I had already been strangely sad today which is not like me. I'm sure the main reason is because Sid is off to Spain and I haven't yet heard from him (though I know he's fine). Then I heard the news about Farrah Fawcett and now Michael Jackson. Sigh.
How about a little music?
Shot In The Back Of The Head from Moby on Vimeo.
(I can't put my finger on what exactly I like about this song. I think it has something to do with the froggy voice.)
Niki was mellow today. I took her to brunch with a friend of mine so she (Niki) could get advice on professional hair coloring. This is not my area since I dye my (increasingly) gray hair at home. One thing I really enjoy about my children is how respectful they are to other adults (not including their own parents). They listen carefully to advice, ask questions and thank the person for their insights -- Niki is better at this than Sid. The best part is when I get friends to ask them questions that they won't answer for me. They always answer my friends with a smile on their face--they don't even care that I'm there. Why won't they answer me? I found out today that as far as Niki knows, none of her classmates are sexually active. o_o
Anyway, after her visit with my friend to get hair coloring advice and assistance in making an appointment (and to arrange dog sitting services to pay for massively expensive procedure), Niki was quite pleasant. Pleasant enough to sit down with me this evening and have a long, realistic discussion about high school options. I don't want to jinx it but I think she's really happy about going to The Center School now. She's not 100% sure she'll stick with that decision (because a tiny part of her hasn't decided if she wants to give up being in a school orchestra and being part of a school with sports teams and Ingraham has both) but she at least sees a lot of positives in going there and none of them are based on who else is (or isn't) going there.
(She dropped the Nova idea after she found out a little more about it and realized it wasn't really her style plus it's moving to Meany -- no more "cute school factor". How did I miss that this was happening? I need to pay more attention.)
Mature reasoning. That's all I ask.
fyi, some high school wait list numbers, if you're curious:
Nova - none
The Center School - none (enrollment services told us 2)
Roosevelt - 223 (hey, Niki's 74th in line...)
Nathan Hale - 7
Ballard - 34 (enrollment services told us 42)
Garfield - 295
Ingraham - none
Meanwhile, Sid is off to Spain in less than 3 weeks. Tomorrow we are teaching him how to withdraw money from an ATM. Sending him off to a foreign country with minimum adult skills = scary.
As expected, The Dot didn't get into Roosevelt but she did get into The Center School. Yay! I think it's the best fit for her.
She is, of course, being very difficult about all this. She's 74th on the Roosevelt wait list (no idea how big the wait list is) and she's still holding out for a spot there. "Roosevelt is cool!"
She's having apprehensions about The Center School and is now completely rejecting the Ingraham option. Ballard was never her choice but ours and she still refuses to even consider it. She's now trying to convince us into looking at other schools:
Nathan Hale: "I should go there. It's cool. And it has cheerleading, unlike The Center School."
Nova: "My friend is going there and it's a cute building and I really, really, REALLY want to go there. I'm okay with a school that doesn't have cheerleading. And I checked the bus schedule and it's easy to get there from Ballard!" (I don't know what source she got that information from but when I checked Metro's website I found that the bus route requires a downtown transfer and the commute takes over an hour.)
It just goes on and on. She is constantly coming up with new strategies to "convince" us that none of her 3 options are options anymore and that she should go to a completely unknown school in an unknown location with a group of unknown, faceless kids who all smile and give each other warm fuzzies. It's beyond ridiculous. I can't even listen anymore -- it's driving me nuts. Are other kids this bad? My son is like a dream in comparison.
We're sticking with our plan. Go to The Center School and stay on the wait list for Roosevelt. End of story.
Or is it?
Last Sunday I ran my first real race. An 8K. I've run a 5K before with Zoe Niki and we took many walking breaks so I've never counted it as "my race".
Anyway, Sunday's race was Beat the Bridge and I love the concept. You have to "beat the bridge" before it goes up. The course actually has two bridges. The first one is near the starting point (Montlake Bridge) and the second bridge is at the 2 mile mark (University Bridge). If you don't make the University Bridge in time they open it and you have to wait it out (about 6 minutes I believe).
Here's the course map:
Since a few of us work at the University we had the idea to park there and walk over. It was a good plan. I got to make a pit stop in the hospital for a potty break and then we sped-walked to the starting point and were warmed up and ready to go just a bit before 8:30.
Did I mention that it was a beautiful day? Perfect running weather for that time of the morning. My shoulders got a little pink...
So, how'd I do? Well, I beat the bridge! I ran with 2 friends who are training for a half marathon. They'd just run 8 miles the day before. I'm sure they could have gone a lot faster but they stuck with me. I think I started off a little too fast because I got a side ache a little after the 1 mile mark and it never really went away. There was also a bit of a hill (really, it wasn't even a hill, just a slight incline) after the 2nd bridge and that kind of killed me. The funny thing is, once I got to the last 1/2 mile, when the end was in sight, I kind of wanted to just stop and sit down. Pathetic! Anyway, I did it and it was fun. My knees and hips survived!
I'm still not convinced that I'm a distance runner (like, I don't see myself now running 10Ks and further) but I'd like keep trying things I haven't done before. Either run faster or run further. For now I'd like to run faster so I'm going to try a little interval training to see how that works out for me. I might just hit a wall and if that happens then maybe I'll try the distance thing.
Oh, btw, the company in charge of the timing chips had a problem so I don't have a net time but I crossed the finish line at 48:33. I'm sure it took us 20 or more seconds to even get moving at the gun so my pace was a little faster than 9:46. Not bad. I started running last June after a 20 year break and that first run was pathetic. I love improving.
Poverty Party update!
I'm on schedule to pay off my credit card debt. I could possibly even get it paid off earlier than planned (due to car not getting fixed). Here's my dilemma. Last year I sent the boy to camp. It cost over $700. Now I feel like I have HAVE HAVE to send the daughter to camp so that she has a similar childhood experience. I think next year she'll be too old to go.
Scenario #1: Keep her home (she is already signed up for a week long art class at Gage). She grows up and she sees her therapist and complains about us not sending her to camp and we feel guilty.
Scenario #2: Keep her home. She grows up and thanks me for not making her go to camp and Sid sees his therapist and complains about us making him do stuff and letting his sister off the hook and we feel guilty.
Scenario #3: Keep her home and tell both kids to just keep their adulthood therapy to themselves.
Scenario #4: Send her to camp, pay off the debt a little later, and never have to wonder what-if.
What do you think?
The day got off to a bad start. I'd been sick the day before and wasn't sure if I was even up for a Mother's day event so everyone kind of waited to see how I felt when I woke up Sunday morning. Good news: I felt great this morning!
(I would have felt even better had I been able to sleep well but there is a beagle who lives up the road and when he gets excited once a year or so he howls-barks-barks-barks-howls-barks-barks-barks for about an hour straight and he happened to do that last night. I started counting his howls like sheep which worked for a while until he paused for a bit and started up again. Um, shouldn't his owner be shot?)
I felt so great in fact, that I had enough energy to clean up the kitchen (which had been left just as it was the night before after I made dinner). I found myself doing dishes at 8:30am, wondering how this Mother's day would end up -- would there be a surprise-kid-lovefest or a passive-aggressive-mom-whinefest? Would the kids get up at all? Would I even care? I decided to not have many expectations. I had hinted about many things in the days before Mother's day to help all involved and my final hint was my favorite -- NEW SHOES -- so that's what I was sticking with.
The boy is a sucker for holidays. But he's lazy. So I went in after I did dishes and asked him to look up breakfast burritos on Google and then come on in and make me some.
Sure enough, he showed up in the kitchen soon after with his iPhone and his questions.
Sid: "Do we have 8 eggs?"
Mom: "I'm not sure. Maybe just 6."
Sid: "Do we have onions, green peppers and tomatoes? Do we have sausages?"
Mom: "No sausages. Let's do vegetarian. And let's just do salsa."
Sid: "Do we have feta?"
Mom: "No. But we have jack cheese. Okay, you know what? Just use whatever eggs you have, salsa, cheese and tortillas."
Sid (unconvinced): "Okay."
Robert volunteered to help so the boys went to work and Zoe Niki finally entered the kitchen to help. I sat back in the living room (happily sipping coffee) waiting for the meal. It was probably the first time in a year that I've done that. Besides the occasional sandwich, no one else makes food for me. Let me tell you, having someone else in charge of the food prep is like getting a massage, a facial and having an iPhone app to do my laundry all combined into one.
The food arrived and it was delicious. REALLY DELICIOUS! I don't know if it was because someone else made it or if I was just famished. Incredible.
I liked watching Robert ask what pans could go in the dishwasher and which ones needed to be hand-washed. And I liked when I needed to remind him to dry the pan before he put it in the cupboard.
(I feel a bit guilty about teasing Robert. I'm not his mom and he shouldn't have to help, but it's fun watching him in the kitchen. Just like I'm sure he chuckles when I try to help him with power tools.)
After waiting for Zoe Niki to make the proper "leaving the house preparations" which took many, many minutes and some hours we went to Super Jock 'N Jill to test out some running shoes. They watched me run and decided that I'm a moderate over pronator so I tried on several pairs and gave them test runs. I ended up with something similar to my current running shoe but with more support and a bit narrower and with more toe room. I'll test them out tomorrow. The store has a great return policy. I'm not sure if they'll take back a pair of shoes because I think they look a little too patriotic but we might just find out...
After the boring shoe shopping (which Sid and Zoe Niki tolerated very patiently) we went to see Star Trek which, I think, was our first movie together this year. I've never seen a Star Trek episode or movie and I loved it. Even without knowing much about Star Trek besides the names of the main characters of the original tv show it was enough to entertain and there were many chuckles and it was overall a good story.
We ended the festivities with a lunch out at Boom Noodle. Yum. Thank you Sid and Zoe Niki. It's been a privilege being your mom.
The Seattle school district delayed their enrollment deadlines this year so we are still waiting to find out where Zoe will be going to high school. I think we won't find out until late this month. Whatever the outcome, it'll be controversial.
We live around the corner from a great high school (Ballard) and it's the school that Sid goes to. I've really liked all the teachers I've met and the parent involvement is incredible. Naturally, we expected Zoe to go there as well but Zoe likes to make things difficult. She absolutely does not want to end up in Ballard. Her reasons are as follows:
1) Her brother goes there and she hates being compared to him by teachers
2) She wants to radically change her hairstyle and recreate herself over the summer
3) She's tired of the friendships she's made in middle school and doesn't know how to break out of them and get into knew ones.
I can totally understand #1. I can kind of understand #3 because she's a bit of a follower and has a hard time with friendships in general. #2 is ridiculous (sure, I'll let her color her hair but do the kids that know her really care that much).
We took her on many high school tours in January and February. So what did she pick?
1) Roosevelt
2) The Center School
3) Ingraham
4) Ballard
She really wants to go to Roosevelt. I'm a little worried that it's a big school full of strangers and she's a little girl who is afraid of strangers but she was adamant about it being first on her list. She wanted Ingraham as her second choice but Robert put is foot down. He was not going to let her go there based on the location. I checked the bus schedules and it's not that horrible of a ride. Just 5 minutes longer than a Roosevelt ride. I did the tour with her there and the school has some charm despite it's location and depressing architecture (I know, a silly thing to judge a school by). Of all the high school tours I went on, Ingraham had the most friendly student body and they really seemed close to each other. I think it would be a good match for Zoe. Yet, Robert insisted that she come up with another 2nd choice (really, his main problem with Ingraham was HIS commute if he had to pick her up or take her there and his fear of her occasionally waiting for the bus on a not so friendly Aurora Avenue). The Center School got put in as #2 at the last moment as a compromise (hey, bus stops downtown aren't any friendlier). This is another school I think Zoe will do exceptionally well at.
I personally prefer #2 or #3. I think she'll be a bit sad if she doesn't get into Roosevelt. If she does get into Roosevelt, I really, really hope that she takes it all in and actively participates in all it has to offer. Part of me wonders if she'll change her mind after a quarter and beg to go to Ballard. I'd let her.
BTW, I can't believe she'll still be 13 when she starts high school. Scary.
(note, I edited this after I posted. I originally wrote that we were crossing out fingers for #1 or #2...that would be Robert is crossing his fingers for either of those. I can't write. I'm out of practice and my nose is runny.)
Let me introduce you to Suki, aka Our Car:
We got Suki when I was pregnant with Zoe. We'd been doing the whole urban-hippie-with-a kid-and-no-car thing but reality hit when kid #2 came. We needed to be grown ups and we needed a car. Suki is a 1992 Suzuki Sidekick. We got her in 1995 and she had maybe 40,000 miles on her. We drove her back and forth from Seattle to Utah probably a dozen times and she was a good little car.
Suki has a few good stories:
The kids had a toy car that looked like Suki and they always called it "our car".
I parked "our car" in front of the daycare one day and when I came out a school bus had ripped her bumper off and the heavily tattooed busdriver proceded to rip me a knew one because I'd parked too close to the end of the street.Just before heading out on vacation, as we were packing up the car, little Zoe excitedly pointed at the car and said, "Look! Look! I wrote my name on the car!" And she had. With a sharp rock.
But, like most old cars, Suki started needing more and more maintenance. After we'd driven the Utah desert one too many times in August without air conditioning we decided it was time for a new car so in 2003 we bought a Nissan Xterra. The Xterra would serve several important needs: home improvement hauling, road-trip taking, camping gear holding and long legged kid carrying (funny how those are only required about 10% of the time but that's a whole other blog entry about my silly husband and his love for big tires). Poor Suki sat there, parked for the most part, only to be used when her mommy (me) had a girl's night out.
Suki had a few problems (wiper fluid pump quit working and the radio broke) but I still loved her. She was easy to park, fun to shift and she was perky. Last year we put in a fancy new stereo (cd player and ipod port, even!), got her new tires, and she passed her emissions test with flying colors.
Then, last fall, she got gassy. And she puttered. And she died. (But she happily restarted, again and again, only to die when we stopped her, poor thing.)
We (unwisely?) took her to the place where we get tires and lube jobs and they diagnosed her problem. She needed a new air flow sensor and her model's sensor cost $900 and since we were not in the mood to pay that we parked her. All winter she sat, through snow storms and rain. She gathered moss and held our parking spot in front of the house.
Spring came and with that came a little extra cash (and my need to start driving again -- windows down, sunglasses on, hair blowing). Robert drove Suki, sputtering and killing, to the shop and they put in her new part. And new spark plugs, too. I drove her home. I petted her dash and I believe she purred at me. I was so glad to have her back.
Sadly, a few days later I drove her again and she puttered. She killed. She farted, oh so stinkily. Suki was still sick.
Back she went to the shop. They put in a new computer. They did other stuff. Finally, they threw up their hands and offered to tow her to a Suzuki dealer up in Everett. We told them we'd ease their pain and just take her back. They happily agreed, reimbursed what we paid them ($1300!) and now we need to decide if this is it for the poor little girl.
I'm a little torn. I like having a car that feels sort of like it's mine. I don't like the Xterra. It's pretty and fun to drive but it chugs gas and I need a booster seat to park or reverse it. I think we need a small car to commute to work (or suck it up and take the bus). I don't want to make car payments. Suki has new tires. And a new stereo. What to do? What to do?
I kind of want a Vespa like the good old days.
Not sure why but I can't get the last lasagna I made out of my head. Perhaps I liked it so much because it was veggie so it felt slightly healthier (as healthy as a lasagna full of cheese can be) or perhaps it was the pasta sauce I used. Or perhaps I was just really hungry. I'd like to share, if only to put it where I can find it again before I forget how I made it.
12 no-bake lasagna noodles (I used Barilla oven ready lasagne noodles)
chopped spinach (2 cups fresh or 1 bag frozen)
1-2 cups mushrooms (sliced)
1 cup chopped onion
2 cloves garlic (minced)
1 jar pasta sauce (I used Newman's Sockarooni)
2-3 cups grated mozzarella cheese
1 egg
chopped fresh Italian parsley
1 1/2 - 2 cups cottage cheese
parmesano reggiono (enough to sprinkle on top)
Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
Make the veggie filling by sauteing the onion and garlic, then add the mushrooms and finally the spinach (if you use frozen, thaw first and squeeze out the extra liquid). Season w/ salt and pepper to taste.
Beat the egg and stir in cottage cheese, parsley and a little salt & pepper.
Layering:
Spread 1/4th a cup of pasta sauce in the bottom of a 9x13 dish
Add a layer of lasagna noodles (I fit 4 to a layer in my pan)
Spread 1/3rd of the cottage cheese mixture
Sprinkle on 1/3rd of the mozzarella cheese
Spread 1 cup of the pasta sauce on the cheese
Start over with a layer of noodles and continue the process until you have 3 layers. Add a final layer of noodles, completely cover with them w/ the remaining pasta sauce and sprinkle parmesano reggionao over the top.
Cover tightly with foil and cook for 50-60 minutes (make sure the noodles are soft). Uncover and cook another 15 minutes until the cheese starts to brown.
Notes:
Adjust these quantities as necessary; I just used what I had. If I remember correctly I had a little too much cheese and sauce. I saved the extra cheese for later but used all the sauce because I figured the noodles could use the extra liquid.
Here are a few handy shortcuts I used (I was really busy the day I made it!):
I used my Cuisinart food processor to grate the parmesan. It took maybe 20 seconds.
I used my mini Cuisinart food prep to chop the onions and the parsley.
I used frozen spinach (but next time I'm going to use fresh!)
I used pre-sliced mushrooms. So easy!
If only I'd taken a photo...
