DON'T WAKE UP D!

A fellow adoption Mommy who just went to ET to pick up her twins (!) took some more pictures for us.

She warned us that D was woken up for these pictures as will become plain when you look at them! Check out this progression, D is on the right, as Laurie tries to draw her out:









The cutie patootie on the left is J, she is being adopted by a family in Colorado.

The look on D's face in the third shot cracks us up! This is the same face A used to make when he was fussing at us. He would screw up his little face and stick out his lower lip. And did A hate to be woken up!!! Still does. My brother Thing 1 loves to tell a story about picking up A from preschool once. When he got there all the kids were playing in this big room where against one wall there was a lump on the floor with a sign above it on the wall that read:

"DON'T WAKE UP A!"

We'll consider ourselves warned!


















Lauren

An Update on Fitsum

A is sponsoring a boy in Ethiopia so that he may go to school. In Ethiopia going to school costs $25/month.

Today A got this brief note:

Fitsum is in Grade 4 and doing well. He wishes to thank his "American brother" for this wonderful gift.

And these pictures, the posed one with the book made me smile:





Beautiful boy! We will put together a package for him when we go to get D.

Lauren

Some deets--

They estimate D's birth day to be 6/27/09. She is almost 6 mos old!

She was 10.8 lbs on 12/7 and 24.5 inches long. Not bad considering she probably was not getting fortified formula, or formula at all. She'll start growing like mad now though! Parents caravan formula over there when traveling. L took 8 cans for me to put in the kitty.

Her hair is probably short because they shaved her head to control/prevent lice.

She is from Djimmah (Jimma), a city south west of the capital Addis Ababa. It is in this region where coffee was discovered and Jimma is a trade center for coffee. See the map on my "coffee" post below. We will try to travel to Jimma when we go to get D, although she is now in Addis.

J and I keep going back and forth on names. When we had A we were RELIEVED he was a boy for the singular reason that we could NOT agree on a girl's name. So we'll have to get back to you on that---because Bronwen is RIGHT OUT!

Lauren

Signed sealed and delivered!

We have sent in our signed CPR for D. Now the ET representative of our agency will ask the courts in ET for the next available date for the adoption hearing. These are typically scheduled two months from right now. So February for court! If so, then maybe March for holding our baby girl and smelling her neck and kissing her cheeks.

On our side of the pond we have almost finished the bathroom for our little one. It is all up to me now, J has finished the plaster work and the rewiring: Girls need lots of outlets in their bathrooms Daddy! And a vanity lite and a cool jazzy chandelier. Geesh! I need to paint and then we can put up the decals and style the room (code for buy all the cool decorative items).

The nursery is coming along too. J has started plastering--a new feat!--the walls to rid the room of the dangerously sharp stucco. Not kidding, when we first moved in A skinned a set of knuckles on the walls. Then we paint the walls. Some of the furniture, besides the crib and changing table, I want to put in there needs to be painted, so that'll be me too. IKEA will be supplying the cool window treatments for the 10 foot slider/sidelight combo in the room. Then Daddy will build out the closet to support the clothes habit mommy has, er, clothes baby girl will require.

Enough to keep us busy during the wait!

Lauren

An update from a traveling new Mommy--

Lauren,

D  is a beautiful little girl! I quizzed the manager on her and her name does not mean greyish-brown baseness and worldliness :-) In her case the name is an Oromo word that she claims she gave her because she felt blessed and lucky to receive her and knew that the child was blessed and lucky to arrive. D is Oromo for "Blessed" or "Lucky." :-)

I held her and checked her out and she appeared to be very healthy to me. She is small, but not in an unhealthy way. I think she's just playing catch-up. I did not have a measuring tape with me, so no measurements, but she's wearing 3-6 month clothes, smiles readily, and there is no yellowing or paleness in her eyes or gums. I think she's a good one! I got pictures of her with the manager and J. She would not let me hold her once the camera came out :-) Oh, the manager and nannies were thrilled by your family book! The manager opened it immediately and called the nannies in for a look! Good move making it chewable ;-) I used a hug and kiss from you as a covert way of checking breath sounds. No problems there.

The orphanage was clean, tidy, lots of laundry hanging out, and all the nannies were friendly as can be. It's in one of the more impoverished sections of town and, being new, needs a lot still. She requested that I put the word out that they need practical items and food for kids aged 0-7. She was very intent about that. She also requested a camera. Still, I got the strong feeling that this woman would go without food herself before allowing the kids to do so. I was impressed.

L

Our baby girl!

Isn't she the cutest!!

This is another new Mom holding D.

Such lips! Such eyes!!! We can't wait to get our bundle of baby girl home!

Lauren

We have a referral!

She is a 5 mo old girl, named D (for now). We got news of her before Thanksgiving but waited for her medical report before saying anything. It has been hard!

She is healthy, tall, but a little underweight for her age. A little anemic, but that is easily mended. They say she is happy and social! She's a cutie. We are over the moon! I'll post a picture later.

Next step--our International Adoption Pediatrician will review her medical file and render an opinion. If positive, and I expect it will be, we will officially accept the referral and await a court date in Ethiopia where the adoption is granted. It will probably take 2 mos for that. Then we will travel to get our daughter 4-6wks after that! So March?

Lauren

Introducing the newest member of our family!

Misty:
The Mistral Vacuum by Miele. Purchased for less over the border. (Canada!)

• 1200 watts of sucking power. Variable down to 200.
• Swivels. She can glide around the house like Ginger Rogers.
• Telescopic wand at the ready.
• Can lie flat on the floor to get under furniture.
• Does not clog with pet hair.

I am in love! We will be setting a place for her at the table and she will have her own room, no dark closet for Misty!

Merry Christmas to me! Merry Christmas to me!

Hey, waitaminute, I'm getting a vacuum for Xmas???

Lauren

Blanket time!

I bought some yarn to crochet Baby Girl a blanket. I got a great chenille, I love chenille! In bold colors--but you already figured that right?

Lion Suede yarn:



plus a gold I can't find a pic for.

Here is the pattern:

Cute huh?

I have two ten hour rides to Canada ahead of me this weekend and hope to get a lot done!

Lauren

Thanksgiving!

Our mostest favoritest holiday of the year!

This year I will be heading to Canada where John's sister and her family will meet up with us at John's mother's house in Stratford. The kids really enjoy seeing each other, I cook the meal, and the dogs get to go to the best dog park ever. They have sooo much fun at the park it makes us feel great.

Our dogs are very social, all labs are really, they have one mood, happy. My pooches love it when dogs come to visit. They don't feel territorial or threatened at all. Ranger has so much fun being a host, you can just see it in him, and Skyler attaches easily to a new best buddy.

This weekend our friends brought over their new dog, Bella. Bella lives up to her name, a sweet beautiful little chow.


Bella had to contend with a great deal of sniffing but she held her own with the big rumpusing boys. As Ranger said afterward in his blase matter-of-fact way, "Yup, she digs me. All chicks do."

There was a corgi up in Maine that adored Ranger and he would come by our place looking for him, and just follow him around. But it all stopped at the dock when Ranger would go in swimming and the corgi couldn't swim. Then one day Ranger left the property, as usual--he "ranges", and John headed to the boat launch looking for him. As he neared it he could see all these Mainers laughing their heads off and pointing out in the lake. John asked what was going on? "Darndest thing", a man replied, "there's a yellow lab teaching a corgi how to swim!" And he was. Darned little corgi was tipping port and starboard but he was determined to learn; with Ranger swimming around him.

If any of our visitors to Maine have dogs that are ok with cats, we tell them to bring them, the dogs all have a blast up at the lake.

And when dogs are having a blast, as when kids are having a blast, it makes me really happy.

Lauren

So, what did we accomplish this weekend??

Leaves, gone for now.
Thanks A!

Bathroom wall completely repaired. Electrical work started for lights and outlets. Re-plastering experiments come to a conclusion! Thanks J!






More art and lighting goes up.








Another trip to IKEA--
to purchase cubby units
for the mudroom and other
organizational tools!








Window panels in bathroom and
dressing room. Finally!

Lauren

sssshhhh my number one household secret

My number one tool, the weapon with the most utility in my arsenal is this:
They have many different formulations so I use Scotchguard to treat just about everything.

Area rugs, couch cushions, dining chair cushions, throw pillows.

Placemats--sheer brilliance. Spills just roll off, don't need to do much more than dab them up, or worse case, sponge them off.

Table cloths, same deal.

Fabric purses, diaper bags, car seats (if fabric), you get the idea.

It can be laundered but then you may need to spray on another coat. But things do not get stained, how great is that! Pass the red wine!

There was a scare in our home awhile back,  that 3M was cancelling the product line. Some hubbub about the chemicals. Bah! Turned out to be a false alarm. Good news for you messy beet eaters out there!

Lauren

Coffee, Ethiopian style

Coffee is Ethiopia's largest export and generates 60% of its export revenue. It is thought that Ethiopia is the birthplace of coffee and not South America:

The story of coffee has its beginnings in Ethiopia, the original home of the coffee plant, coffee arabica, which still grows wild in the forest of the highlands. The indigenous coffee trees (which some experts say, are the only native coffee trees in the world) first grew in ancient "Abyssinia," which is now present day Ethiopia. These trees blossomed in an area called "Kaffa" and the trees were called "Kafa," which may as well be the root word for coffee. Its cultivation and use began as early as the 9th century. The only thing that seems certain is that it originated in Ethiopia, from where it traveled to the Yemen about 600 years ago, and from Arabia it began its journey around the world.

There are two varieties of coffee in the world: Arabica :-) and Robusta :-( . Arabica is considered the superior variety for flavor, but Robusta is gaining market share due to better yields and hardiness (read: cheaper). Arabica is fine enough to drink on its own; Robusta you will find in a blended coffee. If you find Robusta beans in a blend do me a personal favor and throw it right out. Right out.

Back to the regularly scheduled history/world economy lesson.

Ethiopia is Africa's largest exporter of Arabica beans. Coffee is grown on small farms completely "by hand", from planting to harvesting and is a major source of jobs in Ethiopia.

Some 12 million people are dependent on Ethiopia’s coffee industry, managed by the Ethiopian Coffee Export Enterprise – ECEE – formerly the Ethiopian Coffee Marketing Corporation. An independent, profit-making organization, ECEE trades on the open market and controls about 50 per cent of the market following liberalization.

The three main regions where Ethiopia coffee beans are cultivated are Harrar, Ghimbi, and Sidamo (Yirgacheffe).

Ethiopian Harrar coffee beans are grown on small farms in the eastern part of the country. They are dry-processed and are labeled as longberry (large), shortberry (smaller), or Mocha (peaberry). Ethiopian Harrar coffee can have a strong dry edge, winy to fruit like acidity, rich aroma, and a heavy body. In the best Harrar coffees, one can observe an intense aroma of blueberries or blackberries. Ethiopian Harrar coffee is often used in espresso blends to capture the fine aromatics in the crema.

Washed coffees of Ethiopia include Ghimbi and Yirgacheffe. Ghimbi coffee beans are grown in the western parts of the country and are more balanced, heavier, and has a longer lasting body than the Harrars.

The Ethiopian Yirgacheffee coffee bean, is the most favored coffee grown in southern Ethiopia. It is more mild, fruitlike, and aromatic. Ethiopian Yirgacheffee coffee may also be labeled as Sidamo, which is the district where it is produced.

As if this weren't already music to my ears, I bring to you the Ethiopian "coffee ritual". Part hospitality, part cultural, part darn fine refreshment:

No visit to Ethiopia, is complete without participating in the elaborate coffee ceremony that is Ethiopia's traditional form of hospitality. Invariably conducted by a beautiful young girl in traditional Ethiopian costume, the ceremonial apparatus is arranged upon a bed of long grasses. The green coffee beans are roasted in a pan over a charcoal brazier, the rich aroma of coffee mingling with the heady smell of incense that is always burned during the ceremony. The beans are then pounded with a pestle and mortar, and the ground coffee then brewed in a black pot with a narrow spout. Traditional accompaniments are popcorn, also roasted on the fire, and the coffee is sugared to be drunk from small handless cups.

I cannot wait! Pass the popcorn!

Giving coffee as a gift this season?

Consider this variety at your corner Starbucks--

Lauren

We are...

Approved.
Nice ring to it.

The US government feels that we can parent an internationally adopted child. We have our I71H.

Next step: Referral!

Lauren

Mama? Dada?

I miss those words.

I remember when A stopped calling us "Mama" and "Dada". He went straight to Mom and Dad. Did not stop at Mommy or Daddy. I tried to get him to keep calling me Mama but it was a no-go. Sad day.

I call my mother "Ma", have for as long as I can remember, and she called her mother Ma too. John ribs me constantly about this. Impersonations sound something like a bleating goat.

J calls his mother "Mum" in the British style. Faaaaannnnncy! I just can't, I call her "Mom" and J calls my mother Mom too, not Ma.

I can't wait for our new little one to start calling out to us.

Mama?

Dada?

We're right here baby.
Lauren

Etsy, baby!

I got this terrific stroller blanket made for my new baby niece O!

It came out really nice-- soft fleece on one side with the name, great fabric on the other. Check out the shop, she does nice work--

http://www.etsy.com/shop/elisehooperdesigns

I also purchased adorable hats from another shop as new baby gifts--



Made to order in what ever size you need--

http://www.etsy.com/shop/baparsell

For our baby girl I got this stroller blanket/quilt--

Here's the shop!

http://www.etsy.com/shop/everystitch

Gotta love Etsy!

Lauren

When is a field mouse cute?

This field mouse is cute:


This one is really cute too:

Poor little guy! Brrrr!


This one is decidedly less cute:

Folks! Don't worry, that is not a picture from my home. I don't have the time to make homemade potpies! Am I going too fast for you? Stay with the group!

Besides we have cats! Indeed, whenever we haven't seen them in a good while, they usually turn up in the dining room with a squeaky plaything, a real live squeaky plaything! Sure! It's fun! Then A has to catch the mouse, usually in a piece of, now disposable, Tupperware, and let the poor mouse go across the street.

Ok, let me back this up a bit. My husband's philosophy regarding mice is simple:

If there are no holes in your house, you will not have a mouse problem.

And to his credit, our other two houses have no such holes, or if they did, this fixed the problem:


That's it! Stuff steel wool into the hole and then spray in the hole with expanding polyurethane foam. Easy!

But the problem gets harder when the hole is hard to get to. This is why the new house has a mouse problem. Turns out the hole/mouse port in question is under the front stairs and porch outside. A real tight squeeeeeeze.

First, J thought A would fit through, after all he is smaller, at least this month. But no, too tight for A. The next thing I know I look out the front door and I see this--

My husband, decked out in a head-to-toe tyvek chemical suit, a rope tied to him, his trusty can of foam, and A. I am not sure why A was there except maybe to take the last will and testament? Call 911? Pass him crackers and water when he gets stuck under the porch? I wish I had the presence of mind to take a picture. The last time when J was up a 40 foot ladder with a chain saw to cut off a branch, 4 YO A had the phone (to dial 911) and I had the camera. Then there was the 25 foot high fan install with the 12 foot ladder....but, I digress. We forgot this time, I think the novelty is wearing off or something. (And I have NO idea what the rope was for.)

I can say this, we haven't had a mouse plaything in 36 hours.

And J made it out in time to take me to IKEA!!

Lauren

I messed up!

There goes my streak!

Here's why: we are flat out working on the house. Finally got all of the wallpaper off in Baby Girl's bathroom, J is repairing the crack in the wall and re-plastering the outer interior wall which was damaged. It should be good for paint next weekend!

He is also planning out a plastering experiment to cover the rough stucco in Baby Girl's room. He'll figure something out. I am getting the closets cleaned out and the final touches on the family room.

Lauren

Work is hell!

But there is nothing like it.

Come with me for another trip down the rosy path of my childhood.

Growing up we had plenty. At the same time, as kids if we wanted anything "extra" we were encouraged to get jobs during the school year and/or the summer, earn money, and pay for things ourselves. To this day, ask either of my accomplished brothers what part of their childhood most influenced who they are today and I think they will, like me, say it was those crappy jobs we had. There was a method to the madness, my parents wanted us to be self-reliant, understand the value of money, and learn personal responsibility and accountability. Like it or not, working for the man does that. Plus it is freeing to have your own money, and to do what you want with it, to a certain extent--we were also expected to save for college.

So what kind of jobs? Thing 2 laid asphalt. And was briefly a hotel dishwasher--the dishes NEVER STOPPED. Thing 1 was the neighborhood lawn mower/newspaper boy/handyman(boy). I was the world's worst cashier, very briefly. I scooped ice cream, and still have the wrist pain to show for it. Worked at the clothing store The Limited and spent my check utilizing my 30% discount. But my all time worst summer job was the one I had at a tuxedo rental store. I did "break-down". On Monday mornings there would be a gigantic pile of those plastic garment bags from rentals over the weekend. People rent a tux, the shirt, the shoes and when they are done they throw the whole pile into the bag and zip it up. Now, it was summer and I have no idea where these bags came from but they were HOT. And they had been stewing. Pull down the zipper and confront the reality of man. Man stinks. And often drinks too much and vomits. Sometimes man leaves a few bucks in the pockets though (thanks for the $200, Mr. 52 long!). After taking everything out and sorting it all my next job was scrubbing the necks of the shirts and laundering them. My brother Thing 1, I got him a job there too, got to polish the vinyl shoes, with Pledge. Yup, my brother started out as a shoeshine boy. Eventually I got "promoted" to being able to take measurements. I got to take inseam measurements of hot men. I mean hot. Literally. Like, as in, sweaty.

But I learned two things, the value of an education, and what everyone of those sweaty dollars meant to me. I liked money, the freedom, the rewards. But I also learned that I had to work hard to get it.

So here is the reason for my post. Recently, there was an economist who won the Nobel Prize--the Bangladeshi economist Muhammad Yunus and his Grameen Bank: "for pioneering a new category of banking known as micro-credit, which grants small loans to poor people who have no collateral and who do not qualify for conventional bank loans."

I found the whole idea of micro-lending to be fascinating. It really is "seed" money that you pay to an enterprising individual to get them going. To elevate them. To give them a means to work, earn, provide. And repayment rates are very high. It has been found to really create lasting solutions to poverty.

There is an organization, Kiva, that helps people like you and me make these loans. It creates "syndicates" of investors, with each often lending as little as $25 to a person and their business venture. You scroll through by country, person, or business type and find people you want to invest in. Click a button, pay on Paypal, and voila! Once the total needed has been raised by aggregating several people like you and me (usually less that $1,000), someone in Costa Rica, El Salvador, or Nigeria has the $ they need to create a corn grinding mill, make sarongs to sell, start a grocery store, cattle ranch or a construction business. Repayment starts within a very short time, a month after the person gets the money, is paid back in less than a year, and is paid monthly. As soon as your account has $25 repaid in it you can cash out or re-invest in someone else. 100% of your investment goes to the entrepreneur. You can choose separately to support Kiva itself. They don't ask for much, a few bucks.

Let me tell you, it feels terrific. It is wonderful to know that, rather than give money to salve the result of a problem, you are providing a foundation to actually solve a problem. Hard work for these people will hopefully pay them dividends. I have $100 in play right now with four investees. I have been paid back in a regular and timely way.

Andrés Madrigal Fallas is 19 years old, single and lives with his mother and 5 siblings. His family has a farm and then grow coffee and maintain a pasture. The whole family works on the farm and his mother has a grocery story. Now they are not using the pasture, so he wants a loan to grow and improve the land. The cows are for meat and he wants to continue to buy and sell cows to support his siblings and his 9 nieces and nephews. This is his first loan with FUDECOSUR, but his mother has had another loan from the same institution for her grocery store. Andrés' sister is the secretary of the commission and appears in the photo.



Amanda Yanira Monteroso Rojas lives in Tacuba in the district of Ahuachapán. She is 24 years old and lives with her husband Carlos, who is 20 years old and works as a farmer. This young couples' dream is to strengthen the income of their business. Currently, she provides milling services for her customers. She works in an area where many people have tortillerías and/or pupuserías, so they need someone to mill their grains. Amanda works every day and has three years of experience. Now, Amanda is asking for this loan so she can invest in her business so that she will be able to establish it better and obtain the higher profits that will be of great use both for them and their baby who is on its way.

Take a look at the site and consider letting $25 bucks ride on creating a bright future for a person or family. Put people that want to work to better themselves, to work. Or give the gift of investing for Christmas!

http://www.kiva.org/

Lauren

Keeping it simple today

Family is not limited to DNA, it’s only limited by love.

I found this sentiment on another adoption blog and it really resonates with me. For a person that has spent almost every minute of her career working on DNA and genomics it is somehow reassuring to me to acknowledge that while to a large degree DNA makes us what we are it does not make us who we are. And the same goes for families.

Lauren

Laugh-In, Laugh-Ing

My husband J has a quick wit. He makes me laugh and I place a real premium on that. Indeed, we laugh a lot in our home, A also knows his way around a bon mot, clever impersonation, and can use irony properly in a joke. He is one really funny kid.

I do a personification of our dog Ranger--he has a voice, a personality, and he is extraordinarily funny, a real wise guy. Everyone goes back and forth in dialog with "Ranger". Once A asked me how I know what Ranger wants to say. I replied that is, in fact, the real talent. And it is!

There are several ongoing shticks that we all do. It really never gets old.

Growing up my entire family constantly cracked wise. Very funny! It kept you on your toes though, no one really minded being the butt of the joke but every one minded if their joke fell flat. We are a competitive bunch. To this day there are stories that we make each other re-tell and re-tell and we laugh just as hard the billionth time. My Dad was hilarious. He could take a joke too, not many dads can do that.

Back to my beloved. J made me howl recently and apparently has been sharing the joke with everyone at work, much to everyone's delight and my chagrin.

Time to confess: I have been buying clothes for Baby Girl. And like just about everything I do, I have been...obsessed. I am buying big sizes, not close to the age we suspect she will be. This is rationalized in my mind as follows: So I don't cut it too close and miss the mark. But of course the real issue is why am I buying outfits for the next three years? I won't answer that, sorry. That I'll save for therapy.

Confession number two: You may have been able to determine from previous posts that I am really feeling the 60s. And the 70s. The "mod" decades. Bright throw-back colors and patterns for the nursery, danish modern high chair, zany graphic diaper bag. So the outfits, well, they fit the theme of the day.

One night J sees a mound of clothes on the dining room table.

He charges into the room where I am and I start to cringe because I figure, the jig is up and I have some 'splainin to do. He asks--

"Why are you dressing our daughter like Jo Anne Worley?"

I do a spit take and start gasping for air I am laughing so hard.

Cripes. The man is right. Sometimes the man is right.





And yes, that is fun fur.

Lauren

P.S. I also have a huge jumper problem. I love little A-line jumpers.

High pass filters

So when I think about gating I have to think about what, exactly, I want to filter.

Well, sometimes I want to keep the dogs from the cats, or more precisely the cats' food.

Sometimes I want to keep Skyler away from the cat litter box. This is an unfortunate failing of his, he loves cat leavings. It is like a smorgasbord for him. Or all-you-can-eat buffet. Yeah, I know. Hence the gate.

With the baby I want to keep her off the stairs, and sure, why not, out of the cat litter box too.

But do I want to gate the dogs from the stairs? The cats?

This is the gate we use currently to filter out the dogs from the area where the cat food is:It is metal, looks pretty good, is easy to use but childproof, fits a wide opening and the cats have a pass through that is not big enough for a mobile human.

In our house the litter boxes are downstairs so the cats must be able to pass easily, we all remember what it was like when Ole Pepe didn't care for using his box anymore.

Lauren

Some updates

Hoping for a referral any week now. However, our I71H will take a couple more weeks. I wrote to the Boston USCIS office and they actually replied! It should be in hand before we need to accept a referral.

We got a LOT done around the house this weekend. The family room is almost finished and Aidan's room finally has some shelves and some order to it! Art and new light fixtures are making their way up.

We head to Canada for Thanksgiving this year and we are hustling to get the house ready for baby girl before we go. I say that meaning two things--that her rooms are ready but also that we don't have any lingering DIY stuff hanging over our heads. We learned the last time that once babies come home the ability to do lots of jobs around the house dramatically approaches zero.

Lauren

Introducing the mandate

So as I have mentioned, J got his motorcycle. It is actually pretty cool if you set aside the fact that it actually is a motorcycle and he will risk life and limb on it.

It's a Triumph Scrambler. It has a cool old-style vibe to it. Here's J with his new toy--

After this pic he left for a ride. J works with some great and wickedly intelligent people. One of them, J2, seems to have all of the same interests as J: scuba, great craft beer, chemistry, scotch, motorcycles. J2 got himself a Ducati. Seems that now that they have bikes, then can go on mandates! Or man-dates! Today they headed up to R's, another guy from work with some of the same interests, who hasn't bought a bike...yet.

Ah, Man crushes! Bromances!

He's having fun. And now he gets to buy lots of gear and we aren't talking strollers and high chairs here!

Lauren

Gear is fun!

Loving this wacky Swedish high chair by Svan right now--

It is designed really well. It adjusts from every age right up to adulthood! And it can be placed right at the table without the tray. The tray has a plastic cover that can be removed for washing.

In our new house we chose not to do an eat-in kitchen. Although the kitchen was big enough, we instead made a sitting area with easy chairs for reading, chatting or sipping what-have-you. There is also island seating.

Instead we mainly eat in our dining room, the house is open concept and we love the dining room-- lots of brickwork and glass. We have a modern cherry set, our chairs look like this but in cherry--


I think the high chair will match really well and work out great. PLUS, I found it new on Ebay for less. My mother is getting it for us--Thanks Ma! Sorry about that wise crack before...

Lauren

mmmm coffee, magnifica!

Coffee. Such a simple pleasure. And a bitterly necessary tool. The filthiest habit on earth after cigarettes. Ever try to get out a coffee stain?

I remember when I started drinking coffee. It was senior year in college. I had a new adviser, we had been meeting on a regular basis over the year. He was the Chemistry Department Chair and extremely famous and very busy but he made a lot of time for me. I was in the process of applying to graduate programs in biology and finishing up a tough year of classes. Somehow coffee waltzed into my life, took hold, and never let go.

Now, I am a tightly wound person on a slow day. I talk really fast, and I think faster than I can blurt it all out. I am animated. And loud. Give me coffee and stand back. Way back.

So, being a coffee virgin, so to speak, my first dabblings in the Land of Joe hit me hard. In one of our meetings, I had been talking a blue streak, all the bells and whistles: hands flying, high and low tones, laughs, loudness, asides, flying from topic to topic like a bee on a bender. This wonderful, highly-esteemed man stopped me. Dead. He said. "Lauren, WHAT is going on? Is there something you need to tell me? Whatever it is, it needs to stop!"

Uh yes. I have started drinking coffee. Why? Why? Why? Is there something wrong????

It wasn't a pretty sight. Poor guy. But coffee made me sharp. Really, really smart. My mind worked like it never had before. Coffee wasn't going anywhere.

I love everything about coffee. The smell when you open the bag. The science of varieties, cultivation, geography. The different roasting strategies. The glossiness. The smell when it is brewing. The ritual of making it. The ritual of drinking it--the type of mug, what to put into it, drinking with someone, the Saturday morning cup. John is a diner mug diehard; me, I like a mug pretty and large.

I like espresso best. Where'd I have that first? Well in the eighties you had espresso in only one place, Europe. Or Little Italy. In 1984 when we graduated, J and I took the obligatory trip to Europe. All summer traipsing around, sleeping where ever, eating great food and drinking the best coffee that can be had on this blue marble. J: doppio espresso, twist of lemon rind. Me: doppio cappuccino, sugar. (Yeah I like coffee light with sugar. Crass, I know.)

Lucky for me, I couldn't stand the stuff while pregnant. The smell would hit me first. I did not want to be anywhere near coffee. In fact, not knowing I was pregnant at first, I came to work complaining that I had to leave the Au Bon Pain without my big gulp 30 oz iced coffee because the smell made me so nauseous. My male co-worker said, right, you're pregnant. I didn't believe him but the heaped anchovy salad I had a dinner was the final tipoff; we bought a test at the CVS next door.

I like to drink a lot. But only in the am. I do not drink all day. I don't need a cup in the afternoon. I don't drink coffee with meals or after a meal, generally. Decaf? Uh, no. No. Iced? Love it. I'll drink iced until the first snowflake. Ever drop a dollop of hazelnut gelato into a hot cuppa? You will now, you know you will.

So until recently I bellied up to StarBUCKS to get my quadruple shot cappuccinos and iced lattes. They sure knew what they were doing when they named that place. Starbucks is designed to do one thing very well--separate you from as many bucks as they can. Coffee is merely their tool. And an excellent tool it is. They make great coffee.

Being a crack financial whiz, at least on the spending side, I did a little calculation once:

$5 x 250 work days per year = $1,250.

Ever do this calculation? Scary, right? But it led us to make the best decision, the most life-affirming thing we have ever done (Sorry, A!).

We added this little baby to our family:




The Delonghi Magnifica. Paid for itself in only 2/3 of a Starbucks-free year, 3/4 if you count the cost of the beans. It makes espresso at the push of a beautiful little button. Stores the beans, grinds the beans on order, brews and dumps the waste. All automatically. You add water and beans, take out those adorable little cakes of used goodness once a week. I toss those pucks into the garden for mulch. You can set the strength, the water volume, the size. Want frothed milk? Flip a button, put some milk in a pitcher and froth to your heart's content.

Now I don't have to plan my commute to run by a Starbucks. I don't have to wait in line and struggle to pronounce my order properly--Quadruple shot venti cappuccino? Double extra shot grande? I do NOT have to look at some pimply goth kid with a bullring in his nose and holes the size of Texas in his ears, the ears his momma so kindly made for him. Nope, I can pad into my kitchen, grab my favorite mug, and hit the button 4 times.

This summer we even hauled it up to Maine with us on vacation. Our guests loved it. It was magnifica!

Lauren