Let me introduce Nico’s new buddy! 

He has really taken to his baby (the same doll his cousin Brady has), but I wanted him to have one that he could do more with.  I like the idea of Waldorf dolls because they don’t have much in the way of facial features, so it’s easy for a kid to pretend that their doll is happy/sleeping/crying or whatever else their imagination tells them the doll is feeling.  But Waldorf dolls are really expensive!  So I made my own. 

I’m not the seamstress my mom is (she made my wedding dress, beading and all, if you remember), but this doll only involved hand-sewing — no machine.  I managed to make a shape that looks very doll-like despite all the improvisation I had to do.  (What’s a running stitch anyway?  Or a crewel needle?  Turns out, it probably doesn’t matter – the doll looks ok.)  Here’s a photo of me attaching the doll’s head.

Next up, we need a name for him.  I keep thinking Charlie, but I don’t know why.  Any ideas? 

Here he is wearing a newborn outfit that Eloisa, Archer, and then Nico all wore.  I would have passed it down to Hudson, but he’s already in 6 month clothes!!!

3 T chopped parsley
3 T chopped ginger
3 T chopped garlic
5 spring onions, chopped
5 shitake mushrooms, chopped
8 c water
salt and pepper (and/or hot pepper flakes) to taste

Boil for 45 minutes.

Strain and drink the broth.

***

Update from a week later — I felt fine the next day.  It must have been the broth!

May / June

We traveled to Pittsburgh in mid-May to visit the Shar-Bars.  We didn’t take many photos, but we loved seeing their new house and doing all the fun things we always do when we visit PGH.

My parents came to DC for my birthday and helped us paint the trim in the guest room and bathroom.  It’s so nice to have knocked something else off our list of projects to complete!

We traveled to NJ to celebrate a belated Father’s Day with my parents and Danny, Morgan, and Brady.  We played some bocce, had a great dinner, and spent most of our time oohing and aahing over Brady.

Frank and Seda enjoyed making sushi in June and cherry pie in July.  These photos are guaranteed to make your mouth water.

July

We had a 4th of July BBQ on our deck, even though it was little more than a platform at the time.  As usual when we unveil something new, Gina, Chip and Eloisa were here to celebrate with us, along with Sara, Aron and Salome, Eva, Jaime, and Jen.

Eva turned 40 and had a fabulous dinner party for several friends.  (I’m still not sure what we did to deserve a delicious, gourmet meal prepared by the birthday girl herself!)

Tara graduated (and so did her Uncle Frankie) and we traveled to NY to celebrate with her.

We traveled to Sperryville for the weekend with teams Somobright and Hjeltak.  We don’t have pictures of the blackberry picking, but we spent part of one day picking blackberries with the kids and it was great!  The rest of the time we hung out at the cottage and just relaxed and chatted and watched the girls play.

Debbie, Tim, and Gwen came to visit us in DC.  We were very proud of Gwen’s mommy for overcoming her fear of travel without a car seat and letting Gwen ride both the metro *and* the city bus.  Gwen loved both!  We also went to the sad little aquarium in DC.  They have some pretty fish and Gwen seemed to enjoy it.  But it’s dark and small and plus it’s not free.  I’m glad I’ve been once, but I don’t think we’ll go back.

August

Oshapalooza (see below).

We hope to add our completed deck to the August photos.  Mike finished up yesterday but there is still a LOT left for Frank to take care of.  The whole deck needs to be stained/sealed.  Two of three fans need to be installed.  Some sort of screen needs to be devised.  And all of the lattice pieces for the 1st floor railings need to be nailed into place.  It’s looking good, but we’ve still got a way to go before we can take any “after” photos.

The good news is that the feed seems to be fixed now.  So you’ll finally get what you signed up for. 

Frank is busily jackhammering again with the contractor today.  We hope to have another back deck update soon!

The entire city of Washington, DC, is in a good mood. Everyone, all at the same time. A shared mood is not something you experience every day, not with so many people anyway, and it’s not always a good mood. September 12, 2001 was one of those days, but not in a good way.

Keep in mind that Washington is a heavily Democratic city. Obama won 93% of the vote here. Ninety-three percent! In a city of almost half a million people, fewer than 15,000 of them voted for McCain. Walking around town on Wednesday, then, you would be hard pressed to find someone without a little skip in their step from the night before. I bet even the McCain voters were a little bit happy about the result. Nobody stopped to talk about it, really. Everyone still has to do their jobs, driving buses, making lunch, pushing papers. But you can just feel the underlying mood of happiness and anticipation of better times ahead. You know that feeling you get when something really good happens to you all of a sudden, like you just got a big promotion, and you feel so happy inside? Well, everyone here has that feeling right now, and it’s just amazing.

When Obama was declared the winner on Tuesday night, we went outside to celebrate with our neighbors on our street. Our block is pretty diverse – white, black, Latino, gay, straight, young, old, residents of 40 years or just a few months – and everyone was outside, and everyone was excited. There were fireworks from the next block, pots and pans banging, horns honking, and champagne flowing. Everyone was brought together by this incredibly special and amazing event. Kristen had been giving me a hard time on Tuesday night for not being sufficiently excited, but really I had been 99% sure for the past month that Obama would win. So when he actually did win, of course I didn’t need to jump up and down about it. That’s not really my personality anyway. It is this afterglow that has really gotten to me, that has restored my faith in the future.

I’m really looking forward to going to the inauguration in January. I’ve been to the last three, but of course this one will be much different. In 1997 I was fresh out of college and really didn’t care one way or the other about Bill Clinton. I went because it was there to see, waved the little flag that was handed to me and went home. In 2001 there were huge protests and people threw eggs at the presidential motorcade, plus there was an underlying fear that DC would become Texas North, and we would all be forced to wear cowboy hats. 2005 was more of the same, though the freezing cold weather drove us home before the president went by. But this time I don’t think anything could keep us away, and I can’t wait.

DC has it’s problems, but sometimes I think it’s the best place in the world to live.

Is This Tantrum on the Record?
The ground rules for writing about your kids.
By Emily Bazelon
http://www.slate.com/id/2192374/

I found this really interesting — particularly since we post pictures of nephews and nieces and our friends’ kids.  Makes me wonder if we should be password protecting our site (or at least getting permission from the parents!).

1988 Special report with lots of images from the riots.

1988 Continued coverage with interviews with 1988 residents.

2008 Coverage.

Since the new Target opened in Columbia Heights, preceded by lots of new restaurants in the immediate vicinity, I have heard lots of people on the bus commenting about how this is the first time they’ve seen development here since the riots.  At first I had my misgivings about moving to an area that had all the shopping characteristics of the suburbs, but I actually think the impact on this area is quite positive.  The stores that are coming in appeal to people at all income levels, as do the new restaurants.  And there is now a sense of hope and positive energy that I have to imagine was absent when 14th St. was full of vacant lots and the gap-toothed appearance left after some row houses burned to the ground and others remained standing.  It’s just still hard to believe it took almost 40 years.

Note — the chocolates were from Mandi as a thank you for the pre-Thanksgiving feast and are superb! I had a dark chocolate and mint truffle last night, and it tasted like mint straight from a plant was stirred in just after the chocolate cooled to preserve its delicate flavor. Mmmm — none of that syrupy sweet sticky artificial mint that’s in so many chocolates. I think Frank’s going to try the peanut butter and jelly one tonight. Thank you Mandi!!

About a month ago, my trusty-rusty 4th generation, non-color, non-video iPod took a long walk off a short pier.  It has lasted a long time already, for a piece of computer junk – almost 4 years.  But I had not planned on ever bying a new iPod.  I just want this one to work for the rest of my life.  Is that too much to ask?

I was walking down the street one day, listening to Brian Lehrer, when the iPod suddenly froze up.  When I got home I plugged it in and “restored” it, which wipes all the data and resets the iPod to factory settings.  From then on, the drive would make all sorts of clicking sounds, but no music would play and I could not get it to synch.  To an “IT Person” such as myself, the clicking noises were a sure sign of a failing hard drive.  Not to worry though, I know that other folks have replaced the drive themselves, and a new drive would cost about $100.

So I was prepared to order a new drive when I came upon a web site tht offered some interesting advice.  Before trying a new drive, try opening the case and inserting a business card, folded in 4ths, between the drive and the inside of the case.  I did this, and lo and behold, it worked!  The iPod is good as new, save for some scratches on the case where I pried it open. 

The “experts” believe this to be a temporary fix only, and before long the drive will fail more thoroughly.  I’ll keep you posted on that.  But so far, so good.

http://www.crunchgear.com/2007/03/05/crunchgear-how-to-fix-an-ipod-that-wont-boot/

The site even made a New York times article.  The article also mentions a good place to buy a new iPad battery: www.ipodjuice.com.

Next up is a fix for old Mr. Coffee, who got sick the day after Thanksgiving, at the peak of our coffee demand.  I have traced the problem to a blown thermal fuse.  A new part has been ordered for 22 cents and is on the way.  We had to break down and buy a new pot, though, to satisfy the coffee addicted who could not wait for the mail.

UPDATE:  It was an early birthday present from my parents.  We got it set up when they came down for their 3rd “help at the house” visit and have started composting.  Hooray! 

I will be working part-time on health-related projects at the National Youth Advocacy Coalition (NYAC) and filling out my week with other part-time work. I discovered last year that I like this lifestyle of having multiple jobs at the same time! I’ll be doing admin and project work for the Association of Metropolitan Planning Organizations (looking at issues of public transportation and bike lanes as well as traffic congestion) and hope to be doing some part-time data analysis work for a professor at Morgan State University.

Best of all, these jobs are all ok with me taking 2 weeks off at the end of August, so it looks like our trip to the west coast is still on!

One hint — it might be best to download the full 350 MB program first if your internet connection doesn’t stream fast enough.  I have to stream about half of the program before I start watching or I end up having to pause in the middle and wait for it to catch up.

Namaste.

Unfortunately you can’t print or save the records without becoming a paying member.  But, you can write down the microfilm numbers and visit the National Archives in DC and print a copy.  You can, however, make a family tree on ancestry.com and contribute links to the worldwide family tree map.  We’re planning to do this with both of our families over Thanksgiving weekend.

The Rules:
Step 1: Put your iPod/MP3 player or iTunes on random.
Step 2: Post the first line(s) from the first 20 songs that play, no matter how embarrassing the song. [And some of ours are quite embarrassing!]
Step 3: Post it on your blog and let everyone guess what song and artist the lines come from.
Step 4: Update the list with the song title when someone guesses correctly.
Step 5: Make your guesses by leaving a comment or sending us an email. You have to identify both title and artist, and you’re not allowed to Google any of these, either.

1. Creme tangerine and montelimat
A ginger sling with a pineapple heart

2. Some days I have to give right in to the blues,
Despite how I try to keep fighting, it’s a sure shot I’m gonna lose.

3. Love, love me do,
You know I’ll be true. (Love Me Do, The Beatles — Correct guess by Mandi, Suzanne and Rachel)

4. I left a man asleep in the nude
My name is my pocket with lipstick and rouge

5. Hey baby. You’ve got to remember,
I’m forever your girl. (Forever Your Girl, Paula Abdul — Correct guess by Mandi, Suzanne and Rachel) *And no, this isn’t Kristen’s!

6. Besame, Besame Mucho
Each time I bring you a kiss I hear music divine.

7. All the modern things like cars and such have always existed.
They’ve just been waiting in a mountain for the right moment

8. I dig rock and roll music and I love to get the chance to play (and sing it)
I figure it’s about the happiest sound going down today.

9. Today’s a Macy’s Day Parade,
the night of the living dead is on its way.

10. Do you know the importance of a sky pager?

11. Yo check this out baby, let me get that number.
No, I don’t think so ‘cuz I got a boyfriend.
You ain’t got no boyfriend, you ain’t nothing but a little…
Hold up, wait a minute, don’t go there ’cuz I ain’t your ho.

12. I see your money on the floor, I felt the pocket change.
Though all the feelings that broke through that door
just didn’t seem to be too real.

13. Well, man created the cardboard box to sleep in it.
And man converted the newspaper to a blanket.

14. When you walk through the storm,
hold your head up high,
and don’t be afraid of the dark.

15. On the horizon,
the landscape’s burning red.

16. A stone’s throw from Jerusalem,
I walked a lonely mile in the moonlight.

17. Well we know where we’re going,
but we don’t know where we’ve been.
And we know what we’re knowin’,
but we can’t say what we’ve seen. (Hint — this is not Bob Dylan.)

18. Quiero vivir en America, quiero vivir en America…

19. In a room above a busy street, the echoes of the life.
The fragments and the accidents separated by incidents.

20. Where did your long hair go?
Where is the girl I used to know?
How could you lose that happy glow?