In an Ocean State

We'll be in Rhode Island Wed-Saturday! It was sort of last minute...we were planning a short trip with Sam this summer, but could not decide between a lazy beach type thing, or a couple of days in NYC. Finally, I decided that I really really really needed a beach fix, and that Sam would love the sand and ocean (it will be his first time)! We'll still do the NYC thing, but sometime in the Fall, because the heat and humidity in the city can get pretty brutal this time of year, and we'd want to do lots of walking around.

We picked Rhode Island because it's closer and less pricey than than the Cape (Cod, that is). There's lots and lots of shoreline, and I hear the state beaches are pretty amazing.

We're staying in South Kingston (part of Naragansett Bay). We plan on at least a full day or two on the beach, taking the ferry out to Block Island, maybe a walking tour of the Newport Area, and we'll probably hit Mystic Seaport (CT) on our way back.

I can't wait to soak in the sun and turn nice and brown. Wrinkles, schminkles...I've been toasting almost every summer of my life and I haven't seen one yet. You only live once, so tan it up in the summer, it's only natural (unless you are at high risk of skin cancer, of course - then cover your white ass up!). I actually do wear SPF 15 on my face, but not in the summer...I'm crazy like that. Crazy! Well, not THAT crazy...I picked up SPF 4 tanning oil for the trip. That's right, 4. I live on the edge. But hang on by my fingertips.

I will post lots of pictures when we return!

Backyard, Bed, and Batman

We went to Ikea in Paramus on Thursday, and found a few great items, including Sam's new "big boy" bed frame and mattress. It's a full size twin mattress that sits on flexible slats, resting in a modern bed frame.

A few weeks back I found retro-print Batman & Robin sheets at Pottery Barn Kids. Of course I wanted to barf about buying my 3 year old's sheets at Pottery Barn, but, here's the thing: character sheets anywhere else (like Walmart) are rough, tacky, and fade quickly (cheap crap) at least in my experience. These are soft, good quality, and they're just so awesome...I mean, 60's Batman! How cool is that?? I thought they were fitting for his transition, and well worth the few extra bucks ($60 for twin set - I know you were wondering).

As evidenced by these photos, Sam LOVES his new bed:



The playset is finally done...there's some extra gravel to be cleaned up (did I ever tell you that in our house, every project gets 92-98.7% done, but never finished?). The most important thing is that Sam has a great time on it (during the 3 minutes a week when it's not raining, of course).

We picked up a smallish (but cool) acacia wood table at Ikea as well, and added inexpensive mesh chairs from Lowe's. The whole thing is "light" but, after all the projects around here, heavy duty patio furniture is neither a priority, or in the budget. This will do for at least a few summers:

Finally, and update on the grill (pictured to the right of the table). Weber sent us a bunch of replacement parts at no charge, without hassle. We just had to send them some photos and a description of what happened. It's great of them, but it's also a little worrisome, as if they kind of expect these kinds of things to happen. Ah well, at least we'll have a working grill again!

Lazy is the new awesome

If you are still reading my blog, I thank you for your patience and unwavering faith that I would post once again.

We are nearly into the second week of June, and there's been a lot happening here...I won't go into much detail because I am a little low on creative juice levels necessary to make our fairly ordinary life sound impressive and exciting, so I'll just give you a brief run-down.

Sam's 3rd birthday party was fun - our friends with kids could not make it, but he didn't seem to mind and had had a blast. The Batman theme worked out well too.

The following weekend I began my last graduate class (5 Saturdays, 9-5). Three left! Then I can be the Mac Mommy with the M.A. and the S to the izzle, cause I'm the sha-zizzle. Or so I believe.

In the meantime, Tim has been busy trying to finish our back deck, and putting together the cedar play set Sam received as a gift from his Grandpa and Grandma "L."

Here's some pics!

Finally, I learned from my recent physical that I am/was vitamin-D deficient. This may have contributed to many of the troubles I've been experiencing the past year, and so about 10 days ago, I started mega-supplementing, and I'm happy to report that I am feeling pretty amazing. Sure, weather is probably helping, but it's also a big relief to know that what I was feeling and experiencing was not "all in my head."

And most recently:
Tonight our Weber grill (yea, I name dropped because now I officially hate them and Weber SUCKS) burst into flames. I'm not even trying to be dramatic. It really did...it was its season debut and we just wanted to grill up 3 little hamburgers. But NOOOOO....

Flames were shooting out of the valves and such, not a typical flare-up. Tim had to put it it out with the fire extinguisher. The knobs melted and I was really afraid the tank would blow, but he acted pretty quickly...we're not sure what the problem was. One of the burners went out last summer, and Tim suspected a valve defect, but now it's hard to say how much more might have been really going on. It's too bad, really, it was a sweet housewarming gift from Tim's parents. We'll have to shop for a new grill...I'm hoping we can wait until the end of the season for a better deal, but this means a whole summer with no grill, which kind of sucks.

Tonight was supposed to be a get-together of sorts here in town for a group of people I used to work with...it's also Alumni weekend, and that factored into the theme of the eve to some extent as well. After weeks of talk, most people backed out as of this afternoon. It is kind of disappointing, but, on the upside, I don't have to clean. Instead, I'm heading out with my friend Allison for some wine and mischief.

I'm off to get pretty...will check in again soon. With new shoes too. Really.

When we was fab

Maybe you remember this George Harrison tune - as cheesy as the song is, you have to admit the title says a lot, doesn't it? I was thinking about vacations today and how our budget is too stretched to travel this year, which in turn made me remember one of our best vacations. In 2005, Tim and I were wealthy (in relative terms) and child-free. We flew out to Seattle, rented a car, explored the Olympic Peninsula, and ended in Portland - the weather was gorgeous, the scenery even more so, and we just had a great time. We even talked about moving out there, however, as you can see, it didn't quite go that way. We haven't made it back yet, but we talk about it often.

The memory of this vacation has become sort of a turning point for me, a landmark along the way...I think it's really the last time we were carefree and full of energy and felt pretty invincible. We were fab. That's not to say we're not happy now - with Sam, life is the most joyful it has ever been. I guess I'm just stating the obvious that our life, like everyone else's, is nothing like it used to be. Every now and then I miss driving on a strange, new highway with no obligations, appointments, or limits. Maybe it's not the highway per se, but that feeling. Sigh.

Dings and Cobs

My mother-in-law is visiting this weekend from NC. This morning we took Sam out. As we settled into our seats she noticed my cd audio book (David Sedaris' newest novel, a gift from my friend Allison). As some of you know, I'm a huge Sedaris fan and you can imagine me running my mouth trying to explain his writing and blabbing that I saw him live last year (with Allison, also a devoted fan) and had one of my books autog--and then I backed into her car. Yep, I backed right into my mother-in-law's car in my own driveway...brilliant. I just forgot she'd parked behind me (sort of perpendicularly behind me) and I simply fell into habit and backed up barely paying attention.

My car has virtually no damage, but her rear driver side fender has a lovely ding. It's not that bad, really - probably less than $1,000 that will be covered by our insurance, but I still feel like a jackass. A ding-bat, really. She's not angry at all and kind of laughed it off to make me feel better. I'm just keeping my fingers crossed that they don't have a huge deductible.

So the day progresses and it's dinner time...we had tilapia and awesome fresh-picked sweet corn from the farm store down the road (Pie in the Sky for my local peeps). Sam hadn't had corn on the cob yet, but he mastered it right away. After he cleaned the kernels he was trying to eat right through the cobs!

Not sure what adventures tomorrow will bring with Grandma in town - will report anything amusing.