elaine_alina

New Year's Party!

Sat, 12 Dec 2009 14:59:18 GMT

Charles and I are hosting a New Year's party this year!

Come on over on New Year's Eve at 8pm or later.

The usual spread of food will be provided, but BYOB is appreciated. We'll have games
available for play also. Casual attire, but dress up if you want!

If you plan on showing up try to let us know so we can get a good
amount of food.

But even if you didn't reply, feel free to show up anyway, even if just for a little bit.

We hope to see you there!

Yay, Crystal Ball

Wed, 18 Nov 2009 20:16:08 GMT

I have to agree with Gwommy that this was the best Crystal Ball ever (so far). It was delightful getting to see so many friends, old and new. With at least one, it had been so long that people were beginning to presume him dead (you know who you are!)

Many many thanks to turnberryknkn again for hosting us at his guest apartment in St. Louis. magda_vogelsang and I left late Friday morning and despite blithely driving right past I-69 (our intended route being through Indianapolis) and not realizing til after we'd passed Kalamazoo, we made decent time. Even around Chicago! Stopped for lunch at Culver's and had a burger and cheese curds - yum! And frozen custard for dessert. Double yum! And the migraine that was flirting with me went away after the meal. Yay!

Made it to turnberryknkn's place around 7pm. He needed to hang around the apartment waiting for people to show, so we ordered carry out for dinner from a nearby Mexican restaurant. The walk to and fro to get the food felt quite nice after the long drive. Even so, I decided to give the City Museum a pass, since I wanted to have energy to dance the next day. After Teleri and Will arrived, turnberryknkn decided to put on some pants and join them for dinner as well. turnberryknkn of the amazing metabolism.

After breakfast with the gang at the Majestic (a family type restaurant that does a decent breakfast), it was off to the event! There were several fun classes. My favorite moments included Tsire's reaction when I showed up to her Tesara class and announced that being the 11th person and having danced the dance before, I would gladly sit out, but just in case she got 10 more people, I had an extra set of ribbons with me. Gotta love it when someone exclaims about me giving them another reason to love me! I did not, in fact, get to use my ribbons, but I was glad I'd brought them. My second favorite class experience was learning Spanish Pavan, I'd say "again" but the first time a couple years ago didn't take. I got it this time, and was in many pictures that were taken in that class. If you have a Facebook account, check out the pictures!

My other favorite class moment was in the last class period when Tsire told the lords to go to the wrong side of their lady. Gwommy glanced over at me and announced that his lady didn't have a wrong side. Good answer :) Of course, one of our reasons for taking that class to re-learn Villanella the way it is currently done at Pennsic. Imagine our chagrin to learn that it was being taught the way we originally learned it, so rather than getting it the new way, we'd just reinforced the old. Laugh.

At some point during the classes, I realized that while my natural shyness does not tend to manifest much at dance events, it is in fact still there. A lady was pointed out to me who clearly had her dress on backwards (train and pseudo-bustle in front), and it was suggested that I, being a nice person, might inform her of this in a gentle manner so as to help her out. Reasonable enough, but I just couldn't do it. If only Philip had been present at that moment - I think he would have handled it well.

After classes, headed to St. Louis for dinner with magda_vogelsang, dancemaster_e, mistress_jess, and Adam. We went to the Morgan Street Brewery and had a lovely meal. Was a bit taken aback after the meal when two guys I passed on the way to the ladies' room asked how they should address me. When I suggested "my lady" would be appropriate, the response was, "We were thinking more 'wench' or 'whore'" "Not if you're polite!" was my knee jerk response, as I entered female only territory. The guys clearly thought they were being funny, since I heard them telling their buddies about the exchange. The real kicker - dancemaster_e who had preceded me upstairs by a few minutes (with not quite the same destination) passed the same guys and was addressed as "sir."

Later, the five of us were headed back to our car, and someone approached us and said, "You look like locals - where can I get a good burger around here?" I decided not to enlighten him as to our decidedly unlocal status, but told him we'd just eaten at the Morgan Street Brewery and it was quite good.

We returned to the site with plenty of time before the ball. Much dancing ensued. It was great being one of the first to dance with the son (still in utero) of mistress_jess and Adam - always good to start them off young! Philip, Felice and I worked out a proposal for dance at RUM for Felice to submit - Yay!

magda_vogelsang and I kept dancing until around 2am - through the first 4 sets of the ball. Spanish Pavan was toward the end of the 4th set, and dancemaster_e and I managed it rather well I thought. I then decided that if I was going to drive back to St. Louis, it had better be soon if we wanted to make it there alive. So, after many many goodbyes, we returned to the apartment to grab a few hours sleep before heading home.

All in all, a very good weekend. Yay, dancing! :)

Cedar Point Tomorrow anyone?

Mon, 31 Aug 2009 18:33:16 GMT

I'm the only person left of the original group interested in going to Cedar Point tomorrow. If anyone else is suddenly available at the last minute, let me know - I'd still love to go!

The tooth fairy will never hire me

Thu, 20 Aug 2009 12:41:13 GMT

I'm a bad tooth fairy. I actually remembered to go into my Marcus' room last night with his dollar coin. But I couldn't find his tooth. I always have him put it in a big ziplock bag so that it's easy to find, but nothing. So I left the coin anyway. What I didn't know is that Marcus had taken his tooth out of the bag and lost it, so he made a paper tooth and left that under his pillow (which I somehow missed). In the morning, he found his paper tooth still there but we couldn't find his coin anywhere. I told him that since he lost his tooth in the house, I'm sure the tooth fairy found it (so let him keep the one he made of paper) and left a coin under his pillow anyway. Never did find it. Good thing I had a second gold dollar coin I could pretend to find there. So this tooth cost us $2 - I'd have been better off forgetting!

Cedar Point, Anyone?

Wed, 12 Aug 2009 13:38:47 GMT

I'm thinking of doing a coaster day at Cedar Point (kids staying home) on Tuesday September 1, during the last week they're open during the week. They are open 11am til 9am that day. Anyone interested in joining me?

Yay, Pennsic!

Sat, 08 Aug 2009 12:53:33 GMT

We're back from Pennsic. What a great event!

Highlights:

Drunken court followed by Cynnabar's Got Talent, including my winning entry of the newly discovered Caroso dance Il Polo di Amore for one lady and one pole.

A fantastic Whose Line Doth it Be show - they were all so good, it was impossible to eliminate a team so as to choose a winner.

Dancing, dancing, and yet more dancing! Including some of Jamie's fun variations. I absolutely adore doing La Castellana to New Bo Peep. Rufty Tufty works well to Washer Woman's Bransle (including some of the mimed stuff from the bransle), but Washer Woman's Bransle does not work to Rufty Tufty. The 1503 style ball was a ton of fun, as were the other balls, classes and events. I've heard that there is fighting at this event, but for me, it's a fantastic dance event!

Watching charles_midair fight in the unbelted champion's battle. It was worth the hour and a half wait ahead of time!

Decent weather - a bit wet at times, but very moderate temperatures and nice breezes.

And, as always, seeing all the friends that don't get together nearly often enough. Including the surprise appearance of desfontaines, who had planned not to come this year, but realized as the event approached that not coming was not an option.

Yay, Pennsic!

Known World Dance Symposium - Yay, dancing!

Mon, 06 Jul 2009 21:19:17 GMT

The event was fun. My classes went reasonably well, and I enjoyed the many classes I took (finally got to take La Volta with my husband as a partner). Danced to my heart's content at the 3 balls. Getting to see so many friends was awesome.

We were worried about the border delay coming back at the end of the weekend - it was an hour, which was far less than I'd feared it would be. I suspect leaving early in the day worked in our favor.

Looking forward to the next KWDS in two years!

For now, I need to catch up on sleep. Too bad a nap is not an option. . . .

Canadian Food

Mon, 06 Jul 2009 14:29:07 GMT

Reminders to self for the next time I'm in Canada:

Iced Tea - almost always sweetened to a sickening extent. Blech!

Chef Salad - means house salad. Has no eggs, cheese, or meat in it. Not a good choice as a lunch entree.

I should have remembered both of those things from previous trips, but it had been awhile - hopefully the experiences on this trip will have at least made a lasting impression!

On Canada day, almost everything, excepting Tim Hortons and a few other fast food type places, is closed. Next time, search out a Pita Pit (source of two of our lunches).

Our trip was great, but the food was very hit and miss. Lunch on Canada day definitely a miss. (Found an open family restaurant. Ordered chicken wrap with salad. The chicken was fried rather than grilled - should have asked. The waitress comes back before bringing our food and says, "I'm not supposed to tell you this, but our lettuce is really brown and wilted - do you want fries or cole slaw instead of the salad?" I really didn't. She told us she'd see if there was some fresh lettuce in the back and managed to find some, but still.)

Lunch at another family restaurant the next day was also a miss (my chef salad entree), so perhaps I should just avoid such places in Canada. At least in Hamilton.

Lunch at the University food court was fine (finally got an entree salad!) when we eventually found our way there, but that's another story.

The best lunches were at the Pita Pit. Although even there, not everything was perfect the first time - they didn't heat the falafel for mistress_jess. Another service issue. The next day when we stopped there to pick up lunch before heading home, a much more helpful person was working. She offered to grill my onions, peppers, and mushrooms as well as my meat, and when I had commented upon coming in that I wasn't sure they were open on Sunday, not only confirmed the obvious, that they were, but mentioned for future reference that when in doubt, they're open. Only closed the 3 days a year that Tim Horton's is. I suspect she would have at at least inquired if mistress_jess wanted her falafel heated had she been the person working there the previous day.

McMaster University did a nice job of catering the wedding. Yummy dinners (we chose salmon and beef and shared our entrees). The chocolate mousse they served for dessert was delicious! The truffles made by the bride and her mother were also to die for, and I got a lot of those because half had coconut on them, and I had to assist those around me who do not care for coconut).

Dinner on Thursday was awesome! If you're ever in Hamilton and are interested in some fine dining, check out Shakespeare's.

I really was looking forward to dinner at a pub called the Snooty Fox on Friday. In addition to the name, they had an interesting menu and claimed to be known for the freshness of their veggies. But it was not a good experience. My food was decent (chicken florentine), when I finally got it an hour and a half after arrival. Our waitress was surly and slow and obviously resentful of our presence. About half of us at the table were not thrilled with their food either. Friends at another table were served even later even though they ordered first.

Valentino's Italian restaurant on Saturday was another hit! Good service, wonderful food, awesome desserts :)

Still glad we opted not to do the university meal plan option for lunches.

Breakfasts at the B&B were fine for those of us who enjoyed having eggs and bacon every day. But we did have the same thing each day, which I wasn't expecting. When she realized that most of us were not keen on tomatoes that first day, she gave us strawberries instead the other mornings, which was a definite improvement.

So, good food can be found in Canada. But one must keep in mind that it is a foreign country, and not all the food names mean the same thing there as here. And it seems that while helpfulness is in general a very common Canadian trait, it appears that the few Canadians without it tend to end up in the food service industry.

Head Shaking Amazement

Tue, 23 Jun 2009 21:41:33 GMT

So, my mom took her leased car to the dealer service department for a very minor repair. She spent some time talking to the guy in sales about possibilities for a future car purchase or lease, and then headed back to the service department. The mechanic she was dealing with told her that he'd been working for a half hour and hadn't been able to get it. He'd never done this before. He would try for another 15 minutes or so and then give up - they'd take care of it when she turns it in at the end of her lease.

Another lady waiting in the area looked shocked and asked my mom what she'd brought the car in for. Her response, "to get a burnt out turn signal replaced."

Amazing!

Miraculously, they did manage to figure it out. Really makes me appreciate my mechanic!

A Pleasant Saturday

Sun, 10 May 2009 13:02:38 GMT

I, like so many others, am posting here much less often since joining Facebook. And it's not that I even do many one line status updates there. I think it's mostly that I only feel like spending a certain amount of time staring at a computer screen, so less of it is now here.

But I am still alive! And here to post about a very fun day.

Started off with a great workout at Planet Fitness. I had missed my usual Thursday workout due to a sore throat, so this one felt especially worthwhile.

After, following a quick (second) breakfast prepared by charles_midair, we went to see the new Star Trek movie, where we were joined by magda_vogelsang. Very enjoyable film and great company!

Immediately thereafter, returned to my house to get Marcus' soccer stuff together for an afternoon game. Daddy was taking him to the game, because I was headed to the Saltatoris Swinging Soiree. Exchanged birthday presents with magda_vogelsang, changed into garb, and she and I headed to Lansing.

The Soiree was a lot of fun. Interesting seeing Gwommy with short hair, although his facebook picture had prepared me for it. Only about half as many people as last year (40 rather than 80), and no live music, but much fun dancing nonetheless. And they had prepared for as many people as last year, so there was an amazing amount of delicious food.

The local baron and baroness were there, so there were the usual toasts at the feast, and it was odd discovering that I was highest in the Order of Precedence after Her Excellency. Which meant giving the second toast fell to me. Normally, the first toast is to Their Majesties, and the second to Their Highnesses, but since Coronation just happened, and we have not yet had a Crown Tournament to determine the Heirs, there are no Highnesses just now. So I toasted the local baron and baroness. It went well - got their names right, which is rather important when they're right there in front of you. It was only after that I realized that my elegant drinking vessel used for the toast was my plastic Fuze bottle. Laugh! Good thing it's a very informal event.

We headed back after dinner so magda_vogelsang could get to work and I could get to bed at close to my usual time (so I wouldn't have a relapse of my cold). Found out that Marcus scored his first goal at soccer - Yay! Also, neither child had eaten any dinner (or much of anything other than snacks since 10am). But when I offered them the same things that their Daddy had, suddenly, they wanted them. So it's good that I got home when I did, or they would not have had dinner (which wouldn't have hurt them, but probably would have resulted in their waking up absurdly early starving for breakfast). So I fed them and got them and myself to bed.

All in all, a very pleasant day!

Kids' Scrabble Discoveries

Fri, 10 Apr 2009 16:43:25 GMT

The kids enjoy playing Scrabble. I help them with words, and it is a lot of fun to try and get a high combined score. We have the board game and, now, a computer version.

The kids recently made a number of discoveries about the computer version. First, you can play against the computer at a beginner level. Pretty cool.

Next, they found that the computer version has a "hint" button. It gives hints about your best possible play given your letters and the board (e.g., shows you where you'd play it, what letters are used, how many points it is). If you keep hitting the button, it eventually gives you the word. They think this is great - they can now play against the computer at beginner level and win every time! I try to encourage them to find their own words at least some of the time.

Now Marcus noticed that there is a "best plays" button, which simply lists your top 10 word choices (with the highest point values first), and you can choose what word you like. They love this!

Not really much of a game the way they play it, but at least they're having fun with words!

Post Terp Recovery

Thu, 02 Apr 2009 19:16:02 GMT

Terpsichore at the Tower XV is now over, and it was tons of fun! Lot of friends, dancing, and desserts - what more could one want?

I'm still recovering from all the merriment - it tends to take about a week these days to get back to normal. So maybe I'll be able to write in more detail about some of the wonderful happenings (the great Bizzaria challenge (video posted on Facebook), the impromptu pickup band's saving the dance class, etc.) next week. Hopefully so, as there are some great stories!

For any who are wondering about the condition of our friend who was taken to St. Joe's after a seizure at dinner, he's fine. He was released from the hospital on Sunday afternoon, and all tests came back with normal results.

Now, it's time to gear up for Known World Dance Symposium in July!

Yay, dance events!

Terpsichore XV

Mon, 23 Mar 2009 16:52:56 GMT

This weekend is our Barony's annual dance event, Terpsichore at the Tower. As usual, we'll be hosting a bunch of out of town friends overnight on Friday and Saturday nights. Also, as per usual, we are opening up our house to anyone who wants to come over to visit, snack, play games, etc. Friday evening beginning around 7pm (feel free to call if you're not available until later) and Saturday after the event (Post revel). Come join the fun!

We're also planning on going out for breakfast Sunday morning - 9am at Bob Evans on Carpenter Road. Let me know if you're interested in joining the group for that so I can have a count for the restaurant.

For those who will be at the event and looking for dinner ideas, I'm getting a group of us together to go to Jasmine Thai and China Bistro. I'd also like a tentative head count for the restaurant for any interested in joining this group.

Yay, friends, dancing, and good food!

Birthday!

Tue, 10 Feb 2009 13:14:28 GMT

Happy Birthday charles_midair - you are the love of my life and the song in my heart!

Baby Cut Carrots

Fri, 06 Feb 2009 20:52:07 GMT

So, has anyone else noticed a change in packaged (baby cut and shredded) carrots lately? They are now packaging them wet, which prevents them from looking dried out, but also causes them to rot much faster, such that I have to look through several packages to find any that haven't started to rot. I've noticed this with different brands and in different stores. Why are they doing this?

Bah. Back to fighting my migraine.

Mystery Solved!

Tue, 25 Nov 2008 19:24:48 GMT

Cassandra's Dora sheets have resurfaced. She must have grabbed them from the laundry basket when I was making up Marcus' bed. She obligingly opened the (usually empty) drawer of the dresser where she had put them to show them to me yesterday. Naturally, she had no idea what I was talking about when I asked her about them on the day they disappeared. Ah, 3 year olds.

Of course, the ideas of what happened to them that my friends came up with were much more amusing!

Consolation for Fellow Migraine Sufferers

Fri, 14 Nov 2008 17:49:29 GMT

Apparently, women who have a history of Migraines are, in fact, less likely to get breast cancer than women without such a history. Here’s an article about it. Thanks to dianetsands for first pointing me toward this bit of news in her comment to my recent entry!

Socks, maybe, but Sheets?

Fri, 14 Nov 2008 17:40:50 GMT

Last week, I washed the kids' bedding, as per my usual bi-weekly routine. But when I put the laundry away, Marcus was missing a pillow case, and Cassandra was missing her fitted sheet and top sheet. I found Marcus' pillow case stuck in the laundry chute. But Cassandra's sheets (pink with Dora the Explorer and Boots all over them - pretty hard to miss) are still nowhere to be found. And we're talking sheets for a full-sized bed here. Very odd. I guess the Gremlins were hungry?

Exploding Head

Wed, 12 Nov 2008 15:09:57 GMT

Midgraine, Migraine, go away. And don't ever come back.

Crystal Ball Happiness

Mon, 10 Nov 2008 20:43:36 GMT

I went to Crystal Ball this past weekend, along with socair, magda_vogelsang, aelkiss, and niquerio. Unfortunately, since our Barony’s Grand Tourney was the same weekend, charles_midair could not join me, but at least our family was well-represented at both events.

Crystal Ball was a ton of fun. After an uneventful drive down, we arrived in St. Louis Friday evening around 8pm, shortly after the arrival of Gwommy, Darius, and Lynette who also were staying with turnberryknkn. The 9 of us went out to dinner and had fun catching up with each other.

Saturday morning, after breakfast at a local diner, we went to Crystal Ball. I was really tired (not surprising – I rarely sleep well away from home) and starting to come down with a migraine, so I didn’t actually get to any morning classes, although I had planned to do the basse dance class. I took some Excedrin and had fun chatting with people, which continued through the lunch hour. At the end of the lunch period, I watched the tail end of the danced themed “Jeopardy” style game, which was quite fun.

I did get to some classes in the afternoon. First I decided to get my blood moving at an English Country dance class featuring Confesse (which I had never done – rather fun, and good for our usual gender distribution, being for 2 lords and 4 ladies, although the lords mostly dance with each other), Boatman (a dance I’ve grown very fond of, although they do it a bit different and I prefer it the way Gwommy teaches it, which also seems a better match to Playford), and Chestnut (wanted to see if they followed Playford or “corrected” it by doing the verses in the usual order – glad to see they followed it as written).

Then, I went to a 15th Century Italian class featuring Amoroso, Leoncello Vecchio (I never remember which one this is or exactly how it goes (and I don’t really have to know if my partner does, since it’s mostly chasing after the lord using the same steps), and Gratioso (which I’d never done before and is similar enough to Leoncello that I’ll probably always mix them up). Quite fun, although if mistress_jess had made it to the event (she and Adam were planning on making it, but sadly couldn’t at the last minute), I would likely have done the Spanish Pavane class with her again.

In the last class period, I did more English Country, Whirligig (which they do oddly there, so good to go through before the ball), Spanish Jeepsie (which we should do more often at home as it is quite fun), and Saturday Night Sunday Morn (another fun and interesting progression dance, which I finally was able to get and retain for the ball – yay!) That class ended early, so I was able to catch the end of sionandreas’s 16th Century Italian class, just as he was starting Contrapasso in Due to music. I was just going to dance it by myself at the end of the line, when I realized that he was leading it alone at the front, and so opted to join him and was amused to wonder how long it would take him to realize he had a partner. Very fun stuff!

I approached Mistress Alphia who runs the dancing there and offered my services as teacher (either invited in advance or as a last minute substitute) at a future Crystal Ball should she have the need. She was very gracious about my offer. She did mention that she likes encouraging locals to teach at the event, so it remains to be seen whether she'll take me up on it, but I wanted to make sure she knew I would be happy to be called upon to serve.

My migraine was still with me, unfortunately, and getting to the nausea inducing stage, so I went to stage 2 of my arsenal and took Midrin. Also figured eating dinner might help. A group of us went to the Morgan Street Brewery .
Very fun place, as we recalled from having gone there several years back. I ordered the crab cake appetizer as my meal, and tried a bite of Magda’s white chocolate bread pudding with raspberry sauce for dessert. Yum! And we had a nice waiter, who good naturedly agreed to take our picture with turnberryknkn’s camera.

We had some time before the ball was supposed to start, and considered going to the Arch, but in the end opted to just hang out.

I had started to feel a bit better after dinner, but the Migraine was still strong and started to get worse again, so I went to stage 3 medication – the horribly expensive and loopiness inducing Imitrex. Not something I like to take, but it beats having one’s head explode. And it did, in fact, decimate the Migraine – Yay! (Thank goodness, since that was the very last weapon in my arsenal) So I got to enjoy the ball .

I wish I could still do the stay up all night part of the ball, but making through 4 sets of the ball is pretty good these days. The first 3 sets were to live music by huge ensemble of musicians, including aelkiss, and niquerio, who, of course, had the Cynnabar Ritornello banner proudly displayed. It was kind of ironic that they were unable to be at the Cynnabar event to receive the award of the Purple Fretty (awarded in court that afternoon) because they were representing Cynnabar and performing the service for which Ritornello received the award at the rather distant Crystal Ball event.

I started the ball out with socair - it's always fun to do pavannes and almans with a fellow lawyer type! I was happy to see some 16th Century Italian dances (Gracca Amoroso, Villanella, and Contrapasso ) at the ball this year (other than our now traditional rendition of Bella Gioioso to the music for Hole in the Wall) - Yay! I was amused when it occured to me after magda_vogelsang and I did Bella Gioioso with Darius and Lynette during Hole in the Wall that a possible conclusion people could draw given that the latter two are Canadian (from the Kingdom of Ealdormere) is that they do Hole in the Wall very differently in Ealdormere! I also really enjoyed doing Cross-Roads to the Isles, which I had not done in years. magda_vogelsang was amused to realize that our set for this very out of period dance was made up of two dance Laurels and two dance Willows :)

The fourth set of the ball ended around 2:30am (Central time, so it felt like 3:30am), at which point magda_vogelsang and I woke up turnberryknkn (napping in the music room so as to be able to make his 5:30am hospital shift, and kindly staying at the event to drive us home when the rest of our party left earlier) and headed back to the apartment.

I may write separately about some of the amusing things resulting from our extremely tired group of people continually changing our plans. It’s amazing everything worked out so well.

I am extremely wiped out today, but it was well worth it.

Voting!

Tue, 04 Nov 2008 21:54:48 GMT

I voted - Yay! I got to the polling place a little before 11am (after dropping Marcus off at my mom's following his dentist appointment), and people coming out had waited 1 1/2 hours. It was 1 hour before I got into the building - boy am I glad the weather was gorgeous! It certainly felt like an accomplishment when all was done.

Marcus' class did a vote yesterday too. Marcus said he voted for Obama. When asked why, he replied, "Because he's running for President!" Gotta love the way 5 year olds think!

Italian Renaissance Dance Workshop

Mon, 03 Nov 2008 13:02:11 GMT

The theme of our Barony's November workshops is Italy, and I'll be starting things off with a workshop tonight (Monday, November 3) on Italian Renaissance dance, starting at 7pm at the Michigan Union.

I'll be talking about dance in the context of Italian culture in the 15th and 16th Centuries and teaching a few dances from each period. No dance experience is necessary, and I won't pressure anyone to dance who would prefer to watch instead. Of course, it's also a great opportunity for those who are looking for an opportunity to learn and/or do more period dance! The dances I'll likely teach are Amoroso, Petit Vriens, and Gelosia from th 15th Century, plus Contrapasso in Due, Alta Regina, and Bizzaria d'Amore from the 16th Century.

If this sounds interesting/fun to you, and you're geographically close enough to make it feasible, please come!

Back from DC

Mon, 20 Oct 2008 19:50:53 GMT

I had a great time in DC this weekend. Spent lots quality time with my husband, both alone (very rarely do we get time to ourselves these days!) and with friends. Enjoyed the dinner reception at the conference. Had an even better time doing all the fun touristy stuff (walking through the National Mall and seeing all the monuments, enjoying a great view of the city from the top of the old post office building, wandering through the National Gallery during part of which we enjoyed a Docent tour of Italian Renaissance paintings, seeing a performance of the Capitol Steps, and eating lots of good food (including a fun lunch at the American Indian museum). All in all a fantastic trip! Didn't have time to see everything there was to see, of course, so I'll have to get back someday!

The kids also had a fun vacation at camp Grandma - fun for all!

All the fun in DC was a great distraction from my poison ivy rash spreading and acting up a lot, having shoes just a bit too small at the toes (though they felt fine in the store) so that said toes ended up bloody each night, and my darling husband coughing up all sorts of nasty goo (marking the end of another fun virus). The rash is still with me, so I'm now taking Prednisone and have ordered more prescription anti-itch cream. Whee!

Phantom husband, but all too real itches

Wed, 15 Oct 2008 12:01:32 GMT

charles_midair is out of town, but this morning, when the rest of us were downstairs, his alarm clock went off, followed by the sound of running water. Yes, I quickly figured out that the water was running because Cassandra had been the last to use the toilet that one has to lift the handle on to prevent just that, and obviously the alarm clock had simply been left on. But still, especially when one was half asleep, the timing of these things was a bit eerie!

Unfortunately, my itchy rash (probably poison ivy based, though how my neck got exposed, I'm not sure) is not phantom-like at all. It's been just over a week since it first appeared, and it does seem to be getting a bit lighter, and I'm not conscious of it every single second of the day, but it's still irritating in every possible way.

Whee!

Officially a Soccer Mom

Mon, 08 Sep 2008 18:51:08 GMT

Marcus had his first soccer game last Saturday, so I am now officially a Soccer Mom! He had such a good time - he was so excited that he couldn't stop giggling through the whole game. He still needs to learn a few basics of the game, but I'm sure that will come.

Five year olds playing soccer are adorably cute.