Unemployed... Again

It seems that I have difficulty keeping my job. That happens when you move around with your husband for 6 months at a time, both across the country and the world. The job that I spent 5 years in was abruptly interrupted when Dan and I moved to California (the first time) back in 2004. Fortunately, I was re-hired 5 months later. However, that only lasted until we moved to Japan, total employment lasting about 8 months. This began my episode of unemployment that lasted for almost a year. Of course, during this time I was pregnant, giving birth, then not sleeping, and had a brief contract when Will was 3 months old. At the end of this year long "break" I was happy to return to work. Now, about 10 months later, I find myself once again facing the lack of excitement that comes with being unemployed. But I didn't even move this time! It is baffling.

So basically, if anyone is looking for someone to create large-set automated data analysis programs using Audit Command Language, I am available. The queries that I have written in the past have saved over $60 million. (I earn my keep!) I make the queries automated and user-friendly which means that I usually program myself out of a job until a more complex task comes along (which it always does). I am great at documenting (which is probably why I never became a "real" programmer in C++ or Perl). I can write training documents, present solutions to upper management, and create and implement project plans in MSProject. I have led project teams both locally and remotely. I have a Statistics background in my degree (Economics and Political Science double major). I am familiar with Sarbanes Oxley. I was even an auditor in a past job. I am super-efficient. I have experience in Workers' Compensation, Purchase Card, Contracts, Facilities, Payroll, Financial Systems, Information Systems logs, and Credit Card Fraud. Basically I am very employable. Now I just need to find the appropriate company/agency who can meet my simple demands.

My simple demands:

• Part-time Contract work (20 hours or so per week)
• Work from Home, but willing to travel
• Prefer higher hourly rate over benefits

Who wouldn't want this cheesy mug on a company id badge?

Will's Most Expensive Toy Ever

Yup, Dan and I have gone overboard, providing cutting-edge technology to our baby. We just bought him the most expensive toy we could. Is it a Smart Cycle Physical Arcade Learning System? Is it a Power Wheels Ford Mustang? No. Is it an I-Que Personal Robot? Based on our current robot obsession, you would think so, but no.

We bought Will a personal DVD player. Yup. Actual non-toy technology for him to use as a toy. Before you say that we are crazy parents who let their kid watch too much TV, um, yes, we already know that. We are those parents who told themselves that they would read their kid books instead of setting them down in front of the glowing electronic baby-sitter. But, like most real-life parents, we succumbed to the temptation of the quiet, zoned-out baby. We are able to do stuff like cook dinner, vacuum up Cheerios, and check our email. All with the use of the simple TV device.

Why a personal DVD player? Up until Will learned to crawl, he was great on planes. He could sleep, nurse, or eat snacks for hours. Then, once he realized that he didn’t have to stay in the plane seat, he was impossible to keep still. Fortunately we haven’t needed to go anywhere since April. But now we are taking a couple of different trips, starting tomorrow. Plus, I will be flying alone with him this week and Dan will be flying alone with him next week. We consider the portable DVD player to be the extra parent that isn’t going to be along. I told you we were the crazy parents.

Will it work? We have tried it out at home and Will seems very excited about it. He has learned how to use the headphones and only stops to say “oh-oh” when they fall out of his ears and he wants us to put them back in. So, if all goes well, my 4-5 hour flight tomorrow should go very smoothly.

Will Learning About Head Phones
While Watching "Handy Manny"

Where Are You?

We have heard that there are people reading our blog from many locations. If you would like know more, check out the following map. Of course, we have been lame lately about actually posting stuff, but we hope that you are still checking up on us sometimes.



Create your own visitor map!

Just wanted to try the map out. Lynn and Derek put one on their blog, so we thought we would try it out.

Roomba Success and Disappointment

We acquired a Roomba. It is awesome. It wanders across the floor, sucking up dirt and food. It searches under the couch for missing toys. It even beeps happily when it is done cleaning.

We have been unable to select a name for our Roomba. Is the Roomba male? Female (as Elaine claims)? We were hoping that Will would name the Roomba. So far, he has only come up with Bo-Bo. Perhaps that will work.

What is our disappointment with the Roomba? We were hoping for funny videos of the Roomba chasing Will or Will chasing the Roomba. Most of the time Will simply watches it warily. Sometimes he lets it run into his feet and turn around. But no funny videos.

Will is as helpful as always when it comes to the Roomba. If we happen to lose it under a chair, we can ask, "Where is Roomba?" and he will drop down to the floor on his tummy and look for the Roomba.

Now if only we could find a cleaning robot to take care of this...

About kroboth.us

Someone asked in the comments if kroboth.us was gone. Nope. It's still around. After about 3 years of being hosted on a service provider who was gradually becoming more and more unresponsive, we switched new a new service provider (1and1), but we've yet to create a webpage there. (see previous post about general level of activity.)

At any rate, our e-mails still work:

dan-at-kroboth-dot-us
angela-at-kroboth-dot-us
and
will-at-kroboth-dot-us

My baby has a middle name...

I know, I know, I haven't posted in a long time. We switched from every day Will school to only two days a week. This means that while he is at "The Launching Pad" I have to diligently work. Less free time for posting to the blog. So, while I can't catch up on everything that has happened in the past 4 months, I can at least start with this one.

When we named Will, we came up with a new first name and a middle name. And we decided to stick with Kroboth for the last name.

For the first name, we went with William. There are many theories as to how we came up with that name. Was Will named after: William Riker? William Shatner? Wil Wheaton? William the Conqueror? Dan's Grandma's brother? William Clinton? William Tell? William Shakespeare? It is a mystery. In any case, the name William means "protector."

To get a middle name, we queried our Japanese friends to find a name that we liked that also meant protector, hence "Kengo." Depending on the kanji that you select, the name can have different meanings. Being new, sleep-deprived parents who were in the middle of an international, and then cross-country, move, we didn't initially select the kanji for Kengo. But, back on Will's 1st birthday in April, we finally selected the kanji. There is one character for each syllable. Here it is, "KEN-GO"

The first syllable, "KEN" means wisdom. The second syllable, "GO" means protection or guarding. Perhaps we have some Japanese friends who have actual knowledge about the kanji could describe more specifically what the two kanji mean together.

So now, if Will ever goes to Japan, he already has a pronounceable name and something to put on his business cards. Just looking out for Will's future.

It's a Small Park After All

Do you ever go somewhere and meet someone you have something in common with? Ok, most likely you do. That's how you get friends, right? Well, a funny thing happened to us Sunday morning. Of course we were awake early because Will doesn't understand how to sleep in on weekends. And church was quite a long time away. So we decided to take a walk to Starbucks. On the way there is a small park with a little playground (or "plague round" according to the google translated Japanese Babies R Us website). Will got all excited when he saw the playground, so we decided to stop.

A little while later, a father and his son stopped by to also play. Here is what we found out we had in common with them:
Live in Same Area (hence the same park)
Kids Same Age
Kids Attend Same Daycare
He and his wife both work at Dan's company
He is the office mate of a friend of ours from church
He and his wife both graduated from the University of Rochester (like me)
They also don't have any family in the area here in CA (important for babysitting)

I am sure we probably have other stuff in common with them but this was enough to convince me to give him our card. Hopefully we can exchange kids for babysitting duties. That way Dan and I can try to keep up on our dating schedule of about every 2 months or so. Perhaps even increase our frequency of leisurely meals. Maybe we could even go see a movie. In a theater. Or a play. In a different theater.

What else happened to us between James' wedding back at the beginning of April and now. I'll have to do a catch up post later. I promise pictures.

Best Wedding Ever!

Dan, Will, and I spent last weekend celebrating the weddings of our friends James and Davy (pronounced Dah-vee). You may have noticed that I typed "wedding-s" above. No, that's not a typo. James and Davy got married 2 times. They also had 2 receptions. Why make the busiest day of your life happen twice? You see, Davy was born in Cambodia and James was born in not-Cambodia (also known as Michigan). So on Saturday they had a 4-hour long Cambodian ceremony and Sunday they had a 30-minute Christian ceremony. Of course these events and all events of the weekend were tracked in the master schedule, a 24 page document. The master schedule had various off-shoots. Depending on what your role was in the wedding, your schedule might have only been 8 pages long.

The Cambodian ceremony involved a small parade which would have been bigger if it had not been raining outside. The groom has to bring presents to the bride's parents' house to show his worthiness. There were various Cambodian snacks and a lot of fruit. Will liked this part of the ceremony because after it was over, we got to share in some of the snacks and fruit. Will ate 4 tiny bananas and some tasty grapes. Basically Will enjoyed a lot of the wedding events as they were very colorful, involved food, and there was lots of music. Plus, everyone thought Will was a well-behaved baby. He was pretty good because he was happily eating most of the time. The other factor was that when he was cranky, there was a lot of stuff and music going on so no one could hear him being cranky.

Will Dancing to Cambodian Music

The Cambodian ceremony required multiple costume changes. You know, kind of like a Super Bowl half-time performance. For James, this meant that he got to wear three different sarongs. And they were color-coordinated with Davy's outfits. And they were sparkly. It was great.

The Green Sarongs

The Gold and Red Sarongs

James in Sparkly Sarong

If you ever get a chance to talk to James about his fancy clothes, just ask him about the "wardrobe malfunction" that happened with the green sarong. By the end of the ceremony, I'm sure James would agree with Mike's observation that he was longing for the restrictiveness of a tuxedo. And, yes, he showed up at the reception in a tux, but Davy wore a beautiful blue outfit.

Davy Mingling at Reception
(mingling was in the master schedule)

Obviously Will was also in blue and looked kind of cute with his tie that coordinated with Dan's outfit. They were just getting into the color-coordinated spirit of the event.

Dan and Will in Coordinated Ties

As I mentioned, food was a big part of the wedding celebration. For those of you who know my eating habits, you might wonder what in the world I would find to eat at a Cambodian dinner. It turns out that picky people can change. No, I didn't change in my excitement to celebrate a Cambodian wedding. Rather, after spending 5 months in Japan, my tastes changed. Prior to going to Japan, there were basically 2 lists: Foods that I do eat and Foods that I don't eat. Foods that I do eat include: all white meat chicken breast, turkey, potatoes, brocolli, pasta, fajitas, bread. Foods that I don't eat include: anything not fully cooked, most things with a non-tomato based sauce, viengar, salad with a dressing other than ranch, and especially mushrooms.

While in Japan, I had to throw out the lists and eat anything that I could stomach. Fortunately I had Kishi-san ordering every chicken dish on the menu for me whenever we would go out to eat on official work dinners. Also fortunate was the fact that I was pregnant and "couldn't eat fish" and other things that were "not good for the baby" (like mushrooms). So I could get away with not eating some unappetizing things.

I didn't realize it while I was in Japan, but when I got back I noticed that I was open to eating more foods. For example, Dan and I went out on a date for White Day this year. (Thanks Gina for babysitting! It was our first date since Will was born.) I actually ate the salad that had some sort of vinegar dressing on it.

So what interesting things did I eat at the Cambodian reception? I ate steak. It wasn't well done. This is a big step for me. There was also this "salad" that I ate. It had pig's ear and jellyfish in it. This is a giant leap for Midwesterners everywhere.

In addition to food, there was also entertainment and dancing at the reception. One of Davy's nephews is part of a hip-hop dance group. So there was hip-hop dancing for a while. Will didn't do any hip-hop moves, but he did get a head start on the dancing when he had the dance floor all to himself.

Will Getting Down

The first song of the evening was the Father of the Bride singing karakoe to the Billy Ocean song, Carribean Queen. He was pretty good. Normally I would expect the Father of the Bride to dance with the Bride, but that happens all the time. This was much better. If we have a daughter, Dan is totally singing at her wedding. Maybe something by the Fresh Prince.

Now there were some similarities between the Cambodian traditions and your typical American tradition. We got to throw some sort of rice-like substance at James and Davy. I think it was the fuit seeds of a palm tree. But we didn't just throw it at them for a few seconds while they made a quick departure. Oh no, we got to throw it at them for over a half hour. This made great content for James' brother's brilliant toast that he gave the next day. It was the best toast I've heard by a best man at a wedding, ever.

Everyone likes to throw stuff at the bride and groom

We had a great time at the Cambodian ceremony and reception. We got to see a lot of people who I hadn't seen in a long time. We got to meet new people and learn about a different culture. But after all of that, we were only done with one wedding.

Sunday brought the Christian ceremony and reception. However, it didn't start until afternoon. We managed to fit in a non-wedding event. We drove to Brenham, TX to hang out with a former co-worker of Dan's, Frances. One of the big things in Texas is the blue bonnet flowers. So, of course, we took pictures of Will in the field of blue bonnets.

Blue Bonnet Field

Now driving out to Brenham wasn't the only non-wedding event we participated in. On Saturday, there had been a break in between the Cambodian ceremony and reception. We rested, then went with Dan's cousin, Kimberly, and her son, Noah, to the Houston Children's museum.

Going to the Children's Museum made me realize that I need to find some sort of similar place to take Will all the time in Los Angeles. As far as I can tell though, the LA Children's museum is under construction and will be located near Burbank.

Noah and Will at Children's Museum

Anyway, back to Wedding II... It was a pretty cool ceremony. James' dad officiated which was nice. It was short and sweet. One of the scripture readings was particularly interesting. The girl reading it, one of Davy's nieces, I think, had asked James to email her the verse so she could practice. So she took the printout of James' email up to the gazebo stage. She read the verse, then kept going to his sig quote by Lou Piniella, "Statistics are like bikinis; they show a lot, but not everything." (quote source not confirmed, might be from Toby Harrah.) It was the funniest thing I had ever heard at a wedding. And everyone knew that it came from James' sig.

The reception was neat for me because it turns out that James' cousin Dusty was in my group of friends in high school, so we got to catch up.

Dusty, Angela, Will, Dan at Reception

The wedding cake was great. We weren't planning on giving Will cake, but ever since his birthday party where we introduced him to it, he recognizes it and asks for it quite persistently. I am actually shocked that he hasn't learned the word for cake just so he can let us know that he really, really, really wants it. Now! It is a great deal for me because in an effort to be a better mom and cut down on Will's overall cake sugar consumption, he gets to eat the cake part, but I sacrifice my waistline to eat the frosting. I like the frosting better anyway. Actually wedding cake frosting is the reason I go to weddings in the first place.

Will Loves Cake

It was a crazy busy weekend, but we managed to survive. We had tons of fun. We have two upcoming weddings to go to, one in June and one in January. Will they be as exciting and culturally interesting as this one? We shall see.

Will is Going to College

Our little genius baby is going to college. Ok, maybe not today, maybe not tomorrow, but someday, for at least 3 years. In 2024, it will cost more than $160,000 for a public state college.

Now that Will is almost one year old, we have finally set up a savings account for him. As he doesn't fully appreciate the excitement of birthday presents yet, feel free to help him out in the college department. So far we have opened the account with money from his great-grandparents. If any other grandparent-type people or various other people are interested in finding out what this account number is and how to contribute, just drop us a line.

And just so this post isn't boring, here is a cute picture of Will, ready to go to school.

Riding the bus

The Couch Exists!

Back in December, Dan and I bought a couch. Back in January, a couch that was the color, "Baltic Tobacco" was delivered to us. Despite it having an archaic color name, it wasn't a bad couch. It was about the color of smoker's teeth, a nice stained brown color. But it wasn't what we paid for and it really went poorly with our carpet. So we asked that our "Baltic Olive" colored couch be delivered to us instead.

The customer service department at Linder Furniture told us that they would call the manufacturer and have them re-upholster the couch so that it would be done quickly for us, by February 7th. Not in time for the Super Bowl, but it would be done soon. But after speaking with them February 7th, the estimated delivery was February 25th. When I called the week of the 25th, no one could tell me what happened or if my couch existed. The order was basically lost. Finally, on March 8th, I was told that they would call me in a few days with a delivery time for my couch after putting a "rush" on it. The next week I called to find out about my couch. Now the day it would arrive to their store would be March 22nd. And they would get the delivery set up right away so I could have the couch on March 23 or 24. On March 22nd, the couch was still not finished, and not available for delivery. But finally, after waiting for nearly 4 months, without a couch, it arrived today!

Actual Couch... in our Living Room!

No longer will our guests have to sit on the floor! This couch can probably fit 6 people. Well, of course we have to remove the four superfluous throw pillows, but I'm sure Will can come up with a use for them.

No longer will Dan and I have to sit in our two separate chairs to watch TV. Now we can actually sit next to each other, on the couch. And Will can join us. He really likes couches. Shopping for the couch was a lot of fun for him. We just hope he doesn't get lost in the giant cushions.

Our couch is awesome. It is deep and tall. So even though Dan and I are tall, we can sit on it without our knees hanging over the seat. Plus, we can lean back and our heads still touch the back pillows.

Will was 8 months old when we bought the couch and we actually received it before his first birthday. It took nearly a third of his life to get a couch delivered! I hope there isn't anyone else out there who can make such a claim.

Will's First Birthday (observed)


On Saturday, we celebrated Will's birthday. Of course his birthday isn't until April 6, but his due date was March 24 and we will be out of town on his actual birthday, so we celebrated on March 24. Throwing a 1st birthday party is different than throwing a normal party. Here are some things we learned during the experience.

"Goodie Bags" are very important. As Will is only 1 and doesn't know what a goodie bag is, I figured that we didn't need any. I looked at them in the store. They seemed pretty lame. However, lame to me is not the same as lame to a kid. And even though Will is only 1, we had kids at the party who were older. I was properly schooled by a 6-year old who asked me if there were goodie bags and then, when faced with the realization that there were none, asked me why I was not smart enough to get them. I explained that this was my first kid birthday party. His extensive knowledge was the result of 11 different birthday parties. All of which had goodie bags.

Entertainment is very important. As we have a small grill, the main entertainment was watching Dan grill one burger at a time. Ok, maybe there were 5 or so burgers on the grill. They seemed to get done one at a time. Everyone was hanging out in the back yard, watching Dan grill. But he wouldn't create fire and flip the burgers up in the air. It was very sad. Then, after Hillary successfully managed to consume the first burger, people got to eat. Perhaps a bigger grill isn't such a bad idea.

Grilling Dan

The better entertainment came after dinner when it came time for cake. It turns out that even though a 1-year-old doesn't know what a goodie bag is, he can grok cake. We threw caution to the wind and broke Will's no wheat-milk-eggwhites-sugar diet. Will was confused when we first put him in his high chair with everyone sitting around watching, but he got into the cake zone after we put a slice in front of him. I can safely say that most of the crowd found this to be more entertaining than watching Dan grill.

In the Cake Zone

Will was also entertained by all of the people hanging out at his house. He was walking everywhere, mostly near the guests outside in the back. People were arriving and Will was out back, we thought. It seems I failed to replace the baby gate on the front door in between guests arriving. I realized this when Mindy walked in with Will. He had decided to wander out front! Lesson here: We will always leave the front door closed or baby-gated.

Will has had a pretty good year. His first year number of states visited will be 13: AZ, CA, CO (airport only), DC, IL (airport many times), MD, MI, NC, NV (airport only, but got to gamble), NY, OR, TX, VA. He has only been to 2 countries: Japan and US. He got to go on 31 plane flights, counting connections. He can't talk yet, but he tries to say, or he responds to: apple, ball, banana, bath, block, brrr (when cold), bird, caw (sound of bird), box, bye-bye (with waving), dad, dog, drawer, door, duckie, lama, mom, more (pointing), no (with shaking head), outside, splash, up. He learned to sit on his own at 4 months, crawl at 7 months, and walk at 10 1/2 months. His favorite TV show is "Handy Manny" about a repairman with talking, singing tools. He likes sports, watching the Tour de France, the World Cup, and lots of American Football on TV. He likes songs about satellites. Beep-Beep-There-Goes-A-Satellite!

What are Will's goals for before he turns 2? I hope that he starts talking so he can tell us why he is cranky (probably because we are hanging out at home and he is bored). We hope to take him to see some new places, maybe visit part of the Tour de France. Perhaps expose him to Mayan culture. He is already starting in the toddler class at his pre-pre-school. And what of his 2nd birthday? Definitely Goodie Bags!

Take Me Out to the Warm Sunny Ballgames!

Arizona is a warm, sunny, location. Dan, Will, and I just spent a long weekend hanging out with Kevin and Sara at Baseball Spring Training. Since it was sunny, we wore a lot of sunscreen and protected Will from the sun with a hat and a little tent.

Will in Tent

Since it was very warm, we all made sure to drink enough water.

Sippy cup? Who needs a sippy cup?

Will's cute hat helped him meet girls when I wasn't paying attention.

How you doing?

During one of the games, Will decided to try to sell beer, pushing the bucket around.

Future Beer Vendor

We even took a break from baseball and went to play mini-golf.

Could I get a shorter club, please?

And what is a visit to Phoenix without going over to Taliesin West and taking a picture with a cactus?

So this is the dessert?

We had a great trip, Will even survived the 6-hour drive from California to Arizona. We think that his nifty new car seat helped. Where to next? Somewhere just as hot - Houston, TX in a couple of weeks. But this time, we are flying. It will be Will's 29th flight. Maybe we will see you there!

I Am Such A Yuppie

A while back Dan and I realized that we did indeed fall into the category of yuppie. But it was simply a general category, not really based on any one specific thing we do. However, I can now, without a doubt say that I am a yuppie.

You see, I had a shopping problem. Not your typical shopping problem where you go and buy too many things. Rather, I was unable to shop with Will as he grabs at the clothes, tries to remove their price tags, and generally disapproves of boring fitting rooms. This wouldn't be such a big deal except for the fact that none of my old clothes fit anymore.

So I asked myself.. What Would Ben Do?

So, I met with a personal shopper. And I liked it! I think it is even better than having a home grocery delivery service. (Home grocery delivery services such as Pea Pod are awesome. You can search on-line for items instead of aimlessly wandering around the store. You can sort by unit price to get the best deal. The only problem with me using them these days is that taking Will to the store to wander around aimlessly is one of the methods of entertaining him that we use.)

Back to personal shoppers. This is basically how it works: I call my personal shopper, Cheryl, and tell her what I am looking for. "I need something to wear to a wedding that is casual." Then I tell her when I would like to come in to the store. She has a large fitting room reserved for me with a rack of clothes in my size. Will hangs out with Cheryl while I am trying stuff on. I let her know if I need any other sizes or colors. She tells me if things fit properly or not. Then I buy what I need. If it is going on sale in the near future, she lets me know. It is awesome.

So, as I sit here in my Ralph Lauren jeans, I feel bad about buying expensive clothes (although I got a really good deal), but I am soo happy that my clothes actually fit well. You can call me snobby or a yuppie or whatever, but it is such a relief to wake up in the morning and grab something out of my closet that fits!

Baby On the Move

Will did it! He learned to walk. This happened around Valentine's Day. He decided to try to take a step. After a few tries, he was taking 3-4 steps. These days he is wandering across the room. Of course, he has been trying for a few weeks to balance standing on his own. Here he is in mid-January standing around.

Happy to Stand Around

Of course, for a while there, Will knew that he could crawl a lot faster than he could walk, so he wasn't trying. But that is all behind us now. Unfortunately, I can't figure out how to add video to the blog, so you will just have to believe us when we say Will can walk.

Other things that Will has decided to do:

1) Sleep All Night - It has been more than a month of sleeping. I feel like a real person again. Of course, the Will sleeping is due to me not drinking caffeine, so I don't have that jolt of productivity in the morning. Plus, now that there is no high quantities of liquid caffeine in my diet, I have enhanced my relationship with sugar, specifically chocolate chips.

2) Eat Entire Apples - The other day Will pulled a bag of apples off the table in our kitchen, grabbed one of the apples, and started to chow down. By the time we were ready to leave, he had finished half of the apple. Now we core the apple for him and just let him eat it. The hole left from coring makes a great thumb hold for Will. This method of feeding our baby apples is much more efficient than cutting slices and feeding them to him one at a time.

Will Eating Apple

3) Play Outside - Will has overcome his fear of grass. Fortunately he is also in a phase where he isn't automatically putting everything in his mouth. So, we can let him wander outside. Unfortunately he likes to taste dirt from our flower bed. Also, when he is in the back "yard," much of it is our driveway and when he falls he has to crawl on cement. I was thinking of getting him these Snazzy Baby Knee Pads.

Not only has Will accomplished much during the month of February, Dan and I also accomplished things. Well, maybe only one thing. We finished our Christmas letter! Now it is sort of a Christmas / President's Day letter, but it has gone out. If you didn't get a copy, don't fear, we are still sending out the second phase (when we had to look up addresses or email addresses). If you still don't get it in a couple of weeks, your address is probably stored in a box, in our garage, and we hope to find it by next Christmas. Just drop us a line and we will send you the Christmas letter right away!

We hope to post more to the blog as we have a few exciting adventures coming up. What's next? See you at Baseball Spring Training in AZ!

Will Wants Snow!

Ok, maybe it is a bit more accurate to say that Will Wants to Eat Snow. How do we know this? One of the activities at Will's pre-preschool is a Snow Day. While I think of Snow Days as when the kids stay home, here in California a Snow Day is one where they bring snow to the school and the kids get to play in it. So on Friday morning, 9 tons of snow were delivered at Will's school.

Will thought the snow was bright and cold. He didn't want to crawl on the snow, instead opting to sit in one place.

Sitting Will

The only thing that motivated him were snowballs. Whenever he would discover one nearby, he would reach for it so that he could taste it.

Will Grabbing Snow

However, upon realizing that the snow was pretty cold, even in his mouth, he would make a face.

Icky Snowball

Perhaps, in the future, Will will enjoy snow in a way that does not involve eating it. For now, he simply found it cold. But, he did get to make friends with the giant snowman.

Will's Cold Friend

Happy Birthday to Robin!

She is celebrating her twenty-ninth birthday. Yes, she is twenty-nine everyone. Really!

I wasn't supposed to post anything on teh blog until after we finished our Christmas letter, but I had to for this momentous occasion. And for those of you who haven't done the math, yes, my husband is 11- months younger than my little sister.

To commemorate this event, I will now post various pictures of Robin.

Robin and Will Playing with Christmas Presents

Robin and Will Playing with Turtle

Robin as Tallest Munchkin Ever

Robin Looking Tired on First Roadtrip Ever - 1999

Red Robin Bandit

Robin with Meijer Bag (birthday celebration for 22nd)

Robin in High School

Yup, perhaps I will add more insight to this post later, but for now... Happy Birthday Robin!

**Must finish Christmas Letter!

The January Caffeine Reduction Plan...

...has gone terribly awry. You see, the idea was that I would start with the base amount of coffee that I consume in a day. This is approximately 2 or 3 cups of coffee. Then, I would gradually start replacing some of the caffeinated coffee in the pot with decaffeinated coffee.

Side note: With the help of Robin, we finally found our coffee pot. Yes, it was in the garage, in a box, much like the rest of our stuff. Now I don't have to convince a coffee filter to stay in my travel mug while I drain hot water through the coffee grounds.

A way to make bad coffee

The caffeine reduction plan was simple and gradual. I would still drink coffee, but have less caffeine. I would convince myself that I wanted to order tasty decaf at coffee houses. I would wean gradually!

What happened? Oddly, it was lack of sleep that caused me to re-think my plan. I know, normally lack of sleep inspires people to drink more coffee. However, this is different. It all started Monday night.

What happened Monday night? Will slept for 10 hours! This was very exciting. We put him to bed at 8pm and he woke up at 6am. The next day I was alert, energized, loving life. I thought, this is the dawn of a new area of wakefulness and productivity!

Of course on Tuesday night things didn't go so well. Will woke up more times than I can count. Counting skills greatly decrease as you get less sleep. Wednesday night he only woke up 2 times, but really, I am not sure what day it is now, so I could be wrong, he may have woken up 4 times for all I remember. Confusion about Will not sleeping aside, I decided it was time for drastic action. It is possible that the caffeine that I drink could be affecting Will.

I stopped yesterday.

If Will's sleeping does not improve in a week, I may go back to the sweet nectar of caffeine. But really, at that point, the hard part of quitting is over (hard part is headache for 3 days). I may just take Ben's approach to it and start drinking the anti-oxidant-rich, healthier tea.

My New Year's Resolution

Yea! Happy New Year! Oh wait, it is January 2nd? I've missed New Year's Day?

It could be worse. I count being one day late as getting closer to being on track. At least we are not a week late, right? (For those of you who thought we dropped you off our Christmas Letter List, don't worry, the problem is that we just haven't sent it yet... oh wait, I mean we haven't even written it yet. Then we will send it.)

Now, as to a New Year's Resolution... I typically don't make these. My A-type personality dictates that I should be setting goals and accomplishing outlined objectives all year round. This I do. Granted, the past 9 sleep-deprived months have caused many of my goals to fall by the wayside. And then there were the prior 9 months where I got lazy about some goals, using the pregnancy excuse and the fact that I was in Japan.

In any case, here is my official "New Year's Resolution"
Be more fashionable.

As I sit here in my REI zip-off travel pants/shorts that I bought when I was 3 months pregnant and an un-matching shirt, I realize that this goal is important. Plus, every morning I end up grabbing whatever combination of shirt and pants fit me, rather than ones that match. It turns out that loosing "pregnancy weight" isn't the issue. It's regaining the pre-pregnancy shape. When I dressed up for Dan's work's Christmas party (oh wait, no, that was an "employee appreciation dinner"), I realized that while my formal dresses actually fit me, they didn't look good until I added a corset underneath. Here I thought that Southern Belles of the past wore corsets because of vanity and to get a man. Turns out they were necessary items of clothing after having children. So, yes, my strange shape is contributing to my lack of fashionability.

Angela and Dan in Narrow Entry Way

Of course, it's not like I have been fashionable in the past. I just don't have the eye for it. Plus, it is hard to find clothes that fit me as I am 5'10" tall. So when I would find clothes that fit, I would buy them simply for that fact, not because they looked particularly fashionable. But no more! Now that I am a 30-year-old young professional and mother, I need practical, attractive, well-fitting clothes.

So, that is my New Year's Resolution. I'll let you know how it goes. Other stuff on the horizon (besides completing our 2006 Christmas Letter) include: the January Caffeine Reduction Plan, completing those pesky pre-30-years-old goals, working on my pre-32 goals, achieving a work/life balance, organizing my photos, and, of course, exercising more.

Celebrate 28 years on December 28th!

Dan is in the process of slogging through his late 20's. On Sunday, December 24th, he will turn 28 years old.

You may wonder why we are not celebrating his birthday on the 24th. This is because we will have people visiting for the holidays. However, said people are arriving in the evening of the 24th (Dad), the morning of the 26th (Robin), and some other time on the 26th (Lee). Don't worry, we will figure out when to pick up Lee at some point before she arrives. We will not leave her at the airport during this crazy holiday travel time, at least, not for very long. In any case, people will be here basically after Dan's birthday, so we selected the 28th as the day to celebrate.

What can you expect at this exciting birthday event? I can promise cake. mmmmmmm... And, unlike my birthday where we mistakenly bought a cake that had icky frosting, Dan's cake will be superior. What does this mean for you? You should join us for the cake eating event.

When: December 28th at 6pm
Where: Our New House in California
RSVP: Please tell us that you are coming, we will give you our address
Other Food: Yes, we will have some sort of dinner food for people who arrive on time
Will: Yes, Will will be there. He will go to bed at about 8pm. We will let you stay past that time, but if you want to play with Will, you will have to come on-time.
What to Bring: Bring Dan a cool Birthday Card. There may be a prize for the geekiest card.

Furniture Disclaimer: We have actually purchased furniture. We selected a very nice green couch with soft, down-filled cushions. We bought some nifty chairs too. They will be delivered in January.

Box Disclaimer: We still have at least 75 boxes of stuff that has not been unpacked. We may not be able to locate important party accessories. So when you see me trying to light candles with our long BBQ matches and serve cake by balancing the pieces on two forks, it is because we haven't located key things among our stuff.

Christmas Tree Disclaimer: We bought a Christmas tree on Sunday. Yup, that's the extent of it. Oh wait, no, we also brought it inside our house on Wednesday. So now it is in our living room. Oh wait, there's more... we also put a tree skirt and presents under it. So, yes, our tree looks like this right now...


While we hope to decorate it, if we don't by Dan's birthday party, perhaps we will involve our guests in this effort.


The Dan of Birthdays Past
What blog post would be complete without reminiscing about similar events of the past?

27 year-old Birthday Dan in Japan - Also celebrating Kay's birthday (2005)

26 year-old Georgia Tech Birthday Dan with Dad and Tim (2004)

24 year-old Birthday Dan (2002)

2 year-old Birthday Dan (1980)

1 year-old Birthday Dan (1979)
-almost as tall as the candle-

0 year-old Birthday Dan (1978)

Unfortunately the picture of Dan and Kevin in the sombreros for Dan's 21st birthday is in one of the 75 remaining boxes in the garage. But at least we have some cute baby birthday pictures.

Come, be a part of the Dan 28 year-old Birthday Dan picture!

P.S.
Happy Late Birthday Kay!
Happy Late Birthday Kevin!

(Note above Christmas Tree picture for proof that we are running a bit late on many things this year, inc luding birthday wishes.)