An Open Book

Empty Nest

Thu, 25 Sep 2008 02:48:35 GMT

I've had the house completely to myself this evening. I can't remember the last time I was completely by myself for an entire night. GB is off on an overnight buisness trip and Bo is spending the night with his grandparents. I spent an hour at the library just browsing the racks, ate dinner, took the dog for a walk, watched TV and played on the computer. All without the guilt of ignoring my husband or a three year old trying to "help".

When we were scheduling Bo's overnight Sunday morning, GB mentioned that I might be lonely with no one at home. Yeah, right. :)

I really miss West Wing

Tue, 23 Sep 2008 17:08:33 GMT

Found this on the Internet and was reminded once again how much I love Aaron Sorkin.

Aaron Sorkin Conjures a Meeting of Obama and Bartlet
By Maureen Dowd
Published: New York Times, September 20, 2008

Now that he’s finally fired up on the soup-line economy, Barack Obama knows he can’t fade out again. He was eager to talk privately to a Democratic ex-president who could offer more fatherly wisdom — not to mention a surreptitious smoke — and less fraternal rivalry. I called the “West Wing” creator Aaron Sorkin (yes, truly) to get a read-out of the meeting. This is what he wrote:

BARACK OBAMA knocks on the front door of a 300-year-old New Hampshire farmhouse while his Secret Service detail waits in the driveway. The door opens and OBAMA is standing face to face with former President JED BARTLET.

BARTLET Senator.

OBAMA Mr. President.

BARTLET You seem startled.

OBAMA I didn’t expect you to answer the door yourself.

BARTLET I didn’t expect you to be getting beat by John McCain and a Lancôme rep who thinks “The Flintstones” was based on a true story, so let’s call it even.

OBAMA Yes, sir.

BARTLET Come on in.

BARTLET leads OBAMA into his study.

BARTLET That was a hell of a convention.

OBAMA Thank you, I was proud of it.

BARTLET I meant the Republicans. The Us versus Them-a-thon. As a Democrat I was surprised to learn that I don’t like small towns, God, people with jobs or America. I’ve been a little out of touch but is there a mandate that the vice president be skilled at field dressing a moose —

OBAMA Look —

BARTLET — and selling Air Force Two on eBay?

OBAMA Joke all you want, Mr. President, but it worked.

BARTLET Imagine my surprise. What can I do for you, kid?

OBAMA I’m interested in your advice.

BARTLET I can’t give it to you.

OBAMA Why not?

BARTLET I’m supporting McCain.

OBAMA Why?

BARTLET He’s promised to eradicate evil and that was always on my “to do” list.

OBAMA O.K. —

BARTLET And he’s surrounded himself, I think, with the best possible team to get us out of an economic crisis. Why, Sarah Palin just said Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac had “gotten too big and too expensive to the taxpayers.” Can you spot the error in that statement?

OBAMA Yes, Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac aren’t funded by taxpayers.

BARTLET Well, at least they are now. Kind of reminds you of the time Bush said that Social
Security wasn’t a government program. He was only off by a little — Social Security is the largest government program.

OBAMA I appreciate your sense of humor, sir, but I really could use your advice.

BARTLET Well, it seems to me your problem is a lot like the problem I had twice.

OBAMA Which was?

BARTLET A huge number of Americans thought I thought I was superior to them.

OBAMA And?

BARTLET I was.

OBAMA I mean, how did you overcome that?
BARTLET I won’t lie to you, being fictional was a big advantage.

OBAMA What do you mean?

BARTLET I’m a fictional president. You’re dreaming right now, Senator.

OBAMA I’m asleep?

BARTLET Yes, and you’re losing a ton of white women.

OBAMA Yes, sir.

BARTLET I mean tons.

OBAMA I understand.

BARTLET I didn’t even think there were that many white women.

OBAMA I see the numbers, sir. What do they want from me?

BARTLET I’ve been married to a white woman for 40 years and I still don’t know what she wants from me.

OBAMA How did you do it?

BARTLET Well, I say I’m sorry a lot.

OBAMA I don’t mean your marriage, sir. I mean how did you get America on your side?

BARTLET There again, I didn’t have to be president of America, I just had to be president of the people who watched “The West Wing.”

OBAMA That would make it easier.

BARTLET You’d do very well on NBC. Thursday nights in the old “ER” time slot with “30 Rock” as your lead-in, you’d get seven, seven-five in the demo with a 20, 22 share — you’d be selling $450,000 minutes.

OBAMA What the hell does that mean?

BARTLET TV talk. I thought you’d be interested.

OBAMA I’m not. They pivoted off the argument that I was inexperienced to the criticism that I’m — wait for it — the Messiah, who, by the way, was a community organizer. When I speak I try to lead with inspiration and aptitude. How is that a liability?

BARTLET Because the idea of American exceptionalism doesn’t extend to Americans being exceptional. If you excelled academically and are able to casually use 690 SAT words then you might as well have the press shoot video of you giving the finger to the Statue of Liberty while the Dixie Chicks sing the University of the Taliban fight song. The people who want English to be the official language of the United States are uncomfortable with their leaders being fluent in it.

OBAMA You’re saying race doesn’t have anything to do with it?

BARTLET I wouldn’t go that far. Brains made me look arrogant but they make you look uppity. Plus, if you had a black daughter —

OBAMA I have two.

BARTLET — who was 17 and pregnant and unmarried and the father was a teenager hoping to launch a rap career with “Thug Life” inked across his chest, you’d come in fifth behind Bob Barr, Ralph Nader and a ficus.

OBAMA You’re not cheering me up.

BARTLET Is that what you came here for?

OBAMA No, but it wouldn’t kill you.

BARTLET Have you tried doing a two-hour special or a really good Christmas show?

OBAMA Sir —

BARTLET Hang on. Home run. Right here. Is there any chance you could get Michelle pregnant before the fall sweeps?

OBAMA The problem is we can’t appear angry. Bush called us the angry left. Did you see anyone in Denver who was angry?

BARTLET Well ... let me think. ...We went to war against the wrong country, Osama bin Laden just celebrated his seventh anniversary of not being caught either dead or alive, my family’s less safe than it was eight years ago, we’ve lost trillions of dollars, millions of jobs, thousands of lives and we lost an entire city due to bad weather. So, you know ... I’m a little angry.

OBAMA What would you do?

BARTLET GET ANGRIER! Call them liars, because that’s what they are. Sarah Palin didn’t say “thanks but no thanks” to the Bridge to Nowhere. She just said “Thanks.” You were raised by a single mother on food stamps — where does a guy with eight houses who was legacied into Annapolis get off calling you an elitist? And by the way, if you do nothing else, take that word back. Elite is a good word, it means well above average. I’d ask them what their problem is with excellence. While you’re at it, I want the word “patriot” back. McCain can say that the transcendent issue of our time is the spread of Islamic fanaticism or he can choose a running mate who doesn’t know the Bush doctrine from the Monroe Doctrine, but he can’t do both at the same time and call it patriotic. They have to lie — the truth isn’t their friend right now. Get angry. Mock them mercilessly; they’ve earned it. McCain decried agents of intolerance, then chose a running mate who had to ask if she was allowed to ban books from a public library. It’s not bad enough she thinks the planet Earth was created in six days 6,000 years ago complete with a man, a woman and a talking snake, she wants schools to teach the rest of our kids to deny geology, anthropology, archaeology and common sense too? It’s not bad enough she’s forcing her own daughter into a loveless marriage to a teenage hood, she wants the rest of us to guide our daughters in that direction too? It’s not enough that a woman shouldn’t have the right to choose, it should be the law of the land that she has to carry and deliver her rapist’s baby too? I don’t know whether or not Governor Palin has the tenacity of a pit bull, but I know for sure she’s got the qualifications of one. And you’re worried about seeming angry? You could eat their lunch, make them cry and tell their mamas about it and God himself would call it restrained. There are times when you are simply required to be impolite. There are times when condescension is called for!

OBAMA Good to get that off your chest?

BARTLET Am I keeping you from something?

OBAMA Well, it’s not as if I didn’t know all of that and it took you like 20 minutes to say.

BARTLET I know, I have a problem, but admitting it is the first step.

OBAMA What’s the second step?

BARTLET I don’t care.

OBAMA So what about hope? Chuck it for outrage and put-downs?

BARTLET No. You’re elite, you can do both. Four weeks ago you had the best week of your campaign, followed — granted, inexplicably — by the worst week of your campaign. And you’re still in a statistical dead heat. You’re a 47-year-old black man with a foreign-sounding name who went to Harvard and thinks devotion to your country and lapel pins aren’t the same thing and you’re in a statistical tie with a war hero and a Cinemax heroine. To these aged eyes, Senator, that’s what progress looks like. You guys got four debates. Get out of my house and go back to work.

OBAMA Wait, what is it you always used to say? When you hit a bump on the show and your people were down and frustrated? You’d give them a pep talk and then you’d always end it with something. What was it ...?

BARTLET “Break’s over.”

Now excuse me while I pull out my West Wing DVDs and fall in love with politics again.

So Sad

Mon, 22 Sep 2008 01:25:00 GMT

I was beat in Wii bowling by my 3 1/2 year old son. And not just beat, but pretty much crushed. I bowled 105. Bo, on the other hand, had a career high of 215.

This is definitely a low in my video gaming career.

You’ve Got to be Kidding

Wed, 17 Sep 2008 02:37:46 GMT

So last week our 2002 Honda Accord was in the shop for a new transmission to the tune of $3500. We went ahead and got it fixed mainly because we haven’t had any other trouble with the car and $3500 is still a heck of a lot cheaper than buying a new car—particularly since we still have four years to pay on our mini-van.

Which would all be well and good, except I don’t think the car is fixed. It’s still shimmying when shifting from reverse into drive. Which means it has to go back to Aamco. Which means we will be a one car family for as long as it takes to have it fixed again. At least this time we won’t have to pay.

Sometimes I really hate cars.

Single Parenthood Sucks

Tue, 16 Sep 2008 01:47:34 GMT

What a day. GB went to bed last night with a bad headache and woke up with an even worse one. We thought it might be a migraine, although neither he nor I have ever had one before, so we were basing our diagnosis on second hand knowledge. But since he could barely move this morning, I was on my own to get Ty and I out of the house. I never realized how much GB does in the morning. I’m actually feeling a bit guilty. I barely made it out of the house with my lunch and that was 15 minutes later than normal. How do people do this on a regular basis? And what the heck are we going to do when we have four people to get out of this house in the morning? (And no, this is not an announcement of any kind.)

GB headed to the doctor’s office and was told that it wasn’t a migraine, but rather a viral infection. He was given a shot of a high dose anti-inflammatory and was doing much, much better after an hour or so. He has been banned from our day care this week as she is leaving for vacation on Friday and wants nothing to do with any germs. I’m only allowed in the door myself. :)

But here’s hoping modern medicine kicks in and he’s back on his feet tomorrow and that I manage to avoid the thing all together.

The Prodigal...

Sat, 13 Sep 2008 02:03:22 GMT

So apparently, on September 5, roundandround2 sent me a nudge to get me back to journaling. Of course it might have been a tad more effective if the nudge hadn’t ended up in my in-box, but hey, I’m posting, so I guess it did its job. Thanks, D! I probably don’t have any friends left watching my journal, but in case I do, here’s a brief update.

Bo has glasses now, he’s had them since the end of March. He’s just the cutest thing in them. Everyone is telling me that he reminds them of the kid from Jerry Maguire and I can’t deny the similarity. A lot of it comes from his constant chatter, though. He had been crossing his left eye quite a bit while focusing on things, so off to the eye doctor we went. Turns out the kid in far sighted. Which is a little odd considering EVERYONE in our family is nearsighted. The big downer in this situation is that we didn’t include him on our vision insurance. Who plans on taking their 3 year old to the eye doctor? So he got the cheap frames this time around. He's already broken them once, so thank goodness for warranties. I was worried about how in the world we were going to keep glasses on him, but he actually has given us no problems. I like to think of him as my own little Harry Potter.

Summer was nice. I became an aunt in June which is exciting. GB’s brother and his wife welcomed their first born, a little boy, into the world three weeks ahead of schedule. He ended up spending about five days in the NICU, but we joked that Luke was the healthiest baby there. He’s now almost three months old and on his way to becoming quite the chunk. He’s way outpaced where Bo was at three months.

August was my month of travelling. A day trip up to Chicago, a long weekend in Door County, Wisconsin with roundandround2 and her kids, and a vacation in the Smoky Mountains with friends (while I wasn’t overly impressed with either Gatlinburg or Pigeon Forge themselves, the mountains were beautiful and I can’t wait to go back), and an extended family trip to a lake in northern Indiana. I am glad to be home and am looking for to a day without anything to do. I was planning on using the day to take out all of my dead summer flowers and plant my fall mums, but the forecast calls for rain all day. I guess that means that I’m going to have to stay in bed and lounge around the house. Darn it. :)

So nudge accepted, the prodigal journaler is back and if I still have any friends, Hi! I’m back.

Why?!?

Tue, 20 May 2008 20:26:57 GMT

If there was one word I could erase from the English language right now, it would be why. Completely remove it from the dictionary. I realize that it will case problems for normal conversation, but I feel it’s a small price to pay to keep my sanity.

Bo is so in the middle of the toddler “why phase” and if I hear that word again, I’m going to scream. I swear I hear it 300 times a day, and that is with me working full-time and with Bo in day care. And he's so serious every time he asks. The problem is he's always asking it.

Knocking on Wood

Thu, 15 May 2008 15:55:57 GMT

I’ve been afraid to even say this out loud, much less write it down and make it real, but I think the time has come to put it out there.

Bo is now potty trained. Quick, knock on wood.

Don't ask me how that happened, because I really couldn't tell you. One Sunday, he's refusing to even sit on his potty, by Tuesday, I picked him up at day care and was told he had peed every time he was on the toilet, by Friday he was telling us when he had to go, and by the next Sunday he was in underwear. That was two weeks ago, and the only accidents so far include when he was at my mom's house and Bo was having too much fun to stop playing, stuck his hands in some water, and I guess you can figure out the rest. :) The second one was Tuesday when he was with GB’s dad at their house, he told Grandpa he had to go to the potty and my father-in-law ran around looking for the potty seat instead of just sticking Bo on the toilet and holding him. Needless to say, he looked too long.

Rookie Mistake.

Happy Birthday to Me!

Thu, 15 May 2008 15:39:08 GMT

I've had a Mother's Day/Birthday party with GB, Bo, my mom, brother, and sister-in-law last Sunday, dinner out with some friends last night, lunch with another friend who shares my birthday today, a steak dinner cooked by GB tonight, dinner with my Dad and his wife on Friday, and the celebration with GB’s family on Sunday. I'm going to be very sick of cake by the end of the week. :)

So Tuesday night I was talking with Bo at breakfast explaining to him that I wouldn’t see him that night as he was spending the day with his Grandpa and I was going out to dinner with some friends to celebrate my birthday. He thought about it, then looked at me and said, “Mommy, when is your birthday going to be done?” This coming from a boy whose first birthday celebration was on April 5 and the last on May 2.

I Think I'm Losing My Mind

Fri, 09 May 2008 18:32:54 GMT

So here’s how my week has been.

GB and I stopped by the local rec center to get information on swimming lessons for Bo this summer and made the mistake of taking him with us. Now the outdoor pool doesn’t open for another two weeks, and while there is an indoor pool, we don’t have time to take him until Memorial Day Weekend and a three-year-old has no concept of time. I am now subjected to the constant question: “Is the pool open yet?” And I do mean constant. Major tactical parenting mistake.

I had been operating under the assumption that GB and I were hosting a Mother’s Day/Birthday cookout for my mom, brother, and sister-in-law this weekend. When I got to work on Monday, there was an e-mail from my brother, asking if we were still a go for the party at his house Sunday. O_o I look back over the e-mails we sent and sure enough, there it is plain as day: an e-mail from him saying they would be happy to host the party at their house. How in the world I translated that into my house, I’ve yet to figure out.

I walked into my polling place Tuesday morning to vote in my first ever Primary. Indiana has an open primary which means you don’t have to be a registered Democrat or Republican to vote, you just go in and request one ballot or the other. You then pick up either a blue square with a big D on it or a green square with a big R to take to the poll worker setting up the voting machine. I requested a Democrat ballot and was told to pick up a blue card and I sat there for a minute looking at the two squares confused, because for some reason, my mind was telling me to pick up a green one, but that one had an R and I don’t want R, I want D. The woman behind the table finally looked at me with a smile and said, “It’s the one with the D.” I just started laughing, as there was absolutely nothing I could say that would make me seem smart at this point. To top everything off, it turns out one of the poll workers is a neighbor that I didn’t recognize out of context.

I started an e-mail to a colleague a couple of days ago and as it was the end of the day and wasn’t finished with it, I saved it to my Drafts folder. I’ve since spent the last two days wondering why this person hasn’t responded to an email that I never sent.

I sent e-mails out to my mother, mother-in-law, and aunt-in-law to schedule our monthly scrapbooking/craft session for June, with the information that I could get together on the 22^nd, but the 28^th wouldn’t work because the 2009 Homeward Bound Walk (that is a fund-raising event for work) might be scheduled on that date. I was legitimately concerned about this possible conflict. In 2009. And no one corrected me or said WTF are you talking about.

I so need a vacation.

How You Know You Have a Toddler in the House

Wed, 16 Apr 2008 20:41:00 GMT

Four ways to be sure that there is a toddler in your house.

1. You are not opposed to any form of bribery.
2. There is a jar full of M&Ms on the back of the toilet and a large sticker chart next to it.
3. The Resolve carpet cleaner and Clorox Bleach Spray is left out on the counter for easy access.
4. You post with all seriousness and excitement:

Bo peed in the potty this morning for the first time!!!!!!!

My son will not go to kindergarten in diapers!

Pacifiers vs. Screwdrivers

Thu, 20 Mar 2008 20:07:30 GMT

Guess who showed up at our house last night?

The Pacifier Fairy!!!!!!!!!!

That’s right, last night at around 8:30 p.m., Bo decided to that the time has come to let go of his precious “Fis” and have the “pacifier lady” come and leave him a present. And then what do I do, but ask him what he’d like the pacifier fairy to bring him. Never mind, that I have had a small Cars tool box for him since Christmas, not to mention the fact that it is 8:30 p.m. and I’m home alone, so I can’t leave to get anything he asks for anyway. So, you ask, what did Bo ask for in exchange for his beloved pacifier? Screwdrivers. Big screwdrivers just like Daddy. And a hammer and a wrench. I’m not kidding you. He wanted actual tools.

So what do we do? Put two screwdrivers in his toolbox. (GB wanted him to start learning the difference between a flathead and a Phillips screwdriver.) And begin the lectures about how you can only use these with Mommy and Daddy and how you have to be careful around people and furniture. And his response? “Where’s the hammer and wrench?” I swear my head almost hit the desk.

We actually gave our three year old screwdrivers as a present. Are we out of our mind? Please don't answer that question. I'm afraid I already know.

Democrats in Indiana?

Tue, 18 Mar 2008 20:34:59 GMT

There are strange happenings going on around here. I’d even hazard a guess that hell may actually have frozen over. Democrats are campaigning here in Indiana. Barack Obama was actually in my town just this past weekend (although I didn’t get to go) and Bill and Hillary Clinton are making several stops around the state in the next couple of weeks.

For a blue voter who has lived in a very red county in a red state for many years, this is somewhat of a new experience for me. I’ve actually never voted in a primary election before. The presidential races were always decided long before May and I’ve never cared enough about local politics to vote for the nominee. But all bets are off this year and it looks like I may actually get to have a say in the presidential candidate. Now if I could just decide which one I want to vote for.

The Coolest Thing Ever

Mon, 10 Mar 2008 19:24:41 GMT

I’m not a sewer. I don’t even play one on TV. I’m also 5 foot 3 inches on a good day, which means I can never find pants that fit me. Petites are too short, regular too long, and Short too hard to find. So my options end up being. 1. Pay to have them altered; 2. Wear pants that are too long for me, or 3. Just do a half-ass job myself of hemming them myself. And I can tell you that number one doesn’t happen nearly as often as it should.

But not anymore. I’ve found the best thing ever. Fabric glue. : ) We bought it at Christmas to cover some plywood with felt for Bo’s train set, and I finally sat down this weekend to try it on my pants. It was so easy. No pins, no thread showing, no cutting. Now we just have to see how many washes it can hold up to.

And yes, I know I am both cheap and lazy. So be it.

Winter Crap

Wed, 05 Mar 2008 21:21:16 GMT

I hate this time of year. I’m so ready for spring. Getting dressed every morning is a chore because I can’t stand my winter clothes anymore. I just want sunny days and warm weather. I’m sick of the beautiful one day, snowing the next. And I’m not exaggerating. Sunday was a beautiful, sunny day with temperatures in the 60s. And then last night I’m driving home in an ice storm. Bleh! Indiana weather sucks!

UPDATE 3/10/08
I was talking with my boss and realized that I have to take back this post. I complained too early about the weather. Indiana always has bad weather during the high school basketball tournament. Always. And guess what started last week. So now I have to apologize for the whiny post (GB told me it was really, really whiny.) and just suck it up for the next couple of weeks.

The Things You Do For Your Kids

Thu, 28 Feb 2008 21:30:13 GMT

I can’t believe I’ve done this. Even I think I’m nuts. But Bo’s third birthday is coming up at the beginning of April and since we’ve had a lot of family birthdays lately, birthdays are on his mind. So one day on the way home form day care we started talking about birthday cakes and what he’d like. His answer: black cake, with black icing, a lot of sprinkles, and Caillou and Rosie on top. Now the chocolate cake with chocolate icing—no problem. Sprinkles, I’ve got plenty. But the problem with having your kid fall in love with one of the more obscure children’s shows on PBS means that I can’t run down to the bakery or party store to pick of Caillou stuff. So I did what any normal person would do and hit the Internet. And I did find Caillou party supplies, even a Caillou cake topper. But Bo doesn’t want just Caillou, he wants Caillou and his little sister Rosie. So I went back to the Internet and turned to the place where all obscure things go to be sold—eBay. And that’s when common sense seems to have left me. I saw these figures for sale:

and could just see them sitting on top of Bo’s birthday cake and how excited he’d be. So I bid. And was outbid. So I bid again. And then I talked with GB who thought I was nuts, but said that $15 would be as much as we should probably pay. So I bid $15. And was outbid by 50 cents. Which just made me mad. So I bid $16. And was outbid by 50 cents. Which ticked me off again and so I bid $20. Then I sat there thinking, “GB is going to kill me. I just bid basically $25 for a toy figure to put on Bo’s birthday cake.” But I won! And I didn’t even have to pay the full $20. And I can’t wait to see Bo’s face when he sees his birthday cake.

eBay is now banned from my web browser. Apparently I can’t deal with auctions. :)

p.s. Yes I know it’s been awhile since I’ve posted. A long while. It all kind of built up thinking that to get back into journaling I’d have to post this really long post catching up with everything I didn’t write about since before Christmas, which of course, kept getting bigger and bigger. So I said screw it, and just jumped back into the pool. My plan is to go back and add posts, but I wouldn’t hold your breath waiting for it to happen.

Winter Wonderland

Wed, 19 Dec 2007 21:22:35 GMT

What a December. I can’t believe Christmas is less than a week away. It’s turned into a crazy month. I was so proud of myself in that 90% of my Christmas shopping was done at the beginning of the month. But time raced by, and now I find myself with presents that need to be wrapped, cookies that need to be baked and the last few gifts to be purchased. I hate it when Christmas falls at the beginning of the week. It always seems to me as if we lose valuable preparation time. Then again, I’m not exactly know for much planning ahead, so even if it fell on Friday, I’d still be procrastinating on this stuff. But GB just called and he’s now off until January 2, the twit. I really hate it when he’s off and I still have two more days of work. So, I’m putting him to work.

We’ve had a lot of fun with Bo this month. Indianapolis has had two snow storms and Bo has gotten to build his first snowman (or more accurately supervise the building of his first snowman, as I did most of the work). Last weekend we headed over to GB’s aunt and uncle’s farm for a bit of sledding. Bo even helped us shovel the driveway on Sunday. Well, not so much helped, but pushed snow around with his little shovel. I thought asking him to clear of the front steps would be a good way of keeping him out of GB and my way, but that only worked until he fell off the step and into a snow drift. Which would have been funny if I hadn’t done the exact same thing not 10 minutes later. So there you go, there is some of my genes in him after all. Bo took great pleasure in being like me reminding me for the rest of the day that he fell of the stair, “just like Mommy.”

I’m really looking forward to Christmas morning this year. The difference between a kid waiting for Santa who is a year and a half old and one who is two and a half is like night and day. Of course some of this may come from the M&Ms he’s getting everyday from his advent calendar (God help us all on Dec. 26) but he really seems to get the concept that Santa is bringing him presents this year. It’s really amazing how having a kid around for Christmas brings the magic back. I’m so excited to see his face on Christmas morning when he sees the train set that Santa brings him. I’m actually wondering how in the world we are going to get him to open his other presents.

Holiday Rip-Off

Mon, 10 Dec 2007 16:54:55 GMT

Last year I bough a picture frame specifically for pictures with Santa. It is only out during the Holiday decoration time, and the only picture in it is Santa and Bo from last year. We had gone to a little “Santa House” put on by one of the local service clubs as we figured the low key atmosphere would be better for Bo. This year we took Santa to a place in a nearby town, but unfortunately they gave out Polaroid pictures, which not only don’t fit in the frame I have, but don’t scan worth a darn. So I’ve been meaning to take Bo back to the place we went last year to “remind” Santa what he asked for. And to get a 4x6 picture to put in my frame. :)

GB, Bo and I went out for dinner Saturday at the outdoor mall nearby. It’s a rather upscale mall, so as we were waiting to be seated, we thought it might be neat to look into the Santa they had there and see if they gave out regular pictures. I ran out while GB and Bo stayed at the restaurant. The line to see Santa was out the door. I finally found someone who worked there who gave me a price list. This isn’t a picture with Santa, it’s a freaking photo shoot! The cheapest picture you can buy is a $16 5x7. That’s package 11. Package 1 is six 5x7s, four 3 ½ x 5s, and eight wallets. All for the low, low price of $60.

My jaw hit the ground. It’s a photo with Santa for heaven’s sake. I don’t spend that much on actual family pictures. And who in the world needs six 5x7s with Santa and their kid. All I’m saying is that better be one damn good Santa in there.

Needless to say, we’ll be going back to Santa’s House next to the Kroger’s this week where $6 will get you a nice 4x6 of Santa with Bo.

A Technology Goddess

Tue, 27 Nov 2007 21:19:16 GMT

The Thursday before Thanksgiving our DVR broke. Dead. We’d been having problems with it freezing but that morning, we got nothing but a horrible grinding noise as we tried to start it up. After a brief mourning period for the three Grey’s Anatomy’s that I hadn’t yet watched, I realized we had a bigger problem. See, GB and I have lived most of our lives without being able to call up shows on demand and rewinding TV to see something again and again. Our son, however, has not. And he didn’t quite understand why he couldn’t watch the funny story about the squirrel coming in through the doggie door that was on the news again and again and again. How do you explain to a 2 ½ year old that in real life, you can’t rewind TV. And don’t even get me started on how much I hated relying on a VCR again, or how miserably I failed at setting it up to tape last week’s Grey’s Anatomy. It does make me sad to realize how dependent we’ve gotten on technology. (At the same time I am cursing technology, I’m also praising it for bringing us TV on the internet.)

The death of our DVR sent us into a major quandary. I had already determined that I couldn’t live without a DVR, but I am cheap and the ReplayTV that we had was an older model that doesn’t have any monthly or yearly or lifetime programming fees. I really don’t want to pay for that, which meant that buying most new or used DVR was not an option. Our other option was to go to Comcast and rent one of theirs, but this would have meant an additional $30 added onto our cable bill each month--$12 for the actual DVR and the rest to upgrade to the middle tier of their digital cable packages because the DVR isn’t offered with the lowest tier. Have I ever mentioned how much I hate Comcast?

But thanks to the help of tergivers8and the Internet, I found a company that sold new hard drives for only $60 and no shipping charges. They promised that ANYONE could change out the hard drive and guess what? They were right! I did it! I changed the hard drive and we now have a working DVR again, which means I no longer have to watch the same six episodes of Caillou over and over again. I swear, GB and I almost brought out the new Caillou DVD we bought Bo for Christmas, just to give us a change of pace. You know your kid is watching too much of the same thing when he’s repeating the dialogue word for word.

So, this bird walks into a store....

Tue, 27 Nov 2007 13:52:10 GMT

My mom sent me this in an e-mail this morning, and it's hysterical. I couldn't get the e-mail to copy in LJ, so I found it on YouTube. Finally a forwarded e-mail worth preserving.

Such Talent!

Thu, 15 Nov 2007 16:53:04 GMT

Last night as GB and Bo were setting the table for dinner, Bo amazed us with a new talent. We aren't sure where he received his training, but we are very proud of him and are looking forward to being supported in retirement.

Bo's New Talent

What was I thinking?

Mon, 12 Nov 2007 20:55:26 GMT

I must be insane. GB and I dropped Bo off at his grandparents’ house yesterday afternoon and headed down to Toys R Us to do some Christmas shopping. We had an idea of what we wanted, but were also looking for anything that just jumped out at us as a perfect gift for Bo. And we did pretty well. We found most of what we were looking for and also found a couple of gifts we weren’t expecting to.

Including this…

Yes, not only a drum, but cymbals as well. The only thing that makes this worthwhile is how much Bo is going to absolutely LOVE this. We were over at a friend’s house for dinner this weekend and he had a drum set. Bo sat there forever banging on the drums with this huge smile on his face.

Go ahead and bring on the straight jacket. I have a feeling I’m going to need it next month.

STRESSED!!!!

Thu, 08 Nov 2007 17:15:46 GMT

Could my life be any more stressful? (Actually, I can’t believe I wrote that as now I’m sure it will be.) I am up to my eyeballs at work trying to manage three different events in four days. Thankfully the two that are this evening are almost over, and I am fully in charge of one of them, and the other I just have to set up for and pass the reigns off to our board members. Next Tuesday, however, is our main fund raising event and that will be taking most of my time the next few days, so my entries and comments will be sparse. And I’m sure that everyone will notice as they have been so numerous lately. Ugh.

And as if this wasn’t stressful enough, I have just come down with laryngitis. Yes, that’s right. I have no voice. None at all. With three events coming up, two of which I am supposed to run the registration table for, I have no voice. I called my doctor and they said, oh well, drink lots of fluids, suck on throat lozenges and don’t talk. Yeah, right. The only funny thing about the whole situation is that when I talk to Bo in my raspy, non-existent voice, he always answers me back in a whisper.

So, wish me luck and I’ll see you all on the other side.

Happy Halloween

Thu, 01 Nov 2007 20:01:31 GMT

Or at least Happy All Saints Day since it is actually November 1. We had such fun last night. This was the first year that Bo really got into Trick or Treating. He went to a couple of houses last year, but this year he understood what was happing. Walk up to a house, be cute, and they hand you candy. And Mom and Dad let you eat it.

On Tuesday night GB, Bo and I carved one of the pumpkins. I hadn’t done that since I was little and the reasons why came back. I really hate cleaning out pumpkins. But GB, being the trooper he is, agreed to clean out the pumpkin if I’d do the carving. Things we’ll do differently next year: 1. Clean the pumpkin before calling Bo over to help carve it. It takes longer than you think and toddlers aren’t patient. And 2. Cut a larger hole on top than you think you’ll need.

Checking out the inside

Helping to cut out the eyes

Finished Product

Bo was a lion for Halloween. The weather cooperated and was sufficiently cold for Bo to wear his costume with jeans and long sleeves under it (it was really itchy without them) but not so cold that he had to wear a coat over it. He was out much longer than I expected him to be. GB and I figured he’d make it to five or six houses, but he made it halfway down our street and back before giving up the ghost. (Pun included.) What amazed me was that even at two, the first thing he did when he got back was dump his candy on the table and admire his haul.

My Fierce Lion

Inspecting the Loot

It brought back lots of memories.

MeMe

Mon, 29 Oct 2007 20:46:50 GMT

Tagged by roundandround2

1. Who eats more? He does at a single sitting, but I’m much more of a grazer, so it’s kind of hard to say for sure.
2. Who said “I love you” first? I did.
3. Who is the morning person? I’m not sure either of us are really morning people, but he’s much more pleasant to be around, and gets more done before leaving for work than I do.
4. Who sings better? Me, Although GB’s not as bad as he thinks he is.
5. Who’s older? GB, by just over a year.
6. Who’s smarter? Me, if you are going by school grades and SAT scores.
7. Whose temper is worse? Mine, I’m much more moody and more likely to get angry than he is.
8. Who does the laundry? I used to do it almost exclusively, but then GB started working from home at least once a week and will through loads in between meetings.
9. Who does the dishes? Mostly GB, because he’s often avoiding a cranky toddler.
10. Who sleeps on the right side of the bed? He does, as you are looking at the bed from the foot of it.
11. Whose feet are bigger? His are, but not by much. I can wear his tennis shoes in a pinch.
12. Whose hair is longer? Mine. :)
13. Who’s better with the computer? Me. GB really doesn’t like them much.
14. Do you have pets? Yes
15. Who pays the bills? Mostly me, but they are all online, so it’s not saying much.
16. Who cooks dinner? Mostly me, which is also why the answer to number nine is the way it is.
17. Who drives when you are together? He does, almost always.
18. Who pays when you go out to dinner? He does, but I thought a benefit of getting married was not having to carry a purse all the time. :)
19. Who’s the most stubborn? He is, but in an annoying, not realizing he’s not budging at all sort of way.
20. Who is the first one to admit when they’re wrong? We’re never wrong. :)
21. Whose family do you see more? His, mainly because they go to our church.
22. Who named your pet? She came named.
23. Who kissed who first? He kissed me.
24. Who asked who out? He asked me out after we met at a party that a mutual friend set up for said purpose.
25. What did you do on your first date? Went out to dinner and to see a movie.
26. Who’s more sensitive? Me. GB is pretty even keeled.
27. Who’s taller? He is, but not by a whole lot.
28. Who has more friends? Since most of our friends are mutual now, it’s hard to say, but he had more friends throughout high school and college.
29. Who has more siblings? I have 2 brothers, he just has 1.
30. Who wears the pants in the relationship? I like to think we’re each wearing one leg.