Worn Thirteens hat for weeks.
Made pulled pork in the crock pot.
Celebrated a wall of death riders birthday at a lovely benefit.
Went out to a fancy Cooper Union party sans my traveling sweetheart.
Got so tired and crummy feeling that I had to stay at home so I could make and eat tapioca pudding all day long. It’s restorative, y’all.
Posted in daily
If you are a knitter, you probably already read The Yarn Harlot.
If had to give a quick list to someone going into parenting teens, it would be to remember this: A) SHUT UP. B) Don’t take the bait. C) Don’t take it personally. D) You are probably too pretty for prison. Walk it off.
If you’re a not knitter and not already reading The Yarn Harlot but sorta like looking at pictures of knitting, you may want to add her to your blog feeds.
Thirteen is causing me to EXACTLY need this list right now. He is so charming and wonderful and then he flips directly into FULL ON ARGUMENT where if I say something is white he says it’s black, if I say it’s up he says it’s down, when I say he is Thirteen he makes up an entirely new and actually untruething just to pick a fight. It’s horrible. So far I only last for about 3 minutes before I am pulling out the STERN VOICE and GLARING AT HIM THROUGH MY BUSHY GRAMPA EYEBROWS and USING CUSS WORDS FOR EMPHASIS. Which is exactly what he wants, because then he gets to put on a full body “nobody loves me” suit and wear his “everyone picks on me” hat and snit on out of the room.
And I’m fairly certain that as soon as I learn to deal with this tactic of his he will switch strategies and find an entirely new way of interacting that will make me question my actual capabilities to be The Adult.
Luckily he is also charming, adorables, sweet, and really fun to be around.
Luckily, I am too.
Posted in steppers
Did I ever mention (of course I didn’t) that I wrote a piece about our convoluted wedding planning, and it was published on what is possibly the only wedding blog any newly engaged (or long time engaged or old married) person should ever read? That website being A Practical Wedding?
I’ve been with my sweetheart for over four years now, and our first few months were a whirlwind of “How did we ever find each other on the Internet;†“Thank goodness you have a lease, or we’d be moving in together way too quickly;†and “Oh gosh I hope his kids love me.†Since we met I have learned to ride a motorcycle, determined how to ask for what I need from my partner as we share the household responsibilities, and figured out a way to make a blended family without feeling threatened by former spouses or the fact that I moved to a small town with everyone else ever formerly and currently involved in my partner’s life. We negotiated a refinance of our big old house, made a budget together, and put together a list of short-term and long-term financial goals. It all sounds so romantic, doesn’t it? The subtext for all of this is, however, how over the last four years I’ve learned how to love the idea of Marriage.
Is it weird to quote yourself? I think it’s kind of weird.
Now that we’re home and officially married instead of just informally and semi-secretly all partnered up, I can’t help but tell people who ask “how does it feel to be a married lady?†that it’s exactly the same as being a living-in-sin lady—although if I’m honest with myself, it’s not exactly the same. Mike and I are exactly as we were. Our relationship didn’t change, we were fully committed to a partnership before the Judge and the State of New York approved of our union. But as much as I have been skeptical of what a legal marriage would bring to our relationship, it turns out that our community really does factor into it. I was surprised and humbled by the well wishes we received from our friends, family, and colleagues. Even though we’ve been warned that when the wedding and the marriage are decoupled like this, odds are we won’t ever get around to having a big celebration party later, I am even more sure that inviting our community to celebrate with us and mark this occasion will be a tremendously important part of our relationship and our family history. Wish us luck as we plan our celebration party to be as beautiful and loving as our life together, while staying, most romantically, below the cost of two mortgage payments.
Posted in steppers
Knowing what I do about Peter Cooper – a man who loved the chili at McSorleys and who fraternized unabashedly with feminists, people of color, labor organizers and abolitionists – I think my pal Xenia is on to something here.
I have the most amazing friends!
Posted in daily
I took a bad spill yesterday when I was leaving the house – no ice or anything, I just fell over, and landed right on my tailbone. It hurts SO BAD. I drove to work but should have turned around: 20 min into the trip I was crying. Walking around is ok, but sitting is not ok.
And then I got this on my trip home:
TRAFFIC. I think there was one of those oversized houses-on trailers tipped over. Regardless, the day I brutally injured my sitting parts was not the day I wanted to be stick in traffic for 2 1/2 hours.
This morning I begged off of a 100 mile drive to my job site for meetings and used the extra time in the morning to do my nails.
Posted in daily
Mister Nine has a science project due this week so we’ve been discussing hypotheses and experimentation procedure for a few days now. He has an exciting idea about electricity and what materials may or may not conduct it, and we are developing an experiment to prove his hypothesis to the entire fourth grade.
Turns out it can be pretty helpful to have a mad scientist for a dad and stepmom who writes up scientific methodology and results at her day job.
Posted in all posts
A sweet friend suggested that she was going to try one new recipe every week this year. What a brilliant resolution! I have got an evernote account FULL of recipes I’ve snipped out over the years, and really would like to cook more at home. I’ll give it a go too.
So: Recipe 1: BEEF STEW.
I worked at home yesterday so had a chance to make this Beef Stew, from Real Simple. It goes in a slow cooker but it is not at all like the slow cooker stews I made when I was a kid – those involved chucking everything in and turning it on, this one requires browning and deglasing. It IS delicious. The boys loved it (though Thirteen carefully ate around all of the diced onions, and really seemed to enjoy most of all the latitude to put as much bread in his body as he could).
Note for the recipe – I wouldn’t recommend following the proportions. I used 1/2 the meat, and it was entirely satisfactory. Any more and it wouldn’t have fit in my 4-Qt slow-cooker. I don’t usually have baby carrots in the house but we did from our recent car trip to Ohio and back, and I was happy to chuck those monstrosities into dinner as well.
And here is my beef (oh geez, entirely unintentional!) with slow cookers – they are really no good if you work away from the home. I want something I can chuck food into and cook and when I come home it’s all set – but almost all recipes seem to say “6-8 hours on low or 4 hours on high.” I work an eight hour (at least!) day and it takes me another hour or so to get to and from work. I can’t just leave that cooking all day long. Therefore, slow cooker use is restricted to those times I’m at home and can start it up at my leisure, letting it work hard behind the scenes while I’m nearby and ready to shut it off before dinner time.
Posted in Recipe Challenge
My sweetheart made me this necklace for Christmas – mostly, I think, because the skull beads cracked him up. I showed it to a geologist at work and he thought I was rock-name-pop-quizzing him. I guess geologists get that a lot – people just hand them rocks all grubby and warm from pockets and say “I thought this was pretty, what is it?” Whereas I am all “Squee skulls!”
Also of note: upper portions of the vest I FINALLY finished after (not) knitting on it for about 2 years. I love it and wear it all the time.
Posted in daily
I had a brilliant idea to slip personalized notes in to the invitations for the Cooper Union Founders Day Celebration. I am about 50 invites away from completion and my poor wrist is screaming. I’ve got a total of 169 to write. No big, right…?
Posted in daily
We are on the way home from Ohio, where we spent New Years Eve ringing in 2013 with Mike’s Aunt Kate and family. This is the 3rd year we’ve gone out for their annual seafood feast and party and it’s so nice to get to know everyone. The boys are great with the long drive. We are toughening them up for epic adventures of our or their making in the future.
This year we spent a whole day with Kelly and Erik in Pittsburgh – sledding, chilling, and pizza partying with a few others. It was a perfect break in the highway monotony and when we resumed our trek west we stayed on secondary highways to western Ohio – it only added another 1 1/2 hours to our drive and it was so much better than the turnpike.
On our trip home hilarity ensued when a friend sent me a link to Get to know your Carhartt Boyfriend, and I turned to my sweet manly husband and snapped a picture before reading him the article as he drove us home.
There was snow at home while we were gone, so Mike and I are a tiny bit worried our steep-and-long driveway will be impassible… But did I ever mention that My Carhartt Boyfriend has a flame-thrower in the basement? So if you see steam and fire from our house tonight we are just trying to melt the driveway so we can park the car and get to bed. Promise.
Posted in daily
We got our share of the winter storm yesterday. 4ish inches maybe? it took me 2 1/2 hours to drive home when it’s normally a 45 minute to an hour endeavor. I pulled into the driveway and veered off a little into the weeds, so put it in park and walked up the hill. I’m thankful I wore my winter boots to work yesterday preemptively.
Today Mike and I are working from home. The roads were still a mess when I would have normally left, and I have actually got stuff to do so didn’t want to waste another 2 1/2 hours getting in. I’ll shovel at lunch. I love shoveling (the first time of the year).
Posted in daily
Last week I was in Washington DC for a conference, and someone mentioned: you haven’t been to these meetings in a while, have you? And then I realized that I could summarize 2012 as the year all of my grandmothers died, I got married, and we had the kids all summer long. Which sounds kind of epic but in a very pathetic way, you know?
Maybe this will be better. I know it’s not done yet, but this is what happened:
January
I wrote a resolution that was adopted by the CUAA council in support of the mission statement of Cooper Union, which supports free tuition policy. I was the sole breadearner in our household this month. It was a little stressful. I had to pay more precise attention at work because I was suddenly concerned about being laid off. (Top Secret: this is not always the case.) Temporary cat was adorables. January was so warm, we went hiking several times.
February
I went to San Diego for a sustainable remediation conference and was inducted onto the board of said organization as the secretary. I was still the sole breadearner and stressed a little more about it. I hosted endless focus groups for Cooper Union and worked really hard to build community. We visited Peter Cooper’s grave! More hiking! Valentines day cookies!
March
More Cooper Union community volunteering. Mike got a JOB. YAY. we staycationed our normal anniversary weekend away, and then we opened a joint bank account. I signed up for a t-shirt quilting class and didn’t actually finish anything (but learned a lot). I could still ride the motorcycle to work! Temporary cat killed mice!
April
Mike started his job and I had to get used to not having an at-home sweetheart to do all the kids stuff and make all the dinners any more. Also he got paid, that was pretty nice. I had a birthday party that combined a dead tree chopping down and a chili party. and then I participated in authorship of an amazing document called The Way Forward, summarizing the community consensus based process and proposing a simple path forward for Cooper Union to reachieve solvency without charging tuition. And then – oh, then – my mother’s mom sickened, suddenly, and passed away. We had a community summit and I was a panelist and the next day I flew to Phoenix for the funeral.
May
More Cooper Union stuff! and then we decided to have a wedding, and then we decided NOT to have a wedding. But we really were going to get married, so I guess we were officially engaged? only it’s not different from any other time that we’d been in love and meant to spend our lives together so we don’t make a big deal of it. We went on another amazing motorcycle vacation with Rick and Janice. We had porch robins and the boys started baseball again.
June
My cousin Sara got married in SC, and we drove there and back with the little dudes. YAY I INTRODUCED THEM TO MY BIG FAMILY. Lots of work at my job, lots lots lots. baseball and end of school. And a weekend away with my internet motorcycling friends – all nice ladies – and mike and janice.
July
we have the boys all this month, as their mom works out of town. and my job is so crazy. And then we decide to plan an elopement for real in august. and I ran a 5K and won a trophy!
Also of note: I really didn’t take many photos. What’s up with that?
August
the boys each go away to camp for a whole week, though, which makes things kind of quiet mid-month. got marriage license, wedding dress, and married, all in 2 weeks. went away to the beach for vacation. YAY. All this stuff makes it super easy to have the kids all month.
September
Rode the motorcycles to see Sarah and Ben for labor day weekend. Work was nuts and then? My gramma got sick. super sick. in the hospital. and I flew down and visited her and we had such a sweet time together and then left and the next day she died. Oh, gramma. I still miss you so badly. Mike and I went to her funeral the next weekend. My family is sweet and it’s nice to be with them.
October
Short week back after Gramma’s funeral with kids and Cooper Union meetings and then we were off to the UK for a long weekend and Rachel’s wedding. October was also the month that I made the boys do all their homework. Like, they were trying so hard not to do it, and no one was paying attention, and I made them do it all, and then everyone else paid attention and it stuck and now they are doing amazing in school. Rheinbeck sheep and wool! new project bike gifted to us! and OH ALSO Hurricane Sandy, and no power for 2 days. And we discovered a horrible leak in the bathroom and/or wall and got a new tub and I designed a new bathroom using pinterest and graph paper. Also mom and I planted lots of perennials.
November
Thirteen and I started to take tae kwon do! we love it! The kitchen is a disaster b/c we had to demo the wall and fix the leaking pipe, and we had Sarah and Ben over for non-thanksgiving and hunting (nothing was harmed except our thanksgiving ham). I had a pampered chef party. Work continued to be super hard and worky.
Again? no pictures. sigh.
December
Dinosaur Jr Concert! Holiday party at work then drive to holiday party in pgh. Oh, I’m so proud of Cooper Union students who occupy the foundation building. I go to Washington DC for the SURF conference. I can’t believe it’s my first one since february (I missed one in the middle), and then, THIS is where I realize that all I did this year was put my head down and get through it. So much work, so much kid time (which I love, but it is a lot of work), so much with my grammas dying, so much travel. Back to work where I keep putting my head down and digging in.
2012, I am going to get through you. No doubts here.
Whoa it was a big year. Two more weeks, friends, two more weeks.
Posted in life etc
This actually does fall into one of those categories. I’m not sure which one, but it’s so hilarious and endearing.
Posted in daily
As much as my last two weekends have been filled with torturing Thirteen as I try to help him help himself on big social studies reports, blistered palms resulting from digging holes for perennial planting in our extraordinarily rocky soil, and singlehandedly (well, I did use the washer/dryer) washing almost EVERY SINGLE piece of clothing in the house in one weekend — well. LOOK, just LOOK at what I’ve gotten over the last couple of weekends:
A new project bike! Nighthawk 450, gifted so generously from Rick and Janice to commemorate the happy occasion of our marriage. Considering that Mike already has a project bike I am so commandeering this.
The next day we hoped in our little car and trailered this lovely pedestal cast iron tub home from Tarrytown NY. For only $60!
it’s SO nice on the inside:
and once again may I say: I love our small car lifestyle!
The occasion for the tub is not so happy. Suffice it to say (for now!) that there is an awkward and annoying leak that is persistent and getting much worse and necessitates the renovation of our upstairs bathroom about 2 years before we were ready to pay someone else to do so. Family Tip Grundzilla will be performing this engaging and fruitful activity next weekend. Theoretically Fruitfully. Wish us luck.
And then this weekend I went to Rheinbeck for the NY Sheep and Wool Festival and got ALL THE THINGS:
OK, I didn’t get the sheep and the llama. But I wanted to. Badly. Think Nine and Thirteen can be swayed off of horses in 4H and onto the fiber-bearing animals?
Posted in home, knitastic, motorcycle enthusiast
I’ve been having a terrible traffic week. This time of year always seems so dire as the day gets dramatically shorter – it’s been dark the last couple of days when I left the house. And the traffic! At least when it clears up I can enjoy lovely sunrises.
These days I really feel my 1.5-2 hr commute. It’s so clear as I sit in dark traffic all the things I could be doing if I wasn’t in the car – all the emails unresponded, all the knitting unknit, all the canning I’m behind on, all the running I don’t do! It is what it is, but dark and trafficy makes me restless.
Today I left at 6AM and rushed to central NJ for training. I took to the streets after my particular highway was jammed up and barely made it in time. I’m sitting here 105 miles from home learning all about my next big professional certification. Lunch is provided and the tea service seems to be ample. Learning hat on!
Posted in jobby job job
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Mike and I spent all day today in the Victoria and Albert museum. It was amazing, we totally geeked out. tomorrow we spend all of our remaining pounds on chocolate bars for the boys and head home. We didn’t have beers at a pub or fish and chips but our brief stay in London was amazing. Almost like a tiny honeymoon.
We can do that, right? Keep calling all our alone-and-away trips honeymoons? Like, forever?
Posted in daily
No pictures of the wedding just yet, nor of anything we’ve been looking at.
We are visiting with peeps tonight before the bride and groom jet off on their honeymoon.
Oh! And I finished a hat. It didn’t come out at ALL how I thought it was, but it’s cute none-the-less.
Posted in all posts
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I made a field visit to my big project job site this morning. I didn’t do a field walk today but took this picture a couple of weeks ago in an attempt to impress Thirteen with my awesome job. He was just moderately interested. My sweetheart, on the other hand, showed off the picture to his coworkers saying “hey! Look! It’s my wife!” apparently responses were split between “what does she do?” and “no, it’s half of your wife.”
Posted in jobby job job, steppers
