Monthly Archives: February 2011

me: no one knows WHO st valentine was! @mikegrundy: he massacred people! me: nuh-uh, no way! @mikegrundy: oh yeah, that was al capone.

Am nerdily researching precise position all my elected officials so I can write a v. strong letter re: our difficult refi of our mortgage.

also I think the secret reason to my successful weekend was: NO INTERNET. it hurts my heart, but it’s true.

extra successful at-home weekend: read 3 books, finished 2 knitting projects, made 2 batches of beans, and had nice lunch with mom!

Turns out I am the first person Eleven thinks of when he thinks of an engineer – even before @mikegrundy! That’s pretty neat (and dorky).

Just tried to chip away some of the iceberg that swallowed our house; it’s official: we need a flamethrower. Even a chainsaw wouldn’t work.

my karinajean.com blog was all fish sandwiches and work minutia before, now it’s motorcycles and accidental stepmommy blogging. who’dathunk?

Accidental [step]mommy blogging.

Junior Naturalists!

It turns out that I might accidentally be turning into a mommy blogger. I mean, I have this blog and everything, and I’m steppers to two boys now, semi-officially. And! no offense to mommy bloggers! but I really just didn’t think I had it in me. I mean, I am lacking that whole “I diapered these kids, by gum, so I can write about them” imperative. I was introduced to the boys at the very healthy ages of Five and Nine. OH GRACIOUS. They have had some mild boy-typical hygiene problems but nothing that involves me seeing their butts. Where would I ever find transparency? I’m a steppers, for pete’s sake.

And then there is the whole “it’s easy to hate on women, especially those who write on the internet, and even more especially those who write about natural conflicts such as children.” Like, there are a zillion mommy blogs out there. They get supportive comments and they get heinous comments. There are blogs set up to make fun of the mommy bloggers, for the most part anonymously. There are pundits on cable news shows who will throw down lines like: “This is terrible for the child to be exposed like this,” and “what a horrible mother.”

Plus there are already a zillion stepmom blogs. There are good stepmom blogs and evil stepmom blogs. They are, for the most part,  painful for me to read. I have a mom, a dad, and a stepmom in my life. There are things about stepmoms that I don’t want to read, you know, JUST IN CASE IT’S TRUE. And OH the horror of the endless discussion about the whys and hows and ifs of stepparents truly loving their stepchildren: is it possible? is it right? is it too much to ask? And the true awfulness of the statement: you can never really truly love a child unless you have given birth to it yourself.

And then there are the articles like this one on salon.com, with the provocative title “Am I ready to be a stepmom at 21?“, which gets endless comments along the lines of: stop projecting, princess. stop being so selfish, you’re damaging the child. you are too young, everyone knows you will bail, stop stop stop stop. I felt so sorry for the author, and then I realized that the number one rule of scary conversations is don’t ask a question you are not ready to hear the answer to.

(Here is my awful question: if I fully appreciate the motorcycling time my partner and I have while the kiddles are with their mom, does that make me a bad steppers? Am I behaving as expected and showing my true colors?)

But on the other hand, Seven and Eleven live with us for almost nearly exactly half of the week. They are sweethearts and we all love one another. And I wonder sometimes where the voice is of the young new steppers who is engaged in the lives of her new sorta-children and who feels supported by her partner and gets along OK with the kids mom? is it just too boring? Maybe so. maybe that’s for the best.

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Ok, self? Please note that bedtime is 930 not just so you get enough sleep, but because that’s when the heat kicks down to 55deg. Brrr.

it’s so creepy: the drone of snowmobiles around my neighborhood is like a 20th (DEFINITELY not 21st) century version of wolf packs howling.

I’m pretty sure we will need either a chainsaw or a flame thrower to chip out the mailbox enough to start receiving mail at home again.

just finished the writeup for our spring 2010 motorcycle trip. 11 states in 11 days! 2500 miles on a drz! http://karinajean.com/wp/?p=769

Eleven States in Eleven Days: Spring 2010 Motorcycle Trip

Synopsis:

Eleven States in Eleven Days
Total Trip mileage just about 2520
and it was REALLY REALLY FUN.

I’m going to put up some back-dated posts about our Awesome! Trip! It was a wildly fun trip.

TABLE OF CONTENTS:

Things I learned from the trip:

  • If you’re using an intercom system with foam over the microphone, you might want to remove the foam and clean it every couple of days.
  • Bring a couple of different models of ear plugs with you in case of ear canal fatigue! I prefer to use non-disposables (I’ve used these in the past, and am now using something like these) but by day 8 I had to switch to some disposable foam jobbies because I just couldn’t get the non-disposable ones to seal properly in my ear.
  • Sunglasses that fit awesome under your helmet for 1 hour may be intolerably uncomfortable by hour 3.
  • When you’re traveling with 6 other people, trust that everyone will be totally honest with what they need and want to do.
  • Pack everything you need, then take out at least 30% of the clothes.
  • Except for warm clothes! you’ll need those.
  • On a long trip, just plan to do laundry every 3-4 days. it makes things way easier!
  • Bring SNACKS. multiply the number of snacks you’d normally bring by the number of people on the trip: not to share, but because the amount of downtime and slow-to-get hungry stomachs will be increased by about that much! If you do share, you will be a hero to everyone at stops.
  • Converse to a reasonable person’s assumption, the bigger your underpants, the more they will hurt you on a long ride. wear your smallest underpants to prevent under-thigh chafing.
  • Pee every time you stop.
  • Drink water every time you stop.
    • PRO TIP. Bring a reusable bottle and refill it in the bathroom or water fountain or soda fountain every time you stop.
  • Get gas every time the person with the smallest tank needs it.
  • If you wear a white motorcycle jacket you will look tough as nails by the end because of the sheer amount of road filth you’ll have picked up. Promise.

and an anecdote!

our first destination was Myrtle Beach Bike Week, which was a total bust while we were there. One of our stops was at the HD dealership, and there were some big classic scary harley dudes sitting on a bench in front of the dealership – arms crossed and a deadpan 50-yard stare checking out everyone. I’m pretty sure I saw a lip curl when I parked my scrappy bike right in front of them.

so as we were leaving, I was gearing up with my jacket and earplugs and helmet – and as I was putting on my sunglasses and starting my bike, I rang my bicycle bell – and boy that kind-of-snarly harley dude LIT UP. his eyes got big and he smiled real wide and he nudged his neighbor and we had such a friendly conversation about the bell. “I’m gonna get one for mine!” he said. “you should! women and children love it!” said I. HILARIOUS.

which is all to say – you meet the nicest people when you’re motorcycling… regardless of how intimidating they’re trying to look!

now, myself, I just gave up on looking intimidating. Here I am in that same HD parking lot:

Aw, I’m trying to dial in and attend this conference remotely but the phone on their end isn’t working. So disappointing!

the TRUE tragedy of missing Tampa: I shaved my legs! the excessive hair may have been an important component of my mardi gras costume! gone!

I tried and tried, but I couldn’t get to tampa for my conference. Instead of enjoying 70 deg weather I went home and shoveled the driveway.