I had an extra hour today between work and home commitments, so I went to the Pentagon 9/11 Memorial, which was dedicated yesterday.
Year: 2008
Thinking about the past.
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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Car Ok
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. 🙂
Birthday remorse.
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?
It’s only Monday.
I over scheduled our weekend. I enjoy being busy, but you know, when you stick try and stick that one extra thing in, then it just results in a meltdown of one of the family members. Our town had a doggie swim day, the last day before they drained the pool. Vince basically screamed his head off all the way to the pool. As soon as he got there, he was fine and happy.
Vince has not been eating well. I can’t believe that my non-Rett Syndrome kid is the one who is not willing to eat! He basically eats about 6 glasses of milk a day and plain white rice (and of course, anything made out of sugar). He will just sit there and purse his lips and then burst into tears! And he’s running around all day, neighborhood kids, swinging, swimming and then when he has to change gears and sit down and eat/do homework/pick up clothes, the tears come again which is caused by his exceedingly low blood sugar.
Tonight, after work, I made him his favorite dinner – ravioli, and finally (after days of not eating well) he ate 2 full plates.
Blah!
Happy birthday.
Ballet.
Vincent started ballet lessons today. Why ballet you may ask? Why not soccer or cub scouts or perhaps even gymnastics? It is both a long and short story. The short story is that Vince is a dancer, he’s got the moves and the enthusiasm and the lack of self-consciousness that has me standing at the side of the room wondering if he is related to me and Jeremy. (Jeremy specifically asked that there be no band or dancing at our wedding and I readily agreed.)
The long story is that he loves his cousin, J. who is 11 and dances at this particular ballet school. This ballet school is far from our house and takes its dancing seriously – a number of students have become professional ballerinas. Normally, I would not venture this far from home and perhaps the seriousness of the ballet is a little bit intimidating for me, but this year, J. is helping out during a special needs class that she was eager for Edda to attend. So I asked Vince if he wanted to join up, thinking that the classes would be at the same time and he was really excited and so we are doing ballet! But, of course, the classes are not at the same time so this ballet adventure we are on is taking much more of our Saturday than I thought it would. (Edda’s class starts in a few weeks.)
Ted and RV Broken
Going to bed.
I’ve gained weight.
I’ve gotten into the habit of buying my lunch and various vending machine snacks at work. And as a result, I’ve gained a little bit of weight and also I’ve been spending money a bit too freely – I find that small little purchases like daily pretzel sticks inexplicably lead to bigger ones at Target. I’m trying to wrench myself back into bring the good old PB&J to save some $ and ditch the weight.
The velvet cake? My coworkers seemed to enjoy it – it was more than 80% gone by 10:30 am and I helped myself to only the tiniest sliver.