photo courtesy photobunny

As we get deeper into March, the panic sets in. April is “birthday month” around here. Oliver’s birthday is the 11th, and Eleanor made her appearance two years and five days later. It sure made a lot of sense at the time. I avoided being hugely pregnant during hot weather, and my maternity clothes were seasonally appropriate when Eleanor was on the way. What makes it hard is the birthday party planning.

We’ve done a variety of birthday celebrations in years past. The joint party, no party, separate parties, joint party with another family, etc. Each has it’s own pluses and minuses, or trade-offs to make. We’re trying new things again this year.

The day before Oliver’s birthday we will take five of his friends (along with a parent) to the Pirate game. Oliver asked that we sit in the bleachers ($8 kid seats? No problem!), as close to “Speedy Guy” (aka Andrew McCutchen) as possible. Fifteen tickets arrived today and Oliver nearly jumped out of his skin. He can’t wait to be six.

Eleanor’s birthday is more than a little bit complicated. It seems everything has been scheduled for April 16. Everything. Tomorrow we are going to the Pittsburgh Symphony’s Fiddlesticks series concert. I was invited to participate in a focus group after the concert. In exchange for my time I will be given four tickets to an afternoon concert featuring Disney music, you guessed it, on April 16. This will be the perfect way to celebrate Eleanor turning four. (Then Mr C and I will run away to PNC Park for the WT Gala. Want to come along?)

I apologize in advance for this post. I find myself in the middle of a perfect storm with no good solution except to push through it. My frustration level is high, though I know a couple of months from now I’ll look back and think it wasn’t so bad.

We’re a one-car family. Except for a few weeks over three years ago, we always have been. It’s complicated and sucktastic much of the time, but I’m used to it. I rely a lot of public transportation, which is sometimes great and more frequently miserable in Pittsburgh. In December I fell on the bus and needed surgery to repair my knee. This week I was on an especially crowded bus and was hit in the head with backpacks three times during my ride to work. But that’s just a small factor in what I’m angry about right now. (Except the crowded part. That’s just getting worse.)

So the Port Authority here in Pittsburgh is implementing yet another round of service cuts. The route that runs between the stop nearest my home and Oliver’s school is being eliminated in a few days. I was counting on that route being there in August. Though Oliver can ride a school bus, Eleanor won’t be eligible when she starts Pre-K at the same school this fall. I planned to take both of them on the bus, then walking to my office. My options are to take a bus that leaves me with walk that’s too long for the kids, especially in bad weather, or another route that requires crossing a busy 4 lane road and a bus change.

This week, the first week of Oliver’s spring break (I KNOW!!!), I have found myself waiting 30 minutes or more for a bus in the morning. Since it’s break and there are no buses, I have been driving Oliver to the full day program at his school, driving home, and walking to catch the bus near our house. Each day the bus has been late by a significant margin. Some of the scheduled buses haven’t arrived at all. I’ve had a seat just once this week, and I gave it to someone who needed it more than me a few stops after I boarded, giving me all sorts of flashbacks to the day I fell and wrecked my knee. Tonight I waited another half an hour for a bus home after I had to stay late for a meeting. That’s an hour of my day spent waiting, time I could have spent with the kids. An hour I’m not going to get back. Yeah, I can do a little email or read the news, but it still feels like wasted time.

And now for the perfect storm I mentioned. Oliver starts soccer again in a few weeks. Practice is Tuesday from 5:30 to 6:30. My photography class begins the same day as soccer, from 6:30 to 9:30. Can you see where this is going? Class is about a mile from home so it’s walkable, and given the bus cut backs, it’s preferable to waiting around for a bus to show up, but at 9:30 at night?

Like I said, I know I’ll get through it. Walking a mile will be good exercise, right?

I left a few things out when I mentioned the NCAA tournament a few days ago. Back in the day, many moons ago, I won an NCAA basketball pool. Apparently that exhausted any bit of luck I had for the rest of my life. Every year I make my picks and every year I end up looking like an idiot.

I also left out that I’m a Duke fan. Since before Coach K. Even before Danny Ferry. I don’t know how it happened. I have no ties to Durham, just a crazy dream to see Duke crush UNC at Cameron someday.

The Draft Day Suit team is offering free brackets and prizes. You know I won’t be winning so that means your chances are even better! There’s not much time so you should head over there RIGHT NOW. And since you hate Duke (ha! I knew it!), that’s even more reason you should enter.

You’re welcome. (And GO DUKE!)

image courtesy purplemattfish

Well, it was bound to happen. It’s become NaBloAlMo, as in “I will blog ALMOST every day this month,” once again. When the work day ended I still had to take Oliver to tennis, make hotel reservations for our summer trip while he played, go to writing class, then go out for wine with writing class. I wish we had gone out after every class! As much as love the class, getting to know some amazing women has been the best part.

Did you see those two words I used in the last paragraph? Summer trip? Easy to gloss over, right? Except we never take summer trips. It’s busy for me at work and we can always find an excuse not to do it. This year, we are going, if it kills us. And if we don’t get a second hotel reservation soon, it very well may kill me.

When I started talking about maybe going to BlogHer again this year, despite not having such a great time last year (I’ve lost count of how many people have told me first BlogHers suck and second ones are MUCH better), and thinking about it in the context of skipping some other amazing conferences like Mom 2.0 Summit, Mr C suggested we all go and make a week-long trip out of it. Go back and read that last sentence again. Pick yourself up off the floor because I know you fainted. I came close to fainting myself. Really. We’re just not vacation people.

The plan has morphed a little but we’re down to two nights in Anaheim at Disneyland, and the remainder of the trip in San Diego, visiting the Zoo, SeaWorld, and LegoLand. I’ll get to spend two of those days at BlogHer, too.

The only wrinkle is we can’t find a hotel in San Diego with our preferred configuration of a separate bedroom with two beds for the kids and a sofa bed for us. I know, a sofa bed doesn’t sound all that fabulous for vacation, but the kids go to bed early and this kind of room means we don’t have to hide in the bathroom until we’re ready to go to bed. A traditional hotel room doesn’t work with kids. Any San Diego hotels that would like to help us out, especially those within walking distance of the San Diego Convention Center or Petco Park, should feel free to contact me!

There’s tired, and there’s tired in your bones. I’m not complaining. (Well, maybe a little but that’s for the time change more than anything else.) It’s been a great weekend. Tacos yesterday and a playdate today kept the house full and a touch on the loud side. The kitchen hasn’t seen this much action in ages.

In addition to social guests, we also met with a landscape architect for a consultation about some changes we want to make in the backyard. It’s something we have been talking about for over a year and today feels one step closer to reality. If all goes well, over the next two years we will replace and relocate the air conditioner and build a large deck to expand our outdoor living space. There will be a seating wall, a raised bed for growing herbs and tomatoes, and a rain barrel to keep the raised bed hydrated. We also discussed a solution for our window wells that will solve safety and aesthetic issues. On the front of the house we talked about plantings that will give the landscape some structure in the winter months and cover up some mechanical systems that are in front. Finally, we found out why our dogwood tree isn’t doing well. That was bad news, but we will solve the problem. Fingers crossed, a couple of years from now, our backyard will be an awesome place to hang out.

And now? I’m tired.

It’s not a secret I love my kitchen. When we renovated this house we built the kitchen as though we might never do such an over-haul ever again. And we might not. That’s how much I love it. Hindsight being 20/20, there are a couple of things I would do differently, but overall, I love love love my kitchen.

Days like today make me love my kitchen even more. In the tradition of prior events involving crab cakes and chili, friends came over, made tacos, drank beer and margaritas, and played with kids. Uncle Crappy posted a picture of the aftermath.

I love having a house full of friends and kids and good food. If my kitchen makes that happen, I won’t complain.

It’s that time of year again, when this woman’s thoughts turn to college basketball and March Madness. I hope you will join me and the Draft Day Suit team in our bracket competition. Entry is totally FREE and there are prizes. How cool is that? Added bonus? Getting to make fun of me when my inconsistent Duke Blue Devils go down in flames.

Take that $10 you were going to spend to get in a bracket and send to the Red Cross to help victims of the earthquake and tsunami. Just text REDCROSS to 90999. It will help. I promise.

In an effort to give the kids equal time, here’s a conversation I had with Eleanor this morning.

Eleanor:  I’m not gonna suck, Mum!

Me: Huh? (thinking: Words to live by, kid, words to live by. And where’s my coffee?)

Eleanor:  I’m not sucking on my toothbrush!

Me:  Ah, ok. Good job!

Oliver:  You smell really good, Mum. You smell like turkey.

Me:  You don’t like turkey.

Oliver:  I know. You smell like pasta.

Me:  That’s bacon. I had bacon.

Oliver:  Ewwwww!

He is, perhaps, not my child.

I’m starting to think Oliver’s front tooth is never going come in.

Also? I’m having way too much fun with the new camera.