It's SO nice to get the family all together to laugh and shout and have a good Christmas all together. Some of my favorite Christmas memories from this year include a beautiful Christmas breakfast spread- fried crub, cinnamon buns, and TWO kinds of monkey breads. Obviously, Noel wanted us all to have a Very Merry and Well Fed Christmas. It was really fun to see Tyler in his PJs playing with his new Christmas toys (including a BALL!), and even though he was still a little sick, he really loved to get packed into a box that Dad converted to a baby sleigh by adding a handle and letting the grown-ups drag him around the house. He would go all peaceful and have a contemplative suck on a sock dinosaur tail, or wave at the passing family members like the best float in his one-man parade. And he has such great parents! They nursed him so gently through the chicken pox, if it weren't for the rash, you'd hardly know he was sick. Just a
This year's Christmas puzzle was a world map, which was fairly easy while we were putting together countries into continents, and then got really slow as we tried to fill in the remainder of the blue oceans. Best of luck with that, family!
The award for the biggest gift this year went to Dad, who got a new air compressor of some character that apparently was way better than the old compressor and made him rub his hands together at the prospect of future projects. The award for most thoughtful gift (or my vote at least), is a tie between Dad's specialty imported Speculoos spread, via our source for all things decadent and Belgian our host sister An- which was a project in the making since October!- and Tyler's gift of artist certified finger-paintings, and portraits of the artist in his labors (ie, naked but for his diaper, head to know in finger paints). That just puts joy in the heart.
We also got the band back together on Christmas eve, to play through our book of carols. Some of us were a little rustier than others, (there aren't enough flats in this key signature for half position!) but that just increased the laughs and made it fun. If we get enough comments, I am sure Noel can release some of the footage of this, or other feats of adorableness. Like a baby in a snowsuit in his very first snow!
And can I just say, that I got in some fantastic Aunt-ing? I thought to steam up some veggies for Tyler to try out finger foods, but this mostly turned into sweet potato and regular potato paste that stuck to the folds of his chubby wrists and all over his high chair. Very little appeared to enter his mouth. I tried to let him drink some water, and while he chewed on my glass, I poured about a cup of water all down his onsie (diapers are absorbent, right?). And I totally indulged him in the joys of shouting happiness at the dinner table (his Nana was mortified, so I know I've done my job well).
Matt and I flew home last night, and Matt somehow managed to get to work this morning. This promises to be a busy week with another chapter to edit, some promises made about algae and some voice recordings to do for an online game via the science center. Matt only works 2 days this week, then we get the Noely family back and then we are off to Concrete for New Year's/Third Christmas.
Wednesday, December 28, 2011
Saturday, December 24, 2011
Home for the Holidays!
In the time interceding my visit to Austin, very little has changed, but I feel like a lot has happened. Still job hunting, still searching for something to do that makes me feel like the days don't slip away into an eternity of unemployment. But it's been great to have friends around. We had a glamorous evening of ballet at the Nutcracker with Italian food with Shaoshu to celebrate "Kirkland Christmas." We got to see of Matt's bestie and his family before they head to more southerly climes for a holiday adventure, which involved us stopping my a taco truck, and everyone being really glad to see us. It's great.
And now we are home. I think I haven't been home in more than 2 years, so it's exciting to see the work that has happened at the house (I grew up here?) and run in to people I know but have seen since forever. The main objectives today are to MAKE LOTS OF FOOD, and then get hungry enough to eat it. In the background, presents are being wrapped, and decorations are being assembled. We are all cheering Noel's efforts to convert the next week of breakfasts to yeast based delights (cinnamon rolls, monkey bread, munlies and who knows what else). I'm waiting my turn for the oven to convert some sugar cookie dough into lemon cookies, possibly thumbprints, maybe some other stuff. And there is the potential for meringues. And who knows what else. Ha, Mom was worried we wouldn't have enough food. Turns out we just won't have enough butter- and that is the mark of a good holiday.
And there is a baby! He warmed up to all the extended family quite quick, especially if Mom or Dad is not far off. We can all take turns plying him with such fancy toys as empty wrapping paper tubes (which are great as drum sticks, wands or megaphones), wooden spoons (which carry the tasty memories of recipes past), and the menagerie of percussion instruments that have always been a staple of the house. Tyler took great joy from the washboard sounds of Mom's wicker chest/coffee table, driving remote controls along the top to bring out the music.
Oh, and he LOVES Grandpa's mustache. He seems deeply tempted to try and taste it off of Dad's face. His Nana gave him his first ever haircut, so he is looking quite well put together. Nana also found him a new type of solid food, called Mum-mums, which are like quick melting zwiebacks. With his serious Winston face, he latches on to the big cracker with both hands and then "crunch-crunch-crunch" with those two little teeth. And speaking of baby advances, he is also very happy to climb the stairs to the apartment. I think we've got a climber in the making.
Merry Christmas to those of you not lucky enough to be here at the house with us. Maybe next year we'll amass all the readership in Austin TX for a Christmas Blowout Redeaux.
And now we are home. I think I haven't been home in more than 2 years, so it's exciting to see the work that has happened at the house (I grew up here?) and run in to people I know but have seen since forever. The main objectives today are to MAKE LOTS OF FOOD, and then get hungry enough to eat it. In the background, presents are being wrapped, and decorations are being assembled. We are all cheering Noel's efforts to convert the next week of breakfasts to yeast based delights (cinnamon rolls, monkey bread, munlies and who knows what else). I'm waiting my turn for the oven to convert some sugar cookie dough into lemon cookies, possibly thumbprints, maybe some other stuff. And there is the potential for meringues. And who knows what else. Ha, Mom was worried we wouldn't have enough food. Turns out we just won't have enough butter- and that is the mark of a good holiday.
And there is a baby! He warmed up to all the extended family quite quick, especially if Mom or Dad is not far off. We can all take turns plying him with such fancy toys as empty wrapping paper tubes (which are great as drum sticks, wands or megaphones), wooden spoons (which carry the tasty memories of recipes past), and the menagerie of percussion instruments that have always been a staple of the house. Tyler took great joy from the washboard sounds of Mom's wicker chest/coffee table, driving remote controls along the top to bring out the music.
Oh, and he LOVES Grandpa's mustache. He seems deeply tempted to try and taste it off of Dad's face. His Nana gave him his first ever haircut, so he is looking quite well put together. Nana also found him a new type of solid food, called Mum-mums, which are like quick melting zwiebacks. With his serious Winston face, he latches on to the big cracker with both hands and then "crunch-crunch-crunch" with those two little teeth. And speaking of baby advances, he is also very happy to climb the stairs to the apartment. I think we've got a climber in the making.
Merry Christmas to those of you not lucky enough to be here at the house with us. Maybe next year we'll amass all the readership in Austin TX for a Christmas Blowout Redeaux.
Saturday, December 17, 2011
What it is Like to Have a Real Baby
Oh, man. Last night was rough. Sandlin will remember the night when we were playing Dominion with some friends and Tyler hit a rough patch. We spent an hour trying to get him to calm down, and eventually he went back to sleep, but the whole time he was yelling like his arms were broken, heartbreaking.
Last night it was like that for the entire night. I really wish I knew what was wrong with him. We put him down and he slept for maybe a half an hour before waking up screaming. We could calm him down by holding him, but he was still kinda fussy. And whenever we put him down, he'd start shrieking again. And not in a 'I want my mom to come hold me', way. In a 'I hurt' way, which is horrible to hear. Eventually Jess and I got him go go back to sleep, after some Baby Tylenol and a lot of carrying (I did get him to sleep on my shoulder, just not laying down) we got him to go to sleep in his crib. That lasted for maybe an hour before he woke up crying again, and the pattern repeated all night. Jess insisted on taking care of him, saying she wouldn't be able to sleep if he was crying anyway, and eventually she took him downstairs and just slept with him on her chest on the couch. I think sleeping upright helps. I took over in the morning and Jess took a nap.
Tyler was a little better this morning, but still not quite his usual, ebullient self. We passed ideas back and forth: constipation, ear infection, the gout, but we weren't sure, and after a night like last night, we decided it would be a really good idea to get him checked out. We found a doctor's office, got an appointment, and had him checked out. Turns out it's a Yes on the ear infection, though only in one ear. I'm going to go out and get the antibiotics pretty soon. Though with one other wrinkle. We saw a notice on Friday at the day care that one of the babies came down with Chicken Pox. Considering how infectious it is, there's every likelihood that Tyler may have picked that up as well. He didn't have a fever last night, but he did have one at the doctor's office. It'll be a bummer if he has it: they actually have a vaccine now, but you can't get it until you're 1 year old. But nothing scary or bad, just a fever and a complainy baby for a few days. We'll get some oatmeal bath for him.
One week! I think I've managed to get all my Christmas stuff in order, though doing it all remotely has clearly led to some beans getting spilled. I do try my best, though. With any luck Tyler's ears will have cleared up by the time we need to mix him up with altitude.
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Tyler is helping me blog.
Also, Sandlin visiting was fantastic, Algae seems really interesting, and she totally forgot her algae sample in my fridge. I'll try to bring it up to Alaska so she can forget it there, too. Lots of eating of food and lots of Baby squishing. Tyler had to get used to the loud laughter of so many Preecs Children and friends in a room together, but he had to get used to the same sound when he was born and Daddy started laughing.
-N
Last night it was like that for the entire night. I really wish I knew what was wrong with him. We put him down and he slept for maybe a half an hour before waking up screaming. We could calm him down by holding him, but he was still kinda fussy. And whenever we put him down, he'd start shrieking again. And not in a 'I want my mom to come hold me', way. In a 'I hurt' way, which is horrible to hear. Eventually Jess and I got him go go back to sleep, after some Baby Tylenol and a lot of carrying (I did get him to sleep on my shoulder, just not laying down) we got him to go to sleep in his crib. That lasted for maybe an hour before he woke up crying again, and the pattern repeated all night. Jess insisted on taking care of him, saying she wouldn't be able to sleep if he was crying anyway, and eventually she took him downstairs and just slept with him on her chest on the couch. I think sleeping upright helps. I took over in the morning and Jess took a nap.
Tyler was a little better this morning, but still not quite his usual, ebullient self. We passed ideas back and forth: constipation, ear infection, the gout, but we weren't sure, and after a night like last night, we decided it would be a really good idea to get him checked out. We found a doctor's office, got an appointment, and had him checked out. Turns out it's a Yes on the ear infection, though only in one ear. I'm going to go out and get the antibiotics pretty soon. Though with one other wrinkle. We saw a notice on Friday at the day care that one of the babies came down with Chicken Pox. Considering how infectious it is, there's every likelihood that Tyler may have picked that up as well. He didn't have a fever last night, but he did have one at the doctor's office. It'll be a bummer if he has it: they actually have a vaccine now, but you can't get it until you're 1 year old. But nothing scary or bad, just a fever and a complainy baby for a few days. We'll get some oatmeal bath for him.
One week! I think I've managed to get all my Christmas stuff in order, though doing it all remotely has clearly led to some beans getting spilled. I do try my best, though. With any luck Tyler's ears will have cleared up by the time we need to mix him up with altitude.
` 1xZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZze `1z1 yf6ykkkkguguvttttttttttttttttttttttttuuuvgut
Tyler is helping me blog.
Also, Sandlin visiting was fantastic, Algae seems really interesting, and she totally forgot her algae sample in my fridge. I'll try to bring it up to Alaska so she can forget it there, too. Lots of eating of food and lots of Baby squishing. Tyler had to get used to the loud laughter of so many Preecs Children and friends in a room together, but he had to get used to the same sound when he was born and Daddy started laughing.
-N
Monday, December 12, 2011
Amazing things Tyler can do
I was here just a couple months ago. At that time, Tyler was itching to start crawling, and just starting out on some solid foods. Since then, he has learned SO much! In no particular order...
-He can crawl, and does crawl all over the house.
-He can cruise- that is, pull him self up and shuffle around things (like walking, but without being able to balance)
-He can feed himself "puffs"- super soft near cheerios, with his very cautious two finger pincher motion. Until his hands get drooly enough and then they stick to his wrists and he can just lick them off, no dexterity required.
-He can feed himself bits of banana, although when he does, it makes him cringe in horror at all the flavor.
-He can tell his parents he wants MORE
-He is just starting to dance a little- you know, that heart melting baby bopping thing they do? He is starting to sway and bop to the music.
-He is starting to get more expressive with his verbalization. I am pretty sure there were some disapproving raspberries yesterday.
-He can crawl, and does crawl all over the house.
-He can cruise- that is, pull him self up and shuffle around things (like walking, but without being able to balance)
-He can feed himself "puffs"- super soft near cheerios, with his very cautious two finger pincher motion. Until his hands get drooly enough and then they stick to his wrists and he can just lick them off, no dexterity required.
-He can feed himself bits of banana, although when he does, it makes him cringe in horror at all the flavor.
-He can tell his parents he wants MORE
-He is just starting to dance a little- you know, that heart melting baby bopping thing they do? He is starting to sway and bop to the music.
-He is starting to get more expressive with his verbalization. I am pretty sure there were some disapproving raspberries yesterday.
Sunday, December 11, 2011
These are a few of my favorite things
I got to spend the last couple days in Austin Texas indulging in some of my favorite things- squishy baby cheeks, dorky science, great friends, fun with the family and so much yummy food I'm not eating again until Christmas. I came down for an algae workshop and met a friend from Pittsburgh who got me interested in algae for biodiesel in the first place. It was at the University of Texas, so we BOTH got to stay with my favorite Texans, Noel, Jessie and uh... oh yeah, my nephew THE BEST BABY IN THE WORLD. How fun!
The workshop was fantastic! We learned SO much, and I've got some big ambitions for when I get back. I also got to meet some great people, and hope to be able to keep those contacts. And frankly I've been fighting the urge all day to stop playing with Tyler to check my email, make some calls to some people, look up some things online... my excitement over this workshop will still be available after Tuesday- Tyler's lovely little cheeks will be thousands of miles away by then. Prioritize. My former coworker/classmate Karen is one of my favorite people to indulge in this type of dorkitude with, she is even more excited and motivated and forward thinking about turning a PhD in yeast into a career in green energy, so it's really great to have someone I trust and enjoy so much to take a class with, to share these contacts with and continue to rehash our experience with. And I got a dose of Pittsburgh news, which made me feel like I'm not so far away yet.
And I did get to see lots of Tyler. I was a little sad that he didn't recognize me when I first arrived (I was here just a couple months ago), but he warmed up to both me and Karen within a couple days. The real test will be to see if he likes me again at Christmas. Oo, AND Karen and I got to Babysit for Tyler while his parents went out just to have fun. They enjoyed the company holiday party, and we invited some other former Pittsburghers over to catch up and watch the baby monitor (the baby was 100% asleep on my watch). It was great all around.
Once the workshop was over, we were free to play. We managed to eat almost all the food in Austin: BBQ, Tex-Mex, more BBQ, truck food, giant donuts, Giant onion rings, most of Whole Foods... like I said, I may never be hungry again. In between eating, we did a little shopping in South Congress, and took a nice walk in the Zilker Botanical Gardens. This helped us work up an appetite for even more eating- including Noel's rendition of Mom's beautiful stuffed pumpkin, and Noel's famous Egg Nog French Toast. Yes. Noel loves me very much. He even braided my hair every day. I'm not sure what I did to endear him to me so much, but if he keeps treating me so nice, I'll probably come back next weekend.
The workshop was fantastic! We learned SO much, and I've got some big ambitions for when I get back. I also got to meet some great people, and hope to be able to keep those contacts. And frankly I've been fighting the urge all day to stop playing with Tyler to check my email, make some calls to some people, look up some things online... my excitement over this workshop will still be available after Tuesday- Tyler's lovely little cheeks will be thousands of miles away by then. Prioritize. My former coworker/classmate Karen is one of my favorite people to indulge in this type of dorkitude with, she is even more excited and motivated and forward thinking about turning a PhD in yeast into a career in green energy, so it's really great to have someone I trust and enjoy so much to take a class with, to share these contacts with and continue to rehash our experience with. And I got a dose of Pittsburgh news, which made me feel like I'm not so far away yet.
And I did get to see lots of Tyler. I was a little sad that he didn't recognize me when I first arrived (I was here just a couple months ago), but he warmed up to both me and Karen within a couple days. The real test will be to see if he likes me again at Christmas. Oo, AND Karen and I got to Babysit for Tyler while his parents went out just to have fun. They enjoyed the company holiday party, and we invited some other former Pittsburghers over to catch up and watch the baby monitor (the baby was 100% asleep on my watch). It was great all around.
Once the workshop was over, we were free to play. We managed to eat almost all the food in Austin: BBQ, Tex-Mex, more BBQ, truck food, giant donuts, Giant onion rings, most of Whole Foods... like I said, I may never be hungry again. In between eating, we did a little shopping in South Congress, and took a nice walk in the Zilker Botanical Gardens. This helped us work up an appetite for even more eating- including Noel's rendition of Mom's beautiful stuffed pumpkin, and Noel's famous Egg Nog French Toast. Yes. Noel loves me very much. He even braided my hair every day. I'm not sure what I did to endear him to me so much, but if he keeps treating me so nice, I'll probably come back next weekend.
Tuesday, December 6, 2011
Our first guests!
I had Nana AND Mom come and visit the new house in Kirkland. Let me interrupt with a quick PSA: any and all of you are welcome to come and visit for as long as you like. We are slowly improving the accommodations here, but I estimate we can easily sleep 5 spare adults, and quickly make room for more at our friends homes, so come visit.
But the family was here! It was great! We were mostly looking at various retirement communities for Nana to consider. We went to FIVE. If you are unfamiliar with this process, this is a HUGE number. Nana was a trooper, critical enough to insist on getting ALL the information she wanted, open minded enough to give everyone a fair shake. We'll see how the final results of this shake out- there are certainly more communities in this area that we didn't see, but I would go so far as to say we did see some places that Nana would be really happy at. (and at least one we all ruled out on actually visiting) That's a big relief to me, really. I mean, I don't want Nana living in a crappy home where no one cares about her and there is nothing fun to do. I like the idea of her moving over here 1) so she'll be close to me (selfish? yes) and 2) so she can spend more time focusing on what she wants to do with her time these days, which is less cooking and house cleaning, and more volunteering, reading, studying, praying and spending time with me. Or at least, that's what I believe she is looking forward to. Clearly, this is only worth it if she feels comfortable at a place, and while I am optimistic that even some of the places can provide that, this is a big decision for Nana to make and would certainly merit some cogitation and sharing of ideas with family members. So everyone call Nana and tell her you love her.
Between the constant going to homes, we also made time to go to the Christian Science Church in Bothell where everyone was SO nice to Nana, and I would feel really happy if she wanted to be friends with those people who were very supportive, and helpful and just so darn nice. We also grabbed a couple of nice dinners out, but mostly we spent about 2.5 hours with every location, working on a very in depth spread sheet and generally acting like sponges. It's exhausting stuff. With luck, though, this means there will be more visits to our house from Nana, and possible other people, which we are really happy about.
But the family was here! It was great! We were mostly looking at various retirement communities for Nana to consider. We went to FIVE. If you are unfamiliar with this process, this is a HUGE number. Nana was a trooper, critical enough to insist on getting ALL the information she wanted, open minded enough to give everyone a fair shake. We'll see how the final results of this shake out- there are certainly more communities in this area that we didn't see, but I would go so far as to say we did see some places that Nana would be really happy at. (and at least one we all ruled out on actually visiting) That's a big relief to me, really. I mean, I don't want Nana living in a crappy home where no one cares about her and there is nothing fun to do. I like the idea of her moving over here 1) so she'll be close to me (selfish? yes) and 2) so she can spend more time focusing on what she wants to do with her time these days, which is less cooking and house cleaning, and more volunteering, reading, studying, praying and spending time with me. Or at least, that's what I believe she is looking forward to. Clearly, this is only worth it if she feels comfortable at a place, and while I am optimistic that even some of the places can provide that, this is a big decision for Nana to make and would certainly merit some cogitation and sharing of ideas with family members. So everyone call Nana and tell her you love her.
Between the constant going to homes, we also made time to go to the Christian Science Church in Bothell where everyone was SO nice to Nana, and I would feel really happy if she wanted to be friends with those people who were very supportive, and helpful and just so darn nice. We also grabbed a couple of nice dinners out, but mostly we spent about 2.5 hours with every location, working on a very in depth spread sheet and generally acting like sponges. It's exhausting stuff. With luck, though, this means there will be more visits to our house from Nana, and possible other people, which we are really happy about.
Monday, December 5, 2011
Tyler's First Blog Post
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Sunday, December 4, 2011
Finally, Rain
None of this '30 minutes of heavy downpour and then nothing' kind of rain. Real rain. It's been precipitating on and off for the past three days. That'll fill up some reservoirs, I'll bet. I worry a little much about water reserves here in Austin. We are a leetle bit close to a dessert, and changing weather patterns could hit us pretty hard. Though clearly before we hit the 'people start dying of thirst' stage I'll probaby hit the 'my lawn is getting pretty dry' stage, so I think I'll have some warning. Regardless, for now, we've got moisture. My roof has been well-tested, my grass is greening up, and the few of my#1 potted plants that don't have holes in the bottom are looking like serious mosquito hazards. I should probably go fix that, but the last time I tried to drill a hole in the bottom of some of those masonry pots I shredded a drill tip pretty well.
Tyler went to a birthday party this weekend. Not his own, clearly. But one of his classmates from school was turning one and we found an invitation in his cubby. As it turns out, they live about 10 minutes of walking away from our house. Which would normally mean we would walk, but instead we drove. I don't know if you heard, but *rain*. Anyway, there was a lot of activity, strange faces and sounds, and occasionally Tyler lost track of a mommy or a daddy and got a little fussy, but on the whole he was a very good guest. The birthday baby was sort of nonplussed by most of the presents, except for the *ball* he got. #1 excitement was definitely reserved for the cake, though. He plowed through that thing. I think the mess is most of the fun. His family had a one-eyed, very fat, incredibly friendly cat, so they seem like nice people, but I didn't see any video game consoles, so I don't really know...
Tyler is a fiend for puffs. He's definitely figured out how chewing works, and he's gotten good enough at it that we no longer have to ration him to one puff at a time for fear of him choking himself with his zeal. We've been trying to teach him some baby sign language for 'more' but at the moment he's eschewing the traditional sign for simply 'slapping the table'. Whatever works, I suppose.
Christmastime is almost upon us, and I've been shopping. Thank heaven for the internet, I don't know how I'd do this mobile Christmas thing without it. Jess is already getting excited about the prospect of staying home next Christmas, though. I'm worried a bit about Tyler on the plane, but I think we're set up to do it just about as well as we can. We'll get him some new toys to keep his attention and keep him dosed up with puffs. If he wants to eat those things for the entire flight and maintain a happy attitude, then he has my blessing.
Sensei mentioned at Judo that he might give me a black belt before Christmas. OH MAN!
-N
Tyler went to a birthday party this weekend. Not his own, clearly. But one of his classmates from school was turning one and we found an invitation in his cubby. As it turns out, they live about 10 minutes of walking away from our house. Which would normally mean we would walk, but instead we drove. I don't know if you heard, but *rain*. Anyway, there was a lot of activity, strange faces and sounds, and occasionally Tyler lost track of a mommy or a daddy and got a little fussy, but on the whole he was a very good guest. The birthday baby was sort of nonplussed by most of the presents, except for the *ball* he got. #1 excitement was definitely reserved for the cake, though. He plowed through that thing. I think the mess is most of the fun. His family had a one-eyed, very fat, incredibly friendly cat, so they seem like nice people, but I didn't see any video game consoles, so I don't really know...
Tyler is a fiend for puffs. He's definitely figured out how chewing works, and he's gotten good enough at it that we no longer have to ration him to one puff at a time for fear of him choking himself with his zeal. We've been trying to teach him some baby sign language for 'more' but at the moment he's eschewing the traditional sign for simply 'slapping the table'. Whatever works, I suppose.
Christmastime is almost upon us, and I've been shopping. Thank heaven for the internet, I don't know how I'd do this mobile Christmas thing without it. Jess is already getting excited about the prospect of staying home next Christmas, though. I'm worried a bit about Tyler on the plane, but I think we're set up to do it just about as well as we can. We'll get him some new toys to keep his attention and keep him dosed up with puffs. If he wants to eat those things for the entire flight and maintain a happy attitude, then he has my blessing.
Sensei mentioned at Judo that he might give me a black belt before Christmas. OH MAN!
-N
Friday, December 2, 2011
I am visiting Nana=Awesome
Boohoo, woe is me. I don't have a job so the only thing I have to fill my time with is visiting my family and fantastic adventures. Pity me.
This week, the pity party is in Spokane, where Nana and I are gearing up for the Christmas season, for her visit to Seattle and her pending move out of the house. She is in really good spirits about a move (although having a Christmas tree up has that affect on most of us). We've been talking about it a lot, what the possibilities are, what she hopes for, how it all might work. It's actually kind of exciting, although there is a lot of legwork remaining to be done. But I keep trying to tell Nana I want her to move across the mountains for selfish reasons: because I want to hang out with her more. I might escalate this argument to saying aggregation the family will have a more magnetic draw on great-grandbabies from TX, if you catch my drift.
And Nana has been working very consistently on paring down the house. I am taking a suitcase full of stuff back to my house this weekend. I mention this because I know my siblings/cousins feel a little squeamish about vulturing over Nana's stuff. But people, this is Nana- she is utterly unattached to her "mortal possessions." This means, Noel, that if she happens to mention a book, or a table cloth, or a set of candlesticks that you might like, that is basically it's last stop before goodwill. There isn't a phone tree in action over these things, and most of the the things that she thinks of as "her things" (ie: not from her Mom, or sister or grandmother), she is very happy to part with. You can all expect, after the holidays, a box with your Christmas ornaments, and possibly childhood portraits which she is ready to part with. But otherwise, if you wanted to help her get stuff out of her house, I think she would be grateful. She is getting rid of it in one way or another. My luggage from this trip has some gardening books, a wooly blanket from Wales, and the "kid's toys" that Nana has had on hand for when kids come to her house (you may remember some of these children. I was once one of them).
Nana and I went to see a fantastic performance of a Christmas Carol last night at the Civic Theatre, which prompted us to think about the season tickets we would buy together for a West side theatre. And we made oodles of Candy, some of which will go with us to the Raku firing later today, which is a potluck event at this studio. We are also going in for pedicures a little later, and Saturday we are headed to My House in Kirkland for continued adventuring.
This week, the pity party is in Spokane, where Nana and I are gearing up for the Christmas season, for her visit to Seattle and her pending move out of the house. She is in really good spirits about a move (although having a Christmas tree up has that affect on most of us). We've been talking about it a lot, what the possibilities are, what she hopes for, how it all might work. It's actually kind of exciting, although there is a lot of legwork remaining to be done. But I keep trying to tell Nana I want her to move across the mountains for selfish reasons: because I want to hang out with her more. I might escalate this argument to saying aggregation the family will have a more magnetic draw on great-grandbabies from TX, if you catch my drift.
And Nana has been working very consistently on paring down the house. I am taking a suitcase full of stuff back to my house this weekend. I mention this because I know my siblings/cousins feel a little squeamish about vulturing over Nana's stuff. But people, this is Nana- she is utterly unattached to her "mortal possessions." This means, Noel, that if she happens to mention a book, or a table cloth, or a set of candlesticks that you might like, that is basically it's last stop before goodwill. There isn't a phone tree in action over these things, and most of the the things that she thinks of as "her things" (ie: not from her Mom, or sister or grandmother), she is very happy to part with. You can all expect, after the holidays, a box with your Christmas ornaments, and possibly childhood portraits which she is ready to part with. But otherwise, if you wanted to help her get stuff out of her house, I think she would be grateful. She is getting rid of it in one way or another. My luggage from this trip has some gardening books, a wooly blanket from Wales, and the "kid's toys" that Nana has had on hand for when kids come to her house (you may remember some of these children. I was once one of them).
Nana and I went to see a fantastic performance of a Christmas Carol last night at the Civic Theatre, which prompted us to think about the season tickets we would buy together for a West side theatre. And we made oodles of Candy, some of which will go with us to the Raku firing later today, which is a potluck event at this studio. We are also going in for pedicures a little later, and Saturday we are headed to My House in Kirkland for continued adventuring.
Sunday, November 27, 2011
Turkey, Et. Al.
'Tis the end of our Thanksgiving weekend too, and it has been a very nice one. This also marks the first time Jess and I have celebrated Thanksgiving by staying home and not traveling across the country and driving ourselves crazy. I gotta say, if you can swing it, Thanksgiving at home is a pretty good way to go. Though you do have to cook for yourselves.
Wednesday was prep day, and like any good father, I just assumed I would have no time to do anything the next day (babies are unpredictable like that) and did whatever I could. Our spread was a little more modest, but I did manage to brine the turkey and set up for both green bean and Sweet potato casserole on Wednesday. Thursday I cooked, and having a little turkey breast to cook instead of a huge honking Turkey makes all the difference, let me tell you. Ever cook a turkey in an hour? It's a little less iconic on the table, but white meat is all we really want anyway, so it worked out. Then a couple of casseroles, some Stove Top stuffing, can-shaped cranberry sauce (the best) and some brown-n-serve rolls and we were in business. Everything was delicious, and we even bought ourselves a few pies to sustain ourselves during dessert. Of course, those pies had been missing a few wedges since we had been trying them out earlier in the week to make sure they were, um, ripe.
Friday was pretty sedate, though notable because it rained, which is always nice when you can get some of that in Texas. I had the bright idea to go get some discount turkey, but there weren't any notable markdowns so we just picked up some random stuff and came home. We're still undecided about Christmas lights, whether or not we actually want to put them up, and the fact that the ground was all wet meant we didn't want to go trudging around in the yard, so we just went on a few walks and played with Tyler a lot. And a few video games, I won't lie.
Saturday I decided to knock the last thing off my long weekend to-do list and finish my latest song. I've been working on the (unofficial) Ticom Geomatics theme song for a while and had the music and lyrics all written, but I hadn't been able to record the lyrics yet because...I've been busy playing video games. So I convinced myself I wasn't allowed to play Saint's Row until the song was done, and then Jess was nice enough to watch Tyler so I could do some recording.
It's still fairly low production value, I personally think it sounds like I'm in a Karaoke Bar, but it's functional, and a worthwhile proof of concept. Maybe I can get some Ticom musicians to help me with a more professional sounding version, starting with the singer. I'm not amazing. I'll post it up in a bit, but if you get desperate, or I forget, you can e-mail me and I’ll send it to you.
Then today was Judo. Our sensei, who just got promoted to 8th degree black belt (one of only 5 in the COUNTRY) decided to have a little seminar, and so I went and Jessie came to watch. There were only about 8 of us there, but it was great fun, good education, and excellent exercise, clocking in at 3 hours of judo, which ain't bad. After that, we've been at home and just fussing around with Tyler and trying to get him to stay awake until his bedtime. I think we've managed to skype with pretty much everyone on my skype list this weekend, so you've all seen his most recent antics. Lots of crawling, getting into things he shouldn't, and eating puffs like it's going out of style.
-N
Wednesday was prep day, and like any good father, I just assumed I would have no time to do anything the next day (babies are unpredictable like that) and did whatever I could. Our spread was a little more modest, but I did manage to brine the turkey and set up for both green bean and Sweet potato casserole on Wednesday. Thursday I cooked, and having a little turkey breast to cook instead of a huge honking Turkey makes all the difference, let me tell you. Ever cook a turkey in an hour? It's a little less iconic on the table, but white meat is all we really want anyway, so it worked out. Then a couple of casseroles, some Stove Top stuffing, can-shaped cranberry sauce (the best) and some brown-n-serve rolls and we were in business. Everything was delicious, and we even bought ourselves a few pies to sustain ourselves during dessert. Of course, those pies had been missing a few wedges since we had been trying them out earlier in the week to make sure they were, um, ripe.
Friday was pretty sedate, though notable because it rained, which is always nice when you can get some of that in Texas. I had the bright idea to go get some discount turkey, but there weren't any notable markdowns so we just picked up some random stuff and came home. We're still undecided about Christmas lights, whether or not we actually want to put them up, and the fact that the ground was all wet meant we didn't want to go trudging around in the yard, so we just went on a few walks and played with Tyler a lot. And a few video games, I won't lie.
Saturday I decided to knock the last thing off my long weekend to-do list and finish my latest song. I've been working on the (unofficial) Ticom Geomatics theme song for a while and had the music and lyrics all written, but I hadn't been able to record the lyrics yet because...I've been busy playing video games. So I convinced myself I wasn't allowed to play Saint's Row until the song was done, and then Jess was nice enough to watch Tyler so I could do some recording.
It's still fairly low production value, I personally think it sounds like I'm in a Karaoke Bar, but it's functional, and a worthwhile proof of concept. Maybe I can get some Ticom musicians to help me with a more professional sounding version, starting with the singer. I'm not amazing. I'll post it up in a bit, but if you get desperate, or I forget, you can e-mail me and I’ll send it to you.
Then today was Judo. Our sensei, who just got promoted to 8th degree black belt (one of only 5 in the COUNTRY) decided to have a little seminar, and so I went and Jessie came to watch. There were only about 8 of us there, but it was great fun, good education, and excellent exercise, clocking in at 3 hours of judo, which ain't bad. After that, we've been at home and just fussing around with Tyler and trying to get him to stay awake until his bedtime. I think we've managed to skype with pretty much everyone on my skype list this weekend, so you've all seen his most recent antics. Lots of crawling, getting into things he shouldn't, and eating puffs like it's going out of style.
-N
Saturday, November 26, 2011
Thanksgiving survivors
Happy Thanksgiving, All!
We were very exited to be close enough to drive up to my mother-in-law's for a weekend of fun and eating. See, moving home is great, because you can get together and plan a big meal to share with you family in person, and then get together AGAIN and share it. How cool! Right? I mean, that was kinda how it turned out. Thanksgiving Eve, as it were, I started feeling not awesome- achey, sleepy, sore throat. By the time Matt came home I was reduced to shivers on the couch under a pile of blankets. In a brief moment of clear-minded-ness brought on by Tylenol, I remember 'Hey sometimes people don't like it when you bring them germs as hostess gifts.' I tried to explain this to Matt, but I am pretty sure my pathetic muttering came off as much more "Please take me to your mom's, she'll take care of me."
In the morning Matt confirmed, that yes, his saintly mother would still take us and all the germs we could carry for Thanksgiving AND put our entire, ambitious feast on the table. Whadda Woman! Picture this, I moved directly from the couch to the car, took a long nap in the car and arrived in slippers, sweats and a fleece blanket thrown over my head. I gave a big hug Betty, who made me a cup of tea, which I immediately took to bed. At some point, Matt poked his head in to ask how you make sausage cornbread stuffing. I believe my exact recipe was "Sausage, Cornbread and more butter." I woke up once thinking I might be energetic and asked "Are we having mashed potatoes?" and then went back to bed. I don't know that I felt so terrible, but being awake and suffering just didn't seem in the cards. During one of my brief peroids of awakefulness, Matt did say that he was feeling achey, maybe from his workout. This is a literary device called forshadowing. After a couple more naps and mugs of tea, dinner happened!
And let me just brag on this spread, because I optimistically committed us to it and then didn't lift a finger to get it on the table. I thought surely, the two remaining chefs would decide chard AND Brussels sprouts is overkill, or that maybe a waldorf salad was redundant considering we had like 4 other vegetable dishes on the table- but no. No pan was spared in the making of our Thanksgiving feast, which should come as no surprise given our turn-outs in the past. The centerpiece was of course a beautiful, herbed and brined turkey. Together, they made an amazing sausage and cornbread (that Betty baked fresh) stuffing, as well as Brussels sprouts with sopressetta, creamed chard, mashed potatoes and parsnips and a green casserole which I managed to muff up by giving him crunchy onions that expired 2 years ago (uh, yeah, we moved with that....). There was also a heavenly sweet potatoe dish, an heirloom quality orange-cranberry relish and a divine pumpkin cheesecake. AND a waldorf salad, which while I supposed Bety didn't grow the nuts, everything else in it was home grown AND my-mother-in-law's-best-recipe Deviled Eggs and a crazy good gravy to drown everything in. It was amazing. It took like and hour to move it all on to the table, and then on to each of our plates. And now is a good time to clarify, that yes, it was just the three of us eating. We of course ate ourselves silly, and then retired the feast to the fridge until we could consider cheesecake. I believe I had another nap. And about the time I got up to eating cheesecake, Matt said that, no, he didn't want any, he would just go to bed. Which I thought was weird- especially when I tasted how good the cheesecake was! By my bed time, my throat was just feeling bruised from swelling and I was tired, but Matt had mumbled a goodbye, and then curled up on the bed, fully clothed and passed out. Uh-oh.
He spent the rest of the night tossing and turning and feeling awful. He woke up in the morning sort of confused about it, like he often is about when his body does not respond as directed. After some discussion, we concluded that maybe you don't only need to take medicine when you are SICK, if you use a narrow definition of SICK that requires hospitalization, maybe sometimes you can take some medicine when you don't feel good. Having some aleve in him made it easier to get him interested in drinking juice, but unfortunately, his interest in food was completely off. Betty and I went for a brief sprint around town for "black friday" shopping- we went to the gallery, and her friend's gallery and the grocery store for more lemons for my lemon honey tea. I got some beautiful cards, and then was in sore need of a nap. I cannot exaggerate the amount I slept this weekend. Matt and I barely saw each other we were sleeping so much. This is partly due to illness, but I think also a cry for help in the form of blackout curtains for our bedroom. By today, we both felt with it enough to pack our own things out to the car and stay awake for the long (2 hours) drive home. Matt took a shower, put on all his warm clothes and came to sit on the couch with me. Then the cat yurped, and after he recovered his dignity, he came to be the cherry on top of our sick family sundae.
As objectively bad as most of that sounds, it was actually a really nice weekend. I mean, if you have to be sick, it is so much nicer to be around people who want to take care of you and can make tea without batting an eye. I'm thoroughly convinced our health was buoyed up by a full array of hearty and nourishing foods, prepared lovingly by my (blessedly un-infected) mother-in-law. And if we left too many germs behind, I will totally rush back to concrete to make the tea and prime the DVDs.
We were very exited to be close enough to drive up to my mother-in-law's for a weekend of fun and eating. See, moving home is great, because you can get together and plan a big meal to share with you family in person, and then get together AGAIN and share it. How cool! Right? I mean, that was kinda how it turned out. Thanksgiving Eve, as it were, I started feeling not awesome- achey, sleepy, sore throat. By the time Matt came home I was reduced to shivers on the couch under a pile of blankets. In a brief moment of clear-minded-ness brought on by Tylenol, I remember 'Hey sometimes people don't like it when you bring them germs as hostess gifts.' I tried to explain this to Matt, but I am pretty sure my pathetic muttering came off as much more "Please take me to your mom's, she'll take care of me."
In the morning Matt confirmed, that yes, his saintly mother would still take us and all the germs we could carry for Thanksgiving AND put our entire, ambitious feast on the table. Whadda Woman! Picture this, I moved directly from the couch to the car, took a long nap in the car and arrived in slippers, sweats and a fleece blanket thrown over my head. I gave a big hug Betty, who made me a cup of tea, which I immediately took to bed. At some point, Matt poked his head in to ask how you make sausage cornbread stuffing. I believe my exact recipe was "Sausage, Cornbread and more butter." I woke up once thinking I might be energetic and asked "Are we having mashed potatoes?" and then went back to bed. I don't know that I felt so terrible, but being awake and suffering just didn't seem in the cards. During one of my brief peroids of awakefulness, Matt did say that he was feeling achey, maybe from his workout. This is a literary device called forshadowing. After a couple more naps and mugs of tea, dinner happened!
And let me just brag on this spread, because I optimistically committed us to it and then didn't lift a finger to get it on the table. I thought surely, the two remaining chefs would decide chard AND Brussels sprouts is overkill, or that maybe a waldorf salad was redundant considering we had like 4 other vegetable dishes on the table- but no. No pan was spared in the making of our Thanksgiving feast, which should come as no surprise given our turn-outs in the past. The centerpiece was of course a beautiful, herbed and brined turkey. Together, they made an amazing sausage and cornbread (that Betty baked fresh) stuffing, as well as Brussels sprouts with sopressetta, creamed chard, mashed potatoes and parsnips and a green casserole which I managed to muff up by giving him crunchy onions that expired 2 years ago (uh, yeah, we moved with that....). There was also a heavenly sweet potatoe dish, an heirloom quality orange-cranberry relish and a divine pumpkin cheesecake. AND a waldorf salad, which while I supposed Bety didn't grow the nuts, everything else in it was home grown AND my-mother-in-law's-best-recipe Deviled Eggs and a crazy good gravy to drown everything in. It was amazing. It took like and hour to move it all on to the table, and then on to each of our plates. And now is a good time to clarify, that yes, it was just the three of us eating. We of course ate ourselves silly, and then retired the feast to the fridge until we could consider cheesecake. I believe I had another nap. And about the time I got up to eating cheesecake, Matt said that, no, he didn't want any, he would just go to bed. Which I thought was weird- especially when I tasted how good the cheesecake was! By my bed time, my throat was just feeling bruised from swelling and I was tired, but Matt had mumbled a goodbye, and then curled up on the bed, fully clothed and passed out. Uh-oh.
He spent the rest of the night tossing and turning and feeling awful. He woke up in the morning sort of confused about it, like he often is about when his body does not respond as directed. After some discussion, we concluded that maybe you don't only need to take medicine when you are SICK, if you use a narrow definition of SICK that requires hospitalization, maybe sometimes you can take some medicine when you don't feel good. Having some aleve in him made it easier to get him interested in drinking juice, but unfortunately, his interest in food was completely off. Betty and I went for a brief sprint around town for "black friday" shopping- we went to the gallery, and her friend's gallery and the grocery store for more lemons for my lemon honey tea. I got some beautiful cards, and then was in sore need of a nap. I cannot exaggerate the amount I slept this weekend. Matt and I barely saw each other we were sleeping so much. This is partly due to illness, but I think also a cry for help in the form of blackout curtains for our bedroom. By today, we both felt with it enough to pack our own things out to the car and stay awake for the long (2 hours) drive home. Matt took a shower, put on all his warm clothes and came to sit on the couch with me. Then the cat yurped, and after he recovered his dignity, he came to be the cherry on top of our sick family sundae.
As objectively bad as most of that sounds, it was actually a really nice weekend. I mean, if you have to be sick, it is so much nicer to be around people who want to take care of you and can make tea without batting an eye. I'm thoroughly convinced our health was buoyed up by a full array of hearty and nourishing foods, prepared lovingly by my (blessedly un-infected) mother-in-law. And if we left too many germs behind, I will totally rush back to concrete to make the tea and prime the DVDs.
Wednesday, November 23, 2011
Things we are learning
You know how when you move, there is kinda a cultural re-adjustment period? You know, I can't just walk in to any Seattle grocery store and presume they will have pancetta, even if I plan on using it with my brussels sprouts. Much like how in Pittsburgh you might have to make a directed effort to find a coffee shop. Matt and I are enjoying getting to explore a bit and trying out some New things for our New life. For example, Matt has been taking the bus to work. The buses here are really nice, not to crowded and reasonably convenient, especially if you just want point-to-point travel, such as going to work (so your wife and run errands and get lost and such.) I know, I never thought I'd see the day.
We are happily indulging in all products made by Tillamok, and a bountiful harvest of fall fruits and veggies. Washington apples are as good as I remember. Oh, and speaking of apples, you know that park behind our house? You know, the one with the abandoned cabin? There is also an abandoned apple orchard in there. Matt wandered up there and grabbed a harvest of small, late season apples which turned into a very rich applesauce. We feel like we are living off the land here.
And I'll just make a contrast to the general lay-out of both Pittsburgh and Seattle/Kirkland places. Where the neighborhood down-towns of Pittsburgh always have an Italian or Middle eastern grocery store, a couple of smoke shops, at least once "local color" bar and maybe coffee or more likely a deli. In Kirkland, it's like there is a mandate that if you own a strip mall, it must contain at least one teriyaki place, one Mexican Groceria and a beer store. This provides the perfect climate for the drive through coffee place. I haven't yet indulged in one of those teriyaki places yet, but it's on my list of things to do should I ever become hungry after Thanksgiving, so maybe December.
Matt and I will be headed to Concrete for the holiday, where are phone usually get spotty service. Will try to make some calls via Betty's phone to brag about what an awesome time we are having, but if you don't hear from us, assume it's a food coma. Happy Thanksgiving, all!
We are happily indulging in all products made by Tillamok, and a bountiful harvest of fall fruits and veggies. Washington apples are as good as I remember. Oh, and speaking of apples, you know that park behind our house? You know, the one with the abandoned cabin? There is also an abandoned apple orchard in there. Matt wandered up there and grabbed a harvest of small, late season apples which turned into a very rich applesauce. We feel like we are living off the land here.
And I'll just make a contrast to the general lay-out of both Pittsburgh and Seattle/Kirkland places. Where the neighborhood down-towns of Pittsburgh always have an Italian or Middle eastern grocery store, a couple of smoke shops, at least once "local color" bar and maybe coffee or more likely a deli. In Kirkland, it's like there is a mandate that if you own a strip mall, it must contain at least one teriyaki place, one Mexican Groceria and a beer store. This provides the perfect climate for the drive through coffee place. I haven't yet indulged in one of those teriyaki places yet, but it's on my list of things to do should I ever become hungry after Thanksgiving, so maybe December.
Matt and I will be headed to Concrete for the holiday, where are phone usually get spotty service. Will try to make some calls via Betty's phone to brag about what an awesome time we are having, but if you don't hear from us, assume it's a food coma. Happy Thanksgiving, all!
Sunday, November 20, 2011
I've Been Busy
As much as I'd like to imply that I've been busy raising my son or doing other super-important things, if I'm being realistic, it's been the video games. We have passed through the holiday release season when everyone wants to make sure their games our out so people can buy them for Christmas, and I have more video games than I know what to do with. Literally, I have several video games that I'm sort of playing at random depending on what mood strikes me at the time. I'm sure I'll be playing them for months, considering how long some of these are, reportedly.
Well, not just video games. It's been a busy week at work, too. We did some data collections that I helped out on, and that led to some long days, and mine weren't even the longest. Nothing terribly mentally taxing, fortunately, just writing down numbers and running some lines of code, but it does take some time to get everything lined up, so there was an 11 hour day and a couple of 9.5 hour days last week, which meant that I felt entirely justified just coming home and playing video games until bedtime. And I didn't have nearly the most work, the guy that was in charge of analyzing the data did that. He stayed up till way too late several times and still managed to meet us in the morning for collections. I'd be frustrated that he is younger than me and doing more important stuff, but he does know his signals well. That's probably why we hired him.
My very first thanksgiving in my own home! I'm excited. Jess and I have been considering the menu, and also when we want to have it, being as we are in charge and can do whenever we want. I'm considering just doing it on Saturday, just to get discount turkeys, but then is it still thanksgiving, or just a turkey dinner? Anyway, there's definitely going to be turkey, and stove stop stuffing, and cranberry sauce from a can (you and me, dad!) and rolls and a few other things as well. Also I'm keen on going to Costco just to get an apple pie. We can each have a slice and then give the rest away at work. And Ice cream. Maybe I should make my own again. Yum.
We had a neighborhood get-together party last weekend that went off just great. I made hotdogs and sausages, because they freeze well when you buy too many of them. We met several more neighbors and saw a few old favorites, and everyone thought that Tyler was the cutest baby because they had good taste in babies. I still give credit to Nana for inspiring me to do this, it's been a great hit among the neighbors, especially when I do it in the fall and it's not a billion degrees outside.
So, Tyler, I'm sure that's what you really want to hear about yeah? He's just chugging along, developmentally. He's gotten much better at chewing, though managing the tongue is still a bit of a challenge and he does still choke himself on food a little bit, it's getting better. He's also started clapping, and even cruising a little bit. (That's where he pulls himself up on things and then steps along to the side while keeping balanced with his hands, I didn't realize it had a name until I got a baby of my own.) His crawling is also very impressive, he likes going around the house (with supervision) and getting chased and also looking around corners when he thinks one of his parents will be over there. He's still not a big fan of strangers, but he's manageable as long as parents are within sight.
He's also started liking walking again, and he's way faster at it. We all had a blast a few nights ago when we realized that when I grabbed his hands he'd take off running and bouncing, especially when mommy was right behind, threatening tickles the whole way. That was fun. He's definitely getting a lot more expressive, and expressive in a way that makes me think there's a tiny, emerging personality behind it, as opposed to just the random facial movements I've seen before. Maybe that's just the proud dad talking.
Jess hired a cleaning service to come by the house. When we got back we just wandered around saying 'wow' and looking at how darn clean everything was. Especially down at the floor level where certain family members seem to like to crawl. So we signed up for them to come by monthly. Not enough that we have to stop cleaning after ourselves, but all those tasks that seem to pile up and have to get done 'someday' now just get taken care of. Dusting and cleaning mirrors and the like. Very convenient. We also hired some people to come by and trim up our trees to make them look nice. So now I have people taking care of my lawn, my trees, my cleaning, and even my baby. I just have to hire a cook and someone to do my job for me and I can retire.
-N
Well, not just video games. It's been a busy week at work, too. We did some data collections that I helped out on, and that led to some long days, and mine weren't even the longest. Nothing terribly mentally taxing, fortunately, just writing down numbers and running some lines of code, but it does take some time to get everything lined up, so there was an 11 hour day and a couple of 9.5 hour days last week, which meant that I felt entirely justified just coming home and playing video games until bedtime. And I didn't have nearly the most work, the guy that was in charge of analyzing the data did that. He stayed up till way too late several times and still managed to meet us in the morning for collections. I'd be frustrated that he is younger than me and doing more important stuff, but he does know his signals well. That's probably why we hired him.
My very first thanksgiving in my own home! I'm excited. Jess and I have been considering the menu, and also when we want to have it, being as we are in charge and can do whenever we want. I'm considering just doing it on Saturday, just to get discount turkeys, but then is it still thanksgiving, or just a turkey dinner? Anyway, there's definitely going to be turkey, and stove stop stuffing, and cranberry sauce from a can (you and me, dad!) and rolls and a few other things as well. Also I'm keen on going to Costco just to get an apple pie. We can each have a slice and then give the rest away at work. And Ice cream. Maybe I should make my own again. Yum.
We had a neighborhood get-together party last weekend that went off just great. I made hotdogs and sausages, because they freeze well when you buy too many of them. We met several more neighbors and saw a few old favorites, and everyone thought that Tyler was the cutest baby because they had good taste in babies. I still give credit to Nana for inspiring me to do this, it's been a great hit among the neighbors, especially when I do it in the fall and it's not a billion degrees outside.
So, Tyler, I'm sure that's what you really want to hear about yeah? He's just chugging along, developmentally. He's gotten much better at chewing, though managing the tongue is still a bit of a challenge and he does still choke himself on food a little bit, it's getting better. He's also started clapping, and even cruising a little bit. (That's where he pulls himself up on things and then steps along to the side while keeping balanced with his hands, I didn't realize it had a name until I got a baby of my own.) His crawling is also very impressive, he likes going around the house (with supervision) and getting chased and also looking around corners when he thinks one of his parents will be over there. He's still not a big fan of strangers, but he's manageable as long as parents are within sight.
He's also started liking walking again, and he's way faster at it. We all had a blast a few nights ago when we realized that when I grabbed his hands he'd take off running and bouncing, especially when mommy was right behind, threatening tickles the whole way. That was fun. He's definitely getting a lot more expressive, and expressive in a way that makes me think there's a tiny, emerging personality behind it, as opposed to just the random facial movements I've seen before. Maybe that's just the proud dad talking.
Jess hired a cleaning service to come by the house. When we got back we just wandered around saying 'wow' and looking at how darn clean everything was. Especially down at the floor level where certain family members seem to like to crawl. So we signed up for them to come by monthly. Not enough that we have to stop cleaning after ourselves, but all those tasks that seem to pile up and have to get done 'someday' now just get taken care of. Dusting and cleaning mirrors and the like. Very convenient. We also hired some people to come by and trim up our trees to make them look nice. So now I have people taking care of my lawn, my trees, my cleaning, and even my baby. I just have to hire a cook and someone to do my job for me and I can retire.
-N
Friday, November 18, 2011
Things are good
Great news! My life is awesome!
I supposed that's kinda a weird lead, but that's pretty much all I want to cover in this post. I've been doing awesome stuff ever since I got here. We've seen Shaoshu and Jeffrey lots, I got to go for a nice walk in the park behind the house, and I found and old log cabin. I took the bus into Kirkland for a fun adventure, and there are lots of great coffee and restaurants for investigation. Last night Matt and I went to the Kirkland Costco, which is like the Costco Mothership. Tonight we are going for hot pot, and on Sunday Matt's mom is coming to see our new place and plan our delicious Thanksgiving plans.
Oh, AND I get to continue my volunteer work at the science center off site (awesome!). If it weren't for the fact that I don't have an income or a daily way to feel industrious, I would say life is pretty much perfect. Since I am applying for jobs everyday, I'm pretty sure that is a temporary thing anyway, which makes me pretty optimistic about my future here. I just have to find someway to keep up with Matt's heroic athleticism- he and Jeffrey will be trail running for an hour after work today, and I have yet to shake off the celebratory eating of my last month or so in Pittsburgh.
I supposed that's kinda a weird lead, but that's pretty much all I want to cover in this post. I've been doing awesome stuff ever since I got here. We've seen Shaoshu and Jeffrey lots, I got to go for a nice walk in the park behind the house, and I found and old log cabin. I took the bus into Kirkland for a fun adventure, and there are lots of great coffee and restaurants for investigation. Last night Matt and I went to the Kirkland Costco, which is like the Costco Mothership. Tonight we are going for hot pot, and on Sunday Matt's mom is coming to see our new place and plan our delicious Thanksgiving plans.
Oh, AND I get to continue my volunteer work at the science center off site (awesome!). If it weren't for the fact that I don't have an income or a daily way to feel industrious, I would say life is pretty much perfect. Since I am applying for jobs everyday, I'm pretty sure that is a temporary thing anyway, which makes me pretty optimistic about my future here. I just have to find someway to keep up with Matt's heroic athleticism- he and Jeffrey will be trail running for an hour after work today, and I have yet to shake off the celebratory eating of my last month or so in Pittsburgh.
Monday, November 14, 2011
I live in Kirkland now
My last few weeks in Pittsburgh were a whirlwind of excitement and activity, leading up to a big event at the science center and a big send off from my good friends there. It was a lot of fun, but if you can picture how tired I was at the begining of the going away party, and then picture that I stayed awake until the shuttle arrived at 3am to take me to the airport... well, I am still tired is where that is going. We'll call it jetlag. And delicious food overdose. I haven't really been hungry since I got here either.
But I am here! Matt came to get me at the airport, and Man, I still really like seeing him. It was ok while we were apart, we both had things going on, it was a short period of time (I was staying with a friend who had to wait out her then-boyfriend's deployment to Iraq, so...perspective). But finally seeing him, and getting to catch up on all the new things in our lives and see the direction our new life is taking... it's been really exciting. Our friend Shaoshu came over last night to hang out a bit, and Jeffrey and his adorable son (who isn't a baby anymore) came by after work today. Even though I didn't leave the house, I sure don't feel lonely. I do need to get focused on job hunting again, however in the meantime I am just so pleased with all the other aspects of my life that being unemployed doesn't seem as awful as it once did. Some of you have seen the new place already, it is a two story duplex, and in the stairway there is a skylight, which streams in that cozy gray Seattle light that seems like it is always filtered through evergreens and rain. While I was unpacking, I found a Rie Munoz picture (girl throwing her blueberries in surprise when she finds a bear in her blueberry patch), and I hung it in the hallway in that calm grey light and I just felt like this is exactly as it was meant to be.
There is still plenty of unpacking to keep me busy for a couple days. Matt has the house fully functional, but that's just a start reminder of how much stuff we own that we don't really "need" persay. The upstairs rooms (all three of them+ 2 bathrooms) need the most help, mostly because there is lots of space to divide our things into. The cat seems to like the constant change in scenery as boxes get unpacked and moved around, creating new landscapes to be conquered. Frankly, the toddler liked it too.
Matt is trying to help me get oriented to the neighborhood, and we are exploring it a bit more together. I'll keep you abreast of any big finds. Tonight we found that we are only a couple minutes from both Woodinville and Bothell, which means I need to spend more time looking at the map.
But I am here! Matt came to get me at the airport, and Man, I still really like seeing him. It was ok while we were apart, we both had things going on, it was a short period of time (I was staying with a friend who had to wait out her then-boyfriend's deployment to Iraq, so...perspective). But finally seeing him, and getting to catch up on all the new things in our lives and see the direction our new life is taking... it's been really exciting. Our friend Shaoshu came over last night to hang out a bit, and Jeffrey and his adorable son (who isn't a baby anymore) came by after work today. Even though I didn't leave the house, I sure don't feel lonely. I do need to get focused on job hunting again, however in the meantime I am just so pleased with all the other aspects of my life that being unemployed doesn't seem as awful as it once did. Some of you have seen the new place already, it is a two story duplex, and in the stairway there is a skylight, which streams in that cozy gray Seattle light that seems like it is always filtered through evergreens and rain. While I was unpacking, I found a Rie Munoz picture (girl throwing her blueberries in surprise when she finds a bear in her blueberry patch), and I hung it in the hallway in that calm grey light and I just felt like this is exactly as it was meant to be.
There is still plenty of unpacking to keep me busy for a couple days. Matt has the house fully functional, but that's just a start reminder of how much stuff we own that we don't really "need" persay. The upstairs rooms (all three of them+ 2 bathrooms) need the most help, mostly because there is lots of space to divide our things into. The cat seems to like the constant change in scenery as boxes get unpacked and moved around, creating new landscapes to be conquered. Frankly, the toddler liked it too.
Matt is trying to help me get oriented to the neighborhood, and we are exploring it a bit more together. I'll keep you abreast of any big finds. Tonight we found that we are only a couple minutes from both Woodinville and Bothell, which means I need to spend more time looking at the map.
Wednesday, November 9, 2011
Genetics are the most fun!
We have had two days of making gene bracelets at the science center. It's a great event, and I don't mind saying that we had a good demo to add to the day. I was worried that it might be too involved for middle school students (score yourself for ELEVEN traits, and make a bracelet). But most kids seemed really interested (having bright colored beads to play with helps), and scored through the whole bracelet. We may have overestimated the number of beads we'll need for the week, but the whole demo is working better, and I think will probably be used again. We had a couple teachers ask for our materials, and it made me feel good to have injected a cute idea with a lot of science. It was fun. I also had a lot more time to minimize my worries about our event Saturday. There is still work to be done, but I'm sure it will come together. Tomorrow I am going on a river tour to learn about the stuff we'll find in water samples, and to gather samples for the event. Whee!
It's weird to be doing all this and also doing a count down of last days in Pittsburgh. I am trying to see my friends and have some good times before I head out. Our stuff has arrived in Pittsburgh, including the car, so Matt is making headway getting us settled there.
It's weird to be doing all this and also doing a count down of last days in Pittsburgh. I am trying to see my friends and have some good times before I head out. Our stuff has arrived in Pittsburgh, including the car, so Matt is making headway getting us settled there.
Sunday, November 6, 2011
Clever title!
Halloween happened last weekend. For the most part, it really just passed Tyler by. We could have gone out and used him to get some candy for me and Jess to eat, but the same could be said for our credit cards, and MasterCard doesn't get fussy when it stays up past it's bedtime.
Most of Halloween takes place after Tyler went to sleep. We stayed up with him for a little while, saw some neighbors and some kids in costume, then Tyler got sleepy and we brought him in, changed him out of his adorable T-Rex costume, put him in Pjs, and then stayed up for a while longer until enough kids had come by to drain our candy stockpile down to a manageable level, then turned out the lights and went to sleep.
I've been wanting to put on another 'invite the neighbors over to meet each other' party for a while now, and Jess and I traditionally kick the event off by printing out fliers at the beginning of the week announcing the get-together, which then forces us to make sure the event actually happens. We just put out some chips and grilled up some hot dogs and sausages, which are great, because when you buy too many of them you can just throw them in the freezer and use them yourself over the next several months. Clever and convenient. Anyway, we met a few more neighbors, introduced ourselves, and shared some food and some neighborhood news. Nothing too dramatic.
Tyler has started to hit the age where he doesn't like strangers. We heard about it from the day care which let us know that at one point, when both of his regular teachers were out for a break, Tyler got kinda fussy and worried. He was okay when a familiar face came back. I did an experiment with him this weekend, letting a neighbor hold him for a while to see what he would do. He lasted about 15 seconds before he got an adorably cute frowny-face and lurched back to daddy. And even that wasn't quite enough. He needed some mommy cuddles before he really calmed down. But it was really cute, I assure you. So be warned, people who have taken care of Tyler before, he may not be as excited to see you next time. It's not personal, it's just childhood development.
Xmas is coming! Jess and I have made our plans and purchased our tickets, burning all my frequent flier miles in the process (and saving lots of $$$). It will be our first time Traveling, or flying, with Tyler. Best of luck to us! Hopefully he behaves himself on the plane, and hopefully we don't get sexually assaulted by airport security. I wish that was a joke.
This is the 700th post on this blog. Woohoo!
-N
Most of Halloween takes place after Tyler went to sleep. We stayed up with him for a little while, saw some neighbors and some kids in costume, then Tyler got sleepy and we brought him in, changed him out of his adorable T-Rex costume, put him in Pjs, and then stayed up for a while longer until enough kids had come by to drain our candy stockpile down to a manageable level, then turned out the lights and went to sleep.
I've been wanting to put on another 'invite the neighbors over to meet each other' party for a while now, and Jess and I traditionally kick the event off by printing out fliers at the beginning of the week announcing the get-together, which then forces us to make sure the event actually happens. We just put out some chips and grilled up some hot dogs and sausages, which are great, because when you buy too many of them you can just throw them in the freezer and use them yourself over the next several months. Clever and convenient. Anyway, we met a few more neighbors, introduced ourselves, and shared some food and some neighborhood news. Nothing too dramatic.
Tyler has started to hit the age where he doesn't like strangers. We heard about it from the day care which let us know that at one point, when both of his regular teachers were out for a break, Tyler got kinda fussy and worried. He was okay when a familiar face came back. I did an experiment with him this weekend, letting a neighbor hold him for a while to see what he would do. He lasted about 15 seconds before he got an adorably cute frowny-face and lurched back to daddy. And even that wasn't quite enough. He needed some mommy cuddles before he really calmed down. But it was really cute, I assure you. So be warned, people who have taken care of Tyler before, he may not be as excited to see you next time. It's not personal, it's just childhood development.
Xmas is coming! Jess and I have made our plans and purchased our tickets, burning all my frequent flier miles in the process (and saving lots of $$$). It will be our first time Traveling, or flying, with Tyler. Best of luck to us! Hopefully he behaves himself on the plane, and hopefully we don't get sexually assaulted by airport security. I wish that was a joke.
This is the 700th post on this blog. Woohoo!
-N
Saturday, November 5, 2011
Terrible and good
I spent a heartbreaking morning sharing hugs with friends at a funeral. This was awful, in a way that made me so grateful for my friends, and grateful that my friends also have such good friends in each other. Does that make sense? But, as much as it made me feel very close to this group I've been with all these years, seeing my coworker's family grieving together made me really want to be closer to my family for some non-mourning activities. It was a very sad funeral because this guy was such a spark of life for so many people. Sigh. For some reason I didn't think this would be such a tough day for me, but seeing some of my other students from bioethics in such a state of grief really ripped me up. I do feel better after the service, though.
And of course, the rest of my life in in a giant shake up right now, as always. Dr. Rockstar offered me a 6-month post-doc position in his lab (too late, I'm not tempted, but it did make me feel nice). In other awesome news, I got a major title promotion at the Science Center. I am to be the first ever Scientist in Residence at the Science Center, which they are hoping to make a more accessible position to bring in collaborative interactions with the local professional community. This is great for me, clearly, but I think it will be a really good move for the science center. One of the things that sold the Director on the title was the fact that I have provided them with access to my professional network. Need volunteers, or info, or to borrow some equipment? Everyone I know here is a scientist, so that hasn't been a problem for me to find these things. We'll be hashing out a description for this title this week in order to provide a framework for recruiting other Resident Scientists for relevant volunteer work and interactions. Hooray, I am valuable!
And of course, the rest of my life in in a giant shake up right now, as always. Dr. Rockstar offered me a 6-month post-doc position in his lab (too late, I'm not tempted, but it did make me feel nice). In other awesome news, I got a major title promotion at the Science Center. I am to be the first ever Scientist in Residence at the Science Center, which they are hoping to make a more accessible position to bring in collaborative interactions with the local professional community. This is great for me, clearly, but I think it will be a really good move for the science center. One of the things that sold the Director on the title was the fact that I have provided them with access to my professional network. Need volunteers, or info, or to borrow some equipment? Everyone I know here is a scientist, so that hasn't been a problem for me to find these things. We'll be hashing out a description for this title this week in order to provide a framework for recruiting other Resident Scientists for relevant volunteer work and interactions. Hooray, I am valuable!
Thursday, November 3, 2011
Hanging around the 'burgh
While Matt has started his new job (which is going well, and they like him), and started getting used to living in Seattle (seeing lots of friends, exploring our neighborhood and generally having a good time), I am still in Pittsburgh, doing all my own favorite things and hanging around with my friends. And occasionally looking for work or going to the science center. The work at the science center is going well, and I am trying to find lots of ways to add value to the programs and my position. I am excited about our upcoming events, even though I am feeling nervous about them as well. We expect 4,000 visitors next week to a demo on genotypes and phenotypes (basic genetics here). And while I have the confidence to put together learning objectives, I don't have the finesse to think about what type of linens we should get for our tables or how to "display" ourselves well. That's where the guy I am working with takes over, so I am learning lots.
On a much sadder note, another reason that I am grateful that I am still here is to share my grief with my coworkers. One of our recent graduates, a very bright undergrad who took my class and asked me to write a letter of recommendation for his medical school application, passed away suddenly this week. Obviously, this was unexpected, and shocking and all of those terrible things when a young person with so much life and potential passes on. While he was an energetic, funny, caring guy who will be sorely missed by his friends and family, because I knew him in a professional context, the part that seems most unfair to me is that he was going to make a great doctor someday. It's a great loss, but I am glad to be able to share that with my friends and coworkers who also knew him.
On a much sadder note, another reason that I am grateful that I am still here is to share my grief with my coworkers. One of our recent graduates, a very bright undergrad who took my class and asked me to write a letter of recommendation for his medical school application, passed away suddenly this week. Obviously, this was unexpected, and shocking and all of those terrible things when a young person with so much life and potential passes on. While he was an energetic, funny, caring guy who will be sorely missed by his friends and family, because I knew him in a professional context, the part that seems most unfair to me is that he was going to make a great doctor someday. It's a great loss, but I am glad to be able to share that with my friends and coworkers who also knew him.
Saturday, October 29, 2011
More things about Tyler
I was in charge of Tyler this week while Jessie was off traveling for work. Below, you will find some highlights, I trust you will enjoy them.
First off: what didn't happen. Tyler slept fine, seemed happy, and behaved quite well with his slightly less experienced parent. He played with me a lot, explored all of the everything, and was a great baby to take care off.
The first morning I tried to feed Tyler some green beans. It...didn't go well. He wasn't having it, and while I'm sure I got a few molecules in, most of it ended up on his bib, shirt, or pants. I had to change his clothes, and that was frustrating. After that I mostly fed him fruit: apples and pears, he really liked that.
He had sort of a rough first day at day care, but after that Jess made a point of getting on Skype with us after that, and Tyler really liked seeing her in the morning. I think it put him in a much better mood. It meant that he wasn't all excited when Jess got home, but I'm not actually that sure that he knew she was gone.
One evening I tried veggies again, no luck. But since I had them out anyway, I thought I'd just let him play around with them. I'd put some on the spoon and hand it to him. About half the time the thing in his hand went right into his mouth, predictably. The other half of the time he'd flail it around and get peas all over the place. After that Tyler and I took a bath together. Lots of splashing and giggling. That's a definite highlight.
Jess needed a lot of Tyler time when she got back. So Friday was a little 'event' at the day care, where they wanted kids to dress up like characters in some of the books they had been reading. Tyler's class was reading 'if you give a mouse a cookie', which a lot of people know about, I gather, and I made Tyler a crayon costume, which was a bunch of red clothes that I drew crayola patterns on. Jess and I want to watch the event, which was mostly getting all the babies together and reading the books to everyone in the activity room. After that, there was a little parade through the halls where all the older kids cheered for the cute little babies. It was neat to see.
After that, we went back to work...for a while. It wasn't too long before Jess came strolling into the room with a baby and a sheepish look on her face that she uses when she wants to pretend that she doesn't know she can do whatever she wants all the time and I have to be okay with it because I love her so much. Anyway, we stayed at work and showed him off for a little while, and then we went home for a short day and extra mommy-cuddling time.
We've tried to start Tyler on some finger foods, but he is having a rough time of it. He doesn't know how to chew things yet. It's hard enough for him to get to food into his mouth, and when he does, he just tries to send it right down his gullet. All that accomplishes is him coughing it right back up and scaring the crap out of his mom. I got some 'textured' baby food which will hopefully make a better intermediate step.
That's all I can think of for the moment. I'm having some relax time with Jessie after being a single dad for a while. Stressful, but knowing it would come to an end eventually helped immensely. And it could have been a lot worse if Tyler wasn't, you know, Tyler.
-N
First off: what didn't happen. Tyler slept fine, seemed happy, and behaved quite well with his slightly less experienced parent. He played with me a lot, explored all of the everything, and was a great baby to take care off.
The first morning I tried to feed Tyler some green beans. It...didn't go well. He wasn't having it, and while I'm sure I got a few molecules in, most of it ended up on his bib, shirt, or pants. I had to change his clothes, and that was frustrating. After that I mostly fed him fruit: apples and pears, he really liked that.
He had sort of a rough first day at day care, but after that Jess made a point of getting on Skype with us after that, and Tyler really liked seeing her in the morning. I think it put him in a much better mood. It meant that he wasn't all excited when Jess got home, but I'm not actually that sure that he knew she was gone.
One evening I tried veggies again, no luck. But since I had them out anyway, I thought I'd just let him play around with them. I'd put some on the spoon and hand it to him. About half the time the thing in his hand went right into his mouth, predictably. The other half of the time he'd flail it around and get peas all over the place. After that Tyler and I took a bath together. Lots of splashing and giggling. That's a definite highlight.
Jess needed a lot of Tyler time when she got back. So Friday was a little 'event' at the day care, where they wanted kids to dress up like characters in some of the books they had been reading. Tyler's class was reading 'if you give a mouse a cookie', which a lot of people know about, I gather, and I made Tyler a crayon costume, which was a bunch of red clothes that I drew crayola patterns on. Jess and I want to watch the event, which was mostly getting all the babies together and reading the books to everyone in the activity room. After that, there was a little parade through the halls where all the older kids cheered for the cute little babies. It was neat to see.
After that, we went back to work...for a while. It wasn't too long before Jess came strolling into the room with a baby and a sheepish look on her face that she uses when she wants to pretend that she doesn't know she can do whatever she wants all the time and I have to be okay with it because I love her so much. Anyway, we stayed at work and showed him off for a little while, and then we went home for a short day and extra mommy-cuddling time.
We've tried to start Tyler on some finger foods, but he is having a rough time of it. He doesn't know how to chew things yet. It's hard enough for him to get to food into his mouth, and when he does, he just tries to send it right down his gullet. All that accomplishes is him coughing it right back up and scaring the crap out of his mom. I got some 'textured' baby food which will hopefully make a better intermediate step.
That's all I can think of for the moment. I'm having some relax time with Jessie after being a single dad for a while. Stressful, but knowing it would come to an end eventually helped immensely. And it could have been a lot worse if Tyler wasn't, you know, Tyler.
-N
Tuesday, October 25, 2011
Moving on out...
The movers came. I haven't participated in a professional move as an adult, and I gotta say, it was BY FAR the best move yet. Over the last week we'd been making lame attempts at decluttering, dusting, and compacting some of our stuff. It was just enough to remind me how flustered I get during a move. Do I still want this stuff? Can I bear to throw it away? Is there a better place for it than the trash can? How will I get it there? This resulted in basically trashing the house- we removed all the 'stuff' from the spare room to leave Raoul enclosed in during moving day.
Monday morning, three GIANT dudes show up (like, duck through the doorway guys), they walk around the place, have a short conference in the truck and bring in heaps of boxes. I went to the Science Center, since Matt was here and there wasn't much for him to do anyway. I came home in the early afternoon to see the crew finishing up for the day, everything we owned in boxes. They covered the floor in plastic to prevent tracking dirt, left aisles in the boxes and had an extra box for us to put our overnight stuff in. During the day, Matt said they would ask/remind him about things he might like. Will you need an alarm clock tomorrow? Coffee maker? Allergy meds (so glad someone thought of this- the dust is killing my allergies)? The boxes were stacked in these comical towers (who puts two wardrobe boxes together? They go higher than a door), probably because they were all stacking up to their own eye level.
Today the same guys came back, parked a big truck in front of the house, one guy doing inventory, one guy packing some last boxes, and the third guy hauling HUGE boxes out of the basement. I'm really relieved someone will unload these too, because I could not move most of them, let alone put two on my back and haul them out. The furniture was plastic wrapped, and the truck was densely packed. Of course, having standard size boxes and copious packing material probably helps, but these guys clearly knew what they were doing. They did the whole house in about 5 hours, including the basement and garage. Paper work was exchanged and we'll see our stuff in Seattle in a week or so.
The cat is dealing with this remarkably well. The movers did kinda scare him (big voices! big feet!) so he mostly hung out under the bed in the spare room. But once they left, he took a look around and was back to his usual self. He did make the most surprised sound today when I let him out into the empty apartment, the same sound he makes when you sneak up and poke him. Now he is hanging out with us while we do some cleaning and organizing of our remaining things. It gives me confidence that he'll weather the move ok.
Matt and Raoul leave Thursday morning, and will be at the new house Thursday afternoon. I'll be giving our car the bon voyage that afternoon, and will be staying with some friends while I do some more work at the Science Center. It looks like I might be able to continue some occasional volunteer work with them after I leave, which is good since they keep suggesting other things I could do if I were around longer. But, I have this exciting life to look forward to in Seattle! Starting soon!
Monday morning, three GIANT dudes show up (like, duck through the doorway guys), they walk around the place, have a short conference in the truck and bring in heaps of boxes. I went to the Science Center, since Matt was here and there wasn't much for him to do anyway. I came home in the early afternoon to see the crew finishing up for the day, everything we owned in boxes. They covered the floor in plastic to prevent tracking dirt, left aisles in the boxes and had an extra box for us to put our overnight stuff in. During the day, Matt said they would ask/remind him about things he might like. Will you need an alarm clock tomorrow? Coffee maker? Allergy meds (so glad someone thought of this- the dust is killing my allergies)? The boxes were stacked in these comical towers (who puts two wardrobe boxes together? They go higher than a door), probably because they were all stacking up to their own eye level.
Today the same guys came back, parked a big truck in front of the house, one guy doing inventory, one guy packing some last boxes, and the third guy hauling HUGE boxes out of the basement. I'm really relieved someone will unload these too, because I could not move most of them, let alone put two on my back and haul them out. The furniture was plastic wrapped, and the truck was densely packed. Of course, having standard size boxes and copious packing material probably helps, but these guys clearly knew what they were doing. They did the whole house in about 5 hours, including the basement and garage. Paper work was exchanged and we'll see our stuff in Seattle in a week or so.
The cat is dealing with this remarkably well. The movers did kinda scare him (big voices! big feet!) so he mostly hung out under the bed in the spare room. But once they left, he took a look around and was back to his usual self. He did make the most surprised sound today when I let him out into the empty apartment, the same sound he makes when you sneak up and poke him. Now he is hanging out with us while we do some cleaning and organizing of our remaining things. It gives me confidence that he'll weather the move ok.
Matt and Raoul leave Thursday morning, and will be at the new house Thursday afternoon. I'll be giving our car the bon voyage that afternoon, and will be staying with some friends while I do some more work at the Science Center. It looks like I might be able to continue some occasional volunteer work with them after I leave, which is good since they keep suggesting other things I could do if I were around longer. But, I have this exciting life to look forward to in Seattle! Starting soon!
Saturday, October 22, 2011
I want to construct something
After spending entirely too much time at www.makezine.com and volpinprops.blogspot.com, I feel like I should be making more things. I'm not even sure what, but for some reason all this time churning out music (okay, not that much music) and the occasional book has left me with a desire to make something, I dunno, physical. An object. Something I can point at and say “I made that. Me. With THESE HANDS!” I still don't know what I would make, but I'm trying to keep my mind open. Clever ideas have included buying an old car and tuning it up (giving me the opportunity to get a cool old car in the process) a synthesizer or some other bit of hardware music generation, or maybe some neat furniture, or some video game thing I can hang on my wall. I should probably start simple, maybe a question-mark box or two. Maybe I can make stuff out of Legos? I dunno, I just feel like I want to make something that's not software.
Tyler does not stop! He's been practicing pulling to stand and today he took his first, tentative step at what is know in 'the literature' as 'cruising', or walking along while leaning on something. He's used his newfound skill to get himself into his toy box and pull toys out...and put them in his mouth. I'm so proud! He also does a new, totally adorable thing where he's eating, where he'll get a bite of food and then shake his head 'no, no, no, no'. And then you get to look at him and go 'Yes, yes, yes, yes', which distracts him long enough to let you put some more food in his mouth. Fun game.
Oh, and in other neat news, our down-the-street neighbors, who pretty much my entire family has met at this point, the one with the baby a few months older than Tyler, they're pregnant again! Another little guy for Tyler to play with. They're also building out their house, which was already pretty huge. We're going to go over tomorrow and say hi and look at the construction and everything. Pretty neat.
Also, Video game season is upon us! I've picked up a few great ones, and anyone who needs help picking out video games to play, which I believe is none of you, may feel free to ask for my advice. I've been playing the new Batman game (which is great) on my own, and a new Ratchet and Clank game with Jessie. As soon as my sister finishes moving, she should totally buy it and play online with us.
Maybe some art for the walls? I could learn to paint. Or get into woodworking. Do I really need a new hobby, though?
-N
Tyler does not stop! He's been practicing pulling to stand and today he took his first, tentative step at what is know in 'the literature' as 'cruising', or walking along while leaning on something. He's used his newfound skill to get himself into his toy box and pull toys out...and put them in his mouth. I'm so proud! He also does a new, totally adorable thing where he's eating, where he'll get a bite of food and then shake his head 'no, no, no, no'. And then you get to look at him and go 'Yes, yes, yes, yes', which distracts him long enough to let you put some more food in his mouth. Fun game.
Oh, and in other neat news, our down-the-street neighbors, who pretty much my entire family has met at this point, the one with the baby a few months older than Tyler, they're pregnant again! Another little guy for Tyler to play with. They're also building out their house, which was already pretty huge. We're going to go over tomorrow and say hi and look at the construction and everything. Pretty neat.
Also, Video game season is upon us! I've picked up a few great ones, and anyone who needs help picking out video games to play, which I believe is none of you, may feel free to ask for my advice. I've been playing the new Batman game (which is great) on my own, and a new Ratchet and Clank game with Jessie. As soon as my sister finishes moving, she should totally buy it and play online with us.
Maybe some art for the walls? I could learn to paint. Or get into woodworking. Do I really need a new hobby, though?
-N
Tuesday, October 18, 2011
Fever Dreams
Poor Tyler. I thought yesterday he was going to finish up his little illness and get better soon. Turns out not. Yesterday was really rough for him, his fever got up to 103 while he was home with Jessie. I was at working doing important stuff for a flight test happening next week that I'm going to help out with, so Jess was being very nice to me by letting me work.
Today I stayed home with the baby, and he did better, but he's still sick. I got a measurement of 101.2 in the...traditional baby-fever-measuring location. And since the day care wants your baby to be fever-free for a whole day before they'll let them hang out with other babies, I get to stay home with him tomorrow, too. And can you imagine what sort of strange fever-dreams you have when you get a fever and you're only 6 months old?
His nose is going crazy, too. When he woke up, one of his nostrils was totally plugged up, and I've been sucking baby-snot out of his nose all day, too. He hates when you do that, but he can barely breathe through his nose as it is.
Normally I got to got to judo today, but considering that I spent all day with a baby, and I have the same thing to do tomorrow, I think I'm going to take this evening to relax and play some games. Judo will still be there later this week.
-N
Today I stayed home with the baby, and he did better, but he's still sick. I got a measurement of 101.2 in the...traditional baby-fever-measuring location. And since the day care wants your baby to be fever-free for a whole day before they'll let them hang out with other babies, I get to stay home with him tomorrow, too. And can you imagine what sort of strange fever-dreams you have when you get a fever and you're only 6 months old?
His nose is going crazy, too. When he woke up, one of his nostrils was totally plugged up, and I've been sucking baby-snot out of his nose all day, too. He hates when you do that, but he can barely breathe through his nose as it is.
Normally I got to got to judo today, but considering that I spent all day with a baby, and I have the same thing to do tomorrow, I think I'm going to take this evening to relax and play some games. Judo will still be there later this week.
-N
Sunday, October 16, 2011
Can I talk about my baby some more?
He is really cute. He's having a bit of a rough time at the moment, but you'd never know if you didn't know how smiley and energetic he normally is. And what his normal body temperature feels like. He's got a fever, and the sniffles, so I'm going to chalk this one up to 'he has a cold' unless further evidence presents itself. He acts like I act when I'm sick and no one is around. I make that 'groany' sound and roll around in the bed, unable to get comfortable and feeling sorry for myself. I toughen up when other people are around. Tyler has no such qualms.
It's been a mostly boring weekend for us. Yesterday Jess took some mommy time and went of to roller derby and then got a massage. I took care of the baby. He's started eating applesauce, his favorite, so far. He's also gone through green beans, peas, sweet potatoes, and carrots without incident. Sometime we're going to start him on 'multi-grain cereal' (read: it has some wheat in it) but we may hold off for a little bit. He's actually mostly gone through the 'stage 2' baby food cereals (I think stage 1 is just formula) and we should be starting him on the next level of stuff: chunky things that he has to learn to mash a bit between his cute little baby gums before swallowing. It's a step. After that, we can start giving him food to eat on his own with his increasingly-well-developed little pincher grip.
And speaking of chewing, I've started brushing Tyler's teeth at night. It's mostly just to get it worked into the routine, at this point, but we have a cute little brush and I scrape it against his teeth a few times while Jess changes his diapers. He was a little startled the first time, but quickly decided he likes it. It's not a bad way to get some smiles out of him.
As for crawling, Tyler is getting more and more distance under his belt as his confidence grows. He can definitely see a thing that he wants and go get that thing, which must be immensely freeing for him. He's thinking about pulling himself to standing, but he doesn't quite have the muscles yet, and he occasionally flips and rolls and spooks himself something fierce in the attempt. You just have to hold him and smile at him and let him know that everything is okay, and before too long he'll be convinced.
Today we went out to the mall. Not for anything in particular, just to look at things and walk around with Tyler. There's lots of colors to see and people to stare at, and mommy and daddy can get some smoothies and pretzels. I considered buying Tyler his first video game system, but the point behind that little trick is to buy an old, cheap one and a million games for it. Turns out old Nintendo consoles have dipped past 'cheap' and are back up into 'collectable', or at least that's what my local 'old video game console' stores want me to think. I'll see if Ebay can't prove them wrong sometime later. Either that or Tyler gets a free upgrade to a cheap Playstation or PS2. No rush, though. I don't think his pincer grip is good enough to work video game buttons quite yet.
I think I'm allergic to mold. I've had watery (though not red) eyes and a stuffy nose for the past few days, and the allergy forecast has been high for 'mold' the past few days. Also my throat hurts. That might be unrelated. And I've been achy and tired, but only for a few days after I got the flu shot last week. I'm just saying, there are symptoms, okay?
I'm working on the Ticom Geomatics theme song in my spare time. It's hokey and simple which makes it easy to work on, but hard to get motivated by.
I'm going to to serve up dinner. Ta.
-N
It's been a mostly boring weekend for us. Yesterday Jess took some mommy time and went of to roller derby and then got a massage. I took care of the baby. He's started eating applesauce, his favorite, so far. He's also gone through green beans, peas, sweet potatoes, and carrots without incident. Sometime we're going to start him on 'multi-grain cereal' (read: it has some wheat in it) but we may hold off for a little bit. He's actually mostly gone through the 'stage 2' baby food cereals (I think stage 1 is just formula) and we should be starting him on the next level of stuff: chunky things that he has to learn to mash a bit between his cute little baby gums before swallowing. It's a step. After that, we can start giving him food to eat on his own with his increasingly-well-developed little pincher grip.
And speaking of chewing, I've started brushing Tyler's teeth at night. It's mostly just to get it worked into the routine, at this point, but we have a cute little brush and I scrape it against his teeth a few times while Jess changes his diapers. He was a little startled the first time, but quickly decided he likes it. It's not a bad way to get some smiles out of him.
As for crawling, Tyler is getting more and more distance under his belt as his confidence grows. He can definitely see a thing that he wants and go get that thing, which must be immensely freeing for him. He's thinking about pulling himself to standing, but he doesn't quite have the muscles yet, and he occasionally flips and rolls and spooks himself something fierce in the attempt. You just have to hold him and smile at him and let him know that everything is okay, and before too long he'll be convinced.
Today we went out to the mall. Not for anything in particular, just to look at things and walk around with Tyler. There's lots of colors to see and people to stare at, and mommy and daddy can get some smoothies and pretzels. I considered buying Tyler his first video game system, but the point behind that little trick is to buy an old, cheap one and a million games for it. Turns out old Nintendo consoles have dipped past 'cheap' and are back up into 'collectable', or at least that's what my local 'old video game console' stores want me to think. I'll see if Ebay can't prove them wrong sometime later. Either that or Tyler gets a free upgrade to a cheap Playstation or PS2. No rush, though. I don't think his pincer grip is good enough to work video game buttons quite yet.
I think I'm allergic to mold. I've had watery (though not red) eyes and a stuffy nose for the past few days, and the allergy forecast has been high for 'mold' the past few days. Also my throat hurts. That might be unrelated. And I've been achy and tired, but only for a few days after I got the flu shot last week. I'm just saying, there are symptoms, okay?
I'm working on the Ticom Geomatics theme song in my spare time. It's hokey and simple which makes it easy to work on, but hard to get motivated by.
I'm going to to serve up dinner. Ta.
-N
Saturday, October 15, 2011
You guys earned it!
Thanks for supporting our campaign to raise money for DonorsChoose, dearest readers! You generous people definitely deserve an actual blog update.
My last informative update was to tell you that Matt and I are moving to Kirkland, WA. Feel free to Dance around in happiness- that's pretty much what I've been up to all week. When I dropped this bomb on Nana during my visit to Spokane, she was thrilled, and then DOUBLE thrilled when Mom and Dad decided to bring us from Spokane to Seattle for the weekend. I got in a little house hunting. By which I mean I rented us a house to live in in the Northern Kirkland area. It will be a great place for us, 3br, 2+ Bath, 2 car garage, a yard. It's on a greenway, and only about 15 minutes driving to Matt's new work.
When I got back to Pittsburgh, Matt and I finally got to celebrate his good news together. We went to a foodie restaurant called NaCl to eat until we were ready to burst, and catch up from our time apart. It was fun talking about our new place, the things we'll get up to in our new life, the things Matt got up to finish up his commitments here. It was fun. And delicious.
This week I've been trying to get lots done at the Science Center. Next week is National Chemistry week, and I'll be helping volunteers do a demonstration of the physical changes of crystal forms- ie, making candy. I've recruited a few people from Pitt, and am trying to get some more hands to help out. It's pretty exciting to be able to participate in these things.
One of the things I'll miss about Pittsburgh is being able to volunteer, it makes me feel productive and helps me develop professional skills and contacts (I have a budget!). When I get to Seattle, my job hunt will hopefully change forms a bit, since I can spend more time in face to face contacts. But I'll still have a LOT of freetime. This is one reason I am pursuing a short off-site contract with a biofuel company in BC. It will keep me busy, and also provide those professional skills and contacts that my volunteer work did. The compensation will be in equity, so I am thinking about this like an unpaid internship rather than a job yet. But this does remind me that, um... I think my professional life is just going to weird for a while. I know there isn't a straight way to navigate the route I am hoping to take, so it shouldn't be surprising that I am doing a lot of non-linear things to bulk up my CV. Cross your fingers for an eventual pay-off in the form of a full-time job.
Otherwise, we are working out a timeline for this move. Movers are coming to get our stuff on the 24th and 25th. Matt and the cat will be leaving Oct 27th, which is when our lease starts in Kirkland. It's not clear yet when our stuff will arrive, but after Matt, certainly. I am planning to stay for the Nov 12 event at the Science Center, and am thinking I may stay through Monday to see a friend defend (but Matt might be tired of holding down the house alone by then). I'll get a couple extra rounds of goodbyes with friends in the meantime though.
My last informative update was to tell you that Matt and I are moving to Kirkland, WA. Feel free to Dance around in happiness- that's pretty much what I've been up to all week. When I dropped this bomb on Nana during my visit to Spokane, she was thrilled, and then DOUBLE thrilled when Mom and Dad decided to bring us from Spokane to Seattle for the weekend. I got in a little house hunting. By which I mean I rented us a house to live in in the Northern Kirkland area. It will be a great place for us, 3br, 2+ Bath, 2 car garage, a yard. It's on a greenway, and only about 15 minutes driving to Matt's new work.
When I got back to Pittsburgh, Matt and I finally got to celebrate his good news together. We went to a foodie restaurant called NaCl to eat until we were ready to burst, and catch up from our time apart. It was fun talking about our new place, the things we'll get up to in our new life, the things Matt got up to finish up his commitments here. It was fun. And delicious.
This week I've been trying to get lots done at the Science Center. Next week is National Chemistry week, and I'll be helping volunteers do a demonstration of the physical changes of crystal forms- ie, making candy. I've recruited a few people from Pitt, and am trying to get some more hands to help out. It's pretty exciting to be able to participate in these things.
One of the things I'll miss about Pittsburgh is being able to volunteer, it makes me feel productive and helps me develop professional skills and contacts (I have a budget!). When I get to Seattle, my job hunt will hopefully change forms a bit, since I can spend more time in face to face contacts. But I'll still have a LOT of freetime. This is one reason I am pursuing a short off-site contract with a biofuel company in BC. It will keep me busy, and also provide those professional skills and contacts that my volunteer work did. The compensation will be in equity, so I am thinking about this like an unpaid internship rather than a job yet. But this does remind me that, um... I think my professional life is just going to weird for a while. I know there isn't a straight way to navigate the route I am hoping to take, so it shouldn't be surprising that I am doing a lot of non-linear things to bulk up my CV. Cross your fingers for an eventual pay-off in the form of a full-time job.
Otherwise, we are working out a timeline for this move. Movers are coming to get our stuff on the 24th and 25th. Matt and the cat will be leaving Oct 27th, which is when our lease starts in Kirkland. It's not clear yet when our stuff will arrive, but after Matt, certainly. I am planning to stay for the Nov 12 event at the Science Center, and am thinking I may stay through Monday to see a friend defend (but Matt might be tired of holding down the house alone by then). I'll get a couple extra rounds of goodbyes with friends in the meantime though.
Friday, October 14, 2011
Donors Choose!
Although you all deserve a proper update on my funtastic trip to Washington (summary: awesome and productive adventures), and might be interested to hear about the emerging arch of my autobiography right now (summary: weird), instead you get to hear about the happy hour I hosted tonight.
The good folks of Steel City Science decided to host a departmental happy hour in support of the Science Bloggers for Students Challenge we are participating in at DonorsChoose. We raised nearly $100 using supplies that were mostly hanging around our homes, and hopefully got to promote the blog a bit. And we've completed out first project!
Although at the happy hour, we were promoting a local project that wants a model of the human body, the project that is really killing me right now is the classroom that wants pencil sharpeners and whiteboard markers. Yes, this is a high poverty area very near where I live. The requested budget is teeny, but would clearly make a giant difference in the education of these elementary school students. Writing utensils make a big difference when you are practicing literacy. And DonorsChoose is a great non-profit to support as they have very little overhead, your money goes directly to teachers in need.
So yes, if you guys wanted to pitch a couple bucks to Ms. Kacsur, I'm sure I can get focused enough for a proper blog post like you all deserve. The challenge is over next week, so donate now and make me feel good.
---UPDATE----
My parents are awesome. If you also want to be awesome, check out the other projects in need here.
The good folks of Steel City Science decided to host a departmental happy hour in support of the Science Bloggers for Students Challenge we are participating in at DonorsChoose. We raised nearly $100 using supplies that were mostly hanging around our homes, and hopefully got to promote the blog a bit. And we've completed out first project!
Although at the happy hour, we were promoting a local project that wants a model of the human body, the project that is really killing me right now is the classroom that wants pencil sharpeners and whiteboard markers. Yes, this is a high poverty area very near where I live. The requested budget is teeny, but would clearly make a giant difference in the education of these elementary school students. Writing utensils make a big difference when you are practicing literacy. And DonorsChoose is a great non-profit to support as they have very little overhead, your money goes directly to teachers in need.
So yes, if you guys wanted to pitch a couple bucks to Ms. Kacsur, I'm sure I can get focused enough for a proper blog post like you all deserve. The challenge is over next week, so donate now and make me feel good.
---UPDATE----
My parents are awesome. If you also want to be awesome, check out the other projects in need here.
Tuesday, October 11, 2011
He'll soon be taking the SAT
I'll probably write a longer entry later, but if I don't start cataloging all of the milestones Tyler has hit recently, I'll start forgetting them.
First, and clearly most importantly, he's started saying Dada. (Yay!) He's been saying Mama for a while, and he has actually settled on Baba mostly (we're trying to show him he can use it to request bottles, but I don't think we're quite to the language-object association stage yet.) But it does melt the heart even to imagine he's asking for me. Very sweet.
Also, crawling. He hasn't quite hit marathon distances yet, but it's only a matter of time. The progress really is astounding, from barely a few steps a week ago to the point where he's actually quite deft on his hands and knees. I figure by this time next week we're going to need to start putting up more baby gates. And I'm quite glad I've done a lot of the larger baby-proofing tasks already.
He's sitting up quite well, but he's also figured out how to go from crawling to sitting. He used to do this sort of side-lounge thing (ladies..! :) but he's figured out how to get his balance and get to proper sitting, and then how to get back to crawling. It looks like a lot of work.
And he's also working on pulling himself to standing. He likes, especially, the stool that Alaska Nana made when she was here a while ago. He can get his hands up on it, and then get his legs straightened out. After that, it's all struggles and frustration, but what have you learned to do this past week that is half this impressive, eh?
-N
First, and clearly most importantly, he's started saying Dada. (Yay!) He's been saying Mama for a while, and he has actually settled on Baba mostly (we're trying to show him he can use it to request bottles, but I don't think we're quite to the language-object association stage yet.) But it does melt the heart even to imagine he's asking for me. Very sweet.
Also, crawling. He hasn't quite hit marathon distances yet, but it's only a matter of time. The progress really is astounding, from barely a few steps a week ago to the point where he's actually quite deft on his hands and knees. I figure by this time next week we're going to need to start putting up more baby gates. And I'm quite glad I've done a lot of the larger baby-proofing tasks already.
He's sitting up quite well, but he's also figured out how to go from crawling to sitting. He used to do this sort of side-lounge thing (ladies..! :) but he's figured out how to get his balance and get to proper sitting, and then how to get back to crawling. It looks like a lot of work.
And he's also working on pulling himself to standing. He likes, especially, the stool that Alaska Nana made when she was here a while ago. He can get his hands up on it, and then get his legs straightened out. After that, it's all struggles and frustration, but what have you learned to do this past week that is half this impressive, eh?
-N
Saturday, October 8, 2011
These are family heirlooms
Nana and I have been springing around Spokane, having all kinds of grand adventures. Today we checked out a Raku firing workshop, hanging around potters all day was a nice warm up to going to see the Prohibition era Perfectly Modern Millie, full of great dancing and Fabulous Costumes- such fun!
But in between adventures, Nana unearthed a folder of letters she had written to her mother during their time in Alaska. Yup, onion skin, type writer pages, that her Mom thoughtfully dated for when they became family heirlooms. (Guess thoughtful mothering runs in the family!) We are bringing it to share with Dad and Bart on our mini family reunion- well surprise them, I hope. If I can get their permission (their childhood antics being the main feature of the letters), I might try and copy some highlights to the blog. There are some fantastic Papa stories, early pioneer adventures and childhood shenanigans never previously discussed.
The adventure continues in Seattle at 0'dark thirty tomorrow, so I'm off to bed. Just needed to brag a little more about how much fun Nana and I are having.
But in between adventures, Nana unearthed a folder of letters she had written to her mother during their time in Alaska. Yup, onion skin, type writer pages, that her Mom thoughtfully dated for when they became family heirlooms. (Guess thoughtful mothering runs in the family!) We are bringing it to share with Dad and Bart on our mini family reunion- well surprise them, I hope. If I can get their permission (their childhood antics being the main feature of the letters), I might try and copy some highlights to the blog. There are some fantastic Papa stories, early pioneer adventures and childhood shenanigans never previously discussed.
The adventure continues in Seattle at 0'dark thirty tomorrow, so I'm off to bed. Just needed to brag a little more about how much fun Nana and I are having.
Wednesday, October 5, 2011
Moving to Seattle!
By now, you probably all know that Matt has accepted a job (is dream job too strong?), and that we'll be relocating to Kirkland WA for him to start work in November. He has given two weeks notice, we've told our landlord, and... the rest we need to decide. In the meantime, though, I am in Spokane celebrating with Nana. And who better to celebrate with than Nana? Unlike our friends back home who were happy for us in a "but that means you are leaving" kind of way, she and I are just blissed out, thinking of all the cool ways that this changes our lives for the better. Like, I can come visit for long weekends. Or she can come visit me! Or, it's no big deal to get the whole family together. Or to wait out time changes for phone calls. I'm going to try and convince her to move West for my sake, but really, being in the same time zone will be SOO much nicer. There are so many way this is great news!
And can I brag on Matt for a little? He made me swear to secrecy about this whole affair, from his application, to the interview he was flown to Seattle for, even through the negotiations and the final offer. He is very private, he didn't want a whiff of this to hit his current employer, and he didn't want to have to deal with any public disappointment. Even when all signs were pointing towards "THEY LOVE YOU," he was cautious. They flew him across the country, put him up in a hotel and rented him a car to go and visit his Mom in, and he didn't want me to say anything. They gave him an offer letter, which he signed, and the movers had called us, and he didn't want me to say anything until his references reported back. But Friday he got the final green light from the new job, and we are thrilled with the result. He'll be working as a design engineer at major truck company, who recognize both his years of experience, as well as his fancy degree from Western. It's a promotion in both title and pay, and it's much more in line with what he always wanted to use his eduction for. I'm so happy for him to get a chance to think about cars all day, since that is what he'd be doing if he didn't have to work anyway. It's a great offer, which he absolutely deserved!
Yes, so very exciting times. Nana and I are going to celebrate the excitement by meeting up with Mom and Dad in Seattle this weekend (see how close Spokane and Seattle are?) to be giddy with excitement some more, and also maybe all daydream about the future together. So glamourous. Yes, I have unfortunately left Matt to shoulder the burden of the anxiety about the move for the rest of the week, but I promise I'll be back in full force next week! Sorry honey!
And can I brag on Matt for a little? He made me swear to secrecy about this whole affair, from his application, to the interview he was flown to Seattle for, even through the negotiations and the final offer. He is very private, he didn't want a whiff of this to hit his current employer, and he didn't want to have to deal with any public disappointment. Even when all signs were pointing towards "THEY LOVE YOU," he was cautious. They flew him across the country, put him up in a hotel and rented him a car to go and visit his Mom in, and he didn't want me to say anything. They gave him an offer letter, which he signed, and the movers had called us, and he didn't want me to say anything until his references reported back. But Friday he got the final green light from the new job, and we are thrilled with the result. He'll be working as a design engineer at major truck company, who recognize both his years of experience, as well as his fancy degree from Western. It's a promotion in both title and pay, and it's much more in line with what he always wanted to use his eduction for. I'm so happy for him to get a chance to think about cars all day, since that is what he'd be doing if he didn't have to work anyway. It's a great offer, which he absolutely deserved!
Yes, so very exciting times. Nana and I are going to celebrate the excitement by meeting up with Mom and Dad in Seattle this weekend (see how close Spokane and Seattle are?) to be giddy with excitement some more, and also maybe all daydream about the future together. So glamourous. Yes, I have unfortunately left Matt to shoulder the burden of the anxiety about the move for the rest of the week, but I promise I'll be back in full force next week! Sorry honey!
Sunday, October 2, 2011
Science Bloggers for Students
I am really excited about the stuff we've got going on at Steel City Science these days. I hope you read my latest diatribe about polyomavirus research, but today I want to point you to something I am even more excited about. There is a movement in the science blogging community (which our blog is hoping to break into) to support a non-profit called DonorsChoose. If you have not heard of this group, they help teachers gain money for small scale projects, and individual donors can support part or all of these projects. $10 for pencil sharpeners in a third grade classroom, $25 towards purchase of a laptop in a middle school, $100 for new textbooks. The donor chooses what they want to support and to what extent. Cool right?
Every year there is a challenge called Science Bloggers for Students, that allows different blogs to seek donations and encourages competition to maximize funding. I was heartbroken to see that Pittsburgh has 18 projects which are largely unfunded, including some really important requests for basic supplies (scientific calculators, ouch). So we've decided to jump into the challenge, check it out at Steel City Science. Or just follow or donation page here. From there, you can also track our brilliant successes, and I think track our progress against other blogs and blogging networks. Yeah, we are up against WIRED blogs, so we *might* not win. But if we try at all, hopefully students win, right?
Science Bloggers for Students, Steel City Science Page
If there are other projects you are more interested in supporting (the African drumming class needs drums. Ouch, my heart.), if you follow my link, it still counts towards our total.
Every year there is a challenge called Science Bloggers for Students, that allows different blogs to seek donations and encourages competition to maximize funding. I was heartbroken to see that Pittsburgh has 18 projects which are largely unfunded, including some really important requests for basic supplies (scientific calculators, ouch). So we've decided to jump into the challenge, check it out at Steel City Science. Or just follow or donation page here. From there, you can also track our brilliant successes, and I think track our progress against other blogs and blogging networks. Yeah, we are up against WIRED blogs, so we *might* not win. But if we try at all, hopefully students win, right?
Science Bloggers for Students, Steel City Science Page
If there are other projects you are more interested in supporting (the African drumming class needs drums. Ouch, my heart.), if you follow my link, it still counts towards our total.
Saturday, October 1, 2011
Everyone is Always Sick
So as Sandlin mentioned, this whole illness saga starts last week on Sunday evening after Matt and Sandlin had gone home. I had a rough day, I just felt awful. Body aches all over, though no sore throat, which is what I normally get when I have a cold. I was still blowing my nose every 30 seconds from the previous cold, so I thought maybe I was having a relapse from that virus. I felt really achy, but I did my best to help around the house. Tyler was having kind of a rough day too. He was chewing a lot and generally fussy, so we thought he might have been teething, but he didn't have a fever either so we thought he would be okay. Jess and I got tired early, though, so I took a dose of Nyquil and we both went to sleep at something like 7:30 on Sunday.
At about 8:30 I woke up with a really grumpy stomach. I went over to the toilet, made some unhappy sounds, and then threw up. Jess came over to comfort me, and I went back to bed eventually, only to be awakened a few minutes later by her throwing up everything in her stomach.
Uh oh.
This continued for the rest of the night, though I'm convinced Jess got the worst of it. She had to use the bathroom several times more, where as I just spent the rest of the evening waking up every hour in the throws of some strange fever dream. I had to make couscous for some people who had gotten hit by an avalanche, and for some reason that involved waking up and going to the bathroom. Thank heavens Tyler didn't seem to have it. He still slept all night.
So morning comes, and Jess and I are *wiped out*. We have no energy, and Tyler is waking up. It took me 10 minutes to summon up the energy to go get my glasses and put on my robe. Jess manages to get Tyler up, changed, and fed, but we're not sure how we're going to take care of him today, and work is off the table. Fortunately, we gathered ourselves up enough to get him to day care, where he had a pretty good day. We, on the other hand, mostly slept. We got a text from Sandlin at some point telling us that she and Matt had picked something up and were also throwing up back home. So, yeah, it was probably something we ate, but we don't really know what.
Anyway, by the end of monday we had stored up enough energy to go get Tyler from day care...or at least Jessie had. She let me nap some more. Then tuesday came along and Jess and I felt good enough to at least be physically present at work, though not exactly bastions of production. Tyler, on the other hand, was having a rough day at school. So we grabbed him, took him to the doctor and yep, ear infection. Two of them, in fact. So he's on 10 days of antibiotics for that.
After that, at least, things have gotten better a little bit every day. Tyler hasn't even needed that much baby Tylenol, so his ears are improving, and since we had a well-(ish)-baby checkup this friday where his ears are looking better and so...we gave him four shots. Rough week for the kid. But think of that powerful immune system! Jess and I are feeling better, too, but I'm not sure how much I trust my food at this point. A lot of leftovers got thrown out.
We may have been a little early on our purchase of a front-facing car seat for him. He only weighs about 18 pounds, and the minimum weight fort eh new seat is 24. So his ridiculous growth has leveled out somewhat, and he's 'only' in the 95th percentile for height at this point, 28.5 inches. He's in the 100th percentile for cute, though. That's on his chart.
In other news, I don't have any video games to play this weekend, not because there aren't any, there are, but because I'm tricking myself into tackling a few other projects. One is a theme song for Ticom Geomatics. Think 'mickey mouse club' but for defense contractors. I've almost got the lyrics and a first guess at the melody worked out. The other I'll leave as a surprise. Jess is headed off to backed track Derby practice, so clearly she's feeling better. We're mostly just excited about having things get back to something more like 'normal' for a little while.
-N
So as Sandlin mentioned, this whole illness saga starts last week on Sunday evening after Matt and Sandlin had gone home. I had a rough day, I just felt awful. Body aches all over, though no sore throat, which is what I normally get when I have a cold. I was still blowing my nose every 30 seconds from the previous cold, so I thought maybe I was having a relapse from that virus. I felt really achy, but I did my best to help around the house. Tyler was having kind of a rough day too. He was chewing a lot and generally fussy, so we thought he might have been teething, but he didn't have a fever either so we thought he would be okay. Jess and I got tired early, though, so I took a dose of Nyquil and we both went to sleep at something like 7:30 on Sunday.
At about 8:30 I woke up with a really grumpy stomach. I went over to the toilet, made some unhappy sounds, and then threw up. Jess came over to comfort me, and I went back to bed eventually, only to be awakened a few minutes later by her throwing up everything in her stomach.
Uh oh.
This continued for the rest of the night, though I'm convinced Jess got the worst of it. She had to use the bathroom several times more, where as I just spent the rest of the evening waking up every hour in the throws of some strange fever dream. I had to make couscous for some people who had gotten hit by an avalanche, and for some reason that involved waking up and going to the bathroom. Thank heavens Tyler didn't seem to have it. He still slept all night.
So morning comes, and Jess and I are *wiped out*. We have no energy, and Tyler is waking up. It took me 10 minutes to summon up the energy to go get my glasses and put on my robe. Jess manages to get Tyler up, changed, and fed, but we're not sure how we're going to take care of him today, and work is off the table. Fortunately, we gathered ourselves up enough to get him to day care, where he had a pretty good day. We, on the other hand, mostly slept. We got a text from Sandlin at some point telling us that she and Matt had picked something up and were also throwing up back home. So, yeah, it was probably something we ate, but we don't really know what.
Anyway, by the end of monday we had stored up enough energy to go get Tyler from day care...or at least Jessie had. She let me nap some more. Then tuesday came along and Jess and I felt good enough to at least be physically present at work, though not exactly bastions of production. Tyler, on the other hand, was having a rough day at school. So we grabbed him, took him to the doctor and yep, ear infection. Two of them, in fact. So he's on 10 days of antibiotics for that.
After that, at least, things have gotten better a little bit every day. Tyler hasn't even needed that much baby Tylenol, so his ears are improving, and since we had a well-(ish)-baby checkup this friday where his ears are looking better and so...we gave him four shots. Rough week for the kid. But think of that powerful immune system! Jess and I are feeling better, too, but I'm not sure how much I trust my food at this point. A lot of leftovers got thrown out.
We may have been a little early on our purchase of a front-facing car seat for him. He only weighs about 18 pounds, and the minimum weight fort eh new seat is 24. So his ridiculous growth has leveled out somewhat, and he's 'only' in the 95th percentile for height at this point, 28.5 inches. He's in the 100th percentile for cute, though. That's on his chart.
In other news, I don't have any video games to play this weekend, not because there aren't any, there are, but because I'm tricking myself into tackling a few other projects. One is a theme song for Ticom Geomatics. Think 'mickey mouse club' but for defense contractors. I've almost got the lyrics and a first guess at the melody worked out. The other I'll leave as a surprise. Jess is headed off to backed track Derby practice, so clearly she's feeling better. We're mostly just excited about having things get back to something more like 'normal' for a little while.
-N
Friday, September 30, 2011
Quick update from me- All this free time has prompted me to fill it with much business. Next week I am going to see Nana! Woohoo! Hoping to do a little job hunting and a lot of editing while I am out there. I've got SIX new papers to do- but that's great, cuz I finally got paid! It's nearly a real job!
I've decided to pick up an extra day of volunteering at the science center for the next month to help with a really cool project the Girls Math and Science Program has coming up. More on that later.
I've just put up a new "in depth" post on the Steel City Science page about polyomavirus research. I know! You couldn't get enough! Check it out, leave a comment, make my editor think someone is reading.
Tomorrow my old lab is coming over for a long in the works video project- we want to make one of those dweeby science viral videos to post on YouTube. We've got a great set of parody lyrics and now we need to do voice recording and some storyboarding. We had planned an elaborate Ke$ha parody, but we actually got scooped by the second year class at the departmental retreat. How did they pick the same absurd pop song we had planned? They may have won at the retreat, but we will certainly beat them in YouTube hits.
I've decided to pick up an extra day of volunteering at the science center for the next month to help with a really cool project the Girls Math and Science Program has coming up. More on that later.
I've just put up a new "in depth" post on the Steel City Science page about polyomavirus research. I know! You couldn't get enough! Check it out, leave a comment, make my editor think someone is reading.
Tomorrow my old lab is coming over for a long in the works video project- we want to make one of those dweeby science viral videos to post on YouTube. We've got a great set of parody lyrics and now we need to do voice recording and some storyboarding. We had planned an elaborate Ke$ha parody, but we actually got scooped by the second year class at the departmental retreat. How did they pick the same absurd pop song we had planned? They may have won at the retreat, but we will certainly beat them in YouTube hits.
Wednesday, September 28, 2011
Speed of light: Why you care
This was going to be a comment response until it got too long, so: here's your implications:
Our current understanding of the way the universe works is largely based on well tested and well understood theories started by Einstein and built upon by pretty much every physicist since. These laws say things CAN'T move faster than the speed of light. Since space and time are intertwined, if you are moving as fast as you can in space, you can't move *any* in time. You can read more about that, but it's been one of the rock-solid foundations of physics for a long, long time.
The critical thing about this is that we may have just proven that theory wrong. If something, ANYTHING, can ever travel faster than light under *any* circumstances, the entire theory *instantaneously* falls apart. (I know, isn't science CRAZY?) Now this isn't instantaneously catastrophic for most of the physics we know and love. After all, the fact that Newtonian Physics falls apart at the very small and very large doesn't mean that we can't use it to approximate a lot of useful things.
But notably, all science is about trying to correctly model the way the universe actually works. In that way, being proven wrong is actually sometimes more interesting than just being right over and over. It would be as if we had to update the theory of gravity to include "except for at 3:57 on Thursday afternoon in Topeka, Canada for about 1/10th of a second". All of a sudden there are a billion more questions to answer. "Why?" "Why not Wednesday?" As to this faster-than-light thing, similar questions arise. "Why these particles?" "Can we see the same phenomena from other sources?" "If things can travel faster than light, how come light doesn't?" The answers to these questions will inform whatever theory rises up to replace the broken one, and will offer a more complete and correct understanding of the universe. And with that better understanding, who knows what new technology could eventually be informed by our better knowledge. We got MRIs from a whole bunch of physicists who had no interest in medical imaging *at all*. Maybe in the future we will look back at this as the first breakthrough that eventually led to faster than light travel for the human race!
Or, you know, maybe the thing is just off a little.
-N
Our current understanding of the way the universe works is largely based on well tested and well understood theories started by Einstein and built upon by pretty much every physicist since. These laws say things CAN'T move faster than the speed of light. Since space and time are intertwined, if you are moving as fast as you can in space, you can't move *any* in time. You can read more about that, but it's been one of the rock-solid foundations of physics for a long, long time.
The critical thing about this is that we may have just proven that theory wrong. If something, ANYTHING, can ever travel faster than light under *any* circumstances, the entire theory *instantaneously* falls apart. (I know, isn't science CRAZY?) Now this isn't instantaneously catastrophic for most of the physics we know and love. After all, the fact that Newtonian Physics falls apart at the very small and very large doesn't mean that we can't use it to approximate a lot of useful things.
But notably, all science is about trying to correctly model the way the universe actually works. In that way, being proven wrong is actually sometimes more interesting than just being right over and over. It would be as if we had to update the theory of gravity to include "except for at 3:57 on Thursday afternoon in Topeka, Canada for about 1/10th of a second". All of a sudden there are a billion more questions to answer. "Why?" "Why not Wednesday?" As to this faster-than-light thing, similar questions arise. "Why these particles?" "Can we see the same phenomena from other sources?" "If things can travel faster than light, how come light doesn't?" The answers to these questions will inform whatever theory rises up to replace the broken one, and will offer a more complete and correct understanding of the universe. And with that better understanding, who knows what new technology could eventually be informed by our better knowledge. We got MRIs from a whole bunch of physicists who had no interest in medical imaging *at all*. Maybe in the future we will look back at this as the first breakthrough that eventually led to faster than light travel for the human race!
Or, you know, maybe the thing is just off a little.
-N
Monday, September 26, 2011
Being on Vacation is objectively better than Home
As I already had the chance to brag about mention, I got to spend the last week in Austin Texas with the World's Greatest Nephew and his super parents. I did a little bit of job hunting, a pretty decent about of cooking and a whole lot of baby squishing. There is not one part of Tyler that doesn't deserve a kiss or a squish. And he is very amenable to adventures. He got to go to the pool! Which he liked looking at more than splashing in.... And the Neighborhood Festival (where the rest of us porked out on Bake Sale)! And to Rudy's for awesome BBQ! Where he got his feet cleaned in the handwash jacuzzi, and he came to a posh Derby Party, where he got cooed over a lot, and I got some good contacts about Austin Jobs. He is such a great baby. And I got to feed him peas and carrots, and change his tiny clothes and he even feel asleep in my arms BECAUSE HE LOVES ME.
And then we took a plane home. And then Matt and I got violently ill. I was hoping it was something we picked up while flying, but no, the Austin Family is out for the count too. I was thinking I am pretty lucky have someone as nice as Matt to feel so dead awful with, and I did have the passing thought that having a Baby around would be impossible. And then I found out Noel and Jessie both had it... So, not feeling so whiney anymore. But yes, the vacation part was WAY more fun than coming home has been.
And then we took a plane home. And then Matt and I got violently ill. I was hoping it was something we picked up while flying, but no, the Austin Family is out for the count too. I was thinking I am pretty lucky have someone as nice as Matt to feel so dead awful with, and I did have the passing thought that having a Baby around would be impossible. And then I found out Noel and Jessie both had it... So, not feeling so whiney anymore. But yes, the vacation part was WAY more fun than coming home has been.
Sunday, September 25, 2011
an update? a quick update?
Ok, smart people, I need a quick ramp-up here: faster than light neutrinos.
What is the significance of this? Assuming for the moment there's not a gauge or sensor somewhere in the 400+ mile underground corridor that's juuuust a few nanometers off the bubble.
The liberal arts branch of the family wants to know the Deeper Meaning of all this. Einstein was wrong? We can put an asterisk in the E=MC2 thing? I know time travel won't be on offer any time soon (unless we get some really surprising visitors) but . . . intergalactic tourist travel?
No pressure, I just like to hear what the implications might be . . . maybe for the stock market, etc.
Friday, September 23, 2011
The Case of the Amazing Baby
We've had a few wow moments with Tyler over the past few weeks. For starters, he's started doing crazy stuff when he's on his stomach. He's been able to lift his head for a while, and he's been getting up on his knees and rocking back and forth a lot, which is a pretty normal thing for babies getting ready for crawling, but he's started to get up on all fours and then get up his toes. And then sort of flail his feet around so he's sort of half almost crawling and kinda walking on his toes except his hands never move. He's clearly excited to get moving, but he hasn't yet figured out that the hands need to be involved. Regardless, he's getting a heck of an upper-body workout. More and more of that baby budge is starting to turn into baby muscle!
He's starting to work on his little 'pincer motion' too, where he uses his finger and thumb for delicate tasks. It's clearly a work in progress, but he likes looking at fiddly things and he gets really focused and quiet and goes to work. The thumb and finger still have some coordination to work out between the two but it's really fascinating to watch him work. I caught a glimpse of my future son while he was working with a cute, concentrated face. For some reason I could see a shadow of how he's going to look when he's older. I got a bit of a chill.
We went swimming today, too. Well...it's still not that much swimming, truth be told. He has more fun in the tub. The pool is so new and strange that he spends most of his time, near as I can tell, just trying to figure out where the heck he is. We got some splashy time out of him, but the water was pretty cold, and it isn't a really good idea to keep him out in the sun much, even though we do make him wear a hat and a shirt. Delicate baby skin, you know.
Oh, and I got to take him swimming because I got to stay home today. I took a day off because Aunt Sandlin and Uncle Matt are visiting this week. Tyler has gotten a lot of Aunt time, especially around his cheek area. Matt has gotten to hold him and feed him a few times, too. They're going to spoil that kid rotten, I'm sure.
Tyler has been, as reported, working on Carrots this week. He's getting better, but he's still not a huge fan. Those first few bites are still really rough. We balance it out with some rice or oats, nice and familiar, and eventually he gets into the swing of things. It's way messier, though. We've got peas and sweet potatoes to try next. I imagine it will be much the same story as the carrots. Huge mess, scrunchy face, really cute.
As for me, I've been playing some video games in my spare time, but I think I need to get back into the studio to make some more music. There's a few more songs from Actraiser I'd like to cover, and someone made the excellent suggestion of writing a theme song for our work. I'm thinking of making it a little bit like the old Mickey Mouse Club theme. Very upbeat and saccharine. That could be a fun project.
Jess and I are both slacking on exercise a bit. Jess has a better excuse in that her normal Derby stuff has been interrupted by places loosing their rink time and other valid excuses. I was sick last week, but I missed Judo this week because Sandlin and Jessie told Tyler to be cute so I could stay home. He did, and so I did too. And I ended up making Ice cream too. Came out great, especially with strawberries. Yum.
Sandlin has been spoiling us with food. She made us Carnitas yesterday with so many fixins you'd think we were at a restaurant. Jess says she likes Sandlin's cooking better now. So I'll just have to make sure I fix that quite promptly...somehow. There were Kebabs, too. I grilled them with some corn that came out very well. She's also made us some chicken stock that she also turned into Chicken and Orzo soup, and Chilli, and a few other things too. She's a machine in the kitchen. She bought us some smoked salt that seems really good, but you have to store it extra-tight or it makes the whole pantry smell like a BBQ.
Jess gets back from work soon and then we're going to get some burgers with friends of Sandlin's that live in Austin. More people to meet! Oh, that reminds me. Some neighbors around the corner are either moving in or moving out. Either way, we'll probably have some new neighbors to meet quite soon.
-N
He's starting to work on his little 'pincer motion' too, where he uses his finger and thumb for delicate tasks. It's clearly a work in progress, but he likes looking at fiddly things and he gets really focused and quiet and goes to work. The thumb and finger still have some coordination to work out between the two but it's really fascinating to watch him work. I caught a glimpse of my future son while he was working with a cute, concentrated face. For some reason I could see a shadow of how he's going to look when he's older. I got a bit of a chill.
We went swimming today, too. Well...it's still not that much swimming, truth be told. He has more fun in the tub. The pool is so new and strange that he spends most of his time, near as I can tell, just trying to figure out where the heck he is. We got some splashy time out of him, but the water was pretty cold, and it isn't a really good idea to keep him out in the sun much, even though we do make him wear a hat and a shirt. Delicate baby skin, you know.
Oh, and I got to take him swimming because I got to stay home today. I took a day off because Aunt Sandlin and Uncle Matt are visiting this week. Tyler has gotten a lot of Aunt time, especially around his cheek area. Matt has gotten to hold him and feed him a few times, too. They're going to spoil that kid rotten, I'm sure.
Tyler has been, as reported, working on Carrots this week. He's getting better, but he's still not a huge fan. Those first few bites are still really rough. We balance it out with some rice or oats, nice and familiar, and eventually he gets into the swing of things. It's way messier, though. We've got peas and sweet potatoes to try next. I imagine it will be much the same story as the carrots. Huge mess, scrunchy face, really cute.
As for me, I've been playing some video games in my spare time, but I think I need to get back into the studio to make some more music. There's a few more songs from Actraiser I'd like to cover, and someone made the excellent suggestion of writing a theme song for our work. I'm thinking of making it a little bit like the old Mickey Mouse Club theme. Very upbeat and saccharine. That could be a fun project.
Jess and I are both slacking on exercise a bit. Jess has a better excuse in that her normal Derby stuff has been interrupted by places loosing their rink time and other valid excuses. I was sick last week, but I missed Judo this week because Sandlin and Jessie told Tyler to be cute so I could stay home. He did, and so I did too. And I ended up making Ice cream too. Came out great, especially with strawberries. Yum.
Sandlin has been spoiling us with food. She made us Carnitas yesterday with so many fixins you'd think we were at a restaurant. Jess says she likes Sandlin's cooking better now. So I'll just have to make sure I fix that quite promptly...somehow. There were Kebabs, too. I grilled them with some corn that came out very well. She's also made us some chicken stock that she also turned into Chicken and Orzo soup, and Chilli, and a few other things too. She's a machine in the kitchen. She bought us some smoked salt that seems really good, but you have to store it extra-tight or it makes the whole pantry smell like a BBQ.
Jess gets back from work soon and then we're going to get some burgers with friends of Sandlin's that live in Austin. More people to meet! Oh, that reminds me. Some neighbors around the corner are either moving in or moving out. Either way, we'll probably have some new neighbors to meet quite soon.
-N
Thursday, September 22, 2011
An in Alaska!
So, beloved Sister An returns from her world traveling duties on behalf of Belgian Bakery and Choclate supplies for a quick stop in Alaska. She looks great and has a wonderful job as a "commercial engineer" which translates into accounting work. She is auditing the books of her company's world wide facilities on a rotating basis just about everywhere. Both coasts of the US, South America, Asia and perhaps a few spots in Africa when she's not doing Europe. Excellent duty!
Her sister's are all married and having children. I think she is thinking about that too, but needs to find the "right one" for that to work out for her.
We wandered about the old haunts a bit, did a whale watching cruise, and just enjoyed her company. We got a committment that we will get an invitation to a Belgian wedding someday, so that becomes a pending retirement trip.
Nice to see all our kids doing so well with their lives!
Tuesday, September 20, 2011
Babies are distracting
Yeehaw! I'm in Texas!
Actually, let's be honest, I'm just spending my days in the happy comfort of Noel's house. There is a lot of blistering Texas out there, and I am happy with the climate controls in here. Obviously, I've distracted Noel from his semi-regular update on awesome things Tyler can do, so I'll do my best to give the update. While my favorite new parents are off at work, and their best little baby is in daycare, I thought I could really get down to the business of job hunting. But babies are distracting, even when they aren't melting you with their drooly smiles and shrieking laughs.
Yesterday, under the guise of "helping," I went through all of Tyler's tiny little onesies... They are so cutely adorable, but then I realized, he is wearing 9-12mo baby clothes. The 3month clothes look SO teeny compared to him. He is turning into quite a giant! He's actually really good at sitting up on his own, although he occasionally will give up, and fall backwards, almost always into his parents arms. His two teeth are coming in quite well, and he seems excited to test them out on things. At the moment he is very interested in chewing up all of the alphabet blocks that Nana gave him- these should provide years of entertainment.
Oh! And carrots! Noel mentioned he is slowly progressing through solid foods. His first attempt with carrots was hysterical. He's never had a flavor before, and and carrots taste like.... taste. His face went through a barrage of surprise, and horror, and dissapointment and disgust, but after every bite, he'd happily eat whatever Jessie was spooning him. Ack! Not this again! Check out the videos on Facebook, if you haven't yet.
Tyler is really seeing a lot of the world around him. He and I are pretty cool, but you should see the way he lights up when his Mom comes in the room. And he really likes Noel's "jokes." They go something like this: "Tyler, ... hey Tyler.... Bleh!" And he just laughs and laughs. So yes, Tyler is good, and his parents are good, and even the kitties are good. It's so nice to finally get to meet the little guy!
Actually, let's be honest, I'm just spending my days in the happy comfort of Noel's house. There is a lot of blistering Texas out there, and I am happy with the climate controls in here. Obviously, I've distracted Noel from his semi-regular update on awesome things Tyler can do, so I'll do my best to give the update. While my favorite new parents are off at work, and their best little baby is in daycare, I thought I could really get down to the business of job hunting. But babies are distracting, even when they aren't melting you with their drooly smiles and shrieking laughs.
Yesterday, under the guise of "helping," I went through all of Tyler's tiny little onesies... They are so cutely adorable, but then I realized, he is wearing 9-12mo baby clothes. The 3month clothes look SO teeny compared to him. He is turning into quite a giant! He's actually really good at sitting up on his own, although he occasionally will give up, and fall backwards, almost always into his parents arms. His two teeth are coming in quite well, and he seems excited to test them out on things. At the moment he is very interested in chewing up all of the alphabet blocks that Nana gave him- these should provide years of entertainment.
Oh! And carrots! Noel mentioned he is slowly progressing through solid foods. His first attempt with carrots was hysterical. He's never had a flavor before, and and carrots taste like.... taste. His face went through a barrage of surprise, and horror, and dissapointment and disgust, but after every bite, he'd happily eat whatever Jessie was spooning him. Ack! Not this again! Check out the videos on Facebook, if you haven't yet.
Tyler is really seeing a lot of the world around him. He and I are pretty cool, but you should see the way he lights up when his Mom comes in the room. And he really likes Noel's "jokes." They go something like this: "Tyler, ... hey Tyler.... Bleh!" And he just laughs and laughs. So yes, Tyler is good, and his parents are good, and even the kitties are good. It's so nice to finally get to meet the little guy!
Saturday, September 17, 2011
New Blog! Steel City Science!
One of my friends, who is a talented scientist and great writer, has decided that Pittsburgh needs a new blog, a blog to cover the exciting science happenings in town. It's surprising that there isn't something like this already, frankly. There are a lot of "Pro-Pittsburgh" blogs etc., supporting this great online community of people who like to shine a light on what makes Pittsburgh unique. There are dozens of research institutes and museums here, with cool science for Nerds and the Public alike, but no single place where all these great things get highlighted. Her idea, then, is to publicize it a bit more. Short news features from cool seminars, updates about great public events written for the average yinzer to understand. And she asked ME to help! I'm so excited!
The new blog is called Steel City Science, and you can follow us on twitter @SteelCitySci. Obviously, the twitter is mostly me. My posts are written by drsandlin (obvs), and the other bloggers (so far) are former coworkers.
I'm excited about this 1) because it gives me a good excuse to go to events and science stuff still, and 2) because it is a new way to think about science. AND it's giving me an excuse to learn some new skills- I'm the defacto PR person (uh, Kels, expect some calls). For example, I am linking here because I know you all LOVE to see what I am up to, but also because we need some more google cred to climb the rankings. Share the link, send me Burgh related stories and prepare to be excited by the awesome science coming out of Pittsburgh!
In other news- I'M GOING TO TEXAS TOMORROW! Don't leave your babies unattended or they will be kiss-tickled into hysterics.
The new blog is called Steel City Science, and you can follow us on twitter @SteelCitySci. Obviously, the twitter is mostly me. My posts are written by drsandlin (obvs), and the other bloggers (so far) are former coworkers.
I'm excited about this 1) because it gives me a good excuse to go to events and science stuff still, and 2) because it is a new way to think about science. AND it's giving me an excuse to learn some new skills- I'm the defacto PR person (uh, Kels, expect some calls). For example, I am linking here because I know you all LOVE to see what I am up to, but also because we need some more google cred to climb the rankings. Share the link, send me Burgh related stories and prepare to be excited by the awesome science coming out of Pittsburgh!
In other news- I'M GOING TO TEXAS TOMORROW! Don't leave your babies unattended or they will be kiss-tickled into hysterics.
Thursday, September 15, 2011
With all this free time, why do I feel so busy?
Hello old, neglected blog,
It's been a long time since we've had a chance to catch up. I know, it's surprising, given that I am between jobs at the moment. But I am intermittently very busy with finding the next job, and this is time not punctuated by anything very interesting or blog worthy. So there you have it.
Actually, that's not true. Yesterday was Matt's birthday- totally blog worthy! Matt went for a nice bike ride on his "new birthday wheels" (read:expensive wheels he bought himself a month ago and is still really happy with) and we ordered a meat lover's pizza and watch Thor, which was exactly as awful and awesome as I expected. If I hadn't been at the Science Center all day, I would havebaked a cake gone to the store to get ice cream.
Speaking of the science center- it's so fun! I'm starting to feel more confident on the exhibits, so I feel ok approaching people to encourage them a little. My favorite is the atrium, which is the 4 story playground for rockets, parachutes and air cannons. To me, its clear how play become science. "Your rocket went so high! Do you think it would go higher with different wings? How did you make it spin like that?" It's partly because kids never get tired of shooting the rockets. (They tend to get a little bored of the laproscopy demos, and there isn't as much to say about an aquarium.) And neither do I, apparently.
I'm also starting to work with a group that is promoting girls in math and science, or as it is known, the STEM fields (Science, Tech, Engineering and Math). My job right now is to come up with some online modules for a budding online community to have some STEM activities and prompt some interaction. I've got some starts of ideas, but it is going to be challenging to find a way to meet all the design requirements for the site. Like, there are some great science demos you can do for kids 10-14, but there is no reason for them to come back online and share. And how do you use that to launch deeper exploration? It's a fun challenge to break up the job hunting. Bleh. I'll let you know if that goes anywhere. In the meantime my "job" is looking more like a job. I've got more work for the week I'll be in Austin TX, which will keep me busy between BABY KISSING and BABY CUDDLING, my main plan for TX.
It's been a long time since we've had a chance to catch up. I know, it's surprising, given that I am between jobs at the moment. But I am intermittently very busy with finding the next job, and this is time not punctuated by anything very interesting or blog worthy. So there you have it.
Actually, that's not true. Yesterday was Matt's birthday- totally blog worthy! Matt went for a nice bike ride on his "new birthday wheels" (read:expensive wheels he bought himself a month ago and is still really happy with) and we ordered a meat lover's pizza and watch Thor, which was exactly as awful and awesome as I expected. If I hadn't been at the Science Center all day, I would have
Speaking of the science center- it's so fun! I'm starting to feel more confident on the exhibits, so I feel ok approaching people to encourage them a little. My favorite is the atrium, which is the 4 story playground for rockets, parachutes and air cannons. To me, its clear how play become science. "Your rocket went so high! Do you think it would go higher with different wings? How did you make it spin like that?" It's partly because kids never get tired of shooting the rockets. (They tend to get a little bored of the laproscopy demos, and there isn't as much to say about an aquarium.) And neither do I, apparently.
I'm also starting to work with a group that is promoting girls in math and science, or as it is known, the STEM fields (Science, Tech, Engineering and Math). My job right now is to come up with some online modules for a budding online community to have some STEM activities and prompt some interaction. I've got some starts of ideas, but it is going to be challenging to find a way to meet all the design requirements for the site. Like, there are some great science demos you can do for kids 10-14, but there is no reason for them to come back online and share. And how do you use that to launch deeper exploration? It's a fun challenge to break up the job hunting. Bleh. I'll let you know if that goes anywhere. In the meantime my "job" is looking more like a job. I've got more work for the week I'll be in Austin TX, which will keep me busy between BABY KISSING and BABY CUDDLING, my main plan for TX.
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