Welcome to another edition of Friday Fragments - please visit my friend, the lovely lady Mrs.4444.
So yeah, I did it. (Ignore the fact that the moustache is slightly lopsided - I was lucky to keep it on! And guess what hubs said when he saw the photo? He said my teeth REALLY look fake! What is it with him and the fake teeth?)
But so did others.
I actually won third prize:
Meet "Frankie" (as in Frankenstein - girlie named the little creep).
He yells "Trick or Treat" and giggles when you walk by him.
Creepy indeed.
*****
What do you think about the H1N1 vaccination? With all the news and conflicting reports of its efficacy over the last few weeks it's been so confusing. We've pretty much decided that we'll all get our shots. But then I've always been quite pro-vaccination. For us the benefits outweigh the risks, and we've always even opted to vaccinate the kids for things that weren't yet covered by the government.
That being said, the lineups for the H1N1 have been outrageous, lasting up to 8 hours or more for some clinics in our area. But I do wish that they wouldn't zoom in so close on the needle during the news coverage- it looks pretty darn long! Hopefully it won't be so thick. Shiver.
***** I cannot believe it will be November in a couple of days. The original NaBloPoMo month. It seems ages ago that I actually blogged EVERY.SINGLE.DAY for a full month. How does one possibly do that? Life was really quite, quite different two years ago.
***** Here's wishing you a lot of treats and not so many tricks this weekend...
... a grown woman contemplates donning a moustache,beard and bloody tattoo and strapping a plastic sword to her hip as part of her ensemble to wear to work the next day.
Her new place of work, where she just started a mere six weeks ago.
Welcome to another edition of Friday Fragments - please visit my friend, the lovely lady Mrs.4444. And freewriting Sara at Ordinary & Awesome:
I had to down about 4 cups of coffee this morning just to stay lucid. Something about having had only 4 hours sleep the night before may have had something to do with it. At about 3:45AM I awoke to some soft chanting:
"mommymommymommymommy..."
At first I thought I was having a dream. But as I opened my eyes, I could tell that the murmurings were coming from down the hall, from the girlie's room. I stumbled out of bed, and made my way toward the sound, not knowing what to expect when I got there. In my semi-conscious state, I was half afraid that I'd see some weird junior Linda Blair action happening, given the bizarre chanting in such hushed tones. Without my glasses on (so truly, major stumbling), I walked into her room to find her sitting on her bed, underneath the IKEA mosquito net, arms wrapped around her stuffed animal ... "mommymommymommy".
When she saw me, I asked her what the problem was. Seems that she had twisted her covers around so much she couldn't straighten them up and get herself covered properly. I promptly got her tucked back in andvoila, she was asleep in about two minutes. There's got to be a way to program her out of having US come to HER all the time.
I was amazed that I was awoken by her soft whispers. I guess that mothers have this internal radar that senses when our kids need us. It's got to be exclusively maternal. The husband slept right through it.
Me? Not so much. Damn I wish I could sleep with ear plugs too. I could also hear my boy's sniffling and snorting because he'd forgotten to take his allergy meds before going to bed.
Nothing like being wide awake at 4 AM trying hard to pass out instead of thinking about the pressing work issues of the next morning and being paranoid that I'd be late for a meeting that I had called. I'm a loser that way.
*****
I was sitting in traffic in my conservative suit, in my beige and similarly exciting minivan catching up on the gossip on the radio, and then slightly bopping my head to my latest fave song that seems to hit the waves whenever I get to a particular part of my commute:
(a total aside, is this young man BUILT or what? Grrrrowl :)
Anyway, back to the story. I noticed some bopping head action going on in the burgundy minivan next to me. A conservatively dressed man about my age, rockin' the shaven head look as best he could, carseat in the back, was doing a little dance to some raucous beat of his own. I had to smile. And as he felt my gaze, I quickly averted my eyes back toward the road.
And continued my smile. Yeah, us suburban parents, we're just too cool for rules.
*****
Tomorrow I head out to the gym to BODYJAM 50 - yes, I can rock it again.
I'm just mindful of my spins and turns, and my hips and booty can't quite shake to the same level as pre-disastrous-tumble-down-the-ski-hill-to-a-wrecked-knee Karen could. But I'm still shaking it and loving it.
*****
I'm enjoying a bottle of too sweet Riesling with my husband tonight, as I type this.
The wine is a bit too sweet, but having him home after he was away another long week - well that couldn't be sweeter. And that's the truth.
Apparently if you wash your hands until you've completely sung the "Happy Birthday" song, not rushing through it, but singing at the proper pace, you will have scrubbed just long enough to get rid of all the bad stuff and reduce your chances of catching H1N1 or the seasonal flu.
I've never had a big thing for this particular day. Case in point:
Year one: Pretty serious
Things got better at 3:
Back to serious at 8
So wash your hands for me a few times today, will ya?
I guarantee it will put a smile on my face.
(*that's how my girlie pronounces it still, and I LOVE it. Dinner and a movie, "Couples Retreat" are on for tonight. I'm so ready for a good laugh!)
For more Wordless check it outhere; and of course, since this is more than Wordful, visit Seven Clown Circus.
Welcome to another edition of Friday Fragments - please visit my friend, the lovely lady Mrs.4444. And freewriting Sara at Ordinary & Awesome:
Well look at this, the actual opportunity to blog again in 24 hours!
Too bad I had computer problems and couldn't publish until too late. Oh well, carry on...
Compliment of the Day:
I'd just got home from the dentist, and gave my husband a smile from ear-to-ear, saying,'How do they look?"
The hubs: "Wow, they look so white, they're so big they look FAKE!"
Nice. Nothing sweeter than having your husband tell you that you look like you're wearing dentures.
****
Irony of the day:
After surviving a visit at the dentist for not one, two but all three of us, the hygenist who cleaned the kids teeth pulled me aside to tell me this:
"I am not one to BS, and I've seen many, many kids in this dental setting and I've got to say, your kids are the beyond the best behaved kids I have ever seen. I think it's a testament to the parents, and I had to tell you that."
See me beaming?
See me five minutes later as I'm struggling with all their dental paraphernalia, my purse, the girlie's stuffed penguin, and my cellphone at the New York Fries counter after hearing them whine about hunger and thirst. See my kids screaming at each other while we wait for the order, as the boy pulls on the girlie's balloon from the dental office, and then the girl shrieking as the string was pulled so hard that the balloon came off and the remaining string was cutting off her circulation at the wrist.
See me looking desperately for something to loosen the offending wire trap on the girlie's arm. See a kind stranger next to me in line who pulls out his keys, gently holds the girlie's wrist and releases her from the pain.
Best behaved kids ever. Hah!
See me seething.
*****
I've been having issues with my work computer almost since I started the job. Turns out everyone who occupied my office previously also had problems. They checked all the cables and hard wiring before I joined and weren't expecting any issues again. I was starting to think my office was haunted. I was also having trouble connecting remotely from home. Couldn't access while there; couldn't access while away. Complex, anyone?
Turns out the newest cable they provided me was missing one of those plastic tabs that holds it in place. So everytime I moved my feet or shifted, I would pop out of the network. There's nothing like being kicked out of the network more than 20 times a day to frustrate you beyond belief.
And I finally got my wireless issue cleared up. Turns out we had the wrong passcode- it was case sensitive, but whoever gave us the password wrote the code in the wrong case. Nice, eh?
Router access = remote access = work from home possible.
And that is a very good thing.
*****
Quote of the day:
In response to her big brother quoting her some rules of the household:
"Hey, I don't need a THIRD parent!
******
Wishing all my Canadian friends a very happy Thanksgiving long weekend with your loved ones.
I do NOT know how you bloggers out there who work out of the home manage to keep up with the blogging like you do. No disrespect to the SAHM and WAHM sisters, because I've done that too. But this is so difficult to do, and despite the fact that I'm exhausted half the time to even put a coherent thought together (I called my son's lunch bag this morning the brown thing, the red thing, and it's uh BLUE!) there is still this unmet need to keep up with this blog.
This blog, this space, has been SO much of my life in the past 4 plus years. It's become a part of me. And I'm missing it. And even more so, missing you.
So that's what I've got today. I'm trying to get out and visit you when I can, I love it when you continue to visit me and comment, and encourage me as I deal with this major transition in my life (what a year it's been). I appreciate and love all of you blog pals.
And here, for my pleasure probably more than yours, a video of a remake of John Waite's huge 80's hit, given a country twist in a lovely duet with Alison Krause. He's looking older, but still, not too shabby.
(My heart still belongs to the original, the one where I imagined myself to be the cute Asian girl in the video and I initially fell in love with skinny, pale white guys. I'm lucky I found one (sans swinging one earring, mind you) and married him. )
Welcome to another edition of Friday Fragments - please visit my friend, the lovely lady Mrs.4444. And freewriting Sara at Ordinary & Awesome:
***** Has it been a week already? It has just flown by, and as I sit here blogging (while the kids watch cartoons and we wait for the dinner which is coming home with the man), I can't help but think about what I was doing last year around this time. Life was so, so different. My blog post on October 1, 2008 was about work, though, ironically enough, I mentioned work clothes and heels as a novelty, something which has now become standard issue daily uniform. I also wrote about pole dancing, and certain types of footwear, both of which I never got around to.
I did make some significant additions to my shoe collection (much to the chagrin of the man)...but then again, I never said that some additional income wouldn't go toward shoes. Fashion Friday footwear edition is in the works.
So, my fragments for this week? Where do we begin...
How about finding out on day 8 on the job that there are going to be changes, big ones. Without going into detail, suffice it to say that even though I'm still in my "know nothing" mode, I do know this. I am stressed and I haven't even started REALLY working yet.
Sigh*.
Well, I gotta go with the flow. And it's not the first time this has happened to me, organizational change. If anything, that was what I sold myself with, my ability to handle change, even citing the fact that I still managed to keep on track and keep the work and department workflow on target...but not even 2 weeks into the job? I guess I sold myself a bit too well. I must stop doing that.
At any rate, I'm hopeful that all will still be good.
*****
This was the week that we started the extracurricular activities. Last night was tough, as the girlie had swimming lessons at 6:15 , and it was curriculum night at school. With me getting off at 5:30, I was really stressed about it all working out. I gave the responsibility of the school meeting to the man, so I asked that he get home at 6, feed the boy at home while I brought the girlie to her lessons, that I'd come home by 7 and he could take off to the school. I got home at 7 as I'd planned so that he wouldn't be late to school, and found out that the man had fallen asleep, the boy was on the computer and hadn't had anything to eat yet (although the noodles were being made on stove).
Hubs has just been exhausted, still recovering from weeks of continuous travel - he told me he even almost fell asleep at a red light on the way home - but I still felt the compulsion to be inwardly bitchy and totally pissed off. I guess the adjustment to "my" new life is having major ripple effects on the rest of the family, and to be honest, this was the first time that I wondered whether HE could handle this change. Is HE going to be able to deal with them (the kids, the activities, the meals) when I travel for work?
Sigh*.
*****
His saving grace - he's bringing home dinner tonight so I don't have to cook. Hence, I am blogging. He will be bringing wine home as well. Yippee.
*****
The boy developed some major coughing and sneezing last night. I know he's had allergies, but it seemed like a full-blown cold developed as soon as I asked him to get off the computer and do his reading homework. So I sent him to bed right away, hoping that it wouldn't get worse because the optics would not be good to be off of work so soon on Day 10.
He woke up still sniffly this morning, but in pretty good spirits, no fever in sight, and went off to school just fine. However, he called me at 2:10 PM to tell me he wasn't feeling well and needed to be picked up from school. Guess what time I get off on Fridays so I can do my errands for the week? 2 PM. There went the errands.
We got home, he got into bed with his DS and felt miraculously better within half an hour. Gahhhhh!!!!!
But you know what? Instead of running around with my head cut off getting groceries, jumping from store to store picking up this, that and the other thing, I spent a couple of hours with the kids, playing with my daughter with her Pixel-toy, popping popcorn and drinking hot chocolate while watching Judge Judy with my boy (wha?? ... I know, totally inappropriate, I can't stand Judge Judy and never watch it, but it was on while we were flipping, so I guess between that and watching actors playing tonsil-hockey on my fave soap which I haven't watched in about 20 years, Judy was the lesser of two evils)...I'm rambling again...
But long story short?
I had a great couple hours with my kids.
So I'm a little glad that the boy called "sick". But I told him to keep these calls strategically timed to after 2 PM on Fridays from now on. We all needed this little break after a couple of crazy weeks.
*****
Oh, I just saw Clive Owen interviewed on the Hour ...and I'm now salivating.
*****
Here's some Bowie for your weekend. Have a good one.
*I come from a very long line of "sighers", having mastered the art of the incredibly melodramatic and overdrawn sigh in reality as well as in written word.
