Random Randomness

Hello again!
We apologize for being blog slackers.  My experiments have been time consuming lately.  (It's not easy trying to cure cancer, you know!)  So here's a quick update on what Chad's been up to!

• He ate more turkey over the Thanksgiving weekend than I did.  He also enjoyed sauteed winter greens, mashed potatoes, corn casserole, green beans, a crescent roll and a tiny slice of apple pie.  And for most of the meal, he refrained from throwing his food at our guest.  (A few mashed potatoes were sent flying, though.  I'm just glad they hit the floor, and not Chelsea.) In more recent meals, Chad has enjoyed okra, sausage risotto and tomato soup. I'm told he refused his green beans at school today.  I guess when your Daddy makes you sausage risotto, your school's green beans are a bit of a letdown.
• I was really nervous about our Christmas decorations, and our tree is decorated with no ornaments on the lower two feet of branches.  But Chad really doesn't seem that interested in the tree, or even any of the presents beneath it!  Fenway, however, has been told multiple times that we don't eat Christmas trees in this house.
• We had a so-so experience at Portrait Innovations for Chad's Christmas photo shoot.  Chad did his part by being cute (although I think I can get better smiles out of him than the professional did).  The photographer said to him, "You're so cute that you should be a model!" but duh, everyone who knows Chad is already aware of his cuteness.  The lame part was that we told them we only wanted to buy the "Holiday Portrait Collection" with the coupon we had and a bunch of Christmas photo cards, and they still started off asking if we wanted to buy the 12 pose collection, with three sheets per pose, all for the low price of $199.99.  Um, no we do not need that much Chad, and we also do not want the 9 pose package for $169.99, nor do we want the 7 pose package for $139.99, and yes we understand that we would get a free 12-month calendar with that purchase, but no we are still not interested, we really just want to buy the photo cards, and this went on for over half an hour, during which time the sales dude was only marginally helpful with designing the Christmas cards, which was what we came to get in the first place, and eventually Andy got so mad that he had to take Chad out of the store because he (Andy, not Chad) wanted to "punch that guy in the face" because "they need to learn that it's about the customer, not the sale," but unfortunately they decided to kill time by buying some Christmas gifts at a store next to Portrait Innovations that I can't reveal because then a certain aunt and uncle will know what kind of present they're getting, and apparently there was some confusion there about the store trying to charge more for an item than it was advertised for, and that just made for an even angrier Andy, and so even though I thought it was quite amusing to see Andy's blood pressure spike like that, we may be in the market for a new photographer next year, so as to prevent too much cortisol-induced CTLA-4 expression.  Whew.
• We had big plans to leave Chad with a non-family baby-sitter for the first time ever last weekend!  It was my department's Christmas party, with drinks, dinner, dancing and dressing up, and I was so psyched to get a night out with all adults!  But sadly, a stomach bug went through the DUHS IT department, and Andy spent three days confined to the couch and we had to cancel.  :(  But I swear someday we'll get out of the house, just the two of us!  And maybe it will even be before next year's Christmas party...
• Chad's teacher told me a funny story about him yesterday.  She said he crawled over to a child-size table, put a leg up on it and was ready to climb up!  But the teachers said, "No Chad, get down!" So he put that leg down, then smiled at them and put the other leg up to climb the table.  Little smarty pants!
• And finally, Chad is super proud of his Daddy for snagging himself a new job!  Andy applied for a job right before we left for vacation last month, and by the time we got to the airport he had 4 messages about them wanting to schedule an interview.  And  after three interviews with them (one over the phone, one "chat" and one that was "brutal") he's moving all the way from the basement to the 9th floor!  His new work area will have windows!  He may even be important enough to be told when the building evacuates now.  The traditional celebratory activity for a new job offer in our house is dinner at the Melting Pot.  So the Melting Pot better get their granite ready for some chewing!

"My daddy touches more tickets than your daddy!"