we have butterflies, and two medals, and a new bike

I posted earlier about my son Leo getting caterpillars through the mail. Now nine out of ten have hatched from their cocoons and are flying around their pen. He's really excited. David texted that the first ones had hatched on Friday and I called home to talk to Leo, but he was so excited and distracted that the conversation didn't go very well. He's taking good care of them. They have fresh sugar water drops to drink quite often, and he cuts roses from the backyard for them, plus he's cut up an orange for them to suck on. Once the last one had hatched we'll give him a while more to enjoy them then release them. Today he woke up at 3 AM and he says that he couldn't sleep, so he went downstairs to check on the butterflies. He woke David up, so they had a discussion about the butterflies not causing problems or interfering with his sleep.

David went to a regatta at Lake Natoma on the other side of Sacramento and rowed two races, a double and a single. He won both of them! I'm really proud of him because he worked hard in training despite his recent health problems.

Yesterday we went to a local bike store and bought Leo a new, larger bike. He's really excited and has been riding it every chance that he gets.


I also wanted to welcome a new follower, Mark, who lives in D.C. (that's Washington D.C. to non-Californians) He has an interesting blog, but I haven't been able to figure out what the significance of the blue sponge is yet. Care to explain, Mark?

I screwed up

I screwed up big time. David, my husband, is a rower, and his big event for the spring is the San Diego Crew Classic at the end of March. He thought that he was going to fly to San Diego on that Friday and come home on Sunday. Now his coach wants all of the team down there for a practice on Thursday afternoon. That means that his parents would have to pick up our son Leo from school and take him to their house both Thursday and Friday afternoons until I get off work, and they would have to take him to school on Friday morning since I have to leave for work before I can take him to school.

Here's where I screwed up. I have to work one weekend day each month, and I thought that I had requested to be off that weekend. But I just found out that I have to work all that Saturday. So I can either try to trade with someone and have that person work that Saturday and I'll work for him or her another day, or ask my in-laws to watch Leo for a long time. I can't believe that I didn't request the time off.

David isn't happy with his coach right now. She seems to be putting him in the "B" or slower boat, even though he had the second fastest time on the teams' erg or indoor rowing test on rowing machines. He thinks that he should be in the faster boat. I hope that the situation works out for San Diego. He enjoys his trips there and was planning to stay with a friend who will soon be moving to D.C.

hands

Today I decided to show photos of my hand below and David's hand on the right. My hand has a "tattoo" of a dinosaur that Leo drew on my left palm. He wanted to give me a tattoo as I was cooking dinner last night. I thought that my palm would be a safe place, since it probably wouldn't last long there given how often I wash my hands. What I didn't anticipate was how much drawing on my palm would tickle, which was surprising since I'm not that ticklish. I kept laughing and squirming, which frustrated Leo a little. The artwork would have turned out much better I'm sure if I could have stayed still.

David's hand above is the result of his rowing. He always has calluses or blisters. The large one that is fresh he insists is due to poor technique at yesterday morning's row - holding the oar handle too tightly and some other problem. He says that if he had proper technique he wouldn't have blisters. I think that that is b*llsh*t since every rower I've ever met has damaged hands. I think that they wear it as a badge of honor. David added that when Leo saw his new blister Leo asked "Does it hurt?" and immediately jabbed his finger into it. David responded, "Yes it hurts, don't touch it."

You may also notice our matching wedding rings. We bought them just before the first anniversary of our first date, at the Whole Earth Festival in Davis, California. (Whole Earth was started in 1970 and features bands, homemade crafts, vegetarian food and what David calls "organo-groovy" people, causes and ideas.) He decided that we should have rings since we had been together for almost a year, so we bought each others' for $16 each. He said at the time that we should think of them as "promise rings" since same sex marriage and domestic partnerships were years away. Later he admitted that he just wanted me to wear one so that others would know that I was taken and off limits. He didn't need to worry, I wasn't going to stray, and it's not like I had other guys after me. When we got married legally in 2008 he brought up buying new rings, but I said no way. We had worn the rings for 16 years by then and I was very attached to them and didn't want some new rings.