jennanddave.com

Yesterday was a very strange weather day. Before 1PM I had driven in the following: rain, sleet, snow, sunny blue skies, and hail. In that order, too. It's like we're living in the Northeast or something. While we drove into the snow on the way to school, I got all excited and said to Henry "Look! It's snowing out! It's snowing out!" to which Henry responded "No! It is NOT snowing out!" Everyday he also declares that it is not, in fact, cold out, it's hot, therefore he doesn't need a jacket. He's in major denial. It's going to be a tough winter for him until we get some snowman-worthy precipitation.

Posted by Jenn at 09:46 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

We're getting geared up for Halloween over here. Lots of scary shapes stuck to our windows, orange and purple lights strung up, piles of pumpkins waiting to be carved. Henry tested out his whale costume at a kids costume party that was hosted by various University sororities and fraternities. There were tons of really cute kids there, plus about 50 Hannah Montana's, which, who can blame them, she wears awesome clothes and frankly, how many girls when I was a kid wanted to dress up as Madonna for Halloween? Speaking of which, radio stations around here have the oddest play lists. I was driving home after dropping Henry off at school this morning when one station went from utterly depressing Pink Floyd to Lucky Star. It was, um, an interesting transition, much like the one I just made from talking about a costume party to a radio station's playlist.

Henry had a good time running around whale-like yesterday afternoon. As fate would have it, he walked into the party holding a box of goldfish which everyone thought was a great addition to his costume while Dave and I were all "Yeah, we totally did that on purpose," even though right before the party we happened to be at Walmart picking up humidifier filters and while waiting to check out Henry asked if we would get him a carton of goldfish. We didn't realize the irony until we were about to walk into the student center, which was fortunately soon enough for us to claim full credit. Henry's favorite game at the party was the one where there were tons of balloons on the floor for kids to kick and throw around. He stayed there for a long time. Then after we went to see what else there was to see, he turned and asked if we could go back to the balloons. I know what I'm doing with the living room next time I host playgroup.

Posted by Jenn at 06:09 PM | Permalink | Comments (2)

This is totally rad. Pennsylvania uses rumble strips to snap you out of whatever daze you're in when you're driving. They should do something along these lines.

Henry is 100% into the Halloween Thomas the Tank Engine DVD we got from a friend of ours. The dazed look he gets on his face is pretty scary. We have to ration it.

We're going on a much needed trip to the Big City very soon. Dave hasn't been sleeping, I need the change of scenery, Flash needs new fire hydrants to sniff, and Henry needs to ride a few escalators and trains. Hopefully we will all come back with a fresh, new outlook.

There's another Hafla coming up in a few weeks that I could potentially be doing three dances in. It's a mildly frightening thought. Regardless of what I decide to do, I'll be practicing a lot over the next few weeks just in case I'm feeling a little wild and crazy. I need to expand my current costume wardrobe which right now officially consists of nothing but coin/fringe hip scarves. Guess I need to go shopping...mwah-hahahahaaa!

Posted by Jenn at 10:05 AM | Permalink | Comments (2)

My parents left this morning, leaving Henry and me alone to roam the house wondering exactly who was going to entertain us until Dave gets home. After a week and a half, I've become completely spoiled by having two other people looking after Henry. Finally, we settled in the kitchen, Henry with a measuring cup, me with a whisk, and both of us filled with a sense of high adventure. We made pumpkin pancakes. They tasted like heaven. Henry insisted on serving the pancakes and the syrup because he's such a dictator gentleman.

After breakfast we lounged around kiddie-pool-side in the backyard with Megan and Leo, and then all by ourselves. While Henry played with the hose and a couple of cups, I folded laundry, finished knitting a dishcloth, and started a new book. It was one of the most subdued and relaxing afternoons Henry and I have spent together all summer. When you imagine what idyllic summer afternoons in small town America are like, I think we pretty much hit the nail on the head today. I was even wearing a skirt.

I'm off to bake an apple pie.

Not really.

Posted by Jenn at 02:42 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

As if Julia Child wasn't cool enough, she somehow manages to up the ante .

I bet Anthony Bourdain wishes he had been a spy. Or maybe he was...or is! *gasp* I'd better stop writing this entry now, I'm starting to fear for my safety.

Posted by Jenn at 09:46 AM | Permalink | Comments (2)

While shopping at a toy store over the weekend, Dave and I came across this bargain:

A whole penny off the original price! WOW!!!

I'll give you one guess what Henry's getting for his birthday...

Posted by Jenn at 01:57 PM | Permalink | Comments (3)

A friend of ours hosted a 4th of July parade that went up and back down the street where they live. Everyone was decked out in patriotic colors, and the kids rode bikes/trikes/wagons covered in red, white, and blue balloons. I brought Henry's tricycle along for him to ride. We were about fifty feet down the parade route when Henry brought the rear faction to a screeching halt after he decided to disembark and declare his preference for sitting in the car and having a snack. So that's we did.

After the parade and the post-parade popsicles, we headed over to the park with a cooler full of food and met up with another couple of friends who also brought coolers full of food. We played and ate for a few hours and then we carried our tired selves back to the house for naps. It's been a full day and there are still fireworks and BBQ to look forward to.

Hope all of you are having an equally fun and festive 4th!

Posted by Jenn at 03:32 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

You know it's hot out when you look out your living room window and you see this:

Posted by Jenn at 04:15 PM | Permalink | Comments (3)

1. Rolling around in grass after four humid days of 90+ degrees is not recommended because when you get up you'll carry around the stench of death, doom, and decaying vegetable matter. This is not an attractive scent.

2. Last night I saw the first lightning bug of the season blinking around our yard. Yay!

Posted by Jenn at 02:06 PM | Permalink | Comments (2)

So. That yard sale we had where we made a little cash. It's now going to help pay for two new rear tires and new rear brakes. Glad we took some of it to the Fence before we found out about all of the car stuff we'd soon be paying for.

Also, because I'm an idiot, the two days I spent hauling stuff around for the yard sale took a toll on my back. Yesterday I could barely move, and if I rested for more than ten minutes between (low-level) activities, the muscles in my lower back would scream bloody murder when I finally attempted to stand up again. I went to physical therapy for this last summer but it didn't help. Belly dancing helped improve the day-to-day pain a lot, reducing it to next to nothing, possibly due to improving my posture and increasing my all-over strength, including the all-important abdominal area. I have an appointment with a friend who's massage therapist on the 23rd. After telling her my history the other day, she thought that working both with her and a physical therapist would help. I'm looking forward to hearing what she has to say at the end of our session.

Today is a day of air conditioning and rest, and possibly a trip to the pool after dinner since Henry's been such a trooper about hanging around and doing nothing with his injured mom.

Posted by Jenn at 01:39 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

We had a yard sale at Megan's house and came away from it with money we didn't have when we woke up in the morning. After we had packed up the stuff that didn't sell and split the money, we celebrated with lunch at the Fence. Between the milkshakes, fried fish/scallops, and hot dogs, Dave and I managed to blow through 1/4 of the money we made.

It was a very hot morning and early afternoon, and after installing an air conditioner in Henry's room, the three of us went our separate ways: Henry went down for a nap, Dave puttered in the garage, and I slept face down on the couch in the living room. A couple of hours later, we peeled ourselves away from our various activities, Henry got some dinner, Dave got dropped off at work, and Henry and I went to the pool. It was in the 90's yesterday and the only way to cool off with any kind of lasting effect definitely involves total immersion in a community pool. It was our first trip this year and Henry was beyond excited. Then we got there and he was terrified of going into the water. So twice I picked him up and brought him all the way in with me, much to his (very vocal) chagrin. The second time did the trick. He played with the water spouts at the shallow end then went back and forth into the water, going a little deeper each time. He did this for the last twenty minutes we were there. By the time we left he was getting about halfway down the length of the pool. The whole exercise offered great insight into my kid's personality.

After picking Dave up from work we headed to our backyard with some M&M ice cream cones. We all hung out and chatted and played until it was time for Henry's bath.

It was an excellent day. I hope the summer is full of others just like it.

Posted by Jenn at 04:32 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

I have this friend. We'll call him Paul Fallon. (By the way, that's really his name.) Not so long ago Paul, being the crazy entrepreneur that he is, started up Irish Running Tours, a touring company that allows you to experience all of the beauty of Ireland from the runner's perspective, which if you're me would mean lots of resting accompanied by the rhythmic sound of me wheezing. If you're more fit than I am, and chances are very good that you are, it seems like a pretty nice way to experience a place. Why zip around in a car with your nose in a map thereby missing all the scenery when you can have a really nice guy like Paul take you on a running tour of wherever you'd like to go?

Right now Paul's been doing lots of traveling to trade shows and the like, getting Irish Running Tours' name out there. It's been going really well and I thought I'd do my share by posting a plug and also putting up a link to his site over there on the right-hand sidebar. Go ahead and click it. You know you want to.

Posted by Jenn at 09:33 AM | Permalink | Comments (2)

Dave's parents came up for a visit on Friday. I can't speak for them, but the flurry of activity that has been the last two days has pretty much knocked everyone here off of their feet. Henry is zonked out upstairs and I'm about to hit the couch. How did this happen? It could be one of many things: marching around the house with drums and brooms while blasting "McNamara's Band"; running around outside; running around inside; going to Karen's house for a barbecue (where there was also lots of running around outside and in, not to mention really good food. Karen made killer burgers. I'm thinking of going over tonight and demanding more. Not that I've been at all invited.); planting potatoes; blowing bubbles; eating lots of pancakes; making play-doh spaghetti; etc.; etc. It was a great weekend.

Regarding my last post, I think it only fair to tell you that my dad, who also went to see Harry Belafonte, insists that the song he was referring to was not "Jamaica Farewell", but instead was "Day-o". I'm not sure I believe him. On the one hand, I remember feeling sad that it was "Jamaica Farewell" because it's one of my favorite songs, and I could probably convince myself that we had a conversation about it during the car ride home during which I could have declared "You'd think it would be 'Day-o' that he didn't like." Plus, my dad doesn't have a great track record for remember things, like, for instance, his high school graduation, or how old I am. On the other hand, he's like a sponge when it comes to soaking up useless information, so he could very well be right. Anyway, I felt compelled to publicly admit I could be wrong about the specifics of the whole Harry Belafonte analogy. Emphasis on "could be".

Posted by Jenn at 03:57 PM | Permalink | Comments (2)

My parents got here early Friday afternoon at approximately 1 PM, which, coincidentally, is about the same time I became chopped liver in the eyes of Henry. Things I'm no longer allowed to do: read a book at naptime/bedtime, tuck Henry into bed, give him a bath, run around the middle of the house chasing after him, play the banjo, be around at all. But let's face it, the one thing that is truly music to my ears would have to be this: "Grammy change diaper! Grammy change diaper! No Mommy's do it, Grammy do it!"

I wonder if I can convince them to stay forever.

Posted by Jenn at 11:51 AM | Permalink | Comments (2)

We woke up this morning to find everything iced over. There were cars across the street that looked like sheets of water from a very heavy rain had instantly frozen over them. Henry and I were supposed to crash a playgroup today, but after hearing from Dave that all the streets were bad and everyone he saw on the walk in to work was slipping and sliding, we decided to just stay home. Which meant another day looming ahead of us with no plans, nothing to do, and nowhere we could go. Slightly depressing, but we persevered.

For the past few weeks I've been wanting to make some bread, so after settling Henry down with a quick breakfast, I got out Fanny Farmer and decided to make clover leaf biscuits. It's been a while since I kneaded dough in this house and I quickly remembered why: there's no room on my kitchen counters for it, so I made good use of a large wooden cutting board and the stove top, hopefully not kneading any burners out of whack. Because our house is so cool, I had some trouble finding a source of warmth that was warm enough to get the dough to rise, but not so warm that it would rise too quickly. I tried Fanny Farmer's recommendation of filling a pan with hot water and putting it and the dough (in a separate covered bowl) in the oven. After an hour it hadn't risen much at all so I turned the oven on just until it warmed up and then put the bowl back in and hoped that would do it. It seemed to work out all right.

Henry and I banged on some drums and messed around on iTunes while the dough was rising, then got out the griddle for some pumpkin pancakes. I'm not kidding when I say this: we ate the entire batch, both of us hoping that Dave wasn't planning on coming home for lunch because we didn't want to share. And lest you think that since I'm the adult, I ate a lot more than Henry did, let me just say, you'd be wrong. The kid threw them down one after the other, barely stopping to breathe. I see great things in his future.

While I was making the pancakes I punched down the dough and rolled out a bunch of one inch balls. Three of them in each of the "bowls" in a muffin tin make the cloverleaf. Since the oven had been on to keep the cooked pancakes warm, the stovetop was nice and toasty, so there was no problem trying to figure out what to do with the biscuits for the second rise.

After lunch, while waiting for the biscuits to bake, Henry and I settled under a blanket on the couch and watched "Surf's Up". Well, I watched it. Henry watched the first twenty minutes, but then did a lot of running around. What's the fastest way to get rid of my kid? Ask him for a cuddle. The biscuits came out great. My mom told me after the first time I made these biscuits that the first time she made them they were little round rocks rolling around in the muffin tins. Every time I've made them since hearing that story I've expected to pull hard little rocks out of my oven. So far so good, knock on wood.

Right now Henry's upstairs napping, the dog is next to me snoring, and I'm feeling a little droopy myself. My house smells like bacon, pumpkin pancakes, and fresh-baked bread. If I took a nap, I wonder what I'd dream about? Probably breakfast, which is not a bad thing.

And I just realized, I wrote a post that's mostly about making biscuits. My life is complete.

And Happy Birthday Leo!

Posted by Jenn at 03:41 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

I set some steak out to defrost this morning to have for dinner tonight. For a side I was planning on making a cheese sauce and cooking up some cauliflower. Around 11 it started to really snow and it hasn't stopped since. Now that it's six hours and twenty minutes later, what I really want for dinner is cold-weather comfort food, so I threw the steaks back in the fridge and pulled out a frozen dinner we made from our Thanksgiving turkey/stuffing/mashed potato leftovers. I also really want some pumpkin pancakes. That would be kind of a weird dinner though wouldn't it? Although pumpkin pancakes taste kind of like pumpkin pie, so maybe it wouldn't be that weird.

There's a lot of snow coming out of the sky and landing on the ground right now. It's awesome.

Posted by Jenn at 05:20 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)

The Pats lost the Superbowl last night.

This morning Henry received a potty book in the mail.

It's already a crappy week.

HAHHHAAHAAHAHHAHAAA!

*wipes tear from eye*

Oh the wit!

My kid hasn't had a bath since Thursday night. He was supposed to have one Saturday (he's got dry skin so we give him a bath every other night in the winter), but Dave and I were feeling lazy and very much inclined to put it off until Sunday. By the time we realized Sunday probably wasn't going to be a good night for a bath what with the Superbowl on the tv and friends and family over to watch, everything was in full swing. By the time the game was over, it was pretty late, and by the time we wrangled Henry upstairs for bed it was somewhere around 10 o'clock. By the time I got close wrapping up this paragraph I realized this is just a long-winded way of saying I'm going to go upstairs right now, wake Henry up from his nap, and give him a bath because wow, does he ever need one.

Posted by Jenn at 05:08 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Dave got a copy of P.D. James' book "Children of Men" for Christmas from one of his friends. We both read it and although Dave thought the author copped out a bit by using a few sci-fi cliches here and there, we both really liked it. I couldn't put it down. Another thing we both agreed upon was that it seemed like it was practically written to be a movie. The copy Dave received has a big sticker on it that reads "Soon to be a major motion picture", a fact I happened to mention to my dad on the phone one evening. I told him I couldn't wait for it to come out and was thus informed that it had come out already, last summer in fact, and that it starred, and I quote "You know, that guy...what's his name...you know...he was in...ummmmm...what else has he been in?...ah, jeez, what's his name?...uhhhhh...hey Debbie? What's the name of that guy that was in...uhhhhhh..." Eventually we figured out he was thinking of Clive Owen. You know, what's his name who was in that movie. So "Children of Men: Now a major motion picture starring Clive Owen" got bumped up to the top of the Netflix queue.

A warning, there are some spoilers below.

I was disappointed in the movie, partly because it veered so far away from the book, but also because I didn't love the focus of the movie. It ignored most of what I found to be really terrifying in the book which was how the government used fear to control the people, which allowed them to get away with the forced slavery of immigrants and the mass murder of the elderly. What would be the state of mind of the people who were willing to look past reality and except these things as the way it had to be in order for the country to run smoothly? The book ends with Theo putting the ring of England on his finger, and you just know that despite his finally being capable of looking outside of himself and his past, he's probably going to become as much of a dictator as his cousin, Xan, was. Xan ("Nigel" onscreen) pops up in the movie, as does the Quietus (in the movie it's a pill. A pill!), but you're not really sure why they bothered. It's almost as if they deemed it necessary to pay some sort of homage to the book other than using the same character names that they just threw those in.

I read a quote from the director on Wikipedia that describes how he dislikes "a cinema about exposition and explanation" which is ironic because although he used symbolism in the movie, it was often so obvious you felt he stopped short of suspending the action so that one of the characters could turn to the camera and explain it to us, like "Look! She just told me she's pregnant! And she's standing in a barn! And she doesn't know who the dad is! Could this *be* any more like the nativity?".

Has anyone else seen the movie or read the book? What did you think?

Posted by Jenn at 03:21 PM | Permalink | Comments (2)

When we last left my kitchen floor, specifically the spot that's half in front of the oven and half in front of the dog's water/food bowls, it had just been thrown up on by both the dog and the kid which earned it the distinction of having been bleached not once, but twice within an hour. Never had it been so clean.

Then Leo came over and upended Flash's water bowl. Out came the towels, but, alas, no bleach this time. Then I managed to knock over a cup of orange juice I had poured out for Henry on the stovetop and guess where it all ended up? Out came the towels again, and after Megan and Leo went home, out came the mop. Right now that spot on our floor is probably cleaner than our dining room table.

So, what are the chances of all of that happening in that particular spot all in the same day?

Posted by Jenn at 02:42 PM | Permalink | Comments (3)

Statistically speaking, what do you think the chances are that both the dog and the kid would throw up on the exact same spot of the kitchen floor within an hour of each other?

Posted by Jenn at 10:56 AM | Permalink | Comments (3)

Did we just have a weekend, because it really doesn't seem like there was one this week. You know what else? As of this minute, Dave has been up for 29 hours and 45 minutes. Because he didn't go to sleep last night. Because apparently he's forgotten that he doesn't *go* to college, he *teaches* kids who are in college.

This morning I forgot to put the lid down on the washing machine so when I ran down to move all of our towels to the dryer, I was greeted with a washer full of water and wet towels. Oops. It's been a while since I've done that.

We're all feeling better here. Well, except for Dave who's been up for 29 hours and 48 minutes. This morning Henry watched "Cars" and I tried to get some more Christmas Thank You cards written and talked on the phone with my mom. Then the rest of the day leading up to naptime was spent eating lunch, reading books, drawing xylophones/helicopters/airplanes, and talking about how at Christmas Grandpa would turn on the light over the piano for Henry, a fact that was brought up, seemingly randomly, by the young man himself, who at the time was enjoying a grilled cheese sandwich. I don't know how or if the two are connected, but I'm not making any assumptions one way or the other.

I remembered yesterday that January is Jane Austen month on PBS, just in time to catch "Northanger Abbey" on Masterpiece Theater. I've never read the book, so I don't know how the two compare, although probably pretty favorably since Andrew Davies did the screenplay, but it sure did end abruptly. In three sentences the main character was married, had a baby, and celebrated her sister-in-law's marriage, the end. Of course, how can a story go wrong when the main love interest has a name as fine as "Henry"?

Posted by Jenn at 02:44 PM | Permalink | Comments (2)

Henry caught a cold, then I caught a cold, then last night no one got any sleep except for the dog, who, from our respective corners of the bed, Dave and I were each fantasizing about throwing out the window. There's nothing worse than hearing your dog intermittently heave lengthy, loud sighs betwixt snores because she's just so darned comfortable while your tossing and turning and thinking ahead to what a wreck the next day is going to be. I got up with Henry at 6:30 and while he was all chipper I died on the couch just a little bit until Dave came downstairs and suggested I catch a few hours of sleep. So I did. Then I hauled myself out of bed to make my doctor's appointment where I told my Dr. I couldn't sleep because of allergies and annoying dogs. She gave me a prescription for one, but couldn't do anything for me about the other.

Right now Henry's in bed coughing away. Sometimes when I'm sick I think it's our house that's killing us, although I don't know why I think that. Maybe because everything seems extra unhealthy when you're not feeling well, like the whole world's against you and your sinuses so why shouldn't the house be too? Every time I get over a cold I go on a cleaning jag. After this one runs its course I'm probably going to hire someone to clean our couch and rug and also maybe look into getting someone to clean out our heating vents. Have I mentioned how much I dislike forced air heat? I don't like it very much at all. It's all about radiators.

That's what's been going on around here. Lots of Tylenol popping and napping. Oh, and crabbing. Lots and lots of crabbing.

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

Last night Dave and I watched the third installment of the Pirates of the Caribbean trilogy. It was the third time I've seen the movie. Despite having seen it twice before, I found myself once again hoping that Elizabeth would toss Will aside in favor of Jack Sparrow. He's far more interesting, not to mention dreamy, what with the professionally applied eyeliner and faux dreads ("freads" for short?). Alas, it was not meant to be.

Tuesday it was almost 70 here. After shrugging off the hint of anxiety over the world coming to an end that always accompanies late-Spring-like weather in early January, we headed to the park with Megan, Leo, Phoebe, and Otto. Henry rode his new tricycle. He also insisted Megan push him, which left me to enjoy a leisurely walk behind a stroller with a kid who was perfectly content to go along for the ride. Having the opportunity to briefly experience it all again from behind the cupholder of a Graco, let me just say, "Those were the days." After we got to the park, Megan chased after Henry while Leo and Otto got down and dirty in the mulch. After that I settled Leo into a swing and took advantage of his being trapped with nowhere to go by pinching his thighs and giving him eskimo kisses. If he cries whenever he sees a swing, now his parents know why. On the other hand, if he squeals with delight whenever he sees a swing, I think I'll just go ahead and take credit for that as well.

Two words I wish my kid didn't know how to say: "nebulizer", "McDonald's"

I'm very much against decorations for holidays showing up in stores two months before the actual holiday is supposed to occur, with the exception of Valentine's Day. January and February can be pretty bleak months and sometimes they need all the help they can get. I love seeing all the pink and red and hearts and roses everywhere.

Right now I hear a mug of hot apple cider and some quality time with a book calling my name.

Posted by Jenn at 02:48 PM | Permalink | Comments (2)

Megan and Leo came over this afternoon to hang out. After they left Henry settled down to watch a little pre-nap Elmo/Stomp on the TV while I checked my email real quick. When I went back out to the living room there was no Henry to be found. I called out his name, heard a thump-thump-thump overhead, and headed over to the staircase to see what he was up to. He started coming downstairs asking "Megan go? Megan go?" Apparently he was searching high and low for Megan. I told him she went home and he said "Megan went home," somewhat forlornly. He perked up though when I mentioned we'd be seeing her again tonight.

This evening we're all going over to visit Mr. L at the nursing home with a big tin full of Christmas cookies. Giving up the tin is quite the sacrifice for Henry because he loves using it as a drum. The lid has lots of little dents all over it. After that, we'll have some dinner, open some presents, put the kid to bed, then hopefully watch Mr. Bean's Christmas special, which I haven't seen in a couple of years. Maybe Dave'll agree to rent "Love Actually" (or is it "Love, Actually"?) and we can have a snuggle on the couch. What are the chances?

Posted by Jenn at 02:40 PM | Permalink | Comments (3)

Today's going to be a pretty low-key day. So far we've watched "Frosty the Snowman" and "Charlie Brown Christmas" (Henry's a Frosty/Charlie Brown addict), the viewing of which was precipitated by some fine behavior displayed by the young man while having to spend some quality time with his brand-new nebulizer. He's still leery of it but he's handling it like a champ.

It's gray out and since it's also cold, I'm hoping for a little snow. I don't know if it's in the forecast, and I don't want to check to find out because I'll be disappointed if it isn't. We should really move to Vermont. I hear it's beautiful this time of year, with all that snow.

Posted by Jenn at 11:21 AM | Permalink | Comments (5)

The nor'easter is not being very nor'easterly in our neck of the woods. Last night sleet started falling around 9:30 and carried on for most of the night. Our bedrooms are in converted attic space right under the roof so when it rains or there's sleet at night, we can hear it pretty clearly. There's no better sound to fall asleep to, with the possible exception of ocean waves. Soon after we got up this morning it started to rain. About two hours ago I tried tuning in to our local channels to see what else we might be getting out of the storm but all I got were five channels worth of blank screen time. We still get Fox News so we'll at least be able to stay misinformed about the world in general. (Ouch! Couldn't resist I guess.) I can only assume Scranton/Wilkes Barre must be getting some pretty interesting weather if it's knocked out their ability to send out a signal.

With luck the rain will turn to snow and we'll get a few feet of the white stuff. This is entirely wishful thinking, but it's my blog and I can dream if I want to.

Friday night our town had a late shopper's night. It was a madhouse, which was great because it's never a madhouse downtown. It makes a person feel like they actually live somewhere. Anyway, Libby had a sale so I went in and picked up a few skeins of Lonesome Stone Fibers yarn in Hot Rod Red. The picture doesn't do it justice. It's got some black in there, as well as a hot pink that matches my wool coat perfectly. You get 400 yards per skein. I bought two. I'm not sure what I'm going to do with them yet. Maybe a scarf and matching gloves? I spent some time flipping through Vogue's knitting bible looking for some inspiring lace patterns. The yarn's fairly delicate so I was thinking of doing something lacy with it on bigger needles than the yarn's gauge calls for, at least for the scarf. Then I was thinking if I planned it out properly, I could duplicate the lace pattern on the back of a pair of fingerless gloves because who doesn't want to be all matchy matchy? That's the idea for now. Maybe later I'll see something that will inspire me to head in a completely different direction.

Posted by Jenn at 11:22 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

I'm feeling a mite uninspired, yet still have the desire to post something, so how about another rendition of random stuff? Okay!

- I have a hair appointment for 3 this afternoon. The last time I went I told my...uhhh...good grief, I've completely forgotten how one refers to the person who cuts one's hair. Hair cutter? Hair stylist? Probably I should skip the cut and go straight upstairs for a nap. Or I should start playing Brain Age. Anyway, the last time I went to the salon (circumvented that little snag, no pun intended) I asked for an angled cut, but when it was all done there was nary an angle to be seen. I'll give it another shot today. Can't annoy this particular stylist because after much trial and error, she's the best I've been to around here.

- Took Henry back to the doctor's yesterday. He was diagnosed with asthma that's triggered by colds. We now have a nebulizer sitting in a box on the floor of our dining room. I swear, this kid gets more expensive everyday. I'm going to have to work hard so our expenditures for him don't eclipse our expenditures for me. I'm a lady after all!

- It's snowing out right now. It's very pretty. I'm looking forward to walking to the salon this afternoon.

- I just discovered this website: Geoffrey Chaucer Hath a Blog. It's very funny. Plus they have awesome t-shirts for sale.

- Yesterday I made 12 billion molasses cookies for the playgroup cookie exchange, which was ultimately canceled due to the bad weather. There's a possibility it'll be rescheduled for next Tuesday. What are the chances there will be any cookies left by then? It's a mystery.

Posted by Jenn at 02:15 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)

I read an article somewhere that talked about how many chemicals we're exposed to in everyday items such as beauty products. Being someone who is all about beauty products, I decided to go organic with them as I ran out of things. First items were shampoo and soap. I bought Kiss My Face olive oil and honey soap. I used it twice three weeks ago and I'm still recovering from how badly it made me break out. Fortunately I didn't use it on my face. Instead of bar soaps, I'm going to give an organic body wash a try as soon as my Softsoap that smells like Playdoh runs out. Dave says he likes the Kiss My Face soap, so if you don't have my skin, he recommends it. The shampoo I bought was pretty bad too. I couldn't remember the brand a friend recommended so I went ahead and winged it when I made my choice. When I'd lather it into my hair, it actually didn't lather at all, and within 20 seconds my hair was a big, massive, knotty mess that could barely be rinsed. It also didn't clean my hair, although it dried it out nicely despite the application of lots of conditioner. No one wants an itchy scalp two hours after you wash your hair. Today I went back to the natural food place and got Giovanni brand shampoo and conditioner (See? I remembered!) so I'm hoping it works a lot better than the other stuff. I'll let you know.

Meanwhile, for the last couple of days I've been wanting to listen to music that I know all the words to but which I haven't heard in a while. I tried to get "Ritual de lo Habitual" on iTunes but they only have a partial album. Bob Marley's "Legends" it is. Suddenly I'm 16 again and getting all daydreamy about that cute college guy I work with.

Posted by Jenn at 03:46 PM | Permalink | Comments (4)

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

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

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

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

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

Ba-doom-boom!

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

We were happy campers after that.

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

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

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

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

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

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

I've been spending too much time on Facebook.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Really, incredibly, enormously guilty.

Sigh.

Posted by Jenn at 08:39 AM | Permalink

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

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

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

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

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

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

Henry and I are having a pretty good day today. Instead of stressing out about running around to playgrounds and getting errands out of the way, we put on our best lounging clothes and kicked around the house all morning, indulging in our deepest darkest desires: I spent some time rearranging everything in the back room now that's it's got a fresh new coat of paint livening things up while Henry got busy watching DVD's and tearing apart the living room. It looks like a toy factory exploded in there so mission accomplished. Right now he's upstairs napping, no doubt dreaming about chasing cats, cats being his most favoritest thing ever in the whole wide world, after cheddar bunnies, pears, sidewalk chalk, and slides.

Have I mentioned Dave and I got tickets to a Wiggles concert that's taking place in late July? Pretty exciting stuff. Seriously. We're excited! We have plans to go to Asilomar (Dave has a conference there next Spring) and Hawaii next year, so we're not going to go on vacation this year because we're trying to save for those two potentially expensive trips. However, since summer vacation season is almost in full swing, and since we have to drive two hours to get to the Wiggles concert, I've been sniffing around the web trying to scout out beaches that are near where we're going to be. I've come up with Bradley Beach. Anyone know anything about it? It's on the Jersey Shore, which scares me a little bit because everything I know about it I learned from MTV's "True Life: Jersey Shore" ("...maaaan, that's good from far, but far from good"). We don't want insane nightlife, we just want a quiet beach. Wait! No! Stop! Really! We can't afford it! And yet...

Want to see pictures of our back room? Here's the before:

and the after:

We have a weight machine taking up a lot of floorspace in the back room, which we use as an office and as a guest room. Future guests will perhaps be happy to hear that we're moving the weight machine into the garage, and in its place will be a headboard and footboard, with a bed taking up the empty space between the two. We think you've earned it.

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