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March 2006 Archives

Crawling

Another 9:15 haul out of King’s Cross, I’m afraid, though I played hooky for a bit this morning - took the 8:45 in, and spent my early morning with Em. Very well worth it, as she decided to crawl about the living room, in a patently-undeniable-this-time-round manner. Crawling, for real. Still a hint of the elbow-shuffling ‘commando’ style to her movement, I’ll admit - but it was nevertheless honest-to-God hands-and-knees crawling, from point A to point B. I don’t know what other adjective I can use to make the point, here, other than ‘veritable’, maybe. So, yes, it was veritable crawling in Cambridge today, and we’ve got video, below.

Emelyn was 8 months, yesterday. That seems absolutely ridiculous to me, now. We all hear certain phrases ad naseum our whole childhoods, with “They grow up so fast, don’t they?” being one trope I’ve always loathed, and yet here I am, suddenly horrified at the blatant truthfulness therein. Because, honestly, it seems only yesterday that I was plunking British Pound coins into the Kenco™ coffee machine at the Rosie Maternity; now Em is suddenly 8 months old, crawling dangerously towards the fireplace, and I find my own self clutching a free-sample-size can of “Pepsi Max coffee Cino - low-calorie coffee-flavoured soft drink” and riding a commuter train out of London. Mon Dieu! Where does all the time go, anyways? (And why do I keep accepting these awful drink samples?)

Anyhow, as much as I could praise the beauty and joy of The Kid for hours, I figure it’s more fun to leave with a description of something shudderingly annoying. In this case, it’s teeth grinding. Sure, Emmie’s only got about 4.2 teeth, but she’s become literally obsessed with grinding the bottom two against her still-erupting front teeth. To me, the noise is worse than scratching one’s fingernails on a chalkboard - it’s improbably loud, and horrifyingly grating. And then she’ll up and do it again, not three seconds later.

Without exaggerating, I’d guess Emelyn does this about 10-15 times an hour - I can only presume it feels good, since she’s teething - but hoo boy, it gives you the willies. Can’t wait for this little trend to stop. EEEEE?

St. Paddy's day

This week has been an awful one, work-wise, coming right on the heels of us choosing not to move to London. Ironic only in the Alannis Morissette sense.

It’s launch week on a new site that was supposed to go live, like, two weeks ago. Azure’s therefore put up with late nights and lousy conversation for five straight days and then, come Friday, I pop off and have a round with co-workers on St. Paddy’s.

Not a mortal sin, or anything, but then I miss train, to boot.

So it wasn’t until 9:30 that I pulled out of King’s Cross. That also meant dining at the station’s disreputable Burger King on a night that Az cooked a great dinner. Clichéd salary-man tale if I’ve ever heard one, no?

Emmie’s been about as helpful as myself, lately. Of course, three of her four front teeth just broke through her gums, so she has a good excuse for her terrible mood. As a result of which she’s also been making this non-stop EEEEEEEEEEEE noise all day long. I only deal with 30 minutes or so of it before I’m out the door in the mornings; Azure on the other hand, is getting 40-hours-a-week worth. Yikes.

Anyhow. There’s a million-and-one ways anything and everything could be worse, so I’ll leave with a silver lining: I stayed at home late this morning, so I could see a bit of Em. I was trying to do whatever I could to stop her aforementioned whine, so I started a little waltz, holding her hand in mine; Blue Danube and then some. She loved it. Az came and watched, and Emmie just kept smiling, and for a brief, spinning moment, it was Friday morning in Paradise.

Ginger bread at Auntie's

As a kid, I loved reading books that talked about sweets. Desserts and treats always make a memorable appearance in good children’s literature, or at least, they do in every book I regard as good.

Nobody, of course, is better at this than the Brits. English stories always featured some dessert I’d never heard of, which sounded so good and exotic that I never quite knew if it was real, or utterly fantastical.

Narnia, for example, had Turkish Delight. Dickens rambled on about flaming Christmas Pudding in A Christmas Carol, which I adored. I know a few books that mentioned treacle, which always sounded good, though I had no idea what it was. Tolkien wrote a whole story about a baker’s quest to make the world’s finest ‘fairy-cake’. And nevermind Roald Dahl - Fox and Badger’s stores of fizzy cider, plus the scrum-dilly-umptious universe of Mr. Wonka & co.

It’s still going on. I bet half of J.K. Rowling’s global success is due to the inclusion of Bertie Botts All-flavour Beans and frothing mugs of butterbeer in every Harry Potter book. Who wouldn’t want a taste?

Now that I actually live in the UK, I obviously go bonkers when I come across one of these fine-sounding treats. I have to have it. Like on Sunday - Azure, Emmie, and I went out for tea to Auntie’s. Azure ordered Lady Grey and apple pie, but I had “Hot Ginger Bread drizzled with warm maple syrup, topped with whipped cream”. Never heard of such a thing, but boy, it seemed straight out of the storybooks.

It was awesome.

Emelyn also dined out at Auntie’s, having some carrot-zucchini-butternut-squash puree. I’m tickled to report that she was perfectly behaved. One old Englishman went so far as to wander over to our table, pause, and say, “Well she certainly doesn’t shout much”, with a nod of approval.

January 27

  • Jason checked in @
    Stumptown Coffee Cafe

January 21

  • Angry, upset, and frightened by the Big Mac Snack Wrap.
  • Jason checked in @
    Glo's

January 8

  • Am in the Tiki-Tiki-Tiki-Tiki Tiki room.

December 30

  • Jason checked in @
    Luscious Dumplings

December 24

  • Mannheim Steamrollin'.

December 22

  • Jason checked in @
    Tapas & Wine Bar C
  • Back in Pasadena for a couple weeks. Mentally prioritizing and optimizing my must-visit restaurant list. (Burrito Express = already done.)

December 20

  • Jason posted The Higo
  • Jason posted Tyrolean

December 13

  • Need a sniglet for this here feeling of trepidation/dread after wolfing down a post-midnight (Pike) street-vendor hotdog. "Nachtwurstangst"?

December 12

  • Kindle'd "And Another Thing...". So far, the reading experience has been like watching good movie with bad dubbing.

December 10

  • Jason checked in @
    Cafe Presse

December 9

  • Jason checked in @
    Philly's

December 7

  • Jason checked in @
    Slim's Last Chance Chili Shack

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