Just Powers

MyHeritage: Look-alike Meter - Family reunion - Dynasty

To those folks who are convinced that Emma looks just like me…I guess you are right, but just barely!

Dear Interwebs -

I have been a huge slacker. I haven’t posted a real post in over two weeks. I have no excuse really, the time has just slipped away from me. Please accept my sincerest apologies and my assurance that it won’t happen again. For a while. Maybe.

In my defense, I haven’t been completely MIA. While I haven’t been writing, I have been reading. I know that Catherine at Her Bad Mother has been having killer false labor, and OH MAH GOD, I feel so bad for her (although maybe not so false as of today? Fingers crossed). I know that Doodaddy hit his 500th post, Jessica and A Parent in Silver Spring were featured in the Washington Post Express and over at My Merry Way June gets cuter every day. I have been hanging on every word written at Boobs, Injuries and Dr. Pepper, and have been holding Dawn at Alex Year One (Two!!) in my heart.

I’m gonna go sleep now and dream of all the posts I am going to write.

Talk to you soon.
Jen

Taking turns from Justpowers on Vimeo.

I took this video back in January and never got a chance to put it up. I remembered it the other day and decided the cute factor far outweighed how late I am sharing it with you.

Jumping for Cherry Blossoms from Justpowers on Vimeo.

Emma, her friend EJ, his mom Bridget and I all went down to the Jefferson Memorial yesterday to see the cherry blossoms in full bloom. Despite the freezing cold wind whipping off the Tidal Basin all four of us stayed in pretty good spirits and were even able to find a sunny spot among the blooms to practice jumping.

Just for fun I went back to our pictures from last year’s blossoms - here’s Emma then. Big shout out to our friend Jack and his mommy Kate who went with us last year and moved away not long after. We miss them lots.

I found out recently via Just Up the Pike that the folks behind Arlington Cinema ‘n Drafthouse are opening a new venue in late Summer 2008, two minutes from me, in the movie theater at the Wheaton Mall. A night spot? Within walking distance of my house? Yippeeee!!

Montgomery Cinema ‘n Drafthouse promises first run movies, live music and comedy, sporting events and family friendly entertainment. The coolest part about the Drafthouses (besides the now incredibly close-proximity to moi) is that you watch the movies/comedy/sports/families in a restaurant setting. I saw The Business of Being Born at the theater in Arlington and had a great time eating dinner and drinking a couple of beers while I watched.

Now I definitely need to line up a regular babysitter, and maybe even keep her/him on retainer for a couple of nights a month!

Lunch with Emma from Justpowers on Vimeo.

I just took this video with our new Flip video camera, plugged it into my computer and got it uploaded to Vimeo almost before Emma finished her lunch. What a huge change from our other video camera that takes me what feels like hours to transfer from my camera, edit and upload to the web.

If you are interested, Amazon has the Ultra version on sale right now for $139.99 and an older model for $105.86

This could be seriously addictive…

This video has been viewed over 12 million times, so clearly all of YOU have seen it and just never told me about it. In any case, I just watched it four times in a row and started crying I was laughing so hard. Turns out AIG bought the video and made an ad out of it, AND it just won the 2007 Most Adorable Video in the YouTube video awards.

I’m gonna go watch it again.

There is a huge slide at our local park. It is of the corkscrew variety and to get to the top a child has to climb up many stairs. We let Emma go down the slide but only when both Mike and I are present so that one of us can help her at the top and one can help her at the bottom. I never let her go up there when I am at the park alone with her.

This weekend we were at the park and Emma made a beeline for the slide. She got to the top of the stairs and launched herself down the slide on her belly before you can say “overprotective-first-time-parents”. On the way down, she laughed and laughed. By the time Mike and I had started breathing again, she was back at the top doing it all over again.

This is going to take some getting used to.

To celebrate Leap Day, Emma and I went in to the city with Mike via Metro and went to the National Geographic Museum just around the corner from his office on 15th Street between L and M. They have a special exhibit on frogs right now (running until May 11!) and were having extra-special froggy goodness today. Get it? Leap day, frogs…?

Admission was free and the place was surprisingly appropriate for different ages. I wasn’t sure Emma would enjoy herself very much, but it was one of those “have-to-get-out-of-the-house-or-die” days, so I took a chance. As you can tell by the photo, the giant photos of frogs were the highlight of her day - and certainly more fun than the ACTUAL frogs. Luckily there were enough pictures to keep her fascinated for a good hour.

The exhibit is in a small area, but they do a great job of packing in lots of information. The tanks with the live frogs are large and fun to look at. Most of the frogs were of the camouflaging sort, so there was no way Emma could even find them. The tiny dart poison frogs (which look plastic until they start to move) and the huge pollywogs got her attention though. There is one kiosk that creates a chorus of frog sounds when you press on the large buttons and in the middle of the floor are more pictures of frogs along with measurements to show you how far they can jump - and encouraging words to see if you can match it. Emma hasn’t quite perfected her leap yet, but had a lot of fun watching other kids try.

It can be tough to make a museum or exhibit appeal to the under-1 crowd and the over-5 crowd (and everyone in between) all at the same time, but National Geographic succeeded with this one I think. At one point I saw a mother holding her approximately 9 month old son up to the dart poison frogs, and as he laughed his head off, her just about 4 year old was talking to her about how many frogs there were in the tank. Pretty impressive.

After the museum we joined Mike for lunch at the National Education Association cafeteria just around the corner at 16th and M. The NEA cafeteria is open to all, has a great selection of affordable food, and a wonderful open seating area in an atrium where no one can hear, for example, a tired little girl complaining when she is finished with lunch. Just don’t get me started on the fact that the cafeteria is non-union …oh well, I guess nothing is perfect.

Happy Leap Day!

Ever since I got this license plate (and the DC version before it)I have had fun watching the reaction it elicits. As I drive down the street I either get smiles and thumbs ups, or nasty glares and the occasional finger, although in the DC area mostly the former. I have also had a bunch of notes left on my car - pro and con - all of which I have kept. My favorite one is also the most recent - “JERK!”.

Now that we have a new car, it seems like a good time to retire these plates. It is a new time, one without W, and hopefully one with a rebirth of hope nationwide.

Luckily the plate will live on since it has been posted on several different blogs and forums. Here is where I have seen it:

• Boston.com
• Democratic Underground
• Real Crashes
• Stumble Upon
• Growabrain
• Reddit

Now we just need to figure out what our next plates will say. BARACK ?

Photo by Flickr user Agent Relaxed