Cold Spaghetti

Favorite places: anywhere outside! Especially… walking around our block, playing in the park, walking along the Mississippi, exploring the backyard

Words: anything and everything. Is starting to pick up short sentences… “Where Dad-dy?” “Octavia Books!” “Mo’ Ce’al, Mommy” and his favorites… “Shoes on!” and “Go Outside!”

Clothes: still wearing warmer weather clothes, at least for one more day, we’re expecting a cold snap to hit Wednesday with temps in the 60s… finally! 24 months works in everything. We’re buying size 8 wide shoe!

Food: anything. Favorites include Quaker Peaches and Cream Oatmeal, Uvas (grapes), Fishies (goldfish crackers), Pizza, Apples, Noodles from Noddle Soup, Chocolate Milk, White Grape Juice, Ginger Ale

When you live in a city deep in recovery from a disaster, you have to get creative. Things are just different. Few traffic lights, no traffic cops, few stores/restaurants/amenities open, and every place understaffed and understocked.

So, throwing a party makes you realize how much of the little things you normally take for granted. I decided to make invitations to Will’s party. Normally, there would be options. You could pick up themed paper to make invitations in your printer, find blank invitations to fill out by hand, or even have something printed up. If you wanted to make something, you could buy crafting supplies and have a blast. Here in New Orleans, those options are limited to what you can find at the Walgreen’s or Winn-Dixie. Cursing myself for leaving my craft and scrapbooking supplies in Mobile, I inventoried my stash… and came up with a few sheets of construction paper and some peach cardstock (leftover from our wedding 5 years ago!) Inspired, I got creative. I made the invitations in the picture above. I printed out the text on the cardstock and using a compass and exacto-knife, cut out round circles. Then I pasted the cardstock on plastic wrap, cut the wrap to size, and cemented on to the construction paper. Will made my day when he asked “wa doing?” and then exclaimed “bubbles!!” when I showed him. A bubble-themed invitation!

There are other challenges in party-planning for this week. Is it possible to get helium balloons? We’re hoping that the neighborhood toy store can pull through for us on this one… we’ll check when they open up tomorrow. (Backup plan: my parents rent a tank from a party store in Mobile and bring it with them this weekend?) Food is also somewhat more of a challenge. No platters or catering from the local groceries, which means someone has to be active in the kitchen… two weeks before comps.

Regardless, we are planning a somewhat laid back playdate that happens to have cake and some singing. Although Will won’t remember it, we will be able to tell him about how his loving Mommy worked all day to cut and paste special “bubble-themed” invitations for his very first party!

Join Us in celebrating
Will’s 2^nd Birthday!

A small-scale play date is what we have planned,

Just a few kids, with lots of fun at hand!

Bubbles, chalk, play-doh, and juggling, too,

With snacks, drinks, and conversation to do!

Saturday, November 19^th

1:30pm

RSVP to Holly and Paul

Presents, food, and drink are welcome – but not expected!

We hope to see you there!

What a wonderful happy day surprise! Catherine Kegan Martz arrived almost a month early to proud parents Robin and Dave! Hooray! She is beautiful and I am bonding with Robin over the similar experience… going in for an appointment and coming out with a baby, having a different than intended birth experience, and dealing with bili lights! And no surprise… shortly after giving birth, a nurse commented that Robin was the first mother she’d ever seen walking down the hall, pushing the baby’s bassinet, and carrying her hospital bag so soon after delivering (with no pain meds and on a heavy pitocin push, no less!) (What would the nurse have said if she knew that Robin had already taken Catherine out for a quick 10k run around the ward?)

Congratulations to Super Robin and Dave!

It is disgusting that President Bush used Veteran’s Day to defend his indefensible war. Veteran’s Day is about honoring the sacrifices of service men and women and their families. Having been raised in a military family with a father on active duty for all of my formative years, I actually take the message and meaning of the day seriously. I believe it is a good time to think about how we can be a better country to the veterans that have served and represented us. So it made me ill that the administration used the day to divert attention away from veterans and the needs of the thousands of veterans their war is now making. Good plan, considering the administration is systematically wildling away at the benefits and rights of veterans. Cuts to health and disability benefits, lies to active duty to extend time in service, inadequate protection for current service men and women, broken promises on education benefits… these are just the start. After all, if you give your life in this misguided war, the Feds may even deface your tombstone. Those are the issues that should have been on the table during this Veteran’s Day. Not using the day to trump up “support” for the President’s War. And *certainly* not to remove the 55-year tradition of allowing veteran’s groups to have the opportunity to make legislative recommendations at joint House-Senate hearings.

What a slap in the face of all veterans, their families, and supporters. Something to think about next time we’re starting at one of those “support our troops” car stickers.

I get that you like to mess with women’s hormones. What fun! But how about focusing some attention on creating the contraception choices we REALLY need… like ones that can help control the spread of deadly disease? Controlling women’s reproduction is a total kick, but honestly, we’re worried about disease these days. Sometimes I think you haven’t noticed, so to remind you, HIV and AIDS are *very* big problems. All we’ve got to use against the spread of STIs is the condom, hardly a practical solution. I know you think you did women a favor by inventing the female condom, but seriously, what a joke! Let’s get those creative minds working on something truly useful!

PS: If you MUST keep on with the obsessive work on fertility control, might I suggest finding a reliable method of birth control that does *not* require doctor visits, prescriptions, insurance, or heavy expense? If you haven’t noticed, those are serious problems. C’mon guys! Think *outside* the upper-middle class whitebread box!

Paul and Will watch the tugs push barges down the Mississippi. At “The Fly,” a local river front park hidden behind Audubon Zoo. 

Will was covered in faded poster paints when I picked him up from school. His legs (from the knees down, he wore shorts today) were marked a faded blue.

I can’t wait until he actually can tell us what he did at school. All we can do now is play guessing games to figure out how he managed to cover himself with paint.

I’ve turned the corner and am back in the swing of things… still very very stuffy and congested, but not as sore and definitely more energy. Thank goodness for the magic of antibiotics!

I met with Dr. Rice, the biostats professor I adore. We met at her house, brightly painted in yellows and greens that could make any grouch crack a smile. She made my day: the regression equations I was sure I destroyed were actually done correctly. In fact, the problems I had were weaknesses we already knew about, so it was really obvious in going through the problems what I need to spend my time working on (dealing with interaction terms in logisitic regression). This is a huge relief. She said I was “in great shape” and made me feel much, much better. Even cooler, when I asked her to be on my committee, she said she’d be “delighted” and “would love to!” Thank goodness!

So: my committee is set (Kendall, Murphy, Rice), I’ve gotten thumbs up on biostats, survey design, and m&e. I’m still waiting to hear from my Econometrics prof… and then I’ll feel good about Day One. Time to turn to working on Day Two…!

Oh, and working on getting better. I do *not* want to deal with a stuffy head while sitting these exams!

I’m sick.

A trip the neighborhood MD, a long wait in the pharmacy line for Paul (we only have one pharmacy open during limited hours), and inhalers, sprays, and antibodics… that was our day.

I’m just hoping that I can breathe well enough to make it to my meeting tomorrow with my biostats professor… I’ve been waiting for weeks to have the opportunity of face-to-face time.

The good news: Will and Paul seem okay. It’s just me this time.