Hammondium

Desperate Chef - Vegetarian Brie Stuffed Cubenelle Peppers

2009-02-06T17:29:00.001-08:00

You know those times when you look around your kitchen and can't find anything to make? In my more creative moods I have a tendency to make up my own recipes. This, of course, usually spells unmitigated disaster or worse, crushing mediocrity. However, everyone is a while it turns out pretty darn good. Liz is currently working her way through her third one, despite tepid enthusiasm before her first. This recipe also meets our 3 criteria for regular homemade meals - Under 45 minutes of work, healthy, and really tasty. Hence I thought I would share.

Ingrediants:

8 medium or 6 large Cubenelle peppers (also known as Italian peppers)
2 good sized onions
3 cloves garlic pressed(or less if you prefer)
3 carrots shredded
2 stocks celery chopped
Handful of mushrooms chopped finely
1 cup chopped cilantro
Fresh Rosemary and Thyme chopped (about 6 Tablespoons I think)
One thinly sliced piece of brie for each pepper (I imagine that feta or any other
decent cheese would work.)

Pre-heat your oven at 350.

Chop the onions, garlic, celery, mushrooms, and herbs. Throw into a skillet on medium heat to cook until the onions are soft. Add salt and pepper to taste. Use a little oil if necessary. Stir when you think about it.

While the stuffing is cooking, cut off the top of the peppers and remove innards and seeds. Place one piece of cheese inside each pepper. Stuff each pepper with the vegetable stuffing.

Place the peppers in an oven pan and cook for 20ish minutes or until the peppers are roasted but still a little crunchy. Remove and eat when cook enough.

When I did this recipe I had fairly smallish cubenelles which were perfect for eating with your hands. The peppers have just a little bit of bite to them, but are not too spicy and they are firm enough to hold the stuffing without falling apart.

That is it.

Parent's Perogative: You get mess up your kids anyway you want - The Tooth Fairy Edition

2009-01-14T19:12:00.000-08:00

So Daegan is loosing his teeth as all good 7-year olds should. He had the misfortune of accidentally swallowing one of the precious teeth while he was asleep. He wrote a letter to the Tooth Fairy to explain his predicament and ask for something in return "not money". The Tooth Fairy had been a little lax in the past in promptly dispatching her obligations. Here is the letter Daegan found under his pillow in response to his plea. Oh yes, it was written on a piece of paper roughly the size of a business card and in fairy-sized font. Anyway here it is - magnified.

November 10, 2008

Cambridge, MA

TFA, Boston Office

Official Correspondence

Dear Daegan R Hammond,

This evening at approximately 2:33 am one of our Cambridge Tooth Patrol Fairy Airborne Unit #32 found your letter regarding the swallowed tooth. We could not leave a Gift this evening as Tooth Fairy Administration (TFA) policy requires us to investigate the incident. TFA guidelines state that the Tooth Fairy will accept any handmade present from the child to take the place of a Swallowed Tooth when it can be proven that 1) there was a Lost Tooth and 2) it was not swallowed On Purpose. Our Chief Investigator Fairy for Cambridge was dispatched to your home at approximately 5:30 a.m. She has determined that you were unconscious, that is to say sleeping, at the Time of Extraction (TOE) and therefore in compliance with the guidelines. However, given the late hour we were not able to return with a Gift. A Gift will be brought to your home tomorrow night, that is to say November 11^th, 2008. Please accept this letter and our apologies for the delay. I am sure you understand the importance of assuring that TFA policy is followed and properly documented in our efforts to retrieve all Lost Teeth.

Our team has created a fully digital scan of your beautiful Flying Tooth Flag which we have transmitted with the greatest haste to the Tooth Fairy Museum of Fine Art at the Fairy of the Tooth Palace for display. We are leaving the original piece of art so you can give it to your mother for her personal archives.

Due to the Yuck Factor, please note that the TFA does not accept donations of swallowed teeth that are later "found". In this eventuality, feel free to keep the tooth. Please, do not try and pass it off as a new lost tooth. Any such attempt will be immediately referred to the Fairy Bureau of Investigation, Division of Fraud. Such actions could jeopardize your future Tooth Exchange Privileges (TEP).

In a separate matter, our file indicates that the tooth lost over the weekend was not promptly recovered by our Tooth Recovery Outbound Team (TROT) causing a delay of some two days in delivering your Gift. As Head Boston Tooth Recovery Coordinator I want to extend my personal apology for this lapse. My team and I hope that you enjoy the crystal bookmark from our 2008 Upgrade Gift Collection with our compliments.

Wishing you the Fairy Best,

Lilly E Namel

Lilly E. Namel

North American Tooth Recovery Team

Boston, Massachusetts USA

Tooth Extraction Number (TEN): 24357 (Please refer to this number during any future correspondence)

The (almost) perfect day

2008-12-25T14:27:00.000-08:00

December 24th 2008 was one of those days that without intervention would probably be forgotten by the New Year, but it is a day that deserves to be preserved in family lore. As parents we spend a lot of time and effort trying to make our kids happy and content, nevermore so than on holidays. Sometimes it can get frustrating because our successes seem so ephemeral: a quiet hour playing animals here, a pleasant walk with the boys along the river there. As difficult as these moments often seem to find, they seem even more difficult to remember. Well yesterday, Liz and I achieved the impossible, an entire day filled with moving effortlessly from happy moment to happy moment. It was the (almost) perfect day.

Christmas Eve day in our house does not officially begin until sundown, because we have another important event to celebrate: Finnian's birthday! The day began with Finn, already dressed, waking us up with a exuberant flop. "It's Christmas Eve - my birthday!". Originally, Finn had insisted on a birthday lunch of meat and oven potatoes against all our pleadings for a birthday breakfast. However, he finally broke down with the prospect of expedited present-opening and declared that he had wanted a birthday breakfast all along.

Finn and I started out the day with a treat. I took him over the lounge for a little Finn/Papa Wii time while Mom and the kids prepared Finn's special breakfast. We had a great time. We played Wii fishing (where Finn ended up getting the King of the Pond) and Charge! - two Hammond kid favorites. Then we tried Mario Kart and finally Mario Party where Finn succeeded in getting the first Star for our team. Finn had his fill of Wii just as breakfast was getting put on the table, so we headed back up to the apartment.

Breakfast was perfect. No fighting, no whining and all of Finn's favorites - double bacon, eggs, clementines and oatmeal. While we were gone Daegan hid all of Finn's presents and made him a special treasure map so he could find them. After breakfast Finn went on his hunt with Daegan as a very helpful but polite guide. After rounding up his presents while listening to the Beatles sing Happy Birthday, we gave him our rendition and he blew out the candles. He proceeded to open his presents, all of which he loved, none more than the indoor knee hockey set. To this point we hadn't had a single fight or child meltdown and it was already 11 am!

We played with Finn's new table football set and his other toys. I started the ciabatta bread for dinner. Then we prepared to go to the MIT rec center. We drove over and found the parking lot actually open, a huge deal when the alternative is tramping four kids through the rainy slush of Boston winter. We brought our hockey sticks and Daegan, Finnian and I played hockey on the MIT's awesome uni-hockey court while mom worked out (almost 3 miles!) and the girls played their own hockey game. I squeezed in a few lunges and shoulder excercises and finished by racing Finnian and Daegan doing windsprints. Finn had to go to the half court line while I had to do the full court. Every race was a nail-biter, but Finnian triumphed by a nose each time! Flush from beating Papa the kids were ready to go home. We even left without a fight (a rarity) because the gym was closing early so the kids knew they couldn't stay.

When we arrived home we found Wall-E in our mailbox and popped it into the projector to universal family acclaim while I finished baking the ciabatta. After the movie, we delivered two of the ciabatta loaves to our dear Westgate friends. We then decided to forgo the traditional orange duck and give Finn a double treat by having meat and oven potatoes for dinner.

While taking out some trash Liz found an abandoned, brand-new picnic basket with it's dishes intact, and brought it back to the apartment to Esme's unbridled delight. Liz proceeded to explain the pleasantries of playing "tea party", and Esme's dolls continued on to a lavish affair, dining with fine china under the Christmas lights as the sun set. The boys, estatic the day before when Liz had discovered the battered shards of the old Settlers of Catan game, set up the intricate pieces and played contentedly until the heavily perfumed clouds of baking oven potatoes, rising bread, and pan-fried roast signaled dinner.

We had a very pleasant supper where miraculously everyone decided to like everything.

By the time dinner was over the sun had gone down and we declared Finn's birthday over and Christmas Eve celebrations open! What a great way to end your birthday, n'est pas?

I began the dough for next morning's cinnamon rolls while the kids helped clean up and get the room ready for Christmas Eve. We scrambled to put together a nativity scene using our wooden animals and houses to augment the little toy wooden creche set.

Liz assigned Daegan the task of coming up with an idea to make a star - as he fiddled with various ideas from scavenging one off a christmas card to using a golden bow off one of the presents, we looked over and found Finn on the computer using a random application in Word to draw stars. Where the %$*# had he learned to do that? Daegan suggested cutting it out, taping it on a stick and putting it in front of a lamp to project it over the nativity. Very cool. We had a wonderful scriptural reading of the Christmas story with Daegan playing a very majestic announcing angel, diabolically evil Herod, and miserly innkeeper while Finnian gave gifts to baby Jesus. We could have totally been on a Mormon Christmas video, and you know, sometimes that just feels really good.

We then moved on to one of the best Hammond family Christmas traditions. Liz brought out the special photo albums she keeps all year long. For each of the kids, she has one album of simple 8x11 pictures, one for each month since their birth. The kids don't know what pictures she has selected for each of the last twelve months. They love to flip through their individual books, seeing the new pictures and trying to remember when they were taken. They like to compare the pictures of each other at the same age which leads to the greatest bits of conversation. It is wonderful to see how they grow month after month. Eventually, they trade books with each other so they can look at the pictures of others and comment This year, Linnet got into it. She enthusiastically pointed out each picture of herself, slapping me on the cheeks until I appreciated it with the appropriate level of enthusiasm. It is truly one of the great highlights of the year for us.

After the albums we put out cookies and milk for Santa with carrots for the reindeer and got the beds ready. We finished by reading the kids the story of the Gift of the Magi by O'Henry, a favorite of Liz and mine. Bedtime was sealed by projecting Joy to the World (the Church Christmas video) on the wall, and afterwards, the kids were tired enough from the days activities that they went down without a fight to the glow of Christmas lights in the room. Liz and I began to rein in the remaining carnage while she made onion soup and the best banana cream pie ever tasted. I finished the cinnamon rolls for next morning. 15 minutes into these activities Finnian comes out of the room and says as serious as can be, "I think you guys should go to bed, just in case the kids have been good this year." Wow. A few minutes later the kids were all passed out. Liz and I finished the evening eating some of Liz's amazing onion soup and making sure the house was ready for Santa. I collapsed while Liz reportedly got a blissful hour to herself to read a book in the quiet of the house.

Now that is a day filled with good memories. Honestly, we will be lucky if we have another December 24th as pleasant as this one. Where does the "almost" come in, you might ask? Well, Finn did get hit in the nards with a hockey puck. No perfect day can include getting hit in the nards with a hockey puck. Sorry it just can't.

2008-12-22T06:35:00.000-08:00

2008: A Very Hammond Year

The end of 2008 finds us still in school and living in the lovely People's Republic of Cambridge. We now have 3 full time school kids in the family. Daegan is in 2nd grade at King Open Elementry, a social justice themed school. Finnian started kindergarten in the Portuguese immersion program, Ola!, where he was the dirty fork in the school play whose plot still mystifies his non-Portuguese speaking parents. I am in 19th grade working towards my PhD at MIT. My reality is not that different from Daegan's or Finn's. Our days start scampering to make it to the bus on time. We look forward to PE and recess. We all find writing the most difficult subject. We agree that hanging out with our friends is the best part of school. They are learning how to get along with others while I am learning how people go about getting along with others. Wow, I am not sure whether that last paragraph is quaint or depressing.....quaintly depressing?

The greatest exploit in the family this year must have been Liz's running of the Hartford half-marathon in October. For details and pictures check out the full blog entry. She flew through in a scintillating debut time of 2:20. The kids and I had a great time cheering her on. By the end we were all exhausted, but very proud of her. Liz continues to teach childbirth classes in the area. This year she taught 29 couples and she will probably teach more that that this in the coming year. She has really created a top notch set of classes and materials. In other news, she helped set up an archive at Harvard University with the personal papers of a well-known midwife activist, homeschooled Daegan for five months, ran a rigoruous Superhero training camp, celebrated Barack Obama's victory, and started wearing a snood.

My big news is that I presented my qualifying paper in November which looks at projects undertaken by a large international professional service firm. Basically, this is one of my requirements towards graduation. Liz graciously came to the presentation of my paper to the faculty which I failed to properly prepare her for. Consequently, I swear she was going to jump up and kick Paul Osterman and Lucio Baccaro (two faculty members) in the shins for being mean to me. Now all I have to do is pass my general exams which I will take in March then I will be "all but dissertation" (ABD). I do have some interesting possibilities developing for dissertation sites which I won't curse or bore you with by mentioning here. This puts me on schedule to graduate in May 2011 (or so I tell Liz). In non-work related news, I have made a very important decision. I have declared squash as my "sport of middle age". Can I just say squash is AWESOME! It is the most fun way to burn 700-1000 calories/hour. In my remaining spare time I make Calvin and Hobbes inspired snow sculptures with the kids, manage to stay out of trouble teaching Sunday School, bake, and shop at Haymarket every week.

Daegan, 8 in January, has made the big jump to the hallowed ground of ...... independent Harry Potter reader! He is just finished the 4th book and is moving very rapidly toward the final showdown between Harry and He Who Must Not Be Named. He also likes to play chess and would welcome any kid friends out there who want to play a game or two on FICS. Daegan has an exuberance and zest for life that we find one part refreshing and one part exasperating. While he shows many Hammondesque characteristics - a love of books and school, a perfectionist streak (definitely from Liz), and an overblown vocabulary (I contributed that) - he is also a strange creature in some ways - being popular at school (what's up with that!?) and good at art.

Finnian, 6 on Christmas Eve, is the sweetest little kid you could ever meet. We just learned last week that some serious fights have broken out in K-Ola over which girl gets dibs on marrying him. However you are wise not to be fooled. He is a goal scoring machine on the soccer field and messing with his curls will get you in his doghouse! Here is a short video of Daegan, Finn and I sledding last February. Finn breaks his collarbone on his amazing jump right at the end (at the 1:42 mark).

Esme, 4 in January, provides the quote of the month. I have been making it a habit to dance with her everyday. She has become quite the country swinger as evidenced by the following video of the Hammonds breaking it down.

The other day as we were swinging away she squealed "Now I like BOTH my parents. Even yoooooooouuuu!" I hadn't realized I had fallen so far out of favor. However, dancing everyday seems to have restored harmonic balance. Esme loves to color, run, jump from high places, and cook. She really, really wants to go to school. I think we are going to relent and let her go next fall, probably to Ola so that Finn has someone to speak his secret language with.

Linnet, 2 in January, toddles and talks. Her first word was blueberry. Her vocabulary is now expanding exponentially and includes bellybutton, cheese, sorbet, yogurt, and Stoppit! - among other essentials. She is still recovering from the haircut Finn gave her earlier this year. She loves to hurtle herself off the foam slide onto the bed, off the high bed to the lower bed, and off the chair to the couch. We like to think of her as a base jumper in training.

Well that does it for another year. We are, of course, committing to keeping the family blog more updated than in the past. Please feel free to drop in from time to time to see what we are up to. Liz and I are both on Facebook now - thanks to a timely visit by the Harts (and their very persuasive banana cream pie) this Thanksgiving. We wish you all a wonderful new year and thank you for being such wonderful examples and inspirations to our family.

Ryan, Liz, Daegan, Finnian, Esme, and Linnet

Daegan and Finn leave our family's New Year Wish to you and yours. May you have a

2009!

Quote of the Week

2008-11-14T19:26:00.001-08:00

Oh, look you have my hat! Oh, look you are blowing snot into my hat..... - Ryan to Linnet

Superhero Update - Firelight

2008-10-14T16:40:00.000-07:00

Clearing out the blogging backlog I realized we never introduced our other Superheros. Here is a special supplement to Might and Might Times featuring Firelight!

Mild-mannered Alter Ego: Esme

Things she likes: Running. Strawberries. Animals

Things she doesn't like:" When Mom is gone", Tomatoes.

Primary Occupation: Sous-chef, Wooden animal herder

Superhero: Firelight

Powers: Talking to animals. Running superfast. Firestarter.

Weakness: Bedtime. Taking books back to the Library (especially Henry and Mudge books!)

Signature Pose: Finger flame

Signature Move: Flame throw
Cool Sound: Friiing Pchow!

104.8 Furlongs!

2008-10-13T17:27:00.000-07:00

We had a BIG accomplishment in Hammondium this weekend. Liz ran 104.8 furlongs on Saturday. For those of you not into horse racing that is 42.12 modern li, 262 city blocks, 11.38 US nautical miles, or 13.1 miles. (I had fun with the conversion calculator!) Yes, Liz ran the Hartford half-marathon! The kids and I are super proud of her. Here we are before the race, ready to cheer her on!

An she is off! See if you can find her in the crowd.

(Hint: look near the runner in yellow!)

It was fun for me to switch places and be the support person since Liz has supported me through 3 different races. Here are the kids and I doing our best at mile 5.

And here she comes accompanied by her friend Britney.

After mile five we had to sprint back so the kids could do their own Kid K races. Esme ran the 50 yard dash. She is hidden behind the right arm of the lady in green. Look at that form!

Finn did the quarter mile with a thumbs up before launch. He did NOT want me to run with him.

Daegan was focused at the line. (Think Ocean's 11)

Coming down the home stretch....

The Kid K accomplished a miracle. Daegan is actually TIRED!

Liz ended up being too fast for us to go see her a mile 10 after the Kid K so we had to go sweat it out at the finish line. And here she comes under the Arch, looking good! She even has enough energy left to wave.

Liz's chip time for the half-marathon was 2 hours 20 minutes and 5 seconds, well under an 11 minute pace. That is a solid time for a first timer. Even better she felt strong all the way through, a vindication of her training strategy to run a 13 miler (she left the last .1 miles for the actual race) on her final training run. She reports that she was passing people right at left in the last few miles. In the end both Liz and her pit crew were tired but very happy.

Finnian - Soccer Savant

2008-10-13T16:58:00.001-07:00

Last spring Finnian was (finally!!) old enough to be enrolled in Cambridge Kick-start soccer. Kick-start is run by a manically cheerful guy who provides draconian oversight of parental behavior, often pulling aside "coaching" dads for tete-a-tetes about proper fan behavior for 5-year old soccer games. (No instructions, no coaching, limited cheering, and no keeping score) The best thing about it is that the entire system is incredibly age appropriate from its soccer drills down to game formats. The kids aren't on regular teams but play pick-up 3 or 4 a side soccer. The game captains (nice all-american high school kids) often switch up teams on the fly to create "competitive balance".

Finn has become somewhat of a fan and coach favorite at Kick-start - not only for his sweet disposition and sincerely joyful goal celebrations, but also for his ability to get to the net. Yes our Finnian has proven to be a local soccer savant!

Two weeks ago Finn scored all 7 goals on his field. First he scored 4 consecutive goals for the red team at which point the game captain switched him to the yellow team where he proceeded to score all three of that team's goals! This is not an isolated occurrence. More often than not he gets switched to the other team half-way through the scrimmage so as to even up the score. Here are couple of pictures of Finn in action.

(A little outside of the foot dribble)

(Now a quick cutback in traffic)

Finn's secret is that he has nose for the goal - he actually just dribbles the ball right in - and knows how to switch direction with the ball. Finnball is a great spectator sport because it is like watching Lilliputian soccer in slow motion. Finn dink, dink, dinks the ball to his left and all the members of the other team scurry to jump in front of him. At this point he dink, dink, dinks the ball to the right. The other team scurries and the process starts over again - all the way down the field until Finn either has a breakaway or it ends with him relentlessly punching the ball through 8 sets of legs into the goal.

It is really perverse the amount of pleasure you can take in watching your five-year old kick other five-year olds' booties. Next time I will try and catch some video!

Superheros

2008-07-11T17:50:00.000-07:00

For the past three weeks our kids have been participating in Kid Kamp, a child nirvana and parent hell. Liz's contribution was Superhero Training Camp, a basic safety training course disguised as "fun". Think zucchini brownies. Here are our Superheros:

Mild-mannered Alter Ego: Daegan

Things he likes: Soccer. Soccer. Soccer. Science Museum. Soccer. Friends. Soccer

Things he doesn't like: People not laughing when he is trying to be funny. Waiting for food. Peas.

Primary Occupation: Artist and Paper Airplane Engineer

Superhero: Fake-Out

Powers: Designing things (Superhero things). Spin and Disappear. Super strength.

Weakness: Dirty socks. Graduate school.

Signature Pose: Protection

Signature Move: Tornado of Deception
Cool Sound: Mmmaghhhghg

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Mild-mannered Alter Ego: Finnian

Things he likes: Playground. Soccer. Food.

Things he doesn't like: Staying home when Daegan goes to a birthday party.

Primary Occupation: Chess player. Food Critic.

Superhero: Whoosh Lightning

Powers: Speed scootering. Shoots lightening bolts from fingers.

Weakness: Burritos. Rubber rooms.

Signature Pose: Thunder and Lightning

Signature Move: Lightning Spin
Cool Sound: Bine-zwyyyyine!!!
Interesting fact: Lightning got his powers by scootering really fast until he built up a huge
amount of static electricity that zapped him!

Next up: Firelight and Antitoxidant!

Crash! Boom! Bang! - A Hammond 4th of July (With full family photo!)

2008-07-05T16:54:00.000-07:00

One of the perks of living in Boston is having a world-class fireworks display every year for the 4th of July. One of the perks of living in our part of Cambridge is the ability to walk down to the river right in front of the fireworks barge and watch it. While we have never yet been intrepid enough to cross over to Boston and camp out starting at 10 am to get a spot to listen to the Boston Pops at the shell the Cambridge side has all the necessary amenities - a fine view, happy throngs, soft serve ice cream and fried dough.

We spent the evening with a new family that just moved into the ward. They have an almost 3 year old daughter with whom Esme gets along with like gangbusters. We also took a moment to rectify a truly horrific state of affairs - namely not having a single full family photo since Linnet was born a year and a half ago. So without further ado here is the Hammond Family circa 2008!

Here is the Jedi version.

Daegan's take on the fireworks:

"They were very beautiful but VERY loud. I almost fell over. My favorites were the big red and green fireworks that blasted so close to us I thought they would land on us, but they just landed in the river."

Finnian's take:

"All of the fireworks were my favorite. I liked catching the football and eating the ice cream. I was the only kid who was able to walk all the way home!"

Daegan's response: "Write that it was because I was filling sick!"

Esme's take: "Zzzzzzzzzzzz....."

Even the finale couldn't wake her up. Poor girl we run her so hard!

Linnet's take: "Vrooooooo! PChew!!"

Liz's take: "I think they should be for Bostonians at 9:30 and the rest of the country can go watch there own fireworks. 10:30 is really pushing it."

Ryan's take: "This is awesome - once a year."

I did 15 total miles that day: 2 miles running to meet my friend to do a hill work out. 2.5 miles up a 8% grade hill. 2.5 miles down. 4 miles to bike to the hill and back and 4 miles to the fireworks and back pushing/carrying at least 50 pounds. You have to love summer!

Coming soon: Introducing the Hammond Superheros!

Look mine is dead! Resurrecting Hammondium...

2008-05-18T16:39:00.000-07:00

"Look, mine is dead!" Esme's indignant exclamation while holding up the little octopus excavated from a pile of paella not only made us laugh, it has prompted us to try and resurrect the Hammondium Blog. We like to think we have a rabid, if small, fan base that has been disappointed by its unrealized potential. We also came to terms with the fact that if we don't do something like this we will have almost no memory of those little things in daily life that make up our family. When Daegan is 17 and inevitably screams "Why is this family so messed up!", we want something authoritative to hand over to him. The long and short of it, we're back!

We are going to save the belated 2007 year-end review for a coming attraction (assuming we can remember anything that happened last year). Instead we will give you recent highlights.

Joining millions of American families , Saturday has become soccer day in the Hammond household. Both Finnian and Daegan are now stalwarts of the local soccer scene. This Saturday Finnian was the star. Playing in microsoccer Finn scored a grand total of 9 goals, more goals then scored on the other fields combined! Every time the ball careened his way he made a beeline for the goal. He was like a mosquito drawn to the zapper. Of course, at 5 the kid on the field that has the clearest idea of the general objective of soccer already has the advantage. Because Finn has been playing as a fill in with Daegan's soccer team since last fall he not only knows what he is supposed to do but has learned how to actually dribble the ball. It is very disturbing how gratifying it was for me to watch my five year old score goals on other hapless 5-year olds. However, I am more proud of how he tries to mix it with the big kids when he get a chance to play with Daegan's team. He gets right in there even though he stands shoulder high to the opposition. Go Finn!

Now for some pictures.

"I am NOT a Princess!" - Esme, our resident contrarian, while attending a lavish Medieval-themed birthday party.

In other news - Esme E is the new Ramona Q!

We get this look a lot these days. We thought we had a few more years before our IQs were considered on par with those of the snail.

My life.

My life with Baby Dior.

The night Finn wore his wolf suit....

We will continue to make mischief of one kind and another.

A sibling story

2007-01-22T09:02:00.000-08:00

I had to get this story down before it fades away in the vast shadow that is a parent's memory.

Background: Our children have a very loose concept of "sleep" and "bedtime". We send them to bed around 8 or 8:30 but rarely do their heads hit the pillow until after 10 pm. They spend their time listening to books on tape, talking, playing chess, and antagonizing one another. We just make them stay in their room and out of our hair.

Since Grandma has been in town to help keep us sane for the few couple weeks post-Linnet the kids have been camping out on the living room floor instead of in their room. This has led to a variety of free-ranging behavior that was largely curtailed when we could shut the door. Esme especially likes to wander around the apartment on reconnaissance missions for water, books, etc.

It was no surprise then when we heard a loud thump followed by a wail coming from the kitchen. I stuck my head out to investigate and saw Daegan picking up Esme in the full bear hug he uses to move her around.

"Daegan, what happened?"

"Oh, Esme just crashed into something," he said in a manner that could only be described as "nonchalant".

Disarmed, I removed Esme from his grip to put her back in bed. As I picked Esme up to return her to her bed I saw that the feet of her foot-jammies had been tied in a knot! She had been hobbling around with the 2-year old equivalent of her shoelaces being tied together causing her to take a gainer onto the kitchen floor.

I couldn't even muster a fatherly scowl before I keeled over laughing.

Wickedly inventive for a 6 year-old.

RyLiz's baby! First Photos! She has only one head!

2007-01-09T19:45:00.000-08:00

Does she exist? Is she a she? Dodging the paparazzi over the last few days has really taken a lot out me. Eat my scooter exhaust parasitic photjournalist scum! Ben and Matt were supposed to stop by, but you know how it goes.....

In any case here are a few exclusive photos of the latest edition of the Cambridge gliterati such as it is.

"This isn't who I picked out in the Catalogue! Where are Angelina and Brad?"

Esme has only one thing to say, "Baby!" (No idea why it is sideways, sorry)

Daegan and Finnian were competing for the "Best Big Brother of the Day" award.

Welcome to the Circus, Linnet!

Have you seen our baby relative?

2007-01-07T17:34:00.000-08:00

We hear the baby was born. But can we be sure? We hear it's a girl. But can we be sure? We hear there will be pictures but can we be sure? This seems to be familiar. Can you all say "Baby Suri" It took 6 months to see her. I wonder when it will be our lucky day. I know the parents have a digital camera. I know they are computer gurus. Hmmmmm..... this is such a mystery. If only the day will come.

2006

2006-12-31T07:40:00.000-08:00

Warning! Nothing creative or particularly funny is contained in the following end of year update. Any resemblence to mirth, wit, or the sardonic Zeitgeist - real or ficticious- is unintended. All opinions expressed in the commentary are those of the author and do not reflect the position or views of the family as a whole. No fuzzy animals were harmed during the pruduction of this blog.

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2006 has been a year of great change for this set of Hammonds. At the beginning of the year Ryan was accepted to a PhD program. We moved to Boston from Wyoming in April and are now pretty much settled in to our new lives. Here are the highlightsf from the year.

Ryan is getting his PhD at the Institute for Work and Employment Research in the Sloan School of Management at MIT. Right now he is taking classes and trying to decide exactly what direction he wants to prepare to take his academic career. For those who care about such things he is currently being seduced by economic sociology and, more specifically, neoinstitutionalism as they relate to labor markets. For the more sane among you, it means he hangs out and thinks about people going to work.

Another highlight of the year for Ryan was his trip to South Africa as a consultant for his former employer. He stayed there for a month in February (while his family was freezing in a rather frigid Casper winter). Ryan also ran his second marathon in October near his 31st birthday. Check out the previous blog entry if your interested in how this relates to the Karate Kid. Ryan also loves going to Haymarket every week and sneering at leeks just like the French ladies taught him to do. He makes fresh bread for the family every week, adding ciabatta to his reptoire.

The move to Boston has been good for Liz as well. She is continuing to homeschool the kids and is having great success with them. She really enjoys it as a way to interact with the kids and experience their childhood. She keeps the family fed and happy on a grad student budget, which as many of you know is a major accomplishment.

Liz's other major accomplishment is becoming a certified natural childbirth educator. She is finishing up her first class and just had her first couple who had their baby. They had a wonderful experience. There is a great need in the area for good childbirth education and it looks like Liz will be able to fill up as many classes as she chooses to teach. Daegan proudly tells everyone that his "mom teaches people how to have babies". The family loves seeing her so engaged, though it gave us pause when the highlight of her Christmas was recieving a "fetal scalpal monitor electrode".

Daegan is almost 6, a fact he rarely lets anyone forget. He is about to finish his first chapter book ("Tonight on the Titanic "for any Magic Treehouse fans out there). He loves to read to his younger brother and sister. Among his other favorite past times are blazing down the streets of Cambridge on his scooter, playing soccer, and going to his father's intermural basketball games ("Dad, why did you let that guy take the ball away from you?"). He is one of the most social kids you will meet and has a special soft spot for babies and toddlers he encounters on the playground. The picture is from his Jon Bon Jovi phase.

Finnian has just turned 4, a fact he rarely lets anyone forget. Being 4 means being potty trained (YES!). He is the senstive artist of the family and (we say this with great trepidation) is the absolute favorite kid in primary. He tells his parents "I like you and love you" at least once a day. He and Daegan love books-on-CD. Finnian can quote whole passages from Little House in the Big Woods - mostly about how to hickory smoke a whole hog. Also not to miss is his rendition of "The Catapillar" poem complete with dramatic movements.

Esme is almost 2 and has been amazing us recently by speaking in complete sentences. She is also the thrill seeker of the family. She launches herself off about the bed with wild abandon and loves to play roughhouse with Papa. She has never had her haircut (don't even think about it Mom!) and is just getting past the awkward 70's phase. Esme also loves babies. We are hoping that this love will extend to the new baby Hammond we are expecting as we write.

That's right. Number 4 is on the way. The official due date was the 30th of December, but Ryan is watchingthe 2006 child tax credit dwindle away with every hour. We don't know the gender even after trying twice which has secretly made Liz really happy. The birth would have been a fitting bookend to 2006, but will now be a great start to 2007.

Ryan, Liz, Deagan, Finnian, Esme, and ?

PS We would love to hear from our far flung friends, especially those with whom we have failed to stay in touch properly. Please drop a line and if you are ever going to be in Boston let us know!

2006-10-15T18:51:00.000-07:00

Marathon: The Sequal

You know that feeling you had when the lights went down in theatre and you were about to sit through Speed 2 or Terminator: Rise of the Machines? The nagging voice in the back of your head that this was just a really bad idea. Well, that is pretty much what I felt like at the starting line for this year's Hartford Marathon. Why was I dumb enough to do this again? Alone?

Well I was and I did. Fortunately, it turned out to be more like Back to the Future II. Good and bad and in the end worth it.....I think.

The good is that I managed to beat my previous PR (personal record for you running neophytes). I came in at 4 hours and 11 minutes and 43 seconds, almost exactly 6 minutes faster then my previous time! Since it was at the same marathon, on the exact same course it seems like a reasonable comparison. The other major accomplishment is that I trained for and ran the marathon pretty much by myself. Psychologically I found that quite a bit tougher then having a training and running partner.

Other good things were that the the weather was much better this time, there were no partying teenagers screaming down the hotel hallway all night and the elevator alarm didn't go off for 2 hours at 2 in morning. To say the weather was better is an understatement. It was literally perfect. Nice cool day, clear, crisp and no wind.

The only bad thing was that I really crashed on the last 6 miles. In fact, I kept up quite a respectful but reasonable 9:15 mile pace for the first 20 miles. The last 6 however were brutal. I actually walked a few times which for me is dissappointing. I hit the only significant hill in the race which is at the 20 mile mark and just couldn't make it up without a brief walk. The picture here with Daegan running beside me was taken literally a few hundred feet from the hill. Thats right, this is me at 20 miles. I look rather spry and fit don't I? Go figure. After breaking the psychological barrier against walking I found myself almost addicted to finding excuses to walk a little bit here and there. It was a psychological and physical battle I frankly lost. I am still trying to decide if it was really physical - ie my body really did give out or if it was primarily psychological. If I had been running with someone to keep me going could I have made the hill and then finished out?

In any case, I was sure during the last 6 miles that I was going to come in at 4:30 or above and was convincing myself that it was ok. It was good just to finish etc. etc. I can tell you it was a very nice surprise to see Liz at the finish line and hear her yell that I was actually going to beat my PR! That moment made the whole race worth it!

I have no idea whether I will do another one at this point. Knowing I could break 4 hours has me tempted frankly. Then again so did Back to the Future 3 and we know how THAT turned out, right? Right......?

Ryan's First Impressions of MIT

2006-09-19T16:39:00.000-07:00

We have been here in Boston since April and I am now in my second week of classes at MIT. Here are a few observations about my future alma mater.

We thought Cornell was nerdy, but MIT takes it to a whole new level. The biggest difference is that at Cornell the nerdiness emminated largely from the graduate school population while the undergrads had a much more urbane and cosmopolitan hue. Here at MIT the undergrads seem as nerdy as the Cornell graduate students. And the MIT graduate students, well, no comment. Needless to say we feel disturbingly at home here!

The one dissappointment has been the MIT campus. Coming from Cornell, among the most classically beautiful campuses in the country, the MIT campus has been somewhat of a let down. It really feels like a random collection of largely charmless buildings tumbling along the river. Apparently you can point to some of these buildings and say things like 'that's the building where the first silicon microchip was invented', which is all fine and good, but it doesn't change the fact the building looks like a warehouse for used car parts. Even such interesting gems as the famous Stata center get swallowed up in the jumbled mess of WWII era industrial buildings. In fact, if there is a central pychic heart of the campus it is fittingly the "Infinite Corridor" which is a really, really, really, really long straight hallway in a totally charmless, if gargantuan, building.

My paticular corner of campus is the Alfred P. Sloan building on the far eastern end of campus. It is old, pretty decrepit, and crammed to capacity with grad students and faculty. As a lowly first year I get to share a cubicle with another lowly first year grad student. Apparently I will get to share an office with one or two more people next year. The cube is actually nicer then the offices, but smaller and with no privacy. They are actually about to break ground on a totally new building for the business school right next door. This means I will get to do my grad studies next to a big hole and lots of noisy machinery and just when I graduate my peers will move into a gleeming new modern building with plush graduate student offices.

Besides this small facilities issue, however, everything is going very well. I will save my explanation of what I am seeing in my program and where I am thinking I fit for another post.

2006-09-18T17:03:00.000-07:00

We Hammonds, being a relatively land-locked bunch, have never had much to do with the pleasures of the beach, but here we are at Wingaersheek Beach in Massachussettes. Daegan and Finnian are doing there best impression of neurotic Olympic freestylers on the starting blocks.