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April 28, 2008
wake up call / caught you in the morning with another one in my bed
I cleaned out the fridge last week (see, i am really bored), and found that i had a lot of frozen banana bread bananas, so this weekend I made banana bread. so. freaking. good. I still have a bunch of frozen bananas left so I'm going to make some more for my friend Tom's defense. I am very excited for him.
So. I was thinking this morning about how there are some friends/acquaintances of mine that are very very passionate about Sen. Obama. I can see the attraction. I feel the attraction. I was moved by his speech at the DN Convention last election cycle. I am moved by his message of hope. Who wouldn't be after the past 8 years of hopelessness? These friends/acquaintances for the most part are women. And though I understand the draw of Sen. Obama, I have been amazed that these women weren't supporting Sen. Clinton. There policy positions are so close, wouldn't the draw of a women in the highest office swing your support that way it did mine?
I was pondering this today and realized that in general these friends/acquaintances were in fields that have women role models. They have worked for female bosses. Their organizations are/have been led by women. They do not see sexism in their work place (in general).
I realized that I support Sen. Clinton with almost a blind loyalty because I yearn for a female role model. My career goals in science, policy, or academia have not been inspired by existing female role models. There were TWO female professor in Mat Sci at NU. Was there any at GT? I don't remember any. There are two (i believe) at UC in PP. This is even more unbelievable to me since their student body is more than half female! I have experienced men who don't now how to deal with a smart female, much less a smart female scientist.
I must admit that the lack of female leaders does make me wonder about my own path of balancing child(ren) and career. It is seems hard since so few women seem to do it... (Not that this would detour me, but it just shows how I do yearn for a female leader.)
Posted by christina at 2:59 PM | Comments (0)
April 25, 2008
quiet hushed voices
easter egg dying a while back
so. i've been spending a bit of time poking around facebook (hence the twitter question). I have been spending the time because Ben and I play a lot of Word Twist. Last night I was poking around on friends' friends list.
Facebook is great for connecting with old friends.
Facebook is not great for reminding me of people that I was happy not remember. No enemies or anything (ha ha, like i have enemies). But there are some people i knew in college that i just did not like as human beings. I found (find) them fake fake fake. Last night I found out how nice it had been to not remember these people, as I was telling ben about some of them. I'm sure they will fade again from my memory, but as we played wii tennis last night I got all annoyed again at these people.
Today was HOT. I am not complaining, but it was hot. We were out in the heat of the afternoon without really realizing how hot it would be. I walked, Aiden rode, to Pepper's grooming appt about 20 mins away. It was to be an hour, so I planned on walking up to the walgreens and the gap during her spa treatment. I did, it was hot! (I love this new groomers. no cages!) I had to take Aiden's overall's off to make sure he didn't overheat. oh the weather. spring, where are you? is it JULY?!?!?
Anyways, Ben met us at the gap after he got home early. We got some cute hoodies (of course I am going to dress my child like me (tank, jeans, hoodie is my standard, okay he's in a onesie not a tank.)). Of course they were on sale, like i could bring myself to pay full price at the gap. I have been inspired by a random blog to start buying clothes I find on sale for Aiden to grow into. I've gotten some good deals - today- a shirt and a hoodie for 12-18 mo in addition to a hoodie and onesie for now. I got from $5 jeans from the clearance at the children's place. Awesome. Kid's clothes, I have found, can be expensive. I stomach it much better at sale price because they do not wear they that long!
On our way back to the groomers we stopped by the bagel so ben could get corned beef for lunches this weekend. Also, I got to get some cookies from the House of Fine Chocolates - "Your Neighborhood Bakery" - as it says on the package. (WHY THE QUOTES?) I love this little shop. It is old, and yummy. (So i just looked up the store to put a link to their website. Their website is quite modern, unlike their store. Funny.) Anyways. Very yummy. Cookies make the walk less hot. ha ha ha.
Posted by christina at 9:26 PM | Comments (0)
April 24, 2008
i can see the wind blowing through the fields of wheat
Ah. Spring has finally arrived. I have been enjoying running along the lake most days. Yesterday the blue blue lake glittered in the sunshine. Aiden seems to enjoy riding along the lake. I only infer this in the absence of whining. He looks pretty ready to be back at the end of the hour or so trip. This morning it was quite windy, so i put on the wind/rain cover. I was impressed. it is nice, but i think Aiden was happy when i took it off at the turn around point when the wind was now at our backs.
We've had the front balcony door and the windows open. It feels good to get a breeze going. Also, the animals love love love it. Both Pepper the dog and Izzy the cat go out there and hang out.
Today is the first day we haven't been running off somewhere for the lunch time. It is nice to sit and chill.
Ben has stand-by jury duty today. He had to drive out to a suburb (it is county jury duty) and sit in a room. I laugh at him. I laughed really hard when the dog took a bite out of his summons - including the part you have to fill out and take with you. The dog has been acting out lately. And by acting out i mean by stealing baby toys. If she steals from the baby's hand she get time out in the bathroom. So she learns.
I have signed up for a twitter account really only to follow people. Current debate: do i use it?
Posted by christina at 12:52 PM | Comments (0)
April 22, 2008
show me where the sun comes through the sky
Happy Earth Day!
I was reading the Times Magazine and saw this:
"quarter of all car trips are now shorter than a mile"
I am really surprised. Not because people drive everywhere, but that people live the close to things. I picture most of the country in suburbs where grocery stores and work places are far away.
I do not judge, as when it is cold, I drive. But now that it warm (praise jesus), I try to walk to a lot more places. Sunday Ben, Aiden, and I walked over to Whole Food to do our grocery shopping. Yesterday, I walked with Aiden to the Jewel to complete the shopping. During both of these trips the sidewalks were busy because of cubs game.
NOT A FAN OF CUBS FANS. They are drunk and/or stupid.
I am a BIG FAN of my chicken salad. And walking.
NOT A FAN of the construction.
FAN of my alderman's office, who a wrote about fencing issues and shaking of my building issues. They wrote back like they cared. And, the fencing issues have gotten better, though not resolved. They have quit taking up the entire sidewalk with their fence, but their fence is on our property. AND when the front loader came today it did not shake our building as it went by. They are either driving slower or brought a smaller front loader.
I just updated MT as the buttons were working to upload pics here in firefox's newest update. They work now and i am a much bigger fan of the new entry screen. It isn't a pain to enter categories anymore! Big fan.
NOT A FAN of the car alarm going off. I am SURE it belongs to someone at the game, since it started going off just after the game started.
Posted by christina at 3:49 PM | Comments (0)
April 19, 2008
just keep your hands inside / and make the most out of life
those baby blues from two browned parents...
We just had a yummy dinner! Now that it is warm, we are not ordering in in Saturday night, but going out to our favorite neighborhood restaurants. Tonight we went to Harmony. So yummy!! I had a pulled park sandwich. Ben, the turkey bacon club (his standard sandwich anywhere). They were good, but want warrants this mention is dessert. We got the "apple fritters". I thought they would be like apple donuts with chunks of apple, kinda like corn fritters. They were not. They were deep fried apple slices that had been dipped in some sort of batter. They were amazing.
Today we took all of our old electronics to the IL EPA electronic recycling collection. We took:
-a tv
- a computer monitor
-a computer tower
- a psp
-two xboxes
- many keyboards
- 2 sets of computer speakers
- a vcr
- a dvd player
- a bunch of cables
- a zip drive
of course later, i noticed the other computer monitor downstairs. Just as well, as i don't think that we could have fit it in the car.
On the way to the event ben asked if i had any idea what to expect. nope, i said. he asked if we would be the people bring the most stuff they've seen all day. I said maybe.
Well, we got to the site and found a looooooong line of cars into the parking lot. We drove by to case the situation, in which i saw a much shorter line coming from the other way. so we got in that one and in no time were adding all of our crap to monster piles of other electronics crap. It was quite the sight to see. And we got a cool metal waterbottle on the way out.
Posted by christina at 8:13 PM | Comments (0)
April 18, 2008
i feel the earth move under my feet
well. so this has been a strange week.
Earlier this week a cougar (A COUGAR!!!) was shot and killed 4 blocks from my house. I lived in the middle of chicago. it is hard to get more in the middle of chicago than i am. CHICAGO. The third (second) largest city in the NATION!!!
Last night...an earthquake (AN EARTHQUAKE!!!!!)
I had just put Aiden back to bed. I got in mine and was trying to fall back to sleep when our bed started shaking. They have been doing construction next door, so our house has been shaken many time by rumbling construction equipment. When our bed started shaking at 4.30 in the morning, I thought WHAT at they doing over there at 4.30 am? Then i thought, hmmmm, is this an earthquake? I did not even think this seriously because it was so impossible. I decided that the wind must be blowing so hard that it shook the building.
I was surprised to get up and see nothing blown over. I sat down to the Today show just in time for the national news bit about AN EARTHQUAKE!!!
I still cannot believe that it was an earthquake. I did not even think that anyone had ever felt an earthquake in chicago before.
Crazy.
Posted by christina at 9:09 PM | Comments (0)
April 17, 2008
love, love, love
Things I love....
...my small food processor.It is the perfect size for baby food making. Yes. I make baby food. Why? Because I am cheap. Today I made a week's worth of carrots for $3. Plus, it is quick. I peel and chop the carrot, steam for 10 minutes. Process. I also make sweet potatoes. I put 4 or 5 in the oven for an hour or so. Mash. Freeze. Apples - peel, chop, cook with a little bit of water. Freeze. I do frozen veggies also - but only in 1-2 servings as one should nor refreeze. I do peas, spinach + roast corn (YUM!!!), sugar snap peas. 5 minutes in the microwave. Process. Easy. Easy. I do do store-brought baby oatmeal for lunch (mixed with a banana) because it is iron fortified. We also still do half an avocado for dinner.
...solid foods. They have coincided with better sleeping. Also, nursing has decreased. We can got out and feed him food instead of me having to nurse at the table. He still nurses a fair amount, but nothing like before.
...Cheerios. Boy, these are awesome to keep Aiden occupied while I make food or finish up in the elliptical.
...mu jogging stroller + warm weather. Yesterday and today I've taken Aiden out jogging in the stroller. He has been awesome. He just look around and chews on his toy. When he gets fussy around the turn around point, I give him his sippy cup of water (which he loves). He sips and chews on the spout and chats as we run back home. It adds about 5 minutes to my jog due to the random stops to see what is up or rearrange toys/cup.
...my electric tea pot. It boils water so fast and then shuts of AUTOMATICALLY!
...progress. It has been amazing to watch Aiden develop. Lately he has been using his index finger to touch things. The process with his hands/fingers from "what are these?" to "oh, these things move!" to "oh I can move all my fingers together to pick things up" or "oh, these thing move separately!" to "oh, i can pick things up with my thumb and point finger!" (this last one hurts as he loves to practice by pinching me).
Posted by christina at 9:03 PM | Comments (0)
April 14, 2008
somewhere a clock is ticking
i had a class last spring in which we read about and debated universal health care. Most people were for it, but we had a couple of people against it. No matter your position, you could be called on to argue for a specific side.
On the surface, I could understand the argument that people don't want to "pay" for the "laziness" of other. For example, why should I pay for your heart disease if you choose to eat a lot of donuts and never exercise when I eat healthy and exercise?
But as is illustrated in this times article, the treatments that cost far and away the majority of money are diseases that have nothing to do with people's habits and everything to do with their bad luck. As I argued in class on day, if I was to get sick, I would want to be taken care of without care of cost, therefore I am willing to pay for other people to be taken care of without care of cost.
See the fair argument swings both ways.
I hope we see universal care within my lifetime.
I pray we see universal care within my lifetime.
But until then, my only piece of advice when picking a health insurance plan is to make sure that there is an out of pocket cap. This is the most imporant thing, imo. It is more important than co-pays or percentages. If something was to happen, percentages can get huge quickly, so you always want an out of pocket cap. The story I always like to cite is a friend of a friend who had to get some treatments for an illness. His health insurance paid something like 90%, but each treatment cost $40,000. Ten percent meant $4,000 for each treatment! He did not have an out of pocket max, and therefore ended up owing a lot of money.
Posted by christina at 7:18 AM | Comments (0)
April 11, 2008
and in this moment, you are all that i need and it's more than enough
- I was all housewifey this week. I prefer to think that i just spring cleaned. I cleaned the inside of the refrigerator. I vacuumed, mopped, and orange-glowed the floor. I did all the laundry. All today! Earlier this week, I recaulked the bathtub. It was not hard, but it was not easy. This summer, i am going to take a class at the home depot and learn how to do the backsplash.
- Ben is currently off at Pete and J's show...so are all of our babysitters. So, I am home. Aiden and I did join everyone for dinner. I got him down for a late nap, so he was a dream at dinner. Now he is fast asleep and I am sitting on the couch alone. It I funny how i treasure the nap moments during the day b/c they are usually short, but at night, since i know it is sticking, it just feels different.
- Aiden has started giving kisses. And by giving kisses I mean he is leaning toward me with an open mouth. I had been thinking he was just doing it as a sign to nurse, but he started doing it to Ben. Ben says, oh he is giving me kisses! And i say, oh! that is what he is doing! It is really cute, though slobbery! He is definitely getting to the age where he is just a bundle of cuteness. He's easy...and funny. He is all giggles lately...about random stuff!!! He just giggles so much when i pursue my lips...so random.
- I want the weather to warm up. I am so going to be annoyed tomorrow if the stupid yucky weather prevents me from running. Since few things prevent that on the weekend when Ben is home, it has to be pretty bad.
- i just saw a cool thing on my favorite channel, HGTV. it was a clock type art piece. hmmm, that would look good over the fireplace. er, gasplace.
Posted by christina at 10:29 PM | Comments (0)
April 7, 2008
take me out...
aiden went to the baseball game on sunday.
Posted by christina at 2:33 PM | Comments (0)
April 2, 2008
And it's just a Cuban crime of passion / Messy and old fashioned
so the other excitement in our lives is that they are filming a movie down our street!
I noticed yesterday during my run that our street was full of cars. I noticed that our street on the other said of the major street was blocked off. Strange. I ran down my normal street, the street a block south, and noticed that there were a lot of no parking movie location signs! During my run today, I noticed that there were a bunch of model t cars parked down that street. a sheriff's bus on a side street, and a snow making truck on my running street.
On my way back, I noticed that they were now letting regular people drive down the street. So, when we went to target an hour or so later, I had us drive down that way. We were able to drive down the street, which was now covered with fake cobblestone. Turns out, a shantytown has gone up over nice under the el over there! And fake ice lines the cobblestone. Universal Studio trucks lined the street intermixed with 1920s cars.
Crazy! More crazy - the internets do not revel any information about movies being shot in chicago. A lot about the batman shoot that happened last summer. It also had a shoot around the same area. My mom saw it while she was here visit right after i evicted aiden.
Posted by christina at 8:52 PM | Comments (0)
our new couch came!
we love it so much that we ordered the matching chair!
Posted by christina at 1:31 PM | Comments (0)