Anna's Antics

A new feature on my blog ... better late than never! So, to answer the question "What funny thing has Anna has done lately?"

Anna will insist that I take off my socks, and either take them and throw them down the laundry chute, or put them on her feet instead. If she already has shoes and socks and wishes to wear mine, she usually takes hers off first.

Sunday we brought Anna to the Children's Museum in St. Paul. There was a huge Curious George balloon hanging from the ceiling, and every time Anna tried to look up at it (craning her head back as much as she could) she fell over. She did this about three or four times. LOL!!

I'll update this feature as material arises ... this could be daily!!

February's Been a Drag, Hasn't It?

Or, is it just me?

First of all, the cold. The horrible, frigid, dangerous, relentless cold. Plus, I could swear ever since the plumber re-installed the radiator in our bathroom and bled all the other radiators in our house, the family room just doesn't heat up as quickly as it used to. Frustrating. He also didn't bleed the radiators correctly, according to Edwin. Grr.

I've continued to be crazy busy at work. It has eased somewhat, but I recently learned I am moving to a different jurisdiction in my department. Sigh! Exciting, and ... not. I have moved around a lot, which has required me to start over every time. And here I am, starting over again with new coworkers, training, expectations. Much of the work I've done before, but it's been years ago. I'm nervous but I'm confident. The way I see it, I've worked on New York and I've worked on USCA--Maryland will be a piece of cake in comparison. I am freakishly excited to learn they have a 90 day legislative session! And distinct signing dates!! Woohoo!

Valentine's Day came and went. It's one of those holidays I remain ambivalent about, even though I'm not single anymore. I know it's a lot of hype and not a "real" holiday but I can't help but still want a little extra love that day. I guess that is what is hard about such a holiday, I'm not sure what my expectations should be. In general I try to keep them low, but how low??

I've finished the second Sisterhood book (excellent!) and have now started a book called The Magician's Wife and am enjoying it very much. The Sisterhood books seem a great way to introduce different life topics to girls Saskia's age and older. Several different topics are covered among all the girls ... the death of a parent, a single parent dating, a parent having a mysterious past, broken down relationships between parents and grandparents, resisting peer pressure, etc. It's not just a story, it makes you think.

Monday was a work holiday for us, so we decided that would be a good day to go to lunch and see Dreamgirls while Anna was at daycare. Which we'd hoped to do in January but it didn't work out. Anyway, it was a nice time--we dropped off both girls, went to the Y, then to lunch at PF Chang's, then to the movie. We picked up Anna after the movie and since the weather was so nice we went to the park and played for a bit. All in all a refreshing day away from work.

Dreamgirls was good, but not great. I can't really articulate why, but it does make perfect sense that Jennifer Hudson and Eddie Murphy would get Oscar nominations but the movie as a whole did not. They were outstanding, EM was especially impressive, in my opinion. JH is a better singer definitely, but EM's acting came through more as his character aged. I can't wait to watch the Oscars Sunday night!

All for now.

So now I am closer to 40 than 30

A couple weeks ago it was my 36th birthday. I've been so crazy busy lately I haven't had a chance to write about it. It was nice, not too exciting. My friend, Jamie, surprised me at work with a tin of different teas, and from Edwin and the girls I got a shawl, a sweet little picture frame, and a puzzle of the New York Times cover the day I was born. That night Edwin and I went out for dinner and left the girls home with Lucy. I insist we go out for dinner on my actual birthday, and we did. The way I see it, I'm accommodating to other peoples' schedules the other 364 days of the year, those other people can accommodate me for one day.

I had asked Edwin to keep it a surprise where we were going, so he didn't tell me until we were on our way. The plan was to go to 20-21, the Wolfgang Puck restaurant that's housed in the Walker Art Center. I was excited at the choice, we hadn't been there before and I'd heard great things about it. It's considered Asian fusion, which I enjoy and would like to explore some more. However, when we got there and had a chance to check out the menu it became obvious it wasn't going to work out so well. Practically everything appeared to be made with nuts somehow, and when we asked the server about it she informed us that only one or two items on the entire menu did not have nuts, or could be made without them or without peanut oil. So we politely left. It all turned out in the end, because the hostess at 20-21 heard about our situation, and gave us the card of the assistant manager at Temple, also an Asian fusion restaurant but not one to use peanut oil in their dishes as widely as 20-21. So, we went to Temple (formerly Tiburon), showed the card, and got a chef's table, heck any table without a reservation. And the food was fabulous. I joked afterward, no one tell Anna that I had duck! LOL! She would never forgive me!

A week or so I got my hair cut short and colored, so I have a new hairdo. It's quite shocking at first, a real shake-up for me. I was concerned that Anna might be afraid of me but she's not fazed by it at all. So now it's just a short bob, at my chin, and a dark, deep red color. This time I've bought some special shampoo and have vowed to actually wash it with lukewarm water, to make the color last longer. We'll see. The nice thing is that it washes out so gradually, I don't really notice exactly when I go back to my true color, anyway.

By the way, don't see the movie The Producers. It's bad, really bad. How that could happen, we don't really understand. We'd seen the show when it came to town years ago and loved it, and the movie seemed perfectly cast. Oh well. The last movie I saw in the theater was Marie Antoinette, which I enjoyed (did I write about this already?). I had just seen the documentary about her on PBS, and loved the costumes, and of course the scenery as it was actually filmed at Versailles. About a month ago I'd picked up Pride and Prejudice so I'm anxious to find some time to watch it, and watch it all in one stretch rather than a bit here and a bit there. I figure it's the perfect chick flick for when Edwin is out of town.

All for today.