Shake it off

I am so tired.  All the time.  Not because I'm not getting enough sleep - nights are decent around here - the baby is (mostly) sleeping in her crib now, with a few wakings at night, but better than the all night nurse-fest we had going on a few weeks ago.

But this staying-at-home-with-2-kids thing?  Freakin' exhausting. Even on the good days. By the time everyone is in bed, which thankfully is no later than 7pm around here, I'M ready to turn in for the night.  My brain and my whole body is just DONE.

I've felt pretty crappy the past few days so I think I've got a virus or a cold threatening to break, or maybe it's just the crazy pollen thing going on here. I'm also getting NO exercise. T is on Spring Break, and even when she wasn't, it was mostly too rainy to walk, or we all just got up too damn late to take the 20 min walk to school. (It's less than a 2 minute drive, I think.)

I know, you just read 3 paragraphs about how tired I am. That wasn't much fun, was it?

Oh Say Can You See?

On the bright side, we had An Outing on Wednesday. Since it's Spring Break, my Big Girl is home all day, which is lovely. So I suggested the Tulip Festival about an hour north of Seattle, and being game for most adventures, she readily agreed. I love that kind of enthusiasm - great for my ego. I'll have to store that up to get me through ages 13-17, I suppose.

Despite the crazy traffic and the ridiculously cold, windy, rainy weather, we had a good time.  T got her face painted with a remarkably detailed set of tulips, M napped in the car both ways (timed carefully by yours truly), and no one melted down during lunch at the yummy Skagit Brewery.

I also remembered to take the Big Camera and got some good shots of the girls, and even a few tulip shots, though the "nifty fifty" prime lens I use isn't great for sweeping landscape tulip field shots.

If I had thought about the outing too much before we left, I likely would have decided it was "too hard" to get everyone together and go by myself. So I didn't think, I just decided. And it worked out great.

It's my godforsaken right

BabyM for President in 2048!

Election Day is not that exciting here in Washington where we all vote by mail. TJ and I completed our ballots on Halloween night and I dropped them off at a ballot box last week.

As the daughter of 2 naturalized citizens, it's been ingrained into me that voting is REALLY important. My first presidential election was in 1996. I was in grad school in San Diego and was very proud to get my "I voted" sticker.

We're not always on top of the primaries here, but are pretty good about voting in the regular election. I like our current process - we gather our ballots, voter info pamphlets, my laptop, and a frosty beverage of our choosing, and go through the items line by line. It's fun - we don't have a lot of political discussions in our house, but it's nice to chat about our views in this context.

My reference source is our local alternative newspaper, The Stranger, which publishes a useful Election Guide with their endorsements.

I know that sounds sketchy but they actually interview the candidates and do a good job of explaining why they favor a particular candidate or position.  I don't always agree with their conclusions but their info is helpful for the local elections where we don't know much about either side.

I HATE the game of politics, though.  HATE it.  I don't see this as a spectator sport, and hate the ridiculousness spewed by both sides.  If I could block all political posts on Facebook, I would.  Luckily we don't have TV anymore, so we don't see political commercials except for a handful on Hulu.com. We got rid of our home phone line so we don't get robocalls.

A few things I noticed about our voting preferences:

• TJ doesn't vote on uncontested elections.  I thought that was interesting.  I need to look up what happens with those - if those candidates get just 1 vote do they automatically win? 
• For local races where we didn't have a strong preference (like Lands Commissioner), we tended to vote for the candidate with a better educational pedigree.  PhD scientist from Berkeley, we voted for you!  Editor of Yale Law Review and Rhodes Scholar, we voted for you too.  Make us proud :)
• If one candidate didn't bother sending in summary info for the pamphlet, we tended not to vote for him/her.  Seems sort of important, considering most people don't do extensive research on their state representatives and other local officials.
• As much as we don't discuss politics in our house, we're in agreement on most of the bigger issues and candidates, which is nice.

I feel good about completing my civic duty for another year. Now onto holiday preparations!

I was so wrong about Pumpkin Farms

Until today, I had never in my life visited a pumpkin farm. I actually didn't even know you *could* go to a farm and visit/pick pumpkins. Either we didn't have such an option in Western PA in the 80s, or my parents were not clued into this holiday adventure. Or more likely, they thought it was a hassle/dirty/less efficient than just getting our annual pumpkin at Giant Eagle. (For the non Pittsburghers among us, that was our local grocery store, also pronounced 'Gine Iggle'.)

But after having BabyT in 2009, I started to notice lovely fall photos of happy children frolicking amidst pumpkins on Facebook in October. And people at work would ask about "the *best* pumpkin patches" on our parents email lists. I guess here in Western Washington, we have options, yo. And god forbid we should disappoint our offspring by going to a *lame* pumpkin farm. Oh no, we must choose the *best* one. *snicker*

So I planned to happily bypass the whole pumpkin farm issue, except for the tiny fact that my daughter has a deep and abiding love for pumpkins. I found this out when I bought her a tiny round one on a shopping trip and she hugged it like it was her best friend. On most nights she sleeps with it. My mom had the same idea and bought her one as well, and she loves it too. She puts them together in her dollhouse to keep her dinosaurs company. (Yes, you read that correctly. The dinosaurs live in the dollhouse with her Little People. And of course the pumpkins.)

So I figured that we should go to a local pumpkin farm, and check off this apparently all-American Halloween tradition.

I posted a Google+ status about how it seemed like a really boring thing to do. I don't like getting wet or dirty, and walking around a field with a bunch of pumpkins seems not very interesting.

Well, Halloween is on Monday, and TJ and I have alternately been sick this week, so today was the day.  As is usual with a toddler, her nap ran unexpectedly late, she was cranky, and it was pouring rain. But we put our REI rain gear on (we live in Seattle, you know), T donned her new frog rain boots, and we drove off to Dr Maze's farm, conveniently located close to home.

Since it was after 5pm on a really wet day, there were only 4 of us in the whole place (besides the employees).  Everything was soaking wet and there were lots of puddles.  It was starting to get dark.

But it was AMAZING.  It was right up T's alley.  She could touch everything.  She could stomp in puddles.  She could pick up pumpkins and hug them.  She could kiss them.  (yes, I know, crazy.)  She got to decide where we went and what we looked at.  She was WEARING HER FROGGY BOOTS, MAMA!  She saw real live chickens, alpacas (new word for her), and pygmy goats.  We visited the "Monster Pumpkin" section twice, where they had the HUGE ones.  She calls them 'Daddy pumpkins'.  The medium sized ones were (wait for it) 'Mama pumpkins'.   And the little ones of all colors?  Yep, you guessed it - 'Trillian Pumpkins'.

She was briefly sad, and burst into tears in that delightful 2 year old way about the crushed pumpkin we saw, and one that had some odd lumps and bumps on it.  But when I asked her later which pumpkin was her favorite, she was all about the "bumpy one".

I actually remembered my camera, and even better, remembered to take photos.  I'm pretty darn proud of the last one.  Too bad it was a total accident and not due to any sort of skill or planning on my part.  But this gives me hope that I can learn to capture some awesome shots of my awesome girl.



Froggy boots, T's favorite bumpy pumpkin, and mama is sorry for hating on the pumpkin farm


So yeah, I'm totally eating my words about this pumpkin farm business.  Right now, my happy toddler is sleeping with her 2 newest pumpkins, while the other two watch over her from the dollhouse.

We are so doing this every year, even when she's 20.

She stepped off the bus out into the city streets

Yes, it's another episode of People Who Annoy Me on the Bus. These people make it so delightful to use public transit. Of course, after 6 months of riding the bus twice a day, my patience is starting to wear thin.

1. Flossing Guy. Fortunately, I've only seen him once. We were both walking to the bus stop in the morning and as we walked, he was flossing his teeth. I kid you not. Do people not learn from their mamas that things like flossing and applying deodorant are what you do in the privacy of your own bathroom?? When he was done flossing he just dropped the floss on the sidewalk. EWWWWW. And no, this wasn't a homeless guy, or someone who might not have had a bathroom to floss in. He was a Computer Professional, with an expensive laptop bag and everything. Just plain nasty. I'm glad I haven't seen him again.

2. Smoking Spitting Guy. This guy rides the same bus as me on a regular basis. He's quiet and unobtrusive which is the best kind of bus co-passenger. Until he got off the bus today and started walking in the same direction as me. He lit up his cigarette and then proceeded to snork and spit at every crosswalk while we waited for the light to change. After two traffic lights worth of spitting and foul cigarette smoke, I chose a different route. Unfortunately as I got closer to work, we ended up at the same intersection again. Ewwwwww.

3. Oh My Gosh, I Have to Pay?! Girl. This is actually not just one girl, it's several people. They get on the bus in Redmond in the morning, during rush hour, and seem thoroughly confused that they are expected to actually PAY for their bus trip downtown. They stand in front of the fare box, blocking everyone else, while they fumble in their purse for their wallet, and dig out money to pay the fare. Sometimes they ask the driver if he has change. What?? If you were smart enough to consult the bus schedule, were you not smart enough to also see how much it costs, and make sure you have the fare handy? The other 20 people in line, who do this EVERY DAY, are not amused. Or sorry for you. At least stand to the side while sorting out your personal problems, wouldja??

One thing I love about riding the bus: I have noticed people reading books in Spanish, Russian, some Eastern European language, Chinese, Japanese, and (of course) English. I still love that the bus I ride comes frequently enough I never have to check the timing. I just show up and wait for the next one and I've rarely waited more than 10 minutes. I also love that my bus never smells like pee. (Which I can't say about the buses that run within downtown Seattle.) And I LOVE the (almost) yearly Poetry on Buses competition. 2007 was an especially good year.

Yay for public transportation. What new transit stories do you have for me?

All through the town

Today's post is brought to you by the letter B and the number 545.

Ever since I went to London with my mom in 1996, I've had a fascination with public transportation. I thoroughly enjoyed figuring out how to use the Tube there, and that fascination extended to Seattle when I was in graduate school at UW, where I took the Metro bus every chance I got. When I was working for Deloitte in the Bay Area, I tried to use BART when it made sense, and when I visited Munich, Germany for work at Microsoft, I took the train there as well. (Its hip German name escapes me now - Schnellbahn or something like that.) That worked out fine except the one time when I accidentally boarded the express train to somewhere far away, ie the next city or Switzerland or something. (Which, thankfully, had its last Munich stop at the exact station I needed.) The train ticket-taker was not happy with me that day.

Now that I work in downtown Seattle, I take the bus to work, every day, rain or shine. I've even got once of those fancypants passes that I buy monthly so I'm a real public transit commuter. And I love it. I don't know why. I'm not particularly environmentally conscious, and I do hate getting stuck in traffic, but there's just something about the bus *system* that I like: looking at schedules, figuring out what other options I have, and the occasional time I have to go to a different destination and need to find the bus route for that. Wow, I am such a geek. I like the idea (in theory) that I could get anywhere in Seattle using our bus system.

Mind you, I only love public transportation when it's clean, efficient, and the fellow travelers aren't skeezy or trying to talk to me. Which reminds me of the horrible time that my friend Jennifer and I tried to take the bus in Los Angeles(nobody takes the bus in LA!!) from Pasadena to the shopping mall in Glendale, a mere 15 minute drive, but a bus trip that took 2 hours, I kid you not. That was a bad public transit experience.

Anyway, back to Metro. If you are only an occasional rider, or just unaware of bus-etiquette, here are a couple of tips for you:

1. Do not clip your nails while standing in line waiting to board the bus. That's just disgusting to do that so close to another person. At least stand ATM-distance away while you're conducting personal hygiene tasks.

2. If you see a whole line of people waiting for the bus, and you get to the bus stop after them, get in the back of the line and board the bus when it's your turn. Don't just stand up at the front and take advantage of the nice gentleman who thinks ladies should go first if they're standing there. The rest of the people are waiting in line because we got here before you and the bus is often crowded enough that you're not guaranteed a seat. I understand that you might come from a pushing-shoving kind of culture, but we're not that way here. But as Americans, we're also too non-confrontational to say anything to you. And don't pretend like you didn't notice this happens every day. If you're smart enough to work in the software industry, you're probably smart enough to notice this pattern.

3. If you see the bus at the stop and you're 200 yards away, don't start running and make the bus wait for you. Yes, Metro drivers are really nice and will generally wait, but the other people on the bus don't need to be inconvenienced because you didn't consult the bus schedule. If you're not within 50 feet, just give up and wait for the next one.

3. If the bus is crowded and you have to sit next to someone, try not to be touching them, as much as possible. Most people like their personal space. I don't need your leg touching mine, or your newspaper in my face, unless I ask for it, which leads me to the next point.

4. No, I do not want the other half of the cookie you just ate. No, I don't want to talk about where I work. No, I don't need to hear your loud cell phone conversation in whatever language it is you're speaking. If you must talk on the phone, please, for god's sake, do it quietly. I give you a bit more leeway if you're speaking English because eavesdropping entertains me, and no, I can't believe she wore the blue dress when you said it was your color. The nerve of her!

That's all.

Saturday night's alright for fightin'

I can barely keep my eyes open - today was a tiring day for both people and dogs. TJ's parents are here so we went to Aunt Susie's (aka Spike's vacation resort) for a lunchtime BBQ. After a few hours there, and some very hard work keeping Spike and Peanut away from the food, we took them over to the new Olympic Sculpture Park in downtown Seattle.

The park is pretty cool - a very neat open space with a path and some odd sculptures here and there. Very well-kept. It was a beautiful day out, too, so it should have been the perfect outing. Except that Spike and Peanut were already tired from having to behave at Aunt Susie's house, and so they were just not paying any attention to us at all. Both of them were pulling on the leash like crazy which in turn made me tired and cranky. So sad.

But we'll go back to the Sculpture Park again this summer. I'll definitely try to find an excuse to walk over there once I start my new job - it's just a few blocks away from it.

I made some more jewelry - one asymmetric necklace that I'm quite proud of, and I re-did the bracelet I made for Rinki. Will post pics tomorrow if I can get any good ones - I may have to take Lisa up on her suggestions for getting better ones. I just need to figure out what she meant by a "garage light" from Home Depot!

Good Day Sunshine

I had a good day at work today. I have been in my new job on the Microsoft Speech Server team for a week. My office is set up the way I like it. I already have a couple of different things to work on and felt like I made some progress today. All in all, a satisfying day.

Daylight Savings time robbed us of an hour yesterday, but TJ and I took advantage of it today by taking the dogs to the PARK. Marymoor Park, to be precise. It's about 2 miles from our house and the most amazing off-leash area ever, with more than 40 acres of open fields, a river, and lots of trails for the dogs to explore. Peanut loves it so much that you can't even say the work PARK around him unless you want a giant excited dog jumping around all over the place. And then you better get ready and get in the CAR and GO to the PARK.

Today Peanut played the ever popular "jump on your head" and "bitechu" games with Java, his boxer buddy. We see Java a lot at Marymoor and he's always up for a good Peanut game. That made up for the disappointing trip yesterday when Peanut didn't find *any* dogs who wanted to play his Peanut games. Spike is quite the BeagleMan about town, just rummaging and sniffing, and doing his own thing. Sometimes he'll chase the Peanut and bark at him, or try to mount Peanut while he's distracted. I think Spike believes one day he WILL be the big dog. It's good to have goals.

Now both dogs are crashed out in their respective sleeping areas - Spike has spent the last couple of nights in his "box" and Peanut is sprawled out on the carpet, triangulating me in the bedroom and TJ at the computer. You can always find Peanut about halfway between the two of us if we're in different rooms. I guess he likes to keep an eye on us so he doesn't miss anything. Good night, puppies.