Thursday, February 25, 2010

My funny Valentine



I am including pix of Veeka and I at a recent performance (by the Marinksi Ballet) of "The Sleeping Beauty" at the Kennedy Center. Considering that this marathon performance had THREE intermissions and went on seemingly forever, Miss Veeka lasted pretty well, I thought. OK, she was a bit pouty at the beginning as she did not like the sound of the drums but she cheered up later. I was helped by the presence of a friend, Diane, who helped take care of my little octopus as she dashed about Kennedy Center. Shown here is one photo of her actually behaving and another of me (dressed in my mom's dirndl) trying to pacify Unhappy Child.
I'd figured since Miss V did so well at "The Nutcracker," she'd hold up under the much longer "Sleeping Beauty" but it might be awhile before we visit another ballet. Fortunately there were lots of other kids at this performance but 4 is a tad young to sit through it all.
We are weathering this winter in fine fashion as the snow is finally almost gone and my porch has lost its icy sheeth. Am typing this from New York where I am on a business trip of a few days while Veeka stays with one of the families associated with her daycare. They have 2 boys about a year older than she so she adores spending time with them and doing fun things that she doesn't get to do with me. It is plummeting rain/snow here and shortly I have to brave this yucky mess. Then, back to DC.

Saturday, February 13, 2010

And I got to ski, too



Today was quite pleasant in that while some saintly friends of mine took care of Veeka ALL DAY, I whisked off to Whitetail, one of the closer ski resorts, to get in my once-a-year opportunity to schuss down the slopes. Here on the east coast and post-Veeka, I don't get to do much skiing these days so it was fun to wrap myself up in several layers and head off to ski. And it was a nice day of it, other than the fact that there were about 100 people (not a joke) in front of me in the ticket line and the combined populations of Maryland, Delaware and Pennsylvania were on the same slopes as I was.
In fact, I finally took refuge on the black diamond slopes to get away from crowds, only to get marooned on a double-black diamond that had turned quite icy. And I ended up near the trees in a stupid attempt to circumvent the moguls. Nothing like having the ski patrol folks yelling, "M'am?? Are you ok?" Well, finally I eased my way back onto the icy patches and managed to get down. Ordinarily, moguls are my friends, as they often have nice snowy tops one can turn on. Anyway, someone at the info desk at Whitetail told me it was their biggest day ever, mainly because the weather was decent and the slopes had not been skied bare yet by the snowboarding mobs.
I managed to work out of my home much this week and found a few newsworthy things to report (this thanks to the Anglicans) but it's a challenge with Veeka around. Although she has gamely watched "Happy Feet" about 15 times now.
Am attaching a photo of Veeka playing "house" by the fireplace. Tomorrow Veeka and I and a friend go to see "Sleeping Beauty" at the Kennedy Center. Will Veeka act up? Will she fall asleep? Will the ushers kick us out? Stay tuned.

Sunday, February 7, 2010

At least we didn't lose our power


We are still digging out from thigh-high snow here and fortunately today (Sunday the 7th) is sunny. I spent my morning digging up a downed wire (fortunately telephone, not electric) in my backyard and am about to go trudging out for an afternoon of digging out my garage. You'd think Veeka, considering the northern latitudes in which she was born, would love the white stuff but she spent this morning sitting atop a drift wailing about how cold she was so I sent her back inside to do some drawing while Mommy dug a path to the garage.
The photo posted shows Veeka some weeks before at her ballet/tap class. Am not sure about the future of said class in that last week she sat in the corner and sulked the whole time. My being in the room doesn't help either. However, she continually watches the penguin movie "Happy Feet" and loves to dance to it with her tap shoes so who knows?
Compared to plenty of others in the metro area, we are quite fortunate in that we never lost our power for which I am thanking God.

Monday, February 1, 2010

Snow in February


Actually the newest dump of 5-6 inches came Saturday the 30th but it's still hanging around our yard quite a bit. Posed here by our mailbox is Miss Veeka in her dark purple coat get-up. She was not so happy yesterday when I tried to take her sledding. Mind you, I could have thought just of my needs and gone skiing in the bright sunshine that arrived yesterday but NO - I thought of my daughter and her needs before mine, right? And I figured that sledding would please her more than being dumped at the ski place's daycare all day.
Well...we walked to a small hill and went up and down twice and then she decided she didn't like the snow spray in her face so she did her rag doll thing and sat there in the snow and sulked. And I was thinking that I could have been skiing at Whitetail that day instead.
Other news: Am getting together churches where I'll be speaking at during my Houston trip next month plus am lining up some other speaking gigs that are finally coming in. At work, they've hired a new editor who is 15 years younger than I and who used to work for our editorial page and has no management experience that we know of so we're all just looking at the ceiling and saying, well, whatever. However, the man they hired before who did have management experience didn't do so hot either so who knows? Just as long as that paycheck keeps 'a coming in.