Saturday, November 11, 2006
More Williamsburg
Hanging with Mr. Jefferson.


Waiting in front of the William & Mary Bookstore for my friends.


Climbing into a slot entirely too small for her.


Off the beaten path we find some woolly livestock.


This gentleman was auctioning various replica items.

A walk around campus
The Wren building viewed from the direction of Colonial Williamsburg.


To the right is the Wren Chapel. There is a wedding party taking pictures there.


Walking along the sidewalk in front of some of the older academic buildings.


Playing on the marble steps.

Saturday night swim
This time M actually got to be in a picture.

Friday, November 10, 2006
Back to the pool...
Going down...


The aftermath, all before lunch...

A few scenes from Williamsburg
At 3:30 p.m. my obligations to my employer were fulfilled and I was free. I went back to the hotel and picked up the M, Emma and Mike and we finally got to visit Colonial Williamsburg. We're going back in the morning to spend more time, but we wanted to give ourselves a quick preview.




Culmination of our evening out
We ate at a Chinese buffet. When you have a two year-old and you have to eat out for survival you choose a lot of fast food or buffets because two year-olds don't have the patience to wait very long in a restaurant. So tonight, faced with the influx of the tourists for the three-day weekend we were looking for the overlooked. Mike found the perfect place, a Chinese buffet. We could feed Emma shrimp and rice and french fries and broccoli and ice cream. Everyone was happy.

Then came the moment you always wait for when you eat at a Chinese restaurant, the fortune cookie. You find out your fate as designated by a random scrap of paper stuffed in a cookie that will outlast the apocalypse. Here it is...my personal moment of truth...

Thursday, November 09, 2006
You know you've picked the wrong seminar when...
you're sitting in a dry lecture and fighting off sleep and you can hear the room next to you erupting in laughter every three minutes. Argh!
The featured event
This is what Emma and Daddy are here for, the swimming. They made the most of it, spending over an hour and a half at the pool.





The Vocalizer
At my first meeting we had a really interesting speaker. I was very interested in his topic and while he spoke for over an hour, he could have gone on longer as far as I was concerned.

Except...

There was a woman sitting next to me that made noise the entire time. I'm guessing it was unconcious most of the time. One of those hum-hummers. Except she'd say things too. She'd comment or respond to the speaker, like she was sitting in her own living room. The speaker would ask a question of the crowd and she'd answer quietly, and then again louder, and again, and again, but never loud enough for the speaker to actually hear her. Once or twice she'd say the wrong answer and I wanted to laugh out loud. Maybe I should have offered her Emma's spare pacifier in my purse.
Playdoh with Daddy
First they made playdoh glasses.



I'm not even sure what this was.

My morning
It actually started off last night. After all the effort I made to pack everything M and Emma could possibly need I ended up shorting myself. How could I know? I got a visit from every woman's favorite visitor. And I was totally unprepared, totally. I was grumpy because I'd have to visit a drug store in the morning, cutting into my family time before my meetings. I was trying to come up with all kinds of ideas to prolong the inevitable.

Then this morning I got up (after not falling asleep until after 3:00 a.m.) and started to get dressed and realized that I had left my makeup at home. All of it. No moisturizer, no cold cream, no concealer, no powder, no eyeliner, no blush, and no mascara. I would not be able to appear in public.

I called the front desk shortly after 7:00 a.m. "Where can you buy makeup at this hour of the morning?" She said Walmart or Kmart. (Williamsburg has a Walmart now?) So we made plans to go out and buy me a face. She girl at the desk said we could stop by the desk and pick up written directions.

I sent M down to get the directions. I didn't want to show my bare face. When he went to the desk to ask for directions he explained that he had forgotten his makeup.

I got dressed and did my hair and the three of us drove to the new Walmart and bought everything I needed. I spent $34.44 on stuff that I already had sitting at home. We came back and ate breakfast together and then I packed my stuff and headed out. I stopped by the front desk to leave a message for my friend, Mike, who was checking in later. When I told the girl my room number she smiled and said, "Oh, you're the make-up lady."
Wednesday, November 08, 2006
Packing now...
Emma's at Mary's and M is on the way home from his buckwheat run to West Virginia. In a couple of hours we'll be getting this show on the road. We're picking up M when he closes the store and heading for the highway. We'll stop for supper and then finish the trip to Williamsburg. I'm really looking forward to it. I know M is looking forward to totally free and unstructured time with Emma. And a swimming pool.

No more updates tonight. Hope to have something for you tomorrow night.
Tuesday, November 07, 2006
Another Poor M post
He has a job with the local board of elections. He used to be a poll worker, then a member of the electoral board, and then the electoral board secretary (the one who runs the elections in the county). He gave up that job to run for County Treasurer, a race he lost. He was out of the business for two election cycles and then this year the current electoral board secretary asked him to be custodian of the new electronic voting machines. He's responsible for their care and functioning.

Today he was on call. Unfortunately because of that he had to make his shopping run last night. After he put Emma to bed (that's his preference). He got home at 3:00 a.m. I woke up around 4:30 a.m. and needed a drink of water. I found him sacked out on the couch downstairs. I go back to bed and actually get back to sleep. The phone rings 5:30 a.m. The the pollworkers in our precinct couldn't get their machine to work. He told the guy some possible fixes on the phone. They tried them and then called back. So M threw on his clothes and went down there. It was exactly what he told them on the phone, he just had to do it for them. Then they ran into another problem he fixed for them. While he's there another precinct calls in with the exact same problem. After that everyone seemed to do OK.

Right he's snoring on the couch beside me. Shocking, I know.
Happy Election Day!
I'm watching the returns now. It's amazing the swings the course of the evening is taking. Half an hour ago they were saying the returns were possibly portending a big move toward the Democrats in the House. Now that some Florida seats have been retained they're not so sure there's a trend. I think there's going to be a lot of back and forth and it will be a late, late night. But not for me.

Watching the Virginia Senate race unfold is pretty wild too. I'm watching the returns on the Board of Elections site, which refreshes every 2 minutes. Allen is ahead but the margin is only thousands. I've watched it go 9, 8, 6, 3, 2, 3 and on and on. This is one tight race. And it's a crucial seat in the Democrat's bid to gain the Senate majority.

Eh...still not enough to keep me up all night.
Happy Election Day!
I'm watching the returns now. It's amazing the swings the course of the evening is taking. Half an hour ago they were saying the returns were possibly portending a big move toward the Democrats in the House. Now that some Florida seats have been retained they're not so sure there's a trend. I think there's going to be a lot of back and forth and it will be a late, late night. But not for me.

Watching the Virginia Senate race unfold is pretty wild too. I'm watching the returns on the Board of Elections site, which refreshes every 2 minutes. Allen is ahead but the margin is only thousands. I've watched it go 9, 8, 6, 3, 2, 3 and on and on. This is one tight race. And it's a crucial seat in the Democrat's bid to gain the Senate majority.

Eh...still not enough to keep me up all night.
Monday, November 06, 2006
Dew Mountain
The intrepid little climber goes up the mountain. She could come down without help, but my heart will last longer if I don't have to watch her do it. She did this about fifty times.




Sunday, November 05, 2006
Getting ready to get ready
But I'm starting to get organized for our trip this week. On Wednesday we're headed to Williamsburg, VA. I have some business down there and I thought we'd stay a few extra days and have a little family getaway. I carefully chose the hotel for it's indoor heated pool, so that Daddy and Emma can have lots of fun while I'm out all day.

In a bizarre coincidence my best friend from college, Mike, has a conference in Williamsburg the following week. He lives around Boston and we haven't seen him since we met in Williamsburg for our 10 year reunion in 2001. He's going to fly down a few days early so he can hang with us. He's never met Emma. Mike and M get along really well so the three of us have always had a good time together.

Finally, another friend, Meredith (Mer), now lives in Chesapeake and she's going to try to meet up with us on Saturday. I also haven't seen her since the 10 year reunion so this is going to be a treat. She was pregnant then and we haven't had the opportunity to meet her third child, Ben.

As you can imagine I'm pretty excited about all of this because I have few friend where I live. It's just so remote and the pickins and slim.

Now I just have to pack, striking that balance between forgetting half of what I need and bringing everything but the kitchen sink. (We're in a suite so they'll have a kitchen sink there ;)
The beads are back!
And so is the paci. Sigh.



P.S. This is a shirt I bought for $1.99 on post Valentines clearance at Target. Woo hoo!
I helping
Nowadays when we're working at the sink or the counter Emma will push a kitchen chair right next to us and climb up so she can get in on the action. Daddy is freeing the filet mignon from it's packaging and Emma is working over her sucker. She's a good helper ;)