Dame Farm

A while ago, I told you that I'd be posting pictures of Kid H doing her pumpkin impression at the Dame Farm. Today's the day. I'm also including some of the other pictures we took that day. The weather was wonderful, and we had a great time!

Fall Food

We've been eating a lot of chicken recently at the Hausmeister household, and have discovered the greatness of the beer can chicken recipe.

Since there are more recipes online than are possibly necessary, I won't give it to you here in detail other than to say that they all involve stuffing a half full container of beer into the back end of a chicken, rubbing it with seasoning, and cooking it. It's a rather ignominious end for the bird, but tastes great.

We especially enjoy the meal when it ends with some of Mrs. H's pumpkin mini-bundts. The little cakes themselves taste good, but when they're warm, stuffed with Nutella, and surrounded by a scoops of ice cream with cinnamon and nutmeg on top, they taste even better.

3 Month Recap

I haven't posted for a while. Some of you noticed. Some of you also contacted Mrs. H and told her to tell me to do something about it. When this happens, it often culminates in a night like tonight, when I'm flopped on the sofa while the sound of "O Tannenbaum" emanates from the bathroom as the rest of the Hausmeister clan takes advantage of the double shower in our apartment to soak and sing . . . loudly.

So, what's been going on you ask? How about a photo recap of the past 3 months?

First, Kid H went to the fair with her Aunt and M, where she rode elephants, fed donkeys, went on rides, ate junk food, got new clothes, and just generally spent time hanging out and having a great time. She came home completely exhausted, but now asks constantly when she can go hang out with them again.

Next, the Hausmeister clan went apple-picking at the Dame Farm in nearby Rhode Island. If you're ever in the area, I recommend stopping by. We are convinced that the best apples are at the tops of the trees and can only be reached by having Kid H and Mr. H combine to form the ultimate apple picking machine. Occasionally, the person on the bottom takes an apple to the cranium, much to the amusement of Mrs. H.

The Dame Farm also has wagon rides, all sorts of fresh produce, flowers, and is owned by some great people. Our stop there included enjoying all of the above, as well as a pumpkin impression by Kid H that will have to wait for a future post.

Our next "highlight" was the pooping-by-the-side-of-I-93-in-the-middle-of-a-traffic-jam-in-the-rain incident. Traffic was at a standstill and Kid H had to go.

What you can't see in the picture is that we also had a State Police escort as well, complete with lights. I made sure to pick up the TP when I was done.

This fall, Kid H started school as well. It was a little rough at the beginning, but we got things straightened out, and she's doing great now. The school she attends is in Boston's Italian district, and has included learning Italian, thanks to a teacher supplied by the Italian Consulate. This has added a fourth language on top of the scattered Chinese and Spanish phrases and words she knows. Tonight, I was treated to three songs in Italian and heard her count to 10. She's putting the "poly" in polyglot and making her dad jealous.

Mrs. H and I also went to Japan with her cousin and cousin-in-law for a week vacation and saw lots of very cool stuff. I'll have to dedicate a couple of posts to covering it in the next few weeks.

There was a trip back to the Midwest to visit one set of the Oma and Opas, and the other Oma and Opa came here to cover while Mr. and Mrs. H went on vacation and when Mr. H had to travel for business. While in the Midwest for business, I also got to meet my new nephew for the first time.

And there was Halloween. Kid H dressed up as the animal from the book "Put Me in the Zoo". Indeed.

That brings us to the present, which finds us getting ready for Christmas and thankful for the highlights of the last 3 months. This year the Christmas season is bringing with it a significant amount of change for the Hausmeister clan as well as a number of things to look forward to, including the addition of a new Baby H and a Christmas visit from family in the Midwest.

The Lock Jig

Either you were there, or you weren't. Either way, it was a sight to be remembered.

The Wonder of the Kinder Eier

I've always thought it would be cool to be a Lego designer. However, that's probably not meant to be. A similar job would be to design the toys that go into Kinder Eier. For those who aren't familiar with this treat, it's a white and milk chocolate egg, which has a plastic capsule inside it with a small toy that you assemble after eating the egg. They are SO COOL! The US version is the Kinder Surprise. Of course the German version is better. One of the things that makes them clever is that they almost always move or do something. Sometimes, you can even combine them to build a "super surprise." Echt cool!

After being away from home for the last week, Mrs. H greeted us with Kinder Eier. Mine was this cool little guy who could smile or frown when you flipped a switch on the back of his head. Kid H's toy was a pirate gorilla who's arms could flip up to reveal a map hidden in a barrel. When we got them, we both devoured the chocolate and got on to building the toys. I'm such a sucker for clever little things like this.

Thanks, Mrs. H! You're the best!

Poolside Walk of Shame

So tonight we head out to the pool for a quick swim before going to bed. Kid H and I have been on the road for work and visiting grandparents the last week, so we were both pretty tired.

After about 45 minutes in the pool, Mrs. H and I announce that it's time to go in. Kid H pops out, complaining bitterly about the unfairness of the whole ordeal and after being covered up with a towel, disappears.

Assuming that she went inside, Mrs. H and I head in a minute later, only to find that Kid H has disappeared. After a few minutes, I find her back by the pool, buck naked, and crying. Apparently, in a fit of rage, she took off her swimsuit and threw it over the railing. It fell down a story, but got hung up on a ledge. This was immediately followed by remorse, which was probably deepened by getting a naked spanking poolside.

After getting her back upstairs, I called down to make sure the suit could be retrieved, then Mrs. H and I put Kid H to bed. She was very ready to go to sleep, but had to be reassured multiple times that the wind wouldn't blow her suit away overnight before the staff could get to it.

We're all going to bed now.

LEFTOVERS IN BBEEEEEEEEEEDDDDD!

You'll notice that both Mrs. H and I are in the picture. So, who might be taking the picture?

Clicking on the image to see the larger-than-life version might allow you to see that the expression on my face isn't one of pure surprise . . .

"Put the camera down, NOW!"

Cartoons and Legos

Have you ever wondered about what living with a house full of girls does to the only male of the house? I have. I'm already sure I know more about Hello Kitty than most guys, and am adding knowledge of other foreign cartoon characters as well. These include Pocoyo, Kai-Lan, and Pokemon at the moment. What happens when I have two girls?

For those of you who wish to test your knowledge on the above characters, can you name the countries of origin for each without resorting to web searches?

I've also been getting pretty good with pop beads. However, I'm trying fight back. Kid H and I spent a lot of time a few weekends ago working on building a Sikorsky Skycrane Lego set (which I'm proud to say I knew by name when I saw the box on the shelf), complete with a working winch. It's a pretty close model of the original, and both Kid H and I are enjoying playing with it. We're going to try for the plane or boat next, but need to find one of the pieces of the rotor first. It's probably under a sofa.

Rainy days

"Summer" in Boston this year has mainly consisted of rain. I don't mind it, since it's relaxing, and keeps me from feeling like I'm missing out on doing something inside during the day while I'm working. However Kid H doesn't feel the same way. She's bored.

So, what to do? How about take some crazy pictures? Good idea! Here are the results:

Legacy and an announcement

It's funny to be only in your 30s and already thinking about your legacy, but I find myself doing that already. Actually, this sort of thinking really started in earnest earlier this week after a doctor's appointment when we found out that . . .

Mrs. H will be having a baby girl in December!

Kid H is looking forward to it, as are we. Mrs. H is doing great, and looks fantastic. She's doing so much better than the last time around. There are going to be a lot of changes connected to having another baby in terms of how life works for us, but we are trusting the Lord to help us through these changes, as he has with all the other seemingly large ones previously.

I also need to apologize to those of you who follow this blog closely. I've been rather preoccupied with some other projects recently, so haven't posted as regularly as I should have. For those who are interested, my excuses are as follow:

• July is the Tour de France. If it's on, I'm watching it, period. Every night.
• Mrs. H is pregnant, and I'm filling the Hausmeister role more than ever.
• Work's been challenging, but I can now install WSS or MOSS 2007 with Kerberos and PerformancePoint Server, on both Windows Server 2005 and 2008 platforms as well as setting up the SPNs, service accounts, and databases. If you could follow all that, I feel bad for you.
• I'm getting peed on a lot. Kid H comes out to get a snuggle at night, I go in and fall asleep. The next thing I know, I'm laying in a quarter inch puddle of fresh, hot . . . well you know.
• Speaking of sleeping arrangements, we have a two bedroom apartment, and I don't sleep in either. I'll be on the sofa till December, I think.
• I'm trying to read all the books on the Fog Creek management internship booklist. So far, I'm halfway through the first one. I know. Congratulate me now.

So, to make up for my lapses, I'll try to post a few posts that cover what we've been up to since the last post to keep you up-to-date. Until then . . .

Easter

Well, it wasn't snowing this Easter, but it was still pretty cold and nasty out. That didn't prevent us from having our first ever Easter egg hunt for Kid H before heading to church. One of the gifts that was hidden was Domo-kun with rabbit ears. This was supposed to be a gag gift for Der Hausmeister himself, but Kid H appropriated it.

Our attempt at making the Easter service was also sort of a bust. We were suspicious that the schedule was different, but nothing was posted to the answering service message. We also didn't have internet access, so couldn't check the website. So, when we arrived, right on time for a usual Sunday, but right in the middle of the service, there was little to do besides shrug and take in what we could. With no Sunday school either, that was about all Kid H could handle anyway, thanks to the chocolate sloshing around in her system.



Later that day, we all started feeling iffy, and began coming down with colds that we're still all fighting and sharing. At that point, Domo-kun became the household sickie mascot. When everyone's sick and nobody's sleeping, anything that breaks the grumpiness is a good thing.

The Party

Kid H turned 4 on Saturday. We partied!

Party Prep

Last weekend Baby H turned into Kid H at her 4th birthday party. Getting ready included help from Omo, and included a LOT of pink! Here are some highlights:

40 Degrees

Winter is a good time for doing inside-work, both inside the house, and inside your own mind. Today, this was especially true, as we had a dose of cold-for-Boston weather, which kept people scurrying between buildings, cars, and the holes in the ground where the subway lives.

In spite of this, there wasn't too much time for self-pity, when my boss mentioned that it was -20 where we used to live. Our coldest weather here was still nearly 40 degrees warmer than there.

This made me think a lot about how we have no idea about some of the consequences of our decisions. We didn't know that by moving here when we did that we would avoid two very cold winters, or that it would be possible (almost) to avoid the cold altogether by virtue of having the subway right beneath our feet and other amenities so close by.

It's funny how the cold affects your outlook. It takes mental effort to gear up to run errands, to extend yourself, to relax. This is never the case in the summer. Your mind chills along with your body and they both go into hibernation during the winter.

So, to help ward off winter's mental squeeze, here are some Hausmeister-certified fixes for cold weather:

• Sledding at the Sugar Bowl - 40+ kids sledding on a bowl-shaped hill
  Just bring an extra pair of gloves, a helmet for the little one, and some coffee so you can keep warm while you talk to the rest of the parents standing at the top of the hill while your kids cream each other at the bottom.
  
  
• The Museum of Science - because the dinosaurs and "space-rocketships" never get old
  This works best if you can stagger your day by about 4 hours. When everyone else eats, you should hit the exhibits, and vice versa. Also, if your kid wets themselves badly, the hand dryers in the downstairs bathrooms are NOT warm enough to undo the damage. Mrs. H also finds the butterfly exhibit with 80 degree weather and 95% humidity to be like a cheap vacation. Mr. H thinks cheap is the name of the game.
  
  
• Watching for "lebendigen Waschschlappen" and their owners - tiny dogs being walked by frozen people on cold days
  This is always good for a laugh. There's just something funny about very cold and uncomfortable people standing outside with their tiny dogs, their hand in a plastic bag, waiting to pick up hot, steaming poop first thing in the morning. The look on their faces is of a certain type of misery that has to be seen to be believed. By the way, a "lebendigen Waschschlappen" is a "living washcloth", my uncle's name for these dogs.
  
  
• A Christmas cookies potluck with people and kids you don't know
  Everyone involved brings either cookies or decorating items. It's an epic amount of sugar in multiple forms, a lot of fun, and involved some great people and really good fried chicken (who knew that was part of the deal?). Just don't sneeze in the frosting!
  
  
• Travel - just getting away is nice, too
  We spent Christmas with family, lots and lots of family, for my grandmother's memorial service, and had a wonderful time seeing relatives and getting caught up again. This will probably show up in its own post soon.

So, that's the Hausmeister way of dealing with the cold this winter. If you have any suggestions, feel free to add them to the comments. I've been lax in posting, but hope to get a few more up in the next few days. It's been bats-in-the-belfry crazy since returning from Christmas vacation.