Happy Halloween, everybody!

I tried to explain to Henry that normally you don't accept candy from strangers but that it's okay on Halloween because it's Halloween and that's what you do. I'm not sure the lesson stuck. Once Huck had that first piece of candy in his teeny toddler hands, he was off and running, literally running, for much of our journey through the neighborhood. He mistakenly understood people opening their front doors to give him candy as an invite to wander inside. Whoops. All in all, it was a successful first Halloween adventure and he had two friends - Tevia (the panda) and Isabella (the chicken) to hang out with for the evening. Of course there were pictures...

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We locked our baby in the car and people are judging us.

If you aren't watching this show, you should be. There are at least two places online you can catch it - Hulu.com and ABC's site. It's hilarious and a current favorite here at the condo.

Let me file this in the "No Sh*t" category

Your PERSONAL issues Score is 100%.
Your ECONOMIC issues Score is 40%.

According to your answers, the political group that agrees with you most is...

LIBERALS usually embrace freedom of choice in personal

matters, but tend to support significant government control of the

economy. They generally support a government-funded "safety net"
to help the disadvantaged, and advocate strict regulation

of business. Liberals tend to favor environmental regulations,

defend civil liberties and free expression, support government action

to promote equality, and tolerate diverse lifestyles.

Interested to see where you fall, click here.

Which religion should you follow

Sex Mints: Brought to you by some enterprising person

You gotta admire the spirit with which these were made and marketed. "Internal Feminine Flavoring" - I like that they point out it's for women. Lord knows where a man would stick it, right? Also, how very cool is it that Linger is "free of artificial dyes." They could have done something really awesome like those folks over at the glow-in-the-dark condom factory. But, no, they reigned that shit in and instead focused their attention on design so that the item is "shaped for comfort during insertion."

Really, I have nothing more to say.

Al Franken, opening a can of whup @$$

No Einstein here

"According to a 2003 study, a third of all babies from 6 months to 2 years old had at least one "Baby Einstein" video."

Thankfully I never got into the Baby Einstein video craze. It didn't make sense that seemingly acid trip-inspired videos set to classical music would somehow turn my child brilliant - as an aside, Huck's brilliant for an entirely different set of reasons. And apparently Disney is thinking the same thing or rather they are acting to avoid a class-action lawsuit for deceptive marketing practices. Disney is offering refunds for folks who purchased the videos under the assumption that having infants watch t.v. is a good and educational thing to do. It's not. Says Vicky Rideout, vice president of Kaiser Family Foundation,

"To me, the most important thing is reminding parents that getting down on the floor to play with children is the most educational thing they can do."

Lest you think I stand on any kind of soapbox, Henry has watched t.v. before. He's seen a couple Disney/Pixar films and has even been to the movies. (We only have basic cable and I'm scared to death he'll find and love Barney so we don't usually even turn on the t.v. when he's awake.) He prefers books to the boob tube, for now at least, and I like to encourage that because boys tend to lag behind girls when it comes to reading.

For the full article over at the NY Times, click here.

Not from a box

Tonight we hosted dinner at our house for some friends who have never been to our house for dinner so we kind of busted our butts to crank out tasty offerings from the kitchen. Our feast preparations began yesterday when I mixed together the ingredients for Bittman's no-knead bread. (Three ingredients mixed together and a whole lot of waiting and voila! you have bread.) The work continued this morning when, rather fortuitously, our son woke up for a 3:30 a.m. pasta and cereal break and mini dance party. While Huck was busy eating, I was making the world's best pie crust (secret ingredient, vodka) and getting it into the fridge so it'd be ready to roll out once we woke up after going back to sleep. At around 8:00 a.m., we hauled ourselves (well, Henry and I did) out of bed and schlepped back into the kitchen to ... well, you get the idea. It was a super busy day spent in the kitchen for the most part, the small bit of non-most part included me leaving the kitchen to clean and do laundry and Darr leaving the kitchen to tend to the dog and take out the trash. The end result was one delicious meal, if I do say so myself.

L'antipasto

prosciutto-wrapped asparagus

baguette with goat cheese, lemon zest, and parsley

Il primo

bean pot vegetables with bacon

homemade bread

Il secondo

garlic-roasted leg of lamb

roasted acorn squash with caramelized brown sugar

homemade bread

Il dolce

roasted apple pie with homemade vanilla ice cream

Painful launch

When Darr first showed me this, I thought he was joking.

Coffee making in the nude

You should be able to walk around your house naked making your coffee like this guy without being charged with a crime. If someone happens to walk by outside, look in and see you naked, well that's just a bonus for them. They can continue to walk along and stop staring if it is bothersome to them or they can stand out there throwing dollar bills into the yard and hollering words of encouragement. What they should not be able to do is call the police and pretend they've been traumatized by the sight of a naked body. There is lewd and lascivious behavior and there is 'I'm walking around MY HOME naked' behavior. The two should not be confused. The police claim the guy was arrested because the officers believed he "wanted to be seen naked by the public". Give me a frickin' break.

For all you BofA credit cardholders

Got one of these cards? Now might be the time to pay it off (if you don't already do that monthly) and unload it. Bank of America just announced it is going to resume charging annual fees to their customers that rarely carry balances and don't incur late or overlimit fees. Why? Because if you are a good cardholder, they don't make any money off you.

The double post: Boy outfit #8 and well baby

Henry's current stats:
Weight: 22 lbs / 5%
Height: 34.75 in / 65%
Head Circumference: 48 cm / 40%

Dang if the kid didn't fool us into believing he'd actually gained a lot of weight over the past few months. He certainly feels heavier. Ah well, he's still growing enough to fit (sort of) into bigger clothes. The sleeves are a little long but it's got a big old bus on the front so what's not to like, eh?

Shopping guide info:
1. shirt - Mini Boden, purchased at www.bodenusa.com
2. pants - Guess, purchased at Nordstrom
3. shoes - See Kai Run, purchased at Haggis McBaggis

Year Two

Year Two from Christie Glynn on Vimeo.

Party prep

I'm not sure when gift bags for the guests at birthday parties became the norm but Henry's already received a couple bags and he's only been to a few parties so I'm guessing most parents are already adhering to this new party rule. It just so happens that our closest (by location) family members include two other toddlers - Gavin and Miss Amels - so I started thinking about what to put inside said gift bags about a week ago when it occurred to me that I should participate in this gift bag tradition. I love giving gifts!

Last night, my efforts culminated in a handmade bag, tagged with each guest's name and filled with one can of Play-Doh, one superhero figurine, and one teeny box of See's chocolate covered raisins. (Tiny boxes, I assure you. They are designed to hold one chocolate.) But, while on a futile search for directions on how to correctly fold the paper to make the type of bag I was wanting - a search that ended when Darr cleverly suggested a method I successfully used to make the final stunning product (thank you, peasweet!) - I ran across the mix c.d. idea with custom cover so, along with all other party prep items to be completed before tomorrow, I am going to make a c.d. for our younger partygoers with what I'd like to call Tot Tunes. All music will be pulled from Henry's collection. Keeping with the semi-formal dinosaur theme I have going I know the first song will be Lunch Money's Tiny Dinosaurs. (If you haven't yet heard their album Dizzy, I highly recommend it. It's awesome.)

I feel like most of the big stuff, except cleaning which will take a fair bit o' time, is done. The banner and door signs are finished and just need to be hung, we figured out the menu Thursday night, the presents are wrapped, the gift bags are filled. We're ready for a party! Of course now that I am mentally running down the list of things left to do, it seems a bit daunting to accomplish in a mere 30 hours. We have to do the aforementioned cleaning, charge the camera and Flip's batteries, bake, frost, and decorate the cupcakes, shop for groceries, prepare the food, select the music for, burn, and create a cover for the c.d.s, hang the alphabet art in Henry's room, take out the trash (Darr), finish laundry, select Henry's birthday outfit, carry boxes down to storage (Darr), pick up balloons...

Month Twenty-four

Dear Henry,

We're officially one day away from your second birthday - just barely, it's 1:57 a.m. - and I can't sleep. I'm so excited! Not because I never saw us successfully parenting you this far but because there are so many great and wonderful things in store for you. I can and probably will tell you this a million times before I die, you are an incredible little person and I can't believe I am so lucky to have the opportunity to be a part of your life. Every day, even the occasional rough one, is better than all the other days I had to myself before you were born. So, on the one hand, thank you. On the other, don't screw this up. These tremendously good feelings might just convince us to buy you a car when you turn 16.The truth is I can't believe you're almost two. Two. TWO! Two. Years. Old. Egads! When did time start moving so quickly? I know. I know. I sound old. Judging by the high count of gray hairs on my head, of which you are mostly responsible for, I am old. But still, I never would have thought that an entire year could pass as fast as this last one. You have kept us hopping, bean. From all of the jumping, jumping, running, and jumping to the first successful pee in the potty it has been one long Henryfest of accomplishments, including but not limited to the following: going for your first solo ride down the big red slide at Sellwood Park, making it through a full-length movie at the theatre (Cloudy with a Side of Meatballs), tasting Japanese food cart yakisoba and liking it, learning numbers 1 through 10 (minus the offensive number 4), and enjoying your first train ride at The Flower Farm.

On the vocabulary and speech front, you are progressing with aplomb. The other day you were leaving the house with pops and you turned to me and said, "Come. Mama." Ordinarily this wouldn't be noteworthy but this command is usually directed at Beauty the wonder dog (or as you like to call her, Bea) so it was a bit surprising when you figured out that you could demand and get obedience from your parents. The balance of power just shifted in your favor, kid. You have a rather charming pause between words when you speak two or three of them consecutively. I often hear "Milk. Please. Mama," when you're a bit parched. And probably somewhere in the vicinity of nine times out of ten you follow that up with a "Thank. You. Mama," after you've satisfied your thirst. You have picked up several Spanish words and I can point to something and say "Qu'est-ce que c'est?" in my bad French and you'll tell me. Mini tantrums, perhaps best expressed as glimpses of what's to come, are occurring more frequently, but you're also much more generous with kisses and hugs. As your pops noted, your very prim and proper quick pecks on the lips have transitioned into the traditional sloppy baby smooches so sometimes being on the receiving end means we have to towel off. I have no qualms about letting you experience a meltdown but I hesitate to let you go off in a public place so we tend to wrap things up pretty quickly when I sense a time of unease is upon us. Most annoying is the rather unfortunate placement of a neighbor's basketball downstairs because a. you know it's there and want to play with it EVERY TIME we're in the garage; 2. you will enter a period of potential tantrum if you don't get to play with it EVERY TIME we're in the garage; and C) do you realize how often we go in and out of the parking garage? A lot. Since baking is important we've started working on the fundamentals of rolling out pie dough. As my sous chef you also help with mixing ingredients and trying whatever comes out of the kitchen. Frosting is a current favorite. (We made a trial batch of cupcakes for your upcoming birthday and had your friends over to taste test the goods.) You continue to impress with your vegetable consumption as well. The other night you enjoyed several hearty bites of spinach that had been sautéed with a dash of salt and a splash of lemon juice. My favorite is that each bite was met with an "mmmmm" of appreciation. Food is good, son. And you have been busy eating it. Not only are you a taller tot than you were last month (as evidenced by your nearing-flood-preparedness-stage pants) but also you feel a lot heavier. I know that feeling will probably only translate into a one to two pounds gain but that'll be the first weight you've put on in many, many months so it will be a most welcome one to two pounds. I'll invite those new pounds over for dinner and serve 'em frosting if you can get them to bring their friends.Did I mention you now request pie? Happy second birthday, bean. You just keep getting cooler.

Love,
Mom

A little bit of magic

You don't have to be a hockey fan to know that's frickin' awesome.

Oh, and the kid is nine years old.

Hat Tip: Yahoo Sports

Happy bir-dey, Miss E.B.!

Miss Erin Beatrix turns two today and all of us at the condo want to wish her the very merriest birthday in all the land.

News: Henry's first library selection revealed

Turns out he's Jewish!

Seriously, we left the toddler story time room and headed out to the kids' books section. I turned my back for a second to pull If You Give a Mouse a Cookie off the shelf and then Henry's by my side with this book in his tiny toddler hands. When I asked if he was sure, he said "Yes. Mama." (Punctuation to indicate his trademark pause between words.)

Books checked out to date include:

Week One*

Miss Smith's Incredible Storybook

Thesaurus Rex

Week Two

Where is Baby's Dreidel?

Germs Are Not For Sharing

If You Give a Mouse a Cookie

Hondo & Fabian

Green Wilma, Frog in Space

Who Wants a Dragon

Achoo! Good Manners Can Be Contagious!

*All selected by moi while Henry was checking out the pamphlets by the door.

PDX Food Cart Review: Garden State

Meatball hero, 'nuff said. Garden State was the latest in our food cart tour of the Portland metro area. Let me preface this by saying that I am not a sandwich person. I mean, yeah, I pretty much lived on peanut butter and sandwiches growing up but anything other than that, excluding grilled cheese, was not on the menu of acceptable foods I would eat. Many years later we found ourselves at Garden State. Take a nice crusty piece of buttery bread, fill it with Highland Oak beef, mozzarella, and marinara, and you've got the sandwich of the century. While Henry did not partake of the food this trip, he previously enjoyed the hero and the arancine (risotto rice balls seasoned with saffron and stuffed with cheese dipped in breadcrumbs and fried). Pros include the great tasting food. That we couldn't easily walk with the food to a park would have been a con if there hadn't been plenty of available seating. The only real downer is that the cart doesn't open until 11:30 a.m., which meant Henry was rapidly approaching the near nap meltdown by the time we got our food. There isn't footage of Henry not eating but there is a little video of the kids playing at the park before we hit the cart for lunch. Henry "Danger" Gilroy can be seen not once but twice(!) nearly falling off the big red slide at the Sellwood Park. A slide that he has been hesitant to attempt on his own until he saw his lil' friend, Tevia, shoot down it like a professional slide rider.

Garden State from Christie Glynn on Vimeo.

Recipe Corner: Bean Pot Vegetables with Bacon

I broke out our Bulgarian pots last night to make a dish using the many vegetables currently residing in our refrigerator. These pots have a touch of magic to 'em because everything ends up tasting really good and it's SO EASY! You cut up the veggies, throw 'em in the pot, place the pot in the oven and bake for about an hour. Once again, I insist you grab a pot or two for yourself if you ever get to Bulgaria. (I can't vouch for other Eastern European bean pots because I haven't used 'em.)

Ingredients:

1 med. tomato, diced

1 leek, cut into small pieces

1 red pepper, diced

1 large potato, diced

2 med. beets, peeled and diced

2-4 carrots, diced

salt and freshly ground black pepper

1 cup homemade chicken broth

2-4 strips bacon (or more)

Directions:

Fry the bacon over medium heat until crisp. Remove bacon from pan and place on paper towel. When cool, cut bacon into small pieces and distribute amongst bean pots, along with the vegetables. Add a pinch of salt and a little black pepper to each pot. Pour 1/4 cup chicken broth into each pot. Place lids on pots and put pots in oven. Heat oven to 350˚ F and bake until vegetables are tender, approximately one hour.

Remove from oven. Pour contents of pots into bowls and serve. (Grabbing a loaf of tasty bread to go along with your vegetable and bacon medley is a good idea.)

Serves 2 adults and 1 tot

Government endorsement of religion

My poor dear husband was subjected to "What the dick@$$ f*#&ing sh*t is this!?" from me this morning on the way to work after I heard this piece on NPR's Morning Edition. (Henry was not in the car at the time.) Here's the breakdown:

1934 - VFW erects cross at Sunrise Rock to honor dead Americans from WWI on federal land without permission

1999 - Buddhist requests to build Buddhist shrine near cross, request denied by Park Service

1999 to present -

• retired park serviceman (Buono) goes to ACLU (he's a Catholic AND a veteran but finds it troubling to have this particular symbol on federal lands)
• Park Service agrees to remove cross
• Congress steps in
• ACLU represents Buono
• two lower courts rule that the "existence of the cross itself on public land amounted to the government endorsing one religious view - and therefore it violated the Constitution's ban on establishment of religion"
• Congress passes a law that grants land to VFW and mandates that cross be maintained or ownership will revert back to the government
• said cross is designated as one of the nation's 45 national memorials (along with the Lincoln Memorial, the Washington Monument and Mount Rushmore)
• lower courts rule land transfer was an unconstitutional end-run that "perpetuated the government's endorsement of a religious symbol"
• government appealed to the Supreme Court

I really don't mind that a cross exists somewhere in the Mojave desert. I wouldn't mind if a Buddhist shrine had been erected. My problem is this, if the government only defends symbols of one type of religion in these types of cases, whether they intend to endorse that religion or not, they are effectively endorsing that religion over all others. The Establishment Clause directly prohibits them from doing so. ARGH. <bang head against wall repeatedly>

A recent case that comes to mind is the one in which the Summum religious group wanted to donate a monument to a local park, the same park in which a Ten Commandments monument already stood. The end result of all of the litigation in that case, Summum lost. (Granted, the Summum group argued for free speech instead of going the Establishment Clause route but still, my guess is they would have lost either way. The arguments are interesting though, should you want to read more, click here.)

Want to honor the dead? Find a symbol that can be used that encompasses the religions or lack thereof of all the fallen. Arlington Cemetery offers 64 different religious headstones. (Am I advocating for the building of 64+ symbols, no.) Put up a block and write on it, "This block on the rock honors all fallen soldiers from WWI." Done.

Why am I still going on about this? Because the Supreme Court is hearing arguments today. If they choose to only look at the question of standing and the government and VFW win, it could mean that government (local, state or federal) could erect whatever religious symbol they wanted and there would be NO WAY to challenge it in court.

UPDATE: This just in from the SCOTUS blog:

Haggling over what issues are actually before them, the Supreme Court Justices on Wednesday turned a major case on the constitutionality of religious monuments on government property into what seemed like a mere shadow of its former self. As the case of Salazar v. Buono (08-472) reached the Court, it looked like a significant new test of such displays, of who could challenge them, and of how the government could react if told to take them down. But, after an hour of oral argument, only the last of those was still in play, and it appeared to have been pared down to its specific facts, with few if any wider implications.

The case of the Christian cross standing alone in the midst of a huge federal land preserve in a California desert put before the Court the latest in a continuing series of controversies over religion commemoration in public places. Lower federal courts had found the cross’s presence there unconstitutional, and barred enforcement of an attempt by Congress in 2004 to shift ownership of the site into private hands in a bid to save the cross. The federal government took the case to the Supreme Court to protest those rulings.

Despite strenuous efforts by Justice Antonin Scalia to keep alive the core question of whether the cross display was a violation of the Constitution’s Establishment Clause, the dominant sentiment on the bench seemed to be that that was no longer open to review. And despite efforts by U.S. Solicitor General Elena Kagan to get the Court to focus on whether a former park service officer had any right to sue to test the display, that, too, seemed to be beyond the Court’s reach. Kagan, in fact, had to endure lectures by several of the Justices that the government should have tested that question earlier in the case, so had now missed its chance.

The Solicitor General, and a California civil liberties lawyer on the other side, Peter J. Eliasberg, found themselves compelled to pore over the details of Congress’s response to the lower court rulings, rather than arguing broad constitutional principles. The effect was to significantly shrink even the remaining issue in the case.

Kagan insisted that those details showed that Congress only wanted to keep a “war memorial” on the site, which only incidentally was a religious symbol, so there was no basis for blocking the land transfer. Eliasberg countered that those details showed that Congress had singled out a single religious faith for favoritism, gave that cross a monumental status that few other iconic structures get, did not actually forfeit its interest in keeping the Mojave cross standing on Sunrise Rock, and thus remained in a continung constitutional violation.

The law sure is some tricky sh*t.

PDX Food Cart Review: Parkers Waffles & Coffee

For our second food cart experience we met at Parkers Waffles & Coffee in the PSU area. It was a hit amongst all adults and toddlers. My favorite part of perusing the menu, the side of meat that you can order. Not defined meat. Just meat. (We got chopped bacon. Mmmm...bacon.) Monsieur Henry and I stayed on the sweet side for our waffle choice, opting for the superbly tasty lemon and blueberry waffle. (Since they were out of blueberries we had strawberries but I don't believe this negatively impacted the dish.) My takeaway from this, a dollop of lemon curd does wonders to your waffle. Parkers does have a bevy of sweet and savory waffle options and you can order various sides to complement your waffle meal. Pros include the great taste, cheap prices, and quick service. Oh, and that it opens earlier than other carts. This is a big plus if you have a toddler who typically naps between 11 a.m. and noon. Cons include the lack of parking. After all dishes were served we made our way across the street to the fountain on the other side of two buildings. Fountains are entertaining for little youngsters but slightly scary for their parents. Luckily no fishing of tots out of the fountain was necessary. Of course there were pictures...

Avery checking out the specials.

Obligatory 'Henry in front of food cart' shot

"And now," cried Max, "let the wild rumpus start!"

Miss Josie drinking in style.

Play hard.

To be a tot means burning energy. Chocolate milk, it's a great choice after playing in fountains, with proteins to help build muscles and a unique mix of nutrients to refuel so you can play again when you get up from your nap. That is, of course, if you take naps, which I don't always do. Try it, chocolate milk is yummy.*

And there was video captured...

Parkers Waffles & Coffee from Christie Glynn on Vimeo.

*My spin on the Milk Mustache ad campaign.

Nearly two and other stuff

Birthday

Henry loves his butt rides so there was no way we could get around buying him a bike for his second (SECOND!) birthday, which is coming later this month. I scoured the internet and found a few that we liked and then came across this one parent's blog and there it was. The perfect bike. I ordered said perfect bike last week and it arrived today. I just finished putting it together. (I have three leftover washers so, um, I emailed the company to see if that was their intention or if I was supposed to use them when screwing the handlebars to the frame. Pardon me for not knowing if there is implied washer usage whenever you screw handlebars into frames.) Anyway, it's even more of a perfect bike in person than it appeared to be online. The true test, however, comes when Monsieur Henry gets on it for the maiden voyage.

Pies

On another note, after baking two pies with Cox's Orange Pippin apples, I can attest to this apple's superiority over other varieties when it comes to pie. I just learned that Darr prefers soft and mushy apple pie fillings - after nearly fifteen years together, people! How did I not know this? - so I modified the BHG Cook Book's apple pie recipe, well, I actually sort of merged that recipe with another, to achieve the desired result. This being, of course, the soft mushy apple pie innards. Want these results for yourself? Turn that oven down to 250˚ F and bake the pie for two and a half hours. If you want the crust nicely browned, pull it from the oven after two hours, lightly brush it with cream, and put it back in for the last half an hour upping the temperature to 350˚ F. Pie is good, people. Eat it.

Photography

I am convinced I need to upgrade our camera. And I'm convinced it needs to be the Nikon D700. (The camera Ken Rockwell says "wins for just about everything, especially action and taking pictures of your friends, family and kids.") But Darr makes a good point when he says I could probably get better results with our camera if I knew how to use it properly. Sometimes that Canadian fellow is so damn sensible. Imagine learning to use the camera I have before getting a new one with even more bells and whistles. Geez. The other day I happened to be perusing our wedding photographer's blog and she mentioned teaching a class locally at the Newspace Center for Photography. I love, love, love, love, love, love, love Jan's photos. (She's also the one we hire to get shots of Monsieur Henry once a year.) If she's teaching a class there, well, then, it's gotta be good. I signed up for their Level One class and am hoping to take the Level Two before grabbing one of their Photoshop classes so I can learn how to tweak all the photos I'm taking.

Roman Polanski

You know, part of me thinks the guy is in his 70s and his victim, Ms. Geimer, has requested the charges be withdrawn so maybe that makes the most sense given that the crime took place 30 years ago. And another part of me thinks he was in his 40s when he raped and sodomized a 13-year old girl. Then, after pleading guilty to lesser charges, upon hearing the judge might throw the book at him, he fled the country. Gifted director or not, no one is supposed to be above the law.