Work, home, gym, wash, repeat

Lost and found

2006-03-30T14:26:00.000-05:00

During one of our many Home Depot/Lowe's trips the week we moved into the house, we bought 2 shower curtain rods. The existing rods are metal and closing the shower curtain makes an awful noise.

It took us a few days to realize, hey, where are the shower curtain rods. Since it was such a minor detail, we would wonder and move on. As time passed and we got more settled, we realized we weren't finding the rods. Not in the basement, not in the garage, not in the car. Where the heck are they?!?!

Finally we concluded that they'd been left in the cart. Bought and abandoned.

I was getting the stroller out of the trunk of my car yesterday for our trip to the aquarium. I grabbed my cargo cover to pull it across the opening. Hark! There are the shower curtain rods! For nearly 2 months, I'd been driving around with them laying on the top of my cargo cover.

I pulled them out and showed Micah. He cracked up. At least that mystery has been solved. The rods are now in the upstairs hallway, waiting to be installed.

Noisy Siding and Food Bullies

2006-03-06T13:09:00.000-05:00

Did you know that on a windy day, vinyl siding will creak? I had no idea. I've lived in an asbestos shingled house, a townhouse, a condo, back to the townhouse, apartment, and then a stucco house, so this is my first experience with vinyl siding. Noisy. Not to mention the house is on a hill, with virtually no trees, so we're hit with wind pretty hard. I think I'm getting used to it. Judging by the snoring, I'd say Micah's there already.

We went to my ILs for dinner yesterday. The food was great, I'll give them that, but they are food bullies. They won't rest until you consume something. The table was full of food: pot roast, potatoes, carrotts, green beans, 2 kinds of bread... you get my drift. They still pointed out everything on the table. And if you didn't have one of everything on your plate, they nagged. Then they kept mentioning that there was more of X or Y in the kitchen. Good Lord! Evan didn't want to eat. I don't care. The kid weighs 27 lbs, he's not wasting away. That really sent them spinning. And my MIL, who will put food away before everyone's actually finished, was getting mental by leaving his plate out for him. Food bullies!!!

It's always quite an experience there. Micah kept dozing off. I started throwing things at him to wake him up. Don't fall asleep and leave me alone with your family, buddy! I told him it was tacky to fall asleep at someone else's house, because, well, it is. Unless you're >2 or <80, it's tacky! My MIL disagreed. WTFever. It's tacky! I realize he couldn't help it. He'd been working 10+ hr days since Thursday and his parents do tend to suck the life out of people.

Then you've got the smoke. Ick, ack, choke. Ok, I'm an ex-smoker so I'm not perfect, and I do still partake on occasion. But not in my house and not around my kids. Every inch of us smelled when we got home. I had to put the kids' coats in the dryer. My ILs are completely oblivious to all of this, except to place nasty air fresheners circa 1975 around the house, along with "air sanitizers". Hey guys, guess what? NOT WORKING. They also think that since they're not smoking in the same room as the kids, it's OK. Yeah, sure. Smoke has never been known to drift on the breeze.

Micah complimented me for "hammering" out the laundry. Thanks, babe. I try. I hate putting laundry away on Wednesday or Thursday, only to sort again on Friday. I think my Maytags are helping me out too. These machines are so efficient. With my Whirlpool, or whatever the hell it was, I'd have a backlog of things waiting to be dried. Now I go down to pull a load out of the washer and the dryer's done.

They're calling for 70 degrees at the end of the week. I should paint my toenails.

Hit and run, in more ways than one

2006-02-22T07:11:00.000-05:00

The store where Micah works is being remodeled. In addition to the regular employees, enter the remodeling crews. Apparently, the female employees find these new faces irresistible. Micah told me that there are several love affairs going on. On Monday, Micah saw one of these couples head sneakily into a back room. She by a direct route, and he, a few moments later, by a more stealth route. My devious husband creapt up to the door and locked it from the outside. He then moved some shelving in front of the door. He went back about his business. A few minutes later, he went back and threw a large roll of labels at the door. I told him he should take the camera to work and walk in the room the next time it happens.

Yesterday, I happened to see my friend Cindy on the way home. As I passed her, after riding next to her unnoticed, I saw her mouth, "where are you going?" I grabbed my phone and called her. We were on the phone together, in a convoy in the middle lane, when the left lane suddenly braked hard. Right outside my window, I saw a car get rear-ended. I said, Oh! You see that? Cindy said, Uh-huh. OH! He took off! The hitter did not stop. He gunned it around the car he hit and took off. The hittee stopped his/her car right there in the left lane. In my rearview mirror, I could see the smoke from brakes trying to stop to avoid another collision. Cin described the hitter's car and said, he just took that exit, and she recited the license #. I told her she needed to call it in to the police and gave her the speeddial code. Hopefully, when she called it in, they matched her call with the call from the hittee (I'm sure he/she called it in) and will track down the hitter. Well done, Cindy Lou!

The house is coming along quite nicely, although it still feels surreal. On my way home yesterday, I imagined coming home and in my mind, it was the old house. I quickly cleared that and when I pulled into the garage, the door to the house opened, and there was Hannah's happy little face.

Most rooms are complete, although we're still waiting for some furniture, including the entire dining room. Micah's off today and will be working on the basement. He's got most of it framed and maybe be starting sheetrock soon. He also put my treadmill back together and hooked up the TV for me. Now I have no excuses not to get my fat ass back in shape. Thanks honey!

The redeemed

2006-02-17T06:45:00.000-05:00

Micah redeemed himself last night after getting me nothing for Valentine's day. I came home from work to find a sampler pack of candles and a dozen roses. That'll do.

He was excused on Wednesday because he had to drive to New Jersey with some bosses to check out another store. Tuesday, well, there's no excuse for Tuesday. Although he was working on finishing the basement so he does get points for that.

Hannah is going to a bowling birthday party tomorrow. 4 and 5 year olds bowling? This I gotta see.

Empty boxes

2006-02-12T12:39:00.000-05:00

It's done. We moved. [enter sigh of relief here]

I can't believe it was just a month ago that we listed our old house and here we are, all moved in and decorated. Micah and I both had last week off which helped enormously. We both go back to work tomorrow. I just don't want to leave this house for 8+ hours.

Friday, moving day, dawned rainy and cloudy but shortly before the truck was due to arrive, the rain stopped and the sun broke through. Yippee. Then the truck shows up later than we expected and much smaller than expected. We say to the movers, truck's pretty small. The one mover says, we'll make a few trips. Um, not a huge problem since we only moved 1.8 miles but we had no access to the new house until after settlement at 4:00. After a few panicked phone calls to the realtor and the moving consultant (an old friend of my stepdad), we were able to get into the garage of the new house and another truck was on the way.

My mom stayed behind with the movers while Micah and I went to settlement. That was a breeze. With the selling settlement at 3:00 and the buying settlement at 4:00, Micah and I were technically homeless for about a half hour.

We met the trucks at the new house after settlement and started unloading. We had them take the big items to the appropriate rooms and leave everything else in the garage. The kids went home with my mom since their beds were nowhere near being setup.

Saturday morning, our army showed up. MIL, FIL, SIL, BIL, my mom (w/kids in tow). FIL brought breakfast. My friends Cindy and Tina showed up a little later to take the kids off our hands. It's amazing what we managed to get done.

On Sunday, we went shopping. I've never spent so much $$ in one day in my life. Furniture, ceiling fan, groceries, storage items, it goes on and on. We even got a call from Citi's fraud hotline. Guess they thought our card had been stolen. Micah's already paid it off from our profit check from the old house.

The old house. I thought I'd miss the old girl. I don't. The new house is way better. She's in good hands now.

Sign here, initial here

2006-01-17T12:42:00.000-05:00

We have a contract! A valid contract. On both houses. Whew, what a relief.

In the week the house was on the market, we showed it 11 times and had requests for more. At one point, we had 3 offers on the table. I guess everyone else likes it as much as we do.

The sellers of the house we want actually got a better offer. Luckily we were within our 72 hour contingency window so we didn't lose the house. That offer came with an earlier settlement date. We offered to up our date. Now we might settle as early as February 3. Holy moly! I've got some packing to do.

One of the requests for a showing came yesterday. I had the day off and was killing time until Micah came home. I heard a car door shut and looked out the window. 2 guys were standing in the street in front of my house, checking it out. Drive-by, I thought. As I watched, one of them pulled out a cell phone and dialed, while looking at my for sale sign. He wants more info, I thought. A few minutes later, my realtor calls. "Elaine, there's someone outside your house." I said, I know. Our realtor said that one of them was a Long & Foster agent and they wanted to see the house. I said, are we sure he's an agent? Jan, my agent, said, "Good point. Do they look like agents?" I said, I don't know, one is wearing a baseball cap and the other is wearing a turban. I told her I was not comfortable letting them in. I was all alone and had no proof they were who they said they were. Jan agreed and told them to call the showing service. As it stands now, there will be no more showings. Good, I won't have to make my bed.

Current house:

"New" house:

Drive by

2006-01-13T07:56:00.000-05:00

Yesterday we had 3 showings of our house. Our realtor also had a call and someone stopped by the office asking about it. The last showing was with the realtor from the 1st showing. Obviously, the house made an impression.

We also had a drive-by last night. A van came down the street as we were saying good-bye to the ILs (totally forgot they were coming - LOL). The van stopped in front of the house and looked for a minute, went to the end of the street, turned around and came back. After they drove away, Micah and I hustled to the back of the house to see if they stopped on the street behind the house. They did!

Hopefully there will be some calls today for showings tomorrow or Sunday. I guess I'll have to find some reason to get out of the house.

I have to say that my house looks fabulous! We spent all day on Tuesday cleaning. We cleaned everything. We vacuumed, we scrubbed, we dusted. I even washed and ironed some of the curtains. Every light fixture was washed. We also put away a lot of our stuff. It's amazing how much bigger the house looks without all that stuff everywhere. It's hard to not have all my pictures out but it's only for a few months, so I'll live. Micah says we'll need to pack anyway. [sigh] I hate it when he's right.

I left my 3 candle warmers on all night Wednedsay night and all day yesterday so the house smelled really good. The living room smelled like Vanilla Caramel, the family room like Pumpkin Pie, and the back of the basement like Summer Fresh. Thank you, Yankee Candle!!!

Oh, and the sellers of the house we want signed our contract! Woohoo!!!! It's got a contingency so we could still lose it. Needless to say, I'm anxious for a contract on our house. Buying a house the first time was way easier.

Back to my pins and needles, where I sit, waiting for the phone to ring...

The sign in the yard

2006-01-11T14:36:00.000-05:00

Ok, so much for the mini-resolution.

We're selling our house. You knew that. It's official now. There's a sign in the yard. We also put in a contract on another house. We love it. It's everything we want. [sigh] Only problem is, someone else wants it too. We outbid the others. Micah called them F--kers. LOL Hopefully the seller will accept our contract. Then, we have to get a valid contract on our house. Very stressful.

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

Germophobia

2005-12-30T07:26:00.000-05:00

I realize that in this day and age, especially in cold/flu season, it's good to be careful. But I think some have gone out of control. Let me tell you my story...

Yesterday morning, I was getting breakfast in the cafeteria. I picked up what I thought was a poppy-seed bagel with a pair of tongs. As I grabbed it with my hand, I realized it wasn't poppy, but an "everything" bagel. I didn't want an "everything" bagel. Knee jerk reaction? Toss it back, with my hand. As soon as I did it, I realized I shouldn't have. But I figured I'd only held it for about 5 seconds and if anyone toasted it, it would surely kill any germs I might have had on my hand. And, I didn't think anyone saw me, until I peeked through the sneeze guard and saw someone standing on the other side of the "buffet". I wasn't sure why she was standing completely still until I went to toast my plain bagel and saw her muttering and heard the word "bagel". I felt bad because I didn't mean to put back a bagel I had touched. As I was getting my soda and ice, I peeked between the machines and saw her ratting me out to a cafeteria lady! Busted! She didn't point me out specifically, so obviously she hadn't seen the culprit. I believe the bagel in question was then thrown out. Really, it's not like I fondled every bagel. I only touched one.

I want to send some kudos out to my man. He's the bomb. My grandfather's in the hospital. He has pneumonia, but he's doing OK. He lives on the Eastern Shore of MD, whereas I'm more in the central part, so we don't see him often. Luckily, he was visiting with his wife's son when he got sick so he's in a Baltimore hospital. He has a host of other health problems, including some heart issues, so it's possible that he won't be around much longer. He's 84 so it's not like he's being shortchanged, but I wanted to make sure I saw him at least one more time. I took off a little early yesterday and went to the hospital. I wound up staying way longer than I intended. My mom's step-brother and his partner were there and they were so funny, I didn't want to leave. I got home around 10. Micah fed the kids, bathed them, got them in bed, and didn't even get pissed that I didn't call when I wasn't home when we were thinking I'd be. I thanked him last night for being so cool, but I wanted to thank him in front of the world. Or at least the people that read this blog.

Thanks for being so great, Mikey. I love you.

Long time no blog...

2005-12-28T13:39:00.000-05:00

Whew. It's over. I love Christmas, don't get me wrong, but it's always a nice feeling when it's over. Now I'm looking forward to taking the tree down and putting all the decorations away. It'll be nice to have the house back to normal.

We had a great Christmas. It was so nice to only attend one event per day. Micah even got a little nap on Christmas Day. That's never happened before. Well, not without me yelling at him to wake up. Fall asleep and leave me alone with your parents....

How we managed to put away all the new toys I'll never know. In the wake of putting everything away, we decided that this is the year we'll buy a new house. Wow. Very exciting. Kinda sad too. We've lived in our house for almost 8 years and done a lot to the house. There's just not enough room for 4 people. 4 complete people. And the floorplan doesn't flow enough to allow for little children to run around. So, this Spring we'll look and hopefully move this summer.

Mini resolution - Keep up with my blog!

Retail Therapy

2005-12-05T13:05:00.000-05:00

My mom and I went shopping at the outlets in Lancaster, PA on Friday. We had the best time. I got so much shopping done. We filled her trunk.

On Saturday, we put up the Christmas tree. As we were hanging decorations, Evan was taking them off and putting them back in the box. We were wondering why we were seeing 2 of the same ornaments.

Micah still needs to put the lights up outside. I finally took down the turkey flag and the fall wreath and replaced them with a Snoopy Christmas flag and the Christmas wreath. I'm getting there. :)

Nicole Kidman is filming a movie in the Baltimore area. They were filming near headquarters of the Department of the Environment, where my dad works. One of the big shots spotted the great big, baby blue Spill Response trucks. He called my dad and requested 2 trucks and 4 guys in chemical suits for filming. So, my dad, 3 of his guys, and 2 of his trucks will be in the Nicole Kidman movie, The Visiting. Dad said, little do they know we're working on a dance number....

Yesterday we went to Outback for dinner. The lobby was completely full. We figured we'd wind up waiting at least 20 minutes. We were seated immediately. We don't know why, but we weren't complaining. We also went to Bertucci's this weekend after a long hiatus. They'd made us unhappy last time somehow. They've now redeemed themselves. The chicken tortellini gratinati is out of this world. I can't wait to go back.

In Baltimore, when it snows, everyone stocks up on bread, milk, and toilet paper. I don't know if it's like that in other parts of the country or not. It's going to snow today. I'd better go get some toilet paper.

6 days later...

2005-11-28T12:32:00.000-05:00

I have some catching up to do.

I worked late on Wednesday to post something. The boss literally said, everyone can go home but Elaine. Seriously, he said that. And then sat in my cubicle while I had trouble posting. Yikes.

Thanksgiving was delightful. Totally stress free. We got up, had a big breakfast, went to the gym, hung out. We didn't have to hurry at all. In fact, we were all ready to go 1/2 hour before we needed to leave. That was a nice feeling.

Friday we met The [partial] Committee for lunch. That was fun. I brought a leftover Chocolate Peanut Butter cheesecake for dessert. Mmmm, delish.

Saturday night, Cindy and Tina took the kids and Micah and I had a date. We had a nice, quiet dinner (with no highchair, crayons or sippy cups) and then went to a movie. We were home before the kids. Party animals.

Yesterday we hit the grocery store. Completely out of milk and juice.

A week or so ago, the bottom part of our dishwasher fell off. Ok, it didn't fall off. I ripped it off. I was standing at the sink and Evan was climbing on the kitchen chairs. He started whining and I turned - quickly - to see what the trouble was. I thought maybe he was stuck. Either my shoe or my pants got stuck on the bottom of the dishwasher and I ripped it off. I attempted to fix it but decided to leave it for my very handy husband. He looked, decided he couldn't fix it and propped it up with tomato soup cans. He then announced that we need a new dishwasher. The soup cans were fine with me, but hey, whatever. It's not really worth arguing with the man. Friday we stopped at Lowe's and checked some out. I didn't want to spend too much considering we might only be in the house for another year or so, but a major name would be nice. Doesn't have to be Maytag but at least something I've heard before. We select one and he says he'll go on Wednesday and pick it up. Cool.

Yesterday, he comes home and announces that he purchased a dishwasher. I ask the brand. He tells me. Never heard of it. Very, very basic. One dial, one switch. [sigh] Whatever. Does it wash dishes?

I'm sitting in the living room when I hear what sounds like the vacuum cleaner. I then walk down the hall and see the vacuum sitting idle. What the hell is that sound? Our new dishwasher. Are you kidding me? I track him down and ask him if he intended to buy the loudest dishwasher available. He says it's loud because it doesn't have the insulation on it. Well, Bob Villa, put it on! He pulls the dishwasher back out and puts the insulation on. Still hearing the vacuum.

Item number #437 that Micah is banned from doing alone: buying major appliances.

I told him if he even tries to buy a washing machine without me, he will march it right back out to the car and back to Home Depot/Lowe's.

I started dragging out Christmas decorations this weekend. I pulled out all the storage bins and started divying the stuff up by the room. It might take until Christmas to get completely decorated. Luckily, it'll be easy to put away come New Year's Day.

120 minutes

2005-11-22T16:03:00.000-05:00

That's how long it took me to get home from work last night. A little rain and everyone in Baltimore panics and forgets how to drive. The ramp to get onto the Beltway going in the direction I usually take was jammed. I opted to go the other way around. Bad idea. That was jammed too. After an hour, I jumped off, heading for surface streets. At least I could move a little bit. My foot was cramping from working the clutch. Surface streets weren't much better. Another hour there. No matter which way I went, it was the wrong way.

And the weirdest thing happened - twice. I got disoriented as to my position. Between the darkness, the rain, and not being able to see much more than the rear of the car in front of me, two times I thought I was somewhere other than where I was. Bizarre.

This morning, Evan fell and bumped his face on a puzzle. He was crying and touching his face and reaching for me. I'm wearing a white shirt. I wasn't going to hold him until I was sure he wasn't bleeding. Is that wrong? He got lots of hugs once I knew he wasn't going to leave a mark.

Obligatory post

2005-11-21T14:00:00.000-05:00

I feel like I have a fever today. I don't feel bad, my head just feels hot. I could walk down to the health unit and find out for sure, but that seems like too much trouble. They write your name down when you go in there and I'm just not in the mood to have my name written down.

This weekend, I went to the Awesome 80's Prom with some friends. It's an interactive play. It was like being at the prom in 1989. So much fun. Costumes were acceptable but not required. I was almost sorry I hadn't thrown something together. The characters were in the crowd talking to everyone.

I ran some errands with the kids on Saturday. Always an adventure. Got a lot accomplished. What a good feeling.

Evan has overcome his pop-tart snobbishness and will now eat the "toaster pastries". Hannah, however, insists on eating "my" pop-tarts.

I just did some on-line Christmas shopping. Disney has character pajamas for $9.99. What a deal!

I'm looking forward to the abbreviated week. I only have to work Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday.

I don't have anything else to say. I should get back to work. Probably my oddest post to date.

Pop-Tart snobs

2005-11-15T15:21:00.000-05:00

Evan has discovered pop-tarts. And if Evan's eating a pop-tart, then Hannah must eat a pop-tart. Yeah, mother of the year, I know. They tore through a box in no time. I figured I'd buy the store brand "toaster pastries" if they're going to be eating them everyday. I figured they'd never know the difference.

Both of them opened the cabinet, looked at the white box (instead of the Kellogg's blue), then looked at me like, what are you trying to pull here? I showed them the aluminum wrapper and then the delectable pop-tarts inside. Hannah told me they smelled funny and Evan gave me that look again. Hannah insisted on eating one of "my" pop-tarts (Kellogg's Low Fat Cinnamon Brown Sugar) but I was able to convince Evan to try one of the others. He only ate about half. [sigh] Kellogg's, here I come.

I told Micah this story when he called me Monday morning from work. I haven't heard him laugh that hard in a while.

We told the outlaws about Thanksgiving and Christmas. Wasn't as exciting as I thought it would be. However, it could be the calm before the storm. It lost something when Micah himself got confused about our "plan".

Every year on the night before Thanksgiving, I like to watch the movie Home for the Holidays. Instead of renting it, this year, I bought it. Now I never have to worry about being able to rent it.

Usually at this time of day, I'm fighting to stay awake. Today, we had a little party with desserts so I'm all hyped up on sugar. Might be a good thing. Except for my waistline.

Dodging bullets and x-rated soap

2005-11-09T14:32:00.000-05:00

The Outlaws called last night wanting to arrange a visit for this week. There's a family party on Saturday, I asked if they were going. They are. So are we! It was decided we'd just see each other there. Woohoo!!! Avoided that awkward 90 minutes.

I should get off at 3 today but I'm waiting for a file to post. Yes, it's the same file from last week. This happens every once in a while. They just can't get their acts together enough to post something in a timely manner. So I might be working late today.

On Monday, I brought home a donut for Hannah. It was beautiful. Rainbow sprinkles as far as the eye could see. She was delighted. Scarfed it right up. I looked again yesterday but there were no rainbow sprinkled donuts. When I got home last night, the first thing she said to me was, Mom, where's the donut? I told her they didn't have any. Bummer, she said. LOL I assured her that I'd get her one the next time I saw them.

We got the proofs from Hannah's school pictures yesterday. Beautiful. I don't know how I'll ever choose. Evan on the other hand....there were no pictures of him because he wouldn't cooperate. He wanted no parts of having his picture taken. We have a family portrait scheduled for Friday evening. I hope he gets over his aversion by then. We're going with a casual theme this year. Red shirts and denim for the kids and probably cream or white with denim for us. Micah suggested we all wear the same cheesy Christmas sweaters. Maybe next year.

There is new soap in the bathroom here at work. It's thin and pearly colored. It comes out of the pump in spurts. Do you see where I'm going here? I can't help but hear porn music in my head when I wash my hands. What was wrong with the yellow soap?

It's the most wonderful time of the year

2005-11-07T13:10:00.000-05:00

I'm starting to believe it. Last week I heard a Christmas song on the radio. And this morning, I saw 2 houses decorated for Christmas. I'm not ready for Christmas until after Thanksgiving. I've done some shopping but I am NOT ready for decorations and music. Uh-uh.

I gassed up the car this morning. It felt SO good to pay less than $25 for a fill-up. Whew.

We had the posting from hell last week. I had received some files for posting. Rumor had it that they would need to be posted on Tuesday, the day I left early for a GYN appt. I got everything ready and sent an email to my backup letting him know that this might happen. Well, apparently, I wasn't clear enough on the "might". He posted them. Wednesday morning, I happened to check the page and saw the files posted. I emailed the folks in charge to find out if the files had been ok'd. They had not. I had the files pulled ASAP. It all went downhill from there.

Long story short, some people didn't like the policy anyway and then others were super pissed that it'd gotten posted. I was really sweatin' it Thursday and Friday, wondering what they could do to me. I finally had a chance to talk to my boss about it, and found out that I was fine. She and others had my back. They thought the files would be posted on Friday. I was supposed to get off at 3. Rightfully so, the bosses were a little gun-shy about leaving the posting to my backup. I wound up staying until 5 when I had to leave to be able to get the kids by 6. My boss called me on my way home to tell me that the files weren't going up that night. Welcome to the government.

Got Candy?

2005-11-02T08:48:00.000-05:00

Last Friday morning, I went in to work really early. At about 5:50 am, I saw a guy on his cellphone. Who the hell is he talking to at 10 of 6?

Halloween was fun. The kids got tons of candy which is now in my kitchen. The leftovers of the candy we gave out is now in a bucket outside my cubicle. The vultures here have picked it almost clean. It's also been added to by coworkers.

Picture this, a beautiful sunny November day, 20+ people standing around a BMW convertible in the parking lot. The driver, a man wearing a shimmery turban. His passengers, 2 men in drag. This is what we did yesterday at lunch. We had a contest related to our annual charity fundraiser and the prize was a ride in the boss's BMW. Somehow, we ended up talking the winner into taking the ride dressed in drag. I'm not sure how the other guy wound up in a dress. I think he liked it. Since it was lunchtime and a beautiful day, there were other people not in on the joke outside. No one questioned us. What they must have been thinking.

I had a GYN appt yesterday. Whoopeee. The appt was at 1 so I took the afternoon off. You never know what time you'll get out of there. What I didn't know was that I was his 1st appt. I was out of there at 1:25! I called Micah and he said, you feel a little guilty, don't you? I did, actually. But I got over it and went to the gym. Then I went home and put away Halloween decorations and got the kids' laundry put away.

Not only was I the first patient of the day, but I was also the first patient after his Caribbean vacation. He said it was nice to have a nice, normal patient as his first. Aw shucks.

My biggest driving pet peeve is the driver who makes a mistake and tries to correct it immediately. For example, the driver who realizes that they need to make a right, not a left, and attempts to cross all traffic to do so. Or the driver that realizes they wanted to go straight, not turn left and tries to wriggle into the straight traffic when the turn light turns green. This happened to me yesterday. 2 cars in front of me in the left turn lane. The guy didn't want to turn, he wanted to go straight. So instead of making the turn and doing a u-turn somewhere, he just sat in the turn lane with his right blinker on. Grrrr. Luckily, the other turn lane was clear so I was able to gun it around him and still make the light, therefore avoiding my second biggest pet peeve - Missing the light because of some IDIOT.

The day from heck

2005-10-27T14:02:00.000-04:00

First of all, this is the second time I typed this sucker. Yesterday was the say from heck. Not hell, it wasn't quite that bad.

While getting dressed in the morning, I cut my thumb with my toenail while putting on my tights. Gross, I know. Needless to say, I cut my toenails last night. Then I realize that my sweater doesn't look right with my skirt and I have a run in my tights. New outfit.

I stop at the gym after work, calling Micah when I leave so he can order a pizza for dinner. While picking up the kids, I lock my keys in the car. Let me clarify - I locked the keys in Micah's car. My car was getting an oil change. I wouldn't have locked my keys in my car. I couldn't have. I got back into daycare to call Micah to rescue us. When I call, he tells me that he just ordered the pizza, I'll have to wait. I suggested that he call Domino's and ask them to hold the delivery.
"I don't think they can do that," he says.
"Can you call and find out?"
"I don't think they can."
"Can you just find out?"
"I don't think they'll do it."
Grrrr. I'm in the daycare center with my two little ones and I really, really want to use bad words. I growled instead. Then he says that the pizza's there and he's on his way. When I hung up, I realized that he'd have to walk up and get my car first. Ok, just a few extra minutes. Then he calls me back to tell me that he has to walk up and get my car. JUST GO GET THE CAR AND COME GET ME!!!!!!! Holy moly. I'm sweaty, I'm hungry and I just want to go home. Instead I sit and watch Thomas with the kids while we wait.

When we get home, we wolfed down some pizza before dance class. I ate way too much pizza. Pretty good though.

I've had 2 training classes this week, the day from heck, and a java error on my computer. I'm ready for Friday.

What a beautiful day

2005-10-25T08:55:00.000-04:00

It's really not. We're getting the remnants of Wilma and it's windy and rainy and icky. But, I've been at work for less than an hour and I've already seen the 2 guys that are, in my opinion, the most attractive guys here. Hubba hubba [don't worry, Micah, I only look]

This past weekend was fun. We threw a surprise 60th birthday party for my stepdad. He had no idea. My stepsister even flew in from Arkansas. Hannah and I were at my stepbrother's during the day, helping decorate for the party. Friday night I'd scanned a whole mess of pictures of him and we put captions on them and put them up all over the house.

While Micah and I were at the party, the kids were with Cindy and Tina and Cin's daughter Meghann. Hannah calls Meghann by her first and last names. It's really funny.

I had all the laundry finished by Sunday morning. It's still not all put away though. The kids' stuff is put away and some of ours is. I actually worked on our stuff this morning.

Remember the redesign of the agency website that I was stressing about a few months ago? Pushed back. Again. December 14 is the new go live date. I'm ready now. Hurry up and wait.

Hall of Fame

2005-10-20T14:37:00.000-04:00

I am so full right now. The Committee took Steve to lunch today to celebrate his induction into the Frostburg State University Hall of Fame this coming weekend. We're so proud.

While Hannah was at dance last night, I zipped over to Target and the library and managed to make it back in time. I've never been in and out of Target so fast. I itched to browse even though I knew my mission was to get cat food, OxiClean, a compact, and baby wipes.

Here it is Thursday and I still have 3 baskets of laundry to put away. I have a good excuse this time though. The laundry wasn't officially finished until yesterday. I was away over the weekend so the laundry didn't get started until I got back, with the exception of sheets & towels. I did manage to get Evan's laundry put away last night. The others have to be done today because I need the baskets to start laundry again tomorrow. A woman's work is never done.

The in-laws are coming today. Oh joy. I reminded Micah this morning and he yelled at me. LOL I guess I ruined his day. I figured better I remind him now than he remembers when they show up an hour early. Of course, they didn't give us a time, FIL just said "evening". Last time, they got there before I got home from work and were suprised that we hadn't had dinner. Micah said, well, she's not even home yet. What the hell time do they eat dinner?

They used to really annoy me with their comments, etc. Now I just find it amusing. What else can you do but laugh?

Life is Good

2005-10-19T14:01:00.000-04:00

That's the message on the t-shirt I got today when I donated blood. Yes, I am a proud blood donor. I used to be afraid of needles, now I donate blood. The best thing about donating blood? The Famous Amos cookies you get afterwards.

Since I donated today, that means I can't workout tonight. Bummer. I have been SO lazy lately. I wasn't feeling well most of last week, went away this past weekend and have been a bum this week. I'll get back into it, eventually. With my GI troubles, I feel like my body needs all I can give it anyway.

We ordered pizza last night for dinner. That was fun. Love pizza. And then I skipped the gym and hung out with my hubby. We got Parenthood OnDemand and we both fell asleep. Couple of wild and crazy kids, I tell ya.

My dad, the emergency response chemical guy, had to check the acidic runoff from a mine yesterday. The entrance to the mine was 1000 ft up. The woman from the EPA asked him if he would be able to make it since he's "getting up there". He told her he'd beat her up there. He did. He was not going to let her beat him. Once up there, he had to pretend that he wasn't panting and about to die. I told him machismo wins every time.

Happy Anniversary to us!

2005-10-18T14:01:00.000-04:00

Today is our 8th anniverary. 8 years married, 15 years together. And unless Micah is making something exciting for dinner, it will be a Tuesday like any other. [hint, hint]

I sent him a text message this morning wishing him a happy 8th. He replied with a message with a rose in it. How sweet!

There was a "terror scare" at our tunnels today. There are 2 tunnels that take traffic through the city and beneath the harbor. Apparently there was a credible threat and both tunnels were closed for 2 hours. They're open now but I think I'll go home a different way.

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

I'm back!

2005-10-17T15:22:00.000-04:00

We had a blast. Friday we all met up, loaded up and headed out. Stopped at Denny's on the way to eat. Once we were settled in the place, we went shopping. To the outlets first and the 15 items for $5 deal at the costume jewelry outlet. Off to the boardwalk next for another jewelry store and a bucket of fries. We hit the grocery store for snacks on our way back. Karen and Julie went in and we moved the van. It was a buzzkill when they walked out of the store and found us immediately.

Friday night I went out to dinner but skipped the bar. My tummy was upset again. We think it was from the vinegar on the fries. But it was so good...

Saturday we got up and loafed around for a while before heading off to more outlets. I made a killing at the Disney outlet. 4 pairs of pajamas and 2 t-shirts for $43. When we were all shopped out, we headed back to the place and snacked for a bit in front of the TV. Then we got cleaned up and headed out to dinner and the bar. We went to a restaurant that we'd visited during our April trip. On that trip, we'd harrassed the manager when they ran out of potatoes. He was working the desk when we walked in on Saturday. He saw us and said, Oh my God. LOL

Sunday morning we loafed around again before packing up and heading out. When I got back to my friend Tina's house, where I'd left my car, this is what I found:

We knew they'd be working on the sidewalk but we didn't expect that. I had to drive across 3 lawns to get to the street.

The kids missed me and I have tons of laundry to catch up on but all is well.

Tomorrow!!!

2005-10-13T13:36:00.000-04:00

Tomorrow morning I leave for the beach with the girls. I hope I feel better than I do right now. I stayed home yesterday with an upset stomach. It's feeling a little better today, but not a whole lot. I'll be stopping at Walgreen's this afternoon for some drugs.

Other than the pain in my GI tract, it was nice to lay in bed yesterday. Thank goodness for digital cable! I got One of the Guys from OnDemand and promptly fell asleep. Luckily it was free and I can watch it again.

One good thing about having stomach issues this weekend: it'll keep me from eating too much.

I'm going to miss the little ones. I know Evan will be asking for me, and that makes me a little sad. It'll be fun to see him when I get home though. I will, of course, bring home presents.

Since Cindy, Bill, and I will be out tomorrow, the Committee had lunch today. We went to our old regular place, Bennigan's. I love their Turkey O'Toole. Let's just hope that today, it loves me back.

3 at a time

2005-10-11T13:11:00.000-04:00

My 3 day weekend is over and my 3 day workweek begins.

It rained all of Friday night and all day Saturday. And I mean rained. We had been invited to a birthday party on Saturday that I knew was intended to be outside. I called early in the afternoon to see if it was still on. It was. The kids had a blast. Hannah ran around with other little girls, playing dress-up etc. And Evan just enjoyed his little self as usual.

Sunday the cable men came back to figure out why our On Demand wasn't working. It's finally working. How cool is On Demand? You can watch just about anything you want, whenever you want. The kids got to watch SpongeBob, Sesame Street, Jay-Jay and Barney on demand!

Monday I hung out with my mom. There's a new Kohl's in her area and since I don't have one nearby, that was our first stop. I got a couple of things for me and a Thanksgiving dress for Hannah. Then we went to a new shopping center and the movies. We saw In Her Shoes. Fabulous!

I'm actually excited about Thanksgiving this year. One stop. That's awesome. I haven't done that in 10 yrs or more. I can't believe we didn't break sooner. We can relax at home and watch the parades, then get dressed and head on out. When we're finished, we can pack up and head HOME. Aaaahhhh. Now, we just have to break the news to the in-laws. They are NOT going to be pleased. My mother wasn't pleased either but she's taking it well, I think because she gets us first.

I had the itchies again this morning. So bizarre. It happened Friday, Monday and today, but not Saturday or Sunday. The only difference was the timing of my showers. Saturday and Sunday were afternoon showers and the others were morning showers. I have a feeling it's something in my blood. Maybe a defficiency of some kind. I don't think it has anything to do with my skin itself because it's only my legs. This morning I almost felt the itching travel to my ankles. If it goes on much longer, I will be calling the doctor. It had me so worked up this morning, I was getting irritated with the kids.

Friday morning I leave for my girl weekend. I wish I could go to sleep and wake up Thursday night. I'm so tired, I think I could sleep that long.

And then the rains came

2005-10-07T13:47:00.000-04:00

Boy is it raining today! I was wearing sandals because I'm just not ready for socks and my shoes and feet got soaked at lunch. Luckily, I had my tenners here so now my feet are warm and dry.

We had a blast at lunch today. We didn't win a dime at Keno but we had fun. ML pointed out that the sound of the condiment caddy scraping across the tape made her crazy. Well, that was all the boys needed. They scraped and scraped and scraped! Then someone scraped their fork on their plate and, well, you can probably guess what happened then.

I had the itchies this morning. For some reason, after my shower, my legs itched SO bad. I mean bad. I thought I would lose my mind. Once I got in the car, they seemed to settle down and it wasn't so bad.

I normally run errands on Friday after work but in this rain, I think I'll just get the kids and park our butts at home.

It's pink, ain't it?

2005-10-06T15:24:00.000-04:00

I spoke too soon on the traffic thing. Fairly bad traffic this morning. Not awful but SLLLOOOOOOWWWWW. Not fun for me lurching around in my 5spd.

Evan had a checkup yesterday. Poor little guy needed 3 shots. Hannah insisted on tagging along. It was so cute, the doc addressed all her questions about Evan to Hannah. Luckily Hannah had all the right answers.

The ILs are coming over today. I reminded Micah and he was like, thanks, thanks a lot! I liked it here in denial. LOL I said, you need to come back to reality.

We've got two big oak trees behind our house. One is ours and the other is the neighbor's. Both of the trees hang over our fiberglass carport. The sound of an acorn landing on a fiberglass carport is enough to knock you right out of your shoes! It's like a gunshot. I will be SO glad when they've all fallen. One year, they never came. What was that about?

Yesterday I had left clothes out for Hannah since her father can't put an outfit together. It was a pink shirt and plaid shorts. Apparently, the shorts weren't up to 4yr old standards so Daddy picked out another pair of shorts. When I talked to him, I asked him which shorts. He said, I don't know, pink ones. I said, which pink ones? Does it match? He said, It's pink, ain't it? He fails to understand that pink is not always pink. I have several pink shirts in my closet and none of them are the same shade.

7 days until the girl weekend.

I've lost that bloggin' feelin'...

2005-10-05T07:22:00.000-04:00

When I first started blogging, I couldn't wait to blog everyday. Now, as you can see, I haven't blogged in over a week. I'll try to do better. My blog is a great place to let all these weird thoughts out of my head.

Remember my laundry track record? Over. It took me until last night to put it all away. Tuesday's not too bad. Better than Thursday. My goal this week is Sunday.

I couldn't sleep last night. We just got digital table with movie channels so Micah was watching Along Came Polly. I finally put my book down and figured I'd close my eyes. Nothing. I think I dozed off around 11:00 but woke up again around 11:15. The whole time I'm thinking, I have to get up at 4:45, which makes it worse. Then I really couldn't sleep.

I'm still trudging away at my weightloss routine but I don't feel like I've made much progress. I've lost the vacation weight but I feel stuck. I'll have to step it up. [Anyone else hear the Rocky theme?]

I entertained The Committee last Friday by proving to a Doubting Thomas, well actually, a Doubting Rick, that I can indeed put my fist in my mouth. Impressive, huh?

In about 9 days I'll be spending a girls' weekend at the beach. No husbands, no kids - just 6 crazy women. I can't wait! We have such a good time. And no one gets on anyone's nerves which is a feat for women. Usually someone gets on someone else's nerves. Not us. We all just roll with the punches. We've got a place to stay and a designated driver for the weekend so we're all set. My boss said to me, you just came back from the beach. I said, that was with the family. This is entirely different.

Originally, Micah didn't think he would be able to take off on Saturday so I had it all worked out that my mom would get the kids on Friday evening and keep them until Micah got home on Sat. I felt a little bad about that. Shuffling my kids around so I could get away for a weekend. Not bad enough to cancel my plans though. Now it turns out that Micah CAN get off Saturday. My mom is still going to pick the kids up for a bit. She's used to seeing them every week so she'll need her fix. And that way Micah gets a break.

Traffic hasn't been too bad lately. Which is a good thing. Always a good thing.

Monday, Monday

2005-09-26T12:35:00.000-04:00

Another long ride this morning. Traffic was backed up on my usual route, so I decided to go the other way. Remember the big circle... Backed up that way too! Ugh. Well over an hour to get to work. Being in the car for longer than you expect is very disorienting. I almost forgot where I was headed! We're supposed to get the remnants of Rita this afternoon, which guarantees bad traffic so I think I'll be leaving a little early today.

Friday night, the kids and I went to visit my friend Cindy who had sinus surgery on Thursday. She's doing very well. She got it all cleaned out up there. I'd LOVE to know what the doc found. I'm betting on a few debit cards.

Remember last week when I had all the laundry put away by Sunday night? Well yesterday I had it all put away by Noon! Wow! How exciting. It really doesn't take much to make me happy.

Yesterday we went to Sesame Street Live and managed to escape without 2 Elmo balloons at $8 each or any other over-priced event merchandise. We enjoyed ourselves adding up the money that floated up to the ceiling.

The Long Road Home

2005-09-21T07:00:00.000-04:00

It took me an hour and 45 minutes to get home from work yesterday. Here's some background on the freeway system here. There's a road called the Beltway that circles the city. Going through the city, is Interstate 95. From work, I can really go three ways: 95 through the city, the Beltway through Towson, or the Beltway over the Key Bridge. I usually take 95 because the Beltway hoses up through Towson just about everyday.

So yesterday, I get on 95 and almost immediately stop. I crawl for a while and then hear the traffic report. There's an overturned vehicle several miles up blocking the entire right side. Great. It's already 5:00 and I'm nowhere near the accident. I'm not really familiar with the city so I know of no way home other than right where I am. I see the sign for the next exit and I think, Hey, that crosses the Beltway, right? I call my dad. He's my go-to guy, he knows everything. He says, yes, that will cross the Beltway. Get off there, and take the Key Bridge. As I'm on the ramp, I say to him, Do I want north or south? He says, You want north, honey. (with that little condescending lilt that he's so good at) As I'm sitting on the ramp, I'm thinking I don't want north, I want south. North doesn't make sense. I go south. Aha! I was right. In a few minutes, I'm on the Beltway heading for the bridge. I call my dad to tell him he was wrong but it's cool because I didn't listen anyway. He says that's why he told me north, because he knew I wouldn't listen.

I go over the bridge - smooth sailing - and when I get what would normally be 15 minutes from home, I stop again. There's construction and the road's divided. Then, it goes from 2 lanes to 1. So I sit some more. I'm not even sure how long I sat.

I finally got home at 6:15, retrieved my dinner from the frig and watched Toy Story 2 with the family.

I'm down 3 pounds now. Good thing. I was gonna hafta get mad if I wasn't. Yesterday I did 65 minutes of cardio. Over an hour! I'd better see some results from that.

Attention men: Combovers do not work. Bald is beautiful. If you're going bald, just go, don't fight it. While walking at lunchtime yesterday, I saw a guy with an awful combover. Just awful. It wasn't really a combOVER but a combUP. He brought the hair up from the back. Dude, seriously. It was really sad. Thank God my bald men (Micah, Dad) just go with their baldness.

Almost Fall...

2005-09-19T13:46:00.000-04:00

I just bought Evan the cutest outfit for Thanksgiving. Thanksgiving? Is that next on the agenda? No, it's Halloween. Halloween? How did that happen?

We had a good weekend. I got all the laundry finished by Sunday morning and put away by Sunday night. All of it. Sheets, towels, kids' clothes, our clothes....put away. That is a feat in itself. It usually takes me until at least Tuesday to get it all put away. Aahh, what a good feeling.

Yesterday we went to one of my favorite annual craft shows and the only thing I bought was a sparkly head scarf for Hannah. That's almost unheard of for me. I was distracted by the heat and the whiney children. Why do they keep calling me Mom?

Tap and ballet shoes were purchased this weekend. Hannah was allowed to wear them briefly at home before they were put away for Wednesday's class.

I actually got up at 4:55 this morning and got on the treadmill. Impressive, huh? The plan is to do the same tomorrow and Thursday. We'll see. I wanted to walk at lunch today but I got a better offer.

Yes, so Thanksgiving is right around the corner and this year is a special year. This is the maiden voyage of our one event per holiday plan. We've been doing double duty on holidays for years and we're not gonna take it anymore! It's too much work, too much hassle, and not enough fun. My family gets odd Thanksgivings and even Easters and his family gets even Thanksgivings and odd Easters. The ILs are NOT going to be happy this year. Oh well. Life is too short to make everyone happy while making yourself miserable.

Last Christmas was particularly rediculous. On Christmas Eve, we were at Micah's grandmother's with plans to go to his sister's early on Christmas Day. As we're sitting at Grandma's, I realize that half of the people there will be at his sister's the next day. So, why are we going to be there? The next day was very anti-climactic. "Hey, yeah, Merry Christmas."

Happy Birthday, Micah!

2005-09-16T07:22:00.000-04:00

My man is now 32. Good. Now he can leave me alone about being 32. I'm 5 months older than him and for 5 months every year, I get to hear about how he's younger than me. Now we're even.

Seriously, though. Micah, I know you'll read this. Have a very happy birthday, sweetie. I love you! And take that cake to work, I don't want it in my house.

Hannah started dance classes this week. We'll be getting tap and ballet shoes this weekend. I peeked through the window several times and she had a huge grin on her face everytime. She even thanked me for taking her to dance class. [sniff] Bless her little heart.

I've gotten back into the swing of things pretty well. I've been busy at work - which I'm sure you can tell by my lack of blogs. I'm working on the 5 pounds from vacation, and then some. I was down 2 but up 1 again this morning. Probably from that damn cake. [Micah, take the cake to work!] I've been keeping a food journal. That seems to help. I'm accountable for everything I eat. I'm also trying to up my cardio workouts. I taped Survivor last night and that will be my treadmill entertainment tonight.

Today is Friday and that means Committee lunch. I sure have missed it. I did talk to the Committee the last 2 Fridays via cell phone, but it's not the same as being there.

All is right with the world!

Home Sweet Home

2005-09-12T12:58:00.000-04:00

We're back! And a good time was had by all. The weather was gorgeous - we couldn't have asked for better weather.

Hannah aka Miss Social Butterfly, made lots of little friends on the beach and at the pool. A few Hannahs, an Evan, an Elaine, and assorted others. Evan just did his own thing. He loved playing in the sand but was intimidated by the ocean.

We went to the beach, rode rides, rented a surrey, swam in the pool, had ice cream every night (I've got the extra 5 lbs to prove it!), walked on the boardwalk, went to the water park, etc.

None of us wanted to come home. After doing 2 weeks, there's no way we'll be able to go back to just one.

On our very last day, I got a phone call from my dad. Dad works for the State's Dept. of the Environment and is involved in emergency operations for the State. As I'm sitting on the beach, Dad asks me if we've been in the water and how was it. He then informs me that they almost shut the beach down that day. Seems a fecal count was high. Ick. Micah immediately dumped the bucket of water that Evan had been playing in.

Now I have to try and remember what it's like to work for a living.

Naked

2005-08-25T13:45:00.000-04:00

I forgot my rings today and I feel completely naked without them. I feel like I forgot my teeth or something.

2 more days! Woohoo! I feel a little panicked about all the packing I have to do, but hopefully with Micah's help, we'll be able to get it all done.

It will be so nice to forget about this place for 2 weeks. I'm meeting with my backup at 2 to make sure he's good to go. I'm sure there are some things that will come up that he won't know what to do with, but you know what, I don't care. He's going to have to handle it. Put on his big girl panties and deal with it.....er, wait. Hey, whatever he does in his spare time is his business. Just teasing.

The redesigned site is supposed to go live on Sept 12. The day I come back to work. I'm going to try really hard not to think about it until then. Once I'm 150 miles from home, there won't be much I can do anyway.

I wish tomorrow would hurry up and get here. As of tomorrow at 11:30, I'm officially on vacation from work. I'll go to lunch with The Committee, then head to the gym, and then home to pack. I'll pack the kids first, since I can't pack for them after they go to bed. I'll start with Evan. Saturday morning we're going to breakfast and then we'll load up the car and head out.

Micah put on his sandals last night to wash the car. Then we did the math on how long he's had those sandals. 10+ yrs. I said, I think it's time for something else. He only wears them at the beach and to wash the car but they're not cute anymore. It's time for them to go. Me too.

I've been tagged!

2005-08-25T09:33:00.000-04:00

Thanks Rebecca!

7 things I plan to do before I die
1) Tour the US with Micah in our RV
2) Attend Hannah & Evan's weddings
3) Go scuba diving again. It's been 6 years
4) Go on a cruise
5)
6)
7)
(That's about it! I'm a very simple girl!)

7 things I can do
1) Touch my nose with my tongue
2) make people laugh
3) Sleep in, if other people would LET me
4) Make one heck of a chocolate PB cheesecake
5) ?
6) ?
7) ?(Not very talented, lol)

7 things I cannot do
1) Sing. I love to do it...just cannot do it well
2) Drive slowly and patiently
3) The Electric Slide - not that it matters anymore, but I can't do it.
4) Run. Too much bouncing
5) Keep the house neat. Damn kids :)
6)
7)

7 things that attract me to the opposite sex
1) Eyes
2) Build
3) Hair
4) Sense of humor
5) Not pretending to be something he's not (why I love Micah)
6) Willing to let me be me
7)

7 things that I say most often
1) Whatever.
2) STFU
3)
4)
5)
6)
7)
(I never shut up and here I sit wondering what I say most often...)

7 celebrity crushes
1) Chris Noth
2) Joaquin Phoenix
3) Noah Wiley
4) George Clooney
5)
6)
7)

I'm not going to tag anyone, because between all my blog friends, I'm sure everyone's been covered.

I'll be back later with a real blog.

Zip a dee doo dah....

2005-08-23T12:41:00.000-04:00

It is a lovely day here in Bawlmer. Low eighties, low humidity, nice breeze.....ahh! We might have to cook out on the grill tonight. I hope it stays like this through September 10. This is great beach weather.

Hannah packed her toy bag. She also packed her bathing suits, leaving one out for sprinkler day on Friday. In her toy bag, she packed every pair of dress-up shoes she owns. I told her she didn't need quite so many. I'll be helping her with the packing of the toy bag. I unpacked the bathing suits and she went nuts. Crying that I wasn't letting her take her bathing suits. Then I explained that I had a whole suitcase just for her, including her bathing suits.

I could absolutely fill this blog with Hannah-isms. She's so funny. She and Micah played tea party the other night and she took his order with a pad and pen.

I taught Evan the word "open" over the weekend. He brings me things now and says "Ope, ope".

Four days til vacation! I'm getting really excited and I'm feeling caught up at work. That feels great!

Pretty Piggies

2005-08-18T12:59:00.000-04:00

I told Micah last night that I would probably be working late a few nights next week. He said, "why?" I'm kinda thinking DUH on that one. Because I won't be there for 2 weeks! I need to make sure everything is caught up, etc.

I gave myself a pedicure last night. It was so nice. Wait, let me back up.

We've been pretty lax about Hannah's bedtime. It's just been around 8 and if I don't have to wake her up at 6:30 the next day, she goes to bed later. It hit me last week - she's a little girl. She needs her rest. So I told Micah, 8:00, lights out. Books read, teeth brushed, burrito (our bedtime game) done by 8.

So, last night, the kids were in bed and I had all my "chores" done and I'd been to the gym. I decided I was going to watch Ghost Hunters and give myself a pedi. I pulled out the hot water foot massager and set myself up. While my feet soaked and massaged, I filed my nails and pushed all my cuticles back and then I went to work on my feet. When I was done, I just sat back and watched TV. I can't tell you the last time I just sat and watched TV.

I think Micah's trying to kill me. I can't find any other explanation for the horrible gases coming out of his rear end. I want my own room!

Party Cake

2005-08-16T12:34:00.000-04:00

Imagine vanilla ice cream, swirled with bits of cake, and colorful buttercream icing chunks. It's name...Party Cake. Oh...my....God. It's a new flavor from Turkey Hill.

The colors attracted Hannah at the store on Sunday. Although we are well stocked on ice cream (most of it low fat/low cal), I got some for her. Since they were BOGO, I bought another flavor for us. Did I mention we're well stocked?

I served her up a Party Cake cone last night and decided that I needed to sample it for myself. I took a little bite. I swear my eyes rolled back in my head. I gave Micah a taste. His reaction? "Oh, that's not good." Not good that it's that good and now in the house!

Evan did really well at school yesterday and didn't bite anyone. Yae! He is so damn funny. As soon as hit feet hit the floor this morning he was off and running and jabbering a mile a minute. So cute.

I need to catch up on my friends' blogs again. I've been SO busy at work with the new website stuff that I haven't had a chance to catch up. I spent this lunchtime catching up on my favorite bulletin board (you know who you are). I also have the kids' baby books to catch up on. That may end up being a vacation project. (11 days)

Still no verdict in that trial. Here's a link to an updated newstory. Check out the pic of the accused. Creeeee-py. http://wjz.com/topstories/local_story_226112813.html

Sit back and relax...enjoy the ride

2005-08-15T13:04:00.000-04:00

I never made it back after Friday afternoon. I suck.

12 days til vacation and I really feel like I'm running out of time. I've done zero packing and it's such a huge task that I don't even know where to begin.

This weekend we bought mesh for the balcony. We'll be on the 15th floor and the thought of anyone or anything going over makes me sick to my stomach. DH will stretch the mesh across the entire balcony and secure it with zip ties. The kids won't be out there unsupervised anyway, but we won't have to watch them like hawks.

We also hit Target for a few miscellaneous things and I went to Sears to spend a gift card. I found some great stuff there and earned a KidVantage coupon. I'll have to shop at Sears more often. I was looking for pajamas or nightgowns for Hannah and I had to go to the girls' department. Sears doesn't carry 5T! Where did my baby girl go?

Today the jury deliberations begin in a triple homicide that happened here in Baltimore in May '04. The victims were 3 children, a brother and sister and their cousin. The accused are an uncle and another cousin of the kids. Very gruesome murders. Very. The whole case has me completely perplexed. I'm addicted to the news coverage. The odditites are innumerable. One night a few months ago, I was up in the middle of the night with Evan. The names of the accused were repeating like a mantra in my head. For hours. I couldn't stop it. I have no idea what it meant or what that says about me. I'll post the verdict when it comes.

Hannah's been immitating a scene from Shrek 2. It's hysterical. If you've seen it, it's the scene where Shrek goes to see Fairy Godmother and she looks up fairy tales and points out to Shrek that none of them contain ogres. Hannah's been acting it out complete with tossing the books, saying, "no ogres." I laughed and said, Ok that's funny, but we don't throw books.

Evan is a funny, funny little monkey. He started a new classroom today at daycare. No more crib, he'll now nap on a cot, and no more high chairs, they'll have their meals and snacks at little tables. We'll see how he does. When Hannah went to that room, I had my doubts and she did just fine. The best part of that room is the step. Just one step separating the 2 halves of the room. It's great practice for all the sunken family rooms and living rooms we visit. Now when we go to my SIL's, the ILs won't panic when Evan gets close to the edge. Well, they'll still panic but it will be unfounded. How Micah made it out alive I'll never know.

Well, better get back to work. Between the website redesign and other stuff, I'm definitely going to NEED a vacation. Did I mention the 12 days?

Loo-who-hoosers

2005-08-12T14:51:00.000-04:00

That's what the Committee was today. We didn't win diddly. Bummer.

I'm finally rolling on loading content for the new website. It'll keep me out of trouble for a while, that's for sure.

Not much going on this weekend. Maybe I'll work on my lists and packing for vacation. 15 days.

Evan hasn't bitten Madison in the past few days. His teacher said there's a restraining order out on him.

Oh, just got an email from an old friend and it's almost time to go. I'll come back later!

Chopper

2005-08-10T12:45:00.000-04:00

That's Evan's new nickname. He bit his friend Madison twice yesterday. Madison's parents are getting pissed but what can I do? My mom is convinced that I need to call the pediatrician. I have a feeling that the folks at daycare can handle this just as well as the doc. They do it all the time.

He only bites Madison. I told him she'll never marry him if he keeps this up.

I forgot some nephew stuff yesterday. Everyone is convinced that J will "straighten himself out". Yeah, right. In the beginning of his troubles, he was seeing a therapist. I seriously doubt that he's still in therapy. He should be.

I saw a car on the side of the road this morning, obviously broken down, with FOR SALE written on it.

I was putting Evan's laundry away last night and he closed me in the closet. It was pretty funny. He kept opening and closing the door, laughing the whole time. Once he let me out, he went in there himself and closed the door. I realized after a few seconds that on the inside of the closet, it's a knob that he can't turn. Ooops. Sorry Ev.

I can't forget Hannah. She's too much. Micah found a dance class offered through the Y. We'll be signing her up for that. She's been talking about ballet for months. She wants to have a recital so bad.

All blogged up...

2005-08-09T13:04:00.000-04:00

I finally got a chance to read my friend's blogs. I didn't read every entry that I'd missed because some of you are way better at keeping up than I am and I just don't have the time. I'll try to do better from now on.

We had a pretty good weekend. The Raven's scrimmage was cool. Beautiful day in a beautiful stadium. I thought it would be a "game" but it was more like drills and mini-plays. Which was neat but not as engaging as a game. On our way out, we did a little shopping in the team store.

Sunday was dinner at the ILs. It wasn't too bad since my SIL and BIL were there. My BIL is pretty funny and broke up the hellish depression that hangs in that house. We got a nephew update too. He's now living with his 24-yr old girlfriend, he's 16, almost 17. His father dropped him off there! His parents and grandparents are just shrugging their shoulders like, Eh, what can we do? You can beat his ass, that's what you can do! This girl is married too and supposedly, the husband and brother are out to get J (nephew). Micah was pissed, mostly at the way this is being handled. Before being dropped off at the ho's house, J was staying with the ILs and sneaking out every night. MIL said it very matter-of-fact, he snuck out every night. And you did what? I'd be double-bolting the doors and stringing booby traps across the hall to catch him. I'm sure every morning no one said a word about what he'd done the night before. His entire life he's gotten away with murder. He's never been made to answer to anyone. And spoiled rotten! At the very least, they admit that. It's all so gross.

On to happier things.... I was finally able to take a walk at lunch again. It's wasn't deathly hot yesterday. Felt good. I was going to walk today but it looks rainy and I just didn't feel like it.

I'm supposed to be loading content to the redesigned website. I don't have my access yet though. I see long days in my future when I finally get access.

18 days til vacation. By Saturday, the time until we leave will be equal to the time we'll be spending away. Anyone get that?

I stand corrected...

2005-08-05T14:29:00.000-04:00

I've been asked to post a correction. The laser tag was to celebrate Bill's promotion and NOT his birthday. Although we'll be going again in October for his birthday. I think he just wants another chance at winning. He lost last week.

R-E-S-P-E-C-T

2005-08-05T13:49:00.000-04:00

We had a conversation at lunch today that had to do with respect. Someone said, I don't think some people know how to spell it. There ya go.

We won $28 at Keno today! We're on a roll! The buffalo chicken tenders weren't as good today. I think I might get something else next week. The nachos on the other hand were fab.

My mom called during lunch. Today is her office picnic and she picked up Hannah from daycare and took her along. Seems her directions were a little off and she was a little lost. She was hoping I was still at work so I could use the computer to help her. Luckily, I had Cindy who was better than a computer because she lives in that area. Cindy pointed her in the right direction. Mom called me when she got there to report that they had indeed found it. She also told me that while they were lost, Mom said, "we're really mixed up, aren't we?" My lovely daughter said, "I'm not mixed up, you're mixed up." LOL She's brilliant.

After work, I'll go get Hannah from the picnic, unless they leave early since it's unGodly hot out today. Then she and I will go to the library - I have nothing to read - and then retrieve her brother.

Tomorrow, Cindy, ML, and I are going to the Raven's scrimmage. I love football and I love the Ravens. It should be fun.

Last night, I was on the phone with my friend Steve and my call waiting clicked on. I didn't feel like interrupting Steve to answer the call. When I was finished, I *69'd to get the number. It was the in-laws! We missed their call. [insert evil laugh here] They probably wanted to come down tomorrow. Oh well. They totally F up our day when they come on Saturday. They usually come over at 5. Ok, what about dinner? What about any errands we have to run? They used to come over and go out to eat with us, now they'll offer to pick up some chicken. Ugh, no thanks. As a little background, we're not fast-fooders, haven't been for a while. They, on the other hand, don't particularly care about what they do to their bodies.

22 days til vacation. It's time to kick the exercise into high gear. I'm going to add it wherever and whenever I can. I normally give myself a day off a week. No more! I may even get up extra early a few days a week and hit the treadmill in the a.m. We'll see. 4:30 doesn't sound good.

Must Love Dogs

2005-08-04T14:13:00.000-04:00

That's the movie we saw last night. We had a blast! First I met Micah and the kids for an early dinner. I thought Hannah would flip when she found out that I was not coming home with her and where I was going. I told her I was seeing a grown-up movie and she was cool with that. If I'd told her who I was seeing it with, she would have flipped. She loves Aunt Cindy, Aunt Tina, and Chloe.

We laughed so hard before, during, and after the movie. I love my girlfriends. Nothing like em in the whole world. Great movie, by the way. John Cusack is a doll.

My mom has a whack-job in her office who's been chanting in the ladies' room, asking for Jesus' help in striking down her coworkers. Uh, I think he's busy..... They've been instructed to use the buddy system for restroom breaks until this is resolved. Mom's a Fed too but I know here, she'd be out on her keester.

Tomorrow is Friday which means Committee lunch, nachos, and Keno. Oh boy, oh boy!

So this is why I'm here...

2005-08-03T13:38:00.000-04:00

I've been so busy today. I haven't been this busy in a while. Feels pretty good.

My blog yesterday sounded very sad. I'm not sure why. I wasn't sad.

I'm meeting Micah and the kids for dinner after work and then meeting my girlfriends for a movie. Woohoo!

Evan bit his friend Madison yesterday. I really hope it was an isolated incident.

We asked Hannah to do something last night and she said, Don't worry, this girl can do it. LOL! Funny kid.

I've been neglectful of my friends' blogs. Hopefully I'll be able to catch up tomorrow.

I'm liking my new workspace. There's no drama, which is kind of a bummer, but there are no open door conference call meetings, no burping, no whining, no meetings in the hall. And I'm super close to the bathroom. Excellent!

Long time no blog

2005-08-02T13:28:00.000-04:00

Friday was a weird day. I moved here at work so I had to be shut down and packed up by 11. Then I went to lunch. I came back to my new area and waited for my stuff. Once it came, I unpacked. I had a computer, but not mine.

The weekend was a usual one. I spent a LOT of money. A lot! KMart, Target, the grocery store...

Yesterday I was just trying to get settled in my new space and I had a lot of work to do.

The work situation is better. I'm going to take my work back from my backup. I think he's got it now. The other thing we're working on. We'll see how it goes.

The Committee let up too. Sounds like they had a great time at lasertag. I'm jealous.

I'm going to the movies with the girls tomorrow after work. I wasn't sure how I could fit in kid time too. Tomorrow is an early day so I lose my morning time and I would go right from work. Finally, I decided to meet Micah and the kids for an early dinner and go on to the movies. I get to spend time with them, Micah gets dinner out, everyone's happy.

25 days until vacation. I was just doodling with some car rental coupons and it's just not worth it to rent the van. It's still upwards of $600 dollars. We'll make do with our SUV. Sorry, Nana, you have to ride in the back.

Grrrrr

2005-07-28T15:21:00.000-04:00

Gonna be a bit of a vent today....

First off, I'm a little irked at my friends aka The Committee. Bill is treating everyone to an afternoon of lasertag tomorrow in honor of his bday. (It's in October but we won't go there) As it turns out, I can't go. I will be the only person on the web team in the office tomorrow. If something needs to get posted, I'm it. I thought I'd be granted the afternoon off since I'm moving tomorrow, but I was wrong. So, I can't go. Is that good enough for The Committee? NO! Well, not for most of them, anyway. They keep bugging me since I didn't want to go in the first place. Ok, so I didn't want to go when Bill first mentioned it but I got over it and I did want to go. Leave me be!

Second, I'm a little peeved about my job. I'm not really sure why. We were just given an assignment that should belong to someone else. They want to use our database and probably our money to add an enhancement for something they do. The original meeting should have included folks from our staff and didn't. One of the people in particular is really getting on my nerves. She's fairly new but acts like she knows everything. She keeps confusing me with other people and forgetting where I work. She seems to be behind a lot of confusion lately.

And, I'm still training my new backup. Almost every bit of work I receive to do, I have to turn over to him so he can learn. Well, what am I supposed to do?

In other news, I had a successful blood donation yesterday. I got dizzy a few times once I was home. Good thing I skipped the gym, huh?

Deep end

2005-07-27T12:59:00.000-04:00

Even though it was hot as heck yesterday, we took the kids outside to the kiddie pool last night. Evan was hesitant at first. He refused sprinkler day at school on Monday. We gave him some space and got him a little wet and eventually he was all up in the pool. He cried when we took him out.

I saw "The Hulk" at the gym again last night. Damn that's funny. This guy struts around like he's so buff and he's just not.

I'm supposed to donate blood this afternoon. That will keep me out of the gym tonight. I tried to workout once after donating and I got so dizzy. And that was a light workout. If I tried to do the elliptical, I'd probably fall right off. Today's blood drive is sponsored by a local radio station. I get a t-shirt and everything. Woohoo!

The inlaws are too busy planning a funeral to come over this week. The dearly departed is Aunt Wilma and she's STILL ALIVE. She's Micah's grandfather's sister and she's about to run out of money. They're planning her funeral now, so she can pay for it. Once she runs out, she'll be declared a ward of the state and once she passes, the family will have to pay for the funeral. Aren't they sweet? Told ya they were weird. I hope I don't ever have to count on them in a time of need.

It's gettin' hot in here....

2005-07-26T13:33:00.000-04:00

Last night leaving the gym, at 9:20, a bank thermometer read 95 degrees. 95 degrees at nearly 9:30. That's insane.

Hannah wanted to go to the playground last night after dinner. No. There will be no debate. You're not going.

When I walked out of the gym, it was literally like walking into an oven. There was zero breeze. The air was so still and so oppressive. Luckily my car had retained some of the AC and was comfortable.

It's very weird here at work. My coworker and friend has retired. Her cubicle is so empty. I was reading my book at lunch (Puppet by Joy Fielding) and I kept waiting to hear her come back from lunch and tell me how hot it was outside. This is weird. I've worked with her since day 1 - 14 years ago. I can't wait to move downstairs and then I won't notice her absence.

Yesterday when I was dropping the kids off, I was putting Evan's things in his cubby. I lost my grip on a sippy cup and it started to fall. I tried to catch it - which looked like a juggling act - I missed and it fell...onto his little friend Craig's head. Craig started wailing immediately. Evan came over like, What's up? Oh, the look Craig gave me! He calmed down a bit and I started to make my exit. Evan started to cry. 7:30 and I'd already made 2 kids cry. I was on a roll!

This morning, I saw Craig again. I made sure he was nowhere around when I put the cups in the cubby. He seems to have forgiven me, since he leaned against me and didn't give me that look again. He's lucky it wasn't a full sippy cup.

Hot as balls again today. 97 predicted degrees, real feel up around 110. Holy mackeral. Luckily, relief should come in tomorrow as t-storms.

33 days til vacation

Standard deviation

2005-07-25T12:52:00.000-04:00

I had a very good weekend. On Friday night, I hung out with the kids and did the temporary single mom thing, since Micah works until 9.

Saturday morning, I took the kids outside for a while. I hardly ever do that and I felt SO bad about it. Once Micah got home, we packed up and headed to my mom's where the kids spent the night. We had a childless dinner out and did childless grocery shopping. We loaded the cars for Sunday's flea market and decided against the movies, especially since we wouldn't have been able to ride together.

Sunday morning we headed off to the flea market. By 7:45, we'd sold 2 items. One of them was sold before we even had the cars unloaded. We made $200, getting rid of a lot of stuff. We also picked up some stuff: an umbrella stroller, 2 Tonka trucks for Evan, and some videos for Hannah. One of our early customers wanted to pay for $5 worth of stuff with a 50 dollar bill. Micah held it up to the light and didn't see the security line. He told her he couldn't take it because it would deplete our change. She said she'd try to find change somewhere else and left. Sweet, innocent me is thinking "why would you come to the flea market with a bill that big?" Micah called her a crackhead and said that the bill was probably fake and that's why she brought it to the flea market. She figured anyone in retail would check it and see that it was fake, someone at a flea market would just take it and give her change. I said, "Honey, you're a deviant." Only a deviant mind could have come up with the real reason.

We were so smart to bring an umbrella too. We were in direct sunlight the entire day. There were poor souls out there with no umbrellas. I can't imagine how they must have suffered.

After the flea market, we unloaded, counted our cash, cleaned up, and retrieved the kids. We took them out to eat and then home to the tub. Everyone was tucked into bed nice and early, including Mom & Dad.

And the winner is...

2005-07-22T13:14:00.000-04:00

The Committee! We won $102 at Keno today. Wow. Bill and I were the only ones really watching the screen and counting how many numbers we had. We got 5 of 6 numbers. 6 of 6 would have been $2000. We paid our check and tip from our winnings and put aside the rest for next week's games.

We're flea marketing again this weekend. Hopefull we'll make another $250. That would rock! The downside is, we have no shade this weekend. We'll be bringing an umbrella.

Amazingly enough, that's all I have to say.

It's a girl!

2005-07-21T15:11:00.000-04:00

Julia Rose was born yesterday afternoon at 3:31 Eastern time. Congrats to Jen & Don! I haven't seen a picture yet because Don hadn't been home. I told him to get the F home. I'm dying here! I can't wait to see my new little "niece". 7 lbs 8 oz, 20 inches long.

We had a "situation" here at work. I work in a very large Federal building on a huge campus. Right after lunch, I heard a siren and looked out the nearest window to see a Federal cop coming through the gate with his light bar on. A few minutes later, a coworker came by and said that she'd heard in the hall that they were evacuating the entire complex, starting with the Central Building. (Complex is divided into North, Central, and South bldgs, connected with hallways, so it's really one big bldg.) We're in the South building. The doors to Central were closed and locked. We looked out the window and saw the daycare kids in the parking lot and no cars were being allowed in or out of the complex. We then saw a firetruck coming in. We all packed up our purses just in case. Years ago, there was a gas leak and we were evacuated and many of us were unprepared to leave the building for an extended period. That won't happen again.

So, we're all wondering what's going on. No one knows and no announcements are being made. Finally, the kids go back in and cars start moving again. We're still not sure what happened. One story was a false alarm on a loading dock. Another had suspicious packages that set off the sprinklers. And yet another was a truck hitting something on the loading dock that set off the sprinklers. We may never know the truth.

This morning on the way to daycare, I hear "Guck! Guck!" coming from the backseat. Evan saw a truck. He loves trucks. He's such a boy.

These dreams

2005-07-20T13:08:00.000-04:00

On my way home yesterday, I noticed that I had a little more than a quarter tank of gas. I start wondering when I should gas up. Before I go home, on the way to the gym, on the way home... I decide I won't feel like going after the gym, so I'll go before I go home. I have prescriptions to pick up anyway. Then I start thinking about paying for everything. Something flashes in my head that I only have $95 in my checking account. I think, what? I just got paid. How did I go through an entire check in 5 days? In my head, I can see myself doing the math with the $95, thinking that I can make it until payday. Then I'm really wondering how in the hell I managed to spend my whole check. Wait, was that a dream? I reach into the backseat and grab my purse. I pull out my checkbook and check my balance. WAY over $95. It was a dream! A dream so real that I actually started to panic thinking about how much money I'd spent.

My friend Jen was supposed to be induced this morning at 6:30! I haven't heard from her, so I'm assuming that she's currently in labor. I'm patiently waiting for an update. At her OB appt on Tuesday, she told the doc about the increasing pressure she was feeling and how she was having some trouble walking. The doc agreed to induce her. It's very exciting. I wish she didn't live 3 states away or else I'd be there with her, if she'd have me.

Did my title get the Heart song in your head? I'll bet it's there now. It's in mine.

Oh, the humidity

2005-07-19T13:13:00.000-04:00

I got a call back from the redesign coordinator. I made her laugh with my pathetic message and she's going to take pity on me! It'll be our secret that I played hooky she said. She's my new best friend.

Everyone under the age of 18 went to bed around 7 last night. Evan went right to bed and stayed there. Hannah, on the other hand, got up about 4 times to go to the bathroom. Finally I turned her light off and told her to stay put. She stayed all night. Yahoo! I guess that's the key, turning that light off. I'll have to remember that.

There's a heat advisory for our area again today. Highs in the low 90s but with the humidity, it feels like 100+. My house is shut up tight. Blinds closed, curtains closed, attic doors closed. Yes, I often leave the attic doors open. You see, the master bedroom is the entire upper floor of our little Cape Cod. Our closet is the edge of the attic, with storage just behind the clothes. We normally just leave the closet doors open. I closed them this morning hoping there were no kitties in there. I saw kitty #2 and hoped kitty #1 was downstairs. I didn't see him downstairs so I went back up to check. Good thing I checked. He's very happy to not be spending the day in the attic.

The garbage men didn't take our trash yesterday. WTF. We pay our taxes, take our trash! Micah called the Dept of Waste or whatever and they said someone would come. The full, stinky cans are still there. They should smell really good after baking all day yesterday and today. Hey, take em Monday morning and we'll have no problems.

Here's a tidbit leftover from the weekend. Hannah saw a Chuck E Cheese coupon on Sunday morning and said she wanted to go there. Ok, we'll talk to Daddy. Talked to Daddy - fine with him. All day she talked about going to Chuck E Cheese. In the car, the whole way, talking about going to Chuck E Cheese. Why are we going this way? Is this the way to Chuck E Cheese? Are we going there first, I wanted to go there first. We pull up in front of Chuck E Cheese. This whiney voice, at the edge of a tantrum comes from the back seat, "I wanted to go to Chuck E Cheese!" A bitchy voice, pushed over the edge of a tantrum comes from the front seat, "Hannah! That's where we are!" Hannah's face brightens with a smile.

The curse of the Web Diva

2005-07-18T13:14:00.000-04:00

I like to think of myself as pretty sharp when it comes to picking up new things. Our agency is revamping the website including using new software for loading files. All of the web people received various emails about attending training on the new software. I loathe training. I figured, I can muddle through without the training. I don't need no stinking training. Now, we're supposed to attend training sessions to actually load material. I decide, I don't want to go to training, let me see if I can load without the training.

I can't figure out the frickin' software! Turns out, I'm not as smart as I thought I was. ACK! I placed a very sheepish call to the redesign coordinator begging for mercy. We'll see what she says.

Not only can I not figure out the software, I'm getting an error when using it so I can't even play with it.

The weekend was pretty good. Except for last night. Ugh. Both kids up and crying!!! Hannah wound up in our bed, twice. Evan wanted to play at 2 am. They are SO lucky they're cute. Micah said tonight we should give them both a nip of whiskey. Regardless, everyone under the age of 18 goes to bed at 7 tonight. No exceptions!

My friend Jen in South Carolina is now 3 days overdue with her first baby. Overdue is just ridiculous. That's a 3 day old baby in there! Her doc said that as long as she felt fine and was measuring on target, she'd let her go 2 weeks. Two weeks! I would have gone on a killing spree if I'd had to go 2 weeks over with Evan. You couldn't have paid me. Well, you would have had to because I would have had to buy more pants.

Gold's and along the way

2005-07-15T13:43:00.000-04:00

I was driving up the lane in the parking lot at the gym last night and I saw a car out of the corner of my eye. Imagine a clock, I'm coming up from 6, here comes a car from 8, paying no attention to me. Yes, hello, pay no attention to the silver SUV who has the right of way. Then, after barreling through the parking lot, she parks illegally on some yellow lines and hurries into the nail salon next door. Oh, sorry, you were late for a nail appt. My bad.

I get the biggest kick out of people watching. I get to do a lot of that at the gym. Some of the people crack me up. There's a pair of guys that I always see there together. Always. They work out together, leave together...always together. The one guy is kind of tall, on the skinny side, not very buff. Someone should tell him that. He holds his arms out to his side like he's Hulk Hogan. You know what I mean. That "bow-armed" walk that muscle bound guys have. When their biceps are so big, they brush against their ribs. Clearly not the case here. I nearly laughed myself off the elliptical last night watching him strut around.

On the way out of the parking lot, there's an intersection with 2 stop signs. The in and out of the lot has no stops. I'm driving out and a car pulls out in front of me from the right. After he pulls out, he decides, oh, maybe I should have stopped. Uh, ya think? ATTENTION EVERYONE: IF I'M ON THE ROAD, STAY OFF. I CAN'T TAKE YOU PEOPLE ANYMORE.

We won $8 at Keno today. Impressive, huh? No fries today, although someone did mention there were fries left last week. I said, yeah, a lot of fries, and I was there.

It's not supposed to be raining

2005-07-14T14:34:00.000-04:00

Am I having the weirdest week or what? Well, not really but my commutes have been interesting.

On the way home yesterday, there's a truck behind me. Like a work truck, with the extra compartments on the back. I look in my mirror and some of the cars behind him start swerving onto the shoulder to avoid something in the road. I'm thinking, I was just there, I didn't see anything. Did I hit it? Did I run over something? Oh my God, did it fall off MY car? I turn down the radio so I can listen for weird noises. I hear a horn beep and see the truck behind me side by side with another truck. Then the truck behind me pulls to the shoulder. Ah, something fell off the truck. Whew. Up goes the radio.

My ILs came over yesterday. Man they're weird. They're heavy smokers so they bring this nicotine cloud with them. [cough, cough] If they're coming over, I always make sure my Yankee Candles are lit because they will leave their stink in my house. My MIL wears dentures that don't fit well so she sucks them. About every 5 seconds. My friend Tina knew who was coming up behind her once because of the sound. She said it was like Jaws. Their grammar is awful. I cringe whenever they say "I seen" or "ain't". My MIL hasn't been to the doctor in almost 32 years, since Micah was born. No mammo, no pap smear - nothing. She's got a spot on her face that could very well be skin cancer. She just puts makeup on it.

All in all, the visit wasn't bad. They brought little presents for the kids and the kids seemed to enjoy their presence. I had trouble staying awake.

I move cubicles on July 29, a week later than originally planned. The only bad thing about that is my friend Terri is retiring on July 22. When I come to work on July 25, her absence will be staring me in the face. I was hoping to avoid seeing her empty cubicle.

Hannah asked me if it was going to rain today. I told her no. I guess I'll be in trouble when I get home.

In the wee hours

2005-07-13T13:52:00.000-04:00

Miss Hannah got a haircut last night...oh, excuse me, a trim. Poor thing had split ends. Been a year since her last cut. I guess I'll have to be more vigilant about that.

During my commute this morning, I passed a traffic stop where a young girl was standing by the median, handcuffed. D'oh! I wonder what she was up to at 6:00 am to get herself handcuffed.

Yes, I said 6 am. On the days when Micah goes to work later or has off, I leave for work at 6 am, arriving at 6:30. Before the kids were born, I did this everyday. Now, I usually get in around 8 after dropping them off. The beauty of getting to work at 6:30 is that I get off at 3:00, therefore beating most of the traffic. Baltimore rates high in bad rush hour traffic. We're so proud.

On the homefront, there have been no more rat or termite sitings, although we remain ever vigilant. I'm always peeking out the window towards the shed and I don't think I'll be going back there anytime soon.

Bumper to bumper

2005-07-12T12:48:00.000-04:00

No coworker drama today. Rats. Who needs soaps when I've got them?

I managed to get all the laundry put away last night. Woohoo. That is one of the hardest tasks for me to accomplish. I'm great at getting it all washed but putting it away takes forever. Sometimes I don't get it put away until it's almost time to wash it again.

This morning on the Beltway (our local "freeway") I was behind this guy who, in heavy, slow traffic, was keeping a huge distance between him and the car in front of him. I mean, here we are going at max 30 mph and he's got like a football field in front of him. In heavy traffic like that, it's no holds barred. I'm right on him, mentally urging him forward. He's tapping his brakes constantly. I'm like, dude, move. I can't get around because everyone else is going so much faster and of course, I have no space (HAHA). Finally he waves his hand at me, like backoff. To where? Get a move on! Finally I can pass. As I pass, he lays on his horn at me. I wave my hand like whatever. LOL! It was a Lincoln Towncar so he was probably 80 and shouldn't be driving anyway. I hope I see him again. :) Seriously though, in reviewing it, I was never dangerously close, except when he'd jammed on his brakes in an attempt to get me to back off.

Someone's on a conference call, loudly. HEY!!! Close your office door. Geez. Hate that. Who has conference calls at lunchtime, anyway?

I stepped on a tube of Desitin last night. I ended up with Desitin all over my hands, the rug, the tube itself. Did you know that Desitin doesn't easily wash off? Hmmm. I guess that's the whole point.

The conference call door is now closed.

Movin' on up....

2005-07-11T13:52:00.000-04:00

On down, actually. Just my desk. I'm supposed to move on July 22. Supposedly, in my new area, they were fighting over me. I feel so loved. I'll be working with the same folks, doing the same thing, just sitting in a different place. It's kind of exciting.

I'm listening to a coworkers relationship drama right now, so it's hard to concentrate. Psst - if you don't want me to listen, don't have the conversations at work!

We went to a party at the big boss's house on Saturday. Big house. Huge. Goes on forever. The really cool thing was, he (and his wife) had food and drinks just for the kids. I thought that was so neat. He was cuddling with Evan at one point and his daughter said, as you can see, my dad really wants grandchildren. LOL

I stopped at the grocery store with Mom and the kids on Friday. We went through the self-checkout. Hannah helped scan the items. My mom laughed and said, "I avoid these because I don't know how to use them and here's my 4yr old granddaughter doing it." LOL!

Before we got the kids, Mom and I did a little shopping and bought matching capri pants. We'll have to coordinate our outfits when we go on vacation.

At lunch on Friday, we won $12 at Keno. Wow. And there were lots of fries left.

Early blogger gets the worm

2005-07-08T10:29:00.000-04:00

I'm not that early and Lord knows I don't want a worm.

Going well with the antibiotics, so far. And no more scratching on the carpet - thank you for that lovely visual Christina.

My staff here at work just joined forces with another staff, creating one big staff. Some of us had never worked together before, so we decided to go out yesterday afternoon and hang out, celebrate, and get to know one another. We played a game where someone wrote the name of a famous person on a post-it, and put it on another player's back. The person with the post-it had to then ask other people questions about the person they "were". I gave Ashley Judd. What did I get? Ghengis Kahn. I had 3 people go, I don't know who that is. There was no way in hell I was ever going to figure that out. Micah, of course, knew immediately who that was. "Oh, the Mongol warlord." Never there when I need him. [wink]

Here's something I keep forgetting to blog about: The clock in my car has been fast for a while. Not intentionally. In fact, I even set it back once to have it go forward again. Whatever. I just did the math everytime I looked at the clock. It worked for me. So, last Wednesday, Micah takes it for a checkup. Thursday, when I was walking into work, I looked at my watch and thought, how'd it get to be 10 after 8 already? Hmm, weird. Friday, I'm on my way home and I look at the clock in the car and it says 2:58. I do my math - 2:50. How is that possible? That's what time I left. I look at my watch - 3:00. I look at my phone - 3:00. Gasp! They changed my clock. No, they didn't! Micah changed my clock! I immediately call him. "You changed my clock!" Evil laugh on the other end of the line. Punk. Now I have to get used to NOT doing the math.

Committee lunch today. Can't wait. Maybe I'll eat everyone's lunch for them. Make me feel like the Tazmanian Devil.....

We're getting rained on today with the remnants of Tropical Storm Cindy. It's funny because my good friend is Cindy. Whirls in, makes a mess, and whirls out. That's Cindy.

Hannah's supposed to be having Sprinkler Day today. Not in the rain. Micah said it was an issue this morning. I'm glad I was at work and it wasn't MY issue. I'm sure I'll hear about it later though.

Who took my thoughts?

2005-07-06T14:40:00.000-04:00

When I dropped Evan off this morning, Hannah said, Evan, don't hit anybody today, OK? LOL She's such the little mother. He adores her though. So far.

I mentioned my poison ivy (or flesh eating virus, or whatever). I have some on my knee. Over the weekend, I was kneeling on a rug, putting laundry away. My knee itched and I rubbed it on the carpet. It felt SO good. I now have rug burn on that knee in addition to the fungus. Going to the gym last night, I decided that to avoid looking like a leper, I'd wear capri gym pants instead of shorts.

When I have an idea to blog about, I should really write it down. So that when I sit down to blog, I remember what it was I wanted to blog about. When did I become my mother? I never used to have to write notes to myself. Now I have to write everything down or I will forget.

I've tried to ignore it, but I can't anymore. I have a sinus infection. I'll be going to urgent care tonight for some drugs. I was hoping it would go away on its own. I loathe antibiotics. I don't feel too bad, luckily, just some pain and pressure in the face.

Oooooh, aaaaahhhhh

2005-07-05T12:56:00.000-04:00

What a good weekend! Not too busy, not too boring - just right.

Friday my Mom and I picked up the kids and hit the mall for a bit. I got them some clothes at JCPenney's - good sales - and Hannah got some new flip-flops at Payless. My little Immelda. She was showing us her perfect "fip fops" and she fell. Right there in Payless. My mom had to sit down and I almost wet myself. She's so graceful.

Saturday I did laundry and cleaned out more in the basement. I found more stuff to sell at the Flea Market and just did a little reorganizing. How I managed to do this with 2 kids running around, I'll never know.

When Micah got home, we went to Best Buy where I bought a memory card for the digi. 256 MB. I think that should be enough. ;) After going out to eat, I went home and did some weeding. Micah's got some poison ivy (or whatever) too and I was hoping to rid the yard of it. I have no idea if I found it or got rid of it but I did cut down some very big weeds that had been bugging me. And what did I discover in this process? We have a rat(s) living in our yard. First termites, now a rat. I feel like a hoochie living in the ghetto!!

The ground between the neighbor's fence and our shed felt really squishy. I thought, hmm, someone's been digging here. Please let it be something cute, please let it be something cute. Everytime I went back there, I looked. Finally, I heard a noise, looked and saw him scurrying under the fence. I screamed, of course, and ran out of there.

On Sunday, I hung out with the children and tried hard not to clean up after them because we all know that's pointless. When Micah got home, we went to Home Depot for rat traps and poison, out to eat, and to the grocery store.

When Micah got home from work on Monday, (Yes, he had to work. Grocery stores are still open.) he dragged the hose over to the shed and flooded the rat hole. The termite obsession has been replaced by the rat obsession. He said he'd burn down the shed if he had to. I believe him. Once the rat hole was flooded, we went to my Mom's. My stepbrother and family were there too. My stepfather managed to get a hold of some steamed crabs (he's a crab junkie) which is an amazing feat on the 4th. We were eating them (Evan was napping and Hannah was all up inside Barney) and Dave (stepbro) said something about me being on my 3rd Diet Coke. Micah said, is that like the fries? I laughed and said, I don't care if someone notices how much Diet Coke I drink!

We left Mom's to head home and then to the fireworks. The fireworks are held at what will be our elementary school, probably 1/2 mile away. Ever since we've lived there, we walk. So much easier. We loaded up the double stroller and headed out.

Evan loved the fireworks! He was mesmerized. Hannah was OK once she got her ear protection headphones on. After the fireworks, we fought the crowd out to the main drag. It was a parking lot! No one was going anywhere. It's really funny to just walk right past everyone sitting in their cars.

I let the kids sleep in this morning and came into work late.

Oh yeah...

2005-07-01T21:39:00.000-04:00

Today we forgot to order fries. Someone asked where the fries were. Totally straight-faced, I said, I ate them.

Take that.

There is a place, a place in hell

2005-07-01T14:18:00.000-04:00

Hey christina, my arm still itches! LOL Now I have spots on my leg too. WTH? Maybe it's a flesh-eating virus.

Apparently, at the Committee lunch last week that I missed, there were some leftover fries. Someone mentioned it was because I was not there. Haha, so funny. I'll admit it. I like to eat. I LOVE to eat. Food is good. But it hurts my feelings that someone noticed. Maybe if I was thinner, it wouldn't bother me so much. End pity party.

This weekend looks gorgeous! Don't have much on the agenda, but I'm sure I'll find something. I'm looking forward to kicking back with Micah and the kids and enjoying myself. I do need to track down a memory card for my digi. There's another field trip this week and I'd like Micah to be able to take unlimited pictures. I'll need the card for vacation anyway since I'll be sans computer to upload to.

[GASP!] 2 weeks without my computer! I don't know if I'll make it. I should have thought of that when I suggested taking a 2 week vacation. I wonder if we can get our $$ back. ;)

Months ago, I had bought Hannah wooden letters for her room. I was going to paint them and hang them on the wall from ribbons. I finally hung them last night. She wondered why the ribbons were yellow since her favorite color is pink. Ungrateful little *****.

Today's title is from a song by the Smiths. I'm not sure of the title of the song though. There is a place in hell for me and my friends. I know it.

Hi Bill.

No hidden catch, no strings attached

2005-06-30T13:45:00.000-04:00

I'm having trouble coming up with good titles, so today I pulled from song lyrics. Today's title is from Depeche Mode's Free Love.

I couldn't think of anything good to say yesterday. Weird, huh?

I should have posted about the pizza we had Tuesday night. OHMIGOD it was SO good. Domino's pizza and breadsticks. I could have eaten it until it was coming out of my ears. I have no idea how much I ate but I did restrain myself from eating more once I decided that I was done.

On Saturday, I got frustrated and pulled the chain on the living room ceiling fan right out of the mechanism. Oops. I tried to fix it myself to no avail. I reluctantly told Micah and he tried to fix it. No go. I was so afraid that we'd have to buy a new fan. Nope. We were able to get a repair kit at Home Depot and I'm happy to report that the fan is now fixed. Whew.

Anyone ever tried to tidy up after a 4yr old and a 15 month old while they're still awake? It's utterly pointless. I put something away, they pull something else out. I put that away, they pull out the original thing. ACK!!! Go to bed!!!!

We've been putting Hannah to bed in Goodnights instead of diapers, giving her the option to go to the bathroom on her own in the middle of the night. Well, once she's in bed, she gets up 4 times to go. Last night I went to check on her and found her standing there staring at the toilet. "HANNAH RENEE!!!! Go to bed!!"

I have something itchy on my arm that might be poison ivy but I have no idea where it came from. It showed up yesterday and I really haven't been outside - except for to and from the car - in almost a week. I won't scratch, I won't scratch, I won't scratch.

I haven't been outside because the humidity has been obscene this week. You can feel the air around you. It's supposed to be glorious this weekend and I, of course, have no plans. Of course, after last weekend's non-stop pace, that might be a nice treat.

I hate when that happens

2005-06-28T14:42:00.000-04:00

RE title: Hannah said that yesterdy about her wedgie.

I didn't get home until 6:30 last night. That pretty much killed the idea of the gym (sorry Laina). I don't like getting home that late. I stayed a little late at work and then the traffic was terrible. The worst part was, when I got home, no one seemed to care. :( Hannah looked happy, as did Evan, but he only let me hold him for a nanosecond and she couldn't be bothered. I stared at the three of them as they watched The Incredibles and then I turned and went upstairs to eat dinner. It did make me feel a little better to hear Evan crying when he realized I wasn't there anymore.

That's about as exciting as yesterday got.

Here at work, I'm training someone to be my backup when I'm not here. What I do is fairly important (post Medicare coverage decisions to the web) and it can't wait if I'm not here. The best way to train him is to let him post things, with me here, as they come down. Well, then, what am I supposed to do?!?!?! I'm bored to tears. Everytime I get something, he calls me asking me about it. I want to say, can I post something, please? I know he's got to get the hang of it, but for Pete's sake, it's my job. Yeesh. Whew. I feel better now.

Here are some pics from Friday's field trip.

The ball park:

Hannah in a party suite:

The story of my life...in a way

2005-06-27T12:27:00.000-04:00

The field trip went well. Very interesting. As predicted, the adults liked it more than the kids. We learned about the history of the land, saw the bullpens, the club seats and sky boxes, the press box. In the press box, there are holes in the wall from foul balls. Wow. 2 laptops have gone to meet their maker in the press box. The center director convinced the Oriole Bird (mascot) to come talk to the kids. That was cool.

After the trip, Hannah easily went to school with her friends. Yippee!!! I went home, had lunch, worked on flea market stuff, sorted laundry and went to Target. I had every intention of going to the gym but I just ran out of time.

Saturday I had a family bridal shower. And the time I had to leave didn't mesh with the time Micah could get home from work, so I had my dad make up the difference. When I got home, we took the kids out to eat, washed em up, and settled em down because we had to load the car(s) for the flea market! Yae! We got a table!

We filled both SUVs with all of our wares. Aunt Cindy came to watch the kids Sunday morning and off we went. We had one sale while we were still setting up. After 6 hours in the baking sun, we made about $240. We're on the list for July 17. In the meantime, we'll be looking through the house for more stuff!

After the sale, we went home, unloaded, got cleaned up and met Cindy and the kids for dinner. We were pooped - both in bed by 8:30. And, of course, last night was the night that no one slept well. Evan kept crying for unknown reasons. I tossed and turned. Hannah fell out of bed. Sigh. We're both pooped again!

I've decided that at this point, there is no making up for lost sleep. It would be impossible.

Nothing like a job well done

2005-06-23T17:15:00.000-04:00

Got my ass to the gym yesterday - thank you for the kick, Laina! Who knew I'd like working out so much.

The in-laws visited yesterday. On time. Wow. I was amazed. MIL didn't like Evan's new do. Oh well. I knew she wouldn't.

I got some more stuff ready for the flea market. I pulled out a wedding gift Cuisinart that we've never even taken out of the box (got married in 1997) and stuck a $15 tag on it. Micah pointed to something I'd marked $10 and said, I'd go for 5 on that. I said, I can always go down, can't go back up. Good point, he said.

Since Mr. Terminix walked off with our $1700, we haven't seen any more termites. Might have been worth it after all. Part of the treatment is these capsules all around my house. Like automatic sprinklers.

Hannah's class is taking a field trip to Oriole Park at Camden Yards tomorrow. For those who don't know, that's the baseball stadium here in Baltimore. I can't wait. We go behind the scenes and everything. It's a short trip and I'm hoping that I can convince Hannah to stay at school and I'll go off on my own when we return. It might just work. I have a shower gift to buy, flea market junk to gather, and working out to do (earn those points!)

The bathroom door and Evan's door were very squeaky. I kept telling Micah that they needed to be oiled. Finally, I grabbed the can of WD40, or as my coworker called it, DW20, and oiled the hinges myself. I said to Micah, call me Handy Sandy! It really doesn't take much to impress me.

Best laid plans...

2005-06-22T16:41:00.000-04:00

My car didn't go in today. I got in Micah's car this morning, started it up and saw that he had 1/4 tank of gas. That meant I'd need gas. No time for that this morning. Not to mention, his car takes more gas than mine. Let him fill it up. So I grabbed my sunglasses and parking permit and decided that my car could wait another week for a check up. I couldn't help but grin as I started my car and saw my 1/2 tank of gas.

The Terminix guy came today and left $1700 richer. Yikes! He said we have a serious problem. Great. They'll be back later today to start killing the little bastards. We also have carpenter ants which eat the termites but also the wood. Yippeee!!!

I had every intention of going to the gym last night but got caught up in all the things I wanted to do at home. As it was, I ending up being in charge of the kids while Micah killed termites. Told you he was obsessed. I'm going right after work, I swear.

Hannah asked me last night why I didn't bring her hula skirt. For the love of Pete! Dottie, didn't you say they forget? LOL!

Live well, blog often

2005-06-21T18:02:00.000-04:00

I still have the cold, but I'm popping massive amounts of Vitamin C trying to get rid of it. I don't really feel bad, it's just annoying. My sense of taste is suffering which could be a good thing.

Today was Sprinkler Day for Hannah's class. I forgot. I wondered why her friend Kimmie was wearing a bathing suit and a hula skirt. But hey, Hannah was wearing a crown. Then Greg comes in with a bathing suit and swim shoes. Something dings in my head that Sprinkler Days will be Tuesday, beginning on June 21. I say to a teacher, It's Sprinkler Day, isn't it? She nods. Crap. I decide that rather than deny Hannah or have her do it in her undies, I'll run home and get her stuff. It's only 2 miles and I have a flexible schedule. I come back with her stuff and she wants me to put it on her. I'm like, I really have to go now. Then she asks about her hula skirt. I tell her I didn't know she wanted it. She starts begging me to get it. I say no. She starts crying. There goes my Mother of the Year award. So close.

Micah is on a termite rampage. He's been doing a lot of research and is obsessed with killing these bugs. Terminix is coming tomorrow but he's too far gone at this point. He found the entry point - the front door. Come on in! He created a barrier of spray on the floor. Yesterday he had the door open to attract them to the light, drawing them into the spray. I think he was counting the bodies.

Evan got a hair cut over the weekend. Serious haircut. Really, we didn't mean for it to be that short. People at school yesterday were wondering who the new kid was. LOL!

My car needs an oil change and a serious checkup. It's making some weird noises. One of the noises, I've been told, is a CR-V characteristic. Still don't like it. Hopefully Micah can take it in before he falls in love with the Terminix man. I'm not ready for a new car. The car, yes, the payments, no.

I'm here until 5 and I've got a cold but somehow, all is right with the world.

Sniff sniff

2005-06-20T18:04:00.000-04:00

I have a little cold. Thanks to my drool machine, germ magnet, aka Evan. Good thing he's cute.

Very good weekend. The weather was great.

Saturday I took Hannah to my friend Cindy's daughter's recital. Hannah loves Meghann and Aunt Cindy and loves dancing. She had a good time.

Saturday evening we went to Outback for dinner (YUM) and got Micah some shirts for Father's Day.

Yesterday we went to breakfast with my dad for father's day. Then we chilled out around the house and went grocery shopping and out to eat.

I had 2 dreams over the weekend that I was kidnapped/being held hostage. What does that mean? In one of the dreams, my captor was an old friend who threatened to kill himself if we escaped. The other captor was a stranger. Wish I still had that dream dictionary....

We have termites. Oh joy. We've probably had them for a while. We've been seeing the "ants" for maybe 2 years and I've said to Micah before, could they be termites? Oh, no, they're not termites. Be getting that taken care of pretty soon.

Achooo. God bless me.

It's a lovely, lovely day

2005-06-17T16:30:00.000-04:00

We had a great time on our date on Wednesday. The Titanic exhibit was cool. And it was nice to see it in peace and quiet.

That afternoon, Hannah had a Dr's appt. I promised her an ice cream cone if she did really well. We went to McDonald's and their machine was broken. I said to the girl, I promised an ice cream, I have to deliver. We went across the street to Carvel for an ice cream for one very brave little girl.

Yesterday was the office picnic. It was in a pavilion right next to a HUGE playground. I was almost sorry I didn't bring the kids. If I had, I would have spent my entire afternoon there. Almost sorry....

Today was Committee lunch. We won nothing at Keno. Absolutely nothing. Damn. We suck. We still had a good time. We always have a good time.

Ok, this weekend, I will get stuff ready for the flea market. I have to. If we get the table, it's next week. I hope we get the table. I've got a sitter lined up and everything.

It's a beautiful day here, by the way. Slightly warm, sunny, and breezy. Ah.

Brainwashed

2005-06-14T16:55:00.000-04:00

Last night I was coming up with all sorts of things to blog about today. And now they're gone. Washed away. [sigh] When did it come to this?

Micah offered up some lovin' last night but I didn't like him very much so I turned him down. He'd been giving me a hard time about some late bills. We're talking days late. I didn't bounce any checks, I didn't neglect them, I just sent them out a day later than I should. They were actually in the box on time but sans stamps. Whoops. So, anyway, he kept harping on this calling me late girl, procrastinator, etc. Real romantic, right? I was actually interested but not with him. LOL!

I got all the bills squared away today, with no late fees. Good. Leave me alone, Micah! (he reads this, by the way) Hey wait, he got a ticket!

I've got a date! Ok, it's with Micah, but it's still an adult day with no kids. We're going to Baltimore's Inner Harbor tomorrow to the Maryland Science Center. The Titanic artifact exhibit is there. We decided we'd do that without the kids to avoid hearing I'm done, Can we go now, Where are we going to eat.

Off tomorrow, office picnic on Thursday, Friday is payday. It's shaping up to be a very good week.

A good time was had by all

2005-06-13T17:15:00.000-04:00

Let's see. What did I do this weekend? I didn't get anything ready for the potential flea market. That task seemed too daunting. I did laundry and cleaned out some of the kids drawers which somehow led to cleaning out the medicine cabinet. We also attended 2 cookouts which saved us some $$ since we usually eat out all weekend. Saving the $$ was good since Micah got a ticket on Saturday morning to the tune of $75. He's lucky it wasn't more since he called the cop an a-hole as he walked away. I told him, if you ever get arrested for something like that, do NOT call me. I won't come.

My step-sister from Arkansas was at the cookout yesterday. She's not actually from Arkansas but that's where she currently resides. That was cool since her kids are the same age as mine. They got to run around and play together and we didn't have to entertain them.

It was hot too. Oh boy, it was hot. Hot today too, although I haven't been outside since this morning. I'll take Micah's word for it. I stopped even bringing my tenners to work because I know a walk just isn't going to happen. I could feel my pants getting damp from the humidity just walking in from the parking lot at 8 am. Get your minds out of the gutter, I said HUMIDITY.

Cooler weather is due in on Thursday. Let's hope.

Ok, so I'm a nerd

2005-06-10T16:35:00.000-04:00

I found out at lunch today that if you have a blog, you're a nerd. Ok, big deal. I can deal with being a nerd. I'm 32, a mother of 2, my own place, my own car, a good job. Nerd, I can handle.

I had steamed shrimp for lunch today and managed to spray my shirt while peeling them. Why didn't I think of that and tuck a napkin into my shirt? Yeesh.

We won $4 at Keno today. Not much, but better than nothing. The nachos and cheese were perfect today. For the 10 of us, we had 4 plates. Besides the regular group, we were joined by Cindy's kids, Justin & Meghann. We let them pick Keno numbers. Does that count as corruption of a minor? Justin's not a minor, but Meghann is.

I'll be doing laundry this weekend and hopefully gathering stuff for the flea market. Get this, we won't know for sure until as late as 11 pm the night before if we've got a space or not. What's up with that?

We've also got 2 cookouts to go to and the usual host of errands. Hopefully everything will get done.

Did I mention that I'm a nerd?

Tagged yet again!

2005-06-09T17:05:00.000-04:00

10 years ago, I....
1. Had just graduated from college
2. Had just bought my first new car
3. Was planning my cohabitation with Micah

5 years ago, I....
1. Was trying to get pregnant
2. Had just taken a "last hurrah" trip to FLA
3. Did the Breast Cancer 3 Day

Today I ....
1. Tried to let Evan walk into daycare (HAHAHA)
2. Attended 2 meetings
3. Skipped a training

Tomorrow, I will....
1. Stop at the bank on the way to work
2. Have lunch with the committee and eat something different
3. Go to Target for assorted gifts and Diaper Genie refills

3 Snacks I Enjoy:
1. Snyder's buffalo wing pretzels
2. cheese popcorn
3. chips & salsa

5 Songs I know all the words to, even with out the Music:
1. REM - You Are The Everything
2. Most
3. Depeche
4. Mode
5. Songs

5 Things I would do with $100,000,000:
1. Buy a House
2. Take all of my family and friends on a cruise
3. Renovate our daycare center in Hannah & Evan's names
4. Pay off Mom's house
5. Buy my dad a house

Top 5 Locations I'd run away to:
1. Ocean City, MD (I'm a simple girl)
2. North Carolina
3. Mt. Pleasant, South Carolina (that's where my Jenny is)
4.
5.
(Like I said, I'm a simple girl!)

5 Bad habits I have:
1. Road rage
2. Procrastinating
3. Fretting
4.
5.
(Hmm, I must be perfect)

5 Things I like Doing:
1. Hanging with the kids
2. Hanging with the girls
3. Shopping (Usually goes with #2)
4. Working out
5. Reading

5 Things I would Never Wear:
1. Short shorts
2. Mesh
3. belly shirts [shudder]
4. cat suit [shudder again]
5. sweatpants to work

TV Shows I like:
1. CSI
2. ER
3. Family Plots
4. Airline
5. Survivor

5 Movies I like:
1. Shawshank Redemption
2. Wedding Singer
3. Divine Secrets of the YaYa Sisterhood
4. Steel Magnolias
5. Pretty In Pink

5 famous people I would like to meet:
1. Robin Williams
2. Dr. Phil
3. Chris Noth (although I might faint if I did)
4. Oprah
5. John Travolta (heard he's really, really nice)

5 Biggest Joys at the Moment:
1. My kids
2. Bryer's low fat ice cream
3. My clothes fitting better
4. Reading
5. My friends

Wow, that took a while.

Dottie - TAG! You're it!

Speechless no more

2005-06-09T16:36:00.000-04:00

I didn't blog yesterday because I didn't have anything to say. Imagine that.

I just had someone call me by my last name. Again. That makes 4 people in my married life to confuse my last name for my first. For those of you who don't know, it ends in the sound "eena". Ok, that I can see, but do you think my last name is Elaine? Oy. My boss gets the biggest kick out of it.

I'm supposed to be in a training class. Oops, I guess I forgot. But it wasn't on my Email calendar...

I'm not finding anything to say...again. What's up with that? When I was a kid my mom used to bet me that I couldn't stay quiet for 5 minutes. I lost everytime.

Pomp and circumstance

2005-06-06T16:24:00.000-04:00

My mom graduated from college yesterday. Finally. It only took her 10+ yrs. The whole family came out to watch. Evan only lasted about 10 minutes before Micah hauled him out of there. I was left with Alexis Trebek, aka Hannah, who asked me questions every 30 seconds. Where's Nana, Are we done yet, Can I have a snack, Can I sit on your lap, Can Nana come sit with us. I told Micah he had it easy.

We've decided we're going to take all of our cr- I mean stuff to a flea market. I'm really excited. Hopefully with the $$ we make, we can rent a minivan for vacation. We've got 2 SUVs - one compact, one mid-size. We usually take the midsize, and everything fits but it would be nice to not have to worry about it. Also, my mom will be with us for the 2 weeks and I'm sure she'd appreciate not having to ride in the cargo area or squeezed between the carseats. We've done some research and to rent a van would cost upwards of $600 for 2 weeks. Add that to the condo rental and our little beach vacation could cost us over $2000 and we haven't even eaten yet! Luckily, I was able to talk the daycare owner into giving us a discount for the missed weeks without really even trying.

I took a walk today at lunch. It's hot and humid today, so I forced myself to walk slowly. I really had to concentrate on walking slow. The heat and humidity forced many other walkers to stay inside today. Good. They get on my nerves. Some of them are so rude. It's a path wide enough for two people. Now, if I'm coming from one direction and there are two people coming in the other direction, wouldn't you think that one of them should step out of the way so I can pass? NO! Some of them will almost force me off the path. Grrr. That makes me nuts. Why should I have to walk on the grass? Do you absolutely HAVE to walk next to your friend for every second of your walk? Yeesh.

Micah called me earlier and told me that the movie The Breakfast Club was made 20 yrs ago. Why's he gotta be like that? Where is all the love?

The Committee

2005-06-03T16:35:00.000-04:00

I go to lunch on Fridays with the best group of people. We call ourselves the Committee. There's me, Cindy, Mary Linda, Bill, Mark, Tom, Steve, Rick and Randy. Every week, we go to the same place and usually order the same thing as the week before, while playing Keno.

I look forward to Friday lunches all week. I love my committee.

Today, it started with every one of us slipping on the floor when we walked in the door. It's raining and apparently the rain reacted badly with the tile and the floor was very slippery. Then Steve takes Cindy's purse and Mark slips a salk shaker into it without her noticing. We can't play Keno because the machine's broken, but we've got our nachos & cheese so we're happy. We don't usually win anyway. The boys won $2500 4 yrs ago.

Now I'm stuffed. Cindy just emailed everyone to thank the culprit for the salt shaker. Over the years, Cindy has gathered quite a collection of salt & pepper shakers.

I was watching a Lifetime movie once and there was a group of friends who called themselves "The Crew". I said to myself, what group of people actually names themselves? Losers. And then I remembered....

I've been tagged!

2005-06-03T09:12:00.000-04:00

Good thing I read your blog, huh, Laina!

1. Blogger that you most want to meet in person? Not to be a biter, but I'm going to have to say Laina or Dottie. I've "known" you gals for a while now
2. Blogger who makes you laugh the most? Probably Melissa although I love Christina's title (I woke up for this)
3. Blogger whose template(skin) is the coolest? Dottie's. It matches her perfectly
4. Blogger you can't wait to read a new entry from? I'd have to say Laina

Tag, YOU'RE it - whoever you are!

I'll be back later with a real update.

The day before the $$

2005-06-02T18:15:00.000-04:00

Jewl said I seemed sad yesterday. Not sad, really, just pensive and NOT looking forward to the outlaw visit.

It wasn't so bad, really. Except that they were at least 1/2 hour early, but we expected that.

I have to call the IT service desk at work for a problem with the database that I maintain. For those of you who don't know, I'm a Federal worker computer nerd. I despise calling the IT service desk. They never know what I'm talking about. I had to have a snack first and I just might wait until the morning.

Speaking of my snack...I had some mini bags of popcorn in my desk. I decided I'd have one of those. Since I'm trying to lose weight, I decided to check the calorie/fat contents. Unpopped, each bag has 110 calories and 2 grams of fat. Popped, each bag has 15 calories and 0 grams of fat. Where in the hell did 95 calories and 2 grams of fat go? I had to read it several times to make sure I was reading right. I must have 95 calories hovering over my desk, unless I left them behind in the microwave.

When the outlaws came over last night, they brought Hannah's new bed. (See Maiden Voyage) We stuck it in the basement to wait for us to be ready to assemble. I went down last night to feed the kitties and I kicked the bedframe. Not intentionally. I swear I stopped breathing for a minute. It still hurts.

Thank goodness tomorrow is Friday and payday. Wooohooo!

My wandering mind

2005-06-01T16:06:00.000-04:00

I took a walk at lunch. My path takes me around the edge of our campus, most of it bordering the parking lot. It's amazing to see how many people park within inches of the car next to them. I often wonder how they'll get in or how they got out.

As I was walking, I caught a whiff of Vanilla 'Roma air freshener. Reminds me of the VW days. The days when Micah was obsessed with VWs and all that that implies. My weekends were VW-filled: car shows, riding around with other VWs, watching him and his buddies fix their cars...

I took a walk mostly because one of my coworkers was bitching on the phone to someone. Not loud enough for me to decipher, but loud enough to be annoying. I had to get out. And of course, when I came back, she was still at it.

The in-laws are coming today. Haven't I been punished enough? At least they'll be on my turf. That always makes it easier.

Miss Hannah fell on the playground last night. Scratched her face up pretty good. Poor kid. She had her mouth open when she fell and got a mouth full of dirt. That'll teach her to open her mouth.

And unofficial summer begins

2005-05-31T15:45:00.000-04:00

It's the day after Memorial Day. Summer has unofficially begun.

We didn't do much for the weekend. We visited the in-laws. Oh goody. [insert sarcasm here] On the way, Micah tells me that they're also coming over on Wednesday (tomorrow). I said, why the hell are we going today? Turn the car around!

While we're there, MIL says that she's "the mother" and she outranks Micah. HAHAHAHAHA On Mars, maybe. She then called him Mean Daddy about 40 times. How my wonderful husband came out of that woman I'll never know.

I have a basement full of baby stuff that I want to get rid of. I wanted to have a yard sale but what a major PITA that would be. Someone suggested craigslist.com. I've already had several bites! Woohoo!

A few weeks ago, I applied for an Old Navy credit card. (This cannot be good - that is my most favorite store) I got my card, a card for Micah, and the other day, I got one for someone else. They better send me a coupon for reporting it.

I started a new book a while ago. It begins with a woman packing up her husband's belongings. The reader isn't sure where he is but he obviously doesn't need these things anymore. She takes everything outside and has a yard sale. Shortly after the sale ends, the husband shows up to pick up his stuff. Damn that's funny!

Here comes the sun

2005-05-26T16:30:00.000-04:00

Today is our first sunny day in what seems like months, and the first day the forecasted temp is above 65. My daughter got to wear capris today and then wondered why everyone else, including me, wasn't wearing them. She also wanted to know why her brother wasn't wearing sandals. Ah, the mind of a 4 yr old.

My husband says I talked in my sleep last night. Supposedly I said, that's the way we did it the first time. I think he's lying. :)

My husband also told me that no matter what, the most weight you can lose is 4lbs a week. Lying again. Lies! All Lies!!!

I have to say, I'm enjoying this blog thing. It's a good way to get all of these weird, random thoughts out of my head.

And I think that's all I had today.

Laugh hard.

These walls have ears

2005-05-25T15:42:00.000-04:00

I work in a cubicle maze and my coworkers are on a roll today.

One of them was seriously busting her husband's balls about his job, loudly, and then called her mother to brag about it. Another coworker and I throw paper clips over the walls at each other when she gets going. That cracks me up!

Then there's the drama queen. Everything that happens to her was done on purpose and everyone should shower her with sympathy. I've heard her sob story more times than I can count today.

And finally we have the wimpiest man alive. He has back problems and I get to hear him shake his huge bottle of ibuprofen several times a day. He had a fender bender last year and I heard him tell someone he was in a "very serious accident." Dude, you drove your truck to work that day!

I'm really glad I have a 2 pm meeting and go home at 3.

Didn't make it to kickboxing last night. Got to the gym though. While I was there, the belt/fanny pack that holds my CD player fell off, twice, while I was on the elliptical. Talk about feeling like a nerd. WTF

On my way to the gym last night, I saw a car that had run off the road, knocking down the lightpole. The glass and debris covered the entire roadway. The car in front of me stopped to figure out how to get by and it was a good thing I was paying attention. After I drove on, in my rearview, I saw another car stop and the car behind him had to go off to the side to prevent another accident.

Maiden voyage

2005-05-24T15:02:00.000-04:00

Here it is, my first blog. Now, what do I say?

I've been very bored today. Not much work to be done. I did just manage to secure a twin bed for my 4yr old. She's getting a little big for her toddler bed.

It's a rainy day here in Baltimore. Traffic is going to suck. I wanted to take a 6:30 kickboxing class at the gym tonight but I think I'll be lucky to get home by then.

I'm trying to keep myself away from the chocolate in the next cubicle. I've been successful so far but as lunch gets farther and farther away, it's difficult.