Tidbits

• Heard: When I took Oliver to daycare Monday morning, he hung up his raincoat and immediately went over to his lead teacher, Ms. Ginnette, and told her that we slept in the basement last night.  In fact, we woke the kids up around 1:15 AM and kept them with us in our bedroom and, briefly, in the basement, while tornadoes passed through the area.  I have to believe that we will eventually learn to ignore the sirens, but we're not there yet.  In other concerns, I have no idea what else Oliver tells Ginnette about what happens at our house and what she makes of all of it.
• Read: In an article by Ryan Lizza from The New Yorker about Obama as a post-post-partisan politician: "According to Poole and Rosenthal’s data, both the House and the Senate are more polarized today than at any time since the eighteen-nineties."  This saddens me.
• Enjoyed: 55 degrees and warmer in January.  
• Made: Creamy chicken noodle soup in my Crock Pot.  Chocolate chip cookies with Oliver, in which we used milk chocolate, dark chocolate, and semi-sweet chocolate chips.  Oliver learned the joy of picking up brown sugar from the counter on his finger to eat and, after I told him he sample any more chocolate chips, exclaimed in pure delight when one or two "jumped out of" the mixing bowl.  Then some BBQ pork sliders today (also in the Crock Pot).  
• Ran: Almost 9 miles today.  I watched Two Weeks in Hell, a series about the Green Beret selection process, while I ran.  Very motivating.  
• Spent: Thursday with Emme, who had to stay home because of pink eye.  It's so much more fun to stay home with a kid who is "sick" but not ill than one who is just completed wiped out from an illness.  That is, I had much more fun at home with this week than last week, when she was home for two days (one with a sitter while I went to a full day of classes) with a stomach bug.  
• Feeling: Like my cold symptoms will never go away -- I've been fighting sinus headaches for the last two days, mixed in with a cough some nights just for fun.  This is all residual, I think, from a nasty cold I got from the kids back at the end of December. 
• Wondering: If my friend Kim will hear soon about her PhD acceptance.  I wouldn't wish this madness on anyone, yet still hope she gets in!
• Can't wait: To find out in the next couple of days if I'm going to get a niece or another nephew.  Either will be just fine, so long as I'm the favorite aunt.