Last night, Steve and I took Dave and Nancy to Pazo Restaurant in Harbor East for dinner. With some very last minute help from my parents who watched the kids, we had an opportunity to enjoy dinner!
Pazo is another Cindy Wolfe restaurant, but it's theme is tapas, small plates of food instead of large courses. I love tapas because you can pick and choose and nibble and try a little bit of everything if you want. Similar to her star restaurant Charleston, her seafood dishes were more notable than her meat dishes. There is just something about her seafood dishes that are amazing!
The four of us shared a plate of mixed olives, a pugliese bread, a neopolitan pizza (one of the best pizzas outside of Italy, according to Dave), salmon tartar (this was outstanding), a veal empanada (this was outstanding), a butternut squash soup with a cayenne pepper and orange froth (interesting kick to that froth), brisket with mashed potatoes (serious butter in the potatoes!), scallops on butternut squash puree (this dish rocked!), lamb chops with raspberry puree (the lamb by itself was just average. then you dipped it in the raspberry puree and wow!), and dessert. Dessert consisted of a scoop of vanilla bean, coconut and mango ice cream (the coconut stole the show out of this trio), a small trio of chocolate desserts - a gnoche, a hazelnut torte, and a modified tiramisu (the gnoche was evilly delicious) - and a pear torte with banana brown butter. The pear torte turned out to be the crowd favorite. We had a nice bottle of wine, and good conversation.
We got home just in time for Elektra to go to bed. She wanted to stay up and hang out with everyone, but eventually she realized how tired she was and went to sleep in her crib. Meanwhile, DJ had gone to bed without a fuss, having had a ball with Yiayia and Papou. Unfortunately, however, he woke up when I went to bed and stayed up until after Steve came to bed. We had to convince him (again) that he needed to go back to sleep in the pack-n-play. By the time all that happened, that left me with less than 6 hours of sleep. At least he woke up this morning in a good mood. Hopefully he'll nap a long time for Steve this afternoon.
It was a really nice night, thanks to my parents for taking the stress off of us and let us go out on such last minute notice. :)
Wednesday, December 31, 2008
Thursday, December 18, 2008
Back to work
After three wonderful (if tiring) months at home, I had to go back to work yesterday. I know, I make it sound terrible. It totally isn't. I'm so thankful to have an awesome job in this economy. I just got used to the stay at home mom lifestyle and i was really enjoying it. Yesterday was pretty quiet at work, as was expected. It's the end of our budget cycle and the end of our year. We're in Production freeze, so we can't implement anything. So I'm working on updating our group's internet presence on the company's internal internet. That should keep me busy until next year. :-)
Anyways, it was nice to see everyone and it is nice to get back into a routine. The routine hasn't been established yet but like most humans, I like habits for the sense of comfort. So... off I go to figure out what that routine is...
Anyways, it was nice to see everyone and it is nice to get back into a routine. The routine hasn't been established yet but like most humans, I like habits for the sense of comfort. So... off I go to figure out what that routine is...
Sunday, December 14, 2008
Mama
Yesterday, I finally received verbal confirmation that DJ loves me. He said, "Mama" very clearly, towards me, and multiple times over the course of the day. Oh how my heart soared! Usually, when I go into his room to go get him, he says, "Daddy. Baby." This morning, when I went into DJ's room to go get him out of bed, he said, "Mama. Daddy. Baby." THAT was awesome.
Wednesday, November 12, 2008
Schedule Dog and Noodlepoleon
Steve and I have come up with new names for our dogs. IO is known as Schedule Dog and Napoleon is Noodlepoleon. Why?
IO's biological clock is driven by food. At 6:30am, he starts getting up and shaking (loudly) in the crate until he's let outside and fed. At 4pm (an hour early, may I point out), he's begging for dinner. By 10pm (usually, this starts around 9pm), he's begging to be let outside one final time so he can go in the crate and get his treat. And if we ignore his wants, he becomes a complete nudge (on the couch, off the couch, on the couch, off the couch, frantic movements) until we do what he wants or we effectively scold him for being a pain.
Napoleon is a noodle. If we're sitting on the couch, he noodles us for attention until we're exasperated. He noodles the neighborhood by barking incessantly at whatever he fancies requires barking. He noodles all visitors by jumping up on them and insisting that they pay attention to him and pet him (I recognize this is a training issue on our part).
It's so interesting how much their personalities have come out in the last 3 years. Geez, we've had these two for 3 years on Thanksgiving. How time flies!
IO's biological clock is driven by food. At 6:30am, he starts getting up and shaking (loudly) in the crate until he's let outside and fed. At 4pm (an hour early, may I point out), he's begging for dinner. By 10pm (usually, this starts around 9pm), he's begging to be let outside one final time so he can go in the crate and get his treat. And if we ignore his wants, he becomes a complete nudge (on the couch, off the couch, on the couch, off the couch, frantic movements) until we do what he wants or we effectively scold him for being a pain.
Napoleon is a noodle. If we're sitting on the couch, he noodles us for attention until we're exasperated. He noodles the neighborhood by barking incessantly at whatever he fancies requires barking. He noodles all visitors by jumping up on them and insisting that they pay attention to him and pet him (I recognize this is a training issue on our part).
It's so interesting how much their personalities have come out in the last 3 years. Geez, we've had these two for 3 years on Thanksgiving. How time flies!
Tuesday, October 21, 2008
Braces
Back in January, I went to see an orthodontist at the recommendation of my dentist because of all the movement in my bottom teeth that's starting to mess with my top teeth, too. My dentist was thinking a retainer should cover it. The orthodontist said 15 months of braces to the tune of a really ugly price tag. And of course, my insurance won't cover adult braces. This plan is so good for everything else, but it doesn't cover adult braces?! ARG! This pill would be much more swallowable (is that word?) if insurance covered a little... ::sigh::
Railroad Tracks will be coming your way soon, I guess. I'm so putting this off....
Railroad Tracks will be coming your way soon, I guess. I'm so putting this off....
Sunday, October 19, 2008
Bessie
Bessie is back!
Yes, Steve's nickname for me when I'm breastfeeding, Bessie (the cow), is back. And really, I don't argue because that is what it feels like... I'm constantly pumping for or feeding Elektra, every 3 hours or less. I've got at least 5 more months of this because the American Pediatric Association (I think that's what it's called) recommends at least 6 months of breastfeeding to provide 90-some percent of the antibiodies and such to the baby. But as time passes, I'll be attached less often to the pump over the course of the day as Elektra's feeding needs change. I look forward to being done this part of my responsibilities as Mommy; I am ready to have my body back entirely!
Moooooo.
Yes, Steve's nickname for me when I'm breastfeeding, Bessie (the cow), is back. And really, I don't argue because that is what it feels like... I'm constantly pumping for or feeding Elektra, every 3 hours or less. I've got at least 5 more months of this because the American Pediatric Association (I think that's what it's called) recommends at least 6 months of breastfeeding to provide 90-some percent of the antibiodies and such to the baby. But as time passes, I'll be attached less often to the pump over the course of the day as Elektra's feeding needs change. I look forward to being done this part of my responsibilities as Mommy; I am ready to have my body back entirely!
Moooooo.
Sunday, September 7, 2008
Dana Swan Field - a Haverford dedication
On Saturday, Steve gave me a gift... a chance to go up to Haverford on my own while he watched DJ. I went to Haverford to watch the dedication of the new turf field and the subsequent field hockey game. Haverford dedicated the field to a man with a long Haverford legacy, Dana Swan, a coach, Athletic Director and Admissions Officer at Haverford. And for the first time in I can't tell you how many years, I was excited to return to campus.
This event was important to me on two levels: 1. The fact that the field was dedicated to Dana Swan and 2. Because the turf field is going to be used primarily for women's sports, field hockey, lacrosse, and soccer.
Dana Swan is the reason I got into Haverford. I knew, once I toured the campus, that Haverford was where I wanted to go to college. But my interview with Dana Swan - a 45 minute long interview in which my parents started wondering what was wrong as none of my other college interviews went that long - was the highlight of my college search, application, and admission process. Not only was the interview special, but so was the phone call I received personally from Dana Swan to offer me admission to the school. He called the dorm phone one night while I was working in the computer center. The message he left was that he'd call again.
When he did call again, he told me that I was the first person to come off the wait list, and would I be interested in attending Haverford. There was no question nor any hesitation in my mind. Of course I said yes! Then I asked about sending in a deposit. He said, "We don't take deposits. Your conversation with me is binding under our Honor Code." Upon hanging up the phone, I knew I'd made the right decision for my college future.
Subsequently, I played field hockey for my 4 years at Haverford. Our field was a grass field just outside the Observatory (women's lacrosse played and practiced there as well in the Spring). It had more divits from our practices and games as well as from the squirrels trying to bury their nuts for winter (and then dig them back up). Playing teams on any field that was remotely better than ours threw us for loops. When we'd play teams on tuf, we'd have to get up at 4:30AM to travel to a turf field for 5-7AM practice the week before the game. Ugh. And invariably, we'd lose those games anyway.
So this turf field is a huge step for the field hockey program. It can only serve to boost recruiting and the level of play of the team. Eventually, it will become a self feeding cycle... level of play will help recruiting and recruiting will help the level of play. But for now, Haverford has invested in its athletic program in a huge way; if you build it, they will come. I hope.
The field hockey game was against Rowan - formally known as the College of New Jersey. They had changed their name to Rowan right before we played them for the first time when I was a Senior. We traveled to Rowan and promptly were demolished by a bunch of girls who decided it was a good idea to wear blue eye shadow, mascara, glitter, etc. ::roll eyes:: This time, Haverford played Rowan much better than we did, despite Tropical Storm Hanna doing her worst. The field held up fantastically and although Haverford still suffers from issues that we had when I played, it was nice to see us score on Rowan.
I introduced myself to the coach after the game. She's very energetic and seemingly very nice. She invited me to their tailgate in the new athletic center. I had planned to go look at the new athletic center anyway, so I stopped in. I chatted with one senior's parents, and then decided to take a walk around campus, despite the ridiculous storm whipping around outside. I was in my rain gear, so I didn't care about being out in the weather.
The campus walk was a nice trip down memory lane, but also a nice way to confirm that I don't belong anymore. The school has built some very nice additions to the campus that I so wish I had when I was there (huh, just like McDonogh and its athletic and performing arts centers), so clearly the school is making strides both in athletic and academic facilities, as it should.
I drove home through Tropical Storm Hanna and upon arriving home, Steve and DJ got home just as I did. We settled in, watched the sun come out, and then our power went out. ::sigh:: We went out to pick up dinner and by the time we got home, the lights were back on. It was a nice end to a nice day (despite the weather).
This event was important to me on two levels: 1. The fact that the field was dedicated to Dana Swan and 2. Because the turf field is going to be used primarily for women's sports, field hockey, lacrosse, and soccer.
Dana Swan is the reason I got into Haverford. I knew, once I toured the campus, that Haverford was where I wanted to go to college. But my interview with Dana Swan - a 45 minute long interview in which my parents started wondering what was wrong as none of my other college interviews went that long - was the highlight of my college search, application, and admission process. Not only was the interview special, but so was the phone call I received personally from Dana Swan to offer me admission to the school. He called the dorm phone one night while I was working in the computer center. The message he left was that he'd call again.
When he did call again, he told me that I was the first person to come off the wait list, and would I be interested in attending Haverford. There was no question nor any hesitation in my mind. Of course I said yes! Then I asked about sending in a deposit. He said, "We don't take deposits. Your conversation with me is binding under our Honor Code." Upon hanging up the phone, I knew I'd made the right decision for my college future.
Subsequently, I played field hockey for my 4 years at Haverford. Our field was a grass field just outside the Observatory (women's lacrosse played and practiced there as well in the Spring). It had more divits from our practices and games as well as from the squirrels trying to bury their nuts for winter (and then dig them back up). Playing teams on any field that was remotely better than ours threw us for loops. When we'd play teams on tuf, we'd have to get up at 4:30AM to travel to a turf field for 5-7AM practice the week before the game. Ugh. And invariably, we'd lose those games anyway.
So this turf field is a huge step for the field hockey program. It can only serve to boost recruiting and the level of play of the team. Eventually, it will become a self feeding cycle... level of play will help recruiting and recruiting will help the level of play. But for now, Haverford has invested in its athletic program in a huge way; if you build it, they will come. I hope.
The field hockey game was against Rowan - formally known as the College of New Jersey. They had changed their name to Rowan right before we played them for the first time when I was a Senior. We traveled to Rowan and promptly were demolished by a bunch of girls who decided it was a good idea to wear blue eye shadow, mascara, glitter, etc. ::roll eyes:: This time, Haverford played Rowan much better than we did, despite Tropical Storm Hanna doing her worst. The field held up fantastically and although Haverford still suffers from issues that we had when I played, it was nice to see us score on Rowan.
I introduced myself to the coach after the game. She's very energetic and seemingly very nice. She invited me to their tailgate in the new athletic center. I had planned to go look at the new athletic center anyway, so I stopped in. I chatted with one senior's parents, and then decided to take a walk around campus, despite the ridiculous storm whipping around outside. I was in my rain gear, so I didn't care about being out in the weather.
The campus walk was a nice trip down memory lane, but also a nice way to confirm that I don't belong anymore. The school has built some very nice additions to the campus that I so wish I had when I was there (huh, just like McDonogh and its athletic and performing arts centers), so clearly the school is making strides both in athletic and academic facilities, as it should.
I drove home through Tropical Storm Hanna and upon arriving home, Steve and DJ got home just as I did. We settled in, watched the sun come out, and then our power went out. ::sigh:: We went out to pick up dinner and by the time we got home, the lights were back on. It was a nice end to a nice day (despite the weather).
Monday, July 28, 2008
Wrightsville Beach 2008
Note - I was rummaging through all of my posts, and realized I started this post, but never actually finished it! So I will write it now based on what I remember from a year ago...
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As is family tradition, we went to Wrightsville Beach, North Carolina. We stayed with my family at a house that's on the north end of Wrightsville Beach, on the sound side, not ocean side. But we are directly across from a Public Beach Access so we have very easy access to the beach with no driving necessary!
The trip down was pretty uneventful, and DJ did great. It wasn't nearly as difficult on me as I had thought it might be, and we made great time. Despite that, we were all very happy to be out of the car once we arrived.
DJ's cousins were thrilled to see (and play with) DJ, who was very interested in exploring the house. Even though the stairs are shorter than your average stair, we still had to watch DJ like a hawk on them. But those were a huge toy for him, to say the least.
He also discovered the little closet on the top floor loft. It was just his size, and he opened and shut that door millions of times over the course of the week! He liked playing hide-n-seek with it, too. It was his little hideout. He loved it.
We took DJ to the beach a number of times over the course of the week. He didn't mind walking on the sand at all (much to our surprise), but the water made him nervous at first. I'm not sure if the noise of the ocean made him nervous or just it's vastness or what... but he definitely wanted no parts of it initially. DJ and I sat on the edge of where the water came until he was comfortable with it. Then Steve took him in to play... and he had a good time!
DJ playing in the water
DJ and Daddy
As for me, being 8 months pregnant took its toll on me. And true to his nature, DJ was up at the crack of dawn every day and with the pack-n-play in the same room as us, there was no sleeping through it. I was very thankful that my active toddler was taking both morning and afternoon naps, despite the racket (ARG!!!) caused by the construction on the house next door (shingling). I'd nap with him when I could, but still. Chasing him around was a challenge energy-wise as well as physically e.g. getting up off the floor was not a fast action!
I also attempted to bake on this trip. Both attempts ended up in culinary disasters. Ok, I thought they were disasters, but they tasted they way they should even though they didn't LOOK they way they should. My Vanilla Butternut Poundcake burned AGAIN in that oven (you'd think I'd learn not to bake in that contemptuous oven), and my carrot cake not only came out flat but it completely fell apart trying to pull them out of the pans. I iced it anyway, and it became Rustic Carrot Cake. It tasted awesome... but was really... flat... and a crumbled mess. Ugh. Hate that oven...
DJ had a great time playing with his cousins, especially Spiro. There is just a boy bond there that can't be explained. It's awesome.
The week went by quickly, but Steve and I were happy to come home to our routine (and DJ being in his own room!). The drive back was a real challenge, with Washington DC traffic wreaking havoc on our ability to get home in a reasonable amount of time (Friday at 4:30 is bad bad bad). DJ was REALLY unhappy, and that shot our nerves in a hurry. But we got through it, not much worse for the wear. ;-)
Meanwhile, my father-in-law had spent the last few days of that week whlie we were gone prepping and painting DJ's new room, so that was a really nice done project to come home to!! Our plan to move DJ into his new room 6-8 weeks before the new baby arrives is coming to fruition sooner than we had hoped!
Next year, we'll have another baby to bring with us to the beach! YAAAY! We think we didn't get any rest this year on our vacation (it's a trip, not a vacation), we're certainly not getting any next year!
Wednesday, July 16, 2008
Driving in downtown
As I was leaving work yesterday, I pull out of the parking garage at work onto Calvert Street. Calvert Street is one way going North, 4 lanes, with the left most as the left turn lane. Many days. The right most lane is blocked by delivery trucks and such, so this really only leaves me the option of getting into the two middle lanes if I want to go north on Calvert.
By the graciousness of another driver, I’m allowed to pull out on to Calvert into the left of the two middle lanes. I wave my thanks and just as I start to accelerate, an oversized behemoth of a truck that is supposedly classed as merely an SUV, a GMC Yack-on, decides that it’s a good idea to try and turn left from the right hand of the middle lanes. That means this Yack-on was going to turn left into me and into the car to the left of me in the legitimate left turn lane.
So I ask, when, is it EVER acceptable, much less safe, to pull a maneuver like that? I can only think of one situation: a demolition derby. And even then, I believe the courses are figure 8s to encourage the demolition…
At no point was I going fast enough to not be able to avoid this situation; I wasn’t in any immediate danger. But I was amazed by the sheer stupidity that humanity manages to display daily when placed behind the wheel of a motorized vehicle.
To my immense amusement, there was a traffic officer at the intersection who saw this unfold. As the Yack-on tried to complete its turn, the traffic officer stepped in front of the cars in the left turn lane and almost in front of my lane to force the Yack-on to go straight. After a sharp whistle and way too many exaggerated hand gestures from the traffic officer, the Yack-on finally got the message and went straight. This meant that it was now directly in front of me in my lane.
Ok, so maybe it poses less danger to me in this situation, I think. And theoretically, it does. Until we get to the next intersection one block away. This time, the Yack-on DOES, in fact, turn left not from the left-most lane, but from one lane to the right of the left lane.
I quickly look to my left to see if anyone is going straight there (as this is a possibility on this part of the road) and to my immense relief, there is no one. The Yack-on didn’t learn its lesson the first time, and clearly not the second time either. That person’s license needs to be revoked.
By the graciousness of another driver, I’m allowed to pull out on to Calvert into the left of the two middle lanes. I wave my thanks and just as I start to accelerate, an oversized behemoth of a truck that is supposedly classed as merely an SUV, a GMC Yack-on, decides that it’s a good idea to try and turn left from the right hand of the middle lanes. That means this Yack-on was going to turn left into me and into the car to the left of me in the legitimate left turn lane.
So I ask, when, is it EVER acceptable, much less safe, to pull a maneuver like that? I can only think of one situation: a demolition derby. And even then, I believe the courses are figure 8s to encourage the demolition…
At no point was I going fast enough to not be able to avoid this situation; I wasn’t in any immediate danger. But I was amazed by the sheer stupidity that humanity manages to display daily when placed behind the wheel of a motorized vehicle.
To my immense amusement, there was a traffic officer at the intersection who saw this unfold. As the Yack-on tried to complete its turn, the traffic officer stepped in front of the cars in the left turn lane and almost in front of my lane to force the Yack-on to go straight. After a sharp whistle and way too many exaggerated hand gestures from the traffic officer, the Yack-on finally got the message and went straight. This meant that it was now directly in front of me in my lane.
Ok, so maybe it poses less danger to me in this situation, I think. And theoretically, it does. Until we get to the next intersection one block away. This time, the Yack-on DOES, in fact, turn left not from the left-most lane, but from one lane to the right of the left lane.
I quickly look to my left to see if anyone is going straight there (as this is a possibility on this part of the road) and to my immense relief, there is no one. The Yack-on didn’t learn its lesson the first time, and clearly not the second time either. That person’s license needs to be revoked.
Monday, June 23, 2008
2008 DC Pro Solo
What a weekend... the Washington DC Region of the SCCA hosted the National Pro Solo this weekend at FedEx Field. It's a 2 day event that requires all sorts of extra planning and work making it more like a 4 day event. But boy, it's the best autocross format out there.
Steve was assigned to help a national level course designer with designing the course, so he went out to FedEx after work on Thursday to start laying out cones and determining where stuff would go for the course. Then he had to be back out there at 7am on Friday morning for full course design and setup. The courses are two mirror images of each other even though the reality is that they are never true mirror images due to the topography of the parking lot. They are required to do measurements and all sorts of crazy stuff that we don't have to do for a local autocross. They were done by 11am, but still... long day already.
I drove down Friday with 20 cases of water that I think we finished over the weekend... if we didn't, we were close! We had the Miata tech'd, which always includes putting on that stupid TIRE RACK sticker on the front windshield - that's a 20 minute ordeal. We didn't stick around for practice starts; we wanted to get back into Baltimore before really bad rush hour traffic hit. We got to Eleanor's to pick up DJ around 4, and he was still napping! We missed the Welcome Dinner, which is always really good, but it was nice to be home a little early.
Saturday was a long day for everyone, and we got to leave the event early! Grandmom came at 5:45am to watch DJ, and we left the house a little after 6. Upon arrival, I was working with Shawn and Clyde to get the worker stations set up, except that we had to wait for Ian to show up with the bus key! Jane got ice for the coolers, and voila, worker stations were done. We had our check in list in hand, and were chilling out under the region tents when National came over to ask us if we had done this that and the other thing. Yes yes and yes. "Oh, well, you certainly don't need me because you're on top of it!" National forgets, every once in awhile, that we run events bigger than theirs generally. ;-)
4 runs in the morning.... 2 on the left side course, 2 on the right side course, all back to back. Drag strip start. The best time from each side get added together for your score. Steve ran his runs first, then I ran mine. Then go sit the car in impound and wait for results. Results come out: Steve's in 6th, and I'm in 7th. Nice! Oh wait, Mike Snyder is DFL with no left side times due to red lights. Yeah, ok, we're dropping a spot when he finally gets a time on the left.
Sure enough, after 4 more runs in the afternoon (2 left, 2 right), Steve was down to 7th and I was down to 8th. I'm still standing on my very first left side time since I'd spun twice and red lit, too.
Because the event was running behind due to timing issues, we didn't leave FedEx until 5:45. We got home just in time to play with DJ for a little bit and put him to bed. DJ melted down when he realized he was going to bed and wasn't going to play anymore with Daddy. Wow. First major meltdown like that ever, and it certainly won't be the last.
Grandmom came back over on Sunday at 7am to watch DJ, and we left shortly thereafter. 4 morning runs revealed that we both improved our times, but I coned away my best left side run. Had I not coned that run, I'd have actually beaten Steve in outright competition by 1 tenth. But I didn't. :)
I left before all the Challenge rounds were finished to go home to DJ and relieve Grandmom of babysitting. I probably wasn't home 45 minutes when Steve texted that they were all packed and headed to eat dinner at Ruby Tuesdays in Columbia. I packed DJ into the car, and off we went as well. We enjoyed a nice dinner with the standard autocross crew, and DJ ate like a horse!
We got home a little after 8pm, put DJ right to bed, and we weren't far behind him. That much time on a sweltering parking lot really takes a lot of out of you!
All in all, it was a blast of a weekend. That format is the best. I can't wait until we get our own setup so that we can run our own pro solos!!!
Steve was assigned to help a national level course designer with designing the course, so he went out to FedEx after work on Thursday to start laying out cones and determining where stuff would go for the course. Then he had to be back out there at 7am on Friday morning for full course design and setup. The courses are two mirror images of each other even though the reality is that they are never true mirror images due to the topography of the parking lot. They are required to do measurements and all sorts of crazy stuff that we don't have to do for a local autocross. They were done by 11am, but still... long day already.
I drove down Friday with 20 cases of water that I think we finished over the weekend... if we didn't, we were close! We had the Miata tech'd, which always includes putting on that stupid TIRE RACK sticker on the front windshield - that's a 20 minute ordeal. We didn't stick around for practice starts; we wanted to get back into Baltimore before really bad rush hour traffic hit. We got to Eleanor's to pick up DJ around 4, and he was still napping! We missed the Welcome Dinner, which is always really good, but it was nice to be home a little early.
Saturday was a long day for everyone, and we got to leave the event early! Grandmom came at 5:45am to watch DJ, and we left the house a little after 6. Upon arrival, I was working with Shawn and Clyde to get the worker stations set up, except that we had to wait for Ian to show up with the bus key! Jane got ice for the coolers, and voila, worker stations were done. We had our check in list in hand, and were chilling out under the region tents when National came over to ask us if we had done this that and the other thing. Yes yes and yes. "Oh, well, you certainly don't need me because you're on top of it!" National forgets, every once in awhile, that we run events bigger than theirs generally. ;-)
4 runs in the morning.... 2 on the left side course, 2 on the right side course, all back to back. Drag strip start. The best time from each side get added together for your score. Steve ran his runs first, then I ran mine. Then go sit the car in impound and wait for results. Results come out: Steve's in 6th, and I'm in 7th. Nice! Oh wait, Mike Snyder is DFL with no left side times due to red lights. Yeah, ok, we're dropping a spot when he finally gets a time on the left.
Sure enough, after 4 more runs in the afternoon (2 left, 2 right), Steve was down to 7th and I was down to 8th. I'm still standing on my very first left side time since I'd spun twice and red lit, too.
Because the event was running behind due to timing issues, we didn't leave FedEx until 5:45. We got home just in time to play with DJ for a little bit and put him to bed. DJ melted down when he realized he was going to bed and wasn't going to play anymore with Daddy. Wow. First major meltdown like that ever, and it certainly won't be the last.
Grandmom came back over on Sunday at 7am to watch DJ, and we left shortly thereafter. 4 morning runs revealed that we both improved our times, but I coned away my best left side run. Had I not coned that run, I'd have actually beaten Steve in outright competition by 1 tenth. But I didn't. :)
I left before all the Challenge rounds were finished to go home to DJ and relieve Grandmom of babysitting. I probably wasn't home 45 minutes when Steve texted that they were all packed and headed to eat dinner at Ruby Tuesdays in Columbia. I packed DJ into the car, and off we went as well. We enjoyed a nice dinner with the standard autocross crew, and DJ ate like a horse!
We got home a little after 8pm, put DJ right to bed, and we weren't far behind him. That much time on a sweltering parking lot really takes a lot of out of you!
All in all, it was a blast of a weekend. That format is the best. I can't wait until we get our own setup so that we can run our own pro solos!!!
Tuesday, June 10, 2008
Pregnancy Fashion Faux Pas
I was taking the escalator up to the food court today to get lunch. On her way down was a woman, holding a newborn in her arms. This child was *tiny*, maybe 3-4 weeks old, at most. She was hanging out with a couple of people, and clearly having a ball. Good for her! A new mommy needs to get out and remind herself that post-partum reality is NOT all about lacking sleep, changing diapers at 3am, and walking endlessly with the child until they fall back to sleep.
But good grief, the outfit has got to go. Confiscated. Something. Where are the Fashion Faux Pas Police when I need them? My retinas now have holes burned into them from the mere sight. The skin tight crop top and matching hot pants on a 3-4 week post-partum woman who clearly gained more than the typically doctor-prescribed 35 pregnancy pounds is not appropriate.
Why?
1. A pregnancy belly is nice and taut because of your little bundle of joy inside it, and can be considered beautiful and even sexy (to some). On the other hand, your post pregnancy belly is most unflattering. It's stretched out, and it hangs limply off your frame like a deflated balloon. Ask me how I know. Unless you are a post-partum super model with a full time nanny, a personal chef, a personal trainer, and you didn't gain more than 10 pounds during your pregnancy, you should not be wearing this type of shirt at this stage of post-partum.
2. Hot pants, like crop tops, are usually reserved for teenagers (as they have no body fat, usually), super models (see point 1 above), and woman who are in ridiculously incredible shape because they are pure athletes and/or workout extra hard and eat right. Once again, hot pants on a post partum woman who is not one of the prescribed women above is a sight that significantly increases the need for service dogs in our population.
That said, please, enjoy your time out with your peeps as that's very important for your post-partum mental health. But PLEASE... dress responsibly!!! Else you just accentuate the fact that you are a beached whale. Again, ask me how I know (3 months until I reach beached whale status). ;-)
But good grief, the outfit has got to go. Confiscated. Something. Where are the Fashion Faux Pas Police when I need them? My retinas now have holes burned into them from the mere sight. The skin tight crop top and matching hot pants on a 3-4 week post-partum woman who clearly gained more than the typically doctor-prescribed 35 pregnancy pounds is not appropriate.
Why?
1. A pregnancy belly is nice and taut because of your little bundle of joy inside it, and can be considered beautiful and even sexy (to some). On the other hand, your post pregnancy belly is most unflattering. It's stretched out, and it hangs limply off your frame like a deflated balloon. Ask me how I know. Unless you are a post-partum super model with a full time nanny, a personal chef, a personal trainer, and you didn't gain more than 10 pounds during your pregnancy, you should not be wearing this type of shirt at this stage of post-partum.
2. Hot pants, like crop tops, are usually reserved for teenagers (as they have no body fat, usually), super models (see point 1 above), and woman who are in ridiculously incredible shape because they are pure athletes and/or workout extra hard and eat right. Once again, hot pants on a post partum woman who is not one of the prescribed women above is a sight that significantly increases the need for service dogs in our population.
That said, please, enjoy your time out with your peeps as that's very important for your post-partum mental health. But PLEASE... dress responsibly!!! Else you just accentuate the fact that you are a beached whale. Again, ask me how I know (3 months until I reach beached whale status). ;-)
Wednesday, June 4, 2008
Eviction Notice #3
NY Strip on the grill.
YUMMY.
Except when it includes a mouse nest.
For the third time, Steve had to oust the mouse and his little house on the front corner of our grill. It's become habit now to check the grill grates before starting the fire. This time, the mouse was nowhere to be found.
The nest was smaller and didn't have as much dryer lint in it as usual, so I'm wondering if it wasn't completed yet. Either way, it had to go if we were to have dinner.
We had checked the grill on Saturday evening, no sign of the mouse whatsoever. But we failed to check Sunday and Monday. Shame on us.
But this last incident has convinced us that we're going to have to put traps out; apparently, our cooking dinner isn't scaring it off. I didn't want to have to do that, but it's leaving us no choice.
YUMMY.
Except when it includes a mouse nest.
For the third time, Steve had to oust the mouse and his little house on the front corner of our grill. It's become habit now to check the grill grates before starting the fire. This time, the mouse was nowhere to be found.
The nest was smaller and didn't have as much dryer lint in it as usual, so I'm wondering if it wasn't completed yet. Either way, it had to go if we were to have dinner.
We had checked the grill on Saturday evening, no sign of the mouse whatsoever. But we failed to check Sunday and Monday. Shame on us.
But this last incident has convinced us that we're going to have to put traps out; apparently, our cooking dinner isn't scaring it off. I didn't want to have to do that, but it's leaving us no choice.
Wednesday, May 28, 2008
Eviction Notice
Dear Occupant:
You are hereby being served with an eviction notice. You are no longer welcome in our gas barbeque grill, that which you have been calling home since sometime after Sunday evening as well as some time before then as well. Your nest, a cozy combination of maple tree seeds, leaves and dryer lint, cannot stay in its present location as it is highly flammable and therefore presents a danger to all.
Please vacate the premises immediately. Drastic measures will have to be taken if you do not comply.
Sincerely,
The Management
----------------------------
I was driving home from DJ's daycare when I received the following text message from Steve:
"I have to serve another eviction notice."
When I got in the door, I handed DJ to Steve, grabbed the camera, and we went out to the grill. Steve pointed to the corner in which the nest would be, and slowly opened the grill top. The mouse had abandoned ship but the nest was most certainly there.
Apparently, when Steve had opened the grill top the first time, the mouse was sitting in its nest, and looked up at Steve as if to say, "Whaaaaaat???" That's when I got the text message.
Suddenly Steve says, "Oh! There it is!" Sure enough, the mouse was running along in the top of the grill. That little stinker can jump and it's quick!!! DJ was watching the mouse as well.
I went inside and got the dogs. I picked up Napoleon and showed him the mouse. Instantly, Napoleon's ears perked to attention, and he watched that mouse's movement like a hawk. I put Napoleon down so that I could take DJ from Steve so that Steve could... well... prepare dinner.
Steve had gone to get something with which to catch the mouse, and valiantly attempted to catch the little sucker to take him out into a field somewhere, but the little bugger got away. Unfortunately, Napoleon didn't see the mouse get away to chase it. Then Steve had to eliminate the nest (again). And then run the grill at max heat for 20 minutes to kill off any "mouse" germs (again).
As I had posted earlier in the week, Steve had evicted the mouse (we assume the same one) on Saturday night. We grilled on Sunday, but we didn't grill until tonight (Thursday). So that little mouse was quite industrious in rebuilding its nest!!
Let me toss this out there though, too... On Monday, when I started the dryer for the first of 5 loads of laundry, I heard what sounded like pebbles in the dryer piping. With the mouse having returned to our grill, I can only assume that what I heard was the mouse in the piping...
Fantastic.
So now we have to figure out how to keep the mouse from both our dryer vent AND our grill. We're hoping that if we grill more frequently than twice a week, eventually we'll scare it away. But will that really work?! Guess we'll have to just see.
Ah, country living... it certainly has its adventures!
You are hereby being served with an eviction notice. You are no longer welcome in our gas barbeque grill, that which you have been calling home since sometime after Sunday evening as well as some time before then as well. Your nest, a cozy combination of maple tree seeds, leaves and dryer lint, cannot stay in its present location as it is highly flammable and therefore presents a danger to all.
Please vacate the premises immediately. Drastic measures will have to be taken if you do not comply.
Sincerely,
The Management
----------------------------
I was driving home from DJ's daycare when I received the following text message from Steve:
"I have to serve another eviction notice."
When I got in the door, I handed DJ to Steve, grabbed the camera, and we went out to the grill. Steve pointed to the corner in which the nest would be, and slowly opened the grill top. The mouse had abandoned ship but the nest was most certainly there.
Apparently, when Steve had opened the grill top the first time, the mouse was sitting in its nest, and looked up at Steve as if to say, "Whaaaaaat???" That's when I got the text message.Suddenly Steve says, "Oh! There it is!" Sure enough, the mouse was running along in the top of the grill. That little stinker can jump and it's quick!!! DJ was watching the mouse as well.
I went inside and got the dogs. I picked up Napoleon and showed him the mouse. Instantly, Napoleon's ears perked to attention, and he watched that mouse's movement like a hawk. I put Napoleon down so that I could take DJ from Steve so that Steve could... well... prepare dinner.
Steve had gone to get something with which to catch the mouse, and valiantly attempted to catch the little sucker to take him out into a field somewhere, but the little bugger got away. Unfortunately, Napoleon didn't see the mouse get away to chase it. Then Steve had to eliminate the nest (again). And then run the grill at max heat for 20 minutes to kill off any "mouse" germs (again).
As I had posted earlier in the week, Steve had evicted the mouse (we assume the same one) on Saturday night. We grilled on Sunday, but we didn't grill until tonight (Thursday). So that little mouse was quite industrious in rebuilding its nest!!
Let me toss this out there though, too... On Monday, when I started the dryer for the first of 5 loads of laundry, I heard what sounded like pebbles in the dryer piping. With the mouse having returned to our grill, I can only assume that what I heard was the mouse in the piping...
Fantastic.
So now we have to figure out how to keep the mouse from both our dryer vent AND our grill. We're hoping that if we grill more frequently than twice a week, eventually we'll scare it away. But will that really work?! Guess we'll have to just see.
Ah, country living... it certainly has its adventures!
What's an octagonal sign?
I remember being 15 years and 9 months and sitting in the Department of Motor Vehicles, taking my Learner's Permit test for my driver's license on a computer. The test was 20 questions, and I think you could only miss 2 or something like that and still pass. While taking the test, the person taking the same test next to me turned to me and asked, "What's a red octagonal sign?" My eyes went wide, and there is no way, at that young an age, that I hid the "you've got to be kidding me" look on my face.
I was reminded of this episode on Tuesday on my way to drop off DJ at daycare. I going southbound on Manor Road, approaching the corner of Dulaney Valley and Manor Roads. To be fair, this is a weird intersection. Dulaney Valley Road "T's" off at Manor Road. The northbound direction of Manor Road does NOT have a stop sign. The southbound direction of Manor Road and Dulaney Valley Road both have stop signs. To boot, it's very much common place during the morning rush for people to be driving northbound on Manor Road and not give a turn signal that they are turning onto Dulaney Valley. So you really have to be careful at that intersection!
As I was approaching the intersection, I'm watching the traffic pattern of the opposing cars to see if I have the time to make the right hand turn onto Dulaney Valley before the closest opposing car. At first look, it seems like I'll have the time to come to a stop and make the right hand turn onto Dulaney Valley before the closest oncoming car would get to the intersection. But I still have to slow down and eventually stop. It's a stop sign after all. And that I do.
The van behind me honks at me.
HUH?!
I don't get it. It's a RED OCTAGONAL SIGN. I have to *stop*.
The thing that blows my mind is that this impatient person wasn't the first person to honk at me at that very intersection. It's happened to me on some other occasions, too. On one of those occasions, Steve was in the car with me, and I asked him, "What did I do wrong?!" He agreed with me that he doesn't get it either. I was exercising caution and therefore not endangering anyone at a very weird intersection.
Admittingly, I also gave in to my pregnancy hormonal whims, put down my window, and gave him the one fingered salute all the way down Dulaney Valley Road. From my rear view mirror, the expressive gestures from the van behind me were, admittingly, hilarious.
Although my one fingered salute was not exactly appropriate, my stopping at a red octagonal sign that says STOP on it was. If this guy's behavior is indicative of typical driving habits in my area, then I'm surprised there aren't more wrecks at that intersection. I will continue to STOP, no matter how many people HONK at me. Go honk yourself, you impatient law breakers. ;-)
I was reminded of this episode on Tuesday on my way to drop off DJ at daycare. I going southbound on Manor Road, approaching the corner of Dulaney Valley and Manor Roads. To be fair, this is a weird intersection. Dulaney Valley Road "T's" off at Manor Road. The northbound direction of Manor Road does NOT have a stop sign. The southbound direction of Manor Road and Dulaney Valley Road both have stop signs. To boot, it's very much common place during the morning rush for people to be driving northbound on Manor Road and not give a turn signal that they are turning onto Dulaney Valley. So you really have to be careful at that intersection!
As I was approaching the intersection, I'm watching the traffic pattern of the opposing cars to see if I have the time to make the right hand turn onto Dulaney Valley before the closest opposing car. At first look, it seems like I'll have the time to come to a stop and make the right hand turn onto Dulaney Valley before the closest oncoming car would get to the intersection. But I still have to slow down and eventually stop. It's a stop sign after all. And that I do.
The van behind me honks at me.
HUH?!
I don't get it. It's a RED OCTAGONAL SIGN. I have to *stop*.
The thing that blows my mind is that this impatient person wasn't the first person to honk at me at that very intersection. It's happened to me on some other occasions, too. On one of those occasions, Steve was in the car with me, and I asked him, "What did I do wrong?!" He agreed with me that he doesn't get it either. I was exercising caution and therefore not endangering anyone at a very weird intersection.
Admittingly, I also gave in to my pregnancy hormonal whims, put down my window, and gave him the one fingered salute all the way down Dulaney Valley Road. From my rear view mirror, the expressive gestures from the van behind me were, admittingly, hilarious.
Although my one fingered salute was not exactly appropriate, my stopping at a red octagonal sign that says STOP on it was. If this guy's behavior is indicative of typical driving habits in my area, then I'm surprised there aren't more wrecks at that intersection. I will continue to STOP, no matter how many people HONK at me. Go honk yourself, you impatient law breakers. ;-)
Sunday, May 25, 2008
There's a mouse in the...
...grill?!
When Steve went to prepare the grill for dinner last night, he was surprised to find that he'd left the piece of foil on the grill from the salmon we'd cooked a couple of weeks ago. That part wasn't all that surprising; it was the stuff IN the foil that made Steve pause.
The foil had leaves, grass, and many pieces of dryer lint... and it was all in one huge pile. Steve moved the foil to the side and just as he finished, out jumps a big *fat* mouse, off the grill, onto the deck, and down the deck stairs into the grass.
Good thing I wasn't turning on the grill. I would have taken the cover off, turned on the gas, lit the grill, and never even opened the top to see what was in it. We'd have had blackened mouse for dinner instead of London Broil!
When Steve went to prepare the grill for dinner last night, he was surprised to find that he'd left the piece of foil on the grill from the salmon we'd cooked a couple of weeks ago. That part wasn't all that surprising; it was the stuff IN the foil that made Steve pause.
The foil had leaves, grass, and many pieces of dryer lint... and it was all in one huge pile. Steve moved the foil to the side and just as he finished, out jumps a big *fat* mouse, off the grill, onto the deck, and down the deck stairs into the grass.
Good thing I wasn't turning on the grill. I would have taken the cover off, turned on the gas, lit the grill, and never even opened the top to see what was in it. We'd have had blackened mouse for dinner instead of London Broil!
Thursday, May 22, 2008
Catch Up Post
It's been a few days since I posted, and I have a few topics that have been on my mind lately, not all of which can/should be posted on a public forum, unfortunately.
1. Spygate
2. Pitchers throwing intentionally at batters
3. The doggies
4. The baby who is kicking me as I write this (thump)
5. The Apple Store
6. House projects and the lack of time to do any of them
7. Airfare
I guess I'll start from the top.
1. Spygate. I read an article about the New England Patriots and their video cheating and such, and the part I found most telling was this:
In Friday's Washington Post, NFL reporter Mark Maske quotes former Giants quarterback Phil Simms contending that stolen signals are no guarantee of victory: "'I've been in games where we knew every signal, every call by the other team, and we still lost,' Simms said by telephone yesterday. 'We [the Giants] had the San Diego Chargers' signals in 1980. We knew every signal. We knew every play. We were calling out what they were going to do: 'Here comes this. Here comes that.' They still scored 44 points.'" After more Simms quotes, the article moved to other matters. Who was on the New York Giants' coaching staff in 1980? Bill Belichick and Ernie Adams. (http://sports.espn.go.com/espn/page2/story?page=easterbrook/080517&sportCat=nfl)
Goes to show that a) even with all the knowledge in the world, true athleticism and human creativity cannot be shut down and b) Mr. Belichick needs to go to cheaters rehab.
2. Steve and I were watching the Orioles-Yankees game on Tuesday night. It was a 12-2 blow out by the Orioles. The starting pitcher, Daniel Cabrera, hit Derek Jeter on the back of the hand with a pitch. OUCH. Jeter was a hurtin' puppy but thankfully got away with no broken bones. Cabrera was visibly upset by this. He was hanging his head in remorse and was not making any scene of it.
I can't remember how many innings later, Orioles batter Luke Scott (O's fans have been calling him Luke Scottwalker) was standing in the batters box. He took one pitch very inside and then took the next pitch to his head. Luckily, Luke Scott got out of the way in time. Before Luke Scott even recovered from the flinch, the home plate umpire had already ejected the pitcher. Luke Scott yelled at the pitcher to not throw at someone's head and the pitcher yelled back and got all defensive. The benches cleared, including the bullpens. No punches were thrown. The over-the-plate camera showed that the pitcher was missing the plate by a mile as Scott was not crowding the plate.
The pitcher's reaction shows me he was guilty as "charged" else he would have reacted like Cabrera did. MLB suspended him for 3 games. I was really happy to see that the ump didn't flinch; he saw it for what it was without even an argument.
I was reading Curt Schilling's (Boston Red Sox pitcher) blog (http://38pitches.com/2008/04/18/intent/), and he was saying in one post that anything thrown behind a batter is clearly intentional to hit him or make some kind of a point. And frankly, I think the same applies to throwing at someone's head. I'm sorry, if you've gotten to the Major Leagues, you know how to control and throw a baseball. You may have off days and can't get the ball in the strike zone, but "wild" pitches like that? Sorry, I don't buy it.
3. Oh how I wish Napoleon wasn't regressing but he is. He's forgotten his crate training and peeing in the crate again during the day. Totally maddening, and we don't know why he's decided to regress. I guess we're going to have to start taking him to daycare again, else I'm going to have to start getting up at 5am and give him a structured walk him for an hour to get him REALLY tired. I don't have the energy for either scenario right now, though....
Napoleon has also been keeping me up at night with his whining. He doesn't want to be in the crate because he wants to be in the bed with us. Fine. IO goes in the crate, Napoleon comes to bed. Except that when Steve finally settles in for the night, Napoleon all of a sudden wants to go back and be with IO. So then Steve has to get out of bed and put Napoleon in the crate. Needless to say, I don't get it.
4. The new baby. I think this baby will be as active/busy as DJ is. This baby is very active in utero, at least I can feel alot. Yikes! It's almost consistent, too. If I settle down for the evening on the couch or sit at my desk at work a particular way, the baby starts thumping me. I feel you in there!!
5. The Apple Store. My laptop has been giving me fits the last number of months. It's been crashing unexpectedly, but most often while playing World of Warcraft. Yesterday, it started shutting off all by itself while I was ripping CDs. Unlike WoW, that's not video intensive. And it was doing it very consistently.
So I made an appointment at the Apple Store, took it in, and of course, I couldn't get it to crash while ripping a CD. Of course. The tech ran some diagnostics, which of course it passed, and then I said, "Let me login to WoW and get myself to a spot that the laptop hates." Sure enough, I hearth into Shattrath and wham-o. The screen goes black and the machine shuts off. The tech was impressed. He's ordering me a new motherboard which, even though it's technically a separate component, will have a new video card, too, because it's soldered onto the motherboard. I should be getting that back on Saturday.
Tonight, though, we're going to get my parents a new computer. We're going to take them to the Apple Store and look at various models and hopefully they can decide what they want. I've been promising them this for months and it's about time I just do it. So voila... we're doing it.
6. In reading Dave's blog, he's doing all these house projects to his new place and it's making me feel lazy. I have to keep reminding myself that I'm tired, I have a toddler, and I don't have the time to do anything. But I want to work on the beds outside! They need attention! Or they need a very strong plant killer. ::sigh:: I also want to clean up the basement, and organize the house some more as we still have boxes that we haven't unpacked since we moved in nearly 2 years ago.... yikes.
7. My folks called to tell me that they'll probably drive down with us to the beach this year because airfare is ridiculous. And to the airport closest to the beach, it is... $600/person is outrageous. We'd do better renting a Suburban and driving than dealing with that! But i looked on Southwest.com, and wow... they have half decent prices, like $85/person one way for a senior citizen. That seems reasonable!!! Except that it's flying into a city that's 2 hours away. Now my brother is flying there, too, renting a van and driving, so... if they don't really want to drive the 8 hours with us, they could make the trip in half the time flying and driving with my brother. That'll be a discussion over dinner tonight.
I was listening to the radio this morning and they were saying that airfares are going up because of fuel costs. Southwest may have raised their fares, but they aren't ridiculous like USAir, who will be charging $15 per bag. Want to charge me for using the bathroom, too? Sure, I'll leave the quarter on the tank.... Airlines = FAIL.
1. Spygate
2. Pitchers throwing intentionally at batters
3. The doggies
4. The baby who is kicking me as I write this (thump)
5. The Apple Store
6. House projects and the lack of time to do any of them
7. Airfare
I guess I'll start from the top.
1. Spygate. I read an article about the New England Patriots and their video cheating and such, and the part I found most telling was this:
In Friday's Washington Post, NFL reporter Mark Maske quotes former Giants quarterback Phil Simms contending that stolen signals are no guarantee of victory: "'I've been in games where we knew every signal, every call by the other team, and we still lost,' Simms said by telephone yesterday. 'We [the Giants] had the San Diego Chargers' signals in 1980. We knew every signal. We knew every play. We were calling out what they were going to do: 'Here comes this. Here comes that.' They still scored 44 points.'" After more Simms quotes, the article moved to other matters. Who was on the New York Giants' coaching staff in 1980? Bill Belichick and Ernie Adams. (http://sports.espn.go.com/espn/page2/story?page=easterbrook/080517&sportCat=nfl)
Goes to show that a) even with all the knowledge in the world, true athleticism and human creativity cannot be shut down and b) Mr. Belichick needs to go to cheaters rehab.
2. Steve and I were watching the Orioles-Yankees game on Tuesday night. It was a 12-2 blow out by the Orioles. The starting pitcher, Daniel Cabrera, hit Derek Jeter on the back of the hand with a pitch. OUCH. Jeter was a hurtin' puppy but thankfully got away with no broken bones. Cabrera was visibly upset by this. He was hanging his head in remorse and was not making any scene of it.
I can't remember how many innings later, Orioles batter Luke Scott (O's fans have been calling him Luke Scottwalker) was standing in the batters box. He took one pitch very inside and then took the next pitch to his head. Luckily, Luke Scott got out of the way in time. Before Luke Scott even recovered from the flinch, the home plate umpire had already ejected the pitcher. Luke Scott yelled at the pitcher to not throw at someone's head and the pitcher yelled back and got all defensive. The benches cleared, including the bullpens. No punches were thrown. The over-the-plate camera showed that the pitcher was missing the plate by a mile as Scott was not crowding the plate.
The pitcher's reaction shows me he was guilty as "charged" else he would have reacted like Cabrera did. MLB suspended him for 3 games. I was really happy to see that the ump didn't flinch; he saw it for what it was without even an argument.
I was reading Curt Schilling's (Boston Red Sox pitcher) blog (http://38pitches.com/2008/04/18/intent/), and he was saying in one post that anything thrown behind a batter is clearly intentional to hit him or make some kind of a point. And frankly, I think the same applies to throwing at someone's head. I'm sorry, if you've gotten to the Major Leagues, you know how to control and throw a baseball. You may have off days and can't get the ball in the strike zone, but "wild" pitches like that? Sorry, I don't buy it.
3. Oh how I wish Napoleon wasn't regressing but he is. He's forgotten his crate training and peeing in the crate again during the day. Totally maddening, and we don't know why he's decided to regress. I guess we're going to have to start taking him to daycare again, else I'm going to have to start getting up at 5am and give him a structured walk him for an hour to get him REALLY tired. I don't have the energy for either scenario right now, though....
Napoleon has also been keeping me up at night with his whining. He doesn't want to be in the crate because he wants to be in the bed with us. Fine. IO goes in the crate, Napoleon comes to bed. Except that when Steve finally settles in for the night, Napoleon all of a sudden wants to go back and be with IO. So then Steve has to get out of bed and put Napoleon in the crate. Needless to say, I don't get it.
4. The new baby. I think this baby will be as active/busy as DJ is. This baby is very active in utero, at least I can feel alot. Yikes! It's almost consistent, too. If I settle down for the evening on the couch or sit at my desk at work a particular way, the baby starts thumping me. I feel you in there!!
5. The Apple Store. My laptop has been giving me fits the last number of months. It's been crashing unexpectedly, but most often while playing World of Warcraft. Yesterday, it started shutting off all by itself while I was ripping CDs. Unlike WoW, that's not video intensive. And it was doing it very consistently.
So I made an appointment at the Apple Store, took it in, and of course, I couldn't get it to crash while ripping a CD. Of course. The tech ran some diagnostics, which of course it passed, and then I said, "Let me login to WoW and get myself to a spot that the laptop hates." Sure enough, I hearth into Shattrath and wham-o. The screen goes black and the machine shuts off. The tech was impressed. He's ordering me a new motherboard which, even though it's technically a separate component, will have a new video card, too, because it's soldered onto the motherboard. I should be getting that back on Saturday.
Tonight, though, we're going to get my parents a new computer. We're going to take them to the Apple Store and look at various models and hopefully they can decide what they want. I've been promising them this for months and it's about time I just do it. So voila... we're doing it.
6. In reading Dave's blog, he's doing all these house projects to his new place and it's making me feel lazy. I have to keep reminding myself that I'm tired, I have a toddler, and I don't have the time to do anything. But I want to work on the beds outside! They need attention! Or they need a very strong plant killer. ::sigh:: I also want to clean up the basement, and organize the house some more as we still have boxes that we haven't unpacked since we moved in nearly 2 years ago.... yikes.
7. My folks called to tell me that they'll probably drive down with us to the beach this year because airfare is ridiculous. And to the airport closest to the beach, it is... $600/person is outrageous. We'd do better renting a Suburban and driving than dealing with that! But i looked on Southwest.com, and wow... they have half decent prices, like $85/person one way for a senior citizen. That seems reasonable!!! Except that it's flying into a city that's 2 hours away. Now my brother is flying there, too, renting a van and driving, so... if they don't really want to drive the 8 hours with us, they could make the trip in half the time flying and driving with my brother. That'll be a discussion over dinner tonight.
I was listening to the radio this morning and they were saying that airfares are going up because of fuel costs. Southwest may have raised their fares, but they aren't ridiculous like USAir, who will be charging $15 per bag. Want to charge me for using the bathroom, too? Sure, I'll leave the quarter on the tank.... Airlines = FAIL.
Monday, May 19, 2008
Parenting musings due to McDonogh incident
Be forewarned: This isn't a feel-good-happy blog posting. I'm not going to be able to address all of the issues embedded in this incident. There are race, class, and other social issues involved here that I could write a book. Instead, I'm writing this because I want to address the topic that is closer to me right now: parenting.
On Thursday, both the Baltimore Sun and the Baltimore Examiner broke a story about a Sophomore at McDonogh having bludgeoned his mother and attempted to do the same to his father.
This hit home in 2 ways: 1. The less "deep" way, a McDonogh student did this. 2. How could a child do that to their parent?!
A few months ago, another high school boy killed his entire family while they were sleeping. Again, at the time, I wondered, what would drive a kid to do that? Like the McDonogh kid, everyone said this kid seemed normal, well mannered, good grades...nothing to indicate some kind of psychosis. That incident hit home because it was a kid living in the general vacinity and it was a kid/family situation, but not nearly as closely as this incident.
Like the other incident, this incident makes you ask, why? What would drive a kid to snap like that? And then it makes you look into yourself and pray, please may I not do to my kid whatever the others did to make their kids snap. And, what can I do to help my child control their impulses? But I kept going with this line of thinking... am I really going to do something that's going to make DJ and/or his unborn sibling crack? I mean, what could I do to cause that?! I can't even fathom what I might do... !!
I've spent the last few days thinking about this... I mean, sure, every teenager, myself included, all wants to "kill" their parents, but at no point, not ever, ever, ever do you ever consider the real act. Never even crosses your mind. It's just all part of the asserting your independence and figuring out who you are phase (though you do that again in your mid-20s), but again, it's just frustration with both the parent and the teenager trying to figure out safe boundaries. It's not revert-to-instinct-and-kill anger.
Being a McDonogh grad, I still have connections into the school. In the case of this particular incident, I didn't go searching for details, but the details came to me (maybe God knew I needed the closure...?). The kid had an above 4.0 GPA, so clearly he was an honors/AP student who could most certainly handle the workload McDonogh was throwing at him. Apparently, he'd gotten an average grade on a test, and was afraid to tell his parents.
Excuse me?
You have an above perfect GPA and you're afraid to tell your parents that you got an average grade, not failing, but *average*. Wave the red flag and stop that car!! There's something very, very wrong there.
Ok, I've been afraid to tell my parents about a bad grade, so I can say I can empathize with the feeling. But I certainly had nowhere near this kid's GPA; I was a full GPA point below him! He's a National Honor Society first-rounder and probably future Ivy League-r, and I... yeah... National Honor Society never saw my name on their ballot and the Ivy Leagues rejected me, twice. So the kid had an off day. Don't we all have off days?! Isn't that all part of learning and maturing, is learning how to deal with yourself when you have off days (or streaks) so you can turn it around to get the desired results the next time?
I'm not the world's perfect parent; never will be. But common sense tells me that this was an extreme case of "push".
Yes, McDonogh is a top area college preparatory school with pressure of its own to get its students into the top colleges of the country. But during my time at McDonogh, I never felt like the curriculum, the teachers, or the environment were one of extreme "push". Sure, they'd push you to perform your best, but nothing above and beyond what was reasonable. They were actually a pretty good judge of what you could do. This is not to say there wasn't pressure; but the pressure I felt was from my way-too-smart-for-their-0wn-good classmates. A sizeable chunk of my classmates went to some of the best schools in the country. And even then, I didn't always feel the pressure from them. The existence of that type of pressure is not the school's fault. If anything, that's healthy pressure. And since graduation, there hasn't been THAT much turnover that would change that atmosphere. At least not that I can tell, but I'm an outsider now so I couldn't know that for sure.
Therefore, that leaves the pressure having come from home. Yikes. That's some serious "push". Why? And to what end? The reality is that with 1 average grade, his final grade would be completely unaffected, and thus his overall GPA would be also unaffected. So his chances to get into college are fine. The question to ask is if this is a pattern, what's wrong? Is the class just not his forte? Are there too many extracurriculars going on? Is it that he and the teacher aren't meshing?
I know we don't have the whole picture and a lot of those questions are entirely hypothetical based on the very little information I have. And we'll never get the whole story, if the family even knows... But it makes me feel better to think this is the scenario... to think like this it gives me hope that I may have the ability to control this type of outcome and that this won't happen to my family.
But the lesson here is for me, as a future parent of teenagers, is moderation! And learn my children's limits! Make my expectations clear, but also have compassion and be willing to teach the "off day" lesson. And if it's a pattern, use my analyst and troubleshooting skills and figure out what's going on...
And pray that God can give me the wisdom to raise happy, well adjusted children.
On Thursday, both the Baltimore Sun and the Baltimore Examiner broke a story about a Sophomore at McDonogh having bludgeoned his mother and attempted to do the same to his father.
This hit home in 2 ways: 1. The less "deep" way, a McDonogh student did this. 2. How could a child do that to their parent?!
A few months ago, another high school boy killed his entire family while they were sleeping. Again, at the time, I wondered, what would drive a kid to do that? Like the McDonogh kid, everyone said this kid seemed normal, well mannered, good grades...nothing to indicate some kind of psychosis. That incident hit home because it was a kid living in the general vacinity and it was a kid/family situation, but not nearly as closely as this incident.
Like the other incident, this incident makes you ask, why? What would drive a kid to snap like that? And then it makes you look into yourself and pray, please may I not do to my kid whatever the others did to make their kids snap. And, what can I do to help my child control their impulses? But I kept going with this line of thinking... am I really going to do something that's going to make DJ and/or his unborn sibling crack? I mean, what could I do to cause that?! I can't even fathom what I might do... !!
I've spent the last few days thinking about this... I mean, sure, every teenager, myself included, all wants to "kill" their parents, but at no point, not ever, ever, ever do you ever consider the real act. Never even crosses your mind. It's just all part of the asserting your independence and figuring out who you are phase (though you do that again in your mid-20s), but again, it's just frustration with both the parent and the teenager trying to figure out safe boundaries. It's not revert-to-instinct-and-kill anger.
Being a McDonogh grad, I still have connections into the school. In the case of this particular incident, I didn't go searching for details, but the details came to me (maybe God knew I needed the closure...?). The kid had an above 4.0 GPA, so clearly he was an honors/AP student who could most certainly handle the workload McDonogh was throwing at him. Apparently, he'd gotten an average grade on a test, and was afraid to tell his parents.
Excuse me?
You have an above perfect GPA and you're afraid to tell your parents that you got an average grade, not failing, but *average*. Wave the red flag and stop that car!! There's something very, very wrong there.
Ok, I've been afraid to tell my parents about a bad grade, so I can say I can empathize with the feeling. But I certainly had nowhere near this kid's GPA; I was a full GPA point below him! He's a National Honor Society first-rounder and probably future Ivy League-r, and I... yeah... National Honor Society never saw my name on their ballot and the Ivy Leagues rejected me, twice. So the kid had an off day. Don't we all have off days?! Isn't that all part of learning and maturing, is learning how to deal with yourself when you have off days (or streaks) so you can turn it around to get the desired results the next time?
I'm not the world's perfect parent; never will be. But common sense tells me that this was an extreme case of "push".
Yes, McDonogh is a top area college preparatory school with pressure of its own to get its students into the top colleges of the country. But during my time at McDonogh, I never felt like the curriculum, the teachers, or the environment were one of extreme "push". Sure, they'd push you to perform your best, but nothing above and beyond what was reasonable. They were actually a pretty good judge of what you could do. This is not to say there wasn't pressure; but the pressure I felt was from my way-too-smart-for-their-0wn-good classmates. A sizeable chunk of my classmates went to some of the best schools in the country. And even then, I didn't always feel the pressure from them. The existence of that type of pressure is not the school's fault. If anything, that's healthy pressure. And since graduation, there hasn't been THAT much turnover that would change that atmosphere. At least not that I can tell, but I'm an outsider now so I couldn't know that for sure.
Therefore, that leaves the pressure having come from home. Yikes. That's some serious "push". Why? And to what end? The reality is that with 1 average grade, his final grade would be completely unaffected, and thus his overall GPA would be also unaffected. So his chances to get into college are fine. The question to ask is if this is a pattern, what's wrong? Is the class just not his forte? Are there too many extracurriculars going on? Is it that he and the teacher aren't meshing?
I know we don't have the whole picture and a lot of those questions are entirely hypothetical based on the very little information I have. And we'll never get the whole story, if the family even knows... But it makes me feel better to think this is the scenario... to think like this it gives me hope that I may have the ability to control this type of outcome and that this won't happen to my family.
But the lesson here is for me, as a future parent of teenagers, is moderation! And learn my children's limits! Make my expectations clear, but also have compassion and be willing to teach the "off day" lesson. And if it's a pattern, use my analyst and troubleshooting skills and figure out what's going on...
And pray that God can give me the wisdom to raise happy, well adjusted children.
Tuesday, May 13, 2008
Happy Mothers/Birth Day
As usual, my birthday falls within days of Mother's Day. So celebrating the two together is nothing unusual. :)
Steve gave me the most wonderful gifts this weekend. Between Mother's Day and my birthday, I've been quite spoiled! For Mother's Day, besides a nap in the morning, Steve gave me Rock Band. WOOHOO! I'm also probably the only mother on the planet that got Rock Band as a Mother's Day gift. LOL
Last night, Steve took me out to dinner for my birthday.... Charleston in Harbor East. Oh man is that place fan-tastic. We each had a 5 course meal, though to be fair, each course was appetizer sized. Steve got a wine pairing with each meal of which I took a sip or two of each. There were some wines that by themselves, were difficult to drink. But when we got the meal and tried the wine with it, they were absolutely perfect. Amazing how the wine "changes" based on what you're eating. I'll post the menu later; I forgot it at home. Suffice to say, it was nothing short of WOW, that was AWESOME.
Besides the quality of the food, Charleston prides itself on its service (as well as wine selection). Our initial waiter had the Robert Smith (from The Cure) hairdo that just had to go. He also postured a lot... ok, so he drove me bonkers. He apparently shoved off our table and went to a different one by the end of the evening because we were being attentively waited on by a young lady who had a much more genuine personality than "Robert Smith". Aside from that, though, the experience was truly an experience, and it was really nice to spend some quality time with Steve, even if he was constantly checking his iPhone for signs that his servers had crashed... which they did right around dessert. ::sigh::
Steve gave me the most wonderful gifts this weekend. Between Mother's Day and my birthday, I've been quite spoiled! For Mother's Day, besides a nap in the morning, Steve gave me Rock Band. WOOHOO! I'm also probably the only mother on the planet that got Rock Band as a Mother's Day gift. LOL
Last night, Steve took me out to dinner for my birthday.... Charleston in Harbor East. Oh man is that place fan-tastic. We each had a 5 course meal, though to be fair, each course was appetizer sized. Steve got a wine pairing with each meal of which I took a sip or two of each. There were some wines that by themselves, were difficult to drink. But when we got the meal and tried the wine with it, they were absolutely perfect. Amazing how the wine "changes" based on what you're eating. I'll post the menu later; I forgot it at home. Suffice to say, it was nothing short of WOW, that was AWESOME.
Besides the quality of the food, Charleston prides itself on its service (as well as wine selection). Our initial waiter had the Robert Smith (from The Cure) hairdo that just had to go. He also postured a lot... ok, so he drove me bonkers. He apparently shoved off our table and went to a different one by the end of the evening because we were being attentively waited on by a young lady who had a much more genuine personality than "Robert Smith". Aside from that, though, the experience was truly an experience, and it was really nice to spend some quality time with Steve, even if he was constantly checking his iPhone for signs that his servers had crashed... which they did right around dessert. ::sigh::
Friday, May 9, 2008
Who ate too much grass?
The doggies!
The drama from Wednesday night was entirely due to their eating too many grass clippings. They both had two full meals of their food yesterday and not a morsel was vomited. Apparently, we can't let them out for long periods of time now the day our grass is cut...
The drama from Wednesday night was entirely due to their eating too many grass clippings. They both had two full meals of their food yesterday and not a morsel was vomited. Apparently, we can't let them out for long periods of time now the day our grass is cut...
Thursday, May 8, 2008
Doggy drama
Last night, we let the dogs run around outside in the back yard (4 ft fence FTW!) until they exhausted themselves. About an hour after they came in (and had promptly plopped themselves in the corner of the sofa on their blanket), IO got up off the couch and started to wander. Random wandering makes us nervous, so we asked him to get back on the couch which, like a good dog, he did.
A few minutes later, I got ready to go to bed, and gave Steve a kiss goodnight. I go to give the doggies one last pat on the head when I see that Napoleon has vomited all over his front paw and the blanket (thankfully!) he was laying on. Fantastic.
While Steve goes to wash Napoleon off, I start to clean up the mess. I wasn't finished 2 minutes when IO vomited on the OTHER blanket we have on the couch. Uh-oh.
Clean that up, put both dogs in the crate, and settle down for The Watch. Sure enough, IO vomits again in the crate and once more once out of the crate. Napoleon vomits another time on the kitchen floor (Steve saw that one coming and was rewarded with relatively easy cleanup), and one more vomit incident from IO (who eats a lot more grass than Napoleon does).
Now I'm starting to wonder.
I saw an awful lot of grass in the first "rounds" of vomit from both dogs. Grass tends to make dogs vomit. But you know, we also just opened new batches of food for them. It's the exact same food they had previously, just a new bag. But being that I had read an article about the brand of dog food we feed the doggies supposedly being the cause for lots of dogs vomiting only just a few weeks back on the ultra-paranoid italian greyhound list that I read, I am starting to wonder. Honestly, I wasn't convinced from reading that article that the food is to blame here. Seemed like a lot of coincindences, but what do I know? Link is here; draw your own conclusions. http://www.consumeraffairs.com/news04/2008/04/pet_food_recalls93.html
Meanwhile, I kept thinking. We'd fed it to them yesterday morning, and we had no doggy vomit in the crate 11 hours later. So is it really the food or is it the fact that Brian had just cut our grass today and the dogs were feasting on the clippings?? As of right now, the jury is still out. We fed them this morning (they were famished!), and Steve hasn't let me know yet if the doggies are ok upon arriving home.
Also for the first time in years, we let the doggies sleep in separate crates. I think they were so tired from being outside and from all the vomiting that IO was grateful for the alone time (he really isn't a fan of his noisy roommate when the roommate is being noisy), and Napoleon was just d-o-n-e and didn't argue with the arrangements. In fact, they each went into a separate crate on their own accord, so who knows??
A few minutes later, I got ready to go to bed, and gave Steve a kiss goodnight. I go to give the doggies one last pat on the head when I see that Napoleon has vomited all over his front paw and the blanket (thankfully!) he was laying on. Fantastic.
While Steve goes to wash Napoleon off, I start to clean up the mess. I wasn't finished 2 minutes when IO vomited on the OTHER blanket we have on the couch. Uh-oh.
Clean that up, put both dogs in the crate, and settle down for The Watch. Sure enough, IO vomits again in the crate and once more once out of the crate. Napoleon vomits another time on the kitchen floor (Steve saw that one coming and was rewarded with relatively easy cleanup), and one more vomit incident from IO (who eats a lot more grass than Napoleon does).
Now I'm starting to wonder.
I saw an awful lot of grass in the first "rounds" of vomit from both dogs. Grass tends to make dogs vomit. But you know, we also just opened new batches of food for them. It's the exact same food they had previously, just a new bag. But being that I had read an article about the brand of dog food we feed the doggies supposedly being the cause for lots of dogs vomiting only just a few weeks back on the ultra-paranoid italian greyhound list that I read, I am starting to wonder. Honestly, I wasn't convinced from reading that article that the food is to blame here. Seemed like a lot of coincindences, but what do I know? Link is here; draw your own conclusions. http://www.consumeraffairs.com
Meanwhile, I kept thinking. We'd fed it to them yesterday morning, and we had no doggy vomit in the crate 11 hours later. So is it really the food or is it the fact that Brian had just cut our grass today and the dogs were feasting on the clippings?? As of right now, the jury is still out. We fed them this morning (they were famished!), and Steve hasn't let me know yet if the doggies are ok upon arriving home.
Also for the first time in years, we let the doggies sleep in separate crates. I think they were so tired from being outside and from all the vomiting that IO was grateful for the alone time (he really isn't a fan of his noisy roommate when the roommate is being noisy), and Napoleon was just d-o-n-e and didn't argue with the arrangements. In fact, they each went into a separate crate on their own accord, so who knows??
Wednesday, May 7, 2008
Mrs. Cardinal is gone. :-(
On Sunday, when I got back from the autocross, Mrs. Cardinal was sitting on her egg. When I got home Monday afternoon, she wasn't in her nest. I don't know what prompted me, but I decided to look for the egg. It was gone. :-( It's been two days now, and we've not seen or heard her. The nest itself looks intact i.e. no fowl (ha ha) play, but clearly something happened. What could have gotten the egg? Did Mrs. Cardinal leave because the egg was gone or did something happen to her, too? I guess we'll never know.
Either way, I'm bummed. I was really looking forward to watching this all develop.
Either way, I'm bummed. I was really looking forward to watching this all develop.
Monday, May 5, 2008
WDCR Autocross Championship #2
Yesterday was our second championship autocross event at FedEx Field. The email list was flooded with posts about not washing your car and everyone must bring rain gear to try and appease the rain gods. We did not want another rain event!
Everyone must have headed the call because it turned out to be a *gorgeous* 70 degree sunny day. It was fantastic outside.
Steve left at noon to go down to the event (in hopes of getting a course walk), and I stayed with DJ until my parents arrived around 1pm, knowing that I would not get a course walk. On his way down, Steve called me to tell me that the Check Engine light on my WRX wagon turned on. ARG. Who knows what that means. It could be anything from a oxygen sense to a turbo going up. I'll have to find out who can read the code...
Meanwhile, my drive down was uneventful. Once I arrived, Carrie and Mike paid us for what is no longer our CRX, and then I turned around and paid John N. for the miata trunk lid we were taking home in the wagon.
The event was running smoothly, and we were done 6th heat runs by 5:15. For not having had a course walk, Steve ran great, I think. He's disappointed that he coned his fast run, but it wouldn't have helped him in our class standings, just in overall PAX placement. He even spun his 3rd run... woah, wait, he NEVER spins the car! That's my job!
As for my runs, well, my first run was going to be a throw-away since I didn't have a course walk. My second run was clean, so I pushed a little harder on my 3rd run and coned. I also realized on my third run that I'm driving scared... can't figure out why. My fourth run, I found a little bit of a spine and drove better, but not well enough to place better than 8th. At least I wasn't last in the class. And I think that's what's going on... I'm scared to toss the car. I'm scared the car won't stop (since it doesn't have anti-lock). I'm scared I'm going to do something stupid in it, which is ironic since I could drive the STi and it's got way more power to get me in way more trouble way faster. Then again, I was scared to drive the STi for awhile, too. Afraid I couldn't deal with the power... until I learned how good the brakes REALLY are. I still never mastered that car, but I'm wondering how much the pregnancy is messing with my head when it comes to the Miata.
On our way home, Steve was following me, and he saw, as did I, the blue yaris (?) cut over 3 lanes to exit onto 50 from the Capital Beltway... and he missed my bumper, AFTER I slowed down, by inches. I had the horn laid on from before he even started to cut me off, and all the way across my car's nose. He forced me to downshift from 5th to 2nd... if it wasn't Steve behind me, someone would have rear ended me, and I'm really thankful someone didn't rear end him.
Then, on the Baltimore Beltway, out of nowhere, there's a tire tread in my lane. Now, how is it that I didn't see it coming or at least anticipate it? Because the truck in front of me just ran it over, no swerve, no nothing, so I wasn't given any indication that something was amiss. Talk about autocross-holy-cow-DODGE-THAT! swerve. Steve said I even managed to stay in the lane but if I'd hit it, it would have destroyed my front bumper. Like we need ANOTHER car in the body shop... (the STi is getting both bumpers repainted, the Miata needs to go in next... oy). It was quite the adventure to get home, to say the least.
Everyone must have headed the call because it turned out to be a *gorgeous* 70 degree sunny day. It was fantastic outside.
Steve left at noon to go down to the event (in hopes of getting a course walk), and I stayed with DJ until my parents arrived around 1pm, knowing that I would not get a course walk. On his way down, Steve called me to tell me that the Check Engine light on my WRX wagon turned on. ARG. Who knows what that means. It could be anything from a oxygen sense to a turbo going up. I'll have to find out who can read the code...
Meanwhile, my drive down was uneventful. Once I arrived, Carrie and Mike paid us for what is no longer our CRX, and then I turned around and paid John N. for the miata trunk lid we were taking home in the wagon.
The event was running smoothly, and we were done 6th heat runs by 5:15. For not having had a course walk, Steve ran great, I think. He's disappointed that he coned his fast run, but it wouldn't have helped him in our class standings, just in overall PAX placement. He even spun his 3rd run... woah, wait, he NEVER spins the car! That's my job!
As for my runs, well, my first run was going to be a throw-away since I didn't have a course walk. My second run was clean, so I pushed a little harder on my 3rd run and coned. I also realized on my third run that I'm driving scared... can't figure out why. My fourth run, I found a little bit of a spine and drove better, but not well enough to place better than 8th. At least I wasn't last in the class. And I think that's what's going on... I'm scared to toss the car. I'm scared the car won't stop (since it doesn't have anti-lock). I'm scared I'm going to do something stupid in it, which is ironic since I could drive the STi and it's got way more power to get me in way more trouble way faster. Then again, I was scared to drive the STi for awhile, too. Afraid I couldn't deal with the power... until I learned how good the brakes REALLY are. I still never mastered that car, but I'm wondering how much the pregnancy is messing with my head when it comes to the Miata.
On our way home, Steve was following me, and he saw, as did I, the blue yaris (?) cut over 3 lanes to exit onto 50 from the Capital Beltway... and he missed my bumper, AFTER I slowed down, by inches. I had the horn laid on from before he even started to cut me off, and all the way across my car's nose. He forced me to downshift from 5th to 2nd... if it wasn't Steve behind me, someone would have rear ended me, and I'm really thankful someone didn't rear end him.
Then, on the Baltimore Beltway, out of nowhere, there's a tire tread in my lane. Now, how is it that I didn't see it coming or at least anticipate it? Because the truck in front of me just ran it over, no swerve, no nothing, so I wasn't given any indication that something was amiss. Talk about autocross-holy-cow-DODGE-THAT! swerve. Steve said I even managed to stay in the lane but if I'd hit it, it would have destroyed my front bumper. Like we need ANOTHER car in the body shop... (the STi is getting both bumpers repainted, the Miata needs to go in next... oy). It was quite the adventure to get home, to say the least.
Saturday, May 3, 2008
Cardinal update
Mrs. Cardinal has been dutifully sitting on her nest since at least Wednesday when we first saw her egg. We try not to make sudden movements (though it's not like we can stop DJ) so as not to scare her away. So far, she seems generally unphased by us. I have a picture to share...I'll post it when I get it off the camera.
Wednesday, April 30, 2008
More on Cardinals
I did a little reading about Cardinals since we hope to witness the hatching of a cardinal egg!
It takes a female cardinal to build her nest about 3 - 9 days in dense trees/bushes with twigs. It took this cardinal 7 days.
Cardinals will lay 1 - 5 eggs, typically 3 eggs, and won't start incubating them until the last egg is laid. So maybe we are in for more eggs! They have multiple broods a year between March and September, sometimes beginning the next brood before the last brood has left the nest.
Once she starts incubating the eggs, they should hatch between 11-13 days. Both parents will feed the chicks a diet of insects (ew!!) and will continue to feed them for 1 -2 months even though the chicks will begin to leave the nest between 9 or 10 days after hatching. Does that sound like college life, anyone?
The pair is monogomous, and they live in the area all year long i.e. not migratory. And, the male is very protective of his territory. Males have been known to fly into windows in attack-mode thinking its reflection was another male.
It takes a female cardinal to build her nest about 3 - 9 days in dense trees/bushes with twigs. It took this cardinal 7 days.
Cardinals will lay 1 - 5 eggs, typically 3 eggs, and won't start incubating them until the last egg is laid. So maybe we are in for more eggs! They have multiple broods a year between March and September, sometimes beginning the next brood before the last brood has left the nest.
Once she starts incubating the eggs, they should hatch between 11-13 days. Both parents will feed the chicks a diet of insects (ew!!) and will continue to feed them for 1 -2 months even though the chicks will begin to leave the nest between 9 or 10 days after hatching. Does that sound like college life, anyone?
Tuesday, April 29, 2008
An egg in the nest!!!
I checked yesterday afternoon if the female cardinal who's made a nest in our rhododendren has laid an egg yet or if we scared her off. It turns out we didn't scare her off because today, there's an egg!!!!! I hope we don't scare her off now!
Click on the image to enlarge it and you'll see the blue egg in the middle!
Monday, April 28, 2008
Autocross season has started
I've been meaning to post earlier about this, but I haven't been inspired. Apparently, I've needed a "creative" outlet lately, and blogging's been it, as you can tell from the number of posts I've entered the last few days.
Anyway, autocross season started on April 6th. This year, we're driving a Miata in a class called STS2 instead of the STi (in A-Stock) or any other car for that matter. Steve and his buddy, Mike, put in a fair number of hours at the end of last season and during this past off season modifying the suspension, flushing the radiator, replacing the clutch, etc. Impressively, not one screw was leftover, either. ;-) Steve really seems to enjoy wrenching on the car, and that's neat to see him get into a new hobby.
The next update to the car will be to replace the top since it's currently being held together by clear packing tape (which really does keep the water out!) and zip ties. That won't happen until we host a Chesapeake Roadsters wrench day at our house in early June. Then we'll start talking about power modifications to the engine - a header, an intake, an exhaust, etc.
But first, we have to fix the nuts behind the wheel. And we'd like to know how much the nuts need help vs how much the car is actually holding us back. That means we need to have an autocross where it doesn't rain!!!
Our April 6th practice event was spitting almost the entire time we were there. The April 20th Championship #1 event included everything from no rain (but wet pavement) to rain accompanied by tornado winds (a tornado apparently touched down in our zip code). We need a couple of dry events to learn how to drive a rear wheel no power (as compared to the STi) car.
The April 6th event had its own issues, mostly timing related, but Workers had a ridiculous inbalance that although managable, it was painful. The rain scared off people, too, which also compounded the worker imbalance problem. But most of the equipment was relatively dry by the time we packed the bus, and everyone got all their runs in.
The April 20th event, on the other hand, was unlike any event in which I've participated. I've helped with a Subaru Challenge in a hurricane, but this event didn't even compare. In the morning, we had lightening delay the event an hour and the rain made the course slower so we didn't finish the morning heats until 1pm. The afternoon heats started at 2, and I wasn't staying for the afternoon.
I got ready to leave and just when I was driving off the lot, I see that the Gate workers were holding on to the tent with their lives. Of course my rain gear is 3/4s of the way back to Baltimore in the STi, so I get insta-soaked when I get out to help take the tent down. In the severe wind, the tent snapped a couple parts, and I'm sure all of the forms were soaked. Once Gate was brought under control, I left for home, soaked all the way through. I needed to turn on the A/C for 10 minutes before my windows defogged. Ew.
It turns out the tornado was touching down right then in the zip code, little did we know at the time. Other tents were getting caught in the winds, and we luckily didn't lose any electronic equipment. Timing couldn't keep up with the false starts and then, lightening flashed again. Bring in the workers. Wait another half hour. The Safety Steward saw another flash and that restarted the 30 minute clock. Our chairman got a call from someone who lives in the area to let us know that nastier storms were coming our way that included hail. As if the event weren't safe with the lightening already, now we have hail coming. Fabulous. The Committee decided to cancel the afternoon run groups.
Cancelling the runs for the afternoon run groups created a lot of hate and discontent but it was the right decision. So now we're dealing with a change to how we're calculating the Season Standings and issuing refunds which is an administrative nightmare, but the right thing to do.
We have another event this coming weekend - and of course the forecast is calling for rain again. I'll be keeping my rain gear in MY car this time...
Anyway, autocross season started on April 6th. This year, we're driving a Miata in a class called STS2 instead of the STi (in A-Stock) or any other car for that matter. Steve and his buddy, Mike, put in a fair number of hours at the end of last season and during this past off season modifying the suspension, flushing the radiator, replacing the clutch, etc. Impressively, not one screw was leftover, either. ;-) Steve really seems to enjoy wrenching on the car, and that's neat to see him get into a new hobby.
The next update to the car will be to replace the top since it's currently being held together by clear packing tape (which really does keep the water out!) and zip ties. That won't happen until we host a Chesapeake Roadsters wrench day at our house in early June. Then we'll start talking about power modifications to the engine - a header, an intake, an exhaust, etc.
But first, we have to fix the nuts behind the wheel. And we'd like to know how much the nuts need help vs how much the car is actually holding us back. That means we need to have an autocross where it doesn't rain!!!
Our April 6th practice event was spitting almost the entire time we were there. The April 20th Championship #1 event included everything from no rain (but wet pavement) to rain accompanied by tornado winds (a tornado apparently touched down in our zip code). We need a couple of dry events to learn how to drive a rear wheel no power (as compared to the STi) car.
The April 6th event had its own issues, mostly timing related, but Workers had a ridiculous inbalance that although managable, it was painful. The rain scared off people, too, which also compounded the worker imbalance problem. But most of the equipment was relatively dry by the time we packed the bus, and everyone got all their runs in.
The April 20th event, on the other hand, was unlike any event in which I've participated. I've helped with a Subaru Challenge in a hurricane, but this event didn't even compare. In the morning, we had lightening delay the event an hour and the rain made the course slower so we didn't finish the morning heats until 1pm. The afternoon heats started at 2, and I wasn't staying for the afternoon.
I got ready to leave and just when I was driving off the lot, I see that the Gate workers were holding on to the tent with their lives. Of course my rain gear is 3/4s of the way back to Baltimore in the STi, so I get insta-soaked when I get out to help take the tent down. In the severe wind, the tent snapped a couple parts, and I'm sure all of the forms were soaked. Once Gate was brought under control, I left for home, soaked all the way through. I needed to turn on the A/C for 10 minutes before my windows defogged. Ew.
It turns out the tornado was touching down right then in the zip code, little did we know at the time. Other tents were getting caught in the winds, and we luckily didn't lose any electronic equipment. Timing couldn't keep up with the false starts and then, lightening flashed again. Bring in the workers. Wait another half hour. The Safety Steward saw another flash and that restarted the 30 minute clock. Our chairman got a call from someone who lives in the area to let us know that nastier storms were coming our way that included hail. As if the event weren't safe with the lightening already, now we have hail coming. Fabulous. The Committee decided to cancel the afternoon run groups.
Cancelling the runs for the afternoon run groups created a lot of hate and discontent but it was the right decision. So now we're dealing with a change to how we're calculating the Season Standings and issuing refunds which is an administrative nightmare, but the right thing to do.
We have another event this coming weekend - and of course the forecast is calling for rain again. I'll be keeping my rain gear in MY car this time...
Sunday, April 27, 2008
A bird's nest!
Outside of our bay window in the front, a cardinal has decided to build her nest in our rhododendren. And lucky for us, the nest is nestled towards the back of the bush close to our bay window! The nest's location couldn't be any more ideal; the leaves of the branches above will protect her (and we hope, her young!) from the elements and apparently, from human eyes as we can't tell if there are eggs in the nest yet or not. We can't see the bottom of the nest!
It took her about a week to build it, and we're hoping that our normal activity doesn't scare her away. She dropped by today while we were in the living room, so we know she hasn't abandoned it yet....
It took her about a week to build it, and we're hoping that our normal activity doesn't scare her away. She dropped by today while we were in the living room, so we know she hasn't abandoned it yet....
Saturday, April 26, 2008
Update to the "doggies-adventure" post
I left the house to go pick up dinner when our neighbor, Mary, flagged me down.
It turns out - to my horror and immense amusement - the doggies, yes, our two little screwballs called Italian Greyhounds, actually CAUGHT that squirrel this morning.
My neighbor didn't witness it; her daughter did, so I'll have to get the gory details from her. But from what Mary knows, they cornered the squirrel and once it was dead, they paraded around the yard with it in their mouths. Their carrying it around explains why the squirrel's fur was matted. Earlier today I'd thought that maybe the squirrel had been dead since last night, and the dew matted its fur. Yeah, no, not the case. The matted fur was due to the doggies' slobber. Apparently, they were SUPER proud of themselves.
They did this between 9 and 10 this morning so by the time I got to it, rigor mortis had set in. It also explains why they were SO quiet and not bugging us to let them in for so long this morning as well.... they were busy patroling and, apparently, succeeding and then having a victory parade, too.
We've known that it would just be a matter of time before they caught something. What we didn't know is A) what they would do if they did catch something and B) if they killed it, what would they do then?
To answer A: apparently, they will kill it. We think that in this case, because the squirrel looked pretty intact, they caught it and shook it really hard.
To answer B: apparently, they will parade around the yard with it, victory lap style, and then bring it to us as a present! Look Mommy and Daddy! Look at what we did!!
Well, at least the questions are now answered...
It turns out - to my horror and immense amusement - the doggies, yes, our two little screwballs called Italian Greyhounds, actually CAUGHT that squirrel this morning.
My neighbor didn't witness it; her daughter did, so I'll have to get the gory details from her. But from what Mary knows, they cornered the squirrel and once it was dead, they paraded around the yard with it in their mouths. Their carrying it around explains why the squirrel's fur was matted. Earlier today I'd thought that maybe the squirrel had been dead since last night, and the dew matted its fur. Yeah, no, not the case. The matted fur was due to the doggies' slobber. Apparently, they were SUPER proud of themselves.
They did this between 9 and 10 this morning so by the time I got to it, rigor mortis had set in. It also explains why they were SO quiet and not bugging us to let them in for so long this morning as well.... they were busy patroling and, apparently, succeeding and then having a victory parade, too.
We've known that it would just be a matter of time before they caught something. What we didn't know is A) what they would do if they did catch something and B) if they killed it, what would they do then?
To answer A: apparently, they will kill it. We think that in this case, because the squirrel looked pretty intact, they caught it and shook it really hard.
To answer B: apparently, they will parade around the yard with it, victory lap style, and then bring it to us as a present! Look Mommy and Daddy! Look at what we did!!
Well, at least the questions are now answered...
A doggies-squirrel adventure
This hasn't been the best week for our cars. The STi got rear ended and the Miata got hit while parked. I took the STi for an estimate yesterday afternoon, and I took the Miata to the same place for another estimate this morning while DJ was napping.
DJ woke up before I got home, so Daddy was on duty. When I got home, I found a VERY thankful Steve that I was home. Usually Steve is calm cool and collected when it comes to babysitting DJ, so then I took a look around at the situation.
DJ was on one side of the gate (in the living room) happily playing with his toys. Steve and the doggies, on the other hand, were on the other side of the gate, with paper towels on the floor. And then Steve said, "The big dog threw up. And go look at what's outside on the deck!"
Uh-oh.
"What I don't know is if they killed it or if it was already dead and they just brought it back."
Oh fabulous.
Sure enough, a dead squirrel was JUST outside our deck storm door. FABULOUS. Guaranteed our little "retriever" dog, Napoleon, brought that home, whether he killed it or not. The assumption here is that IO threw up on the kitchen floor (thankfully it's tile for easy clean up!) because he "ate" squirrel. However, he's also been fond of eating baby grass which is also known for making dogs vomit. And he's done that at least once a week for the last 3 weeks.
"So which do you want, Baby Duty or Squirrel Cleanup?" asks Steve.
I look at both dogs, who are looking at me expectantly to let them into the living room. That's when I look at Napoleon a little more carefully and realize that he's been rolling in something, too.
"I got Squirrel Cleanup," I concede.
Step 1. Clean up floor in kitchen. After I get the major mess off the floor, I pull out the disinfectant wipes and wipe the areas, too.
Step 2. Clean up the squirrel. Steve asks, "What do we do with it? Put it out back on the other side of the fence?" "Or it would go in the trash...." I said. Good thing we're car nuts because we keep latex gloves around a lot for working on the cars. I got myself a pair of gloves, 3 plastic grocery bags, and out to the deck I go. I'm not even going to describe the squirrel except to say that it looked "intact" i.e. no dog actually ate any of it, thankfully.
I steel myself.... and reach down to pick it up. For as many birds that would hit my parents' big picture front windows and break their necks, I never actually disposed of any of them. So here is my first incident, and..... yeah, it was stiff. That tells us the dogs didn't kill it, at least.
We wouldn't have been surprised if the dogs had killed it because they were mere INCHES from catching a very stupid squirrel on Thursday afternoon. The squirrel didn't think that the dogs were a threat. It ran, but not for a tree, and then realized it was in trouble. It was lucky that it had the fence to jump up on and that the dogs didn't expect it to do that because that was the only reason it got away.
So the squirrel went into the plastic bags, tied very tightly, in multiple layers, and then tossed into our trash bag which immediately went out to the trash cans that go to the curb.
Step 3. (thought I was done? ha!) Give both dogs a bath. Thank goodness for treats because those dogs will follow me anywhere with treats in hand. Napoleon got a bath first, then IO. Both dogs are very put off by this, despite the treats dolled at the end of the baths! Currently, they are still corralled in the kitchen, but I think the outcasts will be reunited with the family momentarily. ;-)
DJ woke up before I got home, so Daddy was on duty. When I got home, I found a VERY thankful Steve that I was home. Usually Steve is calm cool and collected when it comes to babysitting DJ, so then I took a look around at the situation.
DJ was on one side of the gate (in the living room) happily playing with his toys. Steve and the doggies, on the other hand, were on the other side of the gate, with paper towels on the floor. And then Steve said, "The big dog threw up. And go look at what's outside on the deck!"
Uh-oh.
"What I don't know is if they killed it or if it was already dead and they just brought it back."
Oh fabulous.
Sure enough, a dead squirrel was JUST outside our deck storm door. FABULOUS. Guaranteed our little "retriever" dog, Napoleon, brought that home, whether he killed it or not. The assumption here is that IO threw up on the kitchen floor (thankfully it's tile for easy clean up!) because he "ate" squirrel. However, he's also been fond of eating baby grass which is also known for making dogs vomit. And he's done that at least once a week for the last 3 weeks.
"So which do you want, Baby Duty or Squirrel Cleanup?" asks Steve.
I look at both dogs, who are looking at me expectantly to let them into the living room. That's when I look at Napoleon a little more carefully and realize that he's been rolling in something, too.
"I got Squirrel Cleanup," I concede.
Step 1. Clean up floor in kitchen. After I get the major mess off the floor, I pull out the disinfectant wipes and wipe the areas, too.
Step 2. Clean up the squirrel. Steve asks, "What do we do with it? Put it out back on the other side of the fence?" "Or it would go in the trash...." I said. Good thing we're car nuts because we keep latex gloves around a lot for working on the cars. I got myself a pair of gloves, 3 plastic grocery bags, and out to the deck I go. I'm not even going to describe the squirrel except to say that it looked "intact" i.e. no dog actually ate any of it, thankfully.
I steel myself.... and reach down to pick it up. For as many birds that would hit my parents' big picture front windows and break their necks, I never actually disposed of any of them. So here is my first incident, and..... yeah, it was stiff. That tells us the dogs didn't kill it, at least.
We wouldn't have been surprised if the dogs had killed it because they were mere INCHES from catching a very stupid squirrel on Thursday afternoon. The squirrel didn't think that the dogs were a threat. It ran, but not for a tree, and then realized it was in trouble. It was lucky that it had the fence to jump up on and that the dogs didn't expect it to do that because that was the only reason it got away.
So the squirrel went into the plastic bags, tied very tightly, in multiple layers, and then tossed into our trash bag which immediately went out to the trash cans that go to the curb.
Step 3. (thought I was done? ha!) Give both dogs a bath. Thank goodness for treats because those dogs will follow me anywhere with treats in hand. Napoleon got a bath first, then IO. Both dogs are very put off by this, despite the treats dolled at the end of the baths! Currently, they are still corralled in the kitchen, but I think the outcasts will be reunited with the family momentarily. ;-)
Wednesday, March 5, 2008
The official Dilbert widget
I have a Dilbert habit. I love reading Dilbert. So I always ask for the Dilbert 360 day calendar for Christmas every year and I get Dilbert in my email daily.
Now I am sharing the Official Dilbert widget with everyone reading this blog. I've posted it to the right-hand sidebar. You can read today's Dilbert strip and any other strip back to January 2005. I suspect Scott Adams will be adding more strips to that widget eventually, but 3 years of strips is certainly a nice start!
I also added it as a Dashboard widget for my Mac. Love it!!!
Now I am sharing the Official Dilbert widget with everyone reading this blog. I've posted it to the right-hand sidebar. You can read today's Dilbert strip and any other strip back to January 2005. I suspect Scott Adams will be adding more strips to that widget eventually, but 3 years of strips is certainly a nice start!
I also added it as a Dashboard widget for my Mac. Love it!!!
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