Another tooth lost

Last night, as with most nights, I heard a loud ruckus upstairs after the kids went to bed. Unlike most nights, the cacophony was followed by much wailing. Liam had accidentally bumped Thea's mouth with his head and knocked one of her loose teeth looser. After she finished crying, she was actually relieved to be able to pull it out!

My knitting circle

Nylonthread and I had a great time on Sunday. We started teaching the girls how to knit. It didn't seem like they were terribly interested, but the wanted to pick it up again tonight. They got frustrated when it seemed that they had forgotten everything they learned. I told them, Keep knitting, it'll turn out just fine. Aisha shrugged and said of her mistakes, "It's part of my history." Indeed, little philosopher.

Thea, Aisha, and Asma

Fiber art

My great grandmother crocheted this blanket years ago. I'd love to learn how to do something similar, though I doubt I'd ever have her skill.

The Thanksgiving fashion show/dance contest

Here's some video I took on Thanksgiving. Liam and Omar dance like crazy men.

 

 The girls put on a fashion show.

 

Bread from a bread machine that doesn't suck

I've had a bread machine for years and have always loved it more in theory than practice. But I recently found a recipe that works pretty well. The key is to make the dough in the bread machine, then bake it in the oven. Here's the recipe:

Italian Bread Using a Bread Machine


Ingredients

4 cups unbleached all-purpose flour
1 tablespoon light brown sugar
1 1/3 cups warm water (110 degrees F/45 degrees C)
1 1/2 teaspoons salt
1 1/2 teaspoons olive oil
1 (.25 ounce) package active dry yeast

Directions

1. Place flour, brown sugar, warm water, salt, olive oil and yeast in the pan of the bread machine in the order recommended by the manufacturer. Select dough cycle; press Start.
   
2. Deflate the dough and turn it out onto a lightly floured surface. Form dough into two loaves. Place the loaves seam side down on a baking sheet. Cover the loaves with a damp cloth and let rise, until doubled in volume about 40 minutes.
   
3. Meanwhile, preheat oven to 375 degrees F (190 degrees C).
   
4. Make a single long, quick cut down the center of the loaves with a sharp knife. TIP: If you think you haven't cut deeply enough, cut a little deeper.
   
5. Bake in preheated oven for 30 to 35 minutes, or until loaves sound hollow when tapped on the bottom.

A few of my favorite people

Heather and Amy were in town for Thanksgiving, which was fantastic. They stayed an extra night so I could show them a little of DC and how much it has changed since Heather left eight years ago. We went to H Street, to my favorite bar on the street, Little Miss Whiskey's, and Sticky Rice for vegan delectables, then to Red Palace for a burlesque show that we ended up skipping because we all had to be up early, alas.

Kelly, Abigail, Heather, Heather, and Amy. Mike took this using a panorama app. Cool!

But he couldn't get himself in the shot so I had to take him separately.

Thanksgiving entertainment

Thanksgiving was really lovely this year. We were joined by Heather and Amy, who drove down from New Jersey with their two dogs, and the neighbors, who are welcome and constant fixtures in our life these days.

The girls have been planning a fashion and talent show for weeks, and the performance was absolutely charming. Liam was such a supportive brother. Every time Thea came out in a new outfit, he clapped loudly and said something sweet, like "I like that color," or "Oo, sparkly." My kids are so awesome.

Pre-Thanksgiving moment

I'm thankful for reminders to be thankful.

Oh my...

I mean, whatever, it's cool. O_o

Yeah, I have no idea what we're doing

This is a random picture from the summer. I think we're about to eat Dominic's brain.

Do you read Saturday Morning Breakfast Cereal?

If not, why not?

(Mobile Blogger sucks. Here's the link: http://www.smbc-comics.com/.)

The Metropolitan Opera presentation of Satyagraha

The Met has the coolest, craziest way of broadening the appeal of opera: they broadcast live performances in movie theaters across the country. I don't know if it's done everywhere, but the DC area is lucky enough to have several participating theaters to choose from.

Today we went to see Philip Glass's Satyagraha, an opera based on the life of Gandi. It was fantastic. I can't wait to see another performance.

Liam turns 6 years old today!

For his celebratory dinner, he asked for sushi. His favorite is the California roll. It was such a lovely time. We all ate so much we barely had room for the birthday donuts waiting for us at home.

This year Liam started kindergarten. It's been quite the change, but he's handling it really well. He's charming, sweet, and VERY smart. His best friend is Omar, who he sees just about every day. The two of them are a bit of a handful together, but so adorable and fun. Liam's favorite thing to do right now, besides play with Omar, is play wii games, and his favorite food is meatballs.

Happy birthday, my sweet boy! I love you so much. You are a treasure.

I'm thinking of moving my blog to WordPress

Here's why:

1. Blogger increasingly sucks. It choked when I tried to give a post the title "I <3 Pinterest." I'm assuming the caret was verboten. Seriously? No "<3"? And have you looked at the HTML after you create a post in compose mode? MESSY.

Relatedly, are you on Pinterest? It's basically a visual bookmarking site, a place where you can share cool things that you find around the interwebs. I totally dig it. If you'd like an invitation, let me know!

2. The mobile experience is prohibitively abysmal. It's almost impossible to use without making me curse at something, and there's no way to back-date a post.

3. I'm still really ticked off at Google over them ditching Reader's social features. Here's a more coherent rant about why than I can provide right now.

Can anyone think of a reason not to switch?

Video: Tinariwen, Tenere Taqqim Tossam

I really can't express how much I love this band. Here's a video of a song I'm especially fond of, which they perform here with TV on the Radio:

Tinariwen at the 9:30

Weirdest holiday mall decoration ever

WTF is that thing supposed to be?

New Year's Eve, late '90s

Franke posted this on Facebook a few days ago. I can't remember which year it's from, but I do remember that wig. We all had such a blast that night.

Damn you, autocorrect

From a text conversation with Mike. Lulz!

Liam's progress in kindergarten

I had a parent-teacher conference today for both the kids. Liam's progress is going along very well. His teacher said he's already where he should be at the end of the year in reading, writing, and math, and he's one of her top students. Additionally, she said he's sweet, good natured, helpful, and attentive. The one problem area: he and Omar can be trouble-makers! (Not surprising or troubling at all.)

Here are a couple of his class assignments. Cute!

These shoes could be a weapon

When I have a difficult meeting at work, I like to wear these shoes. They make me over six feet tall and feel like a superhero.

Liam says "Wow"

He also said, last night, that he wanted a mohawk. I immediately tweeted this:

My not-quite-six-year-old son just said he wanted a mohawk!! As a former punk rock girl turned suburban mom, I have no idea how to respond.

My friends replied almost unanimously with "Dye it blue."

Thea lost another tooth

I got nothing

When I was a teenager, I went through an existentialist phase. I read everything I could by Albert Camus; his writing gave words to what I was feeling inside as a messed-up almost-adult who never fit in and probably never would. Exile and the Kingdom is still one of my all-time favorite books.

Another favorite was Being and Nothingness, although I wouldn't say I understood all of it. One passage that stuck with me all these years, though, was about fear and choice. He wrote about how, when you're on the edge of a cliff and filled with dread at the idea of falling, what you actually fear is that nothing is holding you back.

Vertigo is anguish to the extent that I am afraid not of falling over the precipice, but of throwing myself over.

 You could jump or stand still. What happens next is all on you.

Fall by the lake

I had to drag Liam away from the Wii this afternoon, but the kids had a lovely time playing by the lake once we got there.

Stormy Weather

I let the kids stay up late and watched Stormy Weather with them last night. It's a fantastic film. I highly recommend it. Here's the last dance number:

Did I tell you Thea was in a school play?

I may have neglected to tell you this, but Thea was in a school play at the end of first grade. She played a scientist who helped a crane family. She had more lines than any other kid but still managed to memorize then all. And her delivery was beautiful. I was so proud!

Shooting at the walls of heartache

Mike and I went to a shooting range a couple weekends ago. I did pretty well!

Halloween wrap-up

For the last several years, I've made sure the kids went trick-or-treating in our neighborhood. They don't get as big of a haul as they have in other neighborhoods, but I think it's a good idea to let the neighbors see the kids and vice versa. This year they went with our next door neighbors and some friends from down the street.

Omar was a vampire

Ginger was a robot

Aisha was a kangaroo

Liam, as you know, was Darth Vader

The younger kids surveyed their candy while the older kids ran off somewhere

I also try to decorate as much as possible, to entice kids to come down our street. It's an uphill battle. You just don't see many kids out on Halloween in our neighborhood.

My yearly banner

I put our carved pumpkins out right before the kids went trick-or-treating, so they weren't eaten by squirrels. It was a little hard to find pumpkins this year. Apparently the east coast hurricane a few months back destroyed a lot of crops.

Thea's pumpkin

Liam's pumpkin

Mike's pumpkin

Kelly's pumpkin

Todd's pumpkin

Ninja Thea and Darth Liam

The kids had the cutest costume ideas this year! Liam really wanted to be Darth Vader, but hadn't decided on his costume until it might have been too late. Todd took the kids three places to look for costumes, and finally found exactly what he needed: a partial costume, just the mask, cape, and belt, so on sale for $10, exactly what we agreed to spend. A Halloween miracle!

Thea wanted to be a ninja, so Todd bought her a hat to be used as a ski mask, and I cut the panel out for the eyes. I have to admit, I'm terribly impressed with her costume and glad to have the princess phase behind us.