Week off

So, we apparently had another earthquake Tuesday night.



I slept through that one, too. Of course, it was only a 2.3 or something pitiful like that.



I have this week off from school for winter break. It's been a busy week for me- I've gotten a lot accomplished, but I don't feel terribly rested. Monday, Frank had off as well, so we went to see my mother and have lunch there. Lunch was right smack in the middle of Frank's normal nap time, so he slept in the car on the way home, and, once we got home, I put him in his crib for the remainder of his nap. My mother is quite excited about her trip she leaves on next week- she's visiting one of her oldest friends in Atlanta, and then she, Friend, and Other Friend are going to Cancun! Must be nice, going somewhere warm...Seriously, I don't begrudge her- the woman has worked hard enough her entire adult life, it's about time she just kicked back and had a good time.



I started over the weeked, and finished Tuesday, painting the master bathroom. It's a dark blue color, and I love it! Darrel initally was a bit wary- he was afraid it would look too dark and gloomy, but now that it's up, he likes it, too. I have to fix the trim areas- I ran out of painter's tape, so there are some areas that need more than a little fixing up- but other than that, it looks good. :)









Wednesday I went into NYC. As I've mentioned before, I like to do this every once in a while, to check out museums and stuff. Part of the problem with living so close to a place like New York is that you fall into thinking, "It's always been there; it'll always be there", and, if there's anything that 9/11 taught us, it's that no, nothing is guaranteed to always be there, nor are we, so I want to see as much of it as possible. I never went to the top of the World Trade Center, and it's one of the bigger regrets I have.


So, yesterday, I went on the Staten Island Ferry. It's free, and I'd always been told it's a nice way to see NYC, Ellis Island, and the Statue of Liberty from the water. I have a feeling it's much nicer when it's warmer and the windows can be opened- they were pretty dirty and hard to see much out of.
The above picture is of one of the SI ferries.



I also checked out the African Burial ground, about a block north of City Hall. Apparently, there were quite a lot of slaves in the early years of NYC, and they were buried out in the boonies at that time. The years went by, a lot of City was built over the essentially unmarked burial site, and it was forgotten, until 1991, when some excavation was done to prepare for building yet another tall building...and lots of skeletons were discovered. It is now a small site run by the Naptional Park Service, and like many of their properties, it's free, and staffed by volunteers who are quite knowledgeable about City history, so, if you're as much of a history geek as I am, I suggest you check it out, next time you're in NYC.


I also went to the New Museum of Contemporary Art. It's on Bowery, in a new building that just opened last year. I didn't spend a great deal of time there- the art was a bit weird for me! I did like the Ukranian Museum, though, and found some new artists to like. The Sports Museum of America, which is way down by Bowling Green, was really interesting. It's basically brand new, just opened last year, and is quite extensive. They have all kinds of films, all the films are captioned all the time (yes, I asked), and they even show some fencers on some of these films! :) I told Darrel that when Frank is a little bit older, the three of us have to go back there, because I think he'd really like it a lot. Oh, yeah, and they have the Heisman Trophy on display there, too, and you can actually touch it. My husband the football lover almost started drooling when I said that!


Today I basically vegged out, and tomorrow I have IVIG at noon, so it's another day of just hanging out around here. I have to finish cleaning out my desk, shred a bunch of papers, and finish a scrapbook I've had sitting on the floor here for the better part of a month.

Oh, and it snowed again yesterday and today. It didn't stick, but it still pissed me off.

Fault line

As I said, I live along the Ramapo fault line; here's a map of NJ showing where it is, exactly:

http://www.state.nj.us/dep/njgs/enviroed/physiog.htm

Actually, I'm not exactly right on the fault; I think my house is somewhere between the A in "Highlands" and the line itself.

And, before you ask: no, we haven't had any aftershocks.

Earthquake!

This really should have been the subject of yesterday's entry, but whatever.

So, for background info, my house is right on top of the Ramapo fault line, which I've known for years runs right through this area of northern NJ. We occasionally will get earthquakes- the last one I lived through, well, I slept through it; I think that was about a 3.5-ish. My MIL was awakened by one a few years ago.

So, yesterday morning, in the pre-dawn darkness, I sat down to eat my Cheerios and watch the news. In one of their promos, they showed a reporter live in my town, saying something about an earthquake the night before! Obviously this caught my attention, and I thought it had to be a mistake, because I'd felt nothing the night before.

It turned out the earthquake happened at 10:34pm EST, and the epicenter was roughly five miles as the crow flies from my house. Hubby slept through it as well. It did no damage here or anywhere else, and no one wa sinjured from it.

Pretty much no one else slept through it, though. Coworkers who all live nearby, as well as most of the students at Very Wealthy High School I work at all felt it, and all had a story to tell.

There's an Army base about two miles down the road from me, and during the day, they're always setting off something, so apprently a lot of people called police and asked what the Army base was doing at 10:30pm!

I'm kind of disappointed that I slept through an earthquake...for the second time. I don't need to experience The Big One; I'm just curious as to what it feels like to be in one.

Apparently having me around guarantees a smaller earthquake, though. ;)

*grits teeth*

It snowed again today.

No one I see on a daily basis is happy. Even the skiers are not happy- something about, "Well, it's made the roads so bad, it's not like I could get up to Mountain Creek to enjoy this one at all, anyway!"

It's probably somewhere between three and four more inches. Now, we had quite a bit of meltage over the weekend, with highs in the mid forties, which was NICE. This coming weekend, it's supposed to be in the FIFTIES! Right now, though, my husband is eyeing up the driveway, again, and steeling himself up for a shoveling job in the morning. (Yes, for the most part, shoveling is his job. I cook, he can shovel. Besides, I'm getting over a serious illness, right? ;) )

Frank is still somewhat lethargic, prompting a phone call from daycare today. The person who called me started to tell me about The Virus: "It's really like a flu, it's really quite bad..." I interrupted her with, "I know how bad it is- I got pneumonia from it!"

I'm starting to feel like they think we're bad parents trying to send our kid to school when he's sick. Let's see, he came down with this Thing a week ago Friday. That's eleven days ago. Eleven. For a "four or five day" virus. He's been home for a solid week, more if you count both weekends. He's been on a new, stronger antibiotic since Friday, and no longer has a fever. My humble opinion is that Frank is at the point where he's still tired from it, but if you give in to the tired, it takes that much longer to get over it all, so you have to just suck it up and soldier on. (I realize this sounds harsh when talking about a two-year-old, but really, how long can you keep a kid home who is now playing perfectly normally at home and trying to climb things like normal and being a brat at the same time because he's bored??)

He's still not eating much, true. I have a suspiscion this is the Sensory Processing Disorder rearing its ugly head and it'll take a session or two with the OT to get him back on track with food.

Is it spring yet?