Cold Spaghetti

Paul and Millard watch Will at play.

Will steers!

Paul and Will go down the big twisty slide. Cranbrook Park, Ann Arbor, Michigan.

Will climbs on the equipment in Oakbrook Villa’s play area in Cranbrook Park, Ann Arbor, Michigan. (This is the park our house faced when we lived here.)

Even with missing the last three weeks of classes, my grade for BIOS 604: Intermediate Biostatistics…

99.18% — A+

Whoopie!!!

The kids “freeze” with their eyes closed, ready for the next instruction!

The kids gather to learn about the next activity. Will is in the light blue overalls on the right… he followed the big kids over and sat down just like they did!

Will went to his first birthday party on Sunday. (The first kids’ birthday for me and Paul, too!) The birthday boy (William) is the eldest child of one of my peers in the PhD program (we’ve taken the boys to the zoo together — there are posts about this in the December archives.) William turned 4, so most of the kids at the party were around this age (except for a 6 month old baby, Will was the youngest.) The party was held at a gymnastics center (GREAT idea) and the kids played on an obstacle course, then were lead in fun activities (walking like a crab, keeping a balloon in the air with your elbows, etc.) and then birthday cake. A perfect 90 minutes! AND, Will left with a great fireman’s hat and goody bag. (He loves the fireman’s cap… particularly wearing it backwards. In fact, the fireman’s cap was worn tonight during our evening trip playing “Around” the block.)

In this picture, Will is holding his balloon and watching all the other kids keep theirs in the air!

After two years of not wearing my beloved wedding band and engagement ring, I decided to break down and re-size them. As with most things, I approached this rationally. I know that the body prepares for labor by supplying progesterone and prolactin to relax things… so stuff is wider post-baby. Accordingly, my shoe size went from a regular/narrow 7-7 1/2 to an 8 wide. There are some shirts I’ll never be able to button again. So I felt it reasonable that my ring size would go up as well and felt that it was time.

Good heavens. I went from a 4 3/4 ring size to 6 3/4 !!! Wow.

After asking around, I brought my rings to the place everyone thinks of as “the best” jeweler in town, Adler’s. Not a great experience. I should have known I wasn’t going to feel good about the experience when they didn’t fall over themselves gushing about the set: the engagement ring was Paul’s grandmother’s and is a one-of-a-kind, self-styled piece that is totally stunning. I told the staff all about the ring, how important it was to not only me by to our family, and how I brought it to them because I thought it would get the best care and attention. The results? Disappointing! I ended up bringing back my engagement ring to complain (the splice of gold they added was visible and rough in the shaft!) Also, the delicate edging made by Faith Capone of Capone’s Jewelry in Blacksburg, VA when she sized them down for me was rubbed off (I wish I could have brought them to Faith, she was incredible). And finally, the rings are a bit too big (turns out I’m more of a 6 1/2.)

All that aside, I picked them up today. I’m still not completely pleased with the results, but will wait before doing anything else to them. The bottom line is that they are beautiful and I can’t stop glancing at them flashing on my finger! It is cool to have rings again!