sarahmichelef | Entries tagged with people: family

We lived the jet-set lifestyle and went to DC for the weekend - left on a 7:30 flight Saturday morning, came home on a 7:30 flight Sunday night. On tap was Ethiopian dinner (advantage of mentioning things off-hand to the in-laws: they make them happen!) and the Children's Concert at the Kennedy Center.

Ethiopian dinner was at Meskerem, and it was fabulous. Ethiopian is some of my favorite ethnic cuisine and we didn't have it in WMass and we haven't found it here, either (though I'm sure we could find it in Toronto and I will gladly drive an hour and a half for Ethiopian food). We got a vegetarian sampler and then 2 non-veggie dishes (spicy chicken and then a sweetish shrimp dish) and everything was STUNNING. They were great with TRex, too - she cuted her way into 2 hardboiled eggs (much to Opa's chagrin - M comes by his egg issues very honestly). It should not surprise anyone who knows my child that she tried everything and ate most of it with gusto, no matter how spicy it was.

The NSO Children's Concert was cool but slightly disappointing from the grownup perspective. The orchestra is of course amazing, as is the space. (I have a great picture of TRex dashing towards Maestro Mouse past the bust of JFK.) The programming was not as kid-friendly as I would have hoped; TRex loved the "compose yourself" piece where the audience got to vote on their preferred melody, who should play it, and the accompaniment. There was a world premiere story piece for orchestra and one narrator/actress that needed to be about 10 minutes shorter if it was going to keep the four-year-old set interested.

We also managed to go and get manis and pedis for the adult girls (TRex has declared that she's going to get a manicure when she stays with Grandma and Opa this summer) and enjoyed our last chance to see Josh & Jacy before cousin arrives in July. I took full advantage of my blanket permission to molest Jacy's belly at will and got to "hold" my niece's hand as she stuck it out at me. At least I think it was a hand - it was the right size & hardness & location to be a hand.

The first day that we were at my parents' was a Flickr DILO (day in the life of...). Enjoy.

We are getting H family portraits done - all seven of us - the day after Thanksgiving. Apparently this weekend Fran told Jacy to talk to me about what we should wear for the pictures (how's THAT for passing the buck?). Harry wants to do white shirts and khakis but somehow it was decided that the daughters-in-law should make the final decision.

So I suggested that we just pack both white shirts & khakis AND jewel-toned shirts and thus avoid being the ones to make the decision.

So lately a topic of discussion amongst the maternal family has been that my 87-year-old grandmother lives by herself in an extremely ramshackle house with no close family (kids or grandkids) ANYWHERE nearby.

greydora and our cousin L are closest and that's just because they're both on the left coast. Recently Uncle R. (Mom's older brother) managed to convince Grandma that it would be OK for somebody to call and check on her every evening - as he put it, "that way we know by 10 pm if something's wrong." Up to this point, he has been doing all the calling but now he is traveling and not able to make the calls, so a number of the rest of us (greydora, mom, me, I don't know if the cousins or any of the family in Israel are going to join in this endeavor) are taking turns. Tonight was my turn so I gave her a buzz and we chatted for a bit about work, TRex's starting pre-k and her upcoming birthday, the fact that her school no longer uses actual photographs for their staff IDs (she's an elementary school teacher's aide - bonus points for speaking, at last count, six languages*), etc. Towards the end of the conversation I commented that maybe we'll continue the taking turns calling even after R is back in touch. She said, "Well, unless something is wrong, I don't really see the necessity of it." I said that I wasn't getting involved in that debate - she would have to take the issue up with her children, I was going to do as I was instructed.

*Her native German as well as English, Spanish (the one that she uses the most at work), French, Italian, and Hebrew. She may know some Russian, too. It might be said that I come by my facility with languages a bit naturally.

How often do I go a week without posting? Crazy, man. Let's see...

Survey is doing it's thing. Must pimp more widely, but it's going. Yay.

greydora was here from Monday midday until this morning, hanging out and generally being a bad influence on her niece. I interviewed for a spring semester adjunct position at Niagara University on Tuesday, and then we traipsed on over to the Canadian side of the Falls. For once the Canadian border control gave us more trouble than the American - we forgot TRex's birth cert., d'oh. Coming back they were more than willing to accept her immunization record as proof of ID. It's going to become a royal pain when we have to have a passport for HER, too. Yesterday the weather was mostly foul; we played outside some, played inside some. Didn't make any attempt to see any "booms" because TRex is scared of them (she FLIPPED OUT when the kids across the street were setting of some crackers) and we were all lazy and greydora had work to do anyway. We watched HP:GoF instead, which has some fireworks in its own right. Also, I finished most of the seams on the ho' I'd been working on and fixed the fitting of the foot.

Ummm.... other than that, life is a bit crazy, as it always is. I'm sure I had more to post about, but I just can't remember what.

Long weekend, no post.

Swapped one husband/daddy for two parents/grandparents (mine). Daddy changes more diapers than grandparents do. Also knows where to put dishes away, gets up with the kiddo on alternate mornings, and snuggles me.
Failed in our attempt to get wings for the parents (Duff's was too busy on Saturday night and closed (or at least not answering their phone) today), ended up at Don Pablo's and at home, respectively.
Got grandparenty portraits taken with the kiddo. Are v. cute.
Acquired 3 camp chairs for six bucks each at Linens & Things. Yay.
Attempted to go to a free concert at Crystal Beach on Sunday late afternoon/evening but the weather was craptacular. Well, at that point it was just veryvery windy and chilly. So we taught TRex how to roll down hills and let her dig on the sand for a bit before heading out to try to find a less cold/windy spot to have our picnic. We ended up at the picnic tables by the (closed) concession stand at Old Fort Erie where we had our dinner and went for a walk before it started to rain in earnest. True to form, the Canadians didn't care to see our identification, but the Americans did. (Though they didn't balk at my expired passport - must do something about that.)
Today, we went to the zoo where TRex got to feed a giraffe a zwieback cracker. In fact, when we got there and I asked her what she wanted to see first, she said "the daffes! I feed the daffe a cracker!" She'd seen this before, but not done it, but I would have thought that it was long enough ago that she wouldn't remember, and I certainly didn't say anything to her about it. Her brain is a scary, scary place.
Then we went to the playground, which she left WILLINGLY. That was just weird. She decided, after I warned her that we were going home when the bells played (it's right next to a church), that it was time to go home. *boggle*
Tomorrow, parents leave at oh-hell-yes-they-ordered-a-cab-o-clock and I have to teach. But before then (read: tonight) I have to get my stuff together for leaving in the morning (backpack, purse, gym bag, kid's library books and CDs that have to go back), take a shower, decide what I'm wearing tomorrow (based on what doesn't need ironing), and crash.
ETA: I am a total flake. On Sunday we also all had brunch with belmikey which was lovely as always.

I have occasionally teased

greydora about turning into our grandmother*, particularly when she does things like packing the cardboard box from her microwave mac-n-cheese into her suitcase to take home & recycle.

Today when I went downstairs to start a load of laundry, I noticed that the dehumidifier was full. And so, rather than dumping all that water down the sink, I dumped it into the washing machine (since I wash on cold anyway). And then it occurred to me that that was a very Grandma thing to do.**

*Our grandmother who spent our family vacation last year squirreling away cookies and sandwiches and various other foodstuffs in her dresser drawers, which were ultimately confiscated by the cleaning staff because critters were getting into her room. Our grandmother who woke both greydora and me up at ungodly early hours of the morning washing out plastic bags when the three of us were sharing an apartment at Kibbutz Gat while there visiting our uncle and his family, probably 9 years ago now.

**Grandma who does things like collect the runoff from her roof and use it to water her indoor plants, or to flush toilets. That said, she does live in LA so there's SOME logic there

Of course, my computer crashed as I was posting my traditional "don't burn down the Internet while I'm gone" message, so you didn't even know i was offline. This is also the cause of my ACTUALLY having forgotten something for this trip (I always have that nagging "what in the hell did I forget?" feeling) - my power cable. D'oh. It turned out OK - TRex was able to watch some Sesame Street as we waited for THREE DAMN HOURS in O'Hare on the way to the 'rents' house and I was still able to Flickr some of the pics and it wasn't an issue.

As

greydora has already noted, Dad turned 65 on Thursday. Us being there was a lucky coincidence. But we had "happy cake" and shrimp creole and opened a present.

Otherwise, it was a mellow couple of days chillin' in Oklahoma.

Did I miss anything big?

Current Mood: tired
Current Location: the basement
Current Music: Frontline on PBS