| Welcome to my journal |
[Aug. 26th, 2025|10:06 am] |
Welcome to my Journal. I'm future-dating this entry so it should stay at the top. Feel free to read the public entries, which tend to be book reviews or entries about me. If you are interested in reading about the kids, I've put those entries and pictures on a filter so that they are not open to the general public. When they are older I'll let the kids decide what they wish to make public.
If you want to read the filtered entries, you will need to make yourself a live journal account. It's free -- I recommend selecting "basic account" rather than "plus" to avoid the advertising, but either way works. Then drop me a note to let me know it's you and what filters you'd like to be on. You can leave a comment on this entry after you make an account. I'll screen the comments (make it so they don't show up to the world) so you can say anything you'd like, it's just like sending me an e-mail.
My current filters are:
Kids - prolific stories about the kids. Can include graphic details about potty training, vomit, etc. Also includes much Mommy-bragging. You have been warned.
Girl Genius - occasional musings about the Girl Genius comic. Filtered because it's only interesting to those who read the comics.
Thanksgivings - Since November I've been trying to post a daily thanksgiving, but lately I've gone to bed first.
Ask to be on whichever interest you.
If you've found my journal because you were looking for pre-schools, you may be interested in all the entries tagged pre school. The entries make the most sense if you read from the bottom of the page up (oldest first.)
Make yourself at home,
--Beth
PS. If you're interested in my journal, you may also be interested in Jon's. |
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| Thanksgivings |
[Nov. 19th, 2009|11:18 pm] |
Somehow it came to be November already. Mid-November even. Today is Jon's birthday, happy Birthday Jon!
I had this plan to post daily Thanksgivings every day of November. Better late than never? I'll post several today to make up for it.
I'm thankful for Jon.
I'm thankful that Disneyland has a "get in free on your birthday" policy, and that Jon thought he'd enjoy taking Peter.
I'm thankful that Jon & I both recovered from our illnesses and it appears Jon & Peter had a good time at Disneyland today.
I'm thankful for Amber. I'm thankful for the image I have of her in my head right now from earlier in the evening. She wanted to wear her Tigger outfit -- which at 12M size is far too small for her -- and play outside. She put her cup "way up high" on the spa cover. She had to stand on her tippy-toes in her gear boots to reach it. The image of her both being too big for her clothes but nearly to small to reach her cup and so proud of everything is a photo I want to hold dear in my heart because I couldn't get the camera in time.
I'm thankful for Peter. As he's getting older he's getting more and more capable. On Tuesday when I was so sick he was able to get the honey down from the shelf all by himself and heat it in the microwave to serve with dinner.
I'm thankful for my parents and my in-laws, that they all live so near and love my children so much. My parents watched the kids last weekend so I could go on my church women's retreat, and my in-laws watched Amber yesterday so I could take a class in San Francisco.
I'm thankful they are all wonderful people I love so much and trust with my children.
I'm thankful the class went well and I learned quite a lot of interesting and useful things that will save me time.
I'm thankful for computers that keep me in touch with my friends and family.
I'm thankful for digital photos and video. I want to remember and relive it all, and this ability to snap a photo and hold on helps me to let go and let my children grow.
I'm thankful for sanitation and garbage collection.
I'm thankful that food, so basic and fundamental a need, is so plentiful in my life that like the air I breathe I didn't even think to be thankful about it until I re-read everything and was about to hit "post" and I realized something was missing from a Thanksgiving day post.
--Beth |
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| Feeling much better |
[Nov. 18th, 2009|06:26 am] |
This morning I'm feeling *much* better, not all the way, but better enough to go to my conference. Given the lack of a fever, sore throat, and runny nose, I'm going to call it "food poisoning" instead of "Flu" but wow I felt awful yesterday.
--Beth |
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| Flu |
[Nov. 17th, 2009|09:00 pm] |
I appear to have the flu. This is about the worst possible timing for the month of November, as Jon was taking Peter to Disneyland Thursday, leaving tomorrow, and he might have it too. I was going to a work seminar tomorrow I've been looking forward to for months. Hopefully this is just a 24 hr. thing and not the full blown flu.
The kids were great this afternoon, letting Mommy sleep while they played and watched TV, and Jon let me sleep through Amber's pick-up time.
The kids don't seem to have it yet thankfully.
--Beth |
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| An education in the classics |
[Nov. 6th, 2009|02:41 pm] |
Jon and I are giving Peter a through education in the classics, and I'm filling in some of the holes in my own knowledge along the way. Recently we downloaded Final Fantasy 1 for the wii and Peter and I have been playing through it together. I never played the FF games as a kid, so now I can see what it was I missed out on all those years. We also have Zelda, Super Mario, Pac Man, and one of Peter's curent favorites (Super) Metroid.
--Beth |
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| Halloween Photos |
[Nov. 4th, 2009|11:16 pm] |
We had an awesome Halloween. I didn't get any stills of the kids going trick-or-treating with 7 friends and everyone all decked out in glow bracelets, (I took some video, but it wasn't light enough to get good shots). I did get pictures of my kids before school in their costumes and of the cranberry pie I made entirely from scratch using only cranberries, apples, sugar, water, flour, salt, and butter. Mmm, mmm, good. The pie didn't last until our party started. I felt very domestic that day, I cleaned the bathrooms and made a pie.
( The rest of the photos are behind the cut. )
Unfortunately at the party, I forgot (again) to actually get out the dry ice I'd bought. I think I did that last year too.
--Beth |
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| Just in case someone on my f-list gardens or likes wine & cheese |
[Oct. 6th, 2009|11:25 pm] |
Peter's pre-school is selling bulbs. I don't garden, and $2/bulb seems like quite a lot to me, but what do I know? The school uses the money from the sale of these bulbs to buy flowers to have the preschoolers plant around the school. The company ships your bulbs directly to you at the right time of year.
If you are interested in ordering bulbs through Peter's school, let me know and I'll scan the catalog to a PDF and e-mail it to you.
The school is of course happy to accept monetary donations of any kind all the time, and their big wine-and-cheese fundraiser is a week from Friday (Oct 16).
If wine-and-cheese with auction (silent and aloud) is your thing and you live locally and want to join Jon and I, let me know. We're required to purchase 4 tickets and haven't given the other two away yet.
--Beth |
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| Pizza from scratch recipe |
[Oct. 3rd, 2009|11:26 pm] |
Friday afternoon the kids and I made pizza from scratch. It was my first time as an adult doing this, and the result was delicious, so I'm recording the recipe.
1 pkg yeast (I didn't use rapid rise, I used regular)
1 tsp sugar
1 cup warm water (100-110F)
2 cups flour
1/2 to 1 cup more flour
3/4 tsp. salt
2 Tbsp olive oil
1 Tbsp corn meal
Proof the yeast
Put 1/4 c. water in large warm bowl. Add yeast, stir until dissolved. Add sugar. Set aside for 10 minutes. When you come back the yeast should be bubbling.
Make the raw dough
Add the rest of the water, salt, oil, and 2 cups of flour to the bowl. Stir. Add enough extra flour to make it soft.
Knead the dough
Kneed the dough. Add flour as needed to keep it from getting too sticky -- about 4-6 minutes according to the recipe I was using. With the kids helping each kneading half at a time, we spent about 15 minutes on it. Place kneaded dough in greased bowl, turning it to grease the whole ball of dough (I used a few more drops of olive oil.)
Rising
Cover, let rise 45 minutes. I turned the oven on and waited until the internal temperature was 80 F. I put the covered bowl in the oven. At 30 minutes it was bigger but didn't quite look big enough to have doubled, so I let it go 45 minutes. The recipe says 30-60. When it's done, punch the dough down.
Shaping
Spread the corn meal on a pizza stone. I gave a small ball to Peter to make his own pizza just like curious George (This ended up on the floor a few times.) I tried tossing the rest in the air like Tony the Baker, but that didn't work so well. I re-kneaded once or twice to remove the holes, and then spread it out on my pizza stone. It looked really thin in several places, but in the end it was quite thick nearly everywhere after baking.
Topping
I topped with tomato sauce to which Amber had added some spices (oregano and italian spices). We let that warm on the stove while the dough was rising. It looks like during baking the sauce all slid to the lowest parts on the bread, even though it was fairly even when I put it in the oven. I used about a cup of mozzarella cheese and added some olives and fresh pineapple.
Cook
Pre-heat oven to 425. Bake for 10-15 minutes. I left it in until the cheese started to brown. The crust puffed up really thick everywhere, despite how thin it was when I put it in. It was the best pizza I think I've ever had.
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The whole process took about 2 hours. As Jon said, "It's a craft project that produces food at the end." The kids enjoyed it and I think we'll do it again some time.
--Beth |
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| I can do 3-turns! |
[Sep. 27th, 2009|11:13 pm] |
One of my New Year's Resolutions was:
5.) Get a little more vigorous exercise into my life. (Currently vigorous exercise is down to about 1x/month with 20 minutes of walking/strolling about 3x/week. "Enough" vigorous exercise would be 30 minutes 4x/week, but that's not going to happen until after Amber starts school I think. 1x/week every week would be enough for me to consider this goal satisfied.)
In July I started taking ice skating lessons, and it's meeting or exceeding that goal. Most recently I've been learning to do 3-turns, and I can now do 3-turns forwards and backwards on both feet outside-edge to inside-edge. (I haven't yet learned inside-to-outside.) I'm very proud of myself. I'm also getting closer to doing good forward and backward crossovers.
It's like pulling teeth to get good instruction from the lessons themselves. The instructors are good skaters, but they're horrible teachers. I've learned more from the ice-skating book ![[info]](http://l-stat.livejournal.com/img/userinfo.gif) robszewczyk loaned me years ago than from the instructors. They are able to demo things and occasionally give me a useful pointer. "Bend your knees but don't stick your butt out so far" is a useful pointer. "Don't lose control of your skate as you turn" is not.
My class does get me free admission to all public skating sessions, and T/Th/Fr/Sa nights it's open until 9:30 or 10pm, so I go after the kids are in bed. After warming up I spend the first bit (if any) practicing the slow balance moves, and the last 10 minutes skating swiftly as though I were jogging a mile. It's a great aerobic workout, and the rink is only 7 minutes from my house so it doesn't feel like a waste to go work out even if it's only for 10 minutes.
I feel so good after working out!! I knew I needed to regularly. Why haven't I done this before??!!?? Oh yeah, kids and stuff. Mostly kids, and then the rest of the time was spent with stuff. Finally though with Amber in school enough of the stuff is done to enable the things that help stabilize and energize me for more stuff. Yay!
--Beth |
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| Update time |
[Sep. 27th, 2009|09:23 pm] |
I just checked on my New Year's Resolutions page, and my time management system has fallen out of favor. I haven't done long blogging in a very long time, and the post-it notes have been largely unused since I filmed Garrod's Spring Classic last May (and used up all my evenings working on that.)
After checking with Jon, I've decided to make tonight blogging night. Yay!
--Beth
[PS. If you don't see any more posts from me tonight, it's likely because they're going to be about my kids and you haven't requested to be on the kids filter. It's opt-in so let me know if you want in on it.] |
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| SJ Giants Playoff game tomorrow |
[Sep. 15th, 2009|09:52 pm] |
We're considering going to the SJ giants playoff game tomorrow at 7pm. It looks like there might be free tickets at OSH. Anyone is welcome to join us. Drop a note and we'll look for you.
(We usually sit on the 1st base side high up.)
--Beth |
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| Disney Magic |
[Sep. 10th, 2009|07:12 am] |
Last week we took the kids to Disneyland for the first time. Tonight is not an LJ posting night, but I don't want to forget (not that I think I could...)
We had a magical trip to Disneyland. We drove down Wednesday with corpsefairy who knows everything we needed to know about Disneyland. Peter was the perfect age and the perfect height - 40 inches exactly, as long as he had his shoes on and his hair combed up. He loved everything and said, "I want to do that again" with every ride. We rode Dumbo 3 times, the railroad rollarcoaster several times, Star Tours twice, the Matterhorn 3 or so times. We never made it to Buzz Lightyear, even though that was his friend's favorite ride. At the end, when given a choice of Buzz, Peter Pan, or It's a Small World, he choose It's a Small World for his last ride of the day.
I'm sure some of my readership would consider this a nightmare instead of a magical moment, but at the end of It's a Small World, the boat stopped, trapping us in the last room for about 5 minutes as the fireworks display started and boats took longer to unload. The kids sat quietly spellbound watching the animated dolls. Eventually the boat lurched forward and we could see the fireworks lighting up the sky and the light show on the Small World castle. The kids were so happy and awestruck it was just the perfect end to a perfect day.
The park closed at 9pm, and that was about right for me even though I think Peter would have held out until Midnight if it stayed open. He fell asleep the moment we left the park, while Amber stayed awake through dinner.
--Beth
More posts later...
Trip to visit my brother
Amber's first day of school
Peter 4 1/2 year old update (4 2/3rds now!)
Amber made a lego tower taller than herself today
Amber's final tooth came in |
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| While the kids are away the parents will play... |
[Aug. 30th, 2009|06:16 am] |
The kids have been gone for nearly 12 hours now and I've set up webdav calendaring and calendar sharing for Jon's and my calendars, I've finished a rough draft of a wedding video project I'm working on (for pay) and started looking at some of the files for my business.
Unfortunately, Jon also told me why those "Do you want to date my avatar" videos keep showing up every time I look at something on YouTube.
( You don't really want to know this if you've ever played an MMO and don't have enough free time. )
See, you didn't want to know that. I will have to dole it out to myself in small measured amounts as a reward for good behavior, because I got so much done today and I want to acomplish many many more things tomorrow.
I love my parents.
--Beth |
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| We're back! -- Camping lessons learned |
[Aug. 21st, 2009|12:57 pm] |
I had an awesome trip with the kids M-Th camping. I absolutely want to do it again next year, and maybe I can talk my parents into coming with us. On Tuesday, there were 4 families, including us, during the day. There were 4 four-year-olds plus Amber all together, and Peter had a blast! The kids really loved playing together. One went home Tuesday night, one Wednesday morning, and one Wednesday after lunch, leaving me by myself with the two kids for the final 29 hours before I returned home.
The final hours were the most challenging, but we still had a good time. The trick was to take the kids places where Peter could be with other people. We went to a beach Wednesday afternoon, and to the Monterey Bay Aquarium Thursday.
Lessons learned:
* The children will not settle in the tent in the night if it is pitch black. They need a night-light. (The first night they woke me up once/hour.)
* A two-AA maglight with fresh batteries will last from 9pm to 2am.
* Tecnu soap is what my dad recommends for poison oak.
* There is poison oak *everywhere* in the camp.
* 15-lbs of dry ice lasted Sunday night through Thursday morning
* Milk that's been frozen with dry-ice and re-thawed doesn't taste right.
* I should layer my cooler so that the freezer items are next to the dry ice, and refrigerator items are on top.
* Don't forget the little potty, even if the kids are no longer having accidents, because it's a long trip to the bathroom in the morning.
* Go to the pub, not the restaurant, if you want someone else to cook and clean for you.
* The Monterey Bay Aquarium is too expensive to only plan to spend a few hours there.
* If your kids look like ragamuffins, the nice lady at the ticket booth will not charge you $20 for your 4 1/2 year old, she'll tell you he looks two to her.
--Beth |
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| Shameless self-promotion - Flu video |
[Aug. 17th, 2009|12:54 am] |
The government is having a Flu-Prevention Video contest, and I decided to enter. This is a shameless self-promotion asking my friends to rate my video entries well.
They are available here as a 30 sec commercial
And here as a 15 second one.
They both could use more work, especially in the audio department, but I need to finish packing and go to bed. Anyway, of the 139 entries the government has un-screened so far (video responses to the original message), I do think mine is certainly among the best, if not the best. The 15 second version is almost a commercial for the 30 second one, pointing out that Ellie washes in-between her fingers and uses a paper towel to turn off the water. (It wasn't my idea, it's one of their recommendations on their website that they're trying to promote.)
--Beth |
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| Linked In |
[Aug. 9th, 2009|10:26 pm] |
Linked-in's "People you may know" back end is scary-good. Usually its "people you may know" list has 2 of 3 people I know, sometimes 3 of 3 and usually always at least one I know well. And these aren't all just classmates who happened to attend the same school at the same time (of course I know them, duh, there were only 150 of us) but it includes the spouses of good friends at church, people I do know, but have absolutely know idea why Linked-In would have connected me to them. I'm sure there must be more people who live in Mountain View and Sunnyvale who don't attend my church.
So I don't know what they're doing, but they've got some mighty good AI programmers. Presentation could use a little work... if I click on somebody I do know (without opening in a new tab) there's no good way to get back to the other two other than the back button through several forms. I can't go "forward" to get to the same recommendations, because the next time I arrive at that screen there's more new people I know.
Now, I'm not looking for a job, so I haven't followed up on any of these people. When I notice an invite from a friend, I usually click it if I happen to be not-in-crunch mode at the time, but I'm not actively using LinkedIn for anything.
--Beth |
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| Getting through the evening is faster when there's no new e-mail |
[Aug. 6th, 2009|09:56 pm] |
Our e-mail has been going up and down the last few days. We think we've fixed it, and then it's down again. We don't find out that outgoing mail isn't going out until at least 4 hours after it's been sent.
On the plus side, I didn't have any spam this evening...
If something is important, please call. (Live Journal also says that they're having DDOS attacks, so LJ comments may or may not get through to be read by us.)
--Beth |
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| Strep throat. |
[Jul. 23rd, 2009|09:38 pm] |
As suspected I do have strep throat. It presented without a fever though, which is why I waited so long to find a doctor. My throat was sore Monday/Tuesday, painful with pussy spots Wednesday, and Thursday at 1am it hit the excruciating level. Enough that when I woke at 1am I realized I wasn't sleeping without some relief and I went to the all-night pharmacy for some Chloraseptic throat spray.
That barely took the edge off, and as soon as I completed my morning duties (around 11 am) I started searching for a doctor.
The primary-care physician I "usually" use I last saw in 2001. Her answering machine said she doesn't work T/Th afternoons, but I could leave a message. My OB doesn't work Thursdays. The alternate person my OB's office recommended also doesn't work Thursdays. I drove to the primary-care office at 11:45 planning to sit in her office until she saw me, but it was all locked up.
I was feeling desperate at that point so I went to the urgent care clinic.
While I was waiting the estimated 40 minutes for someone from urgent care to see me, the cell phone rings and it's the Primary Care person. She got my message and would be happy to see me in 5 minutes. I talked to the urgent care people, and as I hadn't actually been seen yet, they were willing to refund me my $170.
The Primary Care physician doesn't take insurance anymore, but the visit was only $110. I mailed the bill to my insurance, and they may reimburse me for some of the portion over my $40 co-pay. (Not the amount over the allowable amount -- I wonder how much they allow for visits like this?)
She took one look in my throat and said, "Oh my! You poor dear! I don't even need to do a culture on that." I need to take a picture, my throat is quite impressive. I asked about doing a rapid strep test just to be sure that's what it is, and she said that the treatment would be the same either way, and there's no reason to spend the extra $55. Health note: doctors who don't take or even bill insurance for you DO know how much an unnecessary test will cost, and inform their patients. Not so at the kids' pediatrician's office or anywhere else I've been -- the urgent care people couldn't even do more than estimate my out-of-pocket costs as $170, and I'm sure that they would have gone ahead and done the extra test, "just to be sure."
I don't want to be one of those people who overuses antibiotics, but I opted out of the rapid strep test because I agreed that I'd need something anyway. She prescribed a broad spectrum antibiotic, the generic for Zithromax, and it cost me $9.58 at Costco.
I came home and slept for the next two hours. I'll be going to bed again soon.
I do wish there were an OTC rapid strep test I could buy for $10 to at least determine if I need to see somebody, or better yet, that I could use to just get a prescription for antibiotics directly from the pharmacist. I don't know why we need $110 gate keepers on this kind of simple medicine.
--Beth |
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| Ice skating! |
[Jul. 16th, 2009|10:03 pm] |
I've been taking the kids ice skating to beat the heat this summer, and I decided to sign up for an Adult beginner class myself. It's great! They quickly moved me up to one level up from beginner, and that happens to be a combined class, so I might move up to the top half soon once I learn what I'm doing.
I used to skate with my mom and brother as a kid out on the pond in the woods near our house. I remember having to shovel out the pond before we could skate, and I remember my mom testing the ice first. Good times. I've got great balance, but no formal training so I learned tonight that I'm doing my crossovers all wrong. She reviewed forward and back crossovers with the rest of the class and taught them to me.
I worked up a sweat trying to do it right while still maintaining my balance. My body says, "Don't do that, you'll trip and fall over!" While my brain says, "cross over then weight on the INside edge. Not outside, IN!"
I'm looking forward to practicing more while I skate with Peter and Amber. It felt so good to get this kind of exercise. I really need that and I'm not making it to vaulting on Saturdays nearly often enough. I'm glad to have something I can work on while I'm having fun with the kids.
--Beth |
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| New washer |
[Jul. 13th, 2009|12:11 am] |
Thanks for all the advice, especially the consumer reports e-mail. Our new washer is washing clothes now. We got the Costco front-loader from Whirlpool and installed it ourselves.
--Beth |
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thankful