Ridin' Dirty

Soon after we moved to Ottawa I noticed that people in this area tend to drive very modest cars. Subcompacts seem to be the wheels of choice, and you see way more Corollas and Civics on the road than Camrys and Accords, let alone fancy Euro models like BWMs, Volvos and Baby Benzs. At first I attributed this to the fact that everything about car ownership, from the price of a new car to insurance to fuel, is significantly more expensive in Canada than it is in the U.S. And conspicuous consumption in general just isn't the thing here in Ottawa. After all, this is not a city of hard-charging capitalists and captains of industry; it's a government town, and civil servants don't bling.

But halfway through our second winter in this awful climate, I have a new theory: There's no point in having a nice car, because no car stays nice for long. Our car is a disaster. Like every other car on the road, it looks like it was used as the escape vehicle for a heist in an exploding plaster factory. The gunk coating the entire exterior is difficult to describe. It's not salt, it's not just dirt, but some strange combination of elements that must collect on roadways in places where there's snow on the ground for almost half the year. Whatever it is, the gunk flies of the asphalt in a fine mist even when the roads look clear, coating every moving object from hubcaps to moonroof. It's insidious. And futile to fight. Even I washed the car daily, it would be filthy again as soon as I was 6 blocks from the car wash. And don't even ask about the floormats inside.

In short, I get it now. And I won't be making any withdrawals from my BMW savings account while we live here.

All Stars!

I've been hoping to see an All-Star edition of The Amazing Race since about, oh, Season 7. And I was pretty pleased with the casting overall. Almost as much for who isn't there than who is. No Hippies. No Jonathan & Victoria. No Lake & Michelle. But the most striking thing is, there's only one team that actually won the race the first time around. And it looks like they deliberately left out all the young, athletic dude teams (see winners, previous) in favor of the aged, the also-ran, the co-ed and the girly. So yes, they are stretching the definition of "All Star" performance-wise, but they made up for it in pairity and potential entertainment value.

I would have boycotted the show if they hadn't brought back Oswald & Danny, a.k.a. my favorite reality contestants on any show ever. Mirna & Charla were another must-have. Rob & Amber are overexposed, but they're legit and I enjoyed watching them the last time around. The one big miss is no Colin & Christie, but I learned from the Internets that Christie is pregnant, so I can't whine about the oversight. I'll just have to imagine what would have happened when Colin's short man complex went head-to-head with Boston Rob's tough guy syndrome. And it looks like we'll get Mirna & Schmirna versus the Beauty Queens as compensation, and I think that will offer some quality conflict.

As for who will win--who knows? With no physically dominant team, it's really anyone's race. Well with one caveat: Kevin & Drew are not going to win. Those guys looked ready to check out on the drive to the Miami airport. Disappointing. Rob & Amber are an obvious pick to take the prize, but maybe they're finally getting burned out on the whole "reality whore" gig and won't bring their A Game. Terry & Ian are sleepers. I'm curious to see if Eric, he of the icky pierced nipples (in honor of which I'm going to call him Nips from now on), can drag his deadweight, "DD" Danielle, to the front of the pack. Something tells me he just might. But if we saw anything last night, it's that these "all star" teams will keep it interesting will all kinds of amateur hour mistakes. And that's what I want to see. The efficient teams can be boring.

Weekend activities

Skating

Liz, our daycare provider, turns her back yard into a skating rink during the winter months, and she's been teaching Henry how to skate. Last weekend we borrowed a pair of "bob skates" (double-bladed skates that strap onto boots) from her and took Henry down to the canal. He wasn't doing much more than standing still as we pulled him along the ice, but he sure did enjoy it. See photos

Gymnastics

Henry and his friend Jensen are taking Saturday morning gymnastics classes at a nearby community center. Last fall I noticed that Henry was spending most of his time in music class running around the room, paying no attention whatsoever to the songs, so I decided it was time to move on to a more physically oriented activity. It was totally the right call. The boys have a blast doing gymnastics. Obviously, the stuff they do is very rudimentary. And you can't put a group of preschool-age boys together in a padded room for long before a distinctly "Lord of the Flies" atmosphere develops (I've witnessed a couple whole-group pileups that weren't entirely unintentional on the part of the participants, and it's a miracle that one boy hasn't landed smack on top of another when they do their leap off the high mat). But the class is structured just enough to give some direction to all that exuberance. And I've noticed Henry's coordination improving week over week. He's getting close to doing a somersault unassisted, and he can walk backwards along the balance beam and do things on the mats like crab walking and sitting with his legs in a butterfly position (soles of feet together, knees bent). Check out the good times.

Note: my digital camera is dying. The focus lens has become very unreliable, and I find I'm missing a lot of shots. Especially when I'm shooting something like gymnastics class. I ended up with a lot of blurry pictures. Hopefully I'll get a new one soon. Item #68 on my list of how I'm going to blow my first few paychecks. . .

Big Important Developments, Parts 2 & 3

I know, I've been neglecting the old blog again. What can I say--I really have been very busy. For example, I started a new job two weeks ago. Yes, after a year and a half of freelancing from home, I decided to return to my natural environment: a corporate cube farm. Oh, how I had missed staring at the fuzzy beige walls of those familiar enclosures, and it's hard to feel a sense of satisfaction about your day if you haven't had to navigate through a little rat maze of cube villages to find your desk.

I kid, I kid. Honestly, I'm happy to be back at work. Our less-than-frugal lifestyle pretty much demands two incomes, and more importantly, I didn't want to put my career on the shelf permanently. So the job is a positive development, even though it doesn't always feel that way when the alarm goes off at 6:45 a.m. As for details about this job, well, I am aware that almost everyone who reads this blog knows me personally (hi, Mom), but I still believe that it's bad policy to post things about your employer online. So I won't mention who I'm working for. You all know, anyway.

So that's Big Important Development #2. Or if I go chronologically, it's really B.I.D. #3, and B.I.D. #2 is this: I'm pregnant! Again, not news to practically everyone who reads this blog, but I'd held off posting about it because you never know who will stumble across your blog, and since I was trying to land a job, I thought it smarter to stay quiet about it online until I had signed a job contract.

And really, the pregnancy is what's killing the blog. I've been feeling pretty sick and very tired for the entire pregnancy, and I'm still not out of the woods. I just haven't had the energy to sit down and write. My notes from pregnancy #1 say I started feeling normal again around week 18, and I just hit week 16, so I'm hoping the nausea, headaches and exhaustion will lift soon. My energy level has been improving already, so the signs look good.

Okay, that's it for updates. I'll get back to real-time blogging and get some new photos up soon.

Newsflash!

Henry used the potty tonight for the first time. He was very excited about it. So were we, of course. Let's hope this is the beginning of the end of his relationship with diapers.

Haircut!

Henry has his first haircut yesterday. It went very well. Tom got his hair cut first so Henry could observe and know what to expect. He was very calm in the chair. The barber told us that the first haircut usually goes fine--it's the second session that provokes a tantrum. So we have that to look forward to.

Here are before and after shots. I'll post a better view of Henry's new look soon: