McMadness

Random Thought Thursday

2012-02-09T07:30:00.000-08:00

The systems are working. Twice this week I woke up at 6:12 and made it out the door at 6:34, coffee in hand (no juice though, sadly) to catch my favorite 6:45 train. Today my hair is in a "messy bun" and I did not have time to look in the mirror, but I have my coffee. I can do this.

Yesterday I got off at my BART stop in San Francisco and, in place of the man who plays his saxophone every. single. day. was a crowd and this news article:

(Read a similar article here)

Yep. Murderer. Not just any murderer, a murder who killed his wife in in 1987 in Albuquerque and has spent 25 years hiding under secret identities (some of them belonging to children!), all while I am tossing dollar bills into his saxophone case. I wish I was a writer and could weave this tidbit into a novel. He would not be the main character by any means. He would be one of those side characters you know about but don't really think about. Then BAM! Murderer.

I need a bagel.

TOMS Ballet Flats Review

2012-02-08T00:00:00.000-08:00

The time is finally here. Months of anticipation. Then the announcement . . . February 1 they would be here. TOMS ballet flats.

10:30pm/PST on January 31 I placed my order. The West Coast has its advantages. My blue suede shoes.

They arrived on Friday and waited patiently in their box until I got home.

I couldn't resist throwing in a pair of these Tiny TOMS, which D immediately demanded to wear. "SHOES! Me! Dis! Mama! Shoes!"

At least my lack of resistance means two more pairs of shoes for someone who really needs them.

When D discovered I also got shoes, she could hardly contain her excitement. "Ma-Ma! DIS! SHOE!" She pulled my shoes out of the box and put them next to my feet.

I wore the flats all weekend, eager to see if they could match the comfort level of the original TOMS while providing a dressier vibe.

I am pleased to report, the shoes did not disappoint. Not quite as comfortable as the original TOMS--which are basically socially acceptable slippers once they mold perfectly to your feet--but pretty close. The suede fabric is a bit stiff and required some breaking in. I imagine the softer fabrics they are offered in would be more comfortable.

I ordered my true size, 9.5, with no fit problems, but most of the reviews are coming back noting that they run a half size large. Consider yourself warned.

One week update: after being broken in, they are indeed a half size too big. My advice, order a half size down.

One for One. Your turn!

Baby Sophisticate

2012-02-06T06:00:00.000-08:00

I promised to share photos of the baby knit for my best friend Peri's baby, due in 4 weeks. I do my best to make good on promises made publicly and memorialized on the internet, so here you go:

The sweater is Baby Sophisticate, made in Malabrigo Worsted Paris Night.

The hat is Perfect Fit Baby Hat, again with Malabrigo and Fiber Co's Organik.

With four close friends having babies within five weeks of each other, my knitting needles were ablaze before the holidays and my stash was bursting with yarn destined for a tiny little person. And then I got so overwhelmed with all of the tiny sweaters, hats and blankets I had mentally committed to that I just stopped. And switched to books. So this little set + a bag of Works In Progress + a mountain of yarn is where I am at. But these babies are coming out whether they have hand knit hats or not, so I better get moving.

Random Thought Thursday

2012-02-02T07:25:00.000-08:00

Has anyone seen my shoes? More specifically, has anyone seen one nude pump, one teal patent leather flat, one foldable green flat and one gray canvas TOMS? There is a 3-foot tall shoe thief in my house. If she took matching sets, I could handle it. In fact, I may not even notice. But I see the one shoe laying there and I get reminded that I own them and become determined to wear the pair. So the hunt begins . . . but at 6am I have only so much searching in me. So please let me know of you come across my shoes.

I am cracking the code on this early morning BART business. Apparently a lot of people leave for work at the crack of dawn, or at least on the 6:48 train. It's called the "nasty train" in our house because when it gets to my station it is already standing room only. And then, if you are a priss like me and refuse to stand in the mornings (if I live this far out, the least I should get is a seat) you will wait in the cold for TEN MINUTES until the next train arrives. Ten minutes is an eternity during BART commute hours, with trains often being 2 to 4 minutes apart. With all of this knowledge now you can understand that the total emptiness of my current train, the 6:42 train, should be appropriately celebrated. Today I staggered on the train, still waiting for the coffee I chugged in the car to kick in, and was presented with rows upon rows of empty seats. I snagged my favorite spot and got nice and cozy, careful not to let any exposed skin touch the seat. Or wall. Or window. As close to commute bliss as it gets. Now BART just needs to hire that roaming coffee barista I keep emailing them about.

Alas, an empty BART train means no fun stories to share. Everybody is calm and half asleep today. Which I appreciate, considering Monday I informed a guy that his head was bleeding as we waited for the train. And not just a bit of blood, there was a lot, pouring down his head. I debated telling him, not wanting to call attention to a potentially embarrassing head-bleeding disorder, before deciding it was more likely that he did not know his head was bleeding than he has some head-bleeding disorder. He was mortified, but better some lady on BART pointing it out than your boss. No one wants to be that person at work with the bloody head.

Library Baby Shower

2012-01-29T14:22:00.000-08:00

This is my best friend:

Isn't she pretty? Yes.

She is having a baby. Which means I got to host a baby shower for her. You may remember the baby shower she threw me back when I was with child. Ha, with child. Let's bring that phrase back. My baby shower pretty much rocked, so I could by no means host a crappy shower for her.

I searched Etsy for days before coming across Chalk + Dot, who did a custom design, coming up with these invitations (which I blurred so creepy internet stalkers don't have my address):

The theme was library, with each invited guest receiving a book plate to place in her favorite children's book as a gift to the baby. Chalk + Dot designed the book plate, along with a host of other cute items to go with the theme.

Sweet Treats Just Around the Corner came through with library cupcakes, and we were ready to go.

My genius realization was that with a library-themed shower, I could use D's books as "decorations." I'm fancy like that.

The guests arrived, ate, mingled and oogled over my hottie BFF's baby belly. The Chi Omegas were out in force, still planning events together over a decade later. The owl is the official mascot of Chi O, which explains the throw pillow.

Declyn was enamored with 9-month old Peyton.

Who is pretty irresistible

We played a game where we faced off against a giant pile of baby socks and competed for fastest folding time. D insisted that the mama-to-be put the baby socks on, you know, for practice and all.

And that baby boy is going to have one fierce library.

And in case you think I am holding back on my soon-to-be self-proclaimed nephew, he did receive the first of many hand knits from his yarn Auntie. . . but I was so excited to wrap them, I forgot to take photos.

Random Thought Thursday

2012-01-26T07:23:00.000-08:00

The return of the Working Girl brings you the return of Random Thought Thursdays! I know you missed me.

First things first. The job. I am not going to blog about work here because it is inappropriate for a number of reasons (attorney-client confidentiality being the biggie) but I can say that I am confident that I made the right decision in moving firms. Yes, I am deeply in the honeymoon period and wholly obsessed with the sparking water machine in my new office--you heard me right, sparking water, on TAP!--but I can already tell that my work satisfaction will be much better.

On to the important stuff. Note how early it is. 6:54 as I type, and I am on BART already! It's the systems! The systems that get me out the door at 6:30, with coffee that automatically starts brewing at 5:30. I can't be expected to drag myself out of bed in the dark without coffee waiting. Forget for a moment that last night I failed to put the coffee pot back correctly and woke up to a coffee puddle stretching across the counter. Minor glitches in the system are normal.

The man next to me on BART is snoring. This is what happens when the systems get you out the door when it is still dark.

What also happens when you leave at the crack of dawn is that your family is still asleep when you leave. Thank goodness for modern technology, as I was able to make a poorly lit and completely awkward video message on the Mac this morning for them. For those of you concerned that I will become one of those weekend-only parents, fear not. I leave at the crack of dawn so that I may make it back for dinner and bedtime. And then log back on at 8 pm. That's called balance. Boom.

A man just walked onto the train with a 50 pound bag of dirt on his head.

On that note, I will leave you with this picture:

Fuzzy, yes, but that just adds to the charm.

Working Girl

2012-01-22T22:58:00.000-08:00

Tomorrow I rejoin the land of the working. Thanks to extreme slowness on the part of a client of my former firm in getting a necessary document signed, I had five weeks of freedom from work. Five glorious weeks in which I did not have to be attached at the hip to email, lug my laptop everywhere I go in case I have to remotely work at 10pm on a Saturday night from my in-laws due to an "emergency." Five weeks without conference calls, pencil skirts and billable hours.

Tomorrow I jump back into it all. And I can't wait. As crazy as it can be, I love it. From the adrenaline rush that comes with finding the perfect case or filing a brief just in the nick of time, to the endless patents, the team strategy meetings, and the ever-changing law. I even love the crazy clients and the even crazier opposing counsel. And I have not met a pencil skirt that I can't handle.

Plus, now I've got these bad girls to cheer me on:

Five weeks of freedom was an unexpected gift. I was able to enjoy a relaxing holiday packed with family events, get in some much needed skiing, spend New Years with close friends in the mountains, and get in some family time in the midst of unexpected sadness.

B and I used the time between our travels to get truly organized with our daily life. Don't expect our closets are clean like Bhrea's, because they are not, but we finally created plans and systems for our daily lives, revamped our eating habits, and really just became in-sync. I didn't realize that rushing from work to home to social activities and back again does not leave ample time to step back and evaluate whether the current systems are working...or in the case of my morning "routine" whether there was ever in fact a system at all.

So starting tomorrow, we are hitting the ground running with systems. Prepping coffee the night before, meal planning, getting the veggies prepped for our morning juice, picking out clothes before going to bed, waking up when the alarm goes of...at the same time every day (5:30! ouch! hence the need to prep the coffee), and a real bedtime. I'll check in next month and see what managed to stick.

And for my new job, I have made my own set of resolutions and written them in a place that cannot be ignored. Big things like entering my billed time at the end of each day, but no later than first thing the following morning, making a weekly habit of reading the top IP blogs and cases, etc. And little things like going to lunch or coffee with someone new each week to get to know my new colleagues.

I'm ready. I am going to rock it. Bring it.

Saying Goodbye

2012-01-21T15:12:00.000-08:00

We got a call. We need you. Please come. 3 hours later we board a plane with a toddler, a service dog and some hastily packed bags.

A night and day spent in the ICU. Cousins, siblings, aunts, uncles, grandchildren. Tears, hugs, stories, laughter, hand holding, more tears.

Love.

Tough decisions.

Waiting.

A little boy says goodbye to his grandma. Honey, he calls her. A little girl adopts the boy as her favorite. As if she knows he needs her.

In the midst of it all, family from around the country is brought together. And between the sadness, there are connections made. Some cousins meet for the first time. Others catch up after years apart. Between the tears, there are memories made. Quality time spent together, away from our daily hectic lives. Our last gifts from a woman who is very loved.

Aunt Diane, you have a piece of our hearts.

(September 2007)

Busy Board

2012-01-05T08:24:00.000-08:00

A couple of months ago, I came across this via Pinterest and sent it to B's mom with a "request" from D that Pa make her one.

Christmas arrives and Grandma and Pa keep sneaking away to Pa's workshop to work on a secret project. They emerge with this:

We call it the Busy Board. And aptly named, it has already kept D entertained for literally hours on end. Complete with padlock practice:

A magnetic board with starter Scrabble tiles:

Doors that open, close and latch; beads the slide; a flashlight ("fash-ite") that flashes; and bolts that "twist twist":

And a track to navigate:

It hangs on the wall at the perfect height and logs loads of quality play time.

Here's to the creators of the Busy Board.

Back In The Game

2012-01-04T23:52:00.000-08:00

It's been three glorious weeks since my last real post. Three weeks! First, Merry Christmas, Happy Hanukah and Happy New Year.

Now that we have that covered, where have I been? Taking an unplanned internet fast, of course. After leaving my job in mid-December--a job, mind you, that required that I be tied to the internet for all waking hours, and on certain days, non waking hours, I was in no hurry to spend voluntary time in front of a computer screen. (Note that with my new job I will once again be tied to my friend, WiFi, so a break was definitely in order.) Yes, I have my phone, and yes I love my iPad, but in no way could I devote more than 10 minutes at a time to internet surfing, email responding or blog posting. So if I failed to respond to your email, consider this a formal apology.

What have I been doing? Living. Sucking up family time, friend time and lots of coffee.

In order to catch cyberspace up on our lives these past 2.5 weeks, it would involve scrolling well into tomorrow to adequately view snippets of the 500+ photos taken these weeks. So I have culled it down into a photo bomb (phrase stolen from Monica, thank you very much).

Enjoy:

Attempting to capture cousins on the stairs. A challenge when one has an iPhone

I love when my knitted gifts are appreciated

First comes Christmas celebration #1, or what we like to call, McChristmas. Just B and I's gifts to each other. Personal, private and kind of cooky.

It involved a 5x5 Rubik's cube.

It's a little known fact that B can solve an ordinary Rubik's cube in under 60 seconds.

It took him 3 days, but he got the 5x5 down pat as well.

And some raw wool.

Never underestimate a knitter's love of wool.

Especially when it comes complete with a Ladybug Spinning Wheel.

Best husband surprise ever.

Like my sweater? It's Bedford.

Christmas celebration #2: WhitMc's family, complete with big bro flying in from Texas.

Auntie Lori is always a huge hit.

Grammy received a reincarnation of her scarf from 2010 that was lost in San Francisco.

I call it Fun Fur 4-ever.

And no celebration is complete without a tutu.

On to Christmas celebration #3--which occurred over the "real" Christmas holiday in the Mojave desert.

These cousins are better known as double trouble.

D calls Siena, "Sissy."

The handknit stockings where hung

by the chimney with care

While Auntie Tink gave out free sewing lessons

There was Christmas light viewing in an Uncle's arms

And loads of dancing by the cousins

Santa rewarded the girls good behavior with matching Christmas gifts

Which were assembled with quite a few of these:

Which then led to some creative dance moves by the adults

Christmas dinner featured a concert

And desert days gave way to a Monkey Swing, which provided hours of fun

And there was skiing. OH man, was there skiing. Well, monoboarding by B. Skiing my me.

We celebrated D's 18th month birthday with breakfast at Chow and then coffee at Blue Bottle in the Ferry Building with our friend who was visiting from France. The same friend who taught D to fist-bump many months ago in a bar in San Francisco. Epic.

Then came New Years. 7 friends + 2 toddlers at a cabin in the mountains for 4 days with no internet or cell phones. It was just perfect.

Group shot before the ball drop:

My New Year's resolution? Buy more shoes. Check.

In the meantime, we have turned to juicing to increase our health karma--yet another lovely use of my favorite green, kale!

And I am working on spinning my own yarn.

Look out 2012.

Merry McChristmas

2011-12-25T20:12:00.001-08:00

Wishing you and yours the merriest of Christmases. Thanks for being a part of our lives.

'Round Here

2011-12-21T08:00:00.000-08:00

Not having a job during the holidays has its major upsides. I am taking advantage and sucking up every. single. second. of family time. Which means my presence around these parts has been lacking. I grabbed a few moments of personal time this morning while everyone else is asleep, and rather than addressing Christmas cards, knitting, spinning (new hobby alert!), reading, or wrapping presents I ventured into the office and reacquainted myself with the trusty computer. When your job involves sitting at a computer for 8-12 hours a day, 4 days without feels like a lifetime. Actually, what it felt like was 1997. Minus the pagers and platform sneakers.

Detailed posts forthcoming, including some more crazy Armenian gatherings, a McChristmas (early!) and some knitting talk. For now, enjoy a glimpse into the madness.

Trimming the Christmas tree

B is standing on a stool, per the requirements.

A private Christmas concert from the award-winning San Ramon Valley High choir.

Visiting friends

SANTA!!!

Best friends

Cousins!

Getting bribed with milk to pose as a hat model

Yay for tutus and cousins!

Special presents

And a new friend

Random Thought Thursday

2011-12-15T07:46:00.000-08:00

1. This is a Thursday of epic proportions. Today is the last Thursday that I will work at my firm. After four years plus a summer, it's time for a change. To the naked eye, there won't be much of a change. I will still be in Big Law, practicing patent litigation in San Francisco. I will get off at the same BART stop in the morning, and turn left instead of right. But it will be a change for me--more variety in work opportunities that are better aligned with my background. A bigger office. Much bigger. And a change. There is something exciting about a change, in and of itself. And because of dull paperwork type logistics, it looks like I will get a bit of a break before charging head-on into my new job. A break that couldn't have been better timed. B and I have already scheduled ourselves solid from Saturday morning through New Year's Day with family, friends, holiday celebrations and the latest scheduled adventure: SKIING. I can't wait. I'm so ready.

2. How Sweet's post yesterday about the glories of lip gloss made me want some real bad. Forget that I have at least one lip gloss in every purse, car and jacket. A girl can never have too much gloss. Whether shiny, shimmery, flavored or tinted; applied with a wand, brush or finger; presented in a tube, pot, or stick; from $20 Chanel to $2 Lip Smackers--I do not discriminate.

3. I am in BART in the 5-mile tunnel that goes under the Bay and the BART operator just announced that we will be traveling at reduced speed because of "seismic activity." (aka, earthquake time!) My fellow passengers and I exchanged looks that clearly said "Do we panic now or act like this is normal? Panic? Normal?" We opted for normal. Since this post has made it out of draft form, I arrived without incident. I am now safely tucked away on the 26th Floor of my high-rise building.

4. Wednesday I tweeted that I had gone the entire work day with my dress only half-zipped. Not blog-worthy information, until I arrived at work today and halfway through a meeting, realized that my dress (that I am wearing as a shirt because I am that fancy) was on backwards. Backwards! There are no words.

5. Next year you are all inviting me to your White Elephant parties. I have been to two this year, and both times my gift was the first stolen. That says a lot when Jingle Jugs are in the mix. But nothing can compete with the Justin Bieber singing toothbrush:

You know you want one.

Fall Reading Wrap-Up

2011-12-14T01:00:00.000-08:00

Tonight is the holiday party for my Book Club, and we are doing it up right this year. Monica is hosting--which will make tonight's meeting the first time, after nearly four years of being a book club, that we have met at someone's house.

I have been a reading slacker these past few months. A combination of more serious and/or less engaging books, vacations, and the insane goal to knit myself a sweater in a month (which I met with cramped hands), all led to less time with the written word.

The run-down.

A Piece of Cake: A Memoir by Cupcake Brown: In short, an autobiographical memoir about a woman who survived a broken foster system, time as a gang-banger, and rampant drug addiction. Molly insisted that I read Cupcake's book as soon as humanely possible.It's impossible to describe this book without sounding overly generic or cheesy. I knew the general story because Cupcake went to my law school, graduating a few years before I did, and she was well-loved at the school. But reading her story, in her own words, was eye-opening, heart-breaking and inspiring. It's a tough read, but it's well-worth it. It will stick with you and maybe even change your life. At the very least, it will change your perspective.

Crossed by Ally Condie: the sequel to Matched, which I could not put down this summer. Crossed is second in a trilogy, with the third book to be released in November 2012, and it clearly was just a set-up for the finale. I was engaged in the story only because of my attachment to the first. It leaves open a promising ending to the series, and you can bet I will be reading that third book starting November 1, 2012.

Hungry Monkey by Matthew Amster-Burton: Written by a former Seattle food critic turned stay-at-home dad about his adventures in eating with his daughter. On recommendation from Erin, B and I read this before our Seattle trip. First, the book is hilarious. I thought it would be an advice-for-feeding-your-child book, but it's not. It's just stories about cooking and eating out in Seattle with a baby/toddler/preschooler. The best chapter, hands down, is when he is assigned to snack week at his daughter's preschool. And as a bonus, it is stuffed with awesome recipes for the food he discusses in the book. Read it, and then make the Spicy Crispy Enchiladas and invite me over.

Plan B by Jonathan Tropper (November book club book): advertised as a book about a group of friends from college who just turned 30 and are "coming to terms" with the milestone. In reality, it was about a group of friends from college who all turned 30 and are dealing with one of the group member's cocaine addiction in a humurous and desperate way. I liked the story, quite a lot, but the protagonist's voice was on the whiny and overanalytical side. I read another book by Tropper and really enjoyed it, so I will chalk this annoyingness up to the fact that this was his first book. Oh, and while the book was published in 2010, I think it was set in the late 1990s. The pop-culture references were not on par with those of current 30-year olds (ie: St. Elmo's Fire, as in, in the theater), so I kept thinking "Wow, these people are old."

One For The Money by Janet Evanovich: the well-known Stephanie Plum mystery series finally piqued my attention. Could it be the upcoming movie with Katherine Heigl? Possibly. Either that or the desire for a series of books I could plow through, one after the other, without requiring too much brain power. I enjoyed the first, although it was a bit 80s for me (bike shorts were featured quite often). I want to buy the second, but feel that $8.99 for the second book in an 18-book series is a bit steep. Give me some $5.99 baby.

The Revenge of the Kutzu Debutantes by Kathy Holton (read as part of an attempted email/Skype book club with Erin, Molly, E, and Ashley. Spoiler Alert.) I have an unhealthy obsession with the South. The food, the accents, and the strange traditions--like debutantes. This book promised lots of southern drama and fun, just what I needed to satisfy my sweet tea craving. It was a slow start and the story was not as engaging as I hoped, but it did give me the southern culture fix I needed. But I won't be reading the next in the series.

Ender's Game by Orson Scott Card (September book club book): A YA sci-fi book written in the 1980s about a world where children are trained as the world's army to fight an inevitable alien invasion. The story lagged in parts, but bring written in the 80s was well before its time. The characters in the book had laptops "lap desks" and researched and conversed on the "interwebs." I enjoyed the story, but was not motivated to read the remaining books in the series.

(One half of) In the Heart of the Sea: The tragedy of the Whaleship Essex by Nathanial Philbrick (October book club book). In 1819, the whale ship Essex left Nantucket for a whaling adventure and hit major disaster. I did not make it to the disaster part, I couldn't handle the detailed account of the first whale killing...but apparently I missed out on cannabilism in later chapters.

On the Winter wish-list I have:

The Marriage Plot by Jeffery Eugenides
Q by Evan Mandery
Sheepish: Two Women, 50 Sheep and Enough Wool to Save the Planet by Catherine Friend
Divergent by Veronica Roth

Any recommendations?

Summer Reading Wrap-Up

Summer Book List

Christmas Tree Hunting

2011-12-10T13:52:00.000-08:00

Last week we went tree hunting at Honey Bear Tree Farm.

The rules are simple:

1. The tree must be real

2. The tree must make the house smell like Christmas

3. The tree has to be tall enough that B cannot put the star on top without the use of a stool

We let D run wild, and she was in heaven.

She ran from tree to tree shouting "Tee! Tee!" touching each just once before moving onto the next.

And at the end of the row, there is was. The most perfect Christmas tree you will ever see. All the rules were met. After 30 minutes of 2 Australian expats + B wrangling it onto our car, and 60 more minutes of B wrestling it into our house, it joined our family.

The best part about Honey Bear Tree farm? A honey bear comes with every tree purchase.

Now to mix up some of Molly's Swazzle and get our ornament groove on!

BFD: Blogger Friend Date

2011-12-09T08:26:00.000-08:00

This week I got the opportunity to go on my first Blogger Friend Date!

Becca--known in cyberspace as Academomia--and I have been chatting through comments for a few months now. She was in San Francisco to present her fancy research at an equally fancy engineering conference. I was able to steal some of her time so we could catch up in person over lunch in Union Square.

Here we are, looking fancy

(stolen from Becca's post because my shot of us was super shady)

Pressured to find the perfect lunch spot, I called on my best friend, who is the end-all, be-all of food knowledge in the city. She directed me to Burger Bar, which is a Hubert Keller restaurant (a fancy Top Chef guy).

It did not disappoint.

We chatted nonstop over burgers and fries. Careers, families, careers + families, and just general life stuff. Becca is not only a rockstar mom to three adorable boys, she has her PhD in wind engineering (told you she was fancy!) and teaches at a university in Texas. Journals are scrambling to publish her papers as fast as she can write them.

As as we chatted, we enjoyed an awesome view overlooking the holiday-decorated Union Square.

Random Thought Thursday

2011-12-07T23:57:00.001-08:00

B and I have taken our word-game love to a geek-fest level. While we enjoy the luxury of a lingering Scrabble game accompanied by a glass of wine, we have been getting our short term fix via (start cringing now) Words With Friends. And yes, we play each other. On the couch. While watching TV. We currently have two games going. It's no wonder Zynga has a $7 billion dollar estimated IPO.

I am listening to my iPod this morning, after months ofwhining about how the cat ate my earphones, and I realized I am in serious need of a music makeover. Maybenot a makeover--my music tastes are much like my book tastes (whatever makes mehappy) but at least an upgrade. It’s ared flag when Glee’s rendition of “Teenage Dream” is the newest song on yourplaylist.

This Saturday is our first holiday party of the season. Wego to this holiday party every year. Two years ago, I was secretly pregnant,but our friends guessed within 4 minutes of our arrival. I am apparently that much of alush. Last year, we could not find a babysitter and the “no kids” rule waslifted for 5 month-old Declyn. We got super fancied up, I had a new sexy-ishdress and we arrived an hour EARLY. The hostess was in the shower. The bestpart? We didn’t leave. And because we came with our 5-month old, we made itabout 30 minutes into the “real” party before heading home. This year we aredoing it right. My sister is lined up to babysit. I am not pregnant. And I planto show some leg. Or be in sequins. What the hell, I’ll do both.

Even more Glee just came on my iPod. Send help.

Well, That Was Nice

2011-12-06T07:11:00.001-08:00

When is a secluded cabin in the mountains, 45 minutes through windy twisty roads from the nearest city, the absolute perfect place to be?

When you need to unwind, unplug and just chill.

Play Bananagrams and drink coffee

Get in some time with fisherman's cribbage

Wear silly hats . . .

while chasing Hyatt

and make instant pudding

When is that secluded cabin in the mountains, 45 minutes through windy twisty roads from the nearest city, not the perfect place to be?

When food poisoning hits.

No photos.

Random Thought Thursday

2011-12-01T07:51:00.001-08:00

Thank you to all of you who harassed me over Twitter and email about he missing post this morning. I love feeling the love. Truth is, it was half drafted and sitting on my phone and I got distracted when I got to work today, so Thursday night post it is!

* * *

Thursday, I love you. The anticipation of Friday gets me every week.

We got our Christmas tree last night from Honey Bear Tree Farm. There's nothing better than waking up in the morning to the smell of Christmas tree. Scratch that. There are lots of things better. Like waking to the smell of Christmas tree after sleeping in and finding a fresh pot of coffee and a magically clean house. And I don't mean clean like dishes washed and toys back in the box, clean like someone went under the couch and unearthed all the dog hair that never seems to leave no matter how much time I spend with the vacuum cleaner attachments. Dear Santa...

Some lady on bart just shared her ATM pin code with the rest of the train. 2011 in case you are interested. Somebody please tell her she needs a more creative pin code
.
I realize this space has been devoid of knitting talk and paraphernalia lately. That is because I have five girlfriends who are pregnant and due with in a month of each other, four of whom are having boys, the fifth of whom is having a surprise, so I am doing quite a bit of secret boy-colored knitting these days. Prepare yourself for February when these small blue things are all gifted and can be shared.

I was going to include a rant here about something or other but seeing as how it is now the end of the day, I have used up all the rant I started today with. I am now dreaming of a big bowl of popcorn, a glass of wine, and peppermint Jojos.

In place of a rant, I give you a picture of the sign that was on a recycle bin as I left BART this morning. Classy.

Thanksgiving Outtakes

2011-11-29T07:27:00.000-08:00

Ready for the Turkey Trot

Accordion lessons

Wagon rides

Stealing knitting time during naps

"You goin' my way?"

Thanksgiving cousins

The desert makes a great playground

It's like a giant sandbox

Twirling

Sunsets

Puzzles

And of course, pie

Approved

I Can't Handle The Pressure

2011-11-28T07:00:00.001-08:00

Four years ago, my sister-in-law and I made a scarring attempt at Black Friday. We were tempted by our sister-in-law who snags crazy deals and is finished with her Christmas shopping by 6am the day after Thanksgiving. Convincing ourselves it was not only a right of holiday passage, but that we would spend December smugly watching other shoppers search for the perfect gift while our gifts sat wrapped and ready to go by November 30, we hit it.

We first scoured the ads, deciding Wal-Mart was our best bet--go big or go home, right? The the promise of an off-brand portable DVD player for $13.97 also played into the decision.

4am Friday hits us like a Mack Truck. We roll out of bed, grab a banana and head down the hill where it turns out (shocking) that we are not the only ones that want a $13.97 DVD player. We get in line in the freezing cold, chattering about how this is going to pay off big time and "we'll remember this forever!"

Remember it, we do. The doors opened and it was just like they show on the news. We crowd-surfed through the store to be greeted by obscene piles of crappy electronics and brightly colored cheap toys with people grabbing them like they are the last loaves of ration bread. Over it, and scared for our lives, we turn around and make our way against the crowd to head back to our warm beds. It took 15 minutes to get out of the store, and by 5am we were back in bed, dreaming of free online shipping.

Since then, I have pretended Black Friday does not exist. It stresses me out, like I am going to be the last one standing without having saved a bundle on Christmas gifts. But then I remind myself that I don't actually want to give anyone a $4.98 digital photo frame and I am at peace again.

So what's up with this cyber-Monday crap? My gmail was flooded with threats of 10-30% off my favorite online stores. And messages to HURRY BEFORE I MISS ALL THE BEST STUFF. The radio told me how many millions of Americans will be participating in cyber-Monday. And the joiner in me wants to shout "ME TOO!" and brag to the neighbors that not only am I done Christmas shopping, but I got everything pretty much free and didn't have to burn a single calorie or gallon of gas in the process.

Instead, I am taking a deep breath, sucking down my coffee, and embracing the fact that I am not organized enough to make lists in July of potential Christmas lists. Not happening. Maybe not. Check in with me tomorrow. I may have a new wardrobe by then. At 30% off, of course.

Countdown to Pie

2011-11-22T07:53:00.000-08:00

One year ago today we were here:

Which led us to all this:

Cousins

Turkey booties

Lounging in themewear

Pie factory

All families recreate The Matrix while baking pies, right?

No? Try it this year, I dare you.

Baby hat sweatshop:

Family photos ops:

Complete with matching holiday pajamas:

But let's be real here. What we we are really in it for, is the pie.

Hello, friend

Get in mah belly!

Fancy meeting you here

Let's relive old times together

A sight for sore eyes. And my man is pretty hot himself.

Let the countdown to pie begin.

Happy Birthday Hyatt!

2011-11-19T10:30:00.001-08:00

Happy 7th Birthday Hyatt!

From this:

To this:

Mr. Stud.

We love you.

We hope you liked the three games of chase, your new collar, your birthday present shaped dog cookie and the special trip to Nitro Dog to pick out a new toy. Oh, and getting to sleep on the bed. You deserve it, old man.

The 7-letter Scrabble Word: 30 for 30

2011-11-16T05:46:00.000-08:00

I did it. The elusive 7-letter Scrabble word, a 30 for 30 goal, and 50 bonus points to boot.

The word: "BROKERS" (Played on the end of "IDEAL" to create "IDEALS")
Total points: 82
Happy dance: you bet.

Random Thought Thursday

2011-11-10T07:48:00.001-08:00

1. I left the house without my Kindle this morning. I feel exposed and vulnerable. Nevermind that my iPad and Android both have the Kindle apps. My Kindle and I have a special relationship. And I was 97% of the way through my book when I fell asleep reading last night. I will have to wait another 15 hours to learn the fate of Cassia.

2. Last night on the BART ride home, a man was having an argument with his wife on the phone. He kept trying to end the conversation until they saw each other in person ("in 10 minutes, I am going as fast as I can! "). While I momentarily felt bad for him--who wants to share your argument with a crowded train?--I secretly enjoyed eavesdropping. The best part was when he got really frustrated and shouted "GOOD GRIEF!"

3. There is a woman on BART today reading Hunger Games. My first inclination is to slyly say "Addicting, right?" or something equally creative to let her know I am also in the not-so-secret club of millions who has read Hunger Games. But then I remember the hippie-esque man that approached me when I was reading The Foundationhead and started a 70s-style conversation about "society." It was kind of fun to feel like a momentary love child, but a bit creepy too. Which is what public transportation really is, right? Kind of fun, kind of creepy.

4. Warning: genius child story ahead. As D ate her dinner last night, Jake The Cat jumps on the bench next to her high chair and gives her the Look. The one that says "Don't give all of your food to Hyatt, share some with me. I'll let you pull my ears." D points and Jake and shouts "Dow! Dow!" (Translation: "Down! Down!"). For the first time, ever, without the threat of an evening without cuddles, Jake obeyed and jumped off the bench. Then, D exclaims "Goo Gur!" (Translation: "Good Girl!") and continues eating like nothing extraordinary happened. Ignoring the fact that D called our boy cat a girl, I think we can all agree, the Mensa recruiters will be at our house any day now. We will be turning to our toddler for all future cat discipline.

And because no post is complete without a picture:

Seattle Days 3 and 4: B's Birthday and the Lost Day

2011-11-07T17:30:00.000-08:00

Day 3 in Seattle was B's official birthday.

"Happy Birthday!" "Is this going on the blog?" "Yes."

We started the day with breakfast at Lola, which will forever be known as the most delicious breakfast I have ever eaten. I chose Lola because of the donuts, which were featured on The Best Thing I Ever Ate. Yes, we can sometimes be stereotypical yuppie tourists, confirmed by the fact that I took a picture of the donuts with my cell phone. But I drew the line at checking into the restaurant on Facebook or Tweeting the photo with "OMG, YUM @Lola with the hubs for his birthday [twitpic]." I have limits.

The donuts really are amazing. We let Declyn eat the pear butter and vanilla marscapone like it was applesauce and yogurt. Birthdays are special after all. But forget the donuts, I am still dreaming about the bacon I got with my eggs and "rustic" toast. I kept telling the waitress "this is the best bacon I have ever eaten." "I am not kidding."

Following a nap back at the condo and a very long story that involves lost car keys/random guy finding them and by pure luck turning them into the concierge at our condo only moments before we fessed up to the rental car company, we were on the road exploring Seattle in the pouring rain. A brief trip to Bellvue revealed it is not unlike the California suburb we currently live in.

We hit up the Fremont Troll under the Aurora Bridge (There is not a troll under the Fremont Bridge. We know because we checked there first) and got some high schoolers on a field trip to take a family photo after they stopped jumping off the troll into the sand and posting about it on Facebook.

I made B take a bunch of photos of D and I being adventurous and sitting on the troll. They all look something like this:

For dinner, we continued with the tourist cliches and hit up the super fancy revolving restaurant at the top of the Space Needle. We even took the monorail there and a very kind lady offered to take our picture.

That same lady liked us so much that she followed us off the monorail and asked to take our picture in front of the Space Needle.

I feel compelled to state that we don't usually wear jeans to fancy restaurants, but we didn't bring our fancy-wear. Fortunately, the rest of the tourists at the restaurant were also in similar attire.

The birthday dinner was appropriately fantastic. We had fun getting a 360 view of Seattle every 57 minutes. There was delicious food, delicious drinks, and even had the restaurant's sommelier (yes, I had to Google that word) pay us a visit when I asked the waiter the very grown up "What wine would you suggest with the oysters?" In response, we got to taste various suggested wines and I made appropriate grown up yummy noises and nodded in what I hoped was the right place before I chose a wine based on its title.

And are you impressed with how we were able to have a fancy dinner with a toddler in tow? Well, don't be. D lasted 3 minutes with the restaurant-issued crayons before she tried to eat them. We ordered her a who-knows-what-this-is-really-made-of fruit smoothie off the kids menu that kept her entertained for 10 minutes and then we were taking shifts walking around with her in the lobby of the restaurant. But two things made me feel OK about it (a) there was a baby screaming its head off for 20 minutes somewhere else in the restaurant and (b) the maitre'd (who has SEVEN children!) complimented us on our parenting skills, noting that most parents just let their antsy children scream at the table. So while we will be avoiding fancy restaurants in the future if there is no babysitter in sight, we are proud for making it out with out any grownup breakdowns.

Once we were out in the fresh air, D couldn't have been happier.

She crashed in the backpack on the walk home in the rain.

B and I stayed up late for the presents.

On Day 4, we left our camera at the condo and both of our phones died so it goes without visual documentation. But rest assured, it was a great way to kick off B's 30s. We met our newly transplanted friends, Abby and Brent, for pre-brunch coffee at Cafe Ladro and walked around the neighborhood (Queen Anne) where they just bought their house. We all hit up 5 Spot for brunch, complete with more coffee, excellent food and lively conversation. As D napped in the car, B and I drove around the city, stopping to see some Sleepless in Seattle-style houseboats and getting happily lost. We ended up at Zoka Coffee for yes, more coffee, then headed to Lake Union to play chase on the vast expanse of grass and wave at passing dogs. We tried to hit up Fremont Brewery, but the smallest tourist among us was done sightseeing for the day. We rested at the condo before grabbing dinner at Serious Pie (another Best Thing I Ever Ate spot) and lounging with a movie streaming on the iPad.

Seattle, this won't be the last you see of us.

Random Thought Thursday

2011-11-03T08:38:00.001-07:00

Taking a break from the Seattle post overload to bring you Random Thought Thursday.

People, this post is in the true spirit of RTT. I have been in meetings since 7:15 and am typing from my car.
I had plans. Plans to tell you about how D fell in love with trick or treating, and would shout "MO!" when she got candy, and then asked yesterday to go trick or treating by grabbing her pumpkin bag and climbing into the wagon.

I was going to be witty, intelligent, and all those other adjectives. But instead you get a picture and the promise of more to come. Eventually.

But things are good. Things are really good.

Seattle Day 2: Bainbridge Island

2011-11-02T06:58:00.000-07:00

Day 2 took us outside of Seattle proper. We did one of the Most Scenic Ferry Rides in the U.S. and hit up Bainbridge Island and then headed to Lake Forest Park for a book signing with one of the top knitting authors/bloggers of our time, Stephanie Pearl-McPhee (aka, the Yarn Harlot).

Before departing, we grabbed breakfast at a local coffee shop, the Cherry Street Coffee House. B and I are coffee house people. Pre-baby we would spend hours sitting in comfy chairs with big lattes and our books. Our coffee shop lounging has been curbed recently by (a) the small person that goes everywhere with us, but does not want to sit still for 90 minutes while we leisurely read and sip hot coffee and (b) the shut-down of mom and pop coffee houses due to the suburban Starbucks frenzy. Not that we can't be partially blamed for that (See, e.g., excitement over faux first Starbucks). All that aside, we were excited about Cherry Street because they serve big lattes with designs in the foam, have good food but not too much of it to be called a cafe or restaurant, and big window seats and tables to eat and drink at.

Declyn especially loved the window seats covered in pillows. She could bop around and wave at passers-by and customers to her hearts content.

His and hers lattes. I go wild for foam art.

Once again fully caffeinated we strapped D into the carrier and headed to Bainbridge Island ferry.

I was excited about Bainbridge, not just for the ferry ride, but because the island is host to one of the most well-known knitting shops in the country--Churchmouse Yarns and Tea. And its no secret I am a knitting nerd. For the trip, I proudly sported my newly completed sweater and spent a lot of time showing D the ropes.

I am clearly excited about this ferry business, while D was more like "Got it, ferries are fun, and chilly. Can we please go inside now?"

Once on Bainbridge, it was love at first sight. This island is perfect. Like Stars Hollow, but with milk delivery. The fall colors are in full force and D was beside herself with excitement over all the leaves on the ground.

Declyn made herself right at home on the island. Below you see a picture of D "walking" the dog of the nice lady we just met. D and this little dog were best friends, and when D asked the dog's owner for the leash, I was shocked when she willingly handed it over to my toddler. It was a bit of a challenge getting D to return the dog--she wanted to take her home.

D has become coffee house people too. "Steamer please!"

Before heading back on the ferry, we took a walk to the waterfront while D napped in the carrier. The view of Seattle was clear and gorgeous.

Tomorrow--day 2.5. How I got myself featured on the Yarn Harlot's blog.

Hello, Seattle. Day 1: Pike Place Market and Downtown

2011-11-01T05:30:00.000-07:00

We landed in Seattle at 11am on Wednesday and after picking up the rental car and our condo keys, we hit the town. Item 10 on my 30 for 30 list is visiting Pike Place Market, so to Pike Place we went. But first, we wanted to hit up the first ever Starbucks.

I read in the guide book that the first Starbucks was the only one with the original signage. So when I spotted the sign near Pike Place I charged in, camera ready, thrilled to be at the "First Starbucks." I was the only person taking pictures, but I figured, Hey, its Wednesday afternoon, all these people are used to going to the First Starbucks for their lattes. D and I posed with the First Starbucks latte as hobos eyed us curiously.

Spoiler alert: this is not the First Starbucks

We walked the market with our lattes taking it all in and not being the best at taking pictures. We saw the fish being thrown, eyed mountains of fresh fruit and oohed over rows and rows of gorgeous flowers for $5-$15 for a giant bouquet. The stuff of legends.

We stopped at a hole-in-the wall seafood joint for oysters, clams, fish-n-chips and beer.

While Declyn colored with the Moby Dick crayons:

Happily full and fully caffeinated, we walk down Pike Street and notice a crowd of people taking pictures at what appears to be . . . that's right, a Starbucks! A Starbucks that is clearly the first Starbucks. Not just because it has the original sign, the tourists taking pictures, but because it says so on the door and every 11 inches in the store.

An appropriate picture with the official First Starbucks statute/plate/gaudy symbol

My latte from the real First Starbucks (highly caffeinated at this point)

And because the seafood and double latte hits just were not enough, we hit up

Three Sisters Bakery for some sweet treats

After Pike Place and some aimless wandering around the waterfront to digest our goodies, we were in love with the city and freezing. That's when we followed the signage to what is now my favorite building in all of Seattle. The Seattle Public library. Uber modern and over 10 stories tall, it was a reading addict's mecca.

Half of the first floor is dedicated to kids, with an enormous play area where Declyn could thaw her fingers and run wild. She conquered the puzzle table before we took off for the remaining 10 floors.

The escalators were steep and glowed neon yellow, making the ascent into the stacks ever-more magical

Four of the floors are laid out in a spiral, aptly named the Books Spiral

And to satisfy the lawyer-lady side of me, the 10th Floor offers a great view of the

Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals

There is an entire wing named the Red Hallway. It's like being inside of a mouth.

We went back to our condo, yes, condo, to chill for an hour before hitting the town again for the evening. That's right, we stayed in a condo for the 4 nights we were in town. I booked it through AirBnB.com and it was the best decision I could have made. For the price of a sub-par hotel room, we got a private balcony with this view:

This space for hanging out and cooking food if we so desired:

And this room for the grown-ups:

And it was all just two blocks from Pike Place Market and countless delicious restaurants and cafes. We hit up the stealth back-alley Pink Door for a fancy dinner. Sounds awesome, right? It was. Wait until you hear about day 2.

Back Home, In Time for Halloween

2011-10-31T07:53:00.000-07:00

We are back home, after a truly amazing trip to Seattle--a surprise for B's 30th Birthday. There is so much to share, the trip, his birthday, me getting blogged about, a finished sweater . . . but today it is Halloween. And we have a little Samurai Warrior ready to go trick-or-treating.

Here she is:
note that trying to get a 16-month old Samurai to stand still for a photo is nearly impossible, so enjoy some action shots.

Action shot:

D's costume was made by B's mom, who has now (willingly or not) become our annual source for Halloween costumes.

30 minutes after returning from our 5-day trip, we were off to a toddler Halloween party at our neighbor's house. 10 babies in costumes, pumpkin decorating, and early evening "trick-or-treating" at the houses in our court. It was chaotic and fantastic. There was not a single point where all of the children were in costume at once. Pumpkin decorating turned into marker eating for some, trick or treating ended in tears for others. But our Samurai had a blast running around with her buddies and getting raisins and organic food pouches from the neighbors.

"Trick or Treat!"

D with "Uncle Dave"

I got to spend some QT with our newest neighbor, 6-week old Nora, until D saw me holding the baby and got jealous.

Decorating a pumpkin with stickers.

This week will be packed with Seattle posts. There was too much action to stick it all in one post, so I will try to do a post a day to cover it all. Stay tuned.

Tortillion: The Perfect Winter Hat

2011-10-26T00:10:00.000-07:00

I am pulling out the family hand knits for our Seattle trip and looking forward to wearing them out of need, rather than simply desire (thank you California weather). Each year I knit at least one new hat for each of us. This was the first year I had one complete before the Fall chill even hit. Meet Tortillion:

Tortillion was designed by Michele Wang, a rapidly rising star in the knitting world and a woman I am lucky to call a friend. She was recently recognized as a member of Jared Flood's exclusive 3-person design team. Her patterns can be found in Vogue Knitting, BT Fall 11, Brooklyn Tweed's Wool People, and of course, on Ravelry. I am putting the finishing touches on Bedford, Michele's most recent sweater design.

Tortillion was a dream to knit. It uses semi-slouchy cables and I splurged on absolutely DREAMY yarn.--Road to China Light by the Fibre Company. Cashmere, silk, camel, baby alpaca and deliciousness blended together. I purchased it with a gift card from my mother-in-law and was holding it just for this hat.

I loved it so much that I am working on a man-version for B. Stay tuned.

Ravel it.

Smith Family Farms

2011-10-24T05:31:00.000-07:00

This weekend we did the mandatory October kid-activity: the pumpkin patch. We figured if we were going to pumpkin patch it up, we might as well go all the way. No piles of pumpkins imported into a parking lot covered in hay. We wanted pumpkins in their native environment. Enter Smith Family Farms.

Smith Family Farms is not your generic suburban pumpkin patch. There were hay rides, a barn show (aka, man with a banjo) and an orchard you could pick your own fruit and vegetables in for $1/pound. Which, by the way, I have decided is my new business plan. Become a farmer and convince all the city folks that it is better to drive out to the farm, get your own food, and still pay supermarket prices for it.

We packed up our wagon met up with our good friend Erin and my goddaughter, Maya. Maya is turning 5 ("like a high five!") on Wednesday and loves on "baby D" and "Mike" (her name for B--no one knows why). It was 85 degrees at the pumpkin patch in the middle of October, so D's Halloween tutu outfit lasted all of 5 minutes. I attempted to get posed photos. Here's how it turned out:

We took D out of her hot suit and hopped on the hay ride to the pumpkins. The girls were thrilled by all the pumpkins and we let them run wild. D spotted her pumpkin off the bat and did her very best to pick it up.

But in the end, B carried the family pumpkins.

We took advantage of all the farm had to offer, snacking on persimmons and picking pomegranates.

B even taught Maya his patented pomegranate-picking method:

Unzipped.

Random Thought {Friday}

2011-10-21T13:09:00.000-07:00

I jipped you all yesterday, and for that, I am sorry. I'm here to make it up to you. With Random Thought Thursday night/Friday afternoon.

1. Penguin sweaters are all the rage on the Twitters and the Facebook. And I have clearly established myself as a crazy knitter because four different friends sent me the link. I am thinking I most definitely have to knit one. Or two. If you have not heard the heartwarming twist on a sad penguin situation, check out this story.

[source]

2. Yesterday I played the very cathartic game of "keep/toss/donate" with my closet. Never-worn brown suede pumps I bought because I thought every lawyer lady should have sensible brown pumps (not true)? Donate. Black leggings with a hole in the leg? Toss. 4-inch purple faux snake-skin peep toe pumps that I wore to see Sex In The City? KEEP. If you have any interest in elbow-length leather gloves, hit up the thrift store by my house.

3. B and I are also in the process of redoing our office. We technically started the process two weeks ago, when we decided our current setup no longer worked. The B&W of 2009 kicked in, and 40 minutes later we had ripped out our closet desk, removed the computer, taken down the dog kennel that had not been used in 6 months (don't judge) and then, and only then, did we decide to talk about what we wanted to do with the space. Classic 2009 us. We snapped back to the present when D woke from her nap two minutes after the dismantle. Standing in a dismantled office with a toddler trying to have a conversation about how to make the office modern and functional on the relatively cheap is not something I recommend. So we shut the door and pretended the office did not exist. But B kept us on track, and yesterday, while I was playing "keep/toss/donate" he was putting together our new desks he picked up from CB2. Yes, desks plural. Which means we each get our own space. I will take pictures of the finished product. I already promised my friend Adrienne to show off my current yarn storage system after she sent me this:

[source]

and she will likely hunt me down if I don't deliver.

4. Last week I surprised B with a trip to Seattle for his upcoming 30th birthday. Long ago, we convinced ourselves that Seattle is going to be our favorite city in the U.S. and its about time to see if we are right. I am knitting like crazy so I can model my sweater at one of the most famous knitting shops in the country and for one of the most famous knitters in the country. If anybody has Seattle recommendations, send 'em our way!

Let's Hear It For The Boy: 3D Printer in the House

2011-10-17T07:47:00.000-07:00

Can we all take a moment to appreciate how awesome my husband is?

He built this:

(Ignore my wifely "WOW" commentary)

It's a 3D printer. It prints stuff out of plastic. 3D stuff. More to come.

Not only did he build it, he did it in our kitchen--during D's naps and in the evenings when I got home from work. And he did it without a formal background in electrical engineering or computer science. Like I said, awesome.

Random Thought Thursday

2011-10-13T08:11:00.001-07:00

This post is coming to you from a Starbucks in Silicon Valley as I wait for a 9am meeting at a client's. I left at the crack of dawn (5:45!) because I am a freak about being late and once 7:00 rolls around, traffic is unreal. I would rather leave early and relax with a latte and some work a few blocks away than sit in bumper to bumper for two hours.

Last week we took D to the doctor for her 15 month appointment. The doctor does a "skills check" to see if D is on track developmentally. It's a bit nerve wracking--we are not ones to pay much attention to developmental charts and it kind of feels like a pop quiz every time. Stacking? Yes. Putting one object inside of another? Check. We thought we were in the clear until:

Doc: "How is Declyn with using a spoon?"
B&W: [Blank stare] [Blink. Blink]
W: "Um, we don't know. We have never given her one to use. Should we be doing that?"
Doc: [Pointed pause] "Yes."
W: "She's great with a fork!"
Doc: "Forks are easy. She just stabs things. Using spoon requires coordination to keep it level."
W: "Oh. But won't that be kind of messy?"
Doc: "Probably."

She was right. It's messy. I have a video, but my type A shows through too much for public exposure. "Honey, the spoon goes in the bowl." "Not with your hands...oh..well, OK." Looking back, I probably should not have started the training with yogurt. Or with a fully clothed child. But D had a GRAND time, and I hushed my control freak self last night and let her just have at it. I am proud to say that our wall has been christened with yogurt.

New Recipe Tuesday Guest Post: Connie's Clam Chowder

2011-10-11T07:45:00.000-07:00

While I am off playing at I Am Not the Babysitter, I have the best surprise. It's hardly a secret that I am a bit lax when it comes to New Recipe Tuesday. So when my shoe soul mate/fellow book club member/all around great person Erica was giving me the details about her delicious clam chowder last week I knew there was a match up in my future. Erica does not have her own blog (yet) which is great for me because I get her all to myself.

Erica and her lovely husband saving the world on a mission trip in Haiti this summer.

* * * * * * *

Oh my goodness, I cannot even tell you how happy I am to behere! My name is Erica and I am a highschool History teacher who is married to an incredible man and fellow highschool History teacher and I love my job beyond what people often think is“normal.” I am a friend of Whitney’sthrough B. B and I used to work togetherbefore he decided to stay home with their beautiful daughter, and the firsttime that I met Whitney we clicked – over shoes of course! When I found out about the McMadness blog Ibecame a quick cyber-stalker and read all of the posts I had missed in oneday. So needless to say, when she askedme to write a post for “New Recipe Tuesday” I was thrilled! I’ve always loved the idea of having a blog,but then I think about all the blogs that I follow and I read them because theyare super creative or they are witty and make me laugh. I don’t think of myself as either of those,so what would I have to say on a regular basis that people (besides my family)would want to read about? I’m not asclever as Whit or my dear Bethtober nor am I nearly as creative as Shawna. I have no children to display cute picturesof – unless you count my high school students who I think are stinkin’ cute, ormy dog, Abigail Adams (yes, we’re that historically nerdy!) – but I do love tocook and I have some amazing recipes that I have collected over the years sothat is what I am here to share.

Connie's Clam Chowder

This recipe, ladies and gentlemen, is Connie’s (she’s my mom!)Clam Chowder.

(Connie with her Mr. Connie--aka Erica's papa)

As soon as the Bay Areahad a hint of coolness to it and there were a few clouds in the sky I decided Iwas justified in making this soup because it is just that good. In my opinion this is the perfect clamchowder, it’s not too thick and it’s got all kinds of delicious, chunkyvegetables that you can still see after the soup is cooked.

Ingredients

4-5 strips bacon, chopped

2 green bell peppers, chopped

4-5 stalks of celery, chopped – include the leafy inner parts too, theyhave great flavor!

3-4 carrots, chopped (I use the baby carrots because I usually havethose on hand and just try to cut up enough to equal the amount of green pepperthat I have)

4 green onions, chopped

3 starchy potatoes, chopped – I keep the skin on because I like theflavor & chunkiness

2 c. water

1 pint half & half

2 cans Whole Baby clams*

Worcestershire sauce, 3-4 dashes, to taste

Hot sauce to taste

Salt & Pepper

Directions

Cook the bacon in the bottom of a soup pot. Remove the bacon to apaper towel and drain the excess fat. Add the bell pepper, celery,carrots, green onions, potatoes, and water. Bring to a boil, cover andcook until vegetables are soft. Usually about 20-30 minutes.

Add half & half, clams*, Worcestershire sauce, hot sauce, cookedbacon, and salt & pepper. Heat through over low heat.

*I add at least 1 can of the clams without draining them. Afteradding the first can I decide whether or not to drain the 2nd can and just addthe clams, or add the juice as well, depending on how starchy the potatoes wereand if I want more or less liquid in the soup.

If you want your soup to be thicker, you can mash up some of thepotatoes, but I like mine chunky and some of the potatoes naturally fall apartto make this soup the perfect clam chowder.

Hope you all enjoy, and thanks again Whitney for allowing me my blogdebut!

Guest Post: All About The Girls

2011-10-11T05:41:00.000-07:00

I am not usually one to talk publicly about my boobies, especially via a post that is read by lord knows who (hey dad!). But given the appropriate time and place, I have been known to go there. In honor of Declyn finally kicking the sauce (street talk for weaning) I am being featured on today's Clever Cleavage at I am Not the Babysitter.

Check me out here.

For more Clever Cleavage posts, click here. Kudos to Jamie for doing her part in hosting an open-minded discussion about breastfeeding.

The Sound of Sunshine

2011-10-10T08:00:00.000-07:00

There is something about a fantastic concert that wakes up your soul and makes you believe you can do anything. Cheesy, yes. But I am still on my post-hippie high.* This past weekend, B and I attended one of the best concerts--Michael Franti and Spearhead at the Greek Theater in Berkeley--in the history of our concert attendance. Second only to the Everclear concert where I danced on stage and the bass player crowd-surfed on B. Or maybe the Everclear concert where we loved on Art Alexakis after the show. Point is, we had one of the best date nights, ever. Trying to translate the amazingness to the blog will be nearly impossible, but I am going to do my best. Because we can all use a little soul-waking every so often.

Mandatory concert self-portrait

We had seen Michael Franti and Spearhead for the first time in 2008 at Power to the Peaceful in Golden Gate Park. The energy at the festival was like nothing we had ever seen, and we were hooked. We bought tickets to see Franti and Counting Crows (another fabulous band to see live) at the Greek Theatre for my birthday in 2009. When we arrived at the Greek, however, the signage explained that Franti's appendix burst so Spearhead would not be playing that night. So when I got the notice that Franti was going to be playing at the Greek this past weekend, I was one of the first to buy tickets at pre-sale.

We strolled into the Greek partway through the first opening act, grabbed some beers and food and snagged some seats in the lower level. The audience at Franti concerts ranges from ages 4 to 70, hippies to straight-edged, yet everybody is happy and welcoming. You make friends with the people you are surrounded by and rather than vie for the perfect piece of concrete, you happily share your space. There's no shoving, no rudeness, just chill.

Then we noticed the giant video camera.

Hard not to when it is right in front of you. Turns out that the concert was being livecast and filmed for a DVD release. I have always wanted to attend a concert that would be forever memorialized on film. I should have put it on my 30 for 30. I felt famous by association.

And either because Franti concerts are awesome, or because it was being filmed, or a little bit of both, there were a lot of surprises. Like hundreds of glow bracelets being launched into the crowd every 10 or so minutes so people would wave them in the air.

And the BEACH BALLS. When Franti started playing "Sound of Sunshine," 50 giant beach balls were released into the crowd, both from the front and the back of the venue. It was glorious mayhem. And I caught it on film. If you want to feel happiness, click play:

Go on, click play again. You know you want to.

Franti would also run through the crowd, playing on a stage in the middle of the venue, in the stands, wherever. I got so close I could touch his bare feet. I didn't. I'm not that freaky. I did scream like a teenager at a Beatles concert though. No shame in that.

For his last song, the wildly popular "Say Hey (I Love You)" he invited all the children onto the stage to dance with him. There were about 50 kids on the stage having the time of their lives. One little girl got to sing a line of a song. After the concert, B says "We have to make sure D knows the words to Michael Franti's songs in case she ever gets asked to sing on stage." Noted. When the concert was over, we were all shiny-happy-people-holding-hands and they played the Beatles "Imagine" broadcasting the lyrics on the screens, resulting in a venue of happy (drunk and stoned*) people singing about Peace waving their peace fingers at the kids who were still on stage.

*Disclaimer: we were not stoned. Unless a contact high counts, as our "hugs not drugs" mentality was not shared by most of our concert friends.

Random Thought Thursday

2011-10-06T08:43:00.000-07:00

1. A moment of e-silence please for Steve Jobs.

Thank you for the Mac, the mouse, and putting a little 'i' in front of so many words. Thank you for the iPod ads that made me want one so badly just so I could sport the white headphones like the cool kids. Thanks for always striving for perfection. You showed us that quality trumps quantity. And thank you for bringing back Apple.

2. The woman next to me on BART has a little dog on her lap. About 3 pounds worth of dog. My initial thought was "Hey! No Dogs on BART!" I generally don't care when people break rules, but the practice of bringing dogs places where they are not allowed really bugs me. We have had many instances where Hyatt has been accosted in stores or restaurants by these forbidden dogs, and instead of being able to just do his job (sniff B), Hyatt instead ends up nervously scoping out the place in anticipation of another yap attack. But alas, this dog is cute and it is pouring rain, so I just smiled and took out my annoyance on the blog. Plus he is very well behaved, which makes me think he falls into the category of acceptable public dogs. Because let me be clear, I am not anti dogs in public by any means. I happen to think it is a fantastic idea--dogs make people smile. The problem is that, at least around where we live, many people do not train or control their dogs to an appropriate public level. If your dog is sitting at your feet, he should NOT lunge toward me or my dog as I walk by. No barking at passersby either, it scares my kid, it distracts Hyatt, and it scares me too. The funny thing about this lady is that she is fully dressed in business attire and working on a laptop as the dog just hangs in her lap. Which makes me wonder if she brings him to work? I am all for dogs at work. If they are appropriately trained, of course.

[insert conversation with woman about her dog]

Turns out she does bring her dog to work because he is a service dog (I did not ask what kind of service). So I told her about Hyatt and she got very excited, and we had a lovely conversation about Guide Dogs for the Blind, and the clicker training method. This woman is also into some kind of training with a special name that I forgot that she described as "Dancing with the Dogs." Sounds like America's Got Talent material to me! It just goes to show me that I should not make snap judgments about people.

3. This weekend, B and his brother made me the niftiest toy ever. We now have a bell on our desk that rings every time someone visits the blog. FANCY! And also sometimes frightening. The first time it rang was at 10:30 on Saturday night and we were like "wtf was that noise!" We checked on Declyn, we checked on the cats, we had no idea. We thought there was a Jingle Bell Killer coming to get us. But now have a fondness for it. We will be all eating dinner and will hear "ding ding!" and it is like somebody is saying hello.

4. When we went to the Pecan Festival in Austin, my sister-in-law got a lemonade in a take-home cup that you could get refilled throughout the festival. Because it was a million degrees, we abused our refill privileges. Because I love take-home cups, she sent me home with the cup. Now I use it for my nighttime water and it makes me happy, especially when it is cold outside. It reminds me of being very hot and needing lemonade. And the cup is funny:

5. This picture also makes me happy:

6. The other thing that makes me happy? The rain.

"Knit Knit"

2011-10-03T08:00:00.000-07:00

This weekend, D got her first knitting lesson.

And discovered how much fun a ball of yarn can be.

She'll be done with this sweater in no time.

Random Thought Thursday

2011-09-29T17:43:00.000-07:00

1. I had the most engaging BART conductor this morning. He would announce which cars had empty seats and where the seats were. "If anybody is standing that does not want to be standing, you can proceed to the first car and you will find four empty seats near the back. Just use the doors between the cars to pass through." A+ for bart customer service.

2. B is building a 3D-printer as part of the work he is doing with his brother's company. As motivation to get the printer parts sent out to our house in a timely fashion, B told his brother that he would not shave his beard until the printer was built. This is how far the beard got:

But I came home last night to this:

(what a 3D printer looks like, minus the printed circuit board)

Which meant this happened:

Then B cut off the beard-pony and chased me around the house with it. He said I could post a picture of the beard-pony-stub on the blog if he could tickle my feet with it. I let him (the things I do for blog content) and then took a picture of the pony-stub and deemed it far too creepy for the internet. So there you go.

3. I had afternoon coffee yesterday and was WIRED. I was up until 12:30 watching Drop Dead Diva (guilty pleasure) on my iPad, knitting in bed, and tweeting about how I was still awake. I had so much fun, I am thinking an afternoon coffee routine is not a bad idea. I wonder how long it will take to catch up with me. Hang on while I go get some coffee.

P.S. Happy National Coffee Day! We should all have the day off work to lounge around drinking lattes.

Yee-Haw! Visiting Austin, Texas

2011-09-28T12:22:00.000-07:00

Our visit to Austin, Texas this past weekend was one of those trips that was packed full of awesome. The perfect balance of family fun and sightseeing left us wanting to stay and extra day, week, or even month. (Insert panic attack from my mom that we are moving to Austin.) B and I were discussing why we had such a good time, and we realized that it was just natural. Natural is good. Not natural is awkward. You can quote me on that.

I went picture crazy on the first two days, and was burnt out by day three and only snapped pics via my celly, so the evidence of our visit is lopsided. But the memories in our brains are forever. You can also quote me on that.

Get ready for the longest post, pretty much ever. There are a lot of pictures. And I didn't want to break the post up into two, because really, no one can handle that kind of suspense.

Day 1: we arrive in Austin Friday afternoon, clean of peepee and bloody noses. D sees her Uncle Travis waiting at the bottom of the escalators at the baggage claim and blows him kisses. We grab some pizzas and head to family night with our adopted sister and brother in law and their family. They have a 3-year old boy and twins that are just a month younger than D. Our babies had never met, so we were excited to get them some play time.

First D had to scope out the toy competition.

I believe a twin baby doll stroller is now high on her Christmas list.

D and Lydia figured out how to mutually benefit from each other

While Finn scoped out B's bushy beard (which will not be shaved until the 3D printer is built)

Gus was concerned about all these additional people, then realized it just led to more petting and he invited us to move in.

Awkward but mandatory shot of grownups around the table. What is not pictured are the delicious adult beverages, including Shiner's Summer Brew (not available in CA!) and a Pimm's cocktail that made us all feel very British.

Look at these twinnies. Don't you just want to eat their faces?

Ian showed some mad basketball skills. The kid is 3 and 1/2 and made FIVE baskets in a row.

Check out his form! Perfection.

The girls watched from the safety of the house with their baby dolls. I promise that we did not create this gender divide.

Bryan and his bro got some business stuff in with Declyn providing her input.

Eventually, Uncle Travis gave D her very own laptop to play with. She was all like "Dad, that's not how you code for that feature! Let me show you how I did it."

Day 2: The Pecan Street Festival on 6th Street. FYI: there were no pecans at the festival. Apparently 6th Street was Pecan Street back in the day. But the festival did have everything else you could possibly want: live music, pony rides, a mobile grooming station, an over abundance of clowns, grown up beverages, and all manner of food on a stick. I was happy.

The crazy crew. We caused more than one traffic jam.

Memories of good times and Long Island Iced Teas from the pre-baby days.

Ian snagged the perfect clown-spotting seat.

Auntie Melissa was a huge crowd pleaser.

And so was the Ciao Bella sorbet giveaways. It was 100 degrees in Austin. HOTHOTHOT.

We scoped out the petting zoo.

And D learned to say "goat."

Cowgirl D riding the amazing rocking stallion!

We popped into the Stage for some live music. Note the fiddle in the band. If you're gonna play in Texas, you gotta have a fiddle in the band.

We got in some dancing.

Check out this guy!

B taught Ian some necessary life skills.

And Lydia got her dance on.

We tired these babies out

OK, two out of three isn't bad.

After the festival, we hit up Salt Lick for some for serious Texas BBQ where D sampled her first rib.

Day 3: while D took her morning nap, my sister-in-law and I snuck out to South Congress (thanks, Molly, for the suggestion!) for a mini-adventure. There is a knitting shop on South Congress that is one of the flagship store's for Brooklyn Tweed's Shelter yarn, and I have been DYING to visit one of the few stores that offers the yarn in person. We were a bit early for the shop opening, and we explored South Congress while we waited.

There one block that features a bunch of food trucks and picnic tables.

We could not resist a cupcake from Hey Cupcake!

I got pink.

But it was HOTHOTHOT, so we needed some shaved ice. These flavors are insane.

We visited some of the street vendors and I got some sassy earrings that I may never wear but will always look at in my jewelry box and think how sassy I will look in them. One day.

And saw some of the famous painted cows.

And then I got my yarn fix. Shelter. YUM.

Thanks to a gift of 4 skeins of Shelter from my bestie, I was halfway to a sweater, so I snagged the rest of the yarn. In the works is Michele Wang's Bedford from BT Fall 11.

We ended the trip with an obligatory stop at Rudy's Country Store and BBQ, our favorite Texas stop.

Following the trip, I am a temporary vegetarian.

Yeah, That Happened

2011-09-26T17:41:00.000-07:00

We returned home last night from a long weekend visiting family in Austin, Texas. While the hundreds of pictures are loading, I could not wait another minute to share two anecdotes from the travels itself. These are not typical toddler-travel stories--overall Declyn was a great little flyer, and despite not sleeping and wanting to play for both of the 3.5 hour flights (which left B and I exhausted), we really cannot complain too much. We received no dirty looks and the crying was kept to a minimum. Although I think I may have blocked out an entire 60 minutes of the flight home, so there may have been something terrible in that black hole, but hey, memories get repressed for a reason right?

BUT, we did have some fun experiences on the flight over that involved bodily fluids. Yes, fluids, plural.

Scene 1: We are checking our bags for our flight and the Southwest lady is looking at our papers. She asks me what Declyn's birthday is and at that exact moment, I feel my shirt getting warm and wet. "October 28, 1981." I respond. B looks at me like I am crazy. "Um, that is my birthday." I am trying to use our mental married powers to signal to him. You know, large eyes and talking in my head. The baby is peeing on me. THEBABYISPEEINGONME. In the meantime, I am holding my left hand out and it has a little puddle in it and there is a puddle is forming on the floor. That's how much baby pee there was. And yes, she was wearing a diaper. B caught on when he saw the puddle and frantically, but discreetly, rummaged through the diaper bag, ripped open the baby wipes and started mopping the airport floor. In the meantime, this lady is still trying to check our bags in and we are just ignoring her because NOBODY wants to be like "excuse me, I just got peed on. And so did your floor." And remember, I just got peed on, before our 3.5 hour plane flight. So THANK GOODNESS we had not checked out bags, or I would be flying in peepee clothes. So I tell the lady I need to get into our suitcase before we check it. Then I fully strip off the now-wet dress that I am wearing over leggings and a tank and stuff it into the suitcase before handing it back to be checked.

Scene 2: We have been flying for about 2 hours. D and I made up a really fun game where she takes my ponytail holder and puts in on my head, then sits on my lap and I make the pony tail holder fall onto her lap. Repeat. Hilarious. We had transitioned to the socks-on-the-hands game for awhile when she wants to do the ponytail holder game again. Problem is, the ponytail holder fell into the nowhere land between the seats. D thought maybe I tricked her and put it back in my hair. She reaches behind my head to search for it then quickly pulls her hand back across my face, catching a finger on the inside of my nose. I wince in pain, which causes D to cry (she does not like when people are unhappy). As I try to reassure her, I reach up and touch my nose, only to return with a bloody hand. I now have a crying baby and a bloody nose. There is blood dripping into my hand as B is again frantically scrambling for wipes. Amazing, we managed not only to calm the baby and keep the airplane free of blood, at the end of the ordeal the guy sitting next to B was still asleep. We are like Ninjas. Fruit Ninjas.

And now, some photobooth pics of D and I on the flight home.

Happy McAnniversary!

2011-09-22T12:08:00.000-07:00

Four years ago today B and I made the awesome thing we had going on a permanent deal.

Four years ago today we attend the best celebration of our lives with all of our favorite people.

For our five year anniversary, we would like a repeat of the party. Only without all the planning that was required to pull it off. Just the exact same thing again. But with babies now + our new friends we have made since then. Hopefully cake won't collapse this time. True story. Truth is, I just want to wear my dress again.

Last night, B turns to me and says "Don't forget to do your Random Thought Thursday post tomorrow." And I said "Oh no babes, I have something better cooked up. Just you wait."

Because I had scrolled through our B+W photos and found some real winners in the archives. Today's 4-year milestone is just one of many we have after nearly 9 years together. We started dating when we were 21! Babies, I tell you.

Here we are at my sorority senior formal. I swooned over B, in his suspenders with his sparkly eyes. What you can't see is that we both have pink streaks in our hair to match my dress. H.O.T.

We went on from there to be the Thanksgiving 2005 Nertz Tournament Champions.

We moved to San Francisco

Made some interesting friends

And in August 2007, B proposed on a gondola in Venice, Italy

We took engagement photos at China Beach in San Francisco. I wore my mom's wedding dress.

We got married

Honeymooned in Bora Bora

Bought a house

Tore that house apart

And then put it back together

We participated in an effective anti-smoking ad campaign

Visited London

Got pregnant

And had a baby

Our baby turned one.

And here we are. With so many years to come.

Happy Anniversary.

30 for 30: Meet Our Signature Drink

2011-09-20T22:07:00.000-07:00

I am drinking beer from a straw as I draft this. Classy. But it's Sunday night, and I am feeling organized because I am getting an early start on a Tuesday (edit, Wednesday) post, even if I am supposed to be doing *real* work.

Breaking news: I just officially crossed the first item off my 30 for 30 list.

Introducing the McCollum Signature Cocktail: Viewer's Choice* Note: this is not a New Recipe post because B smartly suggested we keep the official recipe a trade secret.

Inspired by the Shanghi Tunnel's Holy Basil featured on Drinking Made Easy, but realizing we did not have many of the required ingredients, we made it up as we went along.

Ingredients

Honey syrup

Citron vodka

Lemons

Basil (we used green and purple basil from our garden)

Ice

Beer (we used Pyramid Apricot Ale)

Honey syrup: 1 part honey to 1 part water

We attempted to take artistic photos of the drinks and ingredients like real bloggers would do. We lost inspiration to be real bloggers as the ice in the drink started melting.

I cannot express how delicious this drink is. And the random list of ingredients just adds to the overall experience. Come over to our house and try it. Unless you are creepy. If you are creepy, please click "Unsubscribe" ASAP. And don't come over.

*We are still working on the name of the cocktail and are soliciting feedback. Please vote in the poll posted in the sidebar by September 27 for one of the following options:

Mc50/50
B&WCrush
Hyatt's Purple Haze
Oops I Did It Again
Viewer's Choice

Photo Shoot Outtakes

2011-09-19T04:49:00.000-07:00

Sometimes I like to pretend I am a model. Not necessarily Fashion Week runway grade, just a simple Louis Vuitton or Chanel ad somewhere in Vogue or In Style. Nothing major.

To live out my fantasies, I make Bryan do photo shoots. I walk all sexy like, toss my hair, and give sultry looks to the camera. Each time, I am convinced I will look at the pictures and be wow'd at my untapped abilities. These photo shoots happen about once every two years. Because, folks, I am not a model. I am just a regular gal. I don't look sultry, ever. I actually don't even know what sultry looks like, but it probably requires smokey eye makeup that I have never been able to apply. And sexy walking? What?

The outtakes from my knitting photo shoot reminded me of my normalcy. First photo--that's my sexy pose. Yep. Sexy Saturday Night Fever, maybe. Vogue magazine sexy? Not a chance.

Declyn also got in on the action. With that over the shoulder glance, she has a bit more potential.

"I Made It!"

2011-09-17T04:06:00.000-07:00

If I lived in the South, I would be all like "I did it y'all!" but I don't live in the South, so I don't know how to start this post, other than to say I am a total rockstar. Because I knit myself a sweater! And it is not hideous.

I made Bryan stage a photo shoot with the sweater so I could show it off properly on Ravelry. I can't wait for the weather to chill so I can live in it.

Who am I kidding, I watch TV in it every night while wearing shorts.

Details

Pattern: Lauren by Ann Weaver

Yarn: Malabrigo Twist in Burgundy

(purchased at Stitches East!)

Needles: Size 9 Addi Turbo

Ravel it!

Random Thought Thursday

2011-09-15T12:05:00.000-07:00

With the 4-day week last week, when Thursday rolled around, I thought it was Wednesday until the day was over. Because I have already pulled the "Oh no! I forgot it was Thursday" trick, I thought I would just fly under the radar. But there were protests--apparently my morning ramblings have a fan club! OK, you got me, fan club = mother-in-law. But that counts. That totally counts. So this one is for my fan(s).

1. I didn't go to bed last night. My first official all-nighter. Let's be straight--my first all nighter for work purposes. I have pulled plenty of all nighters for sleepovers, or phone calls with a certain boy in college. But those don't count. I made it through college, law school, the bar exam, and 3 years + 11 months (to the day) of being a lawyer without ever staying up through the night to work. Sure, there have been plenty of nights with 2-3 hours of sleep, but none where I just keep going when the sun comes up. I guess I was owed. It's the name of the game in BigLaw, but usually the late nights come around at trial, or at the final stages of intense motion drafting. But this was not trial, it was just another day, I just have so much different work on so many different cases and I did not want to sacrifice my entire weekend to it last weekend and it came back to bite me. Ugh, that ugly "Balance" word is mocking me. Bonus? My the time I staggered into the office at 9:30, I had already billed 7.5 hours. Ouch.

2. BUT I did manage to make it last night for the last 10 minutes of book club, just in time for the vote for next month: Ender's Game by Orson Scott Card. Another YA Sci-fi novel, which pleases the part of my brain that is hungry for sleep. And because my mom baby-sat Declyn for book club, B and I were able to grab a burger and fries after the meeting, which was like a mini-date. A much needed mini-date. Oh how I miss that man when we don't get the chance to just hang out and be grownups together. And because Declyn took a late nap and gets really excited around my mom, she was still awake when we got home, so I got in some dance and snuggle time before hitting the computer for the REST OF THE NIGHT. So while I did not go to bed, I did show the Balance who's boss.

3. The best thing that happened this week was the birth of our neighbors' daughter, Nora. Nora is Nolan's little sister. When they found out they were having another baby, they came over with Nolan and took of his jacket to reveal a white onesie that they had written "I'm a Big Brother!" on with permanent marker. And on Tuesday morning, at 7am, Vanessa knocked on our door to tell us her water broke. That's the kind of neighborhood we live in. We have yet to meet Nora in person, because Declyn is at the very tail end of a cold, but Bryan did mow "NORA" into our front lawn to welcome her home.

4. A shot of the Scrabble Game in which B played TWO seven-letter words IN A ROW. So jealous. I have yet to score a 7-letter word. That is on my 30 for 30. B has mad skills at Scrabble. I challenge anyone to play him. Except you, Bonnie. B inherited his mad skills from his mom. She is unreal at Scrabble. Word Words style, for serious.

5. For those of you who do not cyberstalk my fearless cousin already, check out her post today titled "To All The People That Write Me Hate Mail." Don't hate people. Especially not on the Armenians. We know people.

This Moment

2011-09-12T08:29:00.000-07:00

The best moment from this weekend.

Sugar Shack

2011-09-10T13:04:00.000-07:00

Surprise Saturday post! Who cares that it is because I am stuck at my computer drafting a deposition outline and desperately *need* a distraction. Time for more pictures.

A few weeks ago, B and I were engaged in a discussion about the most efficient way to unload groceries. Five or minutes into the debate on whether it was better to take everything out of the bag and put it on the counter first (B), or have it go straight from the bag to the fridge/pantry (me), we see that Declyn has opened a box of sugar cubes and is stacking them on cans of food, creating little sugar shacks.

And for completeness sake, B's position won out, at least for when we are both unloading groceries. It makes sense for one person to remove things from the bags and group like items together while the other person moves around the kitchen putting things away. Especially because when our refrigerator is open, you can't get into the pantry--so double duty is impossible. But I had to argue my side just because I'm feisty like that.

Off the Grid: In Photos

2011-09-08T12:59:00.000-07:00

PICTURE TIME! True to my reputation, I have been beside myself these past few weeks as we have tried to reallocate space on our Mac for files so that more pictures could be uploaded. B spent a few painstaking hours yesterday tracking down hundreds of duplicate videos (stupid automatic upload by multiple programs!) and by the time I got home from work, the Mac was ready for me to fill it back up with a month's worth of photos. So get ready for some visual stimulation because this Mamarazzi has a lot of time to make up for, starting with our most recent adventure at the cabin.

My favorite thing about going to the cabin is that day to day life activities are, for the most part, left behind. More games are played and more conversations are held. Back in the old days, there was also more sleep involved, but when you share a room with your 1-year old who wakes up in the middle of the night with an accusatory I CAN SEE YOU RIGHT THERE LET ME IN YOUR BED scream, there is actually less sleep...but that equals more coffee. And I like my coffee.

MaMaRazzi

2011-09-06T20:22:00.000-07:00

I (previously mentioned husband in this blog) am often told that I should make a post to "our" blog. Tonight while trying to make more room on our computer that my loving wife has filled with 50,000+ photographs and what I am estimating at over a 200+ hours of home movies, I have decided it is time:

The urban dictionary defines Mamarazzi (n) 1. Mothers who constantly follow their children around with several cameras and video taking equipment, snapping photos at each turn and documenting each milestone or event with at least two dozen photos and a video.

So here is to the mamarazzi in our life.

Sometimes she finds us when we are sleepy.

Sometimes she sneaks up on us when we are not ready.

Sometimes she puts us in an embarrassing outfits and then takes photos.

It doesn't matter if she is interrupting a special moment.

Or if you just had your eyelid stitched up and you asked her not to take your photo.

Remember, we are never safe.

But we still love her once the white spots in our vision are gone.

Off The Grid

2011-09-06T15:52:00.000-07:00

After a week of more stress than planned for, we were looking forward to a three-day weekend at home with zero obligations. But Saturday morning rolled around, and the three days ahead seemed to stretch for eternity, taunting us with possibilities of more stress to come. I did not want anything to enter our family bubble and ruin our weekend and during Declyn's morning nap, I was hit with an overwhelming urge to just get out of town and leave last week in the dust. We discussed going to Point Reyes, one of our favorite last minute destinations, but where I really wanted to be was my family's cabin in the El Dorado mountains. My parents, sister, and oldest brother and his family were there for the weekend and I wanted to be there too.

One thing B and I are good at is spontaneous vacationing. In fact, we prefer spontaneous vacationing over pre-planning. Using our skills, we were on the road in less than two hours (the baby factor seriously adds to packing time). We packed the entire family in a big purple Rubbermaid bin, on hand for the clothes Declyn is destined to grow out of, and surprisingly convenient for last minute packing. I called my mom and sister and told them to keep us a surprise for my dad and brother. With one stop for Frostees and another for lattes plus a surprising amount of traffic, we made it to the mountains in three and a half hours.

D is ready to hit the road

No Internet, no cell reception. Which means no emails, no text messages, no missed calls, no Facebook. No white noise interfering with life.

The weekend was filled with the perfect amount of family chaos and fresh mountain air. We were a happy surprise addition. As we pulled up to the cabin, my nephew Jason spotted us and shouted "Auntie Whitney! (pause) Where's DECLYN!?" My pedestal has clearly been devalued. But I did not mind one bit because between my two nephews, ages 9 and 8, and the rest of my family, there were more than enough people to keep D laughing all weekend.

Pictures are coming once I clear space on my Mac for the upload, but I did whip out the banished cell to capture the shot below.

The site of Uncle Tom's Cabin, a bar in the middle of the mountains, about 15 miles from my family's cabin. (Yet still not immune from the modern world, it has SIX reviews on Yelp!) The inside is wallpapered in dollar bills that customers have signed and hung over the years--I still hunt for the one I stapled to the wall with my dad when I was nine years old. Your beverage options include cans of Coors, Coors Light, Budweiser, Bud Light, Miller, and any number of mainstream sodas. If you are hungry, you can get a bag of Lay's or peanuts.

We snagged cans of beer and peanuts and soaked up the sun. We tossed horseshoes, Declyn played in the dirt, and not a single email was read. Batteries, recharged.

Summer Reading Wrap-Up

2011-09-02T11:45:00.000-07:00

There are two categories of books for me. The first is Smart Books. Those that make you feel intelligent while reading them and change your life in either a big or small way when you are finished. Then there are Brain Break Books, where you get totally wrapped up in the stories and characters, however important or petty their conflicts are, and it takes you away from your everyday life for a few hours. When you are done with BBBs, your life is not altered, but you are a little happier. You may not remember the characters and the plot a week down the road, but the reading provides entertainment for the moment. The right balance of Smarties and BBBs is the key to reading-list satisfaction.

At the beginning of the summer, I posted my summer reading suggestions along with a list of books I hoped would carry me through this summer. Thanks to some work travel, combined with my normal daily commute, I managed to knock out quite a few books on my list, along with a few additional stragglers. Many were good, a few were great, and others were just bad. I managed to strike a good balance of Smarties and BBBs, and because it was summer, I went a little heavy on the BBBs.

Here is the run-down, with images provided for the books I recommend. Disclaimer: there is an unusually large amount of YA sci-fi on this list, apparently my current phase. Proceed with caution.

Then Came You by Jennifer Weiner. Weiner is in the upper-escleon of women's literature authors. The kind where I pre-order the next book and anxiously await its arrival and then hole up for 3 days as I devour it. I consider Weiner a Smartie/BBB hybrid. With the exception of one of Weiner's novels (Best Friends Forever, let's just pretend it does not exist), she does not disappoint and Then Came You was right up there. Weiner tells a story of infertility, egg donation and surrogacy from the points of view of four different women, each playing their part in what eventually becomes the life of a little person.

Trylle Trilogy by Amanda Hocking (Switched, Torn and Ascend). YA series about a girl who finds out she is a Trylle (or troll) princess. All three books are quick reads and packed full of satisfyingly cheesy drama. 100% BBB and perfect for the summer. Bonus? The first book is only $.99 on the Kindle, the second is $1.99 and the third is $2.99.

Hotel On The Corner Of Bitter and Sweet by Jamie Ford. This was my August book club book and a great story about forbidden love between a Chinese boy and a Japanese girl during World War II. The Japanese internment is hit, in addition to racial and cultural issues. I consider this a light Smartie because of the serious issues that are addressed. Overall a solid love story that both men and women would appreciate.

Water For Elephants by Sara Gruen. I swore up and down that I would not read this book because I don't do well with animals being hurt or dying, even of natural causes. Which is why I am one of the few people on this planet who has not read or seen Marley and Me. But the book club picked it as our July book, so I had to read it. I nearly quit it a few times, but in the end was very glad I kept going. The book is fantastic, it really is. A Smartie that will stick with you. Read it if you have not already. But I refuse to see the movie. And I am not in a movie club so that should not be a problem.

Matched by Ally Condie. Another YA sci-fi book, great for the summer list. This one is about the Society that has discovered the secret to utopia, but requires citizens to surrender individuality and decision-making to the government. I started this book thinking it would be the perfect end-of summer BBB, but it surprised me by being a Smartie. Those are the best kinds of tricks. The book opens with the protagonist, 17-year old Cassia, heading to her matching ceremony where she learns who she will be matched with for life. There is an interesting twist following the news of Cassia's match, that leads the book down many paths all touching on the idea of what we would be willing to sacrifice for a so-called perfect life.

Book Thief by Markus Zusak. I have already sung the praises of this book here. But let me reiterate: READ THIS BOOK. Smartie for sure.

How to Knit a Love Song by Rachel Herron. Confession, I have a weakness for knitting fiction, however cheesy it may be. This book was definitely in the cheesy category, but I liked it. BBB all the way, and just what I needed at the time. It was a page-turner with just enough fiber talk to get my needles going.

Anna and the French Kiss by Stephanie Perkins. This was recommended to me by a friend after my last post that displayed a not-so-secret addiction to YA fiction. Definitely in the BBB category. The book reminded me of being 14 and hoping for the most romantic boyfriend EVER. The kind that would leave notes in my locker and bring me a single rose to class. The kind that would reach for your hand on the third date and kiss you on the fifth. Only all taking place in Paris. It was cute, but definitely a bit teeny bopper-esque.

Nanny Returns by Emma McLaughlin and Nicola Kraus. Please don't read this. I enjoyed reading Nanny Diaries in college and felt compelled to read this 10-year-later sequel (which is how I also got sucked into Sweet Valley Confidential by Francine Pascal, a better reunion novel than Nanny Returns, which speaks volumes, because SVC also was pretty bad, but in an awesome way). But Nanny Returns was just painful. The authors wrote with the assumption that the reader had just finished reading Nanny Diaries and remembered every character and nuance. I felt like I was on the outside of a 320-page inside joke with a super-lame plot.

Confessions of an Ugly Stepsister by Gregory Maguire. So, I never actually finished this. I had high hopes because it was written by the author of Wicked, this time with the Cinderella as the backdrop. I made it just over halfway before admitting defeat. It was exceedingly boring. It tried to be a Smartie but utterly failed, at least in the first 54% of it. I may finish it eventually just because I really don't like having half-read books in my brain, but I cannot recommend it.

With fall approaching my to-read list is looming large:

Currently reading: Cutting for Stone by Abrahm Vergesse, the first official book of FloMo's Book Club. Stay tuned for details!
Also reading Sisterhood Everlasting by Ann Brashares, the unexpected fifth book in the Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants series as the women are on the verge of turning 30. I started Cutting for Stone but 60 pages in needed something a little lighter, so I switched it up. Despite the tragedy that was Nanny Returns, I can't resist "where are they now" books. If only Ann M. Martin would write one for the Babysitters Club).
One Day by David Nicholls
Secret Daughter by Shilpi Somaya Gowda. The second book for FloMo's Book Club.
Plan B by Johnathon Tropper
Girls in White Dresses by Jennifer Close

Feeling Funky

2011-09-01T09:51:00.000-07:00

I am in a funk. A yucky, pain in the ass, funky funk. And I know why the funk has made an appearance (I can't talk about it publicly, at least not yet), but that does not make it any less funky. The thing about the funk is that once it arrives, it is very hard to make go away. It creeps in and around your brain and you push it back and it just waits until you are distracted, until you think maybe it is actually gone, and then it comes back to haunt you. This current funk is sticky, it stays with me through my day, invading my personal space and distracting me from real life. It gets me to doubt decisions I have made and decisions I have not had the opportunity to make yet. I try to beat it back with positivity and distractions, but sometimes it still wins.

Yet sometimes it loses. The funk is no match for the power combination of D + B, and I like to think that it does not even get through our front door when I come home in the evenings. It watches us at night through the living room window as we dance to music, make dinner, and sing the good-bye song, hoping for an opening to ruin our fun.

The funk is constant and relentless, but I will win. I will win because of moments like this.

Good Intentions

2011-08-29T12:26:00.000-07:00

There was a plan. It involved uploading two weeks of photos from our real camera this weekend and following up with fabulous blog post or two packed with STUNNING pictures. I got so far as connecting the camera to our Mac and clicking "upload" before the computer informed me that the memory on the computer was too packed to accommodate an additional 249 photos. Remember when rolls of film had 32 pictures and it cost $10/roll to develop, and if you were really lucky you got free doubles? Well, despite that memory I was still annoyed that our computer apparently maxes out at around 50,000 high-quality digital photos.

Too lazy delete the thousands of duplicates of those digital photos that seemed to replicate in the middle of the night in order to create space for 249 more photos, I instead decided to document the weekend using the phone on my camera. Bad call. The shutter speed is not fast enough to catch Declyn in focus and it really interfered with my goal of disconnecting on Sunday.

So below is the result of my failed experiment. A smattering of random pictures from our Saturday in semi-focus. Enjoy. And please send someone to magically create more space on my Mac. Pronto.

An overabundance of bell peppers and a stop at Hummus Heaven at the Diablo Valley Farmers' Market led to a bell-pepper and hummus tasting party on Saturday night with my sister.

I tried to snap a photo of my sister and D. Unsuccessful:

Not having learned my lesson, I attempted to sneak a pic of D and B reading together. If it is not obvious from the book party happening all over the floor, D is really into reading lately. Or, rather, books. She carries books all over the house and then will crawl into your lap and say "buu?" And you can read about 3 words/page as she quickly flips through the book for you before scooting off of your lap to grab another "buu" and starting the process over again.

Post bell pepper tasting, I wanted cookie dough and convinced B and my sister to make cookies. We figured out we were out of vanilla when it was too late to back out of the process, but we did have vanilla beans left over from our honeymoon to Tahiti...nearly four years ago. B and Lo experimented and the vanilla beans worked quite nicely. I think we will just make our own vanilla extract.

Attempted action shot of the dough in progress.

Some cookie-dough fueled knitting. Tortillon by Michele Wang.

Random Thought Thursday

2011-08-25T08:26:00.000-07:00

1. Bryan, on Declyn's transition from baby to toddler: "It's like she has upgraded her processor to download all of this new information and I just don't have the bandwidth to keep up."

2. The 40% off cosmetics sale at Walgreens taunted my obsession with all things lip balm/gloss related and I purchased a Revlon Just Bitten Lipstain + Balm in an effort to add more color to my face. I think I needed a second cup of coffee this morning, because I allowed myself to grab the color "flame," which of course is bright red. It goes on like a marker, which is nice because a liner is not necessary, but the stain aspect of it is true. I have bright red lips and there is nothing I can do but rock it.

3. A lot is being said about Steve Jobs' retirement, but the best thing so far has been this article, which provides a welcome balance between quirky and sentimental as a tribute to the man behind the Mac.

Expiration Date?

2011-08-24T11:56:00.000-07:00

Conversation between B and I last night:

B: "Hey babe, I brought you vitamins to take."

W: "Oh thanks. I don't like the Vitamin C, it tastes yucky...hey what's this little one?"

B: "Vitamin B12, remember when we bought those?"

W: "Yes, like before I was pregnant with Declyn? That can't be good. Did you check the expiration date?"

B: "They are still OK, vitamins don't go bad."

W: "That reminds me, this weekend I found a bottle of some vitaminy things that expired in APRIL 2009! so I threw them away" (insert face of wife who is proud of her proactive cabinet-cleaning skills [here])

B: "My Amino Acids! I have been looking everywhere for those!"

W: "Like, for how long because I just threw them away on Sunday. Oh yeah, and they expired TWO AND ONE HALF YEARS AGO! That can't be good!"

B: "Expiration dates on vitamins don't mean they are bad, it just means they are less potent." (Note: this coming from the man who believes milk is bad three days BEFORE its expiration date.)

W: "TWO AND ONE HALF YEARS AGO!"

B: "OK, Let's Google it!"

W: "We don't need to! That is such a long time! Besides, do you even know what Amino Acids are? They are what makes up PROTEIN. You are essentially taking protein pills. And you already drink protein shakes. And we eat a ton of quinoa, the perfect grain. You don't need Amino Acids." (always happy to apply my year of biochem to real life)

B: "Those give me L-Glutamine, which is hard to get in the diet in the quantities that I want. It helps carry oxygen to my muscles which is good for when I work out."

W: "Well that sounds fancy, but they were still expired. How about I buy you new ones?"

B: "Fine. But don't throw the new ones away, ever." (Leaves to turn off the lights in the house)

Meanwhile, I am now curious and I Google "Expiration date amino acids" and the first link provides me with this information:

Amino acid supplements slowly weaken with age. Quality amino acid supplements will maintain potency approximately 1 to 2 years following expiration. [Source]

B comes back in the room and I am nearly peeing my pants because I am laughing so hard. I read him the quote.

B: "See! I was right!"

W: (Tapping into my legal training) "No! It says one to two years! Your Amino Acids expired two and ONE HALF years ago! HA! And besides, this information comes from a website called 'Healingsource.net' that can't be legit!"

Boom! Lawyered!

He didn't buy it. I am picking up replacement Amino Acids on my lunch break.

Knitting and Reading

2011-08-24T08:15:00.000-07:00

Inspired by Ginny from Small Things. Check out her blog, she is a homeschooling mother of six who lives in rural Virginia. She does a beautiful job capturing the essence of her family's everyday life in her photos. Ginny posts a weekly shot of her current knitting project and current book, inviting others to join.

The bulk of my knitting and reading is done on BART, since that is really the bulk of my "free time," so any knitting/reading shots will be taken from my phone, with my lap also featured. Fancy!

On the needles are some very special baby booties using the tried and true Christine's Stay On Booties pattern. On the Kindle is Hotel On The Corner Of Bitter and Sweet, by Jamie Ford, which is also this month's book club book. I happened to finish the book on my walk to work and I can recommend it. It's a great story, albeit a bit unrealistic in parts, but still a quality read.

Technical difficulties

2011-08-22T22:04:00.000-07:00

We are experiencing technical difficulties in the form of an awkwardly placed sidebar. After many attempts at fixing this with my sometimes-stellar-but-not-this-time Blogger skills, a search of the twitters revealed it is a Blogger issue and not my issue. Fingers crossed that I did not screw it up even more.

"Bye Bye Poo Poo"

2011-08-22T16:58:00.000-07:00

D has reached another baby milestone, and I feel compelled to addit to the books. And in case it is not clear, the"books" equals this blog. Because no way am I organized enoughto fill out her baby books with any consistency.

Anyways, the milestone. D's first phrase. "Bye bye poo poo." Not "Ilove you" or "Hi mama!" "Bye Bye poo poo." Warning,potty talk ahead. We use cloth diapers, and the process isstraighforward when a diaper is just wet: put in pail then wash when the pail isfull and ripe (using Rockin' Green cloth diaperdetergent, the best). But for poopy (for lack of a better word) diapers,we can't just put the whole shebang all in the pail. Our washer is great, butno washing machine is amazing enough that it can break down all thatpoop. Ew, mentalpicture. So the poop has to first get flicked, dumped, scraped,whatever does the trick, into the toilet. When I do theflicking/dumping/scraping, I usually have D in one arm--otherwise she would tryto stick her hands in the toilet, and an ill-aimed flick would create seriousproblems for all of us--and I perform the poop flicking with the other arm. A skill I am adding to my resume as soon as this post is published.

I feelthe need to explain the process to D and I also have convinced myself that thisis early potty training, that way I am multitasking. So after changingD's diaper, I pick up the diaper, pick up the kid and say "OK, time to saybye bye to the poo poo!" as we walk to the bathroom. The poop getsflicked/dumped/whatever as I attempt to stay out of the splash zone, and Ishout "BYE BYE POO POO!" as I flush the toilet. Family fun atChezMc.

This past SaturdayD gives us her morning diaper bomb. Ichange her, pick her up, and reach for the diaper, and am about to utter mysignature phrase, when D beats me to it. "byebyepoopoo" Woah there. To the bathroom we go, and together we bid farewell tothe feces. A true mother-daughter moment. Sunday, same deal. It'sofficial. First phrase, check.

Guest Post: Check me out!

2011-08-19T11:00:00.000-07:00

Today I am guest posting at I Am Not The Babysitter for Confession Friday.

Come check me out here!

Random Thought Thursday

2011-08-18T17:35:00.000-07:00

I am on BART simultaneously knitting and reading my Kindle. The geek factor is astonishing and the man next to me agrees. He gave me a confused "good morning?" as he sat down.

Yesterday I got peed on, as in, pee all the way down my body. It was my fault, really. I had gotten home from work early after going to a client's and arrived just as D was waking up from her afternoon nap. Excited to surprise her I burst into her room and find her sitting in her crib, holding a diaper. Strange, I think, as I get closer. And of course, I find a baby, naked from the waist down. This being the first time D has removed her diaper by herself, I grab her and run to Bryan, "Look what our genius kid did! Got naked on her own!" Someone alert Mensa. And, well, the rest is self explanatory. Although it is shocking how much pee one little person can produce.

Break for the work day. Completed on the commute home.

Today I actually pulled up my property outline from my first year of law school, and it was helpful. Who would have thought. And I completely forgot that there was a property interest called "estate por autre vie" which makes me sound smart just by referring to it. Along with res ipsa loquitor, which has something to do with barrels of flour falling on a man's head.

I just got an email from BART that they are phasing out their paper tickets by the end of September. It's the end of an era. No more tickets for $.30 or $1.10 floating around at the bottom of my bag. No more tickets getting demagnetized by my cell phone. No more searching through the 8 tickets in my pocket to find the one I entered with so that I can exit the station. Farewell paper tickets.

Tips For Camping With a Toddler

2011-08-16T06:24:00.000-07:00

Before we left on our trip, B and I both looked to the internets for advice on camping with a toddler. There is surprisingly little out there. And it seemed like the only advice that was available was to bring a pack-n-play to stick your kid in during the day (I don't know who these magical toddlers are who happily hang out alone in a pack-n-play, but mine is not one of them) and to pack enough diapers (um, thanks?). Now that we are seasoned toddler campers, we have a list of our own to contribute. I have linked to most of the products we used, but if you have any questions, just ask.

Play in the tent at home. We set up our tent in our living room for 3 days before we left and let Declyn party it up in there. She was excited to see it at the campsite.
Pack a lot of baby wipes. And then pack more baby wipes. They will be used for everything. Wiping the sippy cup after it gets dropped in the dirt; wiping hands before, during and after eating; wiping the dirt off the picnic table before, during, and after eating, etc.
Bring convenient food. Declyn and her cousin thrived on Plum Organic's and Peter Rabbit's organic fruit and vegetable pouches. They do not have to be refrigerated, so precious cooler space will not be sacrificed. We also packed a cooler with string cheese, baby oatmeal, blueberries, strawberries, bananas, avocados and whole milk. Puffs (or really anything) in a snack cup were also useful to keep Declyn entertained in her high chair during meals when she was done eating but the rest of us were still chowing down. You can't exactly let a toddler run wild in a campsite.

Ease up on the naptime stress. Don't worry too much if the nap schedule gets off. There is so much to explore when camping that your toddler may be too distracted to stick to his or her daytime schedule.
Become one with the dirt--your child certainly will.
Clip fingernails before leaving--we learned this the hard way. See above, re dirt. Black fingernails within 3 minutes. Thank goodness B's mom had clippers on hand.
Stay as true to the bedtime routines as much as possible. While it added a lot to our packing, we brought Declyn's Sleep Sheep, puppy/lovey and a blanket she sleeps with at home so her pack-n-play would feel more like her crib.
Pack Closed-toed shoes. No matter how warm it is outside, sandals plus toddling around in dirt makes for messy feet.
Bring a sleep sack to help keep nighttime chill in the tent at bay. Aden and Anis make cozy ones that are big enough to fit a toddler.
A high chair stand-in is a must. Our clip-on chair worked well with the picnic table at the campsite, but this booster seat attached to a cheap folding chair would work just as well. The great thing about both seats is that they come with their own trays.

Bring Spray sunscreen like the Water Babies spray. Sunscreen applied morning, noon and night is a must when you are outside all day. And dirt + lotion just makes for a gross mess. Just spray right over the dirt and you have double protection.
Bring a baby carrier for walks and hikes. If you are lucky like us, it will also work for naps. We use the Pikkolo baby carrier by CatBirdBaby. It is fantastic--supports up to 40 pounds and the kid can be worn on your back, side, or front both facing out and facing in. In our opinion, it is a stellar Ergo rival (we have an Ergo too). We also used it for our 20-month old niece.

Pack coffee for the grownups. Night-time sleep was touch-and-go for us. Partially due to a hole in our air mattress, which means around 3am we would just be sleeping on the hard ground. The first night, Declyn would NOT fall asleep. We had to bring her into our bed and she changed positions every 15 minutes. Combined with our 2am arrival, we were zombies on Day 1 at camp. She progressively got better, but still woke up once each night and because we were in the same tent, she was not to keen on going back in the pack-n-play when she could see us sleeping 12 inches away. We survived, but the caffeine sure made it easier.

Random Photo Thursday

2011-08-11T17:30:00.000-07:00

No random thoughts today. Just my favorite picture from our trip.

Life's a Beach

2011-08-10T17:20:00.000-07:00

One of the best side effects of marriage is getting swept into the traditions of your new spouse's family. B's family has a few traditions and one of my favorite is the annual beach camping trip to Carpinteria State Park. It's the best of both worlds: camping + beach time. I have been going on the trips since the summer of 2003 so I am fully ensconced in the tradition. This year we dragged my sister along on the journey, which proved to be a smart move because with two toddlers in tow we needed all of the grown-ups we could get.

The essence of the beach is hard to describe in words. B and I attempted to fill my sister in during the 6 hour car ride on Wednesday night--we shouted things like "KoolAid in this old-school canister!" "Hot peanut butter and jelly sandwiches!" "Atomic fireballs!" "Cards!" "The dog beach!" "Boogie Boarding!" "It's freezing!" "Quarters for the showers!" "The train wakes you up at night!" and so on. So rather than attempt to explain it, I will just show you.

It was of course different than years past because we now have a toddler, and so does B's sister, so we had a 13 month old and a 20 month old camping with us. There was no leisurly reading time for the parents, barely any knitting got done, and all campfires had to be post baby bed time. But it was also Declyn's first time in the ocean, first time playing in real sand, and first time camping. It was awesome to watch, and exhausting to experience. Thank goodness for coffee. And understanding people in the surrounding campsites. Our tent was not very sound proof.

"OK people, its time to set up camp, move it, move it!"

Lori's first toasted PB&J + KoolAid. She was hooked.

Declyn's first time in sand outside of a box. She kind of wanted to move to the sand. There were tears when we left our spot nearly an hour later.

Favorite toy of the trip--the shovel.

Declyn's first time in the ocean. A success, despite the freezing Pacific Ocean waters. Note she's got a death grip on the shovel.

And Declyn's still got the shovel. She would squeal "Whoooooo!" when a wave approached.

Wet baby + sand = sandy bootie!

Post beach showers are amazing and completely necessary.

B's sister and our niece arrived the day after us. D and Siena had a blast hanging out.

And then Siena adopted my sister as her new BFF.

HI GRANDMA!

We visited the Island Brewing Company in Carpinteria and brought some beer back to the camp to sample. Here is what we thought of each kind. The tropical lager on the right tasted like pee.

Card games are mandatory. This is how one of the rummy games ended. We each had a King and the only card in the discard pile was a King. The perfect ending. Especially because I totally won that hand.

Declyn wanted to walk everywhere. And yes, she is wearing socks with sandals and neon salmon sweats that say "Mommy Loves Me." That's what happens when you go camping.

After the first two days, we moved to a campsite that was on the beach. It was huge, sandy and a 10 second walk to the ocean. Here is a picture of my toes on the edge of the campsite.

And all the sand provided endless hours of entertainment.

[insert picture of all of us boogie boarding here. We managed to go out one day 30 minutes before high tide and caught some of the best waves in Carpinteria camping history.]

B and his sis on the beach as the sun is setting.

Me and my sis on the beach in the morning. We learned a great trick for no-nap camping Declyn. Put her in the baby carrier on my back. Instant nap!

Hyatt got some quality wave action on the dog beach.

And last but not least--Tiffany went to check on Siena who was supposed to be napping only to find that Siena had unraveled a whole case of dental floss. What's a family to do? Why, group flossing, of course! The best part is, we all go to the same dentist, so I emailed her this picture to show how awesome we are.

New Recipe Tuesday: Quick Lunch of Spinach, Pita and Hummus

2011-08-09T17:30:00.000-07:00

When B was teaching, I was very organized with our lunches. Nearly everyday I made him lunch and, because it took hardly any effort to make a second, I made myself lunch too. Now that he is at home, I am lazier. I don't think ahead and put lunch items on the grocery list, and I don't scrape together a lunch in the morning before going to work. Working in SF's Financial District means I have any possible lunch option my hungry tummy desires within a 3-block radius. Including the most amazing hamburger ever from 4505 Meats at the Thursday Ferry Building Farmer's Market.

But buying lunch is expensive and less healthy than home-packed goodness. I know myself though, and I am not going to make lunch for just me every morning. Not when I have a toddler who wants me to hold her every second until departure time, my hair is half straightened and a my latte is growing cold on the counter.

The solution? Think ahead just once for the week and bring supplies to make my lunch in the office. My firm has large kitchen and sub-zero refrigerators on each floor, so it can't be that hard.

Result? Success. A spicy hummus from Trader Joe's + whole wheat pita + organic spinach and Voila! a delicious pocket sandwich is born.

Ingredients

Whole wheat pita
Fresh spinach, rinsed
Hummus in your favorite flavor
Any other veggies--cucumber, red bell pepper, and greek olives would be welcome additions, get creative!

Slice the pita in half, gently open the pocket. Spread the inside of each pocket generously with hummus. Stuff it full of spinach. Chow down.

The best part? All of the above ingredients can be purchased at Trader Joe's for about $6.00 (for organic, even less if you are cool with pesticides on your leafy greens), which will get you 5 pockets. That is $1.20/pocket. Add a yogurt* and a piece of fruit and you have a $3.00 lunch.

*Please for the love of all things food related do not make it a Yoplait yogurt. They put high fructose corn syrup in their yogurt. The fact that GM advertises it as a healthy food option should be a crime. There is nothing healthy about HFCS.

Guest Post: Random Thought Thursday

2011-08-04T08:46:00.000-07:00

I am on a brief blogging vacation so I asked my cousin Jamie, who posts hilarious and insightful commentary about her life with her two boys at I Am Not The Babysitter, to do a guest post for this Random Thought Thursday. I gave her free reign. If you love her as much as I do (or even a little less than I do, after all, she is family), check out her blog here, and watch her video to her boys here. Warning, the video is a tear-jerker.

Today I was thinking of how great it would be if I ran the US. I know, slightly a narcissistic thought, but I think I could single handedly fix our debt crisis, our wars, and everything else wrong with the world. Just hear me out . . .

1. The first thing I would do is make it mandatory for our military’s infantry to fight completely nude. Whitney knows my theory. I came up with this idea when I was 12 and I still think it is our best defense. If we group our soldiers by gender and strategically release them, we will stun our opponents, and win the battle. I know what you’re thinking . . . . #genius.

2. As an adoptive mother we are required to take parenting classes before we can adopt. Soooo . . . the next thing I would do is hold all uteruses captive, until thorough parenting classes have been taken by the owner. If they pass the class, they can have their uterus back.

3. These would be installed as every traffic light.

4. “Seasons Greetings” and “Happy Holidays” would be outlawed. You must use the greeting of the holiday you’re celebrating.

5. Mullets would be outlawed. You could have the option of, 1) sucking it up and retiring your ridiculous haircut or 2) go to Canada.

6. “Sunshine would be guaranteed to the masses” - No vitamin D deficits in my country....Oh wait, that is already a real law in California.

7. I would completely outlaw artificial food coloring. And if a company did not want to obey my orders, they would be forced to babysit all of the children that have just consumed their product.

8. I’d ban cars. Everyone must ride Big Wheels (yes the tricycle). There would be no accidents and we all would be in great shape. A train or better equipped BART could be taken if we needed to go out of the area.

9. Pesticides would be banned. If a farmer complained I would spray arsenic on his dinner and ask him if he wished to continue eating it.

10. Organic is not an option, it is a law. Can our cows and chickens please not look like a cyclops or other mythical creature before we slaughter them?