Month: September 2008

This morning I went to Ted Kennedy’s office to ask for money on behalf of Edda and all the other folks with Rett Syndrome. I did not do this one by myself, I went with folks from IRSF and took a back seat in the meetings. I passed John Kerry’s office along the way. Wow, I still can’t believe I’m traveling the corridors of Congress. There was lots of talk about politics – things are very busy and exciting.

They also had arranged a meeting with Clinton’s folks later in the afternoon and I really, really wanted to go (Hillary’s office!), but I had to hoof it on back to work, I had only arranged half of a day off and the end of the fiscal year is coming up at the end of September and I have a boatload of work to do at work.

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Str-e-e-etched thin this week. I hate complaining, my schedule is no more crammed than any other family, but what can I say? There is a lot going on including the meltdown of the banking sector in the US – which we had nothing to do with – I swear!

Last week, the kids’ pediatrician called me and told me that the preservative-free flu shots were in and did I want to make an appointment for Edda. I had never heard of preservative-free flu shots before, but since they called and reminded me that the kids needed flu shots, I scheduled sppointments for both kids.

Vince is such a wimp when it comes to shots – he freaks out and then he tenses up which makes the whole thing much more painful. I have had to practically have my whole body clenching him in a burrito roll so he doesn’t punch the nurse. So I specifically asked for the “backwards sneeze” flu shot – the Flu Mist – cost ten bucks more, but oh, so worth it.

I was feeling guilty that Vince was getting the up-the-nose shot and Edda was signed up for the jab-in-the-arm shot. Would Edda hold it against me? Treating the two kids to different amounts of pain? Turns out she didn’t make a peep from the shot, didn’t yelp, turn her head or look at me with indignation. I tried telling Vince that Edda didn’t think it hurt much, but he said that he liked his way of getting the flu medicine. Thank you very much.

A little IRSF gossip…I heard from the Virginia rep that next year’s conference over Memorial Day weekend is going to be in Leesburg, VA. I had always thought they picked large cities and Leesburg is not a large city, although I believe it has great outlet shopping, this is a suburb of DC right near Dulles Airport. Right in my neck of the woods!

Flu shot anticipation (feel the tension…)

Our town allows you to walk a dog off leash anywhere within town limits if you and your doggie pass a test given by the local police department. This Saturday, Ruby and Jeremy are going to head down to the local pool parking lot to take this test. This is pretty much equivalent to walking in to take your drivers license test without practicing parallel parking. I think Ruby will pass with flying colors the part where you follow commands without distractions – sit, stay, come, heel. I think Ruby can a pass with the following distractions – kids, cars, horns, bicycles.

Ruby will go absolutely crazy and not follow any commands when faced with another dog and all hope of passing the test will be gone if the police officer whips out a squirrel from behind his night stick.

We will see.

Ruby likes to help out with laundry.

My parents came down from New Jersey to celebrate my birthday. My mom made the most fabulous dinner – enough to feed 17 people.

Long life noodles!

Cake! (It’s good to be 36..)

Jeremy spent the day in East Berlin, PA helping out the Obama campaign, trying to register folks to vote and to get people interested in Obama. We have never volunteered for any political campaign and as Maryland is solidly Democratic, it was either go to Virgina or Pennsylvania – a “battleground state” – to volunteer. The part of Pennsylvania Jeremy went to is 80% Republican and the voter registration drive was happening at a town fair, very crowded and happening – it was quite an eye opening experience.

While Jeremy was off doing his civic duty, Edda and I spent the morning eating a blueberry muffin at a farmer’s market.

Edda is getting bigger and bigger all the time – which is a great thing, as a lot of Rett girls have huge issues with keeping on weight – and she’s getting more and more difficult to move around without her wheelchair. I applied for the handicapped parking tag more than a year ago and I thought I would have little use for them because at that time, Edda was a breeze to get in and out of the car and into a typical toddler stroller. Now I use the parking tag quite often and Edda seems to be outgrowing the wheelchair we got less than a year ago (do you see how her knees are kind of raised off the seat? we already lowered the foot rests to the longest setting). We need to seriously look into those adaptive vans soon.

Look, a perfectly blue blueberry muffin.

Crumbs on the lips.

I had an extra hour today between work and home commitments, so I went to the Pentagon 9/11 Memorial, which was dedicated yesterday.

Has it been seven years already? I remember we were living in Austin, I was pregnant with Vince. I was working (as a computer programmer) on the 18th floor (the very top) of the UT Austin clock tower. I remember thinking that a Cessna had accidentally flown into the World Trade Center. As soon as we (the folks on the 18 floor) realized that it was a jetliner that had flown into the buildings, we all made a pretty quick decision to leave work early and get down off of the tallest tower in town. We all returned to work the next day – with security checks in place and I think by the end of the following week, there were metal detectors installed at the base of the tower.

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UT Tower, originally uploaded by VictoRevolution.

Well, the check engine light on my car, Milli, is on once again. This is the second time in practically a month. The first time was some VTEC thing – basically because I’m lazy changing my oil. This time it was an O2 sensor heater. Not a big deal… It just has to get replaced. I was a bit nervous because I’ve been driving to work lately, because my commute bike is being sent back to the manufacturer because the frame was cracked. I was wondering what I would do if my car was going to go into the shop. Glad she’s OK.

And yes. I did take the picture while driving – only talking on a cell phone using your hands is illegal in California. 🙂

Jeremy and I have birthdays one week apart, he goes first and then me. Jeremy and I had an agreement that since we bought the house just a few weeks ago and now every weekend we are basically taking our wallets out and shaking them upside-down at the nearby Home Depot, that we were not going to get each other any gifts. So Jeremy’s birthday on Sunday passed quietly, no huge gifts, no big TA DA! And then on Monday, my coworkers looked at me with disbelief, “You mean you didn’t even take him out to dinner? Did you get him anything?” Well, no I did not. So then I went back in my photo archives to check up on something else and I discovered/remembered that the day before, I was with him when he went to DSW and bought himself some work shoes because his old pair had holes in them and was letting in rain water by the puddleful. Can I retroactively count these as a birthday gift?