Where Liz Lives

Get Your Cheese!

2012-01-31T08:39:00.001-05:00

...'Cause I've got some whine.

Apparently, if you stop going to the gym because you're sick and then spend the better part of a week eating junk food and drinking wine and then eating more junk food, you gain some weight. Who knew, right?

So now I'm not so much poking my toe at that line in the sand as have stepped boldly over it, and now I really, really, really need to get my act together and stop eating like I don't care. (Or else, you know, actually stop caring. But that doesn't seem like the wise move.)

Also on the whine front: bigwigs in the office today, so I had to dress up. My only winter dressy shoes are ankle boots with a four-inch heel, and I'm having feet problems again lately (possibly because of all the weight I've packed on in the last year -- I don't deny it) so I'm praying to all the gods that I don't have to do a lot of standing and walking today.

Sorry I didn't post yesterday, by the way. I had Penny with me in the morning and had to scramble to get my office set up and my computer back online so I could deliver software (of course it didn't go out on Friday) by the 8:30 deadline and then spent most of the rest of the day locating and unpacking all my stuff.

I rearranged my office while I was at it. I like the new arrangement; there's a lot more space in here now. But I need to move all the stuff on my walls, now. And I could use a brighter lamp, because the new arrangement no longer allows for direct lighting. Which means I need to make a Target run.

But not in these shoes.

Twue Wuv

2012-01-29T16:55:00.002-05:00

Today, I went out to run some errands and visit my mom (who had hip replacement surgery last week and is recovering nicely). While I was gone, my beautiful, loving daughter sent me an email, presented here in its entirety, unedited and without comment, for your consideration:

Subject: When?
Mom when are you going to be home? It's 4:12 I'm not having much fun without you. I want you to be home by 5:15. I want to play on your phone.

Pileup

2012-01-26T08:36:00.001-05:00

Software delivery at work. Four components, full audit required, and extra delivery documentation. With a PM who does not organize very well, or read his emails very carefully, or explain what he wants very well. Has to be ready to go by the end of the day Friday.

Penny's out of school Friday. As is our usual plan for school days, I've got her for the morning, and Matt will take her for the afternoon.

And to make it all more exciting, they're replacing all the carpet in our office, starting on... Friday! Which is to say that before I leave today, I have to pack up all my loose items and stack them in the hallway, and then pull the drawers out of my desk and stack them in the hallway, and then unplug all my electronics (lights and heater and computer and phone and monitor and printer and everything else that plugs in) and... stack them in the hallway. And tomorrow I won't have access to my office at all.

I'm pretty well expecting tomorrow to suck. A lot. For that matter, today isn't looking like it'll be a picnic.

***

But Alex made sure I smiled at least once this morning.

"HELLO. I. AM. IRON MAN!"

"Oh, hello, Iron Man!"

"...Iron Man wants a hug from Iron Mommy."

(For the record, Iron Mommy was happy to comply.)

Llama Drama

2012-01-23T09:13:00.000-05:00

One of Alex's favorite books lately is Llama Llama Mad At Mama. Reading it is a ritual -- he has to read the "MAD AT MAMA" line himself, and he must linger over the little llama's tantrum and enjoy the vicarious visceral thrill of throwing things and making an enormous mess. And when it's done, he explains to me earnestly that even when he's mad at me, he still loves me. I love reading it with him almost as much as I enjoyed Llama Llama Red Pajama.

I particularly love the phrase "llama drama", which gets used in both books.

Which, I suppose, is good, because there is llama drama shaping up at work. I can't talk much about it, because it may well involve Official Actions of one severity or another, but it's giving me a hell of a headache. No worries; I'm not in any trouble, but I'm tangentially involved as a manager. I very much fear that it's going to result in the departure (one way or another) of one of the dramatis personae. Which would be bad, because we need them.

Which is all I'm going to say about the llama drama for now.

***

So I took Penny with me to Bed, Bath, and Beyond this weekend and I tried her patience right down to the very last thread while I picked out a new shower curtain, liner, floor mats, towels, and counter accessories. I wanted a new curtain rod as well, but I want the kind that mounts directly on the wall, and the only ones of those they had were the curved ones, and our bathroom is not well-situated for one of those. So I contented myself with new rings, and eventually I'll make a run down to Lowes or Home Depot for a mounted curtain rod.

If I must say so myself, it looks fantastic.

The color is a little weird because of my phone, but the new colors are a rich chocolate brown and a gorgeous deep red, with cream and silver accents. I think it manages to be attractive and simple without being either austere or so girly that Matt will feel out of place. And as a bonus, the new floor mat I got to go by the sink is actually long enough to cover the whole length of the double sinks, so we can both stand completely on it now, instead of having to either crowd the center or stand one foot on and one foot off!

To console Penny for having to wait while I dithered over all the options for this, I let her pick out the trash can we needed for the kids' bathroom. She, naturally, went straight for the most bling-a-riffic, rhinestone-studded wastebasket I have ever seen in all my life.

Every single one of those little dots is, in fact, a rhinestone stud. She's ridiculously happy with it, and if I had been looking to re-do the kids' bathroom this weekend as well, I'm certain she would have cheerfully picked the sequin-covered shower curtain to go with it.

Press Pause

2012-01-20T09:20:00.002-05:00

After some discussion, Matt and I are pretty much putting Alex's night time potty training on hold. Too many nights in a row of multiple accidents and everyone being cranky the next day because of interrupted sleep. Too much frustration. And, looking online, it really looks like there's no such thing as providing incentives -- positive or negative -- for night time training. They either wake up in time, or they don't.

Alex is super about daytimes now; he's only had one accident in the last couple of months that I know of. So it's not a reluctance to use the potty. He's just not quite there for the night yet. And it's not that terrible a hardship to plan for having a couple of spare pullups around for nights. So we're back to pullups for now, and we're possibly all a lot happier for it.

(Once our Diaper Genie runs out its current stock of plastic wrap, though, I might toss it and switch to putting wet pullups in the leftover Diaper Duck bags, by way of clutter reduction.)

***

It's going to be a busy weekend, even though we don't have much in the way of special events planned.

Alex has a birthday party to attend on Saturday, and Matt's monthly D&D game is that night. And of course, there's the usual Friday night hangout with the Hedge.

Working around that, I need to go to the bank, Penny wants to hit the drugstore/post office near my office for a toy she saw a few weeks ago, and I want to hit up Bed Bath and Beyond for a new bathroom set (shower curtain, liner, rod/rings, rugs, the whole deal. Maybe even towels. Everything we've got has been in there since we moved in, if not before that, and it's all showing its age rather sadly). Also, Alex could use a new pair of shoes, and I noticed a hole the other day in my favorite pair of work pants, so there's a trip to Target in the offing.

Matt and I also, at some point (though not necessarily this weekend) want to replace our mattress and our refrigerator, both of which will take a little extra time in comparison shopping.

Let the games begin!

Well, Crud

2012-01-19T09:31:00.000-05:00

Bleh. In addition to the adorable little beaded bags (two words: turtle wristlet!) and the fun toys (ask Alex about his red blood cell) and flyers I brought home from MarsCon, I seem to have also come away with a case of the Con Crud.

It's nothing particularly horrible or serious, just a persistent, back-of-the-throat congestion, but I've got a mild sore throat, a croaky voice, and a lack of energy to go with it.

On the plus side, it's a slowish week at work, so I've been able to work from home for the last couple of days. I'm sitting on the couch and drinking a lot of fluids (thank you, Karen, for the 16-oz pirate mug you sent for Christmas -- I emptied it at least six times yesterday) and listlessly poking at my Pocket Frogs in between checking work email.

Obsessions

2012-01-17T09:20:00.001-05:00

This blog is for me to meander about whatever's on my mind. Right now, that list is pretty short:

Alex's lack of success with the no-pullup thing since last week
Penny's general surliness
A co-worker's very serious and sudden illness
Boring work crap
Assorted dorky iPad games

So now you will appreciate it as I launch into a quick review of my latest game obsessions.

Plants Vs. Zombies - An oldie but a goodie. I loved this enough to plunk down cash for both iPhone and iPad versions of this, but I'd played it through multiple times and got all but the most difficult achievements, so I thought I was pretty much done with this game... until about a month ago, when the iPhone update for it included the Zen Garden. Zen Garden is like crack cocaine, apparently; I've played the rest of the game through at least twice in the last month just to earn cash to buy plants for the garden, and hoping to get chocolate bars for the snail. (If you don't know what I'm talking about... just trust me when I say it's got me re-hooked on this game.) Well played, PopCap. Well played. Now, if you would just put it on the iPad version, I'd never stop playing.

Except to check on my Pocket Frogs. I blame this wholly on Elizabeth, who mentioned it offhand on Twitter one day. I looked it up just to see what she was talking about, and bam! hooked! How can I resist? Cute widdle fwoggies! Fun color combinations! Decorative elements! Achievements and requests! I'm about this close to signing up for an account so I can trade frogs and items with Elizabeth and Adin (likewise hooked), except that having an account allows for device synching, and I don't know what that would do to Penny's frogs on my phone. I particularly love that, even though it's built on the freemium model, there doesn't appear to be anything at all that's unavailable to non-paying customers -- you just have to wait longer to get it. And there are free, in-game ways of speeding things up, though my play is slowing down a bit now that I'm reaching the higher level stuff that takes up to two days to complete.We shall see if my patience eventually forces me to drop actual cash and, you know, support the game developer.

I'm also checking into Dragonvale a bunch of times a day. Now that I'm past the game's opening stages, it's slowed down a lot -- it's another freemium breeding/building game, but unlike Pocket Frogs, there's nothing I can do to speed things up without spending actual money. It's also mildly frustrating in that it requires an internet connection to play and is very slow to load, so I don't know how much longer it's going to last. But it's dragons, so that earns it an extra dozen or so free passes for me.

Like PvZ, I thought I was done with Kingdom Rush, too -- I'd gone so far as to put down the dollar it cost to get the premium content and play the new level. But then they released it for the iPad and it's hard to beat this game for fun art and great gameplay, so of course I'm working my way back through it again.

As I mentioned a few posts back, I recently completely finished Where's My Water -- tri-ducked all levels, found all the secret levels, tri-ducked those. There's just a few achievements left to work on, and then my interest in this will probably slip some. But that's okay, because it looks like they release fresh levels once a month or so, so I'm looking forward to the next update of this!

So overall, my hooks tend to be cute art, and gameplay that I can access from multiple directions. I like puzzle games, but I'm often weirdly bad at them (games like Angry Birds and Cut the Rope, which ought to be right up my alley, have both stymied me by being too hard for me to complete the free versions -- which doesn't entice me to buy the paid versions) so Where's My Water? is something of a standout on that front.

Con Report

2012-01-16T09:16:00.000-05:00

So, MarsCon? Awesome.

Penny and Alex were not (too) whiny. I got to wear my costume with the leather corset I bought last year. I saw musical shows. I got to hang out with friends I see all too rarely, and made a couple of new friends. I bought stuff for myself and for the kids, most of it pointless and silly. (The beaded cell phone bag, though, was all but necessary. Why didn't I make that stupid skirt with pockets?) I ate junk food and stayed up late and plugged my books.

The weekend is something of a blur, but let me (try) to start at the beginning.

Friday night was Rock Band Night at the Hedge -- the usual Friday night crew, plus Elizabeth and Lorenz and Jenn and Brian. Braz put the boys to bed and told them that if we had to come up and tell them to be quiet, we would separate them. The threat worked, and though I don't think either of them went to sleep until well after 9:30, they stayed in Henry's room and were at least quiet enough we didn't hear anything over Rock Band.

After the boys were in bed, we told the girls to go upstairs to play, and I slipped in this suggestion: "You know, if you stay upstairs and don't come interrupt us, we might forget what time it is, and you'd get to stay up late." The bribe worked, and we didn't see hide nor hair nor hear a squeak from the girls until Adin realized it was time for us to do Penny's 10:00 blood sugar check.

And the adults...? Well, we rocked.

Until after Adin had to leave for work. Until after Jenn and Brian realized they had an hour and change drive home and reluctantly left. Until... until Matt realized that it was coming up on 1 in the morning and we really should get the kids home.

The next morning, we got up and ate breakfast and took showers and got dressed (more or less in that order) and eventually (near lunchish) found ourselves at MarsCon.

We found KT and Kevin right away, and Penny and Alex and Jess spent a while playing in the huge pile of Legos and getting their faces painted.

Then KT and I left the kids with Kevin and Matt and went off to a writer's workshop, where I joyfully also ran into my brother. I've wanted to do this workshop for years, but it's always conflicted with something -- other panels, childcare, etc -- that took precedence. It was a lot of fun; a closed panel where everyone present wrote the opening few sentences for a short story. The hook, in other words, and the panel judges offered up critique to help us hone our writing styles and do a better job of genuinely drawing in the reader. (One of the panelists said the very nicest thing about mine, which was "Every single sentence had something I wanted to ding you for, but somehow you made it all work." I all but squee'd. I may share it with Wednesday's post to the writing blog, if you're interested.)

While we were doing that, Matt and the kids went to a puppet show that sounded like oodles of fun, then had lunch up at the Con Suite. (MarsCon has the Best. Con Suite. EVAR..)

We took the kids to a workshop on drawing cute creatures. Alex was showing signs of needing a nap, though, so Matt took him over to Braz and Adin's (as we had arranged previously), and I left Kevin to keep an eye on Penny while I dashed up to the Con Suite for my own lunch, where I was fortunate enough to encounter Pickleman!

When the drawing workshop was done, we took the girls to the Hysterically Correct Pirate Show, at which Penny and Jess became apprentice pirates. Then we took the girls to another workshop to make little felt zombie dolls. (I may be getting things out of order. The whole day was a bit of a blur.)

In the meantime, we bumped into dozens of rarely-met friends and took lots of pictures of people in costumes. (Those links include a fantastic Chel from Portal, including a gorgeous portal gun, a collection for four different incarnations of Doctor Who, and the obligatory Slave Leia.)

We spent half an hour in a musical concert from Jonah Knight, who writes and performs... I don't want to say "filk" because I think of that as music about existing franchises, and this mostly wasn't. Let's call his stuff steampunky short stories set to music. Sometimes spooky, sometimes silly, but definitely fun. KT was obsessed with his fingering; I was fascinated by his awesomely well-worn guitar.

We went out to dinner with the Hickses, our old college friend DJ and his son, and Vicki, and that was awesome, too -- we put the three kids in a booth to themselves and the grown-ups had a grand time talking about all kinds of stuff.

Then Matt and I dropped by the house so I could change out of my costume (it was fun, but the lack of pockets and the continual need to, er, "adjust the girls", so to speak, was getting annoying) and then we split up again. He took Penny over to Braz and Adin's to hang out and go to bed, and I went back to the con to go to a panel on GLBT in speculative fiction. (Matt also went back to the con after he'd dropped Penny off. I think he went to the Coyote Run concert along with KT and Kevin.)

While I was waiting on the panel to start, one of the panelists came in and it turned out to be JM Snyder, whom I'd met back in September in Roanoke, so we sat and chatted for a while, which was awesome. The panel (more of a panel-moderated discussion, really) was fascinating, too. It was followed by another panel-moderated discussion about repopulating the planet in the event of an apocalypse -- elements to consider, things that might or might not happen, how best to ensure the survival of the species -- that was super fun. When that was done, there was a reading from four authors where it looked for a while like I was going to be the only person in the audience, but eventually the room filled up.

I ended up talking for a while with another one of the audience members who I've seen before but not spoken to, and she was really nice, so I'm looking forward to seeing her again next year. I gave her one of the free copies of "Of Sound Mind" I had with me for promotion purposes, and she promised to read it and pass it on to friends who might like it.

When that broke up, I thought about wandering down the hall in search of one of the dozens of ongoing room parties, but it was nearly 1 in the morning and I had to drive home, so I made my farewells and headed out. I figured Matt would have been home long since (he'd come to the door of the panel and waved at me at least an hour before) but when I got home, he had only arrived a few minutes earlier and had just finished bringing the kids in and tucking them into bed.

We went back the next day as well -- had lunch in the Con Suite and wandered around a little, chatting with KT and Kevin some more and making a last sweep through the dealer's room before we headed home. KT and Kevin followed later to hang out with us some more that afternoon before they went back home.

It was a super weekend, and I'm sad it's already over. Matt and the kids have today off for Martin Luther King, Jr. Day, but I'm stuck at work. At least it'll be quiet, since all our government customers will be closed.

We're talking about getting a room at the hotel next year -- it's great living so close to the Con, but we were getting sick of having to lug our coats and bags around all the time, and it would've been nice to have a spot to eat and rest and regroup. We're also juggling the notion of going to another con up in Richmond in April -- the writer GoH is Glen Cook, and I'd love to get my ancient and battered copy of The Black Company signed. Alas, their website is not very helpful in determining whether they have any child-friendly programming, so we're not sure whether this is something we can all go to for the weekend, or if it may be a Mom-Only Day Trip. We'll see.

Many Parentheses and Exclamation Marks

2012-01-13T08:53:00.000-05:00

I know it's going to be a great day when my two kids have three crying jags between them before 8 am.

So there's that.

But hey! It's Friday! We're doing dinner and Rock Band tonight with the Hedge! (and Elizabeth and Lorenz!) (and Jenn and Brian!) And Jenn promised to bring her lasagna. NOM.

And tomorrow we'll be at MarsCon for most of the day, so I'm really looking forward to that! I decided this morning that I should pack my gear for the day into my Bag of Holding that Karen sent me for Christmas. Because what could be more perfect for a geek con?! Nothing, that's what. (Note to self: Sharpie my name on an inside flap, just in case.) And yes, I will be wearing the leather corset I bought last year. There may be pictures. If you ask nicely. Will I be buying other fancy goods? It's entirely possible -- I've got Christmas money to spend, after all! And Braz and Adin promised they'd take the kids for a while so Matt and I could be adult geeks. (Though looking at the programming, we may drop Alex off with them in the early afternoon, and then let Penny stay at the con until after dinner. We'll have to sort that out somehow.)

And! And! AND! Alex went all night last night without an accident! That's two nights in a row! (I'm wondering if the potty training is making him sleep a little lighter than he's usually prone to, and that's why he's been so cranky and touchy for the last couple of days. No way to tell, really. He'll figure it out eventually.)

Also, I have finally tri-ducked every single level on Where's My Water, even all the bonus levels! And all the levels (including bonus ones) on the free version! Which may seem like a lame thing to be excited about, but it's nice to find a game that I'm actually good at, after watching all my friends completely blow past me without even trying on all the other games I've enjoyed. (I know I'm prone to hyperbole, but I'm not exaggerating even a bit there. The only other game of any sort I've played and been better than any of my friends at was Minesweeper.)

So in the face of all that, what's a few hysterical crying jags over stupid stuff? (Seriously. Alex's first jag was because I made him wear a warm coat. And buttoned it for him. Truly, I must be in line for the Evil Parent Of The Year Award.)

Success x2!

2012-01-12T09:37:00.000-05:00

I sat down to write last night and had a very hard time getting into it -- I'd left off smack in the middle of major changes to my big story and I'm so out of routine and practice that I don't think I wrote more than maybe two hundred words before I petered out and wasn't sure where to go.

But instead of calling it a night and giving up, I flipped through my "ideas" file until something struck me, and then I opened a new document and wrote about four hundred words on that.

Which still isn't much, but I'm calling it a victory, given that it's the better part of a month since I've written more than a few lines, and that my brain has been stuck heavily in Edit Mode for the last couple of weeks.

***

I stayed up later than I expected last night. Matt's been watching back seasons of Burn Notice for the last month or so, and I admit to a visceral thrill for that moment in any episode when Michael flashes his bland, charming, "I am going to destroy you" smile. And also a complete adoration for his mom. It's not a show I'm going to plan my schedule around, and I've walked away from it to go to bed before.

But last night, as I was doing what I thought was a final email check before going to bed, Matt started up what immediately turned into a very exciting and cliffhanger-y episode. (The season finale, it turned out, and if I was understanding right, the last of the episodes available on Netflix streaming.) So I did kind of get sucked into staying up to watch it, and didn't get to bed until nearly 11:30.

So, naturally, Alex woke me up at 5:50.

But I didn't wake up to, "Mommy? I had an accident."

Nope. I woke to the sound of him singing to his toys in bed. I got up and went to check on him. "Hey, buddy. Did you have an accident?"

"Uh.... Nope!"

Holy cow. He did it! A whole night without an accident! Whoo!

"That's great! Give me five! Yeah! Okay, now, why don't you go sit on the potty."

"I don't want to!"

"Alex..."

"I don't want to!"

I'd had just about six hours of sleep. I am not a six-hours-of-sleep kind of person. I didn't have the energy to fight it. "Okay. But no accidents, okay?"

"Okay."

"And you need to go potty before you come snuggle with Daddy and me."

"Why?"

"...Because I don't want you to have an accident in my bed. I'm gonna go get some more rest. Play quiet until you hear the music, okay?"

"Okay."

Five minutes later, our alarms went off, and like magic, a little blond head appeared at my elbow. "Mommy I want to snuggle you."

"Go potty first, kiddo."

"Okay!"

And that was that. I'm not foolish enough to think we're done (especially since I suspect his success had something to do with his extremely minimal dinner last night), but that was a much-appreciated glimpse of the light at the end of the diaper tunnel.

We can postpone or even do without his nap from time to time. We're nearing the end of diapers and pullups altogether. And I realized this morning that he can reach the light switch in his room all by himself, now. (A table by the door puts that switch further out of reach than the other switches in the house.) I may very shortly have an honest-to-gosh Big Boy on my hands.

Washed Out

2012-01-10T09:16:00.004-05:00

Have I mentioned that we're trying to get Alex out of pull-ups at night? We decided to take the same tack we'd taken for his daytime training, which was to just get rid of them and let him have however many accidents it takes for his brain to key in.

Which, for the last two mornings, has meant that he goes to bed and is fine right up until about 5:45 in the morning, when he comes into our room and says, "Mommy...? I had an accident."

We're double-sheeting his bed, so it only takes a couple of minutes to get him into clean pajamas and strip the wet sheets off the bed and put him back down... but by then it's almost 6 and the boy is Awake.

And Matt and I, manifestly, are Not.

He willingly lies down and is mostly quiet for the ten minutes it takes for our alarms to start going off, at which point he appears back in our room. "Mommy? I heard the music. I wanna snuggle."

Which is code for, "I want to play with Daddy and possibly lean my elbow on your boob," so you can imagine that it means we're pretty much done sleeping.

So far, he's gone to bed in underpants three times. So far, we've had to wash four sets of sheets. I may need to start going to bed at 9:30 again and just getting up when he has his accident at 5:45, if it goes on like this. Or possibly, set an alarm to wake him up and take him to the potty at 3, when it's still late enough that we can all go back to sleep afterward.

***

I had my day off from the Day Job yesterday. I try to use my days off as writing days (by preference) or to run errands and do chores. I'd wanted to get together with Lynn to talk about a book we want to work on together, but her daughter turned up sick with what turned out to be strep throat, so that was out. So I figured I'd just take my iPad over to Panera and have a regular writing day.

Except that as I took the kids to school, I was yawning obsessively. And my eyelids were heavy. After I'd dropped Alex off and was on the way to Penny's school, I twice had lights change fortuitously quickly, so I didn't even have to stop -- and was frustrated by that (usual) good luck, because I desperately wanted to be able to bring the car to a complete stop so I could close my eyes and doze for a minute.

(It's probably a good thing that Lynn couldn't meet me, because the hour-ish drive down to her place would've been unreasonably dangerous, and I doubt I'd have been in any shape to focus on the topic at hand once I got there.)

When I'd dropped Penny off and gotten back home, I thought about making myself a cup of coffee so I could buck up and get on with my writing, and then I decided that I had the day off, and rather than settle for the quick patch that would get me through, I should take the actual fix and get some extra sleep. So I changed back into my jammies and crawled into bed, thinking I'd nap for an hour or so and then get up and just write through lunchtime instead of breakfast. No sweat.

Except that I didn't wake up until 12:30. Well, I do fuzzily recall opening my eyes at 11, thinking I should probably get up, and then going back to sleep. I'm pretty sure that doesn't count.

That's easily a three and a half hour nap. Maybe more. Apparently, my tank was running emptier than I'd thought. It's entirely possible that I could've slept another hour or so if I'd really tried, but by then I was starving. So I got up and ate lunch, and then decided the day was a wash for writing. Instead, I purged the clothes and toys in Alex's room, filling two trash bags with clothes to donate, one with stuffies he hasn't so much as looked at in a year, and another with a Little People set he hasn't played with since about two weeks after I took it out of the box, all of which I took to the CHKD thrift store near us while Matt was picking Penny up from school.

My next day off, I may tackle Penny's room. She actually plays up there, though, so it'll be harder to figure out what to keep and what to junk.

Under Where?

2012-01-06T09:11:00.000-05:00

For those of you who may have seen Matt's comment on yesterday's post -- I am planning to do a post about my Christmas Legos. But I only just finished building the big set last night, and I want to do some dorky pictures with my nice camera that I didn't have the energy for last night. So sometime soon -- possibly next week -- I'll talk about my Very Lego Christmas, with pictures. But not today.

Today, I'm talking about Operation Underwear.

Matt and I had decided that after the holidays, we'd transition Alex to wearing underwear to bed instead of a pullup diaper. He's four now, and it's high time we were done with diapers of any sort. We had to go with this "endure multiple accidents" approach with him for daytime as well, so I suspect the kid may just not get it until we let him deal with it.

Matt's sister, who is currently potty-training her eldest, had a brilliant suggestion for us (that I have no idea why we hadn't encountered it or thought of it before): instead of changing the sheets in the middle of the night, just make the bed in layers to begin with: mattress pad, sheet, mattress pad, sheet. So when there's an accident, you just strip off the top layer and you're ready to go.

So last night, Matt double-made Alex's bed and put undies on him under his pajamas. We both reminded him that he could get up and go potty whenever he felt like it.

We both checked him before we went to bed, and he was dry.

At 3:45, he came into our room to report an accident. I sent him to sit on the potty while I stripped the top layer off his bed. Matt got up and retrieved the wet pajamas, and I got him dressed again and tucked him back into bed. Matt decided to go ahead and wash the wet sheets right away -- that way they'd be ready to put in the dryer when we got up in the morning, and ready to put back on his bed after work.

Which is pretty smart thinking for 3:45am.

Now, Alex almost never has accidents during his nap anymore, so I felt pretty good about his going back to sleep at 4, because we get up for the day around 6. Surely he could make it that long.

Nope, apparently not. When my alarm went off at 6, Alex came in (as he usually does) and I said, "Are your pants still dry, buddy?"

"I changed into shorts."

"You did? Why?"

"My pants were wet."

I got up and checked his bed and yep, sure enough, he'd had another accident.

We may need to invest in another set or two of mattress pads and sheets...

Things Fall Down

2012-01-05T09:03:00.001-05:00

For a variety of reasons, I'm considering putting this blog on hiatus.

It hurts to consider, because I've been writing it nearly daily (in one location or another) for more than 10 years. (Coming up on 13, really, if I've done my math right.) It feels very awkward to start a workday without spending a half-hour rambling into the blog first.

But it seems like all I do anymore is throw out a laundry list of activities, or (increasingly, distressingly, and boringly) whine about stuff. I don't really talk anymore. I'm not funny, or interesting, or insightful. I don't have amusing anecdotes or thoughtful critiques or fascinating links. And thanks to an assortment of unpleasant experiences, I can't talk about many of the things that are really on my mind, because those things involve other people who would be excessively unhappy to see them aired.

I'm not fully decided yet. It's hard to give up such a long-held habit. And I know a lot of my "real-life" friends use this as a way to keep track of what we're up to.

But the whining and the laundry lists are boring even me.

This is very much a one-way communication most of the time, but I'm really hoping for responses this time. Give me some ideas or strategies for keeping this going without turning it into the whinefest it's been for the last few months. Or tell me that yes, it's time to hang up the keyboard. I want to know what you're here to read about!

Back!

2012-01-03T09:48:00.000-05:00

I'm back! Did you miss me? I missed you!

My holiday was mostly pretty good, barring the usual stresses and frustrations of travel and trying to live in someone else's space. But it was great to see everyone, and I got to hold multiple adorable little babies, and my kids were mostly really well-behaved (barring a couple of utter breakdowns, but if your kids can get through 9 days of complete routine upset without any breakdowns at all, then I suspect you have automatons rather than children). I'm only about halfway through processing my pictures, but I promise I'll post a link to the Flickr set when I get them all done and uploaded -- we did some really fun stuff even aside from visiting people, like going to the zoo (which I'd love to see again, though possibly in warmer weather) and a really nifty display of models of famous Chicago buildings build entirely out of plantstuff (and model trains to keep the kids interested) at the Chicago Botanical Gardens.

New Year's Eve was great -- We had our family Christmas that morning, and then brunch and presents with my family at John and Sam's house (instead of Mom and Dad's because they hadn't even bothered to decorate this year). Then we went over to Braz and Adin's for their New Year's Eve party, which was awesome: Rock Band and champagne and counting down to midnight and an epic 9-player game of Cards Against Humanity after we sent Penny (the last child standing) to bed. (We'd told Penny and Ripley they could try for midnight; Ripley gave up the ghost and conked out at 9:30 or so, but by gosh, Penny made it!)
New Year's day was a little hangovery (note to self: one glass of champagne, and stick to more familiar liquors the rest of the night) but it was lovely and calm.

I'd meant to start taking down our Christmas decorations on the 2nd, but after Penny and I went to Target and bought a bunch of stuff (I spent some of my Christmas money on a very pretty and nice enameled cast iron dutch oven to replace my old pathetic soup pot) I kind of ran out of steam and spent most of the rest of the day just sitting around.

But I'll be moving on it soon, I think; I did spent the last couple of days wandering around the house and developing that twitch that means I'm about to do some serious purging. I cleaned out some drawers in my dresser that were filled with sweatshirts left over from when I was nearly 100 pounds heavier that for some reason didn't go in the initial clothing purge. I kept my favorite two -- sometimes you just need a hugely baggy sweatshirt day -- and dumped the rest in my "clothes to donate" pile. So once the Christmas stuff is packed away and back in storage, it looks like I'll be making a run to the thrift store to donate a bunch of bags of clothes and old toys and random crap I don't want anymore. And another one to the bookstore, as well, as I have a couple of boxes of those ready to go.

As of today, I'm back on the diet, too. I'm embarrassed to say how much weight I gained this past year -- most of it in the final quarter -- so I'm going to be using SparkPeople religiously for a while. (Email me if you're a member, too, and I'll add you to my friends!) My first new big goal is 25 pounds. I'd like to get there before my anniversary in April, but that's a little bit ambitious, so we'll see.

That's my only big resolution for this year, though I'd also like to make some more headway on the writing, and possibly do some (digital) scrapbooking.

And of course, having been away from work for nearly two weeks, things are utterly insane, so I'd better get to it...

Unboxed

2011-12-20T08:13:00.001-05:00

Went over to Braz and Adin's last night so the kids could exchange their Christmas gifts.

Ripley tore into her with enthusiasm, and as soon as she got the paper off, she looked at the brown shipping box I'd put her presents into and gleefully exclaimed, "A box! It's what I always wanted!"

DUDE. The girl is six, but she delivered that line with perfect nuance. If it hadn't been, you know, a brown shipping box, I might have actually thought that she'd been jonesing for something just like it. Someone has either taught her very well how to act pleased even at disappointing results, or else she's going to be a Grand Master of sarcasm and the dry retort. (...Who am I kidding? It's the sarcasm one, of course.)

(She was eventually very happy with the FurReal toys Penny had picked out for her.)

Henry did not lose his mind over the draw-your-own-puzzle kits we got him, but he seemed happy enough. I think he'll like it better when he can actually, y'know, open them up and use them. Alex was likewise happy with the Imaginext airplane set he received. (Imaginext is apparently a theme for Alex this year; he also got a dinosaur set from our next-door neighbors, and there are another couple of sets waiting under the tree.)

Penny was a little nonplussed at first to find that her package contained CDs instead of toys. She tried to hide her disappointment, but it wasn't until she showed them to Ripley and Ripley got excited that Penny realized that these were a gift worth having. And then I put a nail in disappointment's coffin by Ooohing and Aaahing over the Selena Gomez CD and saying, "Oh, this is big girl music." The two girls all but raced up for Ripley's CD player to give it a listen. (They also gave her the Muppets soundtrack and a Disney songs CD. She was a little more "meh" about them last night, but this morning was excitedly telling me what songs were on all the discs.)

Success!

Tonight: a quiet (please o merciful gods) evening at home and with any luck, an early bedtime.

Fourish

2011-12-19T08:53:00.003-05:00

I had a lovely day off on Friday. I spent the morning at Panera, writing, and then Adin joined me for lunch, and after that we went shopping and got pedicures. We all met up again at Plaza Azteca for dinner, and then we went back to Adin's place so Alex could open his birthday present from them, which turned out to be an "I Spy" bingo game. (Like regular bingo, but with objects and letters of the alphabet, with a number of variations suggested by the rules, depending on how advanced the players are.) We played a few rounds of that, and then I went to my book club party.

For the first time this year, we decided to hold it at a restaurant instead of burdening anyone with the job of cleaning up and providing snacks. That turned out to be an awesome idea. We went to Food For Thought and had a fantastic time. As a clever holiday promotion, the manager was handing out what he called "Secret Santa cards" -- little envelopes that contained a surprise gift, ranging from a free glass of wine to a complete dinner for two on Valentine's Day. The catch was that we couldn't open them ourselves; we have to bring them in sometime in January and have a manager open them. So of course we decided that we have to have our January book club there, too!

Saturday was calmer -- we ran some errands in the morning (like taking a box of stuff to the post office so we can hope it gets to his mom's before we do), and Matt went to his monthly D&D game that evening. I took the kids out to dinner, and they were surprisingly good.

Sunday was a little crazier. We had the usual chores, and we exchanged presents with our next-door neighbors, and then Matt and Penny went to see a production of the Nutcracker ballet while Alex napped. After Alex woke up, I took him down to my parents', where Matt and Penny met up with us (they'd had a good time at the ballet, though as Matt said, it was a children's dance troupe, so the performances were a little uneven) for the family birthday party for Alex. Mom made her homemade mac-and-cheese, and Sam brought a gorgeous salad, and Alex seemed quite happy with all his presents. We all had big pieces of cake (except John and Sam, who were being good and making the rest of us look bad) and HOLY CRAP MY BABY IS (nearly) FOUR.

Who let that happen?

Speaking of crazier...

My office ~~Christmas party~~ ~~holiday luncheon~~ annual morale event is today. (Catered lunch, yum!) Tonight we're swapping gifts with the Hegemony. No plans yet for Tuesday, but I expect I'll spend a chunk of it packing, because. Wednesday morning has a doctor's appointment of some sort for everyone in the house except Matt, Penny has a half-day of school (if she goes at all, depending on how long her doctor appointment goes) and that evening, the Hickses are coming up to do the Christmas thing (and also so KT can give me my thirty-one gear and we can sequester ourselves in a corner and talk writer-stuff for a bit).

And then Thursday, we're off to Chicago for the holidays.

In the meantime, one of the gifts I ordered for Matt still hasn't come in, and I have to figure out a way to wrap another one. Details that I had thought long since established (like whether Santa wraps gifts) are being called into question, and since I haven't really been thinking past the Chicago trip, I was blindsided by the need to plan the events for New Year's Eve. I feel like my head isn't screwed on quite right; I'm dropping details right and left, and my body has reacted by making me drop into a drowse every time I stop moving for more than ten minutes.

But at least I finally remembered to load my holiday music onto my iPad!

WHEE!

Artistic

2011-12-15T10:22:00.002-05:00

The last few days, Penny has finished her homework and begun embarking on what she's called her "Masterpiece of the Day." That is, she gets out construction paper and scissors and tape and glue and pens and constructs a picture.

This would be merely "cute" if I hadn't actually and honestly thought some of the pieces she's made have been fantastic. (Note: links go to my "Penny's Art" album on Facebook; if you're not a FB friend, you probably will not be able to get through.)

I was particularly impressed, on this one, that she made collected snow on a few branches and at the base of the tree. I also like the use of actual perspective -- I know at her age, I just drew trees appearing at the horizon line!

This one is a little more abstract, but it put me in mind of some really great still life paintings, especially with the loaf of bread in the foreground. The thing in the middle is a mug of hot chocolate, with marshmallows. I love that the candles have little auras of light around them! The weird-shaped thing at the top is a chandelier, and (possibly my favorite item in the picture) the stair-shaped thing on the upper right? Actually some stairs, in the background.

Can I just say that I'm impressed at what the child can do with only four colors of construction paper and some safety scissors?

Busy is Relative

2011-12-12T09:20:00.000-05:00

Compared to the previous weekend, this last one was positively indolent.

Jenn and Brian came down on Friday instead of Saturday, so we took them with us over to the Hegemony for dinner and a round of Cards Against Humanity.

I'd meant to be productive Saturday, but Matt took Penny out to run some errands while Alex was napping, and I had a headache, so I went to lay down, too. I had to get up twice to answer the phone, but I crawled right back to bed and the next thing I knew, it was 5:00 and the whole afternoon was gone. So we ordered a huge order of Chinese and took it over to the Hegemony again. This time, we played Trivial Pursuit. I've always sucked at the game, but I got a fantastic selection of really ridiculously difficult questions, so eventually I gave up even really trying, and just enjoyed watching the other three jockey for the win.

Sunday made up for my indulgence Saturday, though. After I'd gotten up and done the grocery shopping, I set about clearing the kitchen of a wide assortment of items that need to be pre-prepared: I roasted five winter squash from our CSA box that have been waiting. I seeded a pomegranate. I peeled and roasted a whole bunch of root vegetables (sweet potatoes, potatoes, turnips, parsnips, and carrots). I made a batch of apple-pumpkin soup. The kitchen got cleaned not once, but a couple of times. So I felt pretty good about all that. The only things left to do on that front are another pomegranate and a batch of peanuts to be shelled and roasted.

I also took Penny out shopping to get some new "fancy" shoes to go with her Christmas dress, and I stopped by Target to pick up a new pair of jeans and a pair of leggings, and I found a couple of new shirts while I was at it. (Kudos to Penny for suffering through all my trying things on and bemoaning re-gained weight; she just sat on the floor in the dressing room with my phone and held the room while I ran back and forth getting things in various sizes.)

After our dinner of pumpkin soup and roasted vegetables, we had to drop Matt's car off at the dealership for some routine maintenance, so as long as we were all in the car anyway, we took the kids down to drive through the Newport News Park's Celebration in Lights. I was driving, so I didn't take any pictures, but Penny had her camera, and delighted in taking both videos and snapshots. (I'll be interested to see if any of them turned out at all.)

The timing worked out pretty well -- by the time we got home, we were only slightly late for Alex's bath and bedtime.

This coming weekend ramps things back up. My book club Christmas party is Friday night. Matt's D&D game is Saturday. Sunday, Matt is taking Penny to see the Nutcracker ballet, after which we'll convene at my parents' for Alex's birthday party.

Humpty

2011-12-09T08:49:00.001-05:00

So, the Day Job's HR/benefits department is making changes to the schedule for our holidays which essentially is going to screw us out of a day of vacation next year. (Worse, they're moving it around so that we don't get our annual holiday pool until after the Christmas holidays, which completely sucks. I liked that they'd been giving it to us just before Christmas, because it ensured that we always had that time available. It's now essentially a gigantic sandpaper dildo for people who aren't good at planning a whole year in advance.) They're also changing how much vacation we're allowed to save up, but that's much less of an issue for me since I'm barely keeping my vacation balance above water right now, anyway.

***

Speaking of barely keeping things above water... the schedule probably could have a few more things crammed into it, but it would take a crowbar.

Penny has a half-day today, and tonight we'll probably do our usual Friday night shindig with the Hegemony. Tomorrow, Jenn and Brian are coming into town to do some shopping and then stopping to visit with us afterward. Matt has his D&D game, so he'll probably miss some of their visit, but that'll be okay. They can help me take the kids out to dinner and then we'll figure out something to do once the kids are in bed.

Sunday, so far, has no plans. I'm hoping against hope that the Christmas cards I ordered will arrive today or Saturday so that I can spend part of Sunday signing and addressing them and they can go in the mail on Monday. And I did kind of promise Penny that I'd take her out shopping to try to find some fancy shoes to go with her Christmas dress. I'm not sure when that will happen, but I'm betting on either Saturday or Sunday this weekend.

Next week, I have two doctor appointments on the books, plus I'll probably have to schedule a bloodletting so that my GP will refill my synthyroid prescription.

Then, next weekend, I've got my book club meeting/Christmas party on Friday night, and then nothing on Saturday (except probably doing Christmas cards, if they don't arrive in time to do them this weekend, and shipping those gifts that need to be shipped -- which means we should probably get a move on the last of our gift shopping -- and a box or two of stuff to Matt's mom in advance of our trip, like some presents for the gang there, and we can fill extra space in the box with some of our bulkier clothes), and then Sunday Matt's taking Penny to a local production of The Nutcracker ballet, followed by dinner at my folks' to celebrate Alex's birthday (for which I need to acquire a cake).

And the following Wednesday, Alex and I both have appointments with the ear/nose/throat doctor at the same time that Penny has her quarterly checkup with the endocrinologist, and then she has a half-day of school. We'll spend that night and Thursday morning packing stuff, and then pretty much right after lunch that Thursday, we're off to Richmond to catch our flight to Chicago. (Which should be a hoot, as the flight was already slam-packed full when I booked it in September, and I couldn't get ANY seats together. We'll be relying on the kindness of surrounding strangers to swap around so that the kids can sit with us.)

Matt has been trying to impose some level of organization on our time in Chicago, but my impression is that he's getting a lot of, "Oh, let's just wait and see" responses, so... not so much. I'm trying to stay out of it, for the most part. I'm just chalking those 9 days up to a blur of alternating running around and trying to keep the kids from getting so bored that they wreck his mom's house, and otherwise letting the chips fall as they may.

We're coming back from Chicago on the 30th (at least our seats are all together on that flight), and then on the 31st we'll "do" a mid-day Christmas with my family and end up at the Hegemony to ring in the New Year. (I've promised Penny she can try to stay up until midnight this year. We Shall See how that goes -- and whether I manage to stay awake that late, myself.)

And then I'll have the 1st and the 2nd of January to catch up on sleep, unpack our bags, try to figure out where all the new loot fits, and start un-decorating the house.

Somewhere in all that, we need to find a time to match schedules and meet up with KT and Kevin and Jess so we can give them their presents (and I can get the stuff I ordered from KT's thirty-one show). I need to get some occasional exercise, stay on top of everything at work, finish editing the story I'm working on, and gin up a couple of promotional blurbs for my publisher. I also need to do something with an assortment of vegetables and fruits in my kitchen before they start to go bad on me, and I'd really like to try out the all-edges brownie pan that Karen sent for my birthday. (Maybe Alex will get brownies in addition to cake for his birthday. Just 'cause.)

What I'm saying is -- if I miss a day or two of posting in the next couple of weeks, don't worry; I'm not dead, just insane. And between the 22nd and the 3rd, you probably shouldn't expect to hear from me at all, though I may manage a post or two via my phone. My twitter account is much more likely to see semi-regular posts, if you find yourself saddened by the silence here.

Struggle

2011-12-08T08:27:00.001-05:00

I'm struggling with apathy. Again.

Christmas used to be my favorite holiday of the year. I looked forward to it all year long, dragged out the decorations as soon as Thanksgiving had arrived, and buried myself in the planning and activities with joyous enthusiasm. I loved it all.

This year... I'm not feeling it. There's no excitement to balance out the schedule crunch; there's no delight to make the petty frustrations all worthwhile; there's no thrill to offset the whining. I'm not captivated by the lights or teary-eyed at the music or warmed by the acts of charity. I just. Don't. Care.

Don't care if the house is decorated. Don't care if the presents are all wrapped and under the tree. Don't care if we've got a present for everyone on our list. Don't care if we make it to all the events. Don't care if we see all the specials, read all the books, bake all the cookies, open all the advent doors.

But it's not just Christmas. It's everything. I don't care if I get my work done on time... or at all. Don't care if the bills get paid. Don't care if I finish the story I'm writing. Don't care if I participate in the promotional stuff. Don't care if there's dinner on the table. Don't care if the kids are bathed, don't care if I get a shower.

Don't know why. Am I just tired? Burned out on stress? Midlife crisis? Lack of introvert recharge time? Late-breaking cynicism onset? I don't know. Don't much care about that, either. All I know is that everything's gone grey on me again.

I'm trying to pretend it's all in color. For the kids' sakes, and Matt's, and everyone else. I'm doing my work (mostly on time) and making dinner and taking showers and making lunches and going to the gym. I put up the decorations and I'm lighting the candles and making the treats and opening the doors and listening to the music. Doing the shopping and making the plans and wrapping the presents and playing the games. Taking the pictures and making the cards and struggling with the technical issues.

It's going to blow over, eventually, and when it does, I'll want to know that I didn't screw up anyone else's holidays too badly. So I'm making the effort. As much as I can. But it's a struggle, and I don't know if I'm going to be able to keep it up all the way through the end of the month.

***

(I lied. It's not all grey. Alex has been eating oddly and complaining of thirst a lot lately and so for a few days there, the grey was tinged with terror, until I finally gave in and tested his blood sugar one morning before he'd eaten. It came up at 81. He's fine. I admit that returning to the grey after that was something of a relief.)

Runaround

2011-12-05T08:56:00.001-05:00

What an insanely busy weekend! And yet, loads of fun!

Let's see. Friday night, we took the kids out to see The Muppets. It wasn't a perfect movie, but it was a fitting homage to Henson and Oz and the original Muppets. The kids enjoyed it, though Alex was about to turn into a pumpkin on us by the time it ended.

Saturday morning we got up and got dressed right away and headed into town to watch the Christmas parade. Alex found it alternately boring and too loud, but Penny loved it -- her favorite parts were the middle school and high school bands.

Waiting for the parade

When that ended at 10:30, we walked a few blocks up the street and had an early lunch at Wasabi. (They were nice enough to let us in even though they were still setting up and weren't officially open until 11. They got drinks for us and we were grateful just to sit down until they were ready for us.)

After lunch, we got Alex down for a nap and then I ran up to the store for supplies for the moon cookie party, which started around 1:30 or so. It was a smaller group than usual this year (I can't believe KT and Kevin would rather go to Disney World for a week than come to the moon cookie party!) but we had a great time making cookies and chatting. Though for the record, I seriously need to get some more cookie sheets, next year. Waiting on cookies to bake is a huge hold-up!

When that was done, we all went out to eat at La Tolteca, where Adin's sister met up with us, and then we trooped over to Braz and Adin's to put the kids to bed and have a seven-player game of Cards Against Humanity. (Adin's sister is sweet and giggly and precious, and also? has an incredibly filthy mind. I approve. A lot.)

Sunday morning, Matt threatened the kids with mayhem so that I could sleep in until almost 9. Then we got everyone dressed in their new Christmas clothes (or in Matt's and my cases, our old Christmas clothes) and we went down to New Town to visit Santa and take pictures. They had a different guy playing Santa this year, but he was nearly as good with the kids. A new thing they've got going this year is that if there isn't a line (which there wasn't, for us -- I can never quite believe it) Santa would read a story to the kids. Which was pure awesome.

Santa and Penny peruse her list

Santa reading to the kids

After our visit with Santa, we went out for lunch at Ruby Tuesday, then went home so Alex could crash into a nap. While he was out, Penny and I wrapped a bunch of Christmas presents and put them under the tree (Alex woke up in time to help with the last few) and then we all piled in the car and went to Busch Gardens to see Christmastown, which I have missed for the last few years and was determined to see this time.

I have to say, I loved it. And the weather was perfect -- brisk enough to add to the "winter wonderland" atmosphere without being so cold that it was unpleasant to be outdoors. I do sort of wish that Matt and I could go back without the kids, because it would be nice to a) sample some of the tasty treats without having to worry about the diabetic in tow, b) stay at the park later than Alex's bedtime, and c) stroll along and look at everything at our own pace, without having to deal with assorted whines about being bored/hungry/tired and wanting to go right now to the favorite show or ride.

After all that standing and walking and picture-taking, my back and hips are killing me today, but it was totally worth it. I got lots of fun pictures to use for our Christmas cards and the calendar for next year, and the kids had a great time, even if they were both getting a little tired and out of sorts by the end of it. (I can relate, as I was getting a little tired and out of sorts as well...)

I'm hoping to recover some of my aplomb this week -- there's not much happening at work until Thursday, and I've got 7 hours of what my office calls discretionary/holiday time (I'd been saving it all year for the day after Thanksgiving, but wound up working most of that day, so I still have it left over) that I have to use-or-lose by the 16th. So I'm looking at taking some extra time off -- either two half-days or one full day -- to wrap up my Christmas shopping and work on my writing and generally try to relax and recoup my holiday spirit, which has been badly frazzled by my perception of the schedule, this year.

Love Muffin

2011-12-02T08:29:00.001-05:00

I've been aware of my not-so-slowly re-expanding waistline (and hips, and thighs) for a while, now. It's been on my "I should get around to that sometime" list. And on Monday, I actually started back up with my morning Wii Fit workouts -- it's not burning a ton of calories, but it helps my ankles and feet, and I do believe it at least helps get my metabolism moving for the day. And if I make it to the gym today, this will be the first week in I can't remember how long that I've gotten to the gym three times in a single week. I haven't started tracking food again yet, but I (mostly) put the kibosh on all the extra snacking that had crept into my day.

And according to this morning's Wii Fit weigh-in, I've lost about 2 pounds since Monday.

Go, me! Right?

Except that I put on my pair of "fat" jeans this morning. They've been slowly getting snugger over the past few months, but this morning, I actually had trouble getting them zipped, and when I looked in the mirror... Holy muffin tops, Batman! It's a good thing I'm wearing a baggy sweater, is what I'm saying.

And this weekend? Yeah. We're going to see the new Muppet movie tonight with the kids. And tomorrow is the Moon Cookie party. (And the local holiday parade, but that doesn't represent a danger to my diet.)

I am not. Not. Not going to miss out on moon cookies. So I guess I'm skipping the popcorn at the movie tonight, because this muffin? Not only is it unattractive, but it's also kind of uncomfortable. And I hate shopping for pants.

Treed

2011-12-01T08:25:00.001-05:00

Sunday afternoon, amidst all my other errands and running around, I stopped at the storage unit and brought home the Christmas tree and a bunch of other boxes.

When I got home, I started plugging in the tree sections, to make sure they worked before I went to the effort of assembling them.

Good thing, too. Because they didn't. Well, the middle section worked okay. But neither the bottom nor the top sections lit up at all.

There were a number of paths I could have taken from there. My dad, for instance, once actually went over the entirety of a pre-lit tree, testing each and every one of over 600 bulbs, looking for the one(s) that had caused the tree to go out. Yike. My time -- and my fingertips -- are more valuable than that.

Another possible route would have been to just get some light strands and string them on the tree where the built-in lights were dead, ignoring the dead bulbs and hoping the ornaments covered them up. I'd actually done this a couple of years earlier, when one section of the tree went dead. It worked okay, mostly, as long as I kept that section turned toward the corner where it wouldn't be in high profile. But I didn't want to do that for two thirds of the entire tree -- for one thing, I get pre-lit trees for a reason, and that reason is that I hate stringing lights. For another, there would be no way to turn the section with all the dead bulbs toward the corner, and covering ornaments or not, it would've looked pretty skeezy.

So I went with the third option, which was to toss the whole thing out and plan a trip to the store for a new tree. We went looking at Target on Sunday evening, before Matt's birthday dinner, and we picked out a tree we liked -- but there was no way we were going to fit the box in the car with all four of us. I love our Priuses (Prii?) and they have a lot more trunk space than it looks like from the outside... but not that much.

I said something to Matt about possibly picking it up on my way home from work Monday, but then he wanted to do some comparison shopping elsewhere. (Why, when we'd have been ready to get the tree from Target on Sunday if not for the space issue, I'm not sure. Is it possible to have buyer's remorse before you've bought something?)

So on Tuesday, after I'd done my writing, I went over to Wal-Mart. That took a bit longer than it should have; the two trees that were roughly analogous in size and shape to the one we'd picked at Target were both -- of course -- sold out. I thought about going back to Target, but there had only been one tree left of the sort we'd picked out. The chances that it was still there were... slim. So I spent some time waffling over my remaining choices at Wal-Mart.

The box did not fit in the trunk of my car, as expected. It only barely fit in the back seat, stretched across both kids' seats -- closing the car door nudged the box pretty firmly.

But I got it home, and even managed to get it out of the box, light-tested, assembled, and fluffed before Matt and Penny got home. Penny helped me put one round of ornaments on it, and then when Alex came home later, we all put on the remaining ornaments together.

So now we have a lit, decorated tree. Christmas is a go.

Contest Winner!

2011-11-30T09:00:00.001-05:00

Hey, it's Wednesday, which means it's usually my day to write over at the writing blog, but I wanted to stop in quickly and (finally) announce that the winner of the MyMemories software contest is Heidi, my diabetes-mom twin from D-Tales! Congrats, Heidi! I'll email you soon with the download code and instructions! :-)

For the rest of you, if you're interested in buying the software, I've got a $10 off coupon code that you can use -- check the sidebar for details!

Thanks-given

2011-11-28T08:42:00.001-05:00

Thanksgiving went pretty well, despite having clogged the sink drain with vegetable peelings the night before and having to summon the emergency plumber for Thanksgiving morning to clear it out with the shop vac. But the food turned out great, and Penny had a good time helping me, and Alex was thrilled beyond measure to drink his milk out of one of my china teacups. I was only confused about the lack of drippings from the turkey -- if I'd known it was going to drop so little, I'd have poured in some chicken stock to add extra heat to the bottom and to give me something to work with when it was time to make gravy. My apple-and-chestnut stuffing turned out awesome, if I do say so myself.

I had to work Friday (and surprisingly, there was work to be done, so I didn't get to enact my plan, which was to check email every couple of hours and otherwise just relax), alas. But Friday evening we went over to Braz and Adin's, and after we got the kids to bed, we played through the entire Cards Against Humanity deck. (Best question/answer pair of the night, and possibly all time: "What do I like to think about when I'm having sex?" "Being a dinosaur.") We wrapped up the game well after 1:30 in the morning. Matt and I didn't get to bed until after 2...

And of course the cat woke me up at 6:30. And when I got up, thinking I would feed him and go back to bed, I found Alex sitting on the edge of his bed, waiting for someone to stir so he could get up. So I was up. Alas. Once we were all up, we went down to my parents' for a little while, and then after Alex's nap we went back to Braz and Adin's for Matt's birthday party. We had hot dogs and bratwurst and ice cream cake, and we played a couple of rounds of Taboo after the kids were tucked into bed, but didn't stay up nearly as late, thank goodness.

Sunday was Matt's birthday, and also something of a crazy runaround day. I got up with the kids so Matt could sleep in, and once he'd gotten up and opened his presents, I did the grocery shopping. Then I came home, put the groceries away, and got the kids started on their lunch. While they finished that up, I ran across town to pick up Matt's birthday pie. (Matt always gets pecan pie for his birthday, and the best pecan pie I've ever had comes from the Jamestown Pie Company.) On my way back from that, I stopped at the storage unit to pick up most of our Christmas boxes and the tree.

When I got back, I took advantage of the excellent weather (it was over 70 outside!) to start putting up the outdoor decorations, and then while I started to assemble the tree, I let the kids distribute the candles in the windows.

But when I tested it, it turned out that of the 3 major sections of tree, only one of them lit up. Now, my dad once actually pulled and tested every single bulb on a pre-lit tree to find out which one had gone bad. I am not that determined. I declared the tree dead (we've had it long enough to have gotten our money's worth out of it, at least) and piled its sections outside with the trash.

Matt had promised Penny he would take her to Sweet Frog for snack on Sunday, so we did that, and then we stopped at Target on the way home to look at new trees. We got one all picked out, but the box was going to be way too big to fit in the car with all of us in it, so we had to leave it there. I did pick up a new door wreath and some plastic ornaments to decorate the porch and bushes, and we got Alex his Christmas outfit. (He did not pick the one I liked best, but he picked my second-favorite. I was tempted to get him both, but he really doesn't need clothes, and the little sets are not cheap.) We still need to take Penny out to look for her Christmas dress, as well. Maybe one evening this week, we'll do that.

Once we got back home, we pretty much turned around and headed straight back out to meet my family at Outback for Matt's birthday dinner. That was fun (and delicious), and then my parents came back to our house to share in that pecan pie. (John and Sam were virtuous, and avoided the temptation.)

All in all, a really good weekend... but I didn't get nearly enough sleep.

With Christmas coming in less than four weeks, I don't expect to get caught up for a while, either.

Intervention

2011-11-22T08:26:00.001-05:00

I had a dream last night. I was walking in the woods with some friends, and realized that Penny wasn't with us. We called, and fanned out to look for her, and I found her in a bed of leaves, unconscious. She didn't rouse, so I tested her blood sugar: 20. "I'll need the Glucagon," I said to whoever was standing behind me. "The big red box in her bag." In the dream, I was very calm. I explained to the person with me (it wasn't Matt, because he wouldn't need the explanation, having heard it before) that Penny was probably going to throw up when she woke up, and that as soon as I'd given her the shot, I would call 911 for an ambulance.

I woke up before I actually gave her the shot, much less calm than I had been in the dream. It was around 2:30 in the morning.

It was only a dream, I told myself. I got up and went into Penny's room. She stirred when I touched her arm. I didn't want to disturb her, so I kissed her cheek, then went to check on Alex (who was sleeping on his back with his hands tucked behind his head and his ankles crossed in the classic "lounging on summer grass" pose -- I had to giggle!) and then started to go back to bed. But as I sat down, I thought... it wouldn't hurt to actually check Penny's blood sugar. Just to be sure.

She'd been 138 when Matt checked her at 10:00 -- solidly in range. But except for Sunday evening and yesterday morning, when she was apparently fighting off the aftereffects of movie theater popcorn, she's been having a lot of lows lately. It was worth a check.

I had to fight her to get her hand out from under the blanket, but I finally got the drop of blood on the test strip... 54.

Crap.

I brought her a juice box, and by the time I'd got the wrapper off the straw, she was sitting up and ready for it. She sucked it down and then collapsed back into her nest of blankets.

I re-checked her fifteen minutes later, now approaching 3 am. She was at 108, a good solid number. I went back to bed, though it took me almost an hour to relax back into sleep.

This morning, when she checked her sugars before breakfast, she was at 58.

WTF, diabetes? WTF?

And what if I hadn't had that dream? Would she have bottomed out in the 50's anyway? Or continued her nosedive? Would we have woken this morning and realized Penny hadn't turned her alarm off, and had to scramble for the Glucagon for real?

It's almost enough to make me wonder if there's a higher power.

***

But lest we let diabetes take the upper hand and set the tone for the day, let me share something awesome with you instead. Penny's studying maps in school right now, and her big project, due today, was to make up her own map of a place, and write a paragraph to go with it. With help, she decided to map an island, and she filled it in, and then we thought about underwater movies we'd seen to help us add features to the surrounding ocean -- she put in caves and volcanoes and even a minefield (a la Finding Nemo). The map itself was very creative and imaginative, and I was pleased.

And then she wrote the paragraph to go with it. Matt swears she wrote this all at once, without a lot of pausing for thought (presented exactly as she wrote it, with our spelling corrections in brackets):

This Island is my secret hideout where my friends hang out. We also go on quests but of course we have to leave mine filds [fields] around our island to sink and stop our enmy's [enemies'] ships. We explore the water volcanos [volcanoes] to see what and when they explode. If our enmys [enemies] are near we hide in the caves. Also we find treasure on our island! If it's hot we run in the forest to cool off. My island is a safe place you can go. (Exept [Except] for the pirats [pirates].) And have fun!

When she read that to me, I just about fell over, I was so proud and happy and excited. How awesome is that?! The "(except for the pirates)" bit killed me! (The parentheses were her idea, even.) Volcanoes and treasure and minefields and pirates and sunken ships and forests and caves, and she managed to link it all together cohesively! Obviously, she's a born storyteller. Or possibly ready to start building her own D&D modules.

Either way... That's my girl.

Wait, What?

2011-11-21T08:28:00.001-05:00

There was a weekend, right?

I got up this morning and literally could not remember what I'd done on Saturday. At all. I wasn't sure the day had even happened until Matt jogged my memory: "You went to KT's thing."

Oh, right. KT threw a thirty-one show. And it's weird that I forgot it, because I've been looking forward to it. Because I bought way too many things at it. Because I signed up to host a show, myself, come spring (when hopefully the available patterns will be a little less... brown.)

And after that, I went over to Braz and Adin's to find my kids, and it looked for a while like I was going to leave both of them there overnight, but Penny only had 2 glucose test strips left in her kit, and Alex started whining at about 9 that he wanted to go home, so... we went home. (Good thing, too, because Penny had a persistent low blood sugar that kept me up until after midnight, and then Matt stayed up until nearly 2am trying to keep her in range.)

Sunday we met up with them again to take in Happy Feet Two, which turned out to be pretty good, though I'm distinctly disturbed that Mumble is still sporting his chick-feathers like he was at the end of the first movie. But it was funny (oh my goodness, the krill puns! I want a whole movie now that's just Bill and Will!) and the music adaptions were fun, and it kept the kids pretty well entertained.

This week promises to be nice and slow -- not too much to do at work, and I've got all my ingredients in place for the cooking/eating frenzy of Wednesday evening and Thursday. I do need to remember to put the Macy's parade on the TiVo so I can jump the commercials, and get Karen's birthday package to the post poffice. I'm technically working on Friday, but I don't think anyone else is, so I'm planning to work from home and probably just check email every so often to make sure nothing is happening.

So things will be quiet here. Some thankful contemplation, perhaps.

But hey! If you take digital pictures at all, go check out the contest I have running for free digital scrapbooking software! They're releasing the new version of the software next week, and the contest winner will get the new version, which fixes quite a few of my quibbles from the review, so for petesake enter the contest! Right now!

My Memories - CONTEST!

2011-11-20T07:43:00.001-05:00

The very kind folks at MyMemories offered me a copy of their digital scrapbooking software for review, and they offered up a second copy for some lucky winner of my contest -- I'll explain that after the review.

Reviewer's Caveats:

Platform: The software is available for both Mac and PC, but of course my review is of the Mac software. Your mileage may vary, especially if you're on a PC.

Perspective: My previous experience with digital scrapbooking software is pretty limited, so what you're getting is my comparison of this software to: a) real scrapbooking, b) a very brief trial of the Creative Memories software several years ago, c) other software with graphic elements, and d) limited-use software, such as the iPhoto calendar maker and online card-making applications.

The Features and Functionality:

I have to admit, I'm very impressed.

This took me less than 5 minutes
to make. Click to embiggen!

There are an impressive number of ways to share your albums: You can send pages directly to your printer, or you can export pages individually to JPG format in a variety of sizes. You can order printed and bound album books and calendars, for a price, of course (I haven't tested those options, but they're in the menu and I'm sure they're perfectly simple to do). And you can, with some additional (free) software, create slideshow movies or create an interactive DVD album.

The My Memories Suite software lets you select backgrounds, lay out photos and decorative elements, and provides lots of customization options. Elements (which is to say any photo or individual image) can be cropped in a variety of shapes, overlapped, rotated, flipped, mirrored, resized, stretched, and shadowed. You can change the opacity of elements to have some show through others. There are some basic photo manipulation options as well, like red-eye removal and some common filters and deformations, though you're probably better off doing your photo corrections and manipulations in your photo software before you import the picture into MyMemories Suite.

If you're planning on generating a slideshow or DVD album, there are some other options as well, like the inclusion of background music and the ability to add multimedia "hotspots" to include video or audio files, other files, and website links. It will also let you record your own narration. (The example below has background music, but not narration.)

The Ease of Use:

I thought the software was pretty easy to figure out, though I did have a few false starts and like any new software, there's a learning curve. (Worth noting is that their website has a fairly active blog and forum which includes links to demonstration videos with both basic and advanced tips and tricks.) It's got several "startup" options, including a number of automatic layouts and templates, but unless you've got a very clear idea straight from the beginning of what you want, including how many pictures you want on each page, I thought it was easier to just use a blank template and add elements as I thought of them. The software takes a little bit of time to load, but not an excessive amount. I got beachballed a few times (stuck in some sort of loop where memory locked up) but only once did I have to force-quit the application; the other times, it cleared up after a short wait. As far as speed goes, it's a huge improvement on the Creative Memories software trial, which started chewing up my system memory as soon as I had more than a handful of elements on a page.

The Quibbles:

I did have a few quibbles. Element show the standard graphic adjustment tags on corners and side middles to resize and rotate, but if the tag you want to grab is underneath another element, you can't. There were some things that weren't intuitive (like how to crop without changing proportions -- turns out you hold the Shift key) and some things I don't think can be done at all ("snap to grid" and/or "align elements" functions would be nice). The resource gallery (essentially a mini file browser on the side of the screen that lets you easily select and place elements) doesn't refresh except on loading, so if you re-organize those folders, you have to quit and restart the MyMemories software to get it to show that. The software to make your album into a DVD or movie comes separately from the base package -- but it's free once you have a registered copy of the base package, so I'm not sure why they're not just bundled together. You can pick a different background music song for each page, if you like, but you can't choose an alternate starting point in the music files. When you generate a slideshow, every slide shows up for the same amount of time -- you can't have a page that shows for 5 seconds and then another page that shows up for 10.

The Applause:

I'm really impressed with how easy it is to use this software, catering to people who want to use existing templates to just pick pictures and get on with it, and people who want to lay their hands on every element. I'm also really pleased with the number of options for the completed project; the interactive DVD option, in particular, gave me some fun ideas!

The element files are mostly .PNG files, which makes browsing them fairly simple. And if you don't like the way those files are organized by default, you can rearrange the files in your file browser with impunity; each template and project makes a local copy of the files it uses, which could be a little problematic for hard drive space if you have a lot of very large projects, but guarantees that reorganizing won't break anything. (Another minor quibble -- it sure would be nice if the software had an in-app way to let you reorganize things.)

Which is good, because the software comes with lots of base files to start with -- plenty of papers and decorations to make some very decent albums right from the get-go. (Very nice after the Creative Memories trial software, which admittedly was a trial version but had a very disappointing collection of starter elements.) And if that weren't enough, the MyMemories Suite software comes with a $10 credit toward purchased packages, and their website offers a fairly impressive collection of completely free download packages that gets updated, from what I can tell, at least a couple of times a week. Naturally, many of these are merely sample packs advertising the for-pay packages, but all my samples here were built with elements I downloaded for free. Items do rotate in and out of the free section, so your mileage may vary, but an occasional check of the website will have your collection built up in no time. I've been testing this software for two weeks, and in that time I've downloaded dozens of packages -- papers, pre-built frames and pages, and decorative elements -- and not even once have I given the MyMemories site my credit card number, because everything I've downloaded has either been free or "bought" on that $10 credit. (Did I mention the 99-cent discount packages?)

The Bottom Line:

Despite my minor frustrations and wishing for a few extra capabilities (which may well be addressed by the new version that's coming out next week!), it's very nice software, well worth the $40 price tag if you've been looking for a way to dump your traditional scrapbooking gear for something less cluttery, or if you've been dying to create digital, interactive scrapbooks that incorporate videos and other files that just don't fit into a traditional paper album. I'm already working on making several projects with it!

The CONTEST!

Now (finally!) for the contest! If you would like to win a complete free copy of this software, please visit the My Memories website and tell me in the comments here (or you can email me, if you'd rather not post publicly) the name of the scrapbooking kit package you're going to download first when you win! One entry per person, please! I'll give this until after Thanksgiving (mostly because up until then, I'm too busy to really mess with it) and then I'll put all the names in a hat and draw my lucky winner!

Quietude

2011-11-18T08:29:00.001-05:00

The office is a little quiet today. I'm not quite sure why. Most people taking long vacations around Thanksgiving won't leave until this weekend. Some of the local schools have a teacher workday today, so a few people could be working from home, but it shouldn't count for that many. I know a couple of the managers are on the road for work.

I guess it just all adds up. And the result is that the office is a little quiet. We don't have any deliveries to do today. There's only one delivery for next week. Things in the office are... slow.

In direct contrast, things at home are heating up for the holidays. I've got shopping to do. Thanksgiving dinner to plan. And cook. Gifts to order and wrap and ship. Decorating to do. More shopping. Cleaning (and more cleaning, and more cleaning...)

Pictures to take, cards to lay out and order. Events to plan and host and attend. Notes to write.

Don't get me wrong -- I'm not unhappy. I love this stuff. I love seeing the house decorated for Christmas; I love shopping; I love visiting with friends and family and doing fun things together. I even love planning and cooking big meals like Thanksgiving (occasionally). (The cleaning, not so much, I admit.)

But it does add a big helping of crazy and stress to my days.

Which makes me appreciate these quiet days at the office that much more. I can pause. Sip my coffee. Close my eyes and take a deep breath.

And then fire up the browser and get a jump on some of that shopping.

Day Off

2011-11-17T08:36:00.001-05:00

I took my "part-time" day off yesterday.

Took Penny down to Newport News to get some blood drawn for some tests -- she was a little scared, but did great -- and then after I signed her into school, I went to the Panera, bought a coffee and a breakfast sandwich, and started writing.

Usually on my day off, I get to Panera around 8:30 and leave around lunchtime. Yesterday, I got there at 9:30 and didn't leave until after 2:30. In that time, I drank six (or maybe seven?) cups of coffee, ate a breakfast sandwich, a bowl of soup (though they ran out of black bean before I was ready for lunch, boo), and a strawberry scone, and wrote somewhere in the neighborhood of 4000 words. It felt great.

Then, since my sense of smell has finally recovered from my cold, I walked over to Bath and Body Works to check out their winter scents, and lo! the small holiday night lights were on sale! So I bought... a few. Shut up, I can quit any time I want.

Then I went to the bank to deposit birthday and royalty checks, and headed home. The evening was fairly normal and relaxed, which was perfect. I didn't do any more writing, but I did make some progress on another project, and read another chapter and a half in my bedside book.

All in all, just about the most perfect day off I could've asked for.

Slept

2011-11-15T08:30:00.001-05:00

I have too many balls juggling at the same time, I think. In no particular order:

Two novels to be proof-read, both due before the end of November.
A novella to edit and its author to herd through all the assorted steps. (This involves a number of different deadlines, but the whole thing comes to fruition in early January.)
Keeping my own writing projects moving, however slowly.
Thanksgiving dinner to plan and prepare.
A friend's birthday package to wrap (not a trivial task, due to <SPOILER>) and box for shipping.
Matt's birthday to plan for.
Assorted social events and plans.
Christmas shopping to plan and put into effect.
The moon cookie party to plan and prepare for.
Other holiday activities, such as taking photos for the Christmas card (though I snapped up today's Groupon, so that's at least partly underway!) and figuring out the best time for us to go to Christmastown at Busch Gardens.
Getting to the gym at least twice (and preferably three times) a week.
The actual work at my actual job. (I know -- crazy!)
A million other things that may or may not be tangentially related to the above -- for instance, the usual day-to-day household tasks and chores.

I sat down last night to do a little writing, because I let it slack far too much last week. I got all of about four hundred words out, and for once it's wasn't a lack of inspiration that stopped me, but the fact that I could not, for the life of me, keep my eyes open. After about forty-five minutes, I switched from writing to reading... and then woke up half an hour later when Matt came in on his way to check Penny's blood sugar and found me sitting up in the bed and snoring, book propped on my chest.

I'm not sure if I'm actually sleep-deprived, in which case a few early nights might set me straight, or if it's a stress reaction to the holiday ramp-up.

Either way, I'm glad one of my friends gave me some caffeinated lip balm and soap for a birthday present!

Party Time

2011-11-14T08:41:00.001-05:00

Saturday was my birthday party. I invited my family and closest, longest-known friends (and their families) to have dinner with me at the Center Street Grill. We had a room to ourselves and a separate table for the kids, and of the 25 who'd RSVPed, I only had one adult and one kid who had to cancel at the last minute (due to illness, so I'm grateful that she kept it home). Which meant that the room looked like this:

And the kids' table looked like this:

It was a great party. I'd brought little activity bags for the kids with pencils and crayons and notepads and notebooks and play jewelry to keep them occupied, and it worked surprisingly well -- we only had to turn around to tell the kids to get back in their seats about once every five minutes instead of the usual ninety seconds.

The adults had a great time eating and talking and eating some more; I thought there would be more drinking, but I never even got around to ordering anything other than iced tea. As dinner was winding up, there were some fireworks outside that completely wowed the kids -- apparently, they thought it was, in fact, part of the party, and they all ran to the window to look. (I have no idea what they were really for -- the general consensus was that it was probably a Veteran's Day thing.)

When I stood up to do a general introduction around the table and thank everyone for coming, I found myself completely overwhelmed with gratitude that I could count so many wonderful and interesting people among my friends. I did the introductions, and then got about as far as, "Thank you all for coming. I'm really happy you could all make it, and I'm just... Just..." And then my mom chimed in with "...Forty!" and we all cracked up with laughter.

And one benefit of having guests at your party who've known you for more than twenty years is that they bring perfect gifts. I'm just sayin'. A "writer's kit" (gorgeous feathered quill, chocolate, and wine). A gorgeous new coffee mug and a Barnes and Noble gift card nestled in a reusable little book-shaped box. A board game that appears to be the evil twin of the bastard child of Candyland and D&D. And that's just a few! Plus, most of the card were hysterically funny. Do these people know what I like, or what?

The only downer was poor Henry's stomach rebelling at the combination of corn dog and chocolate milk and Sprite and ice cream, and reversing engines, so the entire Hegemony set had to pack up and head out pretty much immediately after dessert, while the rest of us stuck around for another hour, just chatting.

At one point, I saw the waitress bring in the bill folder, and I started to reach for it... but she went around to the far side of the table and handed it to my dad. "Hey," I said, "that comes to me!"

My dad took his already-run credit card out of the folder and said, "Yes, that's what they told me." And that on top of the gift they'd given me -- that I hadn't been expecting, because they'd bought me some very nice jewelry while we were in Cancun as my early birthday present!!!

And to top it all off, despite Henry's mishap, the Hegemony took Alex home with them, and when we were all done at Center Street, Matt and I took Penny over to their place as well -- they kept both our kids (along with all four of theirs!) overnight, so that Matt and I could have a child-free date night.

We'd talked about catching Cabaret at William and Mary, but the party didn't break up until after the show had started, so we just went over to the Barnes and Noble and wandered around, relishing the ability to peruse at our own pace and not having to take turns remaining confined to the children's area to keep an eye on the kids. I bought some stuff with the B&N gift card I'd just received, and we also picked up some Christmas gifts for the kids. Then we went home and watched one of our Netflix (Casanova, which I was expecting to be a sexy drama, or perhaps a dramedy, but it turned out to be completely campy and stupid, alas). But we got to sleep in a bit the next morning, and we went out to breakfast and got to bask in a meal where we didn't have to tell anyone to be quiet and sit down, argue with Penny about volume or carbiness of her selections, or cut up Alex's food for him. Ah, bliss.

It had been Alex's first sleepover anywhere, and he had a fantastic time. He was all set to do it again Sunday night -- alas, we had to shoot that down, as it was a school night. But Braz and Adin promised that both our kids had been well-behaved and wonderful (they'd only had to tell Alex and Henry to shut up and go to sleep two or three times!), so it looks like another sleepover could well happen in the future! Whoo-hoo! (And now, if we can just get Ripley comfortable with the notion of sleeping over at our place, we could trade sleepovers with them and get more frequent kid-free nights!)

So all in all: doubleplus good, awesome, amazing, fantastic weekend. As KT and Kevin told me: Obviously, I need to have 40th birthday parties more often!

Weekender

2011-11-11T08:49:00.001-05:00

Huzzah, it's Friday!

The office is quiet today -- it's Veteran's Day and some folks have kids out of school, and/or a lot of our veterans are taking the day off. And of course the government is on holiday, so most of our customers are out of touch. It makes for a quiet, productive day. Huzzah for that!

Matt is home with the kids today; I'm at work for a half day, or else until today's deliveries go out, whichever takes longer. Tonight will probably be the usual hanging out with the Hegemony, putting our kids to bed at their house so we can stay up late for adult play. (Though I think Braz has his girls this weekend, so Emma will be up with us until 10, which means my new Cards Against Humanity deck will probably have to wait. It's really, really not a game for 10-year-olds.)

Tomorrow is my birthday party, and I'm looking forward to that with manic glee. Though when I talked to my parents, they were both still recovering from assorted surgeries and procedures and are feeling a bit under the weather, so I hope they're feeling better for it.

Sometime this weekend, I need to do some serious shopping. Karen's birthday is in less than two weeks, and I need to get a serious move-on if I'm going to go with the notion I had for her gifts.

And when I don't have anything else going, I'm playing with some new software! Even though it's been a long time since I talked about scrapbooking (and almost as long since I actually did any, though I keep swearing I'm going to get back to it), the folks over at My Memories contacted me with an offer: two copies of their digital software suite -- one for evaluation, and one for a giveaway! Plus a code that anyone can use to buy their software or other stuff. I'm evaluating right now (so far, it's very cool, though there are a few things I wish it could do better). Sometime in the next couple of weeks, I'll be posting my review, with links and pictures and stuff, and I'll have a contest or drawing for the other software key -- so scrapbookers and photo takers, be on the lookout!

Lordy, Lordy

2011-11-10T09:00:00.001-05:00

I had, quite possibly, the best possible 40th birthday. No lie.

I couldn't take the day off from work -- too much workstuff to do, alas -- but the day before my birthday was a school holiday for Penny, so I opted to work from home, which turned out to be a great decision, as Adin and Ripley were at loose ends for the day due to a cancellation from another friend, so they came over and hung out with us. We went out to lunch at Penny's favorite restaurant (Wasabi!) and then later in the afternoon, after I'd cleared a little more workstuff, we went out and had mani/pedis. (It was going to be just pedicures, but it turned out that the shop runs a combo special on Tuesdays. How do you pass that up?!) So I had freshly painted, gorgeous nails ready to go for my birthday!

That afternoon, Penny and Ripley did coloring and papercrafts while I did more work (see, I do actually get work done when I work from home!) and they both made me birthday cakes! Ripley's was a flat cutout of a gorgeously-decorated tiered cake (she snipped a hole at the top and tied a string in it so I could hang it up) and Penny managed to craft a 3-D paper cake, plain and smooth, decorated tastefully with a ribbon around the middle and a small sprig of fresh blueberries on top. Penny also made me a sign to hang on my office door at work, "just in case anyone doesn't know it's your birthday!"

I got up on my birthday morning to even more hugs and kisses than usual (which is really saying something, as Alex and Penny are always both very affectionate) and presents from Matt (the OOTS Dragon Tales collection, Leverage Season 3 DVDs, and an Amazon gift card!). After I took the kids to school, I went to work, where I had promised Caren that she could decorate my office and be as evil as she wanted.

Thanks to a picky customer and a snarl of workstuff and a bored kid in tow, she hadn't had time to decorate liberally, but when she came in, she brought me a little pot of very pretty peach-colored begonias, to which were attached two enormous balloons. Well, the pirate ship is enormous. The other one was only enormous in its evil, because she'd deliberately gotten one with the wrong age on it.

Diabolical! But then she went with me to meet Matt and Adin for lunch at Plaza Azteca, where we all had margaritas and tableside guacamole. We got a couple of appetizer-type things to split, because dessert was the plan! But when we got to dessert, we just couldn't narrow it down, and we were talking about all getting different things and sharing, and Matt said, "I only want to share if I can have two," and there were only six desserts on the menu anyway, so when the waiter came back for the order, I just said, "Bring us one of each!" The look on the man's face was priceless, and we all laughed when all six desserts came out and we arrayed them on the table in the middle to sample. It was awesome.

(I should have taken a picture, but I didn't think of it. Alas.)

When I got home, Matt had a final present for me, which was the completely brand new expansion pack for Cards Against Humanity that was just released on Monday! Squee! I perused the cards, and now I can't wait to give them a whirl! (Though I may just have to order the official CAH starter deck so all the cards are the same size...)

Penny made dinner -- a "sandwich salad" recipe of her own invention -- almost completely by herself (I helped her core the lettuce and I sliced carrots, but she made the rest of our salads entirely by herself, sharp knives and all!) And then Matt and Penny had picked out a coconut cake from Martin's/Ukrop's for me -- which is one of my very favorite cakes, from one of my very favorite bakeries, so 100% WIN on that! Matt and I were still full from all the guacamole and dessert we'd had at lunch, so we didn't have much cake... but that just means more leftovers!

(You know what one of the best things is about being 40 years and 1 day old? Birthday cake for breakfast.)

My parents called to wish me a happy, and throughout the day, I got a ton of well-wishes on Facebook, too, which was incredibly sweet and nice. KT "combarded" me with snarky e-cards that made me giggle, and Karen sent another e-card later in the day containing an awesome, punny joke. (Knock-knock! Who's there? Señor! Señor, who? Señor share of birthdays, haven't you?!) (Actually, there were multiple puns, and the first one was even off-color, which goes to prove that Karen understands my taste in jokes quite well. Well, of course she does; she's played Cards Against Humanity with me!)

After we got the kids to bed, Matt and I watched all the special features on the Leverage DVDs, and after Matt went to bed early to sleep off his coconut cake, I finally finished the last level of Gemcraft: Labyrinth. A fitting and perfect end to the day.

Emailed post

2011-11-07T10:27:00.001-05:00

Work is busy today, so instead of posting this morning like usual, I spent my first hour and a half of the morning trying to untangle some scheduling issues. But now I'm stuck in a meeting to which I have to pay only minimal attention, so it seems like a good time to dash out an email post on my phone.

We had a good weekend, despite Alex's brush with the Uck Thursday night. We spent Friday at home, keeping our germs to ourselves. Saturday we hung out with Braz and Adin -- went to Coldstone for snack to cash in my birthday ice cream, and Applebee's for dinner, where we encountered our favorite gay waiter. Sunday was all about being domestic -- groceries and laundry and cooking (including a Hubbard squash, which is colored dark green and yellow like an acorn squash but in shape and size looks like a pumpkin; I had to quarter it to fit it in the oven!) When that was done, I put together a lasagna and we took it over to Braz and Adin's for dinner.

Also went shopping to Bath and Body Works on Saturday so I could check out the new seasonal scents, but I'm apparently still suffering some smell loss from my lingering cold, so the trip was a bit of a bust.

This week promises craziness, mostly good. Tuesday is Election Day, so Penny's school is closed and I'll be staying home with her, working from home. Wednesday is my birthday -- Matt and Penny are plotting a cake, there are plans for lunch out, and I promised a co-worker that she could decorate my office, so I expect that will be amusing. Thursday, Matt is WatchDOGging at Penny's school (which doesn't add to my crazy, but it does make Penny pretty excited once she spots him wearing that shirt). And then Friday is Veteran's Day, and both kids' schools are closed, so Matt and I will probably be splitting the day to stay home with them.

Whew! And then I'll have about a week and a half to recover and get my ducks lined up for Thanksgiving.

Which means I'm two weeks from having to launch Christmas decorating and planning. Everyone hold on to your hats!

My Kids

2011-11-03T08:50:00.000-04:00

"Mommy? Mom? Mom? Mom?"

It's 3:45 in the morning. Alex is standing beside my bed, his head nearly level with mine. "Mm. What is it, baby? What's wrong?"

"Nothing. I wanna snuggle." Without waiting for a response, he starts to climb up into the bed.

"No, honey. Snuggling is okay in the morning, but at night, we stay in our beds and sleep. Come on, let's get you tucked back in. When you hear my radio start playing in the morning, then you can come in and snuggle, okay?"

"Okay."

Two hours and fifteen minutes later, my alarm goes off. In the time it takes me to reach out an arm and smack it, there's a little blond boy scaling the side of the bed.

"Hey, sweetie. You like to snuggle in the morning, huh?"

"Yeah. I like to snuggle at night, too."

***

"Mom, what holidays are there in January?"

"Well, New Year's Day, of course. And there's Martin Luther King Jr. Day, but that doesn't have parties or gifts, it's just a day off from school."

"A day off school is like a gift!"

I hear ya, little girl. I hear ya.

Buggy

2011-11-02T09:31:00.001-04:00

I know I don't usually post here on Writing Wednesday, but last night was pretty rough.

Penny had a persistent low at school and was complaining of a stomachache, so Matt brought her home early. The persistent low continued to persist, and Matt was feeling a bit under the weather as well, so instead of the planned dinner, I just made a couple of frozen pizzas. Penny ate three slices, I calculated the insulin, and we went on with the evening...

Right up until I sat down to read to Penny at bedtime. I got through exactly one sentence and then she jumped up, ran into the bathroom, and proceeded to puke her little guts up.

Here's a fun quiz: when you give someone insulin, but then they throw up all the food in their stomach before it can be digested, what happens? That's right! Low blood sugar! Whoo!

(In fact, I'm thinking that might have been the cause of that persistent low of the afternoon -- if the stomach bug was already beginning, it probably drastically slowed the rate of digestion, which meant her lunch insulin was going through her much faster than her food was.)

She was well within her range at bedtime, so Matt and I went about our evening routine, but alas, she thew up again around 9, and when Matt checked her blood sugar at 10, she was under 40 -- so low that she was groggy and unable to sit up on her own when Matt woke her up to treat it. So we skipped the candy remedies (that would probably only upset her stomach anyway) and went straight for a big old spoonful of honey. Half of it smeared on her face, but she opened her mouth for me to spoon it in, so we got a good teaspoon in her and waited.

Fifteen minutes later, she was up a bit but still in the 40s, so we woke her up again. This time, at least, she came alert relatively quickly and sat up on her own to eat another spoonful of honey, and washed it down with half a bottle of Gatorade, and then she remained upright until I'd gotten a washcloth to clean her face.

Another fifteen minutes or so, and she was up over 80, so we relaxed a bit. Matt and I stayed up another half hour or so and checked her again (over 100) before we went to bed.

This morning, her blood sugar was over 300, but rather than the usual frustration that causes me, I was relieved. (And unlike the "where the hell did that come from? highs, I knew exactly where this one came from: two spoonfuls of honey and half a bottle of Gatorade, duh!) The dangers of high blood sugar are slight but cumulative; low blood sugars are much more immediately terrifying. I hate it when she's so low she has trouble waking up. We have not yet ever had to break out the emergency Glucagon injection, and I do not ever want to. I probably don't even have to tell you what the Mutant Worrybrain was whispering when I first woke up this morning, do I?

She was feeling somewhat better on the stomach front, too -- she said her stomach didn't hurt any more, but she was Not Hungry. She ate a little cup of yogurt and drank some low-carb juice (I thought she should avoid milk) and I gave her a shot to bring her back down into range. She's staying home with Matt today, so here's hoping they're both feeling better by this evening.

Run Run Run

2011-11-01T08:49:00.000-04:00

Yesterday was, to put it mildly, full.

I juggled two software deliveries at work, then left early and went to Penny's school for the annual teacher conference, where we were told that Penny scored very well, compared to the rest of her class, on their baseline/practice SOL reading test, and that her grade so far for math is 97.7% (that's my baby!) and that she has a solid B in reading (dragged down slightly by laziness during comprehension quizzes -- she can't be bothered to actually go look back at the material to find the answers). The teacher also said she thinks she can see some improvement in Penny's performance during science and social studies, but it's only been a couple of weeks, so we'll have to wait and see what's happening there.

Then I stopped off at the ABC store for grownup treats, and went home to find Adin and kids waiting for me. We went inside and they decorated their trick-or-treat bags while I got the candles for the front yard set up. By then, Matt and Penny and Alex had arrived, and we got all the kids in their costumes, fed them some hot dogs, and got them out the door to start trick-or-treating right at 6. (The eating and changing and decorating all happened in the space of about forty-five very busy minutes.)

The weather was threatening rain, so I guess a lot of kids that usually get carpooled into our neighborhood went to the mall instead, because we had only about half the kids I'm used to seeing. But the ones we did see were danged cute; I don't think I saw any teenagers who weren't even really trying this year, which was refreshing. Alex gave up the ghost earlier than Matt expected, but once he was home, he had a fantastic time jumping up to watch whenever Matt or I opened the door, so I guess it wasn't a wasted evening for him.

Penny got a good amount of candy and then went home with Adin and kids so she could do a little trick-or-treating in their neighborhood and also to see Emma and Sarah when they came over. Adin very generously volunteered to take her and bring her back, so once we got Alex put to bed, it turned into a nice, calm evening.

And now: November!

Packing It In

2011-10-28T09:14:00.000-04:00

Crazy workstuff.

Picking Alex up from daycare and taking him to dinner and then back to daycare for their Fall Festival. Then over to Braz and Adin's for the usual Friday night hangout.

Saturday: Pumpkin carving. Pumpkin seed roasting. Butternut and acorn squash roasting and attendant soup making. Also, the weekly grocery shopping needs to happen a day earlier than usual, because...

Sunday: Craft fair with Penny and Adin and girls up in Richmond. Leaving town at 10, back probably mid/late afternoon.

November's weekends are already filling up. We don't have anything planned (yet) for the first weekend, but then after that there's a party on the 12th, two events on the 19th (one for me and one for Matt, but we'll need to juggle the overlap), and then Thanksgiving weekend.

I haven't laid out plans for December's weekends, but I only have to look at the list of Things To Do (family photo session for our cards, house decorating, Santa visit, moon cookie party, Christmastown, shopping, wrapping and mailing, 9 days in Illinois, some gathering with my family) to know already that it's going to be a busy month.

So basically, for most of the next two months, if I've got an entire half-day where I'm not doing something, I'm going to need to be finding some way to use it to make the following weeks less crazy, if at all possible. Early decorating, cooking/baking, planning, or shopping.

Which means I'm not waiting until after Thanksgiving to start my Christmas shopping. Those of you who might reasonably expect gifts from us this year, update your wishlists and then stay off of them, or else brace for potential duplicates, because I'm strongly considering trying to be at least close to done with my shopping by the first weekend of December. (Not counting stuff for the kids. I know myself well enough to know I'm going to keep buying stuff for them right up until the last possible minute.)

We're three days from Hallowe'en. Let the "holidays" begin.

Constant

2011-10-27T08:58:00.000-04:00

My cold has dialed itself back to a persistent cough, so I'm trying to muddle through with it.

Despite feeling vaguely crappy and muzzy-headed most of the time, though, my last few days have been wildly productive, personally if not professionally. I got a short story submitted to a call, edited a novelette-length story for my brother, did the first pass on a novella edit for Torquere, cleaned up a novelette-length story of my own and sent it off to a couple of beta readers (anyone else want to volunteer?), did some planning for the weekend, and ran assorted errands.

On my list for today: catch up some workstuff, stop by the store for treats for Alex's class party tomorrow, place some calls for my birthday party (about time! chorus all my friends), start putting together Christmas lists for the kids (we got the first official relative request last night), and do some planning for Thanksgiving. Other things coming up in the near future: second-round edits for the two stories I'm editing, birthday shopping for Matt and Karen, baking some winter squash that are on the counter at home waiting on me before they go bad, digging out my Hallowe'en costume, and working on the holiday planning (gifts and gatherings and travel requiring some tight coordination).

This weekend is Alex's school Fall Festival, and the craft fair up in Richmond for me and Penny with Adin, and any last-minute Hallowe'en planning I need to do. In addition to, y'know, the usual weekend stuff.

It seems there's always something to do, and always something else I'd rather be doing...

Shoulda

2011-10-24T09:20:00.000-04:00

It should have been a highly successful weekend. I got out of work early on Friday and took Alex to Busch Gardens for a couple of hours, and then we all met up with Braz and Adin for dinner. I finished up that story I started that morning at about 3300 words, which is crazy-fast work for me.

Saturday, the family took a short trip down to visit my parents -- we were only there for about an hour, as my dad is recovering from surgery and was in a lot of pain -- and then later, while Matt and Alex were napping, Penny and I went to the neighborhood Hallowe'en party. We did the limbo, played "Pin the Parent", and Penny painted a pumpkin and took a few whacks at a piñata. Then Jess came over and all three kids played together most happily right up until their assorted bedtimes. The girls went to bed and (eventually) to sleep, and no one woke me up before 6am, which is pretty much all I can ask for, with a sleepover.

The kids continued to play (mostly) nicely together all day Sunday, and while Matt and Penny were taking Jess home and Alex was napping, I made a few edits to that story and submitted it! Sunday evening had us back over at Braz and Adin's for dinner, with soup and grilled cheese -- yum! We got home only a little late for Alex's bedtime, and even had time to squeeze in one chapter of reading with Penny. I went to bed early and slept soundly until about 5:50, when Alex came in to tell me he was coughing and wanted to snuggle with me.

Sounds like a great weekend, doesn't it? And it would've been... if most of us (excepting Penny) hadn't spent it dogged by what I thought on Friday were allergies, but by Saturday afternoon knew was a full-blown cold, complete with headache and backache and a face so tender from sinus inflammation that it actually feels like my glasses are sitting on top of a bruise.

I'm at work today, but I'm pretty well doped up on Tylenol Cold remedy and sucking down tea by the gallon, and I've printed out a red X and taped it to my mostly-closed office door to warn others away from my germs.

I'm hoping for a fairly slow week at work, because I've got a lot of stuff I need to do, and this cold is slowing me down a lot. Everyone think healthy thoughts our way, would you?

Productive

2011-10-18T08:54:00.001-04:00

I spent way too much time in meetings yesterday, but it ended up being eerily productive anyway. I pulled together a development plan for a new project, did some paperwork from a rushed delivery last week, created a corporate repository for the mini-audit we're about to do, attended four meetings (and mostly managed to keep my sarcasm to myself), and typed up some meeting minutes. I also went to the gym, edited a short story (someone else's), made soup for dinner (mm, soup), and wrote about a thousand new words for the story I'm writing.

All in all, a productive day, indeed.

Today, I need to gather up some artifacts for the mini-audit, do some more paperwork, review a delivery, work on editing another story (someone else's), and go to the chiropractor. I might go to the gym again, and I might swing by Target for more apples. (Honeycrisps -- my very favorite apples, only available for about 2 months out of the year -- are $6 for a bag of 10. I'm eating like five a day.)

(I might also hit Target for a smoothie blender to keep at the office, and ingredients. Better for me than the junk food in the snack bar, and Caren told me a couple of weeks ago they have a really nice little smoothie blender for only about $15.)

So that's my day. What're you up to, today?

Unpictured

2011-10-17T09:03:00.000-04:00

Karen, in the state for a few days, came up to visit us on Friday night. We folded her into the usual Friday evening with Braz and Adin -- went out to dinner, then went back to their place and got the kids tucked into bed and settled in to drink and play Cards Against Humanity. There was much drinking and hilarity and a good time was had by all. Yay!

Saturday afternoon, I took Penny to the most awkward birthday party ever (we got there a few minutes late, and there was no one there but us, the birthday girl's mom, and the little brother. The birthday girl -- and most of the other guests -- didn't arrive until more than a half-hour after when we'd been told the party would start.) and then we spent the rest of the evening hanging out with Jenn and Brian. More eating out, a round of Pirate Fluxx, and another game of Cards Against Humanity, which is rapidly becoming one of my favorite games.

Sunday, I roasted the pumpkin we'd got from our CSA and Penny and I made muffins with it, and then after Alex's nap (and a snack of pumpkin muffins) we all went up to Pumpkinville to pick out our Hallowe'en pumpkins. (I was mildly disappointed in the selection this year, though, especially with the pie pumpkins, and they've added additional "fun" things like a bounce house -- that you have to pay extra for, of course, causing the kids to whine and complain when we say 'no' -- so we may go elsewhere for our pumpkins next year.) I took pictures, but haven't gotten around to getting them off the camera yet.

We got home right at dinner time, so we had tacos for dinner, and then Penny and I started the next Little House book. (On the Shores of Silver Lake -- I'd forgotten what a downer it is, with the illness and blindness and lack of money and then the dog dies... yike.) After the kids were in bed, I wrote a little bit, then read a lot more. I'm not 100% positive, but I think I may have fallen asleep reading.

It wasn't my best sleep ever, though, I have to say. Between Alex getting me up to deal with a wet spot on his bed (his pullup wasn't even all that wet; I guess he was just laying on it wrong and it leaked) and the sinister and disturbing dreams that chased me all night (don't worry, no details) I'm still pretty logy this morning.

I need to figure out when I'm taking my part-time time off this week, and put it on my calendar so people don't schedule me for things. And I need to prep for a sort of mini-audit early next week. And the guy who usually takes notes at the Monday meeting isn't here, which means it'll be my job, yay.

This weekend is Penny's school's fall festival; Matt and I need to decide if the whole family is going or just one of us with her, so we can pre-order our tickets and dinner packages. And the neighborhood fall festival is this weekend, as well.

So apparently, we've entered the fall/holiday busy season without my having time to brace for impact.

Engaged

2011-10-14T08:53:00.000-04:00

One of the buzzword phrases floating around the Day Job over the last couple of years is "employee engagement". That is, for those of you who aren't fluent in Corporatespeak, the extent to which employees are committed to their jobs and whether they're more likely to stay with this company than merely use it as a resume rung. The theory is that employees who are highly "engaged" are more likely to produce high-quality work, and to go above and beyond.

I find the whole thing vaguely disturbing and, frankly, a little insulting. Back in the 80s, when it became accepted practice for companies to simply lay off employees in order to get through lean times, rather than reserving such measures for drastic measures, the corporate structure lost its right to any kind of employee loyalty. If you're not going to take care of me, then there should be no reason for me to feel the need to care what happens to you, either.

But here we are: employee engagement. The way they determine employee engagement is by issuing a series of (supposedly) anonymous surveys. The surveys contain some questions which seem to make sense to me ("Do I know what is expected of me at work?" "Do I have the materials and resources needed to accomplish my tasks?") to the unnecessarily and creepily feelgoody ("Does my supervisor or someone at work seem to care about me as a person?") and the utterly ridiculous ("Do I have a best friend at work?").

Let's be completely honest: It would be nice if I had a "best friend" at work, but while I sincerely like most of the people I work with, and while one or two of them might even qualify as friends, "best friend" is a social designation, not a business one, and I don't think the corporation should be privy to my social life. If my boss seems to care about me as a person, then that builds my personal loyalty to my boss, but it does nothing for my overall loyalty to the company -- because I know that, if profit margins dip, my boss's boss will tell him to reduce overhead with some layoffs, and my boss, whether he cares about me personally or not, will have to do it.

Oh, and one other thing. When they schedule an hour-long meeting to talk about how we can improve our engagement scores, and they schedule that meeting to run past 5pm? I am definitely not feeling engaged.

Ass: Kicked!

2011-10-13T09:01:00.001-04:00

Our farm box last week contained half a dozen persimmons, which is a fruit I don't use much. The flavor is a little too cantaloupe-y for my taste, and they're slightly high-maintenance, what with the spiny leaf and the inedible rind and the stealth seeds and the need to wait until they're completely ripe or else suffer tannin levels that make the flesh taste/feel like chewing on moist black tea leaves.

But they were in the box, and I like to at least try to use the stuff in the box -- we're paying for it, after all, and it can't hurt to help the kids vary their palates a little, either.

We'd eaten a couple of them raw the other night, but they weren't a big hit that way. So I experimented. Chopped a red bell pepper (also from the box) and about a pound of chicken breasts, and tossed them into some oil along with a teaspoon or so of curry powder. (Most curry recipes want tablespoons of the stuff, but my kids don't like it enough for that.) When the chicken was almost done, I threw in a can of diced tomatoes, two persimmons (diced to make sure the seeds had been found) and some frozen peas for color. When that had simmered a bit, I added about 2/3 of a cup of light coconut milk, and a tablespoon of granulated Truvia to accent the sweetness of... well, everything. I served the whole mess over couscous.

It was a hit! Penny and Matt and I loved it, and even Alex (who as a rule does not like cooked vegetables) managed to eat half his chicken along with the couscous.

Dinner/persimmon ass: kicked!

(Though now I have the rest of the can of coconut milk in the fridge and nothing to do with it. Hmm, bet it would make delicious smoothies...)

***

Once the kids were in bed, I sat down to write. I'd finished the previous session mid-scene (I've seen writing advice that you should stop mid-sentence, even, just so finishing the sentence will help you get moving a little, but I've never tried it) and I'd had a pretty clear idea of where it was going, so it was easy to drop back into the story and push forward. By the time I realized I was entering my "getting tired" taper, I checked my word-count and I'd written roughly 1700 words!

Not only that, but I still have a pretty clear idea of what comes next -- really, just the final chapter with its payoff sex and warmfuzzies -- and then I'll be ready to do my draft review and shoot it out to my beta readers. (Anyone interested in joining those ranks? Good feedback is hard to come by!)

Writer's block's ass: kicked!

***

I stayed up a smidge later than I'd intended, not because I was writing, but because after I finished writing, I went downstairs to plug in the iPad (the battery was sorely drained) and to start downloading the new iOS 5 update, and of course I had to fiddle with things for a while.

And then Alex woke me up at 5:30 with some incomprehensible complaint about noises in his room... and got up again at 5:40 to tell me the cat was in his room... and again at 5:50 to tell me he wanted a clean pullup...

My sleep's ass... kicked.

Tuesday Blues

2011-10-11T09:01:00.001-04:00

I'm not actually blue today, just a little tired. I was up late last night, mostly writing. I wrote somewhere between 1200 and 1400 words, which is a good session, but then I had to delete about 2000 words I'd previously written, so the overall wordcount on the story went down. I count it as progress anyway, because before I did that, the characters were headed somewhere completely Wrong and I had no idea how to drag them back on track. So the answer turned out to be backing up to before they made the wrong turn in the first place and trying a different approach.

So I'm feeling good about that and about the story in general, and I think I'm still on track to have it finished by the end of the month, as long as I remain diligent.

But then I sat up a bit longer to leave comments on a couple of messageboards, and when I went down to shut off my computer, I realized I'd left in the middle of a game, so I finished that out. And then I had to check my RSS feeds, and...

By the time I was done and ready to go to bed, it was closing in on 11:30. And then the damn cat "lost" us. (Every night when we go to bed, he sits downstairs, bewildered and forlorn and lonely, crying, until we coax him up the stairs and into our room. Every. Night. You'd think he'd eventually form a connection, but no.)

And of course Alex woke me up at 5:57 to tell me he needed a new pullup. Sigh. I'm honestly wondering if we should just move him to underpants at night and brace ourselves for a couple weeks of washing sheets on a daily basis.

So. Tired, but not actually blue. The post title is just because I like rhymes.

***

Kid anecdote: Alex and I were standing in line for something at Busch Gardens (probably the Elmo ride) and I was standing on one foot, with the other out in front of me a little ways -- you know, like you do when you're in a long line. And I looked down and realized that Alex was standing in exactly the same position. He wasn't looking -- his attention was all on Elmo, or a bush, or another kid, or... something else. So I switched feet, just to be silly.

A bit later, he looked down, and hurriedly switched his own feet. So I waited, then switched again.

This time, Alex glanced up at me and grinned as he matched my stance again.

The game held us for several minutes, and at odd moments again throughout the afternoon.

***

I'm in need of some tech refresh. The external hard drive I'm using for backups is too full to continue using it for backups, so I need a new one. I'm thinking of getting a hot-swappable drive dock or a mini-RAID, just to make it easier to expand the next time I fill up a hard drive. But I should probably get on that sooner rather than later -- the system warned me this morning that it's been over 2 months since my last backup, which means if I have a hard drive failure, I'm losing all my Cancun pictures that aren't uploaded to Flickr.

Speaking of hard drive failure, my computer is well out of warranty and beginning to slow down and get chunky on me. (I have a backup drive at all because a while back, my hard drive glitched -- it came back with only minor losses, but it was a nervewracking experience.) So I'm probably looking at a new laptop by the end of the year.

(Note to Matt: I'm pretty sure neither of these are covered by either the birthday or Christmas No Buy Zone.)

I'm in dire need of a system re-org, though, so I'm considering how best to go about that. Before I get the new computer, and then let the re-org copy over when I sync the new machine? Or only sync a few select things (e.g., music and photos) and move the rest by hand, reorganizing as I go? It's a dilemma.

Gardening

2011-10-10T09:12:00.001-04:00

We took the kids to Busch Gardens yesterday. The plan was to meet up with KT and Kevin to celebrate Jess's birthday. We'd sort of forgotten about it being a "holiday" weekend (not for us, of course, but there are apparently still plenty of places that get the day off for Columbus Day) so we weren't really braced for the place to be as crowded as it was -- it took us over 45 minutes to get through parking and ticketing, and everything was crazy busy the whole time we were there.

We did eventually meet up with the others. We watched a dance show that terrified Alex, not because of its spooky Hallowe'en theme, but because it was so effing loud. Once it was over, Matt and Penny stayed with them so they could go do big-kid rides, while I took Alex back over to the Sesame Street area.

He had a blast. Since it was just the two of us, I gave myself up to it and let him make nearly every decision about what to do and where to go. We rode Prince Elmo's Tower about six times, and Oscar's Wiggle Worms once, and Gover's roller coaster once, and he spent ten or fifteen minutes getting soaked right to the skin in the water play area, until a show started and its noise terrified him. (That was a theme.)

The only real difficulty is that Alex has not yet given up his afternoon nap, so going without led to a little moodiness, from time to time. But it wasn't too bad (there was plenty to keep him entertained). He was so completely exhausted by bedtime, though, that he didn't even want me to sing when I put him to bed. So I kissed him and went to take my shower, and when I was done, I peeked in on him -- he'd fallen asleep so fast that he was still in the exact same position he'd been in when I left the room.

Next time, I'll remember to pack a swimsuit, or at least a change of clothes for him.

And there will be a next time, because while we were standing in line, Matt and I looked at the price of admission (almost $70) and then at the price of a one-year pass ($100) and decided, what the hell. So now we're all set for casual half-days or evenings or whatever we want to do for the next year. Matt and I want to go back some evening to see the scary parts of Howl-o-scream? Done. Come summer, want to take the kids over to play in the water park for an hour or two, or run in at night just for the fireworks? Done. Matt wants to take Penny to ride a couple of roller coasters some day when she's got a half-day of school? Done.

Plus half-off admission to Christmas Town, which I really want to do this year. Done.

We'll see how much we actually end up using them. Matt's had a year pass and Penny had a summer-long pass already, and I think they only went a couple of times.

But this morning, Alex is still chattering endlessly about how much fun the Elmo ride was. And I've got these great memories of him dashing in and out of the water spouts yelling, "Mom! This is so much fun!" And I think... Yeah. We're totally going back.

Disappearing

2011-10-07T09:54:00.001-04:00

I've never liked being in the car. When I was a kid, it was a kind of torture to go visit my mom's relatives, because they all lived about two hundred miles away in North Carolina, which meant four hours in a car. Even when my parents broke the trip up for us by stopping halfway for a meal, I hated it. Friends would tell me about family trips where they were in the car for whole days at a time, and all I could do was marvel at the imagined torture of it.

It got a little better when I got old enough to drive, but I still don't much care for it. My friend Karen drives down to this area from New York at least twice a year, and I can't even comprehend being willing to do that. Any trip that's going to take more than four hours to drive, I want to know what my flight options are. I waffled on taking my first real job because the commute was going to be more than half an hour.

That one has come back to haunt me, because now every morning, I'm in the car for the better part of an hour, driving Alex up to daycare and then driving Penny back down to her school before I go to work. It's not my favorite part of the day, but I've mostly made my peace with it. The kids have learned that I'm not terribly communicative when I'm driving, and they largely talk to each other, and Penny brings a book to read after we've dropped Alex off. Once I'm alone in the car, I switch the radio from music to comedy.

So I cope.

And yet, a few times a year, I see something that makes it worth it. A couple of years back, I saw fog lifting from a freshly-plowed field; the mist hung thick and swirly in the air at a level four feet off the ground, the early sunlight making it sparkle. I'd never seen anything quite like it before, and I've never seen it since.

This morning, there was a thick fog hanging over the swamp -- and only over the swamp, glued there like cotton balls. As I was coming back that way after taking Alex to daycare, I was approaching the bridge down a slight incline, and the fog was still there, tall enough to swallow the trees and everything else on the far side of the bridge. For just a brief moment, it looked like I was about to drive off the end of the world and into oblivion.

As I reached the bridge and my visibility extended, the illusion expanded, and it seemed that the rest of the world was being created at that moment, simply because I was ready to pass through the barrier. (At the time, it was a profound and almost spiritual image. Only now, as I try to put it in words, do I realize that it sounds like crossing zones in a video game. Blame my inadequate wordsmithing, and not the experience itself.)

I wondered, as I pushed through the fog, what would happen if it was a barrier -- or a portal. Would I find myself lost in a featureless grey space? Pass through into a world that, in fact, hadn't existed in the moments before I entered it? Would I disappear entirely from this world, or would another me from another world enter at the same moment I left and take up my life where I left off?

Maybe I am in another world now. Maybe I drove through that portal and am now in a new world, taking the place of the me that was here yesterday. Maybe I'll say something to someone later that's not quite right, and the person I'm talking to will pause for a moment and give me an odd look, and wonder what's happened to me.

How about it, blog readers? Am I a traveler in an alternate dimension (or from your perspective, a traveler from an alternate dimension?) I must say, though -- if that's the case, alternate-world me doesn't do a very good job at keeping up with her paperwork.

Sorry!

2011-10-06T08:57:00.002-04:00

God, I just keep disappearing, don't I?

As I told KT yesterday when we met for lunch (entirely on her initiative, because I'm so brain-burned lately I can't even properly function on Twitter), it's probably for the best, anyway, because pretty much everything I would have posted for the last week and a half would have been half-coherent ranting about the damned project I was on and the incredibly rude and condescending customer we were working for.

But I took most of Monday off, and all of Tuesday. I've written 5500 words (or so) in the last three days, decorated the house for Hallowe'en (okay, I have to admit, Penny did most of the decorating), acquired some cute ankle boots for the fall and winter, edited a story, paid my bills, and spent a lot of time playing mostly mindless video games. I took Penny to the Fall Festival and bought jewelry and fair food, and I made roasted butternut squash soup, and I hung out with friends and family. I feel much better now.

I came back to work yesterday to find a frikking huge pile of paperwork waiting, and four software deliveries that weren't supposed to happen until the week after next, and learned that a new project has been awarded some special attention from corporate which is going to make it a much bigger pain in my ass than usual.

But I feel almost okay with it. Not, you know, happy. But accepting. Resigned.

And so it goes. And so do I.

Quickly

2011-09-27T10:18:00.001-04:00

So... Workcrazy continues apace. The less said about it, the better, but trust me, if I were to say some things about it, it would probably involve a lot of four-letter words, especially when I got around to talking about the customer. Long story short: I'm expecting to put in some extra hours again this week. Which doesn't begin to clear the ridiculous mound of paperwork I've got piled up.

Alex's teacher told Matt that he hadn't had much appetite at breakfast and lunch yesterday, and Alex himself complained to us of a sore throat. Shortly before dinner, Matt got out the flashlight and thought he might have seen some white at the back of Alex's throat, and he was definitely running a low-grade fever. So Matt's got him today and is taking him to the doctor later, but if we've got strep in the house, all bets are off.

Oh and also? I've got a persistent cough going that I probably caught from Alex (who probably caught it from Jess, as near as we can figure) that comes with a similarly persistent headache. Which is making the whole work thing just a little more fun. And by "fun" I mean "not fun at all".

(Anyone want to take a guess at how "working extra hours this week" combines with "sickness in the house"? Anyone? ... That's right: Not well at all!)

I got two text messages from my document person at 4 this morning letting me know that she expected to be late getting in. If she was up at 4, I can well understand that... except that she doesn't appear to have put the document she was working on out on the LAN where I can get to it, and it's due to go out today. So if she doesn't answer her phone by lunchtime, I guess I'll be starting it over from scratch. You know, along with the workcrazy stuff.

...And now it's two hours later and I've just realized that I never hit the Publish button on this. Because, you know. Workcrazy.

Tard

2011-09-23T08:31:00.000-04:00

That post title is "tard" as in the Southern pronunciation of the word "tired", not an abbreviation of "retarded." 'Cause I'm an insensitive jerk sometimes, but not quite that much of an insensitive jerk.

I was at work for 16 hours yesterday. From 7:30 in the morning until 11:30 at night. Not counting lunchtime, when I ran out to Target to pick up a few things, or at about 8:30 in the evening, when I ran over to Subway to pick up some dinner. (Yes, I got cookies. I am neither proud nor ashamed of that.)

So I'm a little brain-dead this morning. But let's talk about the good stuff!

Have I mentioned lately how awesome my husband is? 'Cause he's very patiently done well more than the lion's share of housework and kid-watching while I was stuck at work last weekend and then in Roanoke for a day and a half, and then he took the kids to school yesterday and today and did all the childcare last night and even brought them by the office so I could get hugs and kisses... Matt is just awesome.

KT is walking in the Susan J. Kommen Walk For a Cure in Washington, DC this weekend! That's 60 miles of walking in three days, to raise money for breast cancer awareness and research. She's amazing.

I got new glasses! They're both subtle and quirky and perfectly me, and I love them even more than I love my old black-and-white frames from a couple of years ago. Love? Love. I'd post a picture, but with the whole 16-hours-of-work thing I didn't get a shower last night and I'm not feeling terribly photogenic.

And to continue with the shallow theme of accessories, I'm wearing a new skirt! It's called a Magic Wrap skirt (though I didn't buy it from that store, I bought it from this store while I was at the Roanoke Pride) and -- in theory -- there's 90 different ways to wear it. But the colors are absolutely gorgeous, and I got it for less than $30, so even if there was only the one way to wear it, I'd be happy. Because it's gorgeous. And because it's silk, so it feels nice. (I could use a can of anti-static spray, though.)

And I'm hoping for a good weekend! That's a good thing, right?!

Digging Trenches

2011-09-22T08:31:00.004-04:00

So today should be a treat. Work stuff, work stuff, details not only boring but unimportant to anyone but me, and the long and short of it is that I expect to be spending a significant portion of my day with nothing to do, but then having to work late.

So... yay for that. Only, y'know. Not.

Hoping for a good weekend. Birthday party at Braz and Adin's on Saturday that includes a bounce-house (hope that doesn't get rained out) and at some point I need to run down to Sam's Club. Hoping to grab some downtime as well, since last weekend had its fun moments but wasn't exactly restful.

But first I have to get through today and tomorrow. Y'all keep your fingers crossed for me, okay?

I'm Back!

2011-09-21T09:03:00.002-04:00

Sorry I didn't post anything yesterday -- I got back from my trip to Roanoke and immediately found myself hip-deep in work, including four software components that had to be delivered yesterday, one of them before noon. So I skipped my entire morning ritual (including breakfast) and got right to work.

But I've put up a post on the writing blog about the festival, and there are pictures at flickr!

Tomorrow, a more normal post, I promise. Maybe. Hopefully. *eyes the ridiculous stack of deliveries left to go for this week...*

Get What Ya Need

2011-09-16T08:37:00.002-04:00

Lately, Penny's been particularly enjoying what she calls "my" oatmeal, which is oatmeal I make from quick-cooking oats and I add all the flavorings and sweetener myself, instead of relying on instant oatmeal packets. (I have a particular blend of spices I use, plus sometimes I throw in some PB2 for protein. I've given some thought to trying steel-cut oats, about which I've heard many good things, but they require much longer to prepare, and also are not readily available at my grocery store, both of which are kind of deal breakers.)

I eat oatmeal darned near every day -- it's fairly quick and easy to make, and I get a lot of long-term hunger satisfaction for the number of calories in it. If I eat a quarter-cup (dry measure, makes about a cup when cooked) of oatmeal for breakfast, then I'm good for a solid four hours afterward. I'm thinking of just bringing a container of oatmeal and my spices and stuff to the office so I can have it for afternoon snacks, too, because it's so satisfying for me.

Anyway, Penny's been eating it lately, because the way I make it, it's got at least 10 fewer carbs per bowl than even the "lower sugar" packaged stuff that I'd been buying for the kids, which means she can also have yogurt. I don't mind her doing this -- as I said, it's pretty easy to make, and I'm all about her internalizing lessons about making smarter food choices.

But it does mean that my oatmeal gets used up a little faster than usual, and this week, it worked out that there wasn't enough for me to have it for breakfast today.

Today is looking kind of sucky anyway -- I'm in charge of printing and boxing a proposal, but I don't yet have most of the pieces I need, and I don't know when I will get them, which means I may well be here until only the gods know when tonight. Also, I found out last night that the novel I'd spent Wednesday night proofreading and feeling good about...? Yeah, the file got corrupted, so now it won't open at all. I have to do it all over again.

So I was going to shrug the oatmeal thing off as yet another part of this crappy day and just have a lot of coffee for breakfast.

But when I dropped Alex off at daycare, the assistant director said, "Have some breakfast!" and handed me a little white paper bag. On the side of the bag is a label with the school's logo that reads: "Working Parent Day - Hope this helps you have a great day." Inside the bag is a banana, an apple muffin, and a package of granola bars.

Like the song says: you don't always get what you want. But sometimes, you get what you need.

Positive Planning

2011-09-15T09:01:00.002-04:00

My brain sort of melted while I was pregnant with Penny. All the stuff that I used to keep in my head -- schedules, to-do lists, phone numbers, all of it -- it went away. I don't know if it was the pregnancy hormones and then the whole infant-care-sleep-deprivation thing, or simple aging, or what, but these days, I can't remember anything unless it's written down.

"You should totally come over Saturday, we're having a cookout and fireworks!" "Wow, sounds great, we'll definitely be there!" ... "Hey, what happened Saturday? Didn't see you all day!" "Saturday? Were we supposed to come over?"

Okay, I don't think I've ever actually missed something quite that exciting, but some variation on this has happened to me far too often in the last five years. If you don't send it to me in an email, or watch me enter it into my calendar, then there's a better than even chance that I'm not only going to forget to write it down and thus fail to be present, but not even remember it when you bring it up later.

I've been coping with the use of lots of note-taking devices. Matt and I maintain a set of Google Calendar shared calendars to keep track of appointments and parties and birthdays and anniversaries and school stuff. I also keep a calendar that helps me track things that aren't really our plans but which might affect our plans, like which weekends Braz has custody of his kids and when my parents are going to be out of town. We also have a paper calendar at home that's largely used for tracking when to change out Penny's insulin and which weeks we're supposed to write a check for the cleaning service.

I keep my day planner at work for keeping track of work tasks. Every time someone gives me something to do, I write it down, even if I'm going to do it immediately, because later in the week, I'm going to need to write a status report, and if it's not a crossed off item in my day planner, then I will more than likely have no memory of ever having done it. I maintain a separate "personal" to-do list that mostly stays tucked in my day planner, but when there are things I can only do at home, I email them to myself.

Whenever I get an email, if it requires any kind of action or response from me, then I leave it in my inbox until that action or response is complete. (If it's important, I'll leave it marked as unread, and if I think I might accidentally file it, I drop a category or star on it to make it easier to search.) It leads to a messy inbox, but I've tried systems where you move emails to an "action" folder, and I forget to go look at them. So, inbox it is. (Right at this moment, my work inbox has 15 items in it, and my personal email has 10. The oldest item goes back to April. Though after that, the oldest item only dates back to the beginning of August. I'm beginning to think I should just write off the April one entirely.)

It's an elaborate system, but it (mostly) keeps me chugging along.

But sometimes, it gets a little depressing, looking at this huge long list of items to do, and it feels like I never seem to get all that much done.

So yesterday I made up a new list. It was my list just for yesterday, and the tasks I really wanted to get done. Some of them were work tasks, some of them were personal. I included some goof-off reward time in there to help give me incentives (especially for the big stack of paperwork I'd been pretending I couldn't see for the better part of three weeks).

Then I hunkered down and did it.

I didn't finish everything on the list -- stuff came up to interrupt, as stuff always does -- but I did make enough progress to feel like yesterday was productive without being crazy. And I tried to keep the list short and realistic, so looking at it wasn't so daunting; I looked at it and thought, Okay, I can this. One task, and then I can go check Twitter or Google Reader. And then I did the task, and checked the interwebs, and then I did another task, and eventually the day was done.

It worked pretty well. I'm going to try it again today (5 things on the list, some big, some small), and we'll see how it goes. I'm feeling good about it for now, anyway, and that's all that really matters.

That Kind Of Morning

2011-09-13T09:05:00.000-04:00

Didn't post yesterday because Penny had a doctor appointment square in the middle of the morning. It went well enough; they checked height and weight and blood pressure (all good, or at least good enough) and the nurse confirmed that Penny has grown almost three centimeters in the last three months, and we talked to the endocrinologist and he said it looked like we were doing fine, and then we went down so she could give up a vial of blood to the vampires, and then we were done. But it was two full hours completely gone out of my morning. I hate that; I never do seem to feel caught up.

This morning has been growly and irritable, though I swear I don't know why. I wrote over 500 words last night and went to bed before 11 and slept relatively well. It must have been a little disturbing for the kids; usually it's me rescuing them from Matt's bad moods, not the other way around, but apparently this morning he was the one with the patience and I was the one who was ready to throw things at every turn.

***

Alex's daycare has begun a new pre-preschool program in his classroom which I like very much, because Alex is so obviously ready to be mentally challenged. Each week, the class focuses on a different number, letter, shape, and color. On Friday last week, they sent home four photocopied worksheets, one for each. (Last week it was the number 1, the letter S, the circle, and red.)

Alex had no interest in them until I said they were "kind of like Penny's homework" and that sold him. Now, he can't get enough. The "1" worksheet was easy -- trace the lines and then free-draw some more number 1s in the provided space. A 1 is easy to draw, and he whipped right through it. The "S" is much trickier; he did pretty well at the tracing portion, but couldn't quite put it together for a free-draw. (I didn't press; he's got years to get this down, and there are first graders who still have some trouble with "S".) He whipped through the circles, and then on the back of the sheet, he drew a huge circle (well, sort of a circle, anyway) -- so I showed him how two more circles could make eyes, and a third circle in the middle was a nose, and he drew a curved smile and... voila! A face! That may well be Alex's first recognizable art. Then I gave him a red crayon so he could color in the pictures of red things on the color worksheet, and he did surprisingly well at staying in the lines.

He didn't do them all in one session, but it seemed like every time he had a few minutes free, he asked if he could do "his homework", and he'd climb up into his chair and I'd let him pick which worksheet he wanted to do, and I'd get him a crayon and stay nearby to help him out. He's gone over all the "1"s three or four times, and the "S" sheet at least twice, and I think the backs of all the pages have big smiley faces on them.

This morning, as we were getting our stuff together, he asked if he could do some homework, and I had to tell him no, that we were about to leave. But that I would make some new worksheets and bring them home for him, and that made him incredibly cheerful and happy. Which, I have to say, did a lot for my own mood. There's nothing like having a kid be enthusiastic about learning things to make a parent happy.

***

You know what else makes a parent happy? When your kid is interested in the same things as you. I'm missing a book out of the Little House set, so while we wait for it (I ordered it through the school's Scholastic program so they'll get some extra books out of the deal as well) I started her on the first Harry Potter book.

I wasn't sure if it would be a little too old for her, but... she loves it. Loves. It. And this weekend, she and Ray and a few other kids on our street were running around brandishing sticks and pretending to be characters from the Harry Potter universe. "I made up my own character to be," Penny told me.

It made me think of when I was a kid, running around with my friends and playing Star Wars.

And it made me happy.

Antidote

2011-09-09T08:34:00.000-04:00

The less said about my work day yesterday, the better, honestly. Let's just go with "crazy" and "frustrating" and leave it there, shall we?

But I went home to (entirely by coincidence) a pre-made dinner that I'd prepped the night before (garlic chicken and potatoes -- delicious, but I think next time I need to use a mix of cuts, because the breast-only meat got pretty dry) and then the kids were good and I got to read to Penny from Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone for most of half an hour (she is loving the book, which makes me really happy! -- I've promised when we finish each book, she'll be allowed to watch the associated movie) and then after the kids were in bed I settled into my chair in the bedroom and lit a couple of scented candles. I wrote a little bit, and then I just sat and read and listened to the thunderstorm rolling by outside the window.

It was the perfect calm, relaxing, enjoyable antidote to the crazy/frustrating of the day.

Here's hoping today is much less crazy/frustrating, and that the weekend has plenty of opportunities to administer antidotes of all sorts.

Here's hoping your weekend is exactly as wonderful as you're hoping it will be.

Sorry

2011-09-08T09:36:00.002-04:00

I arrived at work and was immediately up to my eyebrows in a task that I've never done before involving lots of military regulations (which are worse than civil law for obfuscation and referencing other documents) and filling out, apparently, some thirty-odd forms with details that I don't know where they come from...

Also, there are seven more documents due out this week, and a meeting with the school tomorrow, and I've got three novels that have to be proofed by the end of the month, and an out-of-town trip in a week and a half that I need to find a hotel for, and several appointments to make and attend, and...

In short, I'm stupidly busy and frustrated nearly to the point of tears and I can't post anything here today. Or, possibly, tomorrow. I'm sorry.

Long Time Comin'

2011-09-06T09:14:00.003-04:00

Man, I haven't updated here in forever.

Well, ten days. Which is practically forever in the blogging world, even for rinky-dink nothing daily-rambling blogs like mine. What's happened since then...?

Let's see. We had Hurricane Irene blow through on August 27th (Saturday) -- we had no serious damage to the house or yard, but we did lose power around 2pm on Saturday and didn't get it back until Wednesday night, which only improves over our power loss with Hurricane Isabel by one day. "I" hurricanes have it in for us, I guess.

We made it through the days without power mostly by hanging out over at Braz and Adin's house -- they didn't have power for a few days, either, but they have a working grill, so at least we were able to eat. We cleaned out the fridge and freezer and took everything over to their place on Sunday afternoon for the mother of all barbecues. We eventually lost pretty much everything in the 'fridge, but on the bright side, it gave me an excuse to completely disassemble all the shelves and stuff and wash it all thoroughly. Matt and I were back to work by Tuesday (which let us recharge our various iDevices -- my office looked like a little Apple Store for a bit, there!), but the kids' daycare was without power at least as long as we were, so we managed the best we could; they spent some time with me at work, some time at home with Matt, and my parents took them a couple of times.

Last Thursday -- the very day after the power came back -- we took Penny to her back-to-school orientation. Matt, working as a WatchDOGS dad all last year, had met all the third-grade teachers and made his quiet wishlist concerning which teachers he particularly hoped Penny would (or wouldn't) get. The good news is that she didn't get the one teacher he was especially unimpressed with. The bad news is that she didn't get the teacher who was #1 on his list. The official news is that... they had a lot of rearrangement and turnover, so Penny wound up with a teacher who's brand new. So... we'll see, I guess.

Friday, my official boss came down from DC to do a meet-and-greet with me and go over some stuff. I was expecting it to take all day, but we were done well before lunch. Which I guess was good, but he's pushing a bunch of initiatives and training my way, so I expect I'm about to get a deal busier. Whee.

We had a pretty quiet weekend -- Penny had a sleepover with Jess Friday night, and then we went to a family party of Adin's at her place on Saturday, and then Sunday had dinner with my family to celebrate my mom's and brother's birthdays. Yesterday, being a holiday here in the U.S., we spent mostly over at Braz and Adin's again, though the kids were cranky and out of sorts, which resulted in the grownups being much the same. And since today is a school day, we had to get home early last night to get everyone to bed on time.

School drop-off went fine this morning, though I anticipate some whining from Penny tomorrow when I institute the new "drop-off, not walk-in" policy. But given that the school is suggesting we nudge her toward riding the bus next year (or at a minimum, the year after), I'm not caving. I only walked her in this morning because there was so much stuff to carry in.

In other news, Torquere Press has offered me a position as an editor (a step up from the proofreading job with them that I've had for about a year), which I find ridiculously exciting. I'm also proofing three novels at the moment, plus planning a trip to Roanoke in two weeks for a GLBT Pride event where I'll meet up with a couple of fellow authors/editors to hawk TQ's wares. (I'm still juggling the travel schedule for that -- it's a 4-hour drive, one way, so I'd really rather not do it all in one day... but it's on a Sunday, which means waiting to come home the next day may be problematic.)

...I think that gets us all caught up. How've you all been, these last couple of weeks or so?

Sleeps

2011-08-25T08:24:00.000-04:00

I haven't been writing for the last few weeks, mostly because I've been sucked into re-reading the Song of Ice and Fire series. So last night I thought I should at least read through my current project, so I could remember where I'd left off and be able to pick back up again.

So once we'd gotten the kids put to bed and I'd had my shower, I sat down with my iPad and scrolled to the top of the document and started reading. It wasn't too bad for a first draft, but I was all of about half an hour in when I started nodding off. It was only 9:30, and I'm usually up until 10:30 or 11, but I could not, for the life of me, keep my eyes open.

So I gave up. Matt says when he came upstairs at 10 to do Penny's blood sugar check, it looked like I had been sitting up and just fallen sideways across the bed. Luckily for him, by the time he came to bed, I'd moved into a more usual position, but I hadn't found the energy to get under the covers. I remember waking up around midnight because I was cold, so I went to the bathroom and got under the covers, and then I don't remember anything until my alarm went off at 6.

I'm still tired. Logy, even. If I thought I could put my head down and not be disturbed, I'd probably sleep for another two or three hours. I don't know if it's a delayed reaction to coming back from vacation, or if I've got a minor bug I'm fighting, or what, but my body and brain are in complete agreement: Zzzzzz.

Maybe I'll be going to bed early again tonight.

I'm Back!

2011-08-23T09:12:00.000-04:00

Okay, my one post from the road turned out to be my one post from the road. Thank goodness, I started sleeping in later after that!

We had a fantastic time. Penny was prone to occasional bits of grouchiness and unwarranted sadness (due largely to the fact that she was getting up at 6:30 or 7 and not going to bed until 10 or later most nights) but mostly, she was fantastic.

We didn't do a lot of stuff -- mostly just hung around the resort taking advantage of their amenities -- but we did go to a dolphin encounter thing, and we did spend time on the beach and by the pool, and we did eat at a lot of great restaurants, and we did have a fantastic time. Next time (oh yes, there will be a next time!) I want to go parasailing, and maybe we'll try to tour some ruins or pyramids.

All my pictures are up on Flickr -- this set has them in the correct order (otherwise, the ones I posted from the road show up in my standard photostream before all the ones I uploaded after we got home, regardless of when they were taken).

I don't care about swimming in the ocean or playing in the sand (though Penny enjoyed it) but that water is too beautiful to look away from. I spent hours sitting at the poolside bar/cafe, drinking frozen drinks and just staring out over the railing at the beach. I spent more hours sitting on the balcony of the timeshare doing the same (only without the frozen drinks). I wish we could have stayed the whole two weeks; I'd be there right now, watching the waves roll. Even on the day it was cloudy and rainy, the ocean was beautiful.

It was great to see Matt and Alex again -- I'd missed them a lot -- but if I could take them with me, I'd go back right now.

On the Road: First Day

2011-08-14T05:55:00.001-04:00

I don't expect to post every day, but since my stupid brain woke me up at 4:15 this morning, I figured I'd pop in and let you all know that we arrived safely and with the minimum of hassle, and that Penny is having a fantastic time so far.

Don't worry, I'm not going into a blow-by-blow of the trip; I just wanted to throw out a few vignettes I found amusing.

***

Karen sent Penny a camera for her birthday, specifically so she'd have something a little nicer to take pictures with than my iPhone. (Which is almost as much a gift to me as to Penny, since it means I'm not turning my beloved phone over to her for the duration.) It's supposedly waterproof -- we're not sure we want to test that just yet, but it means we don't have to automatically freak if it gets splashed by the pool. It even takes videos!

Penny has been exactly as snap-happy as you might expect of someone with a brand new camera (in the most lovely color of turquoise blue, even!) -- she took minutes of footage of random people at the airports, and dozens of pictures of random bits of ground from the airplane, and valiantly attempted to capture every single palm tree, coconut, and flowering bush that lined the highway between the Cancun airport and the resort.

What she has not taken pictures of, to my knowledge: any part of the resort, the ocean, or her grandparents. You know, the stuff we came here to see.

***

In the shuttle from the airport: "Mom, this is great! I wish Daddy and Alex could be with us!"

"Me, too, sweetie, but Daddy didn't want to come."

She goggles at me. "Daddy didn't want to see this? When we get home, I'm going to spank him!"

***

My dad, in a perfect alignment of selflessness and selfishness, offered to take Penny down to the beach to look for shells while I unpacked and caught a little rest. They took a gallon-sized ziploc bag along to put their finds in.

I've been beachcombing before, even with Penny, so I was expecting them to return with maybe a couple dozen shell fragments and maybe some colorful rocks. Which they did. But much to my surprise, she also managed to find several dozen completely whole shells, mostly a pretty white, but quite a few of which have gorgeous orange-brown striations. And some really lovely and fascinating pieces of what I can only assume are bits broken off the coral reefs that are just offshore. (No, really, just offshore. If the undertow here wasn't so strong, We could go out snorkeling to look at it, even Penny, who is not the strongest swimmer.) Anyway, they managed to get that gallon bag nearly 1/4 full of shells, many of which are even worth the keeping, and they were out for less than an hour! Maybe when we get home, we'll see if Aunt Sam can help us string (some of) them into a necklace. What better souvenir than a necklace of shells you collected yourself?!

When asked last night what she wanted to do today, Penny insisted that she wanted to take all four of us down to the beach to look for more shells. I've told her there's only room in our luggage for one bag of shells.

But I might have to find a bigger bag somewhere.

Departing

2011-08-11T10:04:00.000-04:00

This is it! Vacation is almost upon me!

After work today, I have a massage appointment, after which I'll swing by the Chick-fil-A on that side of town that's doing a fundraiser for the JDRF and pick up dinner. After the kids are in bed, I'll make cupcakes for Penny's (and Adin's) birthday. And also wrap Penny's presents.

Tomorrow I'm running errands (grocery shopping for Matt and Alex's Bachelor Week) and doing some last-minute laundry and packing.

It will also be Penny's birthday (and Adin's). My little girl will be eight, for pity's sake. *sniff* We're going to Wasabi (Penny's favorite restaurant) for dinner, and having our cupcakes for dessert. (I have a plan for them. I hope it works the way I see it in my head, because if it does, it will be awesome.) There are presents aplenty, and a little bird emailed me this morning to suggest that she might not be having to use my iPhone's camera on this trip after all, assuming the delivery estimate is correct.

Once the kids are in bed, I'll load most of our luggage in the car, because I'm pretty sure I'm not going to want to deal with it Saturday morning.

And then at OMFG-it's-early on Saturday (better known as 3:30 or 4 in the morning) Penny and I will get up and get dressed, give Matt hugs and kisses, and then be on our way! I'm so excited, I'm vibrating.

Alas, the weather report could be better:

I hope all those "Isolated T-Storms" are really isolated and that the "partly cloudy" that goes with it offers plenty of sunshine in between. (Also, note to self: Monday is probably the best day to try to do the pyramid.) Oh, well. There's lots of stuff to do indoors, too (crafts! aquariums! museums! shopping!) so even if the weather turns yucky, we'll still have loads of fun -- the pictures just won't be quite so stunning.

Clouds or no clouds, in exactly two days, I'll be here:

I'll be with my parents and my favorite girl in all the world, and we'll be having a blast. I can't wait!

Writing Wednesday

2011-08-10T08:38:00.000-04:00

The Writing Wednesday post is up here. Check it out -- I've promised to write flash fiction if people leave me some prompt cues in the comments!

ID 10 T

2011-08-09T08:35:00.000-04:00

I looked at the suitcases in our closet, trying to figure out which one to use for my trip.

My back has been giving me some problems lately. I want a suitcase with wheels. That seems to be a reasonable requirement, right?

The only suitcase we have with wheels is Matt's enormous (and I mean enormous -- I could fit inside if I lost another twenty pounds) green softsider.

Now, I'm going to Mexico. To a resort at the beach. Everything there is casual; no dress-up stuff required. There are laundry facilities, so I'll only have to take about 5 days' worth of shorts and t-shirts. And a couple of swimsuits. Yes, there's more -- toiletry kit, some support doodads for my electronics, maybe a book to have by the pool (the iPad screen being LCD and therefore more or less impossible to see in sunlight). A couple of pairs of shoes. But really, not all that much. Even allowing extra space to bring home souvenirs, Matt's big green suitcase is kind of overkill.

What I need, I thought, is a carryon bag like Penny's. Even though I'll probably have to check it (on the way back if not on the way down, because I intend to bring back tequila and honey and vanilla, and the airline goes into full flailex over liquids in your carryon) but that size is probably perfect.

So I went to Target yesterday and I bought a bag. It was a kids' bag, but I eyeballed it as being just about the same size as Penny's (though this was a "boy" design -- which I liked because then when we're doing the family trip at Christmas, it can be Alex's suitcase).

Only when I got it home? It was tiny. Much, much tinier than Penny's suitcase.

Well. Maybe it was still usable. I got out the toiletry kit bag and put it in the new suitcase. It took up a third of the space. No exaggeration. There was no way I was going to fit five days' worth of shorts and shirts and bras and shoes in what was left.

Matt laughed at me. He didn't even pretend to be nice about it. But I guess I kind of deserved it.

So I guess I'm back to the enormous green bag. At least I'll be able to pack all our stuff together. Plus a roll of bubble wrap to keep our souvenirs safe. I'd hate to get home and get Matt's ginormous green bag off the baggage belt only to discover that it's scented with tequila and honey and vanilla.

On the plus side...

Three days to vacation, and four days to Cancun!

Sick of It

2011-08-08T08:52:00.000-04:00

Weekend report: We had a nice evening with Braz and Adin and crew on Friday, after which I took the kids home and Matt went on to Vicki's birthday party. The next morning, Matt took Penny to a birthday party down at Chuck-E-Cheese, and I packed Alex into the car and went to the bank (to get our passports out of the safe deposit box and some cash for the trip) and then we went over to Target. I'd completely forgotten to get Penny's school supply list, but thanks to the miracle of the smartphone, I was able to find it pretty easily on the school's website. So Penny's all set to go back to school next month.

(Earbud headphones. Why the hell do third graders need earbuds?)

Alex went down for his nap before Matt and Penny got home, and I enjoyed a quiet hour reading. (I'm trying to re-read the whole Song of Ice and Fire series, since the fifth book just came out a couple of weeks ago.)

Matt and I had been idly bandying about possibilities for dinner, but we hadn't decided anything yet when Alex finally woke up from his nap. Matt went upstairs to get him, and Alex promptly threw up.

Le sigh.

It's the first time Alex has been sick for quite a while. Long enough that he doesn't remember the last time. Long enough for the whole experience to be not only unpleasant but also frightening. He felt hot, too, and the thermometer agreed, at 101.6. Poor little guy. (Unlike Penny, though, who when she's feverish just wants to cuddle on someone's lap, Alex didn't want anyone to touch him. He commandeered Matt's seat on the couch and refused to relinquish it.)

So he spent the rest of the evening sitting with a big plastic bowl on his lap, and while the rest of us were having Chick-fil-A for dinner, he got... some bread.

Which he threw up an hour later. I've got to hand it to him, though: he'd done a pretty scary cough, so Matt had him sitting in the bathroom so he'd be close to the toilet. I took over for a while, and he seemed to have perked up a lot, so I told him we could go back to sitting on the couch with his bowl. He followed me over to the couch, frowned, and turned around and headed right back to the bathroom. "You okay, honey? You going to throw up again?" He nodded yes and then grabbed onto the toilet seat and yakked. So while it was unfun, I have to give him credit for listening to his body.

Naturally, we put the trash can by his bed and I wedged a towel around it, but he made it through the night without a mishap. Sunday morning, he was much perkier, and his temp was down below 100. We still made him eat gingerly, and in small amounts spread out. Plain bread, crackers, oatmeal. Water to drink. He complained somewhat of being hungry, but seemed to understand when I explained why we were being careful about his meals.

He was definitely doing better, though, so after he went down for his nap, Penny and I left without guilt to go meet Adin and Ripley for our pedicures. I'd been thinking of getting Penny and me pedicures as a pre-vacation treat, and then Adin had suggested she and Penny get them as a birthday treat (the two of them have the same birthday) so obviously it was meant to be and we all went together.

Adin's usual nail parlor was closed, but that turned out to be a good thing, because the place we wound up at had a special section just for younger kids. It was so adorable I wanted to just eat it up!

And though I had expected Penny to waffle forever over her color choice, she grabbed a sparkly blue polish within seconds of walking through the door. Both girls really enjoyed the experience, and Adin and I had fun watching them. And of course, all our toes look fabulous now!

After that was done, I took Penny over to Coldstone to use her birthday ice cream coupon. Mmm, ice cream!

When we got home, Alex was just waking up from his nap and his temperature was back down to normal, so we went over to Braz and Adin's and I made chicken fried rice for us all for dinner with lots of extra veggies. Yum! (Though it needed a smidge more soy sauce. Note to self for next time, I guess.)

Overall, a pretty good weekend, except for poor Alex's bug -- but at least that was a quick turnaround!

And now it's only 4 days until my vacation starts, and 5 days until I'm in Cancun! WHOO!

Plans

2011-08-05T08:26:00.000-04:00

So, let's see about our weekend plans...

Tonight is Friday. We almost always have dinner with Braz and Adin on Friday nights, so that's the plan tonight. At some point, also, I need to run Penny out to Target to get a present for her friend who's having a birthday party tomorrow. After we get the kids home, Matt's going to go to Vicki's birthday party.

Tomorrow morning, the aforementioned birthday party. Matt will be taking Penny to that while Alex and I stay home. Or possibly run errands -- I need to hit the bank. That afternoon, probably, we'll all head over to the library so the kids can collect summer reading prizes and pick out new books.

And Sunday, the plan had been for Penny and Adin and I go get pedicures, and then for the whole gang to go to the movies. But we checked the movie listings yesterday, and there's bugger-all out there that Penny would want to see right now. So we'll still do the pedis, but the movie will be on hold until something is in the theaters worth watching. (I'm thinking that means we should figure out something else to do to celebrate Penny's and Adin's birthday, since Penny and I won't be around next weekend. Hmm. Will have to put some thought into that.)

It's also our Tax Free weekend for buying school supplies, so sometime Saturday afternoon and/or Sunday I might dig out Penny's list of required supplies and go shopping. It's like having an automatic 5% discount on everything, and a lot of stores stack sales on it, too.

So it'll be a busy weekend, but hopefully a good one.

And when it's done, I'll be less than a week away from my vacation! Whoo!

(Shutter)Fly Girl

2011-08-04T08:36:00.000-04:00

My Amazon orders came in yesterday. I got a new solar charger for my phone (which is looking like my iPhone refuses as a charge source, alas; I'm testing it dubiously at this very moment) and I also got an assortment of gadgets for my camera, all of which I tested last night and which work exactly the way I'd expected.

There was a Gorillapod and a wireless remote so I can stand the camera up for some hands-free shooting. Nice for long-exposure shots and when I want to actually be in the picture. The wireless remote requires that the remote button be pressed while the remote is in front of the camera, but just in case I don't want to actually be in the shot, there's a 2-second delay button so I can reach around front, push the button, and get out of the way before the shutter opens. But the combination of those two items will make taking our family Christmas picture a lot easier.

I also got a set of macro lens filters. Which isn't strictly useful for Cancun, because mostly those are going to be wider shots to include the beach and the water and the sunrises and sunsets and the wildlife and the buildings and the people and the tourist attractions. But I do enjoy playing with art shots and macro shots and stuff, and being in a new location gives me lots of new things to play with. And they're great inexpensive filters that I've been wanting to get for over a year, so... Boom. Got 'em.

I had book club last night, so I didn't get to play with everything much except to test that it all worked. Tonight and this weekend, though, I'll probably be kind of camera-happy. And I need a clear night, too, so I can attempt some low-light shots, now that I can finally go hands-free.

Yep, I am totally geeking out. Mock if you want; I don't care.

Writing Wednesday

2011-08-03T08:47:00.000-04:00

My Writing Wednesday post is up! Enjoy!

Amazonian

2011-08-02T08:46:00.000-04:00

Did I mention that I lost the cable for my solar charger? Did I mention I had a solar charger?

So let's back up a smidge: When I started making plans for this trip to Mexico, I bought a Freeloader sun charger to help keep my iPhone and iPod and iPad functional. (The link isn't the precise device I bought, but it's the same company.) It seemed to make sense. If there's one thing Mexico has, it's plenty of sun, right? (And if there's one thing the resort does not have an overabundance of, it's power outlets.)

Obviously, I needed to test it first, so I set it up on the dashboard of my car and then plugged my phone into it, and it seemed to be working. Yay! And then a couple of days ago, I realized I didn't know where the cord was. I looked everywhere. Even took the floor mats out of the car. Everywhere. I swear, I didn't take it out of the car, but it's not there now. Boo.

So yesterday, I finally gave up looking for it. I googled the charger, found the company that makes it, and lo! They sell the charger and the iPhone/iPod/iPad adapter separately. Yay! Except that the company is based in the UK, so shipping is kind of egregious. Replacing the cord and adapter were going to cost me about $30, which is darned near the price of a whole new device. Plus also? Shipping from the UK doesn't really fill me with confidence on the likelihood of stuff arriving before Penny and I leave.

I hit pause on that process and shimmied on over to Amazon. Hey! Solar chargers by the pound! Including one that's only $10. I figured, what the heck; it's cheaper than the new cable, and if it doesn't work, it's not like I won't have the AC charger with me; I'll just have to be sure to rotate the devices so they stay charged.

And while I was placing an order at Amazon anyway, I might as well pick up the macro filter set for my camera. After all, I'm going to be taking a buttload of pictures while I'm in Mexico, and this filter set is a fantastically cheap way to get closer to your subject without shelling out for a macro lens.

While I was buying camera gear, I distinctly remember last time (and at several points since) wishing I had a tripod so I could take longer exposure shots without worrying about my hand shaking... Yay, Gorillapod!

Then, I figured, if I was going to be using a tripod, I might as well get a remote so I didn't have to fidget with hand-shake from pressing the button. (The corded remote I found wasn't available on Amazon Prime, so there's a slight chance it won't arrive in time -- but since it cost less than $5 after shipping and its customer reviews are solidly high, I feel okay about it. Vacation isn't the only time I want a remote.)

As long as I was trolling Amazon anyway, I also loaded up a cart with some stuff for our new nephew (Matt's sister had her baby last week) and a couple of little things for our niece to celebrate her brother...

Yeah, Amazon.Com kind of owns my soul.

Got It Made

2011-08-01T09:02:00.000-04:00

Every once in a while, I have the kind of morning that makes my usual half-hearted bitching and moaning completely uncalled for. The kind of morning that makes me want to stop to consider just how damned good my life is.

This was one of those mornings.

And damn, but I do have it good.

I have two absolutely beautiful children who are smart and kind and imaginative and funny. I have a wonderful husband, who is likewise smart and kind and imaginative and funny. I have a wonderful family who lives close enough that I can visit them regularly, and I have in-laws that I love enough I wish they lived close enough to visit them regularly. I'm fairly healthy, barring a few minor problems. The people I love, likewise.

I have wonderful friends who care about me and never take our friendship for granted. Better still, my friends' kids are friends with my kids (I never much got along with the kids of my parents' friends, so it's something I can't take for granted). And my friends' kids are almost as fantastic as my own kids, even from my own completely biased viewpoint.

I make a pretty good amount of money (not to get into details publicly, of course). Moreover, I have as much job security as anyone does in this economy, and if I don't care for the job itself much, I couldn't ask for better co-workers or a more fantastic boss. I've realized my childhood dream of becoming a published author (even if it's not the genre I would have picked back then -- or even known existed) and am expanding that dream to include publication editing. My husband fully supports my writing, and so does my boss: I'm about to negotiate a change to my job that will make it easier to pursue my writing dreams.

I'm feeling good. Feeling grateful for everyone and everything wonderful in my life.

It's not the usual way to start off a Monday. But I think I like it.

Counting Down

2011-07-29T08:49:00.000-04:00

We have ants in the kitchen. They're not looking for food. Not forming lines or swarming. I think they're just trying to get out of the heat.

My vacation starts in two weeks. I'm excited beyond all belief. But you knew that already. What's leading up to that?

More for Penny than for me, really. She was told that she could have a sleepover at Braz and Adin's new place this weekend, so I expect that'll happen. We have haircut appointments at 8:30 Saturday morning, though, so either she'll need to be ready to go by 8, or that'll have to be Saturday night.

Next week, I'll be talking to my boss about moving me to a part time schedule. Because I'd rather just take the pay cut than continually hemorrhage vacation time, and because if a day off every two weeks is built into my schedule, then I won't feel as guilty about using it to write.

And I have book club. For a book I haven't read yet. Oops. Guess I should look into that today...

Next Saturday, Penny will go to a friend's birthday party in the morning, then spend the afternoon having her own birthday celebration. (The current plan is for her and Adin and I to go get pedicures and then meet up with everyone else for a movie. None of that is solid yet, though.) Whatever the actual events, I expect she'll have a great day.

Nothing much is planned for the week after that, but I've told her she can choose whether she wants to go to daycare/summer camp on her birthday, or stay home with me. She's still pondering.

Two weeks...

Packing Panic

2011-07-28T08:43:00.000-04:00

Still more than two weeks to go until my vacation starts, and I'm already starting in with the packing panic.

Okay, "panic" may be overstating things a bit, but I do get a little tense when I'm packing for a trip. I soothe my jitters by making lists, and lists of lists. It's what I do.

So I currently have a two-page-long list of things to pack for Cancun. It's organized by container -- things to go in my suitcase, things to go in Penny's suitcase, things to go in carryon, etc. And each item is categorized by its importance, where importance is determined by how big a hassle it would be if the item were forgotten or lost. For example, a comb is a 4 -- it is very easily and cheaply replaced by a quick trip to the resort's grocery store. As items go up in either expense/hassle to replace or necessity, they go up the scale from there, but most items got capped at a level 2. Even clothes (there's a freaking WalMart in downtown Cancun; replacing several days' worth of clothes would be slightly spendy, but perfectly do-able) and my camera. Category 1 is reserved for the stuff that we really can not afford to lose, for one reason or another: our passports, Penny's diabetes supplies, my credit card.

So I was feeling pretty cool about this whole packing thing (you know -- for me) until this morning, when I thought I'd plug the kids' phone into the solar recharger in the car so it could juice up a little on my drive to work. And I couldn't find the cable.

There's the car charger cable that plugs into the cigarette lighter. There's the cable that runs from the tapedeck to the iPhone so I can play music through the car's speakers. There's another cable that I don't even know WHAT it does... but not the cable that plugs into the solar recharger. Which is a proprietary cable and I can't just pick one up at Target. Which I don't think I've ever taken out of the car, so where the hell is it?

Boom. Panic.

Over a freaking cable? That if I can't find it just means I'll have to be a little more careful about device recharging while we're gone, and otherwise means I've wasted most of the $40 I spent on the recharger?

It's possible that I need to. You know. Get a grip. Just a bit.

Deep breath... In... Out...

Okay. I feel better now.

But I'm going to go look under the car seats just one more time.

Writing Wednesday

2011-07-27T08:59:00.000-04:00

I'm trying to make an effort to stay on top of my (new) writing blog, so I'm going to try, for a while, to post to that blog every Wednesday, at a minimum. It cuts into my writing time over here, though -- there are only so many blog entries I can write in a day, after all -- so with apologies, I'll just link you over. Feel free to friend it or follow it or add it to your feeds or bookmark it or whatever is the current Thing To Do, since (I'm hoping) it will become a more active site!

Scatterbrained

2011-07-26T08:46:00.001-04:00

Less than three weeks until the Cancun trip. It's kind of dominating my brain. You're going to hear about it a lot. Sorry about that.

***

Penny woke up with a blood sugar over 300. So much for that excellent run she had over the weekend.

***

Alex and Penny have both been all about the iPhone games lately. Alex is playing Monkey Preschool Lunchbox. Penny is playing Angry Birds.

I am spending a lot of time keeping various devices charged.

***

Scatterbrained? Me? ...Well, maybe just a bit.

Heatwave

2011-07-25T09:13:00.001-04:00

We spent a goodly chunk of the weekend helping Braz and Adin move into their new place. Or more precisely, Matt helped them move stuff, and I kept an eye on all the kids so they wouldn't be underfoot. The house is fantastic; I totally have house envy, now. Penny and Alex agree; Penny spent the weekend raving about how awesome the house is, and every time Alex turned around, he was demanding to know when we were going to go visit "the new house".

It was a bad weekend for moving, though. The weather has been not just hot lately, but stupidhot, with highs in the upper 90s and heat indexes well over 105.

***

I didn't get a single lick of writing done, but I did manage to do some administrative/publicity stuff done. And one of my favorite authors mentioned on the mailing list that she'd read Safe Harbor and loved it and (teasingly) demanded to know when there would be sequels. Which made me squeal like a little girl with excitement. And also to start trying to think more seriously about the few sequel ideas I'd had!

***

There was a huge storm last night that passed right over top of us; the thunder crashed so hard that it kept setting off Penny's little bedroom doorbell from the vibrations in the walls. And then, hours after it had finally passed and we were asleep, the power went out. I know because at about 1:30, the smoke detectors started chirping at me about their low batteries. I stumbled downstairs and found my cell phone and used it as a flashlight to find the power bill and call the customer service number so I could report the outage. That done, I went back to bed and tried to sleep, but my brain wouldn't shut up. I finally dozed off and woke back up around 3, when the power came back on. I'm a little groggy this morning.

***

Lest there be any doubt whatsoever about Penny's feeling for our Cancun trip -- I offered last night to show her a few pictures from my previous trip, because I'd been trying to describe the resort and the beach to her, and words just weren't cutting it. Now, I know looking at someone else's vacation pictures can be pretty danged tedious, so I really planned to just show her a handful of pictures so she could have a mental image to work from -- but I'll be damned if she wasn't completely fascinated. She sat with me while I scrolled through each of something like 300 photos, asking questions and exclaiming with excitement.

Eighteen days and counting.

***

Her blood sugar leveled off over the weekend, too. After running high for most of the last month and us having to fight tooth and nail to get her back down into range any time we ate out -- we ate out three times this weekend, and she only had one high blood sugar, which was probably the result of my underestimating the carbs. It was fantastic, and her mood was noticeably improved, too.

Warm Break

2011-07-22T13:41:00.000-04:00

In the category of things that are both heart-warming and heart-breaking, Penny and I had this conversation a couple of days ago:

"Mom? Remember when I got diabetes?"

"Yes, I remember. What about it?"

"When that happened, I thought I was the only one! I didn't know any other kids who had it!"

"That's true."

"And camp was so awesome because all the kids had it!"

She's talking about the weekend family camp we went to at the very end of April, more than two and a half months ago. And it was completely out of the blue. We hadn't been talking about camp before that, or even about diabetes, that I recall.

It's hard, sometimes, to really keep in mind that she's not quite eight years old. It's hard to remember what it was like, being eight, but if I really stop and think about it, think hard, I can remember pondering and processing and considering things for months and months like this. I can remember having blinding realizations weeks and months and even years after the events that prompted them. Penny still doesn't grok what diabetes means for her, down the road -- Matt and I are deliberately withholding some of the more gruesome possibilities, because she's not old enough to deal with that kind of fear. But we don't always comprehend that she's still working on processing what she does know. It took her a couple of weeks to get from the camp's "give yourself a shot" class to actually being ready to give herself shots. How much more processing would it take, then, to encompass something so much bigger as sharing this disease with other kids -- and not just a few kids, but a lot of them? It's huge, and it's beautiful, and I'm profoundly grateful once again that she had that experience and that she continues to remember it as something wondrous and wonderful.

On the flip side, I can remember, all too easily, feeling left out at school because there was something that set me apart from the other kids. I didn't even know what it was, because no one talked about "introversion" in the '70s. Penny has several good friends at school and seems generally well-accepted by most of her classmates. She has a few good friends at daycare. She's much less introverted than I was, much more socially stable, so it's hard for us to remember that being "different" is a terrible social burden for kids, and that even the ones who seem popular and well-adjusted may be feeling stressed about the inability to conform. These little conversations, random as they seem, reveal a little bit of that stress in her. I don't think it's a terrible pressure yet, but it is absolutely something I need to try to keep in mind, because it's going to inform a lot of the next decade or so. We may even need to try to make some extra allowances on the "fitting in" front, in order to make up for what diabetes takes away. And we'll keep going to camp, too, because it's going to be very important that once in a while, even if only for a few days a year, she be can be with people who really understand what she lives with, in a way that Matt and I never will. Somewhere she can check her blood sugar and give herself shots without feeling judged or self-conscious.

That she had a fantastic, positive experience at that camp -- that she had a fun time and made friends and still remembers it as a blur of giggling and silliness and excitement -- fills me with joy and makes it worth every little frustration and lost hour of sleep I suffered.

That she needed that experience, that something in her subconscious had apparently been desperately craving the company of true peers... can only make me ache.

Day Off

2011-07-22T08:54:00.000-04:00

I took another "no work to do" day off yesterday. (I've been taking at least one of those every two weeks for the last several months, and sometimes more, and if I have to be honest, a lot of the time that I did work could probably have been compressed. I'm beginning to wonder if I should try to negotiate going part-time. I'd be okay taking a 10% pay cut if I could plan on having a day off every two weeks and still keep my benefits. It's keeping the benefits that makes this a bit of a sticky wicket, but the more I think about it, the more I wonder if I shouldn't at least ask. The worst they could do is tell me it's not allowed.)

Anyway, I'd been planning on taking the afternoon off anyway, to go see the last Harry Potter movie with Matt. So really, the only unexpected time off was in the morning. I'd been assuming I'd spend it loafing around the house until a friend at work suggested I go to a coffee house and write.

I started to laugh at the cliche, but it was a lightbulb moment, to be honest: if I got out of the house to write, then I was less likely to fall prey to all the distractions that make writing at home a problem for me. I didn't go to an actual coffeehouse, but I did wind up in one of the comfy chairs at Panera. I bought a scone and a cup of coffee (the kind where you can refill it for free) and loaded up Pages on my iPad. I'd made sure the story I'm working on was loaded before I left the house. (I swear, Pages would be so much awesomer if it didn't make saving a document back down to your hard drive when you sync a complete headache -- seriously, I've given up trying to really sync and just email myself the document and copy/paste the changes into the master document in my Dropbox folder.)

I sat in that chair from about 8:30 until probably 11:30 or so, and I wrote. I got up a few times to refill my coffee, and once for a bathroom break. I stopped writing for maybe twenty minutes to talk to a lady at a table near mine who had a copy of Neil Gaiman's The Graveyard Book amongst a pile of library books. It was the sort of amazing and spontaneous conversation that I see in movies and wish was real, and it made me wish I could do that every day.

I wrote about 2000 words -- four or five pages -- and at around 11:30, I suddenly thought to check my email (on my iPhone, because I hadn't turned on the iPad's WiFi, in order to minimize distractions) and Matt had sent me the list of times for the movie. We'd agreed to meet at the Barnes and Noble that's across from the movie theater, so I went over there and wrote maybe another hundred words or so while I was waiting for him.

And then we decided that we weren't all that hungry yet, so we went to the earlier showing of Harry Potter and loved it. (When did Neville turn into a badass?! I loved it! LOVED. And all the nods to characters we haven't seen for ages, and -- I could do a whole blog post on the movie, seriously, but it would sum up to: LOVE.) When it was done, it was after three and my stomach was growling, so we went over to the Corner Pocket for a heavy snack/late lunch (I may always and forever order their "grit cakes" which is basically baked grits with butter and cheese and was perfect). And then I went home (strolling slowly through the Barnes and Noble on my way and almost buying a bunch of stuff).

And then after the kids were in bed, I took the iPad upstairs and wrote another 1000 or 1200 words -- which is a good evening's work for me by any measure. Even though I have to two-finger type on the iPad, which is slower. But the distractions are gone. No kitchen to troll for snacks I shouldn't be eating anyway. No little blue twitterbird in the menu bar telling me that someone has said something. No email icon. Not even the temporary distraction of having the online thesaurus to consult when I can't think of the word I want. I just use a word that's close enough and promise to fix it in the edits. And I just. Keep. Writing.

It was a fantastic day. And even though I adored the movie -- I cried at least three separate times and there was only one bit that I thought was possibly just the littlest bit cheesy and over the top -- I think the day still would've been almost as wonderful (or maybe even just as wonderful) if I'd gone back to writing (either at the Panera or in one of the B&N's comfy chairs) once Matt and I had met for lunch.

This is why you hear about writers going to coffee shops, I guess. This is why Lynn does her best writing at the freaking laundromat. Because you do whatever you have to do, whatever works, to force yourself to put away the distractions and Just. Keep. Writing. Because there's nothing like writer's high.

Planning Ahead

2011-07-20T09:47:00.000-04:00

In which I very carefully click on the correct blog-posting link, so that I don't post my morning babble to my authorial website that hasn't been announced because it's still kind of in development. You know, like I did yesterday, after which I sort of rolled my eyes at a friend who asked if I was going to post anything today, because I'd just posted. You know. To the wrong blog. That she didn't know about. *bonks self on head*

I ordered birthday presents for Penny yesterday, so we're pretty much good to go there. I'd been considering buying her an inexpensive digital camera to take along to Cancun, but the problem I kept running into while shopping was... well, in a nutshell: you get what you pay for. Every camera I looked at had some combination of problems in their reviews -- short battery life, no swappable memory cards, shoddy construction, crappy flash...

I finally decided that, since I'm going to be taking the old iPhone along so she can watch movies and play games anyway, she can use the camera on that. Granted, the iPhone has some of the same problems (no swappable memory and no flash, namely) -- but we already own that. And I'll be bringing the recharge cable for it anyway, and the resort has free wifi now, so if she fills it up, I can just mail pictures home and then delete them. And that's one less gadget to tote along, so that's a bonus, too.

(We might, however, splurge on a single-use underwater camera and take silly pictures of ourselves in the pool and/or ocean.)

I really should start planning our packing. What to take, how much gear to pack, what goes in the checked bag and what goes in carryon, diabetes supplies...

(Any of my D readers done a big vacation before? How many extra strips/syringes should I bring, given that we'll be partying it up and probably eating significantly less healthily than usual? I'm guessing at least 1-2 extra shots a day to keep up with the food, and 2-3 extra BG checks a day to stay ahead of lows caused by more activity than usual. Most of it will go in carryon, of course, but I want at least 3 days' supplies in carryon in case our luggage gets lost. We've flown domestically with her supplies before, but never left the country -- anyone ever have trouble with that?)

Penny and I worked it out in the car this morning: 23 days remaining until her birthday, and 24 until we head for Cancun. Let the countdown begin!

A Nutshell

2011-07-19T21:39:00.001-04:00

Missed posting yesterday -- it was one of those mornings.

But the weekend wasn't so thrilling I was on edge to talk about it, really. Took Ripley for a few hours Friday night so Braz and Adin could take Henry to the Urgent Care for an injury. We had Jenn and Brian over Saturday for what was supposed to be grilled chicken, but the grill didn't cooperate, so we eventually gave up and ordered Chinese. Had a great time sitting around talking with them until probably way too late. And then Sunday we met my family at the Samurai (hibachi restaurant) for Sam's birthday dinner.

Add in Alex getting out of bed and Penny being alternately surly and wonderful (those teen years are looking more awesome by the day!) and that pretty much sums up the weekend.

So right now, dealing with weird work situations (stupidly busy, but not enough charge numbers) and home situations (Matt's car and mine have been recalled, so we're sort of taking turns not having a car this week) and life and stuff. Braz and Adin are moving into their new house this weekend, then we have two weekends with nothing much happening, and then it'll be Penny's birthday and the trip to Cancun! Whoo, less than four weeks!

And that's pretty much my life right now. That and trying to get my writing brain kickstarted.

***

Also, I realized 12 hours after posting this initially that I posted it to the wrong damn blog. No wonder my friend K. was sending me emails pouting about there being no blog entry. That's what I get, I guess, for clicking the "New Post" button before I've got my coffee in hand, and not checking which blog it is...

That Kind of Morning

2011-07-15T08:48:00.000-04:00

Alex woke up at 4:45 and wandered into Penny's room. Matt heard him before I did, this time, so he was the one who got up and put Alex back to bed.

Which did not prevent Alex from trying to sneak out of his room at 6:05 -- I was just sitting up and caught him at it. "Hey, Alex. Whatcha doin'?"

Pause... "I was just sitting on my stool." Kid's trying to learn how to lie. Isn't that adorable?

While I was doing my exercises, Penny came down dressed in her beautiful Easter dress and carrying her little patent leather purse. I should explain: there's a girl her age at the daycare who apparently told Penny that she had nicer clothes than Penny did. This upset Penny, and now Penny wants to prove to this girl that she has nice clothes, too.

Now, Penny's had this particular dress for two years, and I actually am okay with her wearing it to daycare... but they're going on a field trip to a park today. So I told her she could wear her fancy dress on Monday, but today, she needed to wear run-and-play clothes. She asked if she could just wear her t-shirt and shorts under her fancy dress and change for the park. No, I said, go change.

There was some back and forth. I'm sure you can fill it in. I ended up yelling at her to go upstairs and change, already, and quit arguing with me about it.

Then as we were getting ready to leave, Alex handed me an attitude about not wanting to put his cup of milk away, and I had to whip out the numbers. (Nothing is more terrifying to a three-year-old than a parent slowly and sternly counting to three. I have no idea why, but it works about 90% of the time. It's important to have follow-through if you do actually get to three, though.)

And in the home stretch approaching daycare, Penny and Alex got into a fight over a toy. I ended up taking it away from both of them.

So it was that kind of morning, and I'm really, really hoping it doesn't turn into that kind of day. Or that kind of weekend. We've got fun things planned for this weekend... if I can get the kids to act like people instead of sleep-deprived monsters.

Early Morning Sunrise

2011-07-14T08:41:00.000-04:00

So Alex has realized a fundamental truth about his new bed: he can get out of it.

Every night, I put him to bed. Every night, he pops up less than ten minutes later to "go to the bathroom". To be fair, he does go to the bathroom, and he does usually go right back to bed. I tried taking him to the bathroom before I put him down one night -- that night, he got up three times in half an hour. To "go to the bathroom."

But that part's minor, really. Hell, Penny still does that, two nights out of three. It's one of those things where we point him back to bed if he tries to stop and talk to us, but the whole time we're trying not to let him see us smiling about it.

The part that's killing me is that he's also realized that he can get out of bed in the morning. For whatever definition of "morning" you care to name.

For instance, he woke up this morning, apparently, around 4:30. The good news is that he did not come into our room, which is what Penny used to do. No, Alex either recognizes that we would just send him back to bed or else would rather play with his sister. So he went into her room and woke her up. And apparently they managed to play quietly enough that Matt and I slept through it until somewhere around 5:30, when they started playing some game involving Alex sliding down Penny's legs, and the giggling woke me up.

I made Alex go back to his room, but neither of them were happy about it. But I don't care much, because I wasn't happy about it, either -- because the act of my getting out of bed cued the cat that it was time for breakfast, and he immediately became a whiny pest.

He became so whiny, in fact, that at some point Alex decided that he was going to get out of bed and go feed him. The only reason the whole kitchen wasn't strewn with cat food was that Alex was not strong enough to open the tupperware container that we keep the cat's food in. So instead, he decided to have himself a little snack -- a piece of chocolate from of his candy bag.

I didn't discover all this until I gave up and got out of bed at six, and was met with Penny in the hall: "Where's Alex?" When I found Alex in the kitchen, he was sitting on the floor, huddled in the corner like a lost waif, little pieces of foil wrapper scattered at his feet.

Sigh. In fifteen years, when he's going off to college and the house wakes me up early in the morning with its emptiness and silence, I'm going to look back on this fondly, even longingly.

But right now? Right now, I want everyone in the house, even just occasionally, to sleep past six.

Froggy Four

2011-07-13T08:42:00.000-04:00

In one month exactly, it will be Penny's eighth birthday. She'll be allowed to ride in a car without using a booster seat. So when we leave for Cancun the next morning, she'll be sitting a few inches lower than usual.

The timing works out pretty well -- we'll take her booster seats out of our cars and put them on a shelf for a few months until Alex turns four and is big enough to ride on a booster instead of in a toddler's seat.

And then shortly before Alex, in turn, is big enough and old enough to give up the booster, Penny will turn twelve and will be allowed to ride in the front seat of the car.

And when Alex finally earns that privilege, Penny will have just turned sixteen and will be learning to drive. (Is there anything in the universe that fills me with more terror than the idea of Penny and Alex driving around town on their own? Probably, but I can't think of anything just now.)

It's like a game of leapfrog in four-year increments.

Purchases

2011-07-12T08:59:00.000-04:00

One more quick plug for my novella that was released this past weekend. It's on the sidebar, or you can check it out (and read the steamy excerpt, wink-wink-nudge-nudge) right here. And if you like it (or even if you don't!) pretty pretty please go rate it and/or review it at Amazon.com or Goodreads or somewhere! Please. 'Cause you like me.

And also because you like Stuff. I'm holding a contest, all this week, on my writing blog -- go check it out and enter to win!

***

That's it. I promise, no more book shilling here. At least, not until I get another one sold, heh.

But speaking of purchases (see what I did there?!), Matt and I finally got around to buying one of John's paintings yesterday. We've been meaning to buy it since last year, but first John wanted to keep it long enough to get a decent picture of it for making prints, and then both of us kept forgetting, and then the dang thing was too big to fit in our cars if we had the kids along...

So yesterday, we finally met up with them for lunch and John brought the painting and I brought the checkbook. Huzzah! And then when I got home from work, I hung it in Penny's room. Which was not as easy as it sounds, because it's a pretty danged big painting, set in a heavy wooden frame, and John had put the hanger wire on pretty tight so not much stuck out from the frame and I couldn't keep my arm behind the painting to hold the wire in place and blah blah blah.

I did get it up before everyone got home, but not before I'd dropped the dang thing right on my foot. I thought I'd broken something for a minute or so -- I had one of those things where my eyes filled up with white light and it hurt so much I couldn't even curse. But the toe still wiggled and I could still walk, so it's just a really nice, bone-deep bruise. Right at the base of my toe, where most of my shoes press. I'm going to be wearing my 5" heeled sandals and my da-glo orange flipflops for the rest of the week, apparently.

But it was worth it. When Penny went up to her room to change clothes for bed last night, she finally saw the painting and just about lost her mind with excitement.

(Now John needs to paint something we like for Alex's room. Go on, John. No pressure.)

Sleepless

2011-07-11T10:00:00.000-04:00

Saturday
7:30AM - Phone rings. It's the delivery people, calling to let us know they have one delivery ahead of us, and then they'll be at our house to deliver our new beds. I wake Matt up and tell him if he wants a shower, now is the time. I move the rocking chair out of Alex's room and into ours while Matt stumbles out of bed, sets a speed record for showering, and starts to disassemble Alex's crib.

8:30AM - Delivery folks show up. I keep the kids downstairs and out of the way while Matt tries to stay ahead of them in clearing space before they'll need it. By 9:30, both beds are completely assembled.

9:30AM - I take Alex shopping for sheets for his new big-boy bed. He picks out one generic design with cars and trucks on it, and one "Toy Story" themed set. Then, because I'd been disgusted by the look of our natty boxspring on top of our shiny leather-covered bedframe, I go shopping for a bedskirt, and end up also buying all new sheets and a comforter cover. I'm a dork like that.

11:00AM - Matt and I rearrange Alex's room (including the very heavy bed's placement) so that we can actually open all the assorted drawers and doors on the bed and the dresser and have room to walk.

12:00noon - Alex takes his first nap in his big-boy bed. He goes right to sleep, and wakes up two hours later. Success!

1:00PM - My dad arrives with his pickup truck. We load it with the crib and old bed parts, and an assortment of other things we're getting rid of. I follow my dad to the dump (farewell, crib: you served us well for eight long years) and we heave everything out. Then I follow him back to my folks' house and chat with them about plans for going to Cancun next month.

8:00PM - Alex goes to bed in his big-boy bed. I peek in on him an hour or so later, and he's out cold, sleeping peacefully, his head on the pillow as if he'd always slept that way (instead of upside-down or all over in his crib).

11:30PM - I go to bed.

11:45PM - Just as I'm drifting into a drowse, Matt flings himself up the stairs and into Alex's room. As he opens the door, I hear Alex crying. He'd fallen out of bed. I don't get up just yet -- Alex is probably just bruised and scared, and would not actually benefit from having both parents hovering around. I stay in bed and just listen until I hear his screaming getting more frantic instead of calming, and Matt says, "Liz, he's bleeding!"

As near as we can determine, he fell out of bed and smashed his face into his little stepstool on his way down. It split his lip, scraped up his upper gums, and might possibly have chipped a tooth. It takes a good hour for us to stop the bleeding and get Alex calm enough to get back into bed. (I suggest getting out the inflatable mattress and letting him sleep on the floor for the rest of the night. Alex is adamantly against this idea; he wants his big-boy bed.)

Sunday
1:00AM - I'm in Alex's bed with him. Matt goes back to bed, but we leave the door open so Matt can hear us if we call for him. Alex has stopped sobbing, but every time I mention that I'm going back to bed, he gets teary and pouty and asks me to stay.

1:30AM - Alex is still awake. He tells me I'm taking up too much space in the bed. I offer to go back to bed, and he gets teary and pouty and asks me to stay in his room, just not in the bed. Grudgingly, I sit on the floor beside the bed. After half an hour, I get a blanket from the linen closet and lay down. Alex talks to me a couple of times, I think just to reassure himself that I'm there. Eventually, I drift off to sleep.

3:30AM - I wake up. My back is killing me. Alex is sound asleep, so I leave the blanket on the floor (and make sure the stepstool is at the foot of the bed so we can't have a repeat) and stumble off to my own bed.

5:30AM - "MOM!" I sit bolt upright and pretty much teleport into Alex's room. He's fine. Still in bed. Just woke up and spoke to me and I didn't answer, so he'd panicked. I sigh, resigned, and settle back down on his floor with my blanket. He, of course, has no interest in going back to sleep. He starts talking to me at 5:45, and doesn't stop. I manage to keep him in the bed until 6:15, but then give up and let him up. So I got, what, three and a half, four hours of sleep? The good news is, he says his injuries don't hurt anymore. I expect that will change as soon as he's trying to eat, but I'm relieved he's not in pain just from talking and smiling.

(Braz and Adin picked up some bed rails for us while they were at K-Mart, and I put them on the bed after Alex woke up from his nap. No more rolling off.)

But the good news is: the new beds are lovely, I'm pleased with the new sheets I bought, and Alex is very excited about his whole new bed setup. He told pretty much everyone we encountered all about how now he could get up and go potty and go back to bed all by himself. Also, the kid is tough, both mentally and physically -- he had no qualms about sleeping in his bed again after his spill, even before we'd put the rails on it, and aside from a little trouble biting into hard or crunchy things (toast, apples) with his front teeth, he doesn't seem to be in any real pain from his injuries.

Oh, and also! My book was released! And this time, they didn't release it just on the publisher's site, but also for distribution, so it's available at Amazon.Com and AllRomanceEbooks, and possibly other distributors as well (those are the big two, for Torquere). I'm freakishly excited, and I'm holding a contest on my writing blog -- go, enter to win!

Tomorrow!

2011-07-08T09:01:00.000-04:00

My new book from Torquere Press is being released tomorrow!

Yeah, I know. I try to keep this blog mostly day-to-day ramblings about family and friends. I try to avoid obsessing about my diet (though just lately I'm loving SparkPeople despite the too-busy interface) and I try not to ramble on forever about the writing or peddle the smut...

But I do make exceptions for milestones. And a new book (well, novella) being released is definitely a milestone.

Here's the blurb:

Rafe's first dozen years were brutal, defined by privation, abuse, and terror in the slums of the free city Haven. When Maestro Servio, Haven's finest shipwright, offers the boy a position as an apprentice, Rafe finds himself bewildered and confused by a world he'd never hoped to enter, and suffering nightmares that are memories of the past he only wants to leave behind. In order to survive, he relies desperately on his fellow apprentice, Tyver.

As they enter adulthood together, Rafe realizes that his friendship with Tyver has grown into something deeper. He dreams of making Tyver his lover, but before that dream can come true, Rafe must set aside lessons of pain and fear that he's learned all too well, and instead learn to trust not only Tyver, but himself.

Check it out tomorrow at Torquere Press!

Got Nothin'

2011-07-07T08:43:00.000-04:00

Mouth still hurts. Though I'm thinking the spots under my tongue aren't actually blisters, but canker sores taking advantage of less-than-usually-healthy tissue. I arrived at that conclusion when a new one appeared on the underside of my tongue last night. I think I'll stop at the store on my way home and pick up some Chloraseptic to help with the pain, because even talking was sort of painful last night.

I finally put together a hook for a submissions call that I want to write a story for, and wrote about 800 words on it. It's a short story call (maximum 3000 words) so hopefully that one won't take too long to knock out, now that I have my hook in place.

Matt and I watched Everything Is Illuminated after the kids went to bed. We'd tried to watch it the night before, but the DVD turned out to be damaged. Last night, Matt found it on Netflix streaming, so we went ahead and finished it. But I've already forgotten the very funny line I was going to remember to use instead of "go to hell". Dangit. On the other hand, Matt and I may spend a week or so randomly saying "Sammy Davis Junior Junior" to each other in a thick Russian accent.

For a week where we're delivering some twenty-odd documents, things have been very slow for me. What that means is that this afternoon and tomorrow are going to completely suck.

Tonguing

2011-07-06T08:59:00.000-04:00

Saturday morning, I had a hard-boiled egg.

I like my hard-boiled eggs to be warm, so I put it in the microwave for a few seconds.

Yes, I know that was dumb, but I poked it with a fork to let the steam out.

Apparently, I didn't poke the fork far enough into the egg, though, because when I bit into it, the egg exploded inside my mouth, releasing scalding steam into the area at the bottom of my mouth under my tongue. (I curl my tongue up when I bite into things; it's a reflex formed back when I was a kid and I used to get canker sores by the dozen and if I didn't get my tongue out of the way of my teeth, I would bite it and make the damn sores hurt even more than they already did.)

My tongue itself is more or less back to normal (it still feels a little weird, but no longer actually hurts). The area under my tongue, however... not so much. It is, in fact, even more painful today than it was the day it happened. I took a look last night and noted that the whole area is bright red, dotted with little bits of white. I actually blistered the inside of my mouth with that stupid egg.

And, naturally, I planned a lot of tomatoes in this week's meals. Tomatoes are highly acidic. In case you're wondering: Acid on a blister? Not such a pleasant feeling.

Sigh. Guess I'm halving my heated eggs from now on.

Three Day

2011-07-05T09:08:00.000-04:00

Hooray for three-day weekends!

We hung out with Braz and Adin Friday night, and Penny was invited to spend the night with Ripley and Sarah, so she did that. Saturday morning, we all met up for breakfast, and then we all went down to the Haynes Furniture in Newport News -- us, to find Alex a new, "big-boy" bed, and Braz/Adin to get some furniture for their new place that they're moving into in a couple of weeks.

Matt and I not only found Alex a bed (it's a nice one, too, with shelving and cubbies built into the headboard and underneath, and "grown up" looking so it'll be a completely appropriate bed for him until he grows up and leaves home) but we also found one for ourselves -- the headboard looks like two leather chairs set side-by-side, which Matt thought might be nice for me when I'm writing (since I tend to do that in bed).

The whole kit and caboodle will be delivered this coming weekend (and assembled -- I know my dad would happily save us the delivery fee by loaning us his truck, but the delivery fee also includes assembly, and I'm willing to pay that fee to not have to struggle with putting Alex's complicated new bed together!) -- which means we have a fair amount of work to do in the meantime. To fit Alex's bed in his room, the rocking chair will have to move into our bedroom, which means we need to clean out all the accumulated junk we've been shoving in there and ignoring for mumbletenyearsmumble. We made a pretty good start on it this weekend -- threw out a lot of stuff, and took a couple of boxes of books to the storage unit. Matt's going to offer up some stuff on Freecycle, and I've got a few boxes to take to the thrift store to donate. Alex's crib will go to Freecycle as well, I think, as soon as we've got the bed.

Adin and Braz bought a sofa and table and stuff, all of which looks really nice, and I can't wait to see it in their new place!

After Alex's nap, we took the kids to the library to turn in their weekly reading charts for the summer reading program, and then Matt went to his D&D game. I took the kids to Chick-fil-A for dinner so they could play on the playground instead of driving me nuts at home.

Sunday afternoon, Braz and Adin came over to do their laundry (I know they're looking forward to the new place and having a washer and dryer and not having to save it all up and lug it to our house on Sundays) and stayed for dinner, and Penny asked Sarah if she could stay the night, and the assorted parents agreed.

Matt got up with all the kids on Monday and made blueberry pancakes in celebration of the Fourth. I got up and got dressed and made potato salad with the red, white, and blue potatoes we'd gotten in our CSA box, and then I helped Penny and Sarah make gummy candy in patriotic colors. ("Helped" means I measured the ingredients and set timers. The girls did all the stirring and spooning. As was evidenced by the thin layer of gelatin on everything when they were done.)

We met up with Braz and Adin for lunch, and then we all went to Sweet Frog for frozen yogurt. (Mmm, frozen yogurt...)

After Alex's nap, we trooped down to my parents' to have BLTs and potato salad. Yum. I'd picked up some silly headgear from the Target $1 bins...

Our state doesn't allow even sparklers (not sure when that changed -- we had them when I was a kid) but I picked up some pullstring poppers for the kids to enjoy a little bang.

They had so much fun, I think next year I'll buy some more. It's a good thing I got them, too, because while we were eating, it rained hard and all the local fireworks got canceled. Alas for Penny and Matt!

But it was still a pretty good long weekend! Now, I just have to survive this week...

Ache

2011-06-29T08:43:00.000-04:00

It's not been the most fortunate of weeks for us.

Sunday night as I was cutting up lettuce for dinner, I managed to get my hand under the knife and sliced right through my fingernail. (It doesn't hurt so much anymore except when I tap on anything -- like, say, my keyboard -- with the end of the fingernail. So I'm having to keep that nail trimmed really short.)

Yesterday afternoon, Penny developed an ear infection. (Or, more likely, it has been developing for a couple of days and finally peaked yesterday afternoon.) Matt took her to the Urgent Care center, where all the doctors and nurses who looked in her ear were amazed she was holding it together as well as she was, the poor kid.

While Matt and Penny were at the Urgent Care, I got dinner for Alex and me and made lunches for today and gave Alex his bath. I picked up Matt's lunchbox without fully closing the clips, and a soda fell out and landed on my toe, and while I was cursing and wondering if my toe was broken, it sprayed about two-thirds of its contents all over my kitchen. And I mean all. Over. So then I had to finish making dinner and packing lunches and take a sponge to every cabinet and countertop, not to mention the (hot) stove and the fridge. Then I got out the Swiffer to take care of the floor, and while I was digging out a new head for it, I managed to unbalance the large and heavy boxes of trash bags, which fell on my head pointy-bit first, naturally.

(Also? All while wearing 4" heels.)

Tried to do some writing last night. Knocked out a solid 1000 words on a new story, only to realize that my hook isn't strong enough and I'm going to have to toss it and start over.

The antibiotic the Urgent Care prescribed for Penny tastes disgusting, apparently, so I had to wade through her stalling and making an assortment of gaggy faces before I could get to my morning exercises this morning, which set me back a solid 20 minutes later than I usually get started. And then when I got the kids to school I had to explain to the teacher and kitchen staff about how she's not having breakfast with the other kids because she has to eat at home so she can have food along with the antibiotic, and so while I'm not technically late to work, the whole morning has felt very hurried and frantic.

So? Slightly grumpy right now, but clinging to some vague hope of turning it around at some point.

Sum Up

2011-06-27T08:49:00.000-04:00

Weird work situation, mostly good weekend, lots to do, so here's the summary:

I've been sucked into a proposal at work. I'd be stressing over it more except that it's only 30 pages long and we don't have a lot of time to burn on it anyway.

I'll stress a little more this week, though, since I've got two software deliveries in hand and two more on the horizon. The proposal has to be finished by Wednesday night, though, so there's a hard limit on how long I can wrestle with it.

The summer bash was awesome. The weather could've been a smidge cooler, and it would've been nice if all the kids from the other big group at the park hadn't decided to make free with our toys, but we did eventually get them all back, and only one was broken beyond repair (and that one was a water gun over 10 years old, so I have trouble blaming that solely on the kids' roughness). But I got to visit with people I don't get to see very often, and Penny got to make a new friend, and we all talked ourselves hoarse and ate tasty food (mmm, Matt's stuffed brownies...). I had a fantastic long chat with T Campbell about the vagaries of publishing, and we both enjoyed talking with JD about a book (or series, possibly) that he wants to write. I visited with Ashby and Karen and Jeff (and watched Jeff let the kids hack at him with nerf swords) and met a bunch of new people (and re-met some people I've only encountered once or twice before) and also hung out with friends that I see more often, like Elizabeth and Dave and KT and Kevin.

We got plenty of "grownup time", too, for a change, which was nice. The girls were obviously big enough to run around on their own, and once he arrived, Alex was confident enough to go over to the adjacent playgrounds without an accompanying parent for a good half an hour at a time -- it meant that Matt and I would look up every ten minutes or so to do a child count, but that's certainly less disruptive to conversation than having to stand on the playground watching the kids. Alex hauled us over to the playground a couple of times to push him on the swings, but other than that, he climbed and slid and jumped more or less on his own.

I took a mess of pictures, of course. I'm looking forward to seeing some others, too.

The only real low point for the weekend was that Penny didn't get a lot of sleep, so by Sunday she was downright surly. Combined with my back and feet hurting from all the standing I did Saturday, that dragged my mood down a bit, too. She slept in a little this morning, though, and her mood seems to have improved.

Oh, and the "barrier" infusion set went well enough, though the needle freaked her out a little. We took it off this morning (made it the full three days this time, at least!) and I didn't see any of the swelling and redness that had come with the first set, but she swears the itching was making her crazy yet again. I don't know what to do about it, I really don't. I don't want to drop that much money on something and just hope that she'll "get used to it" with time. Argh.

Headdesk

2011-06-23T08:46:00.000-04:00

Too much to do. Not enough to do. It's incredibly stupid that both of those things describe my life right now. Uncertainty makes me batshit insane; I really do not enjoy operating on a "just see what happens" basis. Every now and then, under controlled circumstances, I can do it, but it's not the way I prefer to operate. I like to know what's going to happen, and what's on my to-do list, and what options are available to me.

Alas. The gods have other ideas for me right now.

I have no work to do, but as soon as I started thinking about taking a half-day today, my boss scheduled an afternoon meeting. At least it's a telecon meeting, so I might still take that half-day and just call in for it. Maybe, except there's a document that has to be written (no money to write it, of course) and I don't know who's supposed to be doing that writing.

I'm helping out with a proposal at work, and those are -- as I've complained before -- a hot mess of shit deadline on my neck hurry hurry hurry and can't do anything without others' input wait wait wait all stirred into one delicious soup of stress.

Possibility of folks coming up to hang out this evening, but no idea if we're feeding them or we're all going out or if they're not arriving until after dinner. Or even if they're coming at all.

We're letting a friend crash at our house this weekend. I'm glad to open our house to him, but he's not sure if he'll arrive Friday night, or Saturday morning, or not until Saturday after the summer bash picnic.

Add that to diabetes difficulties (Penny's sugars are fantastic when she gets up at 6:30, and then two hours later at breakfast, without having eaten anything, they're 100 points higher. WTF?) and Alex being a bit moody because he's adjusting to the switch (finally!) to the 3-year-old class at daycare, and I'm a little ball of grumpiness and stress.

Maybe that's why I can't manage to stick to my diet for more than half a day at a time.

Eight Weeks

2011-06-21T08:33:00.000-04:00

This weekend is the summer bash. I'm looking forward to hanging out with friends. Especially those friends I don't get to see very often.

Next weekend leads into the Fourth of July. (The 4th being actually on Monday, but it makes for a long weekend, huzzah!)

Then there's a weekend with no plans. (Yet.)

The weekend after that is my sister-in-law's birthday.

Then there are two weekends with no plans. (Yet.)

Then we'll be celebrating Braz and Adin's new house! (Also, that is the state's Tax Free School Supplies weekend, so I expect we'll be doing some school shopping that weekend.)

And the Friday after that, we'll have Penny's birthday, and the morning after that, she and I will get up ridiculously early and get on a plane to fly to Cancun.

Why yes, I am counting down.

Hello Fadda

2011-06-20T08:56:00.000-04:00

I hope everyone had a great Father's Day and appropriately honored the ol' Y-chromosomal parent!

We had a nice one -- got Matt up with breakfast in bed, and gave him his gifts (hand-drawn cards from Penny and Alex, and a couple of fun books from me).

Hung around doing the usual chores in the morning (though as a Father's Day treat, I took both kids with me to the grocery store so Matt could enjoy a half-hour or so of quiet) and then after Alex's nap, we went down to my parents' for hot dogs and hamburgers and corn on the cob and watermelon, yum! We all ate way too much and stayed way too late chatting, but it was a lovely evening.

This week will be busy -- Alex and I both have checkups with the ear doctor on Wednesday morning, and Penny's back to CHKD on Friday to try the alternate insulin set method that hopefully won't trigger an allergic reaction. Matt and I made plans to meet John and Sam for lunch on Thursday, in part so we can finally buy a painting from John that we'd asked for last year, and in part so the four of us can actually have a conversation free of kid-based interruptions. (Sam has lost 80 pounds since her gastric bypass in March, and she looks fantastic!)

And then this weekend is the annual Summer Bash. (Current forecast - hot with isolated thunderstorms; keep your fingers crossed for us!) Looking at the sort of sparse work schedule for this week, I may be taking a day or two off to meet up with people and hang out, depending on when everyone is arriving and stuff. We'll see how it works out.

Tired

2011-06-16T09:01:00.000-04:00

Didn't sleep too well last night. Not really sure why, just had lots of vivid, unrestful dreams. Nothing bad, just action-packed, from what little I can still remember.

So I'm feeling groggy and nonfunctional this morning. It'll be the perfect day for tackling mindless paperwork and then hitting the gym, and then coming back to the office for more mindless paperwork. Envy me my glamorous life!

***

After dinner last night, we put Alex in the wagon and walked over to Penny's school and let the kids run around on the playground for half an hour. I even hauled my camera along and took pictures of some flowers and the kids and stuff along the way, which was nice -- I haven't taken any pictures with the good camera for over a month, I think. I don't know if this is going to be a regular thing or what -- Matt was a bit dismayed at the amount of time Penny was spending dorking around on the computer during her long afternoon Tuesday, but once she starts daycare/camp next week, she won't even be getting home until almost 5:30, so that will put a big dent in her screen time.

Today is Penny's last day of school -- when I get home this evening, she'll officially be a third grader. The daycare gave me a form to fill out for her medical records, and naturally it has to be signed by her doctor as well, so I need to get on with that and fax it over to the doctor so they can send it back. She's been particularly surly the last few days, and this morning she told me she's been waking up at 5:30, so it's possible that's got something to do with her mood. Once school is out, Matt and I are going to let her stay up later to read at night, but I told her this morning that if she's continuing to be grouchy and surly all the time, we're going to put an end to that. So she has been warned. For whatever good that will do us.

Alex is doing really well with his potty training, and is getting fairly reliable about telling us when he needs to go. We hid his little potty Tuesday night and he coped with its disappearance pretty well (he'd been sitting on the regular toilet about half the time anyway, so we figured we'd nudge that along). The next step will be to get him a bed so he can get up and go on his own initiative at night and we can start trying to transition him out of night-time diapers as well. (I'll take "Things Parents Don't Miss When Their Babies Grow Up" for $400, Alex...)

Ending

2011-06-15T08:45:00.000-04:00

It's almost the end of the school year for Penny. Today is her second-to-last day as a second grader; by 1:00 tomorrow she will officially be a third grader.

She's spending the afternoon with me; I'll be picking her up from school and bringing her back to the office. Matt will pick her up tomorrow. And then Friday, when she has no school at all, I'll have her with me in the morning, and Matt will take her in the afternoon.

I hope her mood is improved this afternoon; she was the Sultana of Surly this morning.

Slightly scattered this morning. Not in a particularly bad or down mood (aside from being eye-rolly about Penny's attitude) but my brain is refusing to fire on all cylinders. Or even half of them. Should make for an interesting day.

Identification

2011-06-14T09:00:00.000-04:00

I've been re-watching Leverage lately -- ripped our DVDs down to my iPad and am watching it while I'm at the gym. And also when I'm just sitting around with nothing else to do. I did all of the first season and am now about halfway through the second. It's quite the addictive little show. Now, I like crime caper shows anyway, but I started thinking about what it is that pulls me so hard about this one. And what, for that matter, pulls me in to any show I watch regularly.

Good storytelling is part of it, but I don't think that's the whole. I've started and then dropped shows that had good storytelling -- and stuck religiously to some shows with barely any storytelling at all.

The answer I keep coming back to is: how much I like the characters. And not just like, but identify with. The more main cast members I can identify with, the more the show will hold onto me.

Leverage has this in abundance. I mean, obviously I'm not a genius thief, but they've all got personality traits that I see in myself. And I think the show's success is that they've hit on a combination of personalities that appeal to almost all people. And, oddly, link more strongly to negative feelings than to positive ones.

Oh, certainly, there's competence and intelligence and strength and charisma, but those aren't the qualities that draw us in. It's the downer ones, really, that make us really identify. We all occasionally feel socially inept. We all feel like we're getting lost in the masks we create to hide behind. We all feel like we're undervalued and under-appreciated. We all get tired of being treated and judged as if we're one-dimensional. We all feel like we're scrambling for control that insists on remaining stubbornly out of our grasp.

And it works, because when a group of people who embody my own shortcomings triumph, it brings that sense of victory and joy straight home. It's not just their win; it becomes mine.

Almost all the shows I've loved and religiously watched did this to some degree. Babylon 5. Firefly. Sports Night. West Wing. Big Bang Theory. Buffy. And when I think about the shows that violate this rule, then I'm looking at a list of shows with some other quality that held me there -- I stayed with Dollhouse despite weak character identification, for example, because I trust Joss Whedon's storytelling and I knew the mindfuck would be glorious (and it was).

That's it. Nothing particularly deep. Just a random musing that fell out of my mental wanderings on the way home from the gym yesterday.

That Time

2011-06-13T09:25:00.000-04:00

Mornings suck. They have that whole "I just woke up and don't really want to be out of bed and functioning" vibe to them.

Mondays suck. They have that whole "I just came back to work after the weekend and don't really want to be thinking and making decisions and doing responsible shit" thing going for (or rather, against) them.

This time of the month sucks. I'm seriously PMSing -- I spent the weekend eating everything that wasn't nailed down (and suffering the Wii Fit's disappointment for it this morning) and am now moving firmly into my anti-social phase where I totally overreact and want to kill people for their stupidity when they try to touch me or talk to me. (The more I live with this bizarre menstrual cycle, the more I find myself empathizing with KT's old Heroes villain, Face, an alien whose psychotic behavior was eventually blamed on adolescent hormones. Maybe if we'd slipped her a couple of Midol and the contents of a Hershey's factory early on in the campaign, she wouldn't have sold the population of China to some other hungry aliens.)

This time of year sucks. It's stupidly hot out, except on days I think we might have time to go swimming, when it turns breezy and cool and incoming-thunderstorm-ish. Every bug in the county is trying to get out of the heat, which I empathize with, but they need to understand that their designated hiding place is in the house's crawl space, not my bathtub. The really good summer produce (corn, tomatoes, and watermelon) isn't quite ready to go yet, but the best spring stuff (berries) is mostly tapped out. The school year is almost done, so Penny's lost all interest, but I can't ship her off to daycare/summer camp yet. Nothing much is happening on TV or at the movies (though we did take the kids to see Kung Fu Panda II over the weekend, and we all enjoyed it).

Also, this time of life kind of sucks. I'm too old to be bouncy and flirty and changing jobs every time I get bored. I'm too young to demand deferential treatment or console myself with the thought that retirement is just over the horizon.

I'm not saying there's nothing good about any of these things. I like morning's calm, cool weather. I like Mondays' relatively relaxed schedule. I like... Okay, I don't really like anything about PMSing, but at least I know it will end. I like the thunderstorms and sense of anticipation of early summer. And I like the emotional and financial security that comes with this point in my life.

I'm not having a bad time right now. It's just a slightly grouchy time.

Field Day

2011-06-10T08:57:00.000-04:00

Alex is about 90% self-sufficient when it comes to getting himself dressed in the mornings. Matt gets him up and gets rid of the night-time diaper, and then he's pretty much on his own. He does sometimes insist that I help him with his socks (getting the toes lined up just right is tricky) and he has a couple of pairs of pants that he can't work the snap by himself and has to ask for help with. But aside from those things, he does the whole shebang by himself.

This morning, he was awake and singing little songs even before I went downstairs to do my little Wii Fit yoga. So as soon as I was done and had helped Penny with the rest of her breakfast (she's about 90% self-sufficient with her breakfast lately, except she needs someone to open her pill and vitamin bottles, and someone to double-check her insulin draw) I went upstairs to get Alex out of bed, since Matt was still shaving.

I got the diaper off and cleaned him up, then left him to his getting-dressed devices while I went to get dressed, myself. He picked out underwear and put it on, then traded his pajama top for a t-shirt, and then put on his socks and came into our bedroom to ask me to help him straighten them out. Then he went back to his room and shut the door.

"Putting on pants is very private," I told Matt, mock-serious. "Even though he just had his little wiener hanging out for all to see."

"Well, he's going to grow up to be a Congressman," Matt told me.

"Oh, no," I said. "I don't think I could stand the shame."

***

Penny's school has its annual Field Day today, assuming it doesn't rain. She was bouncy and excited in the car, and I hope she has a good time.

Trying to keep the mood happy, I told her that we'd been thinking about going to the movies this weekend, to see Kung Fu Panda 2. (No, we didn't see the original. But the trailers for this are cute and I'm pretty sure we can, y'know, pick up the critical plot points.) I braced for Penny to start begging for popcorn and soda.

Instead, she wilted. "I don't like Kung Fu Panda," she whined.

"Fine," I sighed. "Maybe we'll leave you with Adin and Braz and just Daddy and Alex and I will go to the movies." I'm sort of tired of making an effort to do fun things with them, only to have them pout and whine. She doesn't get to complain about being bored, though.

Of course, it occurs to me that Braz and Adin have Braz's girls this weekend in addition to Adin's kids, so dumping Penny on them for two or three hours is possibly unfair. Hrm. Well, we'll figure it out somehow.

I Need Cheese

2011-06-08T09:05:00.000-04:00

I need cheese... because mostly what I have this morning is whine.

Work, blah blah underfunded blah blah burning through vacation time blah.

Penny's insulin pump saga blah blah delays allergies blah blah.

Sleep blah tired blah blah.

Diet backslide blah blah lack of willpower blah fat.

I will say I was pleased to figure out that I can use HandBrake to convert .avi files into .mp4 files (thereby making certain shows usable on my iPad that weren't before).

And also that Game of Thrones is totally kicking butt. I was slightly disappointed in the Sex-and-Exposition scene from the previous episode -- not the technique, which is a traditional way to fit in dialog while giving us some eye-candy (and HBO is generously fan-servicing the ladies along with the men -- they're not granting us a full half time, but it's a solid 25 or 30 percent, which is pretty good for a fantasy show that traditionally would market primarily to guys) -- but in Littlefinger's performance during it. I can grant that his show-no-emotion demeanor must be difficult for the actor to pull off, but he was talking about some heavy emotional stuff, and I thought we should have seen a little more.

But this episode was much better. Robb, who up until now has been something of a closed book, had some very nice scenes (in particular, there was an exchange of glances with Catelyn that I really appreciated) and made me warm up to him a lot.

I can't wait for HBO to release this on DVD so I can own it.