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March 31, 2008

Very Random and Pointless Observations from Today
-When stirring pasta in an oh-so-slightly ridged-bottomed pan, it sounded almost exactly like the TARDIS taking off. It reminded me that there are still a couple seasons to queue up.

-Big. Freaking. Opossum. Huge! On my walk tonight. The only other mammals we've seen in the immediate area are cats, dogs, and mice that the cats have, erm, dispatched, so you might imagine my surpise as it lumbered across the darkened sidewalk in front of me.

-Our DVR has a personal problem with Mansfield Park. The first time the program aired, the machine completely ignored it, no error message, nothing. It did record the re-airing... at least the picture. The sound, it cut out five minutes in.
03/31/08 10:59 PM |  Comments


March 30, 2008

Things That Fly
The wind was perfect and the sun was shining, so Daniel flew his first kite today. Just a Gayla plastic dealie, but it flew really easy, which made it all that much more fun and less potentially exasperating for one who is a little too quick to fuss lately.

We gave him his choice from the small display at our KB outlet. How happy was I that he pooed the licensed character stuff and went for one of the birds (a bald eagle)? Pretty chuffed. It would be nice to get something a little sturdier, eventually; we may have to take a little drive to Bodega Bay (and now that I've seen The Birds, I kind of want to see the schoolhouse, too).

Did you know there's an American Kitefliers Association? I did not.
03/30/08 10:44 PM |  Comments


March 29, 2008

Dorks 'r Us
Ha! Clip on sunglasses. I now have them. So chic, that's me. But they work, and will make driving a hell of a lot safer for the next few weeks.

Maybe I can get these sometime after I get zapped.
03/29/08 09:46 PM |  Comments


March 28, 2008

Dagnabbit
I missed a day! We watched I Am Legend until late last night, and I just completely forgot about posting. Anyone who's still around probably knows my pet genre is postapocalyptic/dystopian, so I may get a little brainhyper when I get my hands on a blockbuster, especially starring someone I love to watch (squee).

Sooooo. I have to make an appointment (haven't quite nailed down my choice of practice yet), but I'm going to get LASIK. Or preferably bladeless IntraLase if that turns out to be not awfully cost-prohibitive. The pain of it currently is that, since I've been using soft contacts for about twenty years, I've got to stop wearing them a few weeks in advance, because they change the corneal shape. Which makes me wish I'd decided to do this in December -- I don't have prescription sunglasses, and driving around during the day HURTS like a mofo now that it's sunny. I'm a temporary vampire.

Luckily temporary vampires can still enjoy garlic.

Before I forget, here are some easy printable dolls for Karyn and co.
03/28/08 08:32 PM |  Comments


March 26, 2008

Little Paper Amusements
I think some of you might still be snowbound, so here's a handful of my favorite recent printable goodies. If I can get the printer to play ball, I want to do the skull (myself) and the cat (with the bub) today.

Ceiling Cat
Connect the Skull (pdf)
NaniBird
Sasatoku
03/26/08 12:26 PM |  Comments


March 25, 2008

haikuku
midnight drawing near
eyes burn like one thousand suns
so here is a link
03/25/08 11:35 PM |  Comments


March 24, 2008

Strangeness
It was kind of a weird day.

Around noon, I glanced at my Google Desktop, and it was displaying a temp of 89°. Errr... no. No way. Went outside. 65, tops. Then I checked out Wunderground, and it was reporting 85°. I checked the temp a half hour, maybe hour later, and it was reading back in the 60's where it very clearly belonged. What makes it weirder is that the Wunderground data comes from a Personal Weather Station a few blocks away, and I'm pretty sure Google's doesn't. Just strange.

Then I opened my mailbox to find an issue of Domino. Not that I have anything against it, really, but it's not something I would pay for, even just one issue. At least it didn't remain a mystery long -- I remembered that, aeons ago, I made an Amazon order and was offered a "Free Subscription!" to my choice of one of about five publications. Oh! Duh. I never would've remembered it on my own.

We made a trip to Longs before dinner. The bub went up the aisle a bit, out of our sight, and we heard a dull, sickening THUD, and exclamations of surprise/fear/concern. My heart went into my throat for the few seconds it took to find the bub, safe and sound. Apparently an older gentleman, while waiting at the pharmacy, just toppled straight backward with no warning. The paramedics arrived impressively fast, and the fire truck shortly after. I hope he's okay.
03/24/08 09:25 PM |  Comments


March 23, 2008

Hop Hop Hippity Hop
I hope you had a nice Easter day! We spent our third fine, sunny year ushering in a new spring (fittingly) up at Spring Lake. The bub loves it.
03/23/08 08:22 PM |  Comments


March 22, 2008

Thanks, Easter Bunny
Neat people like Marielle, Whitney, and Spring talk about Keen shoes, so I gathered they must be something special. But they tend to run pricey, and I'm on more of a Mervyn's/Kohl's (*cough*Payless*cough*) shoe budget. Which doesn't fuss me, much.

Thanks to the wonder that is eBay (cherubim singing, light from above, etc.), I managed to snag a pair of returned Amsterdams for 35% retail. I wore them for the first time today, on an impromptu trip to the Sierra foothills.

Long warm-footed car ride? Yup. Crowded Sacramento IKEA slog? Uh-huh. Grocery shopping? Yessiree. Not one moment of breaking-in -- it's as if the things were made for my very own (wide-ish) tootsies. I could walk forever. Woohoo!

Now I just need a couple more pairs of kicky socks to peek out for these sometimes chilly springtime days.
03/22/08 09:00 PM |  Comments


March 18, 2008

Photo Week
I'm bored, so I'm thinking this will be a week of photoblogging. I started yesterday.
03/18/08 10:42 AM |  Comments


March 16, 2008

Sing heigh-ho
I'm fevery (again!) and just... tired. Bone tired. Very much done with today, and its friends the week previous and the month prior to that. So you probably won't mind too much if I put on flannel jammies and read my book (which I received as an Advance Copy months ago, and dropped the ball on that review, too; The Suck, that be me), instead of sitting here for another half hour trying to force myself to bang out.

But on review, this entry might already hold as much intelligible content as any other, huh?
03/16/08 10:00 PM |  Comments


March 15, 2008

Social Site Synchronization Saturday
If you Twitter, and use Facebook, there's no need to post separate status updates to both. The TwitterSync application will automatically update your FB status to reflect your latest post on Twitter. I've been using it for weeks, and have yet to lose a single Tweet.
03/15/08 07:18 AM |  Comments


March 14, 2008

Freaking Fantastic Felted Fisher-Price Friday (!!!)
Check out this ginormous, entirely needle felted version of the classic Fisher-Price Little People dog! That's dedication, right there.
03/14/08 05:30 PM |  Comments


March 13, 2008

And Some Things I Have Been Wondering
-Why people here seem to have a thing against sidewalks. We don't have places to walk to, but damn if we haven't got the best sidewalks! Wide, flat, everywhere. So why walk down the middle of the street? Sometimes three abreast, with dogs? For the love of vehicular safety, why???

-Is Jericho coming back? Well, is it?

-Why bring chocolate pudding to school on 3-year-old Picture Day? Hmmm?

-Why "if you write it, they will come" no longer applies. I must be more boring-er. Or I'm consuming too much garlic.

-Why the flak from other hardcore fans? It wasn't that bad. Really.
03/13/08 09:48 AM |  Comments


March 12, 2008

Some Things I Have Been Doing
-Taking garlic caps. They're supposed to be good for sinuses (among other things). Upped the vitamin C for the same reason. Trying to sleep more, and drink more water. Still rinsing nose religiously. Outlook better.

-Swearing in the kitchen. Lesson learned -- never, NEVER use a brand-new recipe when time is of the essence. If you must, have 48 pre-made cookie dough balls on hand just in case. I still can't believe I had to throw away cookies today, they were that bad.

-Revisiting Serenity. We don't get SciFi in Petaluma (WTH?), but no worries, because I have the series on DVD (a rarity for me).

-Walking again, now that I can stand without wobbling. I got bored with my music; a sharp, emotional, but not terribly demanding audiobook is just the motivator I needed.

-Getting the smackdown at Scramble. Clearly this is not my game, but I'm having so much fun playing that I don't really care.
03/12/08 10:52 PM |  Comments


March 11, 2008

Copacetic
A little server hiccup, and no post yesterday. Oops. Still, though, I'm not doing too badly, keeping up, huh? I'm not sure how the whole "quantity over quality" thing pans out for you, reader, but at least it's keeping me more or less in the habit.

Today is picture day, and -- Bad Mommy Moment -- I've ibuprofen-ed up my low-grade-fevered (but otherwise symptomless) child enough that he could comfortably go, because he was so excited about it, and I just couldn't stand for him to miss another special day that he'd been looking forward to. My grandma sent him a little dress outfit for Christmas, shirt and vest and cords, and he looked adorable, if a bit disheveled. I hope he cooperates, and I can show you the results in the next week or so.

Thursday is his "Special Day" at school; children whose birthdays fall in the summer get their own day sometime during the rest of the year. Which basically means forty-eight treats for Mommy to bake. Whee! After much searching around town, I finally found a small shamrock-shaped cookie cutter, so I'm making orange and chocolate chip cutouts from Karmel's First Meals.

Well, guess I'd better get going to pickup a little early. I was forced to park illegally at the Community Center this morning because of some kind of huge conference hoohah. I haven't had any kind of ticket in ten years, and I'm not about to start now, if it can be helped!
03/11/08 11:19 AM |  Comments


March 09, 2008

Bird-o-Rama
Today was made for a trip to Shollenberger Park. We saw most of the usual suspects: mallards, red-wing blackbirds, gulls, house sparrows, Canada geese, and American coots. No egrets, though, and we really weren't on the right side of the pond to see sandpipers. Saw a small rodent (pocket gopher?) on the trail, which I suppose isn't enough to draw the turkey vultures (we've seen them on the trails once before, mid-snack, rather gruesome).
03/09/08 08:22 PM |  Comments


March 08, 2008

Oot and Aboot
Goodness, it was nice to get out and play a little bit today -- to finally feel like doing it. We went up to Howarth Park, rode the train, let the bub blow off some steam in the bouncy hut, and checked out the impressive new playscape.

That intensity of crowd and chaos always makes me nervous, though. The bub is zippy, and I step into controlled ulcer mode the second he slips out of my line of sight. Maybe I need to dress him in blaze orange next time...
03/08/08 10:48 PM |  Comments


March 07, 2008

Breakfast Follies
Throughout its 150-year history, Petaluma has taken its chickens pretty seriously.

And then, sometimes not so much.
03/07/08 10:36 PM |  Comments


March 06, 2008

A Small Blurb in Which I Confess...
...that my Dr. Dorian ardor ain't what it used to be. Well, that, and show news. Sort of. Maybe.

Eh.
03/06/08 11:17 PM |  Comments


March 05, 2008

3 Years
The bub had his three-year checkup today. I know -- quite a bit late. Do you realize that he's had a different physician every year since birth? That's stressful, to everyone. I put it off, even though I shouldn't.

He behaved like a true little monster, but the pediatrician could've also held a degree in child psychology, and managed to get him to come around to take all the tests. He's riding the average line in height and weight, looks excellent physically, mentally, and chemically, and outperformed me on the vision test ("not me!" said The LASIK-ed One). And there are no immunizations at three, phew.

While he was still in big bad fit-throwing mode, I had to hold/strongarm Squirmyfits McSpazzerson on the scale, and face my own weight as tare at eye level. And that little demonic FYI will be whipping me to new walking frenzies... well, as soon as I'm finished hacking up the rest of my left lung.
03/05/08 11:03 PM |  Comments


March 04, 2008

Almost Time for Eggses
I don't know if I'm going to try natural dyes this year or not. I know I said last year that I might, but at the moment I have all the energy of overcooked linguine, so the gathering of stuff seems like a huge overexpenditure.
03/04/08 08:53 PM |  Comments


March 03, 2008

The Nose Knows
Well, I'm washed out, shaky on my sticks and still hacking, but I've managed to make it since 3 a.m. without drugs or a high fever. And, you know what? My nose has never felt this good at the end of the flu. Never. Usually the secondary sinus infection would be kicking my butt. But I've been faithfully rinsing, three times a day, since Saturday, and I can BREATHE. Through my nose! There's still a little pressure and drainage, but nothing I've needed to drug up to survive through.

And it's not bad to do, the rinsing. I've actually begun to look forward to it, because my passages feel so cool and refreshed after. The NeilMed solution doesn't burn at all, not like my homemade stuff did with the Waterpik adapter.

So I'm almost believing that, as testified time and again, I'll cut down drastically on sinus problems if I'm habitual about rinsing. Woo!

*knock on wood*
03/03/08 08:43 PM |  Comments


March 02, 2008

Hanging On
There's a small post here.
03/02/08 04:47 PM |  Comments


March 01, 2008

Rinse Your Troubles Away
I'm sure you're sick of hearing about it; I'm certainly sick of living it! My sinus issues keep ramping up -- excruciating pain, tenacious fevers, vomiting -- just like they did ten years ago. Or, pre-surgery. And, just like last time, I'm sinking into depression, because I know I can count on feeling like utter death once or twice a month. I'll go under the knife again if I have to, but of course I'd rather avoid it if possible. So I've been revisiting some alternative self-treatment options.

I tried nasal irrigation before, with an old Waterpik, but it was horrible. Horrible! Ow. But, based on exclusively positive reviews and personal recommendations, I'm going to give NeilMed's pressure Sinus Rinse a real try, even if it skeeves me out (it does). Here's hoping!
03/01/08 02:59 PM |  Comments