Ten on Tuesday - 10 Things You Do Every Day

Today's topic should be really easy. Name ten things that you do every day. I bet most of you can do it but my daily routine is totally in flux right now. Some things are the same but over the past year things have changed drastically and it's not settled yet. So what do I do on a daily basis these days? Hmmmmm...

1. Brush my teeth



2. Shower - not just so I smell good. A shower wakes me up.



3. Watch the news - I rarely go a ay without watching a little bit of news in the morning or at night.



4. Put my watch and ring on - I don't sleep with them on. I always put them in exactly the same place so I can remember to put them on in the morning.



5. Kiss my girls - I never let a day go by without kissing my girls and telling them that I love them. I can't do it enough and it never gets old.



6. Make lists - I always feel like I'm forgetting something and consequently I'm always making lists ( mostly mental) of stuff I need to do.



7. Check my email - it's an addiction



8. Surf the net - I'm such an info junkie



9. Play with my baby



10. Discuss the day with my family - I find that as our lives get busier we really need to take the time to touch base with each other and catch up on what's going on. It's also the only way that I know who needs picking up where and when.
    

National Book Festival - 2011

This past weekend was the National Book Festival and once again, I was there with DQ. We are so devoted to this event that not even the threat of a very rainy day could keep us away. We're not alone in that. The tents were packed - standing room only.

DQ and I attended most of the authors together. One for her, one for me, and one we both wanted to see. Happily, all were really good. Although I was worried at first that there wasn't enough that I wanted to see, I came to realize that you really only need one for each time slot and we had that.

We started with Gregory Maguire, the author of Wicked and other books. Here he is with DQ. I've neither seen, nor read, his books but I really enjoyed his talk. He talked about his inspiration and how the book became a play. At one point he even broke into song. How great is that?



My pick was Sarah Vowell. I've enjoyed her pieces on This American Life and I had high hopes. DQ had no familiarity and zero expectations. We both laughed out loud. She was a great speaker, very animated and candid. That candid nature led to one of the most interesting moments. DQ went up during the Q&A period and asked the author (who is part Cherokee and has written about the Trail of Tears before) how she "feels about Andrew Jackson". The answer was "I fucking hate him!". There was more to her answer than that but still, they videotape these presentations and put them on the web. On the Library of Congress site. I wonder how many of these presentations need to be bleeped.

The last author we saw was Laura Lippman. DQ and I are both fans of her books. She was great. Even better, we got through the day without any rain. No Rain At All. It goes without saying that I brought my giant umbrella and DQ wore my boots. Had we not been prepared the heavens would've opened and the National Mall would've become a river.

How was your weekend.

ECF - Finishing Week One Edition

Both Marissa and I have survived my first week back at work. Not only that but I blogeed every day. I can't say that I'm sure I'll keep up the daily blogging but it feels good right now!



Have a great weeekend!

Yarn Arrivals Mean All is Well

When it rains it pours and that's never quite as true as when I'm talking about yarn. Earlier this week a large-ish box arrived. Bruce brought it in to the house and told me that yarn had arrived. I asked how he knew it was yarn before the box was opened. The return address? Nope, He said that a large box that was relatively light could only hold one thing. Hearing this conversation one of my daughters remarked that yarn arriving in the mail meant that things in our house were getting back to normal. They all agreed it was a good thing.



Another sign that things are getting back to the usual is the appearance of a semi-new knitting project on my needles. I say semi-new because I originally cast on for this in March or April (and only knit 2 rows) but since it's a baby sweater and I waited so long I had to cast on again in a larger size because babies grow fast. Clearly it's moving a bit faster this time.

It's not for Miss M. It's a gift for my cousin's baby. This is another Sirdar pattern with an amazingly unimaginative name - I think it's Jacket J. The yarn is Miss Babs but I have no details on that with me right now either. Does it matter? The important thing is that knitting is happening again. Yay! I'll get you details later.

Starting Again

Earlier this week I mentioned that there were signs that I was ready to go back to work. Some of them were things like catching up on calls and appointments. I also started taking over the laundry although that was more a matter of necessity because Bruce was doing his best to destroy all of our clothes. I got back to the business of organizing and planning and generally reclaiming most of the tasks that are usually mine. And then there was the yarn... it should surprise no one that a return to yarn was involved.

It seems like only yesterday that I was planning DQ's Bat Mitzvah and yet here I am planning Stinkerbelle's. Part of the event prep now as it was then is the creation of a set of kippot. Stinkaroonie is a very different girl than her sister and I want every aspect of her event to reflect that. The location and menu will be way different and so will the theme.

With this in mind I requested some yarn samples many months ago so that I could test them out. Since then they sat and sat and sat as I did everything but play with yarn. Finally, as I started preparing to go back to work I took out the samples and worked them up. They are arranged in the order I tried them. First was a cotton bamboo which was really nice. I love the creamy look of the yarn. Next was a bamboo silk which was very much like the pure silk I used last time but a little thicker. Very nice luster. Last I took a bit of Normandy linen for a spin. Really lovely stuff.

I knew which sample I wanted to use almost immediately but I asked Stinkerbelle and Bruce for their opinion anyway. Happily, they totally agreed. Can you guess which one we chose? Which would you choose? I'm really curious to hear you opinions.

Ten on Tuesday - 10 Headlines From the Year You Were Born

Today it's all about the year we were born. I was born in 1969, a reasonably exciting year. Sadly, I don't have the actual headlines. Here we go...

1. The Eagle Has Landed - Neil Armstrong is the first man on the moon.
2. The NY Jets win Superbowl III
3. Woodstock is held in upstate NY
4. The Miracle Mets win the World Series
5. Sesame Street debuts
6. Hurricane Camille, the most powerful one in history, hit the Mississippi coast
7. The Godfather by Mario Puzo is published
8. The Beatles Give their last live performance.
9. The first Concorde test flight
10. The first message is sent over ARPANET, the forerunner of the Internet.

My Email Awaits

I'm back in the office today. It seems like it's been forever since I left it back in June. I know a lot of people have trouble disengaging from work but I can't really say that was the case with me. Although i have checked my email on occasion I really only scanned it for anything urgent or answerable only by me. Thousands of emails await.



I'm afraid that I spent most of last weekend whining about having to go back today and wishing I didn't have to leave my baby so soon but in all honesty - I was kind of ready. There's only so long that you can spend relaxing on the couch before you feel the urge to contribute to humanity again. As much as I enjoyed the premiere week of Anderson (Cooper), I was ready. I was starting to accomplish things again which seems like a sure sign that I was ready to snap back to reality. I even have a new knitting project to share. Shocking!

What I Did on My Summer Vacation

It was a really eventful summer for us. We saw lots of family and friends. Some of us traveled a little bit and all of us had new experiences. Clearly our Berry Baby had lots of firsts but the rest of us did too - including our first earthquake. Yikes! Shortly after that Hurricane Irene hit us and left a hole in our roof. Double Yikes!!! Happily it's a small hole.




The girls and I went to New York where we covered a lot of ground. One morning we had breakfast in the Hamptons and then we went even further... to Montauk. That's where the big girls enjoyed themselves jumping waves.



Which made me smile as I watched them because they held hands most of the time. I suspect that gave Stinkette the confidence she needed to get in the water.



We also saw the Flanders Duck which is just cool because it's a giant duck. Nuff said.



More recently we took our Berry Baby to her first baseball game where she met Teddy. He didn't win the race that day either - and neither did the Nationals. But in New York her Zayde was happy because his Mets beat us.

Still Here

It's sounds so cliche but I truly can't believe that it's been so long since my last post. I certainly never expected to take such a long hiatus but I suppose that it's no big surprise to anyone but me. Before Marissa arrived I had such big ideas about how my summer would go and everyone told me I was nuts. I was going to take my girls to beaches and amusement parks. I was going to read all the books I'd been putting off for so long. I was going to take my girls to summer programs they normally couldn't go to. I'd go to the pool every day. I was going to knit and crochet up a storm. This was going to be the longest summer vacation I'd had in a long time and I was going enjoy it to the fullest.



Reality is a bit different.

I did do some of those things but not many. Miss Marissa changed everything. I couldn't even do much on the computer. Not only didn't I post on my blog, I didn't read much online either. It seemed like every time I picked up my computer something got in the way. I thank everyone for all the good wishes.




Now my older girls are back to school, my sweet baby starts daycare in a few days, and I'll head back to work right after that. It seems like awakening the blog is a good way to get back in the swing of things. I hope to take this week to share a few pictures as my version of the "what you did this summer" essay.

Clearly the big thing I did this summer is in these pictures. In the top one Miss Marissa is 2 months old. The other one was taken a few weeks earlier. She was, and is, tiny. We're working on fattening her up. Other than that she's amazing. She is alert and smily and more fun every day.