Tuesday, September 28, 2004

Cute babies, but not twins



This was my attempt to recreate this cute baby picture of Adam at the cape. Same age (8 months), same sweatshirt, same couch, but different cuties. Click on the picture to see it up close.

Wednesday, September 22, 2004

NPR : Beheading and Shock

NPR : Beheading and Shock
With the rash of recent rash of executions by beheading, this commentary that I heard back in July keeps coming back to me. "Off with their heads" from Alice in Wonderland, guillotines in old France. Is the soul in the head or the body? These recent beheadings are beyond disturbing. After seeing the video of Daniel Pearl, I will never be quite the same (the head is not an easy thing to cut off the body). The families of the kidnapped are now terrified of the possible fate of their loved ones. And if they are beheaded, the anguish of imagining or even seeing on video their brutal end must be insufferable. How do we make them stop??

Thursday, September 16, 2004

"You have beautiful children"

I am definitely biased about our kids, but when a total stranger comes up to our family sitting in McDonald's (not that you'll find us there too often), and says "You have beautiful children", you have to believe them!! It did make our day, especially since later in the car ride, Adam's meal came back up (he was sick already) and then Dova pooped out of her diaper. Ah, the joys of parenting. All worth it since they are the joy, sunshine, and wonder of our lives.

Wednesday, September 15, 2004

NPR : Judy Blume Wins National Book Award

NPR : Judy Blume Wins National Book Award
(I love the Blog This button on the Google Toolbar!!)

This piece brought me right back to when I read Are You There God? It's Me, Margaret. The amazing thing about this interview was that Judy Blume's spoken voice still sounds like a young woman's, certainly not a grandmother!! I checked out her website, and indeed she still looks young as well. Perhaps writing children's books has kept her spirit and body young.

Thursday, September 09, 2004

One Hour Photo anyone?


I let Adam finish out the memory on my camera and he went around taking all sorts of interesting(?) pictures. These remind me of the kid's pictures from the movie One Hour Photo.

Dova in the dress that Grandpa got for her



Our new chandelier above the stairs


It's contemporary, brushed nickel (matches our ceiling fan and), and just perfect!!

Wednesday, September 08, 2004

What I did for my vacation

Saturday, August 21st: Very wet rainy day. Had planned to visit George at the lake for the weekend, but Dova had a fever on Thursday and Friday. We were all (especially Adam) going crazy being stuck inside with all the rain. We put Adam in Power Rangers Dino Thunder underwear for the first time.

Sunday: Made it up the George's and had a nice time with George, Terry and the Audrey's. Adam floated in the lake for the first time using a life vest, and we took a spin in the boat with Audrey Senior. Had salmon, hot dogs, grilled vegetables and pasta salad on the deck with the tremendous view. And an upside down peach "Happy Birthday to me" cake for Terry.

Monday: Adam was happy to go to school. We went to BJ's, then the BMW store where Doug test drove a Z4 (3.0 with 6 speed), while I went to Walmart with Dova. The salesman gave Doug an incredible deal on the car he drove (black with red leather, but not sport seats - he is so spoiled from my car), but later he found out that they are selling below list, so it wasn't such a deal after all. Had a huge Uno's pizza from BJ's for dinner.

Tuesday: With Adam in school again, Doug felt so relaxed being at home without the crazy noisy boy!! He mowed the lawn while I took a trip up to Sears to use my $10 apparel coupon. Got 2 pants for Dova, 2 pants for Adam (including a $30 Land's End cargo pants on clearance for $5.49) and a Land's End tank top for myself, all for $26. What a bargain!! Doug took a motorcycle ride before getting Adam.

Wednesday: We packed and left at 1:30 for the trip down to NY. On our first stop, Dova couldn't concentrate on nursing because of the traffic sounds and the buttons on the dash. We hit rush hour traffic in NY. And to top it off, there was a big accident in the HOV lane on the LIE that took a 1/2 hour to get by. So in the end it took 6 hours to get to my Mom's house. She arrived 1/2 hour later and we had dumplings for dinner. Even Adam had a whole bunch even though there was "green stuff" in them.

Thursday: None of us sleep because Dova was fussy and had to sleep in our bed (and feed every 3 hours). We stopped by the neighbors Kristin and Peter (who I used to babysit) where Adam immediately felt at home with their kids. Then we went to Super Stop and Shop where Adam got to ride in the shopping cart car up front. He was loud and out of control, while Dova was a cutie pie and got lots of compliments. Grandpa and Sue stopped by around 3pm and brought Chinese food from Flushing. Adam showed off in the fancy kiddy pool. By the time they left, he was overtired and cranky, but finally gave everyone hugs goodbye.

Friday: Adam went with Grandma to pick up her new kittens from Save a Pet. Went to Stony Brook beach in the afternoon. Adam finally got the hang of floating using an inflatable ring that I kept having to blow up. Grandma brought Adam to the duck pond afterwards, and then he took a long nap in the car seat in the driveway. Everyone took a bath or shower that afternoon, including the kittens. That night, Doug tried sleeping with Adam so I could fit in the bed with Dova.

Saturday: Adam was sick, coughing up a storm. Eddie, another neighbor, stopped by to play with Adam. He is 5 and about the same size as Adam, but a little mean. Adam got to splash in the kiddy pool again.

Sunday: Miraculously, Adam was no longer coughing, so we arranged to visit Peter and Kristin's pool. He borrowed arm floaties from their son Dylan and did a great job swimming around with their daughter Taylor. Grandma took lots of pictures, including me falling off the dolphin toy.

Monday: We stopped by Grandma's work to show off the grandkids. Dova is a big crybaby and Adam is super shy. The big trip home was 5 hours long. We had to stop on the Mass Pike to feed Dova and Adam made his first highway run to the woods. The last hour was torrential downpour. Everyone, especially Dova, was glad to be home.

Tuesday: Adam was excited to go back to school, where he made a tie-dyed shirt. We took a walk in the morning, but Doug made the mistake of wearing a black shirt. I convinced him to continue walking till we hit some shade instead of turning back and we survived. We went to Toys R Us and bought a bike for Adam and a floppy seat shopping cart protector for Dova. We got to use the floppy seat right away at Trader Joe's. Claire calls in the evening warning me about a lay off the next day.

Wednesday: Harold called at 12:15pm with the news. I have only 6 months to live!! Doug went for a doctor's appt in the afternoon. Later I finally called Alan and found out that my termination date is actually May 1st, a long way off. In the mean time, Noorul, Tom and Jeff Lesica sent me job openings from their companies. I had waited to take a walk with Dova and Doug, but he took a motorcycle ride instead.

Thursday: Doug took his motorcycle up to Nault's to put on the dynomometer for tuning. Tom stopped by at lunchtime to discuss the job at his company. I was so angry about the whole work situation (especially that they kept Dory) that I was on the computer all day and didn't even download my pictures from the trip. We went for a walk in the afternoon, and then Doug was stunned by a letter from Stu. So now both our vacations are ruined.

Friday: Dropped Doug's blue car off at the body shop and went to the Aquarium. This time Adam loved the sharks in the big tank, last time it was the turtles. Lots of traffic on the way home, and went straight to pick up his car. Afterwards, I took Dova to Victory and the farm stand. In the evening, I got food poisoning from a Stonyfield's O'Soy Yogurt, vomiting and diarrhea. Quite a vacation indeed!! Plus I kept getting blocked ducts. Finished watching Clerks and then watched Trainspotting (see other post).

Saturday: George, Terry, Copper and Maggie stopped by (in lieu of the supposed UI party that I had planned - too bad 2/3 of the people were laid off!!). Adam showed off his T-Ball and bike skills.

Sunday: Went to the Home Depot Expo Design Center to buy a new rug for Adam's room using a 20% off coupon. The rug that we all liked couldn't be ordered in the smaller size and next best one Adam simply refused. We came back with 2 light fixtures for the family room and above the stairs. Can't bear to waste a coupon!!

Monday: Doug teetered on the precipitous half wall over the stairs while putting up the new chandelier (couldn't fit a ladder). Went to the playground with Adam and Dova while Doug mowed the lawn. Adam had fun playing with other kids that had a hoverdisc and a kite. Of course Doug was on a motorcycle ride when we got back.

Monday, September 06, 2004

A picture Adam took of me


Adam is quite the budding photographer. I'm thinking of getting a cheap digital camera for him.

Sunday, September 05, 2004

Trainspotting

You should not watch this film if:
  1. You have a baby that is 8 months old
  2. You have food poisoning

That being said, unfortunately I had both!! It was one of those movies which can be incredibly uncomfortable to watch (due to its graphic drug use and violence), but afterwards is totally awesome.

The baby scene was just too much for me. Having been afflicted with food poisoning from some bad Stonyfield Farm O'Soy yogurt (it must have been bad, but tasted good, and I never had a problem with soy before), when this scene rolled around, I immediately felt ill, the cramps came with a vengence and I had to run to the bathroom. Then I had to go upstairs and check on the kids sleeping peacefully. I contemplated not watching the rest of the movie, but forged ahead after a few deep breaths. The phrase "it's only a movie" did not help, the scene was way too powerful.

Well worth watching once, and many scenes keep floating through my mind afterwards.

Thursday, September 02, 2004

What happened to my passenger door key lock?

Since we have all gotten used to using the remotes to lock and unlock the doors, I guess BMW decided that we didn't need a key lock on the passenger side anymore!!

Now, with my E30 I got used to locking the door at the trunk since the driver's side locks got screwed up and would cost way to much to fix. So I had gotten used to going to all the other key locks to lock it. It was one of the really cool features of a BMW. I guess it took me over a year for me to realize that it wasn't even there on my new car.

I started to look at other cars to see if they were afflicted in the same way. Sure enough, all the newer BMW's and Mercedes did not have a passenger side key lock. Of course all the American and Japanese cars still do. I believe they are still there on Volkswagons too. But I bet they will start disappearing as well.

Wednesday, September 01, 2004

Applied Biosystems sucks

Of course I should have seen it coming, but frankly didn't think it would be me!!