Mama

I had a good weekend.

Matt sent me flowers at work on Friday for Mother's Day. This time, instead of cut flowers, he sent a potted miniature rosebush. It's really beautiful; let's hope I can keep it alive!



Saturday, Alex's daycare held a little carnival for their students and families. It was lots of fun, actually -- they had games set up, and some firemen there to show off their truck and gear, and some Humane Society volunteers with puppies and guinea pigs for the kids to pet (and try to talk their parents into adopting) and plenty of food.

Alex didn't really know what to do with himself -- mostly he just charged around the playground and his classroom, giggling at all the people. Penny got her face painted and spent a lot of time petting puppies. I took my phone with me, but forgot to take pictures. All in all, it was a lot of fun.

Sunday was Mother's Day, of course. I slept in (or tried to; Penny woke me up at six, playing in the bathroom, and after I got up to tell her to go play in her room, I don't think I ever actually went back to sleep, though it was nice to lounge around in bed and be lazy for a while). When I got up, Penny and Matt were just putting the finishing touches on my breakfast. They'd planned to bring it upstairs for me to have in bed, but since I was up, they brought it to me on the couch, instead.

Matt and I had talked about the old doughnut tradition -- if two years of something can be called a tradition. We missed it last year because Penny's diabetes diagnosis was still pretty fresh and we weren't too comfortable with giving her that much sugar -- and Alex was only a few months old, and not likely to take the drive with aplomb. This year, I'm on a diet, and doughnuts are a lot of points. I told Matt that if Penny was really set on doughnuts, to just get me one, instead of buying a whole box to bring home.

But they'd managed to avoid it, so instead of a doughnut, I had two pieces of cinnamon toast, some strawberries, and a glass of milk. (All of which was about the same points as the doughnut, but didn't leave me feeling like I needed more.)

Penny breathlessly presented me with a whole pile of tissue-wrapped gifts (mostly pictures she had drawn for me) and a card she'd made. Matt got me a spa gift certificate, and some new cookie sheets, and a doohickey so I can listen to my iPhone/iPod in the car. Alex gave me hugs and kisses.

We went over to John and Sam's for an early dinner, which was nice -- the whole family hasn't been together for some time. Excellent food, and we enjoyed chatting (except for Penny, who didn't get to dominate the conversation and thus was pretty bored -- but after dinner, my dad took her outside and she got to pet the dog who lives next door).



So, all in all, a darned good weekend.

Commercial Break

I find, just lately, that I'm more and more impatient with the commercials on the radio. I'm less willing to just ignore them until they go away, and more likely to turn the radio off entirely -- and then just as likely to forget to turn it back on for the rest of the drive.

I'm especially annoyed with "story" commercials. Real people do not talk like this, using the full name of a store, or when asked how to contact a company, being able to recite the precise phone number and address. Kids do not excitedly tell their parents about how much they learned at a museum, and I have yet to meet any woman who cares exactly where her boyfriend or husband bought her jewelry -- much less brag about it to her friends.

Seriously. Just tell me who you are and what you sell and why your product or location is better than your competitors', and just tell me how to contact you. I don't want a little faux-play to illustrate how much happier my life will be when I give you my money. Listening to those commercials is the audio equivalent of biting into wax fruit.

I'm quite the curmudgeon today, aren't I? I might need to just burn some mix CDs to keep in the car, or get an iPod doohickey, and stop listening to the radio altogether.

Grumbles

My stomach is rumbling.

Penny had waffles for breakfast this morning, and the smell of butter and syrup lodged firmly in my head. And then, to make matters worse, when we dropped Alex off at daycare, they were making blueberry muffins in the kitchen, and the scent permeated the whole building. I could've eaten a dozen of them, right then and there.

Mmm. Muffins.

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Work should be slightly less crazy today. Which is good, because I'm leaving at 2:30 to pick Penny up and go to the dentist. (Which, I note, means that I won't get an afternoon snack. Apparently, it's just destined to be a Hungry Day for me.)

And I need to get my allergy shot today, too, whee.

Okay, can't think of anything else to talk about now, because I'm too hungry. Gonna go have breakfast.

Quickie

My current to-do list (so far):

- Monthly status report for the Beast project. DUE TODAY. (30-45 min)
- Call allergy office and find out if my new vials came in yet. (10 min)
- Go to the gym. (1.5 hr)
- Call our new hire to welcome her aboard and make sure she knows where to go and who to ask for (that would be me) on her first day. (15 min)
- Put together the document schedule for the Beast project. OVERDUE. (Who knows? It's 3 days overdue and I've been putting hours into it every day. Maybe another 4-5 hours?)
- Baseline the software for the SARSS project. DUE TODAY. (15-20 min)
- Do the QA analysis for the SARSS project. DUE TODAY. (15-20 min)
- Write up the new doc procedures for Beast and send out for review. DUE TODAY. (30-45 min)
- Get QA database caught up to the end of April. (45-60 min)
- Do the CM/QA Status Report for the end of April. (1 hr)
- Do the closeout paperwork for the Six Sigma project. (3-4 hours)
- Attend conference call. SCHEDULED TODAY. (1 hr)
- Prepare CCB meeting agenda. (15 min)

I have no doubt that other things will get added to the list as the day moves forward.

Which is why you're getting my to-do list this morning instead of a real blog entry.

Tuesday Morning Post, Caffiene-Deprived Edition

I did actually get to bed early last night. Or at least, earlier than I've been going to bed, which is to say around 10. I conked out quickly and slept soundly, right up until 4:30, when Penny came in to tell me she'd had a bad dream.

She tried to climb into bed with us, and I steered her back toward her room. I laid down with her, but she did not fall back asleep. She fidgeted and twitched and kept me awake for half an hour, until I gave up and kissed her good night and promised to leave the door open so she could see the night-light in the hall, and went back to bed.

Losing half an hour of sleep in the early morning is actually worse than getting up half an hour earlier than usual. It's also worse than going to bed half an hour late, or even losing half an hour in the middle of the night, because the hour of sleep I got from 5 to 6 wasn't enough to sink me down into the really restful sleep.

Not Penny's fault, of course, and she really did seem agitated and upset last night (unlike sometimes when she claims a bad dream, but is so calm and cool that I suspect she just woke up and wanted company). She's almost as irritated by it as I am, in fact. "The bad dreams didn't get stuck in the triangles," she mumbled last night, referring to the dreamcatcher we'd given her. "They went into the circle!" And this morning, she demanded, "Why am I having so many bad dreams?!"

She'll outgrow them in a few years, at least. Just in time for Alex to start.

(This is the point at which I consider rearranging the bedroom and turning the bed so Matt is closer to the door.)

Recap

Let's see, this weekend in review...

Friday night's game was fun, even if I don't have a real personality for my character yet, and Jenn accused us of getting all "Scooby Doo" on her and tracking down "clues" that didn't actually exist. (Ah, such is the plight of the GM -- we hared off after phantoms while the actual plot floated along untouched. It was a hoot.)

Saturday we took ourselves down to visit KT, to wish her a happy birthday and give her gifts. Penny and Jess had fun playing, though the visit only served to redouble Penny's pleas for another sleepover. We really should try to make that happen soon.

We got home to pouring rain. I had, of course, left my car windows open. And it was cloudy and rainy all weekend, and the forecast is calling for clouds and rain all week, so it'll be next weekend before I can air it out. Ah, nothing like the smell of mildew in the morning, and the clammy feel of damp upholstery.

Saturday night, Alex was fussy and irritable and he had a runny nose, and I feared the onset of another round of ear infections. It was pretty well cinched when we put him to bed and he woke up every few minutes to whimper and cry. He finally conked out around midnight, thanks to the application of some Benedryl and Motrin, not to mention sheer exhaustion.

Sunday morning, he was in a much better mood, but Matt noticed that both of his ears were filled -- and I mean filled with goo. It took three double-ended q-tips to get them to the point that we could even see his ear canal. And a few hours later, they were filled again. We came to the conclusion that his eardrums had given way under the pressure and burst.

Matt took him to the Urgent Care, but it being Sunday... they gave us a prescription for an antibiotic (three times a day, dammit, which is a major pain in the ass when the daycare won't administer meds) and said that we should follow up with the pediatrician, and that it was possible he'd need care from a pediatric ENT, of which the nearest one they knew was down at CHKD. Sigh.

But he was happy! And cheerful! I guess so, with that pressure-pain finally gone. Poor little tyke. We're dosing him regularly with decongestants (to keep the drainage to a minimum so it doesn't impede healing) and painkillers (to kill the pain).

I made cabbage rolls for dinner last night, which was nice. They're a little time-intensive, so I can't make them on a weeknight, but soooo tasty. I should make them more often. (And the tip I heard somewhere was right; a bit of caraway seed in the pot cut down on the cabbage-y smell a lot.)

And Matt just emailed to let me know that he talked to the pediatrician. She's calling in a new antibiotics prescription for him that's only twice a day, and doesn't want to see him until that run is finished, so we don't have to take time off today to drag him to the doctor. (And she'll be able to see how much damage there is after it's had a chance to heal.) I expect we'll still need to take him to an ENT -- three ear infections in two months is a bit excessive -- but maybe she'll know someone local.

Right; on with the week, I guess.

Distractio- What?

Yesterday I could not manage to stay on a single task for more than ten minutes. It wasn't me, even -- I just got interrupted that often. It was insane. And I don't think I actually got more than about three things checked off my to-do list.

Which means I'm up to something like ten for today, most of which really have to be done today. I may go into isolation and stay offline until I can get the most important stuff done, just to reduce the distraction static.

I'm hoping for a good weekend, though.

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Hey, it's KT's birthday! Happy birthday, KT!