Pumpkin Love

Have I mentioned how much I love my husband? Well, I do. And one thing I especially love about him is his dedication to the Smashing Pumpkins.

Some may say that Billy Corgan has a nasally, whiny voice or they have egos from here to eternity. Whatever your opinion of the band, there's no denying that Rob loves them and just watching him as he listens to Siamese Dream is a whole lot of fun. He plays air guitar with intensity. He drums until you think his arms might fly off. His eyes are closed, squeezed tight together during the really, really good parts of the song. And let's face it, with 2 crazy kids, the daily grind, and a mortgage, sometimes it can be tough to find your own little piece of joy. When life gets rough, the Pumpkins are Rob's go-to band.

From: Rob T
Sent: Wednesday, July 23, 2008 2:09 PM
To: Tami
RE: sp advance tix

Tami, I ‘bout fell out of my chair when I heard the Pumpkins were going to be playing in C’ville. Despite some rumors to the contrary and the fact that I had a blast at the Modest Mouse show, the Pumpkins have always, and will always, be my favorite band. Do you remember several years ago they were supposed to do a surprise show at Trax and Jimmy hurt his eye so they never played? I was so bummed. What I’m excited about it the fact that they have been playing my favorite song recently, Mayonaise. I’ve seen them live 6 times and have only heard them play it once (at US Air Arena).

Allison may have mentioned the organist played Mayonaise at our wedding! Allison was actually going to pursue having the actual Smashing Pumpkins play at our wedding. Can’t you just see the letter to Billy now…”My husband is your biggest fan… It will mean so much to him and his grandma if you could play at our wedding. PS – Does Darcy know the base line to the Wedding March?”

Thanks again, Rob

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From: Tami

Sent: Thursday, July 24, 2008 3:20 PM
To: Rob T
Subject: RE: sp advance tix Hi Rob,Thanks for the story. I always like to hear from true fans. We get so many disgruntled ones! Would your grandma really dig the Pumpkins if they had played at your wedding? (just kidding)

Tami

Hothead

Why do kids like to dress inappropriately? Although I'm sure it's out there, I'm not talking about little guys and girls all pimped out. I mean little girls who like to wear snow hats when it's 90 degrees out and 100% humidity.
And if that weren't enough, insist on sleeping in said hat?
And then, just to make me really crazy (you know me, stickler for fashion), include it in the self-assembled ensemble the next (hot, summer) day?

I think she's being influenced by her peers.

E.T. Phone Home

On the way home from West Virginia, we stopped at the Green Bank Telescope. My husband and son are really into all things space-related, so I thought this would be a good adventure to break up the trip.

This thing is really cool. And HUGE. It's different from an optical telescope in that it maps space using radio waves and can therefore "see" space in a different way. When you get out there, it feels a little bit like a 1950's Cold War government operation. Because they're doing everything they can to minimize radio interference, they don't allow cell phones (there aren't any cell towers anyway) or digital cameras...and they only allow diesel cars near the telescope because spark plugs have an arc that causes interference. So they have a fleet of 1950's era cars that are really low-tech (and they're all painted sky blue).

It's a bit of an undiscovered gem- the tours are free, the people are friendly, and they didn't mind our kids running around like maniacs in the visitor center. Maggie was super excited about riding on the bus for the tour. All in all, a good adventure with some educational value hidden inside.

p.s. This picture is not of the big radio telescope. This is the "original" radio telescope, built in 1937, by Grote Reber, in his backyard. It includes parts from his Model T Ford. Seriously.

God Bless our Consumer Nation

Coming down off Maggie's birthday party celebration, my son, Brian, is feeling a bit left out. He told me in a tear-filled confession tonight that he is jealous. He doesn't get as much attention as Maggie and he didn't get what he really, really wanted. A Care Bear.

I couldn't hold back my surprise and I said, "Seriously? You want a Care Bear?" I mean, I'm all about boys liking girly stuff and all, but I can't even figure out why Maggie is so into Care Bears. Sorry all you CB-lovers out there. I was never into them as a kid when they were "originally" popular, so I guess my bias should come as no surprise.

Anyhow, yes, he really wants a Care Bear, some super-huge one that's as big as he is. So I gave him the usual, "Well, I'm sure you could ask for it for your birthday or Christmas." (Poor kid, both are in December for him, a point that did not go unnoticed.)

"That's so far away! Isn't there something else in between? Like Thanksgiving? What is that all about, anyway?"

What, me? Stress?

My daughter, Maggie, turns three next week. We've created a tradition of going to my grandparents for birthday party at their house in West Virginia. My mom's birthday is the week before, so we share the party and get twice the cake. What a deal!

Maggie has been planning her birthday since December. We've known for quite a while that it's going to be a Mickey Mouse party. For a while, Maggie was hoping to get a stuffed Minnie Mouse as a companion to her faithful Mickey, but my mom found my old one in her attic, so that was taken care of. But we quickly moved on to bigger wishes/demands. At dinner a few weeks ago, Maggie announced, "I'm havin' a moon bounce at my party. A pink one. And you're going to get it for me." To say the least, I was shocked at how certain Maggie was that the moon bounce was going to happen. I asked, "Who do you know who's had a moon bounce at their party?" Pause... "Me." Insert giant roll of the eyes here.

Having called the ONE moon bounce guy in WV (yeah, I caved, partially because I wanted to see what my grandparents would do when a giant, blow-up princess castle arrived in their back yard) and finding out that he was booked, I came up with another cool idea. A Mickey cake. Easy, right? I made a killer treasure chest cake for my son's birthday so this would be great. I ebay'd it and...holy cow, $35 bucks for a cake pan? No way. So I waited...and waited...and got outbid...and finally got an awesome cake pan. That arrived on Friday. We left on Thursday. Which left me totally stressed (as if I wasn't already) about how the heck to make a Mickey cake for my adorable/demanding daughter.

I'm not going into even more detail of how we got here, but the end result was a slightly sunburned, kind of odd Mickey cake that tasted really, really good. Don't let the gray frosting scare you.

When I returned, a lovely package awaited me at my front door. Anyone in the market for a top-notch Wilton Mickey cake pan?

Battling It Out for the White House

The other day my son Brian, who is 5, was watching the news and asked my husband, Rob, "Who's the republican guy again?"

Rob: John McCain.
Brian: And who's the democrat?
Rob: Barack Obama.

Brian: Are they fighting?

Rob: Well, they're battling for the presidency.

Brian: With swords?

I'm not going to make any political analogies here because I think Brian has done the work for us. Rob adds that McCain is kind of short and Obama is kind of a big guy...you take it from there.

I will say that I think it's great that my daughter, who is nearly 3, keeps asking me, "Who is the lady?" and she means Hilary Clinton.

All hail the beginnings of political knowledge!