mommy bytes

Grandstanding Handstanding Dova

noreply@blogger.com (Angela) — Fri, 03 Feb 2012 23:49:00 +0000

About a year ago, Dova was asked to join the "team" at our local gymnastics place where she had taken tumbling classes since she was four. I, of course, took this as an attempt by the gym to extort more money from us by raising the tuition. She never really showed any skill at gymnastics and wasn't even able to do a decent cartwheel after three years. But she had her heart set on it, so I shelled out the big bucks. A few months later, they had their spring show and surprisingly, she demonstrated a pretty decent handstand.

After that, she started doing handstands just about everywhere imaginable. Here she is at Tanglewood in Lenox, MA during the airing of "A Prairie Home Companion".

And at the beach.

This past November, Dova had her first gymnastics meet. Now up to this point, our only involvement in Dova's gymnastics was to pay the big bucks and send her the practice twice a week. We really had no idea what her level of proficiency was. So it was pretty exciting to watch her in all events for the first time. And sure enough, her handstand during the floor routine was nearly perfect.

Dova's bar routine lasted all of 15 seconds, but she scored an impressive 9.40.

And check out the height on her tuck jump on the balance beam

Such poise and confidence!! We were beaming with pride.

But the biggest surprise occurred at the end of the meet when Dova took first place in the all around competition for her level. Wow, that's our girl on the top of the podium!

I guess all that money and chauffeuring paid off. What a sense of accomplishment for Dova! It was a proud moment for our entire family. We are so proud of you Dova!

My Brookstone Cat aka Body Bean

noreply@blogger.com (Angela) — Thu, 12 Jan 2012 04:17:00 +0000

Now that I've reached that age that is nine times older than five, or perhaps only three times older than fifteen, the one thing that has changed over the years is my tolerance to cold. I used to be just like my kids, hating sweaters and scarves and never ever feeling cold until just before frostbite hits. Now, when my nose gets cold and I am completely uncomfortable!

Thankfully Brookstone has the perfect solution for cold noses, cold hands, aching muscles, and any place that requires warming. They call it the Body Bean, but I call it my Brookstone cat. The Body Bean is a miraculous cordless device that stays warm for up to 4 hours after a 15 min of charging. Since it is filled with saline, it has a nice weight, transfers heat efficiently (like a water bottle) and conforms to your body perfectly. This doesn't sound like much, but let me tell you all the places it comes in handy:

Sitting in my lap, the Body Bean is just like having a small cat to keep me warm. It never scratches and always comes back after I've gotten up. A co-worker made the kitty decorations for my cat above!
When my hands are cold using the computer, I'll spend a few seconds petting the Brookstone cat in my lap and they are happy again.
When my nose is cold, I can pop my cat right onto my face for a cozy warm-me-up.
In bed, the Brookstone cat is a warm companion that never complains when you smother it. In the morning, it still feels warm!
In the car, my real cat would never sit on my lap nicely to keep me warm.
When I have sore muscles I can actually use the Body Bean for its intended use!

As a Christmas present, I requested a second Body Bean so I have one at work and at home. I don't know how I survived winters before! At work, I inspired a female co-worker to purchase one for herself and we are now twins with our cats at meetings. A male co-worker bought one for his wife for the holidays, and she absolutely loves it and sleeps with it every night. I also bought Body Beans for my mom and cousin and everyone loves their new pets. (I am single-handedly keeping this product in production!)

In addition to the Body Bean at $24.99, Brookstone offers a 3-in-1 Heated Body Wrap at $39.99 which allows hands free holding and warming. My Brookstone cat is very good about staying in place, keeping me warm, and has become my favorite wintertime snuggler. Shh! Don't tell my real cats!

Special thanks to Brookstone for providing the first Body Bean for review as part of the Brookstone Review Crew.

Just in Time Holidays

noreply@blogger.com (Angela) — Mon, 19 Dec 2011 05:07:00 +0000

If there's one thing that I'm always on time for, it's the holiday season. Usually, the gifts are purchased well before Thanksgiving, the OCD gift list is dotted and crossed, and the decorations go up on Thanksgiving weekend. This year I am woefully behind. Our holiday portrait was not even taken until one week before Christmas!

But in keeping with just in time (JIT) production, we've managed to pull it together before the holidays (minus the gift list). Without further ado, here is Dova's annual holiday video greeting.

"We wish you a Happy New Year! < giggle, giggle, giggle />"
"And... I will be playing, It Came Upon a Midnight Clear."
(I'm not sure what is worse, her giggling or my HTML/XML interpretation of her giggling)

Adam started in a new music school this year and played on a concert grand piano for the first time. He performed the Russian Dance from the Nutcracker in his recital with flair.

Soon enough, all will be quiet through the house and the children will be nestled in their beds. Dova takes her nestling very seriously!

Happy Holidays everyone!

Double Rainbow Thanksgiving

noreply@blogger.com (Angela) — Fri, 02 Dec 2011 23:40:00 +0000

Instead of the usual stories of turkeys, stuffing and pie (mmm four berry pie), our Thanksgiving was filled double rainbows. We had a tiny gathering of 5 including my mother. But she brought along her iPad, a device that my kids had never laid eyes upon in person. And with that came our first double rainbow.

I may have a slight addiction to Bejeweled as evidenced by Jewel Mania in 2006, then denial by using big scientific words like Stochasticity in July 2009 and finally admitting the need for intervention in Novemeber 2009. Nowadays, I have pretty much overcome the addiction, only imbibing the jewels on occasion. I had never reached the 500,000 mark in Bejeweled Blitz and just shook off the high scores over 1 million points as crazy people who don't have anything better to do with their time or harvest the Phoenix Prism gem by luck. When we played Bejeweled on my mom's iPad, it was ridiculous to use the full screen mode because the jewels were so big that you couldn't keep track of the entire board. But then we realized that all three of us (my mom, Adam and me) could play on the same board at the same time, and we saw the potential for really high scores. On our second game together, we managed this incredible score over 700,000 points without any special gems!

OMG, Grandma, Adam and I jumped for joy, whooped and hollered and were completely besides ourselves. On her very first day of playing Bejeweled Blitz, my mom got a 500k star and beat my all time high score!! We finally unlocked a secret of outrageously high scores. Now I just need to get my hands on my own iPad.

Later that weekend, Adam mentioned the phrase, "OMG, it's a double rainbow!" I asked him how he knew about double rainbows, did he see the video? Nope, he never heard of the video, he knew it from the Pocket God game.

In that case, I insisted that he see the original video.

When I first saw this video, I thought it was just a goofball that was totally high. But when Adam saw it, he started laughing and could not stop. He literally rolled off my bed laughing. He laughed so hard that he couldn't catch his breath and his eyes teared up. He laughter was so contagious that everyone around started to laugh despite themselves. He kept repeating lines from the video, "It's starting to look like a triple rainbow", "What does it mean?", "Double rainbow all the way across the sky!", "It's so intense!" and simply, "Whoa!!! OMG OMG!" Then we sang along to the Spongebob version of the Double Rainbow Song.

The double rainbow video was easily the funniest thing Adam had ever seen in his life. I'm not sure whether it was set up by knowing the Pocket God version first and finally learning why those silly people were so gaga over double rainbows. Either way, I'm glad it made his day.

Hope your holiday was filled with double rainbows!

Welcome to the Snow Kingdom

noreply@blogger.com (Angela) — Mon, 07 Nov 2011 04:17:00 +0000

Oh, the tales of unprecedented October snow and power outages in New England! Ours was not so dramatic, but still a bit of an adventure for our family. On October 29th, Saturday afternoon, Adam had his coldest soccer game ever in rain that changed over to snow. I was fortunate to be warm at home with Dova preparing for a dinner party when the flakes started to fall. She wrote this message on our white board for our guests (changing HTML colors is more painful than changing markers, but I couldn't stop once I started).

Welcome to the snow kingdom!
Where there is tons of snow!
You can sled down a snowy hill or make a snowman!
There is so much stuff to do in the snow kingdom!
There is enough snow for everyone!
So come to snow kingdom where there plenty of stuff to do!

On Saturday evening, we shared stories, good food (ginger butternut squash soup, curry chicken and home brewed beer) and warmth with our friends around the wood stove. When they left, we laughed because they hadn't brought a snow brush for the unheard of October nor'easter. The first sign that something was amiss would have been the drooping trees with branches heavy with snow. Adam immediately donned his snow attire to shake the snow off the trees, but we couldn't find any snow pants or snow boots for Dova. We promised to buy her some the next day. Our friends had to veer around a tree that was hanging low in our driveway to get home.

Later that evening, we settled down for some TV and our satellite was not receiving signal due to the heavy snowfall. I climbed out on the deck to clear the snow but it didn't help. We decided to watch an episode of Psych on our DVR, Tuesday the 17th. This episode was a horror movie spoof based in Camp Tikihawa. In one scene, the power had gone out and the villain was going after a victim with a wet mop against a sparking electric panel. As soon as the sparks flew, our own power went out. Wow, spooky! Our lights blipped a few times and came back. But this time, the satellite receiver would not initialize at all and we couldn't finish watching the episode. We all went to sleep with the wood stove keeping the house warm.

On Sunday morning, I awoke at 5am and noticed that the power was out. I fished through the various items in my nightstand drawer and finally found a flashlight to put some more logs into the wood stove. When we finally got out of bed around 8am, I saw Adam sitting on the couch playing Bubble Ball on my iPhone. I immediately yanked it out of his hands saying that my cell phone was for emergency use only! It was our only connection to the outside world with no TV, internet or phone (free VoIP with Ooma). In fact, there was actually no cell signal at the time, as our nearest cell tower must have lost power. Having no power isn't a major safety issue for us, we have a wood stove for heat and town water to drink and flush toilets. But losing electricity for more than a day is stressful and a major inconvenience. No fridge, no stove, limited hot water, and constantly wondering when the power was coming back...

Adam was first to go out and survey the foot+ amount of snow on Sunday morning. He told us that there was a huge tree down across the end of our driveway. At this point, Doug and I jumped to action to cut up and move the tree, so we weren't trapped in our house. Jumping to action meant that I failed to photograph the full extent of the snow accumulation and damage. My co-workers thankfully came through with these shots from the area.

Bench seating for snow only.

Low passage. This tree was hung up on the power lines.

Fallen street lamp and broken power lines.

The kids' immediate concern was how they were supposed to go trick-or-treating for Halloween on Monday. At 1pm on Sunday, the power came back on. We had our dinner guests back over again since they had not regained power so that the dad could charge up his laptop and get some work done, and his son went back to playing video games with Adam. Dova invited over a power-less friend as well. We put on a pot of coffee and resumed life as usual. But our glorious electricity was short-lived as the power went back out in two hours. Doug had taken a shower in the two hours the power came on, and I failed to, so I took one in semi-darkness. The power remained out until late Monday afternoon, and I only remember sketchy parts of it being in "survival" mode. Here's a snapshot of how we spent our time:

We listened to our Grundig FR200 Emergency Radio for news broadcasts and heard nothing useful at all.
I didn't think to look at Twitter on my phone for tweets in my area. I only used my phone to make sparing calls, check email, and listen to our home voice mail.
We learned that Halloween in our town was postponed until Saturday, November 5th.
I heated (burned) milk on the wood stove for hot chocolate. It came out delicious!
We ate cold leftovers for dinner. Mmm, curry chicken.
We put our gallon jugs of milk and other perishables in a large cooler on the deck and covered the items with snow. The milk was icy cold and delicious the next day.
I yelled, "Don't open the fridge" about four times an hour.
I played piano by the light of an LED camp lantern. I couldn't safely put a candle in front of the music. I played Beethoven's Moonlight Sonata (1st and 2nd movements, the 3rd would've cause the lantern to topple).
The kids actually played piano for fun because it was entertainment without electricity.
We read campfire stories by candle light.
We determined that light from a candlestick is much brighter than a column candle or jar candle.
The scent from jar candles made me wheezy.
I played a long game of Rummy 500 with Adam which he eventually won by setting me back when I was at 490 points.
The kids also played Egyptian Ratscrew.
Dova's friend slept over because we at least had running water. Wells don't run without electricity.
I called into work on Monday morning to learn there was no power. Snow day for all!
We found some snow pants for Dova and she wore an old pair of my boots. We didn't venture out until Tuesday. Stores were closed in Nashua NH, so we went near Boston which didn't experience much of Snowtober.
I made the kids practice piano and violin while it was still daylight. So much for a snow day break.
I cooked ramen noodles on the wood stove. The water took forever to boil, but the kids were glad to have a hot meal.

When the power came back late Monday afternoon, I was so thrilled that I kept chanting, "I love electricity!!" Dova thought I was totally crazy for loving such a thing. But after being stressed out in "survival" mode for 1.75 days, it was such a relief to return to normal life again. My work was still closed on Tuesday, and most of my town was still out of power.

On Wednesday, our school district had a delayed opening, and the kids went back to school. But that evening, we got a message saying that it was still to dangerous for the buses to maneuver around work crews and broken power lines, so the kids had the rest of the week off from school. Four snow days before the start of winter!

I returned to work on Wednesday to find that I was one of the few people that had power. Most of my co-workers were running generators. Every night on my ride home, I would survey the transformers for green or red lights. The main road just behind our street did not have power until Friday. Six days! That could've been us! Thank goodness for electricity at our house. I love electricity! Welcome to the Snow Kingdom!

The Art of Leaf Jumping

noreply@blogger.com (Angela) — Fri, 28 Oct 2011 04:39:00 +0000

You know you're old when your kids ask you to jump in the leaf pile with them and you say, "No way!" I remember loving to jump in the fall leaves as a kid. Even in New York City before the 1978 pooper scooper law, I used to beg my mom to let me run through the leaves. Nowadays, I whole-heartedly join other types kid fun, but somewhere along the way, I grew out of leaf jumping. But these kids have taken leaf jumping to new heights of joy.

Who would ever think that getting a faceful of leaves thrown at you could be so much fun?

Or a talking leaf pile? I should clarify, a crazy talking leaf pile.

Let's not forget Dova's rendition.

But my favorite photo is this gravity-defying explosion of leaves and kids.

Autumn is good. Too bad it's snowing outside right now here in New England!

Try It On at GlassesUSA

noreply@blogger.com (Angela) — Wed, 26 Oct 2011 04:11:00 +0000

I've been a long time online shopper of inexpensive prescription eyeglasses for my kids and myself. The kids still go through glasses every 4 to 6 months and at buying glasses at a tenth of retail is a no-brainer. But my own eyeglass prescription is very strong, requiring significantly more expensive high index lenses. The last time I purchased glasses online, I went for some fashionable rectangular lenses, forgetting the fact that a wide frame make high prescription lenses extremely thick on the edges. Plus the wide lenses gave my face the "smashed in" look on the sides. If I had the opportunity to try these frames in a store, I may have realized that the frames would not have worked on my face with my prescription.

When I had the opportunity to review glasses from GlassesUSA.com, I was glad to search for some smaller frames. The one thing that I really liked about GlassesUSA was their virtual mirror. Other sites also allow you to upload a photo, but you can never really tell the scale of the glasses in relationship to your face. GlassesUSA provides a pupillary distance ruler so you can scale your photo to match the size of the frames. See how exact it is?

You can also compare eyeglasses easily and send photos to friends to check out. Yes, those are the real prices for the frames and basic lenses at $38!

I received my glasses within a week and was extremely pleased with the quality of the frames and workmanship. With my new smaller frames, the high index lenses were the thinnest on the edges that I've ever seen. When I wore my new glasses to work, my co-workers complimented me, saying that my face no longer looked "smashed in" and that I didn't look extremely near-sighted anymore. Wow!

Next time you are looking to buy glasses, check out GlassesUSA.com. They are high quality, inexpensive and delivered lightning fast. Also check out these coupon codes!

Buy one pair of glasses and get any other pair for FREE! Use code: BOGOUSA
Take 10% off any order. Code: Blog10

Disclaimer: GlassesUSA provided a gift certificate to cover most of the cost of my glasses for review. No other compensation was provided.

Apple Picking, Corn Maze and Corn Cannons = Fall in New England

noreply@blogger.com (Angela) — Tue, 27 Sep 2011 03:52:00 +0000

Since the kids have been indoctrinated in the New England tradition of apple picking, we have not missed a fall season of apple picking in recent memory. And since my Groupon Summer of 2011 is spilling into autumn and beyond, we tried a new apple picking farm featured in Groupon this year.

I was first intrigued by the Groupon for Schartner Farms because of the corn maze attraction, or "corn maize". The aerial photo reminded me of crop circles which I've always wanted to experience first hand. How do they mow it so precisely?? (The maze, not crop circles. Crop circles are real, right? Right??)

The kids were a little apprehensive about diving in, but once we had maps in hand, we didn't get too lost (except in the tractor wheel). Four acres of corn maze is pretty expansive, but we got through in about 20 minutes.

And for another new activity, we tried out the corn cannon. I am so not "country", that I had to google "corn cannon" before we went to see what the heck it was. I described it to a co-worker and he said, "You mean a potato gun, but with corn?" I don't even know what a potato gun is. Obviously not a native New Englander.

The kids could have done the corn cannon all day, but my wallet dictated just three shots per kid. Here's Adam trying to shoot the corn through the hoop in the woods. (First day using the video mode on my new Canon Rebel T3i, so I couldn't get the hoop in focus.)

After this apple picking photo op, I relaxed on this bench while the kids did all the apple picking. I enjoyed the fresh autumn air and the view of the corn maze in the distance. It was so peaceful.

Let's not forget a pumpkin or two to bring home. Adam picked out this perfect 25 pounder. He is so photogenic with pumpkins! Remember this technicolor pumpkin picking from two years ago...

And no apple picking day is complete without the bubbly goodness of apple pie. Mmmm pie!

Happy Autumn everyone!

Impressive Calm on the First Day of Middle School

noreply@blogger.com (Angela) — Fri, 23 Sep 2011 04:27:00 +0000

Before school started this year, I had to spend several days convincing nervous Dova to take the bus on the first day of school. She insisted that someone drive her to school and walk her to her classroom because she wouldn't know where to go. Second grade is now her third year at our elementary school, and I was confident that taking the bus would not be a problem. Maybe she was concerned that it was the first time she would be taking the bus without older brother Adam, although she would never admit it. She couldn't understand that every kid starts out not knowing where their classrooms is and that the teachers magically escort each and every one of them. No students wander the halls lost all day! Anyway, all my energy was spent of calming her down, that I completely dropped the ball with Adam, who was going to middle school for the first time.

Starting middle school in fifth grade at the age of ten is definitely innocence lost in my book. But I can't change the school system so into the pool he went. Since the earlier school start time matched well with my morning commute, I left a message at the bus service over the summer to let them know that he would be driven in the morning and would take the bus home. I never heard back from the bus company and when I checked online the week before school, they had not yet published the bus schedule for our town.

The morning of the first day went pretty smoothly. I finally got the "first day of school" action shots to come out clearly in the early morning light (put the camera in sport mode, dummy). I drove Adam to school in my car, listening to NPR podcasts as we used to do. I was a bit nervous about doing the drop-off line for the first time, but it was very clear where to go. When I pulled up to the curb, I suddenly realized that I didn't find out which bus Adam should take home. I said, "Oh no, Adam, we don't know what bus you need to take home. Will you be able to figure it out?"

Adam responded with his usual, "Yeah, Mom." At the end of the day, Doug went to the bus stop to pick up Adam. A good hour after school dismissed, he called me from his cell phone to let me know that there was no sign of a bus. I assured him that it was late because it was the first day of school. We chatted a bit longer, as I checked online for voicemail on the home number (thanks to Ooma). Finally the bus arrived and he was home safe. I heard from Doug later that he actually had gotten on the wrong bus, got driven back to school, and then our old bus driver saw him standing there with blood all over his shirt from a bloody nose, took pity on him and drove him home. OMG, what a nightmare!!!

When I got home, I felt so bad for Adam that I wanted to cheer him up and calm him down if he was all shaken up. Apparently none of that was necessary, he was unbelievably calm like nothing happened. This is the rough transcription of our conversation.

Me: Did you freak out when you realized that you were on the wrong bus?

Adam: No.

Me: Did you realize it was not going the right way?

Adam: No.

Me: What were you doing, reading your book?

Adam: Yup.

Me: How would you know when the bus got to our street if you were reading your book?

Adam: I don't know.

Me: Did you stop reading and look out the window once in a while?

Adam: No... well I stopped reading when my nose started bleeding.

Me: Did you freak out when your nose started to bleed?

Adam: No.

Me: When did you finally realize you were on the wrong bus?

Adam: When I was the last person on it.

Me: Did you feel embarrassed?

Adam: No.

Me: You didn't freak out at all?

Adam: No, why should I?

Me: OMG, I would've been freaking out if I realized I was on the wrong bus and my nose started bleeding!

Adam: Why, Mom?

Me: Because! I would've been looking out the window, thinking is this going to my street? OMG, am I on the wrong bus? OMG, my nose is bleeding everywhere!!! No, it's good that you didn't freak out, that you're so calm, I need to learn that from you. Dova needs to learn that from you. We all need to!

Adam: I still don't understand why you would freak out.

Me: Good, just keep being like you are.

Adam kept shaking his head like I was the crazy one. It may sound like incredibly zen-like calmness and acceptance of his circumstances, but most likely it is Adam's brand of total obliviousness. He can be incredibly unaware of his surroundings and so involved in whatever he is doing that nothing can break his concentration. Still, to have those events transpire and not be perturbed in the least is quite remarkable. I did explain to him that he should feel free to actually ask the bus driver whether they went to his street instead of just taking one that "looked right". He managed just fine the next day. I guess he'll manage fine in everything he does.

My Groupon Summer of 2011

noreply@blogger.com (Angela) — Tue, 20 Sep 2011 02:43:00 +0000

Everyone who knows me knows that I love a deal. So after I signed up for Groupon earlier this year, I couldn't pass up all the great family activities they offered. Some were from places that we've gone before, some were things that we've always wanted to try and some were places that we go every year regardless. Having a fistful of Groupons led to an extremely tightly scheduled summer with no lazy days to take a spontaneous trip to the beach. In fact our only beach day planned got rained out by hurricane Irene. We finally made it to the beach over Labor Day weekend, AFTER school started.

So here's how the Groupon summer of 2011 went. As you may know, Groupons are only available for purchase for a few days, so these links are now expired. We managed to use them all before the Groupons themselves expired thanks to my OCD scheduling.

Mel's Funway Park in Litchfield, NH

I purchased four $15 passes for Mel's Funway Park which gave us each a go-kart ride, batting-cage tokens, a round of mini-golf, a small bucket of balls for the driving range, a laser-tag game, and a laser-maze game. Whew! It was a fun-filled family outing for an incredible price.

Adam swings for golf like a baseball (nice shot taken by Doug).

How cute is Dova in the batting cage!

Mel's Funway Park (now without the Mel in the name, but all the local's still use it) is good, wholesome fun. We are definitely going back.

Kimball Farm in Westford, MA

Again I purchased four $15 passes which we used for bumper boats, mini golf, driving range, batting cage, the arcade and ice cream. I took the kids with one of Adam's friends. We've been to Kimball Farm many times for gathering with friends and even a company outing.

Kimball's has one of the most beautiful mini golf courses I've ever seen (I would never tell my kids to walk the logs just for a photo op ).

But long before Kimball Farm had all those attractions, they were most famous for their ice cream. Those are the small size. Nom!!

Chunky's Cinema Pub in several locations in MA and NH

Chunky's is a movie theater with tables flanked by individually reclining Lincoln Town Car seats. You can order anything from appetizers to a full meal, including beer and alcohol (my favorite is the Captain Morgan root beer float - an alcoholic meal in itself). This photo was taken at Dova's 7th birthday party last year (they do parties too), complete with 3D glasses.

How cool is it to see your name on the movie marquis!!

Since we go to Chunky's Cinema Pub all the time, it was a no brainer to spend $10 for a Groupon that covered movie admission, popcorn and a $10 worth of food. We ended up going with my mom over the summer to a movie I can't remember because of that Captain Morgan root beer float. Arrrrr!

Hancock Shaker Village in Hancock, MA.

Angela contemplating the Round Barn at the Hancock Shaker Village, taken by Adam (nice composition!)

Every year, we vacation in the Berkshires and we always visit the Hancock Shaker Village. This time we went with a discount thanks to Groupon.

Capturing Adam the photographer.

Yes, Adam used the DSLR and I used the point and shoot camera. Thankfully, you can't take a bad photo in this picturesque piece of paradise.

SkyVenture New Hampshire in Nashua, NH

Indoor skydiving is not something I would normally plunk $95 just to try. But with the Groupon at nearly half price, we decided to go for it. What a blast it was! The kids chickened out, so Doug ended up taking the second Groupon I purchased. I simply could not wipe that goofy grin off my face, partially due to the wind and partly due to the fact that I was giggling the whole time.

Doug was a total natural in the indoor skydiving wind tunnel. He is even considering real skydiving now!

Fishpipe New Hampshire at SkyVenture, Nashua, NH

Somehow I knew the kids weren't about to fly for the indoor skydiving, so I purchased Groupons for the newly opened Fishpipe at SkyVenture. They had 90 seconds of water spinning fun, although I wouldn't say that it was necessarily worth even the discounted price. I expected total craziness in there, but they were fairly calm and still had a ton of fun.

Wayside Carriage House Inn in Sudbury, MA

Grist Mill at the Wayside Inn

The Wayside Carriage House Inn is new ancillary inn for the original Wayside Inn, which only has 9 rooms and a year-long waiting list. Doug and I enjoyed dinner and a night away from the kids with another couple who also purchased a Groupon. Imagine spending an evening only with adults!

Bolton Fair in Lancaster, MA

The day after staying at the Wayside Carriage House Inn, Doug and I participated in my first fiddle contest at the Bolton Fair. Fiddling entrants still have to pay to attend the fair, so we got in for half price using the Groupon. Yeehaw!

If you'd like to get in on the Groupon action, please use this referral link to sign up for an account (I get $10 for opening the world of Groupon to you). I also belong to several other savings sites, the locally-based Eversave (another referral link), and LivingSocial (not a referral, boo hoo), but Groupon has by far garnered the most deals that match my family's interest.

One word of caution for new savers, you will get emails every day from these companies. If you're like me and hate to be inundated with emails, but don't want to miss out on the deals, you can subscribe to the feed for your local city through a reader like Google Reader. The local RSS feeds are easy to find on Groupon, but not so much so for the other sites (I recommend using a Firefox's automatic feed detection or Chrome's RSS Subscription Extension). Happy Grouponing!

Brookstone Review Crew Round-Up

noreply@blogger.com (Angela) — Fri, 16 Sep 2011 11:15:00 +0000

As part of the Brookstone Review Crew, here are some items that I never knew that I could live without before!

Check out the reviews on contest bytes for:

Compact Rolling Traveler Suitcase - I've transformed from a hippy backpack wearer at airports to super chic expert traveler.
Universal Phone Holder - When you want to be minimalist and simply carry your phone, driver's license and a credit card, this is the perfect case.
Vinturi® Wine Aerator - You will never want wine without this essential device again! It immediately transforms the taste
Rechargeable iPod and iPhone Battery Backup - This small battery backup is essential when your iPhone needs more juice.
LELO Personal Massagers - Ah yes, not shown in this photo for obvious reasons. You'll find out why a $100 personal massager is so worth it.

Thanks to Brookstone for providing some of the products for review. Which ones did I buy on my own? Check out the reviews for yourself.

Also check out the brand spanking new Brookstone blog at www.brookstoneblogs.com.

Are You Boggled?

noreply@blogger.com (Angela) — Fri, 09 Sep 2011 04:17:00 +0000

I'm definitely no word whiz as being an engineer doesn't lend itself to being a wordsmith (disregard the mommy blogging, BlogHer and Autoweek gigs for now). But when it comes to word finding puzzles, it's more about logic and pattern recognition than vocabulary knowledge. It all started innocently enough when Dova asked me to help her with the Webkinz game Eager Beaver Adventure Park.

"Manures"? Is that the best I could do?

She would get frustrated with the crushing blocks timed levels, so I started "helping" her out. I never made it past level 7 or so, but one day I finished the entire game. And then I did it again. And I found myself addicted to "helping" her get Webkinz cash with this game and others (Cash Cow, Goober's Lab, Bamboo Break, variations on my favorite games of matching hearts, bejeweled and tetris, all feeding my need for stochasticity).

I tried out Boggle iPhone on a free promotion last year. Granted, Quordy and Wurdle beat the official Hasbro game in the reviews, but they cost more than free. I was hooked again. And so was Adam. I even found a work-related word, "ideates", which sure beats "manures".

The best part of the game is seeing the all the possible words that can be created with the board afterward. You do feel kinda stupid getting only 30-50 of the sometimes 200+ words, but you do start thinking in the serpentine paths and patterns that you hadn't seen before and improve with practice. It's also a great way too kill 3 minutes while you're in line.

You can get Boggle for the regular price of $0.99 here:

L'Oeuf Love Thursday

noreply@blogger.com (Angela) — Thu, 01 Sep 2011 04:09:00 +0000

Silicone Egg Pancake Ring

These silicone heart rings are so sweet! Not only do my kids love having heart-shaped eggs and pancakes, they put a huge smile on my face when I cook with them.

I love the association between the French word for egg, l'oeuf, and it's subsequent use as the "love" score in tennis. As I learned from tennis lessons in high school, "love" was used for a score of zero because the number zero is shaped like an egg, or l'oeuf, in French. But according to Wikipedia, "the most accepted theory on the origins of the use of 'Love' comes from the acceptance that, at the start of any match, when scores are at zero, players still have 'Love for each other'." To me, when your score is love, you're definitely not feeling the love. The l'oeuf explanation is more likely.

Either way, we all feel the love when eating these heart pancakes.

Happy Love Thursday everyone! Visit Chookooloonks for the original Love Thursday.

UC Berkeley CellScope - Where Science Meets Art

noreply@blogger.com (Angela) — Fri, 26 Aug 2011 04:33:00 +0000

CellScope developed by the Fletcher Lab at UC Berkeley

I have always been an MIT snob, proudly supporting my alma mater and brainwashing my kids to strive to attend it (it's working on Adam but not Dova). I even removed UC Berkeley (MS Mechanical Engineering) from my facebook profile because it bumped MIT off my profile page. Same goes for the alumni magazines. MIT's top-rated Technology Review magazine is read by hundreds of thousands beyond its own alumni and I devour every issue with zeal. When I receive the Berkeley engineering alumni magazine, Forefront, I never allow myself to be impressed.

Recently, Forefront has stepped up its game. I have to admit being impressed with technologies they have developed from affordable exoskeletons, to the new bay bridge, to this little wonder, the CellScope. The CellScope transforms a standard cell phone into a diagnostic-quality microscope, which can transmit images of tissue samples for instant diagnosis from anywhere in the world. But then I saw this cool stop motion video of a 9mm doll, Dot, filmed entirely on the CellScope.

Aardman Animations, the producers behind Wallace and Gromit, created this charming little film using a Nokia N8 with the CellScope technology.

Equally amazing is the behind the scenes making of the video. Fifty versions of Dot were created by a 3D resin printer and painted by hand. Check out the magic behind the artistry.

This month, Aardman Animations was awarded with the Animation Award at Rushes Soho Shorts Festival for Dot. Dot also holds a Guinness World Record for the smallest stopmotion animated character in a film.

Amazingly useful medical diagnostic tool as well as award-winning short film technology? I am truly humbled and impressed.

Return of the Shield Sunglasses

noreply@blogger.com (Angela) — Wed, 24 Aug 2011 11:02:00 +0000

At the People's Party at BlogHer, Fox Entertainment provided a photo op with Blu from the movie Rio. I donned a pair of ridiculously large shield sunglasses and poses in front of the green screen. Afterward, I loved the photo and the look!

I returned home with a quest for a pair of shield sunglasses. NYS Collection came through with a large collection of contemporary sunglasses including many shield types.

When I put on my new retro sunglasses, Doug looked at me and said that was nothing, he had an original pair of Bausch & Lomb Wings sunglasses from the 80's and produced the Yoko Ono-like sunglasses in a cordoroy covered case. I looked online and a genuine vintage pair of B&L Wings runs for nearly $300! Back when I met Doug in the 90's, I remembered seeing these sunglasses and heartily laughed at their shape. Who knew they would come back in style and be worth so much?

Adam in Doug's B&L Wings.

Thankfully, the NYS Collection including Jersey Shore sunglasses are available for $19.99 at NYS Kiosks in shopping-centers across the US. I love the updated styling. Check out my kids as they model them.

Adam is a cool dude.

Way too big but way cute on Dova's small face. Watch out for that movie star attitude!

Special thanks to NYS Collection for providing a pair of sunglasses for review. No other compensation was given.

Mother and Daughter Time at BlogHer

noreply@blogger.com (Angela) — Thu, 11 Aug 2011 03:40:00 +0000

For the third year in a row, my mom has joined me at BlogHer. It's our way of getting together without the craziness of grandkids. In 2009, I was mortified and then relieved when she took the mic during my session on mommy blogging balance.

Last year, we rocked her home town of New York together.

This year, we flew to lovely San Diego, where she knew the lay of the land having stayed at the Marriott Marquis for several conferences previously. This year presented tons of great photo opportunities where we didn't have to shoot with a long extended arm.

Here we are with the California Raisin.

And before indulging in Dannon Oikos yogurt. I was actually confused to see the Oikos brand name on a Dannon product, where I've seen it always on my beloved Stonyfield, but this link explains the partnership.

And from the cool blue of Greece, we dressed up in hot pink boas for T-Mobile.

Of course there were long arm portraits as well, here's a pic of us before and during our 1/2 day tour down to Tijuana. More on that to come...

Since BlogHer will be in New York again next year, you can be sure to see the dynamic duo again next year!

BlogHer '11 Brookstone Giveaway

noreply@blogger.com (Angela) — Fri, 29 Jul 2011 03:56:00 +0000

What do you think of when you think of Brookstone? Do images of relaxing massage chairs come to mind? Or perhaps nifty gadgets and accessories for the gadget-holic in your life? Or maybe just super cool toys. Like this AR.Drone Quadricopter. I was lucky to receive this hands-on demo of total coolness. It is controlled by your iPhone/iPod/iPad and can take videos from the front and side. Can you imagine sending it over your house to take photos?

But if you're more practical minded, here are some travel accessories that you might like:

Lightweight hanging Toiletry Kit with tons of zippered pockets for super-organized travel

4-in-1 Power Charger that can power just about any portable device with an A/C outlet, car, USB port or 9V battery

n•a•p® Plush Eyemask that can be heated or cooled for total eye comfort and zzz.....

Wordlock® Luggage Lock where you can use a word instead of numbers to remember your combination

My Life Digital Photo Keychain which holds up to 100 photos to keep your loved ones near

*** If you'd like to enter win any of these Brookstone travel accessories, please fill out the form below. The Brookstone giveaway is open to all US residents. ***

For extra entries, do any or all of the following:

Like Brookstone on Facebook
Like mommy bytes on Facebook
Like this post (use the Like button at the end of the post)
Follow Brookstone on Twitter
Follow mommybytes on Twitter
Tweet about the Brookstone event or giveaway (using @mommybytes and @brookstone)
Promote this post using StumbleUpon, blog post or other social media (one entry only)

The Brookstone giveaway ends Friday August 12, at 11 pm EDT.

<p>&amp;amp;amp;lt;p&amp;amp;amp;gt;&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;lt;p&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;gt;&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;lt;p&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;gt;&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;lt;p&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;gt;&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;lt;p&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;gt;&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;lt;p&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;gt;&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;lt;p&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;gt;&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;lt;p&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;gt;&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;lt;p&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;gt;&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;lt;p&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;gt;Loading...&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;lt;/p&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;gt;&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;lt;/p&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;gt;&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;lt;/p&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;gt;&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;lt;/p&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;gt;&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;lt;/p&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;gt;&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;lt;/p&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;gt;&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;lt;/p&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;gt;&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;lt;/p&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;gt;&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;lt;/p&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;gt;&amp;amp;amp;lt;/p&amp;amp;amp;gt;</p>

Hope to see everyone at BlogHer. Not only do I get to see everyone again, my mom will be making her third appearance! (She should start her own fan club .)

Disclaimer: Brookstone provided products for me to review as well as for the giveaway.

Recycle No More

noreply@blogger.com (Angela) — Wed, 20 Jul 2011 05:01:00 +0000

At work, I try to exercise during lunchtime, either by going to the gym, biking, or walking. When the weather is cool in the spring and fall, walking is the exercise of choice. For years I walked in my iPod oblivion, but I would always notice beverage cans tossed by the side of the road. I always thought that one of these days, I ought to bring a bag with me and pick up the cans to recycle.

Last fall, I finally got it together and brought bags to pick up cans during my walks. The bags would fill up much quicker than I imagined, usually within the first mile of the walk. No matter how often I walked, there were always plenty of cans to pick up. A lot of the cans were half full, so I would empty them out before placing them in the bag. Sometimes, this was a pretty gross proposition, so I ended up wearing blue nitrile gloves for my walks.

Ninety percent of the cans were beer cans, with an occasional soda or energy drink. I began to wonder where these cans came from. Some were grouped together, indicating a bunch of kids sitting around chugging beers. But the majority of beer cans looked like they were thrown right out of moving cars. Checking the Internet, only Mississippi allows driving with open containers of alcohol. It is certainly not legal in Massachusetts or New Hampshire, where I work. I asked some co-workers and sure enough, they knew others that drank beers on their way home and chucked the cans out of the window. In fact, those people celebrate then end of Daylight Saving Time, when that cops can’t see them drinking in the darkness. Well now, that’s news to me, no wonder why there are so many beer cans along the side of the road (more in Live Free and Die NH than MA, mind you).

The very first time I walked back to work with a bag of beer cans, I was a bit worried about what people would think if I dumped a bunch of beer cans into the can recycling bin. I thought of leaving them in a recycling bin outside someone’s house, but that would be even harder to explain. I ended up dumping them in the work recycling bin, with a few co-workers looking on. Everyone thought it was a cool idea and I soon became knows as the “can lady” or “beer girl”. Even the general manager of our company stopped by and joked whether times were tough. He often asked whether I was going can picking when we ran into each other near lunchtime. Even people from my home town saw me picking up cans. I was that kooky blue-handed can lady, heading up a recycling revolution, cleaning up the environment, one can at a time!

Image from Beyond the Perf, USA Philatelic

After a few weeks, another co-worker asked that I save the tabs to donate to the Shriner’s Hospital. I started to remove the tabs as I picked up the cans during my walks (way too gross to pull them afterward when the bag is half soaked in beer). Sometimes I lost the tabs on the way, but I did manage to amass this many:

That’s 211 aluminum can tabs. Since then, I’ve learned from Snopes that the can tabs are hardly worth their time and energy. Basically, they say that you'd be much better off getting the full 5 cent redemption and donating that to your charity instead of the tiny fraction of a cent they get for the pull tab. At $427 for a million tabs, that is 0.000427 cents per tab, instead of 5 cents for the whole can. Still I liked to collect the tabs to count how many cans I’ve picked up during my walks.

Recently I bought a sheet of these super cool, super cute Go Green forever stamps. On the back of the Go Green stamp sheet, there is some information about the small steps we can all take to be greener. I learned this fact about recycling:

Is it enough to make a difference? Absolutely. Recycling just one aluminum can reduces waste—and saves enough energy to run a computer for three hours. Multiply that by 10—or 200—cans.

Wow, my 211 cans can run a computer 24/7 for nearly a month!

This spring, my recycling career came to an abrupt halt one morning when my boss approached me. He asked me whether I was the one recycling cans from outside in the cafeteria. I told him yes and that the general manager knew about it. But he said that there were complaints that beer cans in the cafeteria “were not appropriate”. Granted, the cafeteria didn’t smell like beer, but if you opened the lid and took a whiff, you could definitely smell it. But the cans were obviously from outside, they were soiled and dirty. No one is sitting around work drinking beers during off hours!

I am not one to argue with my boss, so this chat ended my recycling career. I still am the recycling police at work, but I’m not about to risk my livelihood to clean up a state that I don’t even live in. So now when I go on walks, I simply walk past this scene:

Maybe I should just get people to stop drinking beers on their way home! If it’s not one crusade, it’s another.

Knitted Scarf for Dova--Will She Wear It?

noreply@blogger.com (Angela) — Sat, 16 Jul 2011 13:59:00 +0000

The last time I knitted something for Dova, she posed with it for exactly one photo and refused to even smile nicely. It has sat in a drawer ever since. Such gratitude!

Knitted Strawberry Hat, January 2008

I refused to knit her anything else until we were at a craft store last winter, and we both fell in love with this yarn on clearance. The color was called "Chocolate Cupcake" and it looked simply delicious! Dova says it is chocolate raspberry ice cream.

She maintains that she will wear the new scarf in the winter, hopefully with actual clothes. One thing is for certain, she sure is beautiful.

Supermoms Can Get Trophies

noreply@blogger.com (Angela) — Wed, 13 Jul 2011 05:53:00 +0000

June flew by in a flurry with end of year events that seemed to stack one on top of another. Last year, in Herculean super mom fashion, I managed this schedule one Saturday:

Coach Dova’s soccer team in her last game.
Have ice cream at the end of year soccer party.
Hug the soccer kids goodbye and grab Dova’s soccer trophy.
Rip off Dova’s soccer clothes and put on her dress.
Rip off my soccer clothes and put on my dress in the car.
Clean Dova’s ice cream hands with a wipe.
Rush to the piano recital now in progress (Adam and Doug were already there).
Record Dova in her first piano recital, as well as Adam’s performance.

In a matter of minutes, we went from this:

to this .

I could finally relax being in the audience, but it was extremely hectic and I vowed never to do simultaneous events again. Here are the videos of Adam and Dova from last year’s recital if you’re interested (i.e. you’re my mom).

This year, my soccer coaching career had thankfully ended but the musical tiger mom had taken over. And although we didn’t sign up for simultaneous events, it ended up being busier than ever since I was now directly involved in the recitals.

After the talent show fiasco, our kids’ piano teacher asked whether I’d like to play that piece at the recital. I never wanted to upstage her students, so I hadn’t considered performing with them before. She said that one of her students really liked In the Hall of the Mountain King and would love to hear the “real” version performed. Adam loved this piece as well and played a simplified version last year.

A week before the recital, our piano teacher asked whether I would accompany one of her voice students on the piano. It was a last minute request, but I looked at the music and agreed. So far so good, one solo that I knew in my sleep and one manageable accompaniment which I had a week to learn, no over-extension.

The day before the recital, we rehearsed with the vocalist. At the end of the rehearsal, our piano teacher was uneasy about another piano accompaniment that she was having trouble with. She asked me on the off chance whether I could learn the piece in one day. Well, let’s see. I sat down and sight read the music, to which our piano teacher said that I already played it better than she did. One day to learn a piece? What’s on the schedule… Adam’s last soccer game of the season, driving one kid to a birthday party and the other to a playdate, and then the end of season soccer party. Sure, I had time between driving the kids and after the party. I agreed to do it. I’m not sure whether I thought it was a good challenge, or I’m that cocky, or what! Doug says my middle name is “Over-extension”.

On the day of the recital, I arrived a half hour early for the rehearsal with the new vocalist. It went off without a hitch. In fact it was one of the most beautiful pieces I’ve ever heard, Homeward Bound by Marta Keen (not a link to the actual performance, it wasn’t mine!). The performance went flawlessly as well, and I actually enjoyed being part of creating this beautiful music.

Since I'm free to post videos of my own kids, I can proudly put my tiger mom hat on and show them off. Dova was confident and poised in her performance.

Adam had been shunning me for practice lately, so I hadn't actually heard him play his piece in weeks. He performed Bach’s Minuet No. 3 evenly and expressively and we were all quite impressed! In fact, he played this piece better than I would have at his age. See for yourself.

Luckily our camera ran out of memory so I don’t have to share my performance that day (you can always view the talent show version). The only thing I regret about performing in the kids’ recital was that I was put at the end of the program. Through his two years of lessons, Adam had been progressively moving down the program as he learned more difficult pieces. In this recital, he was finally placed last out of the students (he played Bach’s Prelude in C later on). Except his mom stole the last spot on the program.

But there was a surprise in store. After my performance, the piano teacher presented me with a trophy for all my efforts. It was partially to make up for the unjust treatment during the talent show, and partially to thank me for helping her out. My very first music trophy! It was a super sweet gesture.

“Angela, World’s Best Pianist 2011”

I guess Supermoms can get trophies too!

Synchronized Swinging

noreply@blogger.com (Angela) — Tue, 14 Jun 2011 02:38:00 +0000

When I was a child, my favorite playground activity was the swings. And when I was older it was the seesaw or teeter-totter (my obsession began at age 11 on my 6th grade camping trip). I am so disappointed that seesaws have gone by the wayside! I used to be able to turn around and do all sorts of tricks. But I digress... I am so happy that Dova loves the swings as much as I do, but she is far more adventurous when it comes to them. Not only does she jump off the swings, check out this incredible position.

The chains were nearly horizontal, she was completely upside down! Even Adam looked impressed. I tried it myself and could barely get my body horizontal looking behind me, let alone vertically upside down, looking at the ground. Not to be outdone, Adam gave extreme swinging a try.

Oh yeah, he saw the ground all right. This was from a boy that refuses to ride rollercoasters. But wait, I gave them one more challenge of swinging upside down at the same time.

Success! Synchronized swinging!! I love these kids, they will try just about any physical photography challenge I come up for them.

The House on Loon Lake

noreply@blogger.com (Angela) — Sun, 12 Jun 2011 04:41:00 +0000

This American Life aired an episode titled House on Loon Lake which tells the story of a real life Hardy Boys mystery about an abandoned house in Freedom, NH. The story has become so much a part of my psyche that I felt that I actually read the Hardy Boys mystery book and looked to purchase it online. Thankfully, the Internet set me straight and brought me back to the This American Life episode. This post has nothing to do with the episode, but another house on another lake which brought me up and close to a real life loon.

We are fortunate to have friends that have a summer home not on Loon Lake, but on nearby Newfound Lake in New Hampshire. We have visited every year since I was pregnant with Dova, and have had the pleasure of living the lake life for a weekend without the cost of ownership thanks to our gracious hosts. The lake life consists mostly of water-skiing...

(my second time up on water skis ever...)

(unlike me, Doug can actually water-ski without looking like a goofball in goggles)

Tubing...

(Adam tubing at age 5, miraculously I captured this shot without having a heart attack)

Just for comparison sake, here are shots of Adam at age 2 and 9 on the same tube:

(I gotta stop feeding this kid, he is getting way too big)

Relaxing on the dock...

Or on the beach...

(for some reason, Doug and I took similar "relaxed feet" shots")

Watching the kids play in the water...

Sometimes I swim with the kids like a mama duck...

And sometimes we just go for a boat ride...

I never understood the mysterious draw that New Hampshire-ites all seem to have for the call of the loon. It's just another duck, right? I had no idea how majestic these creatures were until I saw them up close. Normally, this is about as close as you can get to them.

But last year, we managed to get closer and I took these shots with a very steady hand on my point and shoot camera.

Look at those bright red eyes against the loon's jet black smooth head!

OK, I get it, these birds are amazing! We are looking forward to our summer visit this year to the house on loon lake.

Relay for Life – An Inspirational Night

noreply@blogger.com (Angela) — Thu, 02 Jun 2011 04:55:00 +0000

Note: I participated in this Relay for Life in June last year but I am woefully behind in blogging. Thankfully the Relay for Life comes around every year and hopefully this post will inspire you to join a local relay near you.

When I first heard that my company was sponsoring a Relay for Life team for the American Cancer Society, I jumped at the chance to participate. The Relay for Life is a fundraising event that lasts 18 hours from 6 p.m. in the evening till noon the next day. If there’s two things I’m good at, it’s walking and being up in the middle of the night. I choose to be present for the midnight to 6 a.m. shift, but I arrived early to see the luminary lap which started at 9 p.m.

The main reason I chose to raise money for the American Cancer Society was because my father passed away from brain cancer at the age of 69. I purchased a luminary bag in his honor and the kids decorated it. When I arrived at the relay around 9:30 p.m., the lighted bags were already set up around the track. Seeing the hundreds of luminary bags set up along the track was an awe-inspiring sight.

Each candle is held in place by sand inside the bags.

My walking shifts were from 3 to 5 a.m., so I passed the time walking a lap here and there and playing Scrabble and cribbage with my co-workers (BTW, stoge is a slang of cigarette, similar to stogie, which I verified on my iPhone - win!). From around 1:30 to 2:30 a.m., I retreated to my car and took a nap in the back of my wagon.

The 3 to 4 a.m. lap had a "Toga" theme, so I draped a sheet around myself for the hour. It kept falling down until I finally got the right set of knots together. I am now a toga expert!

3:14 a.m. darkness + iPhone photo = blurry Angela.

The 4 to 5 a.m. lap had an "Oldies" theme, so I dressed in tie-dye shirts with my fellow hippy co-worker.

4:14 a.m. in tie-dye shirts with minimal sleep = looking totally stoned.

Here's a more presentable shot of us. The 4 to 5 a.m. hour definitely had the least amount of walkers. It started after most people succumbed to sleepiness after staying up all night. I felt invigorated to be part of the hard core insomniacs taking every step with purpose. On one lap, I noticed a tent with Cure with Hope tie-dye shirts, but they were only offering them for sale on the Internet. So with my trusty iPhone, I actually purchased a shirt within one lap of obtaining the URL. Sleepless geek purchases tie-dye shirt while walking at 4:45 a.m.! My co-worker was impressed.

Night is almost over taken by fellow relayer, tuberat.

The most amazing part of the night was sunrise. We started seeing the sky lighten up around 4:30 a.m. With my iPhone, we learned the differences and times of the civil, nautical and astronomical twilight before sunrise.

Sunrise, taken at 5:03 AM.

Holy smokes, it was a gorgeous sunrise! By this time, everyone else was waking up from the light. I finally headed home around 6 a.m. after the morning crew showed up.

In total our company raised around $1900 for the American Cancer Society. It was a great cause, and an inspirational night to remember.

Welcome AutoWeek! Here's the Fleet

noreply@blogger.com (Angela) — Fri, 27 May 2011 11:43:00 +0000

After some time, I finally get to announce that I will be writing for AutoWeek online! My first post, Here's how the minivan stopped me from having more kids, was published yesterday. The original title was "Minivans as a Form of Birth Control." We've never ever considered buying a minivan, especially since we stopped having children at two, so I like to joke that the mere thought of a minivan stopped us from having more kids. That is until now...

Check out the post over at AutoWeek to see why and how we caved with our latest ~~car~~ minivan purchase. In the article, I mention that we love performance cars, but not which ones. Here's our fleet as it stands now.

Last year's family portrait in an antithesis of a minivan... my 2009 BMW 135i Convertible with the M sport package. This baby flies at 300 HP. The story of how this car came to be is here.

Doug's car is a made-to-order 2006 Corvette with the Z51 performance package. He beats me at 400 HP. Zoom!

Since my precious rear wheel drive 135i doesn't handle the New England ice and snow (and car-eating salt) very well, I kept my previous car, a 2001 BMW 325xi touring sedan (i.e. wagon), for the winter (and rainy days). This was my daily driver since 2003 and has been quite a trusty workhorse. Not to mention it is quite luxurious and sporty with a sport suspension and manual transmission. Now this is the only car that we have with a 5-speed instead of a 6-speed manual transmission.

Here's the latest edition, a Mazda5 with a 6-speed manual transmission. How much flak are we gonna get for this family portrait?

Sliding Down the Hoover Dam

noreply@blogger.com (Angela) — Tue, 24 May 2011 04:32:00 +0000

Amidst all the smoke and glitter on our trip to Las Vegas, we made a point of visiting the Hoover Dam, a crowning achievement of mankind. The majestic curve of concrete seamlessly integrated into the beauty of the terrain, mixed with the sheer power of the water, left us completely in awe. Sure, the Hoover Dam isn't the largest dam in the world, and it doesn't have goats precariously licking salt off the walls, but it was still one of the most amazing things that I have ever seen.

Then again, it was too amazing for me to take decent photographs, but here goes. We didn't go up to the bridge to take pictures, so this was my best attempt of capturing the width of the dam from the side.

We didn't realize that the Mike O'Callaghan-Pat Tillman Memorial Bridge only opened to traffic last October. What a view it must be from there! We were way too tired by the end of our visit to make another trek over the bridge. Thankfully, the weather was a perfect 75F in March and not the scorching desert heat of summer.

Even the Visitor's Center was melded perfectly into the mountainside. I loved the mix of rock, concrete, copper and power lines.

On the other side of the Hoover Dam is Lake Mead, which was created by the dam. I can see why they call it Tapestry Wall.

The dam crosses between Nevada and Arizona, which are in different time zones during standard time but have the same time during Daylight Saving Time (which Arizona does not follow). So while it may look like Doug was pondering having one foot in each time zone, it was actually the same time while we were there.

But my favorite thought was, "Wow, this would make an awesome slide," when looking down the wall of the Hoover Dam.

Inside, we opted for the Power Plant tour for $11 each instead of the full dam tour for $30. Later we heard other visitors rave about the full tour, so next time! The engineer in me got all revved up over the huge generators (pun intended).

Look, they were really spinning and producing tons of clean electricity!

No kidding, the rotors and stators on these generators were huge! And no, we didn't see the Transformer's Cube there.

There were warnings for people who experienced claustrophobia, and the tight, dark tunnels were some of the reasons why. The tour elevators were quite crowded as well. Doug felt it was unfair that they didn't list the reasons people may feel claustrophobic up front.

In the end, the best shot of Doug and me in front of the dam was this silly green screen portrait.

If you're ever in Vegas, don't miss the Hoover Dam. It will be worth your dam while.