Domestic-ness

I roasted a chicken and made mashed potatoes and gravy last night. Whenever I make that, which is one of Hans' favorite meals every, I feel so domestic. It is like the classic domestic meal. Now if it would have been done properly and we didn't have to stick the already cut up bird BACK into the oven to finish roasting it would have been nice. But skeptic me... I never trust the thermometer (yes, I am a scientist, really), it had been in for as long as advised. Oh well. So it was a little dryer than it likely should have been.

We had an alright weekend. AB spent much of his waking time working on a take home test that was due Sunday. We bailed on the Pumpkin Patch because of this. So Leif and I entertained ourselves.

Saturday we made waffles, after his nap we went to the mall and bought "play clothes" at Children's Place and I ordered new prescription sunglasses ($ouch$). Children's Place was interesting. I rounded up my purchases, including a hat that makes Leif look *exactly* like daddy. We were in line and getting a little annoyed by the woman in front of us who kept begging for answers. Then I started listening to her. Her complaint was that online are advertised 50% off in store sales, where is the stuff?

I had noticed recently that whenever everyone else is having season clearances, CP rarely has much to offer. I became intrigued by the answer... evidently it is much more worth their time to box up and ship off to other stores their out of season items rather than put them out at a discount. The girl said it would take at least 12 hours to sort them and they didn't have the time or space for this. And to not expect that in the future they will either, instead they will just box it up and ship them off to another store. I felt completely jipped and somewhat irked.

I suppose not enough so that it will cause me to change my purchasing habits there since I proceeded to rack up $74.73 worth of "play clothes" for Leif... The woman asked if I wanted to spend $.27 cents more and get a free picture frame... why sure. (Insert amazement that she knew it was $.27 cents that quickly...) Oh wait, we are in the age of technology, the register probably told her what she needed to read off to me...

New sunglasses! Yay! Old ones (at least 7 years old I figure) broke on the DC trip. $245 later... hence the ouch. The girl helping me told me if I found a coupon in the next 30 days to bring it in. I recalled V e-mailing me a coupon and so I went and pulled it up and hauled it in when I picked them up the next morning, saved $85. I don't feel *so* bad now.

Saturday night I cooked "crab pot". I was in the mood to cook but Leif doesn't like me being in the kitchen. He will play nice in there for about 5 minutes... then he starts pushing me out of the kitchen and if I don't comply he resorts to the chompers. Biting. Which makes me unhappy and him doubley unhappy for being punished. So I was in the mood to cook and sought out an easy (done in under 30 minutes) new recipe. I would post the recipe but couldn't find it on the Cuisine at Home site... kind of a cross between a Thai tom yum soup with coconut milk and a stew since it had bacon and potatoes in it. It was different, but very good. And it got rid of the age old king crab in the freezer.

Sunday I slept in, Hans made cinnamon rolls (canned), and we went for our Winny walk. Leif loves walking with and not riding in the stroller. Amazingly he will walk nearly a half mile before pooping out. The good thing though is that after he walks this distance he is READY for a nap. On Sunday he wanted his pacifier out of the stroller. So we gave it to him. That is usually a sign he is getting tired. Then he went and did something new and pretty silly. He walked to the front of the stroller, got onto his knees on the asphault trail and layed his head down on the asphault. He was tired and ready for a nap. LOL.

I picked him up and carried him a little while since I certainly wasn't going to make him lie down and sleep there. Then we got him into the reclining stroller where he konked and slept for the rest of the walk.

We got home and I showered and ran out to get my new sunglasses. Then to take my car for an oil change and car wash. I found out my car needs work though, some snake-type belt is damaged and shouldn't be, should be covered under warranty though. (My Four-Runner has had an abnormal number of bad belts and it is only just over 2 years old.) So now to fit that into our schedule - thankfully AB works near me. I looked at my schedule today and not a single day (other than today) am I not required to be at some other building. I would say "offsite" building, but I am the one offsite and requiring me to drive to the "onsite" buildings... Oh well, I will have to steal the Subaru for a day and AB will be without a car.

We bought our plane tickets for Alaska for Christmas. We leave on the 21st at 7:30pm and arrive at 1am, come back on the 28th at 2am and arrive back here at 8am. Miserable flights I know, by choice. We figured maybe this would mean Leif would sleep the entire time both ways? Please, please, please?? And maybe, just maybe, the flights won't be full? Another please, please, please...

Work is going well to start this morning. I have 4 of my 6 confirmed invited talks. 2 of the 3 people I invited who I didn't know accepted, even the guy who is supposidly ancient and "never travels anymore", I am glad I tried him! He accepted! I invited one of my CW (also a friend) to talk, my one local talk. He accepted but is trying to come up with a topic since our research is off limits for discussion until the patent comes through. But he is a line manager... he can talk about his employees work can't he!

I got a nice call from a guy in another part of the lab looking for someone with Auger expertise. He said he found my bio on a Sharepoint site and noted that I had done surface science and Auger work and asked to meet with me! Whee! But of course, can I come talk to you right now?? Just kidding, the meeting is for tomorrow morning, but I am very intrigued.

Ok, time for lunch, and to get my day moving along.