The Brain of the Operation

The other day during our lunch break

I was listening to one of my co-workers

talk about how she had fixed her dishwasher

by cleaning out the leftover bits of food that were 

clogging the filter. 

Our dishwasher's performance hasn't quite been 

up to par lately, so as I listened to her, 

I thought to myself

"Hey, I should really give that a try."

Little did I know that this would turn out to be one

of the biggest home improvement blunders of all time.

See, at the beginning, it didn't seem too bad.

After removing the dish rack,

it was clear that there were two filters, each attached by 

a couple bolts.

The first one looked like this:

No big deal right?

Wrong.

For this was only the top.

Underneath I found what I would later refer to as

the dishwasher's brain.

 The photo below shows parts of the brain.

 I think you might need a close-up to really

experience the total nastiness of the brain.

 

After scooping this stuff out

(and nearly throwing up all over the kitchen)

 it was on to filter number 2.

Yup. Almost as gross as filter number 1,

but I don't think anything could beat the brain.

Just in case you needed a close up of this one as well:

 After I finished cleaning out both filters

which was likely the most disgusting thing I have ever done,

we turned the dishwasher on to find that apparently

if you remove the brain,

the dishwasher will not work anymore.

Maybe it was act of rebellion on the part of the brain...

maybe not,

either way this was the last glimpse I had of our old machine.

 About a week later, a replacement arrived.

Casey popped it in, we started it up

and got clean dishes at last.

 

So if you are planning to eat dinner at our house anytime soon,

rest assured the brain and all of its accompanying bits

are safely elsewhere,

perhaps plotting the takeover of another unsuspecting home.

Yours perhaps?

No, just kidding, don't go there... really.

Happy Spring!

Happy first day of Spring!

Oh, wait... never mind.

That was yesterday. 

Today looks like this:

Will this torment never cease????!!!!

North Carolina: 2013

We came...

We saw...

We conquered...

End of story.

Actually, it was a bit more complicated than that.

We met Orin's newest cousin, Baby Anna:

Who is, quite possibly, one of the cutest babies in the universe.

Meeting Anna made Orin even more excited about 

the nearing arrival of his sister.

So much so, in fact, that we mulled over the idea of stealing 

this wonderful, precious ball of pink,

but eventually decided to let her parents keep her.

They did seem quite fond of her, after all.

After Baby Anna left, we got down to the business of the more

standard North Carolina fare: Golfing,

 

(A lot)

 Playing in the sand with our more mobile cousin,

 Hiking around the salt marsh,

 Sleeping,

 Playing on the beach some more,

 Hiking some more,

Golfing some more,

  And sleeping some more...

All while eating delicious seafood 

which I never bothered to photograph.

It was, as always, a wonderful vacation.

 The only thing that was missing was the basketball tournament.

Somebody had the very bad idea of delaying the tournament this year

so that it didn't overlap with our time in NC.

Which means I guess we are going to have to extend vacation a bit

because our Blue Devils are tipping off in 30 minutes.

Gotta run and go prep some game snacks.

Winter Wonderland

 Last summer was a remarkably "easy" winter

as far as northeast winters go.

This year, not so much.

It seemed like only days between this:

and this:

The first storm of the year is always nice,

powdery white snow, icy breath, bight sun reflecting off the 

whiteness....

It is hard to resist being drawn outside.

After all, there is a lot of fun to be had in the snow:

 Sledding,

Skating,

Skiing,

Playing,

and, sometimes, just laying around.

 

But after several months of freezing temperatures

 and the 3rd blizzard in a two-week span, 

the snow starts to lose its appeal.

What used to be powdery fun

turns into "Shoot! We have to shovel the driveway again?!"

(yes, that is my car)

 and sometimes it seems like it makes more sense,

just to hunker down inside

and wait for when it will look like this again:

Urvi

Last summer I got an awesome job working 

full time for an environmental nonprofit.

However, at the time I applied for the job,

I hadn't thought about the fact that Orin's school year

ends in the beginning of June.

After some deliberations, we decided to hire a live-in nanny.

We put out an ad and got back a flood of responses

(apparently it isn't hard to find young people who

want to live on the Cape for the summer).

All of our applicants seemed of about equal potential

until I read one from a girl named Urvi.

Urvi was working on her masters in speech pathology

from Boston University and was looking 

for a break from the grind for the summer.

A couple weeks later, Orin and I found ourselves nervously 

waiting for the Greyhound bus that she was taking to arrive.

I think it took both of us about 2 minutes to fall in love with her.

 The only bad thing about Urvi was that she turned out to be

likely the best nanny in the history of the known universe,

meaning that any nanny we hire now
won't have a prayer of measuring up.

Urvi is the kind of person who is always glowing,
filling the room with such positive energy
that you can't help but smile.

Every day she came up with creative and fun projects to do with Orin

and once a week she would cook the most amazing 

Indian food I have ever had in my life.

When it was time to say goodbye, I couldn't stop crying,

and even now, months later, I still have Urvi-withdrawl.

I have told her that if she ever feels like a master's in 

speech pathology is overrated,

that she could come move in with us forever.

So far, it hasn't worked, but she has promised to come back 

and visit this summer.

We sure do miss her...

none of us more than the naked boy over her shoulder

(I love this picture).

Household Size

As it turns out, during the period of Blog Neglect,

our expanding family did not just reside in my belly;

there have been a few other notable additions

that I should probably tell you about

so that you do not find yourself wondering, for example,

if Atlas spontaneously duplicated in the middle of the night.

So, sticking with that theme:

over the summer, we got a new Chesapeake. 

Her name is Avery.

At the beginning, she was very small:

She was so small, in fact, that she did not feel that she should have

to walk all the way to the cranberry bog by herself.

With each passing day, she grew a little more 

and solidified her place in the family

 

until eventually her cute puppy days were all behind us.

We also expanded our chicken population...

twice, in fact.

The first batch we hand-raised.

Here they are in their little and fluffy stage:

And here is one of the girls full grown:

It was only a few months before our 

egg cartons became more colorful:

The next batch of chickens we did not hand-raise,

instead we traded in our ducks,

who after leaving their little and fluffy stage:

 were loud and stinky and not appreciated by our neighbors.

So we traded 5 ducks for 5 one-year-old chickens

(thank you, Craigslist!)

and now have a happy, multicolored flock of 12

beautiful, quiet, non-stinky birds.

Speaking of our neighbors,

they also did not appreciate when we brought home

two of the most adorable

but also the loudest creatures on earth:

 Our stint with the goats lasted about 2 weeks

before we were forced to give them up.

They are still one of Orin's favorite subjects to talk

about with people he meets.

 The story goes something like this:

"I had goats but they were too loud for the neighbors

but mommy says that when we don't live as close to neighbors

we can get goats again."

I think it is safe to say we are all excited about that day.

 

And finally, in other family additions,

here is Orin's new cat Bear:

and his rat Captain/Templeton/Pinkerton:

I think that basically covers it.

So besides the new baby, new dog,

10 new chickens, rat, and cat,

nothing has changed...

oh, wait, and we got a new car:

We were thinking that after having the thoroughly stickered Subaru

and the van, we needed a car that really blended in...

something like a road cone orange mini Prius. 

So, there you have it. Now you know the cast

and we can get back to more of the story.

Back

I am not even going to attempt to explain why 

I haven't bothered to blog anything for the last 6 months or so.

Let's just get right down to the most important 

update that you might have missed:

 Today marks the first day of my third trimester.

Baby Number 2 is on the way.

Due Date- May 19th 

(and if that sounds familiar it is because that is the exact 

due date I was given when I was pregnant with Orin...

planned that way? Of course not.)

So there you go.

A lot more has happened too, 

but we will get to that later.

And, yes, I will be blogging more often

because after you blog your first child's every development

it only seems fair to embarrass the second one just as much.

Hope you are all doing great.