Things And Relative Diversions In Stuff

I need a Torx set.

RAB seems to have brought a cold home from daycare as a special present for her parents.

She's healthy as a horse, probably thanks to the extra antibodies that she's getting from reporteraliza.*

reporteraliza is soldiering on, despite not being able to take very much by way of cold meds. I'm not sure if she's got some sort of extra antibody/immune system production going on, so that some can be passed on to RAB, but she seems more functional than I am.

Me? I spent most of the night awake, barely able to breathe, and I'm spending the day at home, mainlining tea, while dealing with some truly unpleasant sinus pain.

I really hope I can get back to work tomorrow, since there's stuff that needs tending to before I disappear for Pesach.



*For the briefest moment, I considered grabbing a few ounces from RAB's stash in the fridge. I'm really that uncomfortable.

Tears were streaming down my face.

A question I get very often, both from random strangers and my own grandmother tends to run along the lines of, "is your daughter a good baby or a bad baby?"

I'm never quite sure how to answer this one. It's not like she robs banks or abuses animals or anything. I know that they really want to know whether or not she cries a lot, but it always comes across like they're imposing some moral or value judgement. :-)

Another fun thing was when a friend of Aliza's grandmother, who definitely was trying to compliment RAB came out with the following:

"Kinnahora,* your child is too beautiful. A bird should crap on her head!"

I was able to stammer out some sort of a thank you. I would have gotten upset, but she seemed so genuine and complimentary about it that I let it slide.


*A contraction of the Yiddish "k'neyna hora," which more or less translates as "without giving you an evil eye." Hearing it pronounced Kinnahora makes me want to open a kosher Irish bar called Ken O'Hara's.

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Green Lantern, totally.

The most powerful item in the universe, or spider powers? Take the ring, and then use it to simulate spider powers if you really wanted them that badly... Case closed.

-For those of you who may remember my former roommate Ken, I sent him an e-mail this evening. Thankfully, his Japan-dwelling relatives are all safe.

-Combined with the news coming out of Japan, the news from Israel has me feeling shocked and numb, and reminds me of the mid-nineties when the matzav was really bad.

RAB is starting to notice that there are people in the mirror. This started last week at my grandmother's house, when I noticed that she was making eye contact with my reflection, and seems to have carried over until today*.

She seems much more comfortable with Abba-in-the-mirror than with baby-in-the-mirror, but started smiling at her reflection a little bit, after some encouraging.

It was lots of fun, and made up for my feeling like I was neglecting her by leaving her in daycare all day.



*Given that we spent the rest of last week in a shiva house, where the mirrors are traditionally covered over, we couldn't really play with it much when we were in Toronto.

We're back in Boston after a busy week in Toronto.

On the way home, our flight was... interesting.

We flew the first American Eagle flight of the morning from Pearson (YYZ) to Logan (BOS- incidentally, Canadian airports get terrible abbreviations). When we arrived at the teeny little AE gate, there were approximately 40 people sitting there.

When the flight for Chicago was called, around twently people got up, and shuffled onto (or more probably into) their plane.

When the flight to JFK was called, ten people got up and shuffled away.

When the flight to LaGuardia was called, everyone else shuffled off.

At this point I wasn't worried, but I was definitely a bit curious and confused. There were a few people wandering around the gate, and our flight was still posted as scheduled to leave on time, but there didn't seem to be all that much activity.

Shortly before our scheduled boarding time, we heard an announcement over the loudspeaker:

"Will passenger arib and passenger reporteraliza please come to the service desk?"

We gathered up our stuff, and pushed the stroller over to the desk. The agent looked up at us and said:

"Are you ready to go? You're it."

We were the only passengers on the plane.

Now, this was an American Airlines flight, so it wasn't like having our own personal jet. (we were flying in some version of an Embraer ERJ 145 or 135) That said, we learned a few things:

-Plunking your child's carseat into a plane seat is a lot less hassle than carrying said child in your lap.

-The airsick bags are also labeled for use as diaper disposal bags, and you're advised not to return them to the seat pocket when full.

-Even if there are only two adult passengers on the plane, the flight attendant still needs to do the safety dance.

-When you're the only people on the plane, you can get seconds from the beverage cart. :-)

-Finally, our carbon footprint is probably huge right now.