Day Scare

So, being a forward-looking, Be Prepared kinda gal (who struggles a bit with her lack of time lately), I decided to check out the daycare center a couple of blocks from us that is supposed to be one of the best around. I know people get on waiting lists for these things while they are pregnant, and I know they're expensive, so I figure we'll take a tour, get on the waiting list for next year for part time care and I'll get a break and Lyra will get some socialization, and it will cost some money.

Apparently some people are more prepared than I am. If I had gotten on the waiting list a few months after I'd gotten married she could go there now. She might be able to get into pre-school there if I signed up now. How do they have any infants in the infant class? Do people sign up when they have a good date these days?

And holy crap is it expensive. As much or more than the private school nearby that charges more for part time kindergarten than I paid for college.

Send Me Some Money, Too, Okay?

From the Cambridge Chronicle. This cracked me up:

Duped by an old Internet scam. A 43-year-old Cambridge woman told police she was in Wendy’s at 598 Mass. Ave. Nov. 17 at 12:30 p.m. when an unknown man struck up her in conversation. The man told the victim he had family imprisoned in Africa and showing her a large amount of money, according to police reports. The man allegedly told the victim if she withdrew $1,200 from her bank account, he would give her $20,000 in return, police said. The victim withdrew $1,200 from her bank and gave it to the man, who in return gave her a sock containing what victim believed to be $20,000, according to reports. When the victim looked inside the sock, she only found cut-up paper, according to police reports. The suspect is described as a black man who is over 6 feet tall, bald with a beard and was last seen wearing black pants, a blue shirt and brown coat.

The Californians Don't Have 200 Words for Fire

"Whenever these fires are pushed by ... winds, it's a like a blow torch with a hair dryer behind it," said Inspector Sam Padilla of the Los Angeles County Fire Department." (CNN)

For some reason this description stuck with me all morning after reading it. I mean...did he pick such a small metaphor because we're supposed to relate to it? Oh, yeah, like that last time I put a hair dryer behind my blow torch and took out half of Cambridge!

Foggy Thanksgiving Walk

Take a pictorial walk around my industrial environs on a cold, foggy, Thanksgiving morning....

Buy a Turkey

Going to someone else's house for Thanksgiving? Why not buy a turkey anyway...for someone who needs one? Spice up your excessive eating day with a little gratitude and giving?

Lyra was a lab rat at Harvard the other day for an experiment that entailed her looking at someone picking up an apple for about 7 minutes and she already has earned $5. So I matched it and we together we bought a turkey for a family through the Greater Boston Food Bank.

And if you live in the Boston area, it's not too late to pick up a pie from the Pie in the Sky benefit. The online ordering is closed, but downtown locations like S. Station, Borders, and more are all selling the pies today during the day. This is the benefit where Boston chefs donate a LOT of pie and the proceeds from the sales buy food for folk who really need it.

Cold Parenting

I am learning how to parent in the cold. Gone are my super long walks filled with stops in local parks to nurse or change Lyra. I need more to do on my days with her. The shorter daylight somehow makes for longer days.

We go to the baby-friendly movies when possible. In the last week we saw No Country for Old Men (yay) and Harry Potter (eh).

We attend parent groups sporadically.

I have joined a gym with a nursery so Lyra will get used to the ladies in the nursery while entering into stranger-danger anxiety phases. However, the gym just put its whole "wet" area (including the showers) under construction for over a month. So, if I'd like I can use another of their gyms with another nursery and stranger ladies. Sigh.

I have decided to make sure I still take her out plenty. I have bought a solar charger that I am attaching to the stroller, so if I want to charge my phone or iPod, I'd better get moving. We'll see how that goes; it just arrived.

Last week I decided she needed some more warm fleece. I don't really know how to sew, but much of it looks fairly common sense, I figure. I bought a lot of fleece at the remnant sale at Malden Mills many years ago and I did successfully make a lot of fleece socks for holiday presents that year. And I did make her fleece combat boots for her punk rock Halloween. (Okay one is notably longer than the other...but she can't walk, so they still work.)

So, I took some of the fleece and I took a top that fits her and I kind of made a pattern and started sewing. When she woke from her nap, glenn proudly went to put the fleece on her. It wouldn't even go over her head. I would not be thwarted -- I took the fleece and cut it up the front: it will be a cardigan! Her arms wouldn't even fit in the sleeves.

Dejected, I threw it in the corner and walked to the front stoop for a breath of fresh, calming, Cold air. On the stoop was a package waiting for Lyra, a gift from some friends. Inside: a fleece top and pants.

No Country for Young Babies

Lyra and I went to see a "baby-friendly" matinee of No Country for Old Men today. What a perfect movie. If you like the Coen brothers, if you like the dark, stark Cormac McCarthy, then this adaptation is for you. It's very violent; Lyra slept through those parts, of course. I believe my question is one I'm meant to have...but it could be because I had to change L's diaper toward the end of the movie...but tell me, WHO HAS THE MONEY?

You just gotta love a psychopath with a peculiar, inconvenient choice of favorite weapon (a pneumatic hammer of sorts?) and a bowl cut worse than any I had as a six-year-old....