Another anniversary edition

Yes, gentle readers, a full year has elapsed since I posted this. Today is my 7th wedding anniversary. Currently, the love of my life is in the kitchen preparing dinner and washing dishes. He fed Kate & Sarah dinner while I showered and he has said nothing, not even passive aggressively, about the fact that I've spent the majority of this special day working. When last I looked in the kitchen, he and Sarah were both dancing to Bombay II, Electric Vendiaoo.

I've been training every weekend for nearly a year now for the 3-Day and he has patiently done an enormous amount of single dadding while I've been out walking. On Friday I informed him that I'm going to Philadelphia for 2 days next week, leaving him alone with the scary children yet again and he just went with it.

Where did I find this fantastic guy? I found him washing dishes in Bottoms Up Pizza in Richmond, Virginia in 1995. He was growing his hair out from a weird cut and it was in a dramatically awkward stage. He was most likely a little high at the moment. I loved him instantly. I invited him to come have a drink with me at the other restaurant where I worked, The Tobacco Company, because I got a 50% discount on drinks there. He indicated that it seemed like a good idea and then he stood me up. He told me he'd overdone the bong hits and passed out on his couch. I gave him a hard time about this for years until he finally admitted to me that he wasn't home alone on his couch at all that night - he was keeping a friend who was a newly single dad company. Why he went with story A in this case I'll never know, but what a swell fella, huh? Passing up the chance to drink with a chick so his buddy could have some company while navigating the treacherous road of new parent alone!

Since then things have changed for us a bit. We got married. We adopted a dog. We bought a house. We had a kid.

We bought another house.

We had another kid. Where did all that time go? What on earth are we going to do for the next 50 years or so?

All that stuff happened in just 7 years...but it's alright. Even if nothing else ever happens to us, and we just spend our days sitting next to each other on the couch, watching movies and drinking beer, I expect I'll still be deliriously happy.

The perfect way to enjoy Atlanta

The 3-Day rapidly approaches! Today Joy and I did an 18-mile training walk. The weather was highly agreeable. Not as delightful as last week (we've been doing 13-mile walks on the weekends) when we wore sweatshirts for nearly the entire walk, but still, reasonably cool. Joy planned the route, which was wonderful because I've been so busy at work I've done nothing but work, go home and collapse for the night, then go back to work.


We met at Harmony Park at 5:30AM. From there we walked to Little 5 Points, arriving just in time for Starbucks to open and for us to obtain our first latte of the walk. All walks over 10-miles seems to be 2-latte walks. From there we headed down the PATH and over to Virginia Highlands. We walked over to Alon's, ready for fresh-baked scones only to discover they don't open until 8 on Saturday mornings. There was some wailing and gnashing of teeth at this point, but we soldiered on toward Ansley.


The Alon's thing threw us off and we went down a different road than planned. This ultimately led to us being lost in, I kid you not, Sherwood Forest. We wandered down Friar Tuck Rd, Nottingham Road and finally found our way out by the WSB television station offices in midtown via Robin Hood Lane. How mortified would you be to have to direct someone through your neighborhood if you lived there?


Happily, once out of the forest, we found ourselves at our next Starbucks where we made a surprise move and went for bottled water and snacks instead of coffee. We're crazy like that. By now we'd done about 10 miles, I guess. So it was off to Atlantic Station. We walked across the 17th Street bridge and eventually over to Georgia Tech's campus. We passed a 5K just getting underway (just getting started at 8:30? Laaaazy).


Back through midtown with us, then! We made our way over to Piedmont Park, crossing the brand new pedestrian bridge over the interstate to get there, and then back over to Ponce de Leon where, what do you know, we were awfully close to Krispy Kreme and the "hot and fresh" beacon was aglow! No choice but to grab a doughnut. When you're walking 18 miles at 4 miles per hour, you need a lot of calories. Those doughnuts are delicious of course, but the employees seemed to lack a certain...sense of urgency.



From Krispy Kreme we needed to finish our last few miles and end up at Thumbs Up diner on Edgewood Ave. We passed the delightful view of downtown up near the Martin Luther King Jr Monument and then passed Ebenezer Baptist Church on Auburn Ave and arrived at Thumbs Up just a few tenths of a mile shy of our 18 miles. So we walked around the block and then up the street again while waiting for our table.


We passed countless grand old homes, old-growth trees, parks and city vistas. Yes, yes, the traffic in Atlanta is bad - have you tried going it on foot once in awhile?

Come on kid, just eat already

I met a woman with 3 teenagers when Kate was just 14 months old. She told me "the hard things get easier and the easy things get harder". At the time I assumed she was referring to it being easier to get them ready to go in the morning, since they learn to dress themselves, but it gets harder to keep them out of jail. But I see now that already, it's easier to communicate with Kate, but much harder to get her to eat. She used to inhale my quesadillas, now, not so much. Last night, I went for the "fun!" approach:

No, huh? What about if I give you...ketchup for dipping?!?

Still I get this look:

I ran upstairs to deal with some laundry after adding the exciting ketchup to the deal. Upon my return, the quesadilla had been completely eaten! This did not smack of the Kate style at all. At once I knew exactly who'd taken care of the quesadilla. I glared at the offender, sitting quietly, wide-eyed and sweet looking, on the floor next to Kate as Kate sat eating just the ketchup:

The Pastry Chef

Last Wednesday was Anni's birthday and since she was here at the time we thought it only fitting that we make her a cake and ice cream. Kate wanted to help. She helped considerably with the ice cream. I measured out the ingredients, and Kate dumped them in the bowl. Then she held the beater while we mixed it up. The beater-holding part was a bit nerve-wracking but we pulled through without major incident. Then Kate helped me dump everything into the ice cream maker. Half an hour later, when vanilla ice cream was nearly achieved, Kate performed the quality assurance and announced "Anni, your ice cream's ready for ya!"

Then came the cake. I managed most of that without Kate's able assistance, but she made the buttercream. Evidently, the secret to truly delicious frosting is to make it while stark naked. It should be enjoyed in the same way. Kate applied the sprinkles, artfully I must say, also in the buff. She had to go to bed before we even had dinner, but Anni very kindly said she could have a slice of her cake before bedding down. We sang "Happy Birthday" to Anni and when we'd finished there was a moment when nobody moved. Then Kate said "Ooookay, Anni, go get some plates!" What's left to do but go get some plates?

Yard Sale Marketing

Jeremiah received the overnighted package at work. He opened it, cautiously, and revealed...nothing nefarious. Poor guy must've been so let down. Again. No, instead it contained a adorable outfit for Sarah, copies of Kevin's yard sale signs (highly artsy) and a bagel. At least, I'm told there was a bagel. I never saw the bagel and frankly I'm starting to doubt it was ever there. When I spoke to my brother this morning he was apologetic about the bagel. "I'm sorry we didn't find an equally cute outfit for Kate" he said. "And I'm sorry about the bagel. The bagel was for you." I really wanted that bagel. If the bagel ever really was in the package, I think one of Jeremiah's co-workers probably ate it. The receptionist at his office need not wonder what that look is about the next time we lock eyes. She'll know.

Minutia

So I've been lax for a few days and haven't shared a bit of news regarding our little spawn. I refer you to the very first post of this blog in which I state the the term "daily" is not meant to be taken literally. Anyway, here's a little bit of catch-up for you (no, not ketchup) -

The other day we were driving someplace and, as is usual these days, Sarah was in the back making all manner of exciting noises with her voice. She's discovered it lately and has been enjoying exploring her range and volume as well as playing with how the shape of her mouth makes sounds different. I turned around to watch her, because I think it's cute, and noticed she was singing The Ittsy Bittsy Spider. She was making the spider climb up the water spout, then she made it rain and wash the spider out. By the time the sun came out I shouted excitedly to Jeremiah "She's singing the ittsy bittsy spider!" She stopped, smiling shying at me and waited for me to stop staring at her before she began again. I asked daycare if they sing that song and was informed that they sing it every morning.

Sarah also loves the book Kate got her for her birthday "Busy Doggies" and reads it nightly. She can now tell me, when we get to the "Doggy speaking" page that the doggy says "woof, woof!" I'm very impressed.

Anni is visiting this week while she's a visiting professor at Emory. Kate adores Anni. I will have to get a photo to post of Anni's belly as she is about 28 weeks pregnant and just cute as a button. I am certain I did not manage to pull off pregnancy with such aplomb, not even the first time when I wasn't all worn out from caring for a toddler while being knocked up. We went to the Braves game on Saturday night, here's a photo of us with Rusty, that Rusty swiped from the Braves website. They send photographers around to take a picture of you having fun so you'll go pay some huge amount for a copy of it later, like at amusement parks. Of all the games I've attended, that was my first encounter with one of those. By the way, the Braves crushed the Washington Nationals.

Yesterday we went to brunch at Ria's Bluebird and sat outside near the little fountain that many people have treated like a wishing well. We explained the wishing well concept to Kate, who begged her daddy for some money to make a wish. We watched while she went over and threw her penny in. She came running back over to me, all excited. "I threw my money into the fountain!" she told me. I said "what did you wish for?" Her little eyebrows furrowed and she pursed her mouth thoughtfully then replied "my money back". May she carry that lesson with her forever.

Sharing

Margie came down over the weekend and brought Sarah her belated birthday gifts. Kate did surprisingly well with the concept of celebrating Sarah's birthday when it was not her birthday. However, when the Tickle Me Elmo emerged, it was more than she could take. Sarah was unconcerned. She liked the box.