Atropa Belladonna|
2002 - All entries (There aren't many.) |
| Fri, Dec 28, 2007 (1:05pm) What I've been doing instead of weblog updates. A photo essay, by La.  
 
And if you feel like tilting your head to the left (or just closing your eyes), there's also a clip on Jasen singing his Christmas version of "Gummy Bears". |
| Fri, Feb 29, 2008 (2:35pm) Today is Feb 29! Yay! I love Leap Years. Well, not the whole year, per se, just the day which makes it special. It feels like sneaking in another day against the wishes of the cosmos. I was even hoping that my youngest would be born on Feb 29th. Alas, due to circumstances beyond my control he was born on Feb 26th. In my mind, though, he's still sort-of a Leap-Year baby. I was even thinking of throwing a big party for him this year, with the 29th being a Friday, and celebrating his birthday in style. As it turns out, we celebrated Jasen's 4th birthday last Friday (Yay Jasen!!!) so we could host another party at our place tonight: Vagabond Elf is celebrating his 8th birthday today. Yay ELF!!! He's a true Leap Year baby, and I am happy to be party to his partying. Also - comments added to the Wed Feb 27 entry |
| Wed, Feb 27, 2008 (1:15pm) My mom, in her magnificent maternal style, has decided to participate in my declining productivity by encouraging me to get hooked on another online game: Tribal Wars. I'm not copletely sold on it yet - the interface is less than intuitive, and online instruction is somewhat lacking - but it show potential to be a huge time suck. I'm glad my mom is looking out for me. |
| Comment added Fri, Feb 29, 2008 (2:35pm) Mom made this public comment: Comments : With you looking after your own village it will only be half as much of a time drain for me :P Ah, yes. This is the real reason my Mom wants me to play Tribal Wars: so she doesn't have to account-sit my village. It's all part of growing up, you see... For 20 years she fed and clothed me, and for 5 years after that she kept looking out for me, making sure I didn't starve to death while living on a below-subsitance income with several roomates, all going to university. And after that, she helped me with the wedding dress, kept me sane through those early years of learning not to kill the person you love, and then even more so with the kids (insert a whole lot more 'learning not to kill the ones you love') and lots of babysitting, and shoulders to lean on, and so much more. Now, she deosnstrates her maternal devotion by playing online games for me (at the expense of her own online time, no less)! She's a wonderful Mom, and she does it all because she loves her kids (and wouldn't want them to suffer the distress of a conquered virtual village). Oh - and also that she'll have more time to play her own video games, once us kids grow up and can hold our own against the ravaging hordes on the internet. I love you too, Mom ;) |
| Thurs, Feb 21, 2008 (8:15pm) I'm happy today - I burned CDs of my Australia photos, got a bunch printed, and even uploaded some to FaceBook. Before I toss them on my weblog, though, there's another bunch of photos which have been hanging in limo, waiting to be posted. So, in the interest of chronological continuity, I shall present those earlier photos first. I give you: Our party for the death of the Old Year was held, as usual, on January 1st of the New Year. This was the first Wake in over a decade which was not publicized by handing out invitations at LRPS... because this was also the wake for the Death of LRPS. Not to mention that I haven't been attending Thursday gathering much, since Shades started doing his martial arts on Thursdays, and I moved my night out to Tuesday. Ah, well. I'd been concerned that not very many people would come. Hm... not "concerned" precisely. More... expecting. Maybe even looking forward to a calmer celebration than has been done in the past. As such, I baked fewer pizza doughs, bought less munchies, and didn't prepare as elaborately as I sometimes have. I needn't have worried. People showed up (including people who hadn't been around since last year's Wake), and made pizzas and played games, and generally had a good time with very little prompting. The final stats looked something like this: Total attendees: 50, I think. Most at one time: 49. I counted just before the Elegy. Pizzas consumed: 18 Party wound down at 4:30 am. I person stayed overnight. Last guest left at noon on Jan 2. Highlights: Corset twister, Masterthief, Death of LRPS. Invasion by Pirates. Normally after the Wake I have a lot of left-over snack food, dough, and pizza toppings. As it turned out, this year I made exactly the right number of pizza doughs. The last few slices were consumed for breakfast on the 2nd. Most of the junk food was gone at that point too, though a couple people were sent home with still-full bags of chips. As for the toppings... someone solved that, too. By turning off my fridge. I don't know exactly when it happened... the controls may have been bumped by guests during the party, or it may have been done by my kids before the part even began. At any rate, come morning, nothing in the fridge was even slightly cool. Ah, well. It made it an easy decision what to do with the leftover meat! The party itself was a blast, though. We had gamers everywhere: holding court on the stairs going up, loitering on the stairs going down, hanging out online, and lounging on the bed. That's Maikeru, btw, lounging with Fox. He came all the way from Japan to catch the Wake. (Well, not just for the Wake... but it was cool that he could stop by). We were thrilled to see Ian, Jenn, Frances, and Mary, in from Saskatchewan (We miss you guys!). Some of Shades' lego friends dropped in as well. We were also invaded by pirates. Unusual garb isn't a first for the Wake, of course... we had people in pajamas again this year... but they were very, well, piratical. They even made pizza with piratic flair. There were lots of games to play, as usual. Some old favorites like Settlers of Catan, and some new, like Order of the Stick. There was a cool game with die-cast ships and metal dubloons, there was StarCraft, and there was Handy - cool game which ties your hands in knots trying to balance little foam balls. People had fun playing Space Pirate Amazon Ninja Catgirls, and some game I don't recognize. My favorite, though, was the Masterthief game, with its very cool wooden box for hiding gems. I didn't win, but had a lot of fun playing. The game of corset twister was another one which a lot of people had fun playing - or watching - without any concern for who won. After all, when you get into compromising positions like this, everyone wins. So, yeah. Good party. Very good friends. Good way to end the year. There was also a really nice year end surprise from Fox, who made me a (couple!) nice pair(s) of suede-lined bracers, with my Celtic Raven on them! Since Foxglove had been one of the original designers for that celtic raven, I asked Fox, and he was cool with me sharing the second pair of bracers with her. Coolness! |
| Fri, Feb 15, 2008 (5:00pm) Kalen: Mom, I've got my candy collection filled up, with all the Valentines Day treats! I can't wait to show Aria! Raven: Are you planning to share them with her later tonight, when the gamers are over? Kalen: Of course! There's so much much, Aria might just gorge herself! Raven: Er... I don't know if we want to encourage our guests to gorge themselves, precisely. Kalen: Of course not, Mom! I don't mean the guests. I just mean Aria. Raven: ... Books I've read recently: Memory and Komarr, both by Lois McMaster Bujold. I loved rereading Memory. It's my favorite book out of the Vorkosigan series, and the best way I can describe it is to say, "delicious". It's not candy, though, nor a flaky pastry. It's a full meal... with real meat, lots of fibre, savoury aromas, and a delicate sprinkling of good humour over some ofthe more bitter topics. When you're done reading it, your brain feels full, and you need to just sit for a while to digest it all. |
| Sun, Feb 10, 2008 (8:30pm) Back from Australia. Spent 20 hrs in the air today. last slept for 3 hrs on Sat eve. Sat in Australia, which was Friday here. Oh - Shades let me sleep when i got home, too, so maye I have 6 or 7 hrs of broken sleep in me, over the ast 60 hrs. Came home to a wonderfu husband and great kids. Computer kinda broken, tho - Connor disassembed the keyboard again, and some of the etters don't work quite right. ike the etter L. And being too seeepy to type doesn't help, eh? My luggage is missing, btw. Or not missing, ust delayed. I had to run to catch the plane in Vancouver, and I don't think my uggage made the connection. Well, easier to deal with at hom,e than spending the first 3 days in Australia without luggage. Lots of pics to come.when im awake again. Books I've read this week: Borders of Infinity and Ethan of Athos, both by Lois McMaster Bujold |
| Wed, Jan 30, 2008 (4:00pm) Hrm. I am going to be out of town for the next few days, and ya know what? True Dungeon treasure tokens go on sale while I'm away I want to pre-order! I need my tokens fix! I will have to find some way to order. Hrm. Know what else happens while I'm out of town? GenCon registration and hotels. HOTELS! They have to do this while I'm out of town, eh? There is no freaking way we will get a room with the mad rush on (cheap) GenCon hotels. I know this from the insanity last year. Luckily, we have a (very expensive) hotel room already reserved, and I'm crossing my fingers that Shades might get some sort of exhibitor code like he did last year, which could allow us to book a cheaper hotel... though maybe not the Embassy suites, like we want. But at least we won't be sleeping on the streets. Well, take care, all. See you in 10 or 11 days. Books I've read this week: The Devil wears Prada. ... The book is better than the movie, I think. |
| Mon, Jan 28, 2008 (3:00pm) Yay! Pixie has come thru for me, and picked up blue hair dye, to be dropped off when she comes into our wee hamlet for her Chiro appointment. Thanks, Pixie! Speaking of pixies, I have a Pixie friend in the US who is rumored to be sending me stripy pirate socks. And have you looked outside?? This is Pirate Sock weather, if anything is! (Well, I guess a warm & balmy wind which billows the foresail could also be considered 'pirate sock' weather... but lacking a pirate ship, I will define 'pirate sock weather' as -20 or lower, with a wicked slicing wind). It's so nasty out that they've cancelled the busses, so many kids aren't as school today (including Jase) because the wind kept blowing the snow back on the road faster than the graders could push it off. Just before Shades got home last night, I went out and shovelled the driveway, to remove the 2 foot high snowdrift, because I was concerned that the Prius might have just a little difficulty making it into the garage otherwise. I hope the drift doesn't grow too much more today - it's back to being almost a foot high in places, and I just don't feel like shovelling anymore. I feel like going somewhere warm and relaxing. Like Australia. |
| Sun, Jan 27, 2008 (1:20pm) I beg a boon... Does anyone who reads my weblog happen to live by or travel past Sanctuary Curios (10310-81 ave... just off Whyte, near If anyone could pick up a bottle for me, and somehow get it to me before Tuesday evening, that would be worthy of Great Things. I don't know what kind of Great Things, specifically, but put it this way: I have cloaks worth more than $100, which I would gladly part with before I would dare take a child into Sanctuary with me. If you can help me out, pls. drop me an email, or Quick comment? Thx! |
| Thurs, Jan 23, 2008 (10:45pm) Ah, all is well. Shades called to say they'd all found eachother eventually (which I already knew, since Red-Necked Rabbit called to relay that message earlier) and that they'd all made it to thier hotel (which was new info) and that he was going to bed. Mmmm.... bed. I think I may just do the same. |
| Thurs, Jan 23, 2008 (5:45pm) I seem to have lost my husband. Shades is off to Dreamation today, in the company of Scritch & Starlin'. Or in Scritch's company, at least. The two of them booked their flights together, and Starlin' was booked later, on a different (& earlier) flight. But apparently there have been delays, and flights aren't on schedule, and now the boys are missing. Missing! I'm sure they know where they are, but the rest of us have no clue. Starlin' got a hold of someone at her house (Pixie!) to see if the boys checked in with her, but they didn't. I've received no phone calls, either. So now Pixie is trying to find out if they made it to the hotel. She didn't know what hotel they were staying at, though. So she called me. And I... well, I remember asking Shades (somewhere around 4 am, shortly before he had to get up, to get people to the airport) but he didn't know. Or maybe he knew but couldn't remember at 4am. I don't know. Anyway, he told me I could just call Scritch & Starlin's place 'cuz someone there should know where they were. Or Google it. So, there I was, using Google to try to locate my husband. (Or his hotel, at least.) Gotta love the Internet. |
| Fri, Jan 18, 2008 (4:00pm) There are few things which compare to the joy of sitting in a warm restaurant, enjoying a bowl of Italian Wedding soup while watching the wind blowing the snow around outside, and having an in-depth conversation about the color "gween!" with a cute blond 3 yr-old, who has smeared his chocolate icecream in a wide circle around his mouth. |
| Thurs, Jan 17, 2008 (9:55am) How to make a geek cry... There was this joke I read, ages back. "When does a geek father cry?" ... "When his son builds his first home page." I helped Kale build her web page early last week. It didn't make me cry... except a little in frustration, perhaps. She can understand that HTML is a mark-up language which tells the computer how to put your web page up on the screen. Things like the head and body tags are within her comprehension, but she needed to follow the example I'd written for her, in order to do it. Teaching her how to use tags to make plain text into italics was frustrating. ("But mom - the letters aren't going slanted! They're still straight inbetween the two i brackets!") Inserting a graphic was completely beyond her. I reconsidered the wisdom of teaching her how to code in raw HTML, and almost changed to a graphic interface, but she'd put so much work into the page at that point, it was easier to let her finish it. When she updated her weblog a couple days later, we just did a copy & paste, and I helped her insert the graphic of the flower. It was a much better experience. Yesterday, I did the image link for her, but showed her how we did it ("See, we give the picture a name, and tell the computer where to find it, and where to put it.") and then left her to write up the rest of her weblog entry. It took her a while, but she called me back when she was done, and asked me to upload it for her. And there were italics in her entry! (100% great!!!) I asked her how she did it. "Oh, you know, Mom.... Pointy bracket, letter i, close pointy bracket, then numbers for 100 and shift 5 for the percent sign, and then another pointy bracket, a slanted line going that way, letter i, close pointy bracket. It was pretty easy." "Wow, did you actually remember that from last week?" I asked. "No. I just went to the part where we did it before, and looked at how we did it, and wrote it the same way up here. Except I put 100% great instead of for the first time! It was easy. She's learning by looking, and doing, and copying code! It brings tears to my geek parent eyes. |
| Wed, Jan 16, 2008 (9:15pm) We are less than 3 weeks into the New Year, and I've read 3 books. Admittedly, I'd started one of them before the year rolled over. But still. Books I've read this year:
Housework is only falling behind just a little. What's been falling behind is my online time. I think I'm over my initial crush on Scrabulous, and FaceBook itself has been losing my attention for a while. The forums are quiet, and other than a few cool and/or important emails, I've been pretty much silent on the cyberfront. Ah, well. I'm sure it won't last. (Oh, btw - the Queen of Candyhood has updated her weblog.) |
| Sun, Jan 13, 2008 (12:15am) Non-consumerism sucks. My mettle has been tried, this past week. Being a non-consumer (or at least a responsible consumer) is a lot easier to talk about than actually do. This Friday, I made my first purchase of "new stuff" for the New Year: I got Sims 2 expansion packs. Now, if you read my ersolutions, you'll realize that Sims EPs were on the list of stuff I already knew I would buy this year. It was a pre-meditated purchase, and I don't feel bad about it. But I've also got a couple other things sitting on my plate, and tempting me to buy them... including some absolutely amazing stripy pirate socks from Sock Dreams. I don't need new socks right now. But Pirate socks make me happy. But I already have one pair, and although they aren't quite as cool as the ones on Sock Dreams, they are sufficient to warm my feet on cold days. But I can't wear them every day - they need to be washed sometimes, too! But do I actually need to buy new socks, or should I just learn to plan my laundry days more carefully? But I really like them. But... But... But... I have decided, for now, not to buy any new Pirate socks. I got socks for Christmas, and until I wear holes in them, I shouldn't be thinking about new socks. Then there's the books. I got the most recent flyer from the Science Fiction & Fantasy Book Club. There's an art book in there I really want to get. After all, it's not like the local library has a very good section on Fantasy/SF artists. I'm sure I won't be able to pick up anything like it at the used book store. And books were on my list of things I wanted to buy new this year! Well, certain books. This book wasn't on the list per se. I didn't have any art books on the list (although I should put the annual Spectrum collection on the list of books I do intend to purchase in 2008.) So should I buy it, or should I not? Tough call. Lady Myke also reminded me about the Scholastic book orders. The school raises money for classroom books by selling books through the Scholastic flyer, and Kalen and I routinely spend $20 on books whenever a flyer comes out (once or twice/month). Are we going to stop buying new books thru Scholastic, just because we could in theory) buy used kids books? This is an even tougher call. Maybe Kalen and I will just pick out one book from each Scholastic flyer, and then go to the local Library to pick up extra books for her to read. That would probably make her happy, and it would be good for me to take my kids to the library more often. But it would also take more effort. And I'm not sure I like this whole "expenditure of effort" thing. It's so much easier to be a lazy consumer. Bah! Being responsible sucks! I'll see if we can get out to the Library this coming week. |
| Sat, Jan 12, 2008 (11:45pm) It seemed like a good idea at the time... Way back, when Starling and Lady Myke and Foxglove and I all had our firstborn children, we had a group photo taken of them. After all, they were all born in the year 2000, and we wanted to capture the blessings of that year on film. A couple years later, as our families grew with second born kids, and adoptions, we took a few more photos, and talked about how we should really do a group photo again sometime. But it's hard to co-ordinate kids and schedules, and even more difficult to find a photographer who's willing to tackle the nigh-impossible task of getting 8 preschool kids all looking at the camera at once, preferably with smiles... or at least no tears. Our families have grown again, with another adoption on Starlin's side, and newborns for Foxglove and Lady Myke. Again we talked about how great it would be to do a group photo. But now we're looking at 11 kids, and what kid of crazy do you have to be to try organizing that kind of a photoshoot? A special kind of crazy, apparently. Starlin' has been working on her professional phtography career - she's even done a wedding! - and has been trying to expand her skills and knowledge base with various photoshoots at her studio. She's practiced candids at the skating party, and has done studies in light and shadow. So when we put forward the possibility of "practicing" her art on a dozen or so kids, she rose to the challenge! My livingroom was turned into an impromptu photo studio today. 13 kids ran loose in the house (my brother dropped by with my uber-cute nieces, just to hang out) and Starlin' worked her magic to get most of them to stay in the frame, and sometimes even pose for her from time to time. She did some traditional group photos, and some portaits, and candids, and a lot of free form stuff, and even some artsy things which I wouldn't be brave enough to do (which involved standing on a chair and taking aerial shots, or something similar). I am looking forward to the pics. And for my ears to stop ringing. Crazy. Crazy. Crazy. |
| Mon, Jan 7, 2008 (5:40pm) Last year, I decided that I would try to read more, and clean less, in the New Year. I believe I succeeded. I read nearly a dozen books last year. I know, that's really not a lot - not even one book/month. I used to read a dozen books every month. But 11 (and a half!) books in a year is probably 8 books more than I read in either of the 2 preceeding years. In fact, barring the times when I have been forced to sit in a chair with nothing else to do, for long periods every day, I haven't been doing much reading at all in the last decade. 2007 was a nice change. I enjoyed reading, and I really want to keep it up, for 2008. I don't make resolutions, though. I suck at resolutions. I can make goals, and I can give myself deadlines (which I routinely miss), but if I put the pressure on myself, then I get a knee-jerk reation which causes me to hate the thing I am trying to do, and I actively work against it. So instead, I make ersolutions. Like: Er, I might want to read more. No pressure or nothing, just forgive myself if the floor is crunchy underfoot, and grab a book instead. For 2008, Shades and I have talked about making some changes in the way we live. If you watched The Story of Stuff, you know that many of the problems with society's attitude and rampant consumerism were man-made. They weren't things which just happened because we live in a resource-rich country, or because we got used to living well. They're part of an economic plan. So we are making our own plans, to live a different lifestyle. I figure I'm putting my knee-jerk reactions to good use. If society says "You must spend money to be important" I can rebel against it, and borrow or repair or re-use, rather than buying new stuff. I can also tell friends I'd rather get used gifts instead of new things, or better yet - donations to worthy causes in lieu of gifts. One of our friends has decided to make 2008 her year of the anti-consumer. She intends to buy nothing new for 2008 (except food, of course). That's a pretty lofty goal, and I wish her well. I don't think I could make that sort of change to my lifestyle, though. Just offhand, I can think of half a dozen things I intend to buy new this year: The next George R. R. Martin novel, a Sims 2 expansion, True Dungeon tokens, jeans (I like extra-black jeans), hair dye, any books which Lois McMaster Bujold or Jim Butcher come out with, and a nice whip. But there's a lot of other things which I don't see any reason to buy new when I could just as easily find used: ice skates, various fantasy novels, and computer games. Other things which I want to do this year include travelling to cool places I've never been before, learning to cook at least one new meal, and one ultra-tasty new dessert, and writing a letter to someone in the government. It doesn't matter who in the government or what the letter is about so much as getting off my butt and writing... because I keep thinking of things I want to write, and I never follow through with it. So, that's what I want to do in 2008. Hopefully. |
| Sat, Jan 5, 2008 (10:00pm) I've been having a great week. New Year's Eve was lovely, spent in the quiet of our home, babysitting a couple of friends' children, and letting them stay up 'til midnight to watch the fireworks through the window. I was elbow-deep in pizza dough when the clock rolled over (it's a tradition) but helped the kids with a countdown anyway. The fireworks were very pretty, viewed across a snowy field, against a black sky. The kids were (mostly) well behaved, and once they'd had their New Year's Cheer they settled down easier than I'd expected . The next day was The Wake, our memorial for the past year, and despite the Death of LRPS (and thus poor advertising) it was very well attended. We were even invaded by Pirates! Shades and I took turns letting eachother sleep for the next day, and I think most of the sleep deficeit was paid off within 36 hours. The kids and I built a snowman outside on Friday, and ate lunch at the Costco foodcourt. Today we'd organized a skating party, and Lady Myke and Starling both brought their horde (or half the horde, in Starling's case) of kids. Starling brought her pro camera, too, and there's some *very* nice shots of the kids skating, and playing at the hot dog lunch afterwards. Hopefully I can put some up here, in a while. This evening, Kalen built her first Web Page! I helped with a little bit of the coding, and with all the graphics & links, but she did the content and layout. Hopefully she'll get a chance to post some pictures, too - she takes some really nice shots with my digicam! Lots more I want to post - a write up on The Wake, especially - but also some stuff about New Year's Ersolutions. Before I do that, though, I heartily recommend everyone take a peek at this link: The Story of Stuff. It's about 15 mins, but a very well thought-out video. Quite thought-provoking, really. And, having had thoughts provoked, they are desperate to spill their blood (or ink) all over my web page. If only I had more hours in a day. Man - I need to get me some Time Lord powers. |
| Wed, Jan 2, 2008 (2:35pm, with comments added Jan 5 9:40pm) Raven: Hey Shades, how did you make this toaster fit in this cupboard? Use your powers to get it out... I want to toast waffles. Shades: Here you go. Raven: Wow... cool. You make that look so easy. You totally warped time and space to do that trick, didn't you? I couldn't do that. Shades: Yes. And that's why I'm the Time Lord, and you're my faithful companion. |
Comment added Sat, Jan 5, 2008 (9:40pm)From Shades: I didn't say, "faithful companion". I just said, "companion". You know: The Doctor, and the Companion. You're the companion.Ooops. So ya did. Well, my bad. Pretend the above entry does not contain the word 'faithful'. I'd edit it myself, but the next comment actually uses the 'faithful' misprint in it, and I didn't want to muck it up with editting. |
| Comment added Sat, Jan 5, 2008 (9:40pm) Jode (of the faithful companion race) made this public comment: Comments : Hey - my husband is a time lord too! Only he seems to be particularly bad with the time portion of it, being always late. Wait - Maybe that's the price for how he bends space in order to fit all that stuff in our van when we travel! Now if only he could bend space in such a way as to make it a quick trip to E-town to come visit my sister and her time lord husband. *sigh* Maybe he's not a Time Lord... just a Space Lord. But that has a totally different ring to it, doesn't it? Lookin' forward to a visit anytime you can come up! Maybe we'll actually be able to hang out more, without Christmas or headaches getting in the way. |
| Thurs, Dec 20, 2007 (1:10am) 3 adults. 6 kids. 6 home-made gingerbread houses. 9 types of candies. 2 types of sprinkles. 3 types of icing (1 batch of which was a total failure). Oh, and 2.5 hours of sugar-high chaos.    From left to right, Jasen's house, Connor's house, Kalen's house. I really like how Connor decorated his roof, once I showed him how. I did the left side, and he did most of the right side (I did the top row, to start the pattern, but he did the rest. Hrm - and the Smartie must have been added after. Sneaky kid.) |
| Wed, Dec 19, 2007 (9:10am) Harsh Awakenings Got up this morning to a cold house. Not cold enough to see your breath, but cold enough to wear multiple layers, just to get comfortable. Sometime during the night, the furnace stopped working. By the time we got out of bed, the thermostat said it was 13 degrees indoors. I checked on the kids - they were all fine. Connor was wrapped in his usual cocoon of blankets. Jasen was sleeping under his pillows. Kalen (who often complains her basement room is cold) was quite comfy with 4 blankets and comforters piled on top of her. The trick was trying to get everyone out of their warm beds. Shades managed to reset the furnace, and it's been working non-stop for the last hour and a half. The temp is now up to 17, which makes it just reasonable. I hope it keeps working. It would suck to have to call emergency furnace repair today. |
| Wed, Dec 12, 2007 (10:15am) Looking at the world thru colored glasses... This has been one of those mornings. Somehow, Shades and I overslept our alarms. Did they even go off? I don't know. I don't remember the alarms (his or mine) going off. I remember nothing before rolling over at 7:49 am, and thinking, "That can't be right!" Jasen's bus comes at 8:00am. He was late for his bus. I couldn't find Connor's good clothes for the Christmas concert, today. Kalen complained that I put milk on her cereal, instead of on the side in a cup (the way she likes it). Apparently, I left the garage door open all night. It snowed overnight, too. Lots of fresh snow to stomp through all the way to school. We got to school late. Go figure. And now, there's lots of snow out there, waiting for me to shovel. It's not really so bad, though. As far as those mornings go, this is far from the worst. In fact, small irritations aside, I've been having a very good day, so far. With the right perspective, I would even go so far as to say it's a great day. I have one of the most amazing husbands in the world. When I woke him up, he didn't bitch about the late hour, but instead went into high gear and got Jasen's breakfast ready while I got the little dude dressed, so that he was actually ready for the bus only a minute or two late. And Jasen's bus driver is very patient, and waited for us. Going from 0 to school-ready in 11 minutes is pretty good. Despite her complaints, Kalen did eat her breakfast cereal, and managed to sit down for (most of) her asthma meds before 7:30 hit and we needed to get out the door. During that time, I managed to find clothes for Connor which weren't his "Sunday best" for the concert, but looked as good as could be expected for a 6yr-old in a Christmas concert. The snow outside was very nice. It was pretty and fluffy and Christmassy, and covered our driveway in a lovely pristine sheet, which showed absuletly no footprints sneaking up to our garage in the night. Also, the weather was positively balmy - barely even below freezing! - so leaving the garage door open through the night didn't make the house as cold as it would have if I'd done it during that -20 weather. We got to school late. Yeah. So what? So did nearly half of the kids, today. Looks like everyone was finding their kids' good clothes at the last minute, and hunting for those props which were supposed to have been sent to school the day before. (We sent our props to school yesterday. Yay!) There's still a lot of snow to shovel. Thick, heavy snow. And while shovelling isn't my favorite chore, it's not so bad, once I get around to it. The physical exertion is kinda nice. And on a day like today, when the air is cool but not too freezing cold, it doesn't hurt my lungs. It doesn't give me a headache, either. Last year I used to get headaches if I was outside for too long, getting the glare off all the bright snow. This year, I haven't had a snow-headache yet. Not a single one. I can't chalk up everything good in my life to my new Irlen lenses, but I can say that it's easier than it used to be to look at the bright side, and ignore the minor irritations. I have just a little more energy than I used to have (Okay - that could also be due to the fact that Connor goes to school full time, and Jasen is doing really well at his School so I spend less energy worrying about him) and I also have less headaches. My world is a happier place. So, I think I'll go shovel some snow now. |
| Fri, Dec 7, 2007 (10:30am) Happy Birthday Connor! The firstborn of my sons in 6 today! He still doesn't have much clue what birthdays are all about, but I conspired this morning to get Kale and Jasen to sneak into his room with me, singing "Happy Birthday" and bringing him a present in bed. He had the most adorable 'confused but delighted' expression on his face. The little penguin wind-up toy which he got as his morning present made him very happy, and he played with it through breakfast. Today at school is Winter Carnival, so he's going to have a fun-filled day of games and prizes and treats. (I hope it doesn't get too loud for him, but he's got a very good Aide at school, who will take him aside if the carnival noise gets to be too much). At noon, I'll be bringing him gluten-free mini-cupcakes to share with his class. When he gets home, there'll be decorations, and a big present (Costco had giant tubs of old-fashioned TinkerToys on sale a month ago!) and a birthday cake after supper. He may not know what this is all about, but I hope he has a great day... and that he remembers to blow the candles out before attacking the cake. |
| Mon, Dec 3, 2007 (7:00pm) Not much to post about lately. I've been cleaning, and re-organizing some stuff (which makes for a considerable mess before things start to get tidy again). Most of my free time is spent in full "Sim mode" - a phrase one of my friends uses to describe the way you can queue up a whole bunch of house-keeping activities for your characters to do in The Sims game. Of course, most of my work is invisible (oh, look, there's not a nest of dust bunnies under the bed! No ring around the bathtub! An absence of Mac&Cheese stuck to the underside of the table where Jasen sits.) Shades' work, however, is fabulously visible. He fixed a large gap in our laminate flooring, put a blending strip in between the carpet and the flooring, and has half of the baseboards done in the kids' rooms. The garage is also getting cleaner. We may be able to park both vehicles in it before the new year! I've got gaming to host tonight, so here's one last thing before I go: Eat Greek Tonight! I have fallen in love (or at least taste-bud lust) with this website. Tons of easy recipes, organized by type, searchable by ingredients, and full of delicious mediterranean splendour. |
| Mon, Nov 26, 2007 (12:45pm) It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas... Wow. That's a lot of snow out there. Admittedly, by our usual standards it's not that much, but it's enough to have finally buried the dead leaves and other allergens, and scrubbed the air. That's good, because it's nearly December, and that means it's time to clean! Every year around this time, as I start my version of "Spring" cleaning so things will be ready for the big party on Jan 1st, I am amazed at the amount of stuff which has accumulated in our house over the past year. There's outgrown kids' clothes (managed to get rid of most of those already), paperwork (file the important stuff, recycle the rest), new toys (which kid gets to store these toys in their room, I wonder), broken toys (Mmm, trash!) and a number of things which don't even belong to us (but people forget them here, and we have them for months. Sometimes years.) Speaking of which, if you have lost a pair of clip-on sunglasses, or a mens' black leather belt, or scarves or mitts (last year) and think we might be harbouring your wayward belongings, please send me a note/Quick-Comment! Also, if anyone out there is interested in a Sony 300 CD changer, PLEASE let me know. We put pretty much all our music onto iTunes last year, and no longer need this fabulous bit of electronics. It'd be such a wste to store it in the garage until it becomes dusty and inoperable. Okay, enough typing. I'd better get to work. There's cleaning to be done! |
| Fri, Nov 23, 2007 (11:00am) Happy Birthday to Hjalti! I don't know if I'll get in touch with TeamDK tonight, so I thought I'd post birthday greetings here. Hopefully I'll have the time to give them a quick call, but if not, or if they're out of the house at the time, at least posting is better than nothing, right? Tonight I'm going to be busy with continuing experiments in East Indian cuisine. Last week I made something vegetarian which several people voluntarily ingested, so it couldn't have been too bad... I'm going to try making it again this week, using variant ingredients described in the cookbook. I'm also going to try my hand at Chicken Zhal Frezi... it's kind of an Indian stir fry. I like the dish when I order it at New Asian, but I've no clue if I can do it justice in my own kitchen. We'll see. (And we'll get some extra naan and saffron rice, so people have something to dilute it with, if it's an abyssmal failure.) Right then. Off to buy naan! |
| Wed, Nov 21, 2007 (1:30pm) Last night I got to see baby Sarah in person, as Lady Myke and I went out to do a little therapeutic shopping. Myke got some excercise, strolling the mall (and picking up a few essentials). I got to push the stroller, and ooh, and ahh, and cuddle the little cutie, who in turn slept through all the attention. We had some fun trying to escape a department store before they closed for the night. Trying to find that one last cashier whose job it was to ring up the last-minute purchases took us a full loop of 2 different floors of the department store. And then the computer crashed while scanning our purchases. So she had to re-boot, and by the time we'd paid, every door was locked except the one facing away from the side of the mall where we'd parked. Rather than take a 5-day old newborn into -10 degree weather, walking all the way around the mall, I left Myke between the foyer doors, and went to get the car myself. Frak, it was cold! I walked pretty brisky at first, and then decided to jog because I wasn't generating enough heat by just walking. I'd taken my lightweight jacket, because I don't like to wear a winter parka indoors at the mall, and it really wasn't appropriate to a 250-yard dash in sub-zero weather. Especially up the ramp. (Did I mention I'd parked on the upper level, and we exited the mall on the lower level?) Correction - up the icy ramp. in the dark. Luckily, there was no one to witness any nasty wipe-outs which may, or may not, have occured as I tried to run up the slippery, icy, cold ramp in nearly pitch black, and thus my embarrasment shall remain mine, and mine alone. (You may now forget having read the previous paragraph. Thank you.) We followed up our mall adventures with a little grocery shopping, and then coffee at the donut shop near Myke's place. It was a very nice evening, and although we didn't go swimming as our usual Tuesday activity, I think we both got sufficient excercise. We'll have to see how the week goes, and maybe try hitting the gym on Friday. |
| Fri, Nov 16, 2007 (11:50am) Since Lady Myke is still in the hospital and can't (to the best of my knowledge) post to her weblog at present, I figured I'd take the initiative and announce to the world (or the Internet, at least) that she had her baby! YAY! was born at 4:38 am, Friday November 16, 2007 So, I guess I won't be going swimming with the Grey Panther tonight as originally planned... but that's okay. I'm glad she didn't end up waiting another week or more before going into labour, like she was worried she might. Babies are better on the outside of the womb, once they're over 8 pounds. (Oh, yes - the baby was 8 pounds, lots of ounces. I can't remember exactly. But that's okay - I'm sure Lady Myke would like to have something to post on her blog which wasn't revealed here first, right?) Congrats to the Elder family, and best wishes to the newborn. May you grow up strong and healthy, and give your parents plenty of reasons to smile. |
| Tues, Nov 13, 2007 (9:00am) I was just chased by a zombie. Alright - he wasn't the most intimidating zombie, being cute, and blond, and all of 3 and a half feet tall, but he had the zombie shamble going, with the outstretched arms, and the repetitive calls of, "Bwaaaains" as he staggered towards me. The unfortunate thing about a 3yr-old zombie, however, is that they don't actually have a clue where the brains are located. He caught me three times, and despite my desperate attempts to protect my head from his undead clutches, he seemed content to nibble on my shoulder, my elbow, and the belly area of my shirt. This must be why toddler zombies are rarely depicted in those undead apocolypse movies. That, and their tendancy to sudden drop when they run out of energy. (.mov link) (Bah - can't flip the movie to the correct orientation, as Quicktime will only let me do that if I buy the Pro version. Oh, well. Zombie movies often use weird camera angles, right?) |
| Thurs, Nov 8, 2007 (8:20am) These are the Things that are Good in Life:*
(*with apologies to Conan, for stealing his line.) |
| Tues, Nov 6, 2007 (7:10pm, with edits at 9:15pm for links) Still no functional Photoshop. (sigh). But my sister was kind enough to run the image on my Ren Gown thru her Photoshop, and thus I can post it here for your viewing pleasure.  They say a picture is worth 1000 words, right? Well, that's for the best, because I don't have the time or energy to write anything more lengthy than this. The flu bug has hit out house (with a vengeance) and I'm sick and tired, and caring for sick and tired kids, with a sick and tired husband (who really doesn't need much 'caring for' himself, so much as that I miss him while we're playing tag-team sick-parenting.) Okay - here's links to the other pics which Iodi resized, too: Kalen as BatGirl, Connor as Wandering Wizard, and Jasen as a Snow Leopard kitten, who refused to show his face because he wa so busy chasing his tail. Also, Lady Myke as a pirate, and her kids, as a dragon and an angel. |
