October 15, 2012

• And here are the pictures from my Grace Hopper conference trip to Baltimore:

  Sophia and I representing our company at the career fair. And lunch at Phillips with my sister, roommate Kathy, and coworkers Galina and Aafreen. Maryland blue crabs + Old Bay Seasoning = yum. Better than the big Dungeness crabs we get in the west coast, but 10x harder to pick out the crab meat.

     

   

  Ripley’s Believe It or Not “odditorium” … totally worth the $27 admission. The 4-D movie was very fun (although you may not like it if you’re prone to motion sickness), and my favorite was the hall of mirrors maze. Good entertainment for ~an  hour, maybe longer if you have curious kids (there was a room of hands on experiments/activities)

    

   

  Friday evening, there was a celebration at the Baltimore Science Museum (great place to take kids), and then my parents picked Sophie and I up to go home. We visited my cousin Greg and his wife Haiying in Virginia, and met their kids Jesse and Effie for the first time. I was impressed how much Mandarin Jesse knew. I think if I had to do it over again, I would have hired a Chinese speaking nanny for my kids, like they did. Plus their nanny cooks for them, so when they come home from work, they can fully engage in family time vs. wrestling with getting dinner on the table. Smart!

   

    

  We went out for dim sum afterwards, and then visited Dutch Country Farmer’s Market, which is owned/run by the Amish. A lot of the baked goods were made right in the store. The pretzel sticks were terrific … so much better than the mall Pretzel places. Their chicken is famously good, but we were way too full to eat any. Of course, I had to pick up a freshly baked shoo-fly pie for my friends Melissa and Kathy. A trip home would not be complete without my mom’s home cooking, and this was no exception.

   

    

  And while I was out? Zachary won an life skills award at school, which was announced at the school assembly. He’s usually (one of) the last kids to get it during the school year, which translates to most poorly behaved. So it was a surprise that he was selected so early in the school year. I wonder if the teachers are encouraging the kids who struggle the most by using positive reinforcement and a heavy dose of wishful thinking.  Zachary also went to Jackson’s video-game-bus + sleepover birthday party, and Alex’s Minute-to-Win-it birthday party. Happy 9^th birthday Jackson and Happy 8^th birthday Alex!

   

   

    

  So James was in Vegas for 4 days immediately followed by my 5 day east coast trip. Looking forward to this weekend, where we actually get to do things as an intact family!

  • 11:03 pm
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