Snow Day!

Apparently this January has been the snowiest January on record in New York City. I honestly never imagined we'd see this much snow here. It is the snow of our childhoods in the Midwest, which even they haven't had for many years. I'm definitely one of the first ones to jump on making fun of New York for considering itself a cold place, or a place capable of handling snow. But, especially considering they have no where to put the snow here, this is pretty crazy.

We woke up this morning to Becky's phone ringing with an automated message letting her/us/the neighborhood know that her work was closed. This noise was followed by the siren alerting us that local schools were closed. Now seriously people, the siren? That is supposed to go off when meteorologists have spotted a giant spinning funnel cloud. It tells you loud and clear to grab your battery powered radio in one hand and your cat in the other hand and run to your basement. It does not tell you to go out and play in the snow! I don't even know how to describe the siren or the noise without describing it as a tornado siren. In the absence of much tornado risk, I wouldn't have even guessed that northeastern cities would have them. But our town does, and apparently they use it to announce school closings. I knew my work would be open, so I didn't even bother getting up, despite the fact that my annoyance kept me from falling back asleep.

But then, at the normal time, I did get up, and found that our busses were not running. Which of course makes it less than easy for me to get to my annoyingly open work. After much conferring with the appropriate powers-that-be I determined that I could in fact use some leave time and reschedule my appointments. And hence, a snow day was born.

That's each of us with snow piled up over our heads! Unfortunately, my poor car is also piled up well over its head.

Yep, there's a car under there. And it belongs to me/us. If we ever find it again that is. I joked about it before, but I'm now a little bit concerned that we might actually not be able to move it again for a while. Especially because we're supposed to get more snow this weekend!

We decided we needed some delicious snow day dinner. So, we pulled out the awesome cookbook that we received as a wedding shower gift and selected a Cheddar Ham Soup. The cookbook was a project headed up by my sister (and Matron of Honor). She sent out blank recipe cards to all of the women who were invited to the wedding and asked them to submit a recipe (and a memory too, if they chose) to include in a cookbook for us. So at the shower we received a cookbook full of the favorite recipes of a whole bunch of our friends and family members! We thought it was a really neat way to include all of our long distance friends and family who weren't able to attend the shower, and now it's a fun keepsake. I can happily report that Becky's aunt's soup is delicious! So we'll be eating soup and enjoying this lovely view out of the windows, possibly for months to come.

Computer Lab Nostalgia

I read some huge exciting news today via the little birds on Twitter: Facebook versions of Carmen Sandiego and Oregon Trail will be released in February!

Someone mentioned in the comments on this article that she remembered playing these games 20 years ago. Which caused me to realize "Holy crap, it really HAS been 20 years! How is that even possible?!" You see the problem here is that someone who can clearly remember things that happened 20 years ago must certainly be a grown up, and I am certainly not one of those.

But this realization got me to thinking about the good ol' days in the computer lab at my elementary school. My school got a computer lab when I was in 3rd grade, and let me tell you, it was a BIG. FREAKIN. DEAL. I think some PTA members may have sold organs on the black market to fundraise for that thing or something. It was awesome--each of us got to use a computer at the same time. And the computers had games! Two of them! Those games were Oregon Trail and....something else. I think maybe it had dragons? And something about designing your dream bedroom? Anyway, Oregon Trail was clearly the superior choice. I have such fond memories of watching my little green oxen plod across my tiny black monitor, and my incredible inability to shoot anything in my efforts to hunt. Seriously, that buffalo could stand right in front of me and stare me in the eye, and I wouldn't figure out how to shoot it.

A year or so later, my family got a computer at home, and in addition to Oregon Trail, we acquired several different versions of the Carmen Sandiego games. Each of these games of course included about 7 installation disks (and I seem to recall a fair amount of swearing from my parents when the computer didn't seem to want to recognize them in the right order) and a world almanac or similar reference, which was of course absolutely necessary for answering questions in the game. Oh, life before the internet. (I admit, I do sort of miss those pages in the middle with the pictures of all the countries' flags.) I'm curious to see how they've modified the game to make it a little more challenging in the age of Wikipedia.

Do you have any fond memories of early computer games or experiences? Are you as crazy excited as I am for these games?

Groceries

As a follow-up to Carrie's weekend post, our groceries from Fresh Direct arrived last night. It was pretty sweet that someone else packed them and hauled them up the stairs for us, but it's a little strange to get groceries in boxes. The service is great, the food looks fresh, but they don't sell many of our staple items (and only have name-brand options of many products) and their regular prices really aren't competitive with what we usually pay for the same foods.

Plus I just really LIKE grocery shopping. I used to be obsessed with reading grocery store sale flyers, looking for the best deals, but my lust for that has dulled with time. Admittedly, our usual grocery-shopping routine probably sounds a little crazy to some. We do a big shopping trip every 3 weeks or so. We plan out meals for the upcoming few weeks before we go, and make our grocery list based on that. The Target store near us has a pretty large selection of groceries and some of the best prices around, so we start there for a lot of our staples. We then head to the Trader Joe's that's about half a mile past Target and stock up on produce and most of the other items that Target doesn't sell. This does tend to leave a couple of specific products that aren't at either store (we're picky about tortillas--go figure), so one or the other of us will walk to the grocery store that's a couple blocks away to fill in any remaining gaps. The whole project takes a couple hours, but we get most of our food at the best prices we can find, we get good quality meat and produce, and by planning our meals ahead of time, we don't end up wasting much food. Having a plan also makes us less likely to come home from work and say "I'm tired, let's just order take-out, eat mac & cheese, etc." It works for us.

But since I view the Saturday grocery shopping every few weeks as a sacred activity, I'm even less likely to be sold on Fresh Direct's services. But thank you for the $50 coupons--we do appreciate them!

piccadilly-cat sez "ur soda runned away"

O hai, NFC Championship

In case you haven't heard yet, THE PACKERS ARE GOING TO THE SUPER BOWL!!!

Alright, I admit that I am no die-hard fan and that I only watch the games that happen to be televised here, but the Pack will ALWAYS be my team. Fortunately, one of my co-workers is also from Wisconsin and IS a die-hard fan, so I get to hear all about what I missed and what's new in the world of the Packers. Said co-worker is also a regular at Kettle of Fish, the best Packer bar in NYC. I'd been saying for years that I was going to go watch a game with her, and somehow this game, against Da Bears, no less, seemed like the perfect candidate. But there's something you need to understand about the patrons of this bar, and Packer fans in general--we're crazy.

On Sunday, the game started at 3:00 p.m. The bar was opening at 1:00. This naturally meant that in order to be guaranteed a seat to watch the game, we needed to get there and line up early...just after 10:00 a.m. In case standing outside a bar in the West Village for three hours on a Sunday morning doesn't sound crazy enough to you, keep in mind that it was only 20 degrees outside. But I put on all the warmest clothes I had, packed my thermos of hot chocolate (after nearly scalding myself checking to see if it leaked. It did. I responded by wrapping it in a plastic bag and keeping it upright. It worked.) and trekked into the city while Carrie stayed in our warm, cozy apartment.

Fortunately, the wait passed relatively quickly, and just as I began to fear that I may never feel my toes again, a kind stranger appeared with extra hand/foot warmers. Hallelujah! To give you an idea of the scope of the line (and the craziness of those in it), here's a picture I took shortly before the doors opened.

I knew I was in the right place when I saw cheeseheads.

Once inside, there were drinks, plates of summer sausage and cheese, and Usinger's bratwursts to help us warm up. I was sadly lacking in Packers garb (a situation my mom is remedying as I type this), but fortunately my co-worker brought me a spare jersey, and another kind stranger was passing out green and gold beads (and cheese curds--yum!)

Anyway, I would describe both that game and the bar as somewhat ugly but awesome. The bar was seriously a little trippy--with the wood paneling, ceiling tiles, and several people in very un-ironic plaid, I could have sworn I was in someone's basement in Wisconsin rather than in the West Village. But it was also refreshing to just be able to give the name of a town in response to "Where you from?" And I think the last time I was surrounded by such enthusiastic sports fans must have been in the student section at a UW-Madison football game. The air in this place was electric.

Oh yeah, and did I mention SUPER BOWL?!?! I am already scheming plans for green and gold foods to make for that day. Suggestions are welcome. And so far the list of attendees at said party includes Carrie, me, and our cats--so if you're going to be in the neighborhood, please feel free to stop by!

After I got home from the game, Carrie and I feasted upon leftover homemade chili in homemade bread bowls. The bread didn't turn out quite like I'd hoped--all four bowls mysteriously shrunk just before I put them in the oven, but they were delicious nonetheless.

On home ownership and New York

Well, I had Becky all lined up to blog for you tonight, but then she got busy with other things and couldn't do it.  So I guess you're stuck with unprepared me!

A few weeks ago Becky apparently decided that she was sick of feeling impoverished and decided to take a whole pile of personal finance books out of the library.   She has since been methodically making her way through them, while I occasionally pick one up and page through in a sign of support.  I certainly got a few laughs out of Suze Orman of 2005 waxing on about the wonders of investing in home ownership.  But despite the change in circumstances since 2005 I hear it's still a pretty decent investment.  And it's something we aspire to do someday.  But not here.  Gothamist illustrates plainly and easily why not.  Why is New York so strange?  It is at the same time a cultural capital of the United States and not in the slightest bit quintessentially American.  And apparently it's become the city I love to hate (okay, and just plain old love too, despite its crazyness and insane cost of living).

While I was browsing over at Gothamist I also came upon this Walk of Shame, which has a similarly favorable outlook on the great New York experience.  Woo-hoo longest commute in the nation!  Of course I'm not sure if they calculate this based on where you live or where you work, so I don't know whose commuting average we're driving up...either way I think we're clearly hurting someone's average.  Does that make me a New Yorker yet?

So I hope that wee bit of mappy goodness can tide you over until tomorrow night!

Depths of January

I know I'm a wimpy Minnesotan, I know that the weather in NYC/NJ is nothing compared to what it has been in the Midwest, but I'm officially tired of winter. And I didn't even stand outside in it for 3 hours today like Becky did. But I'll let her tell you about that insanity. This has probably been the snowiest and coldest winter since we moved here (and this is our fifth, believe it or not!) Something about the combination of the snow strategy here (pour an ocean of salt all over everything, let the cars create huge slushy puddles to get rid of snow bulk) and our lifestyle here (walking to public transportation, on-street parking, me walking all over the place for my job) makes the tropical NYC winter still feel unbearable.

Friday night we hung out at home and watched Inception from Netflix. I liked it a lot, but probably not as much as I thought I might, based on descriptions I've read referring to it as a mix of Memento and Eternal Sunshine. I've been thinking about it since then and I still don't understand why Cobb and Saito end up in the same place in the end, nor do I understand how they managed to get back to "reality." And pretty much the entire winter wonderland 3rd level scene confused me. But I love both Leonardo DiCaprio and Ellen Page, so two thumbs up from me.

Saturday we avoided moving the car, and hence dealing with the aforementioned annoying weather and parking situation. How did we do that you ask? A seemingly too-good-to-be-true coupon from Fresh Direct! Fresh Direct is one of those grocery delivery companies, which of course we are usually way too cheap to consider utilizing, even on frigid days. Apparently they are hard core trying to push their service in this area, because they sent us a coupon for $50 off a $125 order and free delivery - and we can use it two times within 60 days!! So I spent way too much time on the eternal grocery list and now some poor Fresh Direct shmuck has to carry our milk and soda and 8lbs of meat through the cold and up the flights of stairs. I'm sure they anticipate I'll get addicted to these amazing benefits, but between the extra cost and not having a lot of the exact products we like, I think we'll only be using it for the two awesome deals.

We went to see The King's Speech on Saturday night (go indoor entertainment!), which was also fun. I'm glad none of my clients are royalty; that sounds hard. Scenes of the commoners when the air raid sirens were going reminded Becky and me of the children of war exhibit that we both loved at the Imperial War Museum of London.

Today I'm relaxing as a bachelor with my Sam Adams blackberry witbier, my pizza rolls, and my televised football game. Yes, that's right, I am watching a football game alone. I know this sounds seriously crazy to any of you who know me. But I wanted to know what happened! Sorry for the lack of live blogging, I know how you all love a good live blog!

The one where she comes home late

I start blog posts in my head all the time about work. And then I remember how dangerous it is to write about work. I have all of my clients' stories bouncing around in my head all of the time. I feel like I should write about poverty and intergenerational trauma and systemic dysfunction and transference. But I don't know how to talk about any of these topics without telling you pieces of their stories. Even sanitized of names and personal details it feels too dangerous to talk about.

In the marginally safer world of offline conversation, my work stories sound different outside my office walls. At work, stories that include drug abuse and incest and suicide attempts and prison and foster care sound normal. Outside they sound a lot more intense. I think there's a certain amount of desensitization necessary for doing this type of work. Sometimes though I fear that it holds me back from providing everything that I should to some of the families who need it the most.

This post isn't flowing the way I want it to flow. Perhaps I should have stuck with my original topic: exhaustion. Sometimes it feels like the exhaustion is related to the stories bouncing around in my head is related to the desensitization. Or maybe it's just the 1am bedtimes. Either way, it has been a long week (despite only being four days!), after a few other long weeks. Monday we did the drive back from MA, Tuesday evening we had an insane rendezvous with a lawyer and two other lesbian couples (more on this some other day), Wednesday I worked late and then we socialized at Kara's until much too late, Thursday I worked late again, and now it's finally Friday.

Another worker said to me tonight "I just can't fight anymore," regarding trying to summon the energy to argue with a supervisor about whether to indicate a case. We spend enough time dealing with exhaustion from our own lives and exhaustion from the intensity of the clients' issues. Why do we also have to fight with the system itself to get anything to work right?

Home again home again

We're back from another voyage to Massachusetts. After picking the car up at the car repair shop (and a whole fiasco where they lost the car's proof of registration. gr.) on Friday night we left late and arrived even later. Saturday we slept in and then spent the day hanging out at home with Jen and Sean and Matthew and Thomas. They're adorable as always, but apparently hanging out there is enough like hanging out at home that we completely forgot to take any pictures. Sorry. Saturday night of course was the famous yellow pants game, with the fondue and the wings and the champagne and the chocolate cake.

Sunday the family went to a multiples playdate while Becky and I hung out at home and then went to get haircuts. One of our oddities is that even though we get super cheap haircuts, neither of us ever gets our hair cut at home. Apparently living in the land of ridiculously expensive haircuts means that cheap haircuts are exceptionally bad. In the afternoon we went to family swim at the Y (Thomas is amazingly close to learning how to swim considering he's still under 2!), dinner at Olive Garden (sorry Italian food purists, it was convenient and someone had a craving), and home for baby bedtime and Despicable Me.

This morning we packed our car full of our wedding presents (which my parents brought from Minnesota at Christmas) and did the long trek back to New Jersey. Suffice it to say that I am sick of that drive. This afternoon and evening we've been much too lazy, and now the week is about to begin. How do we always end up back here, at the beginning?

I hope your weekends were refreshing and maybe had a bit less driving and/or car drama than ours!

Packers/Falcons Liveblog

I'm writing from snowy Massachusetts, where we are watching the Green Bay Packers/Atlanta Falcons playoff game. The cast of characters: Carrie, me, Jen, Sean, and Matthew (asleep, hopefully to stay that way). Thomas is sleeping in his crib (also hopefully to stay that way).

In case there is any confusion, we are rooting for the Packers, a.k.a Yellowpants.

8:10
Everyone: Who's the Zac Brown Band?
Carrie: Holy crap, that's a big flag.

8:12
Carrie: Wait, maybe we're not all rooting for Green Bay.
Me: Yes we are. My blog.
Carrie: Jen, who are you rooting for?
Jen: Becky's team. She's scary.
Carrie: Sean, who are you rooting for?
Sean: Green Bay vs. the Falcons? I don't really give a crap.
Carrie: See, I guess we're not all rooting for the Packers.

8:13
Jen: I miss the light.
Sean: You could have watched the boys when they were in here pushing it over.
Jen: I had an urgent situation.

8:15
Sean taught Carrie how to stir...a valuable skill to acquire at age 28.
Jen: Do you think cheese fondue and champagne is a good food for a football game?
Me: I come from Wisconsin.

8:16
Carrie: Okay, I am not missing the kick-off this time. Is this it? Yay, I saw the beginning! That's the beginning, right?

8:19
Carrie: I am actually capable of following this game now if I'm paying attention.

8:28
Packers fumble
Carrie: They took the ball! Is that legal?
Everyone: Yes.
Jen: You would have them play a very calm game.
Carrie: It's MEAN!

8:35
Falcons touchdown. Sad face.
Cheese fondue all gone. For the record, it was Pesto Fondue with hot Italian sausage and bread. Delicious. 
Here comes the chicken wings! (Jen: Can we eat wings with fondue forks?)

8:45
Jen (to Carrie): It's a little weird that you know about football.

Yes, and it also makes for less entertaining live blogging. Sigh. Oh well, I have wine. Perhaps that will liven up the liveblogging!

8:51
Sean explains random facts about football.
Carrie: I didn't even know you LIKED football! Is it like in your genes cuz of that Y chromosome?

8:54
Touchdown Green Bay! W00t!

8:56
And the Falcons ran it all the way back for a touchdown. Lame.
Carrie: Can they even do that?

9:02
Carrie: They're playing really rough.
Jen: It's the play-offs.
Me: It's FOOTBALL.
Carrie: But it's MEAN!

9:09
Touchdown Green Bay again! Huzzah!
Sean: Yellowpants just needs some defense
Carrie: Well, they need someone on their team other than Aaron Rodgers. Apparently they forgot.

9:20
Interception. Woo-hoo!

9:32
Touchdown!
Carrie: That made up for his (Jones) mistake earlier. SEE?! I also have increased memory!

9:36
Jen: Wait, you drank more Pinot? How are we gonna drink that whole big bottle of bubbly if you keep drinking Pinot?

9:40
Interception/Touchdown!!! Carrie and me yelling...fortunately this did not wake Matthew.

9:44
Sean explains something about eligible receivers and various positions...
Carrie: Sean uses a lot of words I don't know when he talks about football.

10:00
A giant slice of chocolate cake with Bailey's frosting appeared in front of me, along with a glass of bubbly. Magic! Also, the Packers are rockin' the house.

10:07
Rodgers runs it in for another TOUCHDOWN!!!

10:13
Me: Do you think if I went to the gym more often, I'd look like them? I mean, the cheerleaders, not the players.
Jen: I think you'd have to go a lot more often. And not eat so much cake.

10:23
Insightful lesson on challenges courtesy of ehow.
Jen: Is there anything we do that doesn't involve Google?
Sean: Yes, sometimes you can use Yahoo.
Me: Ew.

10:26
Another touchdown! Awesome!

10:47
Carrie: If your team messes this up, I'm gonna be so disappointed in you.
Me: In ME, personally?
Carrie: In your ENTIRE STATE.

10:48
Oopsy, just realized I forgot to mention a Falcons touchdown. Jen and I weren't paying attention then anyway.

11:09
So there was a fieldgoal, and the Packers picked up a fumble. But there was also a champagne flute that broke here, so several of us were consumed with that clean-up effort.

11:13
Field goal. Also, my cousin's wife, who's from the Twin Cities and part of a family of die-hard Vikings fans, just declared herself a Packers fan. Huzzah!

11:19
Victory for the Packers! NFC Championship game next weekend!

And now, I think it's time to put my sicky wife to bed. She has been complaining off and on all night that her head feels like it's full of syrup. Between her cold and the cold that Matthew and Thomas both have, I think it's only a matter of time until I get sick...

Smooth Moves

Well, in the spirit of trying to get my butt off the couch more often, I decided this week to try out one of my Christmas presents: a Wii game called Zumba Fitness.

Hahahahahahahahaha.

What, you don't think that's hilarious? Well, that my friend, is where you are quite wrong.

So for starters, the game requires wearing this belt around your hips (the Wii remote goes in the neon green pocket).

Zumba belt of awesome

Since photos and video were strictly forbidden, you'll have to just form a mental picture of me in my living room wearing pajama pants (circa 1999) with turquoise cow spots, a magenta t-shirt, and this really awesome belt velcroed around my hips.

I then fired up the game (which by the way, has the most annoying interface I have ever seen in a Wii game. It's like they forgot that the Wii remote could be pointed at the screen to select things. Who knew the arrows on that thing could be used outside of Mario Kart?) and proceeded to the Learn the Steps section. Each style of dance (calypso, salsa, merengue, etc.) is divided into several levels.

I started with beginner calypso. The first step is pretty much put one foot in front of you, then back, lather, rinse, repeat with other foot. I got that part. The game then decided I was so good that it would just fly through the rest of the steps in the beginner lesson, with the instructor telling me how great I was doing the whole time! Let's just say that the motion sensor on this thing leaves a bit to be desired. My best recollection of this scene:

Glowing green Zumba instructor: You're doing great! Keep it up!
Me (blank stare): What the hell just happened?
Carrie: Bahahahahaha
Cats (blank stare)

I tried another learning level thing and concluded that it was not going to work, so I figured I'd just jump into a beginner song. Following the steps actually went a little better that way. And I decided that since the motion sensor was off, I'd just keep jumping around and the stupid machine wouldn't know the difference. And it worked! I got all kinds of bonus points despite the fact that my "dance" probably would have horrified any real-life Zumba instructor. (That is the good part about the Wii game: glowing instructor on screen is very non-judgy of my sad, sad dancing.)

The downside of switching from learn the steps to the do the routine? Shimmying. And lots of hip rotating. And all sorts of other things that my joints do not do. Seriously, I have the stiffest, whitest hips on earth. I am astounded by dance moves that other people can pull off, but I cannot do any of them. Instead, at this point I just looked like a sweaty, out-of-breath, pajama-ed fool doing some combination of calypso, Jazzercise, and that Cotton Eye Joe line dance from 5th grade gym class.

I'm pretty sure even the cats were laughing by this point.

Carrie showed her support by standing up and imitating me.

But Carrie can't laugh too much, because I have one chief advantage over her: rhythm. Yes, I may have no sense of how to dance to said rhythm, and my coordination is so limited that I will likely trip over myself if I try, but I can find the beat and at least do some basic movements in time with it.

Anyway, I'm pretty lousy at the game. But since the game is a little lousy at figuring out that I'm lousy, it's all good. And it gets me off the couch for 20 minutes at a time, and it doesn't require going outside in 20-degree weather, which is always a plus.

Besides, I think I'm getting better. The second time I played, I only grape-vined into the Christmas tree once.