Much awaited pictures???

I felt like I needed to post pictures from our roadtrip back in June, but as I looked through the few I had, I decided I didn't really have much to post. Guess we just weren't on our picture taking game. But here are a couple I decided I wanted to share for various reasons.

Irie had no interest in sleeping in her bed... until she threw up in it. After I had mostly cleaned it out, I put it in a plastic bag to keep the remaining nastiness from getting on the car. At this point Irie decided it was the best place to sleep. Weird-o.

On our way to Indiana from Kansas City, we stopped at a Sonic for lunch. While we were there we realized just how far away from "city-life" we really were when a tractor pulled in to the drive-in. We had a great time watching the young couple in the tractor exhibit their superior coolness.

This is the results of spending a day on the beach with a certain someone who claimed that sunscreen doesn't work on him. Shockingly, the designs in sunscreen I drew on him were still perfectly white at the end of the day while the rest of him was as red as a lobster. I love to prove people wrong.

This picture is representative of probably my favorite story of late from Ms. Lily. On this lovely evening at the cabin, Lily was introduced to S'mores. She was not remarkably impressed with the combination, but she greatly enjoyed the Hershey's bar. After she had eaten probably one full one, we all decided to claim the chocolate bars were "all gone." She retired to her chair without an issue, until a few minutes later when Kathleen pulled out a candy bar to make a s'more. Lily leaped from her seat, ran to Kathleen, snatched the chocolate out of her hand and gave Kathleen a look that clearly stated her disbelief that her mom had held out on her. It was hands down one of the funniest things I've ever seen.

The elections are coming, the elections are coming

Ryan and I went to see Swing Vote tonight. It was pretty funny and I mostly enjoyed it - except for the occasional moment when I almost had to cover my eyes from offense. I thoroughly enjoyed watching Kevin Costner - what else is new? I've been enjoying watching him since I was 6. And the actress they had playing the daughter did a really good job with the role, I thought.

So why then did I feel - well, let's be honest here - pissy on the way home? On deeper inspection, I think I was really bothered by the way the democratic candidate was portrayed. He was played by Dennis Hopper and I swear it seemed like he was the same character as in Hoosiers. Okay, okay - maybe minus being a big drunk. Just a total push-over, spineless, wimpy guy. And I know the writers were just trying to accentuate the differences between the two candidates and their platforms, but man, they made the democratic platform into a virtual joke. Maybe I'm just more sensitive to that side, but I didn't notice the same gross exaggerations on the republican side. OK, maybe there were a few, but not quite to the same level - or maybe I just think they're more true....

I guess I still want to believe that there are candidates out there that stand by what they believe and have not been totally corrupted. At least initially. I know the majority have, and I know that it is a game in a sense to get the most votes, but I still need to have hope that it's not always the case.

And it also served as a reminder for how close the elections are now. And how out of the loop I'm feeling with all that. I already know who I'm voting for. There's no question in my mind. But I've gotten away from paying any attention. Somehow I want to find a way to balance keeping up-to-date without getting obsessed and increasingly bothered by it all.

It's late, I'm tired and I have a headache. Never a good combination for thinking politics. But sometimes it helps to purge thoughts on the blog - even if it isn't a well thought out entry. :-)

Long trips and big steps

I'm finally getting back into the swing of normal life. The last several weeks have been, well, an experience.

It started way back in the middle of June when Ryan and I embarked on our whirlwind roadtrip back to the midwest, which included visits to Chicago, St. Louis, Kansas City and Indiana. As soon as we got back to Maryland (the next morning, in fact), we reloaded the car and headed out to Ocean City for a few days of beach fun with some friends. In the midst of that adventure, I got the terrible news that Grandpa Deetz had passed away. The next morning we were in the car headed back to Indiana. I ended up staying there for a week and a half while Ryan came back and got back to work and puppy-sat for me. On the 3rd of July I went out to start my car to take a quick trip down to Logansport to visit Grandma Murphy and found that my car wouldn't start. Fortunately I have well connected relatives (thanks, Uncle Randy!) and was able to have my car towed into a local shop to have it looked at. Unfortunately the shop determined it wasn't something they could fix, so I had to have it towed further down the road to the Saturn dealership. They, of course, were not working on the holiday weekend, so I had to wait until Monday for them to look at it. Thankfully, they were able to get it fixed before noon on Monday and I took off for Baltimore. No sooner had I left Indiana when I developed an awesome chest cold that gave me virtual laryngitis for a few days.

While I tried to work last week, I don't think I was really at full speed until this past Monday. But now, I'm finally feeling like I'm catching up and realized I need to do some updating on this blog.

So, first - the roadtrip with Ryan went great. We had a lot of fun visiting our respective relatives and friends. Our countless hours in the car allowed plenty of time for good conversations and amazingly we didn't get totally sick of each other! Even with no air conditioning on the trip down, Irie throwing up in the car a few times, our very different taste in music, etc. Not a small feat at all! I enjoyed meeting his family and especially enjoyed getting to know his pup, Sierra (aka The Gremlin) who currently lives with Ryan's parents.

Somewhere on the road between.... Kansas City and Waterloo, I think, we started talking about next steps in our relationship and came to the decision that we're going to move to St. Louis together this fall. All the fun details like jobs, housing, etc are still being worked on, but the plan at the moment is I will be relocating to St. Louis October 1st and Ryan will join me at that time or soon after depending on his job situation. I'm really excited and while there are things (and people) in Baltimore I will miss, I can't wait to get back to the midwest and closer to family again.

I know that people think I'm nuts for following my brother and his family around the country, but I've come to accept it and just roll with it. St. Louis is a good in-between spot for both Ryan and me since his family is west of St. Louis and mine is mostly east, roughly at equal distances, it just seemed to make sense. Plus it's still a city and offers many of the things we've both become accustomed to without being as big as Chicago. And it's cheaper! :-) And, I just can't help being obsessed with my niece. I just am. Really what's wrong with wanting to live near people you enjoy? I just wish all my family lived closer to each other. But maybe that's a naive concept!

Having never lived with someone I'm dating before, I'm a bit unsure about all of that, but not nearly as concerned as I thought I would be. Something about Ryan just puts me at ease, I guess. What a nice feeling that is! It gives me more time to worry about things like jobs and housing! :-)

One of these days I'll supplement this post with pictures, but until then, I'll just have to rely on my story telling to inspire pictures in your mind!

What to say

Popcorn popping, juice squeezing, ice-fishing, cubs watching, fun-loving, bowler extraordinaire.

Just a few of the things that I will carry with me always from Grandpa Deetz. I've put off doing a blog entry because I haven't been sure what I wanted to say. Nothing seems to quite live up to what Grandpa meant to me.

He was a tremendous person and one I will miss greatly, yet while I have pangs of sadness here and there, I just can't get passed the feeling that the way he went was just so perfect.

He wasn't ill. We were playing corn-hole and fishing a few days before. He'd been bowling and picking strawberries. Everything was as normal as could be. He went out to mow, apparently started to feel ill, got off the mower, leaned against an apple tree and that was it. I think there's a country/folk song in there somewhere about passing away under an apple tree.

I know everyone wishes we could have been with him. Could've heard his last words. Could've done a few more things with him. But overall, I think it was about as perfect as death can ever be.

I think I may be a little more sad when I leave the farm this weekend. While I'm here I still feel physically close to him. Just to be surrounded by all the things he loved, took care of, etc. Going out to pick strawberries this morning I felt like he was around. It's comforting.

Like Kathleen and Carl, I'm one to carry on tradition and do things in honor of people I've lost, so yesterday I gave blood at Red Cross as that's something that Grandpa always did. Giving blood is not my favorite thing to do - I have little veins and tend to always feel sick at some point in the process, but it's something I feel like I can do to continue to honor Grandpa's legacy. I will probably not continue the oyster stew on New Years, but I doubt I'll ever squeeze an orange or make popcorn without thinking of grandpa. And I think once I get settled somewhere a little more permanent, I will try my hand at some gardening. I think that's an activity I will always feel close to grandpa (and dad) doing.

I will be forever grateful for the time I got to spend with him right before he passed away and for those humorous little memories from that time. Like when he pulled me aside at the cottage and said, "I didn't think I'd live to see the day you'd bring a boy home." Or how he shook Ryan's hand as we left and said, "Well, Ryan... good luck." Or how he was pacing around the house anxiously waiting for all the slow-pokes to get ready to go bowling, looking at me and shaking his head.

I think Grandpa truly believed in life going on, no matter what. And not just continuing to live, but enjoying it. So that's what I will focus on - taking pieces of him with me wherever I go.

There's a first time for everything

Since I moved in to my new place I've had my eye on our back patio. It wasn't anything great to start with, but over the past month it has morphed into an even more un-attractive place.

Yesterday I decided that since I was off work today, I would made the plunge. First I logged a call to Dad to get some helpful hints on best weed killers and best low care plants. Then this morning I stopped by Lowes and picked up some basic gardening tools, potting soil, and a couple of flats of flowers.

I should point out that I have never really done any gardening before. I mean, sure, I've done a little weed pulling here and there and we planted seeds now and again, but true gardening - not really. And certainly not on my own.

I wouldn't say that I did the most fabulous job ever, but I think I made a vast improvement! Here are some before and after pictures so you can judge for yourself.

At least now I won't be too embarassed to invite people over for a BBQ!

BEFORE...




AFTER...

Weekend Getaway

I've been attempting to round-up pictures from this past weekend's adventure before I posted about it and I think I have finally collected the ones I want.

Since last weekend was a long one for us (and it also just happened to be our 6 month anniversary), Ryan and I decided to go up to Bushkill Falls, PA for a little getaway. As a kid during our New Jersey summers, Dad, Carl and I would occasionally make the trip to the Delaware Water Gap for some hiking but I think we always were on the New Jersey side. Bushkill Falls is on the other side of the water gap, technically in the Poconos. I honestly had never heard of it, but during his research, Ryan found it and discovered it is considered the "Niagara Falls of Pennsylvania". It's only about a three hour trip from here so we hit the road early Sunday morning and spent the rest of the weekend there.

We spent Sunday drinking white Sangria at a local winery, kayaking on the Delaware water gap (which neither of us had ever done), checking out the local attractions, and wandering aimlessly around looking for a place to have dinner. It was GREAT! Monday morning we went to the actual Bushkill Falls area and made the ~ 2 hour hike to see the eight waterfalls in the area. It was a perfect mix of a relaxing weekend with some fun outdoor activities and beautiful scenery thrown in.

Here are some pictures of our adventures..

Kayaking on the river

One of the falls.

A little rapids action.

On the trail.

One of the smaller falls.

A strange little gator farm that we hit on our way out of town.

Cuteness Quotient

I think I have met my cuteness quotient for the week.

The first is due to my adorable puppy who had me bent over in laughter the other day. During my lunch hour Irie and I often go across the street to the park to play fetch and let her blow off some pent up energy. On this particular day we were doing our thing when a young boy and his dad showed up, waiting for baseball practice to start. The boy got a little bored and headed over to home-plate to practice his swing. Irie was instantaneously intrigued. She stood and watched him from a safe distance for a bit and then slowly worked her way over to a few feet in front of him. Each time he swung the bat (at nothing mind you), she'd take off running as if he'd just hit a ball for her to go fetch. It was hands down one of the cutest interactions I've seen in a long time. Before long I wandered over and begin pitching Irie's fetch ball to the boy who would gleefully hit it into the field for Irie to go retrieve. Absolutely adorable.

The second happened this evening when I received a call from Carl saying that Lily wanted to talk to me. Apparently she was requesting that she go to Baltimore so she could dance with me. When he put her on the phone, my heart just melted. There's something about this little voice saying "baldemore" that does it for me, I guess. :-) I asked her about the new house which she assured me she liked and gave me a run down on some of the new toys she's acquired. I also asked how Terra was enjoying the backyard. In true Lily fashion she told me that "Yes, Terra likes it. She likes to pee out there. And poop." Well, of course she does. Nothing compares to a two-year-old requesting a visit. I just want to give her a big squeeze and kiss.

I'm definitely starting Lily withdrawal this week, I think. I knew I'd miss all of them, and of course her in particular, but I wasn't sure how it was really going to go. But I think now that I'm on day 11, I know it's not going to be an easy transition. I guess I should have known that - considering I had to make a trip out to Baltimore at least every other month to see her prior to moving here. I'm still enjoying Baltimore, but every day I'm a little more anxious to get back to the midwest. I can't wait for Ryan and my roadtrip back next month!

Doctor Doctor

Well, after all these years, Carl finally graduated from med school. And because that wasn't enough activity for one weekend, Carl and Kathleen decided that they should move to St. Louis at the same time. Needless to say it was a bit of a whirlwind weekend, but we all survived.

Last Thursday the moving truck (a huge semi) showed up at the house to load everything up. Carl had an awards ceremony that morning, so I came over to babysit and over see the moving process while he and Kathleen were gone. Lily and I had a great time watching all their stuff get loaded in. We watched the guys carry four huge boxes on their backs, move furniture and stack everything carefully in the truck. Amazingly everything in the entire house fit in the first quarter of the truck. Lily and I had a picnic on the sidewalk and when she got tired she opted for laying down on furniture pads outside so she could still keep her eyes on the activity.

Thursday night Mom, Dad and Zander arrived in Baltimore and Friday morning kicked off the big graduation day. We were up and cruising downtown Baltimore for parking by 7:30am. The med school hooding ceremony was first and other than being a little long, it was actually pretty neat. Then we had a few hours to kill until the actual graduation ceremony so we grabbed lunch at a local indian restaurant and then came back to my place to walk the dogs and try to get Lily to nap. That didn't exactly happen. Lily was much more interested in jumping on my bed than sleeping on it. Needless to say, by halfway through the graduation ceremony, Lily was done with sitting around listening to speakers, so we spent the last 1/2 out in the hallway running and playing on the payphone.

Saturday morning Dad, Zander and I took Lily to the great and amazing IKEA. It's one of Zander's favorite stores and we only had a little time to kill anyway. Lily was particularly impressed with everything IKEA had. She loved running from chair to couch to bed announcing how "Comfy!" each one was. I was impressed with how into it she seemed until I remembered she didn't have any furniture at the house. I think she was just totally psyched to have so many places to sit and lay.

Then in the afternoon, Mom and I took Lily to the park while Carl and Kathleen tried to finish up cleaning the house. Lily was quite the little daredevil and very impressed with her own skills.

We stopped at Target for a quick dinner (and gummies) and then headed back to the house. An hour later Carl, Kathleen, Lily and Terra were on the road to St. Louis. There were a few tears on mom and my parts, but all in all, it went fine and now, a week later, we are all in our appropriate locations.

I miss them already and can't wait for next month's roadtrip to get to see them again! It's certainly odd to not have family in the area, but I keep myself pretty busy and have a lot to do and see this summer so I'm sure that will help.

Bark Busters to the rescue

Many of you who know Irie, know that she has a few... neuroses. I know I'm biased, but I really do think she's a good dog - she just has some bad habits. In an effort to get some help breaking these habits, I hired a trainer from Bark Busters.

Bark Busters is a world-wide company that travels to your home and helps you with your specific problems. Their services are guaranteed for the life of the dog, regardless of where you live, and they just keep coming back until you're satisfied with the results.

I won't say that the results have been utterly magical (as they appear to be for some people) and it's definitely taking a lot of work on my (and Irie's) parts, but we're certainly making progress. She's MUCH better in the house and we're making big strides outside. There's still the occassional lunge at dogs walking by (especially if they're barking or being crazy), but she's much better around cars, people and squirrels. I think it will probably take another few months before she's really got it and understands that it's never ok to do these things, but she's definitely better. Meanwhile, I'm still having trouble juggling the sports bottle I'm supposed to use to squirt her if she starts to get aggressive, holding the leash properly, walking with a purpose, growling and praising appropriately, etc.

I've definitely run across my fair share of people that most likely think I'm crazy - and that I'm undoubtly mean to my dog. And it's certainly embarassing to be growling at my dog and squirting her with water - but I guess it's an improvement over having her lunge at them!

It's a process, but one that I think will really pay off in the long-run.

Here's a picture of Irie in utter bliss playing with my roommate's friend's dog, Lou. Isn't it funny how much they look alike?

New yet old

Today is day #4 in my new place. I moved in this past Saturday and have spent the last few days unpacking, organizing and trying to settle in - well, and working of course. And mostly everything is going well. I'm 99% unpacked, about 75% organized (the desk is still lacking) and I'd say 50% "settled".

I'm enjoying having a roommate, even though we haven't had much of a chance to spend time together. I think I would have been very lonely to go from a full household to just me. Irie is enjoying her new digs as well and we both love having the park across the street from us. Today, during lunch we walked over and played catch for a 1/2 hour.

In terms of settling in, I think I'm pretty much settled in my room. There are a few things that are missing - I haven't really hung anything on the walls yet, I don't have a frame for my bed yet, and I have a makeshift desk for the moment, but otherwise, I feel good in it. The rest of the house I haven't spent much time in. In part that's because I've been trying to get my room set up and in part that's because I can (for a reason I don't even want to try to explain) only access my remote connection to work when I'm hard-wired into the modem in my room. I can get internet anywhere - but not remote access. Weird. Anyway, that has kept me in my room primarily.

The rest of the house is also taking some adjusting for me because it's one of those places that's old and even when it's clean (which it's really not at the moment), it just doesn't necessarily look it. I generally like to live in places that are newer, have fresh coats of paint, etc because it just makes me feel cleaner. I think I'll get there in this place - just like my last apartment in Chicago, it will just take some time - and some serious cleaning! The kitchen is my other area of concern. I generally really like to cook, but I just don't like this kitchen. It's small and cramped, and the appliances are old, and while functional - again food and a lack of feeling clean just don't mix for me. That will probably be the hardest room for me to settle in, but it will happen - mostly because it's a totally necessary room! All these moves are definitely helping me determine what I like in a living space though - specifically I think I've determined that I really prefer kitchens that have seating areas. Screw the dining room idea - I like to have social time in the kitchen!

But all in all, I think it'll be a good move for me. I'm really enjoying working full-time from home, even if it has been a bit of an adjustment to not have as much downtime. Work is keeping me extremely busy at the moment and there are lots of times I glance at the clock and can't figure out how that much time has passed.

The neighbors here are really nice and I've already met several of them and attended a neighborhood party the same day I moved in. I don't think I've ever lived anywhere that people have been quite this outgoing.

I love the area and the proximity to things. I hate the closest grocery store - again, feels old and cramped. I miss having a Target very close. Ahhh, there are always pluses and minuses to everything!

Anyway, I'll post pictures soon. :-)

Happy Earth Day!

Today is Earth Day. And in addition, April is National Poetry Month. So, my office in Chicago (which can be a very silly place) decided to have a poetry contest. The only rule of the contest was that our poems had to be about trees. So, here is my submission, written from the perspective of Irie.

Irie's Ode to Trees

Oh, how I love to bark at thee
I attack your trunk and growl ferociously

I know you harbor those squirrels I see
And one of these days they will fall down to me

Though my owner yells, “Stop it, I-rie!”
I vow to continue my assault on the tree.

We didn't win any awards, but we did illicit a lot of laughs which is what we were after. Happy Earth Day everyone! Do something good for the world today!

March for the Animals - Thanks for helping us meet our goal!

Make a free ecard - it's easy!

So I'm not the most reliable blogger

I have been very neglectful of my responsibilities as a blogger lately, as a few of you have reminded me. I've been a bit pre-occupied with all that is happening in my world and have been a little reluctant to post anything about it until things became a bit more certain. And while I can't say everything is figured out, some things have become more clear.

So first and foremost, I have found an apartment for the summer. Utilizing my favorite tool ever, Craigslist, I found a two bedroom row-house in the South Baltimore/Federal Hill area. My will-be roommate seems to be a great person and we hit it off immediately. She's lived in the apartment for a few years and has it fully furnished (except my bedroom) which means I don't have to move (or get) a bunch of stuff. She's planning on living there through August/September and is on a month-to-month lease, so I get to take advantage of that arrangement as well. We each have our own bathrooms and it's a nice sized place with plenty of space. It also has a fenced-in large patio off the back of the house which is great for playing catch with Irie or working outside. And it's located directly across the street from a huge park for long walks with Irie and a public swimming pool which may be really nice on those hot summer days. She doesn't have a dog, but loves them and totally fell for Irie when they met. I've warned her about Irie's craziness and she doesn't seem concerned. We'll see if that lasts! :-) Anyway, I'm excited about it and think it will be a good experience.

Secondly, and fresh off the press, I am no longer employed at my after-school job. Ever since the weather has gotten warmer, I've been having a lot of trouble with it. All the kids want to do is be outside and it's so hard to keep them inside doing another three hours of school work after they've been there all day. They mostly don't want to be there and while we have shining moments of bliss, they are few and far between. So, for the past few weeks I've been contemplating this and trying to decide what I want to do.

Then yesterday happened. First of all, I walked into the cafeteria for snack time and there were roaches everywhere. That just kind of started the day on a bad note. Then, at the end of the day I was standing outside with a group of my kids when I noticed two older boys (probably high-schoolers) near the basketball court. They reached into the side of the dumpster and pulled out a gun. Upon looking around, they noticed me watching them and shoved it back in the side of the dumpster. I, of course, reported this to the school staff. They then wanted to see the gun (to make sure I wasn't just imagining things, I guess), so we took a little tour by the dumpster so everyone could see it. We pulled all our kids inside and called the cops and then stood watch inside the doors where we could see the dumpster, but the kids on the basketball court couldn't see us. A half hour later the cops still hadn't shown up (despite seeing three cop cars drive by without stopping at the school.) Finally one of the boys nonchalantly walked over to the dumpster with a hoodie in his arms, took a final look around, grabbed the gun, wrapped it up and took off running. Still no cops.

So, not only was there a gun, but they know I saw it, they know which car I drive and they still have the gun. The likelihood of any of this really coming back to get me is not great, but I just didn't feel like it was worth it to keep coming back to a place where things like this are happening. So this morning I turned in my resignation. I'm very sorry that I didn't get to say goodbye to the kids and I feel a bit wimpy for running away, but when I put it all on the scale, it just doesn't balance out. I'm not naive enough to think that this is the worst of what's going on in the area and I know ultimately this is not a huge thing, but for a job I don't even really like??? It's too bad that kids and staff have to attend that school, but I'm sure it's like that lots of places.

Oh, and by the way, the cops still had not shown up when I left last night at 6:15pm.

So anyway, I am currently back down to one job, but I have a few things in the works so hopefully that will work out. I'll let you know when I know.

Where a kid can be a kid

So, Bob. It happened like this. Mom had a teacher institute day, so I'm hanging with Aunt Ingrid today.

I didn't know what Chuck E. Cheese was, but Ingrid said they had pizza so I was game.

See ya later! I'm going to school!

I thought these guys were really cool, so I made sure to tell Aunt Ingrid to take lots of pictures of them.

Now me and Chuck E. are best buds!

Happy Match Day (and birthday, Dad!)

Today is Carl's "Match Day." I'll let Carl and Kathleen spread the news of where they're headed next, but since they were busy doing match stuff today, I got the pleasure of getting Lily ready this morning and taking her to school. We've had some great conversations lately -here are some snippets.

In bed this morning...

Lily: "Where's Mommy and Daddy?"
Ingrid: "They're at Daddy's work. It's match day."
Lily: "Match day? Be back?"
Ingrid: "Yup. I'm going to take you to school and then Mommy and Daddy will pick you up."
Lily: "No. Not daddy. I told him no pick me up. Just Mommy. No daddy in the car. Mommy and Ingrid. Daddy with Terra."
Ingrid: "Well, we'll see what we can do."
Lily: "Put them on the naughty chair."

Then on the way to school...

Ingrid: "Did you know it's match day today?"
Lily: "Go to school and then match day?"
Ingrid: "Well, it's actually match day all day long."
Lily: "Hmmm."
Ingrid: "Today Mommy and Daddy find out where you're going to move to."
Lily: "Let's go right now."

Some other favorite recent Lily-isms include:

• Carl plays a game with Lily where he says a piece of food is his and nobody better touch it. Lily inevitably takes the bait and ends up eating the food and Carl yells and says, "Who ate my food?!" The other day after several rounds of this game, Lily announced with a laugh, "Daddy's a funny guy!"
• Last Friday when Carl, Ryan and I were playing Monopoly and Lily was being our "banker", Kathleen told her it was time for bed. Very seriously she stated, "You go. I'm working."

It's going to be very strange to not hear her voice all the time when they move this summer!

Happy St. Patrick's Day!

Saturday I spent the day in Fell's Point celebrating an early St. Patrick's Day on a bit of a pub crawl. They don't do St. Patrick's Day up quite as big in Baltimore as they do in Chicago, but it was fun all the same. (And honestly, I was really happy to not have to stand in lines to get into bars at 2 in the afternoon.) I was a little lax with taking pictures, but here are a few....

Christine decides she's not really a fan of Irish Car Bombs. (Who can blame her?)

I'm not sure if this was in response to something she drank or something just hit Beth's fancy.

It was a beautiful 60 degree + day in Baltimore. Another difference between St. Pats in Baltimore and Chicago.

In my St. Patrick's Day best.

Some pictures from San Fran

A little too cold to take a dip.

Aquarium of the Bay. Jaws IV anyone?

Out to dinner

Alcatraz. Finally where they belong.

Sarah shows off her moves on the cable cars

Thoughts from yesterday's flight 294

I’m sitting on the plane coming back to Baltimore from a few day vacation in San Francisco with Sarah and Allyson. As always, we had a great time. Rarely do you find a trio of more relaxed girls. Not much ruffles our feathers. We don’t really care much what we’re doing. We all run at about the same speed and don’t get too caught up in all the things we should be doing.

In the planning stages, we all (without prompting) came up with one thing we’d like to do while we were in SF and figured the rest would all just kind of fall into place. And it did. We walked China Town, visited the Sea Lions, went on a tour of Alcatraz, checked out the redwoods, spent a day in Sonoma and Napa, found the Ghirardelli chocolate shop, went down the most crooked street in San Francisco, hung off the sides of cable cars, and more. And as proof that we apparently have grown up from our college years, we were up each day by 7 and back in our hotel room by 8:30 each night. Guess we never were really the biggest partiers anyway. :-)

Mostly it was just really nice to catch up (face-to-face) and get to explore something new together again. It’s extraordinarily comforting to know that despite our distance from one another, we are able to start up where we left off and simply enjoy each other.

Tubing is great!

Last night my Meetup group went tubing at a ski slope in Pennsylvania. I'd never been tubing before but have been looking forward to it for the past couple of months. I wasn't disappointed. We got up there around 5:30 last night and spent a few hours spinning down slopes and trying desperately to stop before bowling people over at the end. It was great! I couldn't quite get the pictures to do the slopes justice (they don't show the steepness particularly well, but trust me - when you're at the top - it feels steep.) It's a bit of a drive to go up too frequently, but definitely something I want to do again!

The view from the base of the slopes.

Shannon riding the big conveyor belt up to the top.

Ryan after getting some serious air on the way down.

A view from the top.

Maryland = $

I've decided Maryland is the biggest nickel and diming state I've ever known. I have been back and forth since I got here about getting Maryland license plates. I was going to do it, but then I found out they have this rule about getting a Maryland State Safety Inspection before they'll give you plates. This just seemed like a big annoyance to me (not to mention an expense I didn't really want to get into.) Plus, I'm just against this. When I went in to a place to see what the cost was of one of these "inspections", they informed me that it's an $80 charge pass/fail and if there's anything wrong with it, it has to be fixed and then re-inspected (for another charge.) When I argued the price, he states, "Well, it's a one time fee - you never have to have it done again." This I had to just laugh at. "So, you're telling me that in Maryland, they do a safety check on your car once and then your car continues to deteriorate, but they never check it again?" He just gave me a look.

Anyway, I decided to press my luck and not go through with the inspection. Then recently I got a notice in the mail saying that I need to register my car. So, I decided to be a good, law-abiding citizen and get my plates changed.

So, Friday I made an appointment and went in to get my safety inspection. The car was fine except my serpentine belt needed to be replaced. I'm actually glad they found that and fixed it before it caused any real problems. At any rate, I walked out of that place paying about $130.

Then I went to the Motor Vehicle Administration and sat there for 2 hours waiting for someone to help me. I finally got up to a person, she did her fancy computer work and announces to me, "OK, that will be $569."

What??? Why???

Well, come to find out, Maryland charges you a 6% tax on the value of your vehicle to bring it into the state. This is just about the craziest thing I have ever heard. I ask the clerk to explain, but she can't. Her only comment is, "Well, at least your car is a 2002 - just think if you had a new car!" Yeah, just imagine. But this is my point precisely. My car is a 2002 - and you're going to charge me $500 to register it here? That's nuts.

I argued and argued and finally to some avail. I just can't see paying that much to register my car here, when I'm not planning on staying longer than 6-9 months. After explaining this several times, the clerk finally dropped her voice and offered me a potential way out. We'll have to see if it works.

Done with Doctors

As many of you know, I have been very sick these past two weeks. It started with nasty aches and pains, accompanied by rotating fevers and chills. I was waking up at least twice a night just drenched in sweat. It was awesome. You know it's bad when you work from home and you still have to call in sick. After about 7 days the aches and pains finally left and were replaced with an intense sore throat. And then I happened to look at my throat in the mirror one evening and saw nice white spots on my tonsil.

Due to these fun symptoms, I went to the doctor twice in the past two weeks. The first time I went to an urgent care center. It was actually a relatively nice place, but there was certainly a bit of that "if you're not dying, we're not worried" atmosphere. The nurse was, well, less than friendly, but I got her back by coughing on her when she stuck a cotton swab up my nose for a flu test. :-) The doctor who saw me was actually nice, but not what I would call thorough. He basically said it wasn't "the flu" and was probably a para-flu. The fact that I didn't have any cold like symptoms didn't seem to bother him. Anyway, basically I was dismissed with the orders to eat as much as I could and come back if it wasn't better in 10 days.

Then, after I noticed the spots on my throat I decided I should go to another docter and make sure it wasn't strep or something great like that. I actually got an appointment in a regular doctor's office, which I thought was a good thing so that perhaps I could find a primary care physician at the same time. Didn't turn out that way. I ended up with one of my favorite kind of doctors - the ones that just give you these looks like you're totally wasting their time. He put one foot in the door and said, "It's probably not strep. And if it's not, you realize there's nothing I can do about it." Off to a great start, I forced him to listen to a quick background of how I'd been feeling the past 2 weeks. He still had one foot out the door. He responded with, "That doesn't change anything. " After the nurse administered the strep test, he came back in (obviously from eating lunch because some of it was still lodged in his beard) and told me it wasn't strep and began to walk out the door. A little exasperated I stopped him with, "Look. I'm only pressing this because this is the 2nd time I've been to the doctor in two weeks and I would like to not come back. Is there anything else this could be?" This made him pause for a brief moment, but after pressing on my throat for a second he ruled that there was nothing else it could be.

I HATE doctors like that.

Now, granted, it's two days later and I'm finally feeling MUCH better, so it turns out he was right, but still. I'm a new patient, I would like to think that the doctor would at least TRY to give a favorable impression. I'm sorry they booked me during his lunch, but I really didn't have anything to do with that.

Anyway, I'm done with doctors. The whole experience really made me miss my primary care physician in Chicago. She was awesome. There's a lot I don't miss that I thought I would, but I definitely miss a) my doctor, b) Irie's daycare/boarding place and c) Jamba Juice. So far I have not been able to find anything that even comes close to comparing with any of these three things.

My Celebrity Look-alikes

Kathleen told me about this fun site where you put in a picture of yourself and it comes back with your closest Celebrity Look-alikes. It changes slightly depending on what picture I use, but Amanda Bynes always comes out on top. Strange, but it really could be worse. Carl comes back with Mother Teresa! :-)

Random Recall

I guess I've been a little bit lax on updating what's new in my world. Mostly because there hasn't been a lot that's really "new". Maybe that sounds a little boring, but I have to say, I'm enjoying life just the way it is right now.

Life at BELL has settled down somewhat. I still have my momentary, "Why in the world am I doing this?" thoughts and I still think the program needs some serious organizational help, but all in all, I'm enjoying it more. After the holidays, they combined the 5th and 6th grade classes (because the 5th graders didn't have a certified teacher in their room.) This has proved to be a bit difficult, mostly because the grades are following two different curriculum, so it's basically resulted in me working with the 5th graders and the teacher in the room taking on the 6th graders. It works OK, but I don't think any of the kids are getting the full benefit of how the program is supposed to work. But, I'm actually kind of enjoying my 5th graders. They're trouble-makers, but the kind of trouble-makers that think they're much worse than they actually are. So far, this mostly means that they do things like when I ask them to write stories using new vocabulary words, they write them about each other and how one of them throws like a girl, or something to that effect. Or they tell each other to shut up and then they say, "Ohhhh, you said the s-word."

One of my favorite boys in this class (we'll call him "T") apparently told his mother that the kids don't really do anything at BELL, so the first day he got moved over to my room, she stopped in and said that she was thinking about pulling him out since they weren't doing anything. I explained that he had just been moved into this room and he'd been working on stuff that day. She decided to keep him in for awhile and see how it goes. So since then, I've been on "T" reminding him to do his work, stay on task, etc so that he can't tell his mom he's not doing anything. On Tuesday, he finally looked up at me and said, "Man, Ms. D, you're on me like a tattoo." I've been using that phrase ever since.


Life at home is good too. Lily is still constantly entertaining me. Some recent comments that have made me laugh have been:

• Yesterday we were playing "horsey" and she fell off my back. I asked if she was OK and she jumped up and yelled, "I'm TUFF!"


• When I was gone one evening last week, she went over to Irie to pet her and said, "Don't worry, Irie. Your mommy be home soon."


• She also calls me Miss Ingrid about half the time which I find hysterical. It's like she needs that identifier, but she hasn't figured out "Aunt" yet. She also has completely mastered saying Ingrid correctly now.


• And also how she picks up key words/phrases from the TV. She'll be seeming to pay no attention to the TV, but as she's playing, she'll suddenly repeat something that was just said and keep on going. It can result in some pretty funny commentary.

As I'm becoming a little more concerned over what comes next (work, where to live, etc), I'm still greatly enjoying my time in Baltimore. Whether it's Duckpin bowling, volleyball, happy hours after work, or trips to uniquely Baltimore places - I'm keeping busy and thoroughly enjoying getting to know people here. And still finding time to plan a few day get-away with Sarah and Allyson for early March.

Irie has become increasingly spoiled and has progressed from being fine with being left in her crate to being ok when left in the basement, to being ok with being left in my room alone at night to now insisting that she be with people at all times. This has created some issues since she's a total pain when she decides that she doesn't want to be alone. It remains to be seen how this will work out, but one thing is for sure, Irie has certainly adopted Carl and Kathleen as "her people".

And, yes, everything is going great with Ryan. I'm not sure how I found such a sweet boy, but I'm glad I did. :-)

And that, my friends, is the extent of my random recall for today.

Pictures that made me smile today

Little flasher

Lily continues to keep me more than entertained. On this particular evening she decided that first she needed her shirt and skirt off and then secondly, her coat back on. I just couldn't help snapping a few pictures. I'm sure she'll love these later in life. :-)

Welcome to the morgue

Kinda sick, I know - but it's the first thing that comes to mind when you walk into the family room these days.

Lily has taken to covering up her babies with blankets to put them "to sleep." I'm sure this is perfectly normal, but since she covers their whole bodies it gives a kind of creepy effect. As always, it's highly entertaining to live with a 2-year-old.