"People move because of the wear and tear of anxiety. Because of the gnawing feeling that no mater how hard they work their efforts will yeild nothing, that what they build up in one year will be torn down in one day by others. Because of the impression that the future is blocked up, that they might do all right but not their children. Because of the feeling that nothing will change, that happiness and prosperity are possible only somewhere else."
- Life of Pi, Chapter 29
Finally, almost 4 months late, we finally purchased Edda's 4th birthday gift - a touchscreen laptop. It has an AMD chip (Jeremy's still loyal to his previous employer) and the screen swivels to turn into a tablet. It's actually scarily fragile (the twisty part especially) which is why we spend a quarter of the purchase price on a full warranty which will replace a broken computer - no questions asked for the next 2 years. Now we have 4 computers in the house, Vince and Edda have the fastest computers and us old folks have the "so virus laden that it takes 3 minutes to open a broswer" or the "so old that you can't unplug the laptop from the wall because the battery lasts for 30 seconds" computer.
Regarding the laptop you can't unplug from the wall, it's Donald's old Viao computer that Vince peed on when he was 3 weeks old and knocked it out of commission for a few days while we waited for the urine to dry up. I remember being totally exhausted as a new parent - Vincent was (what it seemed like to me at the time) a 23 hour a day nurser - watching that golden arc fly through the air across the changing table straight to the precious, new and sexy Viao that was sitting on the red armchair right next to it.
This afternoon, I was sitting at work at 2 pm when I realized that I had finished all my work for the week, I had already put in the necessary hours and that the office was emptying out quickly and I was the last person still thinking about patents on a Friday afternoon. I made an executive decision to leave early and spend some time to do some touristy summer stuff! Woo hoo!
I went straight to the Smithsonian to the National Museum of the American Indian which I believe is the newest museum of the Smithsonian, I had never been inside the building before. I stumbled upon a tour led by a college-aged Cherokee, and I learned about the building and how it's a solar calendar, the symbolism of elk's teeth on traditional dresses and that the folks who were the iron workers that built NYC's skyscrapers were Native Americans. What a treat to not have to run by a museum exhibit and say - look some dolls/pottery/paintings/dresses! - and continue running by with kids in strollers, crying, with sticky fingers and unhappy.
(Note: I did not take this beautiful photo. )
Charlotte, a dear family friend - the person who officiated at our wedding (ten years ago!), was in town for a talk/conference/ and her own Chinese-buffet retirement party. We were invited to her talk at the Library of Congress and then to the dinner/party at the Hunan Palace.
Jeremy and I rarely venture out after dark, so this was a mid-week date night which I think hasn't happened in many, many years.
I got flowers for the guest of honor:
I oogled this cream/blue duplex in the Capitol Hill neighborhood, not exactly ADA accessible, but that is a whole 'nuther issue.
And here's Jeremy reading our tribute limericks. For those who know Charlotte, the other two people in the photo are Charlotte's son and grandson. I don't have a very good photo of Charlotte, I was sitting in the back far away an my flash could not go so far....
There once was a scholar of China
A native of North Carolina
She married a Furth
For love and for mirth
And their children just couldn't be fina.
When Doris and Jeremy wed
The priestess was dressed all in red
She gave them advice
On how to be nice
And how to get ready for bed.
Charlotte said much depends upon Dinner
this makes us happy, if not any thinner
mind your manners, said she
and sheng sheng bu shi
Good advice to connubial beginners
Yvonne, our au pair from Germany, has been with us now about 7 weeks and I don't yet have a good picture of her. She went to the beach with us this weekend and all I have is a picture of her back!
Being matched with an au pair is a tricky business, you get to look at each other's application, talk on the phone for about an hour and that's pretty much it! Talk about blind dating. We spoke with our local coordinator who warned us that about a third of the family/au pair matches work out really well, about a third are tolerable and about a third don't work out at all.
So I went in with muted expectations and hoped for the best. Well, I'm happy to report that it's been wonderful having Yvonne around, she's good with the kids and remembers schedules better than we do and is fun to be around. We are having a good time together (and we have a lot more Nutella around the house)!
I'm looking for new book suggestions. Some guidelines.
Non-fiction:
- I like issues dealing with modern life themes.
- don't want biographies.
- don't want sheer history books.
fiction:
- Again, I relate a bit better to a modern themed book.
- not really looking for classics, more popular stuff.
Any suggestions?
Sadly Ronnie has told me that the iPhone 3G is not going to be availible at the Apple Employee Store, so it's looking like I'll be standing in line sometime this week to get one. I've got $100 Apple Store credit to burn thru. Doris, did you want my original iPhone?
Also, This seems like a bad idea.
We went to the annual Maryland gathering of Rett Syndrome families. This was our first time attending, last year, we had just moved and didn't get in touch with the local families until too late.
Beautiful day to fly a kite.
Edda had a great time.
So did Vince.
Edda's mutation, 806delG, is quite unusual. But we met another little girl who has the same mutation and we had a nice time chatting with her family.
Eleven families showed up, we all got together for a group photo. 
Vince and Edda each get $3 a week for allowance. Edda is a pretty good saver, but once Vince cobbles together a few weeks worth of allowance, he gets antsy-in-the-pantsy to go to Target to buy something.
When we do make it to Target, he's usually clutching 10 sweaty, crumpled dollar bills and pointing to a Lego item and asking, "How much is that one?" and I say, well it's a bit out of your price range because it's $29.99, $49.99 or $69.99. And he sighs and I tell him that if he saves a few more weeks, he may be able to afford the $29.99 one and he sighs again and finds a small Lego for $9.99 for which I tell him I will chip in the tax.
So he's been negotiating for months about how to get the Indiana Jones and the Crystal Skull set, and we've been pretty firm, you have to wait for Christmas or your birthday and he sighs and says OK, please put it on my Christmas/birthday list because I really, really, really, really want it.
And then the grandparents show up for the weekend, and look! A surprise:
Not to be left out, Edda got a much appreciated video or two:
Jeremy's been enlisted by Cogito, a website for "academically talented youth", to answer questions about biofuels. So go ahead and ask away!
On a side note, I have been blue about blogging. I have been having soul seaching issues with my camera equipment and I have had some terrible issues coming up with stuff to say because the things that are taking up most of my time and energy are subtle patenting issues, subtle parenting issues and subtle purchacing issues of which are all not very interesting to anyone except me. I must remind myself that this means that life is good and to be not in turmoil is a good thing, as our friend Martha always says.
Did you notice a strange dog in our house? That's Magic, our neighbor's doggie who stayed with us for 3 weeks while his parent's were on vacation in jolly old England.
As a "thanks for taking care of the dog" gift, the kids got this:
Which I am thankful is hard to find in the States. Because, although it is a lot of fun, creates a large, slippery, gooey mess.
Jeremy hasn't read it before, so we are all having fun working through the first book.
I'm thinking that in a month or so, I'm going to bike to the Metro. But where to find a bike? I need a bike that can be rained on and perhaps stolen, so I didn't want to spend more than $20 - $50 on it.
I had heard in that in hipper places like NYC and SF, there is a cool bike called a fixed gear bike, it's a bike with one gear and no brakes. I figured now that's gotta be a $50 bike because it doesn't even come with brakes, but noooo, it's like $800! People, come on, that is just silly, it doesn't even have brakes!
And then I remembered in the basement, Donald's old BMX bike. Dusty and forgotten, it needs to be loved again!
OK, Donald, so what do I do now? Both the tires are flat, I guess I'm going to have to find the bike pump. And it's missing the front brakes...
As America celebrated its 232nd birthday, I spent the day working. Since Jeremy's been out of town, I've been shortening my hours to not make Yvonne watch the kids for 13 hours straight which is how long I'm away from the house each day on a "normal" day. So I'm making up the hours today and tomorrow.
Since I work for the Department of Commerce, I thought it was fitting that I spent the day working, chugging along and doing my own part to make America great. OK, kind of silly, but I had to give myself a little pep talk, I was at work while the rest of the country took the day off to BBQ and go for a swim.
I'm still liking my job, which is incredible because I have never really liked a job before. Can you see that I have the periodic table tacked to the wall? I get to refer to it every other day or so.
I also took this opportunity to to hunt down office supplies; today I found this filing rack for my folders (pink - first actions, red - amendments, blue - restrictions, black - abandonments, grey - advisory actions!). I work for a self-funded agency, we get no taxpayer money, my salary is paid from the fees collected when a company files/maintains a patent and I think because of this, there are very few office supplies to go around. I basically get some pens and pencils. I don't even get a pencil sharpener or a three hole punch, so I go find office supplies in forgotten, dusty bins in the Xerox room.
Jeremy packed me a sandwich which I ate at 9:45 am.
Jeremy's out of town this week. Lucky guy, he gets to go to San Francisco and eat good cheese. I will not deny that I was a bit miffed on Sunday when he was scheduled to leave from Dulles - Jeremy really stabilizes the house routines - without him, I'm content to serve peanut butter, a bag of chips and some flat Coke for dinner. I'm not an inspired homebody.
At Port Discovery last weekend, I got my face painted:
