Multiple choice weekend

O.K., so this post will be in the multiple choice format. See if you can match the family members to the deeds:

Two people went to a parent-teacher meeting and found out that one person was doing quite well.
Two people had a hockey lesson.
One person went to yoga.
One person went to the grocery store, Target and the health food store.
Two people have sore throats and stuffy noses.
Zero people went to the TaeKwonDo tournament.
One person went to the hardware store twice.
Two people finally finished all of the unfinished furniture.
One person bought cheese twice.
One person had explosive diarrhea.
Three people thought that Neko Case's Middle Cyclone was awesome.
Four people went to the Normal Children's Museum.
Four people went to the ISU family swim (trick question).
One person sanded the claw marks off of the storm door.
One person packed up the winter clothes.
One person forgot to plant the bush beans.

Here are some clues:




One person doesn't take very good pictures, but can make O.K. videos.

Home vacation

Last year we got home from the east coast early and had a great time on vacation at home. I came to the shocking realization that if I didn't actually go to campus and sit in my office for 8-10 hours a day, no one came after me to do things. I was able to catch up on household chores, play with the kids and also get work done.

This year we had a week off of school at home. I spent the first few days convincing the kids that despite what they may have been told by their grandparents, they are not the center of the universe. Also, I do not wake up every morning with the goal of finding new and interesting ways to amuse them. That said, we had a good time this week. The kids, Danny and I did a major toy sorting and reorganization to make room for new toys. We wrote thank you notes and finished mailing out our holiday cards and newsletter. (Hint: if you didn't get one, we may not have your snail mail address!) Joseph worked on a pictorial diary of his vacation for school. I painstakingly cut and glued 100 cricket box lids, restocked the groceries and cooked about 25 meals. I got to go running during daylight hours, which Argos and I enjoyed very much.

We went to the Normal Children's Museum for their 3:00 pm New Year's Eve countdown. The kids had a good time, although a little boy snatched Joseph's truck and ran away shortly before the countdown. Joseph couldn't get the truck back because the little bruiser had a death grip on it, was too young to be reasoned with and was unsupervised. Joseph spent the countdown sulking under the table.

We looked for a hiking trail at Lake Bloomington, but found nothing. The kids enjoyed one of the many playgrounds. Argos discovered a new favorite snack plentifully spread across the ground--crunchy frozen deer poo.


The historic Normal theater was showing Wall-E. Sam and Joseph were the only kids in attendance, but they enjoyed themselves.

We went skating for the first time this season, and Joseph learned how to skate on his own!


A little girl noticed Joseph and offered to teach him to skate, and I think that her attention (you know how Joseph is such the ladies' man) may have spurred him to risk letting go of the wall.

He can skate on his own without help, and can get up from the ice without pulling up on the wall! By the end, he was getting kind of fast and reckless--next time I will have to bring a helmet for him!

Video of Joseph skating (and falling)

By the way, if you lived here, you would have gotten this delicious cookie assortment... (Yes, those are vanilla vodka/coconut rum balls.)

Weekend hijinks and the 5th

Another action-packed weekend in Normal. Sam and Danny's TaeKwonDo teacher had set up his place for an elaborate Harry Potter party for his daughter and her girlfriends last weekend. This weekend he had people over for a magic-themed party. Joseph was Dumbledore.

Sam was some kind of evil wizard, although he has taken off his robes to challenge Katana to a duel over who can sit in front of the hot fireplace longer.

I was a mathemagician. Here I am inverting someone's matrix.

Danny was the CheeseWizard.

Sunday we went to the pool on campus for Faculty/Staff Family swim. The kids had a great time, although Joseph still can't swim on his own and is resistant to try.



I baked foccacio. (I could swear that I baked two of them. Hmm...)

And of course, every time we go swimming, Joseph gets sick. After we got back from the pool, Joseph's face was bright red and he was acting squirrely. We deduced that he had 5th disease. (See--that giant pile of parenthood preparedness books that I read 10 years ago when I was pregnant with Sam did come in handy!)

Monday, Joseph had no school, but we had to take him to his school with us for a parent-teacher meeting. By the time the red-cheeked "slapped" look starts, the 5th disease virus has run its course and is no longer contagious. But to avoid suspicion at school until we could get a doctor's note, we told Joseph that his red face was an allergic reaction to the Dumbledore beard. When he was asked about his face, Joseph said: "I had a surgery on my face from my Dumbledore beard," which was kind of cute and inexplicable until we explained that he meant "allergy" not "surgery."

Fire it Up

This weekend was ISU Homecoming. Why is at that all of the fun things to do are always on the same day, followed by weekend after weekend of nothing to do?
Friday night we went to Mulberry school to decorate the school float for the ISU Homecoming parade. The kids had a great time and ate giant piles of ravioli.

Saturday morning I ran the Town Gown 5K which goes twice around the ISU Homecoming Parade route. I have never run in any kind of a race before, by my friend convinced me to do it, so there I was. I sometimes run more than 3 miles so I knew that I could do it. However, during the 5K, I saw someone throwing up on the side of the road which put the idea of throwing up in my head. As I was running, I kept checking myself to see if I was nauseated, which was distracting and probably would have eventually made me feel nauseated if the race weren't only 5K. As it turned out that I was faster than I thought that I was (although still none too fast). Danny and the kids were slow getting out of the house for the first lap (the parade route comes within 2 blocks of the house), but they saw me on the second lap.

Later, Joseph's school had a float in the Homecoming parade. Everyone had a great time throwing (and eating) candy. I was kind of tired from the 5K, so Argos and I rode the float. He got lots of pets and really loved sitting nestled in the middle of a bunch of kids.



Saturday night was Kids' Night at the Haunted Trail. Every year, the city of Normal decorates a part of Constitution Trail for Halloween. This weekend was the "not scary" Haunted Trail for younger kids. The trail is surrounded by tall trees, so it was already very spooky. There were a series of stations with people in costumes and props. For the little kids, the ghouls and witches tried to be cheerful and friendly rather than jumping out of the bushes. (I would bet that the "scary" version is pretty scary!) At the end of the trail, Sam had his face painted and the kids had hot chocolate. Joseph wanted to go again, but he'll have to wait until next year. The Haunted Trail is limited to 1500 people per night, and the line must have been 0.25 mile long!

Almost fun weekend

Last weekend was pretty lame. We kept almost doing fun things, but not quite. We accidentally went to the Harvest Festival (lame) instead of the Autumnal Festival (fun). However, we did have some fun at the Harvest Festival. There was a pumpkin teacup ride. Joseph insisted that we not spin, which made the ride equivalent to taking a slow bus around a traffic circle.

There was a portable climbing wall from Upper Limits, this fantastic indoor climbing place in Bloomington. Upper Limits occupies Cargill's old soybean processing plant and you can climb the insides of the scary-high grain silos. It is pretty pricey, though, and I haven't yet been there. So I challenged Danny to a climb-off. I think that I won.


We had planned to visit our favorite local cheesemaker for an open house and pumpkin patch. However, our GPS failed us: we kept driving in circles without finding the place. We stopped at a gas station and bought a map, but the map didn't include the street either. So no pumpkins and cheese.
Saturday night we went to the ISU Biology picnic. Attendance was not great, and there were few other kids there. The weather was a little cold, but we all had a good time.


Sunday was the Champaign Surplus Store's fall clearance event. I had been waiting all year to find a reasonably priced winter coat. I have clearly demonstrated that L.L. Bean and Land's End do not make a coat in my size. Also, Columbia does not make a coat in my size (XS is extra short but extra wide). Only North Face makes (super expensive) coats that fit me. We drove 60 minutes to Champaign, but they had no North Face in my size. I did buy a pair of Frye boots marked down from $128 to $9.99.


Hopefully next weekend will be better?

Birthday

Today was my birthday. I am a little unclear about what one is supposed to do when they are old and have a birthday. The kids were frenetically excited about it the night before, but I was unable to convey to them that nothing much was going to happen. In the morning, Danny gave me flowers and had put up some decorations. I got some lovely presents: a necklace with a cricket on it and a book from Danny (Creepy Cute Crochet), two books from my sister Michelle (Amigurumi World: Seriously Cute Crochet and Nigella Express), and my mom and parents-in-law were very thoughtful and sent gift money.

Nuclear daisies

Joseph gave me a box of babies for my birthday. Yikes!

I went to work for 9 hours. No one in the lab remembered that it was my birthday (despite the birthday list posted next to the lab contact info), and it would be weird to mention it. I bake cake for people in the lab on their birthdays, so I would guess that it co-dependently makes it so that other people are not in the habit of remembering birthdays. I had a decent but uneventful day. My lecture on learning and bird song went well. Also, I discovered that the ISU library has started subscribing to Web of Science--my favorite research tool! And I finally got a bike! Danny answered an ad in the Pantagraph, and we bought two ancient his and hers (a matching set!) fixed gear Sears and Roebuck Free Spirit bikes for $40. I left work early and went home to bake a cake with the kids. We went out to dinner at Medici's. The food was excellent--I had the best burger and the best slow-cooked chicken that I have tasted in ages! We came home and decorated (and ate) the cake.

You can never add too many non-pareils!

Vanilla cake with chocolate frosting with pomegranate jelly filling and raspberries and blueberries (and plenty of non-pareils and a monkey on top).


Update Monday 5/8: I got a nice card and treats from my labmates, which was really great. At this age, I can't say that I care that much if people forget my birthday, but it's like an extra bonus if they remember.
Also, here's a picture of our dorktastic new bikes: