Local News

I was riveted to my computer yesterday watching local Colorado news during the whole-runaway-balloon episode. I’m so happy it turned out the boy was safe. I watched when the balloon landed and I was so sad at the thought that he had fallen out somewhere along the flight.

I really hope that the whole thing it wasn’t a publicity stunt like some are suggesting. Because that would be SO incredibly lame and make me even more cynical than I already am.

I usually don’t watch local news except sometimes for the it’s-so-bad-it’s-good entertainment factor of which this clip is a stellar example.

Woodworking Fall 09: Week 4

Woodworking last night was kind of rough. I was really looking forward to class but as soon as I got there it was just one disappointing thing after another. And I think I’m finally succumbing to N’s nasty cold so things just seemed harder than normal.

The first thing that happened was that I pulled out my camera to take some pictures only to realize that I had left my memory card inside the computer. (D’oh!) So yeah, no pictures today.

Next I sanded the cutting board that Steven and I put together. Then I went to trim the ends of it…and discovered that it wasn’t quite square. (I would like to blame Steven but it was my own darn fault. Sigh.) Because of the pattern the non-squareness of the board became painfully obvious. But I talked to my instructor and I can trim it on the band saw and I think it will be okay.

And THEN I went to look at another cutting board I started and realized that it hadn’t glued up quite right and that I’ll need to re-cut it on the saw and re-glue it. I almost just called it a day because I was so discouraged and feeling under the weather.

But I stayed and made some nice progress on the new lids for my jewelry boxes (which I will take pictures of next week). So at least class ended on a positive note.

A thoughtful husband

Last week N gave me some lovely gifts for my birthday. Books are always popular gifts at our house: N gave me a paperback set of the Sookie Stackhouse books which I’ve been meaning to read and also a couple of graphic novels that look really great. I’ll post about them as I read them.

But the big surprise was this:

My very own lime green Nintendo DS!
(Complete with a stylish carrying case!)


Before we had E I played video games fairly often. I liked the Final Fantasy games in particular. But post-E my free time is too precious to devote big chunks of it to playing games (but oddly enough not to watching movies and tv).

But while I seem to have lost the patience to tackle any 100-hour epic quests I’m become more interested in puzzle games (for you know, exercising the old noggin). They can be played for just 10 or 20 minutes at a time which is handy. N gave me a few of these puzzle games, Scribblenauts and Professor Layton and the Curious Village and both are really fun.

It was a very thoughtful gift because while it’s something I’ve been hankering after for a while, it’s also something that I could never justify buying for myself.

Yay for N!

Letter: Monthy Twenty-Three

Dear E,

Watching you grow continues be alternately fascinating, exasperating, and adorable. And at times it’s all three at once. Sometimes I’m struck by the smallness of you, by how little and defenseless you still are and I feel a surge of mama lion protectiveness and just want to hold you close. And at other times I look into your defiant eyes as you’re glaring at me for not giving you whatever it is that you want and it’s as through the years have already streamed by and you’re sixteen and mad at me for not letting you borrow the car.

But fortunately you’re still mostly adorable. Your love affair with the moon continued this month. You still insist that any round object depicted in the sky is the moon, even if it’s daytime and there are cheerful yellow lines radiating from it. N and I realized the other day that since you go to bed at seven and the summer days were so long that you had actually never seen the moon in person. So when we were driving home the other night and saw a big harvest moon we pulled the car over and got you out of your seat and held you up to the sky. “Look, it’s the moon!” we said and pointed you at the sky. You squealed in excitement and shouted “moon!” and as soon as we set you down you ran down the sidewalk trying to catch the moon. You were so excited that you didn’t look back even once.


This last month my mother went to Korea for a month to visit relatives and so while she was gone your Uncle Steven came to stay with us for a few weeks. At first you were apprehensive about having a house guest; I think you thought we were going to leave you with him for babysitting. But once it became apparent that we weren’t going anywhere you quickly warmed up to him, offering him your hand when we were out walking around and giggling when he would plant a kiss on the top of your head. The three of us went to quite a few places together: the state fair, the aquarium, the dinosaur museum, and to the canyons for a train ride through the mountains.



While Steven was here I would get flashes of déjà vu now and then. Because he has special needs and both my parents worked when I was a teenager I often cooked meals for the two of us and shuttled him around in my car and it was at once strange and familiar to be doing these things again after so long away from them.

I didn’t realize it until just now but helping to look after my brother helped prepare me to be a mother in several ways. It taught me how to be comfortable and patience interacting with someone who can’t communicate back as fully as I can. It also taught me what it’s like to be loved with a love so guileless and pure that there simply isn’t any reproach between you–except maybe for the small one you sometimes feel that you aren’t quite the person they already think you are.

Love like this propels me forward into becoming whom I want to be.

Love,

Mama

Bright Star

I was thinking about writing a review of the movie we saw over the weekend, Bright Star. But then I just read what N posted about it on his blog and since I think he sums it up really well I’ll just link to his review.

I would recommend seeing it. Watching the story unfold ever so slowly can be a little torturous at times but it is ultimately very rewarding. (Be sure to bring some Kleenex, though.) And the costumes are amazing. In particular Fanny’s first few outfits basically dare the Academy not to give them the Oscar for costume design.

Weekend Update

Unfortunately both E and N came down with colds over the weekend but I still had a nice time (while taking zinc lozenge after zinc lozenge to ward off their germs). Friday night I opened present from N and family and friends. I was really touched by everyone’s kindness–I’ll share some of their lovely gifts later this week.

On Saturday N and I took E out for lunch and then stopped by a park to let him play on the slides and swings. He had a great time and it was a lot of fun to watch him. N and I had made plans a while ago to go out that evening; I thought it might be better to reschedule for when N was feeling better but he wanted to be a trooper and still go. So we went and saw the movie Bright Star which was great and then we went to the Melting Pot and ate ourselves silly on cheese and meat and chocolate. And then to top off the weekend I won my fantasy football game last night!

Work’s going to be pretty crazy for me this coming week so it was nice to have a relaxing low-key birthday weekend. E seems to be mostly over his cold so if N can just get better (and I can avoid getting sick) things will be in decent shape around here.

Woodworking Fall 09: Week 3

I decided to redo the lids of my jewelry boxes so they sit on top of the box instead of sitting flush inside the box. This will allow me to use a different sort of hinge and work around the lame lid-won’t-open problem I encountered last semester.

I also decided to use this opportunity to kick up the design of the lids a bit. I’m going to use a technique similar to the one I used to make my cutting boards and create a checkerboard design for the lids.

This is a fun opportunity to use some interesting (and pricey) exotic woods since I only need a board foot of each.

From top to bottom: purpleheart, African lacewood, walnut, bloodwood, and curly maple.

I cut one-inch strips of each wood and glue them together, alternating woods. In the foreground are bloodwood and walnut and in the background are lacewood and maple.

This blank is made up of purple heart and curly maple.

After so much gluing my hands were pretty gnarly.

Class was a lot of fun and I’m excited for next week.

I’m looking forward to the weekend–N’s taking me to the Melting Pot for a belated birthday dinner. (Yum!)

I hope you have a great weekend!

A lovely birthday indeed

Thank you for all the kind birthday wishes! Yesterday turned out to be very nice. After we hit up the stores Jan and I drove up the canyon to Sundance and had lunch at the grill there. A lot of the tress had finished dropping their leaves but the drive was still very pretty–so pretty in fact that I missed the turn for Sundance and didn’t realize it until we were at the reservoir (3 miles past the turn, oops!).

I had never eaten there; the food was really good. We split a chicken sandwich (flavorful but very moist), a vegetable pizza (we each had a slice and took the rest home), a side of sweet potato fries (which I adore), and a chocolate dessert which were all very tasty. But the best part of the outing was just hanging out with my sister. We’re both so busy (and she’s about to because a whole lot busier when the baby comes in December) that we don’t get the chance to do so that often.

After I got home I spent some time playing with E on the swingset out in the backyard and getting ready for woodworking. I figured out what I’m going to do with my jewelry boxes; I’m going to remake the lids. On one hand it’s frustrating because I’m wasting the wood and time I used to make the original lids but now I’m mostly just excited about the new design. I think it’s going to look really good. I took some pictures at class last night and will get them off my camera and post them tomorrow.

I had stayed up quite late reading Tuesday night and so even though yesterday was great I was dragging a bit through the whole day. Luckily for me E decided to give me a birthday present just from him and let me sleep in today. He played quietly in his crib until 9:30, something he almost never does. He’s usually up by 7:30 at the latest. It was a great end to a lovely birthday. And I still have this weekend to look forward to: N’s taking me out for a special dinner on Saturday. It’s fun when the birthday festivities stretch on for a while.

Almost Thirty

That’s how I keep thinking about my birthday this year: I can’t seem to help it. I know twenty-nine’s really not that old but it kind of seems like it. To tell you the truth I don’t really know where the last five years went. I still feel like I’m twenty-four. But obviously I’m not. When I actually think about it, I’m happy about where I’m am right now. And I’m excited about what the next year will bring.

Me in my passport photo, taken yesterday.
They said I wasn’t supposed to smile but I did a little anyway.

Our babysitter is coming over in a little while and I’m going to head out with my sister Jan to go shopping for baby stuff (No, not for me: she’s expecting at the end of the year) and then have lunch. Then it’s back home to look after E until N comes home from work and then I’m off to woodworking class (we’re going out for dinner this weekend).

All in all, it should be a great day.