I can see clearly now

You know how when some babies are born you can immediately figure out which parent they look like? Well, Mädchen never fell into that category. We could see a bit of Gretchen's Dad, or maybe some of my Mom, but by and large it was never very clear which of us she took after. Now that she's two years old, however, it's becoming more clear. She may have my Nordic blue eyes and pale skin, but otherwise we've been getting an increasing number of comments about how she is looking more and more like Gretchen with each passing day...are they right?

What to do, what to do...

The big existential question I'm pondering these days: to join Facebook or not to join Facebook?

Up north

I've lived overseas, and I've been lots of amazing places in the world, but my heart will always be "up north" at our cabin in Wisconsin. I took this picture on the last night of our two week visit there earlier this month.

Are they really that great?

Since I was getting my hair cut this morning near the local Apple store, I figured I'd stop by and see if I could get a replacement AC adapter for our iPod speaker docking station (our previous one was spectacularly blown out in a thunderstorm last month). As I was walking past the store, I noticed a bunch of people in front at 10:30am and thought they couldn't possibly be in line, could they? Yes indeed, it turns out the new iPhone is so popular, and the supply so limited, that every morning there's a line of folks trying to get one. Thankfully I didn't have to wait in line just to enter the store (alas, they didn't have what I was looking for), but it's still a little hard to believe. The economy may be going in the tank in a lot of ways, but it looks like plenty of folks still have discretionary income to spare...

Reason #5,396 why my wife rocks

I'll be the first to admit that in our little Ozzie-and-Harriet world of me working and Gretchen staying at home, my contribution to housework is minimal at best. (Come to think of it, back in the days when we were both working my contribution was still minimal, so I can't even really use our domestic situation as an excuse. But anyway.) It's not that I do nothing--I deal with bills and the checkbook, I kill or capture bugs and other critters that get in the house, I play with Mädchen and give Gretchen well-deserved breaks, etc.--but I'm probably never going to win any prizes for my overall contribution to the running of our household.

The one thing that I try to do without fail is take out the trash and recycling on trash night. I mean, c'mon, that's the least I can do, right? So tonight I planned to give Mädchen her bath, then take the trash out while Gretchen read bedtime stories with her. But while Mädchen and I were playing before going upstairs, Gretchen came in and said that since it looked like it might rain around bathtime, and since she was happy to give me a few extra minutes with Mädchen, she was going to take the trash out. I didn't argue, and it's a good thing. I could hear the rain start while she was in the bath, and by the time she was out (i.e., when I would have been taking out the trash), we were in the midst of a severe thunderstorm with torrential rain and abundant thunder and lightning. Thanks to her, I'm safely ensconced on the couch typing this post instead of trying to dry off after making several trips from the backyard to the front curb.

Oh, and today she bought me an apple turnover to have for dessert tonight.

Yes, I realize I'm damn lucky...

There's no place like home...

As I type this, Gretchen and Mädchen are probably boarding a plane in Milwaukee to fly home after being away for three weeks (thus ending my virtual bachelorhood). As much as they had a good time in Wisconsin, traveling with a two-year-old (especially our sweet-but-spirited two-year-old) isn't always easy, so Gretchen in particular is really looking forward to getting back. The only problem? Things haven't changed much since they got to Wisconsin--whereas Milwaukee is currently 71 degrees with no heat index, in DC it's currently 95 degrees but feels like 97 degrees thanks to the humidity. Welcome home!

Smart choice

It may have taken $4/gallon gas, but the Smart Car--a common sight on many city streets in Europe--is finally making it here in the States. I'm disappointed that I never had a chance to drive one while we were over there. From what I've heard, they're fun to drive in the city but you wouldn't want to take it out on the highway because they're not exactly stable at high speeds.

Is it almost November?

You would think that being in the DC area we would be bombarded with political messages during elections, but in a lot of elections that hasn't been the case. Typically Maryland and DC have been very safely Democratic and Virginia has been safely Republican, so the candidates and political parties saved their firepower for the "swing states." I can already tell this year is probably going to be different, especially here in Virginia where shifting demographics and a high-profile Senate race give Obama a shot. I finally checked our messages today (our phone line has been dead since I got home the other day) and, sure enough, of the three messages we had, one was from the Obama campaign inviting us to his local kickoff event, and another was from the McCain campaign inviting us to an event of their own. This has the potential to be a very long summer and fall...

Reading

The highlight of almost any vacation for me (seriously) is getting a chance to get caught up on reading. This week was no exception. First, I finally finished Joshua Ferris' Then We Came to the End, which captured a lot of the funny quirks of life in the modern American workplace, but in the end was more than just a comic novel. (Coincidentally, after finishing the book I happened to read this tragicomic article from a recent Washington Post Magazine that covered much of the same ground.)

When I finished that, I moved onto something much more serious: Cormac McCarthy's No Country for Old Men. Despite his being one of my favorite authors, and despite my having had the book since living in Basel, and despite having to miss the Oscar-winning film adaptation because I hate to see a movie before reading the book, I just hadn't been able to bring myself to read it. His novels tend to be extremely dark and unsparing, and sometimes the last image you want in your head before turning the light out isn't that of a psychopath who kills people with a pneumatic cattle gun (maybe that's just me...). But I finally got around to reading it, and I'm glad I did. It was as violent and intense as expected, but was also a real page-turner (most of the other novels of his that I've read are more contemplative and, at times, hard to follow). Now I can't wait to see the movie.

So, two thumbs up--both are highly recommended.

Up North

There's no question that life in Northern Wisconsin is definitely worlds away from the hustle and bustle of life in DC, and as much as there are things I tease Gretchen about in that regard, in reality that's mostly a good thing. When she was growing up and spending summers at their cabin, her Dad would drive up from Madison on the weekends and at a certain point when he was driving through the North Woods he would talk about crossing the "tension line" where the stress of the work week would disappear. With the exception of the stress of fighting off vicious mosquitoes (which, truth be told, we have plenty of here too), it is a much more relaxing up there. For example, our week consisted of...

Gretchen doing lots of grilling:



Stopping to pick up the newspaper at a gas station that also sells bait (unless the leeches are used for medicinal purposes):



Going for a boat ride:



Eating at places where Mädchen wanted to walk around and "see reindeer" on the wall and wave hello to them:



Playing on the dock:



Interacting with the local fauna:





And spending a quarter or two on some genuine excitement at the Rhinelander Airport:

Dirty business

I just got back from a week of visiting Gretchen and Mädchen in Wisconsin, and was a bit confused while driving to the cabin from the airport when Mädchen started saying "see dirtpile...see dirtpile...". Huh? Well, there was indeed a waist-high dirtpile a couple of houses down, which Mädchen constantly talked about and insisted on seeing and waving to ("hi, dirtpile") from the car. I'm not sure whether her excitement about a dirtpile says more about her, about us as parents, about her cousin (who was evidently convinced that this particular dirtpile was a veritable ecosystem unto itself and played a key role in bringing the dirtpile to Mädchen's attention), or about the excitement of life in Wisconsin.

Three cheers for the red, white, and blue

One of the things we like about being back in the States is our neighborhood. It's a reasonably tight-knit community (by big-city standards, at least), and we're especially lucky that the block we live on has a bunch of kids right around Mädchen's age, so it's the sort of place where, if it's a nice day out, you can try to go for a walk around the block and never make it to the end of the street because everyone is outside chatting.

Among the things our neighborhood is known for is its annual Fourth of July parade. It's not the sort of parade where you have to get there early to stake out a good seat, or where half of the parade entrants are local realtors driving around in convertibles. Nope, this is the kind of parade where you can show up right when it starts (but not too late, because it really only lasts for maybe 10-15 minutes from start to finish), and where pretty much anyone can be in it, including all of the neighborhood kids who deck out their bikes and wagons for the big event. It really is a taste of small-town America in the midst of a big city. Most of the folks in the neighborhood (or at least those who aren't traveling for the holiday) seem to turn out to see it, and it was interesting this year to see how many people drive in from other parts of town to see it. Since there's really nothing that special to see, I think they do it because it's such a nice little show of community spirit. And I should add, this isn't a rah-rah, red-state type of thing at all...everyone may be wearing red, white & blue, but "Impeach Him" and "Obama 2008" signs far outnumber those for McCain in our neck of the woods.

For the second year in a row, I went in Gretchen and Mädchen's absence. This is it in a nutshell:

After the police motorcycles went by (no fire truck this year, which was strange), an honor guard came by ahead of a makeshift neighborhood marching band (and I just noticed that on the left side of the photo, that's our next door neighbors and their dogs cheering them on)...



...followed by the annual appearance of Uncle Sam...



...and then loads of kids on bikes...



...and that's about it. God Bless America!

I still haven't found what I'm looking for

I had to do a double-take this morning when I drove past a nearby church. Did they really have a big sign in front for an upcoming "U2 Eucharist"? Yes indeed, they did. Although U2 are Irish, this seems like the kind of thing that could only happen in America.

(Interesting idea, actually, since much of their music does have a strong spiritual component.)

Here and there

Gretchen called tonight from Wisconsin and told me it was chilly (the first time I visited her family's cabin over the July 4 weekend, we had a fire in the fireplace and had to wear jackets), so I decided to check the forecast. Sure enough, tomorrow the low temperature in DC is supposed to be warmer than the high temperature where she is:

DC
High: 94
Low: 74

Three Lakes
High: 73
Low: 45 (!)

Since the weekend forecast in DC is for more of the same, plus humidity, that's actually not sounding so bad (although I must say I'm not looking forward to the mosquitoes, which Gretchen said were worse than she had ever seen--and that's saying something for a Wisconsin native--when she got to Milwaukee yesterday).

Wisconsin, here we come...

One of the advantages of being a stay-at-home Mom is that I'm not limited by a set work schedule (other than being "on the job" 24 hours a day, 7 days a week). Just like last year, I'm taking advantage of that opportunity by spending a good chunk of time in Wisconsin. Madchen and I leave this afternoon for 3 weeks in the (hopefully) cooler and more relaxing northwoods. We'll spend most of the time at our cabin on a lake in northern Wisconsin, one of my favorite places in the world. Kirk will join us next week... imagine that, 3 weeks in Wisconsin is not how he's choosing to use all his vacation time! Although I'm not looking forward to traveling on my own with a very active, very "spirited" 2-year old, I'm very excited about spending time with my Wisconsin friends and family. And thankfully this year Madchen won't have to nap during the Three Lakes 4th of July parade!