Blue

Technically not illegal

#1.
The other day as I was leaving work Suzy called me.

I was being a good citizen of our fair state and grabbed my hands free headset and we chatted for a while. Suddenly I noticed her, two cars ahead of me.

We drove side by side for a while, laughing about how that very though would make our mother start gnawing her thumbnail.

I decided to take her picture and in so doing, swerved just a LITTLE bit into her lane.

Luckily she is a better driver than I am; no surprise because after all she got a degree in TWO years and it took me 4. (That's our running joke.)

#2

I've had this running complaint open with facilities because I shouldn't have to wear fleece OVER a sweater in mid spring because an icy wind is blowing on me. The work order was opened, ingnored, escalated, ignored again, and so on.

Friday I was visited by one team member and his manger and they said they'd fixed one of the 30 thermostats on the floor. They were sorry, I was forgiving. It even SEEMED WARM after that.

After lunch today I noticed the icy blast start up again, because the universe felt my Monday wasn't quite bad enough yet.

Five minutes ago a facilities guy came around a corner and pointed something gunlike at me. I was about to scream and dive under the desk, but then I remembered seeing my boyfriend Alton use one on tv. Yes I was faked out by a fancy thermometer that he was pointing at the heat/ AC vents. .

For the record, two thermostats are now dueling for the turf my cubicle occupies. I just hope nobody else show up with a thermogun again.
Carly(via Blackberry)

Squares

Sunday art... we're getting REALLY loose with this category but here goes:

http://thepostitproject.blogspot.com/

has little ditties like this one:

And boy, am I someone who wishes that a lot of the squares in my life were round. Gaaah.

Most of the cartoons on this site are kind of funny or bizarre, but every now and then one makes me wince, and take a closer look at myself (granted - maybe a little too harshly, it's JUST a post it note for crying out loud...)

Digging a Ditch

Digging a Ditch
Run to your dreaming when you're alone
Unplug the TV and turn off your phone
Get heavy on with digging your ditch
Cause I'm
Digging a ditch where madness gives a bit
Digging a ditch where silence lives
Digging a ditch for when I'm old
Digging this ditch my story's told
Where all these troubles weigh down on me will rise
Run to your dreaming when you're alone
Where all these questions spinning round my head will die, will die, will die
Run to your dreaming when you're alone
Unplug the TV and turn off your phone
Get heavy on with digging your ditch
Cause I'm
Digging a ditch where madness gives a bit
Digging a ditch where silence lives
Digging a ditch for when I'm through
Digging this ditch I'm digging for you
Where all these worries wear down on me will rise
Where all these habits pull heavy at my heart will die
Run to your dreaming when you're alone
Not what you should be or what you've become
Just get heavy on with digging your ditch
Cause I'm
Digging a ditch where madness gives a bit
Digging a ditch where silence lives
Where all these disappointments that grow angry out of me will rise
Will die, will die, will die
Run to your dreaming when you're alone
Unplug the TV and turn off your phone
Get heavy on with digging your ditch

People bug me today. Hmmph.

I'm tired of some of the "stuff" at school that I'm dealing with, and tired of wondering if I'll still have a job at the end of this year. Today at the function I had to run for school there was a whole buzz about the latest gossip and people fishing for what I know and what I think about it all. Tapdancing, all evening. Because I can't say what I think and all of the reasons why. People think it's so desirable to be "in the know". I don't want to know "stuff." I wish I didn't.

Tired of wondering what certain people are thinking and if certain problems I'm having are my fault because I don't explain myself well sometimes. Tired of questioning my own judgement, and whether I'm too emotional; tired of second guessing things I would like to say, emails I would like to send.

Tired. Tired of not feeling good and not sleeping well and of not liking how I look or feel. Tired of resolving to do something about all of that, and falling short because I'm sucked back into habits and just that whole "being human" thing.


I want to go off in a kayak and paddle out into the long quiet part of the lake, and feel the sun on my face, and watch the dragonflies skim over the water, and look up at the trees and the sky.

Parting shots

Apparently Spencer & Heidi were at Central Park the same day we were. I only wish I'd seen then so I could go up and flick my finger against his forehead and say "you're SUCH a twit".

B was desperately hoping to see the Jonas Brothers at their "favorite" restaurant in little Italy but we did get a picture of her, standing in front of it hopefully looking around at everyone nearby.

We wanted to spend much more time in the park, and I want to go back to the museums, and the kids have never seen a show, not even the Rockefeller Christmas show, so we have a long list of things to do when we return (B was very miffed that we couldn't go to the wax museum so that she could see Miley. Please. $120 (for all of us) for her to stand next to one doll and then say "I'm hungry, when's lunch?" I don't think so.)

Someday. When I finish my remodeling, which :::;drumroll::: might start soon. In a week, maybe. Yeah, I know. That's not a flashy announcment. This stuff is crawling along and I really wanted it done by the 4th of July but that looks out of reach now. At least I have May to more or less get things packed out of the way from the family room & kitchen. It's gonna be a BIG mess, I can feel it in my bones.

This tulip

.... Won't be here when I get home, probably. Effing rabbits. At least I got to see this one.
Carly(via Blackberry)

Bleeding Love

Not sure if you caught Leona Lewis on Idol tonight. My kid has liked her for a couple of weeks now and so the song is stuck in my head for good. Here's her giant face on the front of Virgin Records in Times Square (that's Mariah's foot over her head)

What, you thought this post wouldn't be about the city? sorry...

Brooklyn Bridge

...and I promise to stop talking about Manhattan. Soon. Soon-ish.

Did I tell you that there were police everywhere, and I mean everywhere, police standing and police on horses and people who were clearly police with sniffer dogs and...some people might be nervous about that; I wasn't really bothered by it all. We had arranged our plans to sort of stay out of the Pope's way on Friday. So it was no big deal.

One NYPD officer was very nice to my son. He and his partner had a truck, it was a some sort of power generator truck, and it was near St. Pat's. We were waiting for other family members to finish something, and so I took my son over and introduced him. The officers were really friendly and took a bunch of photos with the kids and made it a very cool moment for my son.

We also made friends with our cab driver; there are only four cabbies in NYC who are SAG members and so when a movie is filmed in town and they need cabbies, this guy is usually somewhere on the set. I'll have to look for him; he talked about being in some movie Julia Roberts is filming now. (Duplicity, with Clive Owen, who is NOT hard on the eyeballs, thank you.)

Just curious

I often listen to. "Beach house" by Tony Braasch when too many people arond me at work are yakking. I just need to not be able to make out their words so that I can focus. It's waves against rocks and there's a wind chime faintly jingling. It's an hour long so I tend to accomplish quite a bit.

I wonder if there is a similar mp3 of white noise sounds of the city? I mean, I don't really like crickets or wolf sounds, and I'm just still in Why Can't I Go Back to Manhattan Now mode

Carly(via Blackberry)

More shots

Central Park & St. Patrick's....

Sunday Art

One of the luxuries of having a digital camera is being able to take as many photos as you want, or hand the camera to your kid and let them play and learn. You can delete any Ooops or Ughs later.

So, two photos by my son. He had plenty of shots where his hand got in front of the lens, but some gems too. There is probably nothing remarkable about the photo above, except that I just like the candid nature of it. I'm very ok with random shots of "nothing."

I'm definitely hoping he continues to enjoy the hobby.

Goodies

We got the usual shirts and magnets on our trip; I also purchased a Dean & Deluca tote bag - I'll be using it for work, because I have my laptop and my lunch and my wallet and blah, blah blah. I sprayed the hell out of it today with a waterproofing spray I got at "Lids" for my son's white Yankee cap.

I also got this (Americaware.com) because I liked that it's giant (for 16 oz of tea, of course, not wine, I would not ever drink wine in this) and that it's sculpted in a wee bit of 3-d.

But, no Coach bag. Or Tiffany dragonfly bracelet.

What is sweet about the sorrow?

It's so hard to get in the car, and look out the window at you as I pull away. Everything behind me gets smaller and smaller, and then when I inevitably have to turn away, and leave you in my back window, I feel that cold steely hand clench around my heart and squeeze. My stomach flips over inside of me, and lands with a dark thud that echoes through me until it escapes with a weary sigh.

This visit is over, it pains me to know that I will carry around this empty space inside for a while; the space that is so filled with joy, when I am there.

Now, I am here. Back to "normal".

"There" is excitement. Possibility. Energy. New thoughts and ideas and things to discover. All so unattainable on any permanent basis.

"Here" is just so ordinary and routine and the same. And lonely, somehow -- a contradiction in that there are SO many people around me. And yet. Lonely. This, unfortunately, IS permanent.

I hope it won't be too long before I see you again. But the tiny, quiet fear is always there. What if this was the last time? What if there is no next time?

Seriously

Honestly. It's a candy store. An effing AWESOME candy store full of candy I don't even like. but still.

I mean, really. How can you not want to go there?

Oh, and my daughter has about 350 pictures to my 250. I've created a monnnnster.

Only the core remains

So. I am blogging from a limo. Carlyrella went and tooled around Manhattan this week. But it's almost midnight and soon I will be surrounded by pumpkin mush.

We went down to the big apple and played for a few days. On Wednesday I strolled into Tiffany's and tried on a $9750 dragonfly bracelet cuff. It was three rows of dragonflies; their heads were pearls, their bodies were diamonds and the wings were white gold. I was pretty shocked when the clerk took it out of the case and put it on my arm. Carly can't buy that because Carly's kids have wonky teeth and so $10k has to go to braces.

I also looked at a $400 Coach bag. It was pink leather and I really liked it, but that's not really in the cards. I only saw one hooker this week so I didn't get a chance to network enough to get in the biz.

While the boys went to The Longest Yankee Game the girls walked through Central Park (love it) and ate at Tavern on the Green (mehhhhh)

Yesterday we rode the bus tour around. Lunch at Il Palazzo (excellent) and then ate dinner at Junior's right off Times square. I had a giant slab of carrot cake - enclosed cheesecake. (Pics to follow). I really just wanted to be alone with it but my kids staged a fork intervention sooo....

Times Square at night - does it get any better?

We stayed at the Belvedere Hotel (kinda basic but fine) which is right across the street from a school Alicia Keyes once attended. When we pulled up in our limo there was some interest in our limo, but then "nobody" (my brother in law ) got out. Hah

Today we did Today and the NBC tour. We staked out a spot and watched the setup for the fourth hour and then acted like jackasses cheering so we'd be on camera. . Kathie Lee Gifford threw a cookie at me. Oookay.
So we spent time at Rockefeller and at this point I can barely walk. I got blisters on my blisters.

Oh yeah, and some Catholic guy is in town. Whatevs.

Mr C. said to my daughter "can you imagine if you came to the city and everyone dropped what they were doing?". She said "they DID, didn't they?"
Carly(via Blackberry)

Looking ahead, and back

The last couple of days before a vacation are the WORST. Everyone wants everything "before you go" and no one seems to remember that you'll be back soon, and most of it can be handled then. Can I PLEASE just go on vacation?

We have some typical adventures planned- a yankees game for the boys, Tavern on the green for the girls. Also plenty of wandering around and eating all sorts of great food.

Also we will go to the world trade center site, to pay our respects... I can't put it into words very well but I want my kids to see and feel it all, and keep it close to their heart. We will look at the exhibits that are at the chapel across the street, where the rescue workers took their breaks and were counseled by clergy.

My hope is that my kids will stand there with me in the park behind the church, and look at that big empty space, and be moved to say a prayer with me and think about all of those people, and their families, and be thankful for our soldiers and say a prayer for them too.

Dear universe

Stop it stop it stop it stop it!!!!!

Today I worked from home; my kids have va-cay-shun this week and I don't want them killing each other just yet.

I put my little darlings to work* and I set about my own work. At one point I had about 15 windows open because I am dealing with TWO programs that both MUST be done NOW (yes only two, the real geeks are laughing at me out there) and clients who don't comprehend that we can't start programming other work until they actually give us the requirements for what they want us to do! I didn't even get to program #2 but #1 is shaping up nicely, if I can keep the client from saying "well my friend edited a local copy of the database and...."

At 3:57 my boss pinged me via instant message to see if I could sit in on a phonecall at 4. The universe was trying to tell me something that I just wasn't getting.

At 4:02 my daughter shot into the room; "mmmmmmmoooooooooommmmm I had an orthodontist appointment at 4!" Oh, right. That. Um, thanks for nothing?

So JUST then my boss called and I had to sort of whimper "can I call you right back?" and call the ortho to reschedule. The secretary was kind; hmm, what to do, can't really bring her candy, now can I ???

********

* the other night I got up from watching tv, and wandered in to use the bathroom before I went to sleep. The trashcan had been empty at 3pm; I was working from home THAT day too. Not sure what happened between 3 and 11 but it was as though it was a volcano spewing really really gross stuff, heaped on top and strewn about the can on the floor.

I was repulsed and went out to levitate my husband off the recliner using only my voice. He in turn looked at the mess, stomped into bedrooms, and woke up our little cherubs, saying "get into the bathroom now".

My son tends to sleepwalk in that scenario (awakened after being asleep for about an hour) and so it took a while to get him to the right place.

I pointed at the trashcan and said to them both "This is DISGUSTING. If I EVER see this again, we will not have cable." I even made the slashing motion across my throat to make sure they got it that I Am Serious.

I stomped out and my son picked up everything. My husband handed the bag to my daughter and said 'well, since all you did is watch him clean it up, you can bring it out to the cold garage now'.

She complied and then I heard a whiny "Can we please go back to bed now?"

My garbage has not been more than half full since then.

Today my son said "Mom... I really like cable."

I know, my child. I know.

So yesterday I commisioned them captains. Captain of Dish and Garbage Duty, and Captain of the Laundromat. Duties to rotate weekly.

And they thought this was a vacation.

Yanks acquire Ex-Cardinal

(from ESPN )

We are JUST BARELY missing the Pope when HE visits NYC. Soooo, I got a good laugh out of this one.

This just in

Today we got up early and trekked to a TV station for a private tour with the morning news anchor. The tour was a gift, (someone else won it at an auction but gave it to my son).

It was fun; we got there just before 8 A.M., and Phil (Mr. Anchor) let us listen while he discussed the curent status of various news stories with his producer (for the five minute local headline cut-ins during the Today show) and he showed my son D how he edits the script and so on. I hadn't realized he wrote his own scripts for those cut-ins. He was really nice and spoke at my son's level because he has a son of his own; he made it all very cool and interesting to D.

The one funny thing was that there are multiple nicknames for my daughter's full given name; there is one version that NO ONE ever calls her, and Phil pulled that out of thin air for some reason and called her that consistently the whole time we were there. (She didn't mind. Whew~!)

Anyway, then we went into the studio and watched them actually doing one of the cut ins, and the local weather. D got a chance later to stand in front of the green screen and wave his arms around and watch himself on the monitor. The weather guy was pretty cool too, and spent time talking to us as well. He showed D the worn out spot on the floor where he always stands, and the right angle to stand so that you can watch yourself on the monitor (to point to the right part of the green screen) and look pretty convincing from home -- look as though you're looking "at" the map, when you're watching the monitor really, and without moving you can shift your gaze to appear to be speaking to people at home.

Later we went to the production room where they control all of the feeds and so on, and can do special effects like splitting the screen and overlaying different sources. That part was fun for me because it was a computer geek.

I took a bunch of pictures - except I forgot to take one with Mr. Anchor!! Unbelievable. Oh well. I did get a photo of D and the weather guy. So maybe someday he'll be a meteorologist. Because that's all it takes, right? Having a picture of yourself pretending that you are doing a job, and you are qualified.

The rain is back for a few days, and it's making me very melancholy, but I am fighting it. I have been playing Israel Kamakawiwo'ole's version of Somewhere Over the Rainbow, and wishing I could fly over the rainbow myself. (OK, so that's not helping. I'm stopping that now.) There's some significant crap going on with school, and it is really bringing me down.

My friend spent some time today trying to convince me to add a gas fireplace to our family room and put the tv on the wall over that (um, don't have pesos for a flat screen tv now!) - she pointed out that we should at least put the CAT 5 cable in for now. Also I figured out that my "just put linoleum out there" option won't work for the screen porch...since it won't be heated... so tile it is. Cha ching. So I'm already worried about blowing too much money on this!

Long busy weekend coming up. I'm tired.

Snip snap snip snap

Omg, I am so happy the Office is back. And I have wine too!

Edit - since so many people have hit me from a google of "snip snap snip snap", I feel obligated to tell you all to go HERE for a great website: http://www.officetally.com/

Ps. My son just did a spontaneous air guitar riff to a commercial. Maybe I should bring him to work tomorrow.

Carly(via Blackberry)

Still with us

I am happy to say... They actually seem to have thrived in Casa Carly once I got rid of the spring water.
Carly(via Blackberry)

With a little help from my friends

This month is the "perfect storm"... there are two maaaaahjah events at school that yours truly has to run. One is a fundrasier is a raffle that raises all of its money at the last possible friggin' moment, so that I can lose sleep for at least a week if not a month before we flip over from failure to profit. We have flipped, by the way. Amen. Amen- I-don't-want-to- run-this-next-year. But you know how that goes.

The other is a social event that's kind of cute and fun, but doesn't play well down south, but nevertheless I have that pretty well under control (cue ominous music... ) as far as I know.

Add our trip to Manhattan (we are going down in! a! limo!) which I will blog either during, or when it's over, so that I don't come home to an empty house.

Shake in our pending home renovation, (read as: destruction and reconstruction....) which might start any day now or not for a week or a month or who the eff knows and I need to pack and think about things like paint and carpet and stuff and whether to pay my mortgage this month or blow that money in Manhattan on pretzels from a grungy cart on the street somewhere near Rockefeller.

Various things are getting me through this:

• my gift from Scrappy... mine is blue and I love it. I will SO take a picture of a Starbuck's cup, wearing one of these bad boys, in Times Square. Yes I am that cornball, and I will do it.
• an even better gift of knowing that the long chemo winter is over and my friend will be around to add her wit and wisdom to my life for quite some... if I still had that pink ribbon magnet you know I'd be mailing you the pieces now, woman!! Or better yet I would fly down there and we could put bits of it all over the most expensive cars driving around your town
• my other friend from London describing Borough Market to me just when I really really needed to think about fun places like this and cooking with fresh ingredients, and not think about people who steal from other people who are doing fundraising
• friends who give me wine.... just saying...
• my daughter saying to me "do you know if I connect the freckles on my left leg with a Sharpie it would look like the big dipper?" and just generally being really cool and hilarious
• my son trying to be all BIG even when I want him to still be my munchkin, and not lashing out at me when I rein in his independence a little bit because I just CAN'T HANDLE him driving waaaaaaaaay away from me and out of sight at the park on his scooter, helmet or no helmet
• daffodils, which are repugnant to rodents who root in my garden, but infinitely less so to me. Flowers are my friends...
• vitamin B-12.... really... I didn't read the literature, but my sister/ best friend suggested I start taking it, and it kept me from wanting to bulldoze something this month. Maybe those pretty pink pills are placebos but I swear, it helped me.

Frasier

...is back. So it really is spring.
Carly(via Blackberry)

Dog, wood

...an anti goose device. This is something child1 had to explain to me.

PS, it's not working
Carly(via Blackberry)

Sprinnnnnng

Yay! (except get a good look while you can, the rabbits or squirrels are eating them)
Carly(via Blackberry)

Tastes like chicken

So, today I tried Indian food for the first time.

Tandoori chicken works for me, and there were deep fried somethings with onion and a red onion relish I loved.

Just wishing I'd had more kheer (rice pudding with nuts, sweet dessert)

Little Carly doesn't get out much!
Carly(via Blackberry)

Sunday art

... to use the category very loosely.

Today's work of art is a luxury car, the Maybach (pick English, then Movies, then watch the 2007 film for a ten minute sample a la the Lifestyles of the Rich and Famous.) It would not make me sad to tool around Manhattan in a 62.


Click here to check out the inside of the car, and read the entire page for the security add ons. I stumbled across this link when I read that Jay-Z drives one of these cars, and searched for more information on it. Not sure that I would want to live a life where I usually didn't feel safe, and needed security- customized cars for peace of mind, but damn.... nice car.

AB Negative

So, my love for Alton Brown has been documented in this blog. I'm a little upset with him still, because he had the nerve to be at a conference that I wasn't allowed (by my manager) to attend a couple of months ago. I didn't know until TOO LATE that he was the surprise guest speaker wrapping up the conference. My heart broke a little. REALLY -but I know that Alton is mine, despite NONE of my friend/coworkers knowing enough to walk up to him and take a camera phone photo of him holding up a piece of paper saying "Hi Carly." Geez guys. Really. I'm over it. Oh, yes, I am. Really. Uh huh.

Anyway.

My annoyance with Anthony Bourdain now needs to be shared. Anthony, or "AB-" to keep things simple, was in my area this week and continued to bash Rachel Ray. Apparently he's been gnawing at this for a long time. The essence of his hatred seems to be that she is not a gourmet chef. He made remarks simliar to "No one should aspire to mediocrity".

First of all, buddy, live and let live. Why put someone else down to prove your superiority? A mindset I just can never understand, right there.

Unlike Alton, who generally operates with a message of "cooking is cool and fun and HEY- try this!" AB- seems to operate only on the premise that the only worthy cook is a four (five?) star chef. (Did you know that Norman Rockwell was regarded by his peers as ONLY an illustrator, not a "real" artist? That's what I'm talking about. I guarantee that more of middle America know's Rachel's name, and not Anthony's. And I think it EATS HIM ALIVE because he is a "better" cook. )

I would go out on a limb and say that AB- has never been a middle class working mom with hungry kids. There are nights when I come home after 5pm, tired and looking at a mountain of laundry, bills to write out, homework to help with. A Thirty Minute meal is not the Supper of Satan in this circumstance. It's also not a frozen pizza, food delivery, or Mc Nuggets.

Do I watch Top Chef? Hell yeah. Would I love a cooking lesson from anyone competing on the show? Absofucking-lutely.

But I buy Rachel Ray's magazine, and those recipies might actually see my stove. Thanks, AB- , for trying to make me feel like somehow that makes me a failure. Eff you. No, really.

Today

I lost all my presets on my Sirius today; it was kind of how the whole day went. Nothing according to plan; things I thought were in place just weren't.

Oy.
Carly(via Blackberry)

IMG00157.jpg

So...

My company is having an AIR GUITAR CONTEST next week. The sign above this one says 'bring your own axe or we will supply one.'

Please dear sweet baby Haysoos, , let me get run over in the parking lot. Amen.

Carly(via Blackberry)

Dear world

Everyone seems to be batshit crazy today. And my meter is going off at even the slightest sign of crazy. So there is this loud ringing in my ears, all day.

And when did Jerry Seinfeld get to be 53? (Duh, on his last birthday, I know...)

Carly(via Blackberry)

Click

My grandparents... on their 50th anniversary... some 20+ years ago. I miss them very much when I look at this picture.

You can't really tell from the thumbnail but I modified the picture with a filter to bring out the edges a little bit. It took away some of the "old and faded" - ness of the picture. I wanted it to look something like it had been painted, not photographed, but I didn't like the canvas filter over the dull coloring so I settled on this.

I'm in a bit of a funk these days. SO many things are on my mind (tons of end-of the year school responsibilities, and work is WAY up in the air and just generally frustrating on a day to day basis). And I forgot Top Chef again last night, as the truffle on top. I also have not had ONE DAMN MINUTE to run so I am very discouraged because the race is only about 7 weeks away at this point.

Alternatives

So, it was an upside down day.

I had an IEP meeting for one of my children (where the special ed. committee reviews the year to date, and determines what services will be provided the coming school year.) Right now we get consultant teacher services after school, extended test time, and other things like that. Sometimes B takes tests in a separate room because when other kids begin to hand in their tests B shuts down because of not being done too. This first happened when B repeated first grade. There was a huge worry that "I'm going to fail again." Only time convinced B that this was not the case. This anxiety is much better this year, but still a problem, in some subjects.

My child attended for the first time this year, (because of being old enough to have a voice in the proceedings) and I was a little apprehensive because I had some intentions of confronting one teacher who doesn't always "remember" that we have an IEP (this is a BIG no-no.)

There were other complications with which teachers were present (one was uninvited, um, yeah, no.) But in the end it was a good experience for my child because we discussed particularly successful projects that happened this year. (One of them being the LONG Norman Rockwell paper.) At the end of the meeting my kid said "that's it?" so I'm not sure how much anxiety there was, but I know there was some.

My house is in a shambles and I'm sweating just THINKING about all of the work to pack stuff, move it out of the way, make decisions, order things, and so on.

My house is also rather quiet now, because the other kid is involved in drama club and is in rehearsals from immediately after school until 8 pm almost every night this week. I have to admit I miss the kid.

I really need to change some of the water in the fish tank, too. Dammit!

March what?

Last year we convinced my son it was March 32 nd and drove him a little crazy.

This year we punked Mr. C.

He came out of the shower and I had the kids positioned to simultaenously run into the separate bathrooms and start making "barf" noises. I ran in behind one kid and shut the door and helped make noise.

Yes, I am three years old.

Yummy

While I was at the market I actually saw some beautiful eggplant and so I made this.

It was pretty good with a glass of pinot noir.

Finally

I have found a way to enjoy the supermarket.

Today I was about to leave and saw my brother walking in. He didn't see me.

I hid behind a pillar and when I saw his feet I charged out with my shopping cart like I was going to run him over. It was awesome to see the look on his face.

Carly(via Blackberry)

Overheard

In my room, this dark morning.

"I don't want to go to work todayyyy."

(Silence.....)

"...you are a big girl now and you have to go."

I was alone in the room, of course.

Ps to Scrappy - I was sitting at the head table and could NOT walk away to go get cake (while most of the coaches were giving awards to their own children - one even SAID "We let all of the parents vote and then we make it right." Aieeee. He then added "well, we always agree with the parents". Yeah, ok pal.)

Carly(via Blackberry)

Help

I am trapped in an unending sports banquet.

I must smile at people I'm really not all that crazy about.

I can not drink any more than the one glass of wine I had long long ago.

I am very sad.
Carly(via Blackberry)

Creating a monster

the guy who is going to do the addition on my house got me thinking about remodeling the kitchen a little (not the cabinets, jsut fixing the crappy walls, and replacing the lighting...

So my friend got a hold of me and we found the tile mural above (one on either side of my stove, with beige tiles filling in the extra space...)

and this

and of course... this would go nicely with a new tile floor in the kitchen....my linoleum IS 13 years old..

I think I'm going to be eating a lot of Kraft macaroni & cheese when I'm done.

A vid to replay a thousand times

Edit - OK, fine, go here and watch, while I try to learn how to use this Internets thing. This is a video featuring John Krasinski and George Clooney discussing their new movie, Leatherheads, which opens NEXT FRIDAY. (As in, the day I already have two places to be, and the day before I have 3 places I have to be. I can't go see it until at least SUNDAY, people. This really sucks.)

Hopefully this will work for you. Probably not.

Kudos to Give Me My Remote for her great site about tv and her unquestionably good taste in leading men.

how to

...freak out your paranoid family members:

1. Sit them down at a pc

2. Bring up Google maps

3. Type in their address

4. Look for "street view" and click on it. Look for a little gold person. If necessary, click on the gold guy.

By now you may be looking at a photograph of the front of their house. One that you can zoom in on.

Mine was taken in approximately September or October. Because I had a certain vehicle I don't have now, and it is showing in the photo, (license is blurred out) but I don't have the pink breast cancer awareness .magnet on the back of it.

Eggs

It's been a long afternoon.

I just realized I completely forgot about Top Chef. WTF? The show completely vanished from the list of things my DVR was supposed to record. #$%&*!

Then I just took a load of laundry out of the dryer. It's been in there a day or so since it dried.

At the bottom of the dryer I found a tiny, marble-sized ball of foil. With the remains of a chocolate egg.

The clothes? They look like the Pre-laundry basket of something who's enduring a very unfortunate ailment.

After looking through the entire basket, and using up half a stain stick, I will be rewashing those clothes next.

Happy happy happy. Oh yes I am.

There will be wine tonight, my friends.

Various bits

This and that...

• Mothers and their toddlers argue 20-25 times per hour on average, a new study shows. Sorry, Amelia.
• The builder came to my house last night, and we talked about ways to exponentially increase the cost of my addition. Joy, joy. Oh, and my 'kitchen light' is a hallway light. No wonder it sucks.
• Shamus is back :::::Carly glares at Shop D, wondering what his excuse is :::::::::
• Three blogs I check every day: perezhilton.com/ , bossip.com/ and lately, jezebel.com . I am not proud. Just honest.
• Maya Angelou is 80 today. Laila Ali, who is preggers AND MARRIED, ARE YOU LISTENING HOLLYWOOD, SHE GOT MARRIED FIRST... is 30, but today is not her birthday. So don't send her a card.
• I have, uh, NINE weeks to prepare for the 5K. It would be helpful to find my sneakers soon.
• I stabbed a bunny in the eye this morning at my house. OK, it was a white chocolate rabbit, and yes, I know that "white chocolate" is not chocolate. Don't want to hear it, thank you.
• My kid is sick. One of those random speed bumps that child free coworkers can be so pissy about. No, I won't leave her home alone in bed to sleep it off... Yes, I'm sitting on my couch most of the day when I work from home, but that doesn't mean I WANTED to do it today... I had plans for tonight, and now we can't go.
• (note to my boss and coworkers, I'm eating lunch....)

Fish and rain

The light and the dark sides of my brain:

I realized this morning when I was putting MORE ammonia reducing drops in the fishbowl that the reason they get so agitated when I do that is that they think they're getting FOOD. I don't think he's been feeding them. So sorry, Finn. Welcome to your new home.



I heard Purple Rain this morning on the way to work. Stop and think about the vast number of songs you have heard in your lifetime.

Funny, isn't it, how any one specific old song can take you so far back. PR was playing while I had that last horrible conversation with my first college boyfriend. (So cliche but strictly bad timing and the fact that I played the entire soundtrack every day of my sophomore year.)

When the song was over, we were too. It was LITERALLY half a lifetime ago but when I listened to that song today I could still feel it, the first time my heart got broken as something of an adult. Not talking about high school crushes here. This man was about to graduate and I wanted to build a life with him.

So it sucks - that moment when you realize that all of the dreams you had are crashing down around you because that other person just does not feel the same way.

No point in dwelling on it any more. Another song came on, and then another.
Carly(via Blackberry)

Tandem

So, I have this friend. I like him, but he's gullible. He's in his 30's and we call him The Kid and we regularly put one over on him.

Today at lunch we were talking about kayaks and someone mentioned a tandem kayak. The Kid asked what that was.

I was halfway to convincing him that it's a kayak where one person sits on a platform above the other. When I could see him start to think about the physics of balancing the weight, I burst out laughing and ruined all the fun.

Pretty much the highlight of an otherwise boring day at work.

Sunday Art a day late

This is just a small part of one of our windows. You wouldn't see it during mass unless you turned your head WAY around to one side; it's practically over the choir loft.

Why do I like this frame so much? I don't know. I like the flower vase, and that the stone arched windows that are quite a lot like the building I'm standing in. For whatever reason, on Sunday mornings when I'm waiting to sing something, I often glance over at this window; my eye is drawn to this segment.

If I ever had a garage, and converted it to a studio, I would want something like this in one end, where the morning sun could stream in and scatter the colors around the room.

(so, I guess that's #42 on the list of ways I would squander any lottery winnings...making a replica of this part of the window...)

Not already

Did you hear that primal scream just now? That was me; baseball season is starting already.

Happy Easter

One of the many I'll be singing AGAIN today.... one of my favorites.

I won't joke about cellphones and crying babies and people who only come once a year, but... Oy. I prefer the Tenebrae service, actually. All of the attendees really WANT to hear us sing.

Last night at the Vigil mass I was singing the communion hymn and I noticed the distinct draft coming up from the stairs - people who run out the nearby exit right after they receive communion let a blast of cold air shoot up at us. Yay. Thanks, see you next year. Um, find a church you actually like going to??

Love it or leave it

Love it

• new song -- I'm yours -- Jason Mraz apparently went to Jamaica, mon, but it's all good.
• Quarterly dividend checks are awesome. Just saying. Mad money for our Big Apple trip
• So is making the LAST payment on Thing 1's braces!!! (alas, Thing 2 needs them at some point...)
• J-Lo's babies are cute. So there. Good thing they look like Momma.

Leave it

• It's still COLD. The e-bunny will freeze
• I thought I killed my daughter's new puffy down vest because I don't HAVE tennis balls to stick in the dryer and what could that possibly have to do with it? Sigh. It still amazes me, all of the things I just don't know.
• Forgot that I put eggs on to boil... um, they are DEFINITELY hard boiled now. For sure. Doesn't really matter. We don't actually eat them... they sit out on the kitchen table for a few days. One of those stupid things to fight about, ya know? Seems like a waste to me.
• No new episode of Lost until April 24? Bastards!

As if I don't have anything else to do

The fish saga continues. No, he didn't die (even though I figured out that "Ted" was named after Ted's Fish Fry that we used to go to - not funny, that Mr. Carly).

Yesterday I went to PetCo. The young woman there who "helped" us answered most of my questions by paraphrasing "I dunno". Do we need a filter? Welll, probably not. Should I put something in the water? Oh, I don't think you need to do that. I wanted to dunk her in the tank to wake her up.

She was pretty blunt about Ted being on his deathbed. Way to be nice to a ten year old kid, beeyatch. He came home and put his head down on the table and cried. "He never even made it into my room." (Ted's been on the kitchen table.)

So while we were at the store we bought Finn, to make up for what we thought would soon be an empty tank. Yes, not being content to cause the impending demise of one, we brought home a second victim. Kid decided that all Ted needed was a friend.

We dumped in Finn and his water (OMG, the water went in the tank and FINN STAYED IN THE BAG. I HAD TO SHAKE THE POOR LITTLE BASTARD OUT.) Then we moved the tank onto Kid's dresser.

I'm thinking the 1" of foam on the surface today is either medicine that was in Finn's water, or they're getting a little too much light even though the shades are down, or... I don't even know what... but Ted is looking pretty damn good this morning. Swimming around midheight in the aquarium. WTF? I am soooo bad at this!

Kid is convinced it's an easter miracle. I'm not sure God listens to prayers about goldfish. Does he? is that the problem? Kids with sickly fish are jamming up the lines? We could have whirled peas if we all stopped buying goldfish???

This Fish

So in lieu of an actual status report, I will provide an update via song, with apologies to Faith and all of the songwriters in the world who posess actual talent at writing lyrics...

This Fish (tune from This Kiss, as recorded by Faith Hill)

(v1)
I don’t want another headache
I don’t need another kid to cry
I don’t want to learn the hard way
Poor fish: oh, no, goodbye

Tries to swim up to the surface
Sinks right back down the bowl!

(chorus)
It’s the way he's floating
He's flopped over like THIS
It’s the lack of motion
It’s a sickly fish
It’s that pivotal moment
It’s impossible
This fish, this fish (so flushable)
This fish this fish

(v2)
Ariel said to Nemo
How do fish die overnight?
All I wanted was a goldfish
With a small bowl, air pump, fake plants

Drive me off to the pet store
Mommy has to buy some more...

(repeat chorus)

You can feed him in the daylight
(But not too much or he will die)
You can feed him in the nighttime
(Not too much or he will die)
Feed him in sweet slow motion
Smelly flakes fall from the sky

The Fish is floating, you overfed him!

(repeat chorus)
This fish, this fish (it's criminal)
This fish, this fish....

The photo

here it is... not the perfect portrait, technically, but one I would never throw away. This is the picture I mentioned the other day.

I took a day off from work today, because all of the singing I will do this week means I need a bit more rest than is usually possible in my frantic life. I feel out of sorts, as though I've forgotten something important that I was supposed to do today. It's driving me crazy.

My kid's $50 free fish

And yes I did use distilled spring water, Pol.

When we put him in here and turned on the light he freaked out a little. I gave him some food and said Good Luck.

This morning he's still hiding most of the time.

Now I'm going to have to get him some friends, I suppose
Carly(via Blackberry)

I give him a week

So the cherry on top is that some teacher gave my kid a FISH.

In a bag.

I was at choir, trying not to smite my nemesis, who frankly sounds a wee bit like Kermit the Frog. (We are in church. Think Kumbaya, Carly.) I came home from a LONG rehearsal, and found Squirt. Oy. He already has a name. Dead fish swimming, folks. The name ain't gonna help.

The fish can't stay in the bag. (I assume.)

I don't have a fish bowl. I have various bowls that I don't think would work. I have no fish FOOD. I have no fish-pertise in any form.

I wanted to dump him into this big glass candleholder that was vaguely fishbowl shaped but, I could not figure out if I could just POUR the whole bag in. It seemed like I would end up bonking his poor little fish head on the glass, no matter how gently I pour.

While the stupid boys of the household who brought this to my home fish are off to Walmart, I have the bowl in a dish, but I just went over to check on it and he was kind of stuck in a corner. Great. So I have a fish that wants to be sushi.

Coincidentally (or perhaps not) he freaks out whenever I go over and peer at the bag to see if he's gotten stuck in another corner again.

Poor Squirt.

And no, I haven't had any wine yet. I have to deal with the fish first.

Idiot magnets

I am busy punking people at work today.

Management hid plastic eggs with candy and prize slips inside, scattered by the dozens around our work area.

Well, some people went around and stripped the floor bare before 8:30 a.m. Greedy. Uh, it's very small denomination gift cards, folks. Are we in THIRD GRADE?

So I managed to get my hands on a few (from the bin out by the elevator where everyone returned the empty eggs) and then type up some slips like "sorry, all the prizes were taken by people who get to work earlier than you do" and hid NEW eggs in my friend's cubicles.

Also some jokes... "this is worth one dress down day on the saturday of your choice" and a satire on our potential offshoring of some jobs. That one could have gone either way, but it turned out that people laughed.

My last one was given to people very critical of our CEO , mr X - it said "Just ask yourself, 'what would X do? " ) a la WWJD .... this was inspired by someone ranting about how by doing this game we are celebrating Easter, even though we aren't supposed to celebrate religious holidays, and what we really need is Jesus in our building (... cue me, late for a meeting oh dear....)

Later in the day the admin sent out a note saying "there are still two gift cards that haven't been found" and about 20 people went crazy, looking. I just wanted to say "Go back to work. Quit ravaging the potted plant outside my office. Don't you think anyone looked there? It's 3pm. Get a life."

It's Learning Fair Day

...so of course I was up until nearly 11:30 last night. And you know I didn't drop right off to sweet dreams of puppies and rainbows....

because the Famous Person costume wasn't done even though I thought it was; we had to find a LOGO, and when I printed out the logo it wasn't the right color, of course. Not what I was in the mood to hear.

Also one of the posterboards wasn't done(every year these teachers say "All of the Work Will Be Done In School" and every year my stomach knots from the very first moment I hear that right up until the last extra assignment); yesterday one of the teachers was actually shopping online while one of my kids' entire class was still working on their unfinished projects. Um, walk around and help maybe?

The first outburst of tears was at 9:25 and there was more than one. We had to redo part of a poster because my daughter doesn't understand timelines. Trying to explain to her that because the teacher said "increments of ten" doesn't mean put ten lines between each year you have an event for...very frustrating for us both.

Oh, and I had to bake too. Not sure how the peach cobbler came out. Not sure if I care, but thanks to my belles who bailed me out.

I had to go to the market after picking them up from school; we needed to buy stuff for the STATE FOOD project. At one point I literally looked around the produce section and wondered if I could lift my shopping cart and throw it over there in that big empty space by the potatoes. Because I knew that I was screwed, for the rest of the day.

If I were a matchmaker

...I would like to track down a couple of people and introduce them.

Let me digress. I write this blog as a source of personal expression/entertainment/distraction/ etc. There are a couple of people I KNOW read it, and will stay with me no matter what random topics I stray to. So, a little bit, this blog is for them too, as a "hi" tool, because I try to comment on some of the things that are actually going on in my life at various points in time, or make little jokes that only they will get.

Now, I am happy to have visitors who don't know me. But also slightly mystified about the whole idea that people (including ME) will go and read a blog written by someone they've never met. Then we all click away, on to the next one, usually without commenting. It's all very curious to me.

Wondering who was visiting and what brought them to my blog keeps me awake at night. No, I'm kidding. It does make me grateful for SiteMeter . Without Sitemeter, I would have stopped blogging long ago because no one was listening, or so it seemed. With sitemeter, knowing that someone in Australia or Asia has clicked on my blog makes it fun. Even if they didn't comment.

I find it VERY bizzare that TWO consecutive people, who visited my blog within about 10 minutes of each other, had each googled Woodchuck Beer and found an old post of mine. Somewhere in Wichita, and somewhere in Martinsburg WV, there are two people who really need to sit down and have that beer together. Call me. We can make this happen.

Two points to be made here

1. I **DO** read something other than Perez online.


2. My new governor is hilarious.

Blurb and Slurp

...kind of sounds like a cartoon on one of those cable channels... but blurb.com is another website that lets you publish your own book. Something like mypublisher.com, which is focused around photos much like the various photo services (winkflash, shutterfly, snapfish... why do they have cutsie stupid names?)

Blurb, however, can apparently "slurp" your blog in and make a book out of it. (As if for a second I would want this entire blog to be in hardcover format...) It has many other "text" -focused project suggestions.

Every once in a while I think about making a book with some of my own photography, and essays on what each of the photos mean to me, and why they are "special" favorites. I've thought about doing this as a scrapbook (old school, not digital). I might start that someday (those of you who read regularly can finish the sentence.... AFTER PTA).

One example of a photo I'd include is one of the first pictures I have of myself holding my daughter. I'm standing there in a giant terrycloth bathrobe, holding her not-all- that- tiny- almost- ten- pounds- newborn body up against me, cuddling her, with her face close to mine. We are in front of the living room window, not really noticing the camera, and I am looking out at the sunshine of a late fall day.

It was after the end of a long pregnancy, a seemingly even longer labour, and the end of worrying about whether I would ever become a mom. I'd lost a pregnancy before I conceived her, and that baby would be celebrating a birthday right about now. The shamrocks and green carnations remind me of that loss, but this year, it doesn't seem to hurt as much. It finally feels like someone else's life.

The picture embodies one of those happy moments I carry with me.... that moment when I said "it's a girl? really?" in the delivery room. I may have made some choices (or not taken action, and made choices in that way) that I wish I could reconsider, but being a Mom has not EVER been something I regret doing. I already knew that, on that September day.

Tenebrae

Our choir sang tonight; every year we do a special performance on the evening of Palm Sunday which is an adaptation of a Tenebrae service.

It's one of my favorite times to sing, because we do very complex pieces that we start practicing right after Christmas and not to brag, but we do them really well. Ok, that's bragging.

I still feel like the new kid after five years; many of these people have sung together for 30 + years. They are awesome, and I continue to learn more and more about reading music and singing.

(Pange Lingua was my favorite this year:

Pange lingua gloriosi Corporis mysterium, sanguinisque prestiosi, quem in mundi prestium fructus ventris generosi Rex effudit Gentium.

Tantum ergo sacramentum veneremur cernui et antiquum documentum novo cedat ritui praestet fides supplementum sensuum defectui.

The verses correspond to Sing, my tongue, the Savior's glory; but the arrangement we use is very different. It's nothing like the melody of what you might sing in English. It's also much much slower, four part harmony, very meditative, and monklike. Click on the link above, to see the music and hear a midi approximation of the sound. )

The service itself involves readings and progressively extinguishing candles until the church is in complete darkness. The last song we sing before darkness is "God so loved the world". Unlike some Tenebrae services, we don't stop there. In the dark we sing "Because He Lives" and slowly the lights come back on. It's a beautiful, hopeful ending.

I've been sick (hasn't everyone?) and I am happy to report my voice is fully back (as good as it gets, hah) and the singing went very smoothly for me tonight. My goal is to conserve my voice this week. I'll take Thursday and Friday off and sleep in, and recline on the couch sipping tea.

Now if only I could push a certain Icky choir member over the rails so he would stop trying to conduct us all... sometimes he gets started and I just hold up my sheet music so I don't have to look...

Warmup

It actually wasn't freezing out today. Nice. I left the house in a nice wool jacket and didn't need a scarf, gloves, etc. Yaaaaaaaaay.

Malls make me tired. I don't think I have that girly shopping gene. Partly because it's frustrating to find anything that fits me right now. Where the fuck are the women who have my waistline but legs 4 or five inches longer??? I have always had a problem buying pants for work, but now it's maddening.

Walking around a mall for 5 hours makes me especially tired(didn't help having two teenage girls talking 75 mph the entire time. Oy vey.) Walking out of the mall and waaaaaaaay out to my car made me cranky.

Time for a quick rest, then dress rehearsal for tomorrow night's performance. It's that time of year. Tomorrow is Palm Sunday so I sing morning and evening. Then Wendesday through Sunday I need to sing each day. Hope my voice holds up, it seems like it will but my son is catching another cold so I have to stay away from him.

Haven't You Always Wanted A

MONKEY???

Who says money can't buy happiness? Or at least, a funny silicone potholder. Get it here.

I really wanted this fountain but they didn't have one in the store so I settled, big time, for this because my previous one (much plainer) met an unfortunate demise, when the cord was behind the toaster oven at the WRONG time.

My cashier helpfully told me that fountains drive her crazy, because they always make her want to pee. Um, just guessing, but that's maybe why you're in retail, honey. When I have thoughts like that I blog them, I don't say them to people I don't know.

(Insert brief pause here, while I am begging forgiveness of Marco, Poly, and other SMART people who can tell far too many Customers From Hades stories)

I also (see: shopping as therapy) bought a Yankee jar candle because when I'm in B3, they leap into my cart. I was having fun windowshopping for my fantasy condo (none of my immediate family members except Suzy would be allowed to visit) and then I spied another school mommy.

SO, ...I hid.

Because, PTA stuff can get wonky on you out of nowhere (you can't please all the people all the time) and because I had a monkey in my shopping cart.

I may need to take a sharpie and darken his eyes and nose. Just because, that's who I am.

Top Chef on tonight! Yay!

By the way

The sun is out. The sun is shining! It was vaguely warm today! I can't really contain my glee at all of this. It actually looks like spring.

My windows are SO dirty. Crap!

How come I say at EVERY pta meeting "please run any notes by the principal before you send them home" and some people still don't? (Because nobody wants to hear "NO" ?)

How come a day goes by so quickly when I'm home but not when I'm at work? Why am I using up SO MUCH of my vacation time already?

How come every time I see person X (who I only see once in a while) and she asks me how I am, something stupid falls out of my mouth? (today I might have used the word "offshore" in a sentence. Did I really need to tell her that?) Or is it just that I get a complex that she's only asking to be polite and all of that?

Today was a bad math day, because the consultant teacher didn't meet with my kid after school, so we had the deja vu of the bad year where we did math homework at the kitchen table EVERY DAY from the time we got home until dinner time.

I am happy to say that today is the first day in probably almost 2 weeks where I don't feel "sick". Could be the wine I drank last night. Perhaps. My voice, however, has not gotten the memo and is still all sorts of funky. Which did not stop me from talking to a couple of the other parents. All. Damn. Day. Long. You know, where you're almost watching yourself saying "shut up! shut up already! why are you going on and on?"

... which is kind of where this entry is headed, so.... adios

Report card

So apparently I am "loose", which is a good thing, according to the Kid's friends that I drove. As in, not uptight.

Funny because I'm so tangled up about so many things these days, it's not even funny.

Monday musings

EDIT: Top Ten Messages Left On Eliot Spitzer's Answering Machine
(from Late Show with David Letterman: LINK )
10. Hey, what's new?
9.It's Barack Obama. Remember our conversation about being my running mate? Nevermind.
8.Ralph Nader here, glad to hear I'm not the only politician who has to pay for it
7.I'm calling from the 'New York Post.' Would you rather be known as 'Disgraced Gov Perv' or 'Humiliated Whore Fiend'?
6.This is John McCain, if it makes you feel better, I once got caught having sex with Lincoln's wife
5.It's Dr. Phil, call me if you need any horse**** advice
4.This is Senator Larry Craig. Do you ever go through the Minneapolis airport?
3.It's Wolf Blitzer. Call me if you ever want a hot Spitzer-Blitzer three-way
2.Paris Hilton here. I would have done it for free
#1 ... It's Arnold Schwarzenegger. Thanks, I'm no longer America's creepiest governor

I can't wait to hear Letterman's top ten list about Elliot Spitzer hiring a hooker.*(#3 is my favorite) Somewhere, Monica Lewinsky is updating her myspace page. I'll leave it at that.

I don't want to go to the PTA meeting tonight. Buckle up! Three to go!!!

I have to chaperone a FIELD TRIP tomorrow, people. Three teenagers in my car. I have already been instructed to act cool. As in, I can not be myself and grunt "Eh eh eh" in a Fat Albert voice when One Republic's song starts. I probably shouldn't cuss either. It will be a long day.

My southern belle friends are bailing me out big time with a recipe for my kid's state(Georgia) for the Learning Fair. Because it's not enough to write a paper and make a poster and make the bottle person of your famous person and then dress up like that famous person (or another one if you picked cross gender for your bottle person - heh) . You also have to make FOOD for the other Mommies and Daddies who are all turning out that evening to admire one another's projects. I mean, our children's big projects. So, maybe peach cobbler or red velvet cake.

The voice of mine is not really right. This "cold" thing is not at a good time for me. I have rehearsal Thursday (not likely I'll be able to sing by then but our snowbird is back from Florida so we have to go through all of the songs again FOR HIM TO LEARN HIS PART.... grrr... so I can cruise that evening. Because, I've been showing up since January, y'all.) I have another rehearsal saturday night because on Palm sunday we sing in the morning at then again in the evening.

After the Learning fair I have a rehearsal. This is the "bring food, water, and sleeping bag" rehearsal as we have pieces to run through for the remainder of the week.

Then I have to sing Thursay, Friday, Saturday (Easter Vigil, I am almost definitely going to have to do a short solo psalm since there are several) and then Easter Sunday. None of us will want to look at each other by then. Yay, happy Easter, can I please go home now? I will be hoarse.

Good times.

Quiet day

Today I didn't do much. Still sick, didn't get up early or venture out anywhere. Cough, cough, cough, nothing yielded except aching ribs. It's not like strep throat. It's just like someone spilled motor oil on my voicebox. Tickling, weird feeling all day long.

Worked on this for a while today. Finished the boooot and the lobster. It was actually FUN to work on. I haven't touched it - literally- in years. I think I started this about 14 years ago. It probably takes about 5 hours a square. I have about 35 left (there are squares at the bottom for my name, the date, etc.)

(35 x 5 ) / (7 * 24 - PTA - work - sleep) = I'll never be done

I used to do counted cross stitch every summer when I was young. We didn't really have the money to do "stuff" like go on vacations or go to camps. So I hung around, read a lot, and sewed. I have a couple of pieces stashed somewhere in my hope chest. When a good friend of mine got married I made her a piece with a country mailbox (on a post) overflowing with flower blooms, and it had a "letter" with her married name and the address of her new home. Something like this:

Great sketch, eh? I know. It took all of 3 minutes. Which means I lose 63 minutes of my sleep tonight for no good reason at all! Good night!

Randomocity

Thoughts drifting through my cold-medicine foggy brain:

• "Penny, I'm on a booot!" I keep quoting Desmond. For no apparent reason. Well, the way he says "boat", actually.
• Hm. American Idol is on nowadays. Don't care.
• My daughter just texted me that she wants a 4000 Pineapple? Dunno. Sorry Johnny but she does NOT want to wear a CBH Tour shirt. It freaked her out a little.
• More construction-y builder guys looking at my basement foundation, addition blueprints, etc. Today's contender said "well I would put a dumpster onsite for this project" and let me tell you, that put him #1 on my list (when he said that yes, I COULD put stuff in)
• A $4k swarovski pineapple. Oh.
• My only excursion out of the house today was because of The Learning Fair. (cue cursing) We needed books about Norman Rockwell's LIFE. NOT his paintings. Did you know he dropped out of school at 14? Great. Give my kid ideas.
• I have to dress my other kid up as Hank Aaron for TLF. I'm thinking of just printing a t-shirt saying "755 - no asterisk".
• He'll fail, won't he? But I do like this shirt.

Couch time.

Worth a try

I am going to take Suzy's polaroid camera and take photos of the way various things that are around the house and the way they SHOULD be. Freshly washed jeans should not be thrown on the floor of your closet when I built another closet so that my coats wouldn't be in your closet.

Or I will put cartoons on everything. A sketch of a towel, wearing sunglasses and a bikini, with the caption "Yes, I can take the heat! Dry me on the high setting so that I don't smell bad!"

Or maybe I will skip that plan and just leave a note.... "Gone to Vegas....seeya."

745

I am going to write up a numbered list of the things I repeat over and over.

Instead of yelling "SHUT THE D O O R" I can calmy say "842". They don't listen anyway. Actually I'll just skip the list and start saying random numbers like the on Lost.

This morning I am eating breakfast and looking out over a river at a mountaintop. Well, yes I'm in the parking lot of a fast food place, but you have to focus on the positive, right?
Carly(via Blackberry)

Crank me

The house whine list:

• I am sick. Very Sick, as in, I am so groggy that I was on the couch yesterday and Paula Dean was making a burger or sausage patty between two GLAZED DONUTS, with an egg and two strips of bacon added on, and I was too weak to change the channel.
• My cable phone is dead, possibly from the water lying about in my basement. (Water which will yield me an interesting crop of mushrooms, no doubt.)
• One of said basement walls is slowly buckling inward. Our yard is clay which presses against (my) basement walls and over time causes damage.
• I have somewhere else to be in 43 minutes and CAN'T wait for the repair guy, so I did a "come home NOW" phone call, which is always so kind and considerate.

Maybe I'll just go bang my head against that basement wall first.

Only one

...bead of sweat rolled down my face, but at least I did SOME time on the treadmill today. I put some bouncy stuff on my iPod because that cheap dvd player I got last year after the Friehofer's has died on me.

Those Black Eyed Peas, they kept telling me to pump it, louder, and all of a sudden, I was running and thinking "Woah... wait, I remember doing this." Apparently two hours after lunchtime is a great time for me. Who knew? Jogged about a mile at a rather slow pace, but... I moved. I broke a sweat. And I do mean A single drop of sweat.

Only 89 days until my race. I seriously have to get moving consistently.

A professional dancer tried to kill me

Last night I was at a black tie dinner. It was a big family shindig of sorts, because one of my extended family was being honored as a "person of the year" by this group. As part of the festivities he sang a duet with my daughter, so that rocked.

So I got to meet a young up and coming politician from this area who had no interest in talking to me whatsoever, because I am not a rich old man who will donate to his campaign.

My son wanted several items. There was a basketball signed by a pro - $900. Um. That is not a typo. So. No. Then he wanted a stereo. $150. The problem was that he just wanted to buy SOMETHING. Finally we found a silent auction item that was a gift card and a sports tote bag and that made him happy.

Later in the evening during the live auction he wanted to bid on a tour of one of the local tv stations, and immediately after his first bid he was outbid. He wilted and was devastated. The lady bidding against him noticed and told the auctioneer, "stop, you're giving it to me for what I just bid and I'm giving it to this kid. No more bids." He blinked, and then did exactly that, so it was awesome. I missed all of this. Arrrgh.

So then my son spent about 20 minutes talking to this lady and she could not stop laughing because my son is pretty hilarious when he's happy and excited, and he was over the moon about what she had done for him. He has always been pretty personable and converses easily with adults. (But it was very cool, a photographer took his picture during the cocktail hour, and asked his name, and he said "Uh, you better ask my mom." My kid is smart.)

Whenever I go to a dinner like this I buy the stick-on nails that have a french manicure design. I can't be bothered to go with the "real" acrylic nails - plus they are insanely expensive. Usually no one is the wiser. The press-on ones look nice, at the end of the night I take them off and I can go back to all of the typing I do on my blackberry and computers and not be aggravated by long nails. Last night they weren't staying on really well - the water in the restrooms was scalding hot and I washed my hands and then they felt really loose. It's hard being gorgeous, y'all. Costs too much money to do it right.

Right after dinner, but before the mad rush for the chocolates table (it is covered in desserts donated by various restaurants in the area) a professional dance team performed to one song. They were quite good, fun to watch. Apparently they compete and have titles and so on and... I didn't read that part of the program. But they were great.

Later in the evening they paired up with other people at the event. They guy danced with my sister in law, and then she pointed him at me. Oh, crap. By that time, over the course of the evening I had two glasses of champagne and at least 3 glasses of pinot grigiot. Ooops.

So this wonderful unsuspecting man is trying to lead me through some ballroom dancing, and I can feel him trying to give me cues by the way he's twirling my hand in his, and giving me nudges on the waist with his other hand.

There were just a few problems:

• I can't dance. Don't know how.
• I can't dance. I am not a quick study.
• See above, my alcohol intake was perhaps 500% of his.
• Every time he changed his grip on my hand to lead me into a different step, I had this momentary panic that one of my nails would pop right off in his hand.
• He moved FAST. I could barely keep up, and could not actually breathe.
• Family members laughing and pointing at me
• Nervous laughter on my part, due to all of the above items. Pretty much constant.
• I can't dance!

I was winded, because this guy really moves around, and from all of the laughing. It's not fun dancing backwards in high heels. Later my brother in law and I danced to songs like "Knock on wood" and yes, I am old.

Good times....I am sore today. I think I pulled muscles I didn't know I had. No, wait, I am old.