merry land

I had to travel to Baltimore for work. It's the same cost to expense driving as it is booking a flight, so I loaded up Mark and the kids and took them with me. We drove through Pennsylvania to get to Maryland and only when we were coming into town did I realize that Baltimore is kind of a suburb of Washington D.C. While I was in my first day of meetings, Mark took the babies down to see the White House, the Reflection Pool, the Washington Monument, etc. I'm pretty jealous because I've never been. But, they just drove around to save the touring of Jefferson Museum and walking around the different places to do when we go out for a longer, more recreational trip. In the evening, we headed out to downtown Baltimore to check out a bookstore Mark heard about. I found more books than he did, for once.

Then after my second day of meetings, we drove through Delaware, across the Chesapeake Bay Bridge, and back into the tip of Maryland where it meets the Atlantic to spend the rest of the weekend in my boss's condo in Ocean City. There was "SunFest" going on, which meant professional trick kiters were out doing their thing and a boat-load of megaphone toting import car show dorks were driving around their dad's pimped out saturns and neons. It was quite fun. We were just 500 feet or so off the beach and the weather cooperated, so we were able to walk down to the beach and let Zola collect shells. She absolutely HATES the sand, but loves the beach. She likes to sit on the edge of the blanket and play with sticks, shells, and rocks. We also walked the boardwalk, ordered pizza and sipped some mexican beers. It was pretty relaxing, if you don't count chasing a 2 year old non-stop (which is exhausting).




The drive home was long enough to make me note that we'll need to take days off if we want to do that again. We were hoping to stop by and say hi to an old friend of Mark's from High School who lives and works near D.C., but the drive... ugh. I've driven one-way narrow roads in London in rush hour. I've driven the worst routes in rush hour in LA. And, the east coast really knows how to have traffic. They have them all beat. And there are some really stupid road designs... I don't like to use the word "stupid" very often. I reserve it for special kinds of dumb. Whoever you are who designed the one lane two freeway split off-ramp... you are stupid. Whoever you are who decided to put 12 lanes if toll booths prior to the two-lane bay bridge, you are stupid. And whoever invented toll roads, you are also stupid (actually, you're probably a very savvy business person for monopolizing all the gas station/restaurant pull offs, but I hate you anyway.)

transition, people

I start a new position at work on Monday as part of a standard educational rotation program for studying actuaries to make our brains explode. I will miss my supervisor and coworkers a lot... it's been a good three years and I really enjoy the group I'm leaving. Onward and upward...

We have a series of teens coming for a few weeks each during the summer to help offset childcare and the added burden and pressures of starting a new job while still on the double shift of having an infant up most of the night. The first young California dreamer gets here on Saturday and we have some fun stuff lined up. I think you can expect another "Summer-Fun-O-Rama" (see June 2008 in my archives to relive the excitement of previous installments!)

I looked back at 2009 and realized that even though we had a Summer-Fun-O-Rama, I was too busy writing about my pregnancy. I guess becoming a mom does make you a little more boring... No wonder I don't get many comments anymore... I'm sorry, Internet. I've let you down!

I will *try* to stop blathering about the baby. Tomorrow.

--She's making these gutteral sounds and I am trying to train her to make them right after I say "What does a zombie say?"
--She giggles crazy when you say "tickle, tickle" or "I'm gonna get you"
--She puts her arms out to say "hold me" when we get home from work.
--She sits with her arms forming a tripod.
--She has good fine motor skills with her fingers... meaning she can pinch (while twisting... the delicate skin in your armpit) and pull your beard or try to gouge your eyes out now.
--She likes to eat paper. She has a method where she soaks it in drool until it becomes soft pulp and then she gums it into little pieces and swallows it until she chokes loud enough for you to realize that a piece of paper fell on the ground too close to her. I think it's organic, right?