Year: 2007

Edda at breakfast.

We finally installed the safety gates at the top of the stairs so we don’t have to leave Edda trapped in her room if no one else is upstairs.

Ripped up newspaper for our new worm composting system. Now we only have to get the worms…

Vincent on his way to Chinese school. Note not only his green sunglasses, but a whole bag of moon cakes. It’s not only Yom Kippur, it’s also Moon Festival time.

Vince striking a pose (with his teacher) during Chinese school. He’s explaining to his class in a hilarious mix of English and Chinese all the members of our family.

Moon cakes all around.

Sunday night dinner!

Tonight Jeremy wanted to go to a Haverford beer night, so he met me at the train station and we switched kids and cars. The kids were already fed and burped. I just needed to sit Vince through 4 pages of homework. Normally, it’s one page a night – handed out on Monday and due Friday, but we lost his homework and we had to get a new copy.

I’m really enjoying my job so far, there is a lot to learn and understand. I started with a bunch of people from all different stages in life, there are moms, young just married people, folks over 50, kids just out of school and sleeping on slowly deflating air mattresses. Also people from anywhere and everywhere. It’s fun.

The commute goes pretty quickly and I made it to the gym the second day in a row. I’m a little angst-ridden about my camera, I want to bring it everywhere, but it’s pretty big and I’m not sure what I want to take photos of during my day.

I joined the gym at work today. It’s a really nice gym, at least 5-6 aerobics classes a day and so many machines that there is no waiting time even at lunch. I ran a 5K on a treadmill today – a little under 34 minutes. Tomorrow, if the beautiful weather holds up, I’m going to try running along the Potomac.

On the way to work, I knit for about 45 minutes and I listened to the iPod for about 5 minutes. Jeremy said that I should take his noise canceling headphones and use them, but I just felt foolish with all these wires swirling around my shirt. I did not find it compelling. On the way home, I had the company of a coworker and we chatted almost the whole commute.

I’m afraid of the iPod. Everyone I’ve talked to about the long commute has told me to get an iPod and listen to podcasts. I just think of it as one more thing to charge and keep track of. I had my knitting plan, I was going to knit on the train. That was feasible on the way down – I got a seat – no problem. On the way back, it was SRO, so I couldn’t do anything. Jeremy even spent some time today downloading knitting podcasts for me. I guess I’ll have to try it tomorrow.

Did I mention that my commute is 90 minutes each way? I know it’s kind of crazy, but I’m assured that in 2 years, I should be able to work from home. That’s what I’m counting on as I have committed myself to getting up at 5 am for the next 2 years. So today, I practiced getting up at 5 am by volunteering to be a course marshal for the local half marathon.

This was my intersection, these are my cones, that’s my police dude. We blocked traffic at this intersection (mile 7.5) for about one hour and 15 minutes. I got to wear an orange vest and wave a red flag. Groovy. I’ve never volunteered for a race before, it’s really organized. I showed up at 6 am, got directions to my intersection and got a detailed sheet with cone placement diagrams and a timing schedule. We got the cones out 1 minute before the first runner and the cones were stowed right after the last runner and 30 seconds later a truck appeared to take the cones (and my orange vest) away.

Vince wailed again at having to go to Chinese school. We tried to bribe him with a trip to McDonalds and ice cream afterwards. Did not make it any less painful.

Edda had a great time at Sunday night dinner, I don’t know what was up, but she giggled all night up until 9pm when she finally fell asleep.

The new camera I got for my birthday actually has fewer megapixels than the point and shoot camera I’ve been using for the past 2 years, but it has many, many more buttons and more controls. I know this means I have more control over how I take pictures, but it also means that I am much more likely to take bad pictures. I think we took about 300 photos today, mostly of Edda and the dog and only after I downloaded them all to the computer did I realize I overexposed 90% of them. Oh well, there is much to learn.

One of my favorite features is that I can hold the shutter button down and it will just keep taking 2.5 pictures a second.

It was beautiful weather here, 70 and windy. We took out kite out for a spin. Spent 15 minutes flying and 30 minutes untangling string.

I also went to 2 Rett Syndrome events today. One was a kick off meeting for the stroll-a-thon in Fairfax, VA on October 21 and another was a dinner/gala/silent auction/casino where I learned how to play craps – kind of. It’s been a long day.

Happy birthday to me! I’m getting to be a pretty big number, it’s a little scary. Jeremy made a blueberry crunch coffeecake for me last night and ran out early this morning for vanilla ice cream, so we celebrated at 7:30 am right before the kids left for school. I got a new camera – funded by my parents, my in-laws and Jeremy. Thanks for the gift, I hope it repays itself in some nice pictures here on the blog.

Once the kids were off safely (Vince had to run to catch the bus, it’s been coming early for a few days now), Jeremy and I walked on the C&O canal and talked about how our leisurely life is coming to an end. My commute is 90 minutes each way, I’m going to be away from the house a lot starting Monday. Jeremy is still freaking me out by asking each day, “so tell me again, when does Vince’s bus come?”

He made me arroz con pollo for dinner.