theparkerfamily.org

Month: January 2011

  • found: somebody who is having a day worse than mine

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  • guestbook: grandparents

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    See Slideshow of the Photos on Flickr:
    guestbook: grandparents

  • out: talimo’s first birthday

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    See Slideshow of the Photos on Flickr:
    out: talimo’s first birthday

  • good news/bad news

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    sparklet had her 15 month checkup today, and the good news is that she’s still growing like a weed at 28 lbs (97th percentile) and 33 inches tall (off the chart).

    the bad news is that she’s got some kind of an ear infection, which means that she’ll get her first ever dosing of antibiotics. she’s not contagious, according to the doctor, which is a darn fine thing considering her bff’s birthday is tomorrow.

    i see lots of Plaza Sésamo and Fraggle Rock in her future.

    UPDATE: sparklet no-likey the antibiotics. well, actually, she loves taking them — they just don’t stay down for long. i wonder how long this cycle of futility is going to last.

    UPDATE #2: we think it started off as an ear infection, and then became the flu — namely because i got the flu about three days later.

  • color correction

    our real estate agent came through tonight and picked out new wall colors that he said would help our place move more quickly.

    ever since we painted our very first room, the lady sparkler and i have known that we’d have to repaint all of our wall colors when we moved out — but it didn’t make the new (rather dull) color selections sting any less.

    Living Room
    before: after:

    Grape Green (Behr)
    Reticence (Sherman Williams)

    Master Bedroom
    before: after:

    Ruby Ring (Behr)
    Soft Tan (Sherman Williams)

    Nursary
    before: after:

    Acorn Squash (Olympic)
    Hubbard Squash (Sherman Williams)

    Bathroom
    before: after:

    Warm Spring (Behr)
    Caen Stone (Sherman Williams)

    Kitchen
    before: after:

    Cerise (Olympic)
    Sand Trap (Sherman Williams)

    Foyer
    before: after:

    Porpoise (Behr)
    Reticence (Sherman Williams)

    if i ever needed confirmation that i’m nothing like the rest of the kids on the playground, this did the trick.

  • mount pleasant-er

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    we might be in the market for a house.

    we’re not moving — at least, not moving out of mount pleasant — but there are a couple things going on that make us (er, the lady sparkler) think that it could be time to upgrade.

    • interest rates are down 2+ percentage points from when we signed a last mortgage. when you add that savings to what we pay each month in condo association fees, we can have about a 50% larger place without paying a dime extra per month.
    • we were planning on moving in the next 2 to 3 years anyway, and *man* our place seems a lot smaller than it did, saaaay 16 months ago.
    • the market has stabilized enough that we’re sure we can get all our money out of our current place.
    • the economy is starting to show signs of life again, which means that housing prices only have one direction to go (and that would be “up”).

    that said, if we can’t find a nice little fixer-upper row house in mount pleasant that we can afford now, we’ll just stay put until we’re on the other side of our daycare payments.

    we love our neighborhood, and haven’t given up on the idea that we can raise baby sparklet here. we love our friends, we love our nanny. we love the fact that our vote for federal office is basically meaningless (wait, scratch that last one).

    and, besides, there aren’t a lot of other options …

    within D.C., we certainly wouldn’t move east of 16th street (too speculative), nor south or west of mount pleasant (we couldn’t afford it), and there really isn’t much in D.C. that’s north of us (all residential, little commerce, reduced transit).

    outside of D.C., we have the same problems we’ve always had: new england and chicago are too cold (for my beloved); texas is utterly without seasons (for me); the pacific northwest is really far away and people there actually slow down at yellow lights (the latter is a “third rail” for the lady sparkler).

    and besides, we all know how much my beloved likes change.

  • video: strollering

    httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dL6y1sPQNVI

  • ohthankgod

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    our washer/dryer came today, ending a 44 day drought (not that we were counting). if this isn’t the absolute happiest day of our collective lives, it’s darn near close to the top.

  • video: dancing

    httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FGNR8cLIafE

  • theater: true grit

    over christmas, the lady sparkler and i went to our first movie together in the last 15 months.

    and by “together” i mean that she decided to stay home and sleep, and i went to see “true grit” with my father and brother instead.

    and by “went to see” i mean that my brother is a fancy pants movie reviewer (examiner.com, twitter, radio show) and so i tagged along when he and my father decided to go.

    i’ll stay quiet on my own thoughts because my brother’s review is better, and heck friend/slash/literary illuminati robert lalasz’s review is better, too.

    but, i overall i’d give the movie three kumquats and a banana — it was better than Cats!