Disappointed

Every Friday I drink to another week at our neighborhood weekly happy hour. Last week I hosted and great fun was had. This week we went to one of our favorite spots -- Adobe Cafe -- where we have been many many times for drinks and meals. There are two fantastic waiters who are friendly, relaxed and know to bring gravy boats of salsa along with the baskets of tortilla chips when we arrive. Now there are two crappy waiters -- there used to be just one -- who don't anticipate our needs, always seem annoyed at our mere existence in their place of employment, and are generally grumpy.

I got there well before any of my friends and ordered a margarita on the rocks with salt. The crappy waiter who apparently would be waiting on our table brought me the worst margarita I've ever had. It tasted like weak lime Kool-Aid. While I was walking baby Doodle around the bar (it's smoke free) I told the waiter that the drink was terrible and invited him to take a sip. He did and then made me a fresh individual margarita (as opposed to the regular ones from the gigantic vat of pre-mixed margarita in the back). The new drink was very good.

Once my friends arrived I sat baby Doodle down in the high chair and engaged in adult conversation -- always a welcome experience. Baby Doodle ate a piece of bread, some chips and fried tofu I had marinated in pomegranate glaze from Trader Joe's. When he had enough food he wanted to get back down and walk around. At first one of my friends was escorting him around the bar, then I took my turn. While we were standing near the bar and the entrance to the patio seating area the other crappy waiter came through with a tray of food in one hand and the tray stand in the other. He saw us well before he got to the door. I moved baby Doodle out of the way and he rolled his eyes and gave me a look that said "get your fucking kid out of my way." Once he had passed I let BD walk around some more while I was following him. One of the nice waiters came through the patio door with a drink and with a smile on his face simply moved his feet a little to the right to get around BD.

Then, our crappy waiter came up to me and said: "You need to keep him at your table. It is not safe to let him walk around. There are waiters coming through with hot food. I'm afraid he'll get hurt." I told him that we always come here and this has never been a problem. He reiterated that I needed to keep BD in his chair. I returned to the table, ate my mushroom quesadilla, and drained the rest of my margarita. Before we left my friend -- who also has a baby -- and I asked to talk to the manager. I told him what happened and what good customers we are. He said that the waiters are told to tell parents to keep kids out of harms way. "When it's not crowded it's not a problem, but when it gets busy like it is now, it's not safe for them."

He made his case in a much more civil and understanding way. I nodded, said I understood and left with no intention of going back any time soon, which is really too bad. I love(d) Adobe. For the first time since BD was born almost 16 months ago I experienced non-understanding and rejection (not even when I was breastfeeding in public).

If I go there again, and I suspect I will because it's a favorite spot among the group for happy hour, I am going to try to request one of the two nice waiters.

I have been remiss

I haven't written in a while and have been slow to post this summer. I'm not sure why. It could be that nothing terribly interesting has happened. It could be that I've been more busy during the summer -- going away, meeting other moms and babies for play dates, going to the playground etc . . . But none of these are good excuses. I've dropped the ball and will try to be better.

My mother and aunt who were here last night and this morning drove across the country from San Francisco to Philly. Now they're on their way to Vermont and then down to Long Island. Then my mother is coming back here to Philly for a few days. I love having the help and the company. Even though I've been home with baby Doodle for almost sixteen months I still welcome the companionship and extra hands of my mother, or anyone else for that matter.

Baby Doodle had his fifteen month appointment last week. He's doing well and his weight is up -- up being the fourth percentile, as opposed to the second. He weighs 20.7 pounds and is 31 inches tall. He's starting to lose his big belly.

The other day he got his first scraped up knee. He fell on the cement at the dog park and it started to bleed. When we got home I cleaned it with hydrogen peroxide and he barely fussed. Then I put a bandaid on it knowing that he'd probably fall on it again. He ripped the bandaid off immediately. When I looked slightly disappointed that he'd removed it he tried to stick it back on his knee with no success. Sure enough he fell again later the same day and scraped it even worse. I went through the same repairing routine with the same result. Now he has a scabby knee that is finally healing.

More to come sooner, not later.

Pictures from our trip b/c my links didn't work

In the ocean at Spring Lake, NJ

Baby Doodle pointing to a dog at Silver Lake in Vermont

Cooling my feet in the Ottaquechee River in Vermont//

Baby Doodle at the Chittenden Dam in Vermont

TiVo and Comcast

We have just made the switch from DirecTV (satellite) to Comcast (cable). We have taken advantage of Comcast's offer to save money by getting our Internet, phone and TV cable from them. While I was spending more than hour on Wednesday evening on the phone with TiVo technical support to make the TiVo work after the cable guys fucked it up, Mr. D had me ask if TiVo was going to be able to use our new digital phone line to load information. The answer was a definitive "no."

Shit!

We can use a wireless network to load the info but Comcast's modem didn't come with one, like our Verizon DSL did. It is possible to use the Internet but we haven't figured out what that will entail -- bringing the modem upstairs and plugging it into the TiVo every week? I have no idea.

So the TiVo person says, TiVo is not compatible with Comcast's phone line (of course they're not they don't want people getting Comcast because Comcast has it's own DVR that is easier (all one box/remote)). But Comcast's website says it does work with TiVo. Does anyone know for sure if a digital phone line will work with TiVo Series 2 or will we have to figure out how to use the Internet with it?

Vacation

We returned last night from a twelve day vacation. To keep it simple and actually relaxing for Mr. Doodlebug and me we went to Vermont and stayed with my mother and then to Spring Lake, NJ and stayed with my in-laws.

We headed to Vermont last Friday after Mr. D got out of work at 4:30 p.m. We had planned to do most of our driving at night so baby Doodle would sleep and not require our attention. It didn't work. We drove until about 6:00 p.m. then stopped to eat at a humble Italian restuarant in New Jersey. I thought BD would fall fast asleep after dinner, but he didn't. He refused. He sat in his forward-facing car seat and talked/babbled for three and a half hours finally falling asleep at 10:30 p.m. (normal bed time is between 7 and 7:30). I think there were two reasons for this: BD is so used to our night time routine that it's difficult for him to fall asleep at night without it, and he was fascinated by the green, reflective highway signs, the red tail lights moving steadily away from us and the white headlights heading toward us. We arrived at my mother's house just an hour after BD had fallen asleep. Luckily, I was able to move him to his Pack n' Play without disturbing his sleep.

I forget how much I love Vermont in the summer. It's the most beautiful, pleasant place to be. We took BD to the Chittenden Dam, where we took him last summer, and he walked right into the water. He loved it, which we were surprised about because he hasn't taken too well to his baby pool or the ocean or even a bathtub that is not his. He marched right into the water up to his waist and squealed with delight. It was fantastic.

I spent my first night away from baby Doodle. Mr. D and I went to Woodstock, VT and stayed at a lovely motel, seems like an oxymoron but it was really a great place, but you get to your room from the outside making it a motel, not a hotel. We went to Quechee (pronounced Kwee-chee) and saw the incredible gorge there. We hiked down and enjoyed the river up close. The weather was in the 70s and sunny. Not an ounce of humidity in the air -- my kind of weather. I am currently sitting in our house with two air conditioners running because outside our door is a wet, swampy air in which you can barely breathe. I miss Vermont already.

Baby Doodle was great for my mother. He didn't cry, he napped easily and went to bed for her without incident. He woke up in the morning and looked for us, but my mom distracted him with a ball or something and he forgot all about his parents. We met them for breakfast at Sugar and Spice, a great breakfast/lunch restaurant where your pancakes come with real VT maple syrup, if you want the fake stuff you're charged extra. Baby Doodle was thrilled to see us and we were equally excited to see our little guy. We had bought him two presents during our 24 hours away from him (a t-shirt from the Quechee Gorge gift shop and a wooden magnet toy from the oldest independent bookstore in Vermont).

We left Vermont around 6:00 p.m. the next day for New Jersey. Baby Doodle pulled the same I'm-not-sleeping-in-the-carseat stunt he had pulled a week earlier falling asleep a little before 10:00 p.m. He made up for it the next day with two long naps. Baby Doodle is quite taken with his Grandad. My father-in-law has something to which baby Doodle is attracted. He actually cried a few times when he left the room and he doesn't even notice that Mr. D or I am in the room when Grandad is around. It's great to see.

During our visit baby Doodle overcame his fear of the baby pool, plunging right in with the other kids, and his fear of the ocean. He actually walked into the cold water and let the waves splash him above his belly button. He loved it. He was at the beach four of the five days we were there. My in-law's house is about a mile from the ocean so there wasn't a need to spend all day there. We were able to get wet and cool off and then go home instead of baking in the sun.

Mr. Doodlebug and I went out to dinner one night while my in-laws watched baby Doodle who I had already put to sleep. I had a delicious black bean soup and plantain encrusted halibut. We split a bottle of wine and had water ice for dessert from the most amazing water ice place I've ever been to -- Strollo's.

We got home, unpacked and watched some crappy television. Mr. D took today off from work to recoup and I'm glad because I slept until 8:00 a.m. I definitely feel well rested and don't need a vacation after my vacation.

I thought I could post links to individual pictures on our Snapfish account, but I can't. Each link comes up as the first picture I linked to, but they are all in the same album so if you're really interested you can scroll through the pictures at the bottom or view as a slide show. I'll have to figure out if you can even do that from a computer that isn't ours.