Part IV...

I'm actually getting kind of used to hearing Cesar say "man ANOTHER mouse!" from downstairs in the kitchen at 5:00a.m. I'm currently at home waiting for Scott my friendly pest control man to arrive!

Trying to tell us something...

So between her friend Henry welcoming a baby sister this weekend (congrats Em & Matt!) and her teacher Miss Tahina about to go on maternity leave with her first child due August 4, Leila has become a bit fixated on women having babies in their tummies and has been announcing regularly that "I'm going to have a baby brother next year" (she decided upon the gender on her own!) And here she is as we got ready for school last Friday putting one of her babies in her tummy. I did not stage these shots in the least, they were all her doing.

And that baby would be called "Cat in the Hat Name." It's beyond me too! One recent day she started calling one baby by the name Abbie and one by the name Zoe. I asked her what this third baby was named and she looked around her room while she said "ummmm.." then focused on a Cat in the Hat stuffed animal and said "that baby is Cat in the Hat Name." And she continues to call the three by "Abbie, Zoe and Cat in the Hat Name."

Part III...

At what point does it become mousie genocide? Sorry PETA, but Cesar removed trapped mouse # 3 from the kitchen early this morning. We had just replaced the glue traps yesterday and this guy was apparently pretty hardy b/c, Cesar said he had literally devoured half the trap trying to free himself and was still thrashing about as he slipped it into a plastic bag. Again, apologies PETA, but I'm not thrilled about these house guests! I could hear them periodically scratching about under the stove the whole time I was up finishing Harry Potter Friday night, but I was engrossed enough to ignore their ruckus. And I did find the conclusion of the HP series to be just about perfect!

Rats of NIMH Part Deux

Yep. Second mouse trapped in as many days. Not at all amused. BIG. FAT. ICK.

The Girl

My daughter consumed an entire fillet of Mahi-Mahi last night. She's 27 months old. I'm quite sure that at just over 2 years old, if I was consuming any fish whatsoever it was of the breaded stick variety. Not that there's anything wrong with fish sticks - I often sneak them in and when she asks if she's eating chicken I just smile and nod. It is sooooo...nice to have her eat what we eat most nights though and to not have to be a short-order chef.

Home sweet home

You know how the swarms of flies in the original Amityville Horror were an early indication that the house was probably not the best place to raise a happy, healthy family? We've been feeling the space crush in our little rental for a loooong time, but I'm now beginning to feel Amityville levels of dread about being stuck there. Were it not for the prize location, I fear we'd be in abject misery. OK, I exaggerate a wee bit, but we may just need a little dose of paranormal activity to finally force ourselves into finding a more suitable dwelling and the means to afford a more suitable dwelling. In the past week alone, we have faced:

• Ants (they've been on the kitchen counters and cabinets for weeks now - they are bionic - the bait discs + cinnamon have no effect - now that their populations have thinned down a bit, I've just learned to live with them and work around them, but still, it's GROSS);


• A flooded kitchen sink;


• The ceiling light in our bedroom turning on automatically in the night repeatedly (4 times!) Sunday (perhaps that one is paranormal??); and


• A dying mouse - scratch that - Rat. Well, it could have been a mouse swollen full of poison pellets, but it definitely looked more Rats of NIMH than Mrs. F/Brisby! At least I thought it did in the 1 & 1/2 seconds I looked down upon it before fleeing the room screaming for Cesar.

There's only so much more I can take y'all!

Still a loooong way to go 'til February...

So I'm listening to a Senate Finance Committee confirmation hearing for the nominee to be CMS (Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services) Administrator on my computer this morning (I'm only a wonk by trade!) Sen. Pat Roberts (R-Kansas) is going off about how dysfunctional an Agency is that actually encourages its contractors to hire a person to reboot their computers every 15 minutes to ensure that data is refreshed. And I'm thinking to myself "sheesh, that sounds like..." Then Roberts actually completes my thought and says "It's like that TV show - I don't watch it, but my kids do - Lost - where the inhabitants of an Island have to enter a code into a computer every 108 minutes to save the world." And my heart actually leaped just to hear my favorite show referenced from a U.S. Senate Committee hearing room. Yeah, I'm kinda pathetic! I take full ownership of that fact and I do intend to get this tee-shirt:

Hmmm...

Methinks I might have to direct any anticipated birthday money towards this new Coach Miranda vintage leather satchel...

The Two Coreys

Please tell me I am not the only one who is psyched for the debut of this show on A & E Sunday...Anyone, anyone...

I mean, how can you not be psyched for the return of these guys??

Yeah, maybe it's just me... I always had a hard time deciding which Corey was my favorite. I was definitely more likely to tear a photo of Haim out of Teen Beat, Tiger Beat or Bop, but I think I'd have to go with Feldman for the better actor (Goonies! Stand by Me!) then again, Haim really shone in Lucas...Right, back to work.

Wow!

I have no words! Check out TMZ for the latest. Granted that I had my partying wild-child days, but I'd like to think that I was never such a wastrel to risk throwing it all away. And I didn't even have a career to throw away by age 21! Sad that she's such a wreck, but L. Lo should never ever be allowed behind the wheels of a car again. Ever. Period.

And did I hear correctly on a snippet of Olberman last night the Brit Brit is again expecting a child and has no clue who the father is. Lordy! I missed the opening, so I hope he was reporting on a tabloid source...It's implosion time amongst the Hollywood It Girls. Who knew that Victoria Beckham would be the one to enter this world with airs of class and maturity? The standards of comparison are low, but still!

Playhouse Disney = Lifesaver

Thank you Dear JoJo for babysitting my child this morning so I could sneak a shower in and get the minimal required amounts of moisturizer and make-up on my face. I never thought I'd be the parent to rely on the boob-tube to mesmerize my child to sit in utter stillness and concentration for a solid 23 minutes or so, but I have rapidly come to accept that when used in moderation, it is a beautiful, beautiful thing. I really can't complain that the girl was up and lying in bed next to me at 6:00a.m. poking my nose and gleefully saying "pimple, pimple, pimple..." (thanks Cesar!) - I usually have to wake her up by 7:30 to get ready for daycare - but I was counting on snoozing until at least 6:30 so that I can be up and alert for devouring another chunk of Harry Potter tonight! Though, I'm getting pretty good at the whole reading while walking thing so that I don't lose a spare minute....Yep, I'll say it for you: "GEEK!"

OMG! - Is my boss freaking nuts or what?

That is a rhetorical question of course! She just saw me clutching my copy of Harry Potter as I sneaked off to 30 minutes of outdoor reading and had the gall to inquire if I had flipped to the end and if I knew what happened?? NO and NO. Then she even suggested that she'd like to swipe it from me when I got back so she could read the end to see what happens. Who does that?? Oh my gosh - I'm still only on about page 100, but completely hooked. Leila is so going to be in her bed at 8:00 tonight and Cesar's on his own to fix himself a sandwich when he gets home from class.

Weekend

Firstly - Only 70 pages into HP. Spoiler Free Zone here!

Secondly - Aside from the work component, the quick NY weekend, or partial weekend was great. Actually, the work part was not all bad aside from having to share in it with the boss. This would be a fun project to just be given the leeway to run with and it was nice to hang around with philanthropists and PR types to play with messaging for a change, but I'm just so disillusioned by the way we do everything after 6 years here! Anyway... the fun part of the weekend was drinks, catching up w/ Massi, drinks, laying eyes on Hazem outside of his office, drinks, great weather, drinks, nice long walks through lower Manhattan, drinks, delicious food, drinks and passing out until about 10:30 Saturday morning. Here's Mass and I on a rooftop bar 3 Mojitos into the evening. Sure, the beginning buzz lean is in effect, but still looking cute, no?
And thanks to Hazem for humoring my touristic camera toting ways!
I was thrilled to get home to the girl and the house was somewhat less a wreck than I expected it to be, so daddy did good! Nevertheless, and fueling our convictions that our rental house is cursed (or that we've just been stuck there for too long!) our kitchen sink is seriously leaking - I opened the door beneath to find a good half inch of standing water and called the property manager at 9p.m. Sunday begging a plumber. And we still have ants. And the air conditioner vents were blowing out heat yesterday afternoon until I flipped it on and off a couple times. And that is why I'm only 70 pages into Harry Potter!

Naan & Beyond

I love this hole in the wall Indian lunch joint, but often forget about it. Usually because I tend to live on yogurt, fruit and granola bars from home 4 days of the week and only buy on Friday. When I do buy on Friday, I usually rotate between salads from Breadline, Marvelous Market, Just Fresh or Au Bon Pain (boycotted Cosi long ago for its dysfunctional service) depending on how far and in which direction I feel like strolling. Now today's only Thursday, but since I won't be here tomorrow I felt justified to buy lunch and my taste buds screamed out for Chicken Tikka atop Caesar salad with a side of Mango Chutney dipping sauce for the chicken - Naan & Beyond it was! I used to always get the Naan wrapped Chicken Tikka sandwich w/o mayo, but find it a great challenge to eat by hand and Naan isn't the easiest thing to cut through with a plastic knife, so I now combine my generous chunks of chicken deliciousness with somewhat overdressed and slightly wilted romaine. Mmmm...I still have the taste of it in my mouth. If you're down around L street b/t 17th and Connecticut check it out. It helps to not be intimidated by the surly servers - I actually find their demeanor rather humorous - the descriptor "Naan Nazi" is not far off, but I actually liken them more to the players in the old John Belushi Billy Goat's Tavern CheeburgerCheeburgerCheeburger skit on SNL. Just replace the CheeburgerCheeburger bit with shouts of CHICKENTIK! down the line.



My other fave for reasonably priced ethnic variety at lunchtime is the Couscous Cafe on 20th street near the corner of M (http://www.couscouscatering.com/CouscousCafe.htm). They do an amazing B'stilla (with chicken, not pigeon - sorry any Moroccan foodie purists!) and the sampler of ratatouille, grape leaves, hummus, Baba Ghanouj... is fresh and light. I've never managed to try their falafel b/c it sells out before 1:00. I'd definitely consider their catering for entertaining. And while I'm on this topic, I can't forget a nod to the granddaddy of them all: Moby Dick's House of Kebab.



So I'm definitely looking forward to some good eats in NYC tomorrow night. Massi asked me what kind of cuisine I'm in the mood for, but as long as it's not family-friendly Mexican at an early bird hour, I'm game. The only thing making up for having to be on a 6:50a.m. shuttle with my boss tomorrow morning for a full day of meetings is that I get to treat it as a comped visit to Massi and stay over the night. Cesar even suggested I stay over Saturday too to offer me a break, but I have to at least get back to get a start on Harry Potter w/in 24 hours of its (non leaked) release. Will report on how Leila and Cesar fare on their own Monday. I'm expecting to come home to multiple Happy Meal boxes in the trash. Cupcake city here I come!

Conversations with my daughter crack me up

People always comment on how verbal Leila is and what a great vocabulary she has etc...which is all very true, but the child routinely cracks me up. She just speaks like a little mini adult and not like a 26 going on 27 month old. I'm sure this is in large part because I just speak to her non-stop and try to narrate everything we do in normal adult terms. And I drive Cesar nuts doing so - he's always saying "she's a little parrot just like you - you two guys drive me nuts..." Though I'd rather her be a verbally advanced chatterbox than not. Here are some snippets from our conversations as we got ready for daycare this morning:

In the bathroom to brush teeth...

"I want a treat (aka Candy) Mommy"

"Not now sweetie, you can have a treat after school"

" I want pretzels"

"OK sweetie, there are pretzels in the car, Mommy will give you a couple on the way to school, but then you have to eat your yummy pear and yogurt when you get there."

"I asked Daddy for pretzels yesterday"

"You did? Did he give them to you?"

"No, he gave me kind of an ummm...birdies" (Trader Joe's Toucan version of goldfish crackers)

Kind of...? What 2yr old knows the concept of and uses the term kind of? Then, downstairs to pack up her backpack and grab breakfast from the fridge:

"Sweetie, do you want Mommy to take the hat you made back to school so you can wear it with your friends?"

"Yeah. I made a pink hat with Miss Tahina. Kate has sort of a... yellow hat." (Again, "sort of..."? Sure enough I saw Kate's yellow arts & crafts visor in her cubby next to Leila's.)

And the child can take in the contents of our fridge in about 5 seconds and request the oddest things...

"I want pita and hummus Mommy! PitaPitaPita and hummussss....."

"OK OK, yes, it's only 7:45, but who knows what other protein you'll get in your body today, go ahead and dip your mini pita in the hummus..."

And Mommy's at work now with hummus smeared on her shirt sleeve, but what can you do!!

Bryan Ferry Remains a Sexy Beast

I want to love this album. I really do. I love the concept of it. I've got mad love for both Bryan Ferry and Bob Dylan (obvs!) and Ferry's cover of A Hard Rain's Gonna Fall on his 1973 self titled solo album is lovely. I just think 11 Dylan tracks covered in Ferry's velvety smooth voice could prove a bit much. I could be wrong. I've only heard a few samples online, but I'm probably more inclined to download Roxy Music/Bryan Ferry's Streetlife Greatest Hits to replace my old cassette version than I am to purchase this one.

Yes, yes. I watched the bulk of the Victoria Beckham coming to America special last night, and I hate to admit that I actually found her to be kind of... adorable. Yes, I intended to write adorable and not abhor-able. Physically, she remains a freak of nature - or rather unnature - in my eyes, but I really found her to be pretty open and funny. You have to give the chick some credit for such clever self-promotion.

On a related note, I've decided that Leila will be married off to young Cruz Beckham. Advance apologies to anyone lining up their sons as potential suitors. ; )

It has become my desire to share everything I enjoyed growing up with Leila - and only in part to make me feel younger revisiting these treasures! This practice could backfire on me, of course, as she gets old enough to rebel against mom's old skool interests, but she hasn't protested Dylan yet, so we'll keep on in this mode. We picked up this wonderful new Puff the Magic Dragon picture book for her this weekend. It's packaged with a CD of Peter Yarrow singing Puff and a couple other tracks with his own daughter. I'd been singing Puff to Leila for a while now, but was a little shaky on the lyrics after the first chorus, so this was a great refresher. I just hope our neighbors couldn't hear us singing along at our loudest pitch as a threesome Friday night because the results weren't pretty! And because I'm a sap who always got a little choked up by this song's melancholy end, I will share the spoiler that in these new illustrations, Puff is not left alone in his cave shedding scales for all eternity once Jackie Paper grows up and replaces him with big boy toys. The edition ends with the suggestion that the adult Jackie introduces Puff to his daughter and the cycle of love and magic continues. Awwww....

Making Fun of Duran Duran 3!

I've been on a Duran Duran kick the past couple weeks thanks to the Diana and Live Earth concerts. This is A RIOT! I think I love it so much because it reminds me of Mystery Science Theater 3000. Also check out #1 ("View to a Kill") and #2 ("New Moon on Monday") on YouTube. If I spoke in shorthand, I'd confess that I am ROFL right now!

Portraits of a Two Year Old

No need to even comment on these, but if I had to title them, the first 3 in the series would be called "Fussy", "Fussy 2", and "Fussy 3." Fun times!

In the interest of trying to stay musically relevant....

This disc is super! I am loving the remixes of the Smiths' "Stop Me", Brit Brit's "Toxic", Radiohead's "Just" and The Stone Roses "The Only One I Know", but there's not a bad track in the mix!

And I just read that he's going to be allowed to remix a Dylan track, for the first time ever, to be premiered Aug. 1. If anyone should be granted the rights to remix a Dylan track, this is the guy!

A very random series of reviews!

OK, who's not watching Lil' Bush on Comedy Central? Granted I just watched my first episode last night, but if you're not watching yet, set your DVRs for 10:30 Wed. nights. You're most likely already taping the Daily Show anyway. Funny. Funny. Funny. The Al Gore Live Earth sketch was priceless last night. And I think my favorite part about it is that Iggy Pop voices Lil' Rummy. If you have any concerns that it's a one-sided political attack (not that any of my friends would), rest assured that the Lil' Dems are poked fun at in equal good measure.

And just because I'm a mom to a toddler, I have to point out the passing resemblance to Fisher Price's Little People. Though the Lil' Bushies are way funnier and way less annoyingly voiced.
And without any relevant segue, here goes a quickie food product review. I started sampling some of these Simply Enjoy products at Giant a while ago, and just wanted to point them out to anyone like me who faces the nightly struggle of getting something tasty on the dinner table quickly. The line is mostly condiments, desserts, frozen entrees, but I find the products to be pretty comparable to the taste and quality of like items I'd buy at Whole Foods. The frozen dinners like Butter Chicken and Pad Thai have lots of flavor. I used their tequila lime salsa on tacos last night and it was yummers and tonight I'm trying their sweet onion and fig grilling sauce on chicken. Sounds tasty, no? Thought I'd pair that with couscous, Trader Joe's ready to eat lentils and a green salad.
And yet another nearly completely random segue, but with the loose eating link, I recently finished this book, and it is a very nice and inspiring read. I no more want to face the personal agony the author faced that set her on a journey across Italy, India and Indonesia to find balance in her life between personal pleasure, spirituality and love, but I do envy her discoveries and travels. It actually sort of slammed me in the gut with an internal "Williams, you need to get off your big butt and figure out what will satisfy you in life" voice. Professionally, I mean. My family brings me great joy, but I've definitely got a loose cog in the personal satisfaction puzzle. So here I go to search the job boards again!

I'm tired y'all.

This work and family business can be exhausting. So much so that about alls I've got the energy to do right now is drool over the Becks W Mag. photo spread. Yes, they're totally skeezy and yes, I'd like the power to put an invisibility cloak over Posh, but I just can't seem to get enough of these.

Nobody wears the tighty whiteys better. Nobody. Period. Righto. My palm's are sweating a bit here.

Anyway...Leila's home sick with daddy. Some viral throat crud so that there's absolutely nothing we can do for her aside from dosing her up w/ Tylenol and waiting it out until she's 24 hours fever free. One of these days, I will tune into the fact that when the child is refusing to eat (red peppers plucked out of ratatouille - yes, she's an odd duck - and blueberries are about all that's gone into her tummy aside from liquids since Saturday), she is ailing. So, I spent this morning at the peds. w/ her and yesterday morning at the cardiologist's for her annual heart murmur check. Her heart checks out fine, but I was little amused to then have to abandon her at school, trudge the mile to the metro through 130 degree heat and get off the train to be soaked to the bone by an unexpected thunderstorm only to get to the job I hate.

But I know we all struggle with this, so I'll stop my whining now and get back to looking at Becks for the 5 minutes I have here before cramming myself onto the tourist packed non-air conditioned metro!

It's Official. I am Old.

Was just scanning the Netflix new releases to see if there was anything I wanted to add to the queue this week and I found this:
How on earth can Shark Week be 20 YEARS OLD?? How has the Discovery channel even been in existence for more than 20 years. Shark Week has been a TV viewing event in my household every August for the past 20 years now!! I am stunned. And old. Period.

Ants! Ants! Ants!

Meet my friendly new house guests. I spent hours upon hours this weekend trying to rid my kitchen of them and growing more and more nauseous by the second, but they are persistent little buggers who have made themselves quite at home. I confess to being a half-hearted housekeeper, but I do diligently wipe down our counters and cook surfaces, if not with Lysol, then at least with Clorox wipes, and this is my reward.


What does one do when ants chose the kitchen as their point of invasion? I can't go dousing the counter tops and pantry with Raid spray. And, actually, scratch the word pantry, our kitchen's so darn small that it's not even equipped with a pantry. I took every food item out of the two cabinets that suffice for a pantry, closely checked everything open to be sure there were no critters inside, sealed every open item in Ziploc bags, wiped down all the shelves with disinfectant and sprinkled cinnamon around the edge of each shelf because I've read that's a good natural repellent. The cinnamon smells nice and all, but the little fellows are still swarming every which way. Cesar scattered some bait discs on the shelves and the populations MAY have been a bit thinner this morning, but still EWWWW! Dave Matthew's Ants Marching is the current soundtrack in my head.


The rest of the weekend's events included swim class with Leila Saturday morning, lunch with Papa, dinner with the whole fam. for Papa Lee's birthday, Live Earth concert viewing, a Sunday morning play date with Em and Henry, grocery shopping and 5 loads of laundry. Pretty standard fare here.

Wino

Jean and I shared an Email exchange not long ago about boxed wine. We both agreed that $20 give or take a few bucks for the equivalent of 4 bottles sounded like a great cost containment measure, but that one wouldn't want to end up with 3 liters of something rot gut. She seemed to be a little more serious about her research at the time, but I can now vouch for this brand - at least for the Cab.:

It was $4 off with a bonus card at Giant this weekend bringing it to a whopping grand total of $18 and change. It's very smooth - perhaps even mild for a Cab. - but with all the earthy blackberry flavor you'd hope for. These boxed babies supposedly keep for 4 weeks (not that a box would last me that long), so I'll see if it keeps the same crisp taste. Of course Cesar came in the kitchen just as I was popping out the spout and shook his head at me and asked if I was now a homeless person resorting to the box. If he ever catches me twisting the cap off a 4o he can ask me that question again. But admittedly, it does take me back to the days when there was a box of Franzia in mom's fridge!

Netflix Cheaters

There was a funny little article in the Post last Sunday titled "Getting Some on The Sly" about how enticing those little red Netflix envelopes are when they arrive and how they often tempt one to break that relationship commandment "Thou Shalt Not Netflix Without Me." (http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/06/29/AR2007062900539.html) Cesar and I generally have no problem with this commandment because we may as well have two different subscriptions, so different are our viewing tastes. Every couple weeks or so, I try to go through our queue to make sure it's ordered so that say "Shooter" and "The Painted Veil" will be at home at the same time so that we each have something to watch when we're so inclined.

Well...now I've gone and gotten myself into catching up on the first season of Rome and in effort to spend a little time together July 4th Eve I got Cesar to actually sit down and watch two episodes with me. And he didn't hate it! So I should have had the courtesy to ask if he wanted to watch the last episode on the disc with me last night, but you see, he wasn't feeling well and he dosed up with Zyrtec and nasal spray and went to bed early, and since I had completed Leila's bedtime routine and mounds of dishes on my own, I thought it every bit in my right to pour a big glass of wine and sit back to see if Pompey would accept Ceasar's "truce." Of course I was caught in my infidelity! Cesar slunk half way down the stairs with squinted eyes and crossed arms turned to the TV, then turned to me and gave me that "how could you look." Well, not really, it was more the now you're going to come up late and wake me up in my sick bed look. He didn't miss any orgies after all, and if he had, and I hadn't been caught, I would of course have feigned that I hadn't yet watched and encouraged him to do so with me tonight.

In the why couldn't I think if this category...

If this baby works like the site says, I think I may have to invest in one when they're on the market in August. For I get the sense, in the course of our always relaxed mealtimes, that Leila is beginning to resent her booster a bit!


http://kaboost.com/index.html

4th of July

We chose to spend our 4th as just a bonus day for a fun family outing since our weekends get so crunched with errands and chores. What better way to celebrate our independence than to go to the zoo?! I didn't even take the care to dress Leila in patriotic apparel, but her skin ended up various shades of red and blue (see bomb pop below!) It was actually a fun day for us, because it was the first time Leila was really excited and engaged in the zoo. She kept repeating that she wanted to find "Jorge and the zebras", with "Jorge" being Curious George. Strangely, the zebras were the one animal we were unsuccessful in tracking down, but she became soon fascinated by the hippos, the seals and the elephants peeing and pooing (2+ must be the age when potty language becomes a fixation - she was still talking about the impressive elephant pee/poop this morning!), so she was not too heartbroken to miss them. Leaves something to come back for next time.


Though the tourists are in full flux here (my metro frustrations will be reserved for a future entry), we actually found the 4th to be a pretty good day to go to the zoo. We arrived around 10:30 and left shortly before 1:00 and the crowds were only thickening by the time we left. The biggest challenge was finding a creative way to get to the zoo, as Memorial bridge was already closed at 10:00a.m. I had the clever idea to take Key Bridge to the freeway and loop back around to Rock Creek via E street, but then I made Cesar miss the exit to E street because I was confused by the sign that said truck exit and he looked down towards Rock Creek and saw that it was closed anyway, while screaming that we need a GPS and yelling at me for my lack of directional sense (he needs to speak to Massi or Julie or Jean or anyone who ever road in a car with me in highschool, college and beyond to get verification that I was born without an internal compass and take that as one of my cute flaws and move on!) Soooo....we looped BACK through Georgetown, approached Connecticut Ave. via K Street and shot straigh up Connecticut to Woodley. It was all good. We completed our outing with a nice heavy Mexican lunch washed down with a few Pacificos (yeah, I didn't even drink American beer!) in Cleveland Park.


The little Diva had just been sobbing because another group of older kids beat her to the Panda statue for photos. She just wailed "MY TURN, MY TURN" until they scattered. You can just see that now I got my way look on her face below.
Bomb Pops, which are now apparently called Missile Pops = Biggest. Mistake. Ever. Leila and I often eat a standard single popsicle on these warm nights outside on our stoop immediately before bath time, and I thought this couldn't be much more messy. It looks innocent enough here, but moments later, her entire torso and hands were stained smurf blue and she had red stripes along the lenghth of her arm. I don't exaggerate!

5:00

Aaahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

4:45...

Is it just me, or does Joseph Wilson look sexy with a beard? Oh. My. Gosh. Get me out of here!!

4:30...

4:15. Still here.

For the record

it is now 4:00 on the eve of the 4th and we are all still in the office. Shoot me.

Leila's Weekend Cnt'd

As evidenced below, the swim class pics taken through glass without a flash are a blurry mess, so here's one of the child demonstrating her technique (or just modeling!) atop her toy chest.
Is Cesar expecting our second child? My cooking does not get credit for that (though the TJ's rack of lamb, soy ginger carrots and couscous did turn out delectable last night), and the man generally eschews beer, so we'll just say the water encouraged some muscle relaxation ; )
We're looking very serious about our aquatic studies here!
This is the closest we got to any fireworks Saturday night and I, for one, am in favor of her cautiousness.

I should have clarified that the evening my brother spent with Simon LeBon at the Mandarin Oriental a couple years back was an evening spent drinking, with other legal associates, after having the lucky chance encounter with him in the hotel bar so that there's no lewd speculation going on, but anyone reading this knows that story all too well!

Wild Boys are right!

Evidence from yesterday's Diana concert. That Simon LeBon is still the hottest. He rocks that skinny suit better than any member of today's EMO bands. And I will try to hold the residual envy I harbour towards my brother for spending an evening with him at the Mandarin Oriental in check.

Here's a new one...

I generally don't mind playing the "has anyone ever told you that you look like..." game, because it's usually a pretty favorable comparison, but Saturday evening we were at a cookout at Cesar's friend Greg's house and in the course of a somewhat surreal conversation with the host's sister that lasted all of 5 minutes but in which she expressed how thrilled she was that I lobbied on women's health issues because that was so important to her as a result of her own cervical cancer/HPV scare and exclaimed no wonder your husband's so gorgeous, he's Nicaraguan, and at least all the Nicaraguans who made it to this country are such beautiful people....she comes out with "has anyone ever told you that you look like - and I mean this as a compliment because I love her - Courtney Love?" Ummm...Nope. And, yes, the preceding was a really long sentence! Then Greg joined and his sis asked him "doesn't she look like Courtney Love?" And he wisely says "I'm not going to insult her like that!" And sis defends herself with " I love her, she's a great actress." And Greg says "well that just explains you" and walks away. And I'm thinking Courtney Love = actress. Huh? Guess I'd forgotten about "The People vs. Larry Flynt" since I never saw it. And Greg's sis continues to try to lend credence to her comparison with "did you ever see The Man on the Moon? That's where I'm thinking you look like her." And I assented, but I was mistakenly thinking of the Reese Witherspoon/Jason London 1991 coming of age classic "The Man IN the Moon" and not of Jim Carrey's portrayal of Andy Kauffman, so I still couldn't place her reference. Now I'm not a C. Love hater by any means - in about 1 out of every 100 photos or so she cleans up well and looks fit and lucid - but I was relieved when this curious conversation came to a close and I had the opportunity to go pluck a beer from the cooler! Leila did have a great time running around Greg's yard with his neighborhood kids, but she wanted no part of the display of fireworks procured across the PA state line. I don't blame her. I mean I used to get a kick out of Mark White's fireworks shows in our 'hood and even sacrificed my painstakingly crafted 7th grade history project model of Monticello to his tanks one year, because this was Mark White, the object of my end all be all crush from ages 13 to 17 or so, but I am still fairly squeamish about amateur fireworks hour.

Anyhow! The rest of our weekend centered around Leila of course. She had her first Perch swim class at the Y Saturday morning and appeared to be a natural. I'll get some fuzzy through the glass pictures up soon. I went to load them this morning but Cesar had unplugged the DSL outlet for some reason and I could not for the life of me figure out where it hooked back in. There are enough cables coming out of that darn laptop and so many crazy USB ports rigged to the desk at various stations that it looks like it could substitute for a car bomb outside Tiger Tiger (which happens to be the only nightclub I've ever been to in London, but that was a totally different sidebar conversation last Friday.) It was so nice yesterday that Leila and I just wasted away the morning in good quality playground and strolling around Old Town time. I was shocked to see that it was almost 2:00 by the time we wandered back home and the poor child then consumed about a 4 course lunch in rapid time.