Thursday, August 17, 2006
Olympics (not the knitting kind)
Hey. Cool thing today. Sweetie and I went to the Eagan public library (wow I've been spoiled by the Mountain View library!) and ended up meeting a female hockey player Olympic bronze and silver medalist. Don't remember her name (isn't that just like me?), but she was there to read books to kids. Then she let all the kids hold her medals (and me, with a lil'un, got to hold them too).
Probably the most entertaining part was me, in line with Sweetie, trying to explain to her what hockey is, what the Olympics are, and why it's so cool to see the medals. She could tell it must be a big deal because almost every other kid there had their picture taken with the lady and her medals.
Sweetie also got a run down on standing-in-line ettiquette, since she's never really done that before. One of the other moms heard me and commented that it was probably a good idea to coach kids on how to stand in line politely, and that some adults could stand to learn that too.
Reflecting on that mother's comments, even though they sound somewhat unfriendly towards other people, I think she was the first parent who has spoken to me in a friendly way since I got here. Excluding family, of course. But seriously, I've been in several situations when, in CA, it would be normal for the parents of young children to compare notes, or even smile at each other in a friendly manner, but here I get nothing. I was standing in line at Ikea to sign Sweetie up to go into Smallville (the child-care thingy) for more than 15 minutes, and I couldn't get more than one of the other 5 parents to even look me in the eye, and the one who would frowned every time. She would not crack a smile, no matter how much I tried to exude happy friendliness.
But I haven't been to La Leche League yet. I should do that. I'm told that I'll have an easier time making friends in that group, since I'm already "one of them".
On other fronts, I baked a chocolate cheesecake for a cousin's baby shower today. I can definitely increase the chocolatiness next time, but we'll see how this one is. It's supposed to be fabulous after sitting for 48 hours (in the fridge). I also make Norwegian Rice Waffles, and even Skatude had a second helping. That's pretty good, since he never eats more than one helping. They were floppier than usual, but I think that's because my MIL turned her brown rice into something more like mush than rice. That's all good, though, because waffles are yummy.
So that's the news from the edge of the lake. I really should find out what it's called.
:)
Anabel
Probably the most entertaining part was me, in line with Sweetie, trying to explain to her what hockey is, what the Olympics are, and why it's so cool to see the medals. She could tell it must be a big deal because almost every other kid there had their picture taken with the lady and her medals.
Sweetie also got a run down on standing-in-line ettiquette, since she's never really done that before. One of the other moms heard me and commented that it was probably a good idea to coach kids on how to stand in line politely, and that some adults could stand to learn that too.
Reflecting on that mother's comments, even though they sound somewhat unfriendly towards other people, I think she was the first parent who has spoken to me in a friendly way since I got here. Excluding family, of course. But seriously, I've been in several situations when, in CA, it would be normal for the parents of young children to compare notes, or even smile at each other in a friendly manner, but here I get nothing. I was standing in line at Ikea to sign Sweetie up to go into Smallville (the child-care thingy) for more than 15 minutes, and I couldn't get more than one of the other 5 parents to even look me in the eye, and the one who would frowned every time. She would not crack a smile, no matter how much I tried to exude happy friendliness.
But I haven't been to La Leche League yet. I should do that. I'm told that I'll have an easier time making friends in that group, since I'm already "one of them".
On other fronts, I baked a chocolate cheesecake for a cousin's baby shower today. I can definitely increase the chocolatiness next time, but we'll see how this one is. It's supposed to be fabulous after sitting for 48 hours (in the fridge). I also make Norwegian Rice Waffles, and even Skatude had a second helping. That's pretty good, since he never eats more than one helping. They were floppier than usual, but I think that's because my MIL turned her brown rice into something more like mush than rice. That's all good, though, because waffles are yummy.
So that's the news from the edge of the lake. I really should find out what it's called.
:)
Anabel
Wednesday, August 16, 2006
Hail from Minnesota
Well, we're here. And we're settling in.
For those who may have missed the ongoing saga of Anabel's life, Sweetie and I just moved to Minnesota two weeks ago. Eric's little sister (think teenager) is pregnant (hereby known as Maternalgirl, or Magirl for short), so we've moved in with her (and her mother, my mother-in-law, Joyce) (oh, and with my brother-in-law, too. We'll call him Skaterdude, or Skatude for short). The house is nice, the cats are entertaining, and the weather has been Ok.
Eric just left the other night. He was here for 9 days, for a whirlwind tour of family and a wedding. We saw (and Sweetie met) all but three of his relatives, and a bunch of his friends from high school. He also came in and helped with family dynamics and got me settled more into the ways of his mother's house. I think he might be kinda glad that it's me staying and not him, but then, Joyce doesn't push my buttons like she pushes his. And vice versa, of course, which makes it totally entertaining to see them together. For me. Probably not for anyone else.
Last night was the first night that Magirl spent in our new shared bedroom. Sweetie and I have one side of the room, and Magirl (and eventually LittleOne) wil have the other side. It seemed to go rather well, and she didn't complain at all about Sweetie's wakefullness (it was too hot for her to sleep) nor my snoring (which I've heard from both Eric and Sweetie that I do).
Today we went to "the farm". I am now all signed up as a legal shareholder in the farm, so now I am legally allowed to buy raw milk from them. Our farm is an organic farm in Wisconsin, and it's pretty cool. We got a tour of the farm, led by two of the farmers (4yo and 7yo girls) who showed us the horses (Sweetie got to pick apples off a tree and take them over to feed the horses!!!), the cows, the wandering chickens and ducks, the baby goat and the baby rabbit. All were appropriately cute. It was rather eye opening to look over and see calves in little stalls, to ask about them, and to be told by a 7yo that "it's so they don't move too much". We didn't have time to get a closer look, though. The other eye opening moment was when the girls started telling us about how, if one more cat came into the house, their dad would kill it. He didn't want any more cats in the house. Whoa! City life is not country life. We were eating lunch in their front yard while they were telling us that. The older girl looked at our lunch of 6 pb&j sandwiches, two quarts of chopped up watermellon, chips, nuts, and water (for three adults and a toddler) and said, "what're you eating? A snack?" When we said that it was lunch she said "my dad eats five sandwiches when we go for a picnic." I think maybe country lunches are larger than city lunches.
That's the news from Lake Wobegon.
Although I believe that that isn't a real lake.
There's a pond in our backyard. It looks like a lake to me. It has lilypads and herons. And ducks. Doesn't that make it big enough to be a lake?
:)
Anabel
For those who may have missed the ongoing saga of Anabel's life, Sweetie and I just moved to Minnesota two weeks ago. Eric's little sister (think teenager) is pregnant (hereby known as Maternalgirl, or Magirl for short), so we've moved in with her (and her mother, my mother-in-law, Joyce) (oh, and with my brother-in-law, too. We'll call him Skaterdude, or Skatude for short). The house is nice, the cats are entertaining, and the weather has been Ok.
Eric just left the other night. He was here for 9 days, for a whirlwind tour of family and a wedding. We saw (and Sweetie met) all but three of his relatives, and a bunch of his friends from high school. He also came in and helped with family dynamics and got me settled more into the ways of his mother's house. I think he might be kinda glad that it's me staying and not him, but then, Joyce doesn't push my buttons like she pushes his. And vice versa, of course, which makes it totally entertaining to see them together. For me. Probably not for anyone else.
Last night was the first night that Magirl spent in our new shared bedroom. Sweetie and I have one side of the room, and Magirl (and eventually LittleOne) wil have the other side. It seemed to go rather well, and she didn't complain at all about Sweetie's wakefullness (it was too hot for her to sleep) nor my snoring (which I've heard from both Eric and Sweetie that I do).
Today we went to "the farm". I am now all signed up as a legal shareholder in the farm, so now I am legally allowed to buy raw milk from them. Our farm is an organic farm in Wisconsin, and it's pretty cool. We got a tour of the farm, led by two of the farmers (4yo and 7yo girls) who showed us the horses (Sweetie got to pick apples off a tree and take them over to feed the horses!!!), the cows, the wandering chickens and ducks, the baby goat and the baby rabbit. All were appropriately cute. It was rather eye opening to look over and see calves in little stalls, to ask about them, and to be told by a 7yo that "it's so they don't move too much". We didn't have time to get a closer look, though. The other eye opening moment was when the girls started telling us about how, if one more cat came into the house, their dad would kill it. He didn't want any more cats in the house. Whoa! City life is not country life. We were eating lunch in their front yard while they were telling us that. The older girl looked at our lunch of 6 pb&j sandwiches, two quarts of chopped up watermellon, chips, nuts, and water (for three adults and a toddler) and said, "what're you eating? A snack?" When we said that it was lunch she said "my dad eats five sandwiches when we go for a picnic." I think maybe country lunches are larger than city lunches.
That's the news from Lake Wobegon.
Although I believe that that isn't a real lake.
There's a pond in our backyard. It looks like a lake to me. It has lilypads and herons. And ducks. Doesn't that make it big enough to be a lake?
:)
Anabel
