Mall Rats

Not much to say about today (like you expected that, eh?) except that we spent it almost exclusively at the mall. Today was an off Friday for Matt, so Patty was able to get up on her own, without worrying about Gabriel and what he needed. After spending a little time starting her day off, the Chipster did require some breakfast so Patty took care of that in a way that only she can. He went right back to sleep after nursing, so Patty gently nudged Matt awake to let him know that she was going for a run. Five kilometers and one stop at Starbucks later, Patty was back with a coffee for herself and a hocho for Matt.

Pretty soon they were all off to the mall to do some looking and some actual purchasing. They didn't really expect to be there that long, but six hours later they were finally ready to leave. Patty had some new "walking around" shoes, Gabriel had some new shoes of his own as well as a World War I era plane mobile to put up in his new room, and the three of them had a lead on new cell phone service. Gabe did really well as his parents looked in (with very little exaggeration) every store at Lenox Mall. They returned their beloved meat thermometer, which had stopped working several weeks ago leaving the two cooks with little to judge meat doneness on besides a vague idea of what the meat is supposed to feel like. Williams Sonoma apparently gaurantees almost everything they sell for life. Patty and Matt had gotten the meat thermometer over a year and a half ago (as best they could figure) and W S took it back with no questions asked.

It shouldn't come as a surprise to anyone that the Angles detest Sprint PCS. Not only is their customer service questionable, but they don't seem to have coverage in the forthcoming new Angle abode. After doing some serious searching around, we decided on changing over to T-Mobile. Their coverage map indicates that our new house should be in the middle of the their highest coverage area, so we're keeping our fingers crossed. Either way, they aren't Sprint. After determining that T-Mobile had a family plan with two phones and a decent amount of minutes for less than they are paying for their Sprint "service", Patty and Matt had only one hurdle left to leap: getting out of their Sprint contract.

Under normal circumstances, we would have had to pay a $150 early termination fee if we wanted out of our Sprint contract. We figured that since we didn't have coverage in our new house, it wouldn't be a big deal. They told us that that was the one condition under which we could terminate whenever we wanted (not having coverage at home). The problem comes in that their coverage map shows our new house to be very well covered indeed. It took about an hour on the phone (in the heat outside of the T-Mobile store) to convince the fine shysters at Sprint that they might show coverage at our house, but we sure weren't getting any. And that's what having coverage is all about, being able to actually use it. Finally Matt was able to talk to a sympathetic ear (after being told that he should take the phone into a Sprint store near the new house because they'd know where the coverage holes were in that area) and they agreed to waive the fee. They even made it clear that we would be welcomed back to Sprint whenever we wanted. Can you say, "Yeah, right"? Now Patty and Matt each have a phone. We currently have temporary numbers, but one of the phones will have our old number on it as soon as we can determine that we really do have coverage in Dallas and the people at T-Mobile can "port" (that's an industry term, apparently) our old Sprint number over to our new phones. We really love the phones! Patty's has all sorts of bells and whistles while Matt's is a little more understated.

Matt's dad should be getting into town early on the morning of Saturday the second as race day is right around the corner. He'll probably take a couple of hours to sleep off the drive and then who knows what we'll do. Gabe seems to maybe be sick. He certainly has been a pooping machine lately, and we're not sure if his diarrhea is due to a new tooth that seems to be working its way in or from him being sick. Hopefully tomorrow will be better for him but right now he's none too happy about the state of things.

Superwoman, LPN

Tonight we would like to present to you this month’s Urological Nurse in the Spotlight: Cindy Angle. That’s right, Gabriel’s grandma is finally getting a bit of attention for all the hard work she has been doing for the past 28 years and especially the past year or so. While she’s always been eager to go above and beyond the call of duty for her job (not to mention her son), these days Cindy is doing even more. In addition to all of her duties at the office, she has been giving talks to other doctors’ offices about interstitial cystitis. Recently she was asked to be in the journal for her professional society, the Society of Urological Nurses Association. The article is great, and can be found here:

SUNA July Spotlight

Between the article about Jack that the Marines put online a week or so ago and the article about Matt’s mom, people in our family seem to be getting a lot of ink. Stick around, maybe you’ll show up in something, too.

Today was hot here in Atlanta, really freaking hot. It hit 92 today and felt like a lot more. The air conditioning in the Jeep was barely able to keep up with the demand. Matt got a haircut today, and Patty and Gabriel came along. Patty is thinking about doing something drastic to her hair. Thinking about it. So we had a consultation session with Nicholie while she was cutting Matt’s hair. Gabriel had a good time crawling around on the salon’s floor and did his usual charming of the crowd.

The heat drove us to take refuge in ice cream. Marble Slab Creamery was our destination tonight, since we’re still bemoaning the loss of our favorite gelato establishment. We feel like we’re lucky because they’ve had double chocolate ice cream the past two times we’ve been there in a row. Sadly, this isn’t always the case and Patty took advantage of it tonight.

We’re looking forward to the holiday weekend and Matt’s dad and stepmom coming into town. We’re going to continue our Fourth of July tradition of exhausting ourselves by running the Peachtree Road Race, this will be our third year out of three. We haven’t been able to prepare like we’d have liked because Gabe has been with us, but we’re going to do our best. Actually, we know Patty (and Matt’s dad) are going to do really well, it’s mostly just Matt that we’re worried about. Oh well, he’s got three days to train, right? That should be plenty for 6.2 miles.

Gabriel fell asleep on the couch tonight in the arms of both his parents. He even rolled over in his sleep. As he was rolling over, he smiled and gave his Mommy a big kiss - all without once opening his eyes.

Swedish Invasion

The Intimidators whooped the JSF team, 11-9, fighting back not once but TWICE from being behind. Number 6, M. Angle, plated two runs with a double and crossed the plate from second with the next batter, tying the game. Gabriel had a great time, as you can see in the photo, even though he did play with the spawn of an Ohio State family. His friends Brooke and Jordan didn't get as dirty as he did, but they are getting to know him better each week.

In other news, Ikea opened today in Atlanta. It was surprisingly civil, though incredibly busy, and a woman dressed like a Swedish woman gave us a card for a free coffee mug. We won! After buying a new duvet cover for the bed coming from Ann Arbor and a light for Chip's room, we skipped the marketplace, which would have made a dent in our cargo space not to mention our wallets, in order to get to the game on time. We did get a bonus gift, however, when we realized that another person slashed the driver's side window next to the arm-width hole. He apparently decided that the existing hole and the window-filling slashes on the passenger side gave him permission to add to the destruction.

That brings us to our latest breakthrough in home remedies. We (particularly P) get so worked up over the behaviour of people who leave every place they go less good than before they had been there (violating our theory that everyone should try to leave a trail of pixie dust behind them wherever they go, making the world just a little better by their presence, but we won't get into that whole thing right now)... where were we? Oh yeah, we've started talking about exactly what sort of torture we'd like to inflict on the offending person, and it works. It's sick and probably would not be recommended by the priests at our parish, but it sure keeps us from carrying that anger with us. Try it - it's fun!

Congratulations, Erica and Raul!

We’ve had very spotty internet service for the past week, so we haven’t been able to post much. "We do apologize for the inconvenience," as they say. First things first, the big news of the day: Erica and Raul are engaged! They are planning a legal event in Quebec, a celebration of some sort in North America somewhere, and a celebration of some sort in Peru, Raul's homeland. Since this is a very recent development, details have yet to be decided. Whatever they do, it's going to be uniquely their event and will be very meaningful. It was no surprise which of them did the proposing... and Raul said yes. Of course, they're already common-law spouses by Canadian law, but they realized that to them, marriage is a whole different animal. We're so excited for them - they are a completely perfect couple, and it makes us happy to see them together.

And now for an update on the Chipster: Gabriel took his first flight of stairs today at Barnes & Noble. Once he realized that he could get up one step, there was no stopping him. And Mommy tried. We were set up in the children’s section so he could crawl around because he was getting antsy at the Starbucks that’s attached to the B&N, and he didn’t have any toys with him. One of the employees came by several times to play with him, and he even let him play with an Elmo doll and said that they can send it back if Chip drools on it. Now, we don’t think that’s the most ethical decision in the world, but it was sweet that the guy was letting Gabriel have the run of the place. He even let him flip through Harry Potter 5 (Nancy would have freaked out!) until Mommy brought over a more durable book, Guess How Much I Love You, which we know he loves.

Chip’s also becoming a cruising machine. He would let us walk him around all day, if we wanted to. He’s an expert now on pulling himself up on anything, even vertical surfaces. He’s also getting good at walking holding only one of Daddy’s or Mommy’s hands, even though he doesn’t feel very confident about it.

He’s doing a few other new things, too. He’s started pointing at things, which means that he’s ready to start learning words. He’s also been babbling a LOT lately, which means that he’s getting ready to start talking. His cutest sound is "oooooh." He learned how to click pens to get the ink part to come out yesterday, and don’t you know that he has made a few dots on the love seat as this is being written. At least we see these things coming... Anyway, he’s using his play cups to pretend to drink, and he imitates us when we yawn and cough. He loves coughing.

He’s also really inventive at peek-a-boo. This was most fun the other day at Target, where he decided that he isn’t interested in looking at our mugs while we’re shopping; he’d rather turn around and see where he’s going. Shopping cart seats should really be reversible. Anyway... We put him in the actual cart and let him stand up and lead the charge, as it seemed. He turned around and kept hiding behind the cart seat until we called, "Where’s Gabriel?" at which point he stood up and laughed, before hiding again.

We’re encouraging G to eat more grown-up food, and he’s started feeding himself toasted oats, or "Toasty Doats" as we say, which are like Cheerios. Today, he had some macaroni and cheese for lunch and actually ate some of it. That was a surprise, since he really hasn’t liked cheese before.

This month and next, all of Chip’s playgroup friends are turning 1. We went to Jonah’s party last weekend, and we’re going to Jake’s this weekend and Zoe’s next weekend. Except for the brief instant the above photo was taken, Jonah seemed to have a great time, and we know Gabriel did. We'd cry too if there were 50 people saying things to us that we didn't understand while there's a flame in front of our face! It’s so interesting to think how quickly these little ones have grown. It’s not so noticable with Gabriel, since we are with him all the time, but when we first got together, none of them could even sit up, and they certainly didn’t notice each other. Now, they’re playing with each other’s hair, (sometimes) sharing toys, and learning how to walk. Jake even knows a few words, and Jonah took a few steps at playgroup last week!

One more photo, this time of Gabriel helping Daddy put away the groceries (notice the magnet advertising a drag show next to the church bulletin). He loves to help...

It's Nice to Make Friends

Gabriel had playgroup today. He had a great time there playing with Jonah, Jake, and Zoe. It was really interesting to see how mobile they’re all getting. Jonah took a few steps today, and Jake is getting really good at standing. Zoe has gotten really comfortable with all of us, which is so cool because she used to be really shy. Even though we get together every two weeks, the little ones grow so much in between playgroups. They all have a lot in common, though, like their love of veggie puffs, as you can see in the photo.

There was an article about Jack today on the Marines’ web site. We would probably be surprised, but Mom is better than the CIA when it comes to sniffing out information. Whenever we need to research something, we call her and she finds it immediately when it would have taken us weeks. Even Jack asks her about Iraq stuff, because she finds out before he does sometimes. So if you ever need to track down that contractor who absconded with your money or the capital of Andora, now you know whom to call. Anyway, here it is.

Despite a strong start, the Intimidators lost to the Isotopes, 14-4. Matthew was 2 for 3 with a single, a double, and 2 RBIs. He had an amazing 5 putouts - 1 solo and 4 assisted. It would have been 6 but for the fact that Paul, playing 2nd base, mistook Matt for an 8 foot tall person, or for a 5 foot 9 person with ups. Gabriel made some new friends, but they were a little too touchy and grabby and made us nervous. One of them, Ty, watched Daddy play first base through the fence with him. Gabriel’s friends Brooke and Jordan were there, but they didn’t really get to play with him much because of the other kids. Steve met us for dinner at Moe’s before the game and came to watch, so that was a special treat.