Snowing, snowing

Actually I thought I posted something yesterday about the snow but apparently my post was snowed out. Which is ok since it's still snowing and I'm sure that I have nothing astounding to add. It's all the same. The weathermen all get very excited about the weather with their high faluting equipment which so often fails them..they drone on endlessly...I wake up at 2 am and run to the window to see the snow and then when i really wake up in the morning there is nothing. That was not the case yesterday or again today. SNOW DAY. I didn't tell Kate that it was a snow day until she had a shower and washed her hair! When I took Miss Murray out at the crackers of dawn when it was still dark, she took one look at all the snow and sat down.

But the best news is that Kate has a surprise sleepover. And so Arnie and I can have a grown up evening -- I'm thinking champagne and smoked salmon. Nothing to celebrate you just have to do these things to keep life in balance.

The snow ia falling fast and quiet and I just tweeted about it which gives you a sense of my high commitment to my job this morning. But the snow is really soporific and makes you want to snuggle up before the fire and read. Or that's me. I could think about hitting the slopes and skiing like a she devil...

Our household

Although we seem like a very stable family grouping -- we just increased our family by one hamster -- but we're working up to some major changes. We had to reduce our housekeeper schedule from 5 full days to 3 days. Alice has been with us for about 10years back and so even dicussing it has been a wrench because Alice does everything for us and knows us so well. and I suddenly realized that she is in fact kate's best friend. But when we alerted our door man, who knows everything and everyone in the building that we were trying to help Alice find 2 days of work to keep her in balance financially, he found her 2 days a week with the young couple in 9B who have a new baby. But now they also want her full time. We can't say no. This will be a great opportunity for her and they are nice people and Alice loves babies. Unless of course they decide to move to New Jersey or some other god forsaken place. We had to agree.I discussed it this morning with Kate and we are both sad. More than sad. We both hate change. No matter how much you talk it up, change can be hard. I don't want to hear mutterings of good tidings here, this is the day to be distressed. Maybe next week I can hear the good stuff about change and really believe it too.
We have Alice through the end of March and spring vacation and then it's a brave new world for us.

Alice will continue to be in the building so Kate will have access to her and we will hire someone else to the cleaning, shopping, laundry stuff that I have never done and will never do. Especially the cleaning/laundry gig. However since I don't quite see Arnie turning into Mr. Mom and baking cookies for Kate in the afternoon...we will need someone to be there in the afternoon when she gets home from school.

It's the Little Things

I was NOT in a good mood this morning and arrived at the office fueled by socially acceptable drugs: caffeine and prescription Migraine medicine. You can imagine wht kind of shape I was in. And then I saw it. Right there on my chair; the third book by Swedish author Stieg Larsson which doesn't come out in the States until April or May. I have it! I have it now! and I can read it now. I may not even come into the office tomorrow and just stay at home and become Lisbeth Salander. I can't explain exactly why but I identify so strongly with the heroine of these mysteries. She is small, skinny, very, very computer savvy and violent. The intersection in our personalities could be violence, I suppose. Lisbeth Salander would be a good friend to hang out with if she had real friends and would condescend to hang out with them.

Then to add pleasure to pleasure I learned that the movie will open on the 26th of march. I need to update my tattoes and get with the program.

Soon I will be so up todate that I will have to leave behind all my friends. It's like the song: I'm too sexy for my shirt...I'm too up to date for my friends. I am also taking a course at Columbia in April about social networking, facebook, twitter and linked in. all the things I talk a good game about but I don't think I walk the walk. Talking the talk is easy for me.

Then watch out world. I don't know why. Just watch out.

Sick

Kate has mono. But apparently she is in the last throes of mono. and all she needs is rest and less activity. Lets see how that plays out.

To Be Sick or Not

That is really the question for our family but most especially for kate who was exposed to Mono during Christmas in Georgia. And since that time she has had cold after cold totally wrecking her clean bill of health. she has also been really tired. You know lying on the floor saying that she is too tired to go to school. Before that you might have thought her parents were doctors since she was never sick. That was then and this is now. And so yesterday we went off to the lab for a blood test. This was a first and when she moaned about it at school, her friends were all surprised that she hadn't had one before.

Reluctantly joining the world of modern medicine. No more potions with eye of newt and bitter sage and tiger balm.

Current Reading

Just now I am torn between two radically different centuries and several countries. On one hand I am with Thomas Cromwell in England trying to work through what will happen with Cardinal Wolsey and I feel confident that I am in charge. I am also trying to solve a heinous murder of 19 people in one Swedish village which may lead me to clues in China. No wonder I feel slightly schizophrenic. However there is nothing wrong with my survivor skills which I need in both incarnations.

And since I am focused on being a survivor I am also beginning to rewrite my resume which is a chore that I have not had to deal with in over 10 years. I just think it's time to freshen it up. What can i tell you? And if the difference in wording and nuance between the England of Henry the VIII and modern day Sweden is amazing, then it's also pretty staggering to take a look at the new modern speak of resume writing. Now I need to be using words like team building and branding rather than challenge and identity.

I wish I could finish this by talking about family team building and branding which would tie it all up in a neat package! Maybe tomorrow after my nap.

Chinese New Year Gathering

Happy Chinese New Year! It is the year of the tiger. My friends and I get together every year around Chinese New Year. But these friends are special because we all came from the same orphanage. Lile and I get to see each other often because we live near eachother but the other two, Rosie and Maya, live farther away so we don't get to see them as much. Lile, Maya, and I all met at this really cool rock climbing place and started to climb. I absolutely love rock climbing! (I'm pretty good at it too!)
We had a lot of fun then but Rosie couldn't make it to rock climbing because she had a tennis game. We met her at the museum of natural history to see the silk road exihbit. I guess if the parents let us go rock climbing, we have to let them go to the silk road exihbit. (Boring) Well actually, it wasn't that bad. Us four kids got to run around the exihbit avoiding the security guys and the parents. We played around in the curtains that were used as separaters in the exihbit. Hey, that's the consequence of bringing four energized kids into a museum.
Then we all went to my house to hang out before going to dinner. We, the kids, talked and rani got to sit at their own table! We ordered our food and than rushed upstairs to the bathroom and hung out their, doing goofy stuff like singing songs and dancing to them. It was so fun!
Then Maya and Rosie left off their own separate ways as we looked foward to meeting up again. Lile and I went back to my house and started preparing for our sleepover. We made a makeshift tent as we always do and stayed up all night talking. We ate delicious muffins in the morning made my mom. We headed off to see the movie Percy Jackson and the Lightning Thief. My mom, dad, and I had already read the first book but Lile hadn't. We all loved the movie but it nothing compared to the book.

more about more

long weekend and a really nice one even though we pretty much stayed put. lots of activity which is good for this family which at 9:00 am this morning is off to the park with Miss murray leaving me at home officially named sloth of the day. But hell, I don't care because even though it's beautifuly and sunny I don't need to get out just yet. And maybe I can't get those energetic people to do all the errands that I have lined up. They are already doing the exchange at the vet for the right kind of pills for Miss Murray. I worry tat we should have named her something more elegant like Lady Clarice. The last time I was at the vet the other two dogs there were named Bailey and Heathcliffe, or was it Barrymore. Something incredibly pretentious.

Anyway Saturday was a great day and seened to come from the playbook of the sisterhood of the travelling pants. Once or twice a year we get Kate together with the 3 other girls from her orphanage who live locally and sometimes it works really well and everybody has a super good time and other times it just seems nice and the girls are able to play together. But this year with the ages of 13, 12 and 11 it all seems to be working and the girls went rock climbing, then to the Museum -- boring, Mom -- and then back to our house to catch our breath before dinner around the corner. The junction of Valentines Day and Chinese New Year. We have never been to this restaurant in person although we often order from there and never think about what kind of restaurant it might be in person. But this time there we were and the restaurant was very elegant, full of families and the food was of course much better in person then

scooped up into cardboard containers.

Snow Day!

I go to a private school that has not granted a snow day in four years! I am so excited about having a snow day! My best friend will be coming over and she will get to meet Amelia. Amelia has been very healthy and happy. She has been climbing her bars and having fun. More importantly, she has been drinking water and eating. I've gone through her cage and have found her poop droppings but unfortunately, I have not found and wet spots. I need to buy a hamster ball for her to run around in. Here is my list of things to do, in no particular order:

1. Buy a hamster ball for Amelia
2. Play in the snow
3. Play with Miss Murray
4. Do my homework
5. Become the President of the US
   

We have a Baby

and I hope that one of the tech savvy members of my family will post the baby's new picture. she is very cute. And Kate is a wonderful new mommy. I found her reading out loud to Amelia from some of her old books.

How cute is that?!

Amelia Earhart, the Hamster

I know that I haven't blogged in a really long time but the excitement of getting a new hamster is just too big to not talk about. For a whole week, I kept my room spotless. I spent much of my free time on the web reading about hamsters. I learned that there are hamster breeds! I just thought that they were all the same. I
We went to Petco as I am sure my mom already said. We met a very nice guy who helped me pick Amelia. I felt so bad because I kept asking to hold all of the hamsters and then they would jump onto the floor but, thankfully, the guy was very patient. There was one really calm hamster with long white hair who was already a month old. Eventually, I asked to see a small alert brown hamster. I tried to pick her up but of course, she jumped. We put her on a counter and let her run around. She was alert and very pretty. She came up to me and sniffed my thumb. Thinking my thumb was food she bit it. I liked her audacity.
The store gave us this tiny little box to put Amelia in. I suggested that we put her in the box that I made in the excitement of getting her. We ended up putting the box the store gave us into the box that I made complete with air holes made of and bedding shredded newspaper. A good thing too because soon enough, Amelia had chewed through the puny paper box the store e us. We assembled the cage that we bought at the store at our house. While my dad assembled the cage, I took my hamster out of the box in the shower. She sniffed around in the shower and ran. She was an explorer! We put her in the cage and she immediately started playing on her wheel and climbing the bars. Her name was inspired by Amelia Earhart, the first women to fly across the ocean, because she was an explorer. She obviously felt right at home.

amelia or is it angie or even....

Last weekend we caved to Kate's request for a hamster providing that she cleaneed her room and kept it clean all week. A miracle. it was obvuious to me that in the night a crew of movers had come in and did a sweep of all her junk, frisbees with holes, springs, coils, bags of clohtese and just general junk. All gone. And we were on count down all week for the Saturday expedition to Petco for the hamster. We checked the weather daily and then every minute. I c ancelled her chinese lesson under the guise of protecting her teacher from a bad subway trip in a snow storm. Then I worried about getting to Petco and home again in a snowstorm. I woke up at 2 in the morning to check on the snow. NO SNOW. Actually I was bummed because I like snow and after all the hype, I wanted it. So, What a gyp. No snow.Washington was salmmed even Staten island had snow but not us. We made it to Petco carrying the travelling case that Kate carefully made with air holes, compartments, food and bedding. I had forgotten to call Petco to make sure that they had ample numbers of hamsters but the gods were with us and there was an abundance of rodents. And there was Anthony. A young kid working the floor. I explained that this was a quest and the high point of our day and he rose to the occasion and was very helpful. Long haired hamsters, male, female, jumping hampsters, skittish hamsters. We looked at everything. Kate is a very thorough shopper and likes to look at everything she is buying and leaves no lstone or shoe or garment of clothing untouched. And so it was with the hamsters. until she selected Amelia. I thought we had named her for Amelia Earheart because she was such an explorer.


I have just been that I have no credibility when it comes to choosing names. After all Mom, you tried to name me Fletcher, kate reminded me this morning. Fletcher sounds like a scratchy sweather. And frankly I think Fletcher Gilhooley would have been the height of angle irish monickers. But Kate works for kate, she is a Kate, and she loves being KK. So, now lets get back to the more important question of the day and that is to name her new hamster. It will not be a name that rings out over the hills and dales of the pak, like Simon, Lucy, TJ, or the far least frequent Buttercup. Thats just a brief samplin of what we heard this morning as we raced tghrough the park because it was too cold to really stroll and talk with other people. Who cared? Far, far too cold. But I know from evesedropping those are doggie type names. So back to the appropriate name for a much doted on hamster who is pretty cute. I tried to persuade Kate to nickname her Puffy 2 after my prize winning hamster from first grade.

She has just sent out an invitation for people to vote on the names. Watching a piece about on line advertising and media on CBS Sunday morning , I can tell that she has a future in ths\is medium because she has a story and she is inviting interaction with her story. Stay tuned. as they say.

The snowstorm that ate Manhattan and the Hamster

Everybody has their favorite mantra, poem, lucky shirt, or other talisman. I had identified nothing until the past couple of days when I began remembering some lines from an A.A. Milne poem, Bad King John. Bad King John was a very bad king and a very bad king indeed, goes the first line but he wanted to be included in Christmas fun and he 'specially wanted an red india rubber ball. And the line that began floating in my head went like this: And oh father Christmas, if you love me at all,please send me a red india rubber ball.

I would repeat this every morning and every night to myself as I walked back and forth to the subway in the hope that Arnie would get a job he wanted. But he didn't get it. And now I'm sure it's because of my language skills. I asked for a red india rubber ball rather than asking that he get the damn job.

So language is everything. And now I'm looking for the red india rubber ball.

Miss Murray Ate The Peas

I knew given a little time and encouragement this dog would clean the kitchen by eating the peas.

The other aftermath to this weekend was that Kate has successfully petitioned for a hamster. If she cleaned her room and kept it really neat for a week, then we agreed that she could have a hamster.

Done deal. What would you like to know about hamster species?