Tag Archives: personal

We’re Updating Our Kitchen

If you’re a home­own­er, then you know how hard it can be to work on the projects you want to ver­sus those you have to. We’ve been talk­ing about mak­ing changes in our kitchen since before Char­lie arrived. Now the time has come!

It’s hard to tell in this pic­ture, but it’s some­thing of a big, dumb space. It’s a long, wide rec­tan­gle with all the cab­i­nets on one side and an open shelf from Ikea on the oth­er. Not ideal.

So we’re work­ing with our friends Chad and Nic at Post­green to update it ele­gant­ly and afford­ably. I’ll post reg­u­lar updates on the project, along with tips on how to sur­vive a kitchen remod­el with­out spend­ing a month at restau­rants. Get ready for some gueril­la recipes out of crock­pot, rotis­serie and rice cook­ers, people!

In Praise of December

It’s cliche, but hav­ing a baby real­ly changes every­thing. I’ve been see­ing our hol­i­day prepa­ra­tions through Char­lie’s gleam­ing eyes and it just fills me with joy. Hear­ing him say “Han­ta” or “ho ho ho” puts a smile on my face. Can­not wait to see his reac­tion to the tree once it’s com­plete­ly decorated.

Thing I can’t recap­ture is that feel­ing of life slow­ing down. Decem­ber used to feel so long to me as a kid. Not sure if it was that the days were grow­ing short­er, or if the time spent inside meant more time with fam­i­ly, but the sea­son could real­ly sink in. Feel like I could just soak up the Christ­mas music blar­ing out of our lit­tle GE cas­sette play­er, the smell of cook­ies fill­ing our old farm­house. It was a warm, safe, wel­come feel­ing that maybe only a kid can feel.

Try­ing to re-cre­ate that mag­ic isn’t easy, but we’re try­ing. Helen and I have been burn­ing obnox­ious­ly-scent­ed hol­i­day can­dles, crank­ing up the Christ­mas tunes on the TV and get­ting every­thing togeth­er for our annu­al Christ­mas par­ty this week­end. Real­ly look­ing for­ward to see­ing friends and enjoy­ing their com­pa­ny. Can’t wait!

No Marathon for Me This Year

I had big plans for the 2010 marathon sea­son after my marathon mess last year. Instead I won’t be run­ning at all. Sit­ting this one out. And I’m major­ly bummed.

What hap­pened?

For starters, snow. Lots of it. Even if I want­ed to get out­side and gear up for spring races I could­n’t have as Philly was besieged by a record 73″ of snow. But that should­n’t mat­ter, right? Skip those spring races and train for fall! That’s the ticket!

Wrong again, sadly.

Morn­ings are a tricky thing in our house­hold. Char­lie still wakes up to nurse around 4 AM or so and can­not ever set­tle him­self back to sleep. And Helen’s not a morn­ing per­son, so morn­ings are Dad­dy’s duty. So instead of knock­ing out 3 or more miles a morn­ing, I’m chas­ing Char­lie around the house try­ing to feed and clothe him before he’s off to daycare.

Much as I’d like to be Super Dad and find a way to work out either dur­ing the work­day or after­wards, I just can’t. Run­ning at night in Fishtown/Port Rich­mond is worth your life sim­ply because of vis­i­bil­i­ty and traf­fic. And who wants to run after din­ner? Not me, that’s who.

I like to think that once Char­lie weans he’ll be more will­ing to sleep lat­er sim­ply because he won’t have the urge to nurse the moment he wakes at the crack of dawn. Maybe then I’ll be able to sneak out, fire up my Garmin watch and get in a few miles before I have to get him dressed and ready for preschool. Fin­gers crossed!