Jealous much?

There are just so many things that are uniquely Wisconsin, but surely one of those things has to be the sausage races at Milwaukee Brewers games. I've only had the good fortune to see it in person once, but let me say there's nothing like the thrill of watching a larger-than-life bratwurst, hot dog, Polish sausage, Italian sausage, and chorizo racing each other around a baseball field. (You can see a pre-chorizo race for yourself here.) So imagine what a treat it was that when Gretchen returned from our trip to Wisconsin this summer, she brought me this:

NOW she figures it out?

One of the great frustrations of our first year with Baby is that she absolutely refused to take a bottle. Until she switched to a sippy cup, it was either the boob or nothing. We naively assumed all babies naturally like to drink from bottles, although we've since discovered we're not alone in having a strong-minded little one who wants things her way. So, fast-forward to a month ago when Baby's Grandma Caril sent her a doll...and she immediately grabbed the bottle that came with it and pretended to drink from it. DOH!

Since we never blog any more...

Over the past month or so, Baby has:

Discovered that while toys can be fun, so can everyday household goods...




Spent a lot of time hanging out at the pool and generally trying to stay--and look--cool...





And finally started visiting famous Washington spots like the Lincoln Memorial and the National Zoo...

Don't cock my snook

More fun expressions culled from recent editions of The Economist:

"Pet food, lorry tyres and toothpaste..."

"Goldman Sachs lost a packet when something happened..." (presumably this is like losing a bundle?)

"Charles Schumer, a tub-thumping senator..." (can I get some Chumbawumba?)

"...hope that it will not be scotched by..."

"...there were attempts to make a better fist of things."

"...spend the next 17 months on the back foot..."

"...speech included a bunch of tosh about..."

"...accompanied by a pet monkey in a nappy." (that's one we heard a lot in our pre-natal--or should I say ante-natal--class)

"...relations...have been scratchy at best."

"...recently fulminated about the yobs who urinated..." ("yob" ranks right up there with "chav" in terms of fun British derogatory expressions...oh, and if you're ever in Australia, yobs are called yobbos)

"Though a new broom and a gale of fresh air..." (I wonder, when I got back from Basel did my work colleagues here say I was a new broom?)

"...the modern HR kitbag seems to go down well..."

"...at the fag-end of their careers."

"...doctors had no choice but to take a blunderbuss approach..."

"Cocking a snook at America seems an odd way..."

(Speaking of which, on the London Underground possibly the only thing more entertaining to American ears than taking the Bakerloo line to Elephant & Castle is taking the Piccadilly line to Cockfosters.)

Only in America...

...can any food imaginable be deep-fried. But, heaven forbid, not in unhealthy oil.

(The Swiss version of this is the insistence that food absolutely must be organic...presumably so that you can feel healthy when you light up your cigarette.)

Memories

When I was growing up, you knew summer had arrived when Arizona license plates started to appear on local roads. One summer the candidates for mayor of Phoenix even campaigned on San Diego beaches. So I was glad to see that the Zonies (as we even called them back then) are still flocking to my fair hometown.

"Na-na-na-na-na"

Baby has a new best friend. Her cousin, Natalie, just spent 5 days with us and now she can't stop asking for her. She calls her "Na-na-na-na-na". Sometimes I hear her calling out Na-na's name from her crib as she wakes from a nap. I had to remind her this morning that Na-na went home a few days ago.

Natalie flew out here from Wisconsin with her Mom (my sister) and stayed with us while my sister attended a conference in the area. It was such a special treat. Natalie is the sweetest pre-teen you'll ever meet, and she is so good with babies. She takes pride in having her own "style", meaning that she's not too girly, but a little bit of a tom-boy, likes hip-hop music (and is obsessed with Fergie, but somehow also likes Elvis), loves to play sports, wears her emotions on her sleeve which means she can cry at the drop of a hat, and primarily wears baseball hats, plaid shorts, and Life is Good t-shirts. She's one of a kind.

While she was here, we went sightseeting a lot (we saw the Capitol, the White House, the monuments, the museums), to the pool a couple times (she loved the water slides), to the Arlington County Fair (which is nothing like the Wisconsin State Fair), out to eat a few times (Thai, Vietnamese, Lebanese and Italian) and also did some shopping (so I could buy my niece some new plaid shorts). Most of the time, however, we just hung around the house and played. We were all sad to say goodbye when she (and my sister) left on Monday night and we're counting the days until our next trip to Wisconsin...

Yum

I'm not sure what's more strange: that you can buy "luncheon meat" and "corned beef with juices" in cans, or that we stumbled across it on the shelves of a nearby Thai specialty market.

Self portrait

Gretchen's cell phone camera may be crap (she dropped it and shattered the lens not long after getting it), but I still like it when she sends me things like this while I'm hard at work:

Was it really that bad?

There was a guy on the bus this morning sitting up front and having a lively chat with the bus driver. I'm not quite sure how it came up, but at one point he said: "Man, I lived in Madison, Wisconsin¹ for nine months. Everyone looked the same, talked the same²...they say they're liberal³, but I don't know...I couldn't wait to get out of that place⁴."

¹My lovely wife's hometown. I sometimes tease her about deep down inside it's actually one of my favorite towns (just don't tell her I said so).

²He was African-American, and (especially compared to the DC area) Wisconsin can be a bit lily white at times, so I can see where he's coming from.

³Definitely part of Madison's reputation.

⁴I say the same thing every time I make the mistake of visiting during the winter.

Just for the record...

...big thunderstorms and crying babies at 4:30am suck. In case you were wondering.

Good stuff

More things I've enjoyed reading lately:

When I was growing up, we weren't allowed to eat sugar cereals except for maybe once a year if our Mom went out of town, in which case my brother and I could choose one sugar cereal. One of the joys of going away to college was discovering that the cafeteria had cereals like Captain Crunch available around the clock--and I didn't hesitate to eat it at any meal. So I really enjoyed this nostalgic piece about the lessons learned as a child from choosing sugar cereals.

Since Baby was born, Gretchen and I have not been able to go out on a date. This should hopefully change soon, but in the meantime we hadn't considered one babysitting option: a doggy caregiver (especially since Baby and Grady are getting along so well these days).

There was an article in last week's New York Times Magazine about the war in Iraq by a former-Harvard-professor-turned-Canadian-politician. I got through about half of it until I put it down because it just irritated me for reasons I couldn't put my finger on--I guess it just seemed condescending, cliched, etc. Far better was this brilliant and funny critique I stumbled across. You have to like anything that can somehow mention Canadian politics, Thomas Jefferson, Rush, bus drivers, Kenny Rogers, the Coen Brothers, Isiah Thomas, Mary Lou Retton and, best of all, the writing of Cormac McCarthy--and it somehow makes sense.

Being an occasional pessimist, I loved this Garrison Keillor piece on the potential perils of vacation. And this piece on the difference between the younger and older generations in the workplace.

Evidently some of New York's finest restaurants aren't immune from drunk-and-disorderly customers.

A Brit hilariously reports on his trip on a cruise ship with a group of far-right activists.

Say what?

I used to be reasonably diligent about reading The Economist (which, I know, sounds pretentious), but oddly enough right around the time Baby was born I all of a sudden found I didn't have time for it anymore. Which is a pity, not so much because I'm more ill-informed (although that's probably true), but rather because I miss trying to understand the quirky British expressions sprinkled throughout the articles. For example, I was reading this week's issue while waiting at the allergist's office today and came across these dandies (emphasis added):

"...the other side is cock-a-hoop."

"...in a cack-handed manner..."

"...it will be reduced to a rump."

"...included po-faced entries..."

"...may be sluggardly..."

You get what you pay for

Our house is small enough that we have to keep some of our seasonal clothes up in the attic. So when we first moved back, we bought a couple of the cheapest possible plastic clothes hanging units we could find (so cheap, in fact, that while putting them together I had to have Gretchen come help me because they kept falling apart every time I moved). After putting them together we hung our clothes nice and neatly, but I guess I shouldn't have been surprised when I went up to the attic a couple of weeks ago and discovered this:



Needless to say, we invested in a slightly sturdier model...

Just for the record...

...since all I really seem to be able to do these days is bitch about the heat: the temperature outside as of 1:25pm was 101 with a heat index of 109 (38/43C).

I don't think I've ever been so happy to be working in an air-conditioned office in my life...

When good things happen to good dogs

When Gretchen's Mom, Char, passed away a few years ago, one of the things she was most worried about was finding a new home for her dog, Molly. Luckily Molly found a great home, although last year we found out that the family that adopted her was concerned about not being able to give her enough time and attention.

Fast forward to this summer. One of Char's best friends, Carolyn, who knew Molly well and is a dog lover, sent Gretchen a note saying that she was reading about "rehoming" of dogs through the local Humane Society and came across a dog that sounded really familiar...yes, it was Molly. The family that adopted her had decided they just couldn't give her the time she needed, but didn't want to give her up without finding her a good home. At the time Char passed away Molly would have been too much for Carolyn to handle, but by this summer she was ready for her own dog to have a canine companion. They met Carolyn, and so it came to be that (perhaps with a boost from above by Char?) Molly is now very happily living with one of Char's best friends. Gretchen has always seen Molly as a real link to the memory of her Mom, and now she gets regular updates on how she is doing and can visit her the next time she's back in Wisconsin.

Had to happen sometime

We've been remarkably free of major Baby messes (knock on wood), aside from the occasional spit-up and, of course, diaper changes in less-than-sanitary places (on the floor of a bathroom on an Italian train would probably be the least sanitary of all). Not that she hasn't made some epic messes during her first year, but we've mostly had near-misses when it comes to being the targets of these messes. I guess we naively thought we were past the age of accidents, so imagine our (or rather, Gretchen's) surprise the other night when I was filling the bath while Gretchen held Baby...who decided that would be as good a time as any to start peeing. Needless to say, Baby (and Daddy) thought it was hysterical that she peed all over Mommy (who I assume is just waiting for something similar to happen to me now).

Someone is finally getting teeth

Never stop

Baby's in one of those developmental stages where, once she figures out how to do something, she wants to do it over and over and over and over and over again. Case in point: a couple of weeks ago she climbed up the stairs for the first time, and now I think she could literally spend all day climbing them if we would let her (alas, she hasn't figured out how to get down so we still have to watch her like a hawk).



We (not including Baby) usually have a glass of wine with dinner, and when we do we always say a quick toast first. Lately we've been saying "cheers" and clinking Baby's sippy cup, but she hasn't seemed to even notice. Then all of a sudden last night she grabbed her sippy cup and started waving it at us. "Cheers!", we said, and clapped for her. But of course it didn't stop there. Basically for the entire meal she kept waving her cup at both of us until we would clink it, and if we tried to tell her no, she would make her displeasure known loudly. It's nice that we've got her started on such a good habit...

Good times!

Just checked the weather forecast and discovered that we're under this heat advisory, which makes me even happier that our A/C is working again:

...HEAT ADVISORY IN EFFECT FROM 12 PM TO 8 PM EDT TUESDAY...

THE NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE IN STERLING VIRGINIA HAS ISSUED A HEAT ADVISORY...WHICH IS IN EFFECT FROM 12 PM TO 8 PM EDT TUESDAY.

HIGH TEMPERATURES TUESDAY BETWEEN 95 AND 100 DEGREES WILL COMBINE WITH A HUMID AIRMASS TO YIELD A HEAT INDEX BETWEEN 105 AND 110 DEGREES. SIMILAR CONDITIONS ARE POSSIBLE ONCE AGAIN WEDNESDAY.

A HEAT ADVISORY MEANS THAT A PERIOD OF HOT TEMPERATURES IS EXPECTED. THE COMBINATION OF HOT TEMPERATURES AND HIGH HUMIDITY WILL COMBINE TO CREATE A SITUATION IN WHICH HEAT ILLNESSES ARE POSSIBLE. DRINK PLENTY OF FLUIDS... STAY IN AN AIR-CONDITIONED ROOM...STAY OUT OF THE SUN...AND CHECK UP ON RELATIVES AND NEIGHBORS.

A girl and her dog

As you can see from this picture, Baby loves Grady. Grady generally also loves Baby, so long as it's meal time when he gets to clean up under her high chair.

Do I even say this?

I know I'm treading on thin ice with this, but here goes...

Gretchen asked me to print out some papers from a local OB/GYN office, and their website listed the staff. One of the nurse practitioner's name? Muffi.

And I think I'll just leave it at that.

(Sometimes it's hard to believe I'm not still 15 years old.)

Busblogging

I think my favorite local business I pass every day on the bus would have to be Pablo & Nancy Unisex Hair Salon ("Expert in Military Hair Cut"). For what that's worth...

Yikes

While her loyalties are almost entirely with the Badgers, Gretchen actually went to school at the University of Minnesota in Minneapolis. Whenever the weather gets cold, she talks about how nothing compares to the cold of walking to class over a bridge across the Mississippi River on a frigid winter day. So, needless to say, she has been pretty freaked out by the collapse of the I-35W bridge yesterday, especially since she drove that freeway countless times (and actually lived adjacent to it), and the bridge she walked across on those cold winter mornings is right next to the one that collapsed (in the lower right corner of this picture):



Having been through the Bay Area earthquake in 1989 and the Northridge quake in 1994, that's the sort of thing I've seen up close, but I certainly never expected to see something like that in a non-earthquake zone...

Cool

Before...



...and after!



We've been saying that someday we'll look back on this week and laugh. Well, we're not laughing yet, but that first bit of cool air coming out the vents at least lowered our blood pressure. After a miserable day and a half in our humid greenhouse, we found an almost-too-good-to-be-true deal on a room (for my Dad, who while we were sweating in our house on Sunday was spending four hours sweating in a plane on the runway in New York waiting for thunderstorms to let up) and a suite (for us and Baby) at a basic tourist hotel in Georgetown. As stressful as it was to be away, the A/C helped us keep our collective sanity. Yesterday, we got the good news that we could have our new A/C installed today. Unfortunately, that followed the bad news that the hotel was booked up so we would have to return to the hotbox for another 24 hours before getting any relief. Luckily, between fans, cold showers, and keeping activity to a bare minimum, we survived the night and are now waiting for the house (and our nerves) to slowly cool. Remind me why we live in DC again?