Adventures in Motherhood

A soggy mess

2008-08-18T21:10:00.004-05:00

Hello Neighbor. You. Yes, you. The one who lives next door to me. I know that we've met. I've seen you two or three times in the, what, 5 years that you've lived here? I am happy to see that you are making a few improvements around the house. Are you planning to sell? Or maybe remarry? Really, I've seen more activity at your house in the last month than I've seen since your wife moved out. I'm not sure that I'll miss you. I am not sure you were ever home enough to miss. Now that we have the pleasantries out of the way, let me tell you something:

You and your landscape crew need to stay out of my yard. And stop touching that hose. Yes, I know that it is dripping water down into your yard. It is supposed to do that. And I see that the extra water is causing a soggy patch in your yard. Believe it or not (and I'm guessing, not), the problem is not our hose. Let me explain.

You see, when our builder (who I hear has gone out of business) designed our yards nearly 10 years ago with the huge hill down the back, they designed a way for the water to drain safely among the yards without washing our backyards (and eventually, our houses) down the big hill. There are nice storm water collection spouts every three houses, and the water is supposed to drain from our yard, through yours, and down to your other neighbor's (notice the large concrete drain in their yard? It's not decorative).

About the hose: This year we have had a lot more rain than any summer I can remember. And for once, our yard did not drain. We even have a sump pump in our basement, to help expel water, but our builder (the one who went out of business) ran the spout from the sump pump about 3 inches out from the side of our house. So the water filters in from the back yard, and is pumped up and out a pipe, where it runs right back to the same spot in the back yard. We couldn't mow for nearly a month because the mower sank into the mire. Sorry about the weeds.

Yes, I'm getting to the hose. Don't touch it! The end you don't see is attached, not to the water spigot, but to the sump pump. Now, instead of running that darned pump 24/7 to cycle water back and forth across a lone corner of our yard, it is actually being cycled back into the waterway, which drains into your yard. By design, remember.

I'm sorry to see that your yard now has the soggy spot. At least you don't have a sump pump. Be aware that every time you (or your lawn service) moves that hose to the edge of the big hill you are doing two things: 1) Tresspassing and 2) Potentially causing a soil erosion problem with that big hill. We do NOT want the water to rush down the hill, or it will take our yards with it. And honestly, I don't want to get any closer to our back yard/down the hill neighbors. I am sure they are nice people, but I prefer some space.

We will soon have to find someone to dig us some trenches, lay some drainage pipe (which my husband calls "tile"...but I keep picturing a bathroom floor not a perforated pipe), and get our whole mess moved underground.

Guess what? It will still drain into your yard. Sorry. It is designed to do that. And really, though we can totally empathize with your plight, we're not going to change the plan. We will not be creating any problems for your house that do not already exist due to the design of the landscaping, and to the settling of the dirt in the yards. I suggest you re-grade your yard a bit to help it drain to your neighbor's yard.

Feel free to pass along this message to your other neighbor and explain about the waterway design. Maybe it will help them cool off once they notice the swamp their yard has become. It has certainly helped me.

Book List update and a 66% Year Update

2008-08-15T10:52:00.003-05:00

I posted the other day that I finished Eldest by Christopher Paolini.

Then, within about 36 hours, I started and finished The Lost Duke of Wyndham by Julia Quinn. It was the first of hers that I'd read, but won't be the last. For a historical, it had a great pace and refreshing characters--the hero especially was not your typical romance alpha male. He was more of the class clown. Don't get me wrong, he was sufficiently male (with the super-man phyiscal prowess to go with it), just lacking in that annoying machismo that turns off a lot of non-romance readers.

I keep thinking I missed posting a book, but Eldest was pretty long, so maybe not.

What am I reading now? Two books--Death Angel by Linda Howard (which I won from a different author's blog), and Sizzle and Burn by Jayne Ann Krentz. The second one I picked up at the library--off the 7-day loan shelves, of course. I've read many of her Amanda Quick historical titles, including a couple in the "Arcane Society" series. Sizzle and Burn is a contemporary and also ties into the Arcane Society. I love her Amanda Quick titles, and I'm about 50 pages into this one. So far so good!

I didn't post a mid-year update, but maybe I should have. Here's my totals for the year, broken down (kind of loosely) by category:

General Fiction - 6 (includes John Grisham, Ken Follet, etc)
Contemporary Romance - 5 This is higher than normal for me. I'm usually a historical fan
Sci Fi/Fantasy - 5 I bought one of these thinking it was a historical romance. Now I know.
Historical Romance - 4 Fifteen years ago, this category would have far outstripped all others. Five years ago it would have been virtually null. The pendulum swings.
Women's Lit (Chick Lit) - 2 I could probably recategorize these in General Fic and Contemporary romance, but together they made a little grouping. And I have more to add to their number by years end)

Grand total = 22 books, with 2 more in progress and about a dozen on my shelf. I must remember to avoid the library....

Diagnosis: Healthy

2008-08-12T12:12:00.003-05:00

My employer offers free health screenings every year. It's probably cheaper for them to have several thousand employees spend 15 minutes in the cafeteria than to send them each to the doctor and have a round of bloodwork ordered. Assuming folks are even bothered to go.

Both years that I've taken advantage of the program, my numbers have all been good. Here's this years:

Total Cholesterol 160 ("Desirable" is <200)
HDL Cholesterol 41 ("Low" is < 40, "Optimal" is > 60..I was at the same level last year too)
LDL Cholestoerol 99 ("Optimal" < 100)
Triglycerides 101 ("Desirable" < 150)
Glucose 94 ("Normal (Non-Fasting)" < 140)
Blood Pressure 94/57 ("Normal" < 120/80)
BMI 24.0 ("Normal" = 18.5-24.9)
Body Fat 29.8% ("Healthy" for my age is 21-33%)

Yes my blood pressure is low. And no, I don't get dizzy (they asked!). The only time I came close to that "normal" range was about 8 months pregnant. I salt my food, too (though I don't like a lot of packaged or canned stuff). My mom began having trouble with higher blood pressure after age 40. I'm keeping these numbers for as long as I can, thankyouverymuch.

It is interesting that my BMI and Body Fat % have been pretty much the same for over ten years (not counting a few select months post-partum). I used to stress about the body fat % thing--I used to be on the borderline between "healthy" and "overweight". My age is now my excuse. Hooray for thirtysomethings!

My cholesterol levels were about the same last year. The only near "ding" on my record is really that hdl level--it's lower than optimal. Last year I chalked it up to breastfeeding, and having the fat literally sucked right out of me. This year, well, I guess it's just diet & exercise. But as the "counselor" explained, the ratio of my hdl to my total cholesterol is good. I'm just low overall.

I do need to exercise more, but I already eat plenty of nuts & use olive oil almost exclusively when cooking (& canola for baking). I tried a fish oil supplement once--it gives me heartburn. We don't eat a lot of fish in our house, which might also boost that number. I am not particularly comfortable cooking a lot of fish dishes (lack of experience manly), and honestly, the midwest is not a great place to buy it.

As part of the health screenings, they will feed our numbers into a computer system for a health survey. They will ask us additional questions about our diet and lifestyle, which will doubtless be used for research of some sort. I remember last year having to answer the question "Do you eat a low-fat diet". My answer was marked "medium-fat" diet, which is a more accurate description. I like meat and butter, and am never skimpy with the olive oil. And it's not hurting me so far. But despite low overall cholesterol numbers, the system still chided me for not eating a "low-fat" diet. Hmmph.

Book Review: Eldest

2008-08-11T08:31:00.005-05:00

(Minor Spoiler Alert)

I finished Eldest, the sequel to Eragon, this weekend. Has anyone else noticed that the series is Star Wars with dragons? Maybe it's just me, but from about 1/3 of the way through the Eragon movie (which I uncharacteristically saw before reading the book), I was sure that I was watching "A New Hope" (or whatever the name of the 1st/4th movie was...I always used to call it just "Star Wars"...).

Eragon does not know his parents, and was raised by his uncle, who is killed by minions of the evil empire (with Galbatorix as the emperor), and is saved by Obi Wan (Brom) who happens to be a Jedi Master (a Rider) and can begin teaching Eragon about his newfound powers. Then they have to go rescue Princess Leia (Arya), and deliver her to the rebellion (Varda), and help them win a great battle. In the second book, Eragon meets his Yoda, and has to leave before completing his training, in order to save his friends from a certain doom.

Now, there are a few plotlines that have been changed around. Murtagh, for example, seems at first to be the Han Solo of the series, but by the end of Eldest, he has become more Darth Vadar. I am not sure which way the author is going with this one--surely Murtagh will be redeemed by the end of the not-yet-released Brisinger. But whether he dies in the process like Anakin, or lives through the final battle with Galbatorix to help Eragon found a new era of Riders, I can't guess. And obviously, Arya isn't Eragon's sister, but his love interest. (I always felt sorry for Luke, you know--but maybe it's best that he doesn't have a girlfriend, given how his father juggled the whole career/family issue....)

Right now, I'm stumped as to who fills Chewbaca's role. The dwarf Orrik who goes to Du Welden Varden with Eragon? Roran? And really, there's just no substitute for R2D2.

I suppose I'm poking a bit of fun at the series, but I'm not intending to be mean. It is very enjoyable and I didn't stray to other books while reading so far. I can see the growth of the author as a writer from the first book to the second. He apparently began writing Eragon at age 15. Impressive. And given the timeline, I bet he had just seen the re-releases of the original Star Wars trilogy in the theaters...

Crazy Eights

2008-08-08T09:27:00.005-05:00

In honor of 8/8/8, I am going to share 3 lists of 8.

8 Places I've Traveled
1. San Luis Potosí, San Luis Potosí Mexico (Yes, I repeated that...it's a city and a state)
2. Mexico City
3. Teotihuacan
(In case you're keeping score, those first three were all the same summer during an exchange program)
4. Cancún
5. Chichen Itza
6. Puerto Vallarta
7. Negril, Jamaica
8. Ocho Rios, Jamaica

8 Jobs I've Held
1. Babysitter
2. Fast Food
3. Bakery. Working the register & occisionally writing a name on a cake, not actually baking
4. Movie Theater. Box office & concession stand
5. Campus Information Desk
6. Biochemistry Lab Assistant
7. Computer Lab Help Desk
8. Software Developer

8 Things I've Never Done
1. Smoked (anything! Burning dinner doesn't count...)
2. Shot a gun
3. Broken a bone
4. Eaten buffalo, alligator, ostrich, frog legs, or other exotic meats
5. Travelled outside the northern hemisphere, or outside of the Americas
6. Snow Skiied (or snow boarded or cross-country skiied)
7. Gone to a Casino (to gamble, socialize, or even use the bathroom)
8. Attended a Professional Football Game (any team, any city)

A crisis of identity

2008-08-06T08:00:00.002-05:00

Women get married all the time. And divorced. And you know what happens then? They change their names. Not always, but often. Very often.

You would think that most organizations would understand this issue. Every day, companies, organizations, and schools acquire new and fancier computer systems to track people. They track what people buy. They track where people work. They track the people that track people. The systems do fancy things like allowing you to enroll in classes, view your grades, and pay your bills all from a single web interface. Nifty. Very Nifty. Very smart. Very complicated.

I know how complicated some of these systems, and systems-of-systems are. I am a software developer. I have seen some of them in action, at the lowest levels. They're ugly. The easier that front-end is to use, the uglier the back end probably is. That's just the way computers work. I know that having to update multiple systems, track changes, and keep things in sync is work. It's hard work. It's damned boring work.

You know what annoys the hell out of me? Very smart, nifty, complicated computer systems that fail to take into account that nearly 50% of the population may someday change their name. Does getting a new name immediately invalidate a person's existance? No. Not according to the women (primarily) who just got married. And not according to the police. Or credit bureaus.

And yet, the process of changing one's name can make you want to move to Mexico and sell seashells on the beach for the rest of time, just to avoid the endless paperwork, bureaucracy, and aggravation it takes to switch a few letters around.

I have been married for a little over 7 years by now. One might assume that by now, all of the bugs have been worked out of my name-change-process. One might assume incorrectly.

This spring, I took a class at Wash U (yes, I'm naming names! Damnit!). It was short, one-credit, and the tuition is covered by my employer (nope, not naming them) The total bill was about $500. I enrolled, submitted a tuition voucher, went to class, submitted my final grade. And then received a bill. The problem is, as far as I can tell, that I hold my undergraduate degree from Wash U. They know my maiden name. My employer has never heard of that maiden. Somewhere along the line, Wash U decided that they were going to ignore the name I enrolled in my class with, ignore the payment voucher that I submitted, and staunchly refuse to admit that I am married. And send me a tuition bill.

The first one I ignored. I thought it was informational. After all, I submitted my voucher and my grade. After the second one, I called work. They told me that they will happily pay, as soon as they are billed. Today I called Wash U. They now tell me that they have no record of my voucher (which they had to receive before they would finish processing my enrollment in the class. I made phone calls back then too. I know they processed it.). Oh yeah, and they're about to send my unpaid tuition bill into collection. Thanks. A lot.

Did I mention that every time I go online to check my enrollment or my billing status, Wash U calls me by my maiden name? And happily shows me my undergraduate transcripts? I guess the dozen pieces of paper I submitted with the correct name were ignored. Unfortunately for me, the credit bureaus know my many aliases and will have no trouble assigning that bad debt to the correct person.

I hope to hell that things don't get that far. Today, I have submitted vouchers again, along with a note about the name problem. Maybe this time Wash U will figure out who I am. Maybe.

Selling seashells on the beach is sounding better every minute.

Spines, batteries, and brakes

2008-08-05T08:48:00.004-05:00

As usual, I am the quietest when there is the most going on at home. I feel like I haven't posted in forever, but thanks to Blogger's post-dating feature, you haven't even missed me yet. And never fear, I'm going to throw so much at you today that you won't want to check back in for at least another week.

I mentioned last week that Trystan had his MRI of the lower spine. Despite my worries about the radiology department's communication skills, we got the results last Tuesday. They actually called our pediatrician, who called us. In any case, the MRI showed NO SIGN of a tethered spinal cord! Hooray! Whew.

They got additional pictures of some of the issues we already knew about, namely his kidneys (or rather, his kidney singular) and vertebrae. Trystan has one (I believe) vertebrae that is malformed--I will have to get the pedi to write down the exact medical termniology (because I don't get enough search engine hits on this stuff as it is, LOL). Those are things that might be more annoying as he gets older--he has a higer chance of developing scoliosis, for example. But for now, we don't need additional surgeries (except for the future heart procedure that we already know about). No stressing about nerve damage. No additional specialists. No more tests, outside of his 6-month echocardiograms (those are just ultrasounds of the heart...not invasive at all).

Over the weekend, we went to my husband's family reunion. We didn't feel comfortable with Trystan and long drives with the colostomy last year, so we had skipped the last annual get together. It was the first time that most of the family had met Trystan, though everyone had heard about all of his issues. He charmed everyone, and all loved his hair. Trystan has "angel hair" like Charlotte did--it is so white it's nearly transparent, and sticks straight up all over his head, giving him a sort of halo. Char's eventually settled down once it grew long enough. With Trystan we'll have to start cutting it short eventually so that it doesn't look so goofy. It's adorable now.

The reunion was fun. It's always a big potluck, and this year we had a gathering room in hubby's grandmother's church, including use of their gym. There was lots of room for the kids to play, and about 1/2 of Char & Trystan's generation was in attendance (so, over a dozen kids from 3 months to about 12 years old were actually there). My father-in-law is one of 13 siblings, so the family is HUGE. Both of my kids had a blast.

We had a reservation to stay the night in town before driving home, and luckily, our car made it to the hotel before it died. Yep, it died. 200 miles from our home (and from my car) in a small town on a Saturday night, where most mechanics have Sundays off. We didn't discover the problem until after we'd checked in, swam, and were leaving to find dinner. My IL's, SIL and BIL & their twins had decided not to stay the night (the twins don't do well in hotels...my kids don't do well in cars...), so we were on our own. We changed our dinner plans and walked across the street to a closer restaurant.

After dinner, we found that one of my husband's cousin's family, coincidentally, were staying in the room right next to ours. They had car battery trouble too (must be the heat and all the travel accessories), but were able to start their car and then jump ours. Unfortunately, my husband's car battery would not hold a charge, even after an extended period of highway driving. Sunday morning, my husband's uncle jumped his car again, and accompanied him to a local auto parts store to buy a new battery. Their mechanics were not in for the day, but they loaned my husband some tools, and my husband changed his own battery.

Char and Trystan thought that hanging out in a hotel room and watching cartoons was all just part of the trip. Char, especially, was devastated when she found out that we were leaving for home, and not another exciting adventure. Maybe next year, kid, assuming our cars hold out.

Yesterday it was my turn for somewhat unexpected and expensive car repairs. My airconditioning was acting a little flaky last week, and my rear brakes were running fingernails down a chalkboard at every red light. My kids went to daycare as Char had swimming lessons. My husband worked from home to be on call to help me drop off and pick up the car. I took my day-off work and cleaned the house, with my cell phone in hand all day. They didn't get it done till after 5. All that cleaning was necessary, but today I'm wishing I'd spent more time online or watching a little tv or something that didn't involve bleach or toilets.

Now I'm hoping that I'll have less real stuff to talk about for a while, so I can get back to my normal random-thoughts-from-Kristi kind of posts. Like the one about leg hair that I've been considering writing. Maybe I'll schedule that for later this week :)

Pick a card, any card

2008-07-31T10:12:00.003-05:00

I like gift cards. We give a lot of them for weddings, and I love to get them for Christmas gifts. I'm particular about stuff I want (and am already overloaded by "junk" I don't), so being allowed to choose my gift is a gift in itself. Plus, when I have a giftcard to use, I like take the opportunity to shop by myself and wander at my own leisure--which makes a gift card as much about "me time" as it is the book/clothing/coffee drink that I actually purchase.

Somehow, we've gotten overloaded by them lately. I have been gathering them from around the house, and I think I could re-tile the bathroom floor with them. Don't believe me? Here's a list of the unused (or partially used) gift cards in our house that I am aware of:

Borders (at least 2 separate ones)
Barnes and Noble
Starbucks (at least 2, one might be empty)
Best Buy
Sears
Shell
The Viking Store
Lerner NY (technically, it's a paper receipt with store credit from a return)
Target
Texas Roadhouse
Landmark Cinema (I think that's the name...the one in Plaza Frontenac)
And a prepaid Visa card (a rebate of some sort)

We could shop till we drop for an entire weekend, and still have plastic left over.

I guess this isn't a bad thing, really, except that some of these cards are aging. Some gift cards start charging fees after the cards go unused for a specified amount of time. And when stores go out of business, the gift cards are often rendered useless. I believe that they are considered by the courts to be a form of unsecured debt, and in a bankruptcy, all of the secured debt is paid off first.

Our current bounty makes me nervous. I get anxious about money in different ways than my husband does. He worries about putting away enough for the future, and having money left over for our heirs. I'm more concerned with making sure today's bills get covered. We're comfortable now, its true, but I can't shake the fear and the habits to make sure that we stay that way.

And stuffing money into drawers and bulletin boards, where little fee-mice will nibble the corners off of it makes me antsy to go out and spend. At the same time, for the cards that were gifts and not just store credit, I feel obligated to spend the money effectively, and get the best gift I can for the giver's money. That means that I'm reluctant to blow an entire card in one purchase.

As for my husband, he's not a big shopper in the first place. Nor does he have a giant purse to cram full of excess plastic and carry around every day. And he also has a Hershey's bar in one of those "it's a She" wrappers sitting on his desk from a baby announcement several years ago. (Pack rat? I'll call it extra sentimental) I think that he might prefer to tile a bathroom floor with gift cards rather than actually spend them.

Does anyone else have problems with gift cards piling up? How do you deal with them? Of is it just us...

He KNOWS

2008-07-30T08:00:00.001-05:00

Trystan is 16 months old, has one kidney, a colon that was initially attached to his bladder (instead of say, an anus), and irregular vertebrae that might signal spinal cord (read: nerve) issues. And on Sunday, twice he requested to pee in the potty and actually did it.

Before that, he had wandered in once while I was assisting his 3.9-year old sister (who is normally independently in charge of her own waste management) with an extra wipe-job, involving an actual baby wipe. Trystan sat down on the stepstool to watch and was exceedingly indignant when he was bodily removed from the room (he's rather destructive in bathrooms). About 5 minutes later, I noticed a certain scent emanating from his rear. He wasn't in the bathroom to watch, to heckle, or to cause trouble. He was IN LINE. Doh! I apologized profusely to him as he lay on his changing table giving me a cold shoulder. Dude, learn some more words, ok?

Impressive what the kid understands. I just hope that this is a good portent for the future of potty training. Maybe he'll be one of the lucky small % with the high imperforate anus defect who can toilet train normally. Or maybe he just had a very good day!

Monkeying Around

2008-07-29T08:00:00.000-05:00

Saturday was the first time in a long time that we had nowhere to go and nothing to do. There's always housework, but nothing pressing. So we went to the zoo. I'd share photos, but that would require us to have remembered the camera.

We tried to go early, to beat the heat. It sort of worked. The humidity was immune to our beatings, however. Maybe next time I'll walk around with a million of those "silica gel" packets stapled to my shirt.

On the spur of the moment, we called friends who have kids the same ages as our ownMr. Friend was able to join us with his boys, though his wife was busy. They have one of those nifty strollers with an extra sit/stand jumpseat on the back for their preschooler to ride on. Charlotte loved it. She kept squeezing in, so it frequently looked like our friend had 3 kids and we had 1.

Saturdays at the zoo are, well, a zoo. People, people everywhere. They're actually one of the main exhibits as some of them smell only slightly better than the elephants. We tried to stick to indoor exhibits--the reptile and mammal houses, the penguins. I still have never seen a sea lion show. One of these days.

I was impressed at how attentive Trystan was all morning. It's been several months since we were there last, so he's never paid much attention to the animals before. Saturday he was smiling and pointing and enjoying the show. He said "dog" and pointed at the prairie dogs, and loved to watch the penguins diving and splashing. We took a train ride shortly before we left, and he did not enjoy that at all. Kept trying to get off at every stop (we rode the complete circle all at once).

I had thought that spending over five hours outside in the sun would exhaust both kids, but those strollers worked too well. Trystan slept for about 45 minutes in his stroller at lunch time, and Charlotte fought sleeping until several hours after we got home. They were both crabby (as were we). But it was fun.

Trystan's MRI

2008-07-28T08:44:00.004-05:00

Friday was strange. I woke Trystan up at 4:30 in the morning, fed him a bowl of oatmeal, and put him back to bed. He was scheduled for an MRI to check for a tethered spinal cord at noon, and couldn't have any solid food after 5am. Then, clear liquids only until 9, and then nothing until after the procedure.

Withholding food wasn't as horrific as I feared. I had to keep him playing either upstairs in the bedrooms (he loves doing laundry), or in the basement play area (he loves the bounce house). If we stayed on the main floor, then he would probably have helped himself to a snack from the pantry. He is especially fond of raisins lately, and even carries the box to the kid-sized table to eat it. Did I mention that he's a climber?

He told me a couple of times that he was hungry, but was pacified by, well, a pacifier. And we left around 10:30, so it wasn't that long that he had to wait. The drive to Children's was a little surreal. One of the local radio stations was hosting a charity event and were playing Christmas music all day, and introducing themselves as The Christmas Station. July 25th. Christmas in July. (though why don't we say "Christmas in June", as June is 6 months from Christmas...July is a 7/5 split...makes no sense to me...)

The procedure center at Childrens was running a little behind, and so Trystan played with every toy in their cupboard at least twice. He even got to color with crayons (only a little got on the sheets to the hospital bed, I swear), and helped me to fill out a parent questionaire. (Did you see the yellow zig-zag? That was Trystan answering "No" to the question about metal plates in his head...).

Trystan had to be sedated, and because it is always hard to find his veins, they put him under with gas before attempting to start an IV. At that point, I was handed a pager and sent to the cafeteria to wait. Oddly, enough, the cafeteria was also celebrating Christmas in July, with a menu of roast turkey and mashed potatoes. I had pizza.

It was a little strange pushing around a stroller with no kid in it, but I wasn't the only one. I had a brief conversation with another mom whose son was there to see the surgeons (not Trystans, but one of the others in the same office), and who had been through the MRI for tethered chord. He had a different overall set of issues, but it was nice to share quick anecdotes. Her little boy wasn't expected to walk at all, but three months after getting leg braces walked into their neurologist's office on his own power. Kids are awesome.

Trystan awoke from the sedation very quickly. That is to say, he was sound asleep one moment, and wide awake the next. Wide awake and quickly divesting himself of all extraneous paraphanalia, like the oxygen tube in his nose, the pusle-ox meter on his thumb, and his IV. Luckily they had the IV taped down well, because I know from experience how much those things bleed when you pull them out too fast.

I was given instructions to not allow him to drive or operate heavy machinery, and to make sure he had fluids. He was only a little wobbly on his feet at first, and did not apreciate the fruit-punch flavored pedialyte. It was better in his own sippy cup, but still sub-optimal. He dumped most of it out in the car, in his carseat--his butt was wet and fruity when we got home. We left fairly soon after he woke up. If it were up to Trystan, he would have walked out a lot sooner--he kept trying to escape out the door while I was gathering our stuff up.

We don't have the results yet. Someone will call us, or our pediatrician, "soon". If the department is as timely with following up on test results as they were about scheduling, we might find out by Christmas. It's only 5 months away, after all.

YoMama

2008-07-24T08:00:00.000-05:00

If you've ever done yoga, you may be familiar with some common poses: warrior, tree, eagle, cat, etc. I have spent the past four years pefecting a new series of poses, geared towards mothers of young children. Although this would probabably work better as a photo blog, you will have to bear with me on the descriptions. This is just a first draft of my master thesis, after all.

Teeth Pose Imagine you are standing at the bathroom sink about to brush your teeth. Begin by standing straight on two feet (this is your resting position). Raise your right hand to your mouth. Now bend one knee to hold the vanity doors shut as if to prevent a toddler from opening them. Now, lift your other leg behind you and hold, as if to keep a shower doors from sliding opened by (the same) exploratory toddler. Before returning to your resting position, bend forward (keeping the bent knee and lifted leg in place) to spit. Repeat with the opposite arms and legs.

Dinner Pose Imagine you are standing at a hot stove. Begin in your resting position--straight on two feet, hand at your sides. Now raise both arms in front of you, as if you are manipulating two hot pans. Raise up onto the balls of your feet, stick your butt out behind you, and arch your upper back up and over towards the stove. Hold until small children have successfully squeezed between your legs and the oven door. As an advanced technique, peform the same move while standing on one leg, the other held out to the side keeping a cabinet door closed.

Tickle Pose This is a partner pose, requiring one or more partners, ideally 3 feet tall or shorter. Sit down on the floor cross legged. Have your first partner climb into your lap, put his hands on your shoulders and push until you roll backwards, taking him with you. Lift him up into the air above your chest. The second partner, if you are using one, has two options: 1) Climb onto your bent legs while you lift her into the air, or 2) lift up your shirt and raspberry your tummy. Raise and lower partner #1 while he laughs.

Toy Pose Lay down on the floor, flat on your tummy. Reach your arms up by your head and then sweep them back along the floor toward your legs, as if you are reaching under the couch for a lost toy.

Dictionary of the Absurd

2008-07-22T10:25:00.007-05:00

I am always annoyed by the jargony phrases that people--especially non-technical mangerial types--like to throw around. They think that they sound cool, informed, hip. Most of the time I end up scratching my head and wondering what, exactly, they really meant. Or if they, themselves, even know.

Overarching It is used like "all-encompassing" or "all-inclusive". The book had overarching themes of hope and despair. It always makes me picture the Arch, or else a bridge crossing a stream--something that hops from one point to another without touching the ground in between. Somehow, I don't think that's what people have in mind.

Knowledge Transfer It means to teach or to inform. The phrase always conjures images of people hooking up a network wire between their heads and clicking "download". If only we could.

Disconnect This is what happens when you're done with your knowledge transfer, I suppose. It shoudln't describe a case where you never connected--that would be a misconnect? For a disconnect, you have to hook up first. I could describe the mental picture here, but I'll just say that that sort of behavior is not generally condoned in the workplace.

Leverage To utilize or take advantage of. "We want to leverage our expertise in order to win this contract." Recently I heard a high-level executive refer to myself and my colleagues as "intellectual capital" that the company was trying to "leverage". Makes me feel like a rock that they're loading into a trebuchet.

Pushing the Envelope Pushing it where? Is this like a dog nosing a piece of paper along the ground? Why would I want to push it when I can put a stamp on it and mail it?

Thinking Outside the Box Is the outside of the box really more interesting than the inside? Or is the "box" a reference to the cubicle I sit in every day? Does that mean I'm supposed to be thinking about work when I leave? Fat chance there.

Paradigm Shift I think people mean that we're going to change a mode of thinking to a completely different one--like writing top to bottom instead of left to right. But to shift doesn't mean to replace, just to move. So is our paradigm now in second gear or reverse? Or just stuck in all Caps?

Hit the ground running I did this once in gym class, and still have a scar on my left knee.

Face time To be honest, I don't want any other kind of (body part) time with anyone but my husband. See my note above about behaviors not condoned in the workplace.

Cutting Edge / Bleeding Edge The forefront. The beginning. Leaders, visionaries, etc are on these so-called edges. We're always on the cutting edge, which seems to me that we're about to be sliced in half, like a salami perched on the blade of a knife. Why aren't we "the cutting edge" itself--then we're doing the slicing. Somehow, I'd rather be the knife than the salami.

What else did I miss?

No more Meez

2008-07-16T08:00:00.000-05:00

If you read this directly on my webpage, you may have noticed my nifty "Meez" graphic up the past couple of weeks. Their site is fun--I made a paper doll of myself and dressed it up. It was cute, but kind of big on the side of my blog. It's gone again. Well, mostly. Here she is one last time (and this time the graphic shouldn't get chopped by the side-bar):

Chicken Fajita Blackbean Chili

2008-07-15T13:05:00.003-05:00

Sunday I made chili for lunch. I actually set out to make fajitas, or possibly nachos. Funny how cooking can go so far off course.

The problem was that we had an odd assortment of food in the house. I found chicken breasts, onions, and bell peppers (on the verge of going bad), so decided to do the fajita thing. I got everthing cut up, and was beginning to cook the meat when I found that we had no tortillas. We did have nach chips, so I thought I'd switch to taco salads. No lettuce. Back to the cupboard looking for black beans to make nachos. I found a can of "caribbean style black beans and rice". Close enough.

I had cut the chicken into thin strips--maybe 1/4-1/2" wide and was sauteeing them with a little olive oil (EVOO, you know). With more time and/or forethought I would have marinaded them for better flavor, but then this post would be completely different. When the chicken was basically cooked through, I added seasoning--chili powder from Penzey's, and a little cumin. I sprinkled it in dry, hoping to toast it a bit to bring out the flavor. I pulled the meat out of the pan, and set it in a bowl, covered, to rest while I dealt with the veggies.

The pan was really dry, so I added more EVOO and tossed in the onions and bell peppers. Unfortunately, the pan was not only dry, but way too hot, and the veggies didn't release enough liquid, so the seasonings were threatening to burn. There was a really nice fond on the bottom of the pan, but the onions were not nearly as soft as I like, and nowhere near carmelized, which I prefer (too many cold veggies, too little pan). I had to do something to keep things from burning.

So I deglazed the pan with about a cup of chicken broth made from a chicken soup base paste that I keep in the fridge. That helped, but now I had way too much liquid, and it wasn't cooking down.

Around here, my husband came in from mowing the lawn, saw my mess and suggested that I just call it 'soup'. So I did.

I dumped in the beans/rice, added the chicken back in, and finished it with a good squeeze of bottled lime juice. Overall: not bad. If I were setting out to make a chicken-fajita-blackbean-chili, I would have added a lot more chili powder though (or at least have thrown in some chipotle peppers). Overall, it was pretty good. Also, I would have used straight black beans, and not the rice-combo. And I wouldn't have cut the veggies into long strips (those are awkward on a spoon...)

Chicken Fajita Blackbean Chili (Serves 3-4)
Total cooking time about 30 minutes

2 boneless skinless chicken breasts, sliced into 1/4" wide strips
1 red bell pepper, diced into 1/2" chunks
1 medium yellow onion, diced into 1/2" chunks
1 can black beans
1 cup chicken broth (canned or from bouillon or a soup base)
(optional) hot peppers or canned chipotle peppers, to taste
chili powder (I prefer a no-salt-added one)--to taste, probably 1-4 TBSP or so
2 Tbsp lime juice (from a bottle is fine, or fresh-squeezed if you've got it)
2-4 Tbsp chopped fresh cilantro
salt and pepper to taste
Olive oil or other cooking oil
Tortilla chips, sour cream, hot sauce, shredded cheese, etc for toppings

1. Heat 1 T oil in large skillet (NOT nonstick). Add chicken and saute until cooked thoroughly, about 10 minutes.
2. Add chili powder to chicken and heat until fragrant, 2-3 minutes. This will look dry!
3. Remove chicken from pan and cover. DO NOT CLEAN THE PAN! Add another Tbsp oil to pan, and all of the onions and peppers (sweet and hot). Saute 5-10 minutes until the onions are softened.
4. Leaving the veggies in the pan, add the chicken broth (i.e. deglaze the pan). Scrape the bottom of the pan with spoon/spatula to loosen all of the seasoning (that's where the flavor is).
5. Add the beans and chicken. Heat through.
6. Taste and adjust salt & pepper as necessary (the amount you need depends on your chili powder and salt content of the beans). Add the lime juice and sprinkle the cilantro as you're taking it off the heat.
7. Serve with chips, sour cream, shredded cheese, and whatever else sounds good :)

Reading List update

2008-07-14T11:40:00.003-05:00

Quick reading list update:

Finished At Risk by Alison Kent. It was good. It surprised me as the entire plot was much more compact than most novels I read--the whole sequence lasted maybe a week, with 90% of the action taking place on 2 or 3 days total. But in each of her scenes, she goes into such intense detail that you don't feel cheated. You feel every breath, see every speck of dust stir in the air. I read a lot of historical romances with detailed backgrounds and clothing descriptions and politics. This was a neat change. BTW, I got my copy of this book for free in a drawing on the author's blog, a promo that will probably pay off for her in the long run: I'm now highly likely to buy more of her work (in addition to mentioning her here, for whatever that's worth). Thanks!

Second Sight by Amanda Quick. I have been a fan of hers for over 10 years. I've read most of her books under this pen name, though none of her Jayne Ann Krentz or Jayne Castle novels...maybe later. I finished the whole book in maybe 3 days. I keep seeing her newer one, The Third Circle at bookstores, but my to-read list has gotten rather bloated lately.

I just started on Eldest, sequel to Eragon. I actually started on A Good Yarn by Debbie Macomber first, but switched after about 2 chapters. It's not bad, just didn't quite capture my fancy (and after Amanda Quick, I was looking for another fast-engaging story). I've never read Debbie Macomber, and might get back to it later. In the mean time, that was one of my 50cent library sale table finds, so no big loss if I don't like it...

A First for Trystan

2008-07-12T12:31:00.005-05:00

Trystan has been needing a haircut, but his hair is so fine and wispy that I've been putting it off. I think Char was nearly 2 before she needed more than her bangs trimmed (and if she could have kept a barrette in her hair for more than 30 seconds, she wouldn't have needed that). I've debated letting Trystan grow his hair long, but until it grows in a little thicker, it would just look silly. He already nearly has a comb-over with how bald his poor white head looks.

Last Friday we took the kids to The Magic House. There's nothing like a Van de Graaf generator to show off just how long your hair is:

So, Saturday Trystan got his first haircut. I took both kids to a place called Cool Cuts 4 Kids that offers car-shaped seats and DVDs or video games to keep them still. He didn't do so bad:

Unfortunately, I don't actually have a good after photo. They gave us a polaroid in a little cardstock frame with a lock of his hair as a keepsake, but I cannot easily scan their photo at the moment (myriad computer problems that my husband is in the middle of sorting out). Trystan's also sound asleep right now, so you'll have to wait till next time I have time to blog from a computer with access to our photos. He looks very cute, I assure you. And quite a bit older than he did a week ago.

Nothing says romance like...

2008-07-09T08:28:00.001-05:00

...installing a toilet. Or re-installing one. Plus lots of quality time spent with utility knives.

On 7/7, we celebrated our 7th anniversary. In honor of the occaision, we installed a new bathroom floor. Not exactly what you would have done? Well, there was supposed to be a nice kid-free dinner over the weekend, but my husband spent the day puking so we had to postpone that. We did manage to squeeze in a relaxing barbeque with my in-laws and husbands sister's family. All 3 couples have anniversaries around the 4th.

Our anniversary itself included a sick baby (Trystan's first strep throat), a toilet in our shower, and baseboards that shattered when we removed them. We cut. We scraped. We stuck. It looks great. Trust me. Maybe I'll photograph it some day. Who am I kidding? It's a bathroom floor. I barely manage to post photos of my kids. If you want to see it, you might have to wrangle an invitation to come over in person (I'll bet our phone'll be ringing off the hook tonight...)

In honor of our illustrious occaision, I have decided to create a new listing of traditional anniversary gifts, this list geared toward today's couples, inspired by our own yearly updates:

Traditional Wedding Anniversary Gifts for Homeowners

Drapes.
Retaining Walls/Garden beds
Baby Furniture
Paint, Master Bedroom furniture
Patio Furniture, sandbox
Shelving for toys
Vinyl and Porcelain
Hardwood flooring. If anyone wants to go in together to buy this for us for next year, I'd be happy to set up a registry....

Friday, July 4th, 2008

2008-07-08T09:34:00.004-05:00

We've had a long, busy weekend. I have lots to say, but haven't been online at all since Thursday. I'll try to space things out.

We had a good time on the 4th. In the morning we went to the Magic House with some friends. We spent a lot longer there than our friends, and missed going out to lunch with them afterwards. But, we paid for our admission outright and didn't feel ready to leave after an hour. We're now members. They applied the $30 in admission we paid to our membership fee, and my emplyer should match our entire amount, which gets us the full unlimited membership for the cost of 2 visits. Next time, we'll be able to go out to lunch without guilt.

Friday night we met up with a friend of mine from high school who recently moved to town with her family. That's a serendipitious story in itself. A couple of weeks ago, I was surfing the net and googled myself for fun. Unsprisingly, the only link that popped up (that actually pertained to me) was my high school's alumni page. My entry was last updated in 2000, and most of the entries were equally out of date. Nevertheless, I skimmed it, looking for people I actually cared about and/or recent updates, and I got a double hit. This friend had posted an update as of April '08, and now lives in St. Charles! I emailed her right away. We emailed and phoned back and forth, and started catching up on the 14 years since we last saw each other, trading gossip on the mutual friends that we still keep up with.

We decided to get both families together to watch fireworks at the St. Charles Riverfest. It was a bit of a calculated risk. I was pretty sure that the 2 of us would get along fine, but bringing husbands and kids (hers ages 5 to 13) could get sticky. The festival atmosphere would provide us plenty of separate activities should things get uncomfortable. We easily agreed to pack picnic suppers in lieu of buying expensive nasty fair food.

Something happened on the way to the fair. There was an accident on the 70 bridge to St. Charles just before we crossed it, and all 5 lanes came to a dead stop. We just past the Earth City exit for over an hour. Trystan slept. Char sang. I watched lemmings headed for a cliff.

We were parked right next to the on-ramp from southbound Earth City Expresway onto Westbound 70. After about 20 minutes, some impatient pickup truck thought he was clever and drove himself the wrong way up the on-ramp to get off the highway--at the end of that onramp, he would end up going the wrong way on a 1-way street with oncoming traffic at at least 45 mph. Yikes. He was not alone. He was quickly followed by dozens more cars. DOZENS. They must have scared the crap out of the legitimate drivers who were trying to get to 70. I'm surprised there weren't any head-on collisions, and I sorely wished that a cop would come and sit at the other end to ticket people.

After that, our picnic and fireworks went smoothly. The families got along well together. We had both packed peanut butter sandwiches, chips, etc. I had made a chocolate sheet cake to share. Neither of us was keen to take kids on the rides, which was also good (no feelings of inequity). We had a great vantage point, near the Lewis & Clark boathouse. There were picnic tables and concrete, and port-o-potties not far away. Char got to try her first sparkler (I burned my thumb on a match...I'm not great with matches...). Trystan clapped at the fireworks. Nothing scares that kid :) The night was so beautiful and cool--maybe 82 before the sun went down--that I actually missed the sting of sweat dried over sunburned cheeks.

We made it home sometime before midnight. Both kids were sound asleep and went to bed in their bugspray. After we tucked them in, my husband and I quietly unloaded the car and straightened up in the kitchen. I remembered being a kid, dragging myself to bed exhausted, smelling of sunscreen and sweat, drifting off to sleep still marvelling over the largest of the fireworks, mentally ranking the show among all that I'd seen in the past. I remember hearing my parents puttering around as I fell asleep. I always wondered what they said with their hushed voices, muffled laughter, and the quiet bumps and scrapes of cabinets, sinks, and car doors. Now I know.

Booklist

2008-06-30T18:00:00.001-05:00

I have finished two more books since the last time I posted (I think).

Assasin's Quest by Robin Hobb finished the Farseer Trilogy. It was good, as the first two were. Long. But good. No more Robin Hobb for a while--I have too many books on my shelf waiting to be read, and these are just too addictive.

Deep Dish by Mary Kay Andrews. It's a contemporary romance where the hero/heroine are TV chefs competing for a nationwide show on "The Cooking Channel". I love the concept. I think the characters sounded a little old for their purported ages. One 22-year-old secondary character was wearing reading glasses. Really? I'm sure some do, but she was 22, not 42...the 31 year old heroine also sounded a bit more like my mom than me in a lot of places (and I have kids! That should make me feel like a geezer next to a single-gal-about-town...). Also, I wasn't as happy with the point-of-views of the book. About half was the heroine. The other half was not the hero's. (well, one or two scenes were, but that was it) It was the hero's producer, the younger sister, and in one case, a shrimp boat captain that was only around for the one scene. I think I would have like to see his side of things more often.

I'm still in the middle of At Risk by Alison Kent. It's interesting so far. A bit much of the movie-star-perfect hero meets movie-star-perfect heroine, but interesting :)

What about you? Reading anything good?

Out with the Old

2008-06-29T16:12:00.003-05:00

Yesterday our neibhorhood had garage sales. I debated up until the last minute about whether or not we'd participate. It's not that we don't have any old junk to sell. We do. Boy do we. I've only had one other garage sale, back when I was pregnant with Charlotte, and it was a lot of work and not a lot of money. I finally decided to just try.

We have an extra clothes dryer that we still haven't gotten rid of, and an assortent of clothes (all adult ones, though--outgrown kids clothes have many takers), and other odds 'n ends. If I had about a week (plus a dumpster and a dust mask), I could have stocked the garage top to bottom with stuff that I'm happy to part with. With less than 24 hours notice, we had 2 tables, the dryer and a few larger items.

I also got fancy and decided that garage sale shoppers get hungry and/or thirsty while they shop. I always do. So I had a cooler full of soda and bottled water, a tray of homemade cookies, and a bunch of my sticky buns (made with a cappucino-maple glaze this time...yummy).

Overall, it wasn't bad. It wasn't a huge moneymaker. I think we cleared about $25. We still have the dryer (there's an ad in the post dispatch starting Tuesday!). The weather was beautiful--mid 70's and breezy. Therefore, I sold very few sodas (like 2, first thing in the morning when folks wanted a caffeine hit). The cookies were popular (3/$1!), especially with the kids-with-spending-money demographic. I sold one sticky bun. Char, Trystan, and I polished off at least 3 more ourselves. If I did it again, I'd stick to sodas and cookies. At a minimum, I didn't lose money on anything, as we will drink and eat all leftovers. Eventually.

After lunch and a too-short nap, Trystan began puking. He continued, pretty much every 30 minutes all afternoon until almost bedtime. I still don't know what caused it--excess sinus drainage from a cold he's almost over, potential allergy to pecans that Char ended up sharing with him, some piece of dirt/leaf/bug/godknows that he found on the ground while playing in the garage and front yard, or just a stomach bug. The rest of us are fine (knock on wood), so there's just no telling. He seems fine today, but low on appetite.

While moving tables into the garage, I discovered that one of our folding tables is structurally challenged. I'm lucky that nothing on top of it broke when I tried to nudge it forward and the legs gave out. It was actually the one that I had been keeping both of my sewing machines on in our office. Yikes. I've been considering replacing it with a real desk. Today, I dragged my husband and the kids through a local furniture shop and think I know what I want.

It's silly, though, the one desk I like is the same one that a friend of mine recently bought. Not to be a copycat, but the desk would actually complement other furniture already in our house. Too bad it costs more than $25, though. Now I need the courage to actually spend money on it. And a plan to haul it home.

Real Food, Real TV

2008-06-25T09:24:00.002-05:00

Do you watch The Next Food Network Star? I watched every episode last year, though I'm falling behind this year. By falling behind, I mean that I've watched just one episode so far, though the DVR is supposed to be keeping them for me. Of course, last year it started when I was on maternity leave and spent large blocks of time sitting on the couch nursing Trystan. This year, couch-sitting time is more expensive than gasoline.

I've never been much of a reality tv fan, though I love a good cooking show. My husband and I have been watching the Food Network for over 10 years, and remember seeing Mario Batali on a rotating kitchen stage (there was a different kitchen on the reverse side). I still miss Ready, Set, Cook where a chef + a mere mortal were given a mystery ingredient, stocked pantry, and 30 minutes to prepare a meal. I gathered many tips for getting dinner on the table in a hurry that way. I'm a huge fan of Alton Brown, and was hugely disappointed that I missed a book-signing gig of his here in St. Louis a while back.

I'm not sure about The Next Food Network Star, though. The whole setup kind of gives me the creeps, like the Food TV execs are having a good laugh at the contestants' expense. The show is full of crazy challenges that are neither realistic nor telling of anyone's ability to cook or perform. They stuff them into a tiny apartment with no privacy (bunk beds? I shudder at the thought), and then line them up, firing squad-style, so the so-called "judges" can complain about their supposed lack of cooking talent and grace under fire. I bet those judges get to sleep in their own homes every night. And the grand "prize" from this show is the chance to film 2 or 3 episodes of a oooking show that the network will air at such prized viewing times as 2pm on a Sunday afternoon.

I know that FoodTV didn't invent this game. There have been dozens of reality shows before this one that made the mold. Food TV just mixed their own jello for it. I only watched one full season of The Apprentice, too, before I lost interest.

The cooking challenges would be more amusing if the people completing them were less vulnerable. Why don't they pull together a dozen of their reigning "Stars" and run them through a season of challenges. I'd love to see what Alton Brown could do with squid and breakfast cereal (and minus his crew). How would Paula Dean and Sandra Lee fare if they had to share a bathroom? Come on, Food TV, line up your big guns and see how *they* handle that firing squad!

Ready, Set, Cook!

Cute Weekend Photos

2008-06-24T08:00:00.000-05:00

These were taken at the 1st birthday party for a friend's daughter over the weekend. Looking at these, Trystan actually pointed at Char's photo and said "hat", patting himself on the head :)

Dental work beware!

2008-06-23T12:00:00.001-05:00

I've been experimenting with frozen dinner roll dough and overnight cinnamon/stick roll recipes lately. I get on strange kicks like that. I think it started with this post. I'm not much of a butterscotch fan, so I've been trying other options. This is what I made last Saturday night/Sunday morning. Note that the total active preparation time is just 10 minutes--there's lots of waiting, though (wait to thaw, wait to rise, wait to bake, wait to cool). They were really really really yummy, but the carmel topping was very very very sticky. Beware your fillings!

Caramel Pecan Sticky Rolls

8 Rhodes Texas frozen dinner rolls
1/2 cup brown sugar

1/2 cup corn syrup

1 tsp vanilla extract

3 Tbsp butter

1 cup pecans--whole or halves

Sprinkle pecans evenly over the bottom of a bundt pan or rectangular baking pan. Distribute frozen rolls evenly over the pan (they will look very small as they have not fully risen yet).

In a small saucepan, heat brown sugar, corn syrup and vanilla over medium heat until bubbling. Take the carmel syrup off the heat and stir in the butter until melted and evenly incorporated.

Pour the syrup over the rolls and pecans, coating the dough and pooling in the bottom of the pan. Cover the dish with plastic wrap and place in the fridge overnight.

In the morning, remove the pan from the fridge and place in a non-drafty location for an hour to rise.

Heat oven to 350. Bake rolls for 20-25 minutes until golden brown.

Allow to cool in the pan at least 10 minutes before inverting onto a plate. If you dump them out too soon, the syrup will run off the rolls and cool on your serving plate instead.

Also, you can eliminate the morning rise time by leaving the rolls out on the counter all night to thaw and rise, instead of using the fridge. Beware, though, if you are early to bed and late to rise, the rolls will be HUGE if you do this! Also, you can probably use smaller frozen dinner roll dough than the "Texas size." (that's just the package I grabbed from the store). The syrup will probably make enough for up to 12 of the larger ones, maybe more of the smaller rolls. Or, make fewer (I did just 6 this morning, which was almost more than the 4 of us could eat, and there was lots of extra carmel).

Pride goeth after a fall

2008-06-21T22:51:00.003-05:00

I'm not 18 anymore. Shocker, I know. You'd think that by now, 13 years later, I would have come to grips with that fact.

I've been taking this great exercise class at my local Y called "Ballet Sculpt". It's basically a beginning ballet class. All those plie's and tondues are really good for your legs. I used to take dance classes when I was little, and was on the Pom Pom Squad in Jr. High and Color Guard in high school. I took a couple of dance classes in college, including ballet my freshman year, and I still own (and am now using) the shoes. So this exercise class was right up my alley. I think my body remembered some of the moves and postures quicker than it remembered how to ride a bicicylcle a couple of years back. Second nature. No problem. The class has a wide variety of people, and I've been one of the quicker students every week. Of the various deadly sins, I think pride and vanity are two of my biggest weaknesses.

So, Thursday night our class was progressing as usual, and the teacher had us trying a move called a tour jete. It's a jump I've done hundreds of times before. Here's a nifty example. It's that part where the guy jumps in the air and switches his feet. Mine aren't that impressive. There is definitely a jump, turn and foot switch, though.

So I was feeling all cool and able to do a series of them across the floor while most of the others in the class were taking things one step at a time and basically just turning in place and kicking one foot out and then the other, standing still. Pride and Vanity, I tell you.

Thursday after class one of my legs was a little more sore than the other. Friday I worked, so I spent most of the day sitting on my butt in front of a computer. By Friday night, I could barely walk without wincing. I was grumpy and sore, and had no desire to climb stairs or even so much as bend my left knee. I guess I landed wrong and did some thing bad to my knee.

I've never done that before. I had one ankle that used to bother me occasionally in high school, usually when playing tennis, probably for the same reason--sudden direction changes aren't great on joints. I am not good at sitting still, and this is driving me nuts. I can't just walk normally up and down the stairs. Squatting to talk to (or relocate) the kids hurts. Kneeling to bathe Trystan before bed was murder. I've been taking ibuprofin since last night, and after a series of pops this morning, I think it's improving. And it still hurts.

My ballet shoes are falling apart too. I guess after 13 years, they are entitled to have a few issues.