Erin Shaw Street

First night in the big boy bed

This is a huge night for us. The first night Nate has slept alone and unconfined his entire life. Well not entirely unconfined -- he is in his room, with safety latches on and doors closed, but still, converting the crib to a toddler bed is a huge deal.

He looks happy in this picture, taken a few minutes after we got home tonight. (I had to sneak this shot after he repeatedly said "no pictures, mommy!" like an irate tiny celebrity. Soon he is going to have a publicist and drink only Evian and eat only green goldfish.)

After Shane threw his back out last week lifting our little hoss from the crib we knew it was time to take the big step. And since he's still having trouble bending down we had a friend do the work this afternoon.

Nate was so excited, and immediately got in his bed. "Great, he loves it! It will be a breeze tonight!" I smugly thought as he piled his teddy bears and blankets into the bed. He didn't want to leave the room and the "big boy crib" as he called it. Now, three hours later, at the moment of truth, I'm afraid we're facing a looong night (which is rare for us because he's always been such a great sleeper).  Walking out of the door as he screamed "mommmmmy!" I felt like I was leaving him at a dorm. What were we thinking? He's so unprepared! I'm so unprepared. We should have researched this. Or at least not done it on a Monday night. If there is a patron saint of big boy bed conversion, I am asking for an intercession here.

Pugs in Action

Taken this afternoon - our three pugs.

Mad Men Quote Of The Week

I seriouly love Mad Men, which I know is the thing to do these days. I keep thinking about the best lines from last week's episode. Now I am going to go pour myself a highball in honor of Don Draper.

Arthur:  "You are so profoundly sad."

Betty Draper:  "No. It's just my people are Nordic."

DC Continued

My last post was interrupted mid-writing as I had to turn off my phone for the flight.  So I'm back. As I was writing yesterday, despite being sick, my first trip to D.C. in five years (!) was still filled with good happenings.

Other highlights: going to the new Newseum with Renee The Newseum . I'd been to the old one years ago (where I got a "You Can Trust Me: I'm A Reporter" shirt) and was thoroughly impressed with the amazing new one (and it's equally exciting gift shop). The Newseum bills itself as "The World's Most Interactive Museum," and it does a good job of living up to it. It must have been a daunting challenge to design a museum that tells the whole history of communication, but they did it brilliantly. Some highlights: learning that in the 1890s newspaper editors were modern day rock stars (actually the exhibit compared their fame to that of modern day TV anchors ... ) and that a cigarette company called Allen & Ginter actually made trading cards (like baseball cards) with editor's pictures. 

They also had the dry erase board that Tim Russert used that fateful election night to exclaim "Florida! Florida! Florida!" and Ann Lander's letter opener. One of the most poignant exhibit was about the journalists that covered 9/11, including a video with the brave reporters and photographers who ran toward the Twin Towers to cover the disaster, risking their own lives. (One journalist died covering the attack -- freelance photographer, Bill Biggart, whose last shot was of one of the towers crumbling. Haunting). They also had a wall that featured pictures of all of the journalists who have died while on assignment.

I'd definitely recommend visiting.

Later we walked across The Mall for lunch at the Museum of the American Indian, another museum that has opened since I last visited. They have one of the most amazing museum cafeterias -- The Mitsitam Native Foods Cafe Washington Post Review of Mitsitam . "Mitsitam" means "Let's eat!" in the Native language of the Delaware and Picataway peoples, and the food represents typical food of Native Americans throughout America, which is quite diverse. I had a black bean tamal, quinoa and spicy carrots. For a museum cafeteria, the selection was amazing and healthy, with lots of vegetarian and even gluten free options. (Interestingly, people were still buying cups of very non-Native American looking fries.)

It was a good visit, and it reminded me of how much I love D.C. Now back to the Magic City. More photos in the album "DC 2008" to the right.

iPhone love and airline delays

I am sitting on a plane in D.C., delayed. So what better time to experiment with writing my first post via iPhone? I have to admit I am a little obsessd with this device, which is quite simply magical. It's phone, it's an iPod, it keeps a log of my wines and can keep track of how many steps I take each day. And recommend a good Thai restaurant anywhere I travel. Plus I can take pictures of said travels, cute toddler and random adventures - and take notes anywhere I go! I am officially on an iphone honeymoon. At least it's distracting me from the annoying fellow air travelers who are so crazy loud sharing their life stories. I just avert eye contact.

Had a great time in D.C. I was there for am assignment but tacked on some extra time to visit some good friends, all of whom I have known for a long time - Renee, Jenny and Kai. I thought I might not get to see them because I got crazy sick my first night here, and was temporarily stuck in bed for a bit, but I recovered enough to do my work and then see my friends.

The picture at left is Jenny, Renee and I after a tasty lunch. And the one below  was taken on the phone this afternoon, when I finally got to see Jenny's cute house. We have several traditions when we get together, including eating Mexican food, which we did Thursday night at La Lomita, where we used to eat when I was an intern and she was a staffer on The Hill.

We also like to eat sandwiches together - ice cream sandwiches. Here is our afternoon snack - mint Skinny Cows and wine. Yum! Jenny is always a good hostess! Renee and Brandon were gracious hosts too. Their house is within walking distance of so many great sites, and we caught up yesterday with a walk through Eastern Market, followed by drinks and dinner with Kai and his friend. We ate at an amazing Thai place called Rice Rice Reviews . More later - plane finally leaving.

If You're Gonna Do It, Do It Right

It's the day after my birthday and I have to say, it was definitely one of the most memorable because I was able to fufill a dream I've had since around my 11th birthday -- George Michael in concert. Although the world chooses to most often think about him in terms of some rather unfortunate run ins with the law, I maintain that he is one of the most important, overlooked and brilliant pop artists of all time. "Faith" and the more introspective "Listen Without Predjudice" were in heavy rotation on my middle school Walkman, and those along with his later albums have gotten serious play in the music of my life (though I much prefer his dance tracks, i.e., from "Patience," to his version of the standards, aka "Songs From the Last Century.") GM is able to bust out a perfect dance track ("Fastlove," "Outside," "Amazing") and turn on a dime to sing heart wrenching, serious and intensely personal revelations ("Jesus to A Child," "Praying For Time"). Some of his best are the collision of the two. Having overcome depression, the death of his partner and his mother, and years of being put into a box by his evil record company and subsequent seclusion, GM is a survivor. Who still looks really good in black jeans.

So I headed over to the Atl last Thursday and met up with Stephanie and Marjan. Stephanie completely pulled some strings, and we managed to get box seats, which were so close to the stage. Snacks! Private restroom! We could not have had a better view, and serious thanks go out to her for hooking us up. Ryan had seen him in NYC the previous week, and he'd had a near religious experience, so I knew it would be a good show, but I had no idea how good.

He came out singing "Waiting" and the crowd went nuts. Lots of girls our age to about late 40s, gay men and assorted husbands who were dragged there but became converts by the night's end. He left nothing out (well he didn't do "Wake Me Up Before You Go Go"  but that was forgiveable). There were Wham! classics (including my favorite "Everything She Wants" and the aforementioned "I'm Your Man"), songs from all the albums (including a yummy, yummy version of Nina Simone's "Feeling Good," which I would like to be my theme song).There were the dance songs -- including him wearing a cop costume for "Fastlove" -- so good. He has not lost anything -- his voice, his moves, his thick fantastic hair. GM I love you!

It was definitely one of the top 10, but probably five best concerts of my life. When he closed with Freedom '90 I about passed out. Thankfully I lived to meet the pictured GM tribute artist above. He was leaving another box, and I had to have my picture made with him. He had a really bad fake English accent, but after a couple cocktails he would pass.

Here's Marjan and her awesome new Wham! shirt. I got a GM latte mug with his trademark "Faith" pose. A good time was had by all.

I spent Friday recovering from the concert, power shopping (including an obligatory check out of the new H&M at Atlantic Station, which didn't disappiont), visiting with friends (including getting to see cute pregnant Manisha and Euro-Cliff, in town to visit with his family). Had a great dinner that night and drove home yesterday, where the celebrations continued. We had cake at my parents' house and got to visit with my cousin Maureen and her family (in town from Atl -- it was like an AL-GA exchange program this weekend). Last night Shane and I had a great meal at Cafe Dupont and topped it off by seeing a Neil Diamond cover band (that part was a little lame, but not everyone can be Sir George). More pictures to follow, but this old girl needs to sleep -- being 32 is very tiring!