Month: January 2012

Someone superglued his fingers together.

It is not often that the Lees are together.  We are far flung and all have demanding schedules. On a rare weekend together, we managed to celebrate my parent’s birthdays. Both turned 70 a few months ago and we haven’t been able to celebrate until now. We did get the parents matching iPads. I am still not sure how much they will use them – I hope they love playing Angry Birds as much as I do.

Uncle Donald came and it is always a good time when he is around. He is such a good sport, playing Wii with Vince, helping Edda with a bath and he is all around advice person for: bikes, electrical work, Mac adjustments, games, puzzles, things that are “cool” and dancing. In other words, there was not a still moment for him! Also, do you think we look alike? At least 17 people this weekend told us we look exactly alike! 🙂

Tonight (Saturday, 1/28/2012), Rena, Jeremy, Doris, Donald and I dined out to celebrate our (Rena & I) 70th birthday. Actually, our 70th birthday happened in November and December last year, respectively.

With the Dr. Dre headphones.

We were delighted to attend Vince’s 4th grade instrumental music concert on Wed. night. When it was time to pick what kind of instrument, I tried so hard to get him to play another instrument besides violin, which he has been playing for a year and a half already.  All the music they would have at the elementary school, even in the advanced class would be too easy for him. What about the baritone, sweetie?

I played the violin in elementary and middle school and I am wistful about all the marching band practices I missed out on. I should have played the bassoon. Actually, I’m not sure if bassoon is a marching band instrument.   I think I was a band geek in a former life. Alas, Vince did not want to practice another instrument, so violin it was.

This shirt/tie/pants outfit we purchased for Tony’s wedding last summer is really our go-to formal outfit and has exceeded my expectations on the number of times we have been able to use it. Vince has had more dry cleaned visits than I have this year! I was really impressed with the music teacher, very sweet, but also very disciplined. The concert ended with a resounding rendition of Ode to Joy. Beethoven would have been very pleased.
 

Edda had a nice nap during the performance.  Poor girl, I know that she would rather be home in a warm bath or snuggled in bed during these night time activities, but somehow we take her along just to take her along.  She is a good sport.  I think she even went grocery shopping with Jeremy after the concert (there was desperate need of Popsicles (in January!) and bacon, I’m sure) – didn’t get to be in her bed until 9 pm. 

On a completely different note, I found this to be hilarious – and so did my parents, they practically fell over laughing when they saw this —

Happy Chinese New Year – Year of the Dragon.

Today was a big day in the Lee-Martin household. Jeremy’s interview (7 minutes long!) on NPR’s Living on Earth aired today. You can listen to it here. I know I’m a little biased, but he sounds fabulous! So expert-like. I know he is an expert on this bio-fuels stuff, but the his voice plus the sound editing make him sound super fantastic. And now that he’s had an interview on radio – he is, like, famous. I’m married to a celebrity. Ha ha.

He’s also quite happy with this blog post: A Swift Kick, or a Polite Tap on the Shoulder. 

And a blog post is not a blog post without a photo. I had my eyes checked. No need for bifocals yet!
 

If reincarnation exists, I think I want to come back as a suburban dog. Warm place to sleep, enough to eat, every once in a while some table scraps. In the mornings, when I have time, Ruby and Maxi meet up with a bunch of other suburban dog for a good romp. Well, Maxi romps, Ruby runs around trying to catch balls before the younger dogs get to them and trying to find out who has the doggie treats in their pocket.

Ruby turned 11 on Monday.  My first baby is 11! We fixed her and Maxi some extra-special goodness of chicken meat and some of that chicken gelatin that forms on the bottom of the pan when you refrigerate it.

Someone is super excited to be fed her breakfast. Ruby is the best dog ever – gentle, kind and loyal – she also has aged incredibly gracefully, all her parts seem to be in order and although she would rather sleep in on most days, she still chases tennis balls around the dog park. Sometimes the older dogs (and even some of the younger dogs) at the dog park seem to have a litany of ailments, we had lung cancer, breast cancer, knee replacements, hip massages and glaucoma which Ruby has somehow hit the genetic jackpot and avoided all of these ailments. Although, I must admit, she still smells pretty bad especially when she gets wet.

We have been having Sunday night dinner with the cousins for more than 4 years now.  It’s amazing to see how big the kids have gotten.  We hosted at our house last Sunday where Jeremy did a roasting cook-off between “organic” chicken and “cruelty-free” chicken.   The results were not disputed,  the organic chicken was more tender and tasted better and the cruelty-free chicken, well, does not taste better and is a little tougher and is more expensive, but that is because presumably it got to run around outside some for some parts of its life. 

My mom came and brought 17 million pieces of assorted clothing that she got on super-duper sale for the kids from TJ Maxx or Ross:

This past weekend, Tilli, our new au pair, arrived from Germany – I do not have a proper photo, but you can see her in the background with the black scarf.  Much to my chagrin, the kids were at their best crazy, shirts were off – lots of yelling, running around the house, and barking from the dogs – there was also spirited demonstration of booty dancing and various other things that I’m sure convinced Tilli that the Martins are indeed CRAZY!

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