The Littlest Penguin

Wow, a year already?

Monday, June 7th, 2010 | Liam, musings, travel | 5 Comments

A lot of “this day in my history” dates these last couple of weeks. May 15th marked one year since I left my job in Tennessee. I moved to Virginia on the 24th, and on the 29th William and I got married. It doesn’t seem like a year has gone already until I look at how big Liam is (9 months next week!), and then it kind of sets in.

Being stay-at-home is a little easier now that Liam doesn’t absolutely need me for everything at every moment of every day. Granted, he’s still got some separation anxiety, but now I can leave him on the floor with toys and he’ll poke the buttons on his radio and dump the blocks out of their bucket and generally amuse himself for a little while. I still need to establish a bigger circle of friends in the area; I miss the Tennessee crew pretty badly sometimes. But it didn’t occur to me that I missed my coworkers and professional conversations until a few weeks ago. I found myself posting in reference desk mode, answering questions and sharing a lot of “Facebook is in ur base killin’ ur privacies!” stuff to . . . Facebook. Ironic. Then, I was invited to a meeting of the local ARMA chapter and heard a presentation about the District of Columbia’s 5 year records management plan. You mock! But it was interesting! And humbling. Everyone in the room was (a) employed by (b) some terrifically important company, department, or agency. And there was little ol’ me. Eek. Unfortunately job searches take a lot more time than I’ve felt the ability to invest lately. I really need to step it up, because the little bit of poking around I’ve done has only turned up jobs in Maryland. That’s a little too much daily commute for me.

William and I didn’t do much for our first anniversary. We did some sightseeing of DC, but we didn’t stay long. Apparently, part of the problem with marrying on Memorial Day weekend in this area is the huge number of motorcycles you have to swim through if you want to do touristy things for your anniversary. I did get to see some places I hadn’t before: the National Archives building, the Library of Congress. Also, that day it threatened to pour rain. Which would have been fine with us – there was a torrential storm the day of our outside vows ceremony. It made things interesting, and the pictures are pretty funny. Liam kept us from going out to dinner the night of (we wanted him with us because he’s fun to take out lately), so we went to hibachi the next Monday. Liam got to watch the cook toss things around and make faces at him, and dinner was pretty yummy.

Liam’s fourth and fifth teeth broke through last week, so he’s all snaggle-toothed when he smiles. It’s very cute. He’s also gotten very good at pulling himself up into a standing position if you offer him your hands or if he’s near the couch. That took him less than two weeks to perfect once he figured out how to get onto his knees. The baby gates are up and we’ve barricaded off a place for the cats’ food bowls, so Liam has fairly free reign of the living room, kitchen and hallway. If I’m walking around doing chores he follows me going “rar! rar!” with a big smile on his face. Hard to believe he’s mobile already. . .

Month of roadtrips

Thursday, August 27th, 2009 | Playgrounders, baby, family, travel | 2 Comments

You know, for someone who is no longer working a 40 hour job plus choir, committees, and gaming, I’ve been really lax on this goshdarned thing. Which is kind of sad, because late June and July were pretty interesting.

The last weekend of June was the Third Annual “Southeast Trogland” Giant in the Playground Meetup. The group was smaller than last year, but the number seemed to work better. Less chaos, less drama, more fun. Of course, I wasn’t technically a “local” anymore; I carpooled with Zeb and Alarra. (It was the last week of school at the JDC and William had to work.) All in all a great time, and I got to meet a few new GiTP forumites. Which is all the more interesting considering I haven’t really done more than peek at the forums in a year. But Playgrounders are almost always fun, no matter how you meet them. Zeb, Alarra, and Ceika are relatively close to me here in VA, but I haven’t gotten together with them yet. Zeb and Alarra are brand new parents, and I’ve only got 4 more weeks to go, so maybe once baby chaos settles down we can hang out. There’s even a mini-meetup in the works for October.

For July 4 we drove over to Smith Mountain Lake, VA, to spend about a week at William’s grandparents’ house. Apparently the area has become a popular place to build vacation houses since Nana and Granddad built their retirement home on the lake years ago, but they still manage to have a nice peaceful house under the trees. It was my first time meeting them, so I was nervous, but they’re really delightful. They met during the Second World War – he was in the US military and she the British. They wrote letters back and forth for a long while and eventually she came over and they married. And now they’re possibly the cutest little old couple I’ve ever met. Sadly we couldn’t see the fireworks from their house, but we did watch the Washington, DC, display on TV. (Not quite the same, I know, but it had to do.)

The following weekend we drove up to William’s mom’s for a baby shower. Nana and Granddad were there, and so were Lisa and her family. We spent one morning at Hershey’s Chocolate World. The whole place is really nothing more than a tourist trap designed to give you a sugar high and make you want to buy chocolate, but with the kids it was fun and I got to buy some t-shirts for my parents. Jan had tons of really wonderful food and we went to a nice, casual restaurant for the shower. The guys stayed through lunch and some of the silly shower games. Colin even won the game where you guess how round I am. After that I was on my own in a room full of barely-familiar women, but it was fun.

The weekend of July 18th we flew down to Florida for another baby shower hosted by Aunt Rue. It was good to see all the aunts and cousins down there again, even if it was kind of brief. Rue gave a great shower. Amy, Gibson and Alyce flew down, and we got to spend some time with William’s friend Mike and my old friends the Eastlicks.  William also got to meet my grandma for the first time, as well as my Uncle Rick and cousin Cookie. A few of my aunts were disappointed that he didn’t go to the shower, but we’re hoping to go down again at Christmas, so they’ll get to meet then. We don’t want to overwhelm the poor guy; my family is much larger than his.

And that’s pretty much all the travel I’m allowed until the little dude is here. The Florida trip kind of pushed my “no-fly” cutoff, but since my TN doctors never told me what that cutoff was and I had to make plans, oh well. (I had trouble with that office. Don’t get me started.) Four more weeks and hopefully I will no longer have indigestion that keeps me up and blogging until 1am.

Do you take this penguin. . . ?

Thursday, June 18th, 2009 | family, friends, fun stuff, penguins, pictures, travel | 3 Comments

Last weekend William and I embarked on our second ever road trip together – 4 hours south to Chapel Hill, NC for Kevin and Stephanie’s wedding. We got in late Thursday night (technically it was Friday, but just barely) and checked in to a nice suite. (He spoiled us and got the suite because it wasn’t that much more and we could have friends over that way.) On Friday our job was to go pick up the food for the rehearsal dinner from Chipolte, but we ran into some issues when about 10 burritos and other tasty dinner items seeped through the bag and fell to the ground when lifted. Add to that delay about 45 minutes of running around wondering where in Durham we were, and you have dinner on the table approximately. . . 2 hours late. Everyone was good natured about it, but we did feel bad. Kevin was super stressed trying to get us there and William and I both get a little jumpy when we’re lost. But we did get there, the food was still yummy, and Kevin and Steph said if that was the worst thing to happen they’d be happy.

And I think it was the worst thing that happened. At least that I’m aware of. Saturday’s ceremony was lovely. I had my typical trouble singing (since getting pregnant singing and standing has been a challenge to my ability to stay conscious), but I listened to William and Sheri sing next to me and that was a good substitute. I helped guide folks through the digital guest book interface, which was kind of fun and easy. Then there was a really nice spread of light lunch foods – salads and bree and crackers and some little sandwiches. The bride’s cake was beautiful and had fruit preserves in it, and the groom’s cake was . . . well, look for youself. It is a brownie penguin. Very Kevin.

After the wedding, Jared, Sheri, and Tony came over to the hotel to play some Carcassone and some Gloom before we went out in search for some supper. William’s only other experience with Carcassone involved “the City” version, which we played with Jared, Sheri, and Tony several years ago. It was terrible and I’ve never exponged the guilt of telling him he’d enjoy it. (I thought it was like normal Carcassone!) But this game redeemed Carcassone for William, and Tony taught us how to play Gloom. We’re taking it with us to visit his family for 4th of July weekend – his mom loves silly games like this.

Sunday morning we had breakfast with some of my family on our way home. Uncle Ben took pictures, so I’m sure I’ll have something to link here eventually. It was fun to see everyone. I actually hadn’t seen my cousin Aaron in years; I’d never met his kids! They’re darned cute, by the way. I think William charmed Hannah out of some shyness, too. Hopefully I can do a better job of keeping in touch with everyone, especially now that we’re all on Facebook.

This weekend’s a “break” from trips and visits, but next weekend. . . Southeast Meetup!

Tags: Kevin's wedding

Trip post #1

Tuesday, July 1st, 2008 | Playgrounders, family, nephew, travel | No Comments

I’m going to break the last three weeks or so down into two posts. I’ve been up to a lot.

Three weekends ago I drove over to Durham to help Kevin move to a spiff new apartment. I got there Friday night and we went for Mexican and margaritas. Saturday we spent a longish day moving stuff. We didn’t get everything, but the 5 of us got most of the really big stuff and the basics for living (cats, tp, cooking necessities, Wii). It was hot and much Gatoraide was consumed before kicking back with pizza in the new place. Sunday Kevin and I moved a little more stuff around before getting a platform to hitch to my car so I could haul his (now my) scooter back to TN. Isn’t it awesome?

(Uuuum, trouble with the galleries is being looked into. Check back soonish for actual photo of the scooter, but for now just trust me that it’s awesome.)

The Thursday after Durham my mom drove into town and we went on a road trip to Chicagoland together – kind of a road trip / mother-daughter bonding / cleaning our old stuff out of mom and dad’s house trip. She brought some coffee tables up for Amy and some of the trinkets and memoribilia I’d left in my closet when I moved out 5 years ago. My part is still piled up in the corner of my living room, but it’s ok. We stopped in Renfro Valley, KY, for the evening and did a quick visit to the Kentucky Music Hall of Fame and Museum before hitting the road in the morning.

My nephew is still a little nervous around me… wouldn’t let me hold him. But he would play with me, and he really loves the little stuffed Milligan buffalo I sent him when he was just a few weeks old. Woudn’t let it out of his sight. While we were there we walked around the Taste of St. John festival. Amy and I went to see Prince Caspian. Mom sent Amy and I out one afternoon for pedicures, which was pretty nice.

Mom and I left on Tuesday morning and took a quick side trip to the Louisville Slugger Factory and Museum. Actually, pretty darned fun. I need to find a place to display my tiny souvineer bat.

Wednesday I skipped choir (again) because mom wanted to go couch shopping with me. She’d spent the morning going around town looking and discovered a good sale at Grand’s. I was expecting a thrift store couch. I got a brand new loveseat, couch, and matching chair. (Again, pictures to come.) They’re squishy and awesome. I invited Tony, Jared and Sheri, Nick, and Playgrounders Stacy and Tracey over on Thursday to bake cookies, play video games, and break in the new furniture. Mom was in Knoxville visiting family but returned Friday afternoon to spend one last night and meet most of the other Playgrounders.

Who are Playgrounders, you ask? Let me post this, fix the gallery, gather some links, and then I’ll post again about the Epic Win that was the 2008 Second Annual Southeastish Trogland OotS Forum Meetup (of DOOM!) *grin*

Tags: Amy, furniture, Gibson, Kentucky, Lousiville Slugger, mom, road trip

Planning stages, part B

Wednesday, March 19th, 2008 | Playgrounders, family, travel, weddings | No Comments

Ok. (sigh) Tonight I officially declared that I will again not be attending Montreat this year. Works out for the choir; they were getting a little tight on how many people they could fit into the rental house. Works out for me some, too. The (rapidly-becoming-epic!) GitP meet-up is the first weekend of July and I would have gone from one fun, exhausting event smack into another. I’m going to Joel E’s wedding in May, once I book a flight, but so help me if anyone tries to haul me up to catch the bouquet . . .

I might also try to attend a summer Con. Maybe. Nick is going to Dragon-Con, and says I can tag along. I’ve never been, but I’ve been told I’d have fun (and go up a level in my Girl-Geek prestige class!)

What else? Oh. Mom and I are still planning to go to Chicago if we can. Grandma is moving in with my uncle in Alabama this coming week, so we’re kind of waiting to see whether she will stay there or decide she prefers to live with mom and dad. We all think she’ll be happier up with Pete and his family, and she’s really looking forward to it. Here’s hoping for the best. Chances are good that the Chicago trip will be sometime in July, though we might go in middle June. I just want to see the Nephew again. (The sister and brother-in-law are fun too )

Oh, and Nick left me a key to his house so I can check in on the cat. Silly man. We told him what happens when you give me keys. . .

How to get a head at Christmas

Thursday, December 20th, 2007 | Christmas, church, friends, games, gaming, travel | No Comments

Well, I did my Tennessee Christmas last night with Jared and Sheri, Tony, Rucht and McKenna, so here is the first installment in what I’m sure is the much-awaited Christmas Loot List of 2007!

First off, Guillotine. Morbid topic, awesome game. Line up French nobles and collect their heads for points, but don’t get stuck with the Martyr, the Innocent Villager, or the Hero of the People’s heads or you lose points. No really, they turned the French Revolution into a card game. And it rocks.

Next up, the sourcebook for Witch Hunter: The Invisible World. This setting takes place in an alternate 17th Century. In this world, everything the Salem Witch Trials ever dreamed up is real, and then some. The only

thing standing between everyday people and damnation are the Witch Hunters, provided they’re not condemned of being witches themselves. It’s a different system of combat and character building. Simple, but with no d20s it’ll take some study to master. I’ve played in this world once before and it’s pretty neat. Cooler still? Rucht helped write it.

Lastly, but certainly not least, Lions and Tigers and Crocs, Oh My! Because

believe it or not, there are people in this world more cynical and sarcastic than I am and some of them are lucky enough to make their living drawing comics of an egotistical Rat and his naive Pig roommate.

There’s also the Birthday Loot List of the [censored] Year, which I’m just now realizing I failed to post. Jared and Sheri gave me Mario Golf for the Game Cube and much fun has been had with it. And Tony, where the heck did you find my gift, anyway? Tony gave me the sound track to The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time. Not music inspired by the game. The music in the game. Complete with the “Found Heart Container” tune. (Now when you IM me, Epona’s Theme plays!)

Return trip, part 1

Saturday, November 24th, 2007 | travel | No Comments

Landed safely in Durham around lunchtime and got down to the task of cleaning Kevin’s apartment a bit before some company came over for chili. Yummy chili, but getting a bit of a headache. Bleck.

home from vacation

Tuesday, September 11th, 2007 | family, nephew, pictures, travel | 5 Comments

I got in late last night / early this morning from a 4 day trip to see my family. We all met up at Amy’s house near Chicago, so I finally go to tour the city. (I was in Chicago last summer, but had neither time nor energy for sightseeing.) By the way, the bus tour of Chicago is definitely worth it if you only have one day to hit the city’s highlights. Navy Pier is interesting, but highly tourist-oriented. Michigan Avenue would be more interesting if I was rich and into high fashion, though there were still things for little me to be interested in. My family recommends getting your Chicago Dog from a street vendor and not a restaurant, even if that’s what the restaurant is famous for. Chicago-style pizza is as tasty as it is bad for you. (And it’s pretty darn bad for you.) There is art by Marc Chagall and Picasso in the parks. Theater thrives in the city, as do Art Deco architecture and chocolatiers. Mom’s right: I would probably like living there if not for the winter. And if I could get myself used to how amazingly close the rural is to the urban.

We also went to an apple orchard and to Fair Oaks Farms and took their “dairy adventure” – a bus tour of the farm and facilities, culminating in a visit to their cafe, ice creamery, and cheese-making facility. I suspect they keep the place unusually clean due to the tourists, but it was a pretty fun way to spend the morning if you like anamatronic cows telling you about how wonderful milk is. Or if you like homemade ice cream and cheeses. *grin* We used the cheese for chicken parm and the apples for pie. Yum.

My home internet access kicked off sometime after 2am. My provider is supposed to be sending someone to look into the reason, but that won’t be ’til Thursday. They’re going to dedicate my upstairs phone jack to the DSL line. This sounds illogical and inconvenient to me, but we’ll see. I admit, I don’t have a great deal of faith in the advice of a tech help lady who didn’t recognize what “Linux” was. Pictures will be in the gallery, and the gallery linked to the homepage, just as soon as I’m back online tomorrow.

EDIT: It’s back as randomly as it was gone. “No line error on our end” my foot.

weekend update

Wednesday, August 1st, 2007 | food, friends, travel | 2 Comments

I went to visit Kevin over the weekend. It was great timing; I really needed a vacation. He was preaching on Sunday so I went over to listen and made a weekend of it. Good times and (as it typically the case with visiting or being visited by Kevin) good food.

We went to a little place in Durham called Loco Pop. They make home-made Popsicles with real fruit and other not-artificial ingredients. Mine was mango melon, Kevin got a mojito-flavored one. Yummy and awesome. Now I want one… dangit. We also went to the Macaroni Grill with Christine on Saturday where there was very good food and a great bottle of wine. (And I typically don’t care for reds.)

Kevin preached on Hosea chapter 1 on Sunday. It was his last Sunday as their ministry intern. His sermon got mixed reviews, but a number of folks seemed to like it and hopefully got a spark of inspiration from it. The congregation is a smallish, somewhat wealthy congregation out in the suburbs.

My intent was to head home after church, but really, I should have known it wouldn’t happen. We had a late-running lunch with the other ministry intern and his in-laws (that was interesting) and then we took a long nap before having Christine and Lindsay over for chicken satay. I left early Monday morning and drove straight from Durham to work. Hey, it worked, even though I was dead tired. And I think sleeping on the air mattress all weekend resulted in a pretty substantial headache for me today. But it’s gone now and life is good again.

Now to book a flight to Chicago for next month…

Across the Mason-Dixon Line

Friday, June 22nd, 2007 | archives, games, play, travel, work | 4 Comments

I returned Wednesday from an archives conference at Penn State. First, can I just say that Pennsylvania and Tennessee are not so far removed that the concept of “sweet tea” could be quite that alien to them? (And, No! Sweetening the tea yourself after it’s been iced is not the same!) But all in all, it was a good time for me. I met a lot of folks from bigger institutions (UNC and Duke University Archives, the Library of Congress, the Folger Shakespeare Library. . . yeah, wow), and stayed at the Nittany Lion Inn (a pretty nice hotel, though we were definitely paying for the convenience of being right on campus). The workshop leaders did a fairly successful job of bringing library cataloging language down to a level where a person who had never once worked with MARC (me) could understand it, move confidently thorough the basics, and equate the fields to information drawn from archival finding aids. Which is good, because in the very near future chances are that I’m going to be learning MARC . . . but that’s all I should say about that just now.

Back in Tennessee, the volleyball coach is moving into her new office right across from mine. Chaos and mayhem will probably result from having the two of us coffee addicts so close. Sue sent me a little check as a “thank you” for some of the work I did for Just Coffee this last year. (I didn’t think I’d done all that much, but the gesture is certainly appreciated!) And I am halfway through the second temple in Twilight Princess. Glee.