Cold Spaghetti

Paul put in the third and last part of the built-in shelving unit he’s building in the study. He’d have to take out the top of the door frame to put shelves in higher, so at this point, we’re stopping. (It’s already a good 8-9 feet high.) Maybe we’ll decide to do something similar to what he did over the hall shower sometime in the future. For now, the top will be open.

Getting the shelf up on the second unit was no small job — Paul did it basically by himself with me only helping to hoist it up and then spotting. He had to lift it over the door frame to the ceiling (12 feet up) and then down to the shelves. Because the walls aren’t square (the house is 100 years old…) this took some work to both move them in place and make sure they didn’t come crashing down. Now all the finish work begins… re-inforcing them to hold the heavy weight of books without bowing over time, putting on the trim, and painting, painting, painting. Eventually, we’ll put doors on the bottom and top units. I am very excited about having shelves and finally getting to organize our work materials… we’ve been working in messy spaces for so long! See Paul’s blog for pictures!

Every Friday, from 4:00–6:00 p.m., the Specialty Department at our neighborhood Whole Foods (the one we can see from our front porch) has different flavors of beer available for tasting, with advice on food pairing. TOO COOL!

– While there is always laundry to do, it is not piled up.
– Sheets are cleaned regularly.
– The kitchen junk drawer is organized.
– The refridgerator is regularly purged and the shelves cleaned.
– This week’s meals have included: French herb quinoa with spicy black beans; Lime-splashed tofu with red curry paste, peas, and yellow tomatoes; zucchini and basil lasagna with red pepper sauce
– Treats have included: crunchy “grasshoppers,” Triple C’s, Triple C’s with peanut butter swirl, and cappuccino parfaits
– Dust does not pile on the furniture for long.
– Clothes were purged and pick-ups arranged on freecycle.
– Our closet is organized.
– I still get in 30 minutes of soaps via TiVo.

I am The Domestic Goddess.

How long can this continue before I develop a drinking problem?

Now seven weeks old (!) and working on her first smiles.



 

I’d rather be in Ann Arbor.

Well, not really. But I do miss many things about it (except the climate from November to May). This made me miss it more. What a fun place!

How are we managing life with two kids? Here’s how:

– I am officially ‘taking the summer off’ which means no regular trips to the PhD desk downtown, no regular meetings with advisors, and no real commitment to research time
– Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday: 8-12pm, Michelle our fabulous babysitter watches Will. When needed, she helps me with Kate, too… so that I can do things like shower without worry. $8/hour.
– Thursday and Friday: 8:30-12:30pm, I take Will to “school” where he has structured activities with a classmate lead by one of their teachers. $17/hour total, split with another family (so $8.50/hour.)

It is incredible how this help — really just watching Will and giving him focused time to play — allows us to do so much!

Fun news: David Scanlan, a friend of mine from high school, came by and visited with us yesterday! Dave’s whole family is from New Orleans; his Mom grew up not far from where we live in Uptown. He is here visiting family and stopped in for the afternoon. It was a great visit and fun to catch up. Some tidbits I learned:
— A ton of CHS folks are on myspace and there is a CHS myspace page (!)
— The rapper Ludacris went to CHS (a class behind ours) (!!)

Both kids were up and active during the visit. Paul did a good job playing with Will so Dave and I could talk (Will was very interested in having this visitor all to himself once he discovered that Dave was up for a game of bucket-head.) Hopefully, Dave will be working at Children’s hospital (a few blocks from our house) during November. (He finishes med school at U of Nebraska in the fall.) It would be very cool to have him close by for more fun chats — although next time, we’ll have to go out NOLA-style and talk over music and drinks.

And also some sad news. DJ Gonzales, a fun, exciting, friendly girl we were in theatre with (a few classes behind ours), died in an apparent suicide a few years back. I’ve been looking for information on this — I have a bunch of pictures from Grandma Betty that include DJ and was thinking about sending them to her family if I can find them. Anyone have any leads?

As said by Will, while he walked to the front room after waking up from last night’s sleep: “That was a good nap.”

Current Will kick: pirates. Pirate do-rag (and shirt, which is currently in the washer and cannot be fished out of the dirty clothes for just one more day) compliments of awesome neighbors Linda and Walt. Sword in pocket built by legos (to horror of pacifist mother). Prisoner Kate unaware of her position as “pirate booty” under the command of the last scourge of the seven seas.
“Argh!”

Somehow, the advent of a second child has actually made us more productive. Two kids, Paul working 10 hour days, and yet we volunteered at Abeona House this weekend, had a great social event Saturday night, took the kids to the Children’s Museum, made good meals at home, AND Paul started to tackle some big projects. What’s the deal??? (Oh, wait. I’m not working and we have childcare help each morning. Hmmm…)

In any case, one “little” project was sanding, priming, and painting the second pocket door arch between the front room and kids play area. Still one more coat of paint to go up, but considering the incredible effort it takes to paint anything in this house, that’s a big deal.

Second, Paul started the shelves for behind the door in the study. To put in the base unit (above), Paul had to take out the door and pull off the trim board. The way he pulls out pieces of this house and puts them back together better than before… a true surgeon! Will watched the whole process with awe and was very helpful with his own red hammer. When completely finished, this lower part will have cabinet doors. We kept the outlet and cabling so that we could run the network and possibly put a printer or other equipment under if we chose.

Tonight, he made the second part of the unit. This part is shallower than the lower unit and we “custom” chose different heights to hold some of the notebooks and books we plan on storing there. This part is in the outbuilding… we need to find a friendly, unsuspecting neighbor to help carry it in tomorrow. Better start making the thank-you cookies…!

See Paul’s blog for more pictures and details!