Back from Virginia

We had a wonderful time this past week and have just gotten back to Atlanta. It will take some time to blog everything we did, so let's just start where we left off and see how far we get. First, some photos from the Postal Museum that we didn't have uploaded for the last post:

Now back to the 15th... Friday was Patty's 30th birthday. Matthew made a delicious "breakfast in chair" of a two-cheese omelet, Kashi oatmeal, and orange juice. It was served on a tray with our red Gerbera daisy in a vase as Patty sat in the sunroom in the comfy chair reading Franny and Zooey by J. D. Salinger. After breakfast, Dad A took us on a secret mission, which turned out to be a trip to VA Runner for a new pair of running shoes! The owner, Jeff, did a thorough analysis of Patty's feet and running biomechanics, and recommended a couple of shoes. After testing the shoes outside, we chose the Brooks Adrenaline, which were by coincidence updates of the shoes she wore into the store. It was really neat to have such thorough and personalized service and to learn about the way the muscles in our legs and feet work. Jeff used to be a marathon runner and even had trained for the Olympic trials at one point, but injury prevented that from happening. He was a really interesting guy. We noticed an autographed picture of Deena Kastor behind the counter, which was pretty cool. There were also patches from lots of police units around the country, including the Fairfax County Police Helicopter Division.

We got back to the house and, after lots of baby maintenance and random things, Dad A and Patty went running. An hour and a half later, they got back to the house. Every time we tried to measure the distance, it came out different, but it was between 6.5 and 7 miles with about a quarter mile walk tacked on the beginning and the end. It was a little chilly but ended up about right, and the pace was comfortable. It felt really good to Patty to be back on the track after being sidelined for so long. Of course, her legs didn't feel too good the next morning, but it was very much worth the pain. Before getting the new shoes, she'd already planned to run that day - she'd wanted to set the tone for the next decade, and a run was the perfect way to do that.

After the world's longest run, we went out to dinner - Gabriel stayed at the house. We went to Coastal Flats, a seafood restaurant. We were thrilled to see that they had two of our favorite drinks, mojito and caipirinha, so Matt got the ciapirinha and Patty got the mojito. For dinner, Matt had the Hong Kong-style sea bass, and Patty had the hazelnut-crusted trout. It was delicious.

Although we got back close to midnight, there was a surprise ice cream cake waiting. It was vanilla ice cream with chocolate cake from Baskin Robbins. Patty hadn't said anything, but she had secretly been hoping for an ice cream cake. We usually have them for our birthdays.

That's where we'll stop for today. There's lots more to write about, but it's getting late. Here are the things about which we still have to write:

• Ikea and the Nationals
• March of Dimes, baby shower, and geocaching
• a trip to the Mall
• our trip back to Atlanta and people we met on the plane
• AR7 watch
• whatever we do tomorrow, which will include playgroup and softball
• ...and of course, photos

Goin' Postal

No pictures right now, sorry - maybe tomorrow. We'll work on it.

We got to Virginia last night around 11:10 pm and stayed up pretty late so Gabriel could eat and play with his Grandpa and Grandma Gail for a while. He had a horrible night's sleep, waking up every couple hours. He is still a little bit under the weather but only as far as sleeping and eating. It could be worse. Today he didn't keep much food down, but he seemed pretty happy anyway.

Today, we went with Dad A to Union Station in Washington, D.C. for lunch. It is a beautiful 90-some-year-old train station that has a mall and lots of restaurants in it. They have concerts there sometimes, as well. We bought a red Gerbera daisy at KaBloom and headed down to the food court, which was the nicest food court we've ever seen and even had a movie theater in it. We got some Japanese, Mexican, Greek, and American food and left speaking in tongues.

The next place we went was the National Postal Museum, a Smithsonian museum. We got to print our own postcards and mail them. We learned that federal duck stamps raise revenue for an extremely successful conservation program to protect the nation's waterfowl. There were a lot of really interesting displays, including postal artifacts from 9/11 and historical newspapers (which were cheaper to mail than letters so that news could more easily be disseminated). The most striking thing about the museum, though, was how it looked. It was amazingly beautiful. Just to think that people once actually went there to mail letters and pay bills transported us to a more romantic time.

While we were on the subway to D.C., we missed a call from Jack. He said that he will try to call again tomorrow after 4:00 pm our time but that he never knows for sure if he'll be able to get to a phone at a certain time. He sent happy birthday wishes and sounded dry but okay.

For dinner, we went to Cracker Barrel so we could see Tracey. She was our server and brought us a very tasty dinner. She has gotten humongous, but it's all baby. Aiden is going to be a very large baby! If you trust his grandfather's analysis of the sonogram, he will have a forehead below his mouth and a chin above his eyebrows.

After dinner, Gabriel ate and promptly threw it all back up, so we let him play for a while before we tried to feed him again. Meanwhile, we played Flight Simulator and successfully flew a Boeing 737-800 from Washington Dulles to Newark.

Thoughts on turning 30 (by Patty): I have been getting very stressed out about being 30 years old. It's not that I objectively think it's old; it's always seemed like a very young age to me. It's just that I've always been traumatized by milestone birthdays, because I've always thought, "I will never again in my life be __ years old." Matthew has led everyone we know into making this past week or so as easy as possible, and honestly, it has made this whole thing very painless. As it's gotten past midnight, I have noticed that wrinkles have not in fact broken out on my forehead, I have not grown more chins, and I haven't gotten a hunchback... yet. It's still early in the day.

Seriously, though, I'm actually starting to look forward to the day. I am so grateful to everyone for the support, and I am especially grateful to my beautiful husband for making me look forward to all of my ages.

Two Sick Boys

Matt's been under the weather for a few days. Nothing too major, but combined with the highest-ever pollen count here in the Atlanta metro area, he's definitely suffering. Gabriel's sleep patterns have changed since yesterday, and today he definitely has a fever. We measured 102.1°F, but after a dose of Tylenol, it's gone down. He's a trooper, trying very hard to be cheerful despite his sleepiness.

Being the bad parents we are, we took him out anyway for a trip to J Ripples. We figured that since his temp was under control, we predicted that he would be awake for the next couple of hours, and he didn't have any symptoms other than drowsiness, he'd be okay for a little outing. Besides, it's so hot in our apartment (dryer vent tubing fell off the wall), some fresh air would probably do us all some good. Like our rationalization? If this hadn't been our last chance ever to go, we wouldn't have gone, but as it was, Gabriel did very well. So did Matt.

An ESP moment: We were watching the game show "Distraction," when the subject "famous pairs" came up. Before the host asked a single question, Matt said, "Hutch." The host said, "Starsky." Patty had said, "Turner and...", and that came up, too.

We are leaving for Virginia tomorrow, so we might not get a chance to blog for a couple of days. They have computers, so we will definitely try to write most nights if we can. We'll be back here in Atlanta next Tuesday.

A New Monitor!

Patty got a birthday present today from Mom A - a new monitor! The picture shows it as it is now, but we still have to (obviously) clean up the desk and move it back a little. For the first time, we can actually sit at the desk and work without neck strain. Before, we'd been standing up sometimes to work on the computer, and it was so far away that we would get headaches from the eye strain. This is already making blogging so much easier. Hmmm, think she wants it to be easier so there are more posts?? Big thanks for the monitor!!!

When we got the package, we (Patty and Gabriel) were on our way out the door to meet Matt at the mall. We decided that it would be fun to meet places occasionally, now that the weather is nice. It was torture to have to leave when this new awesome monitor was sitting there in the box, waiting to be used, so we took the instructions with us so we could look at the pictures on the subway.

When we got to the mall, we met up at the Starbucks stand. Matt appeared just as the order was placed on the counter. We went to Aveda for the free personalized birthday scent that we get every year and to Iris to buy speakers for the computer.

We found a pair of speakers with a subwoofer for about $30, so we jumped on that. There are speakers that can attach to our monitor, so if we end up getting those, we can give these to someone else who needs them. They're quite good, though. We found out that we already have software that can do effects on the music; for example, we can make it sound like we're in a concert hall or a haunted cavern. The subwoofer makes a big difference in the sound. You can see the two speakers in the photo above.

After the mall, we stopped by J Ripples. We had to after all - Patty's gianduja was waiting. No one had ordered any all day, so it was all for us. Funny, the people before us and after us ordered some. He must have just made it. We got a pint, and he put a little more in a cup for us to eat there. It was fantastic. We hope that Whole Foods will want to sell that flavor or that Figo Pasta will want to stock it when they buy his display case. Not ever having gianduja gelato again would send Patty into convulsions.

We used the ciabatta for sandwiches today, and it was very good. Matt still prefers the basic rustic bread for sandwiches, but Patty likes this one better. For dipping in olive oil, this one is definitely the way to go. It could definitely be improved, though. The biga (pre-ferment, dough that's made the night before to add depth of flavor and longer shelf life) didn't rise as it was supposed to, we added too much water to the dough and tried to pour some out and start over, and we slightly used the wrong folding method. We're not sure whether the biga issue had too much effect. We think that the water issue made for a too-sticky dough that had to be corrected by adding more flour, making the proportions of yeast and salt off. The folding method we used probably allowed too much air to escape from the dough, making for fewer and smaller holes in the finished loaf. The center of the loaf had pretty good sized holes - not too small, but not too big for sandwich ingredients, but the end didn't have much in the way of holes. You can see in the photo that it really does look like a slipper (ciabatta means "slipper" in Italian).

We forgot to take Gabriel's Monday photo today, so we will take it tomorrow. He actually is awake at the moment, but that's because he's having a super tough time getting to sleep after waking up for some reason. He just had a dose of tylenol, just in case it's a teething problem. Anyway, nothing else was working and we thought that it wouldn't hurt! He seems to be quieting down, so he should be back asleep soon. And so will we.

An Italian Lesson

Today we spent a lot of time with chores, including making squash, zucchini, and peas for Chip and pita chips for Mommy. The bread, a ciabatta recipe from our new book, is still in the works. Finally at about 5:00, we got out the door to go to the Dogwood Festival.

We didn't get there in time to see the Frisbee dogs, but we did get there in time to see every human fashion disaster on the face of the earth, all gathered in Piedmont Park. We don't know what it is about a festival that brings out the worst aesthetic sense in people, but we couldn't believe how many too-small shirts, mismatched clothes, and unwashed hair there was there. One girl was dressed as some kind of ballerina from the Island of Misfit Toys, complete with metallic purple tutu and red dancer's tights. She was dancing to some hippy band like she thought she was fooling us into thinking that she knew ballet, when she'd apparently never had a dance lesson in her life. There was a man next to her dressed like Jerry Garcia hula-hooping and a woman and young girl twirling some kind of ropes with tassles on the ends. Obviously, something was being smoked down there.

Anyhow, the park was really beautiful with all of the dogwoods just beginning to bloom. We walked around a little bit and decided to take a few minutes before church to sit in the grass and let Gabriel crawl around a little bit. Notice the stylish haircut, made even more stylish by an application of sunscreen on the scalp, in the photos (also, he was trying to go for the camera). He was tired but didn't fall asleep until we were - you guessed it - about five minutes from the apartment.

We were a little bit late for church, but it was a nice mass. At one point, he made his signature exclamation, which sounds like a half cough, half squeal of delight. We were in a smallish section of pews on the right, probably about 10 pews, and we were about the fourth pew back. When he made that noise, everyone behind us started laughing pretty loudly. He smiled at everyone and made lots of friends today. The man behind us said that he looked exactly like the Chipster when he was his age. He seemed really amazed that Gabriel looked so much like him. We could see how that could be the case. Gabriel was really good the whole hour. This was the first time since he was a little baby that he's been able to sit in the pew through the whole mass. It was especially nice for his Mommy and Daddy to be able to sit together the entire time.

We finally got rid of the millions of diapers that Gabriel has outgrown - the church is having a diaper drive, so we were very happy to get rid of them. We'd been wondering where would be the best place to donate them when this happened to come up. It was the perfect solution.

After church, we went to J Ripples and talked to Judd for a while. He's going to close up shop on Wednesday, so we intend to go there every day until Tuesday, since we'll be leaving for Manassas on Wednesday. Matt had white chocolate and stracciatella (vanilla with ground chocolate) and Patty had chocolate espresso and chocolate. He's going to make Patty some gianduja for tomorrow, but he doesn't have the ingredients for Matt's old favorite, pannacotta.