This weekend we went to visit Pat's parents at their camp in Cape Vincent. Greta had a blast staying up late roasting marshmallows, riding on her Grandpa Dick's boat, and visiting a real deal castle. Okay, so she thought the castle was sort of boring (thanks to her being completely brainwashed by the horrible, evil Disney Princess empire), but it had its moments.
Here we are on the ferry going over to Boldt Island. Greta asked what princess would be at the castle. I told her there aren't a lot of princesses in this area so she would be the only princess at the castle. Greta was...skeptical.
Pat took this picture about a second after a very loud horn sounded on the boat. I like how the picture turned out.
At this point she was in awe.
The wow factor went downhill pretty quickly, though.
Boldt Castle is super cool, aside from all of the annoying people around. Most of the castle has been renovated and is very lovely. Of course I liked the dilapidated areas of the castle.
Princess Sassafras refused to pose for pictures at this point. I like how creepy this looks.
Speaking of creepy, we stopped for a dinner of champions at McDonald's on the way to camp. I was VERY excited when I found out the Happy Meal toys for girls right now are Madame Alexander dolls. This is one of the odd things about me: I love Madame Alexander dolls! My grandma gave me three of the regular full-size MA dolls when I was little, and I just love them. I find it very strange that McDonalds has mini Madame Alexander dolls, but whatever; mini Madame Alexander dolls that smell faintly of burger are pretty awesome in my book. The dolls they have are from famous fairy tales, and there were some cool ones, like Hansel, Gretel, Cinderella, Prince Charming, Alice in Wonderland, and the Mad Hatter. And then there is the one I got: "Wendy Dressed as the Big Bad Wolf." Wha?? I have never heard of this I don't think? I love it, though. Look how creepy!
In case you're so inclined, here's how we spent our holiday weekend.
Friday: After work/school, we went to our friend Steve's going-away party. There was amazing food and drink and great company. Greta is super smitten with Steve, which is super cute and very entertaining to watch.
Saturday: We went to our friend Maddie's birthday party. The kids were all so good and polite. I love polite kids. Right after that, we went to a Third of July party at one of my book club friend's houses. We lived the American dream of eating rare burgers and apple pie.
Here are the cute girls at Maddie's party.
Sunday: We packed up a big picnic basket of goodness and headed out to see some fireworks. When we went grocery shopping for snacks, Greta asked what caviar is and Pat told her "fish eggs," and then she said she wanted to try some. We never want to squelch new food trying, so we bought some. I didn't really look closely and ended up buying salmon caviar. I assumed it would be good because I like salmon sushi. When we tried it, though, we all hated it - even Pat, who likes just about anything. They looked like Finding Nemo eggs and they were huge and when you bit into them, they squished gross fish-egg juice into your mouth. Like Nemo eggs, they had a dark orange spot in them, and I felt like I was eating a baby. It was gross. I have had caviar that wasn't disgusting, but this was not one of those kinds. It probably ruined me for salmon and caviar for forever. Oh, and fireworks are awesome! I always forget how much I love them. I especially love the grand finale when the noise drowns out the idiots saying "oooh" and "aaah," and I can't help but watch them with a big, dumb grin on my face. Love 'em.
Here are Pat, Greta, and the baby Nemos.
Monday: I worked all day and Pat and Greta hung out, trying to stay cool. After work, Pat talked me into going to Seabreeze. I was so anti, but I agreed to go along and sign up for a season's pass and I LOVED it. So I didn't love the crowd, but it was just too fun. Greta loves rides, and the look on her face the entire time was priceless. Greta even went on her first rollercoaster, and it wasn't even one of those tiny rattletrap rollercoasters they have for little-little kids (okay, it was sort of a tiny rattletrap...). After Greta went on it twice with Pat, I got the gumption to go it too. Pat took video. I'm apparently the tallest person on the ride and one of the few people who doesn't have her arms up in the air. Ha. I'm a wimp.
I'm am used to writing blogs while watching TV or a movie because I am all about multitasking, but sometimes it doesn't go very well. Pat and I are watching Wesley Willis's Joyrides, and it's dominating my attention right now. I will have to make this short, so for now I'll just talk about the highlight of the weekend.
To preface, a kid named Randy was my first best friend. We grew up on the same dead-end street, and I was born 19 days after him. We hung out all of the time. We had other friends on the street over the years, but one constant was Randy and me. Not surprisingly, as we got older, we found other best friends. We lost touch for years here and there, but we always seem to find each other (yay for the Internet!), and we always make a point to catch up. We hadn't physically seen each other since 1997...until this weekend. Randy invited us to a party at his house this Saturday, and of course we had to go. So we dropped Greta off at my parents' house, and we headed over to Randy's.
It was SO NICE to see him, and it was fun to introduce Pat to thee Randy. Considering how close we were, we are so, so different. Randy was and still is all about adventure. I was always the one nervously advising him not to jump off the roof of the barn, or not touch the snake, or not swim out in the middle of some sketchy pond. We were like an after-school special, and I was the nervous do-gooder friend. Anyway, so it was not surprising at all that when we got to the party he had an absolutely ridiculous amount of wood stacked up for a bonfire. Once it got dark, he started the fire, and it was raging within minutes. It was probably 12 feet in diameter and two stories high. I may or may not have advised him that his bonfire was dangerously big...old habits die hard.
My friend Randy's bonfire. Everything in moderation.
Whoopsie. There are two fire trucks. Naturally, the fire fighters didn't look pleased.
And there goes the fire...Bye, bye, fire.
I was really excited to hang out with my first ever BFF.
For those of you who forgot, I also talked about Randy here and the local Syracuse commercial he was in. It's still so awesome.
I sure used to like when more than one or two people left comments for a blog. Hint, hint. I know I haven't exactly been an avid blogger the last year or so, and the image to the left says something about wanting spring to come, but I'm ready for your tough love to end and for you guys to start commenting again. Are my updates really so boring? If so, tell me what you want to hear.
We celebrated more birthdays this past weekend than should be legal. Friday night, there was a birthday party for the woman Greta's day care is named after (who is no longer with us in this world but who is still worth celebrating), there was a two-banger kids' birthday at Powder Mills Park on Saturday, and there was another kiddo birthday party at the Y on Sunday. Oh me, oh my!
If you live under a rock and you didn't know, the great Ronnie James Dio passed away earlier this week. Apparently it's pretty well known that I have a special place for him and his music in my heart because multiple people contacted me to offer their condolences. If only he knew there was some nerdy mom in Rochester, NY, who so many people associated with him with. I don't know what the significance of that is, but it seemed notable to me. RIP, RJD. May you ride the tiger...in peace.
I have a weird obsession about our old house, and I don't know why. I have a semi-recurring dream that I meet the women who bought the house, and we get into some sort of competition. I'm talkin' like a gym-class-type of relay race. It's so weird! In real life, we saw a former neighbor and she told us the new owners ripped out the hedges that had been in front of our old house. I always disliked the hedges, but in some weird way, I was sort of incensed when I found out they got rid of them. It had never occurred to me to take out the hedges! So they think they're better than us?? (Joking - sort of .) I didn't even really like that house. Can you imagine if I had? Why do I care?? When we told Greta they took out the hedges, she cried. I think the whole thing is very strange.
I decided I'm getting LASIK. I absolutely hate wearing glasses and contacts are even worse, and I hate squinting in the sun. I can feel new squinting-related wrinkles from the sun forming as I type this. After Pat's dicey LASIK experience and the fact that I am a major tightwad, I am shocked to be saying this. But I am getting LASIK. A friend of mine highly recommends one place in Rochester, but it's 'spensive. Like, twice as much as Pat's was, but it is MY EYES and perhaps you get what you pay for? Anyway, if you know of a good LASIK place in the ROC, let me know. I want to get it done within the next month or two. If you thought you would be funny and recommend the place Pat went to, let me stop you right here and let you know they closed up shop. SHOCKING, I know.
Ugh, I haven't taken a photo that hasn't been with my phone in ages. Sorry, bad Fran. I'll try to get better about that.
I could go on and on, but I won't. Leave a comment, damnit!
So this past Thursday I did go to see Peter Lovenheim speak at Barnes and Noble about In the Neighborhood, and the event was great. After reading the book I just had to drive down the street and see gawk at the houses I had read so much about. It was really cool. Every time I read a good book, I'm so thankful I had the opportunity to read it. That's exactly how I feel in this case. I love seeing authors and artists speak, and I don't get out to see speakers nearly as often as I'd like. Every time I do, I wonder why I don't do it more often. Anyway, Peter Lovenheim was a good speaker and story teller, and I especially enjoyed the question-and-answer session, mostly for selfish reasons. There were a few tense moments with people who took issue with the way he described the neighbors/neighborhood. And then there was the wacko who asked such a weird, blatantly racist question. I love to see when people handle things well when they're put on the spot (because I feel like I am so bad in situations like that). He handled the tense moments seemingly with ease, which was fantastic. Oh, and I did end up buying an actual copy of the book so he could sign it, and we chatted briefly. I must have disguised my crow's-feet particularly well that evening, because he asked me if I am in school. Ha! I turned bright red and stammered that I am too old for school. Yeah, I am so not smooth.
Friday, Pat got some pizza and our friend Rebecca came over bearing wine. It was so fun to gorge ourselves on unhealthy food and laugh and laugh. It is always so fun to catch up with Rebecca. Greta pretty much summed it up when Rebecca was leaving and she said, "Don't ever go! Stay here forever!"
Saturday was so busy it was almost ridiculous. Pat headed out to Imagine RIT for festival duty, while Greta and I headed out to a birthday party for Colin. Greta was chased around the majority of the time by the boys, who were pointing various boy playthings at her head and making shooting noises. Greta was having fun, but at one point she said, "Mom, why are they doing that?" I said, "Get used to it. It's going to happen pretty much from now until your boy friends figure out it's more charming to talk to girls than chase them...which will probably take a while." After the sun and fun over there, we went to RIT to meet up with Pat and walk around the festival. We had a blast walking around and seeing all of the creative nerdiness (where else can you see multiple different T-shirts with leetspeak on them saying rude things about your mom AND homemade robots AND a strongman competition AND enough big brains to cause some serious potential damage?), chatting with friends we ran into, and eating. Greta had her first cotton candy experience and she loved it (shocker, right?).
Today we had a fantastically productive day. I cleaned and organized the basement and the attic; Pat mowed the lawn; Greta rode her bike around the block while I basically ran behind her (girl is fast) and we ran into our old friends and new neighbors, the Johnsons; Pat did homework while Greta and I worked on mother's day cards and gifts for her grandmas and great-grandmas; we had a picnic dinner in the back yard; and Pat installed the new light fixture we got for Greta's room, which is probably coming down tomorrow because she tearfully expressed it "isn't pretty enough" (and that is fine by me, because now it's going to go in my office and I think it is quite pretty enough).
Also today Greta set up this little fancy robot configuration. Happy robot wearing a parasol in a shot glass day.
For the first time in a while, I feel like I actually have stuff to talk about! It isn't important or interesting stuff, but at least it's stuff!
Friday night, Pat was watching the movie The Informant! while I read on the couch. I was deeply involved with my book, but about an hour and a half into the movie, a character's name (the main character) finally came to my attention: Mark Whitacre. My thought process went something like this. "Whitacre. I have a bunch of people in my family named Whitacre. I wonder if there is any relation. Mark Whitacre. That name sounds really familiar. Mark Whitacre! Hey, I am related to him! I forgot I'm related to one of the most famous whistleblowers in history. Holy shit! Matt Damon is playing the part of one of my distant relatives. " Then I proclaimed to Pat, "Mark Whitacre! I'm related to him!" Yeah, so he's on my mom's side of the family. (I don't know exactly how I'm related to him, but he's, like, a second cousin four times removed...or something.) I remember now that one of my aunts had emailed me a couple years ago to say a movie was being made (and a book had been written) about him, but I have a terrible memory and it just slipped my mind. If, however, I had known Matt Damon was going to be playing one of my family members in the movie, it probably would have commanded more of my attention. Anyway, it was a funny surprise. I'm less shocked that I'm related to some misguided whistle-blowing thief (I think that's a fair description) than I am shocked I'm related to someone with nine academic degrees, including three doctorates and two law degrees. But, seriously, there are so many things that bend my brain about him and his story and the movie.
Saturday I ventured out and met a friend at Solera, a cozy wine bar in the South Wedge. It was so fun! It was low key and unpretentious, and there was an interesting mix of people. It was so nice to get out and about. We got there early and walked out by 8:30 PM. My friend had to get going, but I was sort of drunk with freedom and just wasn't quite ready to go home. I called another friend, Sarah, on the off chance she was already out or wanted to meet me out. Like kismet, we were able to meet up at Tap and Mallet for a beer. I still got home at a totally reasonable hour, and I had so much fun catching up with two people I always click with and never seem to get enough time with. It was fantastic—a night that could certainly not be duplicated.
We also had a pretty productive weekend and got to spend some quality family time outdoors. We worked in the yard quite a bit (gotta keep up with the Joneses now that we're in Brighton). Greta and I planted a bunch of seeds, which is something I don't think I've done since I was a kid. Hopefully we'll see some results from those. Also this weekend we officially started composting! I'm ridiculously excited about compost! Who knew?? And now that we're composting and being more "green," it's our ticket to be socially irresponsible in other ways.
Going back a bit, the book I was reading Friday when I was mostly ignoring The Informant is really good. My book club is reading In the Neighborhood by Peter Lovenheim. He lives in Brighton, and the (nonfiction) story takes place on his street. After a murder-suicide at his neighbor's house in 2000, he realized he really did not know any of his neighbors more than on a surface level, and some he did not know at all. He started asking his neighbors if he could interview them so he could get to know them personally, and he even asks to sleep over at some of their houses for a night. There is more to it than that, but I am terrible at giving the in-a-nutshell version of books. Anyway, it's very good. Certainly part of the allure for me is that he's talking about my neighborhood, but I think it's well written and an enjoyable read. It has definitely made me rethink my idea of what neighbors' relationships should be, and I do want to try to push past my shyness and hopefully actually meet some of my not-so-new neighbors. Hell, it has crossed my mind to invite at least the surrounding neighbors over for a gathering at our house. Amazing. I definitely recommend the book. If you have read it or are interested and live in the area, Peter Lovenheim is going to be at the Pittsford Barnes & Noble this Thursday at 7 for a book signing (do you think he'll sign my e-reader?) and "discussion." Yay for local authors! I haven't finished the book yet, but I plan to finish it before Thursday. Normally I have sort of a weird system of rationing books so I can spread things out (I know it's a dumb system), but it has been fun to have a purpose to just blow right through this one.
Amazingly, I still have more I could say, but this is getting lengthy and I'm also trying to watch Breaking Bad, and things are heating up this episode! More later.
I don't have anything really notable to say, but I want to stay awake until 10 to watch Breaking Bad, and if I'm not on the computer, I'll be asleep on the couch, mouth agape, by 9:30. So, hiiiiii.
Um, lemme see. So Friday we went to a cupcake place in Rochester. We had been meaning to go there and try out the 'cakes for a while now, and we had heard they were having a free sample thing going on, so we figured it was as good a time as any. I am not mentioning the name here because I really don't have anything super positive to say about our experience. It wasn't bad per se and it's not like they wronged us or anything and I don't want to be responsible for personally sending them to their demise with my unfavorable words. Plus, it was free cupcakes. How much can I complain? (Lots.) The place smelled a little like how I remember a couple of my mom's friends houses smelling when I was growing up: cigarette smoke and old dish towels. And the cupcakes were okay, but I don't really like frosting, and the frosting-to-cake ratio was way too high for my liking. And then we felt like we should buy something, so we bought a couple cupcakes, and the service was so unnecessarily slow. BUT, it was a fun thing to do on a Friday night and, hey, free cupcakes. Here's a poor-quality picture of me feeding Greta a mini cupcake.
Saturday we did some stuff around the house (read: we watched too much TV as a family), and then in the evening we went to a fantastic dinner party with some daycare friends. I can't think of much to say about Saturday except that the tacos we had at the dinner party were so good I keep thinking about them today. Mmmm, tacos. Oh, and the company was great. We are lucky to have a lot of people we like in our life who happen to have kids Greta's age. In the past, when I've met people through Greta our other mommies through, you know, mommy stuff, it was fine, but they weren't people I would go out of my way to get to know on a personal level. But these people I can hang with, and I'm feeling all I-hope-they-like-me in a high school-ish sort of way.
Today I was hell bent on cleaning the house and cleaning up the lawn. Pat and Greta met up with the Moenses at the museum while I listened to some episodes of This American Life and went to town on stuff around the house. It was just what I needed. There is a superhero exhibit going on at the museum now, and Pat got this picture of G scaling a skyscraper. D'awesome.
Ohhh, hiii to the three readers who still check this thing. Sorry it has been so long, but I have been so ridiculously busy!
Work has really picked up, and now that my work is right here, I am more inclined to work more than 8 hours. I worked plenty of overtime at the last job (and an ungodly amount at the job before that), but now it's just so darned easy to end up working extra. The laptop is right there calling my name. It sounds like, "Fraaaan....Fraaaaaaan...you know you want to edit meeeee." So there's that.
And then, in case you didn't hear me shouting it from the mountaintops, Pat and I took a trip to IKEA this weekend! The closest IKEA is about four hours away (well, the one near Toronto is technically 3 hours away, but it always seems to take 4 with the border shenanigans and whatnot). We have been talking about going there for ages, but a trip never materialized. We didn't have a home office setup, and now that I work from home, it put a fire under me/us, especially because my make-shift setup the last 6 or so weeks was KILLING my neck. So, the moon and the stars finally aligned, and we borrowed a large SUV from a very trusting and kind friend, and we headed to Pittsburgh! Yes, Pittsburgh. Greta stayed home with my mom since, as I so motherly put it to one friend, Greta would "just slow us down and take up too much space." It's unkind but it's true.
Behold the glory of the flags.
We got to IKEA at about 3 PM on Saturday, and we didn't leave until almost 9 PM. We actually saw them turn the lights off inside the store. We had some rather stressful moments when we realized not everything would fit in the truck, but Pat pulled out his boy scout skills and tied a sofa bed frame to the roof rack so tightly and thoroughly that I knew it wasn't going anywhere. And, man, we had that truck filled to the gills. It was a sight to be seen. I will say this, though: what we spent on about 5 million things from IKEA is about what one would spend on a love seat at, say, Pottery Barn. Love. Did I mention I love IKEA?
I even love their cafeteria.
I am ashamed to admit that after the shopping marathon we couldn't muster exploring any of the Pittsburgh restaurants or sights that friends recommended. For one thing, it was late. And for another, we had a vehicle chock full of all of my new favorite tangible possessions, and I didn't want to do any unnecessary driving. And, most important at the time, I needed to find the shortest path between me and a dirty martini. We ended up getting a surprisingly good meal at the hotel and having some surprisingly mediocre dirty martinis.
This is the face of a girl who needed a martini and a seared ahi tuna salad stat, and this is the face of a man who was willing to go shopping for six hours.
We got home Sunday afternoon, and during the last two days, we've spent pretty much every free moment assembling Swedish-designed furniture made in China. I love, love, love all of the new stuff, and I can't wait to go back again. My office is still a work in progress, but my desk and chair are set up, and it is already the best office I've ever had. It just makes me smile. I hope to get some pictures up soon.
Jeez, did I talk about IKEA enough?
The only other thing is I got a sassy new haircut. I just got it tonight, and it's always hard to tell if I like a new haircut until the next day after I've washed the junk out of it and styled it myself. I think I like it, but it has the littlest likeness to the most disastrous haircut I ever got, also known as the "Jennifer Aniston Disaster Haircut of 1995," or "the haircut that gave me bad self-esteem just in time to start college."
And this, friends, about brings us up to date. I hope you're all dandy.
I really can't think of anything very interesting to say, but it's been a while, so I am going to give this updating thing the old college try. I think bullets are in order.
I just finished reading Sarah's Key. It was super interesting, but the writing was pretty mediocre. It was a super fast read, though, and subject matter was interesting and important (the first half I kept having I-can't-believe-I-didn't-know-about-this feelings). The author is French, and she wrote from the point of view of an American journalist living in France, and I think there was a disconnect there. And as an editor, misplace modifiers and randomly placed commas really get my goat. It's a curse.
Since I finished my book club book in a week, I have plenty of time to read a book I've had on my night stand for a long time: Middlesex. I've heard nothing but good things about it. I am 80 pages in, and it is definitely very interesting AND well written. It is making me uncomfortable, though! This might be a long 500+ page book...
To answer the most-popular question I've been getting, work is good. Things are still pretty slow to start so far, but on Friday I got a big project that I can work on during any down time, and it's something I'm really interested in, so I'm actually excited for work tomorrow. Since I'm self-employed now, I just bought the Chicago Manual of Style (15th edition) with my own money. It was sort of liberating. It's my second-favorite style guide. J Nerd alert! I'm also working on landing a part-time freelance editing gig. Money-mo-mo-money! Money!
On the Greta front, things are good. One thing that seems particularly notable to me is that she was helping me with yard work today, and it actually felt like she was helping. Like, when she "helps" with things, it doesn't feel so much like help. But, today, I was making piles of dead leaves and she was grabbing it and putting it in the bag for me, and this went on for a good half an hour. She lost interest after that, but I think that was some sort of record. Yay for four.
Tonight the three of us went to Donuts Delite for the first time. I can't believe Pat and I have been in Rochester for 15 years and we've never been to Donuts Delite, but, anyway, it was okay. We can cross it off the list. We plan to go again in the AM sometime when the doughnuts are fresher, and then that will be the true test. Greta doesn't like doughnuts, but we ordered her one anyway. She refused to take a bite until right before we were leaving, and when she finally did, she made a face like she had just bit into a lemon. Such a strange child. Pat ordered a "white-cream filled," and the waitress brought him this. Apparently the only white-cream-filled doughnuts they had were in Cookie Monster's likeness. It's a good thing Pat is so secure in his manhood or he might have had to send it back.
In conclusion, Gene Simmons is on TV, and he looks like a caveman. He also seems like an amazing tool.
Thursday, after the most bizarre work experience of my life, and after I sat on the couch drinking diet Coke and watching Dr. Phil in a complete daze, I met up with Pat and we walked over to the photo building for Greta's art show premiere. I avoided crying in front of any of the students and parents, and we enjoyed looking at the preschoolers' artwork. The kids in Greta's class made artwork inspired by Leo Lionni books. Look how cute!
After the art show, we went back home, and there was a very exciting package for Greta. Pat had ordered her a pink electric guitar and amplifier. This may not seem especially interesting on the surface, but it seems notable to me, because maybe 20 minutes after we found out I was pregnant and Pat and I got over the initial OMG-we're-having-a-baby! excitement, the first thing Pat said was, "I need to start thinking about what kind of guitar to buy the baby." I suggested he wait a little while since she was pretty much a zygote. Since that conversation, Pat has spent quite a bit of time researching guitars for kids, weighing the options, and he finally settled on the perfect one. Greta loves her new guitar, and it matches all of her outfits perfectly. :)
Friday evening, we headed over to NTID for a contemporary dance performance of Sleeping Beauty. Our good friend Amy was one of the dancers, and we knew Greta would love seeing Amy perform AND see one of her favorite princess stories set to dance. It was really fun, and Greta hasn't stopped talking about how cool Amy is since.
Saturday we lazed around a lot. The big thing is after Greta went to bed, Pat and I cooked our annual Valentine's dinner. Given my employment predicament, the menu probably should have consisted of hobo beans, but we splurged for organic beef tenderloin, sautéed mushrooms, beet and warm goat cheese salad, good bread, and we opened a nice bottle of wine from our collection. The food was great, and we watched a romcom we both actually liked (500 Days of Summer), and we just generally had a nice night. We ended up waiting to have our dessert until today, since we were way too full to eat it, but I made chocolate soufflé. I am still far from mastering soufflé, but at least this time I made it the soufflé did rise (the only other time I attempted soufflé it came out flat as a pancake). No pictures. I was too busy eating.
What else? I am feeling much better about the whole getting-laid-off thing as of today. Other than my freshman year in college, I've had a regular job since I turned 15. I am staying positive about finding something else I'll enjoy doing (or like even better!), and, meantime, I'm determined to enjoy my mini temporary retirement. I'm looking forward to the challenge, including finding ways to save money, and living off the land and my wits and riding the rails (well, okay, maybe not that last part).
