Update on TMX Elmo

To reference my Elmo post from a few weeks back, here is Maddy's inital reaction to said Evil Doll.

Michael opens package. Maddy is concerned.




Elmo is laughing. Maddy's concern grows and she backs into the hallway.



Maddy downright cries.

Maddy Update

1. She has developed a fascination with shoes, particulary ones that do not fit her feet.



2. She likes pigtails.



3. She can say "cheese" now. And she likes chocolate. See below for evidence of both.

Mmmmm....Floor blog

Ok, so here's the story. This is all my mother's fault. What isn't?

I was down in Florida, having a nice, relaxing stay at the rent's place (complete with pool, poolboy (Dad), and sandwich maker (Mom), when my mother attempted to engage me in conversation. Mind you, I was attempting to nap by the pool, leaving her to watch two small children by herself, so I was quite irritated. She started out by asking me about things we were planning to do with our house.

I mentioned a few things, including our bathroom floor which has become increasingly discolored since we moved in. I told her I hated it, plus the vinyl was coming up by the tub.

Cautionary glee filled my mother's eyes. "Oh, Jamee, you need to do something about that. The water is probably getting under the vinyl and rotting the floor."

Relaxation slips away.

"So you are saying my house is going to fall down?"
"No," she replied. " I am not saying your house will fall down. But the tub might fall through the floor."
"So you are saying my house is going to fall down?"
" I am not saying your house will fall down. But the tub might fall through the floor."

I saw no difference.

The conversation went on like that for the next hour. Meanwhile, I had images of Michael taking a shower and his naked, flailing body crashing through to the first floor. Right into his DVDs. I would never hear the end of it.

So I called Michael, warned him about his imminent death and told him that the next weekend we were going to work on the floor. I picked out a tile and read up everything I could on the subject.

So that was our major project this weekend. Michael did most of it and I am totally proud of him. First off, he removed the old vinyl, revealing this below.




Ugh. The darker patches are mildew. Fortunately, that is a plywood underlayment with additional vinyl underneath. I finished scraping off the old vinyl and cleaned the plywood with a bleach solution, leaving the floor to look like this:



Much better, eh? What's left is just a waterstain. The wood was pretty sound all around. We left that to dry overnight, applied a leveler and a primer and then Michael went about laying the tile.




He did a pretty damn good job, don't you think? The toliet was hard to get around but we solved that by lining it with some flexible caulk. This caulk is also now protecting the side of the tub to prevent any future damage.

So that is how we spent Memorial Day weekend.

Jamee's Excellent Adventure

So Ancestry.com is addictive.

Using their records and records compiled from another relative of mine, I have been electronically documenting my family tree. At this point, it goes back to the 1200s. Neato.

According to Ancestry, I am related to the following:

Rutherford B Hayes (6th cousin, 7 times removed)
Katharine Hepburn (8th cousin, 4 times removed)
Richard Nixon (8th cousin, 4 times removed)Oh dear.
Isaac Newton (5th cousin, 11 times removed)
William Taft (8th cousin, 6 times removed)
Theodore Roosevelt (10th cousin, 3 times removed)
Joe Ball (11th cousin, 2 times removed)a serial killer in case you didn't know.

Does this mean anything? Not really. It might not even be true, since Ancestry is comprised of a lot of people who may or may not be using factual information. But it's pretty frakkin' cool anyway. So pppttthhhbed.

All the News You Can Use

Argh! So I have been spending the last few weeks trying to get my life back together after the end of my student internship. Going back to work full-time, cleaning the house, and trying to figure out who the strange guy and small child that seem to be residing in my house are. Elves? Nymphs?

I had the good fortune to go visit the 'rents one last time in the house I love so much. Spent time playing in the pool with Maddy and falling asleep in the sun. And having someone make sammiches for me. Bliss.

Coming back, we have tackled replacing the vinyl on our bathroom floor-our first major house project. More on that later (with pictures!-aren't youexcited)

Also trying to figure out why our daycare had to complete an "Incident Report" for Maddy. Turns out she has been trying to eat her fellow classmates. One day she tried to bite other kids 9 times but she only succeeded once. And here's how bad I have it-in trying to determine behavior correction strategies with Michael, his main suggestion was to dress her up as Hannibal Lecter and wheel her into daycare.



Although that is a great idea for a Halloween costume...hmmm...

I am also taking advantage of Memorial Day weekend and Ancestry.com's offer of a free 3-day platinum membership. Plugging in all information I have about my family and using census and military records to fill in the pieces. Wanna know where the census shows my great-grandfather in 1930? You guessed it-Baltimore City Penitentiary.

What's really creepy is finding out that one of my first ancestors who came to this country came from England in the 1700s and settled right here in Frederick County. In fact, the aforementioned incarcerated relative of mine was born and lived no more than 15 miles from where I am now. Given how my family has traveled all over the place, it seems strange that my sister and I ended up here.

At least for now.

Too bad we did inherit any land.

Happy Friday

This should cheer you up

From NPR news:
Bird Fouls Bush's Outdoor Event


Morning Edition, May 25, 2007· The Secret Service is constantly vigilant for any threat against the president. But during Thursday's Rose Garden news conference, they failed to stop a dive-bombing bird that closed in and fired off a dropping that hit Mr. Bush on his left sleeve.

Cool

Visual thingy swiped from Renee

Thursday, Friday, Beerday

I love beer festivals.

Along with gardening and cooking, it is one of my favorite pasttimes.

This past Saturday was the Maryland Brewers SpringFest. It brought out the usual suspects-Brewers Alley, Clipper City, Flying Dog, my sister, brother-in-law (a reporter for a brewing pub) and myself. As always, I like to take these opportunities to try new things. Therefore, I avoided the usual suspects since they are either a) very accessible to me (Barley & Hops, Brewer's Alley, and Red Brick Brewing, located in Frederick and Baltimore) or one's that I had tried a lot of (Clipper City) or ones that I plan on trying in the near future (will be traveling to Denver in June-Flying Dog is located there).

So I tried Duclaw's Misfit Red first. My brother-in-law swears that Duclaw is the best brewer in Maryland and I generally trust him, although he tends to like hoppier beers than myself. Wasn't quite fond of it. Unfortunately, didn't get to sample any of there other beers.

I tried a few from The Brewer's Art located in Baltimore. Again, nothing too impressive, but their beer list is so extensive, I am willing to visit their restaurant for some more "research."

I also tried some peach beer. And we will never speak of it again.

After these various disappointments and with only three beer tokens left, I decided to switch to beers I knew I would truly enjoy. Red Brick Brewing had this great beer. I would love to tell you the name, but I am a true lightweight and this information is no longer in my skull. But if you are ever by the IKEA in Baltimore, check this place out-nice menu, atmosphere and, of course, beer.

I've tried several of Clipper City's beers, but the BaltoMarzHon is my absolute favorite.

So finally, I was about to leave when my brother-in-law graciously gave me another beer token at the time my sister was telling me about this wonderful blueberry beer. Understand that I have had only one "fruit" beer that I liked (thank you Sam Adams' Cherry Wheat) so I had my doubts. But this was, hands down, not only the best beer I tried at the festival, but possibly the best beer I've ever had. Granted, I am a beer newbie, but I will be going to Growlers of Gaithersburg to again sample their Blueberry Wheat Cream Ale.

Overall, it was a great day out, the weather was beautiful, and I am totally looking forward to Maryland's Oktoberfest.

Check out the crazy...

I see people at work with this. Please tell me it's not true.

It's Springtime for Hitler and Germany....

Man, what crazy weather we have been having lately. 75 degrees during the day but frost advisories at night. I have been very concerned about putting my seedlings out in the garden. So I've held off.

But then I visited my sister's house and took a look at her seedlings. Dead. Executed. Gave up the ghost. I basked in the glory of my superior seedlings and smugly scolded her on the proper care of baby plants.

The smugness promptly went away today when I realized my seedlings were on their way to doing the same thing. I am guessing that, while I have been holding off on planting because of the weather, they (duh) continue to grow and have been outgrowing their peat pots. And turning yellow. Not getting enough water. In general, giving up the ghost.

So today I did a plant-as-many-seedlings-as-possible-marathon. I found gardening gloves too cumbersome, so I spent two hours gardening without them. Needless to say, my hands feel like sandpaper and I feel like a nitwit.

But the seedlings are in the ground, for the most part, and hopefully will survive. I read that you should expect 25% of your crops to fail in any given year. I think I will exceed that, given the sad looks the tomatoes were giving me today.

It is the four varieties of tomatoes, hot and sweet peppers, eggplant and onions that I am most concerned about. My previously planted veggies-mesclun, spinach, strawberries, blueberries, romaine lettuce, spring peas, garlic, broccoli, and that pesky devilish chive gang are coming along nicely.

But I still have corn, squash (summer, zucchini, and spaghetti), pumpkins (white Lumina pumpkins this time-exciting!), and basil to plant. And I am out of room. I need a bigger yard.

My ultimate goal in this life is to have an old farmhouse on several acres, spending my spring and summer gardening and wearing a big, goofy straw hat while I sell my veggies on the side of the road. Fall would be spent canning and preserving and winter making candles, knitting, baking, and planning next year's garden. Whatever "free" time I would have would be spent sitting on a wraparound porch with a glass of lemonade or a mint julep and waiting to swat "trespassers" (which may or may not include relatives) with a cane.

In short, I want to be a tempermental old lady with lotsa vegetables.

But first, the rat race.

I am out of my internship (yay!) and back working at my "real" job. My students were great-some of them designed their own thank you cards (in English!) and others chipped in to throw me a pizza party. While I am grateful for the experience, I look foward to the "relaxation" of only working 40 hours a week.

I will finish my last class in August and will finally "graduate" then. I use quotation marks because I decided I would rather spend the $80 on a nice dinner out with the family than on a cap and gown and I will NOT be walking during graduation. Plus, I wouldn't want Mike to sit through a 3 hour graduation ceremony with a squirmy 2 year old on his lap.

The Frederick Brewer's SpringFest is this weekend-very excited. And it looks like I will be going to Denver next month-home of Flying Dog Brewery and at least two others from what I can tell.

That's 'nuff ramblin' for tonight I think.