Musings of a Slightly Mad Housewife

Friday, May 6, 2005 - That Rascally Rabbit and His Tales of T-Ball

2005-05-06T23:06:00.000-04:00

Rascal began his first "real" sport today (what? I waited until he was 5 before getting him involved in such things?! oh, no, now he'll never become a professional sports star! *snort*). The glorious, magnificent sport of T-ball! Ah, fond memories (the ShadowAngel says whist fighting her gag reflex)...

It isn't a league or anything like that - it's entirely an instructional program for 5 and 6-year-olds to teach them the fundamentals of the sport. No real competition. It's a good thing. Ah, I remember those halcyon days as a 6-year-old, being utterly humiliated nearly every time I stepped onto the field {retch}.

Oh, sorry about that. If you haven't guessed, I don't miss my Little League days one bit. But since I think the skills are something good for a child to develop, and maybe, just maybe, he'll like the game, Rascal is in it.

I watched him. He was the kid who stares off into space, not paying one bit of attention to the coaches. The kid whose name the coaches learn first because they have to say it so often. "Rascal...Rascal...Rascal!!" The kid who, when it is his turn to run around the bases (after watching 3 other kids do it before him), runs to 1st base and then into the middle of the field. When the coach was teaching the kids how to hit, he told them to point their toes towards a nearby building. Yup, mine's the kid who picks his foot up into the air and points it at the building. The coach tells the kids to run and retrieve their baseballs. Yup, mine's the kid who slowly meanders into the field, doesn't pick up his baseball, but calmly picks out two new balls from the bucket sitting in the field.

I'm beginning to believe it's hopeless. He'll be as athletically incompetent as his parents were when they were young. But at least he's getting good at chess...

Of course, in fairness to Rascal, he was trying hard. And he also had the misfortune of having to use a tee that was broken so that he was having a hard time putting his ball on it. I'd get frustrated by that too.

So we'll have to see how it all works out. I don't care if he's any good at it; I just want him to have fun.

Wednesday, May 4, 2005 - Warning: Brag Alert

2005-05-04T16:48:00.000-04:00

I'm going to brag and boast now, so if you don't care for that sort of thing, please stop reading now.

I went to tae kwon do last night. As you know, I successfully navigated my belt test last week, so I received my promotion to green stripe last night. But there was another treat! Much to my surprise, I was awarded a trophy for best poomse (the solo form, equivalent to a kata in karate)! I was totally stunned, in part because I couldn't imagine deserving such an award, and also because in the 4 1/2 months I have been there I have not seen a trophy awarded except for the usual "Student of the Month." I am honored to be recognized by Grandmaster Chong.

Who'da thunk it? Li'l' ol' overweight out-of-shape uncoordinated me? But from what I heard from of other students, they were not surprised by my receiving the award. Tres cool!

OK, that's enough bragging. Back to the mundane.

I finally got my sister's wedding cake thing settled. During the weekend I visited a bakery that had done my baby shower cake way back when. I walked into their shop, gazing at all the delectable goodies and took a look at a number of wedding cakes they had out on display.

And then I walked right back out of the shop without speaking to anyone. Beautiful, incredible cakes! At...atrocious prices. The prices were all about double what I was looking for.

So, feeling somewhat defeated, I began to drive home, and then I thought of a bakery that I had never been to that is several blocks from my home. Worth a try, right? Well, I stopped by and talked with them, and apparently this bakery had purchased most of the equipment that the original bakery (that went out of business a couple weeks ago) and had also received much of that bakery's business? What a bit of serendipity! I placed a order for the same cake at the same price. Life is beautiful, and I'm glad to get that off my plate.

Yay! It's date night! It's been a long time since I've had a date night because Ironwolf has been gone so much the last couple months. He's a little miffed that I have this incredible talent for picking out expensive restaurants. Haw haw haw that's the price you pay for not taking me out more often buddy!

I think I'm much happier now putting up a few posts per week rather than feeling pressed to put up an entry every day. So that's good! But I *still* haven't gotten back to my blog reading yet. So that's bad! I guess I'll have to pare it down to my favored 6 or 8 and get caught up. Soon. Really.

BTW, a happy 4th birthday to my niece, little B!

Friday, April 29, 2005 - TGIF

2005-04-29T22:46:00.000-04:00

Because Ironwolf is racing home to me now (with possibly a stop at a friend's house along the way *hmmmf* [no, no, I gave him my blessing :-)])! All this travel is really wearing on me. Actually, I'm more concerned that it's wearing on him. I know he's been sick, and exhausted, and he isn't getting more than a couple of days at home before they send him off again. There wasn't supposed to be this much travel associated with the job (though we knew there would be a definite increase). I am hoping that it's just because this particular period of time just happens to require a lot of travel, and that it will not be a long-term trend. Because if it is, I'll make certain that Ironwolf's company will have one less employee.

Oh, enough griping already. I rather like having the occasional night all to myself! (Gives me more time to blog...)

Zipper is still sick. Sort of. Well, I'm not really sure. He vomited a couple times Wednesday night, once Thursday morning, and once this morning. He seems pretty cheerful overall, and while he isn't eating and drinking a lot, he keeps asking to go Burger King and was happy to raid the cookies with his brother today. Still, it means that I've pretty much kept to the house the last couple days.

Speaking of Burger King, a local consumer research firm that I occasionally take surveys for and the like has offered me the opportunity to participate in a survey/taste test next Tuesday. I get to eat Burger King food and get paid to do it! Bwah ha ha ha!

Zipper's illness has kept me from doing something that I've really needed to do for the last few days. As I've mentioned, my sister is getting married in just over a month. My mother was going to order her wedding cake. She called the bakery to place the order and was informed that they had gone out of business. What the heck? Just 2 weeks before my mother had spoken to them. Their web site is still up!

So now I am tasked with finding a bakery with relatively short notice. I have a couple places in mind. I was going to go with Zipper while Rascal was in preschool, but when Zipper got sick I decided that a bakery would not be a good place to go. Maybe tomorrow I can get this all taken care of, since my mother and sister are both getting a little anxious about it.

The tae kwon do test went fine. Grandmaster Chong addressed me at length; he seemed to be concerned that I might push myself so hard that I wouldn't have fun. He might be right - I've walked out there a few times annoyed and disgusted with myself when I shouldn't feel that way at all. And after all, if it's not fun, why do it?

One of my tkd friends showed up to watch me and another woman testing yesterday because we didn't have anyone coming to watch us and she wanted to give us some support. How sweet! I was really touched.

I'm known for my lack of "real-life" female friends, so I'm really glad that I've found her and a couple of others that I can talk to.

Hmmm... since you (foolishly) seem to request it, I think I will toss that bit of philosophical rambling out to you sometime in the next week. Don't let me forget, ok?

Wednesday, April 27, 2005 - Night Falls Heavily Like A Curtain Over Collinwood...

2005-04-27T22:30:00.000-04:00

and a woman sits down at a desk, typing frantically about any and all subjects, trying to make sense of the madness that has befallen recently...

If you are now throughly confused, please allow mw to explain. For the last 5 days I have been watching the 1960's tv series Dark Shadows on DVD, and it's rather insinuating itself into my mind after having viewed some 25 episodes.

I watched the series for a while during college, but at one point I stopped watching for about a month, and when I came back it seemed as though all the actors were playing different characters and I was very confused. So I'm watching it straight through now from the beginning of the DVD collections (which is *not* the beginning of the series - go figure - but the point in the series where the vampire Barnabas Collins is introduced - which from the summary of the series to that point seems to have been the right thing for them to do; it was just awful). Ah, it's fun, and Netflix can send me the discs a little faster than I can watch them, so it's all good.

Ironwolf came home safely from China. It looks like we will not be moving to Hong Kong after all from the indications that he has received. So be it; it's off the plate now. I haven't even had the opportunity to look at the photos yet. Ironwolf was home just long enough to not quite get over the jet lag and to catch a bad cold from us before leaving for Boston today. Booo....

Yes, we are sick, sick, sick. *sigh* I've had a head cold for a week, but last night I couldn't sleep and it just knocked me flat on my ass today. I was just laid out on the couch all afternoon. Zipper has hade a cold too, but tonight he also vomited twice. Poor baby! I think he's ok though. I know that I need my rest but the chances of getting much sleep are reduced by this afternoon's long nap. I don't dare take a Sominex because my kid might need me tonight. I suppose I'll just have to use a little alcohol for medishunal poiporses. *hic*

Tomorrow I have my tae kwon do belt test for my green stripe belt. I know everything just fine, but I am probably going to be dragging myself around tomorrow. Well, I suppose a nasal decongestant and a little caffeine will make things easier, but maybe I'll ask to leave after my testing is done because I don'w want to give this to other students.

Looking at my post history I noticed that a lot of my January posts are self-dated 2004. Oops.

Oh, I was so embarassed yesterday. I dropped Rascal off at preschool and went off to run several errands. I didn't have a timepiece with me, so I was relying on my own time sense and the radio to provide me with the approximate time. Mistake - I should have known better than to trust my lack of intuition! Instead of arriving about 10 minutes early, like I thought I was, I was 20 minutes late. I think they were not happy with me. Ummm...we won't let that happen again.

BTW, my good friend Random's birthday was yesterday. Excellent party, as always, sir!

On Monday I and the boys met my sis-in-law and her two kids at the mall to get photos done. The appointment ahead of us was running a little overtime. That, my friends, is the understatement of the year. It was a family of about 20 members getting all kinds of shots done in various groups. They ran an hour past their scheduled time. They must have spent at least $500-600 on pictures. And here we are, with four kids, ages 5, 3, 2, and 3 months getting very antsy. But in truth the kids were good and we did manage to get in there and get a few good shots in before the baby had a meltdown. After finding out what happened the manager of the studio gave us a discount, so I guess it was worth the inconvenience. But I'll never know how they got 20 people into that little room for a group photo!

On Sunday I was part of this big hymn festival concert with about 100 choir members from some 10 or so area congregations plus instrumentalists and readers. It was all great fun, and we might even have had more people in the audience than participants. (But everyone knows it's more fun to participate). The only unfortunate little bit (and forgive me for sounding childish, because it's *really* *not* a big deal) is that I was supposed to have a solo, and it was taken away from me a few days before because the organizer (not the director, mind you) decided it would be best to split the solos as evenly as possible between the different churches involved. So I got bumped. And of course I had to stand directly behind the gentleman who *did* get my solo. Ppptthhh!!!! Really, it's ok, I understand completely, but let me have my 60 seconds of divaesque bitching, all right?

One of the reasons that I was having trouble sleeping last night is that one of my friends from tae kwon do and I were having a religious discussion and she asked me if I believed in hell and in the Devil (I do not). She didn't ask me to defend my views, but I laid in bed needing to justify it to myself, and mentally went off on this tangent regarding free will vs. determinism and its relationship to the nature of evil. Yes, this is the kind of stuff I think about when I can't sleep. *chuckle*

I won't thrust my philosophical ramblings upon you this evening, but maybe I will sometime if I can't sleep or if I'm just feeling a little sadistic (bwah ha ha ha!). Or, of course, droves of you request it. Like that's going to happen. I've never had droves reading this blog and I expect my readership is way down right now. This post has gotten extremely long anyway, and I need to get to my "medicine" soon so I can get a little rest. Sayonara!

Friday, April 22, 2005 - Bloody Eye Wrapup

2005-04-22T20:45:00.000-04:00

I forgot to mention how Zipper's eye was doing.

It's fine. You can't even tell that he was hurt.

The first few days it looked really ugly and he developed a black eye, but by the end of the trip it wasn't noticeable anymore. Thank goodness - I was really worried there for a bit. I guess it's just one of the hazards of parenting: kids get hurt sometimes, and it can be frightening.

Friday, April 22, 2005 - The Triumphant Return of ShadowAngel and Her Family

2005-04-22T19:50:00.000-04:00

Hey howdy hey; we have returned!

As I mentioned before, I managed to bring the bad weather down south with us for the first part of the trip, but that wasn't a big deal. We spent a lot of time outside and the weather went up into the 80's for the last few days.

We got to go out on some fun excursions - swimming at the local YMCA, a road trip to the nearest Chuck E. Cheese's (an hour away), a picnic at a lovely state park, and a day of excess at Myrtle Beach where we went to an awesome aquarium (including a tunnel where the tank is around you on all sides and a pet-the-rays area), a boat trip, to an amusement park, and to a seafood buffet.

But of course what was best was getting to see my family. We miss them a lot and I know they miss us too. They'll be up here in 6 weeks for my sister's wedding.

We had one bit of excitement during the visit: we were swimming in my parents' pool (which was super-chilly). Zipper was playing along the side and yup, you guessed it, he fell in. My dad grabbed him and had him out of the water in a few seconds. Zipper was no worse for wear. He had held his breath and was fine. It still put me on edge for the rest of the day.

The trip home was a little rough because it was a late flight and the kids were cranky and I had baggage problems. I bought a rolling backpack at Evil Walmart during the trip to use as my carryon. They put it in the scanner at the start of my journey and it came out with a strap torn off. Well, that kind of negates the purpose of bying a backpack, doesn't it? They gave me a form to file a claim with TSA, but I don't much see the point of filling out several pages and getting a repair estimate for a $20 backpack. Then my bags didn't show up when we arrived - it's 11:30 PM, I'm towing two tired, whiny kids, and I have to deal with this too? Ugh. Anyway the bags were found and sent to us the next day.

I am happy to report that Ironwolf is zipping through the atmosphere towards home this evening. His transpacific flight went fine and he'll be home in about five hours. Yay! And for my present he'll be bringing home lots of illegal DVDs, including Kung Fu Hustle (which was released in the USA today).

Unfortunately Ironwolf will be off to Boston next week. Boooo.... He's going to miss my tae kwon do belt test next week. Booooo...... Well, what can you do? It's the price we pay for being able to live on one income.

Until next time... xoxo to all of you from the ShadowAngel...

Wednesday, April 13, 2005 - Greetings From Florence, SC!

2005-04-13T19:30:00.000-04:00

We are spending this evening in the lovely Florence, SC library - and it is lovely, and it's open 7 days a week, unlike the Erie County libraries (because all those schmucks in Buffalo don't believe that library consolidation is a good thing; oh, no we need all of those 50-odd branch libraries so badly in our neighborhoods! sheesh.).

Sorry, major digression there.

Well, we made it here with very little incident, and the boys did very well on their first plane rides. I was very proud of them. The only strange thing is that we were sitting on the runway in Buffalo, waiting to take off, when suddenly the boys and I are ousted from our seats in the last row of the plane, and are without explanation quickly shuffled towards the front of the plane. I specifically preboarded to avoid hassles like this, but what can you do. The flight attendants were very nice about the whole thing.

My husband was not very happy with me though. He bade me send him a message when I arrived safely at my parents' home. Ummm... I forgot. And I forgot to turn on my cell phone. And I forgot to give Ironwolf my parents' new phone numbers. That evening my sister (who lives there too) got a strange phone call with lots and lots of digits that she didn't answer, and it clicked: oh, shit, my husband is calling. From China, remember. So I got in touch with him and found that he had been calling everyone under the sun for a couple hours. D'oh!

The boys are so happy to be here. They have missed their grandparents and their cousin terribly. Oh, yeah, I'm happy to be here too. :-) I did indeed bring the bad weather with me. I was watching the Weather Channel this afternoon and found that the temperature in Buffalo was the same as here in Florence, except that in Buffalo it was sunny. But we still spent most of the day playing outside.

Well, that's enough for now. We are having fun, and we'll see you next week!

Monday, April 11, 2005 - And We Are Outie!

2005-04-11T23:25:00.000-04:00

We are off to South Carolina in the morning for 8 days of rain and Buffaloian temperatures. Yup, I looked at the 10-forecast and it will be just a touch warmer than it is here and there will be rain almost every day. *sigh* Why does the weather have to suck every time I manage to get out of Buffalo? Last time I was in SC it was cold and wet; it snowed in Vegas...

I decided that we should pack light, so I'll only be hauling around about 75 lbs. worth of gear. :-P No, really, that's light when you have a couple of little ones on an 8-day trip! Besides, that is light compared to my scrapbooking supplies, which weigh more than I do...

We had a bit of excitement tonight. About 15 minutes after I put the boys to bed I heard Zipper screaming. Thinking that it was a typical bit of bedtime scuffling between the boys, I went upstairs to do the usual bit of threatening them with death (no, not really, sheesh!) but found that Zipper was bleeding from one of his eyes.

He cried for a while and I tried to get things cleaned up and to see if there was any actual eye damage. After I calmed him I was able to look and it seems that all that happened is that he has a cut on his lower eyelid *just* below the eye. I called up a nurse at my HMO and she didn't seem too worried about it, but I'm afraid of what it's going to look like in the morning. Oooh, I hope I don't have to work in a trip to the doctor's office along with everything else I have going on in the morning.

I couldn't really get a straight answer from either of the boys about how it happened - the best that I could surmise is that he probably cut himself with either a toy or, more likely, a book in his bed. Nothing other than the pillowcase had blood on it though so I am not sure. Poor thing!

Well, I'm off. Here's hoping that the trip goes well and that Zipper is ok. See you next week!

Sunday, April 10, 2005 - Home Alone

2005-04-10T22:10:00.000-04:00

Ha! I wish! I haven't had a night honest-to-goodness truly alone by myself since before the kids were born. Ironwolf made it safe and sound to Shanghai with no problems, so I can sleep a little easier tonight.

I've been asked to do a survey regarding the woes of Erie County and the City of Buffalo by VOICE-Buffalo, a faith-based community action group of which my church is a member (though I personally am not a member). For those of you that don't know, the city and county (and state, for that matter) governments are a mess. It's nice that people want my opinions on the subject, but the fact is that I don't have a solution, everyone and their brother has their own ideas, and I don't forsee anything but endless round-in-circles discussion for years.

I've been delaying my response because I want to be able express a cogent, rational, and thoughtful opinion. But I don't think that my opinions are worth a hill of beans. I should pass this survey along to a couple of the local political bloggers I know and see what they can do with it.

Instead tonight I'm going to be shallow - watch a movie, maybe dye my hair... policy planning can wait another day.

Saturday, April 9, 2005 - Anyone For A Little Emotional Draino?

2005-04-09T21:37:00.000-04:00

Right this moment Ironwolf should be somewhere over the North Pole on his way to his two-week business trip in Shanghai. I miss him already (though he was kind enough to call me from Los Angeles this afternoon to let me know that he is alright). But I should have asked for the flight number because I can't find a flight that matches up with his itinerary.

Supposedly he's flying United, but there is no direct Los Angeles to Shanghai flights listed on there. It's goofy - you can go from Los Angeles to San Francisco to Shanghai, or you can go Los Angeles to Chicago to Shanghai. Who in their right mind is going to choose the latter? I know, I know - someone cheap like me! You fly for 15 hours or fly for 20 hours, what's the difference? [snort]

Anyway, Ironwolf will be arriving around 5 AM EDT so I'm anxious to hear from him.

*****

This morning I took the boys to an Easter egg hunt! What, you say? But it's two weeks after Easter! A family friend hosts an annual egg hunt at her home - the original date was cancelled because her yard was extremely muddy, the 1st rescheduled date was snowed out, but finally the 2nd rescheduled date was successful!

We had a lot of fun, but I think that Rascal is getting a little too old to participate. There are a lot of very small children there, and Rascal (and a couple other older kids) snapped up the majority of the eggs before the little ones could get to them. But Rascal was kind enough to give a few of his eggs to some of the smaller children - it was very sweet of him.

*****

Today we went to find a wedding dress for my sister! We went to a local "bridal superstore" because she has less than 2 months to go before the wedding. As I've mentioned, she had a breast reduction done a couple weeks ago (and she looks good!) so she didn't even know what size she was anymore. For the first time in her adult life, she was able to try on a dress and be able to say "Wow, this is way too big in the bust!". I am happy to report that we found a lovely dress (that I picked out, btw). She looks really great in it. We took some pictures of her in it to send to our parents. And we (ok, I didn't) took pictures of her boob job to show them (ok, just our mom) too! LOL

*****

I'm exhausted, mildly anxious, and have a killer migraine, so I'll have to call it a night. So g'night, y'all!

Thursday, April 7, 2005 - Into Every Life A Little Jellybean Rain Must Fall

2005-04-07T16:22:00.000-04:00

Today was the biggest event to hit Buffalo in months - the grand opening of the new Kohl's department stores! *snicker*

I'll admit it, I'm a sucker for a new retailer (and a nice discount coupon too), so after dropping Rascal off at preschool I drove over there to check it out. I figured that since the store opened several hours earlier it would no longer be packed. Wrong! The entire parking lot was full, and I wisely decided to defer my excursion to a later date.

I went to the supermarket next door to pick up a couple things. Among these purchases were about 3 1/2 lbs. of red Jelly Belly jellybeans from the bulk section, which I have been buying in spurts when I see them at the supermarket because I am making my sister's wedding favors with them.

I dropped the big bag of jellybeans into my cart to discover that the bag was not securely closed. Jellybeans everywhere! Spectators all about fell silent as the last of the clattering candy came to rest on the floor. I sheepishly gaze about and see that there is a broom and dustpan right next to me. True to my maternal instincts, I start sweeping up, and suddenly hear the laughter of several of the associates there (who then came to clean up).

Thankfully I managed to retain 1 1/2 pounds of the jellybeans. I was so embarassed, but it was so funny!

Wednesday, April 6, 2005 - I'll Never Understand the Airline Industry

2005-04-06T16:37:00.000-04:00

I bought tickets a few days ago for the trip that the boys and I are taking to see my parents. I hunted through a number of the more popular online sites until I found a nice cheap fare to my liking.

Weird thing #1: we are flying Buffalo to Charlotte, NC to Fayetteville, NC, changing planes in Charlotte. Taking the extra flight to Fayetteville is cheaper than just flying to Charlotte on the same flight. WTF? I don't get it.

Weird thing #2: Mind you, I should have just taken the flight to Charlotte after all - by flying to Fayetteville (about 50 minutes) I'm actually only getting about 25 miles closer to where my parents live in SC.

Weird thing #3: When I booked the flight on Travelocity, they gave me lots of options for getting to my destination (some 7-8 options) at their best price. But if I wanted to get back home at that price, there were only two choices for the flight home - one at 5:50 AM, and one at 7:00 PM. It put me in the position of having to choose between getting up at 2 AM so we could get to the airport on time or arriving after 11 PM in Buffalo (waaay past the boys' bedtime). No surprise, I chose the latter. Heaven help me if I'm delayed or canceled on the way home.

Weird thing #4: On a whim I searched for fares to Florida from Buffalo on USAir's website. If you want to go round-trip to Orlando, it's $99 right now (woo hoo get me out of here! oh, yeah right, darn it all). But if you want to go to Miami round-trip, it's $647.

If anyone could explain how the airline industry does its pricing please, please help me! I don't understand! I'm a smart person, so why is it so difficult? [sob]

Wednesday, April 6, 2005 - Happiness Is...

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

Having a snowball fight in your shirt sleeves!

Woo hoo! 68 degrees in Buffalo today!

Monday, April 4, 2005 - You Like Me, You Really Like Me! (?)

2005-04-04T22:59:00.000-04:00

Due to popular demand (ok, mostly Jade) I am making a not-so-triumphant return to the blogosphere, beginning by spending 45 minutes typing out a post and then losing the whole thing just before completing it. Typical.

I am sorry for just dumping you all. This would be the point where I would be offering up some lame excuses, but I don't really see any point to it. If you were concerned about me (ha ha yeah right) please rest assured that no major disasters (and very few minor disasters) have occurred in the last 2 months.

So let me attempt to sum up where things stand right now without boring you all to death:

The DH: Ironwolf is once again spednign too much time traveling. He left for Chicago/Indianapolis today, and after a couple days home he is off to Shanghai for 2 weeks. But, on a good note, this opens things up for...

The vacation: While Ironwolf is away I am going to take the boys to see my parents in South Carolina. It will be their 1st plane trip. I am both excited and anxious about the prospect of traveling alone with two small boys.

The China situation: It's still on hold. We don't expect to hear anything more on it until summer.

The elder boy: Rascal is back in preschool again (the same one he attended the last 2 years). He's a little old for it, but it gets him out and with other kids. I've got him signed up for teeball next month, and I bought him his first big-boy bike last week.

The younger boy: Drake just finished up a playgroup for 2-year-olds at the same school Rascal attends. I moved the boys into the same bedroom because they wanted to sleep in the same room every night. I converted the other room to a playroom, which they rapidly proceeded to turn into a disaster area.

The extended family: Sis had a breast reduction last week. I can't imagine what she'll look like with only a D-cup. She says it was the easiest 8 pounds(!) she ever lost! She's getting married in 2 months, so she needs to hurry up and heal so she can go get a wedding dress.

The tae kwon do studies: They're going pretty well! I got my yellow belt last month, and I should be ready to test for my green stripe at the end of this month. I have a few tales to tell, but I will leave them for a later time.

The quest for less mass: Over the holiday season I gained quite a lot of weight, which I largely attribute to my bro-in-law, who gave "my children" a 5-pound Hershey's bar for Christmas. But between the tae kwon do and my other favored physical activity, playing Dance Dance Revolution on the XBox, I've taken that and a little more back off. The influx of candy for Easter didn't help me, but I'll push through it. Darn my weakness for chocolate!

The musical mayhem: Hey, I finally found a sucker - I mean, a kind soul - to host my music files! You can download them at Red Room Tunes, a very cool site run by one of my husband's coworkers. The site features various artists, most of whom crank out tunes sitting in their little home studios. My stuff is listed under "Jennifer", but please check out some of the other artists - I'm sure you'll find something you like!

The rest of it: Eh, same ol' same ol'. I feel like I've been simply existing for the last couple months - not really accomplishing much of anything. It's the old winter blahs (you can scarcely avoid them here in Buffalo). But this too shall pass - winter is ending, I've started digging in my garden (before the snow came over the weekend, that is), and I'm inspired to do a little spring cleaning (and hey, when I'm inspired to clean, I'd better get to it, because the urge comes briefly and infrequently). In any case I'm doing ok.

So that's it. I'll start posting regularly again (though I'll be breaking from that when we go to South Carolina - the folks don't have Internet access). I'll even make sure that I'll read (ok, skim through) some of your blogs in the next couple days. For now though, I'll leave you with a couple anecdotes for the day:

This evening I'm scrubbing my living room rug with the handy-dandy rug scrubber. With only 6 square feet of carpet to go, the scrubber runs out of wash solution. Did I:

Refill the scrubber with a whole new batch of wash solution to do the last little bit? or...
Say "screw it" and left that corner of the carpet unscrubbed?

I'll let you decide.

And last, a quote from my dear, sweet Rascal today: "The more love you give, you get even more love back."

Friday, January 14, 2004 - Little Notes

2005-01-14T22:50:00.000-05:00

This evening my car's trunk was frozen shut. Oh, how the mighty (temperatures) have fallen so quickly! (sob)

Ironwolf is home...yay yay yay yay!!! Better than that, his trip for the last week of January has been postponed, so he'll only be gone this coming week. Yay yay yay yay!!!

My sister and her soon-to-be sister-in-law are coming over tomorrow so we can work on my sis's wedding shower invitations. It should be a lot of fun, and another good excuse to break out the wine... (hee hee I must sound like a lush, but I'm not, really - I usually only have 1 or 2 drinks per week. This week is just a little unusual.)

And I swear, I'll catch up on my blog reading this weekend! Just as soon as I finish off this bottle of wine *hic* (just kidding ;-) )...

Friday, January 14, 2004 - Vegas, Part Deux

2005-01-14T22:45:00.000-05:00

For any of you that care, it took me about 2 hours to do that report last night (plus an hour that I was looking for the materials that I needed - I must resolve to become more organized...nah, what's the fun in that?). I emailed it off, thought everything was goodness and light, but then found this evening that it bounced back at me because I got the church email address wrong. Grrr... Oh, the church secretary is going to be thrilled with me - now she won't get it until Monday morning...

Enough of that. Now, where was I on the Vegas trip? Ah, yes!

Once we finished up on the Star Trek Experience we realized it was a bit later than we expected, so we headed to Excalibur to check in. If you haven't figured it out yet, Excalibur is done up like a medieval castle. That is, it's done up as a late 1970's/early 1980's concept of a medieval castle. I don't remember it being any different today from what it was 9 years ago. Compared to many of the newer places, it's kind of sad. That says a lot coming from me, who still plays Dungeons & Dragons at 32 years of age and who will happily dress up in costume to attend the Renaissance Faires.

We got into our room, and found that it had the same view of the NYNY roller coaster, except from the other side of the street! Sheesh. We prettied ourselves up for the evening and headed out.

Now, a few weeks ago in our local paper there was an article about buffets in Vegas, basically a review of several of the buffet restaurants on the strip. This article convinced me that we needed to go to the only hotel on the Strip without a casino in it, the Four Seasons. Thankfully we were on that end of the Strip already, so we took a tram over to Mandalay Bay and found a walkway to Four Seasons. BTW, if you are in Mandalay Bay, do not miss the Orchid Lounge! Best smelling place in Vegas!

As soon as we stepped in the Four Seasons, we got this overwhelming impression that this place was too rich for our blood. But undeterred we hunted down the restaurants - and found there to be no buffet. Apparently their "buffet" was only a Sunday brunch. Pity. I tried to convince my mil to still eat there, but I could see her unease at the dollar signs floating before her eyes. Well, I can't blame her, and I know she didn't bring a ton of money to spend, so we regretfully turned to the Luxor and the buffet there, which was ok.

We finished up dinner and it was time for us to head to our show by the Blue Man Group! I am totally enamoured with these guys, and I swore that if I ever went to one of the cities where they have a peramanent show that I would go. I love their music, their personae, their philosophy (yeah, they kind of have one)...

Anyway, the show was awesome! I wish I could describe it to you in detail, but anything that I put down here will be inadequate. I was very happy to see that it was an entirely original production, that is, there was nothing in the Vegas show that was on _The Complex_ concert DVD, and there was nothing in common with the touring group with whatever the hell that festival was that I went to in Toronto a couple summers ago. If you go to Vegas, go to this show! (But if you can, see if you can get one of the package deals from Luxor rather than buying tickets directly - I paid more for the individual tickets than it would have cost me for the dinner\show package).

And best of all...

(ShadowAngel squeals with delight)

After the show my mil was quite content to head to bed, but not me. So I headed off to Stratosphere to finally get to ride my roller coasters! But what happened there is...the rest of the story...(sorry Paul Harvey)

Tune in soon for _Vegas, Part Trois!_

Thursday, January 13, 2005 - Days Like These Are Rare Indeed

2005-01-13T20:50:00.000-05:00

I need to keep it short today because I have to do that stupid church report tonight, but I wanted to tell you that today in Buffalo it reached a glorious record-setting (I think, I'll have to check) 68 F. Oh, you don't know what a thrill it is to take the kids out to the playground in the middle of January! And to not have to wear a jacket! Too bad it won't last - one day the temperature goes up 40 degrees, the next day it goes down 50 degrees. There should be snow on the ground by morning.

Zipper had a checkup today, and whenever one of the medical personnel walked into the examining room he started screaming! I can only imagine that he remembered his brother going to the doctor last month and getting a couple shots.

I still have some of that wine left from yesterday, so it's just about time to crack that open again and get to work. Wish me luck!

Wednesday, January 12, 2005 - Blast that Church!

2005-01-12T23:15:00.000-05:00

I just checked my email, and I have been informed that as church historian I was supposed to do a report for the church's annual meeting. And the report was due 9 days ago.

When was someone going to tell me about this???!!!

I didn't know that I was expected to provide a report. Guess what I'll be doing tomorrow night...

Grrrr......

Wednesday, January 12, 2004 - Time Flies When You're Having Fun

2005-01-12T23:12:00.000-05:00

I am back from snowy Las Vegas, Nevada!

Yes, you heard that right. I saw snow in Las Vegas. Something that hasn't happened in that area for some 12 0r 15 years now. It didn't stick in our area, but I watched the news and saw plenty of places where it had. It must have been quite a treat for the kids!

I've actually been back for several days now. I've been:

Recovering from the trip: It's amazing how quickly you can screw up your sleep schedule!
Dealing with the death of a relative: I wasn't terribly close with my great-uncle Jerry, but he was a terrific guy. I hope I am lucky enough to go out like him - 93 years old, in good health, and passing away in my sleep.
Spending time with my family: particularly Ironwolf, who is traveling for work every weekday from today until the end of the month (boo!). I've opened up a bottle of wine [White Zinfandel! Where the hell did we get this crap from!] and I am working hard at drowning my loneliness in it. On the plus side, it means I'll spend more time blogging!

Ah, but I digress. You really want to know about the trip!

Well, if you are going to Vegas, I really must recommend to you that you avoid going when one of the two big annual conventions are happening. We arrived on the first day of the Consumer Electronics show. Nothing like an extra 140,000 people in the city to make things interesting! Not to mention the (ahem) other convention going on in Vegas at the same time - the Adult Video Convention!

We flew on Southwest, and I'm not sure whether to recommend it to you if you are traveling with someone else. Sure, it was clean, comfortable, friendly - all that good stuff. But, Southwest has the strange quirk of there being no assigned seating. They seat people in three main groups. and my mother-in-law and I were unfortunately in the last seating. And were one of the last few people on the plane. Needless to say, we were both stuck in middle seats, and were a mere 14 rows apart from each other.

My mil is there on a business-related trip, and we have a number to call for a car when we get to Vegas. So I obligingly call the number, and find that it's some regional limo company (yay!) but all their limos are booked up for hours (boo!). So we check into our hotel at the airport (totally awesome) and catch a shuttle to the fabulous New York, New York hotel.

Vegas is still all the glitz and glam that I remembered it to be from 9 years ago when I was there on my honeymoon. In that time a number of new hotels were built, including NYNY, and I was anxious to take a look around.

We get in our hotel and immediately notice:

It's really, really spartan. No surprise there - they don't want you to hang out in your room; they want you out spending your money.
There is a periodic rumbling outside our window. We have a lovely view of NYNY's roller coaster!

My MIL is diabetic, and it's now 5 PM local (8 PM EST), and she really can't put off eating any longer. Frankly, I was hungry too, so we went to one of NYNY's casual restaurants and had a little something. Unfortunately, we also knew that we were meeting others for dinner at 7 PM, and we sincerely hoped that we would not end up in the same restaurant!

We wander a bit and then head to the meeting spot. Among the many people I saw a small knot of mostly middle-aged ladies and zeroed in on them as the people we were looking for - law librarians like my MIL. Oh, it was funny; we didn't know any of there people, but they were so stereotypical! We went to dinner in the hotel at their fancy Italian place. Sadly we were unable to take full advantage of our only fully expensable meal in Vegas because we had just eaten! *sigh* It was also a little weird because I was the only travel companion that came (and me not even a spouse). So they talked business, and I...was pleasant. What else could I do?

The East Coasters among us bowed out a little on the earlier side, as it was approaching midnight EST, and we headed to bed. I got ready, put on my pajamas, crawled into bed, and laid there for about 10 minutes. What was I thinking! It's my first night in Vegas! Let's go! So I went out by myself for a couple hours wandering through the nearby casinos before turning in.

The next morning I find myself with a couple hours to myself because my mil had a meeting that morning. I catch breakfast on my own at NYNY's Chinese restaurant's breakfast buffet, which had surprisingly little Chinese food on it, and that not very good (about what I expected). Then I had to check out of NYNY, haul the bags across the street to Excalibur and put them in storage, and then go pick up our show tickets for that evening. Then I went out and did some shopping - some souvenirs, some overpriced beauty products and teas for me...

I met up with my MIL. We had decided to go out to Stratosphere so I could ride the roller coasters, but Strat is WAAAAY at the other end of the strip (about 2.5 miles). We were considering a taxi, but then I noticed that there was a new monorail that ran the length of the strip! Yay! It didn't go all the way to Strat, so we decided to ride to the Las Vegas Hilton and check out the Star Trek Experience.

The Star Trek Experience is really cool. It consists of three parts:

The Star Trek museum, which has all kinds of memorabilia spanning all the shows. (I particularly liked the Mark IV Photon Torpedo). Very cool stuff. If you ever go to this, don't blow by the museum just because you're in a hurry to get to the rides.
The Borg Invasion. They set up this cool live-action scenario where the Borg are breaking in and you see crew members being taken by the Borg in surprising (and humorous) fashion before entering a theater and confronting the Borg in a 3-D movie. Lots of fun!
The Klingon Encounter. Not as good of a story setup - the Klingons have transported you through a time rift and you are trying to get home to your time. They put you in a motion simulator (supposedly a shuttlecraft) and basically toss you about for 4 minutes. It's a spectacular ride (though definitely *not* for those prone to motion sickness) with a fun little twist at the end.

It was more expensive that I would have hoped at $35, but it was still worth it. It was also the location of Quark's Restaurant, which is of course a replica of the famous place in DSN. It looked cool, but the line to get in was atrocious, so we had to pass it up.

My goodness! I've been typing for almost an hour and I haven't gotten terribly far. You all probably hate my propensity for writing travelogues. I like them, and it's a good reference to go back to for when I finally get around for doing my scrapbook pages on the trip. But I'd better finish this off tomorrow, as much as I would like to kick back the rest of the wine and blab on, but I have to be up early to take Zipper to the doctor (darn that responsibility thing!)

Tuesday, January 4, 2004 - Vegas, Baby!

2005-01-04T10:48:00.000-05:00

I will be disappearing from the blogosphere for a few days because I am going to Las Vegas! Yeah, baby! With my mother-in-law...

Still...yeah, baby!

My mother-in-law wanted a travel companion. She's going there for a focus group. But I get to tag along and have fun fun fun (until the money runs out, of course).

I probably won't do much gambling, actually. I go out to the casinos here once or twice a year, and while it's fun, I don't think it's a worthwhile use of the money (maybe it's because I keep losing).

BTW, real-life friends, we need to have a poker night soon so I can clean you out again! LOL

We're going to go see the Blue Man Group show (I love them, they're so cool [in a non-conformist way])! And I am definitely going to go over to Stratosphere so I can ride the roller coasters that they have on top of the tower! Oooh, and maybe I'll go over to that indoor "skydiving" place. And maybe over to the Star Trek Experience at the Las Vegas Hilton...

I know, I've only got two days. Can't pack everything in.

Pity my mother-in-law didn't want to go see the Chippendales though. *sigh* I know, be good, I'm a married woman...

See ya! Woooooooo hooooooo!!!!!

Tuesday, January 4, 2004 - Proof that Buffalo's Medical System Isn't All Crap

2005-01-04T10:35:00.000-05:00

http://start.earthlink.net/article/tec?guid=20050103/41d8d150_3421_1334520050103-510481546

Monday, January 3, 2005 - Who Buys This Stuff, Anyway? Part 3

2005-01-03T11:29:00.000-05:00

Check out Jade's blog entry of January 2nd to learn all about the wonderful world of truck balls! Oh, the things that people will do to compensate for their shortcomings! LOL

Monday, January 3, 2005 - New Year's Celebrations

2005-01-03T11:20:00.000-05:00

New Year's Eve was pretty good. Ironwolf went out with the guys to dinner while I stayed home with the little ones, and then they all came back to our place for fun and frolic. OK, it wasn't exactly a wild party, but I can't think of anyone I'd rather celebrate with than them.

We let the boys stay up pretty late, until about 10:30. They weren't happy about being sent to bed. Too much energy! I swear, if I had 15% of their energy...

Anyway, we had fun. Watched movies, listened to music (though I just don't know why nobody else but me likes Atari Teenage Riot *hee hee*), played video games, and got nicely tipsy.

It's a good way to see a year out.

Monday, January 3, 2005 - Tsunami Words

2005-01-03T11:07:00.000-05:00

As you can tell, I was pretty bummed out on the 31st (really early in the morning) about the tsunami and about life in general. I was avoiding the topic, but the reality of it just came crashing down on my psyche that night.

I was happy to read that a relative of Mia's has been found injured but alive.

Thank you readers for your comforting words. I've dealt out a few of them myself over the last week.

Friday, December 31, 2004 - Closing of the Year

2004-12-31T04:13:00.000-05:00

If I cannot bring you comfort
Then at least I bring you home
For nothing is more precious
Than the time we haven't sold

This is the time to be together
And the truth is somewhere here
Within our love for people
At the closing of the year

"At the Closing of the Year"

Wendy and Lisa

Toys soundtrack

Friday, December 31, 2004 - The Death Toll Rises

2004-12-31T03:35:00.000-05:00

There is no God.

Wednesday, December 29, 2004 - Oooh, Return of the King...

2004-12-29T23:10:00.000-05:00

Somehow I managed to keep from watching Return of the King until Monday. It has now been in the DVD player for 3 days, during which time we've watched the movie, parts of two of the four commentaries, and most of the supplemental material on the other two discs.

Maybe for New Year's Eve I'll pop in the whole trilogy and watch all of it in one shebang for the first time... Ooooh....

Side note: A big thank you to Martin for the chocolate! My favorite kind too!

Wednesday, December 29, 2004 - Post #200!

2004-12-29T23:01:00.000-05:00

For a long time Blogger has said that I have posted 160 posts to this blog. I knew that it was wrong, so I _just_ counted, and it turned out that I had 199 posts. And that means...

Huzzah! It's ShadowAngel's 200th Postiversary!

Wednesday, December 29, 2004 - Christmas? Oh, yeah!

2004-12-29T22:43:00.000-05:00

I never actually got around to describing Christmas Day, so here it is in brief.

Ironwolf and I tumbled into bed pretty late the night before, and thankfully the boys slept until a reasonable hour (about 8 AM). Rascal quickly went downstairs because he was excited about the presents, but when I made it downstairs with Zipper a few minutes later, Rascal seemed very grumpy. I think he needed a little more sleep. Zipper didn't quite know what to make of the scene. It took us 10-15 minutes before we could persuade them to open their first gifts.

Present time took quite a while, as the boys wanted everything opened up so they could play with it before opening the next gift, but that wasn't a problem because we had no place to go and no one else was coming over.

After presents and breakfast everyone settled down for a relatively quiet afternoon of assembling and playing with toys. Except for me, who strangely enough didn't really have any toys to play with (that's ok, the IPod for my birthday more than makes up for that - besides, Ironwolf got me a minijack --> RCA cable so I could hook the IPod to our stereo - very cool). So I ended up cleaning and cooking most of the day (what else is new?).

But we had a lovely ham dinner (would anyone like some leftover ham? Please?), and we talked with several of our far-flung relatives on the phone.

It really was a wonderful holiday.

Wednesday, December 29, 2004 - A Strange Sort of Guilt

2004-12-29T22:30:00.001-05:00

Not long ago I described the "Kill Everyone" project (which you can see on my sidebar). I'm feeling a little guilty because right now in the project the target is "killing" the population of India.

Of course the project is just a joke of sorts, but it seems a lot less humorous when real-life disasters happen.

Wednesday, December 29, 2004 - Personal Medical-Type Yuckiness

2004-12-29T22:30:00.000-05:00

If you aren't into hearing this sort of thing, feel free to skip this post, because it falls into the category of "too much information".

Over the summer I developed a cyst in my groin, which I saw my doctor about. He was unconcerned about it and recommended that I not bother having it removed unless it was really bothering me. Ok, fine.

Last Thursday morning I wake up and discover to my shock a red, painful lump in that location that has grown from the size of a large pea to that of maybe half a ping-pong ball.

So on Monday morning I gave the doctor a call. He had me come in that afternoon. He determined that it was an infection and decided to lance it. Thankfully he gave me a shot of Novocaine, but that shot hurt like you would not believe. I wanted to grab the doctor's hair and pull it out (but I settled on my own hair instead).

For two days I walked about with a big dressing over the wound, which was left open and stuffed with gauze so it could drain. I'm walking around funny, pick up Zipper, and strain a back muscle. Now I can't bend _this_ way or *this* way. Later I'm picking something up off the floor and go down onto my knee and land with all my weight on one knee on a small toy, resulting in a bruise.

So now it hurts to do _this_, *this* and ^this^.

Today I went back to have the dressing removed, which also hurt like hell, but it's looking a lot better. I just have a pile of antibiotics to take for a week. Once it heals up I'll need to make a decision as to whether the cyst needs to come out (assuming it still exists). My back is slowly getting better too. I'll probably be back in action by early next week.

Sunday, December 26, 2004 - Holly-Day Wishes

2004-12-26T23:09:00.000-05:00

Good wishes and good will to you all!

Christmas Eve didn't exactly go as expected. We were hit by a rather large snowfall that afternoon (about 8 inches), making driving trecherous, but as we live only a few minutes drive from the church, we made the trek anyway (very slowly). A surprisingly large number of people made it to the early church service, and it was lovely. Rascal didn't really have enough patience to sit through it, but by and large he kept quiet.

After the service Ironwolf and the boys headed out to grandma's house. I was about to make a quick trek home (since I was the one responsible for the bell choir director's Christmas gift, and I, uh, forgot it at home...), when the Chancel (vocal) choir director told me not to bother because the bell choir director had just called - she was snowed in and couldn't make it for the next service.

Oh, yay. We in the handbell choir were without a director, with 1 1/2 hours until "showtime".

Thankfully we have another musical professional in the chancel choir (she teaches at a local college). She arrived early, and was kind enough to agree to direct the group. So I made a copy of all the music (since our regular director had the conductor's scores) and went through it with her while other members of the bell choir set up.

We had barely enough time to practice each of the three pieces once.

So, how did it turn out?

Not too bad, actually. The first piece was rather rocky, since as a group we weren't terribly familiar with it, but we kept it together. The second piece (which we had performed before) went alright, with a few minor errors (obvious to me, but not necessarily to the congregation). The last piece, which is a very difficult version of _Carol of the Bells_, went incredibly well. I don't think we have ever played it better.

Thank you Lois for being our angel that evening!

After that I did head off to join the others, and while things were winding down, everyone stayed long enough for me to unwrap my gifts and to socialize a bit for they started taking off. Plus they also saved me some dinner, which I was very grateful for at 10 PM. We shuffled the boys off to bed when we arrived home about 11 PM, despite cries of protest. "We're not tired!" Then we prepared for Santa's arrival before tumbling into bed, exhausted from our day.

Friday, December 24, 2004 - A Little Holiday Humbug

2004-12-24T01:28:00.000-05:00

This is the first Christmas that I will not be spending with my extended family (because my parents and my sister and her family have moved to South Carolina). It's rather sad. But I know that next year things will be more settled and we should be able to get into a "new" old routine for the holidays.

That is, assuming that I'm not writing this blog from the other side of the world come next December.

But I still have my hubby's family, right? And they are still all around here!

Well, true. Except...

Ironwolf's sister decided that she didn't like the Christmas schedule. She didn't like rushing off to her mother's house on Christmas morning, as was our tradition, because she wanted to spend a quiet Christmas at home with her family. OK, that's fine, nothing wrong with that at all. So she proposes a Christmas Eve gathering. We'd all go to the early church service together and then go to Grandma's house for dinner. Great for everyone.

Except me. I'll be going to that early church service, and I'll be staying there, because it will be time for me to rehearse for handbells and choir for the 7:30 PM service. Now, of course, by the time I roll out of church at 9 PM or so, it will be getting too late for the kiddies, and by the time I get there things will be wrapping up.

Yay.

Who knows why later on Christmas Day could not be considered? It's not like my husband's sister has anyplace else to rush off to later that day - her husband and his family is Jewish.

I'm being a humbug, I know, and I also know that I'll still enjoy and appreciate the holiday with my immediate family. But it's just not right. I'm used to a whirlwind of family and fun, and this year there will be none of that.

Friday, December 24, 2004 - There, I Did It

2004-12-24T01:11:00.000-05:00

I am finally all caught up on my blog reading. It's about stinkin' time.

Forgive me for flagging in my "duties." It won't happen again (for a little while, anyway)

Thrusday, December 23, 2004 - Holiday Shopping Blues (and Reds and Greens)

2004-12-23T23:10:00.000-05:00

Must remember not to tell Jewish bro-in-law Happy Hanukkah tomorrow at the Christmas Eve family gathering - the celebration is over already...and it would be like saying "happy halloween" when it's already mid-November...

I am happy to report that I did not rip open Return of the King. But, oh, the temptation!

As always, I had a bunch of "last-minute" shopping still to do this week. On Tuesday I packed up the kids and headed to the mall in the late morning. It wasn't too bad then but it was starting to get crowded when we left a couple hours later.

I get home with my packages and discover that I don't have one of the bags. Ugh. I probably left it on the floor when I was trying to get everybody's coats and hats back on, or someone could have just walked up and taken it, and I probably wouldn't have noticed. I'm betting on the former though - my view of humanity isn't too dim today.

Thankfully the package didn't contain an expensive gift (about $20 - none too pleasant, but it's not going to kill me). But, since Ironwolf insisted, I went back to the mall that night after getting the kids to bed. Customer Service didn't have the package (surprise, surprise), so I went shopping.

Let me tell you, the mall is a wonderful place to go shopping after 10 PM during Christmas week, when it is open until 11 PM! No crowds at all! Oh, it was heaven, and I finished up the last bit of shopping I had to do (including replacing the lost present).

Thursday, December 23, 2004 - It's Really Strange...

2004-12-23T22:58:00.000-05:00

when you are shoveling snow and it's 50 F outside.

There's been a lot of bitter cold and a couple inches of snow last night, but today we got this freaky warm front that came through for a few hours, and then the temperature dropped back down into the low 20's.

This would be ok, but that meant that snow was melting and flooding the sidewalk and the end of the driveway. And if that (and the snow still on the driveway) sat, it would all turn to ice by nightfall. So I bundled up the kids, and we headed outside into the rain and shoveled snow.

I also learned that my snow boots cannot stand up to 4 inches of water. Brrrr....

Thursday, December 23, 2004 - Boo For Me

2004-12-23T22:52:00.000-05:00

I seem to be losing my readership because I have fallen off the wagon in my blog reading too. And posting less often.

Despite what you think, it's not because I'm playing _The Sims_ all the time (ok, it was that for about 1 1/2 weeks, but never mind that).

It's partially because we keep the computer room closed off in the winter, so it's nasty cold in here, and not really the place where I want to spend a lot of time.

It's partially the busy busy holiday season.

And it's partially that I'm just making excuses.

OK, that's it. I am going to sit here until I catch up on everyone else's blog. (Ironwolf won't be happy about that). And I'll try to get back to my posting nearly every day schedule.

Saturday, December 18, 2004 - Tae Kwon Leap (Boot To The Head)

2004-12-18T22:07:00.000-05:00

Rascal and I had our second Tae Kwon Do lesson yesterday. I had a good time, but all Rascal wants to do is to jump around and do cartwheels. The instructor thinks that probably he will not be ready for group classes because he doesn't follow directions.

This is really disheartening to me, because this would not be the first time that Rascal has been rejected from an activity due to his rambunctiousness. I was really hoping that he would be interested in this and that it would help him to learn discipline and get him ready to deal with a structured environment. Rascal will try a group class on Monday to see if he responds better to it, but prospects look bleak.

The horrid thing is that I know that is very much my fault for not providing the structure and the discipline that he needs. It's my fault that he isn't in a Pre-K program (although I would have had to shell out a lot of money for a private Pre-K, since he didn't get a spot in the public "universal" Pre-K). It's my fault that he really isn't involved in any activities. He's a smart kid, and I'm probably dooming him to a childhood where he is a social misfit (like my childhood).

I know, I'm beating myself up over this, and I don't really need to. I'm not the type of mother who lets him get away with anything he wants, but I do like to give him a lot of freedom. But the fact is that he does need some structure, and I'm at a loss at how to provide it.

On a good note, I seem to be doing quite well, and I must say that I look very good in my uniform, and have finally learned how to tie the belt. :-) I'll be starting group classes on Monday as well. I'll be a clueless newbie in a sea of seasoned adult students, but everyone's gotta start somewhere. Now we'll just have to find out how much these classes are actually going to cost me...

Thursday, December 16, 2004 - Kill Everyone!!!

2004-12-16T23:13:00.000-05:00

I am happy to announce that I have joined the _Kill Everyone_ project at homokaasu.org. It's a fun little "game" that has been running since 2002 where the object is to eventually exterminate the entire human race (virtually, via mouse clicking on a box - 1 click = 1 "dead person").

It's surprisingly fun on those days when you have a particularly bleak view of existence.

If you want to join in the murderous fun, you can click through the Kill Everyone graphic (showing my current body-count) in the sidebar! Enjoy!

Thrusday, December 16, 2004 - I'm A Bad, Bad, Bad, Bad, Mother...

2004-12-16T22:44:00.000-05:00

I could not stop myself - I screamed at my children far, far too much today. Every little thing grated at me, and I could not take it.

I know I've brought this topic up before, but it's really gnawing at my soul. For about 48 hours every month, I become this horrible, miserable, bitchy, unbearable person. Intellectually I know it's insanity, but I can't make myself stop.

I know I should bring it up with my doctor, but I don't know if it will do much good. I did tell him about the migraines, and he gave me some stuff which has helped somewhat.

In an ideal world, what I would like to do is to take those days off and go do whatever my little heart desires. Unfortunately, you don't get vacation days from being a mom.

So I end up taking my unstable emotions out upon my loved ones (oh, btw, to my real-life friends - yeah, that pretty much accounts for the times over the years when you have seen me at my worst. The sad thing is that I probably have better control over it now than I used to have.)

I can't live like this any longer. But I don't know what to do.

Thursday, December 16, 2004 - Thum for Dummies

2004-12-16T22:34:00.000-05:00

I'll admit to all of you out there in cyberspace; I bite my nails.

It's a nasty, disgusting habit that I picked up from my mother (and most of the rest of her side of the family), and now I seem to have passed on the bad habit to Rascal.

Ironwolf, finding the whole thing rather distasteful, is trying to nip it in the bud. He bought one of those concoctions to make your fingers taste bad so that you won't bite them. The particular formula he purchased is called Thum, and it is basically nail polish with cayenne pepper extract.

So far, Rascal doesn't seem to be too deterred by it.

As for me, I put several coats of it on, and I still don't notice the taste unless I'm actually looking for it. But then again, I have a history of stuff like that not working. I guess they (used to?) have this "bitter apple" stuff that was supposed to taste _really_ bad. My mother tells me that I liked the taste of it. *hee hee*

I suppose I should knuckle down and try to beat this habit... [ShadowAngel places the back of her hand upon her forehead and sighs] ...for my children's sake!

Thursday, December 16, 2004 - A ShadowAngel Improvement Update

2004-12-16T22:27:00.000-05:00

First of all, a big hello to Ann Marie!

Well, things are mixed in the ShadowAngel improvement department. I let the trial membership at the Buffalo Athletic Club lapse. It really wasn't the place for me. Oh, the facility was ok (though I wish it had a pool), but I was really unhappy with the atmosphere there. People just didn't seem very friendly, and the staff... well, it seemed to me that all the staff cared about was getting me signed up to a long-term membership (I think maybe their membership signups are linked to bonuses or promotions or job security or something).

The holiday season has not treated me well and I have regained a few pounds (boo).

But! A new development is at hand. Rascal and I have joined a Tae Kwon Do studio. We had our first introductory lesson yesterday, and we will have another one tomorrow. I'm not sure how much Rascal likes it yet (he was really crabby yesterday), but I think it's a lot of fun. We've got a couple more lessons before I'll be asked to make any financial commitment, so we'll see how things go, but if I can manage the cost, I'm certainly sticking with it. I really hope Rascal wants to do it too. One of the big reasons that I chose this particular studio is that they have daily family classes where parents and children can train together.

My only problem with Tae Kwon Do is that I can't seem to get my belt tied right...

Tuesday, December 14, 2004 - LOTR:ROTK X is here!

2004-12-14T23:14:00.000-05:00

Hooray! The long-awaited L0rd of the Rings: The Return of the King Extended Version DVD set is out! I got my hands on my copy this afternoon. I can't wait to see the scenes with Christopher Lee that were cut from the theatrical release!

But...I must be a good ShadowAngel. I am giving it to Ironwolf for Christmas.

Must...not...rip...open...wrapping...paper...

Must...resist...temptation...

Tuesday, December 14, 2004 - Maybe I Shouldn't Be Such A Perfectionist, But...

2004-12-14T23:10:00.000-05:00

I was seriously annoyed about the music in last Sunday's church service. I can chalk a lot of it up to PMS, but still hear me out.

Every year, two Sundays before Christmas, the chancel and handbell choirs prepare a large number of pieces for a service which is almost exclusively music. I thought we were just awful on Sunday, compared to our usual performance.

Now, I don't usually fret too much about the handbell choir, since there are a number of beginners in the group, and mistakes happen. But our first piece was one of our "showcase" pieces - a rather difficult rendition of _Carol of the Bells_. Now, I have the dubious distinction of being the one carrying most of the melody for the first half of the piece (you know how the piece goes). Now, the player immediately on my right needs to come in with the harmony at the right time - and she's a measure ahead, and it's screwing up other people, and I'm counting off measure numbers to her, but she's got earplugs in (because it's a very loud piece and the volume is too much for her ears), so she doesn't hear me. She finally got things straightened out after 15 measures or so, and it's not as though the piece fell apart, but still, after all the work we did on that...

Then there's the Chancel Choir. Everyone, but particularly the men's sections, were *really* flat. It's just painful to listen to it. It was particularly annoying in one piece which was supposed to be a quiet piece, but the rest of the tenor section behind me was just absolutely blasting into my ear, and they sounded horrid too. Ugh!

I'm sorry; I've been whining. But we work really hard at this music, and sometimes it's just perfect, but when a "performance" comes around and it's just so bad I can't stand it. I know, don't fret over it. The congregation doesn't much notice when we make mistakes, and even when they do notice they tend to forget about it quickly.

Tuesday, December 14, 2004 - My Baby's Not A Baby Anymore

2004-12-14T22:53:00.000-05:00

You're smart readers. You already know that Rascal turned 5 on Saturday. Oh, my little boy is getting so big! It seems like just yesterday he was a tiny baby. How quickly the time goes...

On his birthday proper we kept things low-key. His grandmother and great-grandmother stopped by for a short visit. Ironwolf gave Rascal a little build-it-yourself Home Depot wooden workbench, and they spent much of the day putting it together. Rascal was very proud of it when it was finished.

Also during the afternoon he and I baked a birthday cake for him, which he decorated in typical Rascal fashion - which pretty much consists of taking every little bottle of colored sugar and other decorative bits and dumping them all over the cake. (hee hee)

I asked him what he wanted for his birthday dinner. After much serious contemplation, the response was "eggs". Eggs? Well...okay, if that's what you want...

Happy Birthday Rascal!

Tuesday, December 14, 2004 - I Would Cry If It Wasn't So Damn Funny

2004-12-14T22:43:00.000-05:00

Tonight I was not expecting to be blogging; I was planning on baking some cookies. But unfortunate events led me to this point...

First of all, I was trying a new recipe, and I quickly realized that the mixing bowl that I was using, along with my electric mixer, was way too small. And how did I realize this? Because the mixer was throwing the mixture from the bowl and splattering it all over me and my kitchen! (and this was *before* I added any flour). So, with a little difficulty, I searched and found a larger bowl to accomodate the mixture and proceeded to add the flour.

I had just put the last scoop of flour in and was completing the mixing process when suddenly my hair caught in the electric mixer, rapidly winding itself countless times around the beaters. Thankfully the mixer was on low speed, for I was able to react quickly enough to shut it off the mixer became thoroughly embedded in my hair.

I wandered down to the basement, mixer and bowl in hand, to where Ironwolf was wrapping presents. He was a little annoyed because he was wrapping a present for me at the time, but soon he realized my dire predicament and cut my hair loose from the machine.

So my cookie dough is ruined, I've lost a lock of hair (though it's not really noticeable amongst my unkempt mane), my kitchen is a terrible mess, and I won't be able to make more cookies until I go to the store again for more ingredients.

*sigh* You may all now proceed to make fun of me... :-P

Friday, December 10, 2004 - Stats Don't Lie, Or Do They?

2004-12-10T22:21:00.000-05:00

It's very odd... I looked at the stats I keep at the bottom of my web site, and it appears that Wendy's blog has 100 referrals to mine in the last 24 hours. Strange...

Friday, December 10, 2004 - Celebrations

2004-12-10T22:18:00.000-05:00

Today was a day full of celebrations!

First I had the pleasure of attending my church's seniors' luncheon. Ok, I didn't really go for the luncheon - I was part of the entertainment. Part of the handbell choir (the half-dozen of us in the group that are retired or could get out of work [or be lucky enough to have dh at home watching the boys today]) played a selection of Christmas handbell pieces. Our director surprised us with Santa hats to wear during the performance. We looked really funny!

It was a lot of fun, but unfortunately we didn't get to have a lot of rehearsal time, and some of the handbell choir members are not so skilled (I do pretty well for myself though), so the last two pieces didn't come out quite so well. Usually if you have a weak piece of music, you shove it in the middle so people forget about it pretty quick. Nope. Both the tough ones were at the end. Ah, well. What do you expect from volunteers anyway! *chuckle*

Later in the afternoon we surprised Rascal with a trip to Chuck E. Cheese's because my baby turns 5 years old tomorrow! I didn't want to throw a big bash (there will be time enough for that when he starts requesting them), so we just had his aunt and cousin as guests. Oh, it was so much fun! The little ones had a great time with the games and rides (and the adults managed to get a few cracks at the games too). It was surprisingly quiet there too until about 6 PM (when the parents finally got of work to take their kiddies there, of course). Rascal was very surprised and happy.

I told myself I wasn't going to do it, but Rascal had been requesting the Fisher-Price Imaginext Dragomont Fortress for months. I told myself I wasn't going to get a crappy piece of plastic toy, but I broke down and got it anyway. Well, ok, not exactly. The Fortress is a new toy in their Dragon set. I looked at the set and found that the older "scenery pieces" cost much less (and looked cooler imho) so I got him a "dungeon" set and some extra figures to go along with it. Rascal was thrilled to get it! There were about a million pieces to put together, but it wasn't too bad. There's a slight tendency for a couple of the pieces to fall off, but it's built to bew easily put together and taken apart so it can be constructed in different ways. Very cool. I wish I had one as a kid.

Actually, I'm kind of lusting for the Fire & Ice Dragons set put out recently by Mega Bloks. Oh, I saw a display of them today and they are so cool! I would have gotten them for Rascal instead but they are all ages 8+ toys. Ah, well. Maybe there will be one in my stocking.

Wow, I've really digressed here. Party hearty, y'all!

Friday, December 10, 2004 - The Quest For The Beer Is Completed!

2004-12-10T21:57:00.000-05:00

Yea, verily, my valiant husband, Sir Ironwolf, traversed the wilderness upon his steed and captured his long-sought quarry!

Yup, he finally found the Paulaner beer!

Since Ciara commented about it ( I got a good laugh too): We had the opportunity to have this beer while in Hong Kong. Actually, we had quite a few of them *chuckle*. Unfortunately it would not have been reasonable to import the quantity we wanted by bringing it from China. And wouldn't it be strange?

"Do you have anything to declare?"
"Umm, yeah...these three cases of German beer we brought back from Hong Kong."

Expensive stuff though. Ironwolf paid $52/case. Ouch. Our "everyday" beer is Labatt Blue, a nice, lightweight (but not watery) Canadian lager available everywhere here for about $16/case.

Finally this foolish quest is over!

Thursday, December 9, 2004 - Quest For The Beer

2004-12-09T15:45:00.000-05:00

Those of you that followed my Hong Kong blog may remember my mentioning a certain German beer for which Ironwolf has been looking for many months. Here now is the story so far:

Ironwolf had a discussion with his bro-in-law (last year, I think_, in which the BIL mentioned that his favorite beer was this unpronounceable German beer made by Paulaner. I don't know if he had it in Germany or whatever, but I wasn't part of this conversation. Anyway, the BIL was sad that he was unable to find the beer anywhere locally.

So Ironwolf went on a quest to find this beer. Sad to say, it was true, the beer could not be found locally. he did find a place that sold pilsner glasses with the beer's logo on it (he bought those), but they no longer carried the beer.

Months later he decided to go hunting on the Internet. We found that there were distributors of this beer in the U.S., but could not find one closer than Binghampton (about 3 hours away), and they of course are wholesalers, not retailers. Ironwolf planned to drive out to Binghampton this weekend just to find this beer *somewhere*. Luckily, some additional phone research located a retailer with plenty of cases in Rochester (*much* closer!). Yay! Tomorrow evening my hubby will be off to collect the long-awaited brew!

Thursday, December 9, 2004 - Because I Feel Guilty

2004-12-09T15:36:00.000-05:00

I want to apologize to my dear readers and to everyone else whose blogs I read that I haven't been there in so long. I really, really, really want to catch up on everyone's lives. I think it's going to take a few days to get through it all though.

I miss my online friends.

Thrusday, December 9, 2004 - He's A Foul One, Mr. Grinch...

2004-12-09T15:33:00.000-05:00

I am such a Scrooge. I feel so un-filled with the holiday spirit this year.

Maybe it's the fact that there isn't any snow (hey, it's Buffalo!). In fact, we are having a bit of a heat wave right now (high 40's to low 50's). It doesn't seem like winter has arrived. (yes, I know, technically winter doesn't arrive for two more weeks).

Maybe it's that I'm already suffering from holiday overload. For example:

First day I saw a Christmas display in the stores: October 25.
First day the first 24/7 Christmas song radio station started playing here: November 1.
First day I saw a big, garish holiday light display in someone's yard in my neighborhood: November 11. (Some people still had Jack O' Lanterns in front of their homes.)
First day I noticed Santa in the mall: November 17.

This is getting ridiculous.

Or maybe it's just that I haven't really done much in the way of holiday preparations yet. Yeah, I put up some lights outside the other day (in the cold rain, btw), and I've done some of my shopping, but really that's it.

(cue music)
Oh, we need a little Chirstmas
right this very minute
Candles in the window
Carols at the spinet
Yes, we need a little Christmas
Right this very minute
Need a little Christmas now

Sunday, December 5, 2004 - Thank Heavens For The Internet

2004-12-05T23:15:00.000-05:00

When I was cleaning up today I came across a bill for some CDs from one of those evil music services. It was due today. (Eeek!) So I fired up the computer, got myself an account on their web site, and paid off my bill lickety-split.

Now, of course, it'll be on next month's credit card bill, but for the moment, disaster averted!

Sunday, December 5, 2004 - Quite A Weekend To Cover

2004-12-05T23:12:00.000-05:00

Wow, this weekend has been busy. I haven't had a moment to get online and post.

Friday night was Ironwolf's company holiday party. I always look at these affairs with a bit of dread. Oh, boy, let's go to another party where I meet the same people again and still can't remember any of their names! *laugh*

Really, it's not all that bad. I remembered 3 or 4 people! Not including Ironwolf's former boss (oops). Nice dinner, good company at our table (though no one that I knew before). And it's always a lot easier to socialize after you've gotten a couple drinks in you. I made Ironwolf dance a little, joined in the Electric Slide as I always do, and tried to bite my tongue during the company awards ceremony (instead of making fun of it like last year).

Nearly every woman was dressed in black (as was I). Damn, I have to get me a baby blue dress or something so that I can stand out at one of these parties. Wait.. I'd rather not stand out.

I got a good chuckle about a dress that one young woman was wearing. It was very low cut, and as I was taking to her my eyes kept straying to her chest... There was just no avoiding it! Ironwolf tells me that she dresses like that all the time at work too. Well, I guess, if you've got it, flaunt it, but...

Saturday: good day, quiet, except for an ill-advised trip to the grocery store. I brought both boys, because they wanted to shop with Mommy, and they misbehaved, and the store was surprisingly crowded, and I couldn't find what I wanted. Grrr... oh, well.

My mother called me and informed me that she and my father would be coming to my place on Sunday evening. Yay! I miss my folks so much since they moved several months ago. I knew that my father and my bro-in-law were coming out because my sister and her son are moving down to South Carolina with them. But I was surprised that my mom was joining us too. She was supposed to have started a new job on Monday, but the place rescinded the offer (very upsetting) but since then she has found another position which will start up the next week. So bonus for me though!

I went out scrapbooking that night with one Creative Memories-associated group that has a monthly crop. Usually I go with my sis-in-law, but she was off at her hubby's holiday party. But I still had a couple friends there to chat with (of course, I've gone to crops where I don't know anyone - that doesn't bother me). There was also two people there that have also been to China recently (go figure, in a room of 25 ladies), so we swapped stories. I got a lot done too, so it made me a happy ShadowAngel.

Sunday: Went to church early because I keep missing Thursday night choir rehearsal (because of Ironwolf's schedule) and needed some rehearsal time. Stayed late at church for the same reason. Next Sunday is the annual big music Sunday in Advent, and there is a pile of music I'm not totally comfortable with yet. Also, the choir director would be flogging me with a wet noodle if I didn't show up for some of these rehearsals.

I spent the entire afternoon cleaning up for my parents' visit. I also called up my brother and my other sister to invite them over. My sister wasn't free, but my brother's wife said they would come, so I spent some extra time going through toys to assemble a collection of toys appropriate for their 2-year-old to play with (and removing the small-parts toys that he might be inclined to eat [strangely, Zipper has no interest in mouthing toys anymore, and I don't really need to worry about him choking on small parts {doesn't mean I'm not wary though}]).

My parents arrive and a couple minutes later my sis-in-law calls my mother to tell us that their son is throwing a fit so they decided not to come. What the heck! That's just the lamest excuse. My kids have tantrums too. So what. I put them in their coats, toss them into their car seats, buckle them up, and go. Big fat hairy deal. It's just another excuse. If they didn't want to come all they had to tell me was that they couldn't make it - I would have understood.

Anyway, we were so happy to see them, and they were so happy to see us! The boys just swarmed over their grandparents. I kept their visit a surprise, and they were so excited! We spent some time visiting, talking, and playing, and then we all went to a nice Chinese restaurant (which was, as usual, empty - a shame because it's a great place). It was a lot of fun. Unfortunately my parents had to leave at the end of dinner, but they had a long drive back to my sister's house, and they had been up since 1 AM driving from South Carolina. My mom cried. I know they miss us too.

It will be a couple months before we get to see them again, so I was very grateful that they were able to make some time for us - I know that they have a very busy schedule on this trip, and I was prepared to accept that we would not get to see them this time. Thankfully things worked out!

Sunday, December 5, 2004 - Time For A Little Explanation

2004-12-05T22:41:00.000-05:00

Thank you, dear readers, for your kindness and your concern. I really appreciate it. You are as dear to me as my "real-life" friends.

Why have I disappeared for so long? The answer is simple, my friends: A deep lingering depression that manifested itself this time in the guise of total apathy. I became totally disconnected from my normal life - not taking part in most of my usual activities and hobbies, not doing anything vaguely social unless forced into it, and generally speaking hiding from the world.

The worst thing about it is that I don't know why I have felt this way. If I'm depressed, and I can locate a root cause for it, it tends not to grip me too tightly. But sometimes I just feel...nothing... for a long time. It's not life, it's mere existence.

Normally I would do things like retreat into the online world, but I never really felt inclined to do that this time. Yes, that was partially because of _The Sims_, but I really only played that for a few days, and I really wasn't online at all (hence the ridiculous number of email messages).

Just to put your mind at ease:

I am not suicidal or anything like that. Once in my life I was, but I won't let myself get to that point ever again.
I still take good care of my kids when I'm down. No, I'm not Supermom, but the boys remain happy and healthy.

So after 3 weeks, I am managing to pull myself out of this mental state. I suppose I could go to counseling, but they would just tell me things I already know. Or maybe I could get drugs, but I don't really care to muck around with my brain chemistry too much.

You don't need to worry about me. But if you see me disappear without explanation again for a long period, you certainly have my permission to come look for me. (Even if it means standing outside my house throwing snowballs at the front windows).

Thursday, December 2, 2004 - I Have...

2004-12-02T13:52:00.000-05:00

624 emails in my inbox.

Of these emails, 619 of them are spam.

Spamblocker my butt.

Thursday, December 2, 2004 - Computer Games BAD...

2004-12-02T13:50:00.000-05:00

I should know better to do this when I am in this kind of mental state, but a couple weeks ago, I bought _The Sims Mega Deluxe_ (with several of the expansions built in). I trust that you are all geeky enough to know of the game, so I won't explain it. As expected, I got caught up in it. Let me relate to you the sad, humorous life of my first character:

I thought that it would be easiest to start out with one Sim (turns out it's not easiest because of the social aspect, but that's unimportant). A few days into his miserable little life, he's making breakfast, and with no cooking skill manages to start the stove on fire. Now, no Sim can put a fire out by himself (he's too busy panicking - it's hilarious), so I endeavor to get him to call the fire department. Unfortunately, when setting up his home, I made the mistake of placing the phone on the wall above the stove. He watched his entire kitchen burn down. Then he lost his job, was too depressed to look for a new one, and I eventually let him starve to death.

I've been primarily running two characters now, and they have done quite well for themselves, moving all the way up their respective career ladders. Here's two good stories about one of them:

"Chris" was getting ready for work one morning and needed a little dose of fun, so she went outside to play with her model rocket. She started a fire next to her, which would not have been a problem except that I was at that time running that game at the highest possible speed, so that by the time I paused it, 45 game minutes had gone by and poor Chris had started burning herself and there was no saving her. I felt justified in not saving that game.
Chris moved all the way up the Science career ladder to the top position, Mad Scientist ( very cool). A few days later she drank one of her experiments and turned into a Criminal (one of the other career paths), so now she's a Criminal Mastermind instead (who happens to be living with an International Spy hee hee hee)! The money's better, but the hours stink.

Stupid game. Too much fun.

Thursday, December 2, 2004 - Thanksgiving and the Nightmare Weekend

2004-12-02T13:35:00.000-05:00

Thanksgiving, generally speaking, was nice. My husband's family gathered at his sister's house (along with her husband's parents). Unfortunately, Ironwolf's sister came down with a stomach virus the night before. And of course, she was supposed to be the one cooking dinner (don't worry, she didn't have to do it). And, she's six months pregnant and couldn't take anything for it. And, she was in the hospital last week for premature labor that was brought on by dehydration.

And... it was her birthday. Poor thing!

Aside from that, it was a lovely gathering. But then...

Fast forward to Friday night, around 11:15 PM. The kids are in bed, and Ironwolf and I have a couple friends over to play games. Ironwolf suddenly complains that he is not feeling well and disappears into the bathroon. The friends wisely decide that we should wrap things up for the night and they take off.

A few minutes after they leave, Ironwolf is in the bathroom again, but now he's vomiting. He gets himself all cleaned up and as I help him prepare for bed, I hear it. Rascal is in his bed, crying, with himself and his bed covered in vomit. Oh, boy. It's going to be a long night.

With the both of them throwing up regularly (and Rascal every few minutes), I was concerned, so I called up our health insurance 24-hour nurse line to try to make sure it wasn't food poisoning (we'd had a pizza that night, and you never know). The nurse called us and I and Ironwolf (mostly Ironwolf, because I was tending Rascal) talked with the nurse about their symptoms. The nurse came to the preliminary conclusion that Rascal had a bowel obstruction. What?! Excuse me? That doesn't even make sense! I don't think that a bowel obstruction in my son is going to cause my husband to be sick at the same time! Duh.

Sometime during this conversation I become increasingly aware that I am not feeling so well. At first I brush it off as stress plus the late hour, but eventually I must accept reality, and indeed I was also bending down to the porcelain goddess by about 2:30 AM.

Thankfully I got Rascal to sleep shortly after that, and lay down myself for a bit, but right around 4 AM Zipper wakes up vomiting. The next couple hours are spent primarily tending to him.

As you may have surmised, we did indeed catch the stomach virus from Ironwolf's sister (as did his brother and grandmother). That pretty well shot the whole weekend, and left me with this incredible pile of bodily-fluid soaked laundry to take care of. Oh, the stench (one of the reasons why I never joined most of my family in the nursing profession)!

Zipper still has the runs from this illness, and it's worse than I've ever seen before. But he seems cheerful and is eating and drinking normally so I'm not too worried (except I can't keep him in clean clothes). The diaper rash was really bad for a while. It's improving, and I expect him to be back to normal in a day or two.

Well, that which does not kill us makes us stronger, so I guess we must be stronger for the experience!

Thrusday, December 2, 2004 - 3 Weeks

2004-12-02T13:04:00.000-05:00

3 weeks.

THREE WEEKS.

That's how long I've been off the face of the planet. Ugh. Even for me, that's pretty bad.

I'll sound off on that topic very soon (tonight if I can keep myself awake), but until then I'll offer up a couple tidbits of the mundane.

Welcome back readers. I am indeed alive, if not kicking.

Friday, November 12, 2004 - Dream Careers

2004-11-12T11:35:00.000-05:00

First, a couple quick notes:

Thank you for the blog suggestions - I'll be sure to check them out soon.

Thanks to Mia for providing the story about the "cheeky Scotsman" picture.

Now, let's see...when I grow up I want to be a....

jazz singer (fly me to the moon...)
mad scientist (bwah ha ha ha!!!)
big-haired heavy metal hot chick bassist
video game tester
Jedi Knight
certified public accountant (just kidding)
Shaolin monk
goon hockey defenseman (defenseperson?)
ruler of the known universe

or...maybe something completely different...

Thursday, November 11, 2004 - Check This Out

2004-11-11T06:13:00.000-05:00

I was LMAO over this picture from Discombobulated Mia.

Wednesday, November 10, 2004 - More Fabulous HK Pics Available!

2004-11-10T00:04:00.000-05:00

Hooray! I got some more photos up on The Hong Kong Follies for your enjoyment!

Sorry I didn't get the snow pic up today like I said I would; Ironwolf has absconded with my camera cable so I can't get it to the pc yet.

Tuesday, November 9, 2004 - On The Hunt For More Cool Blogs

2004-11-09T23:10:00.000-05:00

I have come to the conclusion that most of the blogs out there suck.

Every now and then, when I'm thoroughly bored, I hop onto the list of recently updated blogs and start picking out blogs with cool titles. I think I maybe find 1 in 100 worth reading. I know, I know, most of what I read is "mom" blogs, but you'd think that at least a few percent of the blogs out there would be cool! *sigh*

Monday, November 8, 2004 - What's That Outside???

2004-11-08T22:02:00.000-05:00

Yes, folks, there is snow on the ground in Buffalo, NY. Winter is here. I'll have a pic for you tomorrow to prove it. Boo.

A couple days ago, our new bedroom dressers arrived. Yay! We needed them badly, particularly because Ironwolf's dresser was in sad, sad shape. Let's just say, it was his great-grandfather's dresser. Yes, that probably made it an official antique, but I think it was past saving.

So we put the dresser out on the curb this evening for garbage pickup tomorrow. A couple hours later I take a very broken child's bicycle out to the curb too, and find instead of a dresser, a television. What the heck? I guess someone liked the dresser more. A couple hours later I look out, and there's..nothing!

Ah, I have fond memories of garbage picking too, but I was really surprised to see it go so quickly. Hmmm...I have a glider/rocker in really poor shape, I wonder if I should put that out too tonight and see if it disappears before I go to bed...

Sunday, November 7, 2004 - A Few Random Thoughts

2004-11-07T22:35:00.000-05:00

It seems that I am getting a whole week's worth of postings done in one evening. C'est la vie!
The Bills won again! Yeah! We don't entirely suck!
I look up and realize that I still haven't managed to get all my clocks changed yet.
I know I complained about it a couple months ago, but I still have too much stuff. It's time for a proper cleaning o' the closets.
I'm not really horrified that Bush is still President. Saddened, perhaps, but not horrified. Life goes on, and after all, he's only got 4 more years to screw things up. Most dictators get a few decades!
I have decided that I can move to HK because...they have a handbell association :-)

Sunday, November 7, 2004 - Poopies of a Different Shade

2004-11-07T22:22:00.000-05:00

Ok, now that I've turned off all potential readers who are not moms, let's begin:

One of the stranger but oddly fascinating things about parenting very young children must be, on occasion, what can be found within their diapers.

I was changing Zipper today and found the contents of his diaper to be a really bright turquoise! It reminded me of Play-Doh (though you can rest assured that I was not about to be creating little sculptures out of that!). Now this surprised me and confused me for several minutes while I tried to figure out what could have caused this lovely coloration.

I determined that it must have resulted from a donut Zipper consumed yesterday. It had sprinkle decorations on it - orange hearts, and black bats (must not have gone through all the Halloween sprinkles yet). Of course it was the bats that were the culprit here, as I determined that they were not black at all, but actually a very dark blue. Ah, the interesting things you learn as a parent!

Sunday, November 7, 2004 - Someone Must Be Buying This Stuff, Vol. 2

2004-11-07T22:08:00.000-05:00

I have here in front of me a catalogue for The Sportsman's Guide, which, not surprisingly, sells things like hunting gear and other outdoorsy stuff (the catalogue was inadverently delivered to our house).

But a couple *very* strange things caught my eye. Once again I cannot believe that anyone would buy this stuff, but here goes:

Walking sticks and golf putters made from bull's reproductive organs
A useful pouch made from the same animal

Intellectually, I'm ok with this, but at a visceral level...ewww!

Sunday, November 7, 2004 - Would You Believe...

2004-11-07T21:52:00.000-05:00

that for some unknown, ungodly reason, the local Fox affiliate preempted the new Halloween Simpsons episode, replacing it with Malcolm in the Middle? No explanation, commercials for the Simpsons episode just a few minutes earlier. What the hell? The new Halloween episode (and hence the new season) is an actual event in our household. We are pissed! I think I'll email my local station and vent my displeasure.

Sunday, Novemeber 7, 2004 - And Here I Was, Trying To Get Back To My Normal Life

2004-11-07T21:48:00.000-05:00

I haven't posted in nearly a week. I'm sorry, faithful readers. Maybe some of you thought that I had flown across the border after hearing the results of the presidential election, but alas, that is not the case. :-)

In truth, I have not turned on the computer since Tuesday at all (or maybe I read blogs Wed., but it doesn't matter). There's a couple reasons for this:

I've been overwhelmed having to deal with the kids by myself. I swear, I don't know how single parents do it.
Ironwolf came home from HK on Friday, and I've (rightfully so) had to baby him the last couple days. It is so nice to have him back home though! We missed him so much!
Foolishly I succumed to Netflix's seductive advertising, which included a $2.oo/month rate reduction and rejoined the mindless throng. Therefore I am obliged to watch movies as quickly as possible. [Get that envelope back into the mail! We need more movies to make the service worthwhile!] Actually, Netflix is a wonderful thing during the cold and snowy Buffalo winters. (btw there's supposed to be flurries tomorrow *yuck!*)
Sad to say, I'm still in a vacation rebound phase. I have to admit it, it was nice not having to cook or clean or take care of kids for 1 1/2 weeks. I guess I'm a little depressed. But really it's no big deal.
There's no real excuse. I'm just lazy (grin).

Tuesday, November 2, 2004 - Fear and Loathing

2004-11-02T22:23:00.000-05:00

I'm afraid to tune into the election coverage.

I have had enough of this electoral college crap. Will you stand behind me to support a change to a straight-up popular vote for President? As it stands, we are now reduced to having the votes of a few hundred people in key locations make the difference in deciding who will be the ruler of the free world.

I also hate that as a voter in New York State, my vote essentially doesn't count, because the liberal vote will always carry the day in NYC. (Mind you, I voted for Kerry, but it's the principal of the thing). I'm sure there's Dems in strong Republican states that feel the same way - if you are in the minority, you're essentially disenfranchised.

And I've said it before, and I'll say it again: At least for national elections we need a standardized voting methodology. No using a dozen different methods of voting. Not every state has its own way of handling things. One national vote, one way.

That's about as political as I ever get (I don't have the stomach for it on a regular basis). Thank you for listening.

Tuesday, November 2, 2004 - Peter Gabriel Gets His Due

2004-11-02T22:15:00.000-05:00

Peter Gabriel was awarded the Music Industry's Trust Award in London yesterday. I have always felt him to be one of the most creative musical artists out there, and it is good to see him honored for his hard work. For more details check the AP story courtesy of Earthlink.

Tuesday, November 2, 2004 - In case you ever wondered

2004-11-02T10:20:00.000-05:00

Did you ever wonder why my blog is all in lowercase letters? It's not because I have self-esteem problems (which I do, but that's besides the point). It's something that happened early on in the blog's lifetime when I edited the template to remove the banner ad that used to appear at the top of every Blogger page. I can't explain it.

I decided to look into it a bit on the template, and yes, some sections of the blog are set up to do all lowercase letters, specifically the blog title and the post headers/footers. Ok, fine, but there is no such descriptor for the posts proper. I did figure out how to make the posts all uppercase, but I figured you would rather not have me screaming at you! :-)

So, you're just going to have to deal with it until I get bored some night and redo the template entirely. Too bad! :-p=

Tuesday, November 2, 2004 - New HK post

2004-11-02T10:00:00.000-05:00

There's a new post up on The Hong Kong Follies. No, I haven't managed to finish my travelogue yet, but we're getting there.

Monday, November 1st, 2004 - A Small Pet Peeve

2004-11-01T21:35:00.000-05:00

First of all, let me say this: I can't believe it's November already! Ahhh! There's going to be snow soon! Where did the summer go?! (oh, wait, the summer never really came to Buffalo this year)

Ok, the pet peeve:

In the town where I live there is an ordinance that people are not allowed to rake their leaf piles into the street. Instead, the leaves should be raked to the curb, between the sidewalk and the street, and the "leaf-sucker" truck will come by once a week or so to collect the leaves (which then gets turned into mulch and is given to residents for free).

But of course, all the other residents of my street have as usual raked their leaves into the street. The town talks about issuing citations every year but never actually does it. It's a hazard, since you don't know if something might be concealed within the leaves that could hurt someone or damage a vehicle.

Despite the hazard potential, I was annoyed enough about today that when I was out driving I would run my car through the leaf piles in the road so as to scatter them again. What the heck, if I run into something, my car is worth, oh...$350 on the open market, so who cares? It was fun, and maybe I pissed a couple people off.

But here's a fun little addition to the story. I'm driving through these piles, as I mentioned, and there is a truck behind me. I'm sure the driver noticed what I was doing. Well, we come to a point in the road, and someone has taken a long, flexible stick of perhaps 6 feet in length and stuck both ends into the holes of a sewer cover in the street, forming an arch not unlike an oversized croquet wicket. I drive around it, since my car is small, and as I look in the mirror I see the truck following me take particular pains to run right over it. *hee hee* The stick popped right back up after the truck had passed. I still thought it was funny.

Monday, November 1st, 2004 - Halloween Hullaballoo

2004-11-01T21:24:00.000-05:00

Halloween as always was a fun day, even though I didn't throw one of my trademark parties this year (I thought I would be too tired and busy after the trip and boy, was I right). We went to church in the morning - there was no avoiding it because I was singing a solo. I go to drop Rascal off at his classroom and surprise, surprise - the kids were all supposed to have dressed up as a biblical figure this week (for an All Saints' Day parade around the chapel during the service). Nice of my mother-in-law to tell me about this; she brought the boys to church the last two Sundays in my absence. The teachers stuck a pair of bunny ears on his and called him one of the animals from Noah's ark. Fine. There were other kids in the same boat and worse - there were kids dressed as Spiderman and Batman, neither of whom I believe ever made a biblical appearance. :-)

After church we headed as usual to the church's coffee hour, also known as "the donut room" by my boys. The chess club has a few chessboards set up. Rascal settled in watching the game for over half an hour before a board freed up and I invited him to play with me. We had a good time, and we actually reached a stalemate (a little to my embarrassment), and Rascal caught the eye of the chess guy who was running the whole thing. He was impressed by Rascal's good start in the fundamentals of the game (considering his age and the fact that he has me for a teacher) and suggested a few drills to help him along. It was really cool (except that he got to see just how badly I play chess).

Rascal dressed as Harry Potter for trick-or-treating (he was exceedingly cute, too bad I don't have any pictures), and I put Zipper into a little "traditional" China boy outfit that I purchased for him in HK (none of the kids wear anything like that there btw).

After a couple hours at home it was off to Nana's (great-grandma's) house for a brief visit, then a not-so-quick quick dinner at BK, then a quick spot at Grandma M.'s house before setting off on our trick-or-treating. One of Grandma M.'s neighbors had a spooky sound effects CD playing really loud outside there house, and it scared my kids so much that they were crying. If you are making little kids cry and they aren't even at your place yet, it's too much.

Let me tell you, when you have a 2-year-old in tow while trick-or-treating, you don't end up hitting a lot of houses because it takes so long to get anywhere! Rascal was getting tired and cold after only an hour so we cut it short. That's ok though - it means we kept it to the immediate neighbors and they still got lots of loot.

I made caramel apples for the boys. Rascal turned up his nose at them, but Zipper demolished one - I think he may have consumed a few apple seeds. Anyone want a caramel apple? I made a bunch and I don't know how we are going to get through them all.

I usually stay up late watching bad horror movies on Halloween, but I was so tired that I conked out early again. *sigh* Oh, well - I've already watched so many bad horror movies in my life that I've filled my quota several times over. Hooray for Halloween!

Saturday, October 30, 2004 - The ShadowAngel Has Returned!

2004-10-30T15:57:00.000-04:00

Howdy hey, folks! I decided it was time to stop letting jet lag be an excuse for not posting and to get back into the swing of things. I still do have jet lag, sort of - I've been conking out at 8:30 PM and getting up at 4:00 AM - not the schedule I'd prefer.

I still do have some more work to do on The Hong Kong Follies, so if you were reading it check back on it in a day or to see the conclusion of the text. I'll put up more pictures once Ironwolf gets back in another week since the pics are all on his laptop.

I took the kids to one of the local malls for trick-or-treating. They look so cute in their costumes, Rascal as Harry Potter, and Zipper as, well, a little Chinese boy (I bought one of those "traditional Chinese" outfits for him in HK). The mall of course was packed, and I was lucky to find any parking space at all. It's a long walk through the mall for 2 little boys, but they got lots of candy and were happy with the whole thing.

Hey, I tried to carve one of those fake foam pumpkins that I posted about some 6 or 8 weeks ago. They are hard to carve! I can't get through it at all with the Pumpkin Masters tools, and even a knife was pretty difficult. Carveable my butt.

I've got friends coming over in a couple hours, so I have to dash off now and make the place spic and span. Ok, it won't get that clean - how about just not a pig sty? See ya later!

Friday, October 15, 2004 - Up, Up, and Away!!!

2004-10-15T04:31:00.000-04:00

5 hours until Hong Kong!!!

And what am I doing? Staying up all night, cleaning, packing, and blogging!

This will be my last post for a bit, since it's going to take some 16+ hours to get there and blogging will be the last thing on my mind. So don't panic if I disappear for a few days.

Let's tie up a couple loose ends, shall we?

Rascal is doing fine following his incident. He does have a small bruise on the side of his face, but that's it! I'm still amazed he emerged unscathed, and I'm very thankful that we had help from our friends. I don't know what would have happened if I had been home alone when this happened (maybe I would have summoned up SuperMom strength). It did keep me up for much of the night last night though. The thought of one of my kids being badly hurt plus the anxiety over this trip was just too much.

Hey, I got that suit I ordered from Overstock.com! Yay! It looks ok, although I really, really wish I had less of a stomach (or maybe just a longer jacket on the suit...no, no, less stomach, definitely).

The house is almost, kind of, completely clean and ready for my MIL to live in! I feel like I've been cleaning for weeks.

I didn't manage to get a haircut or have my nails done. :-( Well, maybe I can spare some time to go to so fancy salon in HK!

I've already filled 2/3 of my IPod...(bad shadowangel!)

So I'm off on "The Adventure Of A Lifetime!" Don't forget to check out The Hong Kong Follies for updates!

Wednesday, October 13, 2004 - The 2nd Scariest Parenting Moment In My Life

2004-10-13T22:39:00.000-04:00

I was here in "the study" working on the computer with Rascal and Zipper playing nicely nearby in the room, when my reverie was shattered by a shriek and a crash. We have a library card catalog in the room filled with various kinds of cards, and Rascal pulled it down on top of himself. It was too heavy for me to lift back up by myself, but I held it up with one hand while clearing away drawers with the other and screaming for Ironwolf and his friends to help. In moments we freed Rascal from the wreckage, and thankfully he was fine. Not a scratch on him, thank God!

The resulting mess is quite intimidating. Thousands and thousands of cards everywhere to start, assorted game pieces, and worst of all, the liquor bottles we kept on top of the card catalog. A few broke (thankfully not the Blue Curacao!) so there was glass and booze everywhere (not unlike the end of a good party, huh?) Some of Ironwolf's cards were ruined (and some of his cards are worth a lot of money), but we haven't been able to assess the damage yet.

But none of the material losses matter, because my little boy is alright. This could have turned out much, much worse.

Wednesday, October 13, 2004 - Anxiety Is Setting In

2004-10-13T13:00:00.000-04:00

I was awake much of the night worrying about the trip. Not so much the actual being in HK, which I am sure will be very strange and exciting but manageable. But the flight just terrifies me.

God, I hate flying. The thought of being on a plane for 16 hours is just not fun. I know, I know, it'll be fine (especially with the help of some sleep aids). It's just the lack of control of the situation that bothers me. Pretty typical stuff.

Well, I'll have Ironwolf's shoulder to whimper on during the trip there, so I'll take some comfort in that. Of course, I'll be returning alone, so....

I am going to miss my babies so much. I've never been away from them longer than overnight.

I'm just going to start blubbering soon if I continue, so for now I'll push it out of my mind and get on with things. What else can you do?

Tuesday, October 12, 2004 - A ShadowAngel Improvement Update

2004-10-12T23:15:00.000-04:00

59 hours until Hong Kong!!!

This last 1 1/2 weeks has not gone so well in the fitness/diet department. Ironwolf has been out late so many nights or out of town entirely that it has been nearly impossible to get out to the gym. I went on Friday and now today (and worked my butt off, let me tell you), so if I can get there at least once more before the trip I'll be happy. The HK hotel has a nice gym so I'll probably manage to get a workout there every day!

And I haven't lost any more weight the last two weeks - at least I'm not putting it back on.

I tried to put highlights in my hair using the Clairol Herbal Essence stuff. It didn't work out very well. It's very chunky in spots, and I just don't like it. I had better success once before with Loreal Colour Experte. Neither one of these really works well on very long hair like mine because you can't get even coverage down the entire length of the hair.

I suppose I should get my hair cut. It has been a year, after all. I suppose I need to look professional for all these HK business types. I'll probably get my fingernails done too - the full acrylic shebang. I bite my nails, and I guess it's a particularly loathsome habit over there. I did the nails once when I got married, and it just did hell to what little real nails I had.

BTW, I have managed to control my IPod addiction for today, but one of my friends is coming over to dump a bunch of songs on tomorrow.

Monday, October 11, 2004 - Oh, I've Wasted My Day...

2004-10-11T23:17:00.000-04:00

putting tunes on my IPod. It still amazes me that I have taken a stack of CD's taller than me and reduced them to such a little device.

Unfortunately, I needed to get things done around here and it hasn't happened. So after one more CD (really, just one more, I can stop whenever I want to!) I'll put the IPod away and really start preparing for the upcoming trip.

Blast, my suit from Overstock.com better get here soon. All right, no more delays. Back to work! (now with a well-stocked IPod, of course...)

Monday, October 11, 2004 - Heaven Is...

2004-10-11T01:53:00.000-04:00

A Lindt Excellence 85% Cocoa Solids chocolate bar.

Ohhhhh....[shudders]

Still uploading CDs to the IPod....

Monday, October 11, 2004 - The Hong Kong Blog Is Up

2004-10-11T01:07:00.000-04:00

I made a separate blog under a separate Blogger username for the HK trip. It's called The Hong Kong Follies. I decided to do that because I really don't want my relatives to be reading this blog. I'm sure you understand. If there is anything sensitive I'll post it up on this blog still.

We leave Friday morning! I'm so excited. Woo hoo!

Sunday, October 10, 2004 - Children of the Red Eyes

2004-10-10T23:25:00.000-04:00

My kids caught my cold (usually it's the other way around). And now both of them have an eye infection. Ironwolf is howling that it's pinkeye, but I don't think that's actually the case. It doesn't seem to be bothering them too much, so I'm not terribly worried.

A minor complication to the cold thing is that Zipper fell yesterday and gave himself one heck of a bloody nose. (Ironwolf freaked out - he doesn't handle the blood thing very well). So Zipper doesn't just have a stuffed up, runny nose, but a bloody, stuffed up, runny nose, and he is continually at it, making it bleed again and causing no end to the aggrevation.

It heralds one of the typical "mom-truisms":

"It won't get better if you don't stop picking at it!"

Sunday, October 10, 2004 - Not To Gloat, But...

2004-10-10T23:18:00.000-04:00

I got an IPod! I got an IPod!

(sorry Wendy, I know it's on your wish list)

Oh, yeah, I'm hooked. It's going to be all too tempting to be plugged into my life soundtrack all the time. I'm already loading up a bunch of CD's onto it.

My hubby got it for me for my b-day, of course. I think that he knew that I was going to beg for one for every gift-giving occasion until I finally got it, so he saved himself from listening to my begging.

It's so kewl!!!!

Saturday, October 9, 2004 - Happy Birthday to Me!

2004-10-09T11:00:00.000-04:00

Happy birthday to me,
Happy birthday to me,
Happy birthday dear ShadowAngel,
Happy birthday to me!

Ironwolf and I and one of Ironwolf's friends went out bar-hopping last night to celebrate. It's probably the first time I've actually gone bar-hopping. We had a great time!

No hangover this morning either, although Ironwolf woke me up when he screamed during a nightmare. Eeek! Good morning! Rascal surprised me with a card he made, and my MIL is taking me out shopping later.

Thursday, October 7, 2004 - Did I Say Housing Was Ridiculous?

2004-10-07T10:27:00.000-04:00

I meant insane. Check out this article I found regarding extreme low-end housing in HK. It's scary. With all the government regulation of the housing market, you'd think they'd do something about this.

I also read in another article that the average size (in usable space) of a new HK flat is 370 sq. ft. O--M--G--.

Thursday, October 7., 2004 - Hong Kong Koncerns

2004-10-07T10:00:00.000-04:00

8 days until Hong Kong!

Ironwolf forwarded me an email detailing a basic expat package. I've got to admit, it would be tough to turn it down if it came to it. The actual base salary stays the same, but there's a housing allowance (housing costs are absolutely ridiculous in HK - we'll probably pay five times as much for a place that's a couple hundred sq. ft. smaller than what we have now), a transportation allowance, and a goods and services differential.

In truth, the proposal as it stands wouldn't be acceptable. We would have to maintain residence in the U.S. as well, pay HK and US taxes, and provide schooling for the boys (private school for Rascal, at least - I think it would do him a disservice to throw him into the public schools when he doesn't know the language at all), and there is no travel allowance for trips back to the U.S.

I'm not saying that we need all of these things in the package, but if we are going to leave the country it needs to be worth our while to do it.

Ironwolf is going to be mad that I said even this much. (If he reads it, anyway) But I needed to unload myself so that I know what I want when we reach the bargaining table.

Thursday, October 7, 2004 - A Little Better

2004-10-07T09:48:00.000-04:00

Ironwolf came home from his trip last night, made some concerned cooing noises over me, and sent me to bed. I love that man.

Actually, the kids were very kind to me too last night when the migraine was at its worst. They kept offering me stuffed animals and hugs. How sweet! I hope they understand when their mommy is a little short with them that it isn't their fault. They probably just think I'm psycho.

The migraine is gone, though I still have the sinus portion of the headache. I suppose I should give in and take some sinus meds because I need to be able to function today. Problem is that they make me tired (which might make me non-functional anyway). Oh, well.

Wednesday, October 6, 2004 - Ugh, Make It Stop!

2004-10-06T19:13:00.000-04:00

I'm miserable today because I am in my typical once-a-month state of a migraine and general crankiness. But I suppose in a strange way I should be happy about it, because it's earlier than I expected, meaning that I won't have to deal with it in Hong Kong. (yay!)

I also noticed that I have this tendency to want to clean a day or two before I get my monthly headache. Weird. But if I'm inclined to clean at all, I'd better make good use of the time. I did spend all day yesterday cleaning, but I feel like I have so much more still to do.

I've had a cold for a little over a week, and I'm still feeling run down. It's not helping my mood one bit.

BTW, if these jerks keep sending me multi MB spam messages I'm going to throw my computer out the windows! I'm still on dial-up, dammit!

I'm sure I'll feel (a little) better tomorrow.

Monday, October 4, 2004 - Storytime (Part 2)

2004-10-04T23:22:00.000-04:00

Jade's post mentioned in my previous post was the story of her pregnancy and birth of her eldest child. I remembered that I submitted my own first birth story to BirthStories.com. Before you read the rest of this post go read my story here. (don't go through the main page, the link to my story is broken).

Ok, got it? I have a few revisions to the story, because when I wrote that I didn't have all the details and I was strung out on painkillers and lack of sleep.

1. Yes, the total time from start of induction to birth was 38 hours. Yes, I was very tired and hungry.

2. There were more doctors present than what I recalled. There was the delivering doctor, the resident OB on duty, all 3 of the other doctors from my OB-GYN's office, and the anestheiologist (all for me), plus a doctor for the baby. Plus the urologist later.

3. The hemorraging was the most important issue, but my later research indicated that I was in serious risk of heart failure from the amount of Pitocin I had in me plus the blood loss.

4. My husband was with me at the birth, and he told me later that after I was given the Demerol that I started acting really strange, and apparently I talked about baseball at length (LOL I don't even watch baseball!). No memory of it at all. (btw, yes, I did get to see my baby before my brain went off into La-La Land)

5. Yeah, they cut my ureter during the C-section. Oops. That healed fine, but let me tell you, having the stent removed was one of the most painful things I have ever gone through. Think about it - having a foot-long plastic tube pulled out through your urethra. Didn't take too long, but not fun.

6. One of doctors was talking about the birth with me a couple days later, and she told me that if it had been 10 years earlier, I would have died. Thank goodness for medical technology.

Maybe I'll put up the story of Zipper's birth sometime, though it's not nearly as interesting as Rascal's birth (thank goodness!)

Monday, October 4, 2004 - Storytime (Part 1)

2004-10-04T22:04:00.000-04:00

Apparently I've inspired a couple people (namely Wendy and Jade) to share some personal stories as a result of my post yesterday about when my eldest son went walkabout. I have stories in response to both of theirs, so first here is a story relating to Wendy's post:

For his 3rd birthday, Rascal received an inflatable activity center from his uncle and aunt. He loved it. A week later, late on a Sunday evening, Rascal is bouncing on the toy in the living room (an intended purpose of the toy). He launches himself off the toy and crashes into the corner of the doorway of the room, resulting in a large gash above his left eye.

It's Sunday night, so the doctor isn't really an option. Ironwolf and I debated taking him to the emergency room, but the bleeding stopped quickly, so we decided to wait until the next morning to call the doctor's office.

I take him to the doctor the next afternoon, and she agrees that the wound needs to be closed. She decides that the best way to do in is to seal it with cyanoacrylate (whatever medical brand name it was doesn't matter, the point is, the stuff is superglue). So she goes to apply this stuff with a swab, and Curtis, being 3 years old, unrestrained, and very wary about someone touching his boo-boo, squirms.

And there goes the superglue swab, right across Rascal's eye. Yes, folks, Rascal's eye is glued shut. He's screaming bloody murder because he can't see (thankfully it didn't seem to get in the eye itself though). I'm trying to comfort him and the doctor is flustered. She and I work at it for 10 minutes, first trying to get it off with water and petroleum jelly, and at the end when we couldn't do anymore with that we were literally prying eyelashes from his face.

In the end no harm done. Later I spoke with several nurses in my acquaintance, and they all agreed on these two points: A child under 5 should have been in a restraint before the cyanoacrylate was used, and it is never supposed to be used near the eye.

Rascal still carries a significant scar above his eye from the accident. (my poor baby, 3 years old and scarred for life!) But I think it will be far less noticeable as he grows.

Monday, October 4, 2004 - Shop, Shop, Shop, Shop...

2004-10-04T21:38:00.000-04:00

I took the kids to the mall today because I was looking for a suit to take to Hong Kong. It looks like I am going to need more business wear than I had anticipated, and my blue and white suits/dresses are out because they are colors of mourning there and considered to be inappropriate for a social situation.

I found myself in a sea of polyester. Yuck! Natural fibers, man, that's the only way to go. Ok, so I've been influenced by Queer Eye For The Straight Guy. So sue me. Anyway, I found nothing there to my liking.

So I tried looking on the Internet and found that Overstock.com had what I was looking for. If you go through their search function it allows you to search by fabric type (among other things). So I have a lovely cream-colored Bill Blass silk/cotton suit on the way, and at 78% off regular retail. I'm a happy camper. It should get here before I leave. I hope it looks good, but that's the chance you take buying clothes online.

Monday, October 4, 2004 - Miscellaneous Schtuff

2004-10-04T17:15:00.000-04:00

Zipper is sitting here next to see with his new stacking toy - a spindle full of blank CD-R's. (everyone knows that the best toys aren't toys at all!)

Ironwolf is out of town again for the next few days, so it's loneliness for me again. I think I'll dye my hair tonight. Maybe I'll get some highlights done (or chance doing them myself) this weekend.

12 days until Hong Kong! I have a ton of cleaning up to do because my mother-in-law will be staying here to watch the boys while we are gone. She's not the best housekeeper in the world either, but I feel a certain obligation to make sure the house isn't a total mess.

My crop (i.e. scrapbooking gathering) went well. None of my neighbors were there, but the other ladies at my table were very nice. I didn't get as much accomplished as I'd hoped, but that's par for the course. I used the time to work on Rascal's art scrapbook. Instead of filling boxes with his artwork, I take pictures of them and put them into the book. It saves a ton of space and I don't feel guilty about throwing the originals away.

Rascal wants a drum set for his birthday. Oh boy....

Autumn is here. We turned the furnace on yesterday because it got down to 40F. Boo!

That's it for now, folks!

Sunday, October 3, 2004 - The Worst 5 Minutes Of My Life

2004-10-03T02:46:00.000-04:00

After I posted earlier this evening I took a couple minutes to look at a couple other blogs and read about Lioness's encounter with a lost little 2-year-old boy.

Now I am awake in the middle of the night because I keep thinking about a similar situation that happened to me in one of my moments of less than ideal parenting. And when Rascal fell out of bed a few minutes ago (and I was up and in his room in a microsecond), I decided that it would ease my mind to tell this story to you. So here's the story:

Rascal was 20 mo. old at the time. It was a lovely August day, and as usual, we were outside. I was sitting out in front of the garage reading while Rascal played nearby. He wandered off behind the garage, and I thought nothing of it until I realized that several minutes had passed without my seeing or hearing him. I walk behind the garage and there is no Rascal.

OK, he couldn't have gone far, right? I run around my house and then through the yards of the two neighbors next door (who do not have fences, so it was a real possibility). I look up and down the street.

No Rascal!!!

At this point I am in panic mode, screeching his name out at the top of my lungs, trying to compose myself well enough to decide what to do next. Of course all the worst case scenarios are running through my head - he'll try to cross the street, we're right by the elementary school and if someone's looking to kidnap kids, that's where they'll be, what if he gets down to the other end of the street (where there is a very busy road).

My screaming draws my (other) next-door neighbor outside, and she inquires as to what is wrong. I told her that Rascal was gone but don't wait for a repsonse because I have decided what to do - to go to the end of the street and see if he went around the corner, then call the police and enlist the neighbors' help.

When I get to the end of the street, much to my relief I see a couple walking Rascal back toward me. He had wandered around the block, not crossing the street (good boy, I trained him well) and was on the next road over, and this kind couple who were out walking saw him and followed the panicked shouts back home.

I can't remember if I thanked the couple (so, thank you, whoever you are!), but I do clearly remember them asking me what Rascal's name was. I replied, "You mean you couldn't tell from the screaming?" They said, "No, not really, but we figured he was yours."

After that I whisked Rascal inside and cried for the next couple hours. I am still affected deeply by it.

Saturday, October 2, 2004 - Family & Work & Hobbies

2004-10-02T21:40:00.000-04:00

I had a very nice visit with my parents. To my surprise another grandson was already there when we arrived. Apparently my sister dropped him off at 9 AM that day because he wanted to visit. Not a bad idea, *except* that my folks had just driven 13 hours overnight and had been awake since the morning before. What was she thinking? Not my concern. Besides, I know we were imposing too (though I had expected that they would have napped in the afternoon - didn't happen, obviously). A little later my brother arrived with his wife and son to do the routine house check - they didn't even realize our parents were coming home for the weekend. (maybe if he picked up the phone once in a while...) Still, it was a pleasant surprise, and my parents were happy to be able to see all four grandsons at once. They ran and played and ate cookies and occasionally misbehaved until I decided to call it at 10:30 PM. It was a good time.

Reactions were mixed on the family blog thing, partially because my mom is a technophobe. So I think I'll get it started and invite the others to join and see what happens. And they definitely won't get access to this blog!

Today Ironwolf's company held an open house. They had tours of the building followed by a luncheon, and Ironwolf was doing a cool demo in the electrical lab which involved melting paper clips with an electric current. It was very popular - people like to watch things burn!

Now this tour was supposed to be about an hour long. Ok, that's fine, so I brought the kids with me. After 2 hours, with a couple stops still left to go on the tour(including the mail room, oooh...), and my back aching from carrying Zipper, I had enough of it and left. I know that people like to talk about what they do, but it was just getting ridiculous! There were so many young children there, and they were all unhappy. And the food at the luncheon stunk too, but that's not the company's fault. If I had known it was going to turn out the way it did, I would have just stayed home. But enough griping, because...

I get to go out all afternoon tomorrow to pursue one of my favorite hobbies, scrapbooking! (You can see some of my work in ShadowAngel's Cacophony if you are so inclined. Or not. I don't care.) I haven't touched my scrapbooking in months, so I am really not prepared for this event. I am going to end up bringing so much stuff with me to the banquet hall (the same place where I had that crappy lunch today, btw) that I won't be able to carry it in one trip. I hope that some of my neighbors are there this time so I have someone to talk to - there's usually a couple there.

Well, I told myself that I wouldn't spend more than 20 minutes online, and that time is fast approaching. CYA later!

Friday, October 1, 2004 - Off And Running

2004-10-01T17:33:00.000-04:00

I don't have much time for posting today - it's been pretty busy. My folks are in town for the weekend so we are going to see them tonight. Maybe I'll propose a family blog to them (hey, if Blogger's hosting, why not?) and see if they are interested. It would be a good way for everyone to keep in contact. Maybe I'll have time to say more later tonight, but for now...

Zip! Off we go!!!!

Thursday, September 30, 2004 - Post, Dammit!

2004-09-30T22:22:00.000-04:00

Several of the sites I visit regularly haven't see any action in some time. So post dammit! You know who you are! (Oh, yeah, if you aren't posting, you probably aren't reading this.)

I guess I'll have to update my blog list soon(and maybe find a few more blogs to read [no, no, bad idea! I spend too much time doing this as it is!]).

Thursday, September 30, 2004 - Stupid Earthlink

2004-09-30T10:23:00.000-04:00

The problem is not with Blogger. Earthlink's Scamblocker is throwing up these messages for every page that I visit. I contacted Earthlink via their LiveChat function and they are working on it. But for now, I've turned Scamblocker off.

Blast it all, now I look like an idiot to the Blogger folks. I sent them another email explaining, but chances are different people will read the messages and I'll still have to deal with it.

Stupid Earthlink. I pay too much for their dial-up to go through these hassles.

Thursday, September 30, 2004 - "Potentially Fraudulent"

2004-09-30T10:00:00.000-04:00

When I went to the Blogger main page this morning, Earthlink's Scamblocker software kept popping up with messages that the site has been place on the list of "potentially fraudulent" websites, which means that they have determined that there is significant risk of identity theft or financial loss. I've already emailed Blogger support about this, because I think it could scare people away from Blogger.

Admittedly, I've wondered if I picked up some adware from Blogger before, but other than that I don't see any trouble. In any case I hope the Blogger people fix things up soon because I'm already sick of the little pop-up boxes and redirected pages Earthlink is sending to me everytime I go to a new page on the site.