brother update

so, I haven't talked to him in a while, but my understanding is thus...
no word yet from Harvard law.
he's in Chicago now, visiting U of Chicago and Northwestern (?)
in a few days he goes to New york to check out NYU and Columbia.
I think Columbia is top choice, but very changable depending on his personal impressions.
I don't even know when he's coming back, because he wants to stay and play (bike) in Utah some before getting home.

But I could be wrong on many of these points. It's just a modest situation update, far as I know.

lost & found

Found a whole checkbook today! wow! :)

Lost- Em's social security card. Need the number for taxes, which I was going to send out today. Instead, I guess my day's quest is to get the # somehow. (sigh)

Earthquake!

http://earthquake.usgs.gov/regional/nca/1906/simulations/ This is one of the best things I've seen. Particularly interesting is the WHOLE THING. Check out the 1906 vs. Loma Prieta videos, and the closeup perspectives are really great too. Thanks, USGS! 

One month ago, Embassy Suites promised to refund our hotel stay, and the check hadn't come yet, so I emailed over the weekend.
It arrived yesterday by fedex 2-day.
so, yay for folowing up.


now here is a letter of complaint!

 
This morning E was using play-doh, and mixed colors for the first time. His reason? to put spots on his seahorse, or course! Seashorses need spots. Seahorses live in the ocean. then he rolled it all together and made a mitten. 

hands off baby 2

I've never used the camera's nighttime function, but not that we have that bedtime photo of E, I realize we're neglected to ever photograph Em alseep at home... so here she is, last night.

Most of the night, she sleeps on her belly with her legs tucked under and her bottom raise dup. 

checks in the mail

so, I've found a really good little house, and I've seen the outside, it's a cute safe neighborhood, it's cheaper than where we are now, an 8 mile drive to work, and 50 miles from "home". but the city will go nameless for now because we're so paranoid about stalkers :)

Anyway, we're eager to visit it Saturday and hope nobody else is afetr it. but guess what? I am OUT of checks. Just now. I ordered more, expedited shipping, but they won't be here yet. And on a saturday, if we needed to get a deposit on the place fast to hold it, we don't have any, and our bank doesn't have any branches open saturdays, but even if they did, they need a day's notice to print a check. GRRRRR! we're going to look so flaky asking a stranger to rent to us but wait a while for any real ($) commitment while trusting my flaky "forgot to order more" promise.

I don't even USE checks. I'm shocked we ever ran out. We do everything electronicly but rent.

Hands-off

Last night after we read our customary pre-bed books, I tucked E and his bear in to bed, told him that he could cuddle with the bear now, and that I'd leave the door open. He said, "Bye" and pushed me away. In 5 minutes, he was asleep. I didn't have to sit with him! Hooray! This morning's report is that he woke up, told Mom how he was a big boy now (our previously established big boy criterion was that he had to go to sleep by himself), and told her to leave so he and his bear could go back to sleep. Let's hope it sticks. 

Olé!

so, I didn't eat very well today and nothing at home sounded good. so as soon as the kids were in bed, I went out to find something. I ended up at Chevys.
(we don't have a trustworthy babysitter here, so anything after 6pm means we can't go together) I had a book and planned to get and apetizer and take my time, with lots of chips and salsa.

The server took my order and then came right back. he'd forgot to ask about a drink.
of course, I wanted just water, but he had to offer me some upsell. I've "worked" Chevys a hundred times, I know the drill, I'm not going to accept whatever it is...

him- Oh, can I get you a tequila...
me- no
him ... one for you, one for me?

oh man, how embarassing! (for him!) I said no before he even got to his line, and he said it anyway!

so, he brings the food, the refills, I try to read and eat. He stands too close or touches my chair or shoulder some but I'm thinking he's well shot-down and I'm not talking to him or looking at him so he must be clear, right? I'm even wondering if the unorthodox offer before was on a dare, and the whole crew is watching me eat alone.

Time to go, I ask for the check. He brings it, and gave me 1/2 off. He asks me to write my phone number on it for him. really. I'm glad I have cash so he doesn't see the name on my card.

pretty amusing night. Is this what being single is like all the time? Guess I'll need to pick somewhere else for a while.

E's exciting project

for Christmas, E was given the oporitunity to "build a bear" with his sweet aunt, who I think is nameless online...

anyway, we just did it yesterday, and he LOVED it. he will tell you all about every step. He even insisted on doing some of them twice. It's a hands-on store where the kid customizes his own bear.

He was sure he wanted this bear from the beggining, and settled on the name right away. Gnocci. me- "like the pasta?" him - "Yes!" (pronounced "no key").


At the clothing wall, he first chose shorts and tshirts, but then got distracted by a spiderman costume and army helmet. Luckily, we found soft spiderman pajamas, and he agreed to that. I wanted to keep the bear cuddly.

at the birth cnertificate station, he said the bear's full name was "gnocci nina" (rhymes with no key nine uh) but changed the last name some on the ride home, so I think just Gnocci will do. It comes with a carboard house and he likes to put him in there for naps. He brought him to bed and fell asleep holding him, no adults necesary :)


He tells me gnocci's not alive because he doesn't eat or grow (thanks sesame street) and also, he's not wild, because he is wearing clothes. He says most stuffed animals are wild.

Remember the Titans?

Very little matters less. Let's be honest. I'm getting a free, new vehicle. Which kind I get is really quite trivial. The fact that anyone is giving me anything is rather amazing. That being said, I'm going to devote yet another post to this truck situation.

So: as part of Dewane's severance package, he was given the option to buy his truck from the company. Originally, he told our construction manager that he wasn't interested, and gave him the keys. Now he's changed his mind. That's right, less than 24 hours from the time I was going to make it mine, he decided to buy it.

That's fine (albeit annoying as heck). So today I order the Titan. It should be here in June. This, hopefully, is the last you'll hear of cars from me until it arrives, and then only once more.
 

fishy business

 

Isn't this pretty?
I know my tastes run more sensible than this, but I'd absolutely want one-
if it stayed crystal-clear and cleaned itelf. 

nice morning

I don't know why I'm lucky but today E slept until 7:10 and Em made it to 8:30.
That is amazing. I don't think she's even made it to 8 before. And she seems happy, not sick or anything :)
I got lots extra done this morning, in a more relaxed way. wonderful!


we're looking forward to the time change. In the winter, they sleep 6pm to 6 or 7 am.
We're unable to nudge that around at all. so when the time chages, we don't bother trying to shift it, we just enjoy that their new times are bed at 7, wake at 7 or 8! sounds so much more reasonable!

Forget the Titans

UPDATE 3/27: Corporate approved this deal, and the district manager authorized me to get a steam cleaning done on it (the company will pay).

I'm picking it up at noon tomorrow. Perhaps my feelings about this, rational or not, are not being translated to you accurately, so I'll clarify: I am really excited about this.

ORIGINAL POST: An amazing thing happened at work. I was out to lunch with some colleagues, talking to them about how I was going to order the Titan on Monday. Remember, I was going to have to pay about $700 for the Titan, which had manual windows, locks, etc. So my colleague said, "What about Dewane's truck?" (He was recently fired for not being good at his job, and so his company vehicle is not in use). Well, as it turns out, Dewane had a 2005 Tundra Double Cab with a lot of options (he paid about $4000 out of his own pocket for upgrades), and presently has 36,000 miles on it (we get a new one at 60K). So I went and talked to the district manager, and he approved the deal. Now, I get a better rated (though agreeably slower and plainer looking), better equipped truck now, as opposed to paying $700 and getting it in 4 months! Great! Oh yeah, Dewane was into smoking cigars in the truck with the windows up, so it's going to spend a day or two at the cleaners. Hopefully that can all be worked out. I really am blessed to have such a good company. I don't deserve it.

Anyway, I will be getting it next week. Yipee!

2 little monkeys

so, just now, E was playing with these things
at the kitchen table, and Em was quietly walking around with toys, so things were nice. I came to turn on the radio in the computer room. All was quiet for a while.
then E called "mom, Em is on the table!"
me "the kitchen table?"
E- "yes!"
me "ok, I'll check it out"

yep. she was. and she'd knocked over a cup of water up there.
Turns out she can get up on a big chair, and from there to the table.

what do we do about that? she even pushed it into position first!


edit to add:
ok, so coming back to the computer is risky, but I came back to write the post. guess what she did? chlimbed right back up and stood on the chair! So I brought her in here so I could write that update. and then she turned my computer off! sheesh!

gotta go now. need a whole new strategy for being home with her. something with less time in this room or less access to the kitchen, I guess.

thankless poem

Those Winter Sundays (Robert Hayden)

Sundays too my father got up early
and put his clothes on in the blueblack cold,
then with cracked hands that ached
from labor in the weekday weather made
banked fires blaze. No one ever thanked him.

I’d wake and hear the cold splintering, breaking.
When the rooms were warm, he’d call,
and slowly I would rise and dress,
fearing the chronic angers of that house,

speaking indifferently to him,
who had driven out the cold
and polished my good shoes as well.
What did I know, what did I know
of love’s austere and lonely offices?




I saw this posted somewhere else.
I think it's a fine thought of how so much of parenting and household-running is endlessly thankless. Espeically the boring, uncomfortable, or invisible parts.

so, while I wait my few decades for any real apreciation from my kids, here's a solid THANKS to my folks, espeically for everyday unseen cooking and always keeping the heat on.

Netflix

So, we haven't been to a movie since E was born.
OK, we both went individally to see "passion of the Christ" when E was too sensitive to leave alone. and Horn has seen a couple with guy friends (star wars, LOTR)

So we haven't missed movie-going, and we're too frugal to go anyway.
But we figured in 3 years we probably had missed some decent stuff, so we thought we'd catch up thourgh a few months of netflix. we subscribed in august. we're still on! sheesh. and we've seen so many not worth finishing. In fact, we just saw the 1st really worth the time Secondhand Lions

so let's see. 30 movies rented in 5 months at $16 a month. $2.66 each isn't such a deal is it. Especially since we hated so many.

oh and we lost Seabiscuit, before we even saw it, so there's an extra $16 or whatever
they charegd.

looking at my account list, most were disasters. the few OK ones were "hudsucker proxy" "the terminal "hotle rawanda"... man that's about it. documentaries that weren't awful: spellbound. supersize me. that penguin one. "my flesh and blood" about a lady with oodles of disabled foster kids in Fairfield.

so we need to hurry and wrap this up. not that we have time to watch these. we'd rather read and talk. Turns out, I fall asleep for movies just like my mom. Am I getting old? when the lights get dim, I'm out. we have 11 on our queue, and that's it. what a waste it's been.

what else?

so what else is new?
E was fabulous at speech yesterday. He was doing his "sp" and "st" starting words at 80%. really sounded natural about it too. his "f" has really improved to, for word beginings and endings.

my beloved car has almost 110k miles. I hope to kepe ti forever, but hornw as worried the engine would explode soon or somehting. Father-in-law is sort of a VW enthusiast, and he assured us the car's likely problems aren't catastrophic at this point, given what's already been replaced on it. But consumer reports rates this model and year rather poorly for reliabiltiy in their used auto guide last month. So I don't know how long we'll have it.

Horn gets to order his new truck now. When that comes (June-ish), we can sell off his car and have 1 less vehicle to insure and register. That's cool. Oh, it's the nissan, not the toyota now. we all like it better.

ordinary time

actually, it's Lent now. but anyways. (warning: rambling and boring post ahead)
things are rather regular over here, except twice Horn has had to work late.

Yesterday was E's lucky day for the park- we drove by a long neglected La Leche League park day, surprisingly many people were there, including a little girl who brought a physical therapist, with parachute and instruments and all sorts of games, trying to do the girl's PT with some positive peer pressure. E was right in there, singing a "follow the leader" song and doing all the stairs, slides, and balancing the therapist asked of him.
One mom praised "he must go to preschool!" but no ma'am, that's raw talent! He's got mad singing/marching/listening skillz. :)
So he was apreciated, but unfortunately, the peer examples didn't help the girl do what they wanted :( I chatted with the mom some, they're doing the same screenings and programs we went through to get E his OT and speech.

Today the church park day was right in our neighborhood, and we were surprised to find it well attended this week! funny how these things move. Last week was here too and not a soul showed up. my kids had a great time. Em was climbing up the structures and then sliding down, all on her own. that's new, and had me running all around to catch her. the only problem we had was right as we walked up, a bigger boy smacked E in the nose for "walking in his way"! There are a few real hitters and takers in this town, but this boy isn't one of them.

let's see. Monday we went with a good friend to our beloved Habitot museum . she's about to move out of state, sadly for us. But we had a good time, even if we did walk all around town in the rain afterwards, hunting for food. the kids were ncie about that. But i really hurt by shoudlers carrying Em on the front in a carrier. And then my right hip was killing me that night. and now days later, it's my back and shoudlers. I don't know whay we had to walk so long downtown before we could find a place! But we tried Baja Fresh, which was actually alright :)

Of course, being in town I had to bring home some dinner amazing every time! check the review page. we promise it's worth the trip. I take it home half-baked with ham inside and then add bell peppers and onions to Horn's side myself.

we've seen a few houses lately but nothing quite right, which is fine, since we're in no hurry.

so, now you see why there was nothing worth posting about lately, at least not on it's own. no pictures, either.

impersonating the locals

So we had a fabulous time at church in Dublin today.
Oh, that reminds me about you Degenerate subspacers:
excerpts from Nibley How to get rich talk
and also work we must, but the lunch is free
which both appear in "approaching zion"


Anyway, Horn cooked this meal for us. that's a skillet full of "migas" an old-world Spanish recipe that we love my abuelita to cook for us. we can do it alright, but hers is awesome. texture, looks, and tatse are somehow better than ours. Must be her decades of practice and having learned from the natives and not a cookbook like we did.

 

furthermore, it is meant to be accesorized with whatever you've got on hand- meat, fish, veggies, broth. It's peasant food and the name means "crumbs".


It's just made of water, oil, flour and salt. If you come visit us post-worldwide-catastrophe, we can serve you this simple meal for a few months :) 

Lemoneering

Horn said to call it a day of "lemoneering"
anyway, we worked together this moring to finish up our juicing project. We gathered, in total, 568 ounces of juice, just short of 9 gallons.
E loved learning about the lemons and personally extracted 30 ounces of juice!

  

Bath Babies

these babies are 1 year, 1 week old. Can you guess what picture is what baby?



 

E when he was 1

this first shot is 11 months. Note the 8 stacks of bookstore overflow on the table behind him. and the junk on the floor there is ye olde Ebay pile
 

this incident is my fault for transporting a bag of cookies in the clean laundry basketa nd then leaving it on the floor. This was back in the day that I washed diapers at mom's house, and then she'd let us take her food too :)
 
good thing I kept the camera out that day...
 
more havoc the same day

I don't know why, but I hadn't seen this picture before. check out E's face!
  

old photos- 3rd and final

E one day old
days 4,5,7,8
about 1 month


honeymoon cruise. Some reason we only scanned in these few photos. I bet better ones are in a box somewhere.

old photos 1

here's some old photos for y'all. It's our wedding. I thought I'd start with the most shocking shot first :) watch out!

Mark Your Calendars

http://lds.org/newsroom/showrelease/0,15503,4028-1-23072,00.html

 

retire someday

no, not us. It's just on our mind occasionally because of our parents and their various retirement outlooks, and retirement planning/condiitons are in the news a lot for boomers in general.

TIME magazine last week on "the bridge job" after suposedly retiring
Foxnews today on high medical expenses retirees face

Hey dad, I was going to give that TIME one to you someday. Online is easier.
You may really want to check on that Spanish healthcare idea, or maybe buy the condo next to Ray's in Argentina... if you can find an escape hatch, you might not have to wait so long to get out!

Caesura

As of 12 February, I officially became a non-current pilot. As many of you know, flying is a very big part of my life, for better or for worse. Unfortunately, free time and extra money are two resources I've had very little of lately, and it has, quite to my dispair, caused my currency to lapse. It is my prediction that this state will last perhaps years. To legally get current, I simply go fly by myself and make three takeoffs and landings, but in the name of safety, it is wise to have a flight instructor ($30-75/hr on top of the $90/hr airplane) recheck me. Woe is me. Fortunately, life is still wonderful, and I have existence's most special family.

Below, you can see me checking the oil in my favorite airplane, N___G based at my old local airport before a trip with my good friends Kent and Steven (I've lost about 15 pounds since that picture was taken). This picture is from a flight my dad and I took to a former Air Force base and its corresponding museum. Landing an airplane at 45 knots (20 knot headwind) on an 11,000 ft runway with no control tower is...well...not something I get to do every day.

I know that my company will pay a certain amount each year to further my education. I'm trying to work that angle to get my instrument or tailwheel ratings. We'll see.

-H

de-motivators

here's some mildly amusing anti-motivational posters

Asleep

Last night, I woke up to E screaming "I don't want to!" in our room and running away. I went to get him, and I held him while he cried "I don't want to!" for about 5 minutes. I wasn't awake, or so it seems. I understood "I don't want to!" to mean "I want 168 feet!", or sometimes, "I want 6,048 feet!" (feet as in length, or altitude), when in reality he was saying "I don't want to" (bad dream, likely). I didn't know why he was saying this or what I could do about it. Eventually he went back to sleep. This kind of thing happens relatively often when I wake up to crying/throwing up/sudden disturbances in the middle of the night.

-H

we've been able to narrow down our move somewhat.
Considering travel times, safe/pretty areas, and affordability, our choices now are dublin, Castro Valley, and (east) oakland. They're all acceptable, so now we just need to wait for more guidance or the perfect house to pop up.

Today us girls went to church in oakland (9th branch and 1st ward combined. All the numbers between 1 and 9 are other languages!). It was cool.

The boys went to Castro Valley, where 1st and 2nd wards combine some too. Horn thinks they had a nice time, but it was hard to tell becuase they speant so much time outside and in the hall, and had to leave way early. Little E has been way hyper lately, everywhere we go. Next week, we'll try again :) They did drive around and find plenty of good neighborhoods.

We already know we liked Dublin. I just can't get excited about it. It's alright, I dunno. horn was pushing for that until he saw that CV really is nice and he can get home from work on city streets in 15 mintues :)

Titans don't live in Tacoma (what?)

I've changed my mind about the truck. I want a bigger one. I know it's not the most environmentally friendly option, but it fits the budget. Besides, I work in construction. I'm pretty soft and don't swear, so I've got to earn the field guys' respect somehow. So I'm going to get a Nissan Titan (see below). It's got four doors and room for up to 4 (!) carseats if needed.
It's also got a 5.6L V8 (plenty of power). I'm excited about it, and I will get it sometime between June and August.

In case you're not familiar with the situation, my company is going to buy me a car. They pay for gas, maintenance, licensing, insurance, AND it is available for unlimited personal use. I really couldn't have a better job/company, and I'm extremely grateful for it.

[BTW (FYI, that's 733+ 5p33K for "by the way"), I'll be getting it in majestic blue, not "give me a ticket" red].

I'm sorry...this has been a disorganized and not well planned post. I suppose everything will be ok, though.

-H