Conversations on a rainy afternoon:

Owen: 'Sometimes, people call me 'the witch'.
Me: 'Um, ok...why do they call you 'the witch'?!
Owen: 'Because I can cast one magic spell.'
Me: 'Oh, really? What magic spell is that?'
Owen: 'It's called 'Annoy Mommy'' (Grins)

And from yesterday, as my Mom was watching Max and Ruby with Owen:

My mom: 'So, how old is Ruby?'
Owen: (sighs)....'It's complicated'

Today was busy. We got out of the house (relatively) early, driving 1/2 hour north to look at a midcentury piece - a combination shelving unit, credenza, and bar - that I found on Craigslist last night. It wasn't in the best shape, though, and the last thing I need is a refinishing project. Neat piece, though. :(

Since we didn't buy furniture and were out and dressed on a Sunday morning, we decided to spend the furniture money on dim sum instead. It's been a while since we did that, and we haven't been able to splurge as much lately, so that was a nice treat.

Afterward we hit up the geodesic dome open house and were fairly disappointed by the overall condition and layout of the place. It seemed haphazard and shoddy. It was on the market, taken off the market and re-roofed and painted, but the interior was sad and dated and structurally awkward. Dude, at least scrape the Grateful Dead stickers off the windows before you show the damn house! Anyway, that satisfied years of curiosity about what the inside of a round house looks like. Sorta round; go figure.

We also toured a new model home for sale for contrast, and it was lovely in all of its granite countertops and Brazilian cherry hardwoods and unspidery first-floor laundry room and whatnot, but of course totally out of our price range - despite a town utility access road that cuts across the backyard, as well as a stunningly close view of some humming power lines.

Finally, it was off to see The Dark Knight (insert every other review you've heard here), and Thai food.
We haven't had a 'date night' in ages. We really needed one.

Happy fifth birthday to my very strange, very sweet Owen. There's nobody in the world like you, kiddo.

Today we had a party for Owen (five years old next Thursday!): Thirteen kids, eleven adults, and a giant freakin' bouncy house (courtesy of my mom's brilliant thinking). It was....a lot. More later, when I recover. :)

zomg, posting from my iPhone (from sneaky husband who lied and said he was going to work and instead got in line at 7:30am). So exciting!

In a perfectly innocent plan to get some outside work done today, I just:

Tried to sweep the deck, but was surrounded by several angry bees!
Tried to weed the front walkway, MORE BEES.
Swept the cobwebs out of the corners of the front porch, MOTH ATTACK.
Tried to start the faucet to water the vegetable garden, and reached out towards...snake! Big snake!

And now that snake is hanging out in the window well, the one with the window I needed to open to air out the basement. Oh, well. Nature!!!!

I swear, the only time I get anything done outside is just before sunset. Stupid nature.

So even though we live in the sticks, we occasionally get opportunities to rub elbows with some interesting people. M's job has given him the ability for us to meet David Sedaris, Nobel Peace Prize winner Wangari Maathai, and now get up close and personal with this lady:



So...that was interesting. Incidentally, she sure knows her stuff when it comes to local agricultural issues, despite how, um, busy I'm sure she's been lately. Pretty impressive.

Lots more on Flickr...

Lately Owen has been obsessing a bit over numbers - counting to 20, doing small addition on his fingers, that sort of thing. In the past couple of weeks it's ramped up considerably - counting to 100, 200, and coming out with random bursts at dinner like, 'Nine plus nine is eighteen!' in between mouthfuls.

This morning he was begging us to give him math problems to solve. We started small (five plus three) and got progressively more difficult (ten plus ten) and eventually started throwing out some crazy stuff:
What's one hundred plus twenty? '120' - didn't miss a beat. Ok, fair enough...
What's one plus negative one? 'Zero' (Whaaaaa?)
What's three plus negative six? 'Negative three!'
Um, ok...what's one hundred plus negative one hundred and one? 'Negative one!'

BOGGLE.

I've been trying to stay away from the soulsucking internet lately, although I do read my friends' list daily. I just don't comment as much as I'd like right now. I'm sorry. It's the only way I've been able to get anything done!

The good news is that I've been making a dent in the colossally epic job that is organizing this house. Granted - a very tiny dent so far, but when an entire day is spent trudging up and down the basement stairs with laundry, it goes slowly. I'm really not going to be happy until every room is settled properly (as it is, one room always ends up being the 'junk drawer' of the house and I hate that). The playroom needs to be a playroom, not a place for christmas trees and spare desks. I envision the storage area of the basement as an impeccably organized series of well-labeled sealed plastic tubs in long rows, categorized by use and season - like the artifact storage warehouse in Raiders of the Lost Ark. We might have an Ark of the Covenant down there, but you'd be hard-pressed to find it. It might be behind some half-full gallons of paint and under a bag of hockey equipment, but I'm not sure.

More exciting than sorting through old magazines and baby clothes is eating. Or rather, cooking - then eating. A couple of days ago we grabbed aquagirl and went strawberry picking at a local farm. So fun!



Then I made strawberry ice cream. I've also been trying to get through a big bag of garlic scapes. We're pretty garlicky by now. Last night we had cheese tortellini with garlic scape pesto, and I had to brush my teeth three times.

I hope you are all doing fabulously.

Today's highlight may very well have been a routine trip to the post office, where I picked up these pretty, pretty Charles and Ray Eames stamps.

We've been staying sort of busy lately, getting the vegetable garden penned in and finished, weeding the beds, cleaning the garage, that sort of thing. I've spent an extraordinary amount of time trying to figure out what to do with the new beansprout's room, to no avail. I've looked at every overpriced bedding set that exists, and nothing's quite right (or is nice but FOUR HUNDRED DOLLARS, wtf). Just so you think I'm not completely insane, I'm slowly hatching plans to start a kids/nursery design business, so I can justify being picky, right?

So, I've decided to make my own crib bedding. Today I bought a pattern for sizing all the basics, and I'm perusing Repro Depot and similar sites for fabric. Suck it, Babies 'R' Us!
Now, if only I could justify buying an Eames rocker with the money we'd save. Ah, well.

First off, thank you all so much for the happy well-wishes on my last post! Things got a bit busycrazy last week and then we went out of town for five days. Now we're back!

On Saturday we drove to New Jersey to visit with M's family. We had a low-key weekend, Father's Day, etc. Happy belated Father's Day to the dads who read this!

On Monday we drove to Philadelphia for a Red Sox/Phillies game. We had very little time before the game; only enough to jump on a $2 tourist trolley and take a spin around for 15 minutes before heading out to the ballpark. The game? Not so good. The rain held off, however, and two of the five seats we had were fantastic (the others were pretty good, too). We ate the worst burgers of our lives, got heckled by Phillies fans (who, as it turns out, are not so nice), then crashed at the hotel (where Owen decided to sleep between us perpendicularly; I got the sharp kicky ankles in the back all night).

Tuesday we woke up, checked out, grabbed lunch at Geno's, home of the World's Most Intolerant Cheesesteak (anti-immigrant propoganda lining the windows and honest-to-goodness freedom fries, seriously). Then it was sayonara, Philly, hello Six Flags Great Adventure.

I was never an amusement park person, but M's family was and had made the park a family destination for years. Owen was thrilled to whiz around in the kiddie rides and M rode two roller coasters. As a pregnant liability, I was only allowed to eat and play Skee-Ball. Even the most tepid of kiddie rides - five tethered rowboats that slowly rotated in five inches of water - was deemed too dangerous by park officials, and I was left ashore, lest the excitement trigger premature labor and/or lawsuits. The car ride through the parking lot was more harrowing.

The safari park was more my speed, and although they don't let the monkeys assault your vehicle any more (they're safely tucked behind an electrified fence), they didn't seem to have a problem with letting rhinoceroses roam free in packs. Incidentally? You know you've made a smart move in renting a car as giraffe drool runs freely down the passenger side window.

After a full day of amorous emus and $12 hamburgers, we headed back to the in-laws' until Wednesday afternoon, and here we are.
( And here are some pictures: )

Girl!

Girl! Girlgirlgirlgirlgirlgirl. Girl girl! It's a girl!

Dudes, you totally called it. Well, most of you.
Anyway, this morning's ultrasound went well, all looks good, and apparently we get one of each flavor, which is awesome.
Now I just have to fend off the inevitable upcoming tidal wave of pastel pink princess nonsense. It's not going to be easy...:)

Owen just asked me what a 'superdelegate' is.

He's been watching primary season coverage with me, and I've been trying to simplify the process for the 4-year-old world. So far, he knows that there are Democrats and 'Repelicans', that Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama were both trying to be the Democratic nominee, and McCain is the Repelican nominee, and now Obama and McCain are going on the the 'big boss battle'* in November to be president.
He asked for an Obama shirt for his birthday.

* thank you, video games.

Today was a veritable Suburban Extravaganza - garage sales all morning (picked up a decorative birdcage and two sets of curtains), took the kiddo to Friendly's for lunch (he had a free meal coupon from his preschool graduation), a cup of non-dairy sorbet at the mall, and then off to see Kung Fu Panda.
Really, what else is there to do when it's ten million degrees outside? It's brutal, man. No fair. I give up.

Today Owen and I picked up some 3D sidewalk chalk, and it's pretty much as weird as it looks.

I wonder why we don't have any friends in the neighborhood, and then I realize it's probably because we do things like wear silly glasses and stare at the driveway like crazy people.
That, and the fact that I water the plants in my pyjamas. Ok, it's probably mostly that.

Back from the farmer's market! I can safely say we're set as far as the vegetable garden goes. Here's the haul (mostly for my reference)...

Tomato plants:
Moonglow
Green Zebra
Black Pineapple
Chocolate Stripe

As well as some purple basil, Blushing Beauty peppers, broccoli, strawberries, eggplant, and both buttercrunch and red leaf lettuce. Most everything is in pots on the deck now, and the big stuff is going into the raised bed tomorrow. What's going in there? Two kinds of carrots, radishes, scallions, broccoli, eggplant, cabbage, zucchini, and snow peas.

I'm excited! I hope we have a good haul this year.

PS - Owen is doing yoga right now. Weird kid.

I've had such terrifically poor luck at garage sales this year. I've gone the last few weekends in a row - probably close to 100+ sales already, and have spent a total of $1.50 on four woven placemats and a plastic Yoshi. Until today! I scored this awesome treehouse playset (bigger than it looks in the picture; I think that kid is 14) for $25 in great condition. I've been mooning over treehouses like this at the boutique-y toy stores nearby, but could never justify the outrageous cost.
I didn't even think Owen would love it as much as he did - he played with it all afternoon! - I just thought it would be nice to have for the future. So, bonus.

I also managed to get the deck pots cleared and filled with new soil, and planted strawberries, cilantro, mint, basil, chives, and Rainbow Swiss Chard. Tomorrow I hope to get to the heirloom tomato girl at the market for some crazy varieties, maybe some hot peppers, and some more lettuce. Then it's on to the raised garden bed, for which I need to hack together a short perimeter 'fence' to keep the damn nature out.
So much to do!

( From the mind of a 4-year-old: )

So today we had the 20 week ultrasound - you know, the one that whips your family into a frenzied cry of, 'Call us as soon as you're done so we know if it's a boy or a girl!'.

Yeah. Somebody decided to sleep right through that big, ice cold glass of Coke that was supposed to get their legs uncrossed and moving. Somebody decided to curl up under the placenta for a big ol' catnap in an impossible position for the ultrasound technician to determine what the heck sort of flavor they were.
Somebody is so grounded for the next 20 weeks.

Really, people! And to make matters worse, the u/s technician curtly told us that if she saw something abnormal she wouldn't tell us, she'd tell the doctor, which brings no peace of mind at all. I'd be happier with 'we don't know if it's a boy or a girl, but it's healthy!', but instead I got 'I don't know what it is' and 'I can't tell you anything to reassure you', essentially.
So, instead of the day I've been looking forward to for the past 20 weeks, I ended up leaving the ultrasound office with tears in my eyes, having to call everyone and apologize for having no news.
Through this whole pregnancy I've been keeping my emotional distance in case something went wrong again. I haven't bought any baby things, haven't pinned down any names, haven't started the nursery...I was really looking forward to today, when I could have started enjoying this process. It would have seemed more real and exciting to be able to give this child a name, an identity, and begin planning for him/her in earnest.

In any case, they apparently needed more scans of the heart from better angles, so we go back in a few weeks. Hopefully we'll get a better result then.

Tiny Niles Crane is not amused by your cliché childhood pastimes.