more school?

I can't stop thinking about this. Rog and I went to a friend's house for dinner on Saturday night. There were 4 couples total. We were almost kid-free - we brought Seven along to play with the hosts' dogs. Ahhh, but this is not what is stuck in my noodle.

While chatting, one of the gals asked if I plan on going back to school when the munchkins get a little bigger. HELLO?! Do I act like I need more schooling? I thought that in general I come off as semi-educated. Maybe I really did become a professional student without even trying to, and now it just doesn't seem natural for me to NOT be studying something or other. Formally, that is. I realize that go a bit ditsy when prego - contrary to peer reviewed articles that have found NO correlation between pregnancy and increased forgetfulness - but I just didn't think it was that apparent to the outside world. I thought it was my little secret.

All along I've thought that all my schooling was intimidating to others. This just demonstrates how little I've learned! :)

Maybe I should slap on another poll question: What degree should I go for next? I really don't think I could stomach law school, but I have toyed with a Masters in psych off and on over the years. Seems like a fairly flexible profession - choose your own hours kind of gig. And in fitting with today's culture I could market myself as a 'Life Coach' instead of a shrink. Art history always sounded interesting to me, but without any practical applications. Other ideas?

In other random ramblings, why do I think that the existence of orange juice in the refrigerator is suddenly going to make me like the taste of it again? A 30 second trip to the garage would have saved an evening of irritation as I tried to enjoy my beverage. I could have been drinking blueberry and sighing in contentment instead of being queen of laziness, periodically drinking the orange concoction and burping all night long. Silliness.

The planning has started for 'The Year of Carol (and of course Randy) 2008.'

First draft:
Saturday - Griffin's baptism, family photo
Sunday - lunch at a park, Smores and other things you can cook over a fire in the afternoon/evening
Monday - San Diego? Sea World?

Mark is going to check out the baseball schedule to see if there are any interesting games going on. Any other suggestions? What are you dying to do in or surrounding Long Beach?

Mandatory for all are the family photo and lunch on Sunday. Other than that there's some flexibility as to participation.

Addition: Dave, you get to be in charge of securing a park. Mag said there was one nearby that Pam and Kat went to for some mother/daughter deal that might work.

Tommy, I vote you get on the hotel scene. You know - figure out a decent location - preferably with pool and included breakfast is my vote - and see if they'll do a block rate. If that doesn't work for you, let me know. If you narrow things down I would be happy to help out with some phone calls.

funnest toy ever

My love of the QUADRO giant construction set has officially been rekindled. This toy is as much fun for me - if not more - than it is for Katie and Alex. I found it by accident last spring on Craigslist. I was searching for an outdoor play option for Katie. I was thinking of a little plastic Playskool slide contraption of some kind. LUCKILY, I found something way more exciting.

Quadro are essential super scale Legos. UV-resistant, super-strong, totally interchangeable parts. You have to love German engineering. While I was playing with it I was dreaming of going back to Go:ttingen for an engineering degree - I didn't quite get the logistics of Rog and the kiddos figured out on that one! The kits come with 'mini-quadro' sets - you can build the model you have in mind at 1/5-scale first if you want to test the feasibility of your idea before wrestling with the real thing. The new kits have curved pieces and awnings/fabric bits to add on. This summer I only expanding the landing area at the top of the small slide, because I think that it's still a pretty good design for where Katie and Alex are at climbing-wise. I really need some more angle connectors to give myself more options, but I was pretty tickled that I was able to use ALL of the red support pieces. Next year for sure I'll need to add some ladders, and maybe a taller slide. Surely I will need to add on some more sets for building. I might as well take a trip to Germany to pick some up. :)

They even have a SWIMMING POOL option for these bad boys! How fun would it be to build your own castle with a slide that lands in the pool?! Of if you don't want to accidentally drown anyone, just have it end up in a ball pit.

funnest present ever

This promises to be one of the greatest presents ever! Betsy sent me the number and letter ice trays I had on my list! The picture I took looks totally ghetto next to the potential fun these trays possess. My first trial was with jello. I believe the key to successful removal will be patience - good luck there! As you can see, I wasn't even patient enough to plan out the letters or mix the colors and at LEAST make orange! Impatient Kat strikes again. If anyone has any tips on how to remove jello from silicon, I'm all ears. In the mean time, I'm trying to freeze them a tad to see if that helps, and I believe this afternoon I'll be experimenting with letter brownies. FUN FUN FUN! Who needs rats to experiment on?!

post script: Freezing the jello worked like a charm. Brownies come next!

flashback friday ala betsy

If you'd like to have a good laugh, check out the pictures Betsy put up on her blog. Some of them I don't remember the circumstances of - like when did Betsy come visit me in the lab? The one from Lake Powell is one of my all time favorites - what a great trip that was.

Betsy, you rock.