http://admire.robertlafrieda.com

Shelby French

 

Son of the Magical Xmas Grumpus

Hello Woo Land,

Seasons greetings to you sporadic visitors of the land of Woo. Apologies for the absence, but I've been a wreck since the return from Ethiopia (which was an awesome wonderful trip by the way). Basic recap of symptoms: a serious bout of jet laggardness, potential viral poisoning by Dutch flight attendants, and an unabated rejection by an infuriated Mr. M for my 10 day absence in his life. Or that's how it felt to this guilt ridden mother figure. To compensate, I paid him off in crisp $20 dollar bills (left over Canadian from the Toronto trip), along with Martha Graham inspired guilt-dances accompanied by passive aggressive monologues about my so-called "importance" in his life. With colored scarves, no less.

He should be fine now.

This weekend was Mr. M's second Santa visit. And oh my goodness, the joy in his eyes. He seemed so enthralled with the magic of Xmas. Here's the evidence.








I swear, this is a happy child, all giggles and smiles before and after these shots. But seriously, he knows this "natural beard" Santa is a fraud. I applaud Mr. M for his well poised intuition and rejection of convention.

Here's what really made his boat float one hour later...







The train display at the Hitchcock building. That's what the holidays are all about. Public transportation.

Last Day for NoPloMowhatever...

30th day!  And wouldn't you know, I can't get directly into blogger.  Will keep trying.  Trying the email route to see if it works.  If not, what a friggin bummer.  Anyway, Addis update - Katherine and i were on Ethiopian TV today!  The local news covered the conference, and us with chins in hand looking interested.  Got to find the footage.

Misho, Mommy is an Addis superstar.

Shelby

Rear Window Redux

Mama is on the new flower. Dada and Misho are recreating classic movies. Next week, Daisy as Harvey.

Honey Wine and Oromo Beats

Full day one in ET has gone splendidly. Took a road south and wandered around some crater lakes. No vultures, but encountered big ass pelicans, fish, skinny cats, and a gaggle of Ethiopian air force dudes. We had a wonderful dinner with Ethiopian dance show. Lot's of seemingly painful shoulder poppin. I joined in this venture at an embarrassing tableside dance post honey wine.

Video to come.

I'm in!

Ethiopia has let me in! Blogger is available and I can do some updating. It's just a bit before midnight here so I've made the deadline. Two more days to go!

We are here in Addis. KLM was groovy and Dutch. I sat next to the cast of Trainspotting. I think they made a 6am Amsterdam club decision to hop on a flight to "somewhere in Africa!" At least that's what I heard. And smelled.

More tomorrow. I've been traveling for over 20 hours and just accidently bit my finger. That's a sign to go to bed.

Love you Mr. M and Big D!

Shelby

Off to New Flower

30 days is coming to a close but I have to leave the grid for a quick trip to Addis. Will try and update as I go. Big D has committed to helping me reach the 30 day 30 blog entry mark, but I can completely understand if it doesn't happen. Expect some photos - probably embarrassing ones of me.

I've set up the email blog entry function, but you never know what will make it through the big net.

My friend Katherine (from the best baby shower ever) and I have some exciting work and meetings next week. Should be a hoot. First things first, we taking a day trip on Sunday to the Oromo region to vulture watch. Yes. We chose this trip.

Anywho, happy thanksgiving again to all! I'm in denial about leaving Misho but I have plenty of photos to share with the people who first took care of him.

Here's a blast from last Thanksgiving.

Gobble and Cluck

A lovely holiday meal. Cooked by others, delivered to the door, already displayed and ready to go. Fantastic idea! Never going back. Not sure what this means since I've never cooked a Thanksgiving dish in my life, but it was so less stressful not having to watch others cook.

Ethiopia tomorrow. Holy crap. Packing, preparing, and in a general tiz. Not much left in the old noodle to write so here are some photos of little man in the suitcase. Looks like someone wants to come along...

Ethiopia

Can't wait to hear this up close again.

If I had to marry a muppet...

...who would it be? I'm torn. Here are the first round of options:

1. Elmo



Clearly the most popular boy in the bunch, the most impressive on my arm on the red carpet kind of fella. But the voice could start to grate and he is a bit simple. He's probably self centered in bed to boot.


2. Telly



OR is it...



As mentioned last week, the sexiest of all muppets. But he tends to be a bit neurotic, and two neurotics in one couple never works. That's why in reality land I married the most laid back man in the universe.


3. Grover



The daredevil, a "keep you on your toes" kind of blue thang. But too many extreme sports and risk taking ventures for my taste. I wouldn't know if he'd make it home at the end of the day.


4. Big Bird



A tall drink of water to match this tall drink of water (for those not in the know, I'm frickin tall). He can read, and that's a plus. He's sensitive, but he's dialing it in lately. Rumor has it he's a bit of a toker, and I just don't need that at my age.

5. Murray



This one might fit the bill, but he has a thing for sheep, which again, at my age might be too much work.

I'm not even going to entertain the "me, Burt and Ernie" triad. Children frequent this blog.

Anywho readers, advice or thoughts?

P.S. Notice I didn't mention Cookie Monster? There's a history. I can't talk about it.

In Homage to Comfort Food

Because sometimes, that's all there is.

At Least They're Not in His Nose...

...yet.

So here we are, building a relationship with real live vegetables; frozen peas. It's more like casually dating, cause little man is not giving the milk away for free.

The "bowl as hat" was the brain child of Mr. M, offering him the freedom to be him and the option to eat the peas on his own terms.

Big D is in charge of the technical components of this campaign. I cheerlead and dance around the high chair for moral support.

Most of the peas ended up on the floor, much to the chagrin of the dogs. A couple hit the target.

Tomorrow: there may be corn.

Dance Casualty

Dance over 40 is not for the weak of heart. Or for those over 40. Or for those who just turned 40. Anyone?

Flamenco'ed today at the Museum of Science and Industry. Not sure if we were the science or the industry. But do know that my feet have swollen to twice their size. Class/rehearsal in the morning, and the show in the afternoon. Wouldn't have phased my 25 year old self, or even my 35 year old kicker, but now we're on a whole new middle aged playing field. The huge plate of ravioli, martini and basket of bread following the performance didn't help.

I can barely form a sentence. Blog entry will focus on the evidence. Notice how one foot is trying to soothe the other...tender, really. It feels worse than it looks, or I'm just a big princess.

I'm not too tired, however, to realize that I fully opened the oven door on that one.

Hello Day 20

I'm not going to force it. Here's what I was thinking about today...

1 Week to Ethiopia

I'm headed to Ethiopia next Friday. My inlaws are not buying the stated business purpose of the trip. Yes, I really am attending a conference, not picking up an additional grandchild.

"Right," they wink slyly, "sure it's a conference. We'll pick you up at the airport with a carseat. Just in case. Have fun at your 'conference', wink wink."

So no. Really. It's not a trip for adoption #2 but I am hugely looking forward to it. There is, of course, this little big problem of being away from Misho for 9 days. No worries. I have multiple strategies in development for keeping Misho in my camp. I've been speaking with the folks at Hasbro about some Mama action figures. With kung-fu grip no less. Or maybe big life size photos of Mama to hang over his crib like a big Mama mobile. And then to cap it off, a sizeable donation to Misho's therapy jar!

I'll have more tidbits of the methods for keeping Mama on Misho's mind in the days ahead. Have to spread out the blog content - only 11 more days to reach the finish line for the NoBlowhatever it is.

The conference is called Children's Rights at a Crossroads, sponsored by UNICEF and a host of others. The purpose is to develop recommendations for future policies, programming, and outreach to vulnerable children and youth in Sub-Saharan Africa. Supposedly, and fingers crossed, there will be direct participation of children and youth in the conference and the final product. The way it should be.

Here are some some of the folks we'll be talking about:

Sexiest Man Alive

It's that time of year again, and as usual, I've been thinking: who is the sexiest man alive?

Okay, J. Depp. I get it. I'm with it. You're pretty, you have hats, you live in France. But I think there is a segment of sexiness not acknowledged or frankly understood by People magazine.

I'm at a different, more coherent place in my life now. Sexy means something different. Or maybe not. Maybe this is what I've always wanted. What was always missing from my life. Maybe now, I know the truth.

Telly Monster, in my libro, you are the sexiest man alive.







Congratulations.

Total Eclipse

Today took my brain away. Alot of multiple multitasking. Multiple work schtuff. Multiple preparations for Ethiopia trip next week. A board meeting where I skillfully muted the background sounds of joy from Mr. M - mouth to butt.

I need a lite blog entry. Someone needs to do the heavy work today...someone like:

Kiki.

Handsome Boy Mondays

I've named it - the next boy band.



And I'm calling it: Misho is Justin (the dude they've selected for the solo career once the boys break up).

The First Read

Finally home and safe from Canadian angst. Spent most of the day re-meshing and kissing up on Mr. M. Got some new books and DVDs. The Xmas faves are out already, so the household is now studying the dance moves of Sir Heat and Cold Miser.

Little guy also enjoyed his first read of Where the Wild Things Are. Seemed quite smitten. You could smell the soup and sandwich coming off the last page.

Momma just returned from a similar location, where she was wildly rumped and sent to bed without supper.

Viva la resistance, Max!

Rotary Whacked

Wow, angry Rotarians are a lethal force. Presentation (to those of you that know what I'm talking about) went great. But the dinner was nasty. Canadian nasty, so not really nasty. Not Texas nasty, which is a whole other ball of nasty wax. And mind you, it was actually an American in the group that really led the nasty charge. They were pissed off at the Foundation, I was wearing the Foundation mask, so became the obvious target. I think I involuntarily put my head down on the dinner table at one point. I don't hide disgust very well - though I did take it for the team. Felt like I worked for the IRS. What can you do? Put on the armor and plan for the future.

For those of you who don't know what I do or talking about, here it is in a nutshell: I'm the economic and community development specialist for The Rotary Foundation - yeah that Rotary, Rotary clubs, polio Rotary, your father's Rotary. The Rotary Foundation is trying to revamp its grant structure and fund larger more sustainable projects in specific areas of focus, one of those is economic and community development. Microfinance was the theme of this conference. I talked about how the Foundation will fund microfinance and other economic activities in our new grant structure. Some loved it, some thought it sucked. I ducked when the latter group took aim and barfed out their grief on me. At some point, someone put a glass of wine in front of me, I don't know who, but clearly a kind Canadian comrade. Now I'm back at the hotel, and I think safe. I may need armed escort to leave the country. Who knew I could cause such scandel in such a seemingly kindhearted place. It's like I pissed off Hello Kitty.

Here is my Canadian-played evil avatar for the night. "And strategic partners will cost.......$1 million dollars...wahhha.wwaaahwhaaaaaaa....(evil laughter continues on). This is clearly an inside joke for my Rotary comrades.



And Abby, if you're out there, I received the "back rub." Ewww.