Month: July 2008

Finally, almost 4 months late, we finally purchased Edda’s 4th birthday gift – a touchscreen laptop. It has an AMD chip (Jeremy’s still loyal to his previous employer) and the screen swivels to turn into a tablet. It’s actually scarily fragile (the twisty part especially) which is why we spend a quarter of the purchase price on a full warranty which will replace a broken computer – no questions asked for the next 2 years. Now we have 4 computers in the house, Vince and Edda have the fastest computers and us old folks have the “so virus laden that it takes 3 minutes to open a broswer” or the “so old that you can’t unplug the laptop from the wall because the battery lasts for 30 seconds” computer.

Regarding the laptop you can’t unplug from the wall, it’s Donald’s old Viao computer that Vince peed on when he was 3 weeks old and knocked it out of commission for a few days while we waited for the urine to dry up. I remember being totally exhausted as a new parent – Vincent was (what it seemed like to me at the time) a 23 hour a day nurser – watching that golden arc fly through the air across the changing table straight to the precious, new and sexy Viao that was sitting on the red armchair right next to it.

This afternoon, I was sitting at work at 2 pm when I realized that I had finished all my work for the week, I had already put in the necessary hours and that the office was emptying out quickly and I was the last person still thinking about patents on a Friday afternoon. I made an executive decision to leave early and spend some time to do some touristy summer stuff! Woo hoo!

I went straight to the Smithsonian to the National Museum of the American Indian which I believe is the newest museum of the Smithsonian, I had never been inside the building before. I stumbled upon a tour led by a college-aged Cherokee, and I learned about the building and how it’s a solar calendar, the symbolism of elk’s teeth on traditional dresses and that the folks who were the iron workers that built NYC’s skyscrapers were Native Americans. What a treat to not have to run by a museum exhibit and say – look some dolls/pottery/paintings/dresses! – and continue running by with kids in strollers, crying, with sticky fingers and unhappy.

(Note: I did not take this beautiful photo. )

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National Museum of the American Indian, originally uploaded by Phijomo.

Charlotte, a dear family friend – the person who officiated at our wedding (ten years ago!), was in town for a talk/conference/ and her own Chinese-buffet retirement party. We were invited to her talk at the Library of Congress and then to the dinner/party at the Hunan Palace.

Jeremy and I rarely venture out after dark, so this was a mid-week date night which I think hasn’t happened in many, many years.

I got flowers for the guest of honor:

I oogled this cream/blue duplex in the Capitol Hill neighborhood, not exactly ADA accessible, but that is a whole ‘nuther issue.

And here’s Jeremy reading our tribute limericks. For those who know Charlotte, the other two people in the photo are Charlotte’s son and grandson. I don’t have a very good photo of Charlotte, I was sitting in the back far away an my flash could not go so far….

There once was a scholar of China
A native of North Carolina
She married a Furth
For love and for mirth
And their children just couldn’t be fina.

When Doris and Jeremy wed
The priestess was dressed all in red
She gave them advice
On how to be nice
And how to get ready for bed.

Charlotte said much depends upon Dinner
this makes us happy, if not any thinner
mind your manners, said she
and sheng sheng bu shi
Good advice to connubial beginners

Yvonne, our au pair from Germany, has been with us now about 7 weeks and I don’t yet have a good picture of her. She went to the beach with us this weekend and all I have is a picture of her back!

Being matched with an au pair is a tricky business, you get to look at each other’s application, talk on the phone for about an hour and that’s pretty much it! Talk about blind dating. We spoke with our local coordinator who warned us that about a third of the family/au pair matches work out really well, about a third are tolerable and about a third don’t work out at all.

So I went in with muted expectations and hoped for the best. Well, I’m happy to report that it’s been wonderful having Yvonne around, she’s good with the kids and remembers schedules better than we do and is fun to be around. We are having a good time together (and we have a lot more Nutella around the house)!

I’m looking for new book suggestions. Some guidelines.

Non-fiction:
– I like issues dealing with modern life themes.
– don’t want biographies.
– don’t want sheer history books.

fiction:
– Again, I relate a bit better to a modern themed book.
– not really looking for classics, more popular stuff.

Any suggestions?

Bus stop.

Subway stop.

Sadly Ronnie has told me that the iPhone 3G is not going to be availible at the Apple Employee Store, so it’s looking like I’ll be standing in line sometime this week to get one. I’ve got $100 Apple Store credit to burn thru. Doris, did you want my original iPhone?

Also, This seems like a bad idea.

We went to the annual Maryland gathering of Rett Syndrome families. This was our first time attending, last year, we had just moved and didn’t get in touch with the local families until too late.

Beautiful day to fly a kite.

Edda had a great time.

So did Vince.

Edda’s mutation, 806delG, is quite unusual. But we met another little girl who has the same mutation and we had a nice time chatting with her family.

Eleven families showed up, we all got together for a group photo.

Vince and Edda each get $3 a week for allowance. Edda is a pretty good saver, but once Vince cobbles together a few weeks worth of allowance, he gets antsy-in-the-pantsy to go to Target to buy something.

When we do make it to Target, he’s usually clutching 10 sweaty, crumpled dollar bills and pointing to a Lego item and asking, “How much is that one?” and I say, well it’s a bit out of your price range because it’s $29.99, $49.99 or $69.99. And he sighs and I tell him that if he saves a few more weeks, he may be able to afford the $29.99 one and he sighs again and finds a small Lego for $9.99 for which I tell him I will chip in the tax.

So he’s been negotiating for months about how to get the Indiana Jones and the Crystal Skull set, and we’ve been pretty firm, you have to wait for Christmas or your birthday and he sighs and says OK, please put it on my Christmas/birthday list because I really, really, really, really want it.

And then the grandparents show up for the weekend, and look! A surprise:

Not to be left out, Edda got a much appreciated video or two: