Facebook is Ruining my Blogging Mojo

Hi there. It's been a while, I know. See, ever since I signed up for Facebook, I spend all my internet time-wasting time playing FB Scrabble (and Scramble, and Pathwords...), checking status updates, leaving comments on stuff, and playing more Scrabble. And so my important internet time-wasting, i.e. Anderblog, is languishing.

Meanwhile, I've also been sitting around feeling sorry for myself because I'm sick AGAIN (C. difficile this time -- if you know what it is, pity me, and if you don't, don't look it up). But The Deuce is still well and growing and getting hiccups all the time, and I think I can actually make Soren's entire Halloween costume tomorrow while he's at school, and the invitation business is picking up a little bit (although I'm not sure whether that's a good thing or not, timing-wise), so things are mostly going well.

Okay, I know I have to make a costume tomorrow, but I will also commit to writing about our fun weekend with the Anderson clan (Great-Grandpa Anderson's 90th birthday party was held in Newport, so most of the family was in the neighborhood). I think I can sneak some blogging in while I wait for the hot glue to dry. I mean, it's not like everyone's sitting around with bated breath waiting for my next post, but I like to have a little blogging discipline! After all, it's probably going to be a big part of the launch of my writing career. Seems to work for other people.

Pumpkin Express

Those of you who've visited us in October have probably been dragged to Schartner Farms' Pumpkin Express event, at the Schartner Farms stand/nursery, which has appealed to us primarily through the opportunity to eat saugies (RI hot dogs) and fresh red potato curly fries where it's a little too cold and windy.  We have never actually taken the Pumpkin Express itself, a hay ride out around the farm to a "pumpkin patch" with entertainment.  However, this year, we thought Soren might enjoy the express, so last Saturday we planned to try it out.

When we suggested to Soren that we would go someplace where we could ride in a trailer behind a tractor, he stopped short, his little toddler horizons infinitely expanded by the possibility.  He turned to us and uttered a breathy, dreamy "Yeah!" indicating he wanted to go.

Soren was thrilled when we got to the farm, and we stood in line, and then a real tractor pulled up, with two hay trailers.  He sat in the middle with Kirsten and I, and played with the hay, a baby truck he'd brought, and looked at the farm as we rode around.

When we got to the pumpkin patch, Soren tried out the toddler version of the corn maze, and had a great time.

Kirsten found a pumpkin and speculated about how much bigger she was going to get.

And Soren sold me some ice cream from a "booth".

Note who's holding Kirsten's pumpkin, and buying Soren's straw flavored ice cream. Sucker.

Oh, and we had lunch of saugies and fresh red potato curly fries.  Yum.  Might need to go back this weekend.

Oktoberfest

Amid the excitement and sloth of the last few weeks, we've delayed telling you about the fine time we had at the Acton, MA Oktoberfest celebration with Adam, Christi, Margot, Brian and Edith. Really, it has everything you want in an Oktoberfest, except beer, oompah bands, lederhosen, and the chicken dance.

Well, then, what did it have? Soren won a traditional Bavarian lollipop...



...and insisted on the highest form of Schwarzwald-region pastry, a frosted cookie shaped like a school bus (that cost $3 due to German wage rates, but was good for 90 minutes, so not a bad value)...


...and we saw the traditional Rhine jaws of life demonstration (which we have managed to miss by less than 10 minutes in each of our previous visits)...


...and Margot showed us some of the card tricks that are popular among babies on the streets of Berlin.

Also, we had some bratwurst, which were really pretty good, and actually something you'd expect at an Oktoberfest.

The day reminded us that we'd just missed Fall last year, since Fall in Alaska is about 20 minutes long; we just love these harvest festivals, so we'll probably go to more this month.

Overdoing the Halloween Decorations

As Kirsten's previous posts mentioned, her mom worked hard to decorate our house for the upcoming fall holiday while she was here when Kirsten was bedresting.  She made a wreath for the door, arranged mums on the stoop, cutout paper ghosts for the light fixture in the dining room, strung black skull garland over the fireplace, and apparently put a very realistic bat in the basement. What do you think?

OK, so Kirsten's mom probably didn't have anything to do with it, but that's a live bat in our basement. Right in the stairwell, at eye level when you open the door from the dining room.

We discovered it last Sunday evening, as I was putting the tools away after moving around our over-the-air HD antenna. I don't have anything against bats, so I gave it a few days to leave. It was there every time we checked, and other than possibly bat-caused thumps against the basement door on Monday and Tuesday evenings, it showed little inclination to leave. So on Tuesday night, we decided to help it. We opened the french doors and the basement door, and sat in the dark for a few hours, hoping it would just fly out on its own. No movement.

Then, I decided to help it. I put on gloves and a jacket, and armed with a tennis racquet and window screen, I swatted the wall near it, hoping it would fly away. No movement. Then I nudged it with the tennis racquet. It moved alright, but dropped straight to the floor and didn't move. Uh-oh. I trapped it in a bucket, without touching it, and carried it outside, vowing to call the health department in the morning.

When I was connected to the infectious disease nurse and explained the situation, she wanted to test the bat right away. So I canceled my meetings and drove home to get the bat and drive it to its demise in the state lab. However, when I got home, the bat had escaped. Good for the bat, I thought, it is not sick after all. However, when I called the infectious disease nurse back to share the good news the bat must have been fine, she had a different interpretation.

Long story medium-length, I'm now receiving treatment for rabies exposure. (It is extremely unlikely I was exposed, but there is no treatment for rabies so symptoms=death, and I'm not really willing to bet my life (literally) I was not sneezed or drooled on by the bat.) This is a series of shots, five on the first day, and then four more over the next few weeks. It's fine, as years of allergy shots and blood donations have desensitized me to needles, but somewhat inconvenient. 

There's also this surreal quality to receiving this treatment...I'm being treated for what?  Sorta like living in Alaska: I live where?

The All-Pervading Election

Either we're watching more election coverage before 7 PM than I think we are, or they're teaching Soren current events at school. I was reading the paper the other day, and he pointed to a picture and said, "There's John McCain!" Wha? He also knows Barack Obama by sight. And I really don't know why. I mean, their names come up in conversation at home, and he's certainly heard them mentioned on TV, but I didn't know he was getting enough election info to be able to put the faces with the names. I wonder if he can also summarize their positions on health care and the war. I'll ask him.

Daughter's Helper

So, it doesn't look like I've told you lately just how great my mom is. Let's remedy that.

When I went into the hospital, I called Mom and let her know what was going on, and she immediately volunteered to come out and help us out at home. I figured I'd be able to go home and pretty much go back to my normal life, so I told her I thought we'd be OK. Then, when I found out I was going to have to be on bed rest -- a few hours before being discharged from the hospital -- I called Mom back and asked, "So.... want to come over?" Turns out her offer was still good, and we got her a ticket for the next night.

And then began the helping. Oh, the helping. I would have been satisfied if she had just made sure Soren didn't starve or scream all day, but Mom went above and beyond. She got him dressed! Entertained him! Took him for walks! Dealt with his new whiny phase! Didn't make fun of me for taking four-hour naps an hour after getting up in the morning! Superwoman stuff. PLUS she put up some cool fall/Halloween decorations around the house, cooked delicious dinners, had Chris's gin & tonics ready when he got home from work.... actually, you know, all that stuff primarily made me look bad, so maybe I'm not so thankful for that. Kidding!

And throughout it all, she was good company. We got to play lots of Scrabble, and she let me win 99% of the time, which was really nice of her. She smuggled me out to Starbucks on my third day of bed rest, which was good for my sanity (don't worry, I sat slumped in a comfy chair the whole time we were out, so it was just like bed rest, only in a Starbucks). She taught me how to crochet, and we sat around making circles of various sizes for a few days (hers turned into cool skater hats; mine turned into... misshapen circles). Sure, lying around all day wasn't a barrel of fun, but getting to hang out with Mom made it much more enjoyable.

Mom, you turned what could have been a really stressful week into a fun visit -- thanks so much. We all love you!

In Which I Jinx Soren's First Night in His New Bed...

...by saying that everything is going perfectly so far. Chris and I got Soren a toddler bed last week, and set it up today! Yes, our huge 2-year-old was still sleeping in a crib as of this afternoon, but he wasn't climbing out, so we were happy with its toddler-imprisoning capabilities. However, we were finally persuaded to get him into a big boy bed due to The Bouncing.

Ever since he was about a year old, when we read that toddlers will often bang their heads against things to soothe themselves and then congratulated ourselves for not having a weird kid like that, Soren has banged his head against things to soothe himself. More accurately, he sits on the couch and repeatedly bounces his head against the back cushions. In his crib, he doesn't bang his head against the railing (he has that much sense), but sits against the rails and bounces his back against them, producing a headache-inducing banging sound. And gradually working the crib's screws loose. Anyway, if he's having a restless night, the banging can go on for an hour at a time, in several sessions. When you're trying to sleep, or if you happen to be sitting in the room directly under his, it's really annoying, as soothing as it must be for our little weirdo.

In order to build positive toddler bed spin among our constituency, we took Soren to pick out some sheets the other night; you will be surprised to learn that he chose Cars sheets. He was really into it -- he carried the sheet set all through the store, out to the car, and into the house. He protested a little when it came time to dismantle the crib and put the new bed in, but once it was all done, he was pretty excited (not necessarily about sleeping, but definitely about carrying his new pillow around and jumping on it). Once bedtime rolled around, we tried to tuck him in (he declined, preferring to sleep on top of the blankets), said good night, and closed the door... and he stayed in bed. And, judging from the fact that it's been quiet up there for three hours, he is sleeping. In the bed. Yay!!!! No drama!!!! So far, anyway. We'll see what happens when he decides it's time to get up -- he's usually happy to sleep until a decent hour, but he hasn't, until now, been able to choose to get out of bed and play at 5 AM. We'll see!