Random Internet Tidbits

Yes of course I'm guilty of this. [See post below].

Today, be grateful. This made me sniffle.

Kids say the darndest things. Or, if you're my kid, you say: "hot, water, and uh-oh" over and over and over. Ouch just got added yesterday. By his vocabulary, you can pretty much tell what happens in our house on a daily basis.

We are looking for toddler appropriate ipad apps. Next time I get on a plane I want him glued to that thing. Any recommendations? [On a side note: do I have any guilt about plugging my child into the device for the duration of the flight? None whatsoever. We could only be so lucky]

I think these house remodels are pretty freakin cool.

One of my favorite blogs is A Cup of Jo. Last week she featured interviews with seven working mothers and how they juggle their careers, marriages, and children. Last summer she did a series on mothers that work from home.

Speaking of working mothers, have you been following the recent articles about working women by former Obama administrator Anne-Marie Slaughter and Facebook COO Sheryl Sandberg? Here is a quick recap. Here is Sandberg's TED video and Slaughter's article in the Atlantic (long but worth it). [Why is a stay-at-home mom posting stuff about working moms? Good question. Lots of reasons but a) it never hurts to keep up to date and b) you never know when you might decide to head back to work.]


And on that note, I'm off to go vacuum up the remaining wasps that are inhabiting my garden shed. Wish me luck (and no stings!). 


Peace.
xxoo, 
Sonja

Random Post: Food Art, Summer Activities, and a Lake City Update

Peeps,

Today is Bring-Your-Dog-To-Work Day! Back when we lived in CA, Bailey came to work a few times and hung out with his buddies in CubeLand. He loved it. Can't say I got much work done, however. Today he is in his usual spot, snoozing at my feet. That's my big lump of a pup.

Check out these food creations from artist Carl Kleiner. Amazing, yes?! Perfect for a whimsical kitchen. Find items in his shop here.

Ben is obsessed with all thing bubbles right now. I'm thinking that these bubble snakes would be a quick and easy project for a warm, sunny Seattle day.

Here is photographic evidence of why it's a very excellent idea to wear sunscreen. Or keep to the shade!

How fun would it be to innertube through the canals of a sugar plantation on Kauai?

NE Seattle Peeps:
The city came out with new recommendations for the Lake City Fire Department. They did not endorse the community center proposal. Boo. They did, however, based on the amount of initial feedback from the community, decide to extend the deadline for more input. Click here to get the latest update (and to submit a letter that will hopefully change their mind!).


xxoo,

Sonja

For the Dog People

Peeps,

Have you seen the blog MaddieOnThings? Despite it's weird name, it's pretty cute. My favorite is Maddie sitting in the baby swing in Piper, Kansas. That in itself is not too interesting, until you take into account that Maddie is not a child but a coonhound.

End of the Holiday Season

I am both relieved and mournful that the holiday season has come to a close. Grateful that things have slowed down; sad that the excitement of the season is past. 

Oh, my greatest thing to be thankful for? Christmas songs are not playing on every single music device in our home anymore. I'm not going to repeat what I said when I discovered that all of my radio presets had been changed to Christmas music stations. It's not fit for a family-friendly blog. 

But I do loathe taking down our holiday cards. There were so many wonderful ones this year!

 I adore getting cards. Never do I look forward to the mail more than during the weeks of December.

Oh well. I suppose there is always next year to look forward to. 

Randomly, can you tell what is happening here? We're going to have a banged head in 3...2...1.  Ouch!!

Odds 'n Ends

Here are a few random pictures from this weekend.

Baby had his first Ikea experience. He was not terribly impressed.

I talked last week about the ornament that Chris made Benjamin this year. I liked it so much that I decided to do a similar treatment on the first Christmas tree stub that Chris and I bought together, for our tiny little apartment in Downtown Seattle in 2003 [which can be seen here]. 

Eh, it's not so pretty:

Basically the tree guy cut off the base, got out his sharpie, did a bit of writing (2003 - 1st together), and handed the sucker over. Nice intentions... but not a great product. 

I liked the bark on the outside edge though. 

 This morning I hauled out Dad's trusty belt sander and went to work. Here is the finished product:

I lubed it up with a nice beeswax furniture polish. Not too shabby for five minutes of work. 

 In other news, we have a CHIA PET!!! If you live in Seattle, you'll recognize this guy:

If not, here is the backstory. I've named him Trollie.

This guy is a little late to the hair-growing game: Movember is already over. Moanuary?

We'll keep you updated on his beardly progress.


xxoo,

Sonja

Fall Back, Yo.

Chris sent me this. Daylight Saving Time explained. And why it is such a mess. It’s funny and informative.

Wander lust

My Dears, 

As the weather turns and we settle into the dark gloom of a Seattle winter, my thoughts turn to warm, tropical places. 

I truly am my mother’s daughter. 

We’re staying put this winter but that hasn’t stopped me from perusing pictures of steamy, far-away places. 

Check out my newest discovery: The Welcome Beyond website. 

 Australia

 Italy

 France

 The South Pacific

Looks like fun, yes?

So, anybody want to come with?

And here is my pick for “Very, very awesome but not toasty warm” hotel:

Switzerland

See more cool places here. 

Good thing this guy wasn’t in Ben’s costume contest [Cause he would have won, hands down]

Lovelies-

I’m pretty convinced that this is just about the most awesome halloween get-up I’ve ever seen:

A functional SLR camera costume.

Amazing, yes?

Photo credit: Tyler Card

See the video of how it was made here.

Slightly Taboo Subject: The Post Pregnancy Recovery Edition

Lovelies,

In general, I try to stick to a policy of not writing anything on this blog that I wouldn't say to someone's face. History has proven, time and again, that your boss might be tuning in, or that your horrible Great Aunt Mildred does, indeed, know what twitter is.

But:

I feel it's important to discuss a few post-pregnancy bobbles that I had in the immediate weeks following Benjamin’s birth and I have a feeling that broaching this topic with any male readers (save my husband) might make us all squirm, just a bit.

So, consider yourself warned, my dears. Graphic content ahead. Feel free to disengage now.

Rowing - The Music Video

I posted the teaser for this a while back. Here is the full video.

Who knew rowing was so action-packed and sexy?!

Thanks Woods!

I’ll be the first to admit: crew is not a spectator sport. While we have our share of come-from-behind wins and photo-finishes, it just doesn’t have that panache that you find in other sporting activities. Although the music video does manage to make it look pretty darn stylish. 

Technically accurate? Not so much...

Tired of Overcast

The beginning of this NYTimes article struck a chord with me as many of us up here in grey Seattle are definitely hunkered down for the winter.

Here’s the excerpt:

IN the cycle of the seasons, now is a time of longing — for backyard sunbathing, for cocktails on the patio, for puttering in the garden, and for the distant time when all those activities will be possible again.

And for those who live in climates where all that is still possible, it is high gloating season, a time to feel superior to those of us who have been slogging through slush, picking our way across the ice, heaving snow with our shovels, condemned to wait out the frigid months inside our four walls.

I’ll admit it: I’m in full-fledged longing mode. But not for backyard sunbathing, cocktails, or gardening. Even at 38.75 weeks pregnant (or maybe because of it), I’ve got a hankering for places like this:

Temple of Borobudur, Indonesia

Whitsunday Islands National Park, Australia

Greece

Or activities like these:

Diving in a Jellyfish Swarm, Palau

Elephant washing, Thailand

Such is the nature of longing, right? No where in the definition does it mention the words ‘logical’ or ‘feasible’. 

Read the rest of the NYT article (which has nothing to do with tropical locations) here. All photos: National Geographic. Click here to see more.

Random Map

I just stole this from Liana.

What lovely things have you got going on in your home state?

FYI: Not to be taken seriously as the statistical sources seem a bit suspect. Also the title ‘worst’ doesn’t strike me as being entirely accurate. For example, the ‘nerdiest’ state definition is based on the number of times residents visit the library. That's a good thing, yes? Go Ohio. Source here.

Awake

For the record, I would dearly love to be sleeping right now. An aching back is the culprit. But I have a mug of warm milk, a heat pad, and a snoring dog keeping my feet nice and warm so I suppose things could be worse...

Peeps,

Do you have things that you covet but can never quite bring yourself to purchase?

Mine tend to be kitchen gadgets and gizmos.

Here is a prime example:

 When my mother-in-law’s sweet parents passed away in 2004 we inherited this lovely glass cake cover. Unfortunately, I never had a cake stand that could accommodate the large size and thus our cakes were always awkwardly perched upon a plate, with the entire kitandcaboodle engulfed by the glass cover. Not so pretty.

And I thought about it every time we had a special event that required a fancy dessert. What’s the point of going to all the trouble of making a splendid confection if you can’t present it with a grand flourish? [Well, besides enjoying said delectable item]

So I bit the bullet and bought this plain white cake stand from Pottery Barn with a few gift cards that I had been hoarding.

Problem solved. Fancy desert, fancy [but not fussy] presentation.

The only problem with coveting things is that once you have something in your possession, you naturally turn your attention to wanting other things. Like the fact that my lovely cake stand comes in a smaller size…perfect as a cheese plate!

oy vey.

My Feet Are Freezing

Burr. This cold snap has me longing for warmer climates, especially ones that have oceans hovering around bath-water temperatures. 

Like, St. Lucia, for example. 

We rang in the New Year on this tiny caribbean island with my parents in 2005. We stayed at the amazing Anse Chastanet Resort and gorged ourselves silly every night on delicious food after long days spent diving, mountain biking, and exploring. Life was good great. 

Hmm..I wonder how expensive flights are right now. And what their hospital facilities are like. Perhaps Baby J could have a dual st. lucian/US citizenship?

This Week

Random musings:

• Chris and I had our first baby class this week. I think it’ll be great and I’m excited to meet lots of first-time parents-to-be. I’d guess that every single person in the class is between the ages of 29 and 32, with the exception of one ‘young’ couple in the vicinity of 26ish. Crazy, huh? The first class was a little stiff but hopefully everyone will loosen up a bit by next week. I’ve already been practicing my breathing exercises.

• We just got invited to a wedding in India. How COOL is that? I was all ready to go…until I noticed that the event was scheduled for December 31st. Major bummer. Sorry Baby J, but we’re staying put for the next few months. 

• I finally got around to submitting my holiday card order. It didn’t happen before Mexico, a fact that doesn’t surprise me too terribly much, given my 29 year track record of general tardiness. The overall design is not super creative or funny but the picture is one of my very favorites. I promise to produce something more inspired next year. Maybe santa hats for the entire menagerie? 

• Chris is coping really well with his spiffy new cast, although there has been a wee bit of grumbling about gadgets in this country favoring folks that have the use of both hands. I ventured that this was probably not too surprising, given the rather small percentage of people that are limited to one upper appendage. Showers and tying of shoe laces have so far been the biggest challenges. I’ll post pictures shortly. [of the cast, not of the showering or shoe lacing episodes]

• We went to a husky basketball game a few days before we left for Mexico.  I need to purchase a purple Husky shirt. Desperately. Megan lent me one a while back but I wouldn’t blame her if she didn’t want her clothes to be stretched to 7 month-pregnant-lady proportions. 

• I finally got started on a baby registry. Again, a huge, gigantic thank you to all the folks out there that contributed advice and suggestions. You are fantastically wonderful people. I decided to go with Amazon’s Universal Registry, and I’m crossing my fingers that it will pan out. One feature I really liked is the ability to add items from any website, including Etsy. 

• I started to go through our Mexico pictures last night. Frankly, I didn’t take an excessive number of photos as shots of people laying on the beach tend to get rather boring after a while. There were some amazing butterflies that I managed to snap a few pics of and I’ll post those later. In the meantime, check this dude out:

What you can’t tell is that he has brilliantly scarlet wings that are exposed during flight. So dang cool.

Right-o, that should do it for me. I’m off to go bake a turkey. Not because I want to recreate Thanksgiving dinner but because I love, love, love leftover thanksgiving turkey sandwiches with cranberry sauce on thick wheat bread. Heavenly.

Photo O' the Day: Underwater Art

'The Silent Evolution' is a collection of 400 life-size sculptures completed by artist Jason deCaires Taylor that forms an artificial reef in Cancun, Mexico. The installation is located in the Isla Mujeres National Marine Park; the sculptures are constructed of materials that promote coral regeneration. 

Photos: Jason deCaires Taylor

Just in time for Halloween

From the U District Blog this morning:

10:50 p.m. Police are searching for a mystery object that boaters said they encountered under the Montlake Bridge just after 8:30 p.m. The object was covered in a tarp, and as they were towing it to shore, something fell out. “The boaters thought that the unknown object was possibly a human body,” Seattle Police say. “The boaters lost sight of the object and continued on to the rowing center (off Fuhrman St. in Eastlake) and subsequently called 911.”Guardian One helped in the search, but so far, nothing has been found. Pre-Halloween jitters or the real thing? We’ll keep you updated.


More from the rowers. Yuck. 

Things to do: The Holiday Version

Ugh. It's time to starting thinking about holiday cards.

I really don't like this early preparation for holidays: Costco should not be displaying halloween costumes in August, I should not be made to feel guilty for forgetting Grandparents Day (ahem. Nana. Was Mother's Day not enough?) and thinking about holiday cards should be pushed back until at least late November.

But that is not to be. 

If I don't at least start pondering the options now, it won't happen. 

So. Our annual holiday letter. 

I'm a fan of the quirky and non-traditional. 

Last year we did postcards. With pictures of chickens in santa hats.

The only downside was that some of the photos on the card got a bit smudged in transit. 

This year I'm thinking of using one of the photos that Alex took. Hawaii. Beach. Warm weather. Non-Christmas-y.

That's about as far as you can get from the traditional photo session in front of the formal fireplace, dressed in red plaid, with snow falling outside, right?

Although we could always dress Bailey up as a reindeer. I'm sure he'd love that. 

Oh my god. I could not even begin to imagine the terror of this occurring while diving.

I had to surface once in Belize after an equipment malfunction. I didn't have enough time to notify Chris that I was going up. Massively rough seas, two hours from shore, and [big] bull sharks within spitting distance. Not fun.