Category Archives: Friends & Family

Friday brain-melt

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The job interview was yesterday, and… I have no clue about it. Here’s the run-down:

* 3 separate interviews with 3 different members of the team. – Those all seemed to go pretty well and I think I made a good impression on all of them.
* Writing test. – I think I kicked ass. (Actually, Dave’s boss told me that mine was way better than the other candidate’s that he saw. Nice to have the affirmation.)
* Lunch with Dave, his boss, and another engineer. – Fun. And the food was awesome. (Japanese, one of my favorites.)
* Teleconference interview. Singular: interview. With 3 people at the same time. Yeah. Three engineers in two remote offices (two guys in Texas, one guy in California), who btw were all asking me questions at the same time. – Holy mother of God, that was intimidating. For one thing, since it was on the phone, I couldn’t read anyone’s facial expressions and see if they were responding well to what I was saying. For another, two of the three guys aren’t native English speakers (one guy is French, and the other one is… I don’t know, maybe Indian? I couldn’t place his accent), and the conference room speaker phone was fuzzy, so I think some things might’ve gotten lost in translation. But besides that, some of their questions just threw me because they were completely not “technical writer”-y questions and it was just really, really strange.

The whole interview process took about 7 hours (10 a.m. to 5 p.m.) and was unbelievably exhausting. I was showered and in my pajamas before 6:30 last night. It kicked my butt, to say the least.

So, honestly? I have no idea how it went. I just hope I find out one way or the other soon, because I hate waiting. Patience is not one of my virtues, to say the least.

Moving on! Guess what we’re doing tomorrow?


(Apologies if this song gets stuck in your head for 10,000 years. We’ve been singing it around here for days.)

So, yeah. The North Carolina Zoo is in Asheboro, which is about 60 or so miles from here. It’s about the halfway point between here and Charlotte, so my brother and sister are going to drive over and meet up with us there. Catie is unbelievably psyched. I can’t tell if she’s more excited about seeing Tracy and Chris, or if it’s going to see all the animals, but either way, she’s practically bouncing off the walls about it.

You can expect about a million pictures when we get back. Should be fun! Hope everyone has a great weekend!

Autumn Weekend

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I love fall. I’m a big fan of mild temperatures – not too hot, not too cold. This past weekend was perfect, and we took full advantage of it by spending as much time outside as possible.

On Saturday morning, we went to a birthday party for Catie’s friend Morgan. She lives across the street from our old house, so we got to see all of the neighborhood kids that we used to play with. Morgan’s mom, Kimberly, is a friend of mine, so our girls see each other on a semi-regular basis. But Catie doesn’t usually get to see the other kids from the old neighborhood, so that was A Very Big Deal. I was amazed that Catie remembered all of them since it’s been a year since the last time she saw them. One little girl in particular, McKenzie, has a very special bond with Catie, and always has. Catie absolutely adores her, and the feeling is mutual.

Catie & her 'Kenzie

A month or so ago, we ran into McKenzie and her mom leaving the grocery store as we were walking in. We said hi, and the girls exchanged hugs. A few minutes later, in the store, Catie sighed happily and said, “Mommy, ‘Kenzie is my favorite.” Believe me, she’s not lying. McKenzie is 10 now, and in a couple of years, I will totally hire her out to baby-sit. She’s a great kid.

When we finally got home from the birthday party, we both collapsed and took naps. When we woke up, we decided to go to the playground to take advantage of the sunshine and mild temperatures.

I know it's blurry, but this picture makes me laugh

That was a great day.

On Sunday, we met up with my cousin and her crew at the Green Acres Farm. BTW, huge shout-out to Andrea at Lil Kid Things for blogging about the farm because I would’ve never known that it existed otherwise! And it’s only a few miles from our house too, so we’ll definitely go back again.

Catie as a donkey & Elizabeth as a baby calf

After checking out the bounce houses and some of the other kid stuff, we set off to tackle the corn maze.

Catie & Elizabeth lead the way through the corn maze

The corn maze was… well. It was fun for the first 30 minutes or so. Then the dead ends start to get really annoying. And you get tired of saying, “Don’t touch the corn on the ground, please.” “No, you can’t pick that up, it’s dirty.” “Be careful not to whomp anybody with your flag.” (They give you a flag to wave in case you get lost and can’t find your way out.) Considering that we had 3 kids under the age of four with us, I think we did really well. But after close to an hour in there, I think I can safely say that’s about as close to The Shining as I ever want to get.

After the corn maze, we hung out on a tractor while waiting for the hayride.

The closest I got to a happy picture of all 3 kids.

Elizabeth and Catie on the tractor

The hayride was fun, and I think we all enjoyed having a few minutes to just sit down and enjoy the view after that corn maze hike.

After that, it was time for the highlight of Catie’s entire freaking year. Also known as the pony ride.

I think she's a natural-born jockey

Austin is only a year old, so he’s still too little for the pony ride. But Catie and Elizabeth absolutely loved it.

Elizabeth & Catie on the pony ride

After it was over, Catie cried and cried because she wanted to go again. The pony rides are $5, which is my only complaint about Green Acres Farm – that seems a little steep for a 3-minute pony ride. But I’m a sucker, so I caved in and let her go for a second ride.

I know I know, I should be more firm with her. But I thought of how much I loved horses when I was little, and how I would’ve felt if I had the chance to ride a real live pony, and… eh. It’s only $5.

Catie LOVES the pony ride!

Totally worth it.

unemployed

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Even though I gave two weeks’ notice at my job? My boss did what I sort of expected, and said that Friday was my last day and we’re done. It’s fine because financially we’re ok for a while (and I still get my commission check later this month), and I wasn’t really looking forward to the next couple of weeks anyway.

SO! On that note, here’s a list that I call “Things I’ve done this week while being unemployed”:

* Maintained a clean house. Which is a much bigger deal than you might think.

* Washed, folded, and put away approximately 18 million loads of laundry. (Ok, probably more like 8. But still.)

* Cleaned out my closet. I doubt it would meet Jen’s standards, but I’m still proud of myself.

* Cooked a couple of lovely meals for my family.

* Got Catie’s room ready for winter. Between my sister and my parents, she already has an entire wardrobe for fall and winter, so I sorted through it, and got it all folded and put away. Then I packed away all the clothes she’s outgrown – which makes me unbelievably sad because holy hell, I want another baby girl to wear all of this stuff again. I’d be happy with a boy too, of course, it’s just that whole general-baby-need thing that’s getting me.

* Cleaned up 3 (THREE!!) puddles of cat puke in 3 days. (Seriously, Teenie, WTF?)

* Went for a run this morning. (Side note: I haven’t run for a while, so I thought I’d go back to week 3 of the Couch-to-5K program, and it almost killed me. Clearly, I need to get back to working out more often. On the plus side, though, even though I’ve kind of been slacking on the whole diet-and-exercise thing lately, I’ve still kept off the 8 pounds I lost earlier this summer. I realize that isn’t a huge deal to most people, but I’ll take maintenance over gaining weight ANY DAY.)

* Caught up on almost all of my DVR’ed shows. (LOVE this season of Project Runway so far.)

* Been a hell of a lot more patient with both Dave and Catie, which made me realize that when I’m not happy with my job, that resentment creeps into the rest of my life and manifests itself in really ugly ways. I think I’ve been a LOT nicer this week.

* Bought a new job interview outfit, since my pre-baby dress slacks no longer fit, and wearing maternity pants is just embarrassing.

* Got some pretty encouraging news about two possible jobs. I kind of want one more than the other, but I think I’d honestly be really happy with either one. So y’all cross your fingers for me!

everything is better in a giraffe hat

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My parents were here for the holiday weekend, which was really nice. We met up with our realtor friend who took them out to look at some houses so they could get a feel for neighborhoods here. Their house in Mississippi is on the market right now, and the plan is that they’ll move up here as soon as it sells. Of course, the market in Mississippi kinda sucks right now, so we don’t really know how long that’ll take. (Even though they have a really gorgeous house in a nice neighborhood. Seriously. Any of y’all need to buy a house in Ridgeland? Let me know!)

When they weren’t neighborhood-hunting, they spent most of their time making sure that their only grandchild was ridiculously indulged.

Catie & Pop-Pop model their funny hats

I cannot begin to tell you how much this picture makes me laugh. My dad looks like Jackie O. gone horribly wrong.

Then my mom joined in, but by that time, Catie had chocolate, and no longer cared about the camera.

Mimi joins in with the hat-wearing
Grandparents: giving kids sugar at bedtime since the dawn of time.

Since my folks had flown up, my brother and sister also drove over from Charlotte for the weekend too. Always nice to have everybody around, even though it does get a little loud and crazy. But we had a great time. Saturday was gorgeous here, we fired up the grill and ate outside on the deck, and it was absolutely lovely. I didn’t even take any pictures of that because I was too busy enjoying it.

Chris & Catie

Tracy & Catie

Everybody left on Sunday, and we went swimming with Cat and Elizabeth that afternoon as a distraction. It worked, Catie was definitely less sad than usual about everybody leaving since we had other fun stuff on the agenda.

It was also nice that they left on Sunday, since it gave us Monday/Labor Day to sort of rest and recuperate before starting the week again. I feel like that after every family vacation or get-together; you kind of need a day of downtime before getting back to the grind.

Watching a movie, eating a banana, wearing a giraffe hat.

And if that day involves watching movies and eating a banana while wearing a giraffe hat? Well, then, all the better.

Mary Hoppins*

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*That’s how Catie says Mary Poppins. I don’t know why the “H” sound in front of her name, but she does this a lot. Like her cousin Austin is “Haustin.” And this month? Is “Haugust.” Don’t know where it comes from, but it’s funny, so I let it slide.

This weekend, we made a quick trip to Charlotte to visit my sister, who got us tickets to go see the traveling Broadway musical of Mary Poppins. Catie would’ve been excited to just sit in Tracy’s apartment for 24 hours, but getting to see the “concert” (her words) of one of her favorite movies was definitely a bonus.

Wait, let me back up because I need an excuse to post this picture. On Friday evening, we went to our monthly Drum Night, and I got this picture, which cracks me up.

A bunch of miscreants
What a bunch of miscreants and ne’er-do-wells. I swear there needs to be a “No Loitering” sign over their heads.

ANYWAY. So on Saturday, we drove to Charlotte. Catie napped in the car.

Driving to Charlotte makes us sleepy
Man, I wish I could nap in the car like that. (Also? Dave says that I do that exact open-mouth thing when I sleep. I say he’s a dirty liar.)

We hung out at my sister’s place for a while, then went out for dinner.

Tracy & Catie at dinner
Catie was very excited by the crayons that came with her kids’ menu.

Then we walked around. Or, in my sister’s case, got dragged around.

Catie dragging Tracy around
(I’m pretty sure Tracy didn’t mind being dragged. She didn’t seem to mind giving Catie a piggy-back ride either.)

Soon, it was time to head off for the show. Dave wisely headed back to Tracy’s apartment to chill out and watch movies while the girls went to the show. (Dave is definitely not a Broadway kind of dude.)

I only managed to take this one really awful picture before the mean old usher came over and fussed at me for using my camera. (It was before the show even started!!)

Tracy & Catie at Mary Poppins

I have to say, the flash on the iPhone 4? Kind of makes everyone look jaundiced. I’m not a fan.

As for the show, it was fantastic. I’m not generally a Broadway fan, but it was really great. My only complaint was that the matinee was sold out, so Tracy got us tickets for the 8 p.m. show. Which would’ve been fine if it’d just been us, but the show ended at 10:45, by which point Catie had dozed off on Tracy’s arm. (I woke her up so she could see Mary Poppins fly out over the audience, because MAN that was cool.)

Anyway, if the show comes to your town? I highly recommend it. It was so fun.

On Sunday, we got up, had brunch with Tracy, then drove home. Usually when we leave Tracy, Catie has a total meltdown. This time, I promised her that if she was good and didn’t cry when it was time to leave, I’d take her swimming when we got back to Raleigh.

She held up her end of the deal.

Driving home from Charlotte

And yes, I absolutely did take her to the pool as soon as we got home.

All in all, super-fun weekend. And my parents are flying up on Wednesday to visit for a few days, so we’re going to get lots of good family time this week, which is great. I predict that Catie will be spoiled rotten by the time Labor Day arrives. Ah well. What can you do?

the birthday party circuit

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So, besides my girl deciding that she’s half-fish this weekend, we also had not one but TWO birthday parties to attend. This makes three birthday parties in less than a month. It’s pretty sad when you realize that your 3 year-old has a more active social calendar than either of her parents.

On Friday evening, we went to a birthday party at the Jump Zone for Catie’s daycare friend Cole. I tried out the iPhone’s video camera and got this (warning: turn down your volume, the Jump Zone is LOUD).

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_kjo8tf1v5s
That’s 34 seconds of a tiny blonde blur right there. And it’s pretty much all I saw for the entire two hours we were there.

Finally, we managed to round up the kids and go have pizza and cake. The private room for birthday parties had a big inflatable throne, which I assume is for the birthday boy/girl to sit on, but all the kids took turns climbing on it.

Ava, Catie & Caitlin
(If you look closely, you can see evidence of the Thomas the Tank Engine cake. That blue frosting stuff requires soap and water to wash off, it won’t be contained by mere napkins alone.)

On Sunday, we went to a birthday party for Catie’s friend Ava at a local playground.

Catie at the playground

Of course, it was all fun and games until it was time to get the kids together for a group picture, at which point Catie crossed her arms and pouted. (She wanted to keep playing.)

Group pose time!

It’s a great park, and the party was a lot of fun, but I don’t know if there are adequate words to express how miserably hot it was. Ninety degrees, humid, and not a single breeze to be found. It was about as sweaty as you can get. Not that the kids seemed too terribly bothered by it.

Catie & Matthew

I’m not sure I’ve ever seen this child more sweaty in her life. Before we left, I dragged her into the ladies’ room to splash some cold water on her face to try to help her cool off.

Roman and Catie
(If any of y’all remember the boy that Catie was caught kissing? That’s him. He’s a very sweet kid. And apparently he’s told his parents that when he grows up, he’s going to drive a mini-van just like his dad, and Catie will ride beside him. I think that’s the 3 year-old version of saying he’s going to marry her. I’m taking notes of all this for when they end up going to prom together in 15 years.)

The party was great, and I love that most of the other daycare parents seem friendly and nice. But it would’ve been a lot more fun in maybe a month or so when it’s 10-15 degrees cooler outside!

On the upside, though, spending all that time out in the heat made the pool feel extra-awesome on Sunday afternoon. So there’s that.

Our Weekend

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This weekend, Dave taught Catie how to develop game apps for the iPhone.

Catie's really into learning how to develop iPhone game apps

She’s totally into it, and taking it very seriously.

I love this because it looks like Catie has a freakishly large man-hand

She’ll probably design the greatest app since “Words With Friends.”

Oh, and I got an iPhone 4! Which shoots video! Related: we sang happy birthday to my sister, and filmed it since Tracy is currently celebrating her birthday with friends in Italy.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3_dJWOwLBBU

Of course, it didn’t really occur to me until later that my sister can only access her email on her Blackberry, which doesn’t have YouTube capabilities, so she won’t actually see it until she gets back to the US. Oh well. Happy birthday, Tracy!

We also watched a heck of a lot of Xanadu. (And I learned that if you turn the phone to a landscape setting, it automatically adjusts when you copy it over to your laptop. Nice job, Apple! I won’t make any more oddly narrow videos.)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xF38NO646cg
(I’m still trying to get a video of her really singing it. So far, she kind of goes quiet as soon as she sees the camera. You can still see her lip-syncing it, but hopefully I’ll get a real video of it soon.)

(Also? This is how she always watches Xanadu – with lots and lots and lots of random questions about the plot.)

Sunday afternoon, we went to see the Wiggles in concert.

Catie & Dave at the Wiggles concert
At first, Catie wasn’t too sure what she thought about the whole concert thing. But she took the popcorn very seriously.

Honestly? That might’ve been one of the most fun kids’ concerts we’ve been to (and I’ve been to a lot of them). You can tell that these guys have been doing this stuff for 20 years, and they just have fun with it and throw in all kinds of improv lines here and there, which makes it really funny for the adults in the audience.

That said, I’m glad I didn’t take advantage of the chance I had to get closer seats, because Catie got a little claustrophobic from the crowd, so we spent a lot of the show toward the back where it was emptier. She usually reacts that way in crowds, same as Dave, so I wasn’t too surprised by it.

I did manage to get one decent picture of all three of us, although the weird iPhone flash thing makes it look like we’ve been dousing ourselves in self-tanner.

Catie, Dave & me at the Wiggles!

Also? Sweaty. It was HOT in there. I don’t know how those guys on stage do it.

Catie with the Wiggles

Overall, though? A pretty great time was had by all. But I can’t quite believe it’s Monday already.