Em is teething (molars). With E, we didn't have a baseline (happy baby) to compare teething to. He was just a little extra grumpy. Em is really suffering lately.
Then, today, E was a little slower than usual. In the car, he told us that he was "Just going to go to sleep." When we got home, he passed out on the couch, where he remains with a new fever.
So, Horn and I took the myers-briggs personality test online and both got shockingly accurate profiles back.
here are the best descriptive links I could find
INTJ here that's me
INFJ here that's HorninF
tests for you here
http://similarminds.com/jung.html
http://www.humanmetrics.com/cgi-win/JTypes2.asp
http://www.teamtechnology.co.uk/mmdi-re/mmdi-re.htm
X rays showed this is one tooth, one extra large "pulp bed", not two fused together.
The oposite side has two smaller teeth in one position.
Feb '05
January '06
June '06 note the changed shape- less like an upside down v, more like an arch. that's what startled me, especially seeing brown decay in there.
So here you see it! they drilled, they filled, and hopefully saved the tooth for a few years.
E had a very good trip to the dentist today.
It all happened so fast, but the story is this- I noticed Sunday his cracked tooth looked diferent and brown inside. We contacted a dentist friend who had a look monday morning and took an Xray, expecting this to be no problem, but then we found it was decayed and very close to the root. (The wierd structure made it an easy place for bacteria to hide and grow unmolested). So he needed a filling ASAP, before the root got involved. And that's what we did today.
He did great! He sat still, he cooperated, he waited and squeezed my hand, but he didn't cause any trouble. The tooth is now filled all the way so the gap is gone. Pictures will follow.
it's been a wonderful day. Everybody is happy and rested, and it's only reached 69 degrees out. This allows us great benefits such as wearing pants and eating warm foods again.
Therefore, I'll re-open our house as a place you may wish to come visit. Come by sometime. We'll probably be wearing clothes and eating food :)
anyway, here is an old article if you've got time to kill.
Great news. We came home yesterday afternoon (temps high 80s) and it steadily cooled down all evening. During the night the clouds came in all around us, bringing a welcome end to our heat wave.
We woke up from the best night's sleep all week, 59 outside 69 inside. Walking in our main room, we were thrilled to see the clouds actually blowing in our new window screens. Warm days are still ahead, but as long as the monrings and evenigs cool down, I've got no complaints.
also, Horn took a picture of the morning glories out our window. they're on our neighbor's fence. He slept in today to make up for 2 days of waking at 4:30 to make the longer commute to work while we were away from home.
Last weekend was the big hiking trip. The plan was to go up Thursday, spend all day Friday hiking , and then come back Saturday. We only hiked for a few hours, but I won't go into that.
At any rate, we went to Lassen Peak, which was about a three hour drive (once the companions were picked up). Hikers say it's a pretty wimpy hike, but it was amazing and strenuous.
Three of the four of us. Tim (center) is about 6'-2", and Chad (right) is precisely one Chad tall (6'-7"), which explains most of me looking extra short.
We arrived at the cabin at Lake Almanor as the sun was setting. Of all of the things that you don't know about this lake, perhaps the most relevant to someone unprepared is that there are scads of bats. Shown below is the old water tower, which had been converted into sleeping space (where we slept). We called it the batcave because it was filled with bats. One evening, I was by the lake, watching the sun set. In the space of about 5 minutes, about 10,000 bats appreared, flying over the water, and flapping their batty little wings right by my head. It was time to go.
That night, we had hamburgers on the front patio of the cabin. Much to our surprise, we discovered a racoon. Actually, there were two. They weren't scared of us, and seemed to say, "Hey, guys. How are things? Hey, do you think you could spare a bite to eat?" This one's name is Maurice.
Day two. I almost fell and slid all the way down that big patch of snow on the side.
The park is amazing. The air is strongly sulfur-y. The mountains and trees are comepletely stunning, though. Not being a poet, I make no attempt to adequately describe what it's like.
After missing the turn, we arrive at the trailhead and a 10' wall of snow. The hike takes us from ~8,000 ft. to ~10,200 ft. in about 4.5 miles. The most demanding part, though, was trudging through the snow and not eating it.
A little over half way up, we came to these protrusions. According to the sign that was right there, they were formed when lava pushed through the outer surface of the volcano. They're huge, too.
Shortly after this picture was taken, it began to rain. It was very cold. And wet. I was worried about the lightning that had been forecast. There's nowhere to take shelter up there.
Eventually, we made it to the teaser summit. It's flat, and there are signs, but the real summit lies about a hundred feet higher. There is no trail there, you have to find your own path and climb over the broken rock.
At last, we made it (after about 2 hours). Had I been more prepared, I would have brought my horn and announced Siegfried's long horn call to the landscape. In the direction I'm looking, there is a roughly 1,000 ft. drop, beginning at the edge of the rock I'm sitting on.
The hike was a lot of fun, but I could have done it again that day without much struggle. So while not the manly extreme hike I had hoped for, it was still excellent.
so, we found online weather reporting for the park right by our house.
today's high? 108.
July's prior record? 100
highest temp ever was 102 one october
July average high? 70
Chruch was pretty uncomfortable too, but talking with other overheated folks, I learned something thrilling- our hills are NOT always 10 degrees warmer than the city. Sure, in our 3 week expereicne that ahs been 100% true. But in our neighbor's 9 year expereince, the truth is that the hills are consistantly 10 degrees *cooler* and he thought it was pretty freaky to drive down and lately find it get nicer below. so maybe we didn't screw up by unknowingly picking a bad microclimate afterall. :)
we're very glad to have escaped today, and hopeful we can return tomorow night, though it's just as likely we'll have to stay longer.
I feel so bad for all the people everywhere who deal with such miserable conditions all the time because they lack resources to leave.
so, the best it got last night was 88 inside and out. Sleeping was pretty miserable.
it's 9am now, 92 out there, 88 in here. Today's high and low is forcasted the same so we'll not be coming back. we're heading down for church now and will return whenever conditions improve.
Luckily, I have indoor plans for Monday (hi firends!) and Horn of course has work.
yesterday's high on our indoor thermometer? 98.
This is an emergency. It's 10:00 pm. Outside, it's 91. Inside, it's 92. Our fans are working as hard as they can (there is no AC). One of the reasons we moved here was to escape the heat.
According to weather.com, it was 99 today. Average historical high for this day? 71.
Lowe's and Home Depot are all sold out of air conditioners (at least the portable kind).
In another nearby town, it was 114 today.
What can we do? Send help.
******
editing the time so his post comes up above mine :)
So, today it was 95 degrees at 9AM, and rapidly rising inside. I had to get our sweaty-haired, pink-faces selves out of here. So yeah, we ended up spending the whole day way from home, staying inside somewhere even hotter outside but much cooler inside. good thing too, it seems our power was out at some point and also it reached a hundred here. We calculated it would be cool enough to come back for overnight but as long as this lasts it is impossible to stay here for daytime. Really, it's 11pm and 91 degrees inside and out. Kids are sleeping alright, fans are going hard, but this isn't so good. Glad it's not a work night.
Part of why we moved here was because I wanted a place that would never get so hot that we couldn't go out- I hate that in hot towns, you're stuck inside. We picked a town with nice 70 degree averages. unfortunately, we live up above it where the high is usually 10 degrees higher. More unfortunately, there's a heat wave.
So, I hated being prisoner to an air conditioned home but we amazingly, here we found the oposite- a place that gets hot so you can't be home at all!
so, we had a fine day. I hear the hiking trip is going well too.
this morning we met a friend at Habitot and picked up some books and videos at the library. Came home for Em's nap, E's quiet video time, and my lunch (pasta from a box). Nap time lasted 2.5 hours, and I read the rest of Night , a powerful and poetic holocaust memoir which everybody should read.
we speant the whole afternoon inside. It was 85 in, 90 out.
Em climbed right over a baby gate without falling or pulling it down.
Now the kids are in bed and I'm eating a Boboli pizza. I'd rather be at Chevys :)
I really doubt I'll be visiting eastward tomorow. I don't know when to expect HorninF back, but we do have a church picnic at 5 and maybe the farmer's market to go to.
PS- Habitot memebrship ends in 4 weeks. any friends who want to be my free guests, let me know now! I probably won't renew until after new baby comes and I feel like I could really take 3!
article here
becuase of the heat and smog, there's free rides on lots of busses/trains/ferries today. It's the last one of these for the summer, so I know a few people taking their train-loving, bus-loving, and boat-loving kids out for a spin. Not sure if we will, but I wanted to give a heads up to anybody else.
certain family members find it ammusing when i buy things to resell on ebay/craigslist.
they particularly mock when I encounter appliances to store and sell but never use.
I don't know why, it's not like I'm hoarding or anything. they move quickly :)
anyway, today I sold a dryer. $125, bought for $65
it was from the $15 washer guy, who was moving and really needed a favor. I already have a good gas dryer, but we were there with the truck, and he needed it gone, and we were getting that great deal on the broken washer. Plus it was worth more than 65, no doubt.
anyways... maybe you guys are just jealous :)
:)
I left the kids with a babysitter tonight. first time. (you know, besides imediate family and other parents)
Sweetie has gone out on a hiking trip with some guy friends, and I had a much-anticipated book group to attend. We've got a teenage girl next door who babysits. So, nervously, I left them. I actually put the kids to bed at 6 so they'd be asleep through her whole stay, and that worked.
There were 17 women, 1 man at book group. It was Freakanomics which I borrowed this week, and did enjoy reading. Discussion was lively and I did get more familiar with some new faces, though it wasn't a close setting for individual chatting- not that I'm good at that even when the oportuntiy exists anyway.
I think I mentioned Em climbed out of her pack-n-play yesterday. well, today she's climbing out of her crib! I just kept putting her back in, maybe a dozen times, before she fell asleep.
so, she never got hurt or stuck, but she did climb on sleeping E, and I also anticipate trouble with any minor wakings- what if she gets out during the night? what if she thinks a 6AM disturbance means morning when confined she would sleep on til 8?
we'll see.
This week we cut E's hair- just the longest curls off his neck and ears. and Em cut her foot- in the bathtub, of all places! Both seem recovered from such traumatic experiences.
Em was well enough today to actually climb out of the pack-n-play and nonchalantly walk out of the room when her nap ended.
E still freaks out with hair cutting. He also was very bugged by the bleeding, crying as hard as she did but articulate enough for a very comical "help, I'm so upset!"
there's not much news here.
Em has a bunch of new teeth pushing through now, but amazingly she's acting happy. Her only behavioral change is a very fortunate one- suddenly, she's taking 4 hour naps! OK, she's also waking me up *lots* at night... going to bed easily at 8, waking about 5 times, then sleeping until 8 or 9... plus this monster nap at noon. I'm loving it.
E's behavior has been all over the place since we moved, some days being really hard on us all. But the last couple days he's been a total angel, able to play quietly, obey, and talk clearly all day long. It's amazing- the kind of behavior we sometimes see for a couple sweet hours, but never for a whole day, and now we're on the third great one like that. wonderful!
this is Em in a dress I totally adore. It's actually a size 2T bunting, but without the cord in the bototm it's just a dress. Sadly it already fits too tight in the shoulders. I wish I knew the brand because I seriously want more. all I know is it's organic cotton, undyed, and feels like a sweatshirt.
and this is why we had to move the couch away from the wall. She really loved climbing to sit on the edge. But see our tree veiw? It's really nice at night, when we can open them up wide and get lots of fresh air, and in the morning, when it's usually all foggy. 
with no screen to read lately, I've worked through several more books for my annual list.
suburban nation: the rise of sprawl and the decline of the american dream . good stuff, espeically intreresting on traffic patterns and pedestrian-friendly design ideas.
first meals almsot as many photos as words, all the food way prettier and more trouble than I'd take to feed anybody, baby or not!
everyday pediatrics for parents liked this
quirky kids A good guide. not very usefult o us now, but will keep it in mind to recomend around.
whoops i'm in business (Nolo)
small business start up kit (Nolo)
girl's guide to staring your own buiness too girly, to specific to her media relations experiecne
starting on a shoestring way too debt-happy, had the tone of a nothing-down real estate enthusiast :) also, too focused on HIS methods for HIS niche
what price zion? this 1983 novel is the worst-written thing I can recall ever reading. I'm sure others have been as bad, but it would be a long time ago and I don't remember them. The story was fine, but the writing was laugh-out-loud bad.
skimmed and really disliked
the educated child
the soul of adoption shocked to say it was rather negative! discouraging and scary stories, dated advice, even suprising language (like describing kids or birth parents as "retarted")
edit 7/21/06
remember to count "night" and "freakanomics"
I wrote this 6/2 but forgot to post it.
One afternoon, E just came up with this while we were hnaging around out front. I don't think it came from a book, so I suspect Sunday school.
Pioneer Children...
walked
then washed their hands in the ocean
and brushed their teeth
they gardened
(mumble)
but sometimes they're dead
so, here's what we did about the washing machine.
I found one on craigslist. 5 year old completely average washer.
with a broken part... $15
HornInF got the part... $17... and fxed it up in about half an hour.
so, is that a deal, or what? It doens't have the fancy features or pretty shell like my dryer, but functionally, they're probably all the same anyway :) and it's new enough to have modern water/eneergy efficiency in play.
Horn wasn't handy around the house at all when we married, but he's willing to try, and it's working out great :) He's takes care of all sorts of necesary little tasks :)
Ps- all the talk of laundry machines reminds me of the things in the garage to sell and how frustraing it is I can't get them up on craigslist like I'd planned to do as soon as we moved. I want that stuff gone! we also have giveaway bags and don't know where to take them locally yet.
being without compuer access, there's been lots of little things, good and bad I would have shared.
we're all unpacked and getting comfortble with our new suroundings. I'm getting used to driving and parking on hills, but i hate taking the truck through town- it can't fit anywhere. In our old town, there were tons of trucks and SUVs. Here everyone as a Prius.
I sewed curtains last night and got an awesome deal on the fabric. Pictures later.
we had one crazy hot day... OK, high 80s, but without fans or AC, and with hot sun pouring in the windows. Other than that, we've had highs about 65 or 70. It's cooler in town below us... hadn't known the tempature diference would be so wide between us and the city right below.
DSL may be coming tomorow. in the meantime, we did just work out a dial-up solution with the work laptop. I called SBC probably 5 times at an hour each... the issue was with the phone line not coming up as active, so no DSL providor could see it. good news is our new rate is $12.99/m
Em has been doing very well, just waking up a bunch at night but being generally not too grumpy and sleeping 8-8 with a good noon nap.
E's been a mess :) he's had some really happy times and centered days, but some real disasters too.
Our house is great but the owner is a bit annoying. for instance, he told us he'd sometimes get mail there and we should set it out for him. turns out his "occassional mail" is about 15 peices every day! I wish he'd just get it forwarded to wherever he lives and not therefore have to come by so much.
I'm sure there's more to tell, probably more interetsng too. but i had a minute on a borrowed computer so that's what I could toss out for today :)
http://www.thebackcountry.org/conness/
This is what I'm thinking.
I've been to Saddlebag Lake, about 3.5 miles from the summit, and it's the most beautiful place ever. Since going there, I've wanted to hike to the summit. And it's got to be this summer.
I think I can do it.
I'll be bringing a group of buddies (if they consent). We'll drive up on a Friday, camp at Saddlebag (and get eaten by bears), hike Saturday, camp and get eaten again, and then drive home Sunday.
Go to coordinates 37°58'1.18"N, 119°19'19.42"W in Goole Earth. (It's not quite as sharp as GEarth indicates. Also, most of that snow will have melted).
What do you think?
P.S. We should be back online Thursday. I'm posting this from work.
well, we're moved and still offline for a while to come. I'm checking in from a friend's house because I had some Trader Joe's reports due today and couldn't get internet acess any other way... libraries closed, Starbucks wireless not working out...
anyway, we're loving the house, the weather, and the scenery. It is so peaceful up where we are, and we'er getting lots of fresh air (65-70 degrees all day) and we wake up in the moring surrounded by clouds, watching them blow around our yard and windows.
we don't have the bay/city view most houses here get, we've got a tree veiw :) but walking right up our street, th3ere are breathtaking stops and we'd hoped to see some fireworks tonight... but maybe not
our home phone is working but the DSL folks can't see that yet, so we can't sign up for service, and I don't know how slow they'll be to activate even then. (sigh)
