Fun stuff

I brought home stuff to make fairy wings, in preparation for Ella's birthday party and for Halloween (the current plan is that she wants to be a butterfly).


Decorating the wings:


Proof that sometimes she can be a morning person- although not often, she's definitely more like me than Pete in that respect:


Other fun stuff: Ugly Doll wears the Viking hat-in-progress.

Hee hee!

Yarn & stuff

Or, sometimes I can't just watch TV.....

Lou Potatoes

It's Wednesday

...which means it's not Monday. Some good things about Wednesday:

10. It's not Monday. That bears repeating.
9. I am working in my office in Portsmouth today, which means a short commute, and the possibility of Getting Something Done.
8. Going to work at 11:00 means that I can blog, and that I can call my eye doctor and my doctor to make checkup appointments (long, long overdue).
7. The sun is shining. It's a beautiful sunny day, with a breeze and just the right temperature.
6. The Lou was happy when I dropped her off at school. She and Ella headed for the cars, talking about how they plan to have a sleepover.
5. I heard from my friend Amy yesterday and we are going to get together soon. I can't believe it's so long since we've seen each other. Although, she just had Nathan two months ago, so yeah, I can.
4. We are nearing resolution on Pete's Smashmobile situation, and it's not as bad as we thought. The insurance came through.
3. Memere and Poppa will be coming to visit sometime soon....
2. Potty training is going very well- we're really coming along! Very proud of our girl. And....
1. The Lou's beloved Ms. Lisa will be babysitting one night this weekend! Woo hoo! I am hearing good things about Christopher's Third Street in Dover- good food, not too stuffy. It will be fun to try something new.

Happy Wednesday! This means YOU!

Bookworm

It makes me insanely happy to be surrounded by library books. I love libraries; I have since I was a kid and I used to go to the Silas Bronson Library in downtown Waterbury with my dad on Saturdays. I seem to remember going to the dentist a lot as a child, but that my dad always took me to the library afterwards. In these hazy memories, it's always raining for some reason. It couldn't have always been raining, and I couldn't have been at the dentist every Saturday, but there you are.

Anyway, my co-op job when I was at Northeastern was at the Boston Athenaeum, which is the oldest library in the country, even older than the Boston Public Library (reason being due to its absorption of the Boston Library Society, which was the original "subscription" library). Back in the early 18th century, libraries were really the domain of the priveleged (read: wealthy white males). The idea of a free source for books and other media, available to anyone, is a relatively new thing here in the US. But that wasn't my point.

The co-op job was not super busy. I was working for the archivist in my first go-round, and they had given me some records to process. I apparently was more efficient than they planned, so I had a lot of time on my hands. I used that time to wander the building- crawling the catwalks that hovered over the 3rd through 5th floors, soaking in the artwork scattered over the 2nd floor, prowling through the Rare Book room on occasion, visiting with the conservationists in the depths of the building. I even became a regular at Wednesday afternoon teas each week.

Although I was really self-conscious and nervous being the only intern there for quite a while (and therefore the youngest and least experienced person there), the fact that I was surrounded by books made it somehow easier to get acclimated. I could spend hours in a library, and probably have....the SBL at home, the Snell Library at Northeastern, the BPL, the libraries at UMaryland (they had a phenomenal graduate library), the Library of Congress, the Exeter Public Library....and the Dover Public Library. I am encouraged by the fact that Charlotte loves a trip to the library more than just about anything.

So the reading. I am almost through with Anthony Bourdain's collection of travel/food essays, The Nasty Bits. He's crass, uses foul language, and tells about things you probably could have lived without hearing, but I love this as much as I have loved his other nonfiction. This is partly because he's abrasive, which amuses me. But the larger reason is that his descriptions are just so vivid. You can almost see what he sees. I also truly appreciate the reverence he has for other cuisines, other cultures.....more places I need to visit now. Vietnam!

My eyes tend to be bigger than the time I have available to read, so I have been trying not to overdo the number of books I bring home at one time. Of course, I'm also reading another food-related book, and have two other books on deck, as well as 6 knitting books (I'm researching for my next project). And I got notices in my email that I have two more books to pick up today! I love being able to request stuff online.

And Charlotte has probably 10 books out too. Yay! She's learning her alphabet, steadily. I am just amazed....someday she'll be reading on her own. I hope she'll still climb up on the couch next to me and say, "You read this to me Mama?" Or something like it.

I've really got to get out more

create your own visited states map

Wow, only 16 states / 31% of the country. How long have I lived here?

Edited 9/5: I had forgotten that I have also visited Virginia and North Carolina, although briefly, and a while ago. Updated map above...although 35% still shows room for improvement.....

And then.....

After the fair we went to Barnstead to have dinner and spend the night. The Lou slept on an air mattress for the first time and was very excited. It would have gone a lot better had I remembered that it gets cold at night, and brought suitably warm jammies/blankets for her. Ah well. We did have fun.







Sunday the Lou and I did some grocery shopping and some grappling, since she was overtired. Yes, I took her to Hannaford wearing her lambie headband (but I drew the line at the rainboots). Yes, I got the "car cart" even though I cannot pilot them worth a damn. Yes, I ran into a colleague in produce as my lambie-headbanded child ate a cookie and screeched about produce at the top of her lungs. I'm a good mom, really. You just can't tell right now.

We went home and informed Pete we'd be going out to dinner.

Yesterday we were invited to the Works with the NoBer Nasons for a swim in the pool. We had such a good time, and I was so impressed by what I saw of the facilities, that I'm actually considering getting a membership. Awesome (and inexpensive) childcare while you work out, all kinds of classes, and- a crucial point- they open at 5 am. I think the only way it would work for me would be to get up at stoopid o'clock and head to the gym before anyone else wakes up, and get back to the house before anyone else wakes up. Pete and I are tired of being the Mayor and First Selectman of Fat City...moreover it's good to be healthy, right? Right.

So...back to the wringer. At least it's a short week. Headed to Salem today/tonight. The one thing I can say for term starts is that the chaotic busy-ness makes the day move very quickly. Off to get more coffee....

More of the fair

Mission: Carousel

This was the thing that sparked our interest in the fair to begin with. The Lou and I were watching George on TV when she was home sick last month, and George rode on a carousel. "Mama, I want to ride those horses too."

Picking out a good one

Wave to Daddy!

Not sure about this....

Okay, this is fun!

Hopkinton Fair

Saturday we went to the Hopkinton Fair with the Warrs. So much fun- I did not eat my weight in fried dough as promised, but we all had our fair share of fair food. The kids had a blast on the rides, and Charlotte and I swooned over the baby goats at the Farmyard Petting Zoo. Next year we'll try to get there earlier to take in some of the 4-H events.









Donkey!


Charlotte also tried out some tractors:

Hee hee, part 2

The mysterious, net-looking pictures that I put up a few days ago...they were of a scarf, a birthday present for my dear far-away Sri.

I'm so glad she likes it...a blogger/knit designer in California had posted a picture of hers a while back, and I thought, hmm. I followed the link to a company in Menlo Park, CA called Bella Knitting. They have very cool kits for unusual projects, including the Peek-a-Boo scarf. I knit Sri's using a bamboo yarn, which I have wanted to try for ages. They send a coordinating silk scarf along with the pattern and yarn. It's my first (very basic) lace project and was challenging without being too complicated, and lots of fun!

Here are some pics of me with the scarf....Sri's are better, but in mine you get to see me in my jammies.





So now I've moved back into the Land of Basic Garter-Stitch Baby Sweaters. My poor brain, full of budgets and schedules and students, cannot handle much more complicated work than that. I have seaming to do on another project, but I do not hear it calling me.

We're having a tired, sweaty day here in Dover. The Lou woke up way too early this morning, so Pete and I are Zombie Parents. Uuuhhnnn. Braaaiiins. There's the added bonus that I worked today and will work again tomorrow...yikes. It's the most wonderful time of the year. [Imagine me singing like Perry Como.]

Not much else- had pizza with the McGoughs last night, and it was good catching up with them. It was nice that because Ella is so potty-focused, Charlotte felt compelled to visit too and did well. Today she is wearing big-girl panties. Such a big girl.

I am looking forward to sleep, on a new pillow (!) in our air-conditioned room....

3 Feet High and Melting

The Lou has been awake, more or less, since 3:15 this morning. Finally, at quarter to six she broke free and was running amok upstairs, yelling, "Mama and Daddy! It's wake-up time now! It's wake-up time now!" It was in fact wake-up time.

While she was on the potty later this morning, Pete and I were discussing the type of morning she and her teachers will probably enjoy at school. I said, well, we've been telling them this week that we think naptime will have to be cut down to 1 1/2 hours. I used the phrase "welcome to my nightmare."

Pete laughed and sang the verse. From the bathroom we hear, "Is that Alice Cooper?"

So maybe my mood has only improved a little

Playlist for work yesterday:

Ray LaMontagne- Till the Sun Turns Black
Elliott Smith- From a Basement on the Hill
Death Cab for Cutie- Plans
Garden State soundtrack
La Boheme
The Smiths- Strangeways, Here We Come

It was about that time that the wretched iPod refused to work anymore....stoopid iPod and its temperamental ways. Have to think about having someone look at it.

Let's not call it goodbye, let's just say "smell ya later"

So I'm back. Sometimes life is too tiring to comment on. The last few weeks have been- well, whatever they've been. It's almost the end of August, therefore almost the end of summer. Yeah, I know the calendar says that the autumnal equinox isn't until September 21st or such, but face it: this is New Hampshire. The fact that it's been cooler this week probably does not mean that fall is just around the corner, but still. Still.

What have we been up to, besides work and school? Hmm. Well, here's a picture the Lou took of me:

And one I took of her:

The shadow is her arm as she tries to grab the camera from me.

Here's Jimmy looking fierce:


"The cheese. You will give it to me, now."

There has been much knitting, but as usual, not much project completion. Knitting is good. It's like Valium I don't need a prescription for. I thought about bringing it to work today, but then I figured the other managers would be jealous that they had nothing to do with their hands during the relentlessly long and dull compliance audit conference call. Can work truly be that boring? Why yes, yes it can.

Next week is orientation, which sounds like it could be fun but is really a hamster wheel of people and files and sometimes tears. It's not a term start unless someone cries in my office. I think it's because I'm so nice to them. No, really. Sometimes when people hear things they don't want to hear from someone who genuinely wants to help, it can be more upsetting than if they hear the same thing from someone who delivers the news with a heaping helping of attitude. After 9 years (yikes) I know the drill and can usually handle situations and people. Usually. (That's my protection from Murphy's Law.)

So what's more fun is this:



I took this tonight after dinner. I see a teenager in that face, and it makes me cry. Sometimes I can see these flashes of how she'll be when she's older, what she'll look like....wow. Such an adventure, and I am just glad to be along for the ride.

Not much else to report. More later this week. Maybe!

Hee hee

Meh.

I am still here. The last week has just been really tough, for various reasons. Everyone's okay, no worries.

Will post again soon.

Ookie has a full belly

According to Charlotte, her little yellow friend:



Does not eat roasted veggie quesadillas or drink milk. He does not eat strawberries or yogurt or meat. He only eats....

Crocodile tears.

So tonight, Ookie goes to sleep fat and happy and I have no new pictures. Instead, climb into the Way-Back Machine to about a year ago.