Year: 2008

I left work early to head to Jeremy’s office down on K street. His office is filled with people who manage to get things done in Washington DC and I met with one of them today for advice.

I think I have an appointment on Thursday to meet with Van Hollen’s folks about the Rett Syndrome earmark and I wanted to know what I should say in my 5-8 minute meeting. I got some advice on the lingo – apparently the word I should use for appropriations is “approps” and I should ask something about the “CR” which now I’ve forgotten what that means already, maybe congressional report? continuation reform? celery root?

Anyways, the good news is that my adviser looked at the earmark request application and said that it was very impressive that IRSF got such strong support from both Hoyer and Kennedy and that it shouldn’t be a problem getting the earmark.

Did you take a close look at Jeremy’s desk?

Who is that at the edge of his table?

Why, it’s an Albert Einstein action figure! Although Einstein is known for his contributions to physics, he was also a patent examiner!

Jeremy got him for helping out on cogito, I’m taking him to work as my wingman.

I can’t believe that it’s only Monday. It’s going to be a long week. Here’s a cheerful weekend moment to keep me going until Friday afternoon!

I spent some time this weekend editing a letter I’m going to send out in a few weeks asking for silent auction items for this October’s Fairfax Strollathon. I did help organize last year’s silent auction in the sense that I printed up the bid sheets and coordinated the sale that day, the silent auction raised about $5,000 out of the $100,000 total funds raised last year. Joanne, the chair of the fundraiser, did a fantastic job of getting great items for the auction, but I’m a little nervous this year, with the downturn in the economy – I suspect there will be fewer folks donating items and Joanne mentioned that there were no new families in the area to grow the strollathon (which in many respects besides fundraising, is a good thing, it means that this year, perhaps fewer families in the area got diagnosed).

Vincent had his last playdate this weekend with his best friend from kindergarden – they are moving next week to upstate NY. When I picked Vince up from the playdate, they said a quick goodbye as if they were going to see each other next week, even though they both knew that the move is going to happen in 4 days. I stood there with Vince’s friend’s mom and we gave each other a tender look and a firm hug. Perhaps Vincent won’t even remember his friend when he grows up, but I will.

“People move because of the wear and tear of anxiety. Because of the gnawing feeling that no mater how hard they work their efforts will yeild nothing, that what they build up in one year will be torn down in one day by others. Because of the impression that the future is blocked up, that they might do all right but not their children. Because of the feeling that nothing will change, that happiness and prosperity are possible only somewhere else.”

– Life of Pi, Chapter 29

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?