Childhood friends

Lucky me. Because of the inauguration, an old friend and childhood neighbor, Jim B., made the trek down from Maine for the festivities, and I got to benefit! We went to see Eddie from Ohio on Sunday night at the Birchmere, and had a great time! We hadn't seen each other since Craig and I got married... in 2002 (a thousand years ago). Jim moved into our neighborhood when he was 7; I was probably 4. That's a mighty long time ago!!

EFO was great, and so was Red Molly, their opening act.

Great article about teaching manners to kids

From the New York Times. Give it a read - it is critical stuff.

Bolsheviks! And Fiona is 23 months old!

Because it is bitterly cold here in D.C. right now (18 degrees as I type this, which is pretty brisk for these parts), I decided it was due time to break out the old Russian fur hat, bought in the CCCP back in 1989. And don't the girls look fetching! OK, they look a bit insane, but so what - it's amusing. The cats will enjoy the hat, too, as it is 100% pure rabbit. This was before the anti-fur social movements, so forgive me. I was in the USSR in January - I needed the hat to survive. And yes, I bought it on the black market. Thanks for asking. ;->

On a more important note, Fiona is 23 months old. For those of you who can't do math, that makes her one month away from TWO years old! She is very talkative, and loves singing Bob the Builder, her ABCs, songs from Spamalot, and certain tunes from The Little Mermaid. She has quite the stubborn streak, which we are trying to handle through various techniques (none have yet succeeded). 95% of the time she is very silly, fun, playful, and extremely loving. She loves running to you, arms fully extended like an airplane, for a giant hug. She crashes into you with extreme force, throwing her full weight into it. We positively adore her, tamtrums and all!

Harlen's Saturday night/Sunday morning

When asked how his weekend was...

"Weekend was okay. Two o'clock Saturday morning found me, by the light of the nearly full moon, on the roof cleaning my chimney because it had clogged and was filling the house with smoke. (Honest.) The job was on my to-do list because I knew the creosote was building up, but I didn't realize it had gone critical on me.

Other than actually being on a snow covered metal roof at -2 degrees, and getting smoke in my face, it wasn't so bad. Lots of stars, and very quiet at that time of day. And hey - by 3:00 AM I'd crossed something off my weekend chore list."

Great post about how the NHL could realign

...to add meaning back into games around North America. This is a post (shared by Kirstin) written by a Flyers blogger, and it hits the nail RIGHT on the head.

I would be very excited to see something like this happen, and I bet Caps attendance would go up even higher than it has already.

Visiting old friends

This morning, the girls and I drove to some remote town in Maryland (I am not saying where for security purposes) to visit an old friend and his family. Al and I worked together at Roku back in the day, and it has been about five years since we have seen him in person. In the meantime, his kids have grown into lovely little people, and he hadn't even met the girls - so everyone was excited. We can't wait to see them again!!

Weekend visitor

This weekend we had a special visitor - Popcorn, the baby hamster. On Monday morning, Popcorn is being taken to Fiona and Rory's school, where he/she will live in Fiona's classroom. The previous hamster, Lucky, turned out not to be so... hopefully, Popcorn will have greater longevity.

The cats, meanwhile, couldn't be MORE clueless. Fearsome hunters, indeed.

Rocket Cups!!

Rory (the elder, the namesake) sent fabulous rocket cups to the girls! Many thanks, Aunt Me! (Rory - the younger, the named - calls the elder "Aunt Me"). Thanks, R1!!

Memories of a sweaty summer

In the depths of winter (though a pitiful, snow-free winter by MY standards), it is often entertaining to flash back to summer and its long, hot, moist, sticky days. This picture of Fiona was taking in early August, on Martha's Vineyard, while we visited the grandparental units. No AC in the house. Obviously.

Rory's fancy new dress

Courtesy of a super huge sale at Hanna Andersson, an adorable (and putridly expensive) kid's clothing store. Not the best picture ever (mobile phone), but you can see how fab the garment is, nevertheless. She loves it!