack n' play just when I was dropping off, and me blowing my nose just as he was dropping off. There was much fussing on both our parts. After a crazy morning of feeding the kid, packing, and loading the car, at 10AM I was sitting behind the steering wheel facing a seven hour drive with a nose that wouldn't stop running. I devised a great system during the drive: an empty tissue box tucked away to my left and a full tissue box on my right (it was Dave's responsibility to make sure I had full access to it at all times); pluck fresh tissue from box on right, blow nose, shove used tissue into box on left. It worked great.

The drive was really nice, considering we were all really tired. Right now Henry is crashed out in bed, fast asleep, Dave is watching a martial arts movie, and I'm going to go to bed. I took a bath with a "Fairy Jasmine" bath bomb and now I'm totally relaxed and glittery, which is the only way to be after a day like today.

Posted by Jenn at 08:45 PM | Permalink | Comments (2)

This morning Dave asked if I could take over with the kid because he had to finish his lecture for today's class. He said "It's really nice out. It's already 60 degrees." So I haul myself out of bed, and this is what I see:

which is ironic, because yesterday, after the procurement of one more pair of totally cute flip-flops, I considered my summer shoe collection complete:

I'm drowning my sorrows in this:

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

Dave was in Indiana from Wednesday to Saturday of this past week. He gave a talk at Notre Dame, caught up with some friends, spent some quality time with his Aunt, and generally had a rollicking good time. While he was doing that, I was alone with The Kid and The Dog. There were two things that got us through those two days: the weather was nice, so we took lots of walks; Megan told me she had Friday off of work and when I asked her what she was going to do, she said "Spend the day with you." Good answer. We sat out in her backyard all afternoon and passed Henry back and forth between us, taking turns entertaining him. If I didn't have Friday to look forward to, I don't think I would have made it through Thursday. Melodramatic? Me? Nah... When I picked up Dave at the airport, he looked thoroughly exhausted. He brought me back my favorite sweet in the whole universe, a Cookies and Creme pie from Bakers Square. You know why he got it for me? Because he loves me so much. And because I threatened him with bodily harm if he didn't. Mostly the first reason though, I'm sure.

Posted by Jenn at 11:48 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

This: Last month we signed a contract to have a new roof put in, with the understanding that they would be starting sometime in March. Last evening at 7:30, we got a call saying they would be starting this morning at eight, and they did.

plus this: A few weeks ago we canceled our "Preferred Basic" cable and downgraded ourselves to "Basic Basic Cable", which means we only get 20 channels. Last night we were watching channel 21, trying to figure out what they were showing, when suddenly one of the characters lets loose a string of profanities which included the f word. Dave and I looked at each other like "Can they say that on cable now?" After some sleuthing, it turned out that as of yesterday we were suddenly getting HBO, HBO2, etc, etc. At nine, Titanic came on. Commercial free. I hunkered down for the duration. (For the record, we no longer have any of the channels; they fixed the glitch this morning. Sigh.)

equals this: Whilst slumbering peacefully in the wee hours of the morning, I dreamt that Leonardo DiCaprio was fixing stuff around my house. What's most surprising about this dream is the fact that while most people agree that Leonardo is quite cute, it's Billy Zane who floats my boat.

That was my kind of math. Ready for some more?

This: My parents came up for the weekend. We had a great time doing the following things: eating, shopping, knitting (me and my mom), volunteering at the Union County Library Auction (me and my dad), and drinking (also me and my dad).

plus this: Henry spent lots of quality time with his Grampy.

equals this: I went to smooch Henry's feet this morning and they smelled like, well, feet. Yuck. I'm fairly certain he must have learned this trick from his Grandpa. Although, I suppose he could have learned it from his dad as well. He's too young to be smelling like a guy.

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

Before:

After sanding:

After:

Posted by Jenn at 02:12 PM | Permalink | Comments (2)

Dave and I decided to work on the house during his spring break. We have a list of things we want to get done, which I will share with you, mainly because I figure if I make it public, we'll be more likely to get things done, which I know isn't true because I love nothing more than to flaunt my laziness, but nevertheless, here it is:

- sand and paint three hallway doors
- finish the final wall in the living room (spackle, texturize the ceiling, paint)
- sand and refinish dining room floor
- touch up paint on the door in our bedroom (the one that leads to the attic)
- repaint hallway
- insulate door in Henry's room (the one that leads to the attic)
- rake yard
- wash dog
- repair caulk around tub

What have we done so far? We have finished spackling and sanding in the living room, Dave insulated the door in Henry's room, and we have to buff and put down two more layers of polyurethane on our dining room floor. The two things I thought wouldn't get done, seem to be getting done. Megan came over yesterday to look at the floor and after saying it looked great, asked us if we were totally proud of ourselves. We said no, only because even with the end being so near, we knew deep down that there was still ample opportunity for us to muck it up. We'll be proud a few days from now. Maybe.

In case you were wondering, we did go to the parade last Saturday. It was fun. I would show you pictures but through a series of typical Jenn and Dave errors and miscommunications, we ended up bringing our camera, but without the ever-useful battery in it, so we don't have any. There were lots of completely smashed University of Scranton students milling around, all of whom were hilarious. While we were walking to the parade, Henry was listing over the side of his stroller, fast asleep, which some guy pointed out to his friends while yelling about how even Henry had gotten an early start on the drinking. It was pretty funny. You probably had to be there to really appreciate it. We saw lots of bagpipers, stepdancers, and even the Philly Phanatic, which was great. Also, there were vendors selling headbands with glittery clovers bobbing around on the ends of springs. What can I say? If they had any adult-sized ones for sale, I would have definitely procured some. Apparently they think only kids appreciate that sort of thing. Sheesh.

Posted by Jenn at 09:36 AM | Permalink

Dave's spring break started today at 5PM. Now that it's 11:22PM, can you guess where he is? If you guessed at work, you're absolutely right. We threw "War of the World's" into the dvd player tonight (the most recent one). After it was over, I gave my full attention to recovering from the two-hour panic attack I experienced while watching it, and Dave went in to check on some cells. Whatever that means. Tomorrow is Scranton's St. Patrick's Day parade. Did you know it's the fourth largest St. Patrick's Day parade in the country? To quote Dave's mom: "Scranton? Really?" My sentiments exactly. We're trying to decide if we want to go. I want to go, but it's a bit of a drive to get out there, parking's going to be a nightmare, and we'll have to get there an hour before the parade starts because that's when they shut down all of the streets around the parade route. And really, what's the point of going, other than to spend money on goofy green things like "Kiss Me I'm Irish" t-shirts, Mardi Gras style beads, and those headbands that have two glittery clovers on springs. Who am I kidding? That's exactly what makes it worth it. Dave is ambivalent. I haven't mentioned the four thousand bag-pipers that will probably be walking and playing in the parade. He's a sucker for bag-pipers. Perhaps if we're lucky there will be a sudden gust of wind at just the right moment, you know, to set the kilts a-flying and the glittery clovers a-wafting.

Posted by Jenn at 12:22 AM | Permalink | Comments (1)

This weekend was slightly more relaxed than last weekend. Dave had a crazy and somewhat terrible week last week so on Saturday Megan and I took Henry out to the Lycoming Mall. We wanted to peruse the yarn selection at AC Moore and I wanted to go to Toys R' Us. Before we left I asked Dave what he was going to do while we were gone and he said "Oh, probably go in to work, etc, etc". I took great offense to this and told him he should stay home, drink beer at 2 in the afternoon, play video games, watch his movies, and generally take it easy. Which, I'm happy to report, he did. Except for the beer thing. I don't think he did that.

Thursday and Friday night Henry was fantastic. He woke up between 12 and 1AM, took his bottle, and then when he woke up at 3 and I was too tired to do anything other than flip him over from his stomach to his back and give him his pacifier, he knocked right back out again. Those were two glorious nights. In fact, they were so glorious, and seemed to be a natural progression from needing to be fed twice a night, that I got a little cocky and looked forward to a future filled with once a night feeding sessions until the day came when he would just sleep through already. Then came Saturday night. And Sunday. He was Cranky McCrankster both nights. I noticed today that his front upper gums are swollen so I'm thinking he's minutes away from getting front teeth, which could explain his early-early-early morning grumpiness.

Today we had to drive back out to Lycoming to return one of the two toys Megan and I picked out for him. It was a v-tech cordless phone that made all sorts of great noises (with the exception of the number 2 which would sometimes emit a zombie-like groan that was really creepy and thus was also the button he pushed most often) and flashed lots of lights. I thought about exchanging it for another one but decided that since this one broke within 24 hours of purchasing it, why bother. Did I mention I was the one playing with it when it stopped working properly? Probably not, because admitting that would be embarassing. Does "admitting" have one or two "t"'s?

Update: Apparently Henry looked deep into my sleep-deprived eyes last night and took pity on me because after a 10:45 bottle he slept til 6:30. Either that, or both Dave and myself slept through any early morning crying jags that may have occurred (something I've done before, much to Dave's general consternation).

Posted by Jenn at 07:36 PM | Permalink | Comments (3)

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

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

Posted by Jenn at 11:34 PM | Permalink | Comments (2)

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

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

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

How sad is it that I was aware that last Friday was Friday the 13th, but I wasn't aware that it was my and the hubby's 5th wedding anniversary until after we received a delivery of gorgeous flowers from his parents? Dave remembered only after I called him to tell him we received a gorgeous arrangement of flowers. We also received flowers from Dave's Aunt Vicky. I love getting flowers. There's nothing better than opening the door and seeing someone standing there with a big bouquet of flowers, especially when you're worried that it's actually the Mormons atttempting another go at converting you (by the way, nothing against Mormons, it's just that they knock on my door a lot. I must seem extra heathen-y or something).

We had a great visit from my parents. They arrived on Friday and left this morning. There was much holding of Henry by people other than me, something I appreciate greatly because the 19.5 pounds tends to weigh a little heavily after a certain amount of time. My mom got lots of Henry smooches in, my dad got to see a Bucknell basketball game, I got to sleep in late, and Dave got to put in a whole day of work without the panicky 4PM, 4:30PM, and 5PM "it's time to come home NOW!" phone calls. Saturday night we had a lobster, steak, and spaghetti with clams dinner in celebration of our wedding anniversaries which both take place in January. It was very sad watching their car drive away this morning.

Posted by Jenn at 02:21 PM | Permalink

Right now Dave and I are madly cleaning the house in preparation for a visit from my parents. They are arriving tomorrow and leaving on Tuesday. What's ironic is all eyes will be on Henry, so I probably could have left everything in the sorry state it was in, and no one would have even noticed. If only I was a little less type A. What's on the agenda for this particular visit? Bucknell is playing Holy Cross Saturday night, so my dad and Dave will be heading off on that particular adventure. While they're doing that, my mom and I will be celebrating Second Christmas: watching "Love, Actually" and possibly "White Christmas" while we finish sewing up Henry's xmas stocking (I got pretty far on it, but then completely crapped out a few days before it would have officially been put to use). I should have left up all the decorations I noticed (days later, I should add) I had forgotten to take down when dismantling all things Christmassy. On Sunday, we'll be boiling up lobsters and clams in celebration of both my parents' (Jan. 4th) and our (Jan. 13th) wedding anniversaries. I'm *really* looking forward to that.

Henry's been fussing and crying off and on over the last half hour. He seems to have settled down. I should probably go straight to bed, but I think I'll crash on the couch with some boysenberry sorbet and my dog and watch whatever countdown show either VH1 or E! happens to be showing. Sounds like a good plan to me...

Posted by Jenn at 02:22 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Dave and I went to the grocery store this evening because we are finally out of food and tired of spending money on take-out. Both of us are pretty wiped out because of the whole "not sleeping for more than four hours at a time because the kid keeps waking us up wanting to eat or poop" thing, plus, on top of that, Dave is sick. We plopped Henry into his carseat and bundled him up (see below), an activity which normally reduces him to tears, at least until we start moving. However, he had spent the previous half hour madly and intently fussing, trying to get us to understand that he would *absolutely die* if he didn't get in a good snooze. He's already dramatic and he isn't even fourteen yet. He gets that from me. Anyway, Dave picked him up to carry him out to the car and he instantly fell asleep, something he never does at night when it's bed time. We drove to the post office to mail a letter, then headed over to the grocery store. As I'm pulling the stroller out of the trunk, Dave asks me if I have my wallet. I don't, and apparently, neither does he. We immediately commence fussing at each other, saying things like "But you *always* have your wallet." and "You're driving without a license?", but quickly realize that we're not accomplishing anything, and, by the way, it's freezing out. I close the trunk and suggest to Dave that I go ahead and start shopping, and that he shouldn't forget he has the kid, so he opens the trunk and takes the stroller out. I ask him what he's doing and he says he's taking the kid so he can start doing the shopping. I told him I meant I'd do the shopping while he goes home to get his wallet so he opens the back car door and puts the stroller in. Then he says, "But I'd have to take the carseat out and bring it in to the house with me" and I say "But I'd have to maneuver a shopping cart *and* a stroller *and* do the shopping". After going around a bit more, we piled back into the car and went home together to retrieve our wallets. This would be the second time we've both left our wallets home while doing the grocery shopping. The first time I think we made it all the way through the checkout before we realized we'd both forgotten our wallets.

Posted by Jenn at 11:22 AM | Permalink

This morning around 10:30 Dave and I decided that we needed a change of scenery. We decided to drive out to State College, hit Target, and then stop off for some take-out Indian food. In the past, once the decision was made, we'd take our showers and hit the road. Today it took us approximately four hours. There was a discussion about what we would do for food for Henry, formula or breastmilk (breastmilk won), and once that decision was made, how we would go about getting it to him. Then there was the conversation about what we should bring in his diaper bag which led to many trips up and down the stairs retrieving various items until we decided we had thought of everything. Filling in the blanks was the decision to have omelets for breakfast, followed a half-hour later, when Dave finally had a chance to work his magic in the kitchen, by the realization that we were completely out of eggs. We're also out of milk which means we couldn't have cereal either. We each had a granola bar. There was the taking of showers, the changing of diapers, the last minute feeding, and then we were in the car, hurtling through space to Target. It was a glorious trip. We bought a new microwave. We also got some Fall clothes for Henry, glittery Hello Kitty hand soap, a Louis XIV cd (which wasn't great despite how much I love "Finding Out True Love Is Blind"; we should've picked up the new Gorillaz cd), black socks for Dave, etc. Henry slept the entire time, even in the little kids department where there were a number of howling babies. The little kids department was not a happy place. Anyway, we also picked up wrist rattles for Henry which looked to me like the most absolutely entertaining thing in the world, both for baby and parent.

Posted by Jenn at 11:15 AM | Permalink

Henry passed the one month mark this past Tuesday, which is hard to believe. He officially doesn't fit into any of his 0-3 month clothes anymore. I sense an impending shopping trip hovering on the horizon. We're all doing well. Dave and I are starting to figure out what exactly drives Henry to do the things he does. Usually the driving force is a combination of hunger and gas, but that's no surprise considering who his parents are. So far he's a very easy baby. He only really cries when he's hungry which is an easy problem to fix. He's also finally figuring out the difference between day and night so I'm hoping Dave and I will be able to get more than two-three hours of sleep in a row soon. That could just be wishful thinking.

We're starting to think about what we're going to do during Dave's sabbatical next year. We'll be in Boston, but we're trying to figure out where we want to live, etc. Right now we'd like to be as close to Salem/North Shore area as possible. If that works out, I plan on gaining at least ten pounds from eating lots of crab rangoon from Fantasy Island and fried clams from the Clam Box. Even if we don't know where we'll live, at least we know what we'll be eating.

Posted by Jenn at 11:13 AM | Permalink

This morning Dave and I took a tour of the maternity ward of the hospital where Henry will be born. (Notice how I say "Henry will be born" as opposed to "Where I will give birth". I've decided to just take myself out of the process altogether.) The location of the ward has been a source of great mystery. Every appointment we've had up to this point referred to it being "upstairs" and one day Dave and I happened to look up and notice that there is no upstairs; there are only three floors to the building and all of our appointments have been taking place on the third floor. When we asked for clarification, we were told they were referring to upstairs in the main hospital, which is attached to the building we go to for our appointments. Anyway, all of this confusion has caused Dave an infinite amount of anxiety; the worst case scenario being my going into labor and him driving around the hospital in a panic with no idea where to take me. When he's expressed this apprehension verbally to people who are not me, he's been told to just take me to the emergency room, advice which has provided absolutely no comfort to him. So, you can imagine how excited he was that today has finally arrived. He gave me strict instructions when we made the appointment to make sure I didn't go into labor before going on the tour, and so I didn't. We filled out paperwork, answered lots of questions, signed forms, and got a handy folder full of reading material. We saw the bed upon which Henry will be born and the whirlpool tub that can be used to help with labor pains. We saw two newborn kid's waiting to be taken to their families. We saw a cart full of hospital food, most of it eaten which is a good sign. All in all it seems like a pretty nice facility. All of the nurses were nice and smiley, which made me feel guilty about how when I was asked what I planned on doing for pain management, I immediately thought "Slap around the nurses." It was only a twenty minute appointment so Dave and I went to the Country Cupboard for second breakfast. I got blueberry pancakes, which I had been dreaming about since Dave's dad ordered them when he was here two weeks ago. They were amazing. I could have them every morning for the rest of my life. Dave expressed his great relief at finally knowing where he was supposed to take me. I'm glad that his anxiety over the birthing process has been relieved. Lord knows, he's got the tough job...

Posted by Jenn at 10:51 AM | Permalink

Today it's in the 90's. For those of you who don't know, that's really hot. Flash keeps moving from the couch in the living room, to the wooden floor, to the back bedroom. In that order, over and over again. Dave and I discovered we had this infestation problem, namely giant cardboard boxes that were taking over our entire garage so we decided to drop them off at the recycling place this afternoon. I took a shower, baby-powdered, put on some extra-comfy clothes, then headed down to the garage to break down the boxes and load up the car. By the time I was done I was no longer cute and fresh, I was hot, sweaty, and slightly grumpy. I might've been born in Louisiana, but I'm definitely not a southern girl; they always stay powdered and put together no matter what.

We added a couple of extra days to our Memorial Day weekend and drove down to Virignia to visit with Dave's parents and have a mini-break. This was probably the only vacation we'll get this summer, and believe me we made the most of it. Lots of lounging by the pond Dave's dad built; lots of eating of watermelon; lots of lounging in the backyard, watching Dave's dad work; lots of good food. Just lots of goodness all around. Dave and I drove down to Lynchburg to stalk the Milwaukee Iron/Southern Steel guys. Their place is located in an industrial park so our hopes of there being a showroom were not meant to be sated. However, it was pretty cool to see the sign outside their business, cuz, you know, it was on tv and all. After we had turned around and were waiting to get back on the main road we saw a semi beat up pickup truck coming down the road towards us so we waited and sure enough, it was Gary Woodford. I lost my cool and waved at him like a mad-woman. Apparently he smiled as he went by but Dave's big head was in the way so I'll have to take his word for it. It was a fun day trip. We ate at a Sonic. They have Frito Pie. In case you didn't know, it's the perfect food. I'm not exaggerating.

Posted by Jenn at 10:44 AM | Permalink

Today so far. This morning I had to run to the hospital to drop some stuff off at the laboratory, return a video, and then go to the grocery store. Then I had to go to the farmer's market, and then to the library. Just before I head out the door for the hospital, I realize I'm missing my wallet. Not the one with my various memberships to frequent purchaser clubs, my library card, plus all the other miscellaneous junk that tends to fatten a wallet. Nope, I'm missing the one with my ATM card, my credit card, and my drivers license. This discovery spawned a crazed, grumpy, panicked half hour search all over the house. And the car. And the outside perimeter of the house. And a call to the neighbors to see if I left it over at their place. I thought my head was going to explode. While Dave was wandering around outside looking in the grass, I found it hidden in one of his jackets which was hanging up in the bathroom. I don't know why his jacket was hanging in the bathroom, next to our bathrobes, but it was. Neither of us remembers putting it there. Very odd.

When I came home from those errands, Emily called us from 84 and said her car had just broken down and that she has to take it back to Boston to be fixed. She'll be arriving tomorrow instead of this evening. Dave was relieved because he has a grant due tomorrow and was worried about having to work during her visit. Because of the change in plans, I managed to convince him to come with me to the farmer's market. While we were at the meat counter, an older gentleman ordered a slab of gelatinous yuck called "tongue souse". I asked him if he fries it and he said he cuts off hunks and eats it straight. Blech. He said generally people who grew up on farms like it. Then he recommended we try smoked pork chops. He said we'd like them a lot and so would the baby, after which he reached over and patted my tummy. It was pretty funny. As he was leaving, he loudly declared he should be put on the payroll since we did decide to get the chops on his recommendation, then he patted me and Dave on the shoulders and wished us luck with the kid. Very sweet. Then there were the watermelon guys. Geez-ow. Many jokes ensued about whether I'd want the seedless or seeded variety, followed by obviously I'd want the seedless because a seed's already done it's job...get it? Clever guys. Then they decided I must be having a girl because I'm carrying high. I had no idea strange men would be so interested. As Dave and I were walking back to the car he said he'd never come here alone if he were me, because who wants to deal with all of that. I think next time I'll see if Adrian wants to come. I'm sure there's a paper in there somewhere.

When I got home, Flash stood up and said "Listen lady, if you don't take me for a proper walk ASAP, you're going to regret it", so I hitched her up and off we went. I picked up an iced decaf and a treat for Flash at the coffee shop and we headed for the river. She and I sat at our usual bench. About 20 feet away a gentleman was sunning himself and reading the paper. It was very pleasant, the sound of the water, the leaves rustling in the breeze. Then I started sneezing. Then sun-bathing guy started sneezing. Then Flash started sneezing. So we left. I guess there's still plenty of pollen in the air to go around. And so there you have it. Today, thus far.

Posted by Jenn at 10:42 AM | Permalink

There's something in the air lately, and it's called pollen. I can't stop coughing and sneezing.

We've had a lot of activity over the past few weeks. My parents came down for a visit a three weekends ago. Through some weird twist of fate, the American Philatelic Society has headquarters an hour away from our house, so my dad signed up for a seminar on spotting fake stamps. Since he traveled there and back over the course of threee days, that left me and my mom alone to have lots of girl time. Plus, the weather was really great, so we (read: Dave) got to do lots of grilling. The only downside was I came down with a really bad cold the day they arrived, so I was a little groggy during the visit.

The next weekend we traveled to Western Massachusetts to my grandmother's house to help her celebrate her birthday. My parents also came out, as well as my uncle and aunt from Long Island. It was a great crew. We put on a luau theme complete with grass skirts, lei's, and flamingo lights, all of which I think she really enjoyed. She said something about someone throwing her a birthday party when she was 13. I hope that wasn't the last time someone threw her a party. It was a lot of fun. Good food too: grilled steak, grilled asparagus, salad (w/avocado; my favorite), green beans, bread, cake, and ice cream. The only downside for me was my cold reared it's ugly head again and I was groggy and coughy all weekend.

This past weekend was the inauguration of Bucknell's new president as well as the Lewisburg Arts Festival. It was drizzly and cold, but that didn't stop us, Megan, and Adrian from going out and partaking of some funnel cakes. And crab cakes. And perogies. And a cheesesteak sub, lemonade, and fudge. The next day Dave had his research group over for a BBQ. It was a little chilly but sunny so that worked out nicely. He's got an amazingly great group of kids. And they can really put down burgers so you have to respect that.

In between all of the above activity, we hired a guy to come in and take down the three remaining pine trees that were in our side yard. It really opened things up. Our property looks so much bigger. He's going to be coming back to lay down topsoil and grass seed at some point. All the yard activity has turned our thoughts to improving the look of our front yard in general. You wouldn't believe the weeds. I think we're going to have to go in and spray weed killer and lay down grass seed to make any kind of headway. It's something I'd like to do ASAP, but since I'm pregnant, throwing down lots of chemicals probably isn't the best idea, particularly since I spend lots of time in the grass working in our flower garden. We'll see.

Posted by Jenn at 10:39 AM | Permalink

Some people feel the first glimpse of a robin twittering away in a tree is the first sign of Spring. Others find solace when the tips of future tulips poke up out of the ground. Around these parts, the first sign of Spring is the complete breakdown (or breakout) of my not-very-stable-anyway complexion. I herald the warm-up in temperature and the increased humidity by promptly spawning a veritable onslaught of zots. My face starts to look like volcano alley. I don't want to walk around the Bucknell campus for fear an over-zealous geologist will want to try and make a study out of me. My point is: I looked in the mirror this morning and was filled with glee that more spring-like weather is on the way. Since it's related, I might as well publicly profess my love for L'Oreal's Feel Natural Correcteur (made all the better by the fancy way of spelling "corrector").

Another sign of Spring is the itch I get to spend lots of money on landscaping. Last year I managed to scratch that itch by filling out the perennial garden, a relatively inexpensive thing to do. This year however, I opened the curtain of the side window in our living room, cursed the three remaining pine trees that are in our side yard, marched into the study where Dave was working, tossed down the phone book and said "Let's get rid of the pine trees." We had a couple of guys come out and give us quotes last week and we officially gave someone a deposit yesterday. He said he'll be by in two weeks to topple the trees, spread topsoil, and then seed the whole area. It's going to be great. Hopefully, we'll get a bit more light in the house, particularly in the morning, plus we won't have a weedy mud pit for a side yard anymore, we'll have beautiful green grass. The other up-side is hopefully people won't throw their trash (not just random McDonald's cups or chip bags; sometimes we get bags filled with trash) in our side yard anymore since there won't be pine trees in which to hide the mess or the culprits. Can you believe people do that? Needless to say, we're both very excited. It's going to make a huge difference to the way our yard looks.

Posted by Jenn at 10:01 AM | Permalink

Flash and I are busying ourselves with various activities, impatiently waiting for the big snowstorm that's predicted to arrive this afternoon. We've all had a very lazy Sunday. Dave and I woke up around 9:30 after a fairly late night, then promptly fell back asleep. I woke up again at 12:30 (!) all alone, padded downstairs to find Dave working on a puzzle and Flash curled up in bed with her legs tightly crossed. I fed her while Dave let her out into the backyard so she could relieve herself. Poor thing. Afterwards, we went to Dunkin' Donuts to bond over some coffee, apple fritters, cinnamon sticks, and a bagel with cream cheese. The place was hopping with sweatpant clad Bucknell students which made me feel a lot better about my own sweatpant clad self. I figured I'd be competing (fashion-wise) with beautifully clad chruchgoers out for their apres-worship coffee so you can imagine how pleased I was to be surrounded by college students who looked like they got up around the same time I did. Since I was working on quite the headache I suggested to Dave that we go back home, pop some Tylenol, pick up the dog, and then head out to one of the scenic overlooks that dot Route 15 between Lewisburg and Shamokin Dam. (By the way, there's only one scenic overlook between Lewisburg and Shamokin Dam.) The access road to the overlook was closed for the winter, so we headed out to Milton State Park, it's two distinguishing features being: it sticks out into Susquehanna, and it's covered in astonishing amounts of rabbit and deer poop (Much to Flash's great joy. You've never seen so much sniffing). Flash even showed, for the first time in her life, a desire to get off the paved road to really explore the grassy areas. It's a nice park, actually. One of the things I really miss about living in Salem is its close proximity to lots of state/town parks in which no hunting is allowed. It was nice to be able to walk around and enjoy the fresh air and the river views without worrying about my dog getting shot. Right now Dave is at work and I'm thinking that I should probably have a bowl of salad to make up for my Dunkin' Donut indiscretions. Flash is currently working on a rawhide in the living room and as I look out my window, I see a few flakes falling. Perhaps while I eat my bowl of salad, I'll ponder how I can get out of shoveling.

Posted by Jenn at 09:59 AM | Permalink

Dave and I spent a lovely weekend at home, staying indoors for the most part, except for Saturday and Sunday mornings when Dave went in to work to make progress on a grant he's putting together. Poor guy's been working on it non-stop for I don't know how long now. I think he wishes I'd go away so he can be all hermity and eat bad food and focus entirely on it for a week or so (my close proximity alone can be quite distracting). Anyway, he worked until two on Saturday then came home and immediately commenced shoveling. The snow, which was supposed to keep falling through early Sunday morning had tapered off by the time he got home, so since there was a break in the action he figured it would be a good time to make some headway on the sidewalks. Megan was supposed to come over and hang out and watch bad movies and drink gallons of hot chocolate, but she called over the course of the morning to say she was extra sick (she threw in a cough and hack for good measure) and that she couldn't come over. So I spent the morning talking with my mom then my grandma because I love them tremendously but also because I wanted to avoid having to go out and shovel. When Dave came home we had some lunch then he headed back to his study and proceded to get back to granting. I wandered around aimlessly, bored out of my mind, playing with our "Bop-it", setting up our karaoke machine, sang a lackluster version of "Baby One More Time", then finally settled down to start a puzzle and play lots of music loudly. Dave emerged around eight for dinner (goulash, perfect on a cold day) then we turned on the tube and saw that Aladdin was on which somehow was exactly what we both wanted to see. After the movie, Dave and I retired to our respective activities then eventually went to bed, variably humming or singing at the top of our lungs "Prince Ali, handsomest he, Ali Ababwa!".

Yesterday when Dave came home, he arrived sick and running a fever. He had major plans to spend the day watching the Eagles/Falcons and Patriots/Steelers games. He watched half of the first game then went to bed for the next two or so hours. In the meantime, I spent my time watching the "Manor House" dvd's that he brought home for me from the library. This is definitely the way to watch PBS's "House" shows. You get mired in the atmosphere and you don't have to wait til the next night to see the next episode either. I spent my entire day flipping between football and educational dvd's, then polished the evening off with chocolate torte and "The Count of Monte Cristo". Dave was up til all hours of the night sweating, drinking tea, and working on his grant. Guess which one of us probably enjoyed the weekend more?

Posted by Jenn at 09:56 AM | Permalink

Today, Dave and I have been married for exactly four years. I thought in honor of the occasion I would offer a recap of the stuff that's happened since January 13, 2001, in case Dave forgot.

We got married (bells rang); we went to Vermont and Montreal for our honeymoon; we adopted the world's greatest dog (who is sick right now and looking very pathetic all stretched out on the couch which, ironically, is pretty much how she was the day we got her); we went to Louisiana to visit Dave's brother and to introduce Dave to my grandparents; we dealt with the world's worst downstairs neighbors, who were right up there with the Bumpus's; we refinanced the world's best condo and then sold it a year later; we made a decidedly and heartbreakingly unsuccessful foray into trying to reproduce; we moved to Lewisburg and into the world's smelliest and moldiest yet totally single family house; Dave got a great job at a great university; I painted for what seemed like twelve straight months; we made some amazing friends; Dave had an annual checkup!; I went to the dentist!; we bought a new car; we had an amazing vacation to Myrtle Beach, the memories of which are the only thing keeping me sane during this gross, gray, snowless winter; we saw our family often, which is always a wonderful thing; we mourned the loss of Dave's Uncle Julie who, in the short time I knew him, made an indelible mark on my life; we attended many football games and ate many cold mustardless pretzels. And now here we are. That's a lot of craziness for four years. I still can't believe I went to the dentist. It's mind-boggling to think that I lived 23 years of my life without Dave in it, and now I can't imagine my life without him. I love you, kid...

Posted by Jenn at 09:54 AM | Permalink

First of all: Happy Birthday to my Dad! Second of all, I thought I'd fill everyone in on what's been going down at Casa Rovnyak over the past two weeks. The weekend of the 6th will be going down in the history books as the "Lost Weekend of 2004". We spent the entire two days obsessing over chinese super buffet and Ms. Pac-man. The. Entire. Two. Days. We emerged from the house Sunday afternoon to discover it was about 70 degrees out and we didn't even know it. What a waste of a beautiful day. At sundown, it promptly dropped back into "too cold to bother being outside" temperatures, and there it has remained, so it really was sad to have missed out on it. To make up for our hermityness, we decided at the last minute to go to my Grandmother's this weekend. She and I were talking on the phone Friday morning, during which she mentioned that there was a big church fair scheduled for Saturday, it was snowing out, etc, etc. When we hung up I called Dave and said "I want to see my Grandma!" and he said "Okay, get the oil changed in the car and pick me up at 4:30", both of which I did. It was snowing by the time we drove up past the Pocono's. I was in heaven. It was gorgeous in the Berkshires when we got there. I love the snow. I can't imagine being any place where it doesn't snow. Anyway, the electricity went out around midnight so we all went to bed. We got up bright and early to go to the church fair, which was pretty impressive. They had something called a "Cookie Walk" where for $3.50 you get a tin which you can fill up with any variety of home-made cookies you want. Dave and I were in heaven, let me tell you. We spent the rest of the day hanging out, eating, napping - all the activities you want to do on a weekend. Sunday when we were driving home, the power steering went out which was rather exciting. I built up some upper body strength trying to steer the car into a gas station to see what was up. It fixed itself when we stopped and restarted the car, and stayed fixed all the way back home. I called the dealership yesterday and set up an appointment to have someone fix the two recall items that we'd been sitting on for a month, and also to have them check out the steering, which failed again twice last night. All of this leads up to my activities of this afternoon: sitting around in a car dealership lobby, waiting for people to stop working on my car. Apparently the fix for the steering is to replace the steering column, which I figured on (I checked it out on the internet; it seems to be a common problem. I'm sensing an impending recall.). The other two recalls were fixed and so now we're waiting for the call that the column is in, and now you know what I'll be doing yet another afternoon in the not too distant future. So there you have it, not too exciting, and yet kind of exciting, all rolled into one.

Posted by Jenn at 10:37 AM | Permalink

Last night Dave, Megan, Adrian, and myself went to the Campus Theatre to see "Shaun of the Dead". It was really funny and oddly scary all at the same time. We caught the nine o'clock showing which meant we had to walk home fairly late. It was very quiet last night, there were hardly any students milling around at all, perhaps due to the bad weather. We chatted all the way to the corner of our street, where the four of us stopped, said good night, and turned towards our respective homes. Dave immediately started moaning and waving his hands. I gave him a good punch on the arm and told him to stop. Meanwhile, through our pine trees we heard the off again, on again chorus of: shuffle-shuffle-shuffle...*groan*..."Adrian! Stop!"...shuffle-shuffle-shuffle...*groan*.."STOP IT!!"

Posted by Jenn at 10:38 AM | Permalink

Let me just start out by saying that I can't believe it's November already. What's up with that? Now that I've gotten that off my chest, I can tell you all about how great our weekend was. Saturday Megan and Adrian came over to carve pumpkins and watch lots of scary television. On the agenda was: It's the Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown; Sleepy Hollow; Nightmare Before Christmas; Van Helsing. Adrian had never carved pumpkins before and so of course he was a bit of a ringer. Here's a picture to show off our efforts:

Going clockwise, starting with the top left pumpkin is: Dave's, mine, mine, Megan's, and Adrian's. Aren't they all just intensely scary? If you were looking at this site in the dark, I bet you just turned on the lights, right?

Yesterday I spent the morning scrubbing algae off of our brick pathway. It was getting really slippery and I was worried that candy-happy kids would come tearing up to the house, slide all over the place, and then hit the ground. Sure enough, the first group of the night saw us and ran right up the walkway. It was nice to have the mental chorus of "Oh no, you're gonna get sued..." quieted immediately. Some friends who don't get trick-or-treaters where they live came over with a chili-making kit, so we made Cincinnati Empress Chili. It was really good. Dave had seconds after everyone left. He probably also had it for lunch today if he remembered to actually take it out of the bag and refrigerate it. We got a fair number of kids which meant there were lots of really cute costumes. I can't decide if my favorite was the little kid running around dressed up as Tigger or the big football player-y high school guy dressed as a woman, high heels and everything. So there you have it, Halloween 2004. I'm a little sad it's over. As a parting shot, here's a picture of our house last night:

Posted by Jenn at 10:41 AM | Permalink

Dave and I got back home on Tuesday after spending a long weekend in Boston. We had a lot of fun. By the end of Sunday, Dave and I were marveling at all of the activities we had managed to get under our belt in such a short amount of time. We decided it was because this was the first trip that felt like a vacation as opposed to going back to a city we had just left and were still sort of disinterested in. Anyway, some of the activities we got up to were: the annual visit to Arena Farms for pumpkins and caramel apples; a trip to the Boston Common for the "Life is good" pumpkin festival; kicking around Harvard Square; frequenting establishments that serve amazingly good greek or indian food; frequenting Starbucks; visiting the Old North Bridge where Flash nearly knocked over a tourist in her excitement to sniff some other tourists pants; more caramel apples at Arena Farms; the Head of the Charles to root on Bucknell (I won't tell you how they did). Dave and I both stopped at our previous places of employment to catch up with people on Monday, however, the most profound activity for me that day had to be meeting up with Paul, whom I hadn't seen in four years, and who announced that he was moving back to Ireland in December, NOT June, which was a total bummer because I was hoping to catch up with him again when we're in Boston for Christmas. Sigh. Dave and I spent Tuesday in the car on what has to be the most frustrating road trip home we've ever been on. It was so annoying, if I write about it I'll get the urge to go sit in the car and smack my head with the atlas again, so I'm not going to.

Did you hear the Red Sox won the World Series?

Posted by Jenn at 10:43 AM | Permalink

Today is the NMR conference at Bucknell which Dave helped organize. I think
I was more nervous about it this morning than he was. I went and listened
in on his lecture. He's so cute when he's standing up in front of a group
of people talking about something I don't even begin to understand. *meow*
Anyway, we were both up really late last night and now I can barely keep my
eyes open. I can't decide whether I should eat something because I'm sort
of hungry or if I should go collapse on the couch. Last night was the third
really late night in a row for us. Wednesday I had my sock knitting class
followed by ice cream birthday cake at Megan and Adrian's followed by staying
up and watching Shaolin Soccer
until 1:30. Then on Thursday night we got Chinese Super Buffet for dinner
and caught the 9 o'clock showing of Napoleon
Dynamite at the Campus Theatre. Last night we watched A Beautiful Mind
and then Dave worked on a brochure for today's conference and I sat upstairs
fretting about a x-mas present I'm making. Then at 1:30 we decided we should
probably go to bed. So that brings us to the here and now. Tonight the Mulligan's
and I are going to the Bucknell football game to see the Penn
State Blue Band. I hope I can stay awake for it. I'm going to be such
bad company...actually nothing like a football game to pep a girl up. Hopefully
Dave will be able to meet up with us at the stadium.

Posted by Jenn at 10:29 AM | Permalink

Last night Dave and I discovered the secret to having fun while
preparing an NIH budget: prepare it with your spouse and drink lots and lots
and lots of Autumn
Harvest wine.

Posted by Jenn at 10:28 AM | Permalink

Ivan came and went Friday night, dumping buckets of rain. We
had some water damage in the downstairs study. We think that water came via
the old cracked caulking around the upstairs bathroom window and managed to
work its way down to our ceiling. Saturday and Sunday were beautiful days
but the Susquehanna and Bull Run stream continued to rise throughout the weekend,
culminating in some pretty impressive flooding by Sunday morning. The bridge
that crosses the Susquehanna was closed to traffic so everyone in town was
out walking across it to check out the damage. Dave and I took some pics which
I posted here.

We had a pretty busy weekend otherwise. Friday night we went to a trustee
dinner at Bucknell which was a lot of fun. One of the trustee's mentioned
a fabulous tail-gate party that was going on Saturday before the football
game which worked out rather well considering the host of said party was
also sitting at the table with us. So Saturday we walked over to the stadium
and after an hour had to agree, it was a fabulous tail-gate. It was an amazing
game as well. Bucknell beat Cornell 15-9. All through the game there were
announcements that Lewisburg had declared a curfew from dusk-to-dawn and
that there were flood warnings etc. It was also really cold out. It felt
like late October as opposed to mid-September. All in all it was a fun weekend.
Next thing on our radar is Dave's birthday in a few weeks. I can't decide
between a My Little Pony birthday theme or Care Bears. Hmmm...

Posted by Jenn at 10:28 AM | Permalink

Last night, as Dave, Flash, and I rounded the corner a block away from our
house, we noticed someone letting their dog walk all over the front of our
yard. We were too far away to tell if the dog was in our flower garden or
just ahead of it where we have some ivy groundcover, but without a doubt,
we knew for sure when the leash was suddenly still that it was definitely
doing something while he was wherever he was. Dave and I walked (quickly)
to see what had happened, and sure enough there was a huge pile of dog poop
in our ivy. Nothing annoys us more than stuff like this happening, so after
a brief discussion about what to do, I turned around and ran after the dog
and owner. It turned out to be a 13 or 14 year old kid. I told him his dog
had just pooped in our yard and asked if he was planning on coming back to
pick it up, to which I received a slightly dazed "Yes". I walked back home
and Dave was standing outside fuming. We talked about what to do for dinner,
discussed whether or not we thought the kid would come back (Dave said he
wouldn't), then we went out for chinese food by the pound at the local Super
Buffet. There was much discussion on the way there and back once again about
whether or not the kid would come back. Dave said he wasn't going to look
to make sure because it would just annoy him if he hadn't, but as soon as
I was out of the car, I ran to our yard and sure enough, the much talked about
poop was gone. There was much dancing and many declarations of "I'm not completely
useless! I can totally scare kids into picking up poop!" going on. I wonder
if there's a career in there somewhere. Anyway, I immediately called my parents
and told them I've never felt more like Dad than I did when I confronted that
kid. When I was in high school, every morning people would walk their dogs
by our house and every time they did, my dad would go stand on the front porch
and glare at them until they passed by to make sure there was no pooping that
would go unpicked up. It was really funny; my dad can be pretty intimidating
when he wants to be.

Anyway, after all that excitement, we forwent (is that a word?) the lecture
and settled in to watch Kill Bill vol. 2. I hadn't seen Dave since Sunday
night what with all the working he's been doing so it was nice to actually
chill out and have a quiet evening at home. Oh, and I almost forgot: Go
Phillies! Go Pats!

Posted by Jenn at 10:26 AM | Permalink

I haven't updated in a while. I have a real talent for stating the obvious.
It comes from my days as an English major. A whole heck of a lot has been
going on. A couple of weekends ago (to be more specific, the one where Hurricane
Charley was careening up the East Coast only as it turned out it didn't really
careen so much as spit, with the exception of Florida which got hit really
hard), Dave and I headed out to Long Island to spend a few days visiting with
my Uncle and Aunt. We had a great time, but when we got home on Sunday, we
had a message from my mother-in-law saying that Dave's Uncle had passed away
earlier that morning. "Shocking" and "devastating" are two fairly accurate
words to describe that turn of events. A few days later we were back on the
road heading out to Indiana for the funeral. The family came together to talk
and hang out at Dave's Aunt's house every night. I told my mom in an email
the morning after the funeral that I'd never felt more comfortable with Dave's
family; his Uncle always made me feel at home and part of the family during
my Christmases to Virginia, so it seemed perfect that his funeral would be
a catalyst for that. Anyway, it seemed strange on the drive back home to look
back and talk about how much fun it was to see everyone, but it's the truth
and I think Dave's Uncle would love that.

While we were in Indiana, we had a chance to catch up with an old friend
of Dave's from his MIT grad student days, Ken
Kuno. Ken gave us a tour of Notre Dame which is a fairly large campus
and while he didn't take us everywhere, we went far enough for us to develop
a kickin' appetite. Sooooo, Dave and I jumped in the car and headed straight
for Baker's Square.
Flashback to 1995: I was attending Oakland
University in Michigan and happened to be taken to Baker's Square one
day for dinner. Their gimmick is pie which is a very good gimmick because
who doesn't love pie. It happened to be the month of January, and the pie
of the month was Cookies and Cream. I tried a piece and let me say, this pie
tasted just like you always hoped and imagined a Cookies and Cream pie would
taste. I proceeded to consume as many as humanly possible during the month
of January. I remember a friend calling up (if you're out there, hi chris!)
and saying he was going to drop by and could he bring anything and I said
"Yes, bring a Cookies and Cream pie please." and he did because he's awesome.
So anyway, as soon as we arrived at the hotel the first thing I did was look
in the phonebook to see if there was a Baker's Square, and holy pies from
heaven batman, there totally was. And, as if this story couldn't get any better,
the cookies and cream pie is now called "Oreo" pie and it's a regular feature
on their menu. I could've cried. I'm almost crying now just thinking back
on it. It was lovely. I wonder if they'd express mail one to me... Or maybe
we need to think about moving to Indiana.

Moving on, Dave started school last week. I can't believe it's that time
of the year already. The summer flew by. We traveled so much during late July
and August that I was a little lost last week not having any trip to prepare
for and am completely relieved that this Friday will find us back in the trusty
Malibu, flying over Pennsylvania's highways with the car pointed towards my
grandmother's house. She's hosting the Blanchard family reunion this year.
I'm looking forward to it, especially since we couldn't make it last year.

And after all of that longwindedness, I think that's all I'm inspired to
say at this point in time. Maybe next time I'll tell you all about how I've
been scraping and re-caulking the outsides of all of the first floor windows.
It's pretty exciting!

Posted by Jenn at 10:25 AM | Permalink

This morning Dave and I were scoping out the progress being
made in our melon patch. We didn't find many watermelons, but we did find
an abundance of something else: