YAY! A new video

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5Tb8vN0IZzg

here you go folks, a viddy from the latest belly dancing performance. This was at the new Stuart Room at the YMCA. This is a mix of bhangra, rajasthani, tribal style, and made up junk. "Like cheap champagne, the Flying Bosoms are fun and bubbly and a promise a good time." enjoy.

sewing machine

Everything is ok. Pences fixed it that monday and now it sews beautifully.

My regular sewing machine isn't working, but I don't know why. Whatever.

I am so not happy and very regretful.

ug. Ok, I am not as bad as the title sounds, but I just spent one and half hours driving EACH WAY to buy a very expensive serger (sewing machine). I was SO EXCITED. SO HAPPY!!! and then I put a huge chunk of stretchy fabric through it, bent a needle and broke a little metal part. within 20 minutes of turning it on. WHY WHY WHY did I play with it after tha long car ride with the kids? grrr.... I should have wited until tomorrow when I was fresh and calm and had read the manual. grr.....

meanwhile my pants still don't fit.


and then I went to the store to get new lipstick and forgot the nakme of the color and then got roped into uying a different color AND another tube of foundation. I also couldn't remember the # of foundation I use, so she sold me some 2, which apparently was made for vampires. I am not that pale in real life. Or maybe I *am* that pale, after I mangle a brand new expensive much needed machine.

I think I am going to go drink my bottle of lambic....

yes.

tie dye weekend

its tie dye weekend and I am not as enthused as I usually am. First, Cori isn't here. That sucks. Secondly, it is kind of rainy and icky out. Third, I have not been inspired recently, but I bought a huge sleeveless dress for myself from Dharma and I feel like I should do something with it. Fourth (ly?), I am tired and need to pay bills and do more laundry. Does that last excuse mean that I am a grown up?


BUT Liz and I plan to do some freezer paper stenciling this year, so that is getting me fired up a bit. Plus there is a bluegrass festival going on in Newport, right down the road, PLUS Liz has agreed to ride her bike with me so I don't have to be creative all day. I hope I remember to pack my bike. Remember brain. Geez. What? Stupid brain.

I spent most of my day in a FREEZER organizing goat and rabbit serum. This might not sound like fun, but it was. I had my iPod with Liz Phair, PJ Harvey, Justin Timberlake, Coldplay, and Balkan Beat Box going. So when I was in the freezer I could sing at the top of my lungs and when I was out of the freezer, I could dance in the excessive floor space we have at work under the guise of "warming up". Plus my new favorite coworker came to help out a bit and also my regular favorite coworker chatted me up on many occasions and also danced with me in the excessive floor space.

AND I also got to organize stuff, which I think is incredibly fun and rewarding and I love it and will sleep better becasue of it. I can hardly wait to get back to work on Tuesday to have at it again and this time I will even get to apply the shiny new labels that previously mentioned new favorite coworker gave to me!!! YAY! LABELS!!!

In summary, I seem to get off more on organizing serum than on expressing my creativity through dye.

hmmm.

Shoudl I be worried?

In other news:
old news, but freeking awesome: former boss is no longer with teh company--this is also contributing to my inappropriate happiness at work

I have lost a bunch of weight and feel awesome and happy, even though my pants keep falling off. (Ask me to tell you the story of trying to field the softball and my pants falling down. I know that the summary sounds funny, but I assure you, the entire story is WAY funnier than you can imagine.)

My kids are in school, so I can work without guilt.

And the stupid goddamned thunderclouds are watching me again. this was the last week of our pool membership, so I packed a bag and put it in my car and I guess the stupid freeking clouds SAW me, because it rained all week and we never got to have a final HOORAH! at the pool and also crap I just forgot until now that I told maggie we could have a playdate with E and O and eat the rest of her birthday cake (in freezer). Shit. Well, I pretty much suck as a mom these days, so whatever.

yeah. I should start typing late at night again. Not that it is late, but I am tired so let's pretend it's late. (Meanwhile all my neighbors are just now heading out to start their evenings. I am LAME AND OLD and I enjoy singing in a walk in freezer.)

I love you all and hope you find your own bliss...

Muwah!

Three Theories on Why Mountain Lake is Dwindling

1. All the sand that they added to the beach over the years has settled into the underground springs and clogged them up.

2. As evidenced by the pools of tar I found, there are underground tar supplies that seep out and fill up the hole at the bottom of the lake. For some reason, probably global warming, the tar stopped oozing and now the hole is open.

3. When Patrick Swayze was filming Dirty Dancing, he left part of his soul in the lake. Now that he is battling for his life, the lake is also battling for its own. The only solution is for Patrick to die to release his soul completely and break the bond with the lake. Or get better and revitalize the lake through strengthening his soul.

What is your theory?

Creepy ass thunderclouds.

I swear the freeking thunderclouds know my plans. They listen to my thoughts. yesterday, I told the girls that we were going to go to the pool. And I came home and ate lunch and as soon as I told M, "hey go get my suit! Let's Go!" the freeking thunderclouds got together and said YEE HAW!! Let's ruin some plans!!!


THEN today. I finally finished unpacking and doing some laundry and thought (HERE IS MY MISTAKE) thought, hey, I should pick up the girls and then go to the pool. since it has been sunny and around EIGHTY all day.

Well look at the stupid radar:

Animate Map

Storm Tracks

Total Precipitation

Show Severe

Regional Radar

» A d v a n c e d R a d a r T y p e s C L I C K »

Zoom Map Click: Zoom In Zoom Out Pan Map (Full Zoom Out)

Yep. see the clouds? THEY ARE TRACKING MY THOUGHTS!!!!!!!!!

Beach Travelogue

The following occured, but not in the order listed. This is just my train of thought:

Stayed near kitty hawk in a pink house: MUTUAL FUN #237

http://www.southernshores.com/rentals/property/237

Nice veiw of the ocean. Off of the main road.

Went to Jockey's Ridge dunes for fun. Bought kites from Kitty hawk kites, went kayaking in Nags head on the sound side. Got two tandem kayaks and took the girls around for about and hour and a half. Drove down to Bodie Island and looked at the light house. Found a camp ground in the dunes. Went up the Currituck lighthouse. C and I rode our bikes up past Corolla and back. Drove as north as I could without going on the beach (tempting!!). Worried about the rats, since no one was given the job to feed them. Ate at Sugar Creek. Food sucked except for the crab cakes. The view was great though. Watched my uncle dale get married at the Roanoke Island Aquarium. Good idea. Danced in front of the shark tank all night. Went back to kitty hawk kites. Bought a trick kite (MINE!!!) and had LOTS of fun flying it erratically on the dunes. bought a straw cowgirl hat on the way home so that I can be cool like Jess. Walked on the beach a lot and found some shells, but nothing spectacular.Got a tan/burn on my belly FINALLY by floating around in the pool on a full length floaty. Heaven. Especially with my husband telling me how sexy I looked the whole time. And spent time with the kids reading, walking, kiting, kayaking, catching crabs, hugging, loving.

And since this was a reunion, I got to spend a lot of time with my mother's family, who I don't see much (last time was at my wedding, and that wasn't everyone). It was fun to see the kids all meet each other and like each other and beg to play together. Good to see my Grandma and Uncle Don, who are spry and fun despite being old as dirt. But the best part was listening to my aunt Judie try and try to talk in a hick accent and instead hitting about every accent in the US. She was switching from Massachusetts to southern black back to michigan faster than a pissed off diablo changes colors. All at top volume. It was a hoot.

new hobby

So I learned to knit today and it is ALL PENELOPE'S FAULT!!! She took me to Mosaic to "help her find some nice sock yarn" and ended up picking out needles and yarn for ME and then promptly took me home and sat me down. It felt dirty and wrong, to be giving in to her desires, but I did it anyway.

Since I am smarter than everyone else, I learned quickly and now I am sitting at my computer at 4 am seeing if I can make my scarf more interesting. Considering the loud and clashing-colored yarn that I picked, I think I want to keep the pattern pretty plain. But I am thinking about purling a few rows here and there to give it a nice box look. Windowpane? I don't know what it is called.

Curse you, Penelope. The soft feel of wool between my fingers; the surprise of new colors as I knit along; the never-ending possibilities of pattern and size; the potential to make mathematical models and fake fruit. Curse you.

And just in case you think I am being harsh, I want to post an excerpt from Penelope's blog to PROVE that this was all premeditated:

"[We] are going to Mosaic Yarn Shop where you will inhale yarn fumes and look at pretty colors and pick out exactly what you want. You might ask why I'm insisting on this. Well, it's because I really think that at some point you will break down and start playing with yarn like the rest of us, and if inhaling the yarn fumes helps move that process along, then it is worth all of the harassment."

Please note the the guise of the trip was for me to go to the shop with her so that I could pick out yarn FOR HER to make socks for me.

monster in my shirt

So I was laying on the couch, getting all comfy to read my book, when this THING comes out of my shirt and stabs me in the neck. What the hell.

This is why I am now going to go shopping for some new bras.

Virtual Hafla

Here you go, readers-of-my-blog, your very own personal virtual hafla right in in your computer. Watch and be amazed. Yes. That is me. It was a couple of weekends ago. Yes, I do like my hands, thank you. Cori told me a long time ago that they were nice, so I thought I would use them in my show. And yes, my hair is short. I am still trying to grow it out. Lou Reed. Uh-huh. The one with the banana on it. Yeah, good album. mm-hmm.

my parents

Here are pictures on my parents now. I hope I still know how to have fun when I am old.

http://tourdefloyd.swva.net/2007/robert.html

http://tourdefloyd.swva.net/2007/beth.html

wonderful trip

Happy Easta'!

While the girls are off getting high on peeps, I thought I would do a little trip report.

We just got back from DC. We left Thursday morning and got to the hotel around 1. They let us check in, so we dumped all of our stuff and sent to the nearby Metro station. We got $12 on a pass for each of us and headed to the Smithsonian stop. ON the way, E caught sight of the Washington monument. (that was the whole reason for the trip) and a few other landmarks. When we got off at the Mall, we headed to the Natural History Museum. We looked at mammals, then dinosaurs, then RAN to the bathroom int eh back of the cultures section. We stopped by the gem shop, where E and M got their first souvenirs. M got a collection of unfinished gems. E got an agate necklace. Then we all got kicked out because the place was closing.

So we headed back tot eh hotel and had a nice little dinner at a nearby restaurant. I had the avocado turkey burger with a salad bar. They had a great salad of apples, cranberries, and cream. yum. M had french fries. I don't know what the others had.

My feet hurt and I was tired. We went back to the hotel and waited for survivor to come on. It didn't. We should have gone to the pool, but we were all tired and we were reading books and laying around. so the girls got ready for bed and Craig and I stayed up and watched Lost.

end of day one!

now I have to go eat chocolate. So I will post this and leave the bare itinerary here. I will edit the post later to tell you more. Consider this an unedited trailer!

Day 2:
art museum
carosel
lunch at native american museum
aira nd space
gem section
wash monument
back to hotel
sefood buffet
sleeeeppppp

Da 3:
bike shop
pbj in parking lot
dulles musum 4 hours
german restraunt
home
sleeeeeeeppppppp

observations:
bogus bag checks
sweeping staris closed off.
museum the same
bad mother
getting lost
spenidn g money
metro rocks.

To further your visualization

To further your visualization of our awesome power, M has drawn a picture for you:

what we look like

To help you visualize how awesome we look, here is a pic that C took on our first family expedition. Notice the pure speed and power! Zoom! Take that, Lance!

Oh YEAH!

hello everybody!

I am still here. I haven't been writing because I haven't been feeling funny. I am still not feeling funny, but I do want to brag. So here I am!

I just rode my bike (with M) from my house to the CRC and back! It is spring break, so i wan't afraid of the roads like I usually am. So we did some road riding and some trail riding and we pretty much rock. It took 45 minutes to get there and 30 minutes to get back. We went the LOOOOONG way to get there though (to the libray and up the huck). To get back, we took southgate to duckpond to the golf course.

I would still be afraid to do it if the students were here, but I am feeling a lot more comfortable on the road. Having a side view mirror and a big freeking gaudy flag help a lot too. And also M being cute helps a lot becaseu people don't want to squish her.

Soooo.... This is good. If I still have my job in the summer, I think I could ride out there every day!

Here is a phone pic of me all sweaty and happy after the ride (i.e. now)


UPDATE: according to google maps and my clicking ability, we went 5 miles out and 4.2 miles back. and also if there was a freeking road beteen our culdesac and the stupid frat houses, it would be alomost a mile shorter even still. oh well. so how fast was that? not very...


thank you for reading the good stuff. Now for the crappola stuff. My job has been sucking a lot lately. I don't really want to get into it, but if you pray or send good energy or whatever, I would really like any help regarding patience and kindness. I really need to be extra strong in these virtues rgith now and I am really struggling. Thanks!

it was a...

it was an AeroGarden!!!!!

http://www.aerogrow.com/

I will be harvesting my own organic herbs is about a month. Neato!!

Today is my Birthday!

YAY! What a great day. Birthdays are so much more fun than I thought. ME DAY!! I got presents from coworkers and from my good good friend Liz (A HUGGGGGEEEEE chocolate bar!!!! HUGE!) and really nice heartfelt cards from my mom and great aunt. AND a new CD from my dad's friend, who hasn't sent me a gift in about 10 years! rock on! good times! and now craig will be home soon and I will finally figure out what the gift is. CLUES:

from bed bath and beyond
NOT in the kitchen, bathroom, or home decor sections
plugs in
is bigger than Digby, a little dog
lights up
can use it in the bedroom or living room
is used with food.

what the hell?

I was thinking it was some kind of kinky chocolate melter for body painting, but Elizabeth knows what it is, so that kind of rules out that guess....


Time to make a BIRTHDAY STEAK! Farewell!

Funny comic

Thought I would share:



from http://wondermark.com/index.html

Now you should read the post below.

YOU SHOULD read this

Ok, so Last week we heard we were getting a new boss in about a month. This week, the powers decided to bump it up and give us a new boss RIGHT NOW! Of course this caused all sorts of trouble with the current boss (still here). And I am trying to impress the new boss and not be a jerk and all that stuff that you do when you have a new boss. So we were having a meeting this afternoon with the new boss, and I said some stuff that I felt was kind of pushing the line of professionalism (calling out old boss on lying and such). I was pretty worried about it, so I gave a ring to my work buddy to see if I had gone a little overboard.

No, she said, BUT.....

Aparently I started a lo t of my sentences toward the new guy with "You should.." as in, "hey, let me tell you how to do your job, new guy"

Now, this might not seem like such a big deal to you, but let me say, "You should..." goes WAAAAAAY back. Way Back.

At one point in my high school years, my BFF Deirdre would say "you should" all the time. It drove me nuts NUTS NUTS. I HATED being told what I should do. I confronted her about it once and she said.... she saidd..... She said that the reason she said that all the time is becaseu she picked it up from *me*. Horrors.

Wow.

So I worked very hard to quell the "should"s.

So what did I learn today? Apparently when I get emotional and worked up and am not thinking clearly, the reptilian part of my brain reverts to commanding people around. How embarrassing.

Sometimes I wish my primative parts would say things like "wow. you are wonderful person" or "how can I help your life be better" or just make me start doing things like visiting old people.


grrr... Just one more thing I am hoping corrects itself by the time I turn 30.

holy freeking mother of chocolate

EAT THIS! German Chocolate Cake ice cream ICE CREAM!! from frikkin' cheapo private selection. YUM!

oh great

so i added adverts to my blog just for fun. It is content-based. I thought it would show up with stuff like Biking! or Dancing! or mom stuff or something. BUT NO! It is focusing on my Phlem! PHLEEEEEMMMMMMMMMM! That was a one-time thing Google! Come on!!

Happy happy day

I have a new boss and he seems like he will be awesome. He knows a lot of technical stuff about what we do. he seems nice and friendly and not above getting in the lab and messing around with stuff! Everyone was glowing today at work. The mood is good. He won't start for 3 -4 weeks, so it will be interestting to see how the waiting period goes. It will probably be the most hopeful time yet at this job.

Then I found out that my best work buddy, Sharon, is preggers! Yay! only 7 weeks, but good enough, right? She is very excited and happy.

After work, I got to eat luch with a good friend of mine, who is having a wonderful time in her 6 month old relationship. Things are looking bright and hopeful and wonderful and lovey dovey. It makes me so happy to see her so ... comfortable ... in a relationship.

AND Maggie and I got to go for a bike ride today and we made it around the whole neighborhood loop without stopping, even that giant hill that nearly killed me last time! I am pleased to say that my lungs have remained clear and open and that they served me well today.

THEN I found some great cord pants at eddie bauer ON SALE!!! Like, more than half off! Even the TALLS!!! IMPOSSIBLE YOU SAY! NO!! TRUE!!! I ordered 3 pair. I am so happy.

AND the girls are playing together nicely in the basement!

AND my best friend Liz is getting ready to head to Texas to see my other best friend, so all my love and hugs are getting personally delivered to my oh so missed buddy and friend and confidant and best mom ever Cori! (Ok, actually I am pretty jealous that I can't go along with them, but this is the second best option.) I LOVE YOU CORI!!!!

AND it looks like all my hip lady friends who love their Vulvas are going to be able to conglomerate on teh same night for a showing of the Vagian Monologues at VT. (We mde some vagina pops earlier to promote it and to raise money for violence against women. no to PREVENT violence against women, stupid. So buy a vagina pop!)

So all of this totally makes up for not getting to the grocer4y store, right? Sure. We do need some milk though...

OH HAPPY DAY!!! Is it really possbile to have all this good stuff happen in one day? Is the world going to end tomorrow or something??

and to finish off the post, here is some art that M and I did together. I drew the outline, she colored it:

trying to out-funny me

My husband has started this new blog. He is trying to out funny me. I have to admit, I laughed my ass off.... enjoy.

"My new blog: http://kpatrol.blogspot.com KP (Kitchen Patrol)

It's about cleaning the kitchen.

If you have any stories, tips, tricks, pics, links, anecdotes, humor, DISASTERS,
etc, related to cleaning kitchens (in any way), send them my way and I'll post
em, and give you credit if you want it.

Philip has already been promoted because of his submissions.

If you do something particularly heroic and document it via submission, you may
even be granted a medal!"

ug.

My experiment in try to stay awake did not work by the way. I ended up falling back asleep around 7. when c tried to get me up around 8, I kept having dreams that I *was* awke, packing e's lunch. I finally got out of bed around 8:20. Lucky for me darling C gets the kids ready in the morning... Next time I am just going to read until I fall asleep again.

once there was a little snail

The girls came up with this poem a while ago. I really like it. Some days I feel like the little snail.

why am i up so early

yesterday i went fro a bike ride and actually made it up the big hill. Holy cow. before m and I got this tag along thing, i hadn't been biking in about 7 years. so i thought I was doing pretty good on the last few rides. well it turns out those "hills" i posted about previously were more like, um, gentle slopes, rises, dips? not hills. The thing i went up yesterday was a hill. Well, something happened on this hill. I think 7 years of phlegm released from my lungs. I don't know if it was the deep breathing, the cold air, or the near heart attack, but holy cow I coughed up some lugeees after that. Now when I take a breath, it seems to go on twice as long. I hope I am not describing some acute medical condition where my lungs actually ripped open... I hope this is a sign that I just made my body healthier. Anyway, I did think I was going to die for a little while after I got home, but now I am feeling pretty good. Not bad for a ride around the block!

So is this why I am up so early? Did I engage some super power of oxygen getting? Am I so hot burning now that I no longer need sleep? I hope so becaseu I am awake. I am going to experiment with this awake state and see if I can actually get up this early and make it through the ... uh oh I am yawning... make it through the day without an afternoon nap.

Or maybe I will go back to bed. It is warm in there. And snuggly. mmmmmmmmm... fold laundry or snuggle? This is tough...

Lusee and the wheel

I am happy to report that Lusee is running in her wheel. she pretty much ignored it yesterday, but today M and I put it up on the ceiling of her cage and suddenly it seemed interesting. it was a lot of fun to watch her jump onto it and get spun off. She was thouroughly confused for a long time. A few times, she got inside it and would overcorrect for the rocking and would jsut start swinging violently. For a little bit I was afraid she was going to break her neck in the space between the wheel and the support!

She's got it figured out now and it looks like it will be her new favorite place to hang out. she is laying down in it right now and is starting to drift off to sleep. Awwwwwwww! Her little paws are curled up under her face. It is so cute.

Ok, now I understand how people can go on and on about cats and carry cat pictures around in their wallets. I think I really like this little chica and I wold be sad if she got hurt. I also feel compelled to show you pictures.

Hi Craig!

Craig found my blog so now he is reading it. Hi!!

one more frikkin post before I let my scanner cool down

This is my mom. I dont' know how old she was, but I am gussing it was her first year teaching which puts her at about 22. She cut all her hair off when I was three or four, which is freeking me out right now, becaseu *I* cut all *MY* hair off when M was about 3 or 4. Crazy. Maybe it is some kind of genetic disorder, some predisposed way of announcing our reliquished fertility...

new blog

in an effort to keep this blog as innapropriate for kids as possible, I have created a new blog for M--tinyartist.blogspot.com see more animals there

E wanted one too. she is at http://excellentelizabeth.blogspot.com/

camel

ok. so now this blog is actually a collaborative work. I write, M does the art.
I don't know what a camel has to do with amish bread, but here it is.

it is a duck

M was happy to see her art posted, but she wants to make sure that I note that it is NOT a chicken, it is a duck. Obviously. (rolls eyes)

brrrrr

Oh happy day. everyone was in such a great mood. it was actually fun to be there again! Yay

But now I am freezing. I guess I could turn the heat up...

I had this great plan to get a bunch of stuff done today, but the few things I have done took longer than I thought. i went ot petsmart (is that Pet's Mart or Pet Smart, whatever, it isn't zooquatic which screwed me over and didn't make things right and so now after 15 years of buying stuff and defending them, I am shopping at a big box store. GRRRR Jonathan! How could you????) and got a running wheel for lusee and food for her and the fish. Lusee is completely mystified by the wheel and seems to have no interest in actually running in it. At the moment she is sleeping on top of her water bottle-her favorite spot.

well, now she is awake becaseu M came in screaming. She is very excited about the chicken she njust drew. Here it is:



gotta admit, it is a pretty kickin' chicken!

and THEN!! I tried to call Bits and Peices, which sold me an overpriced, BROKEN, peices-missing, rushed before christmas Mah jong set. I ordered it for my mother in law (who is an awesome wonderful person) and IT SUCKED. I gave it to her anyway, just to show her that we got SOMETHING for her and I have been dealing with the stupid customer service ever since. i mean, COME ON! I got a new set off of frikkin EBAY the sketchiest place in the internet, and I paid for it and got it and gave it and gave reviews on it and in the meantimes stupid bits and peices can't even frikkin refund my frikkin MONEY. hell, they can hardly answer the phone. geez. I hate buying stuff that disappoints me. grrr.

so anyway. not is is almost 4 and I have done a total of TWO THINGS. That is NOT productive. I am going to go make the Amish bread soon, which smells gross and fermenty and bubbles and has milk in it and has not been in the fridge ever. if you want some starter, leave me a comment. i have enough to share with three people. i know you all want some rotten milk bread!!!! YUM! SWeriously, though it is supposed to be good and it came from Jean C, so I am willing to give it a try, at least.

ok. I am going to go turn up the heat / stand near the oven.

hey there everybody!

First of all, Lusee appears to not be preggers. boo hoo

Secondly, wine parties are freeking fun. Jess, where were you? But dang, women are LOUD. maybe next time I should open up the ping pong table so we can spread out a bit... good wine, good food (yum chocolate pumkin muffins-YEAH!) and good people made up a fantastic evening. There were some people missing that I really would have loved to see; I hope they felt a little good energy come there way last night....


also. oh crud. i forgot wh.... OH YEAH!! I wore my socks and I DID NOT HAVE TO PEE. It was amazing. they really work! I even found some antique cream bottles in a trash pile that are very pretty. (of course I haven't brought them in from the car yet....)

I am listening to into thin air and everyone is dying. i think it might be adding to my overall stress level. Next I think I will listen to something happy and 6th gradish, such as frindle or ... I can't even think of anything. even kid books are sad (charlottes web, where the red fern grows, island of the blue dolphin.) I really want a fluff peice. Maybe it is time for Bridgett Jones again. Any recommendations?


ok, I am off to the thrift store to take all the swap meet leftovers in....

ocean

I am trying to keep this blog chipper, so I won't bore you with my never-ending complaints about work, BUT> I was having a really tough time on friday. Holy cow. So I was sitting at my desk deep breathing. iiiiiiinnnnnnnnn oooooooouuuuuuutttttt, ffffffffffffffffffff shhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh, ffffffffffffffffffff shhhhhhhhhhhhhh, And my coworker turns to me and says, "was that you? It sounds like the ocean, it's really nice, I feel so relaxed now!" Well, i am glad it worked for him! (I thought the theory was that the deep breathing helped the breather, not observers, but whatever.)

insaniquarium

Hello faithful blog readers--

I am sorry I am not writing more. I am now trying to stay awy from my computer becaseut the is a game that is eating my life and if I stay here very long I will want to play it again. It is called insanaquarium and if you have a few hours to waste, you should look it up. It is incredibly stupid and you will gain no skills. Also, your mouse arm will hurt. it is easy enogh for kids to play but for some reaon I convinced myself that it is challenging.

It did, however, inspire me to clean my real fish tanks and keep my real fish from turning green. However, I don't think my real tanks are at risk for alien invasion. and also, my fish don't poop diamonds....


In other pet news, Lusee the rat MIGHT be pregnant. She had a hot date new years eve with a half blue, half golden dumbo, so let's all keep our fingers crossed that not only is she preggers, but also preggers with some rare recessive-recessive BLUES!!! She has been acing needy lately so signs point to yes. Also, her ankles look a llittle swollen....

love and kisses! goodnight.

knees and other body parts

Ok. It i sjanuary and like 70 degrees outside, so I went and did what most other free people did this afternoon--went to the huckleberry. YEAH! Last month, Maggie and I made the huge purchase of a tag along bike for her, esentially making my bike a tandem. Today was our second ride, and we totally kick ass. It was awesome. Everytime we get to a hil I say PUSH IT MAGGIE PEDAL HARD, and man, does that girl do it! ZOOM! It was great. We probably only went about 4 miles, but that was enough for my poor knee.

What the hell, you may say, why your knee? And to that I say yes, why? It should be my ankle hurting. That is what my medical records would indicate! I have no idea why my knee hurts, but it does,. I tmight have some thing to do with the bellly that I am carrying around... When I bike, my belly is literally laying on my thighs. Frikkin gross. I am rethinking my whole "new years aspirations" thing. Maybe I shoudl try to lose some weight. hmmm... Maybe I should try to exciereiceis excersize exsercise ug excersise every day. that would be nice. I can do that. So far so good. Day 1 - CHECK!

I am going to start taking belly dance clesses again on Wednesdays jsut for the hell of it. Plus I meet now with my troupe on Mondays, so that is two day staken care of right there. only 5 more to consider!

Craig has just interrupted my train of thought with this video: http://www.ted.com/index.php/talks/view/id/202/?src=rss

Now I can't rembmer where I was going, and it sounds like E is home off the bus any way... So watch the video and be entertained....

welcome Dave

My friend Dave asked to see my blog so I gave him the address. I hope he will still let his kids hang out with my kids now that he sees how often I think the word "frikkin". Anyway-Hi Dave.

sappy quote

I was just leafing through a neato catalog full of things I will really like when I am fifty and found this little quote:

The most beautiful things in the world cannot be seen or even touched. They must be felt with the heart. -Helen Keller

Ironically, this was painted onto a picture frame.

But anyway, it is a nice quote and very true and kind of fits in with the work I have been doing with Diana in Asheville...

funny childcare ad

I was reading the "local newspaper" (nrvnews.com) and glimpsed this ad for childcare along the side. ha ha. My big B boss keeps suggesting this very arrangement (he wants me to work full time)

finally spent 40% of gift money

today I spent some christmas gift money. I am so proud of myself. I actually did it!

I kind of wanted to get a composter, but that is too big of a decision and since I have a hard time following thorough/remembering things like that, i figured I would just end up with a bucket of garbage in my back yard instead of something usefull like dirt.

So I bought.... wait for it.... wait for it.....

socks. Yes. Socks. And not just any old socks. But two pairs of super high tech mega engineered uber socks for hiking. One pair is for summer hikes and one pair is for winter. These are going to make everything wonderful. Now I won't pant when I go up hill. I won't yell about bong hits when there are squirrell hunters nearby, and I won't forget to take the camera out at the good view points. Also, I will not have to pee during the hike. Yes, these socks promise everythiing! I am so happy that I finally bought magic hiking socks. I have never owned any before and I can hardly wait to go out and use this essential peice of outdoor equipment.

I can't wait to report back on the wonderfullness of these socks!!!

books

Corrie keeps a list of books that she reads. I think that is a good idea, so i am stealing it. I am reading Undaunted Courage by Stephen Ambrose and also Farmer Boy by Laura Ingalls Wilder, while also listening to Into Thin Air by John Krakour. They are all good. I don't have time to read though, just a few pages a day.

Elizabeth is sick. So we all missed life today and watched movies instead. Maggie talked incessently and E and I are ready to be away from her. I hope we will all be feeling good tomorrow so that we can finally start this new year. without strangling each other.

of course

Of course. I didn't buy anything at all. I guess I will wait for a sale....

Resolutions / Aspirations

At the party last night, my wonderful admirable friend Molly set out two cans. Both had burning candles in them. One was labeled "things to let go of" the other was labeled "aspirations for 2008". We were asked to write things on a slip of paper to let go of or to aspire to and then burn them in the appropriate candle.

I didn't let go of anything. This year has been a little different than other years: Close friends moved away, I started a job outside of the home, my daughter has bounced around many different care situations... But there was nothing I could look back on and think "this was a mistake" or "I wish I hadn't done that" Each bad thing has tauht me something new about myself or my frineds or my family. Really the only things I could come up with were letting go of the regret of losing years worth of emails when my computer crashed and the ruination of a beautiful pece of art that maggie did when she was aobut 1 year old. So hey, that is not bad, huh?

Does that make me boring?

I have a million things to be thankful for. And I appreicitate so much. And even the things that I don't really like right now are teaching me so much. So what would my aspirations be?

Again, it was hard to think of. I feel like I am alread in the middle of so many transistions that I have already set aspirations without even thinking about it. I aspire to be the best i can at my job. I aspire to maintatin imporant aspects of my full time motherhood, such as be kind and caring to my kids and provide my family with a clean home and good food. I aspire to maintain contact witht he people I love who are no longer a regular part of my life.

So what did I write down? well, I want to remember to visit the old people in my life more, and ask them to tell me stories. Because old people don't move away. They die. And you don't get another chance to love them and hear them. (When i was young, my mother would bring a tape recorder with us to visit and old friend, Gyspy Gay Boothe, or Granny Boothe. She told stories of the Titanic sinking, the first car she ever saw, all of her husbands and most of her children dying, having no friends left, how people wore their hair, horses, politics of old, and so many other things. She was 102 when she died, which was some time in the late 1990's. So it was interesteing to hear on a personal level and on a historical level. I still have some tapes, though i haven't listened to them in ages.) So i would like to visit and hear and see and love all the old women of my family. I want to hear about their babies and husbands and gardens and clothes. I want to hear the story of ruth ann riding down the grain and losing her shoes with her brother.

And what was the other aspiration? I forgot. Wait! No, I remember. I want to approach each day positively. i want to take a moment each morning to allow some light in, to uplift my spirit and approach the day ready. I refuse to grumble into work. Hopefully an offshoot of this aspiration will be that I am more productive and more fun to be around.

I could have listed a bunch of other things such as:
eat less junk,
excersie every day
never yell at the kids
always be nice to husband
etc.

But I know that I can't keep those promises and I don't want to feel regretful about anything new, so i ddni't make those promises. Hopefully they will just come on thier own.

Well, now I am off to go spend my shiny new $50 gift certificate to bed bath and beyond. I will probalby be too afraid to spoend it all in one chunk and will come home with a $4 kitchen gadget, but it will be fun to daydream anyway. M is coming with me, so it should be a good time!