Approacheth the Memorial Day long weekend. Whoo!
Let's see what we have on the ol' weekend to-do list:
Saturday:
- Need to take Penny shopping to get birthday presents for Ray and Heidi. That needs to be completely done by about 10:30, because...
- At noon, I'm attending a Mary Kay party with KT down in Virginia Beach.
- At 2, well before I get back, Matt will pack Penny and Alex up and take them to Ray's birthday party. (And Jess will be there, too, with Kevin.)
- When that's done (4ish), Kevin is going to bring Jess back to our house for a sleepover.
- Matt will leave around 5ish for his monthly D&D game, so I get to herd the three kids through dinner and bedtime.
Sunday:
- Wake up with the kids (6:30-7ish), herd them through breakfast and hope they can be kept moderately quiet so Matt can sleep, since the game generally runs until 1 or 2am, and he's already been out past midnight a couple of times this week.
- No later than 10, I need to get Jess into the car so I can drive her home and be back in time for...
- Heidi's birthday party at 1 (which is down at the Living Museum, so we'll need to leave home no later than 12:30). I should double-check that time. I will feel like an idiot if we show up at 1 and the party isn't until 2.
- Sunday is also grocery-shopping day and laundry day. I'm not sure how that's going to work out. Some of it may spill into Monday, I guess. Hurrah for long weekends.
Monday:
- Go to the hardware store for a new filter for the air filter thingy, and some planter pots.
- Transplant the tomatoes and johnny-jump-ups from their seedling cups to the planters. (Yes, I've left it a bit late. I won't have tomatoes now until August.)
- Collapse.
Friday, May 22, 2009
Thursday, May 21, 2009
Thin Skinned
My skin seems awfully thin lately.
That's not a metaphor implying that I'm easily offended or hurt. My skin actually seems to have become thinner lately. Easier to tear and bleed. Last night, I tore skin to the point of bleeding by trying to open a bottle of salad dressing. Seriously -- ripped holes in my thumb and middle finger when they caught on the plastic hinge and the little leverage tab opposite.
I've also got a paper cut on the index finger of the same hand.
They're minor wounds, admittedly, but they sting like the dickens. I wondered briefly if there was something about losing weight that makes the skin thinner and more prone to damage, and then I realized it's far more likely to be something infinitely more sinister: age.
Modern society doesn't think of the 30s as being particularly old, but in all honesty, it's on the downside of peak physical condition for most humans. It's only in the last hundred years or so that our life expectancy has reliably gone much past 60, and evolution takes more than a few generations to adapt to that kind of thing. Much past 30, and the body begins, slowly, to fail -- that's a fact, even for people who take very good care of their health. It's rare for professional athletes to stay in the game much past 35 (depending on the particular game, I know). All other factors accounted for, the risk of birth defects jumps surprisingly once the mother passes the age of 35. (Which is why my insurance classed my pregnancy with Alex as "high risk" -- not my weight, not genetic factors, just my age.)
The organs work a little slower than they did ten years ago. New cells get built less readily, so healing takes a little longer. (That includes healing the micro-tears that are the result of strength exercises, which is why building new muscle is harder after 30 than it is when you're young -- and it offers a double whammy of reasons to avoid ramping up an exercise regimen too quickly.)
And the skin... it thins. It becomes less the tight, rubbery, quick-to-heal wrapper of a child, and more the loose, tissue-y, delicate shroud of the old.
All of which sounds pretty depressing, but I'm actually not feeling too bad about it. It's annoying, and perhaps just the slightest bit funny...
I like to laugh at the ridiculous ways I've injured myself. In college, I wound up on crutches as the result of a game of Frisbee (and not even Ultimate Frisbee -- just tossing a disk around with a couple of friends). I can still see the faint scars on my arm from a terrible pizza injury, a decade ago.
But I think "multiple wounds from salad dressing" has to top them all.
That's not a metaphor implying that I'm easily offended or hurt. My skin actually seems to have become thinner lately. Easier to tear and bleed. Last night, I tore skin to the point of bleeding by trying to open a bottle of salad dressing. Seriously -- ripped holes in my thumb and middle finger when they caught on the plastic hinge and the little leverage tab opposite.
I've also got a paper cut on the index finger of the same hand.
They're minor wounds, admittedly, but they sting like the dickens. I wondered briefly if there was something about losing weight that makes the skin thinner and more prone to damage, and then I realized it's far more likely to be something infinitely more sinister: age.
Modern society doesn't think of the 30s as being particularly old, but in all honesty, it's on the downside of peak physical condition for most humans. It's only in the last hundred years or so that our life expectancy has reliably gone much past 60, and evolution takes more than a few generations to adapt to that kind of thing. Much past 30, and the body begins, slowly, to fail -- that's a fact, even for people who take very good care of their health. It's rare for professional athletes to stay in the game much past 35 (depending on the particular game, I know). All other factors accounted for, the risk of birth defects jumps surprisingly once the mother passes the age of 35. (Which is why my insurance classed my pregnancy with Alex as "high risk" -- not my weight, not genetic factors, just my age.)
The organs work a little slower than they did ten years ago. New cells get built less readily, so healing takes a little longer. (That includes healing the micro-tears that are the result of strength exercises, which is why building new muscle is harder after 30 than it is when you're young -- and it offers a double whammy of reasons to avoid ramping up an exercise regimen too quickly.)
And the skin... it thins. It becomes less the tight, rubbery, quick-to-heal wrapper of a child, and more the loose, tissue-y, delicate shroud of the old.
All of which sounds pretty depressing, but I'm actually not feeling too bad about it. It's annoying, and perhaps just the slightest bit funny...
I like to laugh at the ridiculous ways I've injured myself. In college, I wound up on crutches as the result of a game of Frisbee (and not even Ultimate Frisbee -- just tossing a disk around with a couple of friends). I can still see the faint scars on my arm from a terrible pizza injury, a decade ago.
But I think "multiple wounds from salad dressing" has to top them all.
Wednesday, May 20, 2009
Morning Cloud
I didn't get to sleep until after midnight last night. I stayed up late reading, and then wasn't quite asleep when Matt got home from a meetup with an old friend from college. (Wish I'd been able to go, too -- it sounded like fun. Oh, well, maybe next time we'll get enough notice to arrange to meet for dinner instead of late night drinks and we can bring the kids along.)
As a result, my head is a little fuzzy this morning, like there's a cloud floating around it.
I'm trying to get tickets to fly out and visit my grandmother, but it kind of sucks. So far, I have three choices: I can leave Norfolk before 7am (meaning I'd have to get up at 4am), I can get back to Norfolk on my return flight after 11pm (meaning I'd get home around 1am -- and have to go to work the next day) or I can pay somewhere in the neighborhood of $350 for my tickets. Grr.
Today I'll try going directly through the airlines instead of the resellers; sometimes they have combinations that aren't available elsewhere. Failing that... I dunno, maybe I'll push my trip out a couple of weeks and go in mid-June; Grandmom's health is failing -- she may or may not make it to Christmas, depending entirely on her own stubbornness and strength of will (which is considerable) -- but she's not on her deathbed right at the moment.
It's a ponderance.
As a result, my head is a little fuzzy this morning, like there's a cloud floating around it.
I'm trying to get tickets to fly out and visit my grandmother, but it kind of sucks. So far, I have three choices: I can leave Norfolk before 7am (meaning I'd have to get up at 4am), I can get back to Norfolk on my return flight after 11pm (meaning I'd get home around 1am -- and have to go to work the next day) or I can pay somewhere in the neighborhood of $350 for my tickets. Grr.
Today I'll try going directly through the airlines instead of the resellers; sometimes they have combinations that aren't available elsewhere. Failing that... I dunno, maybe I'll push my trip out a couple of weeks and go in mid-June; Grandmom's health is failing -- she may or may not make it to Christmas, depending entirely on her own stubbornness and strength of will (which is considerable) -- but she's not on her deathbed right at the moment.
It's a ponderance.
Tuesday, May 19, 2009
Excitement Central
Yeah, so, weekend of strep. Actually, it wasn't too bad. I didn't get it -- apparently the scratchy throat was allergies and the headache was from stress or lack of sleep or something, because it was all gone Saturday.
Alex didn't sleep very well through the weekend, and he was kind of clingy, but was in pretty good spirits during the days. Penny was fine, though being sick made her sugars skyrocket -- we ended up calling her doctor and increasing the dosage for her long-acting insulin (from 4.5 to 5.5 units a day) and changing her corrective factor (from 1:150 to 1:100) for the duration. She had a couple of lows and near-lows yesterday, though, so we've started inching things back toward normal.
We managed to get a lot of chores and errands done, though -- a run to Target, a run to Sam's Club, the weekly run to the grocery store, a trip to the library, the lawn mowed, the clothes washed. I'd meant to transplant my baby tomatoes to their large pots, too, but it rained all weekend and I didn't feel like getting wet. Maybe I'll get to it during the week.
I didn't post yesterday because my new document person started work yesterday, and I spent yesterday morning getting her settled and the paperwork done. (I'm up to three minions, now. Fear my power!) And then once that was done, it was the Day Of Meetings, as always on Mondays -- 10-11, 1-2, and 2:30-4. I ran to the gym during lunch, and that was pretty much my whole day gone.
On the plus side, it looks to be a fairly slow week at work, so maybe I can finally finally finish my Six Sigma project writeup and get that out of the way.
Alex didn't sleep very well through the weekend, and he was kind of clingy, but was in pretty good spirits during the days. Penny was fine, though being sick made her sugars skyrocket -- we ended up calling her doctor and increasing the dosage for her long-acting insulin (from 4.5 to 5.5 units a day) and changing her corrective factor (from 1:150 to 1:100) for the duration. She had a couple of lows and near-lows yesterday, though, so we've started inching things back toward normal.
We managed to get a lot of chores and errands done, though -- a run to Target, a run to Sam's Club, the weekly run to the grocery store, a trip to the library, the lawn mowed, the clothes washed. I'd meant to transplant my baby tomatoes to their large pots, too, but it rained all weekend and I didn't feel like getting wet. Maybe I'll get to it during the week.
I didn't post yesterday because my new document person started work yesterday, and I spent yesterday morning getting her settled and the paperwork done. (I'm up to three minions, now. Fear my power!) And then once that was done, it was the Day Of Meetings, as always on Mondays -- 10-11, 1-2, and 2:30-4. I ran to the gym during lunch, and that was pretty much my whole day gone.
On the plus side, it looks to be a fairly slow week at work, so maybe I can finally finally finish my Six Sigma project writeup and get that out of the way.
Friday, May 15, 2009
Love in the Time of Strep
Last couple of days... not the best. Matt's car broke. Both kids came down with strep throat. My document person is out of town for a funeral, so I'm completely soloing two software deliveries today (and any documents that randomly turn up).
So rather than rehash all the attendant minor disasters that occurred in relation to the above (cf., Penny's first experience(s) with pills rather than liquid medicines) I'm just going to post a random blogmeme I stumbled across and thought would be fun.
Here's the deal:
1) Go to Wikipedia and hit the random article link: That topic, whatever it is, is your band name.
2) Go to QuotationsPage and hit their random quote link: The last four or five words of the last quote on the page is your album title.
3) Go to Flickr and hit their Explore the last 7 days link: The third picture, whatever it is, is your cover art.
4) Use your graphics program of choice to put it all together!
So here's mine:
So rather than rehash all the attendant minor disasters that occurred in relation to the above (cf., Penny's first experience(s) with pills rather than liquid medicines) I'm just going to post a random blogmeme I stumbled across and thought would be fun.
Here's the deal:
1) Go to Wikipedia and hit the random article link: That topic, whatever it is, is your band name.
2) Go to QuotationsPage and hit their random quote link: The last four or five words of the last quote on the page is your album title.
3) Go to Flickr and hit their Explore the last 7 days link: The third picture, whatever it is, is your cover art.
4) Use your graphics program of choice to put it all together!
So here's mine:
Wednesday, May 13, 2009
Grumpy
The morning started off pretty good, but Penny is off in la-la land and not listening to me and not thinking about things before she asks about them and now I'm feeling crabby and grumpy.
And Matt is in Richmond all day for a meeting for work, so I have to leave work at 2:45 to pick Penny up from school and then get Alex for a doctor's appointment. And I just realized that means that I can't go to the gym during lunch. So I should've gone yesterday, after all. Guess I'll try to go tonight, instead.
And the work on my to-do list today is mostly boring, tedious administrivia that I don't want to do but can't get out of.
Just call me Whiny McWhinypants today, I guess.
And Matt is in Richmond all day for a meeting for work, so I have to leave work at 2:45 to pick Penny up from school and then get Alex for a doctor's appointment. And I just realized that means that I can't go to the gym during lunch. So I should've gone yesterday, after all. Guess I'll try to go tonight, instead.
And the work on my to-do list today is mostly boring, tedious administrivia that I don't want to do but can't get out of.
Just call me Whiny McWhinypants today, I guess.
Tuesday, May 12, 2009
Winner!
At the daycare's carnival this past weekend, they had every family fill out a ticket for a raffle. "Lots of prizes!" the sign promised. "You don't have to be here to win!" I never win drawings, but I saw restaurant and store gift cards on the sign-up table, and the grand prize, which was two weeks of free tuition. So... what the heck? It only cost me thirty seconds to fill out the ticket.
This morning, the director hailed me as I was taking Alex back to his class. "Don't leave without talking to me!"
When I came back up to the desk, one child lighter, she handed me an envelope. "You won a prize from the raffle!"
"Oh, awesome! What is it?"
"Two tickets to Busch Gardens!" Amusingly, we didn't win the first drawing -- but the family that won the tickets at first already had season passes for this year, so they gave them back to the daycare for a second drawing. But that is pretty awesome, especially since Busch Gardens just opened their new Sesame Street themed kiddie area.
Now we have to figure out when we can go. With Penny and Alex along, I don't see it being an all-day excursion -- a few hours at most, really -- but if we register for Fun Cards, then we can go back all summer, for just the price of parking.
Cool!
I forgot to mention the sweetest thing that happened on Mother's Day.
Penny was playing in the dining room, and said, "Oh! I found something!" and brought me a random scrap of paper (I think it was a registration card from a Highlights magazine) on which she had written, "To Mom Frome Alex I love Mommy"
"I think Alex made this for you!" she said, completely disingenuous. "Wasn't that nice of him?"
It was so utterly sweet of her that I teared up.
I am suddenly not sure whether this child is actually my spawn. It would never, in a million years, have spontaneously occurred to me to help my brother make a card or gift for our mom or anyone else.
And if I did help him make a card for Mom (on someone else's suggestion, perhaps) then I would absolutely not have tried to let her think he'd done it. I would've made certain she knew the full extent of my contributions.
At least she made sure that "Alex's" card did not outshine her own.
This morning, the director hailed me as I was taking Alex back to his class. "Don't leave without talking to me!"
When I came back up to the desk, one child lighter, she handed me an envelope. "You won a prize from the raffle!"
"Oh, awesome! What is it?"
"Two tickets to Busch Gardens!" Amusingly, we didn't win the first drawing -- but the family that won the tickets at first already had season passes for this year, so they gave them back to the daycare for a second drawing. But that is pretty awesome, especially since Busch Gardens just opened their new Sesame Street themed kiddie area.
Now we have to figure out when we can go. With Penny and Alex along, I don't see it being an all-day excursion -- a few hours at most, really -- but if we register for Fun Cards, then we can go back all summer, for just the price of parking.
Cool!
I forgot to mention the sweetest thing that happened on Mother's Day.
Penny was playing in the dining room, and said, "Oh! I found something!" and brought me a random scrap of paper (I think it was a registration card from a Highlights magazine) on which she had written, "To Mom Frome Alex I love Mommy"
"I think Alex made this for you!" she said, completely disingenuous. "Wasn't that nice of him?"
It was so utterly sweet of her that I teared up.
I am suddenly not sure whether this child is actually my spawn. It would never, in a million years, have spontaneously occurred to me to help my brother make a card or gift for our mom or anyone else.
And if I did help him make a card for Mom (on someone else's suggestion, perhaps) then I would absolutely not have tried to let her think he'd done it. I would've made certain she knew the full extent of my contributions.
At least she made sure that "Alex's" card did not outshine her own.
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