You Know Me So Well...almost

N laces up her tennis shoes to participate in the Mayors Run, a 1-mile lap around the State Capitol, this Saturday. The event is habitually plagued by torrential downpours. Having drip-dried a couple of years ago, I thought I’d log onto the Weather Channel's website and scope out the weekend forecast. Be prepared. Pack an umbrella if I needed one.

I logged on by entering my zip code. Scanned Saturday's weather nutshell: temperatures and the chance of precipitation, etc. Looking more closely at the screen I noticed a link to something identified as “Race Day Outlook”.

Wow! I thought, Web-advertising sure has evolved. That's exactly what I was looking for! How handy to have a link for runners directly from this site.

Bedazzled by the accuracy of the Weather Channel’s on-line marketing agent, I clicked on the Race Day Outlook. The screen loaded. My bedazzlement dissolved into giggles as I scanned a detailed list of NASCAR events, race locations, and (based on the forecast) the odds of any rain delay.

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Reading with N: The Katie Kazoo Switcharoo seriesDinner Line-Up: Pesto Pizza with Red Peppers, Tomato-Mozzarella SaladAnxiously Awaiting from My Mother's Tivo: Being Erica (Season 1)
With McKibbin home late these days my viewing habits turn very, VERY girlie.
When I told him Being Erica was a show on SOAPnet, he chuckled and said...
My Favorite Quote: "SOAPnet? Ok...wait...there is such a thing?"Recent Undertaking: Loading a Killer MP3 Playlist for Sunday’s Half-Marathon.

One Cool Remove

McKibbin has always been cool. I don’t use the word cool, here, in the high-school hierarchical sense. It’s the kind of cool that is just a little distant. At any gathering you’ll find my husband skirting the edges of the room. He’s in the kitchen or outside having a cigarette. Listening, engaged, ready to shell out a zing or two to make everyone laugh, but seldom in the center ring.

Even among the three of us (three being our family's magic number) McKibbin will often play it just a little cool. He sleeps a little later, lingers in the dining room to clear the dishes, sneaks outside for a cigarette and often walks into whatever conversation Naomi and I are having mid-stream. Sometimes serves as fact-checker or delivers a punch line to make us laugh, but usually pulls back again.

His latest work schedule magnifies this cool habit. Our family routine and his work schedule are polar opposites with Naomi asleep before he arrives home. It’s only a 12 week stint with this schedule so we'll be ok. The newness of it prickles a little.

This morning, though, Naomi and I were zipping up her school backpack in the front hallway, and McKibbin (summoned by the coffeepot) trudged down the stairs. Tasked with un-sticking the backpack's zipper I barely glanced in his direction.

Naomi gasped with glee at the sight of him.
“Dad!” she squealed and flew across the room.

I think McKibbin was still on the stairs when she flung herself around him. And, for just an instant, my husband's cool demeanor completely evaporated. He didn’t mind being the rock-star of Naomi’s morning. Not one bit.

Merely A Flesh Wound

Finishing up my morning run early I showered-up, got dressed, and pushed through the heavy glass door of the gym onto the sidewalk. I’d love to brag about suddenly morphing into wicked fast runner. I can’t even type that phrase without laughing. Nope. My half-marathon training crested this past week, so the daily running regimen is pretty relaxed from now until race day. With this relaxed routine, I finished up early.

I pushed outside, turned toward my parked car, and took up a clip to my stride, mentally ticked with the day’s to-do list: switch the laundry, wake up Naomi, start the coffee pot, pack my lunch…and…for an instant I breathed “thank-you” to no one in particular.

I fell last week. Carrying a heavy box of file folders to my car. Missed the curb, twisted my ankle. No big deal, but, because I was carrying this box I didn’t have my arms to counter-balance my clumsiness and took a face-plant into the pavement. File folders flew everywhere. The dry wind kicked up. I crawled around on my skinned up my knees to re-assemble the papers before they blew away. The bodily injuries while ugly to look are nothing severe. A day or two of ice-packs. Slacked off with the running routine to make sure everything was a-okay.

I was glad to realize I’d be able to still run the half-marathon. Resumed my running habits on Sunday. This morning, walking along 11^th St, pre-occupied with my to-do list I thought of the capable, if breakable, body that indulges my half-marathon ambitions. The physics of mobility the possibility of motion seeming effortless.

Thank-you, I breathed.
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Currently Reading: The Woman Behind the New Deal by Kristin Downey
Dinner Line Up: Southwestern Corn & Pepper Pot, Tortilla Chips, Guacamole
Weekend Soundtrack: Freedom Sessions by Sarah McLaughlin (Mmm-hmmm, it was a moody weekend)
Naomi’s Latest Offering: I’ve recently asserted that Sunday is family cleaning day. My daughter observes that hard labor helps her imagine being an orphan.

Ok, so, you said what just now?

N was setting the dining room table.

Out of our daughter’s earshot, I describe to McK a drink I’d like him to pour me sometime. My husband knows I'm a fruity drink person with a collection of paper umbrellas on the ready. So, in the kitchen, I describe a recipe that sounds worth trying. The drink, I tell him, is called an Orange Blossom. Our daughter, N, walks into the kitchen, mid sentence, to grab the serving spoons.

N: What is?
Me:Wh-what’s an orange blossom?
N: Mmm-hmmm.
Me: Oh, (changing the subject) it’s a flower you find on an orange tree.
N:The part that grows into an orange, right?
Me: Mmm-hmm. It’s the flower that grows into the orange.
McK: (to me) Good cover. Also a character from Strawberry Shortcake, isn’t it?
N: Yeh.
Me: McKibbin, that you even know that kind of shocks me.
N: So, dad, which Strawberry Shortcake character are you?
McK: Ah-hem, actually I’m more of a Dead Kennedy’s person than a Strawberry Shortcake person.

One Good Meal Deserves Another

My family delights in any occasion to laugh together and indulge in wine and food. A spirited discussion often rises from the dinner table. Afterwards we walk out into the night air glad for the event.

Last night we shared a table with Tess Vigeland from NPR's Marketplace. It was Ms. Vigeland's second trip to the Landis house. Naomi was quick to fill Tess in on the latest and greatest in the life of a first grader: she lost a tooth, got a cousin, and started taking gymnastics. The rest of us filled Tess in on our lives since her last visit and the latest take on the economy.

Our party was diminished by two. Jen and Sofia stayed behind to rest as my brother Matt joined us. It was great to see Matt. And while we missed his lovely family, we can all support any action which follows the sleeping urge for those of us new to the planet (Sofia) , or new to the planet known as Motherhood (Jen). They were among us, and us with them, in spirit.

Naomi had announced, six months ago, her vocation as a "friend-maker". As Tess and her microphone pulled out of the driveway Naomi turned to me and said, "Mommy, you could be that girl's friend. She drove all the way here just to have dinner. I think that means she likes you. You should be her buddy." It was the first Naomi had outsourced her professional services as a friend-maker.

At the close of a delicious pot-luck dinner, a fabulous discussion, and lots fun Ms. Vigeland took a front porch portrait of our family. Did I mention I brought macaroni & cheese? The irony of it's role as a Depression era food didn't strike me until it was too late to bring something else.




Check out Marketplace evening broadcast. We might be on the air.

League Benefits

Naomi: I’m not a very good bowler.
Me: Me either.
Naomi: My arms aren’t strong enough.
Me: My arms are pretty strong. But I’m still not a very good bowler.
Naomi: You bowl every year, though, with Thanksgiving.
Me: Yep. Bowling is a fun time. I’m just not good at it.
Naomi: Maybe I’ll practice more often.
Me: Bowling?
Naomi: Uh-huh, when you’re good at bowling somebody gives you a special shirt.
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Currently Reading: The Double Bind by Chris Bohjalian
McKibbin household agenda: Purchasing a pet turtle.

It's a Girl

The newest member of the Landis family arrived at 2:59 this morning. Sofia Grace was welcomed into this world by her loving parents Jen and Matt Landis.