still wintering

Jill is turning into superwoman.  In addition to taking care of our girls during working hours, she watches another 2 year old once a week, tutors a grad student and some high school students 3 afternoons a week, and cooks extra food for dinners twice a week for our college student friends and neighbors.

Our Bible study group lost the only couple younger than us last year to graduation, but we have a lead on a new couple.  Here is the current crew.

Lately, moost of the 'what a cute girl!' comments from strangers have been directed at Janny (before that, Clara was the focus.  Before that it was Jill, though if a guy said so I would have socked him).

Being the slow on the uptake guy that I am, it took quite a while to understand.  Mind you, Janny is adorable right now, as I'm well aware.  Clara is as well, but she is now shy around strangers which does not translate into cuteness.  Janny is still young enough to look them in the eye and turn on her charm.

 Winter is dragging on here, so we've had to plan more indoor activities.  Good friends bring some much needed cheer.

It feels like the weather has been really terrible for weeks.  But only once did I have an icicle hanging off my rear fender. I'm really looking forward to spring.

Our church basketball team is now in 3rd place (out of 8), though we were crushed in our last game by the 2nd place team.  We were missing our superstar, so maybe we'll give them a better game in the playoffs.  About once per game, I make a good play.  

peace in our time

This 25 second video (yes, I now know how to upload videos to the blog!) encapsulates much of our home life right now. 

First, the girls are playing with something that has the potential (and often the will) to result in a big mess.  Then we have some sharing conflict with Clara taking the role of drama queen and Janny as the calm instigator (the roles can be switched, but this is most often the case).  Janny, in her calm rational mode, decides that the pleasure of holding the cup is dwarfed by Clara's wailing and gives it back.  A moment of peace is enjoyed by all.

Then there's me in the background-- not being a creep by the way -- working on the house.  I was adding some temporary caulk to our vertically opening wood windows.  I feel like this has helped cut air leaks a little bit, but we've had generally warmer temperatures since I did it.

We got our energy report for January this week.  We ranked 11 out of 100 of our neighbors in terms of limiting our use.  We use about 2/3 as much energy as the average house in this group.  During the fall months, our ranking dropped to around 25-30, which suggests that we use more hot water than low energy consuming neighbors.  I would like to see hot water usage drop, but the other members of the household aren't keen on taking very short showers and wearing outer layers of clothing (pants, sweaters, etc) multiple times.  For my part, I use cold water to rinse dishes heading for the dishwasher.

For the past few weeks, Jill has been watching another girl from a family in our church.  Their language at home is French, but perhaps an additional dialect is also spoken (how crazy is it that a 2 year old can be fluent in at least 2 languages!).  After I came home from work one evening, I was rather startled to hear Clara using that girl's accent for "l" and "r" sounds.  Words like water have a fun new twist at the end.

And speaking of water, Janny has started using Clara's old word "mado" for water.  I guess she says it for fun, since she can say the word "water." 

I'll conclude with a mid-season basketball report.  We are 2-2 with one loss a blowout to a much superior team and the other when our star player was out. For my part, my fitness level is fine and all joints are in great shape.  But I generally feel like I haven't played in about 10 years.  I'm looking to improve positioning for rebounds and moving my feet better on defense during the rest of the season.

State of bicycling 2013

You already know that Jill and I like bicycles?  What is new:  the bike nut community is growing.  Here are a few observations from this month (being January, where high temperatures have been regularly less than freezing. 

1.  There are 2 boys (I believe in junior high) that ride their bikes to school every day.  And I mean every day.  I took the above photo from the comfort of my living room because it was about 10°F outside (also because I didn't want him to think I'm a creep).  Both guys rode through the 1" of snow on the road the next day.

2.  At 8:15am on said sorta snowy day, I was the 4th set of tracks on the gravel path I use for commuting.

3.  We went to our matriculated-adopt-a-student's housewarming party along with a number of his friends.  His new to him fixed gear bike was much admired by several friends.  A young lady said she dreams of owning a Peugeot like this. As we were leaving (dark, cold night), another young lady was unlocking her bike and to ride to a dance party.

What's the dream bike for these co-eds?  This is where my hope for mankind is slightly dampened.  A young man said Cervelo.  Are you paying attention, Mr. Colnago????

4. Moonlight rides continue through the winter.  I skipped this version for the housewarming (and we probably rode about as far as the moonlighters did), but still 7 people rode in the dark with sub-freezing temperature.

Our backyard looks like this right now.  Somehow, all our bigger storms have been warmer this winter, so we get lots of rain and tiny amounts of snow.  And cold days.

Finally, during the sermon at church today, I counted the number of people chewing gum.  Out of an estimated 150 people in my field of view, there were 9 gum chewers.

Interludes

You know how when you change jobs, it takes a month or so until the new benefits kick in?  I don't love that policy.  In the two weeks since I switched jobs, our big daughter has taken two trips to the doctor.  The first was to convenient care to check on a possible UTI.  Thankfully, that turned out to be a very minor case.

On Friday night, we took a trip to the ER.  Clara was brushing her teeth (using the verb very loosely.  The important point was that the toothbrush was in her mouth.).  She slipped on one of her 5 dresses and bumped her toothbrush on her play kitchen counter.  She cried out and then gagged a little.  At first glance, I couldn't see anything, but eventually got a flashlight to take a better look.  There was a small hole in the back of her mouth, just above her epiglottis.  Yikes!

Thankfully, the ER was not crowded.  Clara got checked out quickly, and the news was good.  It would heal in a few days, and all she just needed some anti-biotics.

And then come the bills...

 I think Janny's face is looking more toddlery every day.  It goes well with her strong oratory skills.  My favorite saying is "too spicy, don't like it".

 There is a whole lot of dressing up happening now, mostly by Clara.  First, just one costume was enough.

 Now she wears about 3 dresses, angel wings, head bands, scarfs, hat, shoes, and I don't know what else.  Is she a bag lady or an eccentric great aunt (not insinuating any of our relations, of course)?

We've had beautiful weather for the last 2 Saturdays, with frigid days in between (it was 6 degrees this morning).  For the first, I rode with the Wildcard gang to Monticello.  For the second, I tracked down the source of the clicking on my Boulder bike. This turned out to be the interaction of the BB cable guide screw and the BB.  The screw was slightly too long and had scored the surface of the BB.  If I pedaled hard enough, the screw would slip out and back into the groove.  Let's just say that wasn't my first guess.

Beginnings

Happy new year!  Today was my first day working at Wolfram Research, Inc.  My office (okay, technically a cube) is on the 6th floor with a fine view of Assembly Hall, Memorial Stadium, and train tracks.  I'm part of a group of Q/A workers, and I should to work a decent amount with friend Joel.  

My head is still spinning as a result of the career change and the amount of stuff to learn for the new job.  But not having to deal with uncertain work contracts or look for a job is a huge burden off my shoulders.  

Janny sometimes talks in complete sentences now, but by far her favorite words are 'woody', 'buzz', and 'watch a movie'.  'My turn' is shouted when I am flinging the girls around.  She likes to practice using the potty, so she could be fully potty trained soon.  Jill and I (mostly Jill) is not quite ready to face the training yet.

Clara ate eggs for the first time ever tonight.  Maybe because I cooked them?  This makes us very happy since eggs are quick and easy to create.  She loves to color right now with big crayons and markers.  If someone is working with her, she'll make an attempt at coloring specific items on drawings.  Otherwise, she likes to fill the page with long lines and several different colors.  

A few times per day, the girls play together.  They color, play with legos, and run/dance around.  Of course, they are adorable when they play nice, but the extra bonus is that mom and dad can spend tens of minutes at a time working on other things (like sweeping the floor).  Better times are ahead for sure!

Merry Christmas

We celebrated Christmas in Urbana with the Smith family this year.  

Clara has been inflicted with some sort of bug.  Between periodic bouts of suffering, she's had a great time playing with cousins.

 The whole crew on Christmas morning as taken by Fereshteh.  Next year, there will be one more little in the picture (not a Knutson).

 One of Jill's good gift ideas was toy story costumes for all the kids.  Clara is a somewhat reluctant Jessie -- she would rather be Buzz oftentimes.  Janny is the weird alien guy(s?), but doesn't like to wear the hat.  Ricky and Enoch make an excellent Woody and Buzz.

Big news on my career front.  In January, I'll be working for the guy below (though I don't expect to meet him for some time).  We're super excited that (1) I'll be gainfully employed, (2) the company and job seem to be a good fit for me, and (3) we don't have to move!

For the first time in about a decade, our town has a church basketball league.  We have a ringer, so I expect that we'll be competitive.  My goals are threefold: (1) not get hurt, (2) not be horrifically sore after practice or games, (3) contribute.

TN Thanksgiving

My allotted vacation days were burning a hole in our collective pocket, so we took the whole Thanksgiving week off and headed for Nashville.  Lots of people complain that spending time with family is stressful and exhausting, especially around the holidays.  We don't.  In fact, we relaxed a lot thanks to help with the kids and had some fun times.

We took a trip to the Nashville Zoo.  They have a fine playground near the entrance, so kids can wear themselves down a little bit before taking in the elephants, giraffes, and snakes.  The highlight of our visit was watching the cayman lizards.  One slipped while climbing a branch.  Just before plunging into the pond, she grabbed hold of the only thing in sight, by chomping on her friend's low hanging tail.  She hung there for several minutes before ultimately falling into the water.  Her friend never moved (but probably was laughing on the inside).

There was much dressing up.  Clara's favorite was a darth vader mask that talked and breathed loudly.  In the movies, he looks much taller than Clara.  Janny generally watched the 3 big kids from a distance.

Jill and I took full advantage of the available family baby sitting.  One night we went out to dinner with Matt and Lupita.  One day, we took a hike in the Cumberland area.  We hiked to 2 waterfalls.  The first was a fun surprise because we expected it to be dry.  The river bed up to the falls was dry, as in no flowing water, no stagnant water, no puddles of water.  We considered turning around and heading back (we only brought one bicycle bottle worth of water for our 4 hour hike).  About 100 yards away, we heard the falls, and then we saw them around the bend.  Very beautiful.  The stream disappears underground.

There are hills down in Tennessee.  From the valley floor to the tops is somewhere around 700 feet.  

To continue a tradition, a couple of Matt's long-time Kurdish friends joined us for Thanksgiving dinner.  They couldn't stay too long (and a wife couldn't come at all) because they had to work at Walmart on Thanksgiving night.  Boo on you, Walmart.

And now we're back home, trying to get used to cooking, cleaning, working, raising the kids, cleaning, and cleaning all by ourselves.  At work today, my office-mate hugged me.  It wasn't all that awkward.