a photo tour

I usually post new pictures on facebook, often with little (sometimes amusing!) captions....but since I am struggling for a blog post topic, and hate to disappoint readers who are thirsty for an update (welcome to the club, Barbie!), I thought I'd give a little tour of my recent days, with photo exhibits.

Exhibit A: My Fridge
I opened my fridge yesterday, and it just looked so bountiful and pleasing that I had to take a picture. Here are some things you can see: 1) large plastic container of pureed strawberries from last year's picking expedition, thawing out to be made into jam (more on that later); 2) a big container of MJP-style potato salad for our Memorial Day cookout with my dad, Jenny, and Peter; 3) bread & butter pickles from Trader Joe's, best served on my favorite sandwich - ham, cheddar, spicy dijon mustard, pickles, on TJ's Tuscan Pane, toasted panini-style; 4) organic brown eggs from Margit & Marianne's CSA; and 5) fresh cilantro and a cantaloupe from the new Asian produce stand at the corner of Philadelphia Pike and Beeson Ave (amazingly cheap, totally non-organic produce).

Exhibit B: Strawberry Picking at Filasky's Produce
On Sunday, Lucy, Lindsay, Max and I headed down to Middletown, past every big box store and chain restaurant you can think of (Starbucks? check. Home Depot? check. Wal-Mart? check. Buffalo Wild Wings? mais bien sur.) until we reached the bucolic farmlands of Filasky's Produce. In about 45 minutes, we had each picked close to five pounds of sweet, juicy strawberries. If you've never done it, you really should. It's easy to do, and really becomes quite compelling - can you find THE perfect strawberry? After filling our buckets, which were deceptively roomy (5 lbs of strawberries is a lot), we headed to the produce stand to pay, and to buy the kids ice cream (it was almost 10 AM after all), and then headed back up north for Pajama Brunch at Buckley's. My blueberry pancakes were terrible, but everything else was good, and it was nice to hang out with the Lowry-Lebberns, an all-too-rare occurrence. I went home and set to work on berry preparation, while Richard kindly offered to go on a hunt for canning jars. You'll remember that in Exhibit A above, I referenced last year's berries.....So last year, I picked many pounds of strawberries in NJ, brought them home, cleaned them, pureed them, planning excitedly for fresh jam - while Richard went out looking for jars. Couldn't find them anywhere. Berries went into the freezer, where they have waited patiently for a year to be turned into delicious jammy goodness. So in some ways, canning jars are to Richard what Moby Dick was to Captain Ahab. And his quest this year was epic: SuperFresh, Happy Harry's, Dollar Store, Home Depot, KMart, Rite Aid, Christmas Tree Shop, and finally, Michael's, where you can buy Ball jars in the Wedding aisle (duh). Thanks to Richard, both this year's berries and last are now jam.

Exhibit C: LARPing in Clark Park
I don't know if you know this, but Richard is a bit of a geek. You know, he loves sci fi, played dungeons and dragons as a kid, reads comic books. And I know Geek is the New Cool, but still, some of geekdom is hard for me. Case in point: LARPing (translation for the uninitiated: Live Action Role Playing). This is where a group of people get together in public, often in costume, and act out battles with foam swords, often using various "magic" spells (have you seen the movie "Role Models"? That's LARPing.). On Saturday, we were in Clark Park with Margit and Marianne, enjoying a delicious ice cream cone from the Mister Softee truck, watching a very diverse group of people (black, white, asian, little kids, teenagers, adults, and even a couple of girls!) playing Capture the Flag, with foam swords. Lucy was entranced, and really wanted to play, but wasn't sure how. We watched for awhile, and it seemed like there were two teams, Headbands and No Headbands (we were very thankful it was not Shirts and Skins) who were each guarding a flag at a tree on opposite sides of the park. It looked like if you hit someone from the opposite team with your foam sword, they had to sit out for awhile, and could then rejoin the game after visiting their home tree. (I am sure there were many more intricacies that we were unable to ascertain just by watching from a bench.) Lucy kept saying she wanted to play, and we told her she could - she just needed to go grab a sword and start whacking people. Richard finally offered to walk her over to pick up a sword, and while he had it in his hand getting ready to offer it to Lucy, someone from the Headbands team instantly descended on him and gave him a whack. Margit, Marianne, and I almost died laughing. Richard and Lucy sparred for awhile, and then she joined the game and had a great time. (At one point, some of the game leaders called for a "Reality Check", which basically meant that the game stopped for a minute because something out of the ordinary had happened. Turned out someone was vomiting.) I just wish that the whole time Lucy was playing and having fun, I wasn't worried that she would turn into a weird kid whose only friends were people who LARPed. I insisted on calling it Capture the Flag with Foam Swords. I am a bad person.

Exhibit D: The Chickens Come for a Visit
Last weekend, Richard bought a nice pork roast at Trader Joe's that was really too big for the three of us, so we invited Andrew, Margit and Marianne over for dinner. Before we knew it, the guest list had grown to include roommates and boyfriends (which necessitated an additional pork purchase), and then there were some jokes about bringing all the dogs, and then, to Andrew, "Why don't you bring the chickens too?" So he did. In Andrew's West Philadelphia apartment that he shares with his very tolerant roommate Farris, Andrew is raising not only 1 dog, 3 stray cats (and a current litter of 4 kittens), 1 very mean turtle, and 1 stray adult chicken (Annie), but also 4 (or is it 5?) baby chicks (don't worry - the chicken coop is almost done!). The chicks came for a visit, and were delightful guests. As were all of the siblings, partners, and roommates - we love them all!

kirsten is writing this blog post

Has it happened to you yet? You're participating in some activity in your daily life, say cooking dinner or watching a movie, and you hear a third-person narration in your head....."Kirsten is cooking homemade chicken noodle soup for dinner," or "Kirsten is watching 'Frozen River' (Melissa Leo definitely deserved that Oscar nomination but man, is she looking rough)." It's like that movie where Will Farrell plays a writer who's disturbed by the voice of Emma Thompson narrating his life as he lives it -- but much more mundane.

It's the curse of the Facebook status update.

I have really noticed it this week, for some reason. In my mind, I'll sort of stop what I'm doing and think about whether or not my current activity would make a compelling status update. Because the status update really is an art form, I think. I am a fan of a pithy, amusing update -- one that makes me think fondly of the updater, and admire his or her clever turn of phrase. A mini book or movie review can offer nice insight into what you're interested in, and can spark some good discussion. A little mystery can be fun too, as long as it is not taken too far, or for too long. I also like a link -- if it is funny or interesting or food-related. I really dislike the complaints -- I actually de-friended one person whose more-than-daily updates ran the very narrow gamut of "Stacy (not her real name) sprained her ankle" (followed by at least 20 pictures of her swollen ankle) to "Stacy has a cold" or "Stacy is sad." I understand that sometimes you feel crummy and want some cyber support, but hey -- just try to make it interesting, and don't overdo it. (On the other hand, I have another FB friend whose exotic travel-related updates usually make me roll my eyes -- so maybe don't overdo it on the interesting either.)

I enjoyed doing status update haikus a couple of weeks ago -- I thought it gave the "form" some nice structure, and added an element of craft. (I am still considering starting a new haiku blog -- something along the lines of Haiku My Life - your life story in 17 syllables -- could be fun, right?)

But 95% of the internal status updates that zip through my brain do not pass muster, and I think with good reason. Do you really care that I ate a lean pocket and an english muffin for dinner (I did -- so sad) or that I need to trim my toenails but I can't find the toenail clippers (also true)? I will pledge to try to keep my updates interesting if you will. And let me know -- what are your key status update dos & don'ts?

kick ass at life

Ally blogged about it here, I bought it here, and I am blogging it here. So meta.

ps -- look at my craft area. isn't it cute?

la gripe porcina

On Wednesday, during the peak of panic about Swine Flu, my mother emailed me, worried about Lucy, and recommended that I call Dr. Borin (aka The Good Doctor) to make sure that he had flu supplies on hand. On Thursday, Richard did one better, calling the Cardiac Center at Nemours to see if there were any special precautions we should take, in light of her heart stuff -- the answer was a resounding "No" -- and that if Lucy did display any signs of flu, to visit the pediatrician.

Lo and behold, at 5:30 Friday morning, Lucy came into our bedroom complaining of headache and sore throat. Now Lucy is the queen of the late night and early morning stomach ache...but she rarely varies her symptoms. I groggily instructed her to climb into bed with me (Richard was already up, getting ready to head to Dover for Quality Examiner Training), and as soon as she curled up next to me, I could tell she had a fever. Miraculously, I was able to find both the children's Tylenol and the thermometer, so I dosed her up, and took her temp -- about 101. Lucy and I are dedicated viewers of the Today Show, so we were on Swine Flu overload this past week -- and while it seems like the cases in the US have been mild, all I could think was that Lucy was going to be Delaware's Elementary School Patient Zero, and bring the Brandywine School District to its knees. And poor Lucy herself was convinced that she had the Swine Flu -- I had to talk her down.

We called Dr. Borin's on-call service (Nemours), and after an interminable wait (during which, I am sure, hundreds of other nervous parents were running Swine Flu scenarios with the service), we finally spoke to a Triage Technician (they are no longer called nurses, I noticed -- I am sure technicians are cheaper). The Triage Tech had all sorts of info about Lucy at her fingertips, and given Lucy's history, recommended that we head to the ER. This put me in a quandary -- the Nemours Cardiac Center had told us NOT to go to the ER, but the Nemours On-Call Service told us that we should. Luckily, cooler heads prevailed, and we decided to wait until Borin's office opened at 8 for our next set of instructions. So Lucy and I got up for our morning dose of the Today Show (Swine Flu confirmed in Delaware! Joe Biden tells people not to use public transportation! No Doubt to perform in the 8:30 half hour!) and Richard headed to Dover.

I finally got through to Borin's office at around 8:15 AM, and they told me that they could see Lucy at 9:30, but that I needed to call the office from the parking lot and someone would come out to the car with a mask for her to wear as a precaution. The good news about the 9:30 appt. was that Lucy and I were able to watch No Doubt perform on the Today Show summer stage -- they rocked, and Gwen looked adorable, as always. (During the commercial break between songs I bought us tickets for their show at the Tweeter in June. Wanna come? Lawn seats were only $10!) Then Richard called me to tell me he was having psychosomatic flu symptoms, and was going to come home, not wanting to infect the other loyal state employees pursuing their Quality Examiners Certification with psychosomatic flu.

We headed to Borin's at 9:30, and Richard met us in the parking lot with Lucy's mask, which she donned without complaint (the poor thing looked like Michael Jackson on a trip to the mall), and we headed straight back to an exam room. After another long wait, we were seen by Dr. Goldberg, who was perfectly nice, but was most decidedly NOT Dr. Borin (I am not sure she was actually old enough to have a driver's license, let alone prescriptive authority). She said that Lucy's symptoms were not really indicative of flu, but could be strep, so she did a rapid strep test. The strep test was negative, so Dr. Goldberg wrote us a scrip for a flu test, just in case.....

Headed to Nemours, with Lucy in her mask, and were sent straight back to the lab. Lucy was whisked into the lab hallway to wait for someone from Respiratory to come do the flu test. While we waited, a teenager in a mask joined us in the hall -- I got the impression that the lab was doing a pretty brisk trade in flu tests. (While we waited, Richard visited the Cardiac Center to let them know Lucy was in the hospital lab getting a flu test, and they thanked him for his call the day before which had prompted them to establish a Swine Flu protocol....yay Richard!) The flu test itself was pretty straightforward -- the tech squirted saline up Lucy's nose, and then sucked the saline and some boogers (her word) up with a tiny catheter. Took all of 30 seconds, and we were on our way, with results promised within a few hours.

Lucy and I went home to hang out and wait, while Richard shopped for popsicles and other important provisions (like a cheesesteak for me for lunch). Dr. Goldberg called mid-afternoon to let us know that Lucy did NOT have the flu. Lucy and I were so relieved that we each took a long nap (mine 2 hours, hers 3).

So that was our brush with the Swine Flu. It is now Sunday, and Lucy is still feverish (and a little obsessed with taking her own temperature -- you'd think she was charting her basal temp for her fertility chart). Other symptoms are minimal -- a slight sore throat, and general malaise. Hopefully, she will be back to normal by tomorrow. We're having homemade chicken noodle soup for dinner tonight, so that should help.