Kid and Caboodle

The last few weeks we’ve been going to or hosting a lot of social gatherings.  Starting with A.J.’s birthday party November 23, then moving to two family gatherings over the Thanksgiving weekend, a black-tie shindig celebrating this year’s winners of the President’s Quality Award, and today’s holiday potluck party for the D.C. chapter of the Asian American Journalists Association, Chris and I have been very busy.  This Friday we also have a holiday party for A.J.’s tae kwon do school, then I have a bunch of office Christmas parties, then a family Christmas gathering, then New Year’s.  Whew!

Got up this morning at 4:45 to get in some exercise before work.  Decided also to try checking my e-mail and other things I usually do in the morning.  I managed to set up my laptop on the treadmill (no mouse), but had a lot of trouble trying to type and walk at the same time.  I did ok reading online newspapers, though, and even managed to e-mail a piece to someone.  Not sure if I’ll continue this experiment, but it was interesting.

Today we took A.J. to a trial Mandarin Chinese class.  The class is set up like a regular preschool class; children learn through playing games, singing songs, doing art projects and other fun activities.  After the trial class, we asked A.J. what he thought about his experience.  He said he had fun and would like to do it again.  The teacher said A.J. would fit in with the class just fine even though it is already the third week of the summer term, so we happily registered A.J. for the rest of the term.  Since we were there already, we decided to register him for the full 2008-2009 academic year as well.  Hope this works out!

This means, of course, that Chris and I will have to start studying Mandarin again so we can keep up with our son ….

A.J. also expressed interest in taking tae kwon do classes recently, so we’ve signed him up at a place where many of his classmates go.  I’m wondering whether Chris and I also should take some tae kwon do classes so we can defend ourselves from A.J.’s new repertoire of punches and kicks ….

A.J.’s bike riding also has inspired Chris to buy a proper bike rack for my car and to look into getting his own bike cleaned and repaired.  I should probably get my bike checked out at the same time.  Maybe we can all do some family bike rides and thereby get exercise while enjoying ourselves!

It’s amazing the influence that little kid has on our lives ….

The numbers on the scale in the morning are starting to alarm me.  It’s obviously time to resume watching what I eat and, more importantly, to get more exercise.  But when?  I don’t want to get up any earlier than I already am during the work week, and I’m really tired in the evenings after I take care of my son.  Perhaps I should try walking around a lot at lunchtime?

Here is something I should try as well:

Need Encouragement to Shed Some Pounds? Blogs May Help.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/05/12/AR2008051202555.html

A friend asked me tonight to review the first chapter of a book she has completed and plans to try publishing soon.  She asked me to be brutally honest, and … I was.  I can see an easy fix for the main plot problem I pointed out, but I don’t know how much rewriting she wants to do since she already has finished the book.  Hopefully she’s still willing to talk to me at this point to hear my suggestion!

I’ve been spending way too much time playing on Facebook this weekend!  One game I’ve been playing a lot today is H2Opia, in which players take care of other people’s tanks of virtual fish and exchange virtual parts to build underwater homes (as well as more virtual fish).  Certain actions apparently will lead to the game company to donate water resources for real to needy populations.  It’s fun and does good in real life — how can you lose?

Downloaded and tested various pieces of software onto the new laptop.  I was able to load a driver to access our home printer through the wireless network and loaded two pieces of software I need to update the AAJA-D.C. Web page.  I also successfully tested my access to several work-related Web sites.  So far I’m pleased with the performance of my new machine.  The only thing that bugs me is that the “Delete” key on this machine is in a different place than on the laptop I had to return, so I keep hitting the wrong button.  Oh well.

I’m still waiting to receive my DHL package. Despite talking to DHL headquarters late Thursday night, they made another attempt to deliver in the early afternoon yesterday, when I wouldn’t be home.  Finally got hold of the number for the local DHL office and spoke to the manager yesterday.  The latest word is that it’s supposed to arrive between 9 a.m. and 1 p.m. today. Heh.

On a more positive note, A.J. has learned how to ride his bike! I had him put his bike facing downward on a hill and told him to start pedaling as quickly as he could once the bike started to move. Once he mastered that, I gradually had him start off on surfaces that were more and more level. Now he can start off at will; I no longer have to balance his bike for him so he can start riding! Yay! Next task: to teach him to stop his bike by using his brakes rather than dragging his shoes on the ground.

A.J. also served himself breakfast for the first time this morning! He dragged a chair over to the refrigerator and got down a box of his favorite cereal then opened a small carton of shelf-stable milk and poured both into a bowl. Yay! Maybe tomorrow morning he’ll let my husband and me sleep in now that he knows he can feed himself ….

I’ve been playing around on Facebook lately. It’s a useful tool to maintain social ties, especially with people who live far away, but it is a real time sink!

We’re supposed to go boating with some friends today. I want to socialize, but I’m not sure I want to go out in the 90-plus degree weather we’re supposed to have today. I’d better start making a lot of ice ….

I’ve had a very frustrating day, and I’m trying to think of some nice things that happened today to counteract a grumpy mood. I did have a good chat with my neighbor this evening as we watched our kids play outside. I also finished reading a new book, Jasper Fforde’s The Eyre Affair. As a literature major, I enjoyed the classical references and word play, especially the crazy names of all the characters. Examples include Thursday Next, Jack Schitt, Paige Turner and Millon De Floss. The plot line was fairly silly, with a lot of deus ex machina moments saving the plucky protagonist or at the minimum giving her inspiration. It was an enjoyable read for me, though, and I plan to look up more books in the series.

My husband Chris finished building and painting two model rockets, and I finished my first serious beading project this week. Here are pictures of the results:

Chris with his Alpha

My new necklace

Hmm, I wonder how much these would go for if we tried to sell them on eBay or at an arts-and-crafts festival?
 

It looks like it’s going to be a lazy Sunday at home. Originally we were going to go boating this afternoon, so we did laundry and other chores yesterday. But right now it is raining very hard, with occasional gusts of wind and rumbles of thunder, so we won’t be able to go out after all. What shall we do with our free time?

A.J. is happily sitting in his pajamas playing video games. My husband has announced plans to work on his model rocket. I am having a cup of hot chocolate and planning to make a trip to the art store. I want to get some beading supplies, spray paint for my husband’s rocket, a box to hold A.J.’s toy cars, and some “gold stars.”