mega-recap of the last 13 days
Jun. 16th, 2005 01:49 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
flea1. Hosted potluck/party for, as it turned out, 7 adults and 6 children (only 5 of whom were ambulatory). 4 toddlers and a 5 year old in a small house are quite noisy, in a fun way. Strange to see Casper as the youngest one, the baby of the group. It went well, for the most part. Rich Family were an hour late because the kids went down for naps late. I am from the school of "if you have a date at 5, put your kids down for naps in enough time to have them awake by 4:30," but I begin to suspect my level of consideration for others is excessive.
2. Went to neighborhood block party, fed Casper olives and strawberries, ate rather a lot of other people's food, had some decent conversations.
3. Mother arrived from Boston, dispensed hugs and toy Southwest airplane. Doted on Casper. Doting was within 30 minutes mutual. Casper immediately started saying "Grandma!" and taking a cookie from the open bag over to Grandma before eating another cookie herself.
4. Sunday, on our first really yucky summer day, the AC unit gave up the fight and started flipping the fuse every 10 minutes. mr. flea called the landlady and within 20 minutes they were out the door to Lowe's and purchased a new 24,000 BTU unit on her nickel. We spent the rest of the afternoon lying about limply until I mustered my forces and called various neighbors until I found one home, willing to lend a big enough vehicle to transport said new AC unit from Lowe's to our house. Installation began around 6:30 pm and was abandoned at about 9, after Casper cut her finger on the new unit and bled everywhere and mr flea got grumpy with the fiddly bits of cardboard that go between the unit and the window frame. Installation completed by 10 the mext morning however. All in all, Go Team Landlady and mr flea! We were shortly blissfully cool, is overwhelmed by the noise of the thing. In most rooms of the house it's in the high 70s when the AC is set at about 70, but the advantage of the lower humidity makes the high 70s quite comfortable.
5. Love affair between Grandma and Casper continued through the week, with visits to the library Monday and Wednesday, and to the Museum Tuesday. By Wednesday it was clear Grandma was losing interest in full-time childcare and getting a bit bored, but happily Nutty arrived by plane that afternoon to take over, so Mother hauled Nutty and Casper off to Greensboro to Replacements Ltd. for a self-indulgent binge of ogling dishes.
6. Had a very disappointing experience at Elmo's with such bad wait service that we decided to forgo our looked-forward-to ice cream sundaes. No refills of water or sweet tea, bill brought without asking us if we wanted dessert, then waitress disappeared and I had to snag the manager so we could pay and leave. Very unlike Elmo's and made me very grumpy.
7. Due to electrical storm, Casper learned the word "rhonda." It turned out she meant "thunder" which we puzzled out after a conversation about "Rhonda in the sky."
8. Nutty, while characteristically reserved, seemed to enjoy looking after Casper on Thursday and Friday AM. Casper had a tendency to call Nutty "Grandma" but soon learned her name.
9. Jeff Bridges, as seen shirtless in TRON - yum. Can't even decide if he was better looking 25 years ago or recently. Also, pleased to note he has been married to the same woman since 1975. Jeff, keep at it and don't pull a late-life Harrison Ford, okay?
10. Carrboro visit, involving vegetables, smonster, and new shoes, has already been discussed.
11. Layabout Sunday wallowing in tiredness and stress about future; retrieved by idea of mr flea's bike and pool, as already discussed.
12. Everyone I know is having babies, babies, babies. I need to stop worrying about the future so much because ain't no sense worrying about things you ain't got control over, but deciding to have a second child is exactly as difficult, from a logistics perspective, as deciding to have a first one. For us, anyway. There's just no right time, and if I try and think about juggling mr flea's degree and future job, my job and possible future degree or job, child care for existing child, child care for future child, when to switch my health insurance to cover a midwife-assisted birth - well, you can see how a girl like me would get a furrow in her brow.
13. The end. Any questions?
2. Went to neighborhood block party, fed Casper olives and strawberries, ate rather a lot of other people's food, had some decent conversations.
3. Mother arrived from Boston, dispensed hugs and toy Southwest airplane. Doted on Casper. Doting was within 30 minutes mutual. Casper immediately started saying "Grandma!" and taking a cookie from the open bag over to Grandma before eating another cookie herself.
4. Sunday, on our first really yucky summer day, the AC unit gave up the fight and started flipping the fuse every 10 minutes. mr. flea called the landlady and within 20 minutes they were out the door to Lowe's and purchased a new 24,000 BTU unit on her nickel. We spent the rest of the afternoon lying about limply until I mustered my forces and called various neighbors until I found one home, willing to lend a big enough vehicle to transport said new AC unit from Lowe's to our house. Installation began around 6:30 pm and was abandoned at about 9, after Casper cut her finger on the new unit and bled everywhere and mr flea got grumpy with the fiddly bits of cardboard that go between the unit and the window frame. Installation completed by 10 the mext morning however. All in all, Go Team Landlady and mr flea! We were shortly blissfully cool, is overwhelmed by the noise of the thing. In most rooms of the house it's in the high 70s when the AC is set at about 70, but the advantage of the lower humidity makes the high 70s quite comfortable.
5. Love affair between Grandma and Casper continued through the week, with visits to the library Monday and Wednesday, and to the Museum Tuesday. By Wednesday it was clear Grandma was losing interest in full-time childcare and getting a bit bored, but happily Nutty arrived by plane that afternoon to take over, so Mother hauled Nutty and Casper off to Greensboro to Replacements Ltd. for a self-indulgent binge of ogling dishes.
6. Had a very disappointing experience at Elmo's with such bad wait service that we decided to forgo our looked-forward-to ice cream sundaes. No refills of water or sweet tea, bill brought without asking us if we wanted dessert, then waitress disappeared and I had to snag the manager so we could pay and leave. Very unlike Elmo's and made me very grumpy.
7. Due to electrical storm, Casper learned the word "rhonda." It turned out she meant "thunder" which we puzzled out after a conversation about "Rhonda in the sky."
8. Nutty, while characteristically reserved, seemed to enjoy looking after Casper on Thursday and Friday AM. Casper had a tendency to call Nutty "Grandma" but soon learned her name.
9. Jeff Bridges, as seen shirtless in TRON - yum. Can't even decide if he was better looking 25 years ago or recently. Also, pleased to note he has been married to the same woman since 1975. Jeff, keep at it and don't pull a late-life Harrison Ford, okay?
10. Carrboro visit, involving vegetables, smonster, and new shoes, has already been discussed.
11. Layabout Sunday wallowing in tiredness and stress about future; retrieved by idea of mr flea's bike and pool, as already discussed.
12. Everyone I know is having babies, babies, babies. I need to stop worrying about the future so much because ain't no sense worrying about things you ain't got control over, but deciding to have a second child is exactly as difficult, from a logistics perspective, as deciding to have a first one. For us, anyway. There's just no right time, and if I try and think about juggling mr flea's degree and future job, my job and possible future degree or job, child care for existing child, child care for future child, when to switch my health insurance to cover a midwife-assisted birth - well, you can see how a girl like me would get a furrow in her brow.
13. The end. Any questions?
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no subject
Date: 2005-06-16 06:27 pm (UTC)Does Casper call her aunt, "Auntie Nutty"? Because that would be too cool.
In most rooms of the house it's in the high 70s when the AC is set at about 70, but the advantage of the lower humidity makes the high 70s quite comfortable.
I've found the same thing with my set up. It's the reduction in humidity that really makes the difference.
no subject
Date: 2005-06-16 06:32 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2005-06-16 06:38 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2005-06-16 06:46 pm (UTC)I seem to recall that most of my nieces and nephews started off pronouncing my sister Jane's name about the same way that Casper does.
no subject
Date: 2005-06-16 06:58 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2005-06-16 07:08 pm (UTC)This is not reserve. It is being floppy and unfocussed and amenable to everything. Which only seems reserved in contrast to the onmivorous bossiness of the Parental Unit.
dzh
Date: 2005-06-17 01:39 am (UTC)[that's supposed to be a quote; don't know if it will actually show up as such]
We should commiserate (sp?) - on that and the furrowed brow.