Headbanger's Ball

Sparse update: few words, many images

This is going to be short... we are still in the midst of our busy schedules, but can finally see a light at the end of the tunnel. Kat needs to grade some projects in the next week, and is busily sending chapters to the Netherlands for (hopefully) final approval.
Mike is jetting about ALL over town for the Handyman connection, while working on making connections for a timber framing job in Hartford.
The boys are phenomenal and continue to brighten our every day. Next week mom will take a 'mental health day' and accompany James' class on their first field trip to the FARM. What fun!

Important upcoming dates:

Move to Hartford: June 30/July 1

Katharine's defense in the NL: August 29th

Moments to share:

What we do when Mom is gone: make a ramp out of spare pieces of wood for our cars to fly down




A precarious balancing act...

Mike- 0
Vacuum cleaner- 1
It didn't get attached to him, by the way-- he tripped over it in the night while going to see about James





James re-enacting Cars the movie with all his Cars

Veggie Tales

We are still basking in the glow of our awesome first week of harvest with the CSA- Ambrose Family Farms. When I saw that basket full of greens last Saturday I was not certain we would truly enjoy our CSA membership, but I cannot rave enough about it. We have two great cookbooks that we depend on Jamie Oliver's Jamie at home and Alice Waters' The art of simple food. Both have staked their reputations on serving fresh local food-- so we thought they would be best to consult. Man, oh man, it is so true- with fresh local ingredients you cannot go wrong.

The first night I used Broccoli Rabe (that is really just a fancy way to say: the leaves from the broccoli). I sauteed it with a little olive oil, threw in a dash of our friend Casey Fitt's homemade hot sauce, and some garlic. Man-- it was good. We had that with rice, some fish Mike rolled in breadcrumbs and pan fried, and some sliced baked onions. It was divine.

Last night we had the Southern Comfort menu-- collard greens fixed traditionally (cooked for about an hour with a ham hock, lots of salt, and some onions), home made corn bread, and ribs. It was delicious.

Tonight's menu was creamed spinach, more baked onions, rice, and sausage.

We also got a lot of salad greens, so have been having nice little side salads for lunch or dinner.

We are in a bit of a quandary about how to use our radishes... any suggestions would be appreciated. I will scout online as well.

We're only one week in, and I highly recommend a pick your own farm or CSA to any of our readers... and did I mention it is all organic-- we would never be able to afford anything close to this amount of organic veg otherwise.

In other news...

I hate to admit it but we have not photographed anything for weeks. In the rare quiet family moment we have just taken time to enjoy being together, and not bothered to record it for posterity. But I know our fanbase (grandmas and aunts), so I am in including two old shots from January of this year-- Will snoozing at the park, and James in his funky-fresh Halloween glasses.

Eat your vegetables

I, Mike, have been meaning to blog about all the odds and ends that have been cropping up in these last few busy months- here goes.
We are enjoying Charleston in many ways; even though we are still paying for the high price of our move and we have yet to find a buyer for the house in Enschede, we are finding ways to hang in there. Its unlikely that there will be another time in our lives that matches this period for sheer amount of potential stressors (knock on wood) and we try to remind ourselves of that each day when we get overwhelmed with keeping up with the nearing thesis deadline, both working full time, and still trying to enjoy watching the boys at their respective ages do all the amazing (and occasionally frustrating) things they do. We even resort to sending each other emails from ten feet away because sometimes it is the only way to communicate some thought or plan in our crowded and needy household.
Both of the boys constantly amaze me with the things they do. Will now has four teeth, loves to follow James around and get into anything he is doing, laughs so easily and has a begun to really experiment with making more sounds and taking steps. It all seems to go much faster with him than James sometimes. This morning (unfortunately he has been waking up at 430-500 for the last week or so- though he has great naps and sleeps well at night otherwise) when it was my turn to get up with him, he pulled himself up on the couch and then turned and took a step to put a hand on my knee (I was laying on the floor pretending not to fall asleep.) It seems like every day he is more cognizant and interactive than the day before. He lights up when James comes in the room.
James is a clever little guy. He has started making the occasional joke and talks a mile a minute these days. Sometimes you wonder if he thinks maybe the answer to the question that he has just asked a dozen times might just be different if he asks it twenty times. Most of his life revolves around Lightning McQueen and his friends , but he loves making Will laugh and telling us what he needs and wants; pretty much the same thing and a constant.

Most of what I end up doing for clients as a 'handyman' is fixing what someone else built or 'fixed' poorly, and creating storage. You can never have enough it seems. These are some built ins in a walk in closet for a great client that we got to be friends with (they have a four year old boy and a girl James' age)- they even had us over for their Easter egg hunt. The bottom cubbyholes are for shoes and the hanging bars were customized for their different heights.



This is the closest nature to our house that is accessible to a stroller. Its an undeveloped area right behind the Walmart and the dogs love to run around over there. Recently, spring wildflowers were going crazy but by the time I remembered to bring the camera most stuff had faded. This is James going off on his own and then running back when he would not listen to me and I finally resorted to pretending like I was leaving. Ah, the Maier tough love.


We have really begun enjoying our membership in the local CSA. Every Saturday we pick up a big box of fresh local produce that is grown within 10 miles of our house and picked that day. Our first batch was strawberries, collards, spinach, sweet onions, radishes (red and daikon), broccoli rabe, and a ton of different salad greens. They even give you recipes; Katharine has been doing an awesome job utilizing it all and tonight we are having ribs, corn bread, and collards. And, I have to say, watching Steel Magnolias on Netflix. When I am finishing my Phd I guess I will be able to pick the movie...

Welcome to the WORLD

Alexandra Elizabeth Patrick (Alex for short)
born to Sean and Elizabeth this Saturday (almost two weeks early).
She is a beauty.
Congratulations to the Patrick crew.

Is it me-- or is she SMILING in this photo with her dad???

The Bridge Run

Well, the bridge run went fine. It was a completely different experience than the small runs I've been doing. There were I think between 30,000 and 40,000 participants, not to mention massive amounts of people cheering you on once you reach the city. In college, my roommates and I would head over to the coffee shop (that is cafe for our Dutch readers) on Bridge Run day and drink coffee and yell encouragement to all the folks running by. It was always a blast-- first the elite runners whiz by-- their bodies seem created only for running. They are running machines, primarily east African. Amazing. Then you see the first woman, then the first older person-- and then the HERDS move through-- just hundreds and hundreds of people for a long time... then the walkers come through. The streets are blocked off for the entire morning and people are just everywhere.

I ran with my friend Katie-- who hadn't trained, by the way-- she takes spinning classes, but hadn't run since January. As Mike said, "yeah, but she's like twenty years old". Needless to say, this was a great no-pressure situation. From the running perspective it was amazing to hit downtown and have people lining the sides of the road cheering you on. After my last race, the 8K for H20 I planned to train hard to try to really improve my times and do the bridge run in less than or just about 1 hour. Hmmm. Then the boys got colds, then Mike and I got colds, then the pressure of the dissertation began to build. I generally run three times a week, but recently on two different weeks (including last week) I only ran one time. So, by the time race week came around I knew that under an hour was not going to be a realistic goal. I decided to just take it easy, not worry about the massive crowds and how they would affect my time, and enjoy running with Katie. My friend Katie is hilarious, so we had a great time talking throughout the race, laughing at some of the costumes (and the bad attitudes-- i thought exercise was supposed to release happy endorphins, people!), and really catching up. I felt like I had a nice visit-- an hour talking with a friend without major interruption. That is unheard of these days. So our time was 1hr and 16 minutes, just under my modified goal of 1hour20minutes. Most importantly, i just enjoyed the run, felt great the whole time. The time seemed to fly, and I think that was because it was such a 'destination' run. Usually I am feeling cramped in our small neighborhood, just sort of trying to keep my brain occupied long enough to make it count for a decent run. One day I will invest in an ipod which should help with this-- but I decided to prove to myself I was actually interested in this sport before gearing all up. I haven't even bought shoes, yet... so an ipod is down the list for now.

Back to my 'destintion' run theory. In this case, you have about 2 miles before getting to the bridge,during which the focus is on the expectation of 'the bridge', and it is the beginning so people are just pumped up and yelling, etc; then you reach the bridge, and it is around 2 miles over the bridge, with views of downtown and the harbor, and North Charleston; then you hit downtown, for another approximately 2 miles-- which includes people cheering you on, upper King street, etc. So I always felt like I was going somewhere.

I highly recommend it, though I have heard from friends who are serious about timing that it can be very difficult, as the crowds get really congested at the bottom of the bridge. There is supposed to be a series of groups beginning in waves, but there is not a lot of policing of the sections-- so even our section (the under one hour group) had a lot of walkers in it.

I saw Mike and the boys along the route, then met up with them afterwards-- thank goodness he is so tall: he is always easy to find in a crowd. It was so crowded and crazy. Then we walked back to the car and ran into some friends which meant we stood around and gabbed for a while, and by that I mean about one hour. I didn't realize how that was making me feel until a bit later when we went to grab some brunch at the Variety Store on the marina. The restaurant had the AC cranked up-- uugh. I was starting to get a headache and ended up with a whopper. What a bummer. I had to come home and lie down for a while-- I should've eaten something right away and had a fleece in the car to warm up. Headache aside it was a great day overall. Mike was a champ about carting the boys all around to see me, then helping with them while I battled my headache. I do not think -- at this time-- that I want to do much more than this 10K. In fact I think I like the idea of 5K and 8K and may just try to improve my time with those for a while.
The Sustainability Institute in North Charleston, now headed up by one of my 'green team' members, is having a 'green' 8K in May. Maybe I can get Katie to do that one with me, too.

I have been scouting out runs in CT , and am thinking about doing The Space Race in Granby in July, and the Pumpkin Run in the Fall. They both look relatively family-oriented.

I have been desperately looking for teaching jobs over the summer, and am hoping I can find something in Charleston for the first summer sessions. Mike plans to transition in Connecticut with the Handyman Connection up there, so he is flexible about when we move. It looks like I can start teaching early in Hartford, by beginning with a summer II session course in July. We will be moving up at the end of June/beginning of July before classes start on July 7. Still no word if I can find a teaching gig here in early summer.

And not to jinx it in ANY way, but Will 'slept through the night' last night. He has been waking up at 4AM-5AM over the last week. Not sure why, and we have been adjusting his sleep schedule to see what might help get him on track. His two top teeth are coming in at the same time, and he is getting over the runny nose that seemed to last for a month-- so who the heck knows what is impacting his sleep in different ways. Regardless, last night he slept from 9:15-5:15 this morning. Whoo hoo Willy! Keep it up big guy!

You have been updated

We have just not been blogging of late. Our lists are too long and it has been pushed to the end for now.
Nevertheless, here are two cute movies of the boys from the last two weeks and a list-style update.
Enjoy.

Has the Dutch house sold: No

When are we moving to Connecticut: Unknown/ late summer?

Is Katharine ready for the Bridge Run this weekend: She will finish, she will not be fast.

Is everyone over their cold: Pretty much

Do we still have runny noses: Most definitely

Has Will been Christened yet: in planning stages

Did we have fun with Grandma and Grandpa Maier: yes, and it was too short!

Does James still talk about Grandma and Grandpa Maier: Yes

Does James still talk ALL the time: Oh yes

Will's newest accomplishment: pulling himself up to a standing position

Will's favorite toy: the tambourine

James' favorite toy: his die cast Lightning McQueen

Is Katharine finished with her dissertation: no, but nose is to grindstone

How much is Mike working: all the time