becauseiamnotanelephant

[becauseiamnotanelephant]

escape

After all that running around yesterday (and doing 95% of the clean up with one of our neighbors) and knowing that a few hours of work is coming my way this weekend in anticipation of Monday's deadline, I escaped to take a dance class today. It's always nice to see one of my friends who always attends the Saturday afternoon class, and even the teacher was happy to have me back today - she was worried after I didn't come back right away after the last class I took. I just wish it was easier to come to the city on the weekend!

[becauseiamnotanelephant]

a big day

The morning started early; Graham started at 7:30 this morning and without fail, Hannah woke up and came downstairs ready to go at 7 AM. We did some prep for the party and then took a side trip to Brooklyn. My coworkers from one company started meeting in person monthly - they all work in different offices so it's a chance for everyone to get together face to face, and this was an opportunity for me to meet them for the first time. Hannah and I took the train to Manhattan and the subway to Dumbo. Everyone was very nice and despite the stress of trying to get back home in time to finish setting up, it was definitely worth the trip. We had some adventures on the way back to Penn Station and then rushed home to get ready for our guests.

A party with 16 kids and 16 adults is as crazy as one would expect. But it is also LOUD. Wow.

All the kids made some hamantaschen, they had a blast doing the scavenger hunt I put together, we had many tasty pies, and the adults even got to play a guessing game to see how many digits of Pi Alice's dad had memorized (35!). It was insane and they destroyed the playroom, but everyone had fun, and it was really nice to have such a great group

[becauseiamnotanelephant]

Prep

This week was really busy at work - a major project that I am helping review is due Monday, I needed to start reviewing a project that had the number of study intersections doubled based on public comment, and I needed to prepare a presentation for DOT on something that I am not an expert on and it's not something that is easily referenced, which makes it challenging to figure out how to organize. On top of that, we are are having a party with 30 people tomorrow and I needed to get things prepped and clean the house. And take my Italian class.

It was a long day. Tomorrow brings no relief. Wait for Saturday!

[becauseiamnotanelephant]

the juicer that lives forever

Erica and I got juicers in 2001 or 2002 to make fresh OJ that we sold to raise money for Concrete Canoe (from oranges grown at an orange grove owned by the parents of one of our classmates).

23 years later (!) Hannah is putting mine to use to juice some limes for some key lime pie for pi day on Friday. It lives on to see another generation!

[becauseiamnotanelephant]

gymnastics queen

We needed a make up for gymnastics from when we were sick two weeks ago so Hannah had back-to-back classes today. She's getting good!

[becauseiamnotanelephant]

total mom fail

For all the points I got for getting Hannah that awesome sequin jacket, I lost them all today. I put the jacket in the bike seat when I went to get her after dance class and 7 blocks later, it was gone. We retraced our steps 3 times - it was nowhere to be found! She was hopeful that the police would find it but I told her that was unlikely. I wouldn't normally replace clothing that she'll grow out of in short order but I felt terrible, so I found another one online. But I can't imagine where the original could have disappeared to!

[becauseiamnotanelephant]

same sign, new year

We went to a Purim celebration at the shul we've been to many times before and Hannah and her friend Alice got to take their annual Purim photo in front of the recycled sign.

We're having a Purim party on Friday and I realized last week it is also Pi day so we'll be having a Pizza Pi Purim Party and I can't wait.

[becauseiamnotanelephant]

whining and winning

I am going to kill someone if we cannot move past this whining phase. It's too much.

On the other hand, we get so many compliments on Hannah's sequin jacket that I feel like I won a mom award. Hannah gets all the credit and attention, naturally, but I know how she got here.

[becauseiamnotanelephant]

winning and losing

Today we were going to meet a friend at the Liberty Science Center and planned to take the train to Hoboken, take the light rail to the museum, take the light rail back to Jersey City to get Graham's wallet, and then take the train home from Hoboken. Our plans were immediate derailed when all the wind last night blew a tree onto the tracks, resulting in the cancellation of train service from Montclair. So we walked back home, got the car, and I did the dreaded drive to the Jersey City area. All was good until I screwed up a turn and ended up on the wrong highway, then detoured and got stuck at a drawbridge, and then drove through the wrong side of town.

We still had to get the wallet but I refused to drive to the heart of Jersey City so we took the light rail to and from the museum. Hannah played with her cousin, we got the wallet for Graham, and took the light rail back to the museum to get the car. All in all, not a terrible adventure other than getting lost and realizing that I really don't like the Liberty Science Center. Definitely not worth the money (luckily my friend is a member and we got in for free).

Back at home we found our first crocus of spring (!), prepped dinner and then went to a Glen Ridge girls basketball playoff game. It was insane and the bleachers were PACKED. There was a clear racial divide between the teams and the opposing team, who may have lost, clearly won the cheerleading element of the game. Those girls stomped and yelled the whole time.

Best part -someone took a foul shot and the basketball ended up getting stuck on top of the backboard. What are the odds!

It was loud and intense and Hannah has zero knowledge of basketball but it was fun and exciting.

[becauseiamnotanelephant]

Thursdays

Thursdays are busy - after school we rush to do the weekly grocery shopping before ninja class, then we rush home, eat dinner, and then I have my Italian class. Today after my class we got in the car and went to the Montclair Art Museum for their free first Thursdays of the month. The theme was Rhythms of Asia and we saw some Bollywood dancing, Chinese musical performances, both got henna tattoos, and did some origami. We were both exhausted but Hannah was lucky enough to go to sleep while I had to stay up to catch the latest episode of Severance. That show is just crazy!

[becauseiamnotanelephant]

PSE&G audit

We had someone from PSE&G come to our house today to conduct a free efficiency audit. We were both skeptical about how helpful it would be because you never know what you get when something is free and we also do a lot already to make our house energy efficient, but in the end, it seems to have been well worth our time. He was there for almost two hours! He fixed a sink to make it run more efficiently, let us know about what we can do with our chimney, and gave us some helpful information about solar panels. We were both impressed and I recommend signing up if it's an option!

[becauseiamnotanelephant]

Trivia

Graham's friend invited me to trivia tonight. All attempts to find a babysitter were a fail but luckily Graham's last client canceled and he was able to get home early enough for me to go. It's been a long time since I've worn my trivia" hat" but luckily I was able to use my engineering skills to good use for the cars traveling in opposite directions math question (and luckily I got it right!).

[becauseiamnotanelephant]

Snakes and salt

We went to the environmental center and learned all about snakes today; Amba (the snake in the photo) lives at the environmental center and it was the first time we've seen her out of her cage! Then we went home and did some salt painting. It's very fun but the paintings don't hold up well.

[becauseiamnotanelephant]

Work and Wallets

With Hannah sick last week I was not able to get everything done for work, so Graham gave me a few hours and took Hannah to Jersey City to play with her cousins.

Right when he was going to leave, he realized he had lost his wallet between going out to lunch and getting to the car. Of course, he was super pissed and didn't find it, and then came home to cancel everything and order all new cards. Low and behold, he got a phone call during dinner and someone had found the wallet and returned it to Graham's brother's apartment! Not all hope in humanity is lost after all.

On the way home, Hannah fell asleep and was so passed out that she was a log on the couch for 2 hours after they got home. That led to a 10 PM bed time!

[becauseiamnotanelephant]

Jack of all trades

Hannah had a full plate of activities today.

After breakfast, she went with Graham to Home Depot to build a mini basketball hoop.

Then I took her to the library to see a shadow puppet show of the 3 Little Pigs.

It was so nice that we biked all around town and ran into our neighbors and my brother and his family!

After lunch I took her ice skating (she doesn't want me to skate with her anymore after watching all the kids going on their own).

And then after dinner she had fun with Graham for bedtime while I went out with Alice's mom to see Oklahoma! at Montclair State University. It was not a great story, but the music was great - almost every song!

[becauseiamnotanelephant]

up for adventure

It was a nice day with no school today so Hannah and I had a fun adventure. It started with her insane bed head - this photo doesn't even capture it!

After breakfast we packed a lunch, walked to the library to get a museum pass, and then took the train to Newark to go to the Newark Art Museum - we had only been here once when she was about 2, so she didn't remember it. While we walked, we talked about March coming in like a lion (but that it will actually come in like a lamb with 60 degree weather tomorrow)! Hannah apparently talked about that saying at school and was incredulous that I happened to know it, too. (and that it was her homework - I am still not clear what exactly the assignment is).

We had fun walking around and sketching some art, looking at the rooms in the Ballantine house (and amazing stained glass and woodwork), and took some picture (at Hannah's request), and finally ended up on the top floor where they had an exhibit on the animal kingdom. Randomly, we had read a book about the animal kingdom (thanks Ahmet!) while we had breakfast, so it was a perfect follow up. They had a lot of fun interactive things for Hannah to do, including a place where we could draw pictures with pastels, scan them in a computer, and get them uploaded onto a large wall of an "under the sea" scene.

After we got home I dropped Hannah off with Graham so they could have an adventure at the Environmental Center - a night hike and a smores/hot chocolate camp fire!

Never a dull moment.

[becauseiamnotanelephant]

a mess

I went to see the last of the Oscar shorts tonight; today was the Documentary shorts. I used my brain and asked Hannah's dance teacher if any of her students were interested in babysitting, so was able to snag a last minute babysitter so I could go out (how did I not think of this as a resource before?!).

Of the five documentary shorts (very long movies for short films - it was 3 hours!), one was a cute story about kids in a Japanese elementary school - you may have seen some footage of the school in the NYT, I think it's the same school since they produced the movie. Another was a great story about the first female musician in the NYC Philharmonic; she played the bass and was part of the orchestra for 55 years! The last three were good stories but all had to do with all the ways this country is a mess - the death sentence, the school shooting in Florida, and a police shooting (and fucked up cover up) in Chicago. It's embarrassing and terrible that there have to be so many movies about these subjects (and then that so few people see them).