Jammin to the politicos

One of the perks of living in suburbia is some of the cool stuff big countries like Fairfax have to offer. Case in point is the summer entertainment series that takes place at the park by the lake near our place. Sadly, it's on the other side of the lake from us and thus not within walking distance, but the bands are usually decent, it's infinitely convenient and kid-friendly, and free.

We went last week with some friends and Andy was so happy about the whole thing he danced for about 20 minutes of the 60 minute set with an enormous smile on his face before crashing down to sit for a minute. It was all rather impressive since he hadn't had a nap that day.

The only downsides to this are the concert is held on a strange rock incline so you really need to bring a chair because rocks in the backside are less good that you might imagine (and I imagine you thought rocks on the backside were already not good). The other negative is the local politicians love to stop by and claim credit for it.

Just about every week the organizers have to officially suck up to Sharon Bulova, our rep on the Fairfax County Board of Supervisors. We also routinely have Tom Davis and/or his wife Jeannemarie Devolites Davis. Of course, they're all running for reelection and the Republican Davises are especially vulnerable so they're coming around and sucking up. It would be more interesting if it was anyone BUT them or if they ever had anything to say except, "Like these concerts? You can thank me personally! Here, have a fan with my name and picture on it."

They also never stay at the concert they claim to care so much about. They glad hand for five minutes, get introduced and leave. I guess this is what local pols do, but I'm ready for something, someone, more interesting.

All clear

After waiting several months, we finally got in to see the pediatric otolaryngologist today. Dr. McBride was very nice and had a nice clean operation with good toys in the waiting room. Sadly, no toys in the exam room (note to self - always take a toy into the exam room). The good news is he looked in both ears and they are finally free of any fluid. So for the first time in months, he's finally got the all clear. Huge relief! We talked about tubes and such. He said that a child who has recurrent ear infections will likely get them again, but him finally being clear is a good sign. We're scheduled to go back in October in the beginning of flu and cold season to see how he's doing. I also got all the surgical paperwork together so should in September he start getting bad infections again, we could just call and schedule the surgery rather than starting the wait all over again. I'm not sure we'll do it, but it's good to know.

After the exam, we went back to talk to the audiologist to check on his hearing. Unfortunately, it was about noon and therefore lunch and nearing on nap time so he was tired and overstimulated and not in the mood for her silly hearing games. So we left with an incomplete result, but from what she could tell he could hear fine (whether he wants to hear is something else). I'm relieved the appointment went so well.

Funny though, he was quizzing us on why it took so long to come see him since Andy's last ear infection was back in April (that we knew of). I said it was easier to get an audience with the Pope than to get in to see him and he apologized and blushed a little. Turns out most doctors have no idea what their front office staff is doing and saying unless a patient tells them.

My sister is still visiting and we've been having fun when we haven't been working. She leaves tomorrow. Boo. It's been nice having a roommate who also likes random sports like cycling and bad television. Once I get more time, I'll post more photos of Emma and Mary's visit. My mother is complaining she doesn't like the ones posted (too bad, I actually think the one of Mary is fun).

Tia's here!

My sister, Mary, is visiting this week. It took "Tia" (Spanish for aunt) about five seconds for Andy to decide he prefers her over me. At least he gave me the courtesy of a few minutes before chucking me completely.

We've had a fun few days. Thursday I took off work and we went into town to rent kayaks on the Potomac River. The folks at the rental place were friendly and the kayaks were serviceable enough. I thought they were fine, but Mary is a real kayaker and was less impressed. But for $8 an hour, it was still a bargain. We paddled for a few hours up toward Great Falls and back. It was a beautiful day with sunny skies and low humidity. It was also great that we went Thursday before the article in the Washington Post on Friday saying the water is filled with fecal material and unsafe for swimming. Yum! I'm glad I did wash my hands before we settled into one of the slowest lunches ever at Tony and Joe's afterwards. Granted, it was on the waterfront on a beautiful day, but should it really take 2 hours to get soup, salad and crab cakes at a seafood restaurant during peak hours?

Friday, we went shopping at the Leesburg Outlets. We both needed new purses and the Coach outlet delivered. Good thing, too, as my friend Armando has been researching purses for me and it turns out the "stylish" ones from Louis Vuitton and others start at $2,000. Seriously? Who are the people who drop that kind of money on a purse that is so trendy it will be out of style next season?

Today Mary's vet conference started downtown, but we met for dinner and then went to the Goo Goo Dolls concert that was playing for attendees. It was a good show although it was funny to see all these really smart doctors dancing around, most of whom had probably never heard of the Goo Goo Dolls. The best part was a cute couple two-stepping to Slide. I did feel my age, though, as we only lasted about an hour before we declared it too loud and left. Granted, I think they start turning up the volume as they went along. It was fun though.

Picture is of Mary at the concert despite their instructions to not take pictures. I know, we're rebels. Anyway, that's the Goo Goo Dolls on the stage. You can see that, right?

Baby Emma

After harassing my mother for not sending any pictures with the baby's face, she sent me this one and promises to send more with her eyes open. Reports are she's doing great and when I talked to Elizabeth, she sounded great as well. Also, big news is the baby has a name - Emma. So glad to hear everyone is happy and healthy. They leave the hospital today. Now if she'd only start sleeping through the night already. Five days isn't too much to ask, is it?

Meet my new niece, baby Miller. She doesn't have a name just yet, but early reports are that she's perfect, has a head of dark hair and still has the beautiful squished baby look. Here she is with my sister Elizabeth and new big sister Megan.

P.S. Sorry for the lack of titles. Blogger is doing something weird and won't let me write in the field today.

First off, happy birthday to my new niece. She doesn't have a name yet, but she was born on cue on 7/7/07, weighing in at the healthy 7 pounds, 4 ounces. No word on a name yet, but so far, mother, baby, father and big sister seem to be doing well.

Speaking of birthdays, Andy is obsessed with birthday cake. Actually, he's obsessed with making birthday cake. If we're at the playground, he wants to go over to the house part and make birthday cake out of mulch. If we're at the pool, he wants to make birthday cake by pouring water into various cups. At home in his kitchen, he likes to use his fake food to make, what else, more birthday cake.

We were at the park yesterday and there were two older girls, probably aged 8 or 9, who were playing as well. Andy went over to them and talked to them about making birthday cake. Naturally, they thought he was cute, but crazy, and moved on. I think he's going to have to work on his pickup lines.

Photo is of Andy making birthday cake in our back yard. He takes his culinary responsibilities very seriously.

Fireworks

For the 4th, Bjorn ended up buying us a huge assortment from Costco. They were great, even if Mark and his girlfriend declared them lame because they weren't the kind that shot up high in the sky (course, considering all the problems with the local fireworks, there was no way we could compete with mortar rounds into the crowd, thankfully). Andy liked them although the really noisy ones scared him and he had to be reassured that no one was getting hurt. After that, he really liked the colorful ones. Especially the ones with green in them. No surprise there.

We stayed up too late shooting off the fireworks so that somehow in the night, Andy wiggled all the way to the end of the bed and fell off the side. At 3:49 a.m. I heard the thud first and my instincts popped me out of bed before the first wail, which was loud. It's the kind of wail you know immediately is the cry of injury and not wanting apple juice over orange juice. Poor guy was really sleepy and scared, and so was I until I woke up enough to realize everything was okay. Fortunately, after a bit of hugging and calming him down, we all went back to sleep.

Newbies

The summer program has started at Andy's school, meaning there were a few new kids yesterday. The new kids were scared and anxious so there were lots of tears at the morning drop off. Andy is now the big boy on campus, and proceeded to give hugs to the new kids to make them feel better. I love that he thinks hugs are the answer to life's problems. Of course, he likes to extend those hugs to tiny babies and to the cats, which is not always the best answer.

Tomorrow is the 4th of July. We all have tomorrow off, but have to work Thursday so it likely won't be a super late night for us. I've been scouting around trying to find a low-key fireworks show. I figure when Andy gets older, we can trek to Fairfax High School or the National Mall for one of the big shows, but at this age, I don't think the hassle to park, take a shuttle bus and fight with thousands of other people for 20 minutes of fireworks is worth it. The hard part is trying to find a small (i.e. not very crowded) show for us to watch. I wonder if my best alternative is to buy some fireworks to set off in the street out front. I know Bjorn is always worried I will lose a hand or finger that way, but it might be my best option.

Green

Andy is obsessed with the color green. He always has to have a green one of anything now - he needs a green spoon or fork (often forgoing one for the other to ensure he gets a green utensil). He also wants to have a green cup and a green plate, whenever possible.

The other night I took him to dinner at a restaurant that had green lamps hanging over all the tables and he proceeded to point out each one, "Dere's a green one. Oh! Dere's another green one. And another one!" Fortunately, the place was not very crowded (as you would expect at 5:45 p.m. on a Thursday) so he wasn't really bothering anyone. Well, except me. His need to narrate the colors on everything, and frankly everything else is growing a little tiresome. Why was I so hot for him to start talking again? Because right now he doesn't ever seem to stop talking.

Picture is of Andy and Mia who decided they needed to ride on the blue car like they were in a parade.

Andy's mother, the brute

This summer we're really spending some time at the pool. Our neighborhood pool has one big pool with lanes and two small diving boards as well as a baby pool. The baby pool is tucked off the main pool with a separate fence between them. The only problem is 45 minutes after the hour, the lifeguards kick the kids out of the big pool to give them a break and make sure no one is drowning. Unfortunately, that's when the big kids decide to descend upon the small pool.

At first, I let it happen. I watched helplessly as these elementary school terrors splashed water in Andy's face, making him cry, and took his toys. I looked around for parents of these kids to intervene or a lifeguard to do his or her job. I was embarrassed to be the bad guy or make a scene. But now that I've become a regular, I've discovered that no one is going to intervene. Except me. Tonight we were at the pool for a marathon 3 hours (turns out there was even a potluck dinner on Friday night that we crashed, promising to bring double next week). At two breaks, I got up and kicked the older kids out of the pool myself. I got a scared looked from the dad of a one year old who clearly isn't up on the gig, but a mom of two toddlers thanked me afterwards.

I'm not normally the aggressive type like this. I'm fine letting Andy work out some of his own battles over who is playing with a toy, but when it comes to older kids picking on little ones, that's just not cool.

That not pizza, Mommy

Bjorn's out of town right now. He's flown to Kings Bay, Georgia, to the Naval Submarine Base where he's going to watch one of his friends take command of a submarine. Big stuff. I thought about going, but we don't really have a good set up for someone to watch Andy overnight and it didn't make sense to drag him 10 hours to be cranky.

When Bjorn's out of town, I like to do something fun with Andy to make it our special time. I asked on the way home what he wanted for dinner and over and over again, he said he wanted pizza. I was game for that so we stopped by the friendly Pizza Hut over in Twinbrook Shopping Center. I can't say I'd ever been there before, but hey, having a kid means I visit lots of these family dining establishments that I've been driving past and ignoring all these years.

We ordered the two person special that comes with two drinks, a medium pizza, bread sticks and two salads. Andy is clearly my son - he loved the croutons on the salad. He liked the bread sticks okay, but then the pizza came and the whole thing confused him. He kept asking where the pizza was and seemed confused that we already had the pizza. Granted, he don't eat a lot of pizza in our house, but he's certainly had it before so I wonder what in the world he thinks pizza is if it's not that?

Meanwhile, the dirt king continues to come from school dirtier and dirtier every day. Today, he had dirt all in his hairline, eyes and face. Apparently he'd been in the log cabin on the playground enjoying pouring gravel on his head. He sounded pretty happy about it actually.

The strange behavior of toddlers

Good news, Andy did not have to go to time out yesterday for throwing rocks. Rather, his odd behavior of the day was taking off his shoes and socks on the playground (at least three times) and insisting on filling them with rocks and sticks. When I picked him up, he was filthy dirty. It was hot outside anyway and he was covered in dirt. Apparently he'd also been rolling around on the ground. When I finally got him in the bath, I put shampoo in his hair and watched the brown wash off him.

Funny, when he was a baby I was so diligent about making sure he got a bath every day. Now life is so busy (and he's so opinionated) that I don't always get to and it's clear that now he's actually getting dirty, not just needing to be spritzed off.

Crosswalks

Our house is in a great location - we're just a few houses and one main road away from the community pool. The walk takes less than five minutes. Unfortunately, we have to cross Commonwealth Avenue. It's a main connector through King's Park West so it gets a fair amount of traffic. Sadly, the traffic that goes through there seems to miss the post 25 mile per hour signs and flies down the road. There is a painted crosswalk on the corner of Pommeroy and Commonwealth to get us across the street, but I find some of the drivers see a woman and a kid in a stroller as a sign to speed up. On a rare occasion, a driver will stop and let us pass unmolested.

I am always pleasantly surprised when anyone stops and we make a special point to wave to say thanks. Yesterday, we were crossing the street though and a nice driver stopped to let us cross. A woman in an SUV on her cell phone couldn't stand traffic not moving and actually tried to pass him while he was paused letting us walk. I get this kind of behavior on Connecticut Avenue downtown during rush hour, but residential suburban Fairfax on a weekend?

To counter the rudeness, I find myself smiling and waving at people as they speed past me. They usually pause, wondering if they actually know me, half the time waving back out of fear that they do. It doesn't make them stop, but it does make them slow ever so slightly and that makes me feel better. A little, anyway.

My son, the brute

Andy has been getting in trouble at school this week. Yes, my sweet little boy - in trouble. Apparently he's discovered that it's fun to throw rocks at other kids on the playground and has been spending some time in time out as a result. He has also decided that he doesn't want to follow instructions and when his teacher tries to get them all on the floor in a circle for story time, he giggles and runs around the room instead. This has also been landing him in time out.

Since we got the news yesterday, we've been talking about his behavior with him a lot. Of course, there aren't that many teachable moments at 7:30 at night after a long week of school. I imagine we'll be spending time over the next few weeks reinforcing the rules. It's official, not only is he not a baby anymore, he's not even really a toddler either, but a full-fledged little boy. Wow.

Phew

It's been a busy few weeks. We've had lots of travel, lots of birthdays, (as well as Mother's and Father's days), a high school graduation and a huge party. It was all great, but I'm sure glad it's over. Our party was Saturday and I think we had 100 people. We had chicken wings, chicken strips and buffalo chicken things from Buffalo Wing University in honor of Mark's graduation and almost every morsel was eaten by the end of the day. We also nearly finished off the keg of Yeungling. Good stuff. I had hesitated on getting a keg since we're clearly not 22 any longer, but it really did make it easier to clean up afterwards since we could throw away the cups and not all the bottles.

Andy had a blast. He played so hard that by 8:30 p.m., about his normal bedtime, he was so tired he was crying because he simply couldn't keep his eyes open. The good part about having the party here was we were able to put him down and go back to party with the stragglers that stayed to help finish the beer.

All in all it was a great time, but I am wondering about maybe having smaller get togethers throughout the year and not a huge mass like this. It's just so chaotic that I didn't really get to visit with some people I would have really liked to talk to more. Such is life, I suppose.

And to wrap things up from the U.S. Airways saga, I got a nice note from Elise Robinson along with a $200 voucher and a cute kid's hat. I have a year to use the voucher so I doubt I will because $200 isn't enough to cover a flight to Dallas or anywhere else I would normally go. And if I'm flying for work, I'm flying a different airline because I really have to be there on schedule. It's also non-transferable so I can't give it away. Oh well. The hat was a nice touch though.

To whom much is given, much is expected

Congratulations to Mark and the Robinson Secondary School graduating class of 2007.

Mark your calendars

It's official - Andy can open doorknobs. His days of quietly staying in his room until we come to get him are over, I'm afraid. He's been able to open doors for a while, but I think it had never really occurred to me to get up and out on his own. He's been getting until fairly early, like 6:45 a.m., all week and yesterday he didn't like waiting for us so he just got up, opened the door and came into our room on his own. Today he waited for Bjorn, but I have a feeling he's not going to be content staying in there for long.

I need to get out and those door locks, but even that is short-lived as sooner or later, he'll be potty training and need to be able to get up in the night. Sigh. He really is growing up, isn't he?

Meanwhile, for all you other Thomas lovers out there, they have issued a recall of some of the red trains because the paint is toxic. Take a look here. Fortunately, I don't think we have any of these (for once, it pays off that I have restrained myself from getting the whole set!)

Blogging pays off

In response to my rant du jour on Sunday that got me links on awesome DC Blogs and Wonkette sites, I got a nice call at home from Elise Robinson at US Airways corporate communications headquarters in Arizona. She had read the blog (and threw in some nice comments about how adorable my kid is), apologized for the inconvenience and offered to send me a $200 travel voucher. I'm still pretty worked up about the whole thing, but their attention is making me feel the love. I still doubt I'll purposely choose to fly them again if other options exist only because I think the management issues they have at Reagan National have a long way to go before being fixed, but I am softening a bit. What can I say, I'm easy.

In other news, my darling husband turned a year older today. I'd like to say he doesn't look a day older than when we met in 1994, but he wouldn't believe it and frankly neither would I. He's still a good guy and a great dad, you just have if you just ignore him when he talks about politics.

Picture is of Bjorn, Vicki and Christian, who also had a birthday this month. For you old timers, this is the same Nosering Christian who is also a Gemini and the reason we started our annual June birthday bash that's next weekend. The event was supposed to alternate between our place and his, but then we got married, sold out and moved to the suburbs and that was the end of the tradition.

Why I will never fly US Airways again

I had to fly to Charleston, S.C., for a meeting this weekend. It should have been no big deal, it's a short hour-long flight from Reagan. Unfortunately, US Airways majorly mucked up everything so an hour flight turned into a 9 hour ordeal.

Friday, June 8
2:30 p.m. - Check US Airways.com, my 5:05 flight to Charleston is on time.
3:30 p.m. - Check in at counter and print boarding pass, flight still listed on time
4:30 p.m. - At gate 36, they make an announcement that the incoming flight from Portland, Maine, is late
6:00 p.m. - Board flight 3377
6:15 p.m. - Deplane flight 3377 due to mechanical issues
6:30 p.m. - We're told by the flight crew that a new plane has been called and to stay tuned
7:00 p.m. - Ramps closed due to lightening, but we're told to hang tight, the plane on the jetway is ours
7:15 p.m. - Good news, ramps open again, bad news, flight on the jetway is a flight coming in from Providence, turns out US Air has its jetways backed up and not enough gates, next plane is ours - promise
8:00 p.m. - New plane comes in, turns out it's for West Palm Beach
9:00 p.m. - Good news, we have a new plane, bad news, it's in another concourse so we have to leave and go through security again, half to get boarding passes reprinted
9:30 p.m. - Finally board the plane
9:35 p.m. - Bad news, US Airways is really busy, they can't find anyone to load the bags or fuel the plane
10:30 p.m. - Finally get the plane loaded and fuel complete
11:00 p.m. - Taxi out to runway just in time for a lightening show across the Potomac
11:30 p.m. - Flight finally cancelled due to weather
12:00 a.m. - Passengers try to get gate agents to pay for hotels since delays were all based on mechanical problems, not weather; Angry gate agents yell, "Don't yell at me! I'm not even supposed to be here!" With persistence, half the passengers get vouchers, the other half doesn't
12:00 a.m. - Darling husband rebooks me via US Airways call center for 8:55 a.m. the following morning. I am only one of five people from the original 88 to get on the earlier flight
12:15 a.m. - Despite being told to wait for my bag, we learn that US Airways hasn't even taken any of the bags off the flight so I leave

As you can see, it was a really long, painful experience. The staff at US Airways was rude, inconsistent and not apologetic for delays. Other flights leaving for Charleston scheduled for later in the evening went ahead as planned, but not ours. It's clear that they forgot about us, refused to make fueling and loading bags a priority to get beleaguered passengers out.

It's official - US Airways is dead to me.

Oh the drama

Whoever said boys aren't drama queens hasn't been living in my house with my boys, especially with summer, graduation and the senior prom approaching. The biggest drama-lover of the bunch though is the 2 1/2 year old. He has moved from simply wanting things to unequivocably needing them. Witness this morning as I'm making pancakes:

"Mommy, I need some candy."

"No, Andy, no candy. Come help me make pancakes."

"No, Mommy. I need candy. I need it!"

"Sorry, only pancakes."

pause

"Then I need cookies, Mommy. Cookies. I need cookies."

And they say girls are dramatic.

-

The picture is of Andy at the DCC (with me looking on somewhat disapprovingly) as he proceeds to eat a cupcake, icing first. Meanwhile, keep your fingers and toes crossed for my friend Laura who is in labor with baby number one. Here's to another Dobbs Hall baby!

-

Edited to add that Owen Whalen was born Friday night. Congratulations to the happy family.

Health restored, crankiness intact

Good news - Andy seems to have mostly recovered from the stomach bug that was keeping him down Sunday and Monday. Bjorn and I also are recovering so that's good.

The bad news is that he was so hyper last night now that he's finally better is that he refused to go to bed until after midnight and then woke up a few times in the night. He had to be woken up this morning and was super-tired at drop-off, despite his glee at finally seeing his friends again. He took a good nap at school, but was so overtired from his day he was uber-cranky all the way home and during dinner. Naturally, I put him to bed early.

The other good news is that when we went to the doctor for his stomach on Monday, I found that one of his two ear infections has cleared up. The right ear is finally good, but the left ear still has fluid. In Dallas, I saw my pediatrician, Dr. Pharo, who is now 82, in good health and has really seen everything. We wanted to talk to him about his opinions of ear tubes and just double-check what we were hearing at home. He recommended we keep the appointment with the ENT for July. It seems Andy is hearing fine so that's not a worry. What's the concern is that if the fluid stays in the ear, it could end up being a bigger problem as he gets older meaning a more serious surgery if we can't get the infection cleared up.

The other interesting thing was he told us never to put him to bed with a bottle or having a ceiling fan on his room (he also said to shoot all smokers in the house, which fortunately isn't a problem). I admitted that until recently we'd been giving him a bottle of water in bed. He said that he'd seen kids come in with milk behind their ear drums because of the way the fluid passes from their mouths when lying down. I'm now hopeful that the combination of summer weather and no bottle of water in bed will help dry him out. Fingers crossed!

Chipotle

So I sent a letter to my fave food store Chipotle a few weeks ago complaining that their new Flash 9 Web site is impossible to use if you don't have a really up to date computer, limiting use from your Palm or other interfaces and got a response back. If you agree, the e-mail addresses are below.

From: dchrisman@chipotle.com
To: katherine
CC: jstupp@chipotle.com, dchrisman@chipotle.com, ddillon@chipotle.com, kemarley@chipotle.com
Subject: Reply from Chipotle
Date: Mon, 4 Jun 2007 14:32:20 -0600

Katherine,
I am so sorry for any troubles. I'll be sure to share it for any consideration.
Sincerely,
David Chrisman
Mo'Joe
Chipotle
---------------------------------------------------------
From: Katherine
Sent: 5/16/2007 12:51:25 PM
Store Visited: Springfield, VA
Date Visited: 6:30 pm

Comments: I love you guys, but this Web site is for the birds. Requiring Flash 9 just to look up a location without an option for non-Flash is really limiting. I wanted to find a neutral locale to meet a friend and had to beg my IT guy at work (and confess my non-work use) to install Flash 9 just so I could look up a location. I would suggest having some more basic interface for those
of us on older computers or with less cool tech support.

Photo recaplet

For a week in Dallas, I somehow managed to only take 20 pictures. How is that possible? I can usually take more than that in an evening when Andy is being particularly cute around bath time. We've spent the day doing laundry, sorting mail and catching up around the house. Unfortunately, Andy has developed diarrhea and the poor guy's tummy hurts and then he's got some massive diaper rash, both of which are pretty painful for him. I'm hoping he's better tomorrow, mostly because it's hard to see him in pain, but secondly because it's a pain to have to call in sick AFTER vacation.

Loving the Dallas Country Club pool.

Coozies with sippy cups. Genius!

A diaper headress. Tres chic!

This seesaw was a huge favorite of Andy's.

The good and the bad

We have returned from our trip. It was relaxing, fun and great to reconnect, even with some folks from high school that generally always intimidated me.

The Good
Seeing my family, celebrating my birthday with them for a change, seeing my older sister 38 days from giving birth to baby number two, seeing my younger sister who serendipitously was in Dallas after all, taking a trip to Pecos with my mother, seeing family in Pecos and checking that everyone was doing well, the excitement that life in the small oil towns now that life is finally perking up, visiting the sand hills of Monahans with Mom even if we couldn't go sledding on the sand, seeing the meteor site in Odessa, getting my picture taken in front of a pump jack, eating lunch at the double-wide Pecos Valley Country Club, renting a PT Cruiser in Odessa since my mom has always wanted to drive one, watching Andy catch his first fish with his uncle Mark, giving a baby scrapbook to my sister, going to the Dallas World Aquarium and seeing the sea otters eat, visiting the Dallas County Club and watching that Andy is loving the water after years of being afraid, watching Andy swim with my dad, visiting my grandparents graves in Pecos with my mother and Oak Hill in Dallas with my dad, watching Andy play with his cousin Megan, seeing my pediatrician who gave good advice on the ear tubes question, leaving Andy with my sister overnight so Bjorn and I could go out without a deadline other than our own fatigue, seeing high school classmates, all the awesome thunderstorms that I love to track and watch, the great birthday presents including clothes, a GPS, books and Dots candy.

The Bad
Arriving in Dallas with poison ivy and then developing heat rash (I am oh-so-sexy), mosquito bites, lack of sleep due to Andy waking up scared in a new location, the crowds at the aquarium, my mom having her wallet stolen at Northpark, losing a bag coming back, the Texas heat, running into high school classmates, wasting $18 and 2 1/2 hours of my life on Spider Man 3.

All in all, a great trip. It is going to be hard to go back to work on Monday.

Whirlwind

Wow. It's been an action-packed week here in Texas and we're not done yet. Tuesday my mom and I flew out to Odessa to go visit family in Pecos - 90 miles west of Odessa. I'm used to west Texas feeling abandoned - after the oil bust of the late 1980s, the towns out that way have been sad and defeated. Business has lagged, jobs have been scarce and all construction had stopped. Now with the most recent oil boom, things have perked up immensely. Jobs are plentiful, housing is scarce and excitement is in the air. It's so nice to see optimism again. Pecos is building new houses on lots that sell for $1,000 to $3,000 (less than parking goes for in D.C.) They're also building a new apartment building. These are the first new construction in 20 years. People clearly have a lot to be excited about and it is great. Even better, my cousin that we went to visit is doing much better which makes everything that much nicer.

Andy has been having a blast playing with my niece, Megan. They are at an age where they really mimic each other. My sister even kept him overnight last night (his first overnight without either of us, I was definitely more nervous than Andy was!) so Bjorn and I could get our for a romantic date. The dinner was great, but the makers of Spider Man 3 should be ashamed of themselves. I haven't seen a movie that bad since Mall Rats. Not only is the movie bad, the nonsense "plot" goes on for almost 2 1/2 hours and never does make sense.

Today we headed to the Dallas Aquarium World, which was cool. We got there in time to see the sea otters feeding. There were lots of birds, fish, turtles, snakes and even penguins. The kids weren't quite old enough to get it, but it was fun for the rest of us. Well, until the kids got really tired and didn't want to sit still any longer. Tonight we're headed to the pool to celebrate my birthday and unwind. Andy was afraid of the water last year, but now he's ready to jump in the big pool - alone. What a difference a year makes.

We head home tomorrow. It's hard to believe the week is over. When we left, it seemed like the week was endless and now on the eve of our departure, it's clear I was wrong.

(Meanwhile, check out the high-larious card Betsy sent me. Genius!)

Let the games begin

We're here in Dallas. The flight was fine, the passengers were fine, the toddlers ears were fine. Our luggage even arrived lickety split. Granted, we were the last ones off the plane, but I love that baggage handling at DFW is about thirty minutes faster than at either Dulles or Reagan National. The only downside to the whole flight was we were back by the engine - so far back that we could only see the engine and not outside the plane. I had no idea how claustrophobic I would be having no idea where the clouds and ground were for three hours. Andy didn't care though - we had Thomas on DVD. What a lifesaver.

We've been having fun. Andy has so far caught his first fish, "driven" a golf cart, played on a seesaw, hung out with his grandparents, been taken down in a loving choker hold by his cousin Megan who is 2 1/2 months older, gone swimming, played in a bounce house, ridden on a train and eaten a lot of cupcakes and ice cream. Needless to say, he's having a very good time. I, however, am tired.

And we're off

We're headed out of town tomorrow to see my family in Dallas and visit a cousin in Pecos. It will be nice to see everyone, fingers crossed it isn't too hot yet. In order to properly pack, I think we've done four loads of laundry in the past two days. It turns out we have a stunning amount of clothing - although never exactly what I want to wear on any given day. Figures.

Andy is so excited about the plane. I've been telling him for the past few days that we're going on a plane Saturday. We then go through the days and then get to Saturday when we're on a plane. He keeps talking about it. It's precious.

Also precious is his ability to remember songs. The last few days he's been singing "No more monkeys jumping on the bed." Today he started singing "Twinkle twinkle little star." Pretty darn cute. I just wish I could remember all the words.

So in my absence next week, here are some good reads to tide you over until my thrilling updates return. All these bloggers update very regularly to keep you busy.

• Coffee Betsy - The adventures of Betsy and her son, Jack, and occasionally her husband. They just fled Virginia for the quad cities of Illinois and Iowa. She tells a good yarn.
• DC Blogs - A compilation of what the local bloggers are talking about.
• DCist - This site seems to have the buzz on what's happening in the D.C. area (although primarily the city) with a sarcastic slant. It's a great place to pick up local news that is interesting, but not necessarily local news/Washington Post material.
• Renaissance Man Trapped in a Cubicle - The tales of an office drone by day, super dad, author and band rocker by night.
• So Close - Tertia is an infertility survivor and mother of twins. Her stories of motherhood resonate and the tales of life in South Africa are fascinating.
• Sundry Morning - A woman with a cranky toddler with a wicked sense of humor who is adding on to her house.

Enjoy! See you in a week.

Eureka

Well bust my buffers (as Thomas the Tank Engine would say), Pampers is coming out with size 7 diapers. It's about darn time. As you may remember from my earlier rant, the size 6 diapers aren't big enough for Andy overnight and they only make overnight diapers overnight.

Funny, when I heard about this from an anonymous post, I promptly Googled it to find out that my information was correct. I also found some interesting rants from parents alleging the diaper industry is shrinking their product and bumping up the sizes to sell more diapers. I love the conspiracy theory angle - that Pampers, Luvs and Huggies are colluding to deceive consumers. I do think the sizing is wonky. Andy is barely 30 pounds and the size 6 diapers allegedly start at 35 pounds so in theory he should be fine in these until he hits 35 pounds or potty trains. That said, I don't believe some criminal mastermind out there is out to really manipulate the market. Or are those folks at Proctor and Gamble smarter than I think?

Meanwhile, have I bragged lately about how much I love the Fairfax County Public Library? Simply awesome. I went today and checked out a Thomas DVD. I saw that it has a 7 day rental and since we're out of town next week, I ask about renewing it. She went ahead and bumped up the return date to after our trip to Dallas. How cool was that? Now we have the perfect video to watch on the plane. Andy will be thrilled.

Wanted: One pediatric otolaryngologist

As I said earlier, Andy has to go see an ear, nose and throat specialist to talk about his persistent ear infections and if he needs to get tubes. The whole thing makes me unhappy, but I've been asking friends and relatives about it. So far, I've gleaned that the procedure itself is very short, like 10-15 minutes, and the results are great for kids who have been suffering. I also got some good recommendations of pediatric otolaryngologists (say that twice fast) to call.

Of course, this is happening just as we're switching from Guardian/OneNet to Aetna for insurance at work. Absurdly, you can't use the Aetna doctor finder feature unless you're a member, but since I'm not a technically member until June 1, things are complicated. I spent probably 30 minutes with Aetna customer support today in a harrowingly frustrating experience. First, the number I got from HR was for the HMO, not the PPO, so after sitting on hold for 15 minutes, they gave me the PPO number. I eventually got some names and phone numbers of doctors and proceeded to call.

I started with the highly recommended Dr. Choi at Children's Hospital. They'd be happy to see me. In August. I then tried Dr. McBride who luckily can see me...in July. Seriously, is this a big deal or not? I called Dr. Staats' office and played a friendly game of telephone where I explained the situation to the nurse, who talked to Dr. Staats and called me back. I wanted to know if two months was too much wait time. Dr. Staats' office called back to say it was too long to wait. I explained I had tried others and July was the soonest I could get without her intervening to try to bump me up the list. The nurse said she'd see what she said and call me back. She still hadn't called when I left this afternoon.

Anyone have a cousin in one of those offices I can sleep with to get an appointment? Geez. This sounds like the Canadian health system.

What stinks is this is all happening just before we have to get on a plane for Dallas this weekend. Fortunately, it's only three hours and direct, but I hate for his ears to be bothering him on the plane. That would stink worse than his usual restlessness on the plane.

The risk of not fixing his ears is delayed learning because he can't hear, but the funny thing is he is almost reading. Well, by reading I mean he can point to the letters on the page and knows them all. And tonight, he even sounded out a few. Granted, he does call pancakes panpakes and band-aids, band-baids. Those are totally adorable, I just wish if I wasn't so paranoid that his hearing was in such jeopardy.

Check out His Adorableness during a nap the other day. I love that he had completely turned himself around and these crashed on the covers.

Recent pictures

Check out that face. Apparently eating is still a full-contact sport.

Andy and his Fafa. He now thinks all women who look like his grandmother are Fafas. It's quite cute.

My naked Viking. This one will totally be brought out later in embarassing moments. At least you can't quite see his boy parts so it's not as humiliating as it could be.

Ear infection, part XXIII

We went back to the doctor today to check on the persistent ear infection. Bad news - after six weeks, it's still there and this time she recommended another antibiotic and a trip to see the ENT to talk about getting tubes. Sigh. We'll certainly do whatever is best, but it's pretty scary to think we're already at Def-con 10 rather than trying another approach. So if you know of a good ear nose and throat specialist in the Washington, D.C., area, let me know.

My theory (as an uneducated WebMD reader so my opinion is worth nothing and may even be harmful) is that he had a viral infection that lead to the ear infection. He was on antibiotics to kill the ear infection, but that also killed the good germs. So the antibiotics didn't work on the ears and made him more vulnerable to another cold that led to another ear infection. It also doesn't help that he's been in a school day-care setting so I have the added guilt that his illness is due to his school. Sure, he'd probably be in the same place if I wasn't working and he were in preschool, but Mommy Guilt usually isn't rational.

Here are some creepy pictures of the procedure. Yikes.

In other medical news, a woman in my playgroup had her second son Wednesday. At home. In her bedroom. Without a doctor or pain medicine. The story goes that she had bad back labor that masked that the contractions were so close together so by the time she finally realized how close they were together, there wasn't time to get to the hospital. Her husband called the paramedics who were there within five minutes and came in once the head and shoulders were out. She's my new superhero. I know, second kid, blah, blah, blah, but wow. Just wow.

Countdown

Bjorn comes back tonight. Yay! We've missed him terribly, but we have all survived fine. I'll be glad when he's back though and there is more of a safety net. Plus, it's been taking me over an hour to get to work in the mornings (Bjorn usually drops off) so I've been appreciating him even more. We're expecting heavy thunderstorms this evening. Fingers crossed that his flights all go okay.

One of my coworkers e-mailed me this http://www.imdb.com/gallery/granitz/2457/SpragueGra_Ausse_2844425_400.jpg.html?path=pgallery&path_key=Grayden%2C%20Sprague&seq=10 and says I look like her. Best. News. Ever. I don't see it, but I'm still flattered. It's at least different from the typical Jodie Foster or Helen Hunt references. That said, what the hell kind of name is Grayden Sprague? I think that's the full Latin name of my rose bush.

In other news, a guy from Florida is planning to fly up to take a look at the Fury next week. Bjorn loves the car, but he just doesn't have time to work on or drive it much it to keep it up. It's a classic and needs to go to a good home. Any takers? And no, we're not moving out of state shortly, but it seemed like a better answer as to why we're selling than that we're lazy.

Holding down the fort

Bjorn's been out of town this week and I'm so proud of myself for not stressing about handling everything with Andy on my own. It's only been 2 1/2 years. That's progress, right? I've been taking this as an opportunity to catch up with folks. Something I should do when he's in town, but somehow we all get busy. Last night Viv came by for some fine boxed wine. And by fine boxed wine, I mean hangover in a box. Tonight, Andy and I met Liz at Chipotle. I just realized there is a Chipotle in Springfield near BuyBuyBaby. That store totally irritates me because it's overpriced, unorganized and the folks who work there are generally unhelpful. BUT it being near a Chipotle makes it more interesting.

Andy loves eating at the "burrito store." I like it myself and appreciate that this is a way to get him to eat beans, rice, chicken, tomatoes, cheese and corn. Considering he's had yogurt two days for dinner the two previous evenings, I consider that a victory. They're also opening a Chipotle even closer to us in Burke. I am very excited.

My only complaint about the store has to do with their Web site at www.chipotle.com. They have updated to Flash 9, which my computer at work doesn't have. Even more irritating is that there is no option to not have Flash. I was so irked since all I wanted to do was look up a location, not place an order or anything wacky and there was no way to do it save confessing to my IT guy and asking him to install the software. I even wanted to write to the powers that be a the restaurant to complain about the software, but once I finally got on the site, there is not one contact phone number or address. Asshats.

An Open Letter to the Disposable Diaper Industry

To Whom It May Concern:

I am a big fan of the disposable diaper. The technology is vastly improved over what I used during my brief stint as a teenage babysitter. The velcro tabs are genius -- huge improvement over the plastic tabs of yesteryear that easily got stuck on the wrong spot. The absorption is also amazing. I have changed some two pound wet diapers on occasion and I have been amazed that the outer core was still dry.

With all this brilliance, why do you have to screw up when it comes to the sizing of things? And don't you think it's time for a size 7 diaper? My 2 1/2 year old son is a decent sized kid. He's 3 feet tall and about 30 pounds. He's not huge though - he's still in some 18-24 month shorts because his waist is fairly small. Although size 6 diapers technically begin at 35 pounds, my son has been in them for about six months because your size 5 diapers cleverly don't hold very much. Unfortunately, your size 6 diaper doesn't hold much more.

The size 6 diaper cracks me up. First off, you are clearly geniuses. Once you get to size 6, you stop selling diapers in your generic or lesser brands. There are no size 6 diapers from Target, Costco, Sam's Club or Wal-Mart brand. Once you hit size 6, you have to go back to your more expensive name brands - Huggies, Pampers and Luvs.

Then you get into the so-called overnight diapers. Huggies sells a line, but it only goes up to size 5. At this point, I believe I'm supposed to be transitioning to the pull-up style diapers, but the 2T-3T pull-ups are too big around the legs. So even if they were as absorbent (which they're not), they leak around the legs. As my mother would say, "that's a design flaw."

I know the obvious answer is potty training, but my son isn't ready yet. That should be good news for you. The longer you can keep him in diapers, the longer I keep supporting your industry.

So diaper manufacturers, I implore you. Please create a size 7 diaper or start selling overnight diapers in size 6. Or if you prefer to stick with your pull-up style diapers, figure out how to improve the gathers around the legs to prevent leakage.

The laundry and I thank you in advance.

Celebrity gossip

I'll admit it, I follow celebrity gossip. Well, I follow who is sleeping with whom, I don't follow what they're wearing. That stuff bores me to tears, but Clare Danes hooking up with Billy Crudup a couple of months before his girlfriend Mary-Louise Parker is due to have their baby? That stuff, I follow.

I've been thinking about why that is. Betsy had a good post about it over on Coffee Betsy as did Chris Moreau, but I think of it a little differently. I think we all like to gossip. It's an easy conversation starter and, frankly, it's just fun. But you can't really gossip about your own friends. Partly because they're not doing anything as interesting as having four kids under four, three from foreign countries like Brad and Angelina. But partly because it's not nice to speculate and gossip about people we know. With celebrities though, we don't know them so it's okay. Britney Spears a bad mother? That's a safe topic, but talking about how annoying a friend's boyfriend can be isn't. Tom Cruise's masterful domination of Katie Holmes is fair game, but the war in Iraq? No, that's too personal somehow.

In some ways, it's too bad that we would rather follow the lives of these people we don't know more than the big stuff that is really affecting us. In other ways, it's such a relief to have such an easy conversation piece that you know isn't going to get you in trouble. So did you hear that Paris Hilton is going to jail?

Boss of the year

My job isn't perfect, but I'm reminded how good it is when I hear wacky stories from this place I used to work. I got a note from a former coworker letting me know that three people of a 12-person company had put in their two weeks' notice to protest the firing of another employee. Turns out, said fired employee was looking for another job. She had written up her resume and had left it in her desk drawer. The thing is it was written to seem as though she'd been at her current job longer than she really had. The CEO found her resume, presumed she must have lied about her other employment history. Though she was good at what she did doing a job that is hard that one wants to do, especially for the measly pay, the paranoid CEO convinced his second in command to let her go.

The most remarkable part of this story is how the CEO got her resume in the first place. He got it by going through her desk drawers. Seriously. What kind of paranoia makes you go through someone's desk drawer? That's even worse than Michael Scott. I've heard of companies that monitor e-mail and Web usage. I can ever understand monitoring long-distance phone calls. But what white collar office CEO has the time and energy to rifle through the desks of $12 an hour employees looking for incriminating information? Get a life, man! The guy is totally nuts.

That job is what I imagine an abusive relationship is like. We all knew it was bad, we all knew deep down it wasn't going to change, but for some strange reason, we all felt trapped. Having lived through my experiences there, when people at my current job complain about this or that, I'm glad I have the perspective to know the difference between annoying general work crap and a truly hostile work environment. Course, if I was still working there when Andy came along, you can bet I would have left by now. Leaving him is only okay because I'm going to a job I generally like, with people I usually get along with, doing work that is interesting. Otherwise, it just wouldn't be worth it.

All wired up and no place to go

I've finally gotten around to downloading the pictures from the weekend. This is a cute one of the show. Too bad I managed to make sure you can't actually see Andy. In case you're wondering, he's on the far right, back row behind the girl in pink. If you look closely, you can see his shoes and elbow. I'd say that's fine photography if you ask me.

The funny thing about our journey downtown was immediately after getting on the metro, I noticed Andy had a dirty diaper. I am so over changing diapers in public, but obviously this one couldn't wait until we got home. Once in town, I stopped in the Starbucks on K St. Inexplicably, they only had one key to the bathroom and that key was locked inside it. Geniuses and less than friendly at that. I traipsed uptown and stopped in the Caribou Coffee up on 17th St. It's beautiful, nice and new with a changing table and everything in the bathroom.

To say thanks, I was going to buy a cup of coffee. I'd already had two cups of regular so decaf was in order at this point. Turns out, they don't sell decaf on Saturdays. I know! How bizarre is that. I could see there being less demand, but I imagine not everyone wants full strength - I know several that mix half regular/half decaf and plenty of people who like coffee, but not the caffeine. The guys behind the counter were super nice about it, but how bizarre. It's been three days and it's still on my mind.

Dancing in the aisles

We went with some friends yesterday to a concert by Billy B. at the National Geographic headquarters up at 16th and M. I thought we'd take the Metro so Andy could see the train. On a weekend, it takes a lot longer to take Metro than drive, but I thought he'd get a kick out of it. Sadly, he was bored after about five minutes. The concert was cool even though it was probably better suited for first graders. The real downside was it was a solid hour and by about 30-40 minutes, the littler kids were really antsy. After about 10 minutes, Andy spent the rest of the time dancing in the aisles and generally running through the auditorium. Good thing is was small and filled with lots of other small kids so it wasn't a big deal. Billy B wasn't my favorite. I'm glad we went, but he's no Steve Songs. I'm all for educational stuff and mixing that with cute songs, but this was a little heavy on the education and less cute.

Afterwards, my two friends, their two daughters and us went over to Bertucci's at 18th and Connecticut. It seemed lame to come all the way downtown to eat at a chain, but the other options nearby were crowded or not really kid friendly. Bertucci's ended up being great though. The pizza was good and fast, we got a salad and the nice waiter gave the kids ice cream at the end. It was also big enough and relatively empty in the back where we were that the kids could play and not really be in anyone's way. We took the Metro back just in time for the surprise rain to hit. By the time Bjorn got us home from the Metro, we were both exhausted and took long naps. It was a good day though.

Meanwhile, holla over to Wonkette and No Fact Zone for including here. It's amusing to think I'm the only person who didn't think Tom Davis totally sucked on the show. Perhaps that's because I only get about half his jokes, but I still think Davis held his own against the guy. I give him props for going on it actually.

Tom Davis and Eleanor Holmes Norton Sittin' in a Tree

Tom Davis, our representative from Fairfax, was on the Colbert Report this week. DCist thought he didn't do so great, but as someone who does media training as part of my job, I actually think he did okay. The format on Colbert is tough because he's so tongue in cheek that it's hard to stay on message because you have no idea where Colbert is going. I know Bjorn hates him, but he seemed fine on this. Plus, I like him right now for championing D.C. voting rights. That the 500,000 or so folks in the District of Columbia don't have a Representative or Senator really sucks. Especially because without this representation, Congress as a whole has a chance to really screw with the city and block its attempts to do things that are good for the city, but not necessarily good for the folks who have to commute to Capitol Hill every day.



In other news, Andy went to the doctor today and now has an ear infection in both ears again. He's on augmentin twice a day for 10 days and the bonus is it's likely to upset his stomach and/or cause diarrhea. Yay! The ears don't seem to be bugging him, but Dr. Staats said the ears are so red she doesn't see how they'll clear up on their own. Sigh.

Edited to correct my metaphor. I was an English major. Swear!

Still sick

Andy was home sick again today. I had a super busy day at work so Bjorn stepped up and stayed home (he's actually really good about that kind of stuff). I never thought he'd be sick again, but as Bjorn was getting him ready for school he said that he was still too warm to reasonably send him to school. Sigh. We have a doctor's appointment tomorrow to follow up on the ear infection for two weeks ago so I can ask about that, too. Is it summer yet? I'm ready for cold season to be over!

His cold is still bad enough that I had to cancel our fun trip to Baltimore for tomorrow. It just didn't make sense to have a big outing knowing now he's under the weather, but it stinks since we had box seats at Camden Yards. We are going with friends to a concert at National Geographic on Saturday so fingers crossed that he bucks up for that.

Meanwhile, I checked my messages tonight and my mother left an awesome one that makes me love her even more:

"Well, we're under some severe weather here in Dallas so they have the Weather Channel on all the TV stations so I can't watch to see who is getting kicked off American Idol. Do you have it on? Can you call me with live results? Love you, bye."

How great is that? No panic about a tornado or anything - nope, she just wanted to know that Phil and Chris were the ones leaving. Hee!

The mysterious fever

Andy still had his mysterious fever today so I took the day off to stay home. The good part was except for the fever and an occasional cough or drip of his nose, he was in good spirits and generally pleasant to be around. Cooped up with a sad and miserable kid is not as enjoyable. I did call the doctor's who said that a fever of 5 to 7 days is when it's time for a visit. That works fine since I have to take him back on Friday for to see if the ear infection has finally left us. Fingers crossed. It seems he's had a new antibiotic ever week this winter/spring.

After the morning, it was obvious he was bored with me. He kept asking to go to the library or to the store or frankly anywhere other than where we were. Later on when I asked him if he wanted to go to school tomorrow, his face lit up and said, "Yeah" quite enthusiastically. He probably won't feel that way tomorrow morning when it counts, unfortunately. The little bugger is really learning there, which is good since that's the point. He's fascinated by shapes, especially triangles, and makes a point to show us when he seems them.

This Friday we've been invited to go to the Orioles-Indians game at Camden Yards in Baltimore. I haven't been to an O's game in years, even before the Nationals came to Washington. Bjorn has meetings in Maryland so I'm trying to figure out how to take the train from Union Station to the game and then catch a ride back with him. I know Andy will love riding the trains. What stinks is we don't have a Metro really anywhere close by. We do have a VRE commuter rail station quite close, but I checked and it doesn't really run regularly in the afternoons into the city, rather it just runs outbound. We'll figure it out, but I know Andy is going to love the adventure.

Another shoutout

Apparently my rant against the Arlington towing mafia also gave me a mention over at the awesome DCist. I feel like such a celebrity.

Catch the fever

Guess who is sick again? That's right, the 2.25 year old is sick for the 77th time this year. Poor guy. I imagine this isn't what he had in mind either. He's had a fever of about 100 for going on two days now. He hasn't had any symptoms except feeling irritable and listless when tired.

Bjorn and I did the switch where he did the morning and I do the afternoon. Andy felt a lot cooler when I just put him down so hopefully his nap does him good. If he's still warm after that, I'll put in a call to the doctor's. Sigh.

The picture to the left is of Andy and Mia from the weekend. Jennifer came in town for the weekend and bravely babysat both toddlers while we got out. Fortunately, we were much better behaved than when we went out last time. It's great when we can get out with other adults together and our friends are so darn funny that we always have a good time. Our only mistake was going to Kilroy's in Fairfax. The hard part is trying to find a fun place that isn't really smoky so we sat outside on their new patio. Sadly, they had a band that night singing terrible Grateful Dead covers and on the patio we got a weird mix of band music mixed with the XM radio station they have piped in. Strange. I also realized that I have zero cute going out clothes. Must. Remedy. That.

My earlier post on the horrible parking/towing situation in Ballston has struck a chord with lots of locals. The good news is it seems Arlington County is on to the bad practices of some unscrupulous tow truck operators and has been working on it. Interestingly, the operators are required to call the county police before towing. I still think the tenants and building managers need to stand up and say no to signing contracts with these agressive towing companies. It's kind of like schools signing contracts with junk food makers. They know it's bad for everyone, but they don't want to turn down the incentives.

DC Blogs

Hey, I got a nice shout-out on DC Blogs today. Let my 11 seconds of fame begin.

Thanks to Jamie over at Cockblog for cluing me in.

An Open Letter to the Owners of Booeymonger in Arlington

Dear Booeymonger Management,
You have a great restaurant in Arlington. The sandwiches are good, original and hearty. The layout of the restaurant is open with good seating, both inside and out. Unfortunately, I won't be coming to your restaurant any longer as you have no parking. None. You have six spaces nearby that very clearly say "20 minute parking - towing enforced." And you're not kidding about the towing enforced part. In the 15 minutes I watched this Sunday morning, two tow trucks slowly cased these six spaces. It was very clear they intended to tow someone, even if they weren't in violation just yet. As a tenant in this building, you don't require these towing companies to have proof that they're in the right. Rather, they're allowed to take your car when they're ready. If they do, no evidence you could possibly show will get you out of the $100 minimum they will charge. This is organized stealing and you're helping them do it.

When asked about the parking, you say you can't do anything - it's the building. That's a shame. You should demand better of your landlord on behalf of your customers. If you won't stand up for us, why should we stand up for you when the time comes you need help renewing your lease or fighting a hostile city council?

You've made your choice. I've made mine.

Q-tips and memories

Behold, the photo of my Q-tip chewer. He really did empty out the box of them and chew the cotton tips off a few. I'm not sure why, but he seemed rather pleased with himself.

At this age, I'm amazed at not only his language skills, but what he remembers. We went to the grocery store this week and he immediately asked for blackberries as we'd had them in the store before. I had forgotten, but he hadn't. The other night we took a walk and he pointed out all that was new - a new railing on the stairs by the pool and a net on the hoop. It amazes me to look through his eyes as I see things that I've been overlooking for years. It's pretty awesome.

In other exciting news, they're making a broadway musical of Xanadu. It's a terrible movie with no plot to speak of, but I really do like the soundtrack even though until recently I thought it was the Bee-Gees and and not ELO.

Operation Big Boy Bed, Photo Montage

A not great angle view of his old room. It was pretty tiny.

The room halfway through the move. I had gotten my computer and the rugs out, but Bjorn's computer, the desks and the bed still had to go.

The ultimate pack rat, I actually saved this carpet when we pulled up the carpet upstairs when we moved in. I have no idea why I picked this room over the others, but it was a nice square piece and I thought we might need it someday. I was right. It still has some lumps, but it's getting better.

The crib in pieces to be put into the attic. I did find myself a little wistful remembering how I was 8 3/4 months pregnant trying to put that sucker together. I will say it was much easier getting it apart than putting it together.

The new setup. As you can see, there is tons more room.

Operation Big Boy Bed, Part Three

It just took three days, but Andy has figured out how to climb out of his bed. Witness tonight's bedtime fiasco where he climbed out and I heard him on the floor banging something against the bottom of the door. Nice. He's just so darn big now that I can hardly pick him up and put him back in bed now if he doesn't want to. I'm also finding reasoning with a cranky toddler to be a futile effort. Funny, it took me a while to figure out when he was little that I was in charge of everything. Now that it's a few years later, I'm totally comfortable being in charge so his attempts to exert control over his life is causing some friction for all of us.

The 10 foot furniture swap of moving rooms is still not complete and the very thought of it depresses me after all the effort we did last weekend. Last up is switching closets. Andy's closet has wire shelving that I've used as his dresser for the past two years. The other closet has two filing cabinets and 200 vinyl albums on the shelves left over from when Bjorn was in high school (not that we're pack rats or anything). The closets are shaped differently so it's going to require some thought as to what will go where. Groan. I would leave them where they are, but that's a lot of walking back and forth some days. Bjorn has also announced his intention to be done with this whole project so I have a feeling I'm going to be trying to move these filing cabinets by myself. That should be interesting. I keep trying to convince Bjorn that after this project, I'm really done for a long while, but I don't think he believes me.

The move also somehow zapped our router so I haven't been able to upload any of my pictures. Bjorn talked to the folks at Verizon who couldn't have been more helpful, but Linksys' crappy help line makes you wait 45 minutes and then says you have to pay to talk to someone. Jackasses.

In lieu of actual photos, here's a picture of the bedspread. I haven't gotten him the sheets or sham. Yet. He does have one pillow case though. It was on sale for $3.87 at Wal-Mart. How could I refuse?

Operation Big Boy Bed continued

We spent most of yesterday moving things around and I'm pleased to say it's finally looking good. Andy's room is set up with a twin bed, diaper table, bookshelf and chair. Andy's old room now has the carpet pulled up, both desks and the bookshelf. Unfortunately, our Linsys router has decided to stop working again so we're down for one computer temporarily. We're also exhausted! Who knew moving so little stuff just between two rooms would be so much work?

Andy took his first nap in the bed just fine (photos to come once I can get back to my computer and upload them). He did wake up in the night last night with a leaky diaper that had naturally leaked onto his new bed and sheets. I may need to invest in a plastic liner to get us through the toddler years.

We also went to my nephew's opening day Little League baseball game. I forget that baseball is boooring. No offense to the kids playing, but there was a lot of standing around waiting for a play to happen. At least with soccer or basketball, there is always some motion no matter how uncoordinated the kids are. Plus, there is a time clock. We left after two hours and apparently it goes until 2 1/2 hours. It was fun to watch. Well, for the first hour at least. By the end, even the kids seemed tired and bored.

The funny thing I noticed about baseball dads is that by and large they have more facial hair than soccer dads. Goatees and mustaches were present all more than half the men at the games. The park near us has both soccer and baseball so I've been noticing this trend for a while. Bjorn didn't believe me until we got to the game and he saw it with his own eyes. I wonder what's up with that?