The Quiet One

Baking a pie

Sun, 17 Aug 2008 00:00:00 -0400

Cici is becoming a half-decent pastry chef. She can mix up, form, and roll out a pretty good pie crust.

Today we were using up some chicken and making a chicken pie.

I’m not really sure how the dog feels about pie making. There are inevitable scraps of food that find their way either on to the floor (I am a very… umm… exhuberant cook) or into her food bowl. There always seems to be some art project, however, that she becomes the center of.

Today, it was “snow” (made from extra flour) that Cici used to “frost” the dog.

Cody seemed to make the best of it, though.

I can almost hear her. “Please? Can’t we trade her in for something more useful.. like a lovely rawhide bone?”

Oh, boy

Sat, 16 Aug 2008 00:21:00 -0400

I just found out that Cici’s best friend over the last year-and-a-half (the fabled Mia) is going to a new school next month. Can’t wait to see the impact of that.

Weird vibe in the city

Fri, 15 Aug 2008 09:41:00 -0400

Six police cars and caution tape blocking off a portion of Georgia Ave. near the Wheaton Metro entrance. Found myself hoping it was a car accident and not a shooting. (Update: It was an accident.)
A man with a perfectly white tee shirt half off his body loudly cussing at someone in a car coming out of a gas station at 14th and W Streets, NW. The person in the car seemed completely nonplussed.
Two street musicians at the Metro Center entrance hurling visceral, mean insults at each other as they both pack up their instruments to leave.

It’s a beautiful morning. The sun is shining, there are big puffy clouds in the sky, the humidity is low, the temperature is comfortable. What’s with the weird bad vibe today?

Heading home

Wed, 13 Aug 2008 14:07:00 -0400

I was hoping to have more to talk about on my trip to The City, but it was pretty uneventful. The view from the train was, as always, lovely over the Susquehanna River.

I got in about 10 last night, took a cab straight to the hotel and spent more time than I’d like to admit to ironing.

I do hate to iron.

The room at the Doubletree was large by New York standards, but a little grungy on the edges. There was a decided funk to the aroma of my bathroom. I can live with that, it was the fact that I couldn’t figure out where the smell was coming from that kind of got to me.

Then there was Bubba. Bubba was an enormous dead fly next to the toilet. Bubba and I pretty much gave each other wide berth and we were able to share the bathroom without a lot of hysterics.

In the morning, I was up, bright and early, to help out with conference set up. My main purpose in being there was to be interviewed by some researchers but they were having so much fun at the conference, my interview kept getting put off. It finally happened an hour later and only lasted about 20 minutes. I hope it was worth my travel expenses.

The cab to Penn Station was — at the same time — slow and horrifically death-defying. In between the rocketing down the streets sloloming through randomly double- and triple-parked vehicles, we sat at dead stops… waiting… and waiting.

So I’m on the fancy train again, turned the other direction to head home. Ohhh! Doggy on the train! Nice doggy! Oh. Bomb sniffing dog. * sigh * Well, I’m happy to report that the dog found nothing interesting.

Home for dinner! Hurrah!

Headed off to the big(ger) city

Tue, 12 Aug 2008 19:09:00 -0400

And I’m off for a quick overnight in New York City where I hope to have few adventures and a quiet evening.

Trading insults with the child

Sat, 09 Aug 2008 15:15:00 -0400

This is a game we play in the car: “You are a silly….” We both aim for nonsense things like “squirrel toenails” or something. It’s basically a fun vocabulary exercise.

Anyway, every once in a while, Cici pulls a masterful stroke. We had one today:

“You are a silly poo poo head… with a pink pee pee crown.”

That one ended the game. I think it was the fact that the crown was pink that really got to me.

Butterfly friend

Sun, 03 Aug 2008 15:42:00 -0400

Butterfly friend

The lollipop con

Fri, 01 Aug 2008 16:48:00 -0400

I’m not sure how it happened, but I think I got scammed out of a lollipop this morning — maybe two of them. I’ve been going over it in my head all day, trying to figure out the exact moment when I got snookered.

First, some background on what’s up with the stupid lollipop to start with.

The child gets a lollipop with one of those insidious birthday goodie bags. She decided that eating as many lollipops as humanly possible is now her goal for her immediate future. As part of my campaign of making going to the potty a priority in her life (rather than a “would be nice to do if you have time and there isn’t anything more important happening — like grass growing or something”), I’ve been giving her “special treats” for a full day of clean undies.

On Wednesday, I showed up with a lollipop. Worse than that, I showed up with two lollipops (the second one found after an intensive exploration of my bag).

“Mommy? Where did you get these?”

I was honest. I had pilfered them from work and admitted as much. Unbenownst to me, that sent the little gears spinning. This was the conversation this morning.

Child: “I haven’t had my ‘oops’, today, Mommy.”

Mother: “Yes, dear, but it’s only 8am. You don’t get your special treat until after dinner.”

Child: “Can I have a lollipop?”

Mother: “I don’t have any of those.”

Child: “But you can get one at work.”

Mother: “I suppose…. But let’s just focus on eating breakfast now, OK?”

Child: “Sure Mommy.” Pause. “I love you, Mommy.”

Mother: “I love you, too, sweetie.”

Child: “You’re a great mommy.”

Mother: “You’re a great kid.”

Child: “Will you bring me a lollipop?”

Mother: “We’ll see. I don’t even know if there are any left.”

Child: “There will be. Could you bring two?”

Mother: “Look at the clock. We have to go. We’ll talk about this later.”

Child: “Will you bring me a lollipop?”

Mother: “I don’t know. Maybe. Can you put your shoes on?”

Child makes no movement toward her shoes or the door. “I’d really like a lollipop.”

Mother, putting the shoes on her. “Come on, it’s time to go.”

Child: “I think you could get two lollipops.”

Mother: “If there are two lollipops, OK. Now get in the car.”

Child flounces out the door and into the car.

I think I promised two lollipops. You know the worst part? There are actually two more pilfered lollipops in my bag right now.

* sigh *

I looked across the parking lot and thought “why is there...

Tue, 29 Jul 2008 14:47:00 -0400

I looked across the parking lot and thought “why is there a uterus painted on the side of a truck?”

Me: “What are we building, Cici?: Cici (rearranging the...

Sun, 27 Jul 2008 12:27:00 -0400

Me: “What are we building, Cici?:

Cici (rearranging the sugar packs I put down so the overall pattern was more to her liking): “A tower that fell over already.”

That’s my girl! We’re building models of rubble with sugar packs.

Baltimore at sunset

Sat, 26 Jul 2008 21:50:00 -0400

Baltimore at sunset

Not exactly high culture, but a lot of fun. I’m not sure...

Sat, 26 Jul 2008 19:19:00 -0400

Not exactly high culture, but a lot of fun. I’m not sure why Cici demanded to bring the Santa Claus. He stayed trapped in my bag for the whole show.

Aliens on the metro

Fri, 25 Jul 2008 18:17:00 -0400

When you are in the proper frame of mind, watching people on the DC Metro can be endlessly fun.

Today I think I saw extraterrestrials.

They were a man and woman - very much a matched set. They were Caucasian and in their late 50s or early 60s, perfectly coiffed and groomed (I mean perfect - freakishly perfect). Every hair was sprayed or gelled in place.

Remember as I write this, gentle reader, that it is July in DC. It’s about 100 degrees and humid. They got on at the zoo stop and had no sweat.

They both had suntans that were slightly too dark to be normal - precisely the same shade - and few wrinkles. The man was wearing sunshine yellow pants, a sky-blue polo shirt and the smile you might see on a CEO who had just been pushed out in front of a press conference after being indicted for something sordid but had just been given a few magic pills by his secretary so now he couldn’t remember what he was all upset about.

The woman he was with (I assumed it was his wife until I realized that neither were wearing wedding rings), was in a perfectly ironed white button-down shirt and blue striped sear-sucker shorts. She perched herself delicately on the edge of the seat and sat ram-rod straight. She immediately slapped on a frozen smile that said to everyone who entered the train “please don’t kill me”.

It was rush hour. We are all tired commuters. She stood out like… well… like an extraterrestrial who dressed the part of the affluent tourist but just didn’t have the courage to see it though.

I was sorely tempted to pull out my phone to take a picture, but I was afraid if I kept my hand in my purse for too long, the woman would run screaming from the train… so I resisted. I just kept stealing glances.

They didn’t say a word after they got on the train. The man just kept staring out the door opposite door, smiling… ummm… weirdly, and the woman just stared ahead, her eyes wide and knees clenched.

They got off at Farragut North - always an exciting area once the commuters have cleared out. Particularly fun are the panhandlers who stake themselves out at every Metro stop on a Friday evening after a long day of sweating in their 30 layers of clothes all day.

I hope they had fun.

The Firefly Fairy here is actually Cici, taken with my iPhone...

Fri, 25 Jul 2008 10:17:39 -0400

The Firefly Fairy here is actually Cici, taken with my iPhone after the sun went down. She’s holding a small lantern and twisting and turning after fireflies. The effect is kind of pretty.

...And I thought I was having a bad day

Mon, 21 Jul 2008 20:26:00 -0400

The day wasn’t actually that bad… but I saw this on my front porch and just had to pause.

This is an unused hanging flower pot. As I was walking by, I noticed a flash of iridescent green. Intrigued, I looked closer.

It’s a little hard to see in the photo, but this is a good-sized Japanese beetle. Actually, to be more specific, it is a good-sized Japanese beetle’s butt. The head is stuck in the hole. The beetle, near as I can tell, is dead.

I think that’s a pretty good definition of “a bad day”… or, maybe just “a bad idea”.

No more waiting

Fri, 18 Jul 2008 19:50:00 -0400

…well, unless you count the sync-ing which, for 16 gigs (that I fully intend to fill up), might take a while.

That’s right. You heard it here first race fans. I got my new phone.

I’m at home, holding the child at bay, while I frantically sync, re-sync and go shopping on the Apps Store.

I have a blissful whole weekend to play with it…

…as soon as I order a pizza for Cici. She’s quite the negotiator. * sigh *

Calculating vacation

Thu, 17 Jul 2008 20:17:00 -0400

Many of my vacations can be actually mapped out into a certain, almost mathematical formula. This is what my earlier vacation would look like:

Anticipation (+ 1)
Getting things done before leaving (- 5)
Anticipation the night before (+ 2 and - 1 for lack of sleep)
Boarding the dog and having to look into those sad, sad eyes (- 5)
Packing the car with family who would rather still be on the Internet or watching TV (- 3)
Packing the car at the family’s pace because you planned ahead and left LOTS of time (+ 3)
Traffic on I-95 (- 3)
Getting lost on some little country road in NC as the sun went down so I couldn’t see the teeney road signs (- 3)
Looking for dinner on said little country road during a violent thunderstorm (- 3)
A beautiful room with a comfortable bed (+ 10)
A goat barn to explore (+ 5)
Friendly goats and barn cats (+ 5)
A good breakfast (+ 5)
Plenty of time to get to the beach (+ 2)
5 “are we there yet” questions (- 5)
Ice cream while we wait for the key card to get into the condo (+ 5)
Condo at the top of a 3-story walk-up with a lot of luggage (- 5)
View of the beach from the condo (+ 10)
Days of child entertainment (+ 5)
Seeing family (+ 5)
Too much sun (- 3)
Good eats (+ 4)
Checking work email from the beach (- 5)
Not getting my iPhone when I wanted it (- 5)
The long drive home (- 4)
The fact I wasn’t driving to Ohio (+ 3)
10 “are we there yet” questions (- 10)
Coming home to a clean house because I thought to clean it before I left (+ 5)
First day back at work, no crises (+ 2)
Second day back at work, maybe there was one or two crises (- 5)
Third day back at work, the stress kicks back in (-10)
Fourth day back at work when you realize you’ve been in meetings all week and haven’t gotten anything done. (- 20)

I’m aiming for a zero or a nice positive number. Add this trip all up and you get the Post Vacation Funk integer (- 21).

The Post Vacation Funk is an itchy feeling that maybe you made a mistake with the whole coming back home thing. It generally passes back into some kind of equalibrium (with another little flare-up when the credit card bills show up in the mail at the end of the month).

I wonder if there is any way around it. Retirement, perhaps….

Chocolate pirate face

Wed, 16 Jul 2008 20:03:00 -0400

Chocolate pirate face

iPhone update - the saga continues

Sun, 13 Jul 2008 14:48:00 -0400

So one more day of wasted hours trying to upgrade my phone. Still long lines and understocked stores. I will just have to wait.

I hate to wait.

UPDATE July 15: Still waiting

UPDATE July 17: Still waiting… but Mike just went ahead a prepaid for a couple of phones at an ATT store downtown. We’ll probably get them next week. In the meantime…

still waiting.

Welcome home, she says, with all her heart.

Sun, 13 Jul 2008 14:45:00 -0400

Welcome home, she says, with all her heart.