isisofcool

09:21 am: Coffee at work
Ok, we're having a discussion here at my office in regards to the coffee machine.  I admit that I've lived in my little academic bubble here at work, and I have the financial office perspective, so I am looking for input from those of you with more experience in the real world.

Does your office provide coffee at no cost to the employees? 
What form does your office coffee maker take? (i.e. a pod machine, a vending machine, a pot that someone is responsible for making)
How important do you consider this to your workplace?
Any other issues that arise?

Our current office is removed from other easy options for coffee, in that the nearest place to get coffee is a Dunkin' Donuts about 1 mile away.  This is a dramatic change from Harvard Square where we used to be, so that does play into this debate some.

Thanks for your help!  I know its ridiculous, but I'm trying to put our bit of craziness within a bit of a framework.

11:36 am: Peacock fairy!
The peacock fairy in full regalia for school today.

( Picture here )

11:55 am: Fabric Place
I haven't seen anyone mention this yet, and it seems like it is of general interest:

Fabric Place in Woburn and Framingham will be closing.  They have started liquidation sales already.  Last weekend was 20% off most things, but that doesn't meet the flurry of 25% off everything in the store sales that they've been having periodically.  Still, I think things will clear out fast.

Anyone have recommendations for any remaining fabric stores around?  I'm not happy with considering Jo-Ann's my local fabric store.

01:46 pm: Benji and me
One of my guilty pleasures is cheesy dance movies, and the associated new forms of the dance competitions. This means that bothhungrytigerand I are big fans of the TV show "So You Think You Can Dance." We even went so far as to see the live touring show of it at the Wang Center last weekend. We did drag along the only other similarly inclined friends that we could find, and all had a great time. It was essentially a live version of the show, which was what we expected, as well as the heavily teenage and pre-teen female audience. It had more dry ice and booming bass lines than the Wang Center usually sees I suspect.
In addition to the silliness of the event itself, I also spotted the winner of the competition on the street outside of Boston Common. And was convinced that I needed to have my picture taken with him. So in my brief brush with minor stardom, is a picture of me with Benji. Just after this picture was taken a gaggle of teenage girls realized who he was as well and broke out into girlish squees, just further making the moment.

03:42 pm: Where was this class when I was in college?
Okay, so I did take a class in college that involved cooking a French meal and wine tastings, but...

If anyone has some spare time next spring, Mass College of Art is offering the following course next spring in its Continuing Education department.

CSB315X Truths My TV Told Me: Decontructing Buffy

Buffy the Vampire Slayer is an extremely "full" text, playing on ideological fault lines (the "Hellmouth," if you will) throughout its 96 hours. The series, self-consciously generic in conception and execution, allows this course to examine the histories, theories, and traditions of the musical, melodrama, comedy, silent film and horror genres. Through the "buffyverse" (a media space that includes spin-offs, comics, games, and books, but also such unofficial forms as fan fiction), students will have the opprotunity to examine how the media product in a digital/industrial society, like the mythic folktale in other cultures, serves as a site where society collectively speaks to itself, confronting basic human issues in a familiar context. By investigating issues that our culture has returned to time and again, often presenting conflicting answers to the same troubling questions, students will be able to examine the socially constructed nature of our relationship to our culture and the social world, our own bodies and ways of thinking.

02:15 pm: Weekend summary

We took advantage of the Thursday holiday to make it into a long weekend visit to family in NY and NJ.  I'm not going to catalogue the entire trip, but I felt a need to highlight some of the events.

 ( Read more... )

01:52 pm: Feeling better
Today I earned bonus points for myself, and also saved a lot of other people a great deal of cranky moments by actually getting to my yoga class for the first time in 10 months or so. I stopped going when I was pregnant and the walk to class became more than I could handle. I haven't been back since my work schedule is a lot tighter now and an extra long lunchtime is harder to finagle.

It was one of the best hours that I have had in months. There were muscles who were reverting to their former state who were a bit cranky about being forced into work again, but so many others were so happy! A little bit of a back bend, some blood rushing to my head, a nice inversion to re-establish my equilibrium. I now think I might make it through the day without having to seriously injure anyone.

I have got to work to get this class back into my schedule.

09:19 am: Hell freezes over
Okay, in no particular order here are my thoughts regarding the Red Sox winning the World Series!

1. Yeah! Hooray! Yipee!

2. As one of the kids at Michelle's daycare predicted, "Johnny Damon is going to hit a home run, and the Red Sox will win the World Serious." Out of the mouth of babes...

3. My daughter will be able to grow up in Boston without having to hear lengthy discussions about the Curse of the Bambino, will have no trepidation associated with the year 1918, will never have to hear that "No team in the history of baseball has ever won a series when they were down 0-3."

4. The MVP award is a stupid idea. I can't think of a series that better demonstrated that baseball is a team sport. There is not a player on the team who did not do his part to contribute to this victory.

5. Cambridge seems unusually subdued today. While I know that there are still crowds at Fenway, it seems eerily quiet. I'm not sure if this is because everyone is sleeping in, recovering from a hangover, or still stunned into silence. Last year there were Cowboy Up signs everywhere the whole time. I think that last year's defeat was a final straw for many people, and this victory is too unreal to believe. I'm not sure if some of the cheer is just a sense of relief that the obligation to win has been lifted.

6. I do have a general sense today that if the Red Sox can win the World Series, then anything can happen. Maybe I should buy a lottery ticket...

7. Despite all of my usual feelings about crowds, I think we'll be heading into town for the victory parade on Saturday. Maybe stupid, but I just have to see this one.

02:25 pm: I never do these
Okay, I never do these games, but this one has tickled my fancy:

Things I have that no one else who reads my LJ does:

Book:
Manifold Destiny: The One, The Only Guide to Cooking on Your Car Engine!

Do I really need to say more?

CD:
Aztec-Two Step's "Highway Signs: The 25th Anniversary Concert."
A favorite group of mine from back in high school. This album has their best things, although I'm glad the "schtick" parts are separate tracks which I can program to not play most of the time.

DVD/Video:
This one seems like the hardest to find something that at least someone doesn't own.
Let's hope that my love of bad teen musicals is not shared by many and assume no one else has "Center Stage." Its admittedly on video, not DVD, but it is a purchase pre-recorded copy. I don't recommend it unless you really like lots of silly dance numbers.

Place I've Been:
How about Berkhamsted Castle in Hertfordshire, England. Its an 11th century motte and bailey castle, once inhabited by Thomas Becket. It is now mostly field and ruins but was part of a very pleasant visit with some of C's relatives.

10:47 am: New accomplishments
One of the things I love most about Michelle's new day care is the convenience to my office.

I decided today that despite the rain (or maybe because of it) a visit to Michelle would be the way to spend my lunch hour.

She was largely non-plussed by my presence, since she was mostly intent on chewing on anything she could get her hands on. That did include my hand, and I swear that there are several teeth that should be emerging any minute now. (Yes, I have been saying that for weeks, but keep in mind that I have no experience in how long these things actually take. I really mean it this time, though.)

After a while, she decided to hunt for something new to chew on. A carpeted box looked appealing to her, so she squirmed/crawled/rolled her way over. (Michelle has started doing some creative version of crawling in the last week or so. Its not the classic form of crawling, but it does get her around.) Hmm...the top of that looks like the best place to chew. As I stared, she put her hands on the top, and pulled herself to her knees. Wow! But wait, she's still going. She manages to pull herself to something between kneeling and standing, with feet flat on the ground, before tumbling over.
It was just amazing to watch. And the fact that she fell and cried over her failure (or maybe just the unexpected arrival of the ground) gave me an excuse for lots of proud Mommy hugs and kisses.

Needless to say, its was hard coming back to my desk.

My next thought, after being the proud parent watching her baby try to stand up... She's almost mobile, and she's ready to climb.

We are in such trouble.

12:54 pm: Competent Mom moment
There are definitely days where I feel like a competent parent, and days where I have no idea what I'm doing. Since the latter seem to stick out in my mind more often, I thought I'd record one of those Mom victories.

Last week was Rosh Hashanah. We took Michelle to services with us, and she was great. She played, napped and was happy the whole time. The grown-ups decided on a post-services meal at Bickford's. En route, Michelle starts to get fussy. Auntie S, Michelle and I arrive at the restaurant and get seated. I pull out the bottle and start feeding Michelle right away. By the time the rest of the family shows up, she's half way through it. She finishes and starts fussing again. No problem. Put her in the high chair (a first - sitting in a restaurant high chair!), pull out from the overstuffed diaper bag a bib, a jar of bananas and a spoon. Bananas are Michelle's favorite and have the bonus of not staining. Within mere minutes she has had a few spoonfuls, and is happily looking around at the multiple televisions, waitresses, other diners while eating her bananas. She is finished by the time our food arrives, and amused with her toys while we all get to eat our lunch.

This seems like such a small accomplishment, and yet was totally satisfying. Michelle expressed her needs and I met them promptly, in public, with minimal disturbance to anyone around us, including an ability to eat our meal with Michelle remaining happy and entertained the entire time.

Not a bad start to the New Year.

03:32 pm: Bad things stuck in my head
I don't know who else has experienced the Sandra Boynton books/CDs Philadelphia Chickens and Rhinocerous Tap. These are very entertaining children's music. We purchased them after hearing Kevin Kline singing a song called "BusyBusyBusy" which is clearly him remembering his Pirates of Penzance days. Overall, they are simple songs with clever lyrics and some well cast celebrities on occasion. We find them easy to sing to Michelle, which she enjoys a great deal.

The problem with all of that is they get stuck in my head like you would not believe! I have had one song "Snuggle Puppy" going through my head for days. Every time I think its gone, I see someone walking a dog and it is right back there.

I'm trying to exorcise the songs with a good dose of Folk Alley, which works as long as I am at my desk, but even a brief foray into the hallway can bring a chorus of "Cows. We're remarkable cows..." into my head.

The scary thing is that we're doing this to ourselves. Michelle isn't even old enough to have chosen that song/book/video or whatever that must be repeated over and over again. This does not bode well for my future.

04:21 pm: I seem to have caught a cold. I hate summer colds, since my preferred way to deal with such things involve soup, hot chocolate and lots of blankets, none of which are really appealing given the gross humidity levels today.

Ironically, Michelle also has a cold, and she seems to be dealing with it better than I am. She is happy, and spent the entire morning smiling. I suspect that some of that is due to the fact that she doesn't constantly blow her nose, so it doesn't have that raw red glow that mine is developing. Another one of the advantages of babyhood... Fortunately, I find a good Michelle smile to be some of the best medicine.

I suspect that Michelle is working fast towards crawling. She often tucks her legs under her while lying on her tummy and "skunches" her way forward. This means that babyproofing is becoming more prominent on the list of things to do. Most significant: I have to paint the shelves in her room and secure them to the wall in some fashion; small appliances, plastic bags and extra glassware need to be removed from the lower kitchen shelves, which also need to be attached to the wall; I suspect we will need some sort of barrier around the TV; a baby gate to block off my studio, since I know that there is no way that room will ever be safe!; remove the wobbly table covered with fragile items. Maybe if it is really as rainy as they say it will be tomorrow we can work on some of those.

On the other hand, I have peaches and blueberries that I have promised to make into pie.

02:33 pm: Who's out there?
Okay, having just gotten a comment from a co-worker that I should make the story I just told him into a journal entry, I suspect that I am being watched...

Am I right?

03:30 pm: Lifestyles
Yesterday as I was walking from the parking lot to my office, I was behind someone I recognized from work. She is a petite asian woman, and was dressed in a very stylish outfit. By stylish, I mean following the current styles as laid out in the fashion magazines. Think "Sex in the City" kind of style. She was wearing black capri pants with a blue/purple top made of layers of mesh and spandex fabric with sequins on it (not a lot, just carefully placed) and extremely high heels that matched the blouse perfectly. This was a great outfit.

And then I looked at what I was wearing: a plain black linen dress with some simple details and admittedly funky painted sandals, but well cushioned and practical none the less. I felt absolutely dowdy. Suddenly, I felt like I was dressed like a Mom.

Even before I was a Mom, I would have never dressed as this other woman did. It requires a lot more effort in personal appearance than I am really willing to give in a given day, as well as a lot more money. I have also learned that spiked heels and the brick sidewalks of Cambridge are not a good combination. Nonetheless, I felt like I should be rushing back to my suburban house immediately before I was recognized. I had a long internal conversation to remind myself of all the reasons why I would never dress that way. Yet, part of me was sad that the option to dress in that manner is no longer a real option. I enjoy sparkly fabrics, and frou-frou outfits and impractical shoes.

Drool does not go well with sequins. (I'm pretty sure I saw that in Vogue.)

But then I went to pick up my drooling baby, with her incredible toothless smile that she gets when she sees me, and held her in my arms, and nothing else mattered.

(She promptly spit up on my shoulder.)

09:46 am: Small rewards
Today's small reward is that I won a stuffed Oscar Meyer Weinermobile.

http://kraft3.promotions.com/iwish/splash.do

Take those small victories where you can!

Unfortunately, it won't arrive for 6-8 weeks. :-) But once it does, it can have a place of honor next to the Pillsbury Doughboy who is already in residence.

12:22 pm: Waiting for a guy
I hate waiting for a "guy" to show up. You know, the guy who is coming to the house to repair something and will be arriving sometime between 9 and 3 or something equally helpful.

Today I had to wait for the tow truck guy. An unfortunate series of events left me to deal with our older car at 6:45 this morning. Said car was sitting in front of our house with hazard lights blinking, not quite out of the road, and refused to get into gear, start or be pushed.

So I call AAA, and am told that the tow truck should be there within an hour. The hour between 6:45 and 7:45 is a key hour of my day - there are a lot of things which I get done then. Yet now I can't just do those things, I have to do all of them and be ready at any moment to go greet the tow truck.

First on the list is feeding Michelle. I'm pretty sure the guy won't be showing up in 15-20 minutes so I figure I'm safe. Yet I'm sitting there with phone at hand, along with relevant documentation for AAA, the mechanic, etc just in case. Michelle is of course dawdling this morning, having not eaten since 1:30 a.m. (Yeah!) but we make it through without a tow truck appearing.

Next is changing and dressing Michelle. Fortunately, her changing table is near the windows which look out at the front of the house, with the car in view. I can watch traffic dodging around the car, and spot a tow truck if necessary. I predict its appearance as soon as her diaper is off, but manage to get through the entire dressing with no guy.

Ok, we've managed that and I can now set her in the crib to admire her mobile for a bit. Now comes the challenge of some sort of shower and dressing for me. Surely if the guy didn't appear while Michelle was naked, I am the next obvious target! Some water splashed around in key places, a lot of deodorant, and the phone right next to me the entire time and I'm still safe. To get dressed I get all of the relevant garments out of the closet and drawers and have them laid out and ready. One more peek out the window, and then a quick change. (I picture this being somewhat cartoon-like, with pajamas flying everywhere and little motion lines appearing around me.)

From here, everything is cake! Now whenever the tow truck shows up, no one will be naked, hungry or (hopefully) crying. A few more laps around the house for me, to gether the necessary daycare accessories, and by the time the tow truck does appear I can safely put Michelle in the swing and run outside.

The tow truck arrives almost exactly one hour from when I called AAA.

As I said, I hate waiting for a guy.

11:02 am: Work would be easier if...
My job would be a lot easier if other people would do their job.

04:03 pm: Ways to make myself crazy...
The surest way for me to make myself crazy these days is to read another article about getting your baby to sleep through the night. These articles nearly always make me feel that I have done something terribly wrong (at best). I made C take away and hide/destroy a book. The advice about sleeping was making me so crazy that it sent me into spirals of "bad motherness."

According to this book:
- if your child does not learn to sleep now, she will have bad sleep habits FOREVER!
- Bedtime should be 6:00pm. If it is later, it is obviously because you are putting the child in daycare (with the obvious negative implications of that) and then selfishly keeping her awake to play.
- breastfeeding is always done in association with a family bed. There is apparently no such thing as a child who breastfeeds and sleeps in a crib (or at best, this is rare enough that it is worth mentioning only occassionally.)
- Your life is now ruled by the nap. You can skip naps only for very special occasions. Did I mention that naps only occur in the crib, and never anywhere else? God forbid you want to leave the house.

Of course, attempts to read other articles also convince me that I am doing something WRONG. So I am hereby going to stop reading about sleep.

Excuse me while I return to eBay to shop for cute outfits for Michelle to wear - a much less damaging activity for everyone.

12:45 pm: Songs
Michelle often needs help to fall asleep at night. I don't really understand this, since when I go into her dark room with the nice music, the ocean wave sounds and the comfy bouncy chair I'm almost asleep myself. Singing seems to help her sleep, in any case. (Another thing I don't understand, since my singing voice is hardly something I consider soothing.)

I often get stuck trying to think of things to sing, however. Even if I do think of a song, I often know only a fraction of the words. C cleverly deals with this by making up words, but that is frankly too much creativity for me at bedtime.

Songs that I tend to sing are often the basics such as Row Your Boat, ABC, Twinkle Twinkle Little Star. This weekend, we had a nice medley of patriotic tunes such as Yankee Doodle Dandy and She's A Grand Old Flag. I've even been known to add commercial jingles such as the Oscar Meyer song. Last night brought the addition of a few Hebrew prayers.

I'm thinking of creating a list of songs that I can keep in her room, so that I can have a variety to sing. Does anyone have any good suggestions for songs with easily remembered lyrics, that are not too advanced for the harmonically challenged?