January 2007

We hung around the house today. The fact that we are low on fundage was a chief reason for that. We’ve done a whole lot of nadda all day long. Nadda can be strangely satisfying sometimes. We tried to sleep in, because Liam had a weird sort of night. At one point, he woke up and just screamed his silly little head off. Didn’t want cuddled, didn’t want bottle, it was bizarre. Until Kile figured out he wanted a pacifier. Which, this kid hasn’t ever been big on pacifiers so it was a little surprising. But after sucking ardently on that for a few minutes, he dozed back off again so I wasn’t going to question the madness. It was a fun morning, regardless. Full of computer gaming, silly TBS and TNT movies and cinnamon rolls. That’s heaven, right there.

We played some Monopoly this afternoon. Harry got it for Christmas from my parents and has been wanting to play ever since. We started it once but couldn’t finish and only got to play for about 20 minutes. Kile stunk up the joint, as he always does. Poor guy just hates to play Monopoly anymore because he NEVER wins. I don’t know why, either. He doesn’t do things any differently than I do, far as I can tell. Harry did really well, despite the handicap of youth. And he was acting a little silly as well. I remarked to Kile at one point, “It’s like playing Monopoly with Rainman.” Which he heartily agreed because the boy is something else. I ended up winning, but I think Harry gave me a good run for it. He had me in pure cash, but I triumphed in property value.

Right now, Kile’s putting our new doorknob on (oooh… ahhh… ), Liam is cutting it up in the exersaucer and Harry and I are watching “Deep Impact” which is a very unfortunate name for a “asteroid hits earth” movies. I haven’t seen it since I saw it in theaters the day it premiered so it should be plenty of fun for all. So what did you do with your weekend? I doubt you could out-slack us!

I’m so so so very glad today is a Friday. You’d think with it being a short week, Monday a holiday and all, I would have coasted easily into the weekend. You’d be wrong. I feel like I struggled for each and every day. And I’m just so darned glad to see the weekend here at last that I could cry. Did I work on or do anything particularly difficult this week? Nope. But I’m mentally exhausted anyhow. Doesn’t help that I have a headache. (Actually, when does having a headache help?) Regardless, it’s here at last and I’m pleased as punch about it.

So in celebration, I’m going to gift you all with a series of fairly random bullets to let you know some of the things on my mind these days. Fun for you, eh?

• Much like most other people, I’m redefining my tv schedule. We’re working “24″ in, phasing “Ugly Betty” out. We’re watching a lot of NBC on Thursday lately, including “The Office” and “My Name is Earl”. When “Grey’s Anatomy” isn’t new, we watch “Scrubs” and “30 Rock”. We’re not DVR’ing either of those yet, but I’m thinking we should because I missed watching them last night. Or maybe we should just DVR “Grey’s” and watch it on Fridays? Hmm. I still don’t know what time “Lost” will be on when it’s back on in a couple weeks but I trust that ABC will let me know. Repeatedly. Is “Jericho” still on? Has it come back from hiatus? I just remembered that show today and wondered. I watched the second episode of “American Idol” this week and was at the same time horrified and amused. And what the heck is up with Paula?
• Speaking of “Grey’s Anatomy” (I was, weren’t you?), I’m disgusted with Isaiah Washington. Poor T.R. Knight. I actually kinda hope they can his ass. There’s just no excuse for that behavior. I know he’s “apologized” and taken ownership for the whole thing but honestly there’s no call for it. I heard that ABC is annoyed, as is pretty much everyone who works on “Grey’s”. I don’t see how he can stay on the show, I really don’t.
• I’m so tired of being broke. Amen.
• I’m already obsessing about BlogHer this summer. It’s going to be in Chicago. I’m hoping that I’ll be able to work on a workshop this year. Not only would it be tons of fun, but hey, free conference. Not free airfare and hotel though. I heard the rooms would probably go quick and that makes me break out into a cold sweat because that means I’ll have to commit rather early. And since it took me so long to commit and buy conference tickets last year, you can only imagine. Since I imagine I’ll be traveling sans family, I should probably consider finding a roommate to share the hotel cost. These are all of the things that are bouncing around in my head and the conference is like SEVEN MONTHS AWAY. What a noob.
• Liam was supposed to have his six month appointment today. But we had to reschedule for various and sundry reasons. The soonest appointment we could get isn’t until February 20th, but we were assured they’d call us if there are cancellations. Which, I’m assuming there will be because look at us! We canceled! There’s hope. I hope we don’t have to wait until February 20th, because then he’ll be having his six month appointment when he’s seven and a half months old and that’s just not right.

And that’s all I have to say about that.

So you remember my post from a couple days ago where I waxed poetic over my darling, sweet, thoughful boys? One boy in particular? Actually, the only one with the capacity for complex thought. Remember that?

Fast forward to today. I went to pick up Harry from school as usual and walked into the building with Liam in the stroller so I could chat with a friend of mine, the mother of one of Harry’s classmates. After the bell rang and the boys were dismissed, we walked back to my van which was on the way this friend of mine walks home. We stopped by the van to chat a little while the boys played in the snow behind us. Sounds pretty normal, if not DULL, doesn’t it?

It was, at least, it was until I got pelted in the side of my FACE by a slushy snowball. Since I was wearing my glasses, it got behind those and everything. For some insane reason, my darling, sweet, thoughtful boy had thrown a snowball at my head. Something he’d never once before even thought about doing. I brushed it off as I said my goodbyes to my friend and herded both my boys into the van. Then I asked Harry, “What on earth made you think THAT was a good idea??”

“Well, [my friend's son] told me to do it.” Because, you know, that’s a good reason to do something. I wasn’t terribly mad about it. After all, it was just a snowball (albeit a cold one, its been FREEZING lately). Somehow darling, sweet, thoughtful Harry decided that I didn’t love him anymore because I said I wasn’t sure if I’d want to snuggle in my chair after school with a boy that throws snowballs at me. Said entirely sarcastically, of course.

So now I find myself trying to make HIM feel better. And I’m the one who had freezing slush in my eye! Ahh… motherhood.

Wow, a person gets a three-day weekend and she thinks that makes it entirely okay to just NOT POST TO HER BLOG AT ALL. Shame on her. She should be ashamed of herself.

So what did I do with all the wonderful, lazy, stretch-inducing time this weekend? Actually, pretty darn little. But isn’t that what extra long weekends are for? To do nothing and relax and indulge?

Actually, we did go somewhere. Kile’s sister’s new husband’s family (you follow all that?) has a cabin in a town a little ways northwest of here called Portola. Very cute little down, lots of trees, very pretty. As my husband’s family was spending the weekend there, they invited us to come up on Sunday to hang out so we did. It’s only about a forty minute drive for us, so no sweat. Plus, Liam rides in the car like a champ (just like his big brother) so it was an easy ride.

While we were there, we played with their dogs, Oreo and Rudy. Very sweet, they were. The boys all went sledding while I stayed back with my mother in law and Liam so that Liam could take a nap. We had dinner there (sloppy joes!) and dessert (ice cream sundaes!) and watched some tv (my new brother in law is a shameless channel surfer so I saw varying degrees of “Grease: You’re the One that I Want”, “Forrest Gump” and “America’s Funniest Home Videos” and “Robin Hood: Men in Tights”). A very good time was had by all and it was a neat way to spend a Sunday.

Yesterday, the whole gang of us did some shopping around town and grabbed some lunch. Doesn’t sound like a lot, but for homebodies like ourselves, it’s pretty much like having a full schedule. We had to go to this particular shopping center that in the past we have vowed to never visit ever again. Not once, but TWICE. After the second trip, we left the parking lot feeling particularly homicidal.

Yeah, we don’t play well with others, especially when the others have absolutely no freaking clue how to behave in polite society. Ahem. I like to think I’m not a store-snob, but if this shopping center is any judge of that, then maybe I am. After that we pretty much went home as the day was waning. We watched some (most) of the Golden Globes and I was annoyed at a good portion of it. But then, I’m always annoyed at the Golden Globes. Why the heck do I keep watching it?? I don’t know… “Borat” doesn’t seem like THAT good a movie and I really don’t get what all the fuss over “Ugly Betty” is, since I gave it two months and pretty much thought it was dull as dishwater.

And now it’s Tuesday and I’m all sad because that means I have to work and stuff and that’s NO FUN. I want my weekend back.