Naneki's Noggin

2003-09-17T16:27:00.000-05:00

I took a quiz to see where I fit in for Talk Like A Pirate Day this Friday. Here are my results.

You are a Pirate Second Class

Do you remember the last time you took
a chance? I do. It was when you decided
to leave the security of your mother's womb
and headed for the bright light. It's time
to head for the next bright light, my friend.
Creativity is not your strong suit. You
are good at doing what you are told to do
and that, in itself, is a gift. It's not a
gift to you, mind you, but rather a gift to
those who will be there to tell you what
to do. You like long walks on the beach and
cuddling, but would never admit that to your
Guy friends who think you are okay but can't
always remember your name. Tapioca pudding
seems a bit extreme for a fellow such as
yerself, what with all the bumps and stuff.
It's a good thing ye be on a pirate ship,
otherwise, ye'd would be walkin' because ye be
positively pedestrian. Have a nice day.

What's Yer Inner Pirate?
brought to you by The Official Talk Like A Pirate Web Site. Arrrrr!

2003-06-09T11:55:00.000-05:00

Jake has been so good - he was great on the plane rides. Yesterday we walked 9 miles, all over San Francisco. We left the hotel a little before 9 and didn't return until nearly 4. First we went to validate our citipass at the closest place, the MOMA. Pushing the stoller down the steep hills is a trip! We stopped at a park next to the museum and saw a guy doing tai chi- the first of several. Later in the day in Washington Park, we saw several people doing tai chi, but not as a group. One older woman doing tai chi with a SWORD! So cool.

Since the MOMA wasn't going to open for over an hour we walked up to Chinatown. We stayed on Grant street, the main strip, since we didn't have our Chinatown map to orient ourselves. (ha ha), but we'll go back - out hotel is only 3 blocks away. We scoped things out. I want to get party favors and decorations for Jake's 1st birthday party. We went into a grocery where the wall was lined with unidentifiable things (food?) in large jars. There was clearly a medicinal counter on the other side, again, I had no idea what anything was. All the writing was in Chinese, and most of the patrons were, as well. We got a few things we could identify, such as candy and tea. some shops weren't open yet at 10 am a Sunday.

While we were inside a funeral went by - a full brass band marching and playing in front of the hearse. Next we went to the Ten Ren tea shop and sampled some tea, then bought some tea. I wasn't brave enough to try the tapioca teas, but will get up my nerve later.

We headed out of Chinatown and walked a LONG way to Union street to the Art festival. They had all the booths you expect- jewelry, pottery. We samples a pupuya or pupura- we forgot - a South American corn tamale with cheese, veggies and a HOT sauce. Yummy. Then we had a giant chicklen kabob. No purchases, though.

Next we headed to the Exploratorium and validated our passes. we stayed there for about 30 minutes and Jake looked at the more interactive exhibits. More impressive was the Palace of Fine Arts, a Neo classical outdoor park structure left from the Pananma Pacigfic expo of 1915 that absolutely dwarves humans. It's gorgeous! We walked through a ton of residential neighborhoods, and I observed that you can tell the nicer aras becuase of the landscaping. Yards are few. I'd love to know the price of real estate. There is a tree we think is called a bottlebrush, with neat feathery pink fowers. it looks like something from a Dr. Suess book!

Back to the Festival, but it was overly crowded by that time, so we went up a block and walked until we found the Nob Hill cafe and sat outdoors to enjoy a frosty beverage. Back to the hotel for a short rest before heading back to Chinatown for dinner. i had Mu Shu Pork- new to me- and delicious. It's served with thin pancakes and a good sauce. MMMM. While we ate a small parade with a band and 2 dragons went by. the waiter said they do it every night! We hit the corner market for suppleios and then came home to watch tv and go to bed by 9.

This morning we are heading out after Jake's nap and lunch, for a full day at Golden Gate Park. Should be fun! We'll pick up a Snugli before trying the cable cars. (Left the Korean Snugli on the plane) :(

2003-06-06T10:57:00.000-05:00

School's out, and I spent the first day doing 6 loads of laundry and making lists to get ready to travel. It takes forever to pack for a baby. The irony - the smallest person travelling needs the most stuff. But of course, although there 's a lot, it is small, too. I'm afraid I'l forget something crucial for the plane ride, so I keep going over my list again and again.

Yesterday I went to Gardentown with Marilyn and saw the hundreds of varieties of Hostas available. I had no idea there were so many! My project next week will be to work on my garden.

I just checked the weather for San Francisco and found a cool animated graphic of the "fog forecast." http://www.sfgate.com/weather/fogsideclose.shtml

2003-05-19T21:19:00.000-05:00

Clothing manufacturers, take some advice from Hanes T- shirts and stop puting tags in clothing! I can't tell you how annoyed I was all day by the freakin tag in my shirt!!!!!! Besides, once I buy the item of clothing, don't you think I know whether it's my size or not? Excuse me, I have to go. I have some tag ripping to do.

2003-05-06T21:29:00.000-05:00

"My Life is a Sitcom."

I spent the majority of my day scraping paint off my ancient front door using a heat gun. I recommend one for all paint stripping projects - it was $20 well spent - far less messy than gooey paint remover crap. I think I have about an hour of stripping left before I can sand, which unfortunately may not be happening soon since rain is forcast for the next 4 days.

So, I'm outside stripping the door when I hear Jake on the baby monitor . He's just cooing in his crib, talking to himself. I pick up all my stuff and bring it inside, and by the time I go to get him he is starting to cry. Juneau is with me, nose to the door in anticipation of it opening. Well, it didn't open. The knob turns, and turns, and turns. The baby cries, and cries, and cries. I don't panic, but I do use a few choice words. I unscrew the fixtures on the door and remove the doorknob. I try different tools until I find one that fits the square hole where the doorknob connects (a skinny, funky saw) and the door opens. Jake is fine, but he needs a hug and a kleenex.

The lesson? If you have an old house, keep your doors in good working condition!

2003-04-30T18:12:00.000-05:00

Is it possible for more to come out of a baby than goes in? And why do they have to reach for it?

2003-04-30T10:38:00.000-05:00

I have been watching Manor House on PBS and I'm just as hooked on this reality show as I am on American Idol. On lastnight's episode, the Hall Boy and Scullery Maid started an affair. If they'd really lived in 1905 and been found out, he'd have been flogged and she'd be fired with no references and have to become a prostitute!

I took the Manor House Quiz and I rank as 57% snob -

"It's touch and go, Nancy - you're 57% snob. You're a long way off joining the ranks of the blini-nibbling, bubbly sipping, double-barreled brigade but then you're no champion of the proletariat either. If you haven't got a Volvo, Golden Retriever, and 2.4 kids yet, you soon will have because the middle classes beckon."

You can also find out what your life might have been like in 1905. It's fun, but I think I'll stay right here in 2003!

2003-04-29T14:27:00.000-05:00

Jake likes wind chimes. I think he's into feng shui.

I've been putting the last 3 years worth of photos into albums the past few days when it's not nice out. I'm finding lots of pictures of Tim. The two of me from our trip to
Michigan are both of my back. Must corrrect this! Doing albums and listening to music is better than watching TV, though yestersday I had the Today show on, and saw Mark Brooks in the crowd. I scrambled for a tape, and got a segment where Danielle Sparks and Emily Kane are behind Al.

2003-04-23T11:24:00.000-05:00

My friends will laugh at this, the experienced mothers among them, at least.

DAMN is it hard to get anything done with a baby! This is not a complaint, merely an observation. See, you're laughing, aren't you?

For example, yesterday. I needed to get out of the house after several days of not getting out of the house. So after feeding Jake his lunch and putting clothes on him that were not slobber soaked, we went to run some errands. After a drive-through at the bank we arrived in the K's merchandise lot, and he had fallen asleep. Luckily, I had packed wisely, and brought a book and a beverage for me. So I read in the car for an hour and a half before he woke up and we could enter the store. we take a 10 minute shopping trip through K's. Then I decide he's going to be hungry soon, so i need to feed him before he fusses. We go to the mall, Jake enjoys his bottle in Barnes and Noble. I then return the ill fitting shoes purchased Friday when I was out with Joan, get Bath and Body lotion, (coupon!) and before I get back to the door we entered, he is, you guessed it, asleep. Not wanting to disturb his third nap, we wander the mall for awhile. By the time he wakes, it's nearly 4, too late to do the other 2 errands I wanted to do, so we go home after 4 hours of accomplishing 3 errands.

The Miller kids came to see us, and Nick, who is 4, sees Cosmo stretching his legs and says, "Your cat has claws." I say, "What do you have instead of claws?" He tells me, "Fingernails. And fingernails on my feet." :)

2003-04-21T10:59:00.000-05:00

I'm listening to my tired boy on the baby monitor. He's talking to himself to stay awake in his crib. He's an hour past his usual naptime in the morning, but was off all day yesterday after a too short morning nap and a too short afternoon nap, making him crabby all late afternoon and then he had his first night feeding in 6 days lastnight. The weekends seem to always throw us off.

We played a new game yesterday that made him giggle that adorable little laugh; hide the baby. I took the burp towel and put it over his face, then pulled it off - a variation of peeka boo, I guess, and he thought it was great fun for at least half an hour. When his face was covered he kicked his legs, then laughed when the towel was taken off. We'll definitely play this again today!

It's overcast and about 60 today, weather that makes me not want to do much. But I'm making a list of stuff to get done over the next 3 weeks before I go back to work. Including cleaning the basement - the last job I ever want to do, yuck. I keep hoping Tim will help me on the weekend, (for a good 6 months, at least..) but so far, no dice. I'm on my own.

Since the baby arrived we had watched 1 netflix movie until this weekend. Then we watched 4 in 3 days! It took us 4 hours to watch "Life as a house" Friday night between Jake napping, waking, eating, playing, then going back to bed, but that's okay. Sat we waited til he was out to start one, so we went straight through "Posession" except for potty breaks for me. :) (The book was better. Of course.) Then yesterday we sat down to watch Doctor Zhivago. And I'm thinking- "What makes this such a good movie? What the heck is gong on? Who are these characters? " Turns out it was a 2-sided disc and we had started with the second half of the movie! So when it ended - stupidly- after an hour and a half, we were in no mood to turn it over and watch the first 2 hours. I guess technically we watched 3 and a half movies. Good to do on Easter weekend!

2003-03-29T15:01:00.000-06:00

The baby's here the baby's here the baby's here!!!!!!!!!!!! I went to a focus group lunch Monday, and left there planning to go to KC with my bandit "sister" amd her kid for interviews. However, Tim called me on the cell phone as I was leaving there, met me in the Hy-Vee parking lot at 1 pm to say that I wouldn't be going to KC because we were going to O'Hare instead the next day at 2:20. Wow. The anticipation of months finally happened, and I was stunned!

We ended up not going to the airport until Wed because the escorts missed their flight out of Tokyo. We were pretty disappointed, but had time to get a few things more things ready, for me, all my stuff at school. Mt parents came along, and boy were we glad someone else

It's been an incredible 3 days with this baby boy! we've had an outpouring of loving visitors bringing gifts for baby, and flowers, balloons, and food for the mama and the daddy, who are EXTREMELY grateful! :) we are more sleep deprived, but he is worth it. we also have the most beautiful sign in our yard announcing the arrival - made by Dr. and Mrs. B. Lots of cars are slowing down to look at it. :)

2003-03-20T10:36:00.000-06:00

My second block class is nutso anyway - (hyper) and at the start of class I was in the hall. Some of the boys kept asking me questions and blocking the door . I was getting annoyed (obviously) but it turned out they were trying to surprise me. They put up an "It's a boy" banner, had balloons, a baby gift, and had treats of cookies with little pacifiers on them and candy baby bottles. :) Of course they all got a sugar buzz, and the hyperactivity increased, but still, they are nice. I'm smiling!!!!

2003-02-28T10:45:00.000-06:00

Today after work I am going to Chicago with the Friday girl gang! :) I am looking forward to Martinis and browsing through stores, especially Ikea. I was so excited, I couldn't sleep lastnight!

2003-02-22T16:08:00.000-06:00

Okay, let's face it; I am not a regular blogger. I'd like to be, but I'm not. Accept it.

Tim was sick the second half of the week. He worked half the day Wednesday before coming home feeling achey. He didn't go to work at all Thurs, then Fri did about a half day before Kathy told him to go home. Poor guy. I'm hanging in there, though I am not at the top of my game, either. I was nearly too tired to finish the hour of spinning on Thursday- probably more because I hadn't been in 2 weeks than due to the germs I might have acquired from my invalid.

I stopped to get Tim some flowers Friday on my way home, and also washed the van. When I got home, I was surprised to see that we had recieved another picture of the baby!!!!! He is chubby, and is now bald. He is dressed in a nice sweater for the picture, except the sweater's day glow highlighter orange color is hard on the eyes - I may have to alter the pictue in Photoshop a bit so I can gaze upon it without the glare. Last week we got a fax about baby's checkup from Jan 30, when he weighed 15 pounds. I imagine they do these every 2 months. God I hope the boy is here before another 2 months go by. The fax contained basic info, such as how much he eats and how often, and that he likes to stare at and suck on his fist. Stuff like that.

I took the photo with me to Oliver! lastnight to show off. Pat, bless, her, was so excited! She showed it to a family whose little Korean cutie takes art from Pat. Pat said "Look at the picture of our baby!!" (I love how Pat always takes ownership of Jake) The woman says to Pat, ""Are you adopting a baby? " Then it got cleared up.

I just finished entering our tax information into Tubaotax. I did it now so that I won't have to wait until April for Tim to do it, like usual. Tim will still have to look it over - but we're getting a refund. I was VERY disappointed to learn that we can't claim our adoption expenses in 2002 for the adoption tax credit until the year the adoption is finalized, which obviously will be this year. That is so typical of the government - We'll give you this relief, but not now! But NOW is the time it would be most helpful to get the relief! I know we'll get it next year, but still - we've paid the money and will not get it back Plus we paid nearly double the amount they are willing to give us credit for, but I'm not grousing. So if anyone from the US Government reads this blog - get on changing that for future adoptive families. Thanks!

2003-01-13T17:56:00.000-06:00

I stopped in K- Mart to pick up a few things on my way home, specifically, a second clothing rack for my soon to be fabulous walk in attic closet. I think I have too many clothes! Anyway, I ran into my art teacher neighbor in the Martha Stewart curtain aisle. We live a block apart, and we never see one another socially outside of school, but when we get a chance we talk and talk. I'm going to change that! She is getting a dog Sunday, so maybe I'll go see it next week. We talked for awhile and before I knew it, it was 5 o'clock and Tim was calling me to say he wasn't going to the gym - too packed. All these people who made resolutions are in our way! Get over your lose weight resolutions quickly, so we can get a parking spot, dammit!

I set up the changing table in the baby room Saturday and planned to do more in there Sunday, but ended up grading and going to see adaptation, which was diappointing. (the movie, not the grading- well actually, both, I guess)

ALEX came to see me briefly today! Its funny how you don't think about missing certain kid because new neat kids come along, but he is one I miss. I must make an effort to email him from time to time. There are 29 bodies in my newspaper class. WOW. Way too many people!!!!!!!

2002-10-26T13:13:00.000-05:00

Thurs. I was at school grading. :( I had kids whining at me, shamelessly begging, and worse yet, getting angry at me for their own poor performance. I was stressed and looking for distraction. Then Tim emailed what he'd heard about the adoption - that we are very close to being in the top ten! :) It obviously affected my subconscious, because last night I dreamt that I was trying to keep the kid out of the kitchen away from the stairs. This time in my dream, the kid was a Korean toddler. As opposed to my earlier "mommy" dreams when I never got the correct child - once it was even a FERRET. Fascinating and strange what the mind does.

Yesterday I graded a bunch of work in the short amount of time I had between meetings, but got it all done and grades entered. I also attended a sexual harassment in-service, a department meeting, and a child abuse reporter meeting, WITH SLIDES. Sick. I felt like crying or hitting someone when it was over. But Mon we give ITEDs, and kids get out early, so I'll have time to plan for Tues: 2 new classes with 60 fresh new faces. :)

Lastnight it was just 4 of us for dinner at Pinnochio's, the first time in a long time the group has been that small! We had a great time. nice to be more intimate once in awhile.

I'm about to tackle the dirt in the attic with my mop. It is so dusty! Tim sat on the floor to do some work last weekend and when he got up his ass was brown. Yikes.

2002-10-23T12:41:00.000-05:00

10/23/02

I'm grading papers madly and need a quick break. Some of the papers are creative and show effort, others are AWFUL. I'm going to make a stack to grade now, tonight, and tomorrow. Then I can divide the work and hopefully have most of it finished before Friday, since I have to attend that meeting in the afternoon.

I need more time - I'm thinking ahead already to what I plan to teach next week for Mass Media, my favorite class to instruct. I want to do something different and spectacular that will introduce the course and myself the first day. I think I'll do a multimedia presentation about the course outline- I also want to give students a list of foreign films they must see and review to gain perspective on the art form. American children don't get it, its not all about cute actors and things blowing up! Since I don't feel like grading, but planning, I'm going to make a list of acceptable foreign films for them to use.

2002-10-19T12:10:00.000-05:00

October 18, 2002

I just read Marilyndipity and decided to start a blog. I am terrible with a paper journal; my last entry was July ( ! ) So I'll try this and see how dedicated I actually am.

Lastnight we saw A Bad Year for Tomatoes at BHS. Its great to see all the people back from college and talk to people I don't see very often. My favorite character was Jake as "Piney" in the play.

Lots of people were asking about the baby - we have such a wonderful network of friends! Unfortunately right now we are "in the waiting place." (see Dr. Suess) I so wish we had more news to tell you all, so when we do, we'll let you know! :)

Here's a rundown of our adoption process. We applied Jan. 10 and once we wrote a check we went on "the list." We went through a series of interviews and did a lot of paperwork, got fingerprinted at the INS office in Des Moines (very efficient and pleasant people work there, by the way), attended Korean cultural training and had our social worker visit our home. All that was finished April 4. We were told that on average a Korean adoption referral takes 7 months. Ours is taking longer.

So the next thing that will happen is our social worker will tell us once we reach the top 10 on the list. Sometime after that, she will call us to tell us we have a referral, at which time we will go to her office to learn more about the baby we can adopt. To accept that referral, we write a big check. The social worker faxes information about us to Korea to start the legal process of making the child ours. Two to four months after that, a volunteer escort will bring our baby to O'Hare, and we will go pick him up!

Of course he (or she) will get here when the time is right. We aren't worried, because we know that eventually he will be here. His dad and I need to get our butts in gear to fix up his room - at our snails pace he will be fourteen before that happens! I hope to get some work done on the attic this weekend so we can get close to doing the great room shift. The plan was to have it done by now, but the king and queen of procrastination are bad at meeting deadlines we set for ourselves when it comes to working on the house - the unfinished siding job being one example. And with that I suppose its best to log off and get started.