Okay, so I didn't get everything done that I wanted to do. Especially sleep.
Okay, Friday was pretty awesome. I met Adin for lunch, and then the two of us went to a pottery painting place and had fun making a mess of some ceramic. (We'll get our pieces back at the end of this week, I think. I'm looking forward to seeing how awful mine turn out, or if they're actually half-decent.) And then, because the weather was so nice and warm, we had grilled meats for dinner. Yum!
I'd forgotten I had a hair appointment Saturday morning, so even though I actually went to bed more or less on time (thanks to Alex throwing a hissy fit so I took him home rather than put him to bed at the Hegemony), I was up at 8 so I could caffeinate and get over to the salon.
Hair re-colored and trimmed, I considered Penny's plea that we join the Hedge at Busch Gardens' pre-opening preview day for pass holders, and decided it was good. So we left the boys at home (Alex was still in pretty dire need of a nap) and headed out. Naturally, the park was completely packed -- we left home at 11:30. It took us 5 minutes to get to the park grounds, and then another twenty minutes to get through the parking line. And then by the time we'd made it to the back of the park to where the Hedge were having lunch, it took us another hour to get our food. (Note to self: Remember, when at Busch Gardens this summer, not to eat at "normal" mealtimes. Get a snack at noon, and have lunch at 2.)
But we did eventually get to have some fun, though Penny didn't get to do any roller coasters, as she was hoping. (There were pictures, but I haven't had time to upload them to flickr yet.) But after we left Busch Gardens, I went home and collected Alex so Matt could go to his D&D game, and then we met up with the Hedge again for dinner. Some begging had induced me to agree that Sarah could sleep over at our house, so we packed up and came home shortly after dinner, and I got all three kids to bed.
Blam! Saturday gone.
Sunday was the usual chores, mostly. We met up with the Hedge for lunch so we could give Sarah back to her dad, but other than that just lounged around the house. I made a pot roast for dinner that turned out very well, though, and I'm eagerly anticipating the leftovers. (Pot roast is always better as leftovers. I don't know why, but it's true.)
And then Monday -- yesterday -- was supposed to be my day off to really relax. Catch up on sleep, do some writing, maybe run a couple of errands. Matt looked at the calendar Sunday night and noticed a doctor appointment I'd completely forgotten about, so that was good, because otherwise I'd have missed it.
The morning got off slow, though -- I did more chatting with KT than writing (this is why I should register my copy of Freedom) and when that two hours was up, I finally guilted myself into doing our taxes.
That was a weird conglomeration of good news/bad news. Good news: We've paid down quite a chunk of the principle on our mortgage, so in 2011 we paid only half the interest we'd paid in 2010. Bad news: That drop meant that our itemized deduction was actually smaller than the standard deduction. Good news: Using the standard deduction is loads easier and lighter on the paperwork, so next year I can probably skip straight to the standard unless something happens to make me think itemizing would be a good idea again.
Good news: I actually did save the receipts from my Vistaprint orders and when I went to Roanoke Pride in September, so I could claim all that stuff as a business expense (advertising and promotion travel are allowable). Bad news: I made less than $1600 from my writing and editing combined; less than $1400 after factoring in the expenses. I won't be able to give up the Day Job any time soon. Good news: That means I got to use the "EZ" version of the self-employment form. (That would be Schedule C, for my writer friends who haven't done their taxes yet...)
Good news: We owed less than last year. Bad news: We still owed. Good news: We make enough money that we owe taxes.
Bad news: The VA form is still put together by epileptic meth addicts. Good news: The VA form still lets us claim a lot more of our daycare expenses, so we're getting a small refund from the state.
Back and forth like that. I think if I had to write them all down and add them up, the good outweighed the bad... but only just barely. Anyway, I lost a solid three hours to wading through all that paperwork. Which is nothing compared to, say, my brother and sister-in-law, who operate their own business out of their home. (Sam spent over 20 hours just gathering files and organizing things for their CPA.) But it was still three hours out of a day I'd really wanted to spend on less mentally draining efforts. Or at least, more enjoyable ones.
Then I ran some errands and ate lunch and tried to wake up a little. Later in the afternoon, I drove over to the doctor's office and had my annual boobsmashing. (I realize I am now old enough that even if I switched to a different insurance company, they're pretty much guaranteed to agree to pay for annual mammograms. I guess that's... good?)
I thought about going to bed early last night, but instead I thought I should recover some of the writing time I'd meant to have earlier in the day, so I started up Freedom (Twitter is my nemesis in the evenings) and dove into my current project. I didn't do a progressive word count, but I wrote a solid two and a half single-spaced pages, so probably 1500 words, give or take? That felt like pretty good progress. I'm only another maybe four pages from wrapping up the story, so I might make that April 1 submission deadline with it, after all. (And if not -- or if they reject it for the anthology -- I think it's good enough that a little scrub would let it stand alone.)
So that was my long weekend. Not nearly as relaxing and sleep-intensive as I'd hoped, but still (mostly, except for the taxes) pretty good.
Now, I just need a good, long nap... What? Work?
Dammit.
Showing posts with label hair. Show all posts
Showing posts with label hair. Show all posts
Tuesday, March 20, 2012
Thursday, February 2, 2012
Hairy
I completely forgot to mention the new hair!
Saturday morning, I packed up the kids and took them to the hair salon where they were shockingly well-behaved (with the aid of a couple of the stylists and some very nice random guy with two kids of his own who helped redirect Alex a couple of times while I was in the chair). They both got haircuts and treats.
And I got new hair. New cut, new color.
I haven't tried coloring my hair... pretty much ever. I've had highlights done, but they were so subtle it was barely noticeable. This is all-over color. Dark auburn. Like mahogany. It looks like dark brown until you get it under bright light, and then you can see the red -- which is just perfect, really.
Alex was highly amused by the process. Or at least, he was highly amused by the sight of me sitting there with dye on my eyebrows (yes, I did the eyebrows along with). "Mommy!" he squealed, several times, "your eyebrows are red!"
And then I got it cut. Short. Too short to put in a ponytail any more, but long enough to cover my ears. I haven't had hair this short since the 8th or 9th grade -- and back then, my stylist refused to acknowledge my cowlick, so it looked... lopsided. This cut accepts the cowlick's tendencies and works with them. And, much to my surprise, it looked good even after I'd washed out the careful blowdrying and styling product. I do have to be careful to shape it a bit while it's wet and not touch it while it dries, or I end up with 70's wings over my ears. But I've already played with it a bit, and I can make it sleek or shaggy or even out-and-out wild if I'm willing to put a little gel in it.
People keep asking me, "What prompted the change?" and I keep having to answer, "It was just time." Or else they say, "Do you like it?" which makes me wonder if they don't. But I don't much care if they don't, because, well... I do.
Saturday morning, I packed up the kids and took them to the hair salon where they were shockingly well-behaved (with the aid of a couple of the stylists and some very nice random guy with two kids of his own who helped redirect Alex a couple of times while I was in the chair). They both got haircuts and treats.
And I got new hair. New cut, new color.
I haven't tried coloring my hair... pretty much ever. I've had highlights done, but they were so subtle it was barely noticeable. This is all-over color. Dark auburn. Like mahogany. It looks like dark brown until you get it under bright light, and then you can see the red -- which is just perfect, really.
Alex was highly amused by the process. Or at least, he was highly amused by the sight of me sitting there with dye on my eyebrows (yes, I did the eyebrows along with). "Mommy!" he squealed, several times, "your eyebrows are red!"
And then I got it cut. Short. Too short to put in a ponytail any more, but long enough to cover my ears. I haven't had hair this short since the 8th or 9th grade -- and back then, my stylist refused to acknowledge my cowlick, so it looked... lopsided. This cut accepts the cowlick's tendencies and works with them. And, much to my surprise, it looked good even after I'd washed out the careful blowdrying and styling product. I do have to be careful to shape it a bit while it's wet and not touch it while it dries, or I end up with 70's wings over my ears. But I've already played with it a bit, and I can make it sleek or shaggy or even out-and-out wild if I'm willing to put a little gel in it.
People keep asking me, "What prompted the change?" and I keep having to answer, "It was just time." Or else they say, "Do you like it?" which makes me wonder if they don't. But I don't much care if they don't, because, well... I do.
Friday, February 20, 2009
Stuff stuff stuff stuff.
Really enjoying both of the email games I'm in, lately. Though I could wish they moved faster. It always takes me by surprise to look back at the archives and realize how long they've been running -- the Meadehall/Scum game for nearly a year and a half, and the 7th Sea game for over 5 years!
I'm ready for this weekend, though. Nothing in particular on the schedule for a couple of days sounds really good. We'll gather up the boxes of stuff for charity that we've been gathering and finally get around to taking them over to the thrift store, and possibly we'll pick a room and start working on the decluttering and moving of stuff to storage and/or the thrift store and/or the trash.
We might take the kids down to my parents' for a change of scenery at some point. Who knows? Not me.
I've reached the point of the winter where I'm seriously considering shaving my head. The static is making me crazy, and the dry air is making my scalp tight and itchy no matter how much moisturizing shampoo/conditioner I use (which has the charming side effect of making my hair lank and oily -- but not oily enough to resist static, ARGH).
If I shaved my head, then static-floaty hair would stop sticking to my face, and I could use real moisturizer on my scalp. Plus I'd have an excuse to wear awesome hats.
What could go wrong?
Really enjoying both of the email games I'm in, lately. Though I could wish they moved faster. It always takes me by surprise to look back at the archives and realize how long they've been running -- the Meadehall/Scum game for nearly a year and a half, and the 7th Sea game for over 5 years!
I'm ready for this weekend, though. Nothing in particular on the schedule for a couple of days sounds really good. We'll gather up the boxes of stuff for charity that we've been gathering and finally get around to taking them over to the thrift store, and possibly we'll pick a room and start working on the decluttering and moving of stuff to storage and/or the thrift store and/or the trash.
We might take the kids down to my parents' for a change of scenery at some point. Who knows? Not me.
I've reached the point of the winter where I'm seriously considering shaving my head. The static is making me crazy, and the dry air is making my scalp tight and itchy no matter how much moisturizing shampoo/conditioner I use (which has the charming side effect of making my hair lank and oily -- but not oily enough to resist static, ARGH).
If I shaved my head, then static-floaty hair would stop sticking to my face, and I could use real moisturizer on my scalp. Plus I'd have an excuse to wear awesome hats.
What could go wrong?
Wednesday, May 28, 2008
And the Cool and Collected Award Goes To...
Not me, that's for sure.
Apparently, I have only one nerve left, and every single thing seems to be getting on it today.
We can start with the sunburn, because constant pain isn't good for anyone's mood.
My hair looked fabulous this morning -- but I absolutely cannot stand for it to touch my shoulders right now, because even that is painful, and naturally, hair that's looking fabulous down looks lopsided and weird pulled back in a ponytail.
Alex was hungry and hungry and hungry this morning, which means I'm not going to get any milk from the morning pumping -- and I'm missing the afternoon pumping to take Penny to a doctor appointment, so he's going to be Formula Boy tomorrow. (Why this bothers me so much when he's less than a month from being weaned, I'm not sure.)
And after being hungry and hungry and hungry, he managed a spitup that drooled over his shoulder and pooled on my pants, so it looks like I've wet myself. Did I mention that I only have two pairs of pants that I can wear right now, because of the knee brace?
Shortly after that, Penny threw a baby blanket at my face. She was only playing, but it pulled hair out of my lopsided and precarious pony tail and smacked the sunburn on my neck and I lost my cool and screamed at her. No, I don't mean "raised my voice." I mean "screamed."
When I dropped the kids off at school this morning, Penny witnessed a toddler pitching a fit when his mom left, and somehow that triggered her to get clingy and whiny about not wanting to be at school.
The school, by the way, announced yesterday that they're changing hands; Minnieland has sold them to another daycare company. Will the new company's policy let them keep doing Penny's insulin shots? We don't know yet. Matt or I are going to have to go to the parent-question session next Tuesday evening. But I'm getting a lot of mixed messages -- the director told me there were no personnel changes planned, but the announcement letter started with the phrase "mixed emotions" and she's acting noticeably tense about it.
I forgot to bring Penny's insulin chart with me to work today, so it's not going to get faxed in, again.
I've got Book Club at my house tonight, and while I'm really looking forward to it, I still have shopping to do, and then I need to clean the house (non-trivial, especially since the simple act of bending over to pick up something off the floor makes my sunburn suddenly shriek with pain) and get the food set out. Which will all be done with Penny in tow.
How can a house that looked blessedly clean yesterday after the cleaning service came look so sloppy and horrible this morning?
And speaking of sloppy and horrible, my glasses are crooked and I can't get new ones until August; my boobs are hanging to my waist and it doesn't make sense to get new ones until Alex is weaned, and I'm feeling particularly fat lately.
Maybe the extra physical sensitivity caused by the sunburn is triggering some variety of mental sensitivity as well. I want to just shut my office door and sulk until it's time to go pick Penny up for her appointment.
Apparently, I have only one nerve left, and every single thing seems to be getting on it today.
We can start with the sunburn, because constant pain isn't good for anyone's mood.
My hair looked fabulous this morning -- but I absolutely cannot stand for it to touch my shoulders right now, because even that is painful, and naturally, hair that's looking fabulous down looks lopsided and weird pulled back in a ponytail.
Alex was hungry and hungry and hungry this morning, which means I'm not going to get any milk from the morning pumping -- and I'm missing the afternoon pumping to take Penny to a doctor appointment, so he's going to be Formula Boy tomorrow. (Why this bothers me so much when he's less than a month from being weaned, I'm not sure.)
And after being hungry and hungry and hungry, he managed a spitup that drooled over his shoulder and pooled on my pants, so it looks like I've wet myself. Did I mention that I only have two pairs of pants that I can wear right now, because of the knee brace?
Shortly after that, Penny threw a baby blanket at my face. She was only playing, but it pulled hair out of my lopsided and precarious pony tail and smacked the sunburn on my neck and I lost my cool and screamed at her. No, I don't mean "raised my voice." I mean "screamed."
When I dropped the kids off at school this morning, Penny witnessed a toddler pitching a fit when his mom left, and somehow that triggered her to get clingy and whiny about not wanting to be at school.
The school, by the way, announced yesterday that they're changing hands; Minnieland has sold them to another daycare company. Will the new company's policy let them keep doing Penny's insulin shots? We don't know yet. Matt or I are going to have to go to the parent-question session next Tuesday evening. But I'm getting a lot of mixed messages -- the director told me there were no personnel changes planned, but the announcement letter started with the phrase "mixed emotions" and she's acting noticeably tense about it.
I forgot to bring Penny's insulin chart with me to work today, so it's not going to get faxed in, again.
I've got Book Club at my house tonight, and while I'm really looking forward to it, I still have shopping to do, and then I need to clean the house (non-trivial, especially since the simple act of bending over to pick up something off the floor makes my sunburn suddenly shriek with pain) and get the food set out. Which will all be done with Penny in tow.
How can a house that looked blessedly clean yesterday after the cleaning service came look so sloppy and horrible this morning?
And speaking of sloppy and horrible, my glasses are crooked and I can't get new ones until August; my boobs are hanging to my waist and it doesn't make sense to get new ones until Alex is weaned, and I'm feeling particularly fat lately.
Maybe the extra physical sensitivity caused by the sunburn is triggering some variety of mental sensitivity as well. I want to just shut my office door and sulk until it's time to go pick Penny up for her appointment.
Tuesday, May 27, 2008
Long Weekend
Saturday morning, I took Penny to get her very first haircut. She was amazing.
She told Mandy (my stylist) that she wanted hair "just like Mommy", and then actually managed to sit up straight, chin up and shoulders down, hands in her lap with only minimal fidgeting, the whole time her hair was being cut.
Mandy swore she'd never had a kid that young act so good.
That afternoon, we packed up and went down to Chuck and Anita's for their monthly board game gathering. Their daughter Heidi ran off with Penny, and the other women present were happy to pass Alex around amongst themselves for most of the time we were there, so Matt and I got a couple of hours of mostly kid-free social interaction. It was nice. Chuck grilled an astonishing amount of meat and everyone brought good sides, and we had a nice time.
The only downer was that about ten minutes before we were going to leave anyway, Penny had a bit of a mishap on their backyard swing -- the chains twisted mid-swing and ended up scraping Penny's back and hip on the wooden support for the slide. She wound up with two ugly bruises surrounding a couple of fairly ugly-looking scrapes. I feel bad for poor Heidi, who'd been pushing the swing -- I think she felt responsible, but it really wasn't her fault, and she tried very hard to help distract Penny while Matt was cleaning off the scrapes.
That night wasn't so good -- Penny woke up around 2 with an ear infection, and of course she had trouble getting back to sleep. She got up about four times over the course of half an hour or so. And of course once she got back to bed, Alex woke up.
(Alex wasn't so good with the sleeping all weekend -- he was up closer to 5 than 6 all three days.)
Sunday morning, Penny's ear was still bothering her. It seemed to come and go in waves, but when it hurt, she was sobbing in pain. Matt took her off to the Urgent Care clinic as soon as it opened, and they came home a couple of hours later with a confirmation of the ear infection diagnosis and some antibiotics.
But by that afternoon, she was feeling enough better that we packed up again and trooped down to my brother's house for a pre-Memorial Day cookout. That went smoother than Mother's Day -- we managed to get Alex to fall asleep just before dinner, so he napped in his carseat while Matt and I ate. He woke up before dessert, but he wasn't the Superfuss he'd been just before he dropped off.
As fun as all that had been, Matt and I were relieved that we didn't have any actual plans for Monday. We anticipated spending the day lounging around the house. It... sort of worked out that way.
At 10:15 that morning, Ray rang our doorbell to ask if Penny could come out and play. By 11:30, all four adults were out as well, watching them and chatting idly.
At noon, Travis hauled out the grill and Melissa invited Penny (and us) to join them for hot dogs for lunch. The kids were very excited to get to eat outside without having to interrupt their fun. After lunch, they went right back to playing with Ray's superhero toys without missing a beat.
I got Alex down for a nap just about lunchtime, and took the baby monitor back outside with me. Matt and I kept checking it to make sure its battery hadn't died, and every time we ran into the house for this or that, we'd listen, but he must've been completely wiped out from all the activities (and the waking up early), because he slept at least three hours.
It was really awesome -- Penny and Ray were perfectly happy to play with only occasional, minimal input from the adults, so the four of us sat around and chatted and generally had a great time.
Penny and Ray didn't stop playing until Travis and Melissa decided it was time to take Ray in for their evening activities at about 4:45. Six and a half hours, the kids played. It was awesome. Though it's possible that I should've put sunscreen on myself at the same time we were putting it on Penny...
She told Mandy (my stylist) that she wanted hair "just like Mommy", and then actually managed to sit up straight, chin up and shoulders down, hands in her lap with only minimal fidgeting, the whole time her hair was being cut.
Mandy swore she'd never had a kid that young act so good.
That afternoon, we packed up and went down to Chuck and Anita's for their monthly board game gathering. Their daughter Heidi ran off with Penny, and the other women present were happy to pass Alex around amongst themselves for most of the time we were there, so Matt and I got a couple of hours of mostly kid-free social interaction. It was nice. Chuck grilled an astonishing amount of meat and everyone brought good sides, and we had a nice time.
The only downer was that about ten minutes before we were going to leave anyway, Penny had a bit of a mishap on their backyard swing -- the chains twisted mid-swing and ended up scraping Penny's back and hip on the wooden support for the slide. She wound up with two ugly bruises surrounding a couple of fairly ugly-looking scrapes. I feel bad for poor Heidi, who'd been pushing the swing -- I think she felt responsible, but it really wasn't her fault, and she tried very hard to help distract Penny while Matt was cleaning off the scrapes.
That night wasn't so good -- Penny woke up around 2 with an ear infection, and of course she had trouble getting back to sleep. She got up about four times over the course of half an hour or so. And of course once she got back to bed, Alex woke up.
(Alex wasn't so good with the sleeping all weekend -- he was up closer to 5 than 6 all three days.)
Sunday morning, Penny's ear was still bothering her. It seemed to come and go in waves, but when it hurt, she was sobbing in pain. Matt took her off to the Urgent Care clinic as soon as it opened, and they came home a couple of hours later with a confirmation of the ear infection diagnosis and some antibiotics.
But by that afternoon, she was feeling enough better that we packed up again and trooped down to my brother's house for a pre-Memorial Day cookout. That went smoother than Mother's Day -- we managed to get Alex to fall asleep just before dinner, so he napped in his carseat while Matt and I ate. He woke up before dessert, but he wasn't the Superfuss he'd been just before he dropped off.
As fun as all that had been, Matt and I were relieved that we didn't have any actual plans for Monday. We anticipated spending the day lounging around the house. It... sort of worked out that way.
At 10:15 that morning, Ray rang our doorbell to ask if Penny could come out and play. By 11:30, all four adults were out as well, watching them and chatting idly.
At noon, Travis hauled out the grill and Melissa invited Penny (and us) to join them for hot dogs for lunch. The kids were very excited to get to eat outside without having to interrupt their fun. After lunch, they went right back to playing with Ray's superhero toys without missing a beat.
I got Alex down for a nap just about lunchtime, and took the baby monitor back outside with me. Matt and I kept checking it to make sure its battery hadn't died, and every time we ran into the house for this or that, we'd listen, but he must've been completely wiped out from all the activities (and the waking up early), because he slept at least three hours.
It was really awesome -- Penny and Ray were perfectly happy to play with only occasional, minimal input from the adults, so the four of us sat around and chatted and generally had a great time.
Penny and Ray didn't stop playing until Travis and Melissa decided it was time to take Ray in for their evening activities at about 4:45. Six and a half hours, the kids played. It was awesome. Though it's possible that I should've put sunscreen on myself at the same time we were putting it on Penny...
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