Category Archives for Family

Summer Road Trip 2011 – The Biltmore Estate & Asheville

Thursday morning Aliya and I headed off to the Biltmore Estate with my industry friend Rachel.  The Biltmore is the largest single-family home in the US…it’s still family-owned even though it’s more like a museum and nobody lives in the house any more.  It was originally built as a country retreat for George Vanderbilt and his wife, Edith, and later their only child, Cornelia.  The house is 175,000 square feet, with 250 rooms, 34 bedrooms, 43 bathrooms, and 65 fireplaces.  Originally there were 125,000 acres of land…it currently sits on 8,000 acres.  It is AMAZING…words really can’t describe how beautiful it is.  They don’t allow photos to be taken inside the house, so I can’t even SHOW you how beautiful it is!

After our tour of the Biltmore, we had Mexican food for lunch at Neo Cantina, and went to the Western North Carolina Nature Center (another freebie with our Museum of Science membership).  It was good for the kids to run around a bit and they got to see some less-common animals – African wild dogs, wolves, and they really liked the river otters swimming around against the glass.  After a nap we went to downtown Asheville for dinner at the Mellow Mushroom, and walked around town a bit.  It reminds me a lot of Cambridge Mass – lots of live music on the streets, artsy people hanging out, just a really great vibe.

Summer Road Trip 2011 – Framingham to Asheville

It’s pretty sad that even on VACATION I can’t find time to update my blog.  I have been good about updating my work blog, but between the driving, the driving, and the driving, I haven’t had an extra moment.  I think I need an iPad keyboard so I can be more efficient in the car.  If I haven’t said it before, I LOVE my iPad with 3G.  It’s so great for navigating and finding gas, restaurants, hotels, ice cream – all the necessities, along the way.

We are currently at my brother and sister-in-law’s house in Grassy Cove, Tennessee.  It’s 7 a.m., everyone is still asleep, and the only sounds I can hear are the birds chirping and the cows mooing.  It’s an absolutely gorgeous day and the sun is doing a good job of burning off the fog.  I’ve got to start working on Hank (my sister-in-law’s dad) to sign over a tiny little plot on his cattle ranch.  I love Tennessee!  It’s like Vermont without the cold and snow.

We left home on Tuesday after Ben came home from work.  The kids and I had spent the day packing, doing errands, and cleaning up the remaining work projects.  Traveling has become so much easier for me since the current technology allows me to stay connected, although the downside is that I’m never disconnected.  Yesterday I got an email from a door company in Wisconsin while we were driving through North Carolina.  I’ve responded to at least 100 emails from the car during our trip, but this one was too hard to answer by email so we stopped at a rest area, everyone got out and left me in the car, and I called the customer.  The funny thing is that I’m not responsible for customers in Wisconsin, or anywhere outside of New England, but because of my work blog I get questions from all over the world.  Last Saturday someone from Egypt contacted me via Twitter and I answered his question with several back-and-forth Tweets.  Crazy!

Anyway, we left home with no idea where we would stop for the night and no hotel reservation.  We had packed dinner so we didn’t have to stop, and we were just going to drive as far as possible to cut down on the driving time the next day.  We ended up in Carlisle, Pennsylvania at 11:30ish, which I thought was pretty good progress.  It was a good chunk of our trip, but not so late at night that everyone would be toast the next day.

Behind our hotel was a big field that sloped up, like our own personal amphitheater for the wildlife show.  I first saw a bunny, then two turkeys, then three deer, and a while later the kids started yelling that there was another deer.  I grabbed my camera and took this photo of a doe with her fawn.  They were booking across the field and it was tough to see the fawn because of the camouflage.

We left the hotel pretty early because we had to get to Asheville, North Carolina that day and it was 500 miles away.  I always check for museums and zoos with a reciprocity agreement with the Museum of Science, which gets us in for free or half price, and I found a zoo in Roanoke, Virginia which was about halfway to Asheville.  It was a decent zoo, but pretty small…at least it got the kids out of the car and running around for a while.  They had a wildflower garden so I broke out my macro lens and gave it a try – photos to follow.  The zoo was right next to the Roanoke Star – the largest man-made free standing star in existence…I kept thinking about the man-made part of their claim to fame.  Is there a larger non-man-made star?

The kids passed out on the way from Roanoke to Asheville, and woke up with about an hour left.  The drive through the mountains was beautiful, and the kids were amazed by the dead coyote we saw beside the road.  Looking for more roadkill got them through at least 15 minutes of the trip.  We stopped at a scenic overlook which wasn’t overly scenic, but we found a bunch of empty but intact chrysalises on the stone wall which were very cool.  Norah just finished studying the whole caterpillar to butterfly thing in preschool so she told us all about them. 

We got to Asheville around 8:30, and I had made reservations on the way down (by iPad) at the DoubleTree.  We went to Asheville because when I posted on my work blog that I was going on a road trip and wanted some ideas for places to see great doors (I know, I’m weird), my work friend from Asheville offered to take me to the Biltmore Estate.  Asheville was only a couple of hours out of the way and I had never been there, so off we went.  I think that’s a great way to travel…i just need a VW bus and I’ll be ready to go where the wind takes me.

When we got to the hotel the kids went straight to the pool with Ben, while I unpacked and did a little work.  There was a TGI Fridays attached to our hotel so we went there for dinner at about 10.  I started feeling kind of queasy and anxious so I went back to the room and took some vitamin B12 because it was the same kind of feeling I had when I was B12-deficient (except the feeling went on for months).  I didn’t think it would help, but oddly enough – an hour or so later I felt fine and was able to eat the dinner Ben brought back as take-out.  I don’t know if it could have been the B12, but I don’t know what else it could have been.  I was really happy to feel better though.

The next morning Aliya and I got up early to meet my work friend in the lobby at 8:15.  I have known Rachel for over 20 years, but I haven’t seen her for probably 10.  We’re not close friends, but she likes my work blog and frequently comments or emails me about it.  I have relationships like this all over the country and social media has really helped me maintain them or form new ones.  Very cool.

I am going to write about the Biltmore in a separate post, since this one is bordering on becoming a book.

P.S.  Everyone is still asleep!!!

My Unexpected Life

When I was a little kid, I didn’t plan on growing up to be a door hardware consultant.  I didn’t know I’d have thousands of *fans* around the world.  I thought I was going to be a back-up singer for a country band, so I guess my fans would have been closer to home.  I didn’t know that I’d marry a Moroccan guy…my boyfriends were all down-home Vermonters.  I didn’t know that I’d move to the big city, especially since my mother’s fear of driving in cities (and over mountains) rubbed off on me.  I got over it.  I didn’t know that I’d have 3 kids, and I knew for sure that I wouldn’t have to yell the same thing 50 times before anyone did anything.  Yelling didn’t work for my mother, so I knew I would have my own inventive ways of getting things done.  I got over that too.  I didn’t know that I would give up on trying to keep my house neat and orderly, and let the yard go to hell.  As a single adult I was organized beyond belief, and always spending my free time making homemade gifts.  I didn’t expect that someday I’d be sending email gift cards for birthdays and holidays, because I lost the card I originally bought for the occasion and the gift STILL isn’t finished.  I guess I’ve learned to expect the unexpected.

Saturday morning, I didn’t expect to bite into a bagel and end up with half of a molar missing (it hasn’t turned up yet).  I spent the weekend chewing and talking funny to avoid repeatedly cutting my tongue on the leftover tooth, which left me with a sore jaw and an open wound on my tongue.  The dentist worked me into her schedule for a consultation today.  It was completely unexpected when she looked in my mouth and told her assistant to prep for a crown.  Right now???  Yep.  Wait!  I’m not mentally prepared!!  Today was my 7th crown (thanks to my pen-chewing habit that lasted through early adulthood), so at least I knew what to expect at the dentist.  For me, the worst part isn’t the Novocaine or the drilling…it’s the purple goo that they use to make the cast of my teeth, so the permanent crown fits.  I had to use my old hypnobirthing techniques to keep myself from throwing up in my mouth and drowning in my own vomit.  Here I am during that process:

I had 2 hours in the dentist’s chair to think about other unexpected events of recent weeks.  There was the woman who anonymously commented in the online version of the local newspaper than I’m a white elitist and that I only care about myself.  That was pretty unexpected…since this woman doesn’t know me at all, has never spoken to me, and I’m the farthest thing from a white elitist.  Maybe she had me confused with someone who doesn’t have a brown husband and kids in bilingual school.

Then there was the morning when we were having a thunderstorm, and Aliya was on the front porch spraying sunscreen on herself (why?  who the hell knows?).  Annie, our obese MINI Australian Shepherd, who closely resembles a small hairy piglet and freaks out during thunderstorms, seized the moment to run out the front door and go after a black lab that was walking by with his owner, who I would estimate to be around 70 years old (the owner, not the lab).  Annie started jumping on the lab, and his owner started screaming (GET AWAY FROM MY DOG!!!) and beating Annie with her umbrella.  Meanwhile, Aliya and Adlani were in the street screaming, while Norah screamed at the window.  Did I mention it was pouring rain and the dogs were kicking up mud all over the 70YO woman?  So I did what I had to do – I ran out into the street.  In my underwear.  I grabbed Annie’s collar, and said, “She doesn’t bite.  She won’t hurt you.”  The woman was really mad (“HER TEETH JUST MISSED MY LEG!!”), really muddy, and I was in my underwear, so it was a very short conversation.  To top it off, the woman is a town meeting member in my precinct and I knew she’d eventually figure out that Underwear-Woman was me.  I sent her an email apologizing and she accepted, even though she maintained that my 30-pound obese hairy piglet is a vicious wanna-be killer.  Sorry, no photo of me in the street in my underwear.

There have been lots of other unexpected events lately, but the one that really sticks out in my mind happened a few weeks ago.  It has taken me this long to get over it.  Ben was at soccer practice with Aliya and I was at the park teaching Adlani how to ride a bike while Norah tried not to get run over.  Ben showed up at the park with Aliya and one of her team-mates, and we decided to go out to dinner.  We had two cars, and when I arrived at the restaurant parking lot, I saw both girls peering into Ben’s ear.  When I looked in, I saw something brown and hairy, and really disgusting.  While attempting to remove it with tweezers, it kept migrating back into his ear.  I feared the worst – something alive.  I could almost gag just thinking about it now.  Maybe I’m not ready to recount the story yet…I need more time to  heal.  KIDDING!  I finally got a good grip on it, said a little prayer that no ENT specialists would drive by and see me in a parking lot with super-pointy tweezers in my husband’s ear, with an audience looking on.  I’m sure Aliya’s poor team-mate was wishing she’d caught a ride home with one of the normal dads.  So anyway, I finally pulled the thing out, and it was a GIANT, dark brown, hairy piece of ear wax.  If you’re brave, click here because yes of course I took a picture.  This one’s for you, Larry!

Here’s one more unexpected turn of events.  Thanks to a knitting/crocheting class with Nurse Mary and the organizers of the spring fundraiser at school, I have reawakened my crafty side.  I haven’t crocheted since I was pregnant for Norah…I was working on a blanket for her when we went to Morocco, and I ended up giving it to someone there who had just had a baby.  I never got around to making another one for Norah.  Well, our class got me hooked on crocheting again, and I used up the first skein of yarn the first weekend.  I went back for another skein, and bought 2 more skeins to use for another project.  When I got it home, the kids insisted that I use the new yarn to make a baby blanket for Adlani’s first-grade teacher who is home on bedrest.  Seven skeins and 2 more trips to the yarn store later, the blanket is done and ready to bring in on the last day of school.  The woman who never sits down except in front of a computer has watched the entire Season 4 of Private Practice while crocheting a blanket big enough for the kid to take to kindergarten in his nap bag.  I don’t know how it got so big…maybe I was concentrating a little too much on Taye Diggs.

Here’s a photo of the first meeting of our stitch-n-bitch club at Iron Horse Fiber Art in Natick.  It’s a beautiful store and all of the ladies who work there (especially the owner, Debbie) are so nice.  Just a heads-up to all family members…you will be receiving a crocheted gift for Christmas this year.  Don’t get your hopes up for anything fancy…at the moment I only do rectangles.  I hope you enjoy yours.

Happy Father’s Day!

Our family tradition is to spend Father’s Day in Ogunquit…this year Aliya asked if we could stay overnight, so here we are at the Anchorage by the Sea.  The weather is gorgeous.  We had a short thunderstorm just before dinner last night, and then we saw two gorgeous rainbows.  Norah kept insisting that they were from Grampa B.  Dinner at La Pizzeria was great – I highly recommend it if you’re looking for good pizza in Ogunquit.  I set the alarm for 4:45 this morning so I could photograph the sunrise from the balcony of our hotel, and it was well worth it.  We’re headed to the beach today.

Happy Father’s Day to all the dads out there!!

Red-Eyed Tree Frog, Take II

What I’m about to say is going to further tarnish my mom-putation.  Oh well, I’m not winning any mother-of-the-year awards anyway.  In fact, Adlani recently screamed at me, “YOU’RE NO MOM!  YOU’RE A MONSTER!!”  For some reason I take pleasure in being called a monster.

So…it’s that time of year again, when along with the rest of the year-end frenzy, the kids prepare for the big research fair.  I’m not a fan.  There, I said it.  I don’t mind the actual fair itself, which is when parents spend an hour talking to the kids about their projects.  It’s the preparation that gets to me.

Call me crazy, but I think a first-grade project should be whatever a first-grader is capable of.  If he fashions a lump of clay into what he thinks looks like a frog, done.  Maybe there’s a benefit to having the first-grader sit for hours with Mom and Dad, making a diorama of a Siberian Spotted Salamander’s habitat, but when it comes to our family, those moments together always seem to lead to some sort of family strife.

This year, Adlani’s project was a red-eyed tree frog, and he was dead-set on making a tree frog out of clay for his project.  I don’t know why he couldn’t have picked a snake, which I’m pretty sure I could have made out of clay fairly easily (or out of a stocking like one of our friends).  He could also have chosen to stick some photos of the frog on a piece of posterboard, draw a picture, or hell, even go to Petco and BUY a red-eyed tree frog.  But nooooooo…he had to make one out of clay.

We’ve had a lot going on the last couple of weeks, so even though Adlani was reminding me daily about the frog, I hadn’t had a chance to go buy the clay, paint, etc. until Sunday.  On Monday (Memorial Day), we spent at least 3 hours making the most beautiful clay frog you’ve ever seen.  You’ll have to take my word for it.  The project was due Tuesday, so I drove the kids to school, carried the frog carefully to his classroom, and put it waaaaay back in the corner behind the other projects.  I almost took a picture of it before we left the house, but we were running late and I literally said, out loud, “I’ll just take a picture of it at the research fair.”

Tuesday afternoon, Adlani got off the bus with this:

That’s it.  After my head exploded, Adlani told me that he had accidentally dropped the frog while they were practicing doing their presentations for the parents, and Señora Jeyadame said, “It’s ok, just make another one by Thursday morning.”

Huh?  It’s Tuesday after school, I’m a single mother because Ben’s still receiving visitors who have come to his sister’s house to pay their respects.  Adlani and Aliya have soccer practice, and I have hired a babysitter so I can finally go back to Zumba after 5 long weeks of town meeting.  Wednesday afternoon I’m supposed to go to my office (which didn’t happen because of the tornado), and then Night #2 of my Zumba reentry.  There is no 3-hour time period in my schedule to make another frog.

Needless to say, Frog #2 did not take us 3 hours.  We had the replacement shaped within about 20 minutes, let it dry, and slapped on some paint.  Here’s Frog #2, and don’t ask me what Adlani is so friggin happy about at 7:30 in the morning.  That just doesn’t seem right.

Thankfully, Aliya’s projects have gotten a lot easier, because she does just about everything herself.  She tried to convince me on Monday that she had to make a clay model of the Iditarod, but I didn’t fall for it.  If she really needed one, she would have been bugging me multiple times daily to help her with it.

Good luck to anyone else who’s in the year-end frenzy right now!