Career Day

Career day is coming up in Evie's class. I don't have to ask her what she wants to be, because she told me on the way to school today.

Momma, I want to ride a motorcycle inside the circle.

Does anyone know where I can find a crash helmet and motorcycle gear for a two year old in time for career day?

The stock market did WHAT today???

OT - Charlie Rose

Tonight, Charlie Rose is hosting President George Bush.

As you know from previous posts, I really like Charlie Rose's show. It is intelligent, thought-provoking and always an intelligent conversation about interesting topics.

Imagine my curiosity over this evening's program.

Many guests over the past year talk about the complications of the war in Iraq, this administration, and the troubled state of political discourse in the U.S.

What is tonight going to be like? What will Bush say? Will Charlie be nice (he's a Southerner, so yes) but will he hold back on hardball questions? Whatever made Bush decide to do Rose's show? What did Charlie have to agree to? Will it be completely done by script?

Last night they featured a whole hour on the Frost/Nixon play that just opened on Broadway. By the end of the hour, I was trying to figure out what basis I could lay for us to travel to NY and see the production.

Will I feel differently about Bush at the end of tonight's show? Will I see him more sympathetically?

With regard to television programming, I thought I was most looking forward to the return of the Sopranos, but it turns out I was wrong.

What isn't weird

It was a beautiful day in northern VA, temperatures were going to hit 72, there wasn't a cloud in the sky. Tulips and Kwanzaan Cherrys are in full bloom - yard sale and garden show signs were posted in anticipation for the weekend. Burl Ives was on the CD player as we ran errands.

Me - "Evie, what music do you want to listen to?"

Evie - "Christmas music."

Me - " Parumpumpum pum?"

Evie - "No. Holly Jolly"

Consequently Burl Ives.

And this isn't weird. Because my children love Christmas music all year long. A complete paradigm shift for seasonality. I'm not sure how it will impact me this holiday season. Will I even notice Christmas music? Unsure.

There are many shifts of thinking that are similar.

Eating at 5:30 isn't weird anymore. In fact, it ensures a pleasant meal from the finest restaurant like Ray's the Steaks (where we ate as a family tonight yum times four!) to Hong Kong Palace where we suck down the fantistic food. The children have a lower level of crazy at 5:30 and they are more likely to focus on food and not be running all over the place.

A temperature of 100 Degrees isn't much to fuss about. (103 is a different story!)

Having large plastic toys isn't that weird. (I can't believe I am even saying that one out loud!!!)

The list goes on.

Central

One of the biggest adjustments for me as a stay at home parent is the lack of fine dining in my life.

Many of you know I love a good meal, more than just a good meal, I especially love food that doesn't cost me a ton of money. I love expensive good food too, but I really love a "find" -- food that is rewarding without exacting usury. When Bruce and I went to Paris, we didn't do Michelen three stars, instead I dragged him to stand in line to go to Joel Robuchon's L'Atelier restaurant that had the atmosphere of a sushi bar (but he is a genius and inspiration to chefs around the world!)

When we went to L.A., it was In-N-Out burger. San Diego, Taco Surf. New York was a series of pizza places and an occasional upscale Italian adventure. NY always included bagels and hot dogs, natch.

While it doesn't happen all of the time in the land of stay at home mom, I am occasionally rewarded with a delicious repast with friends or Bruce worth noting. One of those meals was this evening.

Friends and I went to Michel Richard's new venue, Central. Michel Richard is famous for his restaurants around the world. He was trained as a pastry chef and definitely has a sense of humor. It is loud, my water wasn't refilled without request, and my knife mysteriously disappeared never to be replaced about a third of the way through the meal, but the food was great. It was a pleasure to be eating food so well thought through - onion tart, salad, and yes a hamburger were all way above average. And the dessert, well, it was truly a pleasure.

For those of you who live in D.C., Central is worth a visit. There are other restaurants downtown I frequent more regularly, but Central was truly a treat. Way more classy than Taco Surf, but not beyond an average budget.

Cherry Blossoms

We went to see the Cherry Blossoms Tuesday. Juliette took some pictures.

You can visit them at her blog, http://juliettegoesclick.blogspot.com

To check them out, visit Juliette goes click!

The Easter Hangover

A portrait of post-holiday sugar overload disorder.

Hope you had a Happy Easter!

Life isn't always a beach

We are at the beach in NC. Last night, we had a huge thunder and lightning storm. Crashing claps of thunder with brilliant light display. The cacaphony was really bad between 3 and 4 am. At 4, I gave up trying to sleep and decided to get some work done.

So, I come out of our bedroom only to discover the front door is wide open and it is raining in. Did the wind blow it open?

I immediately check on the girls in the room they are sharing. They are both sleeping on air mattresses on the floor to avoid falling out of the high bed in that room. Juliette is sleeping like an angel.

There is no sign of Evie.

She isn't in her bed.

She isn't on the floor next to her bed.

She isn't in the pile of pillows near her bed.

Panic wells. Where could she be? She wouldn't ever go out in such awful weather - only two houses away from the ocean, would she?

I wondered what I should do first - wake Bruce?

Check again?

She isn't in Juliette's bed with her, but I hear snoring.

I creep into the room and see a fragment of her fuzzy blue blanket.

She crawled under the big bed to escape the thunder and fell asleep.

Sigh.