The only game in town

Oh yes, I will be racing home from choir to watch tonight! Watch what?!! Do you have to ASK??

I scared a friend today by asking if he watched last night. (The rerun, of the season finale from last year....) I did find the "pop-up" captioning very helpful, didn't you? Oh yeah, I forgot about that. (It's been almost a year!)

We need more naked Sawyer. Pronto.

Let them eat cake

Simply boring random facts:

1. Today at work I ended up wearing a wool jacket over a v-neck sweater over a turtleneck because it's SO COLD. I hope my electric bra doesn't burst into flames because I'd never get all this stuff off to put the fire out. No easy access.

2. Today at work I was so freaking busy, I used the same teabag all day long; rather than go down to the cafeteria over and over I just added more hot water from the slightly nasty machine on our floor. I refilled my 20 oz cup three times and the tea was still strong, but not bitter. Earthshattering, I know, but WTF? Dunkin donut's teabags are better than mine? And that delicious banana muffin I went there for in the first place? Hurt my stomach. Effing gallbladder. I wonder if I have stones somewhere else.

3. I hit 7700 points playing Brickbreaker on my Crackberry and haven't gotten over 3000 in the week or two that has passed since then - 5,807,840 is the high score. What kind of person GETS a score like that???? #29 on the leaderboard is Luke Finger, I swear. That's awesome. One day at the dentist while my son was getting MORE teeth yanked I downloaded a pool game and I suck at it. A gamer, I am so not. Sorry Poly.

4. We have a new guy in the lunchroom making sandwiches. He called me Honey, and the guy behind me Sir. I mean, yeah, I 'm way cuter, but still. Cue elaborate eyeroll.


5. This is the sight I saw at the market today. This is why I make my OWN cakes. I like to think this was PACKAGED as a half cake that someone was going to buy, but I wonder if after it tipped in the container they set it upright with their own fingers:



By the way, it said "Go Patriots". So, there's the Patriot fans for ya. :::winks at Beth::::

Big Ed Says My Ducts Are Too Small

So. I'm working on a little construction project at Chez Carly.

About 10 years ago we put on an addition onto our tiny house. We added a 3rd bedroom, a half bath with laundry hookups, made the kitchen about 50% bigger, and added a family room, which is about 13 x 20'.

This might seem to a LOGICAL person to be big enough... until you consider what we cram into it:

• a small, NOT widescreen tv on a giant (dated...) entertainment center
• a stereo (about 3 feet tall with the tape decks and radio tuner etc)
• about 200 CD's I do not actually ever play because the ones I like are on my ipod
• five million disney movies on VHS and about 100 dvds, each watched once
• a recliner and a loveseat (note, comfy seating for THREE, and we have four family members)
• a desk with the main computer, piles of PTO stuff, other financial records of organizations Mr C works for, and plenty of other peep's tax info come February & March
• a bookshelf, a coffee table, a side table, my scrapbook table (which my great Aunt used to play bridge on, I'm pretty sure)
• two sets of Target / melmac/ stackable drawers for my scrap stuff and beads
• two "CM" type tote bags full of more scrap stuff
• a set of plastic drawers to hold the overflow of miscellaneous computer / camera / phone cords, USB adapters, and various pictures and things I haven't "scrapped" yet.

I can NOT, therefore, have a decent bikini volleyball match in my family room. Even using a Wii. I won't talk about what happens when the Christmas tree and presents MUST be crammed into the room. Things go away. My things. My sanity preservers.... my pretty paper and punches and stamps and inks...and the coffee table, and also.... well now I'm talking about it. Anyway.

It's the room I spend a few hours every day in, and I CAN'T BREATHE in it.

So I'd hoped to build a loft over the kitchen, part of the living room, and the garage, as we have this great big unfinished attic (which is full of other crap, but that is beside the point right now because in my mind it's EMPTY space). It was a great idea - in my technicolor imagination. I had a window seat built for my hermit teen, a BIG scrapbook area, with beach colors and big prints of my favorite vacation pictures, and so on. One problem. The BOYS who came to look at the house to do such a project had no vision and talked about how the new roof rests on the old roof and silly things like headroom for staircases and building codes not allowing a door only four feet tall passing under the point where the two roofs join. Building codes. Which, of course, were all written by boys.

Soo we decided, can't go up, go out. Make the addition the size it should have been per our family's needs for the room. Which, potentially, adds many many muddy footprints to the whole project.

Just for fun the builder I was working with called "Big Ed" (I swear) and another guy, to come look at the furnace and electric box. They pointed out that if I buy a new hot water tank (cha ching) I can avoid having to do extensive work to my electric service box (converting from an electric hot water tank to high efficiency gas). So now I have to have NiMo run gas to the house - which, apparently, they do for free if you convert one appliance to gas. HAH! Free. So there, Internets.

This lead to a question I'd anticipated. "Do you want a gas fireplace?" Well. I do. But really what I NEED is to have room for all of the furniture already in the room, and not add space hogs like a fireplace. Thank you. I shared this thought with my family members and somehow the conversation got to "well we could hang a flatscreen tv over the gas fireplace.... but our current tv still works fine" - at which point I saw my 10 year old mentally making a bullet list of ways to cause the destruction of our current television. I pointed out to him that any such actions would set the acquisition of a new set back by a minimum of 12-18 months. Killjoy.

Big Ed and friends looked disparagingly at my old furnace - it's a huge old oil hot air furnace, and we throw a virgin in there every fall, pay for the "best" service plan (which is still less than the repairs would be, and we do repair the thing annually) and hope for the best. I'm not sure I can fund a new furnace on top of everything else. Hmm. This sounds like a potentially good diet for me - the "I can't afford food anymore" plan.

The best part was when they said they'd have to redo the ductwork running the length of the basement. Apparently the guy who built my house used leftover pieces from other building projects. He used the size that normally run to an individual room rather than proper "trunk" pieces which are quite a bit bigger. For a scary, breathe-in-a- paper-bag moment I thought that they'd rip apart the ENTIRE house to redo all the ductwork. You can just make me Britney's roommate right now.

Another discovery which really wasn't much of a surprise to me was that when we added the bedroom in round 1, no one put insulation under the floorbooards. They pretty much put a vapor barrier in and ran away. Leaving me to sleep on plywood over a crawl space (for all you girls, THAT"S THE DIRT UNDER MY HOUSE. It's winter here and I hate waking up with icicles on my face.)

This is only going to get worse, kids. I haven't seen ANY numbers yet.

Art slightly later than Sunday

An email I got put me onto this web page; I wish I had the QUANTITY of time she seems to have, to do things that are nothing but fun. Oh, and to actually finish them. The mural is getting moldy (just kidding).

At any rate, her website made me laugh. I mean, who crochets a tin of sardines? I read a few pages. Which in turn, lead me to Art Dorks. Something for everyone there. Enjoy!

PS: No fair cowering under the blankets today and whimpering, just because it's Monday. At least, that's what I told myself this morning.

In this election year

Vote for me, would you?

Thought for the day

Life is really simple, but we insist on making it complicated. - Confucius

Every part of my life is cluttered. It's really bogging me down.

I did spend some time yesterday cleaning out some of the stuff crowding every inch of counter space in my kitchen. (This included tossing the contents of a few containers of the last of the Christmas cookies, which none of us have touched in at least a week or two! Yucky!)

If I could just keep my desk from looking like a bomb went off... it's hard with our bills, PTA paperwork, plus all of the other things Mr. C is doing... just piles, everywhere. And it's not even tax season yet. Sigh. If we do the construction project I'm hoping for, it may resolve this problem (separate desks... more drawers....)

Well, speaking of bogged down - time to go hit the treadmill!

Flava

My first thought was not the obvious troll tangent, but "Oh my god is that a cake?" I do believe it is. Now, if it were Poly's red velvet cake, that would be SOMETHING. But I'm guessing it's much closer to styrofoam on the cake spectrum. You can see all of his prospects here at Bossip, one of my favorite trash talk sites. I do have love for you, Flave.

It's been a bad couple of days but the picture finally made me laugh. Oh, and I kind of sort of laughed at my friend whose pants snagged on some part of the cubicle and tore. But you know I would sew them for you, buddy. And my laughter was only relief that the cosmic forces of stupid bad luck in random aspects of life had moved the bullseye off of my forhead for ONE FREAKING SECOND.

So apparently I have a good shot of starting a home renovation project "now". (As in, as fast as I can turn around the refi on my house.) Eeek. Good thing I'm not busy with PTA stuff and unfinished projects :::cough cough mural cough cough:::: and trying to train for a race that is now only 18 weeks away. Pffft. Who needs personal improvement goals ANYWAY? Why not pack up all the scrapbook stuff I just pulled out?? Sleep? what is that thing sleeeeep you speak of?

My day

went something like this... how was yours?

Honestly, I am getting more and more concerned about people who are in various aspects of my life pulling decisions out of somewhere slightly lower than their ears. Listening to the wrong people. Reacting rather than thinking things through.

My boyfriend

Now you can read Dilbert daily without smudging newspaper ink all over everything...

Letters

In chronological order....

Dear Lean Cuisine,
Please stop putting red bell peppers in every effing frozen meal you make. It's killing me and Suzy. Because your food is good otherwise but WTF with the red peppers in everything?

best regards,
Carly


Dear cafeteria manager where I work,
please make better food so I don't have to bring crappy frozen meals anymore. It's too effing cold out to leave the building at lunchtime.

~Carly


Dear EveryOther Employee of My Company,
why do you make the Tuesday after a Monday-holiday SO hard? Mondays are bad enough but when it's really Tuesday and feels like a double Monday, something is terribly wrong. Quit calling me and forwarding me crap! It was 2:00 before I could start what I planned to do today. So, I got really far with that. Yeah.

smooches,
~C


Dear Supermarket Manager,
why are the Valentines out already? Dammit man. Didn't I have a long enough day?
~C

Dear Child 1,
why didn't you remind me YESTERDAY that you needed a piece of posterboard. Or, I don't know, maybe SATURDAY? When I had time to help you with the project?

xo
~Mom


Dear Child 2,
Why do I pay $80 a month for you to play an instrument when I never actually hear you play it? It's this little thing called PRACTICE.... how can you practice if you don't bring it home??
Love,
~Mommy


Dear internets,
thanks for putting up with my bitching
~Carly

Just for fun

... watch a cooking show sometime with the sound on mute, and read the closed captions.

I can't imagine doing the job, mind you. It must be slightly less stressfull than being an air traffic controller, to try to capture everything that burbles out of Rachel Ray's lips. My favorite mistake was something like "Whiskey again" instead of Whisk in...

One at a time

Told myself I would get back to working on the mural again this weekend, but that hasn't quite happened. This is not good since I figure I have about 30 hours of effort remaining. Hmmm.

I did get on the treadmill today, to work off the "make your own" pizzas we had last night while my sister in law's heart got broken by the Packers. Hers was the most interesting, by the way - a french bread pizza with pesto, mushrooms, and sundried tomato, topped with slices of fresh mozzarella wrapped with prosciutto. (I went for a drizzle of alfredo sauce and pesto over chicken, mushrooms, and the sundried tomatoes. I didn't expect her to raid the appetizers to one-up me.) The kids went for "real" pizza of course, red stuff, mozzarella shreds, and a pepperoni slice here & there.

Yesterday I had the unpleasant experience of sitting in front of the biggest jackass at a basketball game, wherein the median age of the players was 10. When the players are 10 years old, it is not necessary to second guess the refs constantly, and complain about the person who is running the scoreboard. Unfortunately I know the guy, which is not to say he's my friend, not in the least.

When your kid falls and knocks down another player on his way down to the floor, and you return from checking him and announce to the crowd that the other kid punched yours, damn straight I'm going to turn around and tell you that I saw with my own two eyes that no such thing happened, he tripped over his own two feet, and you really need to just be quiet already because enough is enough.

(Thank god, they don't sell any beer at these games, so he didn't have anything to dump on my head, or worse. It was definitely not a well thought out set of remarks, because I shouldn't be writing checks my ass can't cash, but I think he was just suprised that anyone would sling it right back at him that way. Either that or it was my really big friend sitting next to me, who by association protected me. For the remainder of the game any time anyone fouled anyone my friend would say "He punched him! I saw it." This mortified his wife, but of course, is exactly why he is my friend.)

In other news, it's really cold here. And really boring. (I can't believe it, but Site Meter tells me I have successfully managed to waste almost 30,000 minutes of the universe's collective time. Thanks for visiting...)

I still miss you

... is the title of Keith Anderson's new song.

You can hear it here but you can't get it on iTunes. Don't be confused by the jazz singer with the same name.


I've changed the presets in my truck
so those old songs don't sneak up
they still find me and remind me
yeah you come back that easy
try restaurants I've never been to
order new things off the menu
that I never tried cause you didn't like
two drinks in, you're by my side
I've talked to friends
I've talked to myself
I've talked to God
I prayed liked hell but I still miss you
I tried sober I tried drinking
I've been strong and I've been weak
and I still miss you
I've done everything to move on like I'm supposed to
I'd give anything for one more minute with you
I still miss you
I still miss you baby
I never knew til you were gone
how many pages you were on
it never ends I keep turning
and line after line you are there again
I dont know how to let you go
you are so deep down in my soul
I feel helpless so hopeless
its a door that never closes
no I don't know how to do this
I've talked to friends
I've talked to myself
I've talked to God
I prayed liked hell but I still miss you
I tried sober I tried drinking
I've been strong and I've been weak
and I still miss you
I've done everything
move on like I'm supposed to
I'd give anything for one more minute with you
I still miss you yeah
I've talked to friends
I've talked to myself
I've talked to God
I prayed liked hell but I still miss you
I tried sober I tried drinking
I've been strong and I've been weak
and I still miss you
I've done everything
move on like I'm supposed to
I'd give anything for one more minute with you
I still miss you yeah
I still miss you
I still miss you...... yeah.... yeah.....

TGI Effing Efff

People are losing their minds all around me this week. Fighting, general mayhem and nonsense. Not just me, other people I know have also been reamed and/or just had to put up with far too much crazy. I mean really. If someone says they are going to fix the lunch form and then they DON"T fix the lunch form and this generates five million emails I want to bonk them on the head and say, So why didn't you fix the lunch form????? That's the least of my headaches this week.


SO I did a few nice things for myself today. I bought a box of Franzia chillable red wine and it is safely in my fridge now. Already at work. I also bought these:



and I am playing with these... (more like sorting them out and seeing which layouts come to mind. And trying to figure out how I'm supposed to store them in any sort of logical fashion since they came in one teeny cardboard box... )


I am listening to 80's music on Sirius... wondering if I am too materialistic because I cope with my cranky by spending money in all of the ways above... so this is either an all time low or how I really should be spending my Fridays. Dunno. I'm thinking this works for me. Domo arigato, Mr. Roboto.

I must

... have this book.

(If only to fling at annoying people in my life.

No, on second thought, I wouldn't do that with it. Perhaps to peruse while I sit in the evening in my warm fuzzy pajamas and whimper about how big and bad the world is and that there may never be a decent awards show on TV again, while I sip wine and eat bonbons. Yes, I'm back to that. Just temporarily. )

I turn to her and say....

Every time Miley comes on Sirius I complain to my daughter about what a blatant rip off of "Sunglasses at night" her new song is. Doubter. She just scoffed at Ol' Mom Who Doesn't Know Anything. So this afternoon I whipped up this,




and at first she was listening to the intro guitar and shaking her head, but the second Corey sang his first line, her eyes just about popped right out of her head and I could see every bit of the braces I'm almost done paying for.

Hah.

Sadly, this has been almost the high point of my week. Purely rhetorical question, but if you were in the restroom at work and someone came in, and went into the next stall and just started sobbing, what would YOU do? Life is full of these little awkward moments.

More practice

So I was in A Mood today, since we SHOULD have had a snowday and were cheated of same.


I took a picture on my blackberry on the way to work. When I actually looked at it, it was rather mediocre. I won't even show you, it's that lame.



Here it is photoshopped to "underpainting" which makes it look better but not the snowy fluffy picture I'd hoped for. (Click to see it a bit bigger).

Then I tried rough pastels (they were actually pretty mean....sorry about that joke, it's been a long day....) and it was still not really what I had in mind.

My last attempt was Craquelure which looks comical to me somehow, but I liked the effect on the snow...

I'm quitting for the night. Bye!

Doink

So, my son got two more daggers, um, baby teeth pulled out. I won't scan them this time, but thing of a sweet little baby tooth with a chef's chopping knife for a root. Bigger on the inside than the outside, which makes for an unhappy kid when it's yanked.

I bought him a movie out of pity, for his iPod... the 3rd Pirates of the Carribean. He was showing me a scene and I noticed that Mackenzie Crook (the pirate with the eyeball that rolls everywhere) was Gareth Keenen on the British "The Office".

I could almost hear the little "doink" sound (think of those pop ups factoids that Disney uses sometimes when they show a movie for the fifth time) because it used to bug me while I watched the episodes... who is that guy.... I'm NOT good at putting that type of thing together. I can barely remember character names WHILE I'm watching a movie.

No red carpet tonight

I could not agree more with this.

Sniffle. Watching the fashion, um, awards shows is one of my favorite things about TV.

Sunday Art

So this is VERY different from some of the other things I've looked at. But I like it. Found it on Tim Holtz's blog. You can read a quick "who is he?" PR paragraph, etc here.

I may have to do something like this myself someday. APTF. (After PTA Term Finishes.)

I see the light at the end of the tunnel. (Insert old joke about train.)

If I can JUST get through the next 6 months in one piece, I'll be happy! There is so much going on between the running, the mural (which I hope to start up again on the long weekend coming up), a trip we are planning, and then the school and PTA stuff on top of all of that. Throw in the choir rehearsal for Easter and I feel tired just listing it all. Oh and we might be putting a "small" addition on our house, to make the family room into a room twice as big. Because, you know, I have too many stickers. And eyelets. And rubber stamps. And beads. Ribbons. OK, I'll stop now. Said project will require ripping apart the kitchen/family room - where I spend the majority of my time in when I'm home. Wheee.

I. M. Mom

Today my daughter texted "LOL" to me for the first time. We just got her phone and the texting wasn't set up right, but now it's fixed. I'm creating a monster.

(Title of this post completely stolen by me from a lunch buddy who communicates constantly with her child away at college, via text msg. It's the book she says she'll write about parenting someday.)

Carly(via Blackberry)

Schoolhouse

So... this is where I attended the 4th grade. I went by there today, and took a quick picture on my blackberry. My only real recollections are:

• It was an experimental format where kids decided what they wanted to learn about and then developed a learning plan for themselves, and didn't listen to any lectures from a teacher together as a group. I don't think that worked out very well, do you? Most 4th graders aren't self motivated enough for that model.
• One day a boy hit me... I told the teacher and he threw a great big dictionary at the kid. ("YOU HIT A GIRL????") Ummm.... At least he missed.
• I forgot my lunch once and had to eat half of someone's PBJ. If you don't know me in person, you don't know I can't stand to eat peanut butter. Just getting a little tiny bit on my finger if I clean up my children's plates is enough to make me gag. So that was not a good day for me.

Exciting stuff, huh?

Two thoughts

#1
Something Suzy said the other day when I was panicking about by mile long todo list made me stop and think later. She said "You'll ALWAYS have a list" and I know that, but I didn't know it. I can't relax about it. I impose very unrealistic expectations on myself.

Scrapbooking is a funny thing. Many scrappers are vigilant about "keeping up" on their photos and working backward through the times before they became a scrapper. I am much more realistic about my goals when it comes to scrapping because it's a HOBBY for me, to have FUN and relax. So if I go to a crop (like I did the other night) and only sort pictures (just got 200 from snapfish) that's OK. Why can't I give myself a break like that, when it comes to all of the home management stuff and the PTA work I have? The voice gets going, "this isn't done, that isn't done" and Suzy has pointed out to me that the stress seemed to double after I took on the PTA role. Can't WAIT until the end of June.

#2
Too many choices paralyze and spoil. I first realized this with scrapbooking. I have hundreds of stickers. They're semi-sorted, but I have too many too use because I was a junkie for a while and collected them like crazy. I don't take the time to go through the books to pick out something that will work for a particular page because I have too many to carry around with me.

I have a sirius radio, an ipod, and now I have a blackberry to play with. Too much. Spoiled! I got my daughter the new cellphone (her first) and she talked me into a ringtone, then she asked me for wallpaper (no, take an effing photo and use that) and then a game (which part of I'm not buying any more this month don't you understand?) Spoiled!

I could go on... too many cookbooks. So many movies in this house, the kids watch them maybe 1x or 2x and then never again. But the relatives keep giving. I need to start an Ebay account.

Remember the name

This little man will amaze you. I had a brief conversation with his dad about some other business today, and he mentioned his son, and I had no idea what he was telling me about, so I googled him. EIGHT YEARS OLD.

Here's his web page: Anthony

PS: why did I have SO much soda tonight?

Sticky

My Tego makes phone skins. Because apparently now it's no longer cool to have a plain cell phone or iPod, you have to have a skin (a removable sticker that covers most of the surface)

Made one for my nephew (with a .jpg I found here, shown above) for his birthday. It came today... just in time.

Seems like Tego has more device options than Gelaskins did. (I couldn't get a skin for his phone from Gelaskins, but I love their iPod skins. I have an MC Escher one for mine.)

Notes I'd like to send

Dear

• Squirrel: I saw you today. On the highway. Playing the lead in a poorly conceived Frogger remake. Sorry.
• Gene Simmons: You are creepy and weird and your facelift is not helping. Please get off my tv screen.
• Trace Adkins: Marry me. Or just call me once a day- your voice is soooo good and if you call me I won't have to watch Trump anymore.
• Daughter: I'm sorry I didn't get you Hannah tickets, OK? I know you're thinking things about the Jonas brothers I'd rather not deal with. But get over it already. The concert was days ago. Quit sulking.
• Son: I'm sorry your friends figured out who you have a crush on. But for the record I think she's cute too.

Carly (via Blackberry)

It just screams Ireland, among other things

How can you not buy this shoe, for only $26? WTF?!! I can't imagine ANYONE wanting or wearing a shoe like this. And I know you don't ACTUALLY wear this shoe. I get that. I don't understand why people collect miniature shoes, but that is another post entirely. Will this work in the potato fields? I can't see it. Keep in mind, I don't have that "go shopping for shoes" gene.

In no particular order, here are my other thoughts today:

• Grey's is on tonight! They have ONE new episode, from what I think I heard. I'm so confused. I'm also greatly pained by having to watch Celebrity Apprentice and that horrible combover, just to see Trace Adkins, who I love.
• Today was a hell of a day. I really wanted to get in my car and drive over to visit a person I was conducting business with. One punch. That's all I wanted.
• I burned off some stress at lunch (yes, Andy, I'm blogging this) because we discussed the Wascally Wabbit, which is not kid-friendly, and I googled it on my Blackberry. Fortunately I sit with people who are fine with me waving around the search hit and saying things like "Only 3 AA batteries?" and "read the warning !!!" which talks about swelling and inflammation and other freaking hilarious text that was meant to be Very Serious.
• Someone also spoke disparagingly to me about a school lunch program today, saying "It's all carbs and fat" followed by an eyeroll. I dunno. A slice of nice fresh bread, slabbed with butter? I'm all for it. Cheesecake with graham cracker crust? Amen. Oh I know, nutrition, brain food, blah blah blah.
• I don't WANT to cook dinner, but I have to now. Yes, right now. Sigh.

Crime scene

It's not every day you get the murderer in the surveillance photos. Some ace detective I am, huh? I guess he really did need his magic hat after all.

Messed around with Photoshop to crop and adjust contrast/brightness, also added the lens flare. This was a photo from my blackberry, before I sent my son to respectfully gather the remains...they're on my kitchen counter now, how ghastly...

Snowbank Hurdles

Well, it was 60 degrees today. :::blink::: In January, in the Northeast. Go global warming!!!! (Just kidding. Maybe. )There is still a bit of snow here and there, a few renegade snowbanks, but not very much. There were puddles.

It took quite a bit of doing but I went for a run outside today, for about half an hour (don't be too impressed, half of it was walking). I had to sneak out of work five minutes early, race to the supermarket, run around getting a bunch of crap I can't recall now that somehow added up to almost $100, race over to school, practically drag the kids to the car by their ankles, bark orders all the way home ("carry the groceries in and then put the cold stuff in the fridge, don't leave them all over the table, especially not the frozen stuff...." etc) , make a supergirl lightning fast change, and then leaving as soon as they'd taken all the stuff into the house.

I had a VERY bright, XL yellow tshirt on so that drivers could see me, and sweat pants. No coat! It was awesome. I did hills. (I did NOT run up hills, I walked up, but I ran down those damn hills and on all the flat parts. ) It was so nice to run outside. I think the last time I really did was when that damn big dog chased me last summer and I pulled a muscle in my hip. Bah! At any rate, a winter sunset over bare trees and a frozen pond is pretty damn beautiful.

Baby steps

This morning (early in the morning) my phone rang and a delicate little voice said "Aunt (Carly), I did potty". I proceeded to shout with delight in the manner that only someone who has potty trained their OWN kids can really understand. You NEED your child to get that kind of reaction from someone, when you finally wrestle the child onto the throne and they hit the target. Someone else's over-the-top glee is absolutely required to convince your child that this really IS a big deal and not just something Mom is bugging me about.

On my own page of accomplishments, I actually GOT ON THE TREADMILL AND RAN today. Can't remember the last time that happened. I had Christmas, being sick, and a raft of other excuses.

I walked for half a mile, ran half a mile, then walked a half mile. I'm not exactly ready for a marathon yet, but it did feel good to run.

In 147 more days I'll be racing. Twenty one weeks. So if someone wouldn't mind phoning me and shouting "You are such a good girl Carly! I am so proud of you!" and carrying on a bit, I would really appreciate it.

Disconnect

So, when I made the book of old photos for my father, I included one of his Uncle Carl, from the day of Carl's wedding to his first wife, Grace. ( Here , page 14)

Grace apparently only lived a couple of years after the wedding. I don't know what illness claimed her, but they never had any kids. The picture is a very formal portrait, the dress is beautiful, and the story to me is sad and wistful and romantic and oh so very whatever.

Today my father gave a dismissive wave in my direction. "What did you put that picture of Carl and Grace in the book for?"

Because she was his wife, I replied.

Another wave of the hand "Ahh. She was nothing."

The conversation really got under my skin. I keep things. I write down stories and names and save pictures. It's a HUGE part of how I spend my personal time. I scrapbook, I help other people scrapbook, etc. The picture mattered enough to my great aunt (Helena), for her to hold on to it for so many years. It's not NOTHING!

It's much too cold

Apparently

...apparently it IS Friday already.

I want these trees down, and I want them down now. Would someone please come steal them out of my house? Take the cookies too.

It's so cold that yesterday at work I had a fleece sweatshirt over my wool sweater and turtleneck. I *DO* have a desk job. In a glass building.

Rhetorical question: If you have a "hostage situation"/ domestic dispute, is it really helped by paparazzi photographers circling overhead in helicopters? I have to think it's not. But if you don't want all of the parasites around you, wouldn't you make yourself scarce after about 9 pm??

Speaking of late in the evening, my daughter told me at about 7 pm last night that she needed data on our family (names of parents, siblings, etc,) going back to my great grandparents. For today. Nice. I think I erased the existence of some of those older generation siblings because I couldn't bear all of the branches. They'll get me for that when I get to the pearly gates. Sorry, Uncle Merle and Aunt Maude.

I went to the faculty Christmas party this evening. Yes, we're broke, so we do it after the holidays. It's ok. We go to a better restaurant that way. I have to confess I cheated during the trivia game; I googled (on my blackberry) to figure out the name of the rabbit in Frosty. (Hocus Pocus, of course) The kindergarten teacher leading the game was pretty ticked at me.

It's just a thrill a minute here...

It's Friday already?

It's Friday already?

If only I could eat Christmas cookies for a living

So I learned how to take an image, use letters to make a mask, etc. The book I'm using is by Barry Beckham, Lark Books. I'm doing something wrong though, can't get the letters as big as I want. I'm missing something. Maybe someday I can make a page header that's the right size & shape. Haha.

Today my day went slightly better than yesterday. I'm starting a daily log of the things one of my coworkers SHOULD fix, but doesn't care about. (Snicker) I bet I can make an entry every day this year at work.

I had a nice lunch. Then I went to get my glasses fixed (yes, the glasses I got IN MAY are broken, one side just completely snapped apart, and it will cost $50 and I'm pissed because it's not like I'm in 5th grade and wearing them to gym class to play dodgeball.... ahem....)

After work I played with photoshop again and did this

It's a little babe whose mom I know... I merged two pictures and took out some background stuff. (Here's where I get hard on myself and nitpicky - her face was dubbed in from another photo, I didn't exactly place it very carefully. No neck! I rebuilt the bonnet the easy way by cloning some nearby samples of color and smudged it, then I copied one sleeve over to the other side - a little too high- picky again - but better than it looked before because someone in a black dress was holding her in the original photo.)

It's all a wee bit sloppy because I didn't have a high density image of the main picture to start with, and so I was mainly playing and figuring out how to do things and I didn't zoom in very much. So to hide that (hah!) I put on the watercolor filter. It made me forget a couple of things for an hour so that was good.

This just in

So far 2008 is not working for me... I am having the same frustrations, the same arguments with the same people, and reading the same horrible news online really doesn't provide much diversion. ( this and this and this and need I continue? jerks, liars and creeps.)

Where's the fresh start? Where's the new beginning? Same crap, different day.

This mood may have something to do with the fact that it's snowing AGAIN and we've already had 33" so far this winter, and I'm OVER IT REALLY and would like to go for a nice long walk outside in the sunshine.