Month: September 2009

I decided this year that we would join the Cub Scouts. Our local troop is made up of a bunch of boys that Vince knows and likes from school and also the troop encourages (or actually requires) parents to be with the kids and volunteer during all the meetings and trips and also encourages siblings to participate in any of their activities. It was this inclusiveness of the siblings that drew me to this particular pack (Edda’s going to do the Pinewood Derby!). I’m also hoping that we get to know a bunch of families in the neighborhood. It also helps that we went to the orientation for new scouts last week and Vince had a great time. So we are scouting. (I’m only 1/2 done sewing on the patch on the shoulder, that’s why it’s flying off at a weird angle).

Being part of cub scouts means getting supplies, mainly camping supplies. So Jeremy and I trotted out or camping equipment (now not used for more than 7 years – the last time we used it, we hiked and camped in Colorado for a week far. far away from our parked cars). Can 4 people fit in a 2 person tent? No! Can 4 people fit into 2 mummy sleeping bags? No! The den leader suggested inflatable air mattresses and an 8-person tent so you have plenty of room to change your clothes and assured me that one could drive directly to where the tent will be set up. This is going to be the Ritz-Carleton of camping. I did not know people took air mattresses camping (with electric inflaters!) I’m trying to talk Jeremy into the air mattress instead of the air foam sleeping pad.

OK, this is about three weeks late, but I wanted to say that Vince had no cavities at his semi-annual dental exam. I think our biggest medical bills this year are from dental work, both for the kids and adults.

I’ve took a few days off to have a quick vacation to Philly with a girlfriend. We walked a lot, talked a lot and ate a lot – of cheese steaks. I normally try and minimize my meat intake to only only one meal a day, but in the spirit of Philadelphia – I ate three cheese steaks in a 48 hour period. Yes, I’m still a little uncomfortable as it (they?) moves through my digestive tract, but it was really, really yummy. For those in the know, we went to Geno’s, Pat’s and Jim’s.

We also made time to tour Independence Hall and just by coincidence, today (Sept 17) is the anniversary of the signing of the constitution!

Well, I just wanted to say that when I got up this morning and heard about the Kanye West debacle at the MTV music awards, that the only two videos I mentioned liking on this blog were – Single Ladies and You Belong With Me!!!! I’m totally the perfect demographic for MTV! They are totally trying to market to 37 year old female patent examiners who don’t own an iPod. Ha! I know a good video when I see one.

The derailleur on my bike has been giving me a little bit of trouble – missing some gears when I’ve been shifting. Jeremy spent a lot of time this weekend trying to adjust them into alignment. There are 2 screws and a tension-er and it was driving him crazy to optimize all three at the same time. Jeremy has a touch of dyslexia and this optimization was hitting all the right confusion buttons: right, left, tight, loose, more, less.

Such a sweetie, trying to make my commute smoother and more comfortable. When I came home this evening – yup, you guessed it. Someone stole the rear wheel. Is the derailleur the part that moves or does it include the gears on the rear wheel? Can I say they stole the derailleur as well? Sucks to be my beat up, rusty old bike! I’m takin’ the bus tomorrow!

Doris, Happy Birthday!

love
Mom & Dad

I can not get over the deep seated feeling that when I try and raise money for Rett Syndrome, that I am begging. It is a very visceral feeling and something that I closely associate with a sense of shame and a dash of humiliation. I do not like to ask people to help, I do not like asking people for money. I have spoken other successful fundraisers and they say, oh, after you ask 10 people, it will feel like nothing, and I have asked 10 people, I’ve asked more than 10 people and I still feel awful. I think that other people do not feel this way (I know that there are professional fundraisers – the ones that work in development offices, their jobs just give me the heebe-jeebies, but I’m sure none of them would like to be a patent examiner), but it’s what I feel and it makes me feel bad that I can not do this thing that might someday lead my daughter to be able to use her hands. I also feel like so many people put in so much time to raise $$ to find a cure, I can not let them be the only ones to carry the burden, I must do my part.

The Fairfax stroll-a-thon is coming up mid-October, so today I decided that I’d take Edda to the mall and ask stores to donate some gift certificates for our valiant cause. I’m a big chicken. I asked no one. Edda was pissed that I gave up. She was game, I was not. I am so lame. There really is no excuse.

I tried to distract her with gold lame short shorts from American Apparel.

Edda is also unimpressed with Apple products. Genius bar! I did not actually know they really called it the “Genius bar” – I just thought it was a nickname.

It’s been a weird few weeks. I wanted to say that it’s been a tough few weeks, but that isn’t exactly right. Somehow the past few weeks have seen a clustering of bad and scary news from my friends or the friends of my friends. There has been: someone diagnosed with multiple sclerosis in their early 20s, someone who died of a pulmonary embolism in their late 30s with three kids, the youngest is just 6 weeks old, someone whose baby arrived too early, someone with a history of mental illness had a suicide attempt and is now paralyzed, someone who accidentally ran off an unfamiliar curvy road at night and ended up upside down in a body of water and had to go in a rescue a trapped person, someone trying to take care of a stubborn, disabled relative from 1500 miles away, someone trying to navigate a child with autism through the aggressive teenage years. And I feel like I don’t really know that many people. It’s just whenever I open my mouth (or go on facebook) and say, how’s it going?, a great big scary thing comes out of the other persons mouth. 🙁 It’s a wonder why anyone bothers to get up in the morning and go out the front door. All I can say is that life can be crazy, scary, unbearable and unfair and a lot of the time not very easy… Sigh.

Anyways, on a lighter note, we all went to a Rett Syndrome fundraiser tonight and I had the best time… We went to Garba for a Cure, put on by the Shah family in Frederick, MD. I broke out the sari from Singapore and I’d forgotten how to wrap it around me – I tried to follow some directions from Youtube, but it didn’t work very well. When we finally got to the fundraiser, two lovely Indian ladies helped me rewrap my sari around myself. I had more fun than I thought I would dancing and eating and chatting. I like it when that happens. Look, so many colors of fabric. Yummy!

I came home today and this is what I saw – the music blasting and kids chasing each other around the dining room table.

We are trying to convince Edda that she loves to watch new videos… It’s pretty hard, even though she likes Bob the Builder, the Wiggles, Blue’s Clues, etc, she only likes certain particular episodes. We are trying to get her to watch broadcast PBS just so we don’t have to have the same 7 videos going around and around the DVD player. It’s working out OK, yesterday she laughed her head off watching an episode of Curious George she hadn’t seen before..